The Catholic Sun

For the first time in more than two years, the state of Arizona is set to execute an inmate on Wednesday, March 19. The Office of Prison Ministries and the Office of Respect Life Ministries held a prayer vigil Tuesday night at St. Mary’s Basilica in downtown Phoenix led by Bishop Eduardo Nevares. A group of faithful gathered to pray for inmate, Aaron Gunches, the victim, the families and for an end to the death penalty. Opposition to the death penalty is rooted in the Catholic Church’s teaching that every person is created in the image and likeness of God, imparting sacred dignity to all human life.

Growing up in Mexico, Junuee Castro had a close relationship with her grandparents. It was a bond imbued with deep Catholic faith that continues to propel her forward today. “They were involved in church, so that really stuck with me,” Castro said. “My grandfather, for example, every Thursday he would bring me to a full hour of adoration, to our small chapel there in town. My grandmother, she taught me the prayers that I still pray to this day.” Castro, the bilingual coordinator of Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the Diocese of Phoenix, was hired in October of 2024. She shines in a role that has been vacant for nearly 14 years at the diocesan level. 

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis spent the night without a breathing mask, the Vatican press office said March 18, indicating that his need for supplemental oxygen continues to diminish. The pope received high-flow oxygen through a nasal tube overnight, it said, a change from the noninvasive mechanical ventilation he had been using since he had a breathing crisis Feb. 28. He has been hospitalized since Feb. 14. The decision to forgo overnight mechanical ventilation aligns with a medical plan to "progressively reduce" the 88-year-old pope's supplemental oxygen intake, the press office said, though it does not mean he will no longer use it at night.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Going to Mass and receiving Communion are signs of putting one's trust in God and understanding he is the one who gives the courage and strength to live life to the fullest no matter how little one has, the preacher of the papal household told members of the Roman Curia. "When we gather to celebrate the Lord's Supper," the sign of the Eucharist is what makes visible that the Lord is "in us and we in him," Capuchin Father Roberto Pasolini said March 13 during his eighth Lenten meditation offered for the Curia.

“The places that most need growth and strength and healing and renewal, that’s where Christ wants to love us particularly. And there’s a sacrament for that.”  Confession can often feel like an obligation or a place of shame, but after hearing Fr. Paul Sullivan’s radio interview on The Bishop’s Hour, you’re going to want to run to the confessional to receive the gentle mercy and understanding love of Jesus the Healer. 

Phoenix’s first Catholic hospital is gearing up for their 130th anniversary on Mar. 19th, the Feast of St. Joseph. For well over a century, St. Joseph’s Hospital in downtown Phoenix has put into practice Christ’s mandate to welcome the poor and sick as Himself. The first St. Joseph’s sanitarium was founded in 1895 but the story of the hospital’s beginnings started three years prior. In 1892, Bishop Peter Bourgade invited the Sisters of Mercy to open Sacred Heart Academy, which would eventually become St. Mary’s High School.

Falik Omar Gomez grew up Catholic, but his family hardly went to church.  When he met Maria Navarro that changed.  A Catholic since childhood, Navarro began dating Gomez four years ago, and early in their relationship, she let him know church and faith were a big part of her life. But she never forced Gomez to join her at Mass. 

A pair of local Arizona Catholic High School teams captured boys basketball state championships this past week, as Brophy College Preparatory won the 6A crown with a 62-49 win over Mesa High School on Saturday, and St. Mary’s High School pulled off a 59-55 overtime victory over Deer Vally High School of Glendale for the 4A crown on Thursday.  Both contests were held at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis' condition continued to be stable with further slight improvements March 11, the Vatican press office said. The pope's doctors at Rome's Gemelli hospital did not issue a medical bulletin March 11, the day after they had announced his continued stability and incremental improvement had led them to lift their "guarded" prognosis, although they insisted he continued to need hospitalization. The Vatican press office said the 88-year-old Pope Francis had again watched by video the morning and evening talks of Capuchin Father Roberto Pasolini, preacher of the papal household, who is leading the Lenten retreat at the Vatican for cardinals and senior members of the Roman Curia.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The devil, who lies and sows divisions, tests everyone, even Jesus, Pope Francis said in a written homily. Satan tries to convince people that the hungry cannot be fed, that "angels will not come to our aid when we are falling, and that at best, the world is in the hands of evil powers that crush nations by their arrogant schemes and the brutality of war," the homily said. But the Lord has opened a new path of liberation and redemption, the pope wrote, so when the faithful are "tested," it does not have to end in failure. "By following the Lord in faith, from drifters we become pilgrims."