|
St. Rafka Maronite Church in Lakewood, Colorado hosted an ENDOW study group from September 2009 through January 2010. Nine women met every 2 weeks after the Divine Liturgy on Sunday afternoons to share a meal and study Pope John Paul II’s Letter to Women.
This letter, written on the eve of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, was partly written in response to the world reaction to the Church after the UN International Conference on Population and Development held one year earlier in Cairo. At the Cairo conference, a crusade for abortion and eugenic population control programs led by the United States pushed unsuccessfully for abortion on demand as a means of population control, blocking out the discussion of all other population and development issues.
In contrast, the Catholic Church represented by the Vatican defended the dignity of the person and the need for programs to promote development in Third World countries. Afterwards, the press accepted the population control lobby’s depiction of the Vatican at Cairo as anti-woman, anti-sex, and in favor of unrestrained procreation, prompting Pope John Paul II to declare 1995 the “Year of the Woman” and to write “Letter to Women” to all women to better explain the position of the Church to the public.
In Letter to Women, the ENDOW participants at St. Rafka learned about concepts such as the New Feminism, ontological complementarity, and the genius of women. Stories were shared, intense discussions were held, and there was laughter and yes, even tears. As a testament to the importance in their lives of these biweekly gatherings, all nine women plus two additional women have signed up to study the next document, Mulieris Dignatatem (On the Dignity and Vocation of Women). With two new study guides being released every year, their work is cut out for them for some time to come!
ENDOW was founded in 2003 in Denver, Colorado by three Catholic “women in the pews”. As a Catholic educational program, ENDOW brings women together to discover their God-given dignity and to understand their role in humanizing and transforming society. It utilizes small study groups led by an ENDOW-trained facilitator and directed by study guides to cultivate faith, fellowship, and formation through the reading and discussion of Church documents on women and women’s issues. In addition to study guides for adult women, ENDOW provides study guides for groups of junior high and high school girls. ENDOW also offers an annual Women’s Conference, an annual Gala, quarterly Professional Women’s Luncheons, pilgrimages, retreats, talks, and a newsletter. For more information on ENDOW, please go to www.endowonline.com or contact Mary Sue Kenny at 303-725-3291. |
Ministries