As Advent begins, families are assembling their Christmas Nativity scene to be displayed in the home during the Advent and Christmas seasons. Someone will be dispatched to fetch the boxes of Christmas decorations and sort out the tangled array of lights, ornaments and figures to be arranged. Many households have long-standing customs about how things should be positioned.

Some families may tussle over what figure should go where and when. In many homes the image of the baby Jesus is kept out of the Christmas creche until the appointed day. Other families prefer to complete the manger setting with the divine child from the moment the house is prepared for the festive holy days.

Bishop Jaime Soto is celebrating his 15th anniversary as the Bishop of the Diocese of Sacramento.

On October 11, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI named Bishop Jaime Soto as coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Sacramento.  Bishop Soto was welcomed into the diocese on November 19, 2007.  While serving as Coadjutor Bishop, he served as Moderator of the Curia, Vicar for Hispanics and Other Ethnic Ministries, and represented many pastoral and civic groups.

On November 29, 2008, Bishop Jaime Soto became the head of the diocese upon the retirement of the Most Reverend Bishop William K. Weigand.

Read the biography of Bishop Jaime Soto at Most Reverend Bishop Jaime Soto | Diocese of Sacramento (scd.org)

The November-December 2023 issue of Catholic Herald magazine has been published. The theme for this issue is lay ministry and volunteers. The digital edition of the magazine is available at https://catholicmagazines.org/magazine-archive/catholic-herald/sac1123