FOUR CHAPLAINS PRAYER BREAKFAST

Rev. Daniel P. Coughlin, the first Roman Catholic priest to be named Chaplain of the United States House of Representatives, will be the guest speaker for the 11th annual Four Chaplains Prayer Breakfast on Wednesday, January 29, 2003.

The Four Chaplains Prayer Breakfast will be held at the Yorktowne Hotel Ballroom. The doors open at 7 a.m. and the program begins at 7:45 a.m. The 2003 program is being held in conjunction with the Nine Months in York Town Celebration, marking the 225th Anniversary of the Articles of Confederation. The ecumenical Prayer Breakfast honors the memory of the Four Chaplains who died together aboard a troop ship during World War II. Rabbi Alexander D. Goode, who left his pulpit at York's Temple Beth Israel to enlist in the military, was one of the Four Chaplains.

Rev. Coughlin was Director of the Office for Divine Worship for the Archdiocese of Chicago for 15 years before being appointed House Chaplain. Born in 1934, he was ordained in 1960. He is a graduate of St. Mary of the Lake University in Mundelein, Illinois, with a degree in Sacred Theology. He later received a degree in Pastoral Studies from Loyola University in Chicago.

In 1984, Rev. Coughlin took a year long sabbatical, during which he studied Eastern and Western religions. For five months he lived with the Trappist monks of Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky. He then worked with the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India. The following year, he served as scholar in residence at North American College, located in the Vatican City in Rome.

Rev. Coughlin also served as a Pastor at St. Francis Xavier Parish in La Grange, Illinois. He then became Director of the Cardinal Stritch Retreat House in Mundelein before being named Vicar for Priests of the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Rev. Coughlin's predecessor as House Chaplain, the Rev. James Ford, was a previous speaker at the Four Chaplains Prayer Breakfast.

The position of Congressional Chaplain was created more than 200 years ago. When the Continental Congress met in York in 1777-1778, every session opened with the Chaplain's prayer.

The Breakfast is sponsored by: Collens-Wagner Insurance Agency; C. S. Davidson Inc, Consulting Engineers; Seligman, Friedman & Co., CPAs; Stock and Leader, P.C.; Susquehanna Pfaltzgraff Co.; Waypoint Bank; York County Joint Veterans Council; The York Newspaper Company; and an anonymous friend.

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