If you missed Mount Carmel Academy’s sold-out, fall drama “Silent Sky,” two more chances to see it exist before the STK student theater troupe performs it at the 55th annual International Thespian Festival (ITF) at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln June 25-30. Mount Carmel Academy will reprise “Silent Sky” June 15-16 at 7 p.m. in its Performing Arts Center.

Five members of the Jesuits USA Central and Southern Province, three with ties to New Orleans, will be ordained to the priesthood in two separate ordination liturgies. Jesuits W. Penn Dawson, Jason C. LaLonde, Michael J. Wegenka and David C. Paternostro were scheduled to be ordained on June 9 in St. Louis; Fernando Luis Barreto Mercado will be ordained on July 28 in Puerto Rico. One of the new priests, Father Paternostro, will be assigned to Immaculate Conception Church in New Orleans this summer.

St. Catherine of Siena Parish celebrated the 40th anniversary of Father Ronald Calkin’s ordination May 26 as he transitions to his assignment as chaplain of St. Anthony’s Gardens in Covington.

Because the reality was so abhorrent – the pervasive sexual abuse of minors by members of the Roman Catholic clergy – and because the church was so exposed in its reluctance or even refusal to act, the secular media narrative, even 15 years after Armageddon in the Archdiocese of Boston, is difficult to shake. Bishop Timothy Doherty  of the Diocese of Lafayette, Indiana, was in New Orleans last week for a national Catholic conference on child protection and how parishes and schools can create safe environments and provide better accountability.

Ordained to be servants for a servant church Twenty-two men will be ordained to the permanent diaconate by Archbishop Gregory Aymond June 23 at 10 a.m. at St. Louis Cathedral. The new deacons, who have completed a five-year formation process, will raise the number of permanent deacons serving in the Archdiocese of New Orleans to approximately 250, said Deacon Ray Duplechain, director of the Office of the Permanent Diaconate. According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), deacons are ordained “as a sacramental sign to the church and to the world of Christ, who came ‘to serve and not to be served.’

This week, the Saints wrap up their offseason with mini-camp at the club’s Metairie facility. Coaches will do what they always do. They will coach their players hard and make sure that no detail is missed. But, there is something else that Saints head coach Sean Payton must coach against this summer and throughout the season. And, that is the notion that somehow the success of 2017 will carry over.

El verano está casi aquí, lo que en Nueva Orleáns por lo general significa, vestirse aún más casual que en otras épocas del año. Sé que el tema de la vestimenta para la Iglesia es muy sensible, especialmente en un área donde hace calor nueve meses al año. ¿Cuál es su perspectiva sobre, cómo la gente debe vestirse para la Misa? Tengo una mezcla de sentimientos sobre esto. Hay una parte de mí, que permanece agradecida a Dios, y es que la persona está en la Iglesia, independientemente de cómo él, o ella están vestidos. Ciertamente, me doy cuenta de que hay circunstancias individuales, en las que una persona pueda tener otras responsabilidades, y no pueda vestirse de manera que podríamos considerar apropiada, por lo que quiero ser sensible a eso. Al mismo tiempo, la Iglesia es un lugar sagrado – tierra verdaderamente santa. Es un lugar consagrado, donde encontramos a Dios de una manera única a través de las Escrituras, a través de la asamblea y de la Eucaristía. En cierto nivel, nuestra vestimenta habla de la importancia o naturaleza única de lo que estamos haciendo en ese espacio sagrado, adorando a Dios en la asamblea dominical. Cuando la gente va a eventos sociales como, bodas, aniversarios, graduaciones, las personas más a menudo, se visten con cuidado. Eso no quiere decir que estén vestidos de manera formal, pero están vestidos apropiadamente.

Pope Francis asked Catholics to recognize and be thankful for the undeserved gift of the Holy Spirit they received with the sacrament of confirmation. “It is a gift to be cherished with care” and to follow with docility, “letting oneself be molded like wax from the burning love” of the Holy Spirit, the pope said May 30 at his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square. During the audience, the pope was treated to a performance by taekwondo athletes from South Korea. 

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis has named as apostolic visitor to Medjugorje the Polish archbishop he had initially sent to the town as his personal envoy to study the pastoral needs of the townspeople and of the thousands of pilgrims who flock to the site of the alleged Marian apparitions. The pope appointed Archbishop Henryk Hoser, the retired archbishop of Warsaw-Praga, Poland, to be apostolic visitor to Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Vatican announced May 31.

EVENTS LOUISIANA OVATION VOCAL ENSEMBLE, spring concert, “The Wonderful World of Disney,”  June 10, 3 p.m., St. Charles Borromeo School Gym, 13396 River Road, Destrehan. Children may dress as their favorite Disney prince and princess.  ST. FRANCIS XAVIER, 50th priestly ordination reception, for Josephite Father Joseph Doyle, June 10, 10 a.m. Mass, St. Francis Xavier Church.

For the four men ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of New Orleans June 2 at St. Louis Cathedral, the Mass of Ordination – a mere, two-hour snippet of their lives – transformed them in ways they could not have imagined. Each of the new priests – Fathers Dominic Arcuri, Thien Nguyen, Vincent Nguyen and Cletus Orji – expressed both awe and humility at being called to the altar. Father Arcuri, 69, was the elder statesman, who jokingly acknowledged he was the only seminarian at Notre Dame Seminary to be receiving a Social Security check each month.

Summer is here, which in New Orleans usually means dressing down even more casually than we do at other times of year. I know the issue of church attire is a sensitive one – especially in an area where it’s hot nine months out of the year. What’s your perspective on how people should dress for Mass? I have a variety of feelings about this. There’s a part of me that remains grateful to God that a person is in church, regardless of how he or she is dressed.

WASHINGTON (CNS) – In a 7-2 decision June 4, the Supreme Court sided with a Colorado baker in a case that put anti-discrimination laws up against freedom of speech and freedom of religious expression. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the majority, said the Colorado Civil Rights Commission had violated the Constitution’s protection of religious freedom in its ruling against the baker, who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor dissented. Kennedy noted the case had a limited scope, writing that the issue “must await further elaboration.”

Making a Difference Why are people poor? It’s not because there aren’t enough resources to go around. For one thing, the world produces enough food to adequately feed every single person. Well then what are the reasons? Among the major reasons poverty exists are unemployment, underemployment, lack of health care and education, hunger, homelessness, undocumented immigration status, climate change and war.