News - October 2012 RSS Feed

In a unanimous opinion, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Oct. 24 that a five-year battle by the Louisiana State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors to stop the Benedictine monks of St. Joseph Abbey in St. Benedict, La., from selling handmade, cypress caskets was either unconstitutional or unauthorized by Louisiana law.

Cuál es su comprensión de la finalidad del Sínodo de los Obispos sobre la nueva evangelización? El Santo Padre pidió el Sínodo – y pidió expresamente para ello en el quincuagésimo aniversario del Concilio Vaticano Segundo – porque quería que reflexionáramos nuevamente sobre los grandes regalos que el Vaticano II ha dado a la iglesia y todavía está proponiendo a la iglesia.

Deadline: Submissions due Thursday (10 days before each issue) calendar@clarionherald.org (504) area code unless noted Nov. 3-10 SCHOOLS ST. BENILDE, Veterans Mass, Nov. 3, 8:15 a.m.,  sponsored by Home and School Association.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – On the subject of the Second Vatican Council, Ralph Martin is nothing if not an enthusiast. The theologian, who teaches at Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit and served as an official expert at the October 2012 world Synod of Bishops on the new evangelization, said the “wonderful things” that came out of Vatican II include an “emphasis on the active role of laypeople, the universal call to holiness, the rediscovery of Christian unity and ecumenism, (and) the desire to affirm whatever we can positively about modern culture.” But in at least one crucial area, Martin said, the council’s expectations have been gravely disappointed.

The world’s huge technological and scientific progress hasn’t always made people freer or happier, Pope Benedict XVI said. While scientific knowledge and advancements “are important for human life, it’s not enough on its own,” the pope said Oct. 24 at his weekly general audience.

Family traditions are something that everyone looks forward to, especially during the holiday season. With Thanksgiving and Christmas coming quickly around the corner, going home for the holidays is one of the particular joys that most people experience during this season.

For those who think the absence of head coach Sean Payton would have made a huge difference in the outcome of the 2012 season, a Sunday night loss at Denver provided a painful dose of the truth. The Saints’ defense, worst in the league, is the biggest culprit in a 2-5 start.

Coming off an impressive 38-17 victory over District 9-5A rival Jesuit and looking to sweep the district schedule against Brother Martin on Saturday, Archbishop Rummel will be one of three top seeds for local Catholic school teams as the football and volleyball playoffs begin.

I confess, I still sometimes miss the campus in Meraux that once housed the Archbishop Hannan High School complex. Principal John Serio had built an educational and athletic compound that was second to none among small high schools in Louisiana.

The secular world is on full display outside Pauline Books and Media Center, whose front doors face a busy stretch of Veterans Memorial Boulevard across from Clearview Shopping Center. But step inside and the sounds of traffic fade, and every Wednesday at noon, visitors can attend Mass in the media center’s newly renovated chapel.

As a child, Stephanie Clouatre-Davis had a hard time finding her niche in a family of three brothers who were always outdoing her in academics, athletics and popularity. A lifelong struggle with her weight made the comparisons she was making in her mind all the more glaring.

Sister Eva Regina Martin, congregational leader of the Sisters of the Holy Family, had a two-fold purpose for making a pilgrimage to Rome late last month. The first reason was to attend the Oct. 21 canonization of St. Kateri Tekakwitha, along with six other saints, by Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter’s Square.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) –Members of the Synod of Bishops recommended the Vatican establish a commission to monitor religious freedom, develop guidelines for training evangelizers and ensure there is a church in every diocese where confession is always available.

‘47 minutes’ touching Covington I am writing on behalf of Peter Finney Jr.’s story “Forty-seven minutes and a life with meaning” (Sept. 29). This story was very touching. It made me smile to see that people today still have a clear understanding of the real meaning of life.

After teaching autistic children for 35 years, Gail Carter was clear about what age she wanted to teach in Phase II of her career: second graders, who like her beloved former students with autism, were “still in that very angelic state” of life.

Carl J. Eberts, a graduate of St. Aloysius High School, was just 27 years old when he heard through the printer’s grapevine that Archbishop John Patrick Cody, whose clerical style might be compared aptly to that of Gen. George Patton, was mapping out a battle strategy to make Catholic newspaper history.

Very often I hear people say that the church should stay out of politics – that the church and politics don’t go together. I think that’s a false premise. The church does get involved in politics. A more basic and telling question might be: Did Jesus stay out of politics?

The success of the original Shirley Landry Benson PACE – Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly – at the former St. Cecilia Church campus on North Rampart Street in Bywater prompted Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans to put the wheels in motion for a second site.

The new NOLA Catholic Experience blog probably won’t initially garner the 54 million visits that the Huffington Post blog receives monthly, but the 10 voices on the blog are a welcomed one in a town that is historically Catholic.