LOCAL NEWS

Have you ever gotten what looked like an email or a text from your pastor or boss asking for money or gift cards? You are not alone. Unfortunately, frauds and scams are abounding in this technological age.   Detective Mark DiBone from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office joined The Bishop’s Hour podcast for a segment to help the faithful learn more about frauds and scams and how to protect themselves against them. 

Auxiliary Bishop Eduardo Nevares is celebrating two significant dates this week, including his 44th anniversary of ordination to the priesthood on Friday and his 15th anniversary of his episcopal ordination on Saturday.     Bishop Nevares was ordained a priest on July 18, 1981, and was ordained as the first-ever auxiliary bishop for the Diocese of Phoenix on July 19, 2010. Prior to his arrival in Phoenix, he served as the co-director of vocations in the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, from 2002 until 2008, and vice rector of the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, from 2009-2010.  

As parents, one of the most important tasks we can undertake is helping our children discover their purpose in life. This is not only about guiding them toward a specific career path or success but about nurturing their understanding of who they are and how their unique gifts fit into God's plan. Helping children find their purpose involves helping them discern God's will, recognize their natural gifts and understand that their purpose might be found in both the big and the small things of life.

Selected from more than 2,200 women, Catholic Education Arizona President and CEO Nancy Padberg and AllThrive 365 President and CEO Tammi Bohannon were named two of the 34 Most Influential Women in Arizona Business for 2025 by Az Business. This acknowledgement is “a testament to exceptional leadership, vision and impact” and a recognition of “significant contributions across various sectors, including business, real estate, technology, healthcare and nonprofits,” Az Business stated.

Bishop John Dolan announced several new priest assignments on July 3, which will take place throughout the Diocese of Phoenix on August 1 and September 1, respectively.   Fr. John Muir, current pastor of St. Mary’s Basilica in downtown Phoenix, is one of nine priests who will be taking on new assignments in the coming months. As the current Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia for the Diocese of Phoenix, Fr. Muir will be shifting from his role as pastor to focus his full energy on his diocesan role in an ever-growing and thriving local church.  

The Arizona Legislature adjourned sine die on June 27th, at 1:20 p.m.  In total, over 1,800 pieces of legislation were introduced with 265 bills signed into law and 174 of them vetoed, which is a new state record for vetoes in a single session. The political situation at the Capitol remains very much divided, but the Arizona Catholic Conference (ACC) was thankful that all of the most problematic bills again failed to pass, while several positive measures were approved into law.

The Diocese of Phoenix has appointed a new vocations director. Fr. Will Schmid, who has overseen the spirituality year for the diocese’s Nazareth Seminary since...

Hosted by the Diocese of Phoenix June 24-27, the Catholic Media Conference received rave reviews, with nearly 400 Catholic communicators and media from dioceses across North America.  It was the highest attended conference since before the Covid pandemic. The conference, which began on Tuesday evening with a Mass at the Diocesan Pastoral Center followed by a welcome event at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism in downtown Phoenix, included keynote speakers, roundtable discussions, classroom presentations, award ceremonies, a community service project with St. Vincent de Paul, and multiple networking opportunities.

For the first time in over 20 years, the weekly televised Mass that airs across the Diocese of Phoenix on local channel 7 (CW7) will be produced by the Diocese’s Office of Communications beginning on Sunday, July 6. The past 1,000-plus Sunday Masses, the majority originating from Ss. Simon and Jude Cathedral in Phoenix, were produced by Skyline Productions, led by owner and producer Joe Reynolds. “We are so thankful for the hard work and dedication that Joe and his team at Skyline have brought to our viewers for the past two decades and we greatly appreciate their efforts,” said Brett Meister, director of communications for the Diocese of Phoenix. “With the advancement in technology in the last decade, and the cost efficiencies we can absorb, we are bringing the production of the weekly TV Mass in-house. We are excited about the future and look to continue the same production quality that our viewers are accustomed to watching each Sunday.”

After more than 50 years serving at St. Agnes Parish in Phoenix, the Carmelite priests are departing. They leave behind a parish imbued with Carmelite spirituality and a community that has been deeply affected by it. Joan Gore, a parishioner since the early 1960s, said she and her husband raised seven children in the neighborhood and sent them all to St. Agnes Catholic School. As a Third Order Carmelite, Gore has great love for the 800-plus-year-old order and its members. “All of them have been so dear to me through the years,” Gore said. “I start crying when I think about it because they’ve always been dear friends, all of them. I’m going to miss them terribly.”