#LikeaCatholicSister: Sister Mila Díaz Solano

Sister Mila Diáz Solano joined the Dominican Sisters of Springfield in her hometown of LaOroya Peru, in 1998 and has since been instrumental in elevating the voices of persons not often heard in the U.S. Church, where she now lives and teaches.

In 2000 she was among the pioneers at Parroquia San Juan Bautista de Jarpa, and other surrounding agricultural villages of Peru that in the 1980s and 1990s suffered much violence from the terrorist groups Sendero Luminoso and MRTA (Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement), and from the violent repression of the State through the army.

After completing studies at John XXIII Institute of Theological Studies, Lima, Sister Mila began a lengthy period of study in the United States and Jerusalem that culminated in her receiving a master degree in Theology from Catholic Theological Union, a pontifical license in Scripture from the Biblicum Franciscan in Jerusalem and ultimately her doctorate in Sacred Scripture from the Ecole Biblique, the French Dominican school of biblical and archeological research. In Peru, Sister Mila taught at her alma mater, John XXIII Institute of Theological Studies (ISET), and joined the staff at Instituto de Bartolome las Casa, working alongside the institute’s founder, Peruvian Dominican theologian Gustavo Gutierrez.

After completing a term on the congregation’s leadership team, Sister Mila is now living in Chicago, where she teaches Spanish-speaking deacon-candidates for the Archdiocese of Chicago and is pioneering Catholic Theological Union’s inaugural master’s program for Spanish-speaking students, for the first time in the schools history, teaching master’s level course in Spanish.