By Priscilla Greear, Staff Writer

ATLANTA—At the 45th annual convention of the Atlanta Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women the weekend of Sept. 14-16, women gathered to reexamine their organization’s mission and explore ways of “Doing God’s Work With Love, Peace and Unity.”

Approximately 112 women representing 31 parishes and including the council presidents from the Dioceses of Charleston, S.C., and Savannah attended the event at the Holiday Inn Select Perimeter/Dunwoody, wearing pins with red, white and blue ribbons and American flags. An estimated 75 percent of archdiocesan parishes have active AACCW women’s guilds and all Catholic women are automatically organization members, yet the council is working to overcome declining participation.

There was a more somber conference spirit this year after the terrorist attacks just a few days earlier and planned keynote speaker Margaret Gray was unable to get a flight from Virginia to attend. Her remarks were read.

As the tragedy was on everybody’s mind, Mary Hargaden, new president, said the conference was a time for fellowship and for prayer for victims and their families.

“I love coming to this. This is my group, my ladies. They’re all my friends. I don’t know them all, (but) they’re my friends. I just love getting together, the fellowship, and I think it’s been special this time after what’s happened this week. I hope other people take away that feeling of togetherness,” she said. “I think that overall the conference went very, very well, much more smoothly than last year.”

On Sept. 15 the speaker for the International Concerns and Legislation and Organization Commission was Dr. Joan Liverpool, a clinical instructor in the pediatrics department of the Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta. She spoke on the spiritual and legislative aspects of women’s health care nationally and internationally and other women’s concerns, addressing topics including stress management, coping with reality and spiritual growth through knowing one’s cultural roots.

The other workshop for Community, Church and Family Concerns entitled “You Shall Know Them by Their Fruit” was led by Sister Joan Morris, OSF, minister at the Catholic Center at the University of Georgia in Athens, who spoke on Franciscan and other types of spirituality.

At the business meeting, new officers were elected and the day closed with deanery meetings and a banquet. The conference ended Sept. 16 with the installation of officers and Mass with Archbishop John F. Donoghue, AACCW spiritual moderator Father Paul Berny and Father Kevin Hargaden, son of the AACCW president.

JoAnn Rieger, immediate past president of the AACCW, read Gray’s remarks during the Sept. 15 luncheon. Gray is third vice president of the National Council of Catholic Women and is a candidate for its office of first vice president. She wrote of how working with other Catholic women in the Council of Catholic Women over the past 20 years has helped her to believe in herself and given her courage to grow in faith.

“These women taught me to live out my faith and to share the Gospel message with others,” she stated. “I am proud to say that I am a member of the Council of Catholic Women and that I belong to an organization of women nationwide who share common concerns and similar views. It is truly a wonderful time to be a Catholic woman in the church today.”

She recalled the 75th anniversary of the National Council of Catholic Women in 1995 where Catholic Women magazine showed a picture of nine women representing the 200 members of Catholic women’s organizations of 1920. Those women were called to convene in Washington, D.C., to establish one organization to address the needs of the time and set goals to give Catholic women a common voice and instrument for united action, to ensure Catholic representation on national committees and movements and to stimulate the work of existing Catholic women’s organizations.

Those women, like today’s, served those in need, such as immigrants, by working to provide housing, food, clothing, education and other basic assistance, Gray said. They supported Catholic education as they do today, teaching in religious education programs and volunteering in schools. And they helped then in settlement houses and nursing homes as they do today in nursing homes, hospitals, homeless shelters and soup kitchens.

“We are women involved in many programs in our parish communities and neighboring communities doing God’s work in unity.”

Gray has been equipped in her ministry through leadership training through the NCCW and on the diocesan level. She spoke of the role of seasoned guild members to “work alongside the newest members in our organization, teaching them the ropes, guiding them” while welcoming them with enthusiasm and joy. These members must give compliments and be diplomatic and open to better ways of doing things. “By doing all of this, she affirms the organization itself, building its future and its strength for what may lie ahead.”

“And finally, she has passed on her lessons not with harshness or boldness but with patience, gentleness and love. She has given much of her time and talents with grace—which in turn has enabled her to receive what others may give back to her with a style and grace as well. She is truly an example of love in action,” Gray continued. “We are called to be women of wisdom, grace and love by our call of baptism.”

If they boldly share the Gospel with their lives, they will one day rejoice for having been enriched and accomplished much through their councils, Gray said.

“As a national organization we have come to recognize that our goals today are very much the same as they have been for 81 years: to meet the needs of the times. We as Catholic women will continue to play a great role in the way the world is changing. We will continue to reach out with care and love to those around us who are in great need—in our communities, yes; but also to those within our own families and our parish communities,” she said. “We have embarked on a new millennium—more than ever we are challenged today to be open to the messages of the Gospel and to be ready to put those messages into action. We have done so in the past and will surely continue to do so in the future.”

Rieger closed the luncheon reading from a prayer from Nelson Mandela’s 1994 inaugural address which ends, “We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Tammy Mortillaro, president of the women’s guild of 10 members at St. Matthew’s Church, Winder, appreciated Sister Morris’ workshop, which addressed overcoming fears, noting that her faith has given her more security and less worry. “She spoke of fear—even if she got one lady to realize (a way) not to be in fear it was worth it.”

Mortillaro, 39, is working to attract new members to her guild and said the conference was a good way to learn what other women are doing and to get ideas, like one she got to use an automated system through the Internet to leave phone messages for members.

“It’s a wonderful way to find out what they’re doing at the parishes and how to get more people involved at my parish,” she said.

She was also glad the conference wasn’t cancelled as it’s not a celebration but a “learning kind of convention to share ways to grow and find (out) how to help each other in our parishes.”

Hargaden, a member of Sacred Heart Church, Milledgeville, since 1968, never aspired to become president of the organization she’s served for many years but felt that it was part of God’s plan for her life.

Hargaden said that participation in guilds has been declining in recent years both locally and nationally, partially because more women work outside the home now. In addition to restarting support activities by women’s guilds for Catholic Social Services’ refugee resettlement program, she plans to visit parishes to educate them on the importance of the council.

“I will do what I can to make the AACCW strong and vibrant again and I’ll need lots of help,” she said. “It’s our AACCW, not my AACCW, and I’ll need everybody’s help — and they’ve been great, really supportive.”