LAKE CHARLES – The six-page insert of the Catholic Calendar, which appears on the third Friday of each month, will change on Friday, July 17, when it returns to two facing pages published, generally, on the first and third Friday in the main sections of the American Press, though there will only be one publication this July.
Since Nov. 11, 2013, the Catholic Calendar has been a six-page insert in the newspaper, printed on bright white paper to offer an easy to identify section different from the advertising inserts on the third Friday of each month.
The Catholic Calendar has been a staple of the Office of Communications of the Diocese of Lake Charles in providing Catholic news to the people of Southwest Louisiana; outreach in matters of the Faith to the Catholic faithful as well as to men and women of other faith traditions.
The new schedule for the Catholic Calendar in the American Press for the remainder of the year the pages will be printed on July 17; August 7; August 21; September 4; September 18; October 2; October 16; November 6; November 20; December 4; and December 18.
In January 2016, a single Catholic Calendar will be published on Jan. 22. The remainder of the year’s publication dates are February 5; February 19; March 4; March 25 (Good Friday); April 8 (Second Friday); April 22 (Fourth Friday); May 6; May 20; June 3; June 17; July 1; July 15; August 5; August 19; September 2; September 16; October 7; October 21; November 4; November 18; December 2; and December 16
The original Catholic Calendar was published in the early years of the 20th Century by Father Cornelius van de Ven, pastor of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Lake Charles and later Bishop of the Diocese of Natchitoches before it was renamed the Diocese of Alexandria.
After the 1980 establishment of the Diocese of Lake Charles, Bishop Jude Speyrer decided to use the print media to bring Catholic news to a general audience with the publication of a “new” Catholic Calendar on Sept. 18, 1982. The name was chosen by Bishop Speyrer to suggest continuity with Father Van de Ven’s Catholic Calendar. A single page was purchased in the Lake Charles American Press and printed 18 times yearly until 2005. Following Hurricane Rita that year, Msgr. Harry Greig, Administrator of the Diocese in the absence of a bishop, saw the Catholic Calendar as a way to provide news of renewal and aid to all those devastated by the storm in the Diocese.
The printing schedule was changed from twice a month to every two weeks in four regional newspapers – the American Press, Lake Charles; Cameron Pilot, Cameron; Jennings Daily News, Jennings, and Beauregard Daily News, DeRidder. Bishop Provost, appointed our third Bishop in 2007, made the decision to continue using this method of providing Catholic news to the people of the Diocese of Lake Charles.
This timing continued until July 3, 2009 when the Catholic Calendar became two facing pages in the American Press on the first and third Fridays while remaining a single page in four newspapers, with the addition of the Southwest Daily News in Sulphur.
