Diocese of Salt Lake City hosts National Council of Catholic Women’s 2023 convention
SALT LAKE CITY — Local Utah Catholics played a prominent role in the National Council of Catholic Women annual convention, held Aug. 23-26 at the Hyatt Regency Salt Lake City. From outgoing President Patricia Voorhes, a St. Vincent de Paul parishioner, to President-elect Amy Kennedy, a Cathedral of the Madeleine parishioner, to local speakers and panelists and more than 50 local volunteers who ensured those who attended the convention had a great experience, Utah Catholic women came out in force and showed their strengths.
This year’s convention theme was “A Path of Renewed Encounter,” a message speakers and presenters carried through the four days. At the organization’s annual awards luncheon on Aug. 23, speaker/performer Donna Stoering shared her talents in “Prayer as Music, Music as Prayer: Living a Eucharistic Life in Today’s World.” Until three months ago Stoering was a longtime member of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Sandy; she recently moved out of state. Through her words, song and piano playing she shared the message of the healing power of music.
The following day, a panel of local Catholic women addressed the topic of “Our Encounter with Jesus in the Eucharist.” Julie Boerio-Goates, a parishioner at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, Orem, shared what she has learned through 46 years of marriage and interaction with her husband Steve, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and his faith community. A retired Brigham Young University chemistry professor, Boerio-Goates saw a growth and a refining of her own faith as she navigated those years, particularly during the pandemic, she said.
“I began to view the world as a place where God could be found and Jesus encountered,” she said. “But as an adult, wife, mom, scientist, lay minister, I never consciously put them together until the pandemic. During the pandemic when we lost both holy communion, Eucharistic adoration, and church community; that larger sacramental perspective came as a bit of grace to keep my faith alive with quiet walks up the canyon, kayaking with my husband and son, Bible study with friends around the country, Sunday Masses, all made possible by Zoom. From that natural beauty and interaction via the wonders of electronic technology I encountered Jesus.”
Susan Northway, director of the Diocese of Salt Lake City’s Office of Faith Formation, spoke of the importance of remembrance.
“Memory is a gift from God to resurrect and help explain salvation history,” she said. “In the Old Testament and the Hebrew scriptures, memory refers to God giving love and attention to all of creation. … We can say that memory is the life the Lord grants that God remembers.”
Memory enables the faithful to build personal relationship with Christ through the Eucharist, she said. “In bringing up the sacrifice to the altar, we create the memory of each other. We identify each other as living in Christ, being united with each other in him.”
Kimberly Tosti, who has been involved in church ministry for many years, shared how the pandemic left her feeling adrift from those things that had centered her faith.
“My whole faith paradigm was called into question,” she said. “I had to ask myself: Was the foundation of my faith solely resting on the shoulders of the ritual, of ministry? Did I truly only encounter God in the long hours of coordinating ministers and meetings? Was I so selfish that I couldn’t have faith without the dopamine hit of being needed? I was missing relationship.”
Tosti found her way through the challenges of the pandemic and, like many Utah Catholics, was overjoyed at the opportunity to renew her faith through the July 9 Diocesan Eucharistic Rally, which she helped organize. “All [who attended the event] felt their faith reawakened,” she said. “It was a beautiful illustration of just how important the Body of Christ is in providing the path to healing and in developing relationship with God.”
In her Saturday session “Encountering Forgiveness: Healing and Restoring Victims and Perpetrators of Crime” Jean Welch Hill, a parishioner at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Holladay, examined the myths that place barriers between the homeless and the greater community. Hill is the director of the Salt Lake County Office of Criminal Justice Initiatives and former director of the diocesan Office of Life, Justice and Peace.
“Catholic teaching is about care of the poor, recognizing that every human has equal value,” she said. “In a nation as wealthy as the U.S., no one should be sleeping on a city street. We believe in the dignity and sanctity of life from conception to natural death, and what happens in the ‘to’ part matters. Homelessness, criminal justice involvement, unmet mental health needs because of poverty are dignity and sanctity of life issues. What can Catholic women do? … We can be voices for and with the poor and vulnerable.”
In addition to the presentations by local participants, keynote speaker Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, executive director of the Catholic Mobilizing Network, shared her organization’s mission in “From Woundedness to Healing: Restorative Approaches to Harm.”
During the convention, the Most Rev. Oscar A. Solis, Bishop of Salt Lake City, celebrated a welcome Mass for the participants. At that Mass he welcomed the women to Salt Lake City and fondly recalled when he attended a Council of Catholic Women convention in Albany, N.Y. Later, Bishop Solis concelebrated the closing Mass with the Most Rev. Timothy Broglio, archbishop for the Military Services and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; the Most Rev. Edgar M. da Cunha, Bishop of Fall River, Mass.; the Most Rev. William A. Wack, CSC, Bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee and NCCW episcopal liaison to the USCCB; and several priests who act as spiritual advisers to NCCW councils.
“This Sunday we look for a moment of new beginnings as the National Council of Catholic Women inaugurate leaders in new roles and we renew our concrete profession of our faith and celebrate a path of renewed encounter,” Bishop Broglio said in his homily at the closing Mass.
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