Through childhood nightmares and serious illnesses, prayer has guided Diana Gump her whole life, providing her with abiding comfort and peace.
The Diocese of Dallas is asking parish leaders to look beyond the day-to-day work of ministry and consider a broader question: How are Catholics called to receive the Gospel, live it out, and carry it into the world?
Between the four of them, longtime friends Scarlett Schwegmann, Georgia Slovacek, Sarah Keyes, and Abigail Bussey have played soccer, basketball, cross country, track and field, golf, cheerleading, and volleyball; and whether stepping onto the court or the course or the field or the track, each knows the thrill of donning a team uniform, lacing on a pair of shoes, and beginning a beloved sport.
As religious leaders, pastors, and ministers throughout the country gathered their people in prayer during those difficult days, the words of St. John Paul II offered a powerful message of faith and hope: “Sin, evil, terror, and death will not have the last word!”
From Catholicism to Protestantism and back again, Richard Valencia Jr.’s decades-long journey of faith has led him back to the Church truly founded by Christ, the parishioner of St. Joseph Catholic Parish in Waxahachie said.
The trees were shorter, the surrounding city sparser, and the student population smaller when Gregory Roper began his undergraduate education at the University of Dallas more than four decades ago. As he now undertakes the responsibility of leading the university’s undergraduate school as the new dean of the Constantin College of Liberal Arts, much about his alma mater’s campus is different than it once was — but the mission at the heart of the school, he said, remains the same.
Roots run deep at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School for Sara Casner, whose mother, brother, aunt, multiple cousins, and two children all received their education at the school — as did Casner herself, having spent her elementary and middle school formation on the campus. So, when she was appointed principal of the STA Upper School this year, she said, it felt like being home.
“I’ve always had the heart of a teacher,” said Nieves Castillo-Frazier, who became principal of Good Shepherd School in Garland on July 1.
When Deacon Denis and Ramona Corbin mark their 50th wedding anniversary at the Diocese of Dallas Golden Anniversary Mass on Aug. 29, they will celebrate a friendship that has anchored their marriage since their teenage years.
For Abby Orr, Catholic education has been an important part of her life since childhood — first as a student, then as a teacher, and now as a school principal.