The Catholic Women’s League of Canada

VICTORIA DIOCESAN COUNCIL
President: Christa Grillmair Spiritual Advisor: Fr. Alfredo Monacelli

National theme: Caring for our Common Home Provincial theme: Witnessing to the Truth Diocesan theme: Solid Rock, Living Waters

Date: March 26, 2020 Communiqué #9

From: Christa Grillmair, President

Dear Sisters-in-Christ and Father Alfredo:
It is hard to remember what ‘normal’ was just a few weeks ago. When we met on March 3rd in Courtenay, we were so optimistic with our plans for our own convention, and we were looking forward to the provincial convention and our 100th anniversary national convention in Montreal.

How times have changed. We are sanitizing everything and washing our hands 100 times a day. If we feel at all compromised or have been travelling, we self-isolate. We social distance the required one-meter if we do venture to go out. We have cancelled our meetings and events and are now watching the Mass on television, our computers or phones. We try to keep connected by email, text and phone. And we pray that this pandemic will soon be eradicated.

Here are a few items for you.

1. Cancelled Events (known at this time)

Please ensure your members know of the following cancellations. If you registered for the diocesan convention, you will have received your refund. If you booked at the Oceanfront, you will have received a full refund. If you’ve registered for the national convention, you will be receiving a full refund as well. Unfortunately, the airlines are only giving future travel credits. I’m ok with that because I do look forward to eventually getting back to life, as we knew it. For this, I pray!

• -  2020 Diocesan Convention, April 23 - 24 – St. Edwards & Oceanfront Resort, Cowichan Bay

• -  Hats & Heels High Tea May 2 at St. Peters, Nanaimo

• -  Fashion Show, May 8 at Church of the Ascension, Parksville

• -  2020 Provincial Convention, June 11-13, Prestige Inn, Vernon

• -  2020 National Convention, August 9-12, Montreal

2. Notice of Change of Meeting I have sent you all an email with the Notice of Change of Meeting, following instructions from National in order to be compliant with the Canada Not For Profit Corporation Act and our own Constitution and Bylaws.

NO ACTION REQUIRED: You do not do anything; I will be holding a meeting with myself.

3. Minutes of March 3rd Interim Meeting

We had a wonderful meeting on March 3rd and thanks to Nancy, she has captured the essence of the meeting in the Minutes.

ACTION: Please share the Minutes with your members – especially the recap of Father Alfredo’s Lenten Reflection.

4. Request from National (copied from National email)

“The administrative committee met yesterday and was discussing options for providing education/ nourishment for the members in August in lieu of the national convention. One of the ideas suggested was to prepare podcasts of the speakers that have been already engaged for the event. They would be pre- recorded (maybe live depending on their preference) and then first aired on the convention dates, and available for viewing after the date.
The speakers are:

• Dr. Cory Lacbrecque, associate professor of bioethics and theological ethics at the University of Laval,

  who was to present “’Speak to the Earth and It Shall Teach You’: On the Christian Vocation to Tend,

  Guard, and Heal”

• Sr. Donna Orsuto, professor of spirituality at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, who was to

  present “Care for Our Common Home”

• Sr. Nuala Kenny, professor emeritus in the department of bioethics at Dalhousie University, who was to

  present “Women and Healing Our Wounded Church”

• Annual Update on the Strategic Plan (affirmation package, marketing and reorganization updates, new

  working group plans)
  Before we reach out to the speakers or make any arrangements, I have been asked to find out if you feel the members would participate in this manner. Would there be sufficient interest and engagement? We are looking for a general estimate of how many members you think would participate.”

  ACTION: If restrictions have been lifted, would you be interested in possibly attending a town-hall type meeting in August to view the speakers? How many members do you think would attend? Or do you think we should promote the website and allow members to view the speakers in their own time/space? Or ---- any other thoughts? Please get back to me by March 31st if possible.

Keeping all of you in my prayers. Let’s stay safe, healthy and connected.

Blessings,

Christa