| U.S. News

Nearly 900 members from local and state courts (chapters) in the United States and several other countries attended the meeting.

Claudia R. Bosch of Dickinson, N.D., first vice national regent and convention chairman, was elected national regent for the next two years. She succeeds M. Joan McKenna of Boston in that post.

In the keynote speech Mother Agnes Mary Donovan, head of Sisters of Life, spoke about the spiritual and emotional experiences of working to prevent abortions and assist pregnant women.

The late Cardinal John J. O'Connor of New York founded the Sisters for Life in 1991. In 2004 his successor, Cardinal Edward M. Egan, officially recognized the group as a religious institute of diocesan right, that is, an order under the authority of the local bishop.

In a business session the convention participants passed resolutions that:

- Affirmed the organization's "primary focus" on spirituality reflected in service.

- Adopted the Smile Train – an organization devoted to surgical repair of cleft lip and cleft palate – as a national charity.

- Called on its state legislative chairwomen to promote legislation creating umbilical-cord stem-cell banks as a resource for stem-cell research and therapy.

- Committed the organization to promote environmental awareness and Catholic teaching on respect and care for the environment.

- Called on members to "pray that the dignity of the illegal immigrants and their families be respected" and that the public debate on immigration and the status of undocumented workers in the United States "be marked by prudence and compassion."

- Urged members to pray for the safety of U.S. military personnel and seek out ways to assist the families of troops who are stationed overseas.

- Asked members to pray for victims of human trafficking, most of whom are women and girls, and assist them legislatively, financially and in other ways.

The convention also affirmed its support for the Apostleship of the Sea, which provides pastoral ministry to seafarers, and urged the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to continue its support of that ministry.

It asked the national regent to keep members updated on the work of the World Union of Catholic Women's Organizations.

The Catholic Daughters of the Americas, formed in 1903, has about 90,000 members in 1,400 courts in the United States, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Viola Maehren of St. Paul used the occasion of the national convention to try to rouse interest in re-forming a local court that disbanded in 1998.

Maehren, 86, a member of St. Agnes Parish, told The Catholic Spirit, St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocesan newspaper, that Court St. Paul No. 542 was formed in 1924 and once had about 500 members from parishes across the St. Paul-Minneapolis area. It had to disband after three board members died "and no one wanted to take an office," she said.

Maehren said she had hoped to get the court re-established before the convention and wrote "at least 20 letters to various churches in the archdiocese, but I have had little success."

She spoke about the fundraisers and variety of charities the local court used to be involved in. Through the newspaper she encouraged any local Catholic women who were interested to get in touch with her.

The Daughters' next convention is to be held in New Mexico in 2008.