Local News
Archbishop Chaput encourages Catholics to seek wisdom and witness to their faith
The need for America’s Catholics to seek wisdom and witness to their faith is all the more urgent at a time of increasing threats to the dignity of life, to marriage and to religious freedom, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput said in July 8. He spoke at a Year of Faith lecture sponsored by the Basilica […]
New ideas, personal touch lead to whopping rise in Seminary Appeal
Generally speaking, if you run an annual fundraising campaign and the end result is 10 percent over the previous year, you can consider it a great success. If that’s true what would you call a 74 percent increase? That’s the case with the annual St. Charles Borromeo Seminary Appeal. Last year's appeal raised $1,595,705. This year's raised $3,051,668, up $1,455,963. It's an all-time high, and counting.
Beyond fundraising, St. Charles Seminary’s rector lays plans for stronger footing
In retrospect, 2012-13 St. Charles Seminary Appeal “was a great appeal,” said the seminary’s rector, Bishop Timothy C. Senior. “I think this is about the present and the future and it is a realization that St. Charles Seminary is alive and well there is a real sense of the future."
Media parish hosts holy hour to pray, reflect on religious freedom
When all else seemingly fails, prayer is still the answer. At Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Media, a Holy Hour for Religious Freedom was observed on the evening of Monday, July 1. This was a parish response to this year’s Fortnight for Freedom, the June 21-July 4 period of prayer and action called for by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in light of what is seen as assaults on religious liberty.
St. Raymond’s partnership creates new school playground
It’s been over two years in the planning, but the wait was worth it. St. Raymond of Penafort School in the Mount Airy-Cedarbrook section of the city has a brand new playground which officially opened in mid-June, just in time for the parish summer camp.
Drawn to inner-city ministry, priest becomes Archdiocese’s youngest pastor at 32
In late May Father Dan Kredensor, a theology teacher at Archbishop Carroll High School in Radnor for the past two years, started planning activities with students on the ministry team for the upcoming school year. It’s been said that when you make plans, God laughs. This certainly seems to have happened with Father Kredensor, 32, who is now the youngest priest to be named a pastor in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. On July 1 he began serving as pastor of the recently merged St. Ignatius and Our Mother of Sorrows Parishes in West Philadelphia.
Disabilities-ministry office gets administrative upgrade
The Office for Persons with Disabilities and the Deaf Apostolate, previously a department under the Office for Life and Family, becomes a peer office with the same leadership, Sister Kathleen Schipani, now director instead of administrator.
Fans of Magnificat, Catholic Life Congress planning full day for thousands in autumn
Circle November 9 on your calendar. There will be a spiritual double header at the Pennsylvania Convention Center that is expected to attract perhaps 3,000 participants from around the country and locally. On that day the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and the Magnificat Foundation will host a day-long celebration, Magnificat Day, along with Philadelphia’s annual Catholic Life Congress, which brings together catechists from through the area.
Unused church properties to be auctioned for quick sale
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia will auction off several properties in Philadelphia and the suburbs later this month in hopes of raising much-needed cash, it announced June 28. The two largest properties, a 48-acre tract in Plumstead, Bucks County and a 29.5-acre tract in Harleysville, Montgomery County had been purchased years ago in hopes they might be needed to accommodate an expansion of the Catholic population in those areas.
Archdiocesan financial report, 2011-2012
See the full Archdiocesan financial report. See the supplemental document to the report.