FEATURED

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Defending religious freedom, fighting indifference to attacks on human dignity and promoting care of creation are obligations that Orthodox and Catholics share and areas where Pope Francis said he and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople are in deep harmony.

ANTHEM — As a way to honor Our Lady of Guadalupe and promote the pro-life cause, the Knights of Columbus Silver Rose, which passes from Canada through the U.S. and into Mexico, came through the Diocese of Phoenix Oct. 5-9.

Catholic Athletes for Christ recruited the Illinois vocations director as a chaplain for the Cubs.

Following in the footsteps of St. Stephen, the Church’s first deacon and martyr, five men will be ordained to the permanent diaconate for the Diocese of Phoenix.

BAPCHULE — Here in the windswept desert of the Gila Indian Reservation stands a beacon of hope: St. Peter’s Mission School.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Professing belief in the resurrection of the dead and affirming that the human body is an essential part of a person’s identity, the Catholic Church insists that the bodies of the deceased be treated with respect and laid to rest in a consecrated place.

As the countdown to Election Day continues, the Catholic bishops of Arizona have spoken clearly about one measure on the ballot they hope will go down in defeat: the legalization of recreational marijuana.

"Borders should not be just a barrier — should not be a wall — but should be a bridge between people," the nuncio said.

Today I wish to consider the shepherding work of priests, who, in spiritual guidance and in confession, seek to help others to encounter the Amoris Laetitia, the “Joy of Love.” Earlier this year, Pope Francis, who has made Confession a constant theme of his pontificate, wrote in his recent book, “The Name of God is Mercy,” “It is important that I go to Confession, that I sit in front of a priest who embodies Jesus, that I kneel before Mother Church, called to dispense the mercy of Christ. There is objectivity in this gesture of genuflection before the priest; it becomes the vehicle through which grace reaches and heals me.”

A parish serving the one-square-mile area that is the Town of Guadalupe is hosting its first priestly ordination today. Friar Villafan, via the OFM.FYI newsletter, gives us an insight into this tiny parish.