The Diocesan Council of Catholic Women (DCCW) has recently announced that three high school seniors have been selected as winners of the 2010 DCCW Catholic Female High School Leadership Scholarships. One girl was awarded $1,000, while two others were awarded $500 each.

CHATHAM — Parishioners at St. Joseph the Worker Parish might feel like they are celebrating in a new worship space this Easter season, thanks to John Kennedy and all the people who helped with the Easter decor in 2010.

Several hundred people — priests, deacons, family members, classmates and friends — gathered April 10 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Springfield to celebrate diocesan seminarian Brian Alford’s ordination to the transitional diaconate.

Catholics are accustomed to showing up for Mass on Saturday evening or Sunday and seeing the parish pastor or parochial vicar walk out into the sanctuary to celebrate Mass. Sometimes, in a parish with a deacon, he is there as well.

People of all ethnic backgrounds are invited to a traditional blessing of Easter food baskets at 11 a.m. on Holy Saturday, April 3 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Springfield.  Father Peter Harman, pastor of Cathedral Parish, will conduct the blessing.

Brian Alford, a seminarian and third-year theology student at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis, will be ordained to the transitional diaconate at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 10 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. Archbishop George Lucas of the Archdiocese of Omaha, will be returning to Springfield to preside at the ordination.

Brother James Court is celebrating two special anniversaries this year — and the Franciscan Brothers of the Holy Cross have chosen to highlight those anniversaries at the 16th Annual Brother James Court Benefit Auction and Dinner. This year’s benefit, “The Spirit of Giving Makes a Joyful Sound,” will be held on Saturday, April 10 at the President A. Lincoln Hotel and Conference Center in downtown Springfield.

DECATUR — The fifth-grade class at St. Patrick School in Decatur recently took second place in their area in the Rube Goldberg Engineering Project. Goldberg was an engineer turned cartoonist whose drawings of humorous, elaborate machines which performed simple tasks appeared in newspapers and books over 50 years ago.

Holy Family Food Pantry in Springfield is preparing to provide dozens of families with Easter food baskets during the last days of the Lenten season.

The Springfield and Belleville dioceses will be the cosponsors of Wading Deeper 2010 — “Discernment: Conversion’s Partner in Christian Initiation” on Friday, July 30 and Saturday, July 31 at Holy Family Parish in Litchfield.