Read below the Final Declaration made by our General Vice President, Maribeth Stewart Blogoslawski, on the last day of our General Assembly in Senegal. 

"Today culminates this WUCWO General Assembly, after days of prayer, learning, evaluation, discernment and projection, in an environment of fraternal exchange. The work carried out included reviewing what was done and projecting forward, in the context of reality, an essential dimension to chart the course to follow. That is why this event is a point of arrival and an "exit" for the fulfillment of approved resolutions.

The motto of the Assembly "Women of WUCWO carriers of ‘living water’ to a world which thirsts for peace," is a synthesizing expression of the commitment we intend to take on and guides the course chosen for the four-year period that begins, inevitably linked to the situation of our time of vertiginous changes, of great achievements but also contraindications, in which wounds remain difficult to heal when others do not "want to see", and that have the name of poverty, migrations without destiny, slavery, discrimination, inequalities, social fragmentation, conflicts, hatred, and violence, that make life painful for millions of people. Human beings who see their dignity, their rights, and their possibilities of existence trampled.

It is not an apocalyptic vision of the world, negative and hopeless, but a vision that recognizes the achievements, and the multiplicity of improvements that are glimpsed for the quality of life of human beings, and emphasizes those who do not participate in such benefits.

The long-awaited peace, an aspiration that goes back to the origins of history, and repeatedly preached, is again and again delayed by our own blindness, which does not fully understand that without justice and solidarity, it is impossible to achieve, which is a task of common construction and that will only advance as we recognize that "in" and "from" peace we can get to consolidate it.

Pope Francis calls us to be "pitchers" (Evangelii Gaudium No. 86) if we want to be faithful to our faith. It is the "living water" of the Lord, it is that Good News that is always New, is available to all and is valid for all times. We are the ones who have to make it new in us and in our time according to the reading of the "signs" (Luke 12, 54-56). This means to have the permanent attitude of conversion and evangelical discernment.  

Today we leave Dakar, each one carrying her "pitcher", with "living water", which becomes an oasis in the desert of those thirsty for water, food, family, warmth of home, sense of life. Along with the desertification of nature, we must add the desertification of people who were driven to despair and those who live anchored in the present, prey to superficiality, without a sense of belonging, without a sense of life. To this world, to the world of today, to which we belong, we have to carry our message of peace.

With this spirit of service, which should be shown, as Pope Francis tells us, of "An authentic faith -which is never comfortable and individualistic- always implies a desire to change the world, to transmit values, to leave something better for our step on earth "(Evangelii Gaudium No. 182), WUCWO is committed in this quadrennium 2018-2022, to work specifically, although without neglecting other needs existing in local areas, on our resolutions:

1-     A HEALTHY PLANET DEPENDS ON ALL OF US.

2-     LET US TAKE CARE OF THE FAMILY IN DIFFICULT SITUATIONS, ESPECIALLY ITS MOST VULNERABLE MEMBERS

3-     LET US ELIMINATE DISCRIMINATION AND VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

4-     LET US EDUCATE TO RESPOND TO THE CALL TO HOLINESS

Our motto, designed in the logo of this General Assembly reflects women of WUCWO from different continents, women of agile mind, in dialogue, brave, hopeful, determined, creative, close, fraternal, that discern and feel safe because they drink from "living water" and carry it, trusting and confident to others, in attitudes, words, action, because this is the answer to a humanity that thirsts for peace, thirsts for God.

We leave this Assembly responding to our motto, with the commitment made in unison: we are "on the way out", ready to carry the jar of "living water", singing the hallelujah of the Good News: "I have come so that they have life and have it to the full". (Jh 10, 10)."