Christian Family Life Communique #5

Submitted by: Marilyn Van Dongen

Dear League Sisters,

WELCOME back from the land of summer! Enjoy the summer weather while it lasts while at the same time respond to our CWL responsibilities that are calling us. I had an awesome time at the National Convention in Montreal. I found the Commissioning of Life Members was very emotional. I am so thankful to God for choosing me to be a Life Member; it was only with a lot of help from God that I was able to fulfill the criteria. Our theme Love One Anther ran through the full convention. I am sure you will hear a lot about the convention. After the convention my husband, Casey, joined me and we traveled around the province of Quebec.

We went on a pilgrimage of all the great Catholic churches in Quebec where we prayed for the people we know with cancer and those with other health problems. In Montreal we went to Mary Queen of Heaven Cathedral, Notre Dame Basilica, St Joseph’s Oratory, the shrine to St Peregrine the patron saint of cancer patients. By Magog we visited a Benedictine Monastery. In Quebec City we went to Notre-Dame de Quebec Basilica-Cathedral. We were blessed to be able to spend three nights in a beautiful B & B built in 1897 in St Anne de Beaupre. What a wonderful, peaceful place to spend a few days. I would have liked to stay longer, will have to go back someday. We visited the Ursulines and the CND museums. Quebec is a province of churches. I have listed only a few churches we visited. We visited heritage churches, churches built in the 1950s, and modern churches. Wineries were fun to visit. There were lots of other places we visited with a historical significance or just for fun. We finally arrived home about mid-night on September 7th.

Welcome to your new position Betty K….., Eileen B…… and Sammy N…….. You join Catherine S……, and Therese J…… as diocesan chairpersons of Christian Family Life. Every Catholic woman is involved in some area of this Standing Committee. I have attached the contact information for Christian Family Life Chairpersons. I changed Therese J…….’s contact information; I didn’t realize I hadn’t changed it on the list when she moved. Eileen B……. sent me changes of phone number so don’t keep the draft copy I emailed to you, destroy it right away.

When you write a communique, you are writing it TO the Parish Christian Family Life Chairpersons in your diocese. Please send a copy of your communiques to me and also to each Diocesan Christian Family Life Chairperson on the list. You don’t send it to the National Chairperson; I have her name on the list for information only.

Catholic Organization for Life and Family (COLF)
COLF has a large selection of information you can order. Our National Chairperson had a table at the convention with leaflets we could take home Marriage Matters and Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide to mail to each of you. Their contact information is on the back of the leaflets.

Ministry to Youth – The Catholic Girls’ League (CGL)
There was an informational lunch meeting one day to encourage the formation of CGL councils in their parishes. At present there are 19 councils in six provinces. The councils that are formed are doing very well. This is still a pilot project that the National Executive fully supports for 9 to 15 year olds. This will be our life blood with a solid foundation (our Catholic Women’s League) to build on. CGL starts younger than youth group because it is hard to get children into youth group as teenagers. Edmonton has two CGLs, one group draws from two parishes. There are many advantages in having a group with just girls. Girls and boys are different. The girls enjoy belonging to a group that their mothers and grandmothers belong to. Or they can recruit their Moms. They start with a spiritual program and crafts at every meeting. Girls like social action projects, service to others. Exercise and games are incorporated into the meetings. The girls can sell items at sharing tables at diocesan and provincial conventions which can bring their Moms to the conventions. The CGL can unite girls across Canada. It builds stronger links with the church, keeps up communications between girls and church. These groups could be funded by the parishes. Groups charge $5 a year but it should increase. Some also charge a loony or toony a meeting. Most groups have one meeting a month; two groups have meetings twice a month. I have often heard that we use to have a Junior Catholic Women’s League. We also use to support the Girl Guides. The Catholic Girls’ League is filling a void. Please seriously consider starting a CGL in your parish. We have members that love working with our youth.

The Catholic Women’s League St Joseph’s Campus Council in Edmonton
Some members from this University Campus Council attended the National Convention both because they are CWL members and to promote campus councils. To appeal to younger members we have to go to where the younger women are. The women from the campus council were very enthusiastic! The CGL will feed into the campus councils. As a fund raiser, the campus council is selling shirts and aprons with More than Just Good Cookies, Catholic Women’s League printed on them. I will enclose the order form in my mail out. Let’s support them.

ProLifeSearch – What happened to ProLifeSearch that we got used to using? Many of you may have received the same email that arrived in my inbox while I was in Quebec. I copied part of the email dated August 27, 2007.

Sadly, the bottom line is that some of the web developers we hired for this project left our employ and changed all of the passwords to the site. This meant that for months we could not access the site, change the site, or post any new information on the site. It also meant that we could not access our list of book purchasers to notify them of the problems we were having. As we tried to force the new passwords from these developers, the URL –http://www.prolifesearch.com — expired, and it seems some rock and roll site was all too ready to snatch it up because of all the traffic we created over the past 2 years. Legally, the site now belongs to that organization. We have tried, but we cannot get it back. The good news is that during our operation, through your support, we were able to generate over $20,000 for Pro-life charities. Good was done, and we accept responsibility (and apologize to all of you) for a rocky wind-down to our efforts. Of course, we also hope that we might have inspired others to come up with their own ideas on how to blend every day activities and our cause for Life so that those charities on the front line of the fight have what they need to continue their good work each and every day. I am a little sad to have to say good-bye. But ProLifeSearch was never about Jack and Joe. It was always about you. You are the ones who made any good works we did possible. And for that I just want to say Thank You. Please go forth and continue to fight the good fight.
God bless you all, Joe Hanley, Jack Manhire

May Our Lady of Good Counsel watch over all our endeavours.
Your Sister-in-the League
Marilyn V…….