“A new position of responsibility will usually show a man to be a far stronger creature than was supposed.” William James

Yes, a new position as Kamloops Diocesan President is what I am undertaking as I speak. I ask the Holy Spirit to be with me as I make decisions and carry out new projects.

First, I would like to tell you a bit about myself. I was born in McCreary, Manitoba and am the oldest of thirteen children – six boys and seven girls. We moved to Surrey, BC in 1956. We spoke French at home and I was surprised when I went to school and had to learn English. I married Clem in 1963 and had two boys-Kevin and Trevor. I have four grandchildren-one boy, Matthew and three girls, Jessica, Kirstyn, and Deanna. I taught French-Immersion classes in Chase, BC and Kamloops, BC for 18 years. My husband passed away in 2004. In the fall of 2007, I moved to Orchard’s Walk on the east side of Kamloops.

At this time, I would like to share with you the goals that I have set for the Kamloops Diocesan Council for the coming two years. I have chosen Poverty as my number one priority. I intend to convey to my Councils the need to concentrate on this important aspect of true Christian living. “The Lord hears the cry of the poor” but the reply must come from us- the body of Christ. I will be sending out a communiqué stating the various steps that can be taken to carry out this task. We will make an attempt to find speakers to talk on this subject, recommend that resolutions be undertaken, try to raise understanding of poverty in our parishes and communities, continue to support local causes, perhaps donate money in relative’s names for gifts, etc. If gardening, we might donate some of the produce to food banks and also volunteer our time. We will need to take a good look as to where we spend our disposable income and see where we can cut and give to the poor instead. These are some of the ideas I intend to throw out to our parish councils in the near future.

Following this, my second goal is to act on raising awareness of the dignity of women for the empowerment of our members. I would like to use a number of techniques to achieve self-confidence and self-esteem. First of all at a suggestion from our Spiritual Advisor, Fr. Dale Normandeau, I would like to undertake the study of “Mulieris Dignitatem”, an encyclical which deals with the dignity of women. With this document in mind, I intend to work on empowering our members by using a variety of methods so that each member has a feeling of uniqueness and value.

In order to achieve these goals, we will keep in mind that prayer and self-sacrifice must accompany us on this journey. With God as our leader we can accomplish much! Every deed that we do for a neighbour, no matter how small, adds up enormously in the big picture. So “If you think you are too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito in the room.” Anita Roddick

I stand her before you, wondering where my year as Diocesan president has gone so quickly! Did I begin to accomplish my goals that I set out to do for my term? I wanted to help members grow more spiritually, learn more about CWL, make new friends, and laugh a little.

Our Diocesan council has grown by one more Parish council, which is Our Lady of the Valley in Cold Stream. It is exciting to have a new council with a lot of young women as members.

We now have two councils, which have started the Catholic Girls League, these are exciting times. The Kamloops Diocesan members enjoyed having the Vernon Catholic Girls League participate at our convention.

How many of you know about the lives of St. Frances Cabrini, St. Dymphna, St. Marguerite Bourgeois, St. Anthony of Padua or Saint Josephine Bakhita?

At our Fall meeting I held a short workshop on Saint’s and asked the Parish councils to choose a Saint and learn about their lives. They also played a game in which they had to connect the Saints to what they were the patron Saint of. Now the councils have been teaching the rest of the members of the Diocese about these Saints at our Spring and Fall meetings and at the convention. This has been quite a learning experience.

At our Diocesan convention we were honored to have Marianna Caldwell in attendance. She held a workshop on Leading and Outreaching into our Communities with the help of Marilyn Van Dongen, which was wonderful.

How many of you know what L’ Arche is? Our guest speaker at the convention was Nathan Ball Executive director of L’Arche Canada Foundation, (who tried to convince us that he was Harrison Ford). At the end of his presentation we all new what L’Arche was and had a new respect for mentally challenged adults who live there. For those who don’t know L’Arche was founded by Jean Vanier and L’Arche has homes in all parts of the world.

A resolution was passed at our Diocesan convention and I am excited about this resolution because it came from my own parish and it is called the Safe Haven Law.

I had the pleasure of helping Nancy Simms present a leadership workshop in Vernon in the Fall. It was a great learning experience for me and hopefully the members learned more about themselves and the CWL. This same workshop was presented by Nancy Simms and Doreen Gowans in Kamloops.

