LOCAL NEWS

Attendance at a ceremonial groundbreaking was proof positive Catholics outgrew their worship space. Nearly 400 showed up just outside the current church that only seats 300.

Carolee O’Meara knows what it’s like to be poor. She also knows how it feels to receive mercy. “I’ve always had a heart for the poor,” O’Meara said as she deftly stashed cans of vegetables in food boxes at Paz de Cristo in Mesa. “Being raised in a home where there was poverty and where God was just there all the time leading me, even without the parental guidance, God was just always merciful to keep me close to Him.”

Students at Christ the King School in Mesa just returned from Christmas break, but are already leaving the classroom again.

Five parishes throughout the Diocese of Phoenix’s metro area are hosting “Faustina: Messenger of Divine Mercy” Jan. 5-10.

Drawing on lessons from the angels, the little town of Bethlehem, Caesar Augustus, shepherds and the Magi, Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, highlighted true peace and the key to finding it in his Christmas message during Midnight Mass at Ss. Simon and Jude Cathedral.

If any St. Gregory second-graders are getting a pet for Christmas, they are more most likely ready for the responsibility.

Phoenix was as part of a national five-city tour for Sirius Radio’s Lino Rulli Dec. 10 as he promoted his daily two-hour program “The Catholic Guy.” Rulli, who also serves as personal media advisor to Cardinal Timothy Dolan, has hosted the light-hearted radio show for nine years.

Making time to stop and smell the roses will have a a two-way benefit for Valley residents through Christmas Eve.

It was a reading of a book while a student at Seton Catholic Preparatory that set her on a social justice path that helped earn her such an honor.

One of the smallest chapels in the Diocese of Phoenix became a world pilgrimage site Dec. 13 and already welcomed a couple from out of state.