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Is shopping the ruination of Christmas?

Our lengthy “holiday season” driven by the consumer-confidence index and lasting for months is a bad idea, writes Stephen Kent. It all adds up to a festival of consumerism, he believes; it wrings the true meaning out of Christmas. But Liz Quirin says that in her family Christmas shopping is a happy time of being together and having fun. Moreover, she finds that the current emphasis on parish gift-giving programs for the needy adds a positive note to family shopping at Christmas. The shopping doesn’t have to turn into a living, spending nightmare, Quirin says. She is editor of The Messenger, newspaper of the Diocese of Belleville, Ill. Kent, who writes from Seattle, Wash., has been editor of the archdiocesan newspapers of Seattle and Omaha, Neb.

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton was born into a wealthy, Episcopalian family on Aug. 28, 1774, in New York City. At age 19, she married William Magee Seton and had five children. After her husband died, Elizabeth was a poor widow. She converted to Catholicism in 1805. She started a school for girls in Baltimore at the request of the archbishop; this is often referred to as the beginning of parochial schools in the U.S. She founded the Sisters of Charity in 1809. She died Jan. 4, 1821, in Emmitsburg, Md. She is patron saint of the Apostleship of the Sea, widows and also the death of children and parents.

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