Catholic women's group celebrates 100th anniversary

Published: 2003-10-29

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Twenty new members of the Catholic Daughters of the Americas pledged to serve their church as more than 1,000 women from across the country gathered to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the laywomen's organization at an Oct. 18 Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. The 20 women from Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and Nebraska joined longtime members, chaplains and friends of the oldest national Catholic lay women's organization. Formed in 1903 to "herald their unity and charity in Christ and among each other," the Catholic Daughters of the Americas assist "the poor, the disenfranchised and the unborn," said Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services. He was the main celebrant and homilist at the Mass. In addition, he said, the women have continued to educate people in their faith, "strengthen family life, and instill values in cultures and societies whose cancerous secularism could destroy from within the Judeo-Christian institutions that have supported America and the Americas."

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