Women’s Voice

WUCWO official newsletter.

3 issues each year

To keep informed of our activities, important issues for women, and related news of the Church.

WUCWO RESOLUTIONS 2023 – 2027

1) WUCWO WILL CONSOLIDATE, DEVELOP AND EXTEND THE WORLD WOMEN'S OBSERVATORY

WUCWO and its Member Organisations will consolidate, develop and extend the World Women´s Observatory, according to available resources, to reach all regions of the world, as an appropriate mechanism to regularly listen to and give visibility to as many women as possible, especially the most vulnerable, to help transform their lives by generating pastoral strategies, NGO synergies, public policies and contributions to the international agenda. The Observatory will be a permanent project of WUCWO until an Assembly decides otherwise.

2) RELIGIOUS FREEDOM: A FOUNDATION FOR THE PATH OF BROTHERHOOD AND PEACE (FT 279)

Religious freedom is a fundamental human right. It is an integral part of the culture of every people and is part of the dignity of every person. Therefore, WUCWO and its Organisations are committed to:

- raise awareness of the richness of welcoming differences and valuing them with the joy of being brothers and sisters, children of the one God;

- promote the defence of a broad right to religious freedom;

- work for non-discrimination;

- denounce violations of religious freedom or persecution, and;

- encourage interfaith and interreligious activities and channels of dialogue for serene, orderly and peaceful coexistence, weaving bonds of universal fraternity (conf. FT 279).

3) GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS. CARE OF OUR COMMON HOME. CALL TO ECOLOGICAL CONVERSION.

WUCWO women must work to redress current global food crisis and restore equality of distribution and the protection of and respect for all women and children, encouraging a responsible consumption, reducing food loss and waste to address hunger globally.

We must lobby Governments and donors to supply funding for food, nutrition, protection, education and livelihood support, and urge federal and local governments to enact legislation that provides the fundamental principles and rights for delivering food security and nutrition to all through the reduction of food loss and waste and to support the development of new technologies that reduce food loss and waste by addressing marketing, food processing systems and the management of food quality.

WUCWO women must get involved in the urgent call to action enunciated in the Laudato Si Encyclical in connection with environmental and climate change issues, with advocacy and urging all to embrace ecological conversion, to recycle and to reduce individual environmental/carbon foot print.

#WucwoPlantingHope campaign

4) LET US TAKE, WITH RENEWED CONVICTION, THE JOYFUL JOURNEY OF FAMILY LOVE, MOTHERHOOD AND FATHERHOOD

In response to Pope Francis call to take up with renewed conviction the journey of family love and following the theme of the X World Meeting of Families: “Family Love: a vocation and a path to holiness”, WUCWO and its Member Organisations will promote programs that:

- support the development of young people to help them discover the vocation and joy of marriage and of motherhood and fatherhood as a lifetime commitment;

- accompany matrimonies at different stages of preparation for marriage and married life and encourage families to become examples of fraternity and places of hope for people in need.

5) BUILDING THE FUTURE WITH MIGRANTS AND REFUGEES

In response to Pope Francis' invitation to engage in "Building the Future with Migrants and Refugees" through a concrete proximity that reflects God's gaze on them, WUCWO, its Member Organisations and their International Representatives shall:

- encourage actions for the Church to: welcome, protect, accompany, promote and integrate migrants and refugees;

- promote volunteering in favour of refugees, asylum seekers and the most vulnerable migrants;

- make the deaths visible that occur during irregular migration and human trafficking;

- seek to advocate for countries to seek new alternatives to the legal category of "refugee".

6) “ENABLING EVERYONE TO PARTICIPATE IS AN ESSENTIAL ECCLESIAL DUTY!” (POPE FRANCIS): SYNODALITY. FORMATION AND PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN.

WUCWO and its Organisations will promote:

- the formation of women so that, through "spiritual, intellectual and pastoral" conversion, listening, discernment, dialogue and action, they may assume the leading role that corresponds to them in the construction of the Church, so that men and women, priests, consecrated and laity, "walk" together to make Synodality and their participation in different decision-making bodies in the Church possible.

- the formation and participation of women to assume leadership and responsibilities, from their youth, in the search for the common good, in the social, political and religious spheres, being promoters of a culture of life and care that fosters peace and universal brotherhood, working, hand in hand with men, to change the mentality of the prevailing culture and being witnesses of holiness.

1 - A HEALTHY PLANET DEPENDS ON ALL OF US. In accordance with the whole Magisterium and in particular with the Encyclical Laudato Si

WUCWO answered to the invitation of the Ecology & Creation Sector of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development to write a short reflection on how the Encyclical Letter of Pope Francis, Laudato si’, has impacted people's lives in various contexts.

Cardinal Peter Turkson, Prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, has announced the creation of a Laudato Si’ Action Platform. 

We’re grateful to share that WUCWO plays a central role in the platform’s development as a member of the NGOs and Family working groups.

This year WUCWO is participating in Laudato Si’ Week which marks the crowning of the Laudato Si' Special Anniversary Year with a media campaign in its social media. WUCWO has created some videos on different initiatives that member organisations have been carrying out around the world.

The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 22 April as International Mother Earth Day through a resolution adopted in 2019. The Day recognises the Earth and its ecosystems as humanity's common home and the need to protect her to enhance people’s livelihoods, counteract climate change, and stop the collapse of biodiversity. The theme for 2021 is Restore our Earth.

"Laudato Si' Week", WUCWO's campaign for the fifth anniversary of the encyclical letter Laudato Si' of the Holy Father Francis on the care for our common home.

At the General Assembly of WUCWO held in Dakar, Senegal in October 2018, the delegates passed a resolution calling on its members, as responsible for our Common Home, to recognise their collective responsibility to care for the planet that God created and placed in our care and to take steps to reduce and reverse the damage already sustained.

Read this document on Domestic Violence against women prepared by the National Council of Catholic Women (NCCW) of the United States.