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Notes & News(Follow the bouncing ball.)

•In San Francisco, Christians of all denominations will gather on Saturday evening, April 4, 1998 at 7:30 pm for an evening of Prayer and Praise. This second annual event of Christians at Prayer is sponsored by twenty Christian Churches, The Archdiocese of San Francisco Office of Ecumenical Affairs, Pray USA, Women’s Aglow Fellowship International and the Catholic Charismatic Renewal who, in connection with the League of the Sacred Heart, will host it at St. Cecilia’s Church. Cornerstone Church of San Francisco, will provide music. The gathering is part of forty days of PRAY USA's synchronized, focused, fervent prayer, and fasting to "Pray American Back to God!" Pray USA is on the web at http://www.usprayertrack.org

•US Bishops’ web site offers answers to wide range of questions about the Church and practical information: http://www.nccbuscc.org . You can also check to see if a movie is appropriate for your children to see: http://www.nccbuscc.org/comm/archives/98-076.htm

•Fr. Robert DeGrandis, noted author and lecturer, with the St. Joseph’s Society of the Sacred Heart, Galveston, Texas, will conduct three days of teaching and healing events starting with the June 5th First Friday Mass of the Sacred Heart at St. Cecilia’s Church, San Francisco. On Saturday, June 6th, he will celebrate a Healing Mass at 7:30pm and again on Sunday at 4:00pm at St. Cecilia's.

Representatives from each of the 94 prayer groups which make up the Charismatic Renewal of the Archdiocese of San Francisco will hold their annual meeting on May 9, 1998 at 10:00 am in the School Auditorium at St. Cecilia School, 17th Avenue at Vicente Street San Francisco. The meeting will be followed by a luncheon hosted by the Renewal Board.

Representatives from the 200 Northern California Hispanic Charismatic Prayer Groups will be meeting in the Collins Center at St. Cecilia Church, 17th Avenue at Vicente Street, San Francisco on May 9, 1998 from 8am to 4pm. For information, phone Carlos Merlo, Renovacion Carismatica Católica Hispana (650) 367-7134.

•Growing Hispanic Population calls for new church efforts to meet the complex ministry demands, says Ronaldo Cruz, director of the U.S. Catholic Conference Secretariat for Hispanic Affairs at a recent conference in Washington DC. Previous waves of immigrants into the United States were directed into separate "national " parishes, but today’s goal is to bring everyone together and language alone is creating new demands on parishes and dioceses. The United States has the fourth-largest Spanish speaking population in the hemisphere.

•Mother’s faith helps children avoid depression according to a 10-year study by researchers at Columbia University. Children were much less likely to suffer from depression if they were members of the same religious denomination as their mothers. Mothers with a strong religious commitment also were less likely to be depressed themselves.

•Catholic Press Readership Up in 1998 according to the Catholic Press Directory, a publication of the Catholic Press Association. Newsletters show the second healthiest circulation increase after Foreign Language Publications. US Newsletter readerships is up 5.2 percent to 3.9 million with 136 newsletters published. The only category suffering an overall circulation decline in 1998 is Newspapers—down 5.4 percent.

•The nation’s oldest Catholic college, Georgetown University, announced recently that after much debate it would "expeditiously" place crucifixes in classrooms. Cardinal James A. Hickey of Washington sums it up for us, "I cant’ imagine why a university, run by the Society of Jesus and operating under a pontifical charter, would have to debate the issue."

On April 18, at 9:30am, a seminar of Spiritual Development for prayer group leaders will be held in the Collins Center, St. Cecilia Church, 17th Avenue at Vicente Street, San Francisco. The topic is, "Calling Others Into Service", with an introduction by Ernie von Emster, St. Charles Parish. That will be followed at 11:00am by "Person, Society, and Social Justice," with Rev. Louis Vitale, OFM, Ph.D., Pastor of St. Boniface Church, San Francisco.

•Bible Study —The Unity of the Spirit (Ephesians & Colossians) will be held on April 25, from 9:30am to noon in the Collins Center at St. Cecilia Church, 17th Avenue at Vicente Street, San Francisco. The presentation is by Rev. Bill Adams, C.SS.R., from the Center for Parish Missions, Oakland

•Two new prayer groups, one at St. Fin Barr’s Church and the other at Our Lady of Angels, were formed last month increasing the number of charismatic faith sharing communities in the Archdiocese of San Francisco to ninety-four.