Catholic Women Unite

...One was the stimulus which small, local groups of Catholic women all over the country have received through their affiliation with the national body...

...The value of the study club in creating an intelligent public opinion on questions of general concern and in presenting the Catholic attitude on these questions, becomes evident when legislative matters are considered...

...Still holding fast to the age-old principles of justice and morality which were taught by Christ from the hills and lakes of Judea, the Church has called into being in the United States, and in many of the leading countries of Europe and South America, strong national associations of Catholic women whose mission is to stem the rising tide of paganism and preserve the Christian ideals which form the safeguards of society...

...Since the end of the world war, women's organizations, national and international, representing every shade of opinion, from radical communism to Utopian idealism, have increased and multiplied almost by magic in every country on the face of the globe...

...It is obvious now that the lay movement is not a dream but a reality, and that Catholic thought and Catholic action have been wonderfully stimulated...

...It is but natural that women should have sought to secure the strength that lies in union by banding themselves together in organizations through which their work could be made more effective and gain greater recognition...

...The National Council of Catholic Women has cooperated in making outlines on "the Christian family" and "girls' welfare," and is now at work on a series of outlines covering the history of the Church in the several states...

...When it is considered that in five years it has affiliated thousands of organizations and individual women, and that it has organized diocesan and archdiocesan councils in thirty-three dioceses and archdioceses—an average of nearly seven a year—this term would seem to be justified...

...This is the establishment of study clubs—a movement which has everywhere met with enthusiastic interest and support on the part of clergy and laity alike...

...Speaking to the delegates, Dr...

...The granting of suffrage and the increase in the occupational opportunities open to women have caused nothing short of a revolution in the social and economic life of many nations...

...But where women have torn down it is for women to build again...

...So forceful has it become, in fact, that there are those who call our age the "age of feminism" and who complain that we are living in a "woman's world...

...Such an organization is the National Council of Catholic Women, founded five years ago as a department of the National Catholic Welfare Conference, and defined, despite its youth, as "the greatest organization of Catholic women in the United States today...

...The diocesan activities may include such varying programs as girls' welfare work, the care of newly arrived immigrants, cooperation with the parish schools, health and recreation programs, the religious instruction of children in rural communities and many others...

...The National Council of Catholic Women is in constant touch with organizations of Catholic women in Europe as well as some of the countries of South America* Outstanding among the reports presented at the fifth annual convention were those of the delegates who had represented the council at the congress of the International Union of Catholic Women's Leagues, held a few weeks ago in Rome, where their presence led to an important achievement in the appointment of a special immigration section, the chairmanship of which was tendered one of the American representatives...

...Affiliated with the Catholic University of America, cooperating with Georgetown University in the field of medical social service, accepted as a member of the national associations of training schools for professional social work, counting among its graduates natives not only of the United States but of France, Poland and Belgium, the Philippine Islands and Porto Rico, the National Catholic School of Social Service has been called uthe consecrated tabernacle of a great ideal...

...This is the responsibility confronting the National Council of Catholic Women...

...The need for a strong national organization of Catholic women is obvious...

...it reaches beyond the boundaries of nations to express the opinions and claims of the women of the world on questions of international concern...

...Pace said— You approach your tasks the more confidently because of your association with the international league in whose convention, through your delegates, you have so recently taken part with credit to yourselves and to the Church in our country...

...The process known today by the term "boring from within" is in evidence in many of the fundamental institutions upon which the welfare of the nation depends, but nowhere more alarmingly than in one of the most vital and sacred of them all—the home...

...It is the outstanding achievement of the National Council of Catholic Women—the most valuable contribution which it has made to the work of the Church in America—one which, alone, would have justified its existence...

...This was the action which caused Bishop Schrembs to declare before the delegates assembled in Washington, that the council is "the greatest organization of Catholic women in the United States...

...and the other was the recognition which the National Council of Catholic Women has received from Catholic and non-Catholic agencies both at home and abroad...

...The value of the study club movement is shown by the following statement taken from the report delivered by the executive secretary of the council before the convention— There seems to be no doubt but that the only escape from bigotry and lethargy in civic affairs and in legislation, is through the establishment of Catholic study clubs in various sections of our broad land...

...While the growth of the council is not, of course, commensurate with the need, it has, nevertheless, been characterized as phenomenal...

...The American people today are beginning to realize that it is possible to sow the seeds of destruction within a nation that is practically invulnerable from without...

...What this international affiliation means to the Catholic women of this country was expressed by the Right Reverend Edward A. Pace in his sermon at the Pontifical Mass which opened the convention...

...Two things stood out prominently in the reports presented at the convention...

...Hundreds of these cliabs have been formed and are in direct communication with the National Council of Catholic Women...

...You realize more fully than ever how deeply the Holy Father is concerned for the maintenance of a truly Catholic spirit in every organization of Catholic women...

...At the fifth annual convention of this organization which has just come to a close in Washington, the attendance of women from virtually every state and the majority of the dioceses of the country was proof that the council has succeeded in one of its principal missions—the organizing and uniting of Catholic womanhood...

...In order fully to understand its nature and its work, the National Council of Catholic Women must be considered from three different points of view: as a federation of existing organizations, from the smallest sewing circle to the largest club or league, for which it serves as a clearing house and an information centre...

...Woman's voice is heard with insistence in the legislative halls...

...It is the proud boast of the National Council of Catholic Women, that in all its work, civic, social, legislative and religious, it has maintained its Catholic integrity and has stood uncompromisingly ufor the maintenance of a truly Catholic spirit in each and every organization of Catholic women" which has come to make up its national membership...

...Women likewise have given their support to laws which, in the opinion of thinking persons, would intensify rather than restrain some of the destructive influences at work in the world today...

...I2O THE COMMONWEAL December 9, 1925 CATHOLIC WOMEN UNITE By ELISABETH RANDOLPH SHIRLEY FROM November 15 to 18, the fifth annual convention of the National Council of Catholic Women was held in Washington, D. C. It was an event which marked the fifth milestone in the progress of a movement launched in the United States five years ago by the hierarchy, and forming part of a greater movement which has been going on for the same period of time and which is generally referred to as the Catholic lay movement...

...One of the outstanding results of the recent convention was the appointment of a committee to plan for an endowment fund of $600,000 which will place the school on a sound basis...

...But that the "woman movement," as such, has proved an unmixed blessing, or that it has raised the standards of the world is, in many ways, open to question...

...The National Council of Catholic Women has prepared bibliographies on many and varied subjects, and digests of all legislative measures in which women should be interested have been sent to all its affiliated organizations, together with statements as to the Catholic attitude on such measures, secured through the cooperation of the various departments of the National Catholic Welfare Conference...

...That the modern world has much work for women to do is an undisputed fact...

...What is to become of the home if divorce continues at the present rate ? And if to the divorce evil there is added birth-control propaganda, what is left that is sacred December 9, 1925 THE COMMONWEAL 121 in the relationship upon which the home itself rests, and what foundation is there for the assumption that the nation itself can survive the dissolution of the units which give it life ? The general and growing disregard for religion and religious observance is paralleled by a growing disregard for authority both in the home and in the nation, and an increase in crime that is the more appalling because of the youth of many of the criminals...

...This three-fold function places the council in a unique position among women's organizations, Catholic or secular, and makes it impossible for it to interfere with the activity or the autonomy of any affiliated group, since to do so were to weaken the very elements which give it being and make it truly a national organization, and to deprive it of an outlet for the Catholic ideals which flow through it from the National Catholic Welfare Conference to the laity of the nation...

...The character and ability of the delegates, the intelligence with which they discussed the various problems laid before them were evidence that the work of information, the dissemination of ideas and ideals undertaken by the council in its capacity as a distributing agency for the other departments of the National Catholic Welfare Conference, has met with a gratifying response...

...as a national organization of Catholic women, the medium through which the Catholic women of America may speak and act as a unit on all matters of public interest and assist in meeting problems of a national scope...

...The support and encouragement of the hierarchy and clergy have been one of the great factors in the success of the extension of the movement throughout the country...

...The years between 1918 and 1925—that is to say, the years following the end of the world war—have witnessed an unprecedented activity in the field of women's work...

...Catholic women, believing firmly that present evils are due solely to the rejection of the Christian principles of morality and justice taught by the Church throughout the centuries, cannot remain aloof when the opportunity is offered them to cooperate in the movement to gain recognition for the divine teachings which safeguard civilization...

...Many of the welfare measures introduced in recent years have been sponsored and are supported by women's organizations...

...Thousands of Catholic women who are interested in knowing Catholic principles and the Catholic attitude on social and moral questions are earnestly striving to get this information from approved sources, and the National Council of Catholic Women is happy to be able to help them...

...The council is organized in the dioceses only upon the invitation of the Ordinary, who assigns to the diocesan council the particular piece of local work which it is to undertake...

...The development of Catholic work, in the parish, the diocese, the state and the nation, and the need for adequate expression of Catholic ideals on social and moral questions, has brought a corresponding demand for Catholic leaders...

...Realizing that all the work undertaken would be in vain without intelligent leadership, the National Council of Catholic Women has established in Washington the National Catholic School of Social Service to train these leaders...

...as an integral part of the National Catholic Welfare Conference and one of the channels through which the work of this body is made known to the Catholic laity of the country, and through which the laity is enabled to participate in this work to the end that the Church may give to this nation all that is highest and holiest and best, that this great experiment in democracy may live and prosper...

...The so-called emancipation of women has been held responsible for a large share in the changed morality of the present day...

...The study club outlines, prepared by the study club committee of the National Catholic Welfare Conference, have been greatly in demand...

...So completely has the world become dominated by materialistic philosophies that there are those who maintain that stability can be restored by legislation alone...

...National organizations of women are actively shaping public policy in state and nation...

...But there is one which is common to them all...

...That the value of the contribution which woman, by her very nature, is best fitted to make to society has not in the past been fully recognized, is, of course, true...

...With other women's organizations, the National Council of Catholic Women has appeared before the judiciary sub-committees of the House and Senate to express its opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment, but it was the only one of these organizations which raised a protest against the nefarious birth-control bill which came before the Senate committee during the last session of Congress...

...In one city alone there are thirty active Catholic study club groups...

...and it cannot be denied that women are among the most active agents and exponents of the materialistic philosophy which is undermining the most sacred of our social institutions...

...To lead the world in the number of divorces is today the distinction of the United States...

...During the past year diocesan meetings ranging from a general inspirational meeting to a four-day convention were held in seven archdioceses and sixteen dioceses, not including local meetings for the presentation of the council's program in numerous cities and towns...

...and the Church, with her characteristic wisdom, has called upon women to do their share in the great work of social reconstruction...