Women's Conference

MADISON  On the morning of Dec. 14, 2012, an urgent phone call came in to Jenny Hubbard, asking that she come to her daughter Catherine Violet’s school, Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. With reports of a gunman in the school, Hubbard huddled with other frantic parents on a street corner nearby, waiting for news and pleading with God, “If you bring Catherine home, I will be your faithful servant.”

But tragically, Catherine, age 6, never made it home — the victim of a shooting that left 28 people dead. After murdering his mother at home, the perpetrator shot 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook, before killing himself in one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. Hubbard told her story of remaining faithful to God’s will in the midst of her deep pain — which led to deep healing and answering to his call for her to become his “faithful servant” — on Dec. 7, during this year’s diocesan Women’s Conference. Once again guided by the theme “Feminine, Faithful and Fearless,” the event was held at St. Paul Inside the Walls: the Diocesan Center for Evangelization at Bayley-Ellard here.

“I will never understand what happened that morning. It’s a parent’s worst nightmare — to put your child on the bus and she doesn’t come home. But my prayers were answered — Catherine went home to God that day,” said Hubbard, contributor to the publication “Magnificat,” president and executive director of the Catherine Violet Animal Sanctuary in Newtown, established in her daughter’s memory. “After Catherine’s death, it was hard and painful. We still have questions. But we also have experienced God’s love and mercy — a world that we would have not seen if Catherine had not died,” she said.

Clearly moved, many of the more than 200 women who listened to Hubbard’s powerful Christian witness dabbed their eyes with tissues — part of the four-hour conference held in St. Paul’s auditorium. That day, participants were inspired by the Christian witnesses of two other women, who spoke: Jean Pankow, pastoral associate of Notre Dame of Mount Carmel Parish, Cedar Knolls, and Sister of Christian Charity Graciela Colon, an immigration lawyer for Catholic Charities in the Metuchen Diocese. All the speakers imparted the message that “true Catholic womanhood is achieved by using our God-given gifts faithfully and fearlessly, fulfilling our vocation and standing ever firmly in our faith and beliefs,” said Eni Honsberger, diocesan director of family life, who led a committee that coordinated the event.

The conference also offered participants opportunities between speakers to join in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in the chapel of St. Paul’s mansion next door, prayer before a replica of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the auditorium, network with other Catholic women and shop at the many Catholic vendors present. The host for the event was Keaton Douglas, program coordinator of “I Thirst” — an acronym for “The Healing Initiative: Recovery through Spirituality and Twelve Steps” — with the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity. She also moderated question-and-answer sessions with speakers, after their talks, including Hubbard’s.

“Before Catherine’s death, I wished that my kids would be happy and successful. Now, I wish Fredrick [her remaining child and Catherine’s older brother] to know and love his heavenly Father and know that when he is scared, he can turn to him and tell him that he needs him. God will take it from there. On this journey, I realize that God is beside me. I trust that he will see me through to glory,” Hubbard told the St. Paul’s audience only days before the seventh anniversary of the Sandy Hook shooting. She said she spent days processing her grief by praying, thinking, writing in her journal and “having good cries.” In response to a question later, she said that she has forgiven the shooter and his mother, because “as I am forgiven, I must forgive.”

The conference’s first speaker, Pankow, found her call to serve God in a different way: through the invitation of Benedictine Father Jude Salus, former pastor of Notre Dame, where she became involved after moving from Chicago to New Jersey at age 27. In 2007, she left her high-powered career in medical advertising after Father Salus asked her to join the parish staff, which she initially met with “Me? Impossible!”

“It’s been challenging and satisfying,” said Pankow, who has helped Father Paddy O’Donovan, Notre Dame’s current pastor, lead a renewal of the parish — an effort to reboot its mission to respond to Jesus call that we “go and make disciples of all nations.”

Pankow called on her faith in Jesus when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014 and underwent a mastectomy. She credited her personal relationship with Christ for helping her navigate that difficult journey.

“Hard to believe, but I experienced more blessings than challenges in going through that. Not a day passes that I don’t give thanks to God for walking with me,” Pankow said.

In her talk, Pankow also encouraged women to take advantage of the opportunities today for them to help lead the “renewal of the Church” by using their innate gifts of empathy, compassion, caring and nurturing, as well as their professional skills — all “essential to the Body of Christ.”

A few years ago, Sister Graciela went on a mission trip to India to care for the poor with the Missionary Sisters of Charity, founded by St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and where she started to feel confident in expressing her faith. In part, the South Bronx, N.Y., native credits her vocation to a priest, who asked her “Do you pray?” — prompting her to start praying. That led her to reassess her promising law career and hear God’s call to a vocation, which in turn, led her to make her first vows at the motherhouse of the Sisters of Christian Charity in Mendham this year, she told the audience.

At the conclusion of the conference, Father Paul Manning, St. Paul’s executive director and diocesan vicar for evangelization, thanked the event organizers and the speakers “for their witness to us.”

Later, Eileen Pinsonault, a married mother of four daughters, said that the speakers inspired her to consider pursuing work in Catholic ministry, instead of returning to a professional career.

“I feel more fulfilled when I’m serving others,” Pinsonault said. “Now, I am more confident in my faith. I know that God will always be with me,” she said.