Free Republic

Last Sunday, Diocese of Venice Bishop Frank Dewane celebrated Mass at a Sarasota church accompanied by priests wearing colorful Ferris wheels, clowns, giraffes, unicycles, lions and merry-go-rounds on their vestments. This was the annual circus Mass, Dewane said, honoring the nearly 100-year history of the Ringling family on Florida’s west coast and the importance of itinerant people like circus performers to the Catholic universal church. Last Sunday, Ave Maria founder Tom Monaghan spoke inside his new 100-foot-tall, $24-million oratory at Ave Maria town accompanied by residents and supporters of the private university in the Catholic tradition. This was the Picnic...

VATICAN CITY, APR 25, 2006 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed: - Bishop Casimiro Lopez Llorente of Zamora, Spain, as bishop of Segorbe- Castellon de la Plana (area 4,380, population 449,043, Catholics 419,701, priests 282, permanent deacons 4, religious 513), Spain. - Msgr. Frank J. Dewane of the clergy of the diocese of Green Bay, U.S.A., under-secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, as coadjutor of Venice (area 22,685, population 1,766,651, Catholics 218,173, priests 239, permanent deacons 75, religious 202), U.S.A. The bishop-elect was born in Green Bay in 1950 and ordained a priest in 1988. * *...