An annual traditional women’s conference continues to have an impact in connecting women with one another and the Catholic faith and primed to deliver another inspiring event this year.
The Return to Tradition Women’s Conference is hosted by Our Lady of Mount Carmel, a parish of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, in Littleton, Colo. The event was founded by a group of women at the parish, who with the help of the wider parish community and support from their pastor, invite women each year to experience traditional Catholic culture and explore the authentic role of women as understood in Catholicism.
The conference has grown from its beginnings, drawing well over 200 women each year from across the U.S. and beyond, plus many more attending with watch parties via livestream. Organizers have had to ponder whether to move to a larger venue to accommodate more attendance, forgoing this as it would sacrifice proximity to the church.
Each year the event offers engaging presenters and timely topics for attendees.
This past year the theme was Restoration of the Family, which hit home amid the rampant sexual chaos in our culture, effectively hitting the areas of womanhood, marriage, and men’s and women’s roles.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Pastor Father Matthew McCarthy, FSSP, laid out an appropriate foundation in his welcoming remarks, explaining how the role of women is woven into the fabric of salvation history.
“Authentic women are God’s instruments to establish His kingdom, integral and essential to His plans,” Father McCarthy said, concluding with the reminder to look to the Blessed Virgin to answer the question often raised of what a woman is.
Presenters’ messages were organically in sync.
Speaker and author Genevieve Kineke’s address was a deep and thoughtful dive into how the world “thirsts” for authentic femininity. Author and speaker Jesse Romero delivered two fervent presentations on protecting the Catholic family and traditional roles of men and women. Third Order Dominican Mathew Plese gave an eye-opening address revealing the lost art of fasting.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel parishioners Ron and Debra Zapka tugged at attendees’ heartstrings with their personal story of journeying home to the Church and its tradition after years in a secular lifestyle. And Mother Miriam of the Lamb of God, O.S.B. wrapped up as keynote in her signature no-nonsense fashion.
The challenges of living as a Catholic woman in a world hostile to Christianity come as no surprise, but they often lie in fully knowing and understanding the Church’s teaching on men’s and women’s roles in the first place. Many people hear about this for the first time as an adult, if they hear it at all. And once understood, there is often pushback on this teaching, even from Catholics.
The clear and forthright presentation of issues such as this at the women’s conference reaches and resonates with women who attend.
“What I heard was, it was the best one,” founder Jane Brennan said. “It was the cohesiveness of the message that everyone loved.”
“There were a lot of first timers too,” she added, “and from what I heard they loved it.”
Along with a lot of first-time attendees there were more women than before from outside the parish taking part.
An FSSP parish in Texas sent two parishioners to attend and observe the conference this year for the purpose of planning for a potential women’s conference there.
This was an initial goal in establishing the Return to Tradition Conference – that other parishes could take what is happening at the Our Lady of Mount Carmel conference and run with it.
One thing that Brennan and her team heard repeatedly this last year was, “How are you going to top this?” But more arguably more important, they heard that the conference was “transformative.”
And that makes sense because it is simply Catholicism.
Plans are in place for the 2026 Return to Tradition Conference scheduled for September 25-26 and registration opened on July 2.
The 2026 conference has another pertinent theme with Christ or Chaos.