Annual Diocesan Council of Catholic Women convention will have joy as its theme

Friday, Mar. 24, 2017

SALT LAKE CITY — The 89th Annual Convention for the Diocese of Salt Lake City Council of Catholic Women will focus on teaching participants the joy to be found in the Gospel and in their daily lives, said Marcie Downs, DCCW president.

The Northern Deanery Council of Catholic Women will host this year’s convention, which will be based around the theme “Catholic Women: Instruments of Joy.” 

The DCCW is looking forward to pursuing this topic this year, and no one is more suited to teach the women who attend the conference about joy than the keynote speaker, Susan Neilson, Downs said.

Neilson is a former DCCW president and San Francisco province director of the National Council of Catholic Women, who has been a presenter at workshops at many DCCW conventions, but her experience is only one of the reasons she will be a great speaker for the convention, Downs said.

“Susan personifies our theme of joy,” she said. “Susan has shared her Catholic faith at every ring of Council, mentoring women with love and laughter. Her talk, ‘A Joyful Heart,’ is sure to be an inspiration to women of all ages.”

Three other speakers will present at the event alongside Neilson. Mollie Murphy Dale was selected by the Spirituality Commission. Dale works in the Refugee Services Office of the State of Utah Department of Workforce Services. Her presentation is titled “Together We Find Joy: Building a Bridge to Success.”

The Service Commission has chosen a pair of humanitarian workers, James and Karyn Anderson, who have provided aid to those in need in Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Syria. They will speak about their experiences, and the joy that can be found from helping the less fortunate, in their presentation, “Humanitarian Service in the Middle East.”

Downs said that she and the DCCW are extremely excited to welcome their final guest speaker to the convention, who will celebrate the Saturday Vigil Mass and give a presentation on Sunday: Bishop Oscar A. Solis.

The convention will be “an opportunity for the women there to be in a more intimate setting with the bishop,” she said. “Not everyone can be this close with him.”

Besides the presentations, the conference will have various awards for parish attendance and participation. At the Woman of the Year banquet, Bishop Solis will present awards to the women from each parish who has been selected as this year’s nominee, said Downs.

“Sometimes the woman nominated is someone you don’t know about,” someone who works behind the scenes, Downs said. “It’s really quite an honor … It’s a wonderful opportunity to be acknowledged.”

Above all else, the convention should be uplifting for its participants, she said. The speakers who are scheduled to appear at the convention will make all the women who attend more joyful and aware of how to share that joy with the world, Downs said.

WHAT: 89th Annual DCCW Convention

WHEN: April 29-30

WHERE: Sheraton Salt Lake City Hotel, 150 West 500 South, SLC

The Woman of the Year Awards Banquet will begin at 7:15 p.m. on Saturday, April 29. Registration required by March 27. To register, contact your parish women’s organization or visit www.dccwutah.org.