As I visit different councils, I am meeting many new ladies and seeing the variety of struggles that councils are having. I also see how parish councils are coping with their struggles and how much they are doing for their parish, community and nation. Many members are also using and sharing their gifts with other members and other people.

The Catholic Women’s League is a wonderful organization to belong to – look how many of you are here renewing friendships, making new friends, learning more and having fun. May our Lady of Good Counsel guide our good works for God and Canada as we Serve with Faith and Joy and become Women of Peace and Hope.

To begin, turn back the pages to last year’s convention in Williams Lake. Did you all complete your “CWL Life in a Jar”? We hope you enjoyed going down memory lane as you answered your questions.

Members sharing gifts, talents, inspiring and encouraging each other resulted in Kamloops Diocese recording another year of challenges and successes including an increase in membership.

Hosting the 2008 Provincial Convention proved both challenging and rewarding. It instilled awareness that communicating and working together results in success – and confirmed conventions are a wonderful learning tool and offer a variety of opportunities for growth.

Promoting active leadership became a priority in most councils. Members used reference material for direction, clarification, guidance and inspiration as they encouraged growth of members both individually and collectively.

Noted accomplishments were the founding of a Catholic Girls League in one council, the praying of the Novena for Struggling Councils and one struggling council actually deciding not to disband after sincere prayer and reflection.

We chose a new Diocesan theme: “Rooted in Love”. It seemed a natural conclusion to “Women of Peace & Hope” and “Serving with Faith and Joy”.

Highlights of the convention included an excellent workshop on Resolutions that was presented by Marianna Caldwell and Nancy Simms, our guest speaker was Agnes Bedard who spoke on “CWL and the World” and constantly had the members in stitches. Many presentations were also made including Nancy Simms becoming a Life member and our first Bellelle Guerin award, which went to Marguerite Leblanc of St. John Vianney, Kamloops.

At our ‘Day of Spiritual Reflection’ guest speaker -Archbishop Emeritus Adam Exner – confirmed that we must encourage spiritual growth, support and affirm one another and remain ‘Rooted in Love’.

The dedication, commitment and enthusiasm of each member has once again confirmed that councils are bearing ‘fruit’ as they continue their CWL journeys.

Future plans include a big learning curve for me as I grow in my leadership role as President of the Kamloops Diocese as well as developing and building upon the Public speaking workshop that we had last year. Also having a workshop presented by BC & Yukon Provincial Council on “Realizing the Beauty Within, Maintaining Peace”.

My goals for the next two years would be the continuing communication of our members. In order for members to be involved they need to know what the League is about and that they need to be excited about a fantastic organization.

Another goal would be to continue with the Spiritual growth in our Diocese. Even though there is a lot of Spiritual development happening, there is a lot more to accomplish. We would not be able to achieve all that the Catholic Women’s League has done and I would not be standing here before you if it wasn’t for pray and Spiritual growth.

Madame President, Special Guest National President Lorette Noble, Your Excellency, Spiritual Advisors and Sisters in the League:

The CWL membership of the Kamloops Diocese has been a hum-drum of activity the past few months. I would like to acknowledge and thank our very dedicated members of Sacred Heart Council, Williams Lake for their hard work and tireless effort in preparing to host this convention. Thank you ladies.

Our Diocesan Council has been challenged to function with revolving secretaries this past year as our Diocesan Secretary, Diane P….., has struggled with breast cancer.  We are pleased to announce that she is here today.   Diane’s illness has been a stark reminder that our spiritual commitment and Trust in God is most important in life’s journey.

Three CWL parish councils celebrated significant anniversaries this spring. Sacred Heart Merritt – 50 years; Holy Family Kamloops 25 years and St. Ann’s Quesnel 60 years. Charter presidents of Merritt and Holy Family attended their milestone celebrations.

In January, 2008 we began the ‘Novena for Struggling Councils’ (which are included in your convention packages) throughout the Kamloops Diocese. Each council was asked to pray the prayers at their general meetings each month with members continuing to pray the prayers in private for the following eight days. We continue to implore the intercession of Our Lady in a united effort as so many councils are struggling.

The Leadership Development Workshop, facilitated by Barb Dowding and Marilyn Van Dongen was deemed  a definite success.

Many members attended a CWL Spiritual Retreat in March.   The theme was “Risking the Sacred Journey”. It challenged attendees to journey into their hearts, God’s Heart, into Creation and into the Heart of the World.

