World News
'My Promise, My Faith' pin among religious awards Girl Scouts can earn
Published: April 24, 2012
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- As the Girl Scouts of the USA marks its centennial year, Catholic dioceses around the country are marking the 100th anniversary with special Masses bringing together Catholic Girl Scouts, their parents and troop leaders with the larger Catholic community. At one such Mass at Boston's Cathedral of the Holy Cross in March, Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley in his homily discussed the connection between Scouting and the church. "In our life all of us have a very special vocation. The Lord is calling us to service in a special way. Scouting is about service and how we can serve a community, but each of us has a very special calling," he said. "We discern that in prayer, trying to see what God is calling us to do as individuals. But, all of us share in a mission that together we have to build a civilization of love to make God's kingdom more visible and to help people to discover how much God loves them," the cardinal said. Although it is a secular organization, GSUSA has several religious awards troop members can earn, and in 2011 it developed an additional award, a pin titled "My Promise, My Faith," which girls can earn "by carefully examining the Girl Scout Law and directly tying it to tenets of her faith." On April 28, the "My Promise, My Faith" pin was to be highlighted at a national celebration of all the faiths represented in the Girl Scout community at the National Episcopal Cathedral in Washington.
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