What Does Belgium and a Small Louisiana Town Have in Common and other Highlights from the Diocese of Baton Rouge Newspaper

I notice that the new edition of the The Catholic Commentator from the Diocese of Baton Rouge is out. It can be downloaded here in pdf form. There are several great articles to check out.

I really kick myself sometimes that while I was living in Baton Rouge I never checked out some the many great places in the area. It was always "the traffic here is horrible I am going home", or "it is too darn humid later", etc. One day you move and wonder why you didn't do all these things. One nice part of of living in the Diocese of Baton Rouge is so many wonderful Churches close by to explore. The Commentator has some a wonderful story with some great pictures of St Michael's Church in Convent ,St James Parish. The pictures are great. The story runs on Page 1 and and page 10. The Church interior has been restored and is breathtaking. It also highlights how people in Belgium were critical in building this Church and sending priests to it. All in this very small Louisiana town.

On Page 2 and 20 there is article about a new musical called THE FALLEN. This musical is produced locally and sounds great. A Musical with very religious themes it sounds like a must do. It shall be performed in Baton Rouge in the latter part of August. I shall add this to the Louisiana Catholic Event list.

On Page 3 there is a article about what the key is to attracting African American vocations

On page 4 Father Carville has a very nice column on Death. I predict this column will not cause controversy as the last one did :)

Page 7 has a article on a major Pro life Event that happened in the Diocese of Baton Rouge. A priest who is associate Director of Priest for Life had a great presentation to area Youth

Page 10 has a big article on the Catholic Charismatic Renewal and the events this month celebrating the 40th anniversary of the movement.

There is a article on page 11 that really should be highlighted and talked about. This highlights a young Lady that really got a Youth Group going at St Agnes Church in Baton Rouge after it had failed in the past. St Agnes is one of those "downtown" like Churches where the demographics of the neighborhood have changed. Often people just come to Mass in Churches like this and there are no other activities. This Church it should be noted has Mother Teresa's order of Sisters working next door. This girl shows that often the excuses we here about "it can't be done here" is all false. Holy Trinity in Shreveport Louisiana is a similar situation. They wanted to do a RCIA program. They heard similar complaints of "we are a downtown parish, people will not come down here at nigh"t, and "there is no room" . Guess what. They did it and God moved people. In that Church I think over 10 people came to the Catholic Faith their first year.

These are just some highlights. GO check it out.