Vatican II: Expériences canadiennes – Canadian experiences

Vatican II and the Changing Mission of the Catholic Women’s League of Canada

515 vatican ii and the changing mission of the catholic women’s league of canada Sarah Jardine, saint Paul University E nglish-speaking Canadian lay Roman Catholic women have had a long and vital role in creating community and parish life in the twentieth century.1 In 1891 Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum Novarumwasissuedinresponsetosocietalpressures.Asaresult, opportunities for lay people, particularly women, to minister in the Church were greatly increased. While the call to personal piety as a way of seeking grace and building the Church was still emphasized, working in the world with and for other people was encouraged. Both Pope Pius X and Pope Pius XI issued calls to the laity to become involved in Catholic Action. Catholics were asked to strengthen their spiritual lives by increasing their devotional piety and becoming officially involved in providing social services to those in need. For effective Catholic Action in the body of the Church, the laity was to carry out their work under the supervision of the local bishops. This qualified the work as being done as part of the apostolate of the Church.2 A whole new range of 1 In the context of this paper, the term “lay women” refers to women who have not taken vows in a religious order or community. 2 Terence Fay, A History of Canadian Catholics: Gallicanism, Romanism, and Canadianism, McGill-Queen’s Studies in the History of Religion, Vol. 20 (Montréal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2002), 260. 516 vatican ii activities associated with the Church opened up and, for Catholic lay women,there wasan opportunitytomovefromtheprivatesphereofthe home into the public and political domain. Although Roman Catholic women had long been active in parish and community life, with the founding of a national organization, the Catholic Women’s League of Canada in 1920, their actions were made more visible. Notes from the first annual convention indicate: The Convention which started on Wednesday, June 1st and continued until Sunday, June 5th was the first in the lifetime of Canada that a body of Catholic women convened as a national organization . This does not mean that Canadian women of our glorious Church had before been inactive, either as individuals or as members of the countless parishes that honeycomb the continent, but it does point out that never before had the one million Catholic women of the Dominion been represented as a national unit such as they were on that occasion.3 This formation of a national organization of Catholic lay women mainly had its roots in two earlier events. The first was the organizing of local units of the Catholic Women’s League (CWL) in major Canadian cities from East to West from 1912 to 1919.4 The second came when a government employee of the Women’s Division of the Canadian Immigration Department, Loretta Kneil, realized that women were not represented at the federal talks for resettling immigrants after World War I. Her connections with the Western CWL encouraged the formation of a national group of Catholic Canadian women involved, among other things, with issues of immigration.5 The significance of immigra3 Valerie Fall, “Except the Lord Build the House …” A History of the Catholic Women’s League of Canada 1920–1990 (Winnipeg: The Catholic Women’s League of Canada, 1990), 23. From Editorial, The Canadian League (July 1921). 4 Fall, Except the Lord Build, 7. A note is made that seven out of nine provinces were represented. The delegates listed appear to come from six provinces with Manitoba, British Columbia, and Prince Edward Island missing. 5 Sheila Ross, “‘For God and Canada’: The Early Years of the Catholic Women’s League in Alberta,” CCHA Historical Studies 62 (1996): 97. There is a discrepancy about the government position held by the minister who called the meetings about reconstruction and immigration. On page 6 of Except the Lord Build, Valerie Fall refers to him as the Hon. C. J. Doherty, Minister of Reconstruction and Immigration. She does not specifically mention his wife but, on page 7, cites Mrs. C. J. Doherty of Ottawa (wife 517 sarah jardine tion issues for the CWL can be seen in the July 1921 speech to the first National CWL Convention when President Bellelle Guerin stated: The Catholic Women’s League has already taken some means of meeting Catholic immigrants on the arrival of the ships and we have a dream …it is that in every city...