The Catholic Sun

CHANDLER AZ- Golden shovels shined brightly on the sunlit afternoon of April 30th at Seton Catholic Preparatory High School in Chandler Ariz. as staff and diocesan leaders “dug in,” breaking ground for the construction of their new Event Center. Since 2020, Seton Catholic has fundraised and invested close to eight million dollars in campus renovations including baseball and softball field lights and a full redesign of their front entrance. Now, through a generous seven-million-dollar gift by Shea Homes, they are continuing to build up their campus to match the first-class Catholic education the school offers. 

Join Bishop John P. Dolan and more than a dozen Catholic and Christian leaders May 7 for an outdoor Via Lucis, also known as the Stations of the Resurrection. The event begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Diocesan Pastoral Center’s courtyard and will continue into the plaza on Monroe Street.

The Diocese of Phoenix remembered Pope Francis in its Mass on Divine Mercy Sunday, part of a 9-day period around the world for Catholics to mourn his recent passing.   Bishop John Dolan led an estimated 1,000 worshippers at Ss. Simon and Jude Cathedral in Phoenix, telling the congregation that Pope Francis followed Jesus’ example by sharing and living the truth that no one is beyond God’s love and mercy, nor should anyone be excluded from hearing that message.  “Francis reminded people there were no barriers to God’s love, no person God did not want to reach or could not reach,” Bishop Dolan said in his homily. 

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The 135 cardinals eligible to elect the next pope will enter the Sistine Chapel to begin the conclave May 7, the Vatican announced. The cardinals will first celebrate the "Mass for the Election of the Roman Pontiff" in St. Peter's Basilica that morning before processing into the Sistine Chapel that evening. The Vatican Museums announced that the Sistine Chapel would be closed to visitors beginning April 28 to allow preparations for the conclave to begin. The preparations include the installation of a stove to burn the cardinals' ballots and a chimney on the roof to signal the election results to the world.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Here is a list of the U.S. cardinals who are under the age of 80 and eligible to enter the conclave May 7 to elect a new pope:

On the feast day of St. Joseph the Worker, May 1, the Catholic Church recognizes and celebrates men who live a vowed religious life and are known by the title “brother.”  While men in religious life may be called brother during their years of formation on the road to the priesthood, May 1 particularly commemorates vowed religious men whose vocation is a life of non-sacramental service and the immense gift they are to the universal Church.  

When Christ prayed to His Father in Scripture, He often went out into nature — withdrawing to a deserted place, climbing up a mountain or praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. Young adults throughout the Diocese of Phoenix have been following suit, encountering God in creation and being drawn deeper into their faith along the way.   Their road map? Care for Creation, one of the seven pillars of Catholic Social Teaching.   “Catholic Social teaching is the part of the teachings of the Church that focus on the holistic human dignity of each and every person,” explained Abigail Standish, coordinator of Catholic Social Teaching for the Diocese of Phoenix.   

Black ribbons and half-roundels adorned the outside of St. Mary’s Basilica in downtown Phoenix and its adjacent courtyard April 22 as a sign of mourning for Pope Francis. The Diocese of Phoenix celebrated the life of the Holy Father with a Remembrance Mass that evening, mourning the death of the pope.  During his homily, diocesan Vicar General and basilica Rector Fr. John Muir recalled meeting Pope Francis a year and a half ago. 

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Here is an explanation of some of the terms and practices related to the time between the death of Pope Francis April 21 and the election of his successor.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Centuries of experience dealing with the death, or occasional resignation, of a pope has left the Catholic Church with thorough instructions detailing who has responsibility for planning the funeral, preparing for the election of a new pope and taking care of essential business in the meantime. The instructions are found in St. John Paul II's 1996 apostolic constitution, "Universi Dominici Gregis," which was revised by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007 and again just before he resigned in 2013.