Local News
Archdiocesan parishes joining rally for immigration reform in Washington April 10
There are now about 11 million illegal or undocumented immigrants (whichever term you prefer) living in the United States in legal limbo with no path to citizenship. A rally to remind people of this fact will be held in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, April 10 in support of immigration reform. Among those who will attend from Philadelphia are two busloads of mostly immigrants from Latin America, leaving for the rally from Visitation B.V.M. Parish in the Kensington section of the city, an area teeming with immigrants from the world over.
Theology on Tap coming to a head in Northeast Philadelphia
A fun and interactive faith sharing opportunity for young adults is brewing in Northeast Philadelphia. Starting Monday, April 8, a new Theology on Tap series will take place at Gearo’s Grille on Welsh Road. The four-night event was organized by Father David Friel, parochial vicar at St. Anselm Parish.
New book on American nuns tells tales of sacrifice, dedication, faith
It started with 12 and how appropriate that would be. That was in 1727, when 12 Ursuline Sisters arrived in New Orleans, long before it was part of the United States. They were the vanguard for a vast army of women religious in America that probably peaked at about 180,000 around 1965 and has since dwindled to 54,000.
Students want to ease global poverty; Villanova conference shows them how
More than 160 students of Villanova University and Cabrini College learned how to break into the field of global development and poverty relief through presentations at the Global Development Day hosted April 2 at Villanova along with partner Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. Catholic bishops’ overseas relief and development agency.
At Chrism Mass, Archbishop Chaput warns Archdiocese of dangers, calls for renewal
Archbishop Charles Chaput said he thought about Philadelphia when he heard Pope Francis say when the Church does not come out from itself and evangelize, it becomes self-referential and sick. “Perhaps the humiliation that we have experienced in the last several years has been in some way God calling us out of that worldly Church to be a humbler Church and be once again an evangelizing Church,” the Archbishop said. There has to be some grace from the humiliation and pain the Church has experienced, he suggested, “a grace that calls us to holiness; a grace that calls us to renewal.”
Group operating 14 ‘mission’ Catholic schools gets start-up grants
In just a little more than two months, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s parochial schools will close down for the summer. When they reopen in September, 14 of them will be under new management. They are the Independence Mission Schools (IMS), and although they will retain their old names, they will no longer be under the control of their respective parish or parishes but by the Independence Mission Schools organization that will assume responsibility for all aspects of operation.
Young woman’s disability makes her perfect volunteer to cheer the elderly
Residents are happy when Alexa Bucci, a volunteer at South Philadelphia’s St. Monica Manor, stops in to see them. She’s warm and friendly, always there with a smile and always wanting to do something for them. “I love it there; when you go in if you are in a bad mood they pick you up,” Alexa said. “I usually just talk to them or help them with their meals. The patients light up when they see me, because they like to be around people, and they tell me everything. I don’t feel like I have something wrong with me when I’m with them.”
Noted biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin sheds light on Lincoln at La Salle event
On the surface it would seem odd. A university celebrates its 150th anniversary by bringing in a Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard PhD. to lecture on a man who by his own estimate had less than a total of 12 months formal education in backwoods schoolhouses. The university was La Salle University, the lecturer on March 21 was historian Doris Kearns Goodwin and the subject was Abraham Lincoln, generally considered America’s greatest president.
Persons with disabilities called ‘a chosen race’ at annual Mass in Cathedral
It’s an honor for an altar server to hold the book for the archbishop during a special liturgy. The young man who held the Missal during the liturgy for Archbishop Charles Chaput during the Mass for Persons with Disabilities at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul on March 23 truly felt the honor. “He kept saying ‘Alleluia, Alleluia,’” the archbishop noted in his homily. “You are not supposed to say Alleluia during the six weeks of Lent.” But in this case it was very appropriate, he suggested.
Thousands, including Philadelphians, expected to march for marriage Tuesday
More than 200 people from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia will take part in the Marriage March to support traditional marriage Tuesday, March 26 in Washington, D.C., where thousands are expected to join them.