News - Catholic Spirit July-August 2020 RSS Feed

This month, instead of the Bishop’s Interview, Bishop Joe Vásquez and F. DeKarlos Blackmon, the diocesan Secretariat Director of Life, Charity and Justice collaborated to write a letter to the faithful in the Diocese of Austin. May our hearts be open to love, forgiveness and mercy.

“We find ourselves in a new reality where new frontiers of evangelization are opening up to us and ways that we have done things in the past aren’t as efficient or as effective,” said Father James Misko, vicar general.

F. DeKarlos Blackmon serves as the secretariat director for Life, Charity and Justice in the Diocese of Austin. In this capacity, he oversees Life, Marriage and Family; Social Concerns; Black Catholics; Hispanic Ministry; Restorative Justice; Missions and Discipleship; and Advocacy.

St. Mary’s Catholic High School will be the only Catholic secondary school in the area, and it will continue the classical model of education that was implemented two years ago in the elementary school.

Ascension has grown to become one of the leading nonprofit and Catholic health systems in the U.S. providing patients with acute care services, long-term care, community health services, psychiatric, rehabilitation and residential care.

One by one, Father Wiedenfeld called each teen forward, and their godparents helped them into the pool. Father Wiedenfeld celebrated the rite of baptism as he poured water over their heads. God provided the natural beauty of sunlight shining through the leafy branches of an oak tree.

More than 120 parishioners from St. Martin de Porres Parish in Philadelphia and St. John Chrysostom Parish in Wallingford, Pa., met on June 29 for virtual town hall to discuss racial healing from a faith-based, pastoral perspective.

“Now, more than ever, is the time for nations of the world to shift from national security by military means to human security as the primary concern of policy and international relations,” Cardinal Peter Turkson, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, said at a Vatican news conference July 7.

Confirmations, first Communions and the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults were the ministries most often cited by the bishops as being affected, according to the survey conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.

Our Catholic faith teaches us that we have an obligation to offer a preferential option for the poor and vulnerable. This means that we must prioritize those individuals or groups who remain marginalized.

God pursues us from every direction, inviting us to deeper relationship and communion.

Eagle's Wings Retreat Center has spots for families to take a respite and spend some time together with nature.

Clelia was beatified by Pope Paul VI in 1968 and canonized by St. John Paul II in 1989. He held her up as an example to the Christian world of how the faith should be nurtured, first in the family and then within the parish. She is considered the youngest founder of a religious community in the history of the church.