CURRENT ISSUE:   November 3, 2008   •   VOL. 46, NO. 19   •   Oakland, CA

1986 economic pastoral revisited in light of financial crisis Bishops promoted an economic policy that reins in unbridled consumerism and a lust for material riches.    >>>		Three alternative endings given for dismissal at Mass Pope Benedict XVI personally chose the three options from suggestions presented to him after a two-year study.   >>>
Decades later, the story is told Unidentified victims of Stalin’s slave labor system in a the Baltic states are shown in this chance photograph that survived. The story is being told in a new film.    >>>		The 2007 Financial Report of the Oakland Diocese is now available. Click here to download the report as a PDF document. Remembering Blessed John XXIII Pope Benedict XVI prays in front of the tomb of Blessed Pope John XXIII in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, Oct. 28, the 50th anniversary of the late pope’s election to the papacy. He said his predecessor always worked to increase agreement, hope, unity and peace. He also told some 3,000 pilgrims from the Diocese of Bergamo, the home diocese of Blessed Pope John, who had traveled to the Vatican to mark the anniversary, that John XXIII offered a “truly special gift to the Church” in the Second Vatican Council, which he called, prepared and opened in 1962. “We are all committed to accepting that gift in an appropriate way, continuing to meditate on its teachings and translate them” into the daily life of the Church, he said. CNS PHOTO/GIAMPIERO SPOSITO/REUTERS