The Catholic Sun

The young St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School girl’s eighth grade basketball team clenched the Catholic Youth Athletic Association (CYAA) championship on Thursday (April 23). The Avondale, Ariz., team, comprised of only six eighth graders, was assisted by classmates in fifth and sixth grade to fill out their bench. While one player has club basketball experience, the majority of the team has learned to play basketball from their time on the Wildcats school team.

Bishop John Dolan made his first-ever visit to Circle the City, a Phoenix-based nonprofit healthcare group that works to meet the needs of men, women and children facing homelessness in Maricopa County, on Thursday (April 23) for a tour of multiple facilities around the valley. Circle the City was founded by Sr. Adele O’Sullivan, CJS, MD, and her community, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. After her initial career as a pharmacist in the 80s, Sr. Adele noticed a lack of sanitary conditions for wound care, challenges with medication management and the lack of a place for rest and recovery after a serious illness or injury for those experiencing homelessness. She earned her medical degree from the University of Arizona in 1984 and returned as a doctor to care for people living on the street. In 2012, Circle the City was founded.

Bishop John Dolan celebrated a baccalaureate Mass at St. Agnes Parish in Phoenix on Monday evening (April 20) for the first-ever graduating class of local seminarians from The University of Mary. The graduates are part of Nazareth Seminary, the historic, fully local seminary in the Diocese of Phoenix.  Auxiliary Bishop Eduardo Nevares, Auxiliary Bishop Peter Dai Bui, Bishop Emeritus Thomas Olmsted, Vicar General Fr. John Muir and Rector of Nazareth Seminary Fr. Paul Sullivan concelebrated the Mass. Family members of the seminarians, seminary formation staff members and 14 additional priests — including Vice-Rector of Nazareth Seminary Fr. Kurt Perrera and Director of Vocations Fr. Will Schmid — were also in attendance. 

Students, faculty, families and alumni gathered at All Saints Newman Center at Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe, Ariz., on Monday (April 20) for Mass and the dedication of the new organ by Bishop Emeritus Thomas Olmsted.  After Mass, tours showed the organ’s internal works. Visitors played the organ with John Peragallo IV — whose family has serviced over 400 instruments across the United States —while John Peragallo III explained its mechanics and pipes, ranging in size from 16 feet to the size of a pencil. There was also a concert featuring performances by John Peragallo III, Lindsey Johnson, Mary Pendleton-Hoffer and Gavan McVey. 

My husband, Rich, has always supported my work in ministry. But he was initially ambivalent about my involvement with Kino Border Initiative (KBI), a nonprofit that provides humanitarian assistance to families and individuals in Nogales, Mexico — often immediately after deportation.  Experiencing KBI had enriched my life greatly, so for months I invited him to join me for a weekend there. Eventually, he agreed.  During that visit, Rich struck up a conversation with a man who had recently been deported from Los Angeles — Rich’s hometown. The man was wearing a Dodgers cap — the team Rich grew up loving. That small, familiar detail opened the door to conversation.  They talked baseball. They talked about Los Angeles. Slowly, they began to talk about life.  The man shared that he had two small sons still in Los Angeles and feared losing the landscaping job he had held for five years. Rich and I also had two small sons. We, too, had left Los Angeles for Phoenix so that we could better provide for our family. In that shared space of fatherhood, hope and responsibility, something shifted. 

Xavier College Preparatory’s Swim and Dive team in Phoenix is making waves nationally for their academic excellence.  The team earned Gold-Level Team Scholar recognition from the National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association (NISCA), achieving a 3.928 team GPA, placing them among the top academic programs in the country.  In addition, six Xavier student-athletes were named Academic All-Americans, an elite distinction awarded to just 10–15 percent of high school aquatic athletes nationwide. To qualify, students must maintain a minimum 3.75 GPA while competing at a high level and contributing positively to their team. 

At a time when young adults discover their freedom and often leave the faith, Diocese of Phoenix Newman Centers are present on college campuses to build community, personally accompany students and foster authentic encounters with Christ. All Saints Catholic Newman Center, Holy Spirit Newman Center and Holy Trinity Newman Center have shown abundant growth, serving hundreds of young adults — Catholics and non-Catholics alike — changing hearts along the way.  House of hope  Holy Spirit Newman Center, established just 10 years ago, serves the community at Grand Canyon University (GCU). The humble house of hope with a bright purple door stands not too far from campus. Though the building itself is small, the Newman Center has had a big impact on souls in the last decade.  Senior Karina Avalos, one of the hundreds of students impacted over the years, had a strong encounter with the Lord at a Newman retreat after struggling to have faith in something greater. 

Mental health was the focus of Wednesday (April 15) morning's school assemblies at Seton Catholic Preparatory in Chandler, Ariz., as over 600 students, faculty and staff gathered to hear Bishop John Dolan share his personal experiences of losing four family members to death by suicide — his brother, Tom, when Bishop Dolan was in eighth grade, his sister, Therese, and brother-in-law, Joe, when he was in seminary and his sister, Mary, in 2022 during his first year serving as Bishop of Phoenix.    The bishop emphasized that no one journeys alone and that the Church is here for all who experience mental health struggles. This has been a consistent message since Bishop Dolan established the diocesan Office of Mental Health Ministry in December 2022. He also elaborated on the three pillars of the Office of Mental Health Ministry: accompaniment, education and advocacy. 

Three young people at Adobe Mountain School Juvenile Detention in Phoenix were baptized by Bishop John Dolan on Tuesday (April 14), and four others received additional sacraments of initiation. “The baptisms were full immersion, and of the seven kids five are boys and two are girls, all between the ages of 14-17,” said Ted Ebner, coordinator of Prison Ministry and Restorative Justice — a branch of the Diocese of Phoenix’s Office of Human Dignity. “All the kids were allowed to invite family members.” The Prison Ministry and Restorative Justice team also ministers to men and women in 14 prisons and jails throughout the diocese in addition to Adobe, the only juvenile facility in the state. Partnering with employees of Adobe, one of whom is a chaplain, and a team of volunteers, Ebner teaches classes to connect with young people and introduce them to Jesus.

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SVDP) in Phoenix — whose mission to those in Arizona experiencing hunger and homelessness goes far beyond sharing a meal, clothing or paying a bill — is marking 80 years of local service this month at the church where it all began: the historic St. Mary’s Basilica in downtown Phoenix. Comprised of lay Catholics, SVDP operates via conferences, which are local parish-level groups, though the help of individual members and volunteers called Vincentians. The Phoenix Council, which supports over 80 conferences across central and northern Arizona, will celebrate with its hundreds of Vincentians and the public during a series of events the weekend of April 25-26 at St. Mary’s Basilica.