LOCAL NEWS

I am so thrilled this month’s magazine shares the accomplishments of the Together Let Us Go Forth ~ Juntos Sigamos Adelante campaign. It is important to celebrate the milestones the Diocese of Phoenix has reached because of the campaign: a high school built in the West Valley, Newman Centers opened or expanded across the diocese, elementary and high schools strengthened, affording students tuition who would have otherwise needed to leave their school of choice, parishes across the entire diocese implemented their dreams liturgically and pastorally, several Catholic nonprofits serving our communities most vulnerable neighbors supported and so much more! AND, this comes during incredibly turbulent times between a pandemic as well as economic and employment instability and yet…..our community stretched and gave in faith and still continues to give.

Debbie DiCarlo, Office of Mission Advancement executive director, has been moved by the impact of the Together Let Us Go Forth, Juntos Sigamos Adelante campaign, “Our community stretched and gave in faith and still continues to give.” She encourages the diocese to finish strong as the campaign winds down. In 2019, then-Office of Mission Advancement Executive Director Cande de Leon described the relationship of the campaign donors to the projects their dollars would one day help complete. De Leon said it’s “one of the hardest levels of sacrifice” to give without knowing who the recipient is but doing so in faith.

Presented by one of the fastest growing Catholic Dioceses in the United States, and for the first time this millennium, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix will host the national Catholic Media Conference in June of 2025.  The announcement was made this past Friday at this year’s conference in Atlanta.  Themed, “Arise in the Desert,” the 2025 CMC will take place June 24-27, 2025, in downtown Phoenix.

Joyous anticipation filled the air at St. Anthony Mission in Sacaton, Ariz., in the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC). This past Sunday, the community gathered in their temporary building that had been used to celebrate Mass the last 20 years. This past Sunday, the community didn’t gather there for Mass but instead to process to the new St. Anthony Mission. The historic mission, which has been a staple in the community for generations, burned in January 2000 due to arson. This past Sunday was the culmination of years of prayers, asking God to provide the means for a new mission church, and now, the prayers had been answered.

It was in January 2000 when St. Anthony Mission Church in Sacaton, Ariz., on the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) went up in flames. The community would soon learn that the cause of the fire was arson. Carol Jackson, a parishioner, grew up on the reservation and was in a building next door the night of the fire. “I saw smoke…Everybody rushed over there. We stayed there with the church and watched it. Everybody was crying.” Smoke lingered in the air the next morning when the fire department investigated the interior and pulled out vestments that were completely untouched as well as a glass container of holy water. After the building cooled off, Jackson went inside as the fire department dismantled the tabernacle and pried it off, revealing an interesting burn mark on the wall. 

For the first time in the Diocese of Phoenix, Catholics celebrated Juneteenth — the commemoration of when the last slaves were freed following the Civil War — at St. Josephine Bakhita Mission Parish in Phoenix on June 19. Although President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, freeing all slaves within those states that had seceded, it wasn’t until June 19, 1865, at the end of the war, when Major General Gordon Granger and the Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, to enforce it, thus freeing the last of the slaves in the former Confederate States. Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, has been celebrated since 1866 but it wasn’t recognized as a federal holiday until President Joe Biden signed it into law in 2021. 

SACATON, Ariz. – When fire destroyed St. Anthony Mission Church in 2000, it prompted the Diocese of Phoenix’s vicar for Native American Ministries at the time, Fr. John Hall, to voice a theme Catholics hear often. “The building was not the community,” he said, referring to the Church as the body of Christ; its people, not the structure in which they worship. Still, in this part of the Gila River Indian Community, where physical amenities are farther between and resources fewer than those in the non-Native world, St. Anthony was as big a part of the lives of believers as any other local place. 

The bass guitar vibrations shake the walls. Rows of chairs along a center aisle are filled at a valley parish every first Friday. Some people are sitting, some kneeling, and some standing. Others are found sitting crisscrossed before the altar gazing at the Beloved in the monstrance. While others take a posture of surrender and lie prostate in front of Jesus. Some cry, overwhelmed with joy and consolation. Others sit in serene peace, others stand with their hands raised up in front of them showing praise to the King. Some line up against a wall waiting for the sacrament of Confession. The Lord is filling them, filling their need. 

The stage is set for the annual John Paul II (JPII) Classic, where priests and seminarians from the Diocese of Phoenix will go head-to-head in a friendly yet spirited basketball matchup. Slated for Friday, August 2, at Brophy College Preparatory (BPC) in Phoenix, this event has become a cornerstone of the Phoenix Catholic community, celebrating unity and faith. Fr. Matthew Lowry, episcopal vicar of the North and director of the Northern Arizona University Newman Center in Flagstaff, Ariz., has played in every JPII Classic since the inaugural tip-off in 2015.

Scottsdale, Ariz. — Notre Dame Preparatory High School is pleased to announce the hiring of Isaac Sedillos as its new assistant principal on Wednesday,...