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Papal news highlights bishops' meet
By CNS
BALTIMORE
(CNS) – The announcement of dates and locations for Pope Benedict XVI's
U.S. visit next year highlighted the first day of the U.S. bishops'
fall general meeting in Baltimore. The April 15-20 trip will include
visits to New York and Washington and an address at the United Nations.
The
bishops also discussed a draft statement on Iraq during the first day
of the Nov. 12-15 meeting. Citing an alarming political and partisan
stalemate in Washington, the draft statement called the Iraq situation
"'unacceptable and unsustainable." It lays out a moral framework for a
transition in Iraq.
More>>
Critics decry Compass series as blatantly anti-Christian
By CNS
SAN
DIEGO (CNS) – To all of those Christian critics who have denounced the
Harry Potter series as a subversive effort to lure unsuspecting
children into the occult, Baylor University professor Perry Glanzer
warns: Quit crying wolf.
In a commentary appearing in early August in the Austin American-Statesman
daily newspaper, Glanzer noted that while social critics have blasted
J.K. Rowling's tales of Harry Potter and his seven years at Hogwarts
School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, they have uttered nary a word about
British writer Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, which Glanzer and others say is an overtly anti-Christian trilogy of fantasy novels for young adults.
The trilogy includes The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.
"I
think that as long as people are agitated about whether Harry Potter
makes you into a satanist, they're not going to be very
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Bishop dedicates cemetery in Malakoff
MALAKOFF
– Mary Queen of Heaven Cemetery, the newest cemetery in the Tyler
Diocese, was consecrated Nov. 2 by Bishop Álvaro Corrada, SJ.
The
Malakoff Catholic cemetery is the first established since the formation
the diocese in 1987. It is located on a 3.3-acre tract adjacent to the
church and is divided into four sections named for the four
Evangelists. A sculpture of the Calvary scene is at the center of the
cemetery.
It will hold 2,300 plots and future plans call for a mausoleum. Cost is $850 per plot.
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Deacons configured to Christ, called to be ministers of service
By SUSAN DE MATTEO
TYLER – The Diocese of Tyler will harvest a new and abundant crop of servant-ministers when Bishop Álvaro Corrada, SJ, ordains 35 men to the permanent diaconate next month.
The group ordinations will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Dec. 8 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Tyler, Dec. 15 at St. Mary Church in Longview, Dec. 22 at Sacred Heart Church in Nacogdoches and Dec. 29 at Sacred Heart Church in Texarkana.
The newly ordained men will join the 54 permanent deacons already at work in the diocese, raising the number to 89.
It’s a remarkable number for a 20-year-old mission diocese whose 68 parishes and missions are scattered across 33 counties and 23,443 square miles and whose 61,000 Catholics comprise less than 4 percent of the East Texas population.
It is also, said Father Francis O’Dowd, director of the diocesan vocations office, a remarkable sign of faith.
“It’s clear the Holy Spirit is alive and well in the Diocese of Tyler, and that the people of the diocese More>>
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