LOCAL NEWS

It all started 10 years ago for Paul and Denise Grogger as a trip to “take a little homeless magic to downtown Phoenix” one Christmas. With their four adult children were away, and knowing that people were living on the streets, they decided to assemble some simple gift bags and drive the nearly 45 minutes from their home in Carefree, Ariz. “Paul and I drove through the downtown area. We would stop on the street, and Paul would get out of the truck and hand [the bag] to someone,” Denise recalled. 

A diocesan-wide day of renewal aimed at inspiring attendees to live out their Baptism so as to welcome more people into the Catholic Church will take place Saturday, Jan. 18, at Corpus Christi Parish in Phoenix. Organizers say the daylong event will attract everyone from faith formation leaders, catechists and Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA) team members to parishioners at large. The retreat day is being co-sponsored by the diocesan Office of Worship and the Office of Evangelization, Discipleship and Spirituality (OEDS).  

Last week, Bishop John Dolan kicked off the 2025 Jubilee Year in the Diocese of Phoenix by celebrating six special Masses throughout the state. He was joined by hundreds of parishioners and pilgrims from around the diocese at each of the Masses, which had overflowing crowds and were celebrated at the Jubilee pilgrimage sites decreed by Bishop Dolan in October 2024.  

The sun beats down unforgivingly on Andre House on a hot afternoon in downtown Phoenix. Inside, the working poor and those experiencing homelessness quietly congregate seeking relief from the soaring thermometer and the mean city streets. One man stands in line, holding a small cup of foamy shaving cream as he waits for a shower and a set of clean clothing. Others sit quietly at long tables. In the back corner of the room, Mark Poulin, a retired psychiatric nurse practitioner, sets up for a Christ in Our Neighborhood faith-sharing group.

I can remember the first time I truly recognized God in nature. I was 16 years old and was white water rafting. Being equally terrified and thrilled by the rapids, I found so much joy in the adventure and anxiety at the thought of falling out of the raft (which, of course, happened). After several hours of mixed emotions, the rapids slowed and we were floating down the calm river.  

It was not even a month after being declared a pilgrimage site in 2000 that St. Anthony Mission in Sacaton, Ariz., was up in flames, the fire caused by arson. Because of the fire, St. Anthony did not have that year of pilgrimage. Now, 25 years later, the new St. Anthony Mission Church stands as a beacon of hope not just for the Gila River Indian Community but for the whole Diocese of Phoenix.  It was at the dedication Mass in June of 2024 that Bishop John Dolan announced that St. Anthony Mission would be a pilgrimage site during the 2025 Jubilee year of hope.  

With descriptions such as “wonderful,” “beautiful” and “exciting,” worshippers formally welcomed Bishop John Dolan’s seven-year pastoral plan on evangelization and the opening of the Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee year in the Diocese of Phoenix on Saturday night at Ss. Simon and Jude Cathedral in Phoenix. Bishop Dolan presided at the first of six opening Masses throughout the diocese, launching his blueprint and ushering in the Jubilee year of hope declared by Pope Francis earlier this year. 

Hundreds of people joined Bishop John Dolan in Nogales, Mexico, on Saturday where they took part in the rich tradition of Las Posadas along the U.S.-Mexico border wall as part of the Kino Border Initiative (KBI), a group comprised of six Catholic organizations whose vision is “Migration with Dignity.” The event was the 15th binational posada sponsored by four Catholic dioceses, including Phoenix, Tucson, Nogales and Sonora. Las Posadas, which is widely celebrated in the Hispanic culture, commemorates Mary and Joseph's journey to Bethlehem for the birth of Jesus. Comprised of a procession that goes from one designated stop to the next, participants take part in the Holy Family’s experience of being told “there is no room for you in the inn” (Luke 2) in a unique way. At each of the five stops, passages of Scripture are read, and Christmas carols are sung.

It wasn’t four in the morning, the food wasn’t being sold at tables outside the church, and no one was heading off to work in a farm field last Sunday. But for hundreds of Filipino Catholics, the first-ever diocesan-wide celebration of their native Christmastime tradition, Simbang Gabi, was just like “tahanan.” “It feels so good, like we’re back home. It feels like you are in the Philippines,” beamed Ferlyn Junge, her eyes lighting up, as a broad smile grew even wider across her face. 

Saturday, Dec. 28 will be an exciting day for the Diocese of Phoenix, as Bishop John Dolan celebrates the first of six opening Masses to kick-off his seven-year pastoral plan on evangelization throughout the diocese and officially open the 2025 Jubilee Year. The inaugural Mass will be celebrated at 4:30 p.m. at Ss. Simon and Jude Cathedral in Phoenix in tandem with Pope Francis’ decree for every diocesan bishop to “celebrate Holy Mass as the solemn opening of the Jubilee Year” in every cathedral and co-cathedral throughout the world that same weekend, which he announced in his encyclical Spes non confundit.