Florida Catholic | Diocese of Orlando News Briefs

April Briefs

May 2008

Faithful Catholics, faithful citizens

Posted: 05.08.08

ORLANDO | The importance of voting to Catholics will be the emphasis of “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” May 14, 7 p.m., at Annunciation Parish in Altamonte Springs.

The diocesan Office of Advocacy and Justice is sponsoring the event to further “A Call to Political Responsibility” issued by the Catholic bishops of the United States. Bishop Thomas Wenski will begin the evening with an address about Catholic social teaching and the need for prudent judgment during an election year.

The keynote speaker will be John Carr, executive director of the Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development for the U.S. Catholic Conference of Catholic Bishops. As executive director, he assists the bishops in sharing Catholic social teaching, advocating on major issues of justice and peace, and building the Catholic community’s capacity to act on its social mission. He will talk about the role of an informed conscience and political responsibility.

Mike McCarron, executive director of the Florida Catholic Conference in Tallahassee, will talk about advocacy at the grass-roots level and guidelines for parish involvement

Concluding the presentations will be Deborah Stafford Shearer, director of the Office of Advocacy and Justice. Stafford Shearer will address how to implement faithful citizenship resources at the parish level.

For more information or to register, e-mail eclayton@orlandodiocese.org or call 407-246-4819.

World Communications Day

Posted: 05.08.08

The diocesan Communications Office will celebrate World Communications Day Thursday, May 15, at the chancery office in downtown Orlando. John Carr, director of the Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, will speak on the theme “The Media: At the Crossroads Between Activism and Service.” Representatives of local media outlets and others will attend the event by invitation.

World Communications Day is celebrated annually to recognize the efforts of the media.

In his May 4 message on the 42nd World Communications Day, Pope Benedict XVI quoted his predecessor on communicators: “Let us ask the Holy Spirit to raise up courageous communicators and authentic witnesses to the truth, faithful to Christ’s mandate and enthusiastic for the message of the faith, communicators who will ‘interpret modern cultural needs, committing themselves to approaching the communications age not as a time of alienation and confusion, but as a valuable time for the quest for the truth and for developing communion between persons and peoples’” (John Paul II, “Address to the conference for those working in communications and culture,” Nov. 9, 2002).

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