Featured Events:

Healing for the Separated and Divorced

St. Aloysius is offering a six-part series entitled Return to Life beginning Sunday February 22 from 2:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m. The program is open to all faith denominations. Cost is $50.  For more information or an application, please call Angela Falgoust at 225/343-6657, ext 3031 or email afalgoust@staloysisuparish.com. Applications can be found at Return to Life Application.  The application may be mailed or brought to St. Aloysius Church, 2025 Stuart Avenue, Baton Rouge, LA  70808, and Attn: Angela Falgoust.  “Healing by the grace of God and through the grieving process.”

New Horizons Group for Widows & Widowers

Originally started by Bishop Ott, the New Horizons Group is recommencing their efforts and their meetings to support widows and widowers, those who have lost a spouse through death. This is a peer social ministry group that will meet regularly once a month on the third Tuesday of the month. Their first meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 17th, at 11:30am, in the Lake Sherwood Village Retirement Community located at 4101 Plaza Tower Drive, Baton Rouge 70816, behind The Londoner on Sherwood Forest Blvd. Lunch is available for $10. Any interested persons should contact Shannon Baldridge with the Marriage & Family Life Office at 225.242.0323 or sbaldridge@diobr.org. Please submit your name and telephone number as well as whether or not you can attend the first meeting when you contact us.

World Meeting of Families
Philadelphia 2015

Travel dates: September 21-28, 2015

Download Registration Brochure & Form

The Diocese of Baton Rouge is partnering with all dioceses in Louisiana to plan a special trip to the very first World Meeting of Families (WMOF) event to be hosted in the United States! 

Join us as we see Pope Francis, hear powerful speakers, attend daily mass & devotions, participate in multiple breakout sessions, and meet families from around the world. 

Details regarding cost are included in the brochure. First deposit of $250 is due on January 15th. Second deposit of $500 is due on March 6th and the remaining balance is due July 6th. 

To learn more about this event, check out the WMOF website: www.worldmeeting2015.org 

Download WMOF Parish Bulletin Insert

LA Bishops Make a Statement on Surrogacy Issue

The Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops (LCCB) seeks to articulate the Catholic Church’s teaching on the issue of surrogacy in light of legislation proposed during last year’s legislative session as well as what is before the Louisiana Legislature presently. The Church is clear and consistent in her teaching that surrogacy, in any form, is to be opposed as an immoral means to create a family. The desire to have a child is both natural and good. We recognize that issues of infertility can be incredibly sensitive and personal. While acknowledging this reality, it is important to realize that pursuing all means in the effort to create a child presents moral and ethical concerns and that a child is truly a gift to be given as opposed to a right to attain.

Surrogacy arrangements commercialize and objectify women relegating them to a utilitarian purpose. The Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith spoke to this point in Donum Vitae as it stated that surrogacy is contrary to the dignity of persons. Surrogacy diminishes the dignity of women in that it grossly focuses on what women can produce as opposed to the entire worth and being of who women have been created to be. In addition, surrogacy fails to acknowledge the uniqueness of the mother-child relationship to the detriment of women from a physical, psychological, and spiritual level.

To finish reading the rest of their statement or to read the statement as a whole, click here. 
surrogacy_statement_3-28-14.pdf
File Size: 131 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Fun Catholic Apps!

Check out these great Catholic apps for prayers, readings, scripture, etc! Just click each link to be taken to information on each app (for iPhones, iPads, some Androids): 
iMissal
iPieta
Lighthouse Catholic Media Bible
Mea Culpa - Examination of Conscience
YouCat
Laudate
Catholic Devotions
Rosary Deluxe Audio
iBreviary
Concordance
The Catholic Directory Mass Times
3 Minute Retreat (LoyolaPress)
Way of the Cross by St. Francis of Assisi

For more great Catholic Apps, visit Catholicapps.com

Survey & Consultation Day for the Synod on the Family

The Bishops of the United States are asking each Diocese to conduct a “consultation” with the faithful in preparation for the upcoming “Synod on the Family” which will be held in Rome in October, 2015. The Bishops recognize that those who are living out their vocation to marriage and family are in the best position to advise them on these matters. Therefore, the Diocese is conducting an on-line survey and inviting all members of the Diocese to participate. To join the “consultation”, simply go to the Diocesan website at www.diobr.org and click on the “2015 Family Synod Survey”. You need not answer all of the questions for your responses to be tabulated. At the end of the survey, click the “submit” button and your responses will be added to those sent to the Bishops. Take a few moments to contribute to this important project.

The Diocesan Consultation Day itself will take place on Saturday, March 7th, from 9am-1pm in the Main Auditorium of the Catholic Life Center.

Bishop's Official Letter
Parish Representative Form

World Wide Marriage Encounter Weekend
March 6-8, 2015

MARRIED COUPLES: Valentine’s Day is coming!  You’re thinking roses or candy, but shortly after, the roses are wilted and the candy is gone.  Why not do something that will last a lifetime! Escape from the busyness of your hectic lifestyle and endless obligations and spend some very special time together. Attend a Worldwide Marriage Encounter weekend and give each other the gift of yourself. The Weekend focuses of effective communication techniques, which will enhance the intimacy in your relationship.  The next available WWME weekend in Baton Rouge on March 6-8, 2015 at the Tracy Conference Center. For more information call (800-586-5469) email (j_verret@bellsouth.net) or go on-line at www.wwme-section5.org

New Director for Marriage & Family Life Office

The Office of Marriage & Family Life is pleased to announce that Mr. Darryl Ducote, LCSW, has been hired to be our new Director! 

Darryl Ducote is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who has been in private practice as a psychotherapist focusing on marriage & family therapy in Baton Rouge for over thirty years. Darryl has a Masters Degree in Social Work from L.S.U. as well as a Masters in Theology and a Masters in Divinity from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. He also is one of the creators of Marriage Ministry Resources (MMR). He has had both pastoral experience as a former priest and clinical experience in psychiatric hospitals and in private practice. Darryl is also a member of the liturgical musical group known as "The Dameans" which have composed and recorded over 15 albums of liturgical music. He is married with two step-children. 

We are excited to welcome him to our office! He will officially be starting on September 29th. 

Planned Parenthood Expanding

Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, an affiliate of Planned Parenthood (PP), the largest abortion business in the nation, plans to open a 7,000 square foot facility on Claiborne Ave in New Orleans in 2015. This multimillion-dollar "New Orleans Health Center" will become a regional abortion center in the heart of New Orleans, leading to an increase in abortions in New Orleans and surrounding areas. 

For more information, go to www.NolaNeedsPeace.com

pp_facts.pdf
File Size: 1464 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
nnpc-factsheet-ppclaiborne-1page.pdf
File Size: 171 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
nnpc-planned_parenthood_detailedreport-web.pdf
File Size: 865 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
Catholic Search Engine

Powered by Google