Nuns Who Care for Dying Poor Face Jail Time Under New York LHawthorne

Founded by the daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne, the Dominicans of Hawthorne now face jail time under NY's LGBT inspired law, the “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender, and People Living with HIV Long-Term Care Facility Residents' Bill of Rights.”

From Aleteia

By Theresa Civantos Barber 

For 125 years, the Hawthorne Dominicans have cared for the dying poor for free. Now they face jail time for following their faith.

125 years, the Dominican Sisters in Hawthorne, New York, have provided comfort and nursing care for under-resourced patients suffering from incurable cancer. But a new law has the sisters in fear of fines, court orders, potential loss of licensing, and jail time, forcing them to file a lawsuit on April 6, 2026. 

Founded in 1900 by Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, daughter of celebrated American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, the Sisters operate Rosary Hill Home, a 42-bed skilled nursing facility that provides palliative care and comfort to impoverished cancer patients in their final days. The problem with the law is not about the dying patients, but beyond that.

The Sisters and Rosary Hill Home accept no payment for their services, relying instead on their own labor and charitable donations to fulfill their mission.

In 2023, the New York State Legislature passed Bill S1783A, the “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender, and People Living with HIV Long-Term Care Facility Residents' Bill of Rights.” The Senate website says this law “prohibits a long-term care facility or facility staff from discriminating against any resident on the basis of such resident's actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or HIV status.”

But for the sisters, the law discriminates against their rights to religious freedom. The Catholic Benefits Association (CBA), which advocates for Catholic employers’ rights to provide a workplace and benefits in line with their religious beliefs, is supporting the nuns in the case. 

Mother Marie Edward, General Superior of the Hawthorne Dominicans, said:

We Sisters have taken care of patients from all walks of life, ideologies, and faiths. We treat each patient with dignity and Christian charity. We have never had complaints. We cannot implement New York’s mandate without violating our Catholic faith.

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CBA described how following the law could violate the sisters’ beliefs:

The New York gender ideology mandate requires Rosary Hill Home and other long-term care facilities to house biological men in women’s rooms even over the opposition of a female roommate, to permit residents and their visitors of one sex to access bathrooms set aside for those of the opposite sex, to use false pronouns, to use language and “create communities” affirming patients’ sexual preferences, and to accommodate patients desire for extramarital sexual relations. Long-term care facilities are also required to ensure that their staff members are trained in “cultural competency” informed by the State’s gender ideology. 

The situation escalated on March 18, 2024, when the sisters received the first in a series of letters from The New York State Department of Health. These letters listed the state's demands and came with a training curriculum requiring the sisters to align patient care and the training of their sisters and employees with the State’s gender ideology. 

Through legal counsel provided by the CBA, on March 5 the sisters asked the New York State Department of Health for an exemption from these mandates “because they infringe upon their Catholic values, burden their exercise of religion, and compromise their free speech rights.” 

After not receiving a response from the State, the Hawthorne Dominicans filed a lawsuit on April 6, 2026, in federal court to protect their religious freedom and their ministry to the sick poor. 

Martin Nussbaum of the First & Fourteenth law firm and counsel for the Sisters, said, “This was especially disappointing because New York’s law provides religious exemption for long-term care facilities affiliated with the Christian Science Church but not for similar Catholic facilities. The Sisters were left with no choice but to file suit in federal court.”

The sisters carry on the mission of Rosary Hill Home’s founder, Rose Hawthorne Lathrop. A convert to Catholicism, her name became Mother Mary Alphonsa after she entered the Dominican order. Her cause for canonization is open and Pope Francis declared her venerable in 2024. 

After 125 years, the Hawthorne Dominicans want to keep their doors open and continue the charitable work of their founder, caring for the sick who have nowhere else to turn.

Pictured: Venerable Mother Mary Alphonsa, OP, (Rose Hawthorne Lathrop), daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne & foundress of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne