PH’s largest Catholic women’s group launches 2019 centennial year

MANILA — The Catholic Women’s League (CWL), the largest Catholic women’s organization, launched on Saturday the celebration of the group’s centennial year in 2019.

The launch kicked off with a concelebrated mass at the Manila Cathedral, with Bishops Teodoro Bacani, Msgr. Hernando Coronel, National Asst. Spiritual Director, and CWL Manila Spiritual Director Msgr. Roberto Canlas.

In a statement, the women’s group said all 84 CWL dioceses and around 250,000 women across the country celebrated the occasion simultaneously.

The launch coincides with the Feast of St. John Ma. Vianney, patron saint of priests, in August and also in honor of the CWL founder, then Archbishop of Manila Michael O’ Doherty.

After the mass, the national officers and junior CWL members offered flower bouquets on their founder’s tomb in the crypt below the Cathedral.

The CWL National Board led by its president, Dr.

Rosa Rita Mariano, has planned year-long activities highlighting their various programs.

“Hope… H for Holiness, O for Outreach, P for Pastoral Involvement, and E for Empowerment, focusing on the sanctification of our members, families, and communities of our outreach and pastoral evangelization programs,” the CWL said.

The group also has an active advocacy for family and life and a special program for the “care of creation” (Environment).

Among the highlights of the celebration are the launching of CWL’s history book, “Jubilate, One Hundred Years of Grace”, a video presentation, and planting of 100 trees per diocese, coupled with a memorandum of agreement for tree planting in the Marikina Watershed.

A memorial mass for deceased founders and members will also be held in November and a Centennial Assembly and Gala dinner dance in May 2019.

The Jubilee Executive Committee is headed by Mariano and Amparo Lim, Executive Director, and National Consultants Melissa Macapanpan, Dr. Amelita Dayrit-Go, Joy Gaviola, lawyer Alice Ganzon, and National Board members.

The CWL was formed in 1919 by Michael O’ Doherty with a group of prominent Catholic civic women, among them, Annie Macleod Kingcome, Maria Villamor, Aurora Aragon Quezon, and Margarita Ansaldo, who saw the need for an organization to take care of the spiritual and moral, at times temporal, concerns of young women, students, and young professionals.

Their initial apostolate was a dormitory for them in the Ermita-Malate District, which still exists and where the National Office stands. Their apostolic work then included Catechetical work, especially with public school children, free night school, adult education, and welfare cases, such as broken homes, unemployment, and family problems.

All throughout the years, including World War II, the CWL members have been tending wounds and caring for the sick, operating in an emergency hospital set up in Ermita and soup kitchens.

Other women leaders in the organization were Aurora Aquino, Justice Ines Luciano, Imelda Katigbak-Dayrit, Remedios Rodrigo, Annie Bagatsing, Carolina Basa, Susan Africa, and Dr. Zeny Rotea.