Clergy and lay delegates at the one-day reconvened convention of the Diocese of Bethlehem, Oct. 3, at St. Luke's Church, Scranton, Pa., elected four clergy and three lay persons to the canonically mandated ecclesiastical court and paved the way for four youths "elected at large by the youth assembled at the annual Bishop's Day" to serve as diocesan convention delegates. Because canonical changes cannot be acted upon the same day as proposed, this provision will be acted upon at the June 1999 convention.

In a brief homily, the Rt. Rev. Paul V. Marshall, Bishop of Bethlehem, reflected on the witness of St. Francis of Assisi. "Do you love anything more than God and God's poor? ... are (we) willing to change our standard of living to help those around us? That is the question that is always before us," he said.