For eighty years, the Catholic Women's League in all corners of Canada has served God and country in ways great and small. The League's range of concerns and support for worthwhile causes are well known. Its 105,000 members make its voice very strong. Resolutions passed at this year's national convention in Charlottetown included opposition to the sale of human fetal and reproductive tissue, and a call for action to curb teen suicide.
Members often join with similar groups of other faiths to work for common objectives.
Increasingly these are social issues international in scope. It is particularly because the CWL has such immense potential to be a force for good, that the executive decision to participate in the World March of Women 2000 has caused such dismay and consternation among members and onlookers. As word spread, anger grew among grassroots members. Across the country, councils at the parish, diocesan and provincial levels, passed resolutions that ranged from refusal to participate, to calls for the resignation of the national executive. But any hopes that the decision would be reversed during the national convention in Charlottetown were dashed on August 14.