by Frank Flegel

The Canadian Catholic Women's League (CWL) installed Velma Harasen of Regina as their new national president at their 90th national convention held August 8-11, 2010 in Ottawa, Ontario. She was vice president and president elect for two years prior to taking over the top job and is looking forward to the challenges of being president.

Each new president chooses a theme and Harasen, in consultation with National Spiritual Director St. John's, Newfoundland Archbishop Martin Currie, chose "Centred on Faith and Justice." "It seemed a natural choice. The CWL was started by a group of faith filled women who met immigrants on the shore and helped them establish their new home and teach them social justice and peace," said Harasen in an interview in her Regina home.

Each province has been asked to develop a couple of social justice issues that are dominant in their province. "Social justice issues are endless," she said, "poverty, homelessness, child poverty, where do you begin? It will be a challenge but we can do something or at least we need to try." Single parent families will get special attention, said Harasen, through the chair of the Christian Family Life Committee.

Harasen said, through the Spiritual Development chair, she wants to showcase the many opportunities available for women in the Catholic Church, including lectors, commentators, and Eucharistic ministries, that in many instances are now being filled by women.

The organization boasts 97,000 national members and has attracted younger members. "I would love to see us get to 100,000. It's a doable goal. The ultimate dream would be to have every Catholic woman belong." An area of focus for new members is women who are just retiring or retired who are looking for something post-retirement. Another possible source is the Catholic Girls League for girls age 10-16, "It's mostly in areas where there is no Catholic School," she said.

Harasen is one of several national presidents that have come from the Regina Archdiocese, a relatively small area in a national organization. "I don't know why that is," she said, "Maybe it's something in the land," she joked. "It's really quite amazing. We've always had good support from our spiritual advisors and our hierarchy. Archbishop Dan Bohan came to our convention in Ottawa and he made it very clear, that he would support me."