The California Catholic Women's Forum is holding a conference, "Women of the Bible: Trailblazers for Life" on April 25, 2009 at the Sheraton Hotel in Sunnyvale, CA. Fr. Anthony Hernandez of St. Basil in Los Gatos is doing the opening prayer and introduction. The presenters are Gail Buckley and Yvonne Florczak-Seeman. The cost: $30 for the general public, $20 for students. (Registration deadline: April 20, 2009.) You can pay online at the CCWF website.

The brochure cites a document of the Second Vatican Council (not sure which one): "The hour is coming, in fact has come, when the vocation of women is being acknowledged in its fullness, the hour in which women acquire in the world an influence, an effect and a power never hitherto achieved." A bit optimistic, no? Unless the document authors were thinking in worldly terms, women having positions of power in society and so on.