Officers of the new Catholic Daughters of the Americas court at St. Thomas More Parish in Lynnwood stand with State Regent Pat Connell, at far right, State Chaplain Father Jim Northrop, back left, and St. Thomas More pastor Father Bob Camuso during ceremonies instituting the court Sept. 27. From left are Maureen Keane, financial secretary; Shirley Turner, vice regent; Debbie Olson, court regent; Cathy Meehan, recording secretary; and Samantha Morales, treasurer. Photo Terry McGuire

The largest Catholic lay women’s organization in the U.S., the Catholic Daughters, under the patroness of the Blessed Mother Mary, now boasts 90,000 members and 1,400 courts in the U.S. and six other countries, said National Regent Claudia Bosch.

Like other fraternal organizations, the membership has declined over the last decade, she said. But over the past five years or so the CDA has been bolstered by the establishment of courts on eight college campuses, including Gonzaga University in Spokane, and more campus courts are being formed, Bosch said. “Many young women are looking for something spiritual on their campuses,” she said.

Wide range of activities
Among the CDA’s many activities, the members raise funds for seminarians, religious vocations and social causes. They lobby lawmakers and support the Catholic bishops on pro-life and social justice issues. They pray for peace, support Morality in Media programs, and build Habitat for Humanity homes.

Its nine national charitable projects range from the Apostleship of the Sea, Covenant House for youths in crisis and Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity to disaster relief, and support of aging religious and of programs promoting the rosary.

100 chickens, two cows
At the national convention in Minneapolis last summer, CDA leaders urged the membership to pray that the dignity of illegal immigrants be respected, according to a Catholic News Service wire story. They also asked for prayers and support of U.S. military personnel and for victims of human trafficking, And they adopted an organization that helps repair cleft lips and palates as a national charity.

It’s an organization that strives to change with the times, said immediate past Washington State regent Marge Pool, now regent of Court St. Pius X # 2270 at St. Pius X Parish in Mountlake Terrace. “If you stay in the past, that’s what you become – the past,” she said.

For example, Pool said, her court recently purchased 100 chickens and a pair of cows for a seminary in Gulu, Uganda after hearing a visiting Ugandan bishop speak at St. Pius X about their plight.

“When we heard that the ladies in Gulu still walk many miles every day to get their water, and receiving a cow or chickens will help them on their way to self preservation, we just knew we had to do something,” Pool said in an e-mail. “Yes, there are many, many needs of our own people, but America already has so very much and we have many projects throughout the U.S. But (the bishop’s) people have so very little.”

Pool said her court of 67 women raised and distributed approximately $12,000 in 2005 for scholarships, the parish school, and groups and people in need through fundraisers. Last month’s annual fundraiser, the “Little Auction at St. Pius,” raised almost $4,000, she said.

New courts
All courts also donate a small portion to the CDA’s nine national charitable projects, but it’s up to the individual courts to determine what their local activities will be.

The new court in Lynnwood is among 24 in the state. Efforts to establish several more courts at Western Washington parishes are under way.

There was a 14-year stretch during the 1980s and ‘90s when not one new court was established in the state, Pool said. Several have been founded since then, she said, noting that it takes a recruitment team willing to work extra hard to generate interest.

But once women become aware of the CDA, many are attracted to it.

It offers “involvement,” Pool said. “Rather than just going and cleaning the church, you’re actually working for something that stands for something.”

Said Bosch, the national regent: “I think women are striving to find something to enhance their spiritual life as well as their social (life). So many women are single and widowed, this is companionship.”

At St. Thomas More, Olson’s court is looking into what activities they’ll be pursuing.
For starters, “we want to feed homeless and hungry people,” she said.

Beyond that, they’ll have to peruse a long list of potential activities. “They (CDA) handed me a book that’s three inches thick,” Olson said. “It’s quite amazing.”