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News Digest

Issue of October 26 – November 8, 2008 The following items are condensed. For the complete articles, please read the print edition of The Catholic New World. To subscribe, call (312) 534-7777.

News Update

Celebrating sacred liturgy

The Office for Divine Worship and Liturgy Training Publications will celebrate the 45th anniversary of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, the very first document of the Second Vatican Council in a two-day event Dec. 4-5 at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare.

The document, Sacrosanctum Concilium, was released Dec. 3, 1963.

The event opens Dec. 4 with a 6 p.m. celebratory banquet, continues with morning prayer Dec. 5 and concludes with a wine and cheese reception. Speakers include Father Daniel Coughlin, the archdiocese's first director of the Office for Divine Worship, who serves in Washington, D.C. as the chaplain for the House of Representatives; Rita Ferrone, a writer and lecturer on issues of liturgy, catechesis, and Christian initiation in the Catholic Church; Richard McCarron, associate professor of liturgy and chair of the department of word and worship at Catholic Theological Union; and Jesuit Father John Baldovin, past president of the North American Academy of Liturgy and the professor of historical and liturgical theology at the Weston Jesuit School of Theology, Boston College.

Further information regarding the 2-day event and registration can be found at www.odw.org. Cost varies depending on the date of registration and which parts participants want to attend.

Two for tea?

Girls ages 10-12 and their mothers are invited to a Mother-Daughter Tea Program 2:30-5 p.m. Nov. 2 at Catholic Charities, St. Vincent Hall, 721 S. LaSalle St.

The tea is sponsored by the Natural Family Planning Office of the Family Ministries Office.

The program is designed to acquaint girls and their mothers with the wonder of God's gift of womanhood, and the changes they will experience as they mature. It will also help to facilitate communication between them at this important time in their lives. "The program will be both informative and enjoyable," said Maria Garcia of the Natural Family Planning Office.

The event includes afternoon refreshments and tea, and a confidential question and answer session. Cost is $15 per person.

For more information, call the NFP Ministry at (312) 751-8273.

News Digest

Pope canonizes four saints, calls for end to violence in Orissa

Pope Benedict XVI canonized four new saints, including the first native-born saint from India, where Christians recently have come under attack from Hindu gangs.

After the two-hour liturgy in St. Peter's Square Oct. 12, the pope made a pointed appeal for an end to violence against India's Christian minority.

Bishops establish new ad hoc committee to promote, protect 'unique beauty' of vocation of marriage

A new ad hoc committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops will work to raise awareness of the "unique beauty of the vocation of marriage" and the many threats it faces today, according to its chairman.

Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Ky., said Cardinal George, USCCB president, asked him to chair the committee, whose work is being funded by the Knights of Columbus.

Between the pages with Paul

Learned anything new about St. Paul in this year commemorating his birth? If not, what are you waiting for?

This is the Year of St. Paul declared by our pope to celebrate the 2,000th anniversary of the famed apostle's birth. It's an opportune time to take a deeper look into the life of the man whose conversion, witness, writings and death introduced Jesus Christ to billions of people down through the centuries.

Cardinal at synod: make God's Word heard to all people

Rome - How to listen well to the word of God and how to proclaim it well have emerged as the key questions for the Synod of Bishops on the Bible, said Cardinal George.

Both challenges call for improved individual preparation as well as a broader effort to shape culture in a way that recovers biblical literacy, he said.