In the summer of 1976, when Mother Teresa of Calcutta was looking for a place to spend the night in New Orleans during her Bicentennial trip to the United States, she requested lodging that would offer not only a room in which to sleep, but that also had an adoration chapel where she could spend time in prayer.

This school year, students in a second-grade homeroom at St. Clement of Rome are learning that their good deeds and sacrifices, no matter how small, can lead them to sainthood. On the day before the Oct. 1 feast day of St. Therese of Lisieux, Mount Carmel religion teacher Jackie Favaro visited the homeroom of Nancy Giacone and Merrill Babin to tell the story of St. Therese, the classroom’s patron saint and the saint known for her “Little Way.” “She made little sacrifices,” said Favaro of the saint who is also known by the names St. Therese, the Little Flower and St. Therese of the Child Jesus.

Reminders of the early history of the Catholic Church climb a wall inside a religion classroom at St. Christopher School. Anchors, fish and palm fronds are among the stark images painted onto pieces of crumbled brown paper by the school’s first- quarter seventh-grade art students.

Holy Name of Jesus prayed its annual Respect Life Rosary in the school yard on the morning of Oct. 7. Student representatives from every homeroom led a decade of the Sorrowful Mysteries over the loudspeaker.

“Hats On Day,” begun in 1995 by four St. Louis sixth graders to support a friend who had lost his hair during chemotherapy treatments, was observed at St. Anthony of Padua School in New Orleans on Sept. 30.

Curtis Pierre, founder of the New Orleans-based marching group Casa Samba, introduced St. Catherine of Siena’s middle school students to an array of instruments from Brazil on Sept. 30, greeting them with “Bom dia,” the Portuguese for “Good day.” Pierre’s thrilling performance kicked off the Metairie school’s annual “International Day” in the gym.

As part of their recent science unit on the five senses, Ursuline Academy first graders received a visit from Dimitrios Kouniaris, a graduate of the Lighthouse for the Blind and a student at the Louisiana Center for the Blind in Ruston, La.

El Arzobispo Gregory Aymond reflexiona sobre la vida del Arzobispo Philip M. Hannan, quien murió el 29 de septiembre a la edad de 98 años. El Arzobispo Aymond y la Hija de la Hermana de la Caridad Anthony Barczykowski llegaron al dormitorio del Arzobispo Hannan en el seminario de Notre Dame poco después de su muerte a las 3 a.m. Desde una perspectiva humana, es luto y dolor.

Hannans offer thanks Bethesda, Md. The family of Archbishop Philip Hannan cannot thank you enough for the superb special section and news coverage of the archbishop’s life and ministry to the community.

God will always guide, protect and nourish those intent on following him, Pope Benedict XVI said. “Following Jesus, the good shepherd, we will be certain we are on the right path and that the Lord will always guide us, be with us and we will lack nothing,” the pope said Oct. 5 during his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square.

It has been reported that Archbishop Hannan talked his way through police barricades and drove across the 24-mile Causeway bridge across Lake Pontchartrain five days following Hurricane Katrina. The story continues… Archbishop Hannan came to the St. Peter Parish rectory in Covington following this trip across the Causeway.

I admit it. I sit next to a lightning rod on Friday nights during the high school football season. And, because of my television relationship with J.T. Curtis for 20 seasons, I get an earful about the coach and his program.

Daughter of Charity Sister Anthony Barczykowski’s eyes sparkle when asked about her association with Archbishop Philip M. Hannan. She was in the trenches with him since 1975 as Catholic Charities expanded to meet the ever-changing needs of the poor and marginalized in the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

Three Catholic and two predominantly Baptist high schools once again lead every football class in Louisiana this week. In an association whose vast majority of member schools are public, the five considered by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association the best of the bunch are St. Paul’s in Class 5A, St. Thomas More of Lafayette in 4A, St. Charles Catholic in 3A, Christian schools John Curtis (2A) and Ouachita Christian in Monroe (1A) for the fourth straight week.

Your Excellencies, Reverend Fathers, Devoted Sisters and Good People of New Orleans: Many times during his administration of this archdiocese, my brother and I would talk about the various initiatives he had undertaken.

People who may have met Archbishop Philip Hannan only once in their lives – along with others who knew him more intimately – filed past his casket during the emotional  four days of public viewing last week at Notre Dame Seminary and St. Louis Cathedral.

Archbishop Aymond delivered the following remarks at Archbishop Hannan’s funeral Mass on Oct. 6 at St. Louis Cathedral: Today we say farewell to a great man. To the people of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, he was a shepherd, a bishop, a community leader, a father, a friend, a brother priest.

For a man who lived nearly a century, Archbishop Philip Matthew Hannan practiced a life of charity that reached back two millennia to the mandate of Jesus Christ to hear and respond to the “cry of the poor,” Msgr.

Although they made the inevitable “rookie” mistakes, the congregation of young adults comported themselves well at a Sept. 27 “Teaching Mass” introducing them to the new English translation of the Roman Missal.

Danna Cousins sees herself as a relationship builder, one who sometimes fills in the missing links for birth parents, adoptive parents and adopted children. After two decades of working in the domestic and international adoption field, Cousins was honored as one of the Angels in Adoption by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Initiative Oct. 3-5 in Washington, D.C.