In launching her afternoon keynote speech, “The Smallest Thing – The Greatest Love” at the annual Catholic Women’s Conference, Diana Marie Wehbe lightened the room with a playful jab at what she called “sour-faced Catholics.” Mass, she reminded the female audience, should leave parishioners beaming, not brooding. Within minutes, nary a soul in the audience wasn’t smiling or laughing.

Catholicism has had an official home in the Schleicher County city of Eldorado for 100 years. Though records of baptisms date to 1905, Masses were originally celebrated in pastures, homes, public buildings, or churches of other denominations until the first building for Our Lady of Guadalupe Church was constructed in the city’s barrio in 1925. Later a larger building was purchased and renovated, with the current church building hosting its first Mass on May 13, 1962.

El año 2025 marca el 60º aniversario de la Declaración del Concilio Vaticano II sobre la Libertad Religiosa, Dignitatis Humanae. Este documento histórico enseña que la libertad religiosa no es simplemente un derecho creado por el gobierno, sino más bien un derecho humano fundamental que proviene de Dios. La libertad religiosa tiene sus raíces en la libertad de conciencia. La Iglesia Católica enseña que la conciencia es la voz de Dios en el corazón humano, por lo que la desobediencia a la conciencia es desobediencia a Dios.

The year 2025 marks the 60th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council Declaration on Religious Freedom, Dignitatis Humanae. This landmark document teaches that religious freedom is not merely a right created by government but rather a fundamental human right that comes from God. Religious freedom is rooted in the freedom of conscience. The Catholic Church teaches that the conscience is the voice of God in the human heart, so disobedience to the conscience is disobedience to God.