Pope Francis has designated October 2019 as the Extraordinary Missionary Month in honor of the 100th anniversary of Pope Benedict XV’s 1919 apostolic letter, “Maximum Illud (MI).” (The title, “Maximum Illud,” is derived from the opening words of the original Latin text, meaning “that momentous.”)

Christian singer/songwriter Lorraine Hess, the new director of music ministry at St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Metairie, has released a new album to benefit a memorial scholarship at the LSU Health Sciences Center honoring the late Dr. Keith A. Collins.

When Pope John Paul II walked down the stairs from the second-floor bedroom of Archbishop Philip Hannan’s residence in 1987 – the pontiff was leaving for a flight to San Antonio, the next stop on his historic visit to the U.S. – the engineer’s gene in Peter Quirk, a man who always did his homework, prompted him to prepare yet another plan.

Because someone believed in David Pierson’s intellectual abilities beyond his ACT college-placement test score, he not only graduated from college with honors in 1970 but also has taught English at the elementary and high school level for 27 years in the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

Irish-born, clergy sexual abuse survivor Marie Collins, who quit a Vatican panel in 2017 when she believed it was not fulfilling its stated mission to establish ironclad, global guidelines to protect children from abuse, told a New Orleans audience Tuesday night that laypersons will have to force the institutional church to make concrete changes in accountability and transparency.

La semana pasada, organizó un taller para sacerdotes sobre el impacto de la pornografía en nuestra cultura. ¿Puede hablar sobre por qué abordó este tema con los sacerdotes?

St. James Major began its 100th anniversary celebration Sept. 15 with a Mass concelebrated by Archbishop Gregory Aymond, Father Michael Labre, the parish’s current pastor, and former pastor Father Richard Maughan.

School Sister of Notre Dame Colleen Hennessey, a native of St. Louis who served in education in the Archdiocese of New Orleans, including three years as president of St. Michael Special School, died Aug. 19 at St. Mary of the Pines in Chatawa, Mississippi.

Catholic High School Information: Profiles, tuition info on all 23 schools.

Last week you hosted a workshop for priests on the impact of pornography on our culture. Can you talk about why you addressed this topic with priests? This grows out of our plan in the archdiocese to address the widespread use of and addiction to pornography and how we can help heal individuals and families who are affected by this.

Queridos hermanos la parábola de este domingo es bastante sorprendente. Jesús le da la vuelta a una situación paradójica para enseñarnos algo fundamental: que los bienes de este mundo o los utilizamos para crear lazos de fraternidad o son perfectamente inútiles. Pero para llegar a esa conclusión utiliza un camino del que cuesta entender bien las curvas y vericuetos.

Fourteen teams – 12 of which have winning records – will take part in the annual Catholic League Volleyball Tournament, co-hosted by Ursuline and Dominican high schools Sept. 20-21. Matches begin at 4 p.m. on the tournament’s first day, and at 8 a.m. on Sept. 21 at both host schools.

MID-AUTUMN, CHILDREN’S FESTIVAL 2019, Vietnamese community celebrates with food, gifts, games, live music with singers, dragon dance performances, lantern procession. Free admission.

Academy of Our Lady students attended the first Mass of the school year on Aug. 15 – just three days after the start of the academic year – and witnessed the induction of several classmates as extraordinary ministers of holy Communion.

Relics of St. Padre Pio will be on public display in the Archdiocese of New Orleans and the Diocese of Lafayette during the next three weeks. Local Catholic Maria Elena Castillo credits the holy man called “Padre Pio” with ensuring that her twin sister would have a peaceful death, and she did.

Today’s first reading and Gospel both illustrate God’s mercy. In the first, God shows himself willing to forgive the Israelites for worshipping a golden statue of a bull, in clear violation of his instructions. In the Gospel, Jesus tells a story about a father who welcomes home a ne’er-do-well son who has squandered a good deal of the family property.

When Ed Orgeron was recruiting a graduate transfer quarterback from Ohio State, an LSU source said the school would win a competition with the University of Cincinnati.

Recently, we sang one of my favorite hymns at Mass. This hymn brings me joy and makes my heart skip a beat, yet it also causes me anxiety. Hearing it reminds me how far off we are, especially this time of year.

Louisiana Select schools have taken the handoff from LHSAA executive director Eddie Bonine. Now the principals of that unofficial body – the Louisiana Select Association (LSA) – must decide where they want to run with it: toward a common goal or farther away.

After three months of spiritual, liturgical and doctrinal training, 11 boys received their cassocks and surplices during Mass on the Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary from Father José Cáceres at the Northshore Hispanic Pastoral Center. During an altar server installation ceremony, their parents presented them at the sanctuary.