Historic university marks bicentennial

With the U.S. bishops’ meeting earlier this month in Baltimore, it would be easy to miss another story taking place at the same time — the celebration of the bicentennial of Mount St. Mary’s University and Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md. Catholic history buffs in particular might enjoy the coverage of the celebration by The Catholic Review in Baltimore, where the anniversary was marked on the day before the opening of the bishops’ meeting.

Two more Thanksgiving columns

• Anna Weaver, writing in the Hawaii Catholic Herald, reflects on the simple gifts everyone should be thanking God for — including, for Hawaiians, “We live in a state that is beautiful and warm year round.”
• Bishop Thomas J. Tobin, writing in the Rhode Island Catholic, offers a prayer for Thanksgiving that, with only minor adaptations, could be used by almost anyone before a Thanksgiving meal.

Local Catholic tries to bring faith back to ‘Ds’

This story may upset you or please you depending on your political affiliation, but in Oregon the Catholic Sentinel has a story on a Catholic man who is trying to organize and expand the numbers of religious believers in the Democratic Party in a state which is the home of the nation’s largest percentage of residents without religious affiliation.

Home for children touched many lives in Erie

A cute story “of selflessness and commitment, of courage and, most especially, of love” appears in the current edition of Faith magazine in the Diocese of Erie, Pa., about St. Joseph’s Home for Children, which touched many lives and is still fondly recalled today even though the home was closed in 1971.