LOCAL NEWS

Beauty in art has the power to inspire and can bring people closer to the Divine Artist. That was the message that directors from chapters of the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums heard when they attended their international conference in Phoenix March 3–5.

"Crosiers make clear why we live and, because of that, how to live," Fr. Louis Mraz once wrote. He emulated a faithful life in Indonesia and the Diocese of Phoenix.

Like most people who experience and recover from homelessness, Donald Brizedine is focused on the future.

Lent has 40 days with which to enter purposeful suffering and other spiritual disciplines. The end result creates a heart that’s better equipped to embrace the crosses of life like Simon of Cyrene, confident in recognizing the truths of the faith like Veronica or eager to spread it like St. Mary Magdalene did on Easter morning.

Catholic schools play an important role in the New Evangelization, wrote Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted in his new apostolic letter, Evangelizing through Catholic Schools, promulgated on March 3 of this year.

Sr. Teresita Ryan spent nearly 99 years strengthening the Church on earth, most notably in her native Ireland, Ss. Simon and Jude Cathedral in Phoenix and surrounding communities.

Individual donors sponsor the scholarships, and each recipient also receives a medal of St. Katharine Drexel, the patroness of the Catholic Community Foundation.

It only happens with a wee bit of luck every several years: March 17, the feast of St. Patrick, falls on a Friday this year. The patron saint of the Emerald Isle, credited with Christianizing the Irish, is the inspiration for celebrations not just in Ireland, but throughout the Irish diaspora.

Mike and Cheryl Lau don’t attend St. Henry Parish in Buckeye. The Verrado couple isn’t even Catholic. But after a decade of attending fish fries in their former home of Cincinnati, the Laus know a good fish fry when they see one — make that taste one — and the March 3 event at the church hall on Lower Buckeye Road filled their bill.

Fr. Ernst spent 18 years 'retired' in Arizona supporting several Northwest Valley churches.