DCCW convention unites Utah's Catholic women

Friday, May. 01, 2015

SALT LAKE CITY — Faith and fellowship brought women from throughout Utah to the 87th annual Diocesan Council of Catholic Women Convention, held April 25-26 at the Sheraton Salt Lake City hotel. 

More than 240 women, including 33 who attended for the first time, gathered for inspirational presentations, to meet other Catholics and tell their own faith stories.

One of the highlights of the event was the Women of the Year banquet. (See story, below.) 

In expressing his gratitude to the women of the DCCW, Archbishop John Wester, administrator of the Diocese of Salt Lake City, thanked them for serving – often behind the scene – the diocese and their parishes in a faithful and selfless way. 

Among those speaking at the convention was Jan Dalske, NCCW San Francisco Province director. All women have natural talents and a great potential for service, she said. “You bring these strengths and gifts to the Church, and they’re powerful.”

The keynote speaker was ValLimar Jansen, a singer and actress who is a convert to Catholicism. With song and characterizations of Biblical women, she had the women laughing, dancing, singing and crying as she delivered her message of ways to pray and live the faith. 

For example, after enacting the story of Hannah, mother of Samuel, Jansen said that she believes that the Word of God is “a lamp unto our feet,” (Psalm 119) but “sometimes God only lights up one brick at a time. … And when we lift our foot to step into the darkness, we step into the darkness in faith. ... When we believe in Jesus and we believe that he is the light of our life, we know that when we put our foot down it will land on solid rock,” she said.

Christians “believe that we are to be the voice for the voiceless, that we are to go out each day with our eyes open, looking to see Jesus and to take care of his needs,” she said.

To do this, Catholics must follow the directive of Matthew 25:31-46: feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the imprisoned, she said. 

Other speakers at the convention were Susan Dennin, whose topic was “Evangelizing from the Heart,” and Chaplain Pamela Lloyd, who presented “The Many Faces of Our Homeless Youth: How We Can Make a Difference.”

Dennin, the diocesan communications director, has been an active member of Saint John the Baptist Parish for many years, serving as an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion, lector, and religious education teacher. She urged those at the conference to “take a leap of faith” and share their faith story with others. 

Catholics “are asked to learn, love and live our faith, just as the apostles did. We must fully embrace this faith and fully feel the love of Jesus in our hearts so that we can in turn go forth and spread the Gospel,” Dennin said.

Developing a personal prayer life, attending events like the DCCW convention, reading blogs or articles about the faith and participating in social justice concerns are all ways to become evangelized, she said, and “once we allow the Gospel to change us we do want to share it with others … we want to share that love, that joy in our hearts.”

Lloyd, who works with the Volunteers of America, gave a sobering portrait of homeless youth in Utah.

Her agency serves youth aged 15 to 22 who live on the streets, she said. Of these youth, 59 percent have no high school diploma or GED, she said; 80 percent have a history of physical, verbal or sexual abuse; 19 percent have traded sex for drugs or a place to stay; 31 percent are parents and 68 percent have attempted suicide.

At the Volunteers of America’s Homeless Youth Resource Center, the youth can get a shower, do their laundry, eat meals, apply for jobs, and finish their schooling, she said.

Volunteers at the center “get to be that somebody in their life that most people had growing up,” she said, adding that there are many opportunities to be involved, from participating in the foster care program to educating other people about the problem. 

Teaching youth to do for themselves is a gift “that lets them know they have the ability to accomplish anything if they set their mind to it, and it gives them the ability to know that somebody out there believes they can do it,” she said.