VANCOUVER—Organ donation is once again an important issue for the Catholic Women’s League.
Local CWL members refreshed a 20-year-old resolution to promote donating organs and educating parishioners about the sometimes life-saving procedure at the 92nd annual diocesan convention April 30-May 2.
“There is a chronic shortage of organ and tissue donation in our province, with 465 people currently waiting for organs,” said Leonora Eldridge of St. Clare of Assisi Parish, before the resolution was passed.
“Last year, 37 British Columbians died while waiting for organs. Sadly, many potential donations are lost because the decision of the loved one is not known by their family.”
The national women’s group first resolved to endorse organ donation in 1995, but donor registration rules have since changed, prompting the update.
Marguerite Stuart, a CWL member from St. James Parish, said her brother-in-law waited seven years for a kidney.
“Back then, it was very difficult to get organs,” she said. “It was not nice to see. He was hooked up to a machine every day, 7 days a week, 365 days of the year, waiting for a kidney transplant.”
The resolution passed with only one voting CWL member opposed. Marie Lomas of Corpus Christi Parish was concerned that registered donors could become vulnerable when assisted suicide comes on the Canadian medical scene.
“Who can tell whether some of these doctors might decide, because of money and things like that, they might decide to kill you and take your organ away?”
Guest speakers at the convention covered other hot topics for the league: mental health, serving refugees, reaching women in recovery, and improving palliative care. Many of these topics are backed by resolutions to act or to educate.
“It is really uplifting to know that there are so many organizations in the Church that no matter how down and out you are, there is someone ready to help you,” Lomas said.
Fellow Corpus Christi parishioner Maria Pinto added their CWL parish council recently shed light on issues of human trafficking, palliative care, and evangelization for parishioners at information sessions.
More than 300 CWL members gathered at Our Lady of Sorrows Parish hall for the convention. They welcomed a new executive, including Roxanne McDonald as diocesan president and Angelina Stiglich as president-elect.
“We are here as a national organization calling its people to holiness through service to the people of God,” McDonald said. “Without our 4,279 members in the Archdiocese of Vancouver, the great work of the league would not be accomplished.”
The organ-donation resolution will be brought forward at a provincial convention June 11-13 in Prince George. Next year the diocesan CWL convention will be held at St. Joseph’s Parish in Squamish.
