ST. LOUIS — Ursuline Sisters of the Central Province announced Dec. 2 they will begin to transition sisters from their Queen of Peace Infirmary and adjoining convent in Alton to other retirement and health care facilities. More than half the Ursulines in the province attended the four-day meeting in St. Louis, following Thanksgiving.

St. Agnes Parish in Springfield will celebrate its 125th anniversary Saturday, Nov. 16. Bishop Thomas John Paprocki will preside at the 4:30 p.m. Mass at St. Agnes Church, 245 N. Amos Ave. A reception will be held after Mass in the parish hall.

Over 600 Catholic school students and others from throughout the Springfield diocese attended the annual Mission Mass celebrated Oct. 22 by Bishop Thomas John Paprocki at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Springfield. The students, their parents/drivers, teachers and principals were joined by missionaries and missions supporters, to comfortably fill much of the cathedral.

LIVINGSTON — Sacred Heart Parish, Livingston, in northeastern Madison County is celebrating its 100th anniversary. The Livingston parish was founded in December 1913 by Bishop James Ryan of the Alton diocese. The original church building was destroyed in a fire, but a second building was quickly constructed and on Thanksgiving Day, 1914, it was rededicated.

St. John's Breadline in Springfield was forced to close its doors and cancel its lunch service Oct. 9, after a car smashed into the entrance to its building at 430 N. Fifth Street at 9:20 a.m.

A fair trade store called Simply Fair opened this month in Springfield. Located in a strip mall in the 2300 block of West Monroe, the store is filled with hand crafted items made by people from around the world. Items are priced to reflect a fair profit for the artisans who created them and the costs of getting the items to the marketplace.

GRANITE CITY — Over 300 people attended the annual diocesan Respect Life Mass Sept. 28 in Granite City and the Rosary Walk that followed to pray outside Hope Clinic for Women where abortions are performed.

A much anticipated and thoroughly planned outdoor Mass to bring students from all the Catholic grade schools and the Catholic high school in Springfield together to ask God's blessing on this school year drew more news and social media attention than organizers could ever have imagined.

Christians from throughout Springfield came out in good numbers Saturday, Aug. 24 to participate in “God Belongs in My City,” a prayer walk to unite Christians in their shared beliefs. The crowd of men, women and children, estimated at over 400, met at Comer Cox Park at Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. and Capitol Ave. and walked the 1.3 miles to the Illinois State Capitol.

HIGHLAND — The new St. Joseph’s Hospital (SJH) in Highland, at Troxler Avenue and Highway 160/Poplar Street, opened its doors at 6 a.m., Thursday, Aug. 22. Within minutes, ambulances began arriving at regular intervals, bringing 11 patients, their nurses and care teams from the old St. Joseph Hospital at 1515 Main St. to the new hospital. EMS personnel and hospital staff had rehearsed the move and within the hour all patients were settled in the new St. Joseph’s private rooms.