Celebrating 65 Years

Dear Sisters in Christ,

I am so excited about this very special issue of The Well. Last summer, Director at Large (and MCCW historian extraordinaire) Eleanor Gentilini pointed out that 2020 would be the 65th anniversary of MCCW and the 50th anniversary of MCCW-USA and asked us to consider how we could mark those special milestones. 

This issue is one of the ways we will celebrate our accomplishments and the women who came before us, who planted the seeds that have grown into the MCCW we know and love today.

And MCCW has certainly grown and changed over the years. As I went through historical documents including old photographs, programs from past retreats and conferences, and newspaper clippings from installation newspapers, I was struck by both the kinship I felt with the women in these artifacts and the differences between our MCCW and theirs. 

Like so many of us, these women left their homes to pursue their own military careers or to support that of their husbands. They lived in new and different places and formed bonds with new and different friends at each stop. And they relied on MCCW to help them grow and deepen their faith — a foundation for surviving all the military threw their way. 

Many of the artifacts came from the time when MCCW first began in the United States and the years after when there were two distinct organizations – one in the U.S. and one in Europe. This two-organization structure came from a desire to serve women where they were, not just in MCCW’s European birthplace. I found familiarity here, too.  We are an organization united around the world now, but we continue to look for new and different ways to reach women wherever they may be! I enjoyed reading through a brochure describing MCCW’s many traditions and was pleasantly surprised to find that so many of them remain today. 

But the differences struck me, too. In the earlier days, the European conference was a full week long. What I wouldn’t give for a full week with my MCCW sisters in Christ! The European conference always seemed to include a skit night (not sure we will revive this tradition). The gatherings also had a much heavier business agenda alongside the formation programming because the MCCW of the past was governed in a more hands-on way by the chapel groups. There were also many artifacts from the days before the advent of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, which only came into being in 1985. 

My overall sense from reading through this treasure trove of MCCW memorabilia was an overwhelming sense of gratitude — gratitude for the women who founded and fostered MCCW in its earliest years; for the women who brought MCCW from Europe to the United States; those who saw it through the unification to one organization and the many changes that followed; and most of all to our God of love and mercy who has allowed our ministry to grow and flourish all these years. 

I pray that this issue, and our other celebrations this year, will be joy-filled for you as well!

Yours in Christ, 

Kim