As America’s 250th anniversary was celebrated across the States and the world, with Pope Leo XIV accepting the Liberty Medal for the occasion, U.S. Ukrainian Catholic bishops asked Americans to consider the meaning of freedom through the experience of a nation still fighting to preserve it.
Anniversary
Pope Leo XIV has called on all Christians to work together toward the celebration of 2033, when the Catholic Church will mark an extraordinary Jubilee Year commemorating 2,000 years since the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
After the Cursillo Center of Dallas opened its doors about 60 years ago, a question soon arose within the community: Could the transformative spiritual formation that the center offered to individual retreatants be brought into the home — that is, into the family — too? This year marks the 50th anniversary of the center’s resounding answer: the Jornada Familiar and Jornada Juvenil retreats.
As preparations begin for the 1,500th anniversary of the founding of Italy’s Monte Cassino, the mother abbey of Western monasticism established by St. Benedict in 529, the Benedictine Confederation has launched a new website designed to connect pilgrims, visitors, and spiritual seekers with monasteries around the world.
Even before its church building was erected, its school established, and its congregation multiplied from hundreds of parishioners to thousands, St. Joseph Catholic Parish had already distinguished itself as a spiritual home where all are welcome — regardless of age, ability, or nationality. This year, the Richardson parish marks 50 years of bringing the people in its pews, in all their diversity, closer to each other and closer to Christ.
Parishioners gathered June 7 at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Oak Cliff to celebrate the parish’s 125th anniversary with a special Mass held on the feast of Corpus Christi.
Pope Leo XIV marked the anniversary of his May 8 election by making a pilgrimage to celebrate Mass at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary in Pompeii, one of Italy’s most beloved Marian shrines, placing his pontificate under the protection of the Virgin Mary.
Hundreds of people gathered April 10 at The Westin Galleria Dallas for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul of North Texas’ annual “Spark of Hope” event, a morning that recognized service and celebrated the organization’s 70-year history in the Diocese of Dallas.
Flying over the west coast of central Africa on April 21, Pope Leo XIV paused to honor his predecessor on the first anniversary of Pope Francis’ death, remembering the Argentine pope’s witness to mercy and closeness to the poor.
In the stillness of the All Saints Catholic Community chapel, parishioners of the Dallas church quietly kicked off a special year of celebration in the presence of the eucharistic Lord. Beginning on March 26 — a half century to the day from the parish’s founding in 1976 — and continuing into March 28, the “50 Hours of Adoration for 50 Years” marked the first of a series of Eucharist-focused golden jubilee events planned to commemorate the milestone anniversary.