Press Release
For Immediate Release, Los Altos, California, September
8, 2007
Press Contact: Michele Coldiron
info@ccwf.org
Who: California Catholic Women's Forum
What: True Grit: Women Confront
Life, The Feminine Genius Realized
When: November 10, 2007
Website: www.ccwf.org
True Grit: Women Confront Life
The California Catholic Women’s Forum, CCWF, has been unraveling Pope John Paul II’s Apostolic Letter to women, Mulieris Dignitatem, On the Dignity and Vocation of Women, since it’s inception in 2005. November 10, 2007 is the next event, TRUE GRIT: the Feminine Genius Realized. Visit www.ccwf.org for info and to register.
True Grit explores the capacity woman has to sacrifice for the sake of the family unit. “. . our thoughts go to all the suffering women in the world, suffering either physically or morally. . .” (Pope John Paul II M.D., #19). He enumerates them, including “maternal care for her children, especially when they fall sick or fall into bad ways; the death of those most dear to her; the loneliness of mothers forgotten by their grown-up children; the loneliness of widows; the sufferings of women who struggle alone to make a living; and women who have been wronged or exploited. Then there are the sufferings of consciences as a result of sin . . . which do not heal easily”.
Dr. Lisa Klewicki, a Catholic licensed clinical psychologist presently in private practice in Arlington, Virginia, will present an overview of the hurdles women face in their everyday life, discuss the tools women possess to be the glue of the basic unit of society – the family - as well as the redemptive value of suffering.
Tracy Tomiak, author of Thriving Not Surviving, Living Abundantly With Pain, brings Church teaching alive. She will provide the mirror to make sense of our own lives, how to see it as a holy journey and provide methodologies for coping with the daily grind, both big and small – heroic virtue in everyday life.
John Paul II’s seminal work explains who woman is and who she is meant to be. CCWF’s goal is to make this teaching accessible to the average woman “in the pew”. “[John Paul II]. . . invites women to reflect and meditate with him about the quest for equality, freedom and dignity in the light of the faith and in the context of a changing society . .” (Mary Ann Glendon, Harvard Law Professor and Vatican representative at the 1995 UN International Conference on Women).
The series began with an exploration of Complementarity, comparing it to the secular view of woman. The second forum defined the Feminine Genius, coined by Pope John Paul II and referring to a woman’s natural capacity to give. This was given flesh using the example of beauty as a form of truth. Marriage and family was the theme of the third forum. The spousal relationship as the heart of everything from sex, to society to well-socialized children, and how to raise kids in the modern world were the topics explored. True Grit is the fourth in the series. Cds are available from the website, www.ccwf.org.
If you wish to use your feminine genius to make a difference in the lives of those you love, then come to the California Catholic Women’s Forum, November 10.
Visit www.ccwf.org for
more information.
Price: $39 CCWF is tax-deductible and all volunteer.
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External Links:
Read About Us
California Catholic Women’s Forum to explore cultural issues of women in society
October 2005, The Valley Catholic, the Good News in the Diocese of San José
In Depth
MULIERIS DIGNITATEM Of Pope John Paul II On the Dignity and Vocation of Women On the Occasion of the Marian Year On the Vatican's website.
