According to Father Matthew Johnston, the first-year pastor of St. Benilde Parish in Metairie, the inspiration for a “Rocky”-themed #iGiveCatholic promotional video, hatched by school principal Thomas Huck, had just the right touch of craziness.

In St. Mary’s Dominican High School teacher Claudia Vallejo’s Spanish III class, pairs of students gathered around laptops to view artwork by women and men in concentration camps, in ghettos or in hiding. The class connected recently via Skype with Laurie Garcia, associate director of education/outreach at the Holocaust Museum Houston.

Good things come to those who wait. Each Advent, I’m reminded of this cliché. Each year, we count down the days until Christmas, until the birth of our savior. Each year we take on the role of Mary, waiting in anticipation for the birth of her son, waiting in prayerful acceptance of God’s will.

Raise your hand if you had a blast during the first week of February 2010 in Miami? Thought so.

The readings today announce good news that answers some of our greatest desires. But it is surprising in more ways than one. What we would like is a world justly ordered for the benefit of everyone, a world at peace.

As Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday) has come to an end and the Advent season is upon us, I can truly say we have reached what I consider to be “the most wonderful time of the year.”

Pope Francis led prayers for the people of Albania after the country was struck by a magnitude 6.4 earthquake. “I would like to send my greetings and my closeness to the dear people of Albania who have suffered so much in these days,” the pope said Nov. 27 before concluding his weekly general audience.

How is your supply of Christmas cheer doing these days? Mine is in rather short supply. Every year around this time I grouse about the Christmas ads in September and the Christmas music in October, the carefully crafted marketing intended to prompt a Pavlovian response of debt-fueled consumerism.

For more than one reason, members of the Centanni family give thanks for the gift of life and health this holiday season. Over the past 20 years, not just one but two family members have donated a kidney to an uncle, prolonging both men’s lives.

This week the Church celebrates one of her most important, yet misunderstood, solemnities – the Immaculate Conception of Mary. Unfortunately, many Catholics mistakenly believe this celebration refers to Christ himself rather than to our Blessed Mother.

Finding bargains, especially during the run-up to Christmas, can be especially invigorating. Keith John Paul Horcasitas, whose first professional job was as a social worker for Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans in the 1980s, discovered that eight years ago when he accompanied his brother-in-law, Dale Pederson, on something Pederson told him was a “storage auction.”

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Paul West, a 1979 graduate of Jesuit High School, admittedly had not prayed the rosary much, but about two years ago, he was on his knees with the kind of problems many people have – how to meet financial obligations, such as paying for college tuition for a relative.

Nearly 170 Nativity sets from across the world are on display at the St. Alphonsus Art and Cultural Center, 2025 Constance St., in New Orleans. The exhibit of Christmas art concludes Dec. 8 at 4 p.m. Admission is free.

Archbishop Gregory Aymond traveled to Rome this week along with the bishops of five southern states for their required “ad limina” visit with Pope Francis, which occurs approximately every five years.

St. Augustine Church in Tremé has raised more than half of its $2.5 million capital campaign goal for the renovation of the historic church, which was built in 1841.

When The Times-Picayune’s prep guru N. Charles Wicker announced in his first column of January 1951 that the Archdiocese of New Orleans would stage its first all-Catholic school basketball tournament, he wasn’t shy about exaggerating its potential.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The sacrament of marriage cannot be “improvised” but must be prepared for, nourished and supported during the couple’s journey, Pope Francis said.