When Pope Leo XIV gave newly appointed metropolitan archbishops their pallium on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, he told them it symbolizes their responsibility to care for their people and to promote unity.
Nation
This year marks the 160th anniversary of the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the last Confederate state that continued to uphold the practice of slavery two years after it was abolished in the country — an event marked by Juneteenth, a federal holiday since 2021.
Just one day ahead of the grand opening ceremonies of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris, Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Bethesda hosted its own celebration — a pep rally to showcase the community’s love, support and pride for three alumnae Olympians.
At least two people have been killed and thousands have been evacuated due to the South Fork and Salt fires in New Mexico, which broke out June 17. Some 1,400 structures have been destroyed and more than 23,000 acres ravaged.
Within 24 hours after Archbishop William E. Lori asked Catholics throughout the Archdiocese of Baltimore to support twin emergency relief funds for those affected by the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, nearly $50,000 was raised in online donations.
Not everyone can run a half marathon. And it’s probably a safe bet that even fewer can do so in a habit. But in a January half marathon in Naples, among runners dressed in tank tops, short running shorts or even shirtless were two consecrated women religious in their in white, long-sleeved habits and black athletic shoes.
Nearly 20,000 conference participants have converged in St. Louis at the America’s Center Convention Complex for the Jan. 1-5 SEEK24 conference held by the Fellowship of Catholic University Students.
An actor who recently portrayed a beloved saint on screen has now fully come into the Catholic Church in real life. Shia LaBeouf, a Hollywood veteran and star of director Abel Ferrara’s film “Padre Pio,” received the sacrament of confirmation, completing his initiation into the Catholic faith, during the New Year holiday weekend, according to announcements posted Jan. 2 to Facebook and Instagram by the Capuchin Franciscans’ Western American Province.
Two years ago over the course of a Friday night Dec. 10-11, a series of tornadoes struck western Kentucky, killing 57 with additional fatalities in Illinois, Arkansas, Tennessee and Missouri and damaging and destroying several thousand residences as well as nearly 200 commercial buildings. Just one day before area residents officially observed the outbreak’s second anniversary, tornadoes ripped through middle Tennessee and southern Kentucky inflicting another weather disaster Dec. 9 just weeks before Christmas.
Aldo Barletta of St. Mary Parish in Marysville is the new vice president of Vincentian spiritual growth and enrichment for the national Society of St. Vincent de Paul.