Next June will be the 10th anniversary since Karen Hurley became the first woman from the US to serve as President General of the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations (WUCWO). It has a membership of almost 100 organizations, representing millions of Catholic women of every walk of life in 66 countries.
Karen has been actively involved in the National Council of Catholic Women (NCCW) for many years on the parish, deanery, diocesan and national level. In 1990 Karen received a certificate in the first Diocese of Harrisburg Lay Ministry Formation Program through
Mount Saint Mary’s College, Emmitsburg, MD. She is a member of the Diocese of Harrisburg’s Committee for the
Continuing Formation of Priests, the Year of Faith Committee, the Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs Committee, and others.
She also serves on the Governing Board of the World Conference of Religions for Peace (WCRP) and she was awarded the Justitia et Pax Medallion by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace in 2009. Two years later, she was chosen to be a Member of the Holy See Delegation to the United Nations 55th Commission on the Status of Women in 2011.
His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI granted Karen the Pontifical Honor of Dame of the Equestrian Order of Pope Saint Sylvester for service to the Church in the Diocese of Harrisburg. The Catholic Daughters of the Americas honored Karen as Catholic Woman of the Year 2008.
For the past 21 years, Karen has served as Pastoral Associate of Saint Margaret Mary Parish in Harrisburg, PA. She and her husband, Terry, reside in Harrisburg.