Herald to print holiday schedule
The Durango Herald will print a schedule of Christmas and holiday services Dec. 20.
Churches and organizations may submit information to Ann Butler at abutler@durangoherald.com or 375-4584.
Submissions must be received by 5 p.m. Thursday.
Unitarian Universalists to meet Sunday
The Rev. Katie Kandarian-Morris and Lisa McCorry will present “Christmas is Messy!”at 10 a.m. Sunday at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 419 San Juan Drive.
This multi-generational service will celebrate the variety of ancient stories and Christmas and will include a “no rehearsal” Christmas pageant for all ages.
For more information, visit www.durangouu.org.
Our Lady of Guadalupe to be celebrated
The Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe will be celebrated at Mass at 12:15 p.m. Dec. 21 at the St. Peter-St. Rosa Catholic Church, 18851 Colorado Highway 151 in Arboles.
A fiesta dinner, raffle, silent auction and activities will be held after Mass. Raffle tickets may be purchased from a member of the Carmelitas for $1 each or six for $5.
For more information call, 563-4241.
Nun gives pope CD with ‘Like a Virgin’
VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis has a new addition to his music collection, and it includes “Like a Virgin.”
Italy’s singing nun, Sister Cristina Scuccia, finally met Francis on Wednesday during his general audience. She presented him with a copy of her first CD, which features a remake of the Madonna hit.
Scuccia won the Italian edition of “The Voice” in June with a series of unadorned pop song performances, romping around the stage in a full habit.
While some privately questioned her behavior then, the Italian Bishops’ Conference went public with its criticism this fall when Scuccia included “Like a Virgin” on her first CD. The bishops said it was a commercial ploy.
Scuccia defended her decision and said the song was prayer-like.
Pope decries ‘material slavery’
ROME – Pope Francis has marked the Roman Catholic Feast of the Immaculate Conception by visiting Rome’s swank shopping area near the Spanish Steps.
Shoppers crowded into the square Monday to see Francis keep an annual appointment that marks the Dec. 8 feast day honoring the Virgin Mary and the traditional start of Rome’s holiday shopping season.
Wearing a long white coat in the chilly early evening, Francis prayed that “humanity be freed of all spiritual and material slavery.” He stood before a flower-adorned statue of Mary atop a towering column and expressed hope that in the run-up to Christmas, people would concentrate less on themselves.
Francis wants the church to pay more attention to the poor and others on the margins of society.
Black men the focus of church services
WASHINGTON – Many African-American churches will hold special services on the theme “black lives matter” on Sunday, asking congregants to wear black and pray for the black men in their community.
The Washington Post says the denominations involved are the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and Church of God in Christ.
The services come on the heels of two different grand jury decisions declining to prosecute white police officers in the deaths of unarmed black men.
On Nov. 24, a Ferguson, Missouri, grand jury declined to indict a white officer in the killing of Michael Brown. On Dec. 3, a New York City grand jury declined to prosecute an officer captured on video applying a fatal chokehold on Eric Garner. Both decisions have set off demonstrations nationwide.
American indicted over bomb plot
JERUSALEM – Israeli officials say an American Christian who passed himself off as an ex-U.S. Navy SEAL faces charges of trying to blow up Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem.
Israeli police and the Justice Ministry identified the man as 30-year-old Adam Everett Livix. The Justice Ministry said Livix underwent a psychiatric evaluation Tuesday after his indictment Monday on charges of illegal weapon possession and overstaying his visa by more than a year.
His indictment comes at a time of rising tensions in Jerusalem, mostly over a disputed holy site known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and Jews as the Temple Mount. It is the third holiest site in Islam and the holiest in Judaism.
This isn’t the first time there have been allegations of a foreigner threatening a holy site in Jerusalem. In 1969, an Australian Christian started a fire at the complex’s Al-Aqsa Mosque in hopes that it would hasten the second coming of Jesus Christ. The man, Denis Michael Rohan, was subsequently committed to a mental institution.
Herald Staff & Associated Press
