MOSS BLUFF – Spring events at Saint Charles Center continue with Sr. Camille Martinez, SEC, leading the Our Lady Queen of Heaven Catholic Church Women’s Silent Lenten Retreat, “Spot of Grace," from Friday, April 3, to Sunday, April 5.

Every Catholic, to enter more deeply into the life of Christ, is to participate in some way in the spiritual and penitential disciplines of Lent. The regulations for the Catholic Church in the United States are as follows: Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of fast and abstinence. The other Fridays of Lent are days of abstinence from meat.

JENNINGS – The Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Thursday, Feb. 27, for Deacon Bennett McNeal, 60, in Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, at 10 a.m., by the Rev. Susil Fernando. Interment will follow the funeral mass in the New Bethany Cemetery at Saint Charles Center in Moss Bluff.  The Most Reverend Glen John Provost, Bishop of Lake Charles, will attend the funeral Mass and preside at the Final Commendation. Deacon McNeal died Sunday, Feb. 23. 

NEW ORLEANS — The Institute for Black Catholic Studies (IBCS) is a graduate theology program and school of pastoral ministry that meets each summer in conjunction with Xavier University of Louisiana. The 2020 dates are Sunday, June 28 - Friday, July 17.

LAKE CHARLES — Safe Haven Sunday, the beginning of a year-long initiative to help renew the identity of the human person, will be observed the first weekend of Lent, Feb. 29-March 1, in the Diocese of Lake Charles.