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News Digest

Issue of December 6 – December 19, 2009The 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

Guadalupe Mass in Loop

Bishop John Manz will celebrate a bilingual Mass at noon Dec. 12, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, on Federal Plaza at Dearborn and Adams streets.

The outdoor Mass is sponsored by the archdiocese's Office for Hispanic Catholics, Respect Life Office and Office of Divine Worship and the Thomas More Society. For information, call (312) 534- 1080.

Free Christmas concert planned

A free Christmas concert open to people of all denominations will be held at 2:30 p.m. Dec. 20 at Holy Family Church, 1080 W. Roosevelt Rd.

"The Cardinal's Christmas Concert for the Children" will be performed by Rich Daniels and the City Lights Orchestra, and will include both secular and religious music celebrating the Christmas season.

Holy Family is the second oldest church in the archdiocese and is one of the most majestic examples of Victorian Gothic architecture in Chicago.

Doors will open to the public at 2 p.m. Open seating on a first-come, first-served basis. Capacity is limited and free will offerings will be accepted.

News Digest

Keep track of blessings During Advent, pope says

Advent should be a time when Christians keep track of the little blessings they receive each day, blessings that are signs of God's love, Pope Benedict XVI suggested.

"To keep a kind of 'inner diary' of this love would be a beautiful and healthy task," the pope said Nov. 28 as he celebrated evening prayer to mark the beginning of Advent.

Pope urges support for deaf, including health care; Chicago Catholics in attendance

Pope Benedict XVI lamented the serious lack of public programs and measures to address the needs of deaf people and a lack of even basic health care, which often can prevent hearing impairment.

He spoke Nov. 20 to some 400 people attending a Vatican conference addressing the role of the deaf in the church. Several people from the Archdiocese of Chicago also attended (see story on Page 22). A handful of interpreters signed the pope's words to deaf participants during the audience in the Clementine Hall of the papal palace.

Vatican announces new round of Catholic- Anglican Talks

The formal theological dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion will continue and will focus on the relationship between the local church and the universal church, the Vatican announced.

This third phase of work by the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission "will deal with fundamental questions regarding the church as communion local and universal, and how in communion the local and universal church comes to discern right ethical teaching," said a Vatican announcement published Nov. 28.

Bishops OK marriage pastoral, ethical directives, translations

The U.S. bishops took their final look at the English translation of the Roman Missal and approved documents on marriage, reproductive technologies and medically assisted nutrition and hydration during their Nov. 16-18 fall general assembly in Baltimore.

The approximately 300 bishops meeting in Baltimore also heard a preliminary report on the "Causes and Context Study" on clergy sex abuse being conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a staunch defense of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development against charges that it funds groups that opposed church social or moral teachings.