MARIA Lia Zervino, a lay Argentine, President of the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations (WUCWO), visited the country on August 20-25, 2022, “to listen and learn” from the Catholic Women’s League (CWL), a member organization of WUCWO.
“If we want to serve the WUCWO, we must know the members better. We must know and realize what they are living, what they are suffering, and what they are needing so we must be nearer,” she stated.
The WUCWO mission is “to promote the presence, participation and co-responsibility of catholic women in society and the Church, in order to enable them to fulfill their mission of evangelization and to work for human development.”
WUCWO has had direct support and aid to certain of the country’s peripheral sectors for water provision in Leyte, school programs in Cotabato, and indigenous sectors in Mindoro. Zervino made headlines after the Pope recently appointed her and two nuns to the Dicastery of Bishops, the first time women have been allowed to serve the Vatican body that helps choose new bishops. The three women appointees join eight cardinals, an archbishop, a bishop, and a priest on the important dicastery, which oversees the work of more than 5,300 bishops worldwide.
A five-year term awaits the new appointees.
In a Vatican News interview on the women appointment, Zervino emphasized ” the historical nature of that moment and that it does the Church so much good because the Church is woman…Surely with the other members of the dicastery we will have to study who are the candidates for bishop, advise, and to count on a feminine vision in such cases is something wonderful.”
Pope Francis had previously thanked the WUCWO for all their activities and he developed the theme of women in the Church, concerning the PETRINE principle and the MARIAN principle, to point out the basis for the change he introduced in the new norm of “Praedicate Evangelium”, giving examples of women currently holding high office in the Roman Curia. Zervino invited CWL to keep walking the path of social and environmental respect, to continue to listen and respond to the cry of the poor and the cry of the planet.
She acknowledged the CWL’s role and program at grassroots level. Together with the CWL nationsl board, Zervino also visited the crypt at the Manila Cathedral of Archbishop Michael O’Doherty, founder of CWL-Philippines in 1919.
They also observed and visited some CWL programs and projects on recycled plant pots, bread and pastry production, rosary beads-making, Bahay Pangarap, CWL Community Garden, St. Augustine Charity Clinic and Pharmacy, Mary’s Woods, in Matromanila, Bulacan Caloocan, Tagaytay, Cavite. A courtesy call to the Papal Nuncio preceded the events. (sources: Vatican News, CBCP News, CWL national board Yeye Abapo)
