FEATURED

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted and the Diocese of Phoenix launched a new website this month to help local Catholics share their thoughts about the scandals surrounding the Church and what they think its impact has been on their faith.

Tucked away in Tempe, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque Parish spent 14 years without a pastor. These days, the burgeoning church is home to roughly 2,500 families who worship the Lord mostly in Spanish. Now, they have a leader and he’s challenged them to step out in faith.

This French saint, who increased devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, spent her life in Burgundy. A pious child, Margaret was bedridden from ages 9 to 15 with a rheumatic illness.

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (CNS) — Near the end of his homily at a Mass just prior to St. Oscar Romero’s canonization, Jesuit Father Jose Maria Tojeira yelled to the crowd outside the Metropolitan Cathedral: “¡Viva Monsenor Romero! (Long live Archishop Romero!)”

Any pilgrim arriving before St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome immediately feels a sense of joy and majesty, before the immense proportions and exceptional quality of the art and architecture.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Carrying Pope Paul VI’s pastoral staff and wearing the blood-stained belt of Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador, Pope Francis formally recognized them, and five others, as saints of the Catholic Church.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — His voice, his outstretched hands, his boarding an airplane to meet the world — those are some of the most striking things about Blessed Paul VI that moved and inspired a young man discerning the priesthood.

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl as archbishop of Washington but did not name a successor.

Ordained a priest in Italy in 1904, Angelo Roncalli was a medic and chaplain in World War I. He served as a Vatican diplomat in Bulgaria, Turkey and France before being named a cardinal and patriarch of Venice in 1953.

FLAGSTAFF — Pope Paul VI gave to the world a beautiful gift in 1968, “and the gift he gave us was ‘Humane Vitae,’” said Bishop James S. Wall of Gallup, New Mexico, during a Sept. 15 presentation of “The Wisdom of Pope Paul VI” at San Francisco de Asís.