FEATURED

It all began with a startlingly frank question David Bates posed to a colleague at work one day. “What religion are you and what do you believe?” Not exactly your standard water-cooler conversation, but that’s when things got interesting. Neither one of them knew it then, but Joe Bashford’s answer would spur a two-year journey that would lead to deeper faith for both men — and their wives. “I told him I was Catholic,” Bashford said. “And then he goes, ‘Oh. So, you're not saved and you don't believe in Jesus.’   

Bishop John Dolan made his first-ever pilgrimage to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City on March 30. He carried with him the intentions of the Diocese of Phoenix and entrusted TILMA, his seven-year pastoral plan on evangelization, to Our Lady of Guadalupe. She is both the bishop’s inspiration for the historic initiative and the patroness of the Phoenix Diocese.  In his first pastoral letter, released in October 2024, Bishop Dolan shared his love for Our Lady of Guadalupe who “just like Juan Diego’s simple tilma, she desires to transform us into image bearers of Christ and great evangelizers of her motherly love.” 

It was going to be a joyous bus ride from Tucson back to Phoenix for students, teachers and friends of Xavier College Preparatory’s softball team that spring night in 2021. Hours earlier, the Gators had captured their first Arizona high school girls title in the sport. And though it was approaching midnight, Xavier’s vice principal for activities, athletic director and golf coach, Sr. Lynn Winsor, BVM, was full of her usual energy and enthusiasm. She was on a mission.

When my husband, Richard, and I moved back to Phoenix from Los Angeles 24 years ago, we had a hard time finding a parish community that felt like home. For more than six months we visited at least eight parishes with our 1-year-old son in tow. Nothing felt right and we started to panic as we felt more unsettled and disconnected.    Finally, I made an appointment to meet with Mary Ann, the director of Religious Education at St. Paul’s, the parish closest to our house. I poured out my heart, my fear about our recent experiences and unloaded all the things that had not worked for us. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting from her, but she was so kind. I could tell she cared for us and courageously challenged us to take responsibility to be an active part of the solution to our nomadic wandering from parish to parish.    

The Diocese of Phoenix continues to foster missionary growth beyond its territory. For the second time in the past five years, a ministry at the Diocese of Phoenix’s Diocesan Pastoral Center has grown to the point of expansion, serving members beyond the diocese. On the heels of their largest and most successful event to date in summer 2024, featuring globally renowned speaker Fr. Mike Schmitz from the Diocese of Duluth, Minn., which drew a capacity crowd at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Phoenix, the John Paul II Center for Theology of the Body made the decision to transition from a diocesan office into a fully active non-profit organization by July of 2025.

When you imagine Jesus knocking on the door of your heart, what do you experience? Maybe you’re immediately filled with anticipation, and you rush to the door to welcome your beloved friend. Maybe you feel a bit of hesitation, unsure if you can trust the person knocking who still feels a bit like a stranger. Or maybe you’re flooded with anxiety and fear, expecting the Lord to start banging on the door and demanding that you open up.  Whatever you feel, I encourage you to notice that and take it to prayer. 

Fr. Paul Sullivan, rector of Nazareth Seminary, has been appointed the new pastor of St. Agnes, a parish in central Phoenix that during 2026 will be established as the fourth house in the Diocese of Phoenix’s Nazareth Seminary. Fr. Bradley Peterson, O. Carm., who has been pastor at St. Agnes for the last 17 years, will be taking a sabbatical and residing at the Carmelite St. Therese Priory in Phoenix. Fr. Jorge Monteroso Merida, O. Carm., who has served as parochial vicar at St. Agnes, will be taking on a new assignment in New Jersey. Carmelite priests have served the parish since 1972. There will be a special farewell Mass for the Carmelite community at St. Agnes Parish on June 7, 2025, celebrated by Bishop John Dolan. There are no plans to make any changes to the parish school or convent.

When a Catholic family visits its faithful departed, the Diocese of Phoenix seeks to ensure that space is bathed in peace, a sense of God’s loving closeness and the joy of believing the individual is now with his or her heavenly Father, awaiting Jesus’ return to bring all believers home. But when the diocese leaders considered the mausoleum at St. Francis Cemetery in Phoenix — its second-oldest burial ground — they knew an upgrade was in order to maintain that mission.  

Ana Luisa Martinez has always loved the Blessed Virgin Mary, but that love grew much deeper when she and her husband took their children on a seven-month pilgrimage. It wasn’t your ordinary pilgrimage.  With four sons ranging in age from 13 all the way down to the tender age of 14 months, it involved extensive preparation, planning and plenty of prayer. 

More than 1,300 candidates and catechumens, those who will enter into full communion with the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil, were personally welcomed by Bishop John Dolan this month as they enter the final stages of their preparation. The encounters took place at the diocesan Rite of Elections, an integral part of the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA) that is celebrated annually during the Lenten season. Over the past two years, due to the vastness of the Diocese of Phoenix, Bishop Dolan has celebrated the liturgy in multiple locations for the opportunity to personally welcome more of the individuals who are entering the Catholic Church.