The Catholic Sun

The Office of Natural Family Planning at the Diocese of Phoenix has announced plans for a new ministry to serve couples in the season of infertility establishing St. Gerard’s Outreach Ministry. Since 2013, couples who are struggling through infertility have gathered each May for the annual St. Gerard’s Mass to pray together and support each other. The Office of Natural Family Planning, in celebration of its 50th anniversary, is launching an outreach initiative aimed at serving them and their pastors throughout the year.

Part three in a series of Kirsten Bublitz’ experience taking the Fifth Vital Sign classes through the Office of Natural Family Planning. Catch up on earlier articles, part one and part two. “Charting can turn into a prayer. Bring your charts to the Lord,” NFP instructor, Beth Kopczyk said to a class full of women during the third 5th Vital Sign course. She’d just shared her testimony, and I felt my heart being moved to do just as Kopczyk recommended, to include the Lord in my charting experience, even while being single with no possibility of children in this season.

When a friend asked former professional hockey player Jim Nahrgang why he was becoming a Catholic, he gave a sports analogy. His son John had already converted and was in seminary, studying to become a priest. “If your son or daughter was a college athlete or a professional athlete and they were playing their games in your hometown, would you like to go to watch or would you not? Would you like to participate or just kind of stand on the sidelines and not acknowledge that this is what they’re doing?” That’s where the desire to become Catholic began for Jim.

To celebrate the Feast of St. Dymphna, the patron of mental health, St. Patrick Catholic Community in Scottsdale, Ariz. is hosting a mental health fair, May 18-19. St. Patrick’s has long been concerned with addressing issues around mental health and promoting awareness. “Through our behavioral health initiative ministry, we seek to serve as an avenue to provide literacy in mental health, to reduce the stigma of mental illness, encourage conversations around mental illness, and create a safe environment for individuals to share and seek help surrounding their mental illness,” said Eric Tamayo, pastoral associate at St. Patrick Catholic Community.

PHOENIX -- The Church’s efforts to help abuse victims heal has been steadfast since shortly after the first incidents came to light more than two decades ago. But the need for love and compassion likely will never end. “Abuse really hurts a person in the depth of their soul that they don’t forget,” said one survivor, who remains anonymous at her request following Sunday’s semiannual Mass of Healing and Reconciliation for Survivors of Abuse and Their Families; her voice lowering as a tear ran down her face in the courtyard of Ss. Simon and Jude Cathedral, in Phoenix. Yet, she said her faith has remained strong.

On Friday, Fr. Estevan Wetzel was sworn in as a captain for the Army National Guard at St. John Paul II High School in Avondale, Ariz., where he currently serves as chaplain. As the school year draws to a close, Fr. Wetzel will head to Fort Jackson, S.C. for three months of basic training. Moved by the suffering of a serviceman who was dealing with the loss of two fellow servicemen to suicide, Fr. Wetzel wondered who would minister to those serving in the military. “It requires a priest that is up to the task and has the requirements,” he said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Christians must share their faith in the risen Jesus, Pope Francis said. They also should "talk about the good inspirations that have guided us in life, the good thoughts and feelings that help us so much to go forward, and also about our efforts and labors to understand and to progress in the life of faith, perhaps even to repent and retrace our steps," the pope said April 14 before leading the midday recitation of the "Regina Coeli" prayer. Greeting visitors in St. Peter's Square, the pope said it is good and important to share one's faith in Jesus.

ROME (CNS) -- The success of the Synod of Bishops on synodality will much depend on also including parish priests in the process, said Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory of Washington. Of the more than 360 bishops, religious and laypeople who participated in the first assembly at the Vatican last October, the small number who were ordained priests "were scholars, missionaries (or) they were engaged in leadership in religious communities," he said.

In light of the Arizona Supreme Court’s ruling on Tuesday, upholding Arizona’s pre-Roe abortion ban in the state of Arizona, the Bishops of the Arizona Catholic Conference (ACC) released a statement. The Arizona Catholic Conference is the public policy agency for the Diocese of Gallup, the Diocese of Phoenix, and the Diocese of Tucson. Bishops from each of these dioceses comprise the Board of Directors of the ACC.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pursuing the path of pleasure and power does not lead to happiness, Pope Francis said. "It is a road that at first sight seems pleasurable, but which does not satiate the heart. It is not in this way that one 'has life,'" the pope said April 7 before leading the midday recitation of the "Regina Coeli" prayer. Greeting some 15,000 visitors in St. Peter's Square, the pope said, "We all want to have life, but there are various ways of having it."