Provincial Convention 2010: WUCWO

Submitted by: Barbara Dowding

How many of you know when WUCWO, World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations was founded? It was in 1910. How many members does it have? Almost 100 organizations active in over 60 countries including all continents and representing missions of Catholic women from every walk of life. Do you know when the League became affiliated with the International Union of Catholic Women, now known as the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations (WUCWO)? It was in 1921 and is an affiliation still enjoyed today.

All paid up members of the CWL are counted in this number and are represented at that international table by our own national President, Danielle McNeil-Hessian.

The mission of the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations (WUCWO) is to promote the presence, participation and co-responsibility of Catholic women in Church and society in order to fulfill their mission of evangelization and to work for human development. The priority for 2006-2010 was Building a Culture of Peace through the alleviation of poverty.

A new priority should come out of this upcoming centenary assembly, a meeting that is held only every five years, this Oct. 5-11, 2010 in the Holy Land, that will focus on the theme, “You will be my witnesses” (Acts 1-8). Agnes Bedard, Honorary Life Member currently sits on the WUCWO Executive Board as Vice President for North America.

The WUCWO 2010 Centenary Assembly is going to be a once in a lifetime experience. There are opportunities to attend as part of a pilgrimage to Jerusalem with options to tour Galilee. I have a copy of the brochure and registration forms, but all are available as well on the WUCWO website.

Members of our National Executive will be in attendance at the Assembly. And just like our conventions at all levels, there is a place for resolutions. You may recall that we had a resolution on Religious Freedom (2006.01) a few years ago which included a resolve clause to take it to WUCWO. Now, just like the various levels in our League, we need to wait and see if the resolution is accepted for presentation to the Assembly!

Here is one recent news item that will give you an idea of the scope of WUCWO’s work:

From Nov. 14-18, 2009 in Rome, at the close of the unions meeting of the Board, representatives of Catholic women’s organizations from 25 countries informed the secretary-general of the United Nations that they do not support the international body’s convention against the discrimination of women.

Karen Hurley, President General of WUCSO urged the international body to “take concrete actions to protect women and children, innocent victims of violence,” while noting that it does not support the U.N’s Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

Mrs. Hurley explained: “CEDAW is being misused as a tool to promote violence [against] women and girls, mothers and babies, in the form of legal access to abortion on demand to put pressure on countries worldwide to legalize and fund abortion, promote contraception, medically assisted reproduction for same sex unions and other immoral acts in defiance of God’s natural law.”

She added that WUCWO “challenges and will expose ambiguous language especially related to such topics as ‘gender, reproductive health, choice, or rights” and further stated “There must be a global increase in the respect for the dignity with which women have been endowed by their Creator.”

The WUCWO magazine called Women’s Voice latest edition has just arrived. There is an article in the latest “Women’s Voice” by Agnes about the WUCWO resolution on abolishing the death penalty and includes some startling statistics as well as actions we can take.

You can subscribe to this wonderful book or get more information on line. In fact the WUCWO website has monthly reflections leading up to the Assembly in October. They are beautifully written and something we could share with our councils.

Keep your eyes on WUCWO – it is the vehicle for peace in the world and we are a big part of it!