PEOPLE

Nestled at the foot of Camelback Mountain, the Mount Claret Retreat Center stands as oasis of sorts in the midst of a bustling city. Tom McGuire, the new director of the facility, is hoping more and more Catholics will seek God’s presence there.

Alex Vera grew up in St. Joseph, Mo., during the 1940s — a time when European immigrants arrived fleeing World War II. Although she was baptized Catholic by her mother, Vera was actually raised as a Methodist.

A teacher spotted Mike Shanks’ extraordinary artistic ability when the St. Thomas the Apostle parishioner was in eighth grade. “What you have, it’s not normal,” the photography instructor told him.

Although fiction, Joyce Coronel has taken elements of her life growing up in Scottsdale and as a writer for The Catholic Sun to craft a story loosely based on the real hardships facing Chaldean Catholics living in the Middle East.

Becky Green decided to become a Catholic and planned to enter at the Easter vigil but was deterred by tragedy. On Holy Thursday, her 55-year-old father, en route to Phoenix for the ceremony, suffered a fatal heart attack.

Alan Gaxiola works in an aluminum recycling plant in Goodyear to support his wife and three children. He also puts in plenty of hours working for the Church, leading others to faith in Christ. But it wasn’t always that way.

Just three weeks shy of leaving the country and taking on a new mission in Belize, Kay Allen, director of 1st Way Pregnancy Center, was all fired-up about the clinic’s focus on reaching out to pregnant women. A client she’d hoped would choose life ended her pregnancy instead, giving into fears that she would lose her athletic scholarship.

If you're among the 60,000 people who tune in each Sunday for the live broadcast of the Catholic Mass, you are undoubtedly familiar with "Catholics Matter," the weekly interview program that airs each Sunday following the 9 a.m. Mass.

[vimeo 40872937 w=600 h=340] On this edition of Catholics Matter, Fr. Rob Clements welcomes Sherry Boas, Catholic and author of “A Mother’s Bouquet: Rosary Meditations...

Javier Bravo grew up in Yuma in a devout Catholic family, the youngest of seven children born to parents who immigrated from Mexico. He spent...