Excitement is building around the Diocese of Peoria as parishes prepare to celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Friday, Dec. 12. “We have had volunteers come in to ask if there was anything they could do. This is the first time,” said Maria Ramirez of Holy Family Parish in Danville. “The Holy […]
Continue readingWASHINGTON (CNS) — The chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace has joined other American Christian leaders in calling on President-elect Barack Obama to make lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace a priority during his first year in office. Bishop Howard J. Hubbard of Albany, N.Y., is among 40 signers of […]
Continue readingBOSTON (CNS) — Today, 200 million people live in a country different from the one where they were born, and 26 to 30 million of them were forced from their homeland by adverse conditions beyond their control, a Vatican representative told a Boston conference. “Everyone is moving from everywhere to everywhere,” said Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, […]
Continue readingVATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI warned young people of some of the dangers provoked by new computer technologies. Today’s younger generations are exposed to “a twofold risk caused primarily by the spread of new information technologies,” he told some 1,200 students and professors from the University of Parma, Italy, during an audience at […]
Continue readingBy: By Msgr. Stuart Swetland First Sunday of Advent, Nov. 30 Isaiah 63:16b-17,19b and 64:2-7; Psalm 80:2-3,15-16,18-19; 1 Corinthians 1:3-9; Mark 13:33-37 Happy New Year! This November’s end is a time of new beginnings. A new liturgical year is upon us as we begin the beautiful season of Advent in preparation for the Christmas season. […]
Continue readingIt happened Tuesday morning. My wife got the pen out and we started marking all over our family calendar for December. Dates for work Christmas parties, from my employer and hers, were blocked off. Holiday plays and concerts we hope to attend took a few more dates, as did family gatherings, evenings to entertain friends, […]
Continue readingThere won’t be any bottles of champagne uncorked or crowds of people gathered in New York’s Times Square to sing “Auld Lang Syne,” but a new year is beginning at midnight on Sunday, Nov. 30, and it calls people of faith to conversion of life just as surely as any New Year’s resolution made on […]
Continue readingThe next “Post Poll” asks readers to share their “resolutions” for the new church year, which begins this Sunday, Nov. 30, with the first Sunday of Advent. What prayers, devotions or spiritual reading will you be taking up as you prepare for the coming of Christ into your life at Christmas and throughout the year? […]
Continue readingAs government leaders continue to address crises in the national economy, parish food pantries in the Diocese of Peoria are seeing higher numbers of people in need of their services. The Peoria Area Food Bank, which supplies food to 125 pantries in eight counties, has seen a minimum of a 25 percent increase in demand […]
Continue readingROCK ISLAND — The bricks, mortar, and stained glass of Sacred Heart Church here were replaced with gingerbread, frosting, and crushed lollipops in a tiny replica that may go a long way to help fix a boiler at the 106-year-old church. The edible edifice was a part of the Gingerbread Village at this year’s Festival […]
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