Nearly 8,000 women attend Catholic conference in Los Angeles

Washington D.C., Jan 14, 2010 / 20:54 pm

Last weekend some 8,000 Catholic Hispanic women gathered to renew and strengthen their faith at a conference at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Gonzalo Penagos, operations director for Radio Paz of Miami, told CNA the event “brought together women from Tijuana to Los Angeles.  Speakers addressed subjects such as self-esteem, care for children and homosexuality.

Likewise, Penagos said the conference was broadcast online and on the television station used by El Sembrador ministries.

The founder of El Sembrador, Noel Diaz, “thanked the dozens of priests from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles for their services in hearing confessions during the two-day conference.”

Maria Hilda, an immigrant from El Salvador who works with Hispanics in California, said she was surprised to see so many women gathered for a single conference.  Organizers said many of the women present “have suffered abuse, have low self-esteem, have been abandoned and are now single mothers.”