CARLINVILLE — Attendance at the Diocesan Youth Conference earlier this month in Carlinville was down a little from last year, but organizers are pleased with feedback they are getting from participants and their parents.

LITCHFIELD — One of two quilts created as part of Hospital Sisters Health System's (HSHS) "Threads of Our Community" project is now on display at St. Francis Hospital in Litchfield. Facilitated by Sister Monica Laws, OSF, vice president, Mission Integration, the quilt project celebrates the diversity of faiths and cultures among hospital patients, families, colleagues and health care professionals. St. Francis Hospital is one of 13 hospitals operated by Hospital Sisters Health System in Illinois and Wisconsin.

QUINCY — Quincy Notre Dame High School will have an alumnus as its principal starting July 1. Mark McDowell was named to take over the reigns at the school when QND principal Ray Heilmann steps down in July.

DECATUR — The St. Teresa High School drama department will present Disney's Beauty and the Beast at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, March 9 and 10 in the St. Teresa gymnasium. Tickets are $7 general admission and $10, reserved, and can be purchased through the school office, by calling (217) 875-2431.

DECATUR — Decatur Catholic Radio WDCR and Relevant Radio will broadcast a live episode of the popular Father Rocky: Go Ask Your Father show on Wed., Feb. 29, at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 520 E. North St., in Decatur. The broadcast will take place between 5:30-8 p.m., during a fundraiser dinner, to support Catholic radio on the air in the Decatur area.

February's observance of Black History Month takes on a local perspective this year in the Springfield diocese. Cathedral parishioner Lyman Hubbard, who passed away Jan. 12 at age 85, was a member of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen, the all-black World War II fighter pilot squad.

The Diocese of Springfield in Illinois will add a new dimension to its presbyterate on May 26 when Bishop Thomas John Paprocki ordains three priests at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Springfield. One of the men is transitional Deacon Scott Snider, a married, former Protestant minister.

Icy roads and hazardous driving conditions delayed buses from the Springfield diocese from starting out as planned for the March for Life on Jan. 20. For a caravan of buses from the southern half of the diocese, it meant rather than arriving in Washington as planned on Saturday morning, they got into the nation's capitol at 3 a.m. on Sunday.

Through prayer and sacrifice, Charleston parish preserves 'patrimony of faith and art'

CHARLESTON — A "Legacy of Light for generations to come," the stained glass windows in St. Charles Borromeo Church in Charleston are cleaned, restored and installed once again in the church where they have stood for 95 years.

Over 400 youth and adults from throughout the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois will travel to Washington, D.C., next weekend to participate in the March for Life on Monday, Jan. 23. The annual march is held on or near the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision in 1973 that legalized abortion in the United States.