By Susan Porrovecchio

These past two months have been busy for Catholic women throughout our nation and the world. It was my pleasure to participate in the 2010 Centenary World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations (WUCWO) World Assembly, Oct. 5-11 in Jerusalem, and the National Council of Catholic Women convention, Nov. 14-16 in Washington, D.C. The convention included celebration of the council’s 90th anniversary.

As delegates to the WUCWO assembly prepared to travel to the Holy Land, we received greetings from the WUCWO ecclesiastical assistant, Father GianMaria Polidoro. His letter in September urged each participant to “bring to the Land of Jesus a strong-lived spiritual experience that belongs to all the people, the announcement of the kingdom of God, so that the Church may grow in harmony and not in conflict, that the world may believe in the power of God.”

More than 500 women from 60 countries gathered at the Pontifical Institute Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center, across the street from the Old City. The Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Fouad Twal, celebrated our opening liturgy at the Cathedral of the Latins.

The theme of our gathering was “You will be my witnesses, Acts 1:8.”

Speakers included Ludmila Grygiel, speaking on marriage and family; Florence Gillet, French theologian and writer, speaking on Mary; Ana Cristina Villa de Betancourt, who is responsible for the Women’s Section of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, speaking on Jesus and women; Marguerite Peeters, director of the Institute for Intercultural Dialogue Dynamics, addressing how to witness to Christ in a globalized world; and Christine de Marcellus de Vollmer, founder and president of the Alliance for the Family, speaking on the importance of formation.

Panel discussions included Catholic women from the Holy Land; a Bethlehem University professor; the director of Caritas Jerusalem; the director of the Franciscan Family Center; and youth from the Focolare Movement representing Catholic, Muslim and Jewish youth working together, along with their families, to build a unified Holy Land.

We enjoyed close encounters with members of the community as we attended Mass with them and were better able to appreciate the cultural/religious/political struggles that continue to divide this Holy Land.

Sightseeing and shopping opportunities were included. Five-hundred women made for a significant economic windfall!

At the Pontifical Institute we enjoyed getting acquainted with the staff, religious as well as laity, and marveled at the institute’s unique opportunities for Catholic youth to receive training in all aspects of hotel management and the culinary arts. We were treated like royalty.

The four-year term of WUCWO’s president general, Karen Hurley of Harrisburg, Pa., ended during the gathering in Jerusalem. She was the first North American woman to serve as president general. Beloved and admired, she will be remembered for tireless efforts to increase educational opportunities; to reduce poverty; and to advance human rights, beginning with the fundamental right to life. In their centenary statement, members of the union underscored the need for the “universal recognition of the dignity, value and genius of women for the attainment of a more humane, just and compatible society.”

The union elected its 14th president general, Maria Giovanna Ruggieri of Italy, and chose “Love in Action” as the theme for the next four years. The union underscored its commitment to peacemaking, to ecumenical dialogue, to study of the Word and to social teachings of the Church.


Susan Porrovecchio of Pope John Paul II Parish in Bigfork is the Northwest chair of the endowment campaign for the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations. ACA funds support the Diocesan Council of Catholic Women.


Published in The Montana Catholic Online, Volume 26, No. 12, December 17, 2010.