The Kateri Northwest Ministry Institute continues to meet once a month from September to May with 15 to 20 participants attending each session. For the winter months, we have online Zoom meetings. The remaining months, we meet at the Immaculate Heart Retreat Center in Spokane. Jenny Edgren organizes the meetings and welcomes participants who come from the Spokane area, Colville and Yakama Reservations in Washington, Umatilla Reservation in northeast Oregon, Nez Perce Reservation in Idaho, and Flathead and Blackfeet Reservations in Montana.

Maureen Foley-Bensen started out teaching Scripture with Kateri Northwest Ministry Institute in the late 1980s when Father Dick Mercy and Father Tom Colgan founded the Kateri Northwest Ministry Institute. Maureen has rejoined us the last six years to teach us Exodus and the Prophets. She has been teaching the Prophet Isaiah these last two years, revealing to us how the tribal origins and worldview of the Hebrew people communicate the intended meaning in these ancient Scriptures.

We are also very blessed to have Father Tom Colgan again with us. He and Rose Morrison work together helping us to understand the channels that God uses to communicate with us. Rose also led us through the very insightful book, “Servant of God: Nicholas Black Elk” by Michael Steltenkamp. Black Elk was still alive when Rose was a young girl on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Marcella Adolph helps interpret for us the different stories of women in Scripture. The days that the Kateri Northwest Ministry Institute members meet are rich days of learning, faith and sharing with each other.