Cape Coral woman wins pilgrimage to Italy

The Central Deanery Council of Catholic Women raises funds and makes one Cape Coral woman a very happy winner.

BOB REDDY | FLORIDA CATHOLIC VENICE BUREAU EDITOR

Posted: 06.19.09

Bishop Frank J. Dewane looks at a ticket he selected that will send Judy Abler of St. Katharine Drexel Parish in Cape Coral on a trip for two pilgrimage to Italy with the bishop and others. Watching the drawing at the Catholic Center in Venice on June 9 are Central Deanery Council of Catholic Women representatives Fran Paterson, center, and Karen Hartmann.

BOB REDDY | FC
Bishop Frank J. Dewane looks at a ticket he selected that will send Judy Abler of St. Katharine Drexel Parish in Cape Coral on a trip for two pilgrimage to Italy with the bishop and others. Watching the drawing at the Catholic Center in Venice on June 9 are Central Deanery Council of Catholic Women representatives Fran Paterson, center, and Karen Hartmann.

VENICE | Judy Abler was having a quiet day when she received a surprise phone call from Bishop Frank J. Dewane.

The call was to inform her that she had been selected as the winner of a raffle sponsored by the Central Deanery Council of Catholic Women. The prize? A 10-day pilgrimage to Italy with Bishop Dewane in late September.

The Cape Coral resident and member of St. Katharine Drexel Parish responded to Bishop Dewane’s call with a scream of astonishment: “Oh my gosh! I don’t believe it! Thank you so much!”

She said she never wins anything, but now she will be going on a trip of a lifetime that is part of the “Year of Celebration” commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the Diocese of Venice.

The tickets were sold throughout the Diocese for $100. That $100 won Abler two tickets for the trip from Sept. 28 to Oct. 9, which includes a tour of Italy. Tour stops include the cities of Venice, Padua, Florence, Siena, Assisi and Rome, the islands of Murano, Torcello and Burano, and an insider tour of the Vatican.

Bishop Dewane selected the winner from a silver bowl full of the purchased tickets brought to the Catholic Center in Venice by Central Deanery council women Fran Patterson and Karen Hartmann.

By the time Abler was off the phone with Bishop Dewane, she was crying.

The Central Deanery Council of Catholic Women will donate the profits from the sale of the tickets to a good cause, which will be determined at the next board meeting later in June.

For more information about the pilgrimage to Italy with Bishop Dewane, call Mary Campo at 941-441-1117.

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