LOCAL NEWS

The chatter echoed down the hall from where a dozen ladies sat clustered around a large table, knitting and crocheting. This was no ordinary sewing circle. The group, dubbed “St. Damien’s Helpers,” crafts bandages for victims of Hansen’s disease, better known as leprosy.

When you turn onto their quiet street in East Mesa, you can spot the Briseño family’s house right away: it’s the one with the 15-passenger van parked in the driveway.

Nicole Boujikian, 20, will join the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist as a postulant Aug. 28. God willing, Cesar Ramirez, 29, will soon begin discerning with the Institute of the Incarnate Word. Ramirez said his experience in a secular career made him more aware of the “hidden tears” around him. He rediscovered Christ in those suffering from discrimination and extreme poverty.

Theresa Enciso moved to North Phoenix 35 years ago with one requirement — to be close to a Catholic Church. That Church ended up being Our Lady of the Valley Parish, founded only five years earlier, on July 24, 1973.

After his wife was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1969, George Sanders became her sole caregiver. The couple was married 62 years and according to family members, it was a loving marriage.

Hundreds of Catholics devoted to the messages of Medjugorje — prayer, fasting, conversion and peace — are set to converge on Phoenix Aug. 23-25 for the annual Marian conference.

Planning ways to grow closer as a married couple and in holiness go far beyond dinner and a movie. The Church helps spouses to fulfill God’s plan for marriage.

MESA — Benedictine University at Mesa is poised to bloom alongside the city’s revitalization efforts as campus life emerges the week of Aug. 26.

Twin individuals make up about two percent of the general population, according to the Twins Foundation. Students at Christ the King Catholic School defied those birth odds more than three times over with twins accounting for 7.8 percent of its student body during the 2012-13 school year. Among the eight sets of twins, two were in pre-kindergarten and two graduated from eighth-grade in May and start at Seton this week.

For the past 20 years, Sr. Jean Steffes, CSA, wrote about — and was part of — the history of the Diocese of Phoenix through her many roles and responsibilities.