(September 30, 2010) The World Union of Catholic Women's Organizations will celebrate
100 years of serving the Church with an assembly in the land where Jesus lived. The
Organisation will hold its centenary assembly from October 5th to11th at
the Pontifical Institute Notre Dame of Jerusalem, a statement from the organization
announced Wednesday. This world union represents more than 5 million women who are
active in its nearly 100 affiliated Catholic women's organizations. The Pontifical
Council for the Laity recognizes the union as a public international association of
the faithful. The group will be celebrating 100 years of "service by women, for women,
for the Church and society," the statement noted, and thus, "it is appropriate that
we go to the roots of our faith -- the land where Jesus walked -- to encounter him
in a special way." The opening Mass of the assembly will be celebrated by His Beatitude
Fouad Twal, Latin Patriarch. The 500 participants will attend Sunday Mass at various
Latin and Melkite parishes in order to meet “the living stones,” the Christians of
the Holy Land.