An 11 a.m. funeral Mass for Oblate Sister of Providence Margarita Musquera will be offered Feb. 8 at her religious community’s motherhouse in Arbutus. Sister Margarita died Jan. 29. She was 93.

As youngsters munched on salad and baked ziti during the “lunch-and-learn” event, the speakers encouraged them to view those in religious life as “regular people” called to devote their lives in service of God and the Catholic Church.

In southern Turkey and Syria combined, the death toll reached more than 5,000 as of early morning hours on Tuesday and is expected to rise as people are still trapped under the rubble.

The U.S. bishops’ religious liberty chairman called it “disheartening” that proposed new rules on the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate eliminate “protections for moral convictions” of employers who object to being forced to cover contraceptives in their employee health plans.

No Catholic is obligated to follow any of the devotional “rules” accompanying a particular private revelation or to take on any of the prayers urged by the seers of an apparition.