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The National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Emmitsburg will celebrate the 233rd birthday celebration of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton at 12:45 p.m. Aug. 26 at 333 S. Seton Ave. A Mass celebrated by Father Michael Kennedy, C.M., will be held at 1:30 p.m., followed by a day of family fun in the courtyard, which will include birthday cake, snow cones, balloons, a clown, music and face painting. The event is free, and the shrine sites will be open 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. 301-447-6606 or www.setonshrine.org.

Maryknoll announced the sponsorship of the 2007 Maryknoll Student Essay Contest for grades 6-12. Winners will receive nearly $3,000 in scholarship money, as well as coverage in “Maryknoll” magazine and on the Maryknoll Web site www.maryknoll.org/winners.

As Filipino teachers arrive in Baltimore to educate city students, they usually bring little more with them than a few changes of clothes. This has inspired parishioners from St. Francis de Sales, Abingdon, and St. John the Evangelist, Hydes, to help the new residents furnish their new homes.

VATICAN CITY – Lesley-Anne Knight has a warm smile and a big vision, but not one that includes doing anything single-handedly. Knight, 51, is the new secretary-general of Caritas Internationalis, the umbrella organization for 162 national Catholic charities around the world.

WAPPINGERS FALLS, N.Y. – In late July, carloads of curious Catholics caravanned north from their church to a mosque in the next county. Three dozen Catholics who regularly attend Mass at the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement’s Graymoor Spiritual Life Center in Garrison accepted a Muslim visitor’s invitation to attend services at Masjid Al-Noor, his mosque in Wappingers Falls.

WASHINGTON – Bishop Donald E. Pelotte of Gallup, N.M., has been moved to a Houston hospital closer to where his brother lives, after spending more than two weeks in a Phoenix hospital recovering from injuries he said he sustained in a fall at his home July 22. In an Aug. 9 posting on the diocesan Web site, Deacon Timoteo Lujan, chancellor, said Bishop Pelotte was transferred the day before to Memorial Hermann Texas Medical Center for ongoing treatment of traumatic head injuries.

DOURADOS, Brazil – In Brazil, the struggle by indigenous people to regain their right to the land once inhabited by their ancestors is deadly serious. Ortiz Lopes, a member of the Guarani Kaiowa indigenous group who was murdered by a gunman July 8, was the 20th Guarani leader killed so far this year in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, according to the Catholic Church’s Indigenous Missionary Council, known by its Portuguese acronym as CIMI.

WASHINGTON – In the 10 years since John Wilson joined Christian Brothers Investment Services, the number of shareholder resolutions filed by the socially responsible investment firm has decreased and the number of resolutions withdrawn after being introduced has increased.