News - July 2019 RSS Feed

Ashley Code was an extraordinary Catholic teenager with such faith, optimism and care for others that now – three years after succumbing to a brain tumor – she is inspiring others to enact her dream to find a cure for cancer.

A group of statues atop a tomb in St. Vincent de Paul Cemetery No. 1 tells the story of Christ’s crucifixion from an unusual perspective. While Mary is seen in her typical posture of kneeling at the foot of the cross, her back is turned to her dying son and she looks outward, as if to share her grief with the world.

Many of us are not fond of seeing animals in cages. But when desperate human beings – especially children – who have trekked the grueling, dangerous journey mainly from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras fleeing gang drug violence, forced gang recruitment, extortion and crushing poverty finally arrive at the U.S. border pleading for safe asylum find themselves instead crammed into cages, it’s time for people of faith to take a stand and demand an end to this heartless cruelty.

For the past month, approximately 70 murals painted by Benedictine artist Dom Gregory de Wit have been in the process of repair in the refectory of St. Joseph Abbey. The murals had been damaged by water intrusion from the roof and moisture that had accumulated first after Hurricane Katrina, followed by the March 2016 flood that inundated the abbey, causing millions of dollars of damage to the campus, said Benedictine Abbot Justin Brown.

The first time I met School Sister of Notre Dame Rose Elaine Kessler, a proud daughter of the 9th Ward, she pointed to the bulletin board in the hallway outside her office.

Clarion Herald editor Peter Finney Jr. spoke Tuesday with Brother Martin principal Ryan Gallagher, a board member of the newly constituted Louisiana Select Association (LSA), which has been given the authority by the Louisiana High School Athletic Association (LHSAA) to oversee “Select” school state championships in football, basketball, baseball and softball.

Students attend college for intellectual pursuits in fields of study to achieve a job. The fact that young adult Catholics are leaving the faith bothered David Delio, Ph.D.

Behold is my favorite word in Scripture. Every time it shows up, we’re summoned to snap to attention and take notice. God is about to do something new. Let’s not miss it.

Summertime used to be about big blockbuster movies. This summer box office receipts are sagging and even the sequels are having a hard time. The “Avengers: Endgame” phenomenon is an exception, but it points to a big shift in our popular culture landscape.

Doubt is normal. It’s something we all struggle with in our daily lives, but I think it’s something that often goes uncharted in our faith experiences. We feel a sense of shame or isolation as we wonder about questioning our beliefs.

In our first reading, God appears to Abraham, but Abraham doesn’t know it’s God. God takes the form of three travelers who pass by Abraham’s campsite during the blazing heat of midday, as Abraham sits in the shade of the huge tree under which his tent is pitched. That Abraham doesn’t know the travelers are God is crucial for understanding what happens next.

Again this year, the Clarion Herald invited Catholic elementary and high schools  to submit the names of teachers with at least 25 years of service who retired at the end of the 2018-19 academic year. Here are a few of their pearls of wisdom:

It’s never easy, most often rather painful, to say goodbye to a good friend.  I did so 25 years ago when I lost my lifelong friend, a dialysis patient whose veins could no longer support the weekly ordeal after 15 years of treatments.

Mount Carmel Academy has gained 29,000 square feet of instructional space with the recent purchase of the motherhouse and the land it and the school sit on from the Sisters of Mount Carmel.

Have you ever felt like you spend more time praying than anything else in life? I adamantly know that I do spend more time praying than anything else in my life. I accept this obligation of blessings all the time.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Praying that Catholics would understand and act on “the inseparable bond” between love of God and love of neighbor, Pope Francis again appealed for a solution to the crisis in Venezuela.

A $70,000 grant from the Ford Motor Company has allowed Second Harvest Food Bank to purchase a new Ford F-350 Transit van and upgrade it with equipment to expand its ability to distribute hot meals during disasters and for its Kids’ Café after-school and Summer Feed programs for children.

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NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. (CNS) – Just before the July 6 closing Mass for the Archbishop Lyke Conference that seeks to enrich liturgies and ministries and promote evangelization at parishes serving Black Catholics, Andrew Lyke reflected on the legacy of his late uncle for whom the conference was named.