Prov. President, Barb, presented a workshop on Communications at the Diocesan Convention. Her suggestions brought a new awareness of communicating within the League.

Our guest speaker, Dr. Clem Persaud, a retired professor of biotechnology, spoke on ‘Ethical Stem Cell Research’. Dr. Persaud helped us to examine the dignity of life and stem cells in regenerative  medicine. He asked us to write letters requesting that only embryos to be implanted be frozen – and  that only adult stem cells (not embryonic stem cells) be used for research purposes.

Members are sharing their gifts and talents and reported support, inspiration and encouragement from their League sisters. A few success stories were monthly themes for meetings; promoting awareness on environmental issues  and making meetings fun.

Plans for Kamloops Diocesan Council:

• Promoting Catholic Girls League. Purchasing “Turning the Tide” video  and developing an information session  to raise awareness  of euthanasia and assisted suicide.
• Continuing promotion of sub committees – purpose to include all members.
• Implementing the Communication suggestions by Velma Harasen in the League Magazine – emphasizing spending more time promoting the good – eliminating the bad and destroying the ugly when communicating. To recognize the positives of the Catholic Women’s League.

We will encourage spiritual growth, support, affirm and Love One Another as we  answer our personal and united ‘call’ to Walk Humbly with Our God on our CWL journey.

Your Excellency, Madame President, Spiritual Advisors, Sisters in the League:

We, in the Kamloops Diocese recently celebrated our 60th Anniversary as a Diocesan Council. At our recent convention many accomplishments were noted, the power of prayer was recognized and the ongoing commitment of members was appreciated. I would just like to note a few of these:

We enjoyed Dr. Walley as our guest speaker who once again reiterated the challenges to educate the public of the MaterCare program and urged us, as CWL members, to raise the awareness of the dignity of women. Anna May presented the idea of “buying a dress” (a $10.00 donation and something we could relate to). This idea took off and within minutes a total of nearly $300.00 was collected for “new dresses”. Friday Mass collection and winnings of the 50/50 draw were also donated to Matercare – a total of over $2000.00 from the convention.

Our first Diocesan Catholic Women’s League Bursary was presented in the amount of $500.00. This bursary will be awarded annually to a student within the Kamloops Diocese.Our 90+ Members Binder has been displayed and appreciated at all Diocesan meetings. Parish council’s are now active in submitting information on their 90+ members. A Novena for struggling Councils was initiated to begin on the Feast of Our Lady of Good Council. We do have a phenomenal success story of a reactivated council which you can find in Anna May’s report in the convention book.

Sheila Q…. attended our Diocesan Convention and her workshop on Standing Committees was well received. She also presented a Life Membership to Marilyn V…….. – 2nd Vice Pres. of Provincial Council.To celebrate our 60th Anniversary we had a draw for a diamond. After many anxious hours of anticipation the winner of the draw was Margaret D…….. An update on Lucy S….. – a Life Member in our Diocese and whom many of you know. Lucy had a quadruple by-pass on March 9th. I spoke with her recently and she is now back to Sunday Mass, singing in the choir and going for walks. She should be back to her old self within six months. She sends regards to all and a big THANK YOU for all the prayers.

PLANS FOR KAMLOOPS DIOCESAN COUNCIL:
First and foremost we hope to promote Spiritual Growth with the emphasis on devotion to “Our Lady of Good Counsel” asking for her intercession and guidance to make us courageous and loving women of faith. We will plan a Spiritual Retreat at a central location in the diocese. Present workshops on Standing Committees and CWL information to help us learn and grow together. Tap into our Life Members experiences. I will ask each life member to do a presentation at our Diocesan meetings so we can reap the benefits of this wealth of information we have among us. As Diocesan President I will try and visit each parish council during my term and stress the importance of sharing the information in the communiques received from the next level. Regrettably, this information is not always passed on to the general membership where the information should be circulated and action taken. Also, I hope to emphasize the importance of attending conventions and encourage our general membership to make use of the best training tool we have and celebrate the League beyond the Parish Council level.

And last but not least to raise awareness of the special gifts each member has been given from God. To recognize that we are precious gifts to each other and that we must affirm, inspire, encourage and support all members to better understand our Mission as members of the Catholic Women’s League. It is very gratifying to be a part of this wonderful group of sharing and caring women who work so tirelessly for God and Canada.

Respectfully submitted,
Lorrilee J…..
Kamloops Diocesan President