Living Our Faith

The Living Our Faith section highlights Catholics and Catholic organizations who are living the Catholic faith in their daily lives through their prayer, works, and generous service to the community.

Answering God’s call to the priesthood

LISA JOHNSTON | lisajohnston@archstl.org  Four of the five transitional deacons who will be ordained May 26, 2012 walk together outside the temporary seminary.  They are left to right, Rev. Mr. Fadi Auro, Rev. Mr. Brian Fallon, Rev. Mr. Daniel Shaughnessy and Rev. Mr. William Dotson.  Rev. Mr. Donald Anstoetter has been studing at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

When Archbishop Robert J. Carlson ordains five new priests for the Archdiocese of St. Louis next week, no one will be happier than Jesuit Father John Horn, president-rector of Kenrick-Glennon Seminary.

"I'm very proud of these men," Father Horn said. "I regard them as younger brothers and as spiritual sons, all at the same time. I am joy-filled to see them go to the altar and be ordained."

Bullies aren't cool at John F. Kennedy Catholic High School

Walking together during lunch time in the school cafeteria Aaron Pangan, Adam Renfro, George Dowdy, Anne Donahue and Emily Rosenstein enjoyed eachothers company.  The small co-ed high school has a reputation for not allowing bully behavior and a general spirit of community exists with the students.

Bullying is not cool at John F. Kennedy Catholic High School.

The archdiocesan high school in Manchester is proactive in preventing bullying behavior, according to associate principal Patty McMullen-Hellwig. "If we hear any rumblings or anything, we try to reach out to the students before it starts," she said.

But it's more than official policy. The school culture at Kennedy, from the students on up, does not look kindly on bullying behavior.

A call to generosity | Annual Catholic appeal reaches many, every minute, every day

In 1942, Alice Widmer and LaDonna Hermann left St. Louis for Cottleville, with the blessing of Cardinal John J. Glennon, to serve the needs of rural families. They saw the need for practical application of the Gospels in an increasingly secularized society. In 1949, at the request of Archbishop Joseph E. Ritter, they moved to Fertile, Mo., where the community has continued to thrive with the help of additional workers, volunteers and benefactors. Their ministry is multi-faceted, going beyond the basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter. Along with archdiocesan and civic work, they work within the parish to strengthen family life.

Rita French may need to take a deep breath from time to time, but then she'll pull a new trick out of her bag -- anything to reach the children in her third-grade class at St. Louis Catholic Academy in north St. Louis.

A portion of the students are from stable families, though they struggle financially. Others have had rougher lives and ever rougher times financially.

Patience, progress: Differing opinions on dealing with Cuba's regime

A person waved Cuba’s flag as a crowd gathered in Revolution Square for Mass with Pope Benedict XVI in Havana March 28.

HAVANA -- The Cuba that Pope Benedict XVI visited March 26-28 is a country where the Catholic Church enