The LHSAA’s Jan. 27 meeting of the minds promises to be an arduously long morning with more than a tinge of controversy. I expect to be planted at the press table in the massive meeting room of the Baton Rouge Crowne Plaza listening for hours to passionate pleas from principals on the “for” and “against” sides of various issues.

Archbishop Gregory Aymond will join 21 other bishops from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky on the Region V ad limina visit to Rome Jan. 23-31. He will file daily reports at www.clarionherald.org: ➤ Monday, Jan. 23: Mass at the Altar of the Tomb of St. Peter in St. Peter’s Basilica, 7:15 a.m. Meeting with the Congregation for Bishops, 9:30 a.m. Meeting with the Congregation for Clergy, 11 a.m. Visit to the residence of Miguel Diaz, United States ambassador to the Holy See, 6 p.m. ➤ Tuesday, Jan. 24: Celebration of Mass (private).

In our gotcha culture, which seems to regard hypocrisy as the last unforgivable sin, Tim Tebow’s practice of genuflecting and praying as a spiritual payoff after the Broncos hit pay dirt has launched a thousand snipes.

Catholic Schools Week will be celebrated at the end of the month. Can you give us an update on the strategic plan for Catholic schools that is now underway? I’ve deliberately kept my distance from the strategic plan’s deliberations because I think it’s important that the feedback from the listening sessions comes in from all the various groups.

• Who are you? Married to Clifton Arnold since 1984; the mother of one child, four stepchildren and 12 grandchildren; attended St. James Major, Mount Carmel Academy, Loyola University and UNO, where she earned a master’s degree in special ed and education administration; her 46-year teaching career included 19 years at Catholic schools, including Resurrection of Our Lord, Holy Cross and Christ the King.

If being in Washington, D.C., for this year’s National March for Life is logistically impossible, locals who want to lend their support to the culture of life will have a more convenient opportunity to do so at the second annual Louisiana Life March in downtown Baton Rouge Jan. 21.

Recently it has become a norm in our society to watch students go to college and become disillusioned with their faith. Indeed, it seems that there is an exodus of young adults in the Catholic Church, as has been pointed out in a recent article by Relevant magazine.

Combine the remains of Hurricane Katrina and the slump in the economy and who doesn’t need a little help these days? To respond to the ever-increasing cry from individuals in distress, the archdiocese’s Family Life Apostolate office began in September offering low-cost family, marital and couple counseling infused with a Catholic perspective.

El 8 de enero, usted celebrará Misa en el Santuario Nacional de Nuestra Señora del Pronto Socorro. El año pasado, habló sobre la “Nueva” Batalla de Nueva Orleáns, en términos de violencia, el asesinato y el racismo.

Deadline: Submissions due Thursday (10 days before each issue) calendar@clarionherald.org (504) area code unless noted Jan. 14-21 EVENTS DAY ON, NOT OFF, archdiocesan day of service honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Jan. 16, beginning with an 8:30 a.m. prayer service at Jesuit High School.

As we begin a new year, the Office of Catholic Schools would like to count its blessings: We are blessed to have dedicated administrators, faculty and staff; we are blessed to have faith-filled parents and students; we are blessed to have an archbishop who strongly supports and believes in the mission of Catholic schools.

At Christmas, the human dream of being like God started to become a reality – not through any human efforts, but through God sending his son to be born on earth to redeem humanity, Pope Benedict XVI said.

As the Hornets slump near the bottom of the Western Conference standings, I have a question: Is that such a bad thing? Would the Hornets be better served winning 30 games or 20? All you have to do is take a look at what could be the draft class of 2012 and you will arrive at one conclusion: fewer wins means more ping pong balls in the hopper, which means the possibility of getting one or perhaps two of the top picks in a loaded lottery.

Since admitting non-public schools into their fiefdom in 1929, the Louisiana High School Athletic Association always has been an organization whose majority public school principals have devoted hours dreaming of ways to suppress the success of the 85 private and parochial schools that now comprise about 22 percent of the membership.

What is the purpose of the Opening Prayer? Every liturgy has a focus and a theme given by the church in the readings, prayers and the liturgical calendar. This focus helps us to concentrate on some essential aspect of our faith so that we do not become overwhelmed by the vast mystery and awe that is so inherent in God himself.

The following contributions have been made recently to seminary burses, which are funds set up to provide interest income that can be used in perpetuity to help defray the cost of educating men to the priesthood.

Your “ad limina” trip to Rome to meet with Pope Benedict XVI and various Vatican congregations will take place Jan. 23-31. Can you detail some of the highlights? I’ll be leaving Jan. 20, and Archbishop Hughes and Bishop Fabre will join me.

Father Steve Bruno, vocation director of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, is not a new-media marketing executive. But in a Twitter world, where life comes at you in machine-gun bursts of 140 or fewer characters, the idea of a vocation to religious life is so easy to delete.

Following months of internal division that played itself out publicly and eventually in the courts, St. Augustine High School’s local board of directors and the Josephite Fathers who run the school have resolved all issues regarding both corporal punishment and school governance, the school has announced.

Since returning to the Archdiocese of New Orleans in 2009, Archbishop Gregory Aymond has emphasized with archdiocesan employees the importance of being “coworkers in the vineyard of the Lord.” One manifestation of that shared ministry was on display at a pre-Christmas Mass at the archdiocesan office building at 1000 Howard Ave.