‘Immensely in debt’ to women’s league

Sydney
24 August 2003

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‘Immensely in debt’ to women’s league

Former Sydney league president Mary Harrold, left, with Dame Monica Gallagher, centre, and current Sydney league president Moya Potts

By Marilyn Rodrigues

“All of us in the Catholic community are immensely in your debt,” the Archbishop of Sydney, Dr George Pell, has told members of the Catholic Women’s League.

This was “not only for your contribution to public life in society and in the Church but personally, in your marriages and family life”, he said in his homily at a Mass in St Mary’s Cathedral to mark the 41st biennial national conference of Catholilc Women’s League Australia.

Hundreds of women from all over the country attended the Mass and the conference, which had as its theme, Launch into the Deep.

The archbishop said the league “possesses a proud tradition of faith and service to the Catholic Church in Australia”.

Archbishop Pell, who was the chief celebrant at the Mass, was joined by the Bishop of

Wollongong, Bishop Peter Ingham, Bishop David Cremin, Mons Vince Redden, who is the league’s national spiritual director, plus Catholic Women’s League chaplains and other priests.

State Labor MP Marianne Saliba opened the conference with a tribute to the league as a much-valued “driving force in the Catholic Church and the community”.

The league’s national president, Peg McEntee, said the conference was a great chance to bond with other members but there was also a serious side.

Its sessions focused on the league’s ageing and diminishing membership and on exploring future options for the small yet vibrant organisation.

“We have done wonderful things and still continue to do good things but the reality is we know we will have to do some things in a different way,” Mrs McEntee said.

“It’s not just a matter of encouraging young women to join, although we would dearly love to see that, but we know that young women are committed with work and with their families; perhaps our structure will be able to adapt to that.

“Somehow this great organisation will go forward, but it may very well be in a different way; however we still respect and value the members we have.”

Mrs McEntee said that their greatest challenge was letting people know exactly who they are and what they do.

“People see the parish face of the Catholic Women’s League and the cups of tea, which we do very well, but not our other work as a non-government organisation,” she said.

That other work includes networking with other women’s groups and Catholic women across the country and overseas to achieve common goals and present a voice for women on contemporary issues.

Terry Underwood, who was an ambassador for the Year of the Outback, was the conference keynote speaker.

She shared her experience of being a city girl who married a farmer and forged a life in the outback, bolstered by her family’s love and her Catholic faith.

The three-day conference itinerary also included business sessions, workshops, presentations by Therese Vassaroti, of the Commission for Australian Catholic Women, and Julie Greig, from the Commonwealth Office of the Status of Women, plus panel discussions.

Five former national presidents attended - Lady Mary Scholtens, Dame Monica Gallagher, Georgie Bruce-Smith, Verena Butler and Esther Doyle - plus the presidents of the Catholic Women’s Leagues in New Zealand and Tonga.

Peg McEntee’s term as national president ended with a handover ceremony, at which the new national president, Thora Regan, of Canberra-Goulburn archdiocese, took over.