Thursday Highlights and Spiritual Insights

Image: Gloria in Excelsis Deo

Feast of St. John, Apostle and Evangelist

Today's Mass Readings

The Third Day of Christmas

Christmas Meditation: A New Birth for Each One of Us

On This Day in Catholic History

1944 - Sister Sara Salkahazi was killed by the Arrow Cross, the Hungarian allies of the Nazis, for hiding Jews in a Budapest building used by her religious order, the Sisters of Social Service. In 2006 she was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI.

1983 - Pope John Paul II pardoned Mehmet Ali Agca, the man who shot him. The Pope visited Mehmet Ali Agca at Rome’s Rebibbia prison and personally pardoned him for the 1981 assassination attempt.

1994 - Four Roman Catholic priests, three French and a Belgian, were shot to death in their rectory in Algiers, a day after French commandos killed four radicals who had hijacked an Air France jet from Algiers to Marseille.

Birthdays

1717 - Pope Pius VI (d. 1799)

1822 - Louis Pasteur, French scientist (d. 1895)

1896 - Louis Bromfield, American writer (d. 1956)

1901 - Marlene Dietrich, German actress and singer (d. 1992)

1906 - Oscar Levant, American pianist, composer, and actor (d. 1972)

1956 - Karen Hughes, Republican politician from the state of Texas. She served as the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs in the U.S. Department of State with the rank of ambassador.

1976 - Fernando Pisani, Canadian/Italian ice hockey player

1983 - Cole Hamels, American baseball player
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