President’s Communique #1

Submitted by: Nancy Simms

Dear Fr. Tran & Sisters in the League,

Welcome to a wonderful new fall season of The Catholic Women’s League of Canada!!

A special warm welcome to our new diocesan presidents Rose Sehn, Nelson Diocese and Daisy Mah, Victoria Diocese. As presidents we have a responsibility to open the lines of communication, not only amongst our own level of the League, but throughout our province and the country.

National Convention 2010: It was a very humbling and yet incredible experience to represent the members of BC & Yukon at our 2010 national convention in Ottawa. The new theme Centred on Faith & Justice begins in January 2011 and we have been asked to identify some social justice issues within our province for me to bring to the national table that could possibly be a focus for the next two years. I will be looking forward to your input regarding this at our Oct. mid-term meeting. Starting in January all councils may use the logo without permission and it can be copied or reproduced as many times as they desire.

Doreen Gowans and Sandra Stajduhar attended the convention as provincial accredited delegates and will give their experiences in their reports. However, I would like to bring to your attention that we had an inspirational presentation from Dr. Nuala Kenny a Sister of Charity, whose presentation was recorded and provincial presidents will receive a copy. I will send this out to each diocese when I have received it.

Census Canada: A letter is being sent on behalf of the 681 members in attendance at the national convention to PM Stephen Harper regarding concern for the shorter census form potentially not providing adequate information for the needs of our country. I suggest all members send letters regarding this concern.

National Per Capita Increase: A motion was passed at the national convention to request instructed votes to come from all parish councils regarding increasing the national per capita from $8 to $13. There has not been an increase in national fees in seventeen years and unfortunately during this time our membership has decreased throughout the country and the cost of living has greatly increased. Therefore, when you are speaking to your members about this increase please remember all that the League has to offer and all that it has given to you, then extra $5 won’t seem like so much in comparison to no longer having the League! More information on the instructed vote will be in our fall League Magazine.

Prayers and Workshops: National has recently published a beautiful new booklet entitled Prayers and Workshops for Women of Peace and Hope. I encourage every parish council to obtain this book to use for spiritual programs at meetings, for mini workshops or for day long workshops to enrich and grow as members of the League.

League Goals: I will be asking each of you to share your goal for the year at our upcoming mid-term meeting. However, I would like to share mine with you now so that it can be shared and acted upon within parishes this fall. My goal is for us as League members to grow in our appreciation of each priest for the man that they are. I believe sometimes we try to fit all priests into the same personality, or ideal, yet each has their own gifts and talents, just the same as each of us. We need to get to know our priests for the person they are and not only appreciate, but acknowledge and encourage his special gifts. Let’s start walking together with our priests and find ways to show appreciation for his God given talents. I look forward to hearing how your parish councils find ways of achieving this goal!

Fall Midterm Meeting: The Fall midterm meeting is fast approaching. It is being held at the St. Elizabeth Seton House of Prayer in Kelowna.

May Our Lady of Good Counsel Bless you.