A national conference on women in the church will be presented Oct. 7 to 9 in Ferdinand, Ind., at the Sisters of St. Benedict Monastery Immaculate Conception.
The conference, called “Women of the Church: Strength of the Past. Hope for Tomorrow,” is sponsored by the Benedictine Sisters and St. Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology. The event will feature three speakers.
Dr. Carolyn Woo, president and CEO of Catholic Relief Services, will speak about “Working for a Better World: God, Neighbor, Self.”
Models of Catholic women’s leadership will be the subject of a talk by Dr. Kathleen Sprows Cummings, director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame.
Dominican Sister Mary Catherine Hilkert, a professor of theology at Notre Dame, will speak on “Go and Tell: The Testimony of Women and the Faith of the Church.”
A news announcement about the event said the conference was organized in response to Pope Francis’ “call for ‘a more incisive female presence’ in the church.”
“The conference seeks to recognize and support the many ways that women participate in the mission of the Catholic Church,” the
announcement said.
The conference will also include sessions on a variety of topics, including leadership formation, vocational discernment, spirituality and cultivating leaders for a multicultural church.
Both women and men are invited to participate, including lay ecclesial ministers, scholars, teachers, youth and campus ministers, parish leaders and volunteers, social workers and others.
Registration by July 14 is $150 per person. After that date, the rate is $190. For a full schedule and to register, visit www.womenofthechurch.org. Registration is limited to 300 participants.
