A few months ago, I had the pure pleasure and privilege of being invited by the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Laity, to attend a Women’s Seminar in Romeas an African delegate.
This event is coming up this week and so I have now journeyed to Rome to join 99 other Catholic women from around the world in a deeper reflection of the true vocation of women.
The very profound theme chosen for the event by the Pontifical Council for the Laity is “God entrusts the human being to the woman“.
And this is directly from Blessed John Paul II’s beautiful encyclical on women entitled – Mulieris Dignitatem section #30.
In fact a very good summary of our upcoming discussions can be found here.
Some of the women that will convene to explore, expound and reflect on this theme include Dr Helen Alvaré, Ligaya Acosta (HLI Rome), Vicky Thorn (Rachel Project), Virginia Parodi (Congregation for the Causes of Saints) and many more.
Because the line-up of speakers is incredibly rich, I already expect that the presentations will be powerful and the conversations with some of these women will be life-transforming.
So I have decided to take with me the dear friends and blog readers of Culture of Life Africa,while I am on this mission that highlights the life and dignity of women of every race, tribe and tongue.
I will endeavour to provide updates and pictures in the days ahead. The goal is really to inspire our male readers to firmly encourage and our female readers to whole-heartedly embrace authentic feminism which is pro-life, pro-marriage, pro-motherhood and pro-woman.
We want to encourage women to rise to their vocation of humanising society.
So please bear with me as I blog and log the various aspects of my trip that may be of interest to you as it unfolds in the Eternal City!
At St Peter’s Basilica. Using the days preceding the seminar for a personal pilgrimage in preparation for the very important events and discussions that I will be immersed in during the days ahead.
Literally at the foot of the cross, the foot of the World Youth Day cross given to the youth of the world by Blessed JPII in 1984 as a sign of Christ’s love for humanity.
The cross is actually housed at San Lorenzo Youth Centre , a small church that is very close to St Peter’s Basilica.
For an entire hour, the church was serenely silent and it was just the WYD cross, and me, and all the intentions of the friends of COLAfrica.
How surreal! How serene!
It was a really good time and place to pray for the spread and wide reception of the Gospel of life in every corner of the world and for a deep conversion of the global culture with regards to human life and dignity.
It was also a good place and time to pray for women of every race, tribe and tongue to rise to their vocation of reconciling the world with Life.
This picture shows the panel on the WYD cross with a wonderful inscription of JPII’s message to the youth of the world.The inscription has the following message in 4 languages:”My dear young people, at the conclusion of the Holy Year, I entrust to you the sign of this Jubilee Year: the Cross of Christ! Carry it throughout the world as a symbol of Christ’s love for humanity, and announce to everyone that only in the death and resurrection of Christ can we find salvation and redemption.”
There are still many wonderful people that I hope to meet on this journey and many more places that I intend to visit, but for now I will drop my “pen” and rest for the night with heart-felt gratitude for being here in Rome on a mission, on a woman’s mission.And as Isend out this blog post, I hope to bring many more people with me on this mission so that together we can start building up in our world, a solid Culture of Life and a much-needed Civilisation of Love for ourselves and for the generations to come.
Humbly and Cordially Yours
Uju