By Gia Myers • Posted October 23, 2024

It was a day to celebrate the joys of womanhood through prayer and friendship at the 9th annual Catholic Women’s Conference, hosted by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s Office for the New Evangelization on Saturday, Oct. 19 at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown.

The theme for this year’s conference was “The Joys of Womanhood, Sacred, Beloved, and Beautiful.” More than 1,200 married, single, and consecrated women registered to attend the event.

Longtime friends Cathy Fennell of Phoenixville and Carol Allocco of Malvern attended together. They first met as students years ago at Susquehanna University, and they met again by chance at last year’s women’s conference.

On returning to the conference together this year, Allocco said, “The diversity of this community attracted us.”

Michelle Brawley, a mother of 12 and a parishioner at St. John Fisher Parish in Boothwyn, attended with four of her daughters. Her friend, Janet Muñoz, a parishioner at Our Lady of Charity Parish in Brookhaven, attended with her two daughters.

Brawley has attended the women’s conference since 2013, the first year it was held, and Muñoz was attending for her second year, saying she “enjoys the connection” she feels at the event.

“It’s a chance to take a step back from the busyness of our lives,” said Mary Rose Mitchell, chair of the Catholic Women’s Conference, reflecting on the meaning of the event.

Mitchell hopes the women attending “take some time to rest in the Lord” and  realize “they’re all unique and beautiful in their own way,” she said.

The day started with a morning Mass celebrated by Auxiliary Bishop Christopher Cooke. After the liturgy, a keynote address was delivered by Father Stephen DeLacy, Vicar for the archdiocesan Office of Faith Formation of Youth and Young Adults.

Father Stephen DeLacy offers the morning keynote address in the Main Church. (Gia Myers)

A native of Delaware County, Father DeLacy is a graduate of Monsignor Bonner High School, where he played soccer and basketball. He later attended West Chester University and earned a a degree in accounting before entering Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary. He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in 2004.

Among his priestly assignments, Father DeLacy additionally led retreats at Malvern Retreat House and Rachel’s Vineyard. In 2013 he was appointed Vocation Director for the Diocesan Priesthood, a role which he held for eight years, and to his current position in 2021.

In his keynote, Father DeLacy spoke of God the Father’s great delight in women from the moment of creation, how God is continually calling all women to greater intimacy with Him, and how women can embrace their true identities as beloved daughters of the Father.

Father DeLacy spoke about the creation story in the Book of Genesis in the Bible, saying “women are the culmination of creation,” and that women need to “own it, believe it.”

“Jesus wants to uphold your dignity and not be like Adam,” referring to the fall of man in Genesis 3, when Adam failed to protect Eve from the serpent’s temptation.

He also referred to women in the Gospel of John to whom Jesus reached out and invited into intimacy, including the Samarian woman at the well (John 4:4–42), and the woman threatened with stoning (John 8:2-11).

Father DeLacy urged women to allow Jesus to enter into their shame and woundedness in order to be transformed. “He wants to set you free,” he said.

In a powerful moment during his talk, Father DeLacy bent down on one knee and spoke to the women in the audience, apologizing to them on behalf of all men “who may have caused [them] to feel shame,” including fathers, previous boyfriends, and spouses.

He apologized for the times they made women feel unprotected, objectified, abused, abandoned, and failed to show proper love.

Father DeLacy also spoke of how women can find inspiration in the Blessed Virgin Mary, who “shows us how to be a beloved daughter” and she “shows us the pathway for salvation.”

This year, the women’s conference offered speakers in English, Spanish and American Sign Language.

Other speakers included author Emily Wilson; writer and podcaster Kimberly Cook; certified professional coach Denise Yarrison; Sister of Life Sister Leonie Therese; consecrated woman of Regnum Christi Karla Amezcua, FOCUS missionary Dominique Brutus; and Katie Locus, consultant of the deaf ministry for the Archdiocese in Kansas City, Kansas.

For more information about the Archdiocese of Philadelphia Women’s Conference, please visit https://www.catholicwomensconference.org.