LOCAL NEWS

“All of us are recipients of the faith. We didn’t pay for it. It was a gift.” Diocesan leaders are asking the faithful to pay that gift forward.

The time has come to return a gift on loan from Ireland and the Diocese of Tucson nearly 50 years ago.

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Jesuit Father Edward Reese, the former president of Brophy College Preparatory, offered prayers in both Phoenix and Washington, including a homily at the National Cathedral in Washington, after the death of U.S. Senator John McCain from Arizona who died Aug. 25 at age 81 after a long struggle with brain cancer.

Twelve men from 10 parishes took another concrete step toward dedicating their life as a deacon of the Church.

Attracted to St. Francis’ care for the marginalized and his nonjudgmental outreach to all people, Fr. Page has been a Franciscan priest for 32 years.

TUCSON (CNS) — Retired Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson praised Arizona Sen. John S. McCain, who died at age 81 of brain cancer Aug. 25, for his service to the nation.

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted issued a statement Aug. 27 asking that the questions raised by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, former nuncio to the United States, in a letter published by two Catholic media outlets, “be taken seriously and his claims be investigated thoroughly.”

He was such a family man, that this commercial structural engineer never took a job out of town or discerned the diaconate until his kids were grown.

Bishop Thomas J. O’Brien, retired bishop of Phoenix, died at 6:11 a.m. on Aug. 26. He served as the third bishop of the Diocese of Phoenix from 1982-2003. He was 82.

His call to priesthood began in the Middle Eastern desert. His final ministerial years culminated in a southwestern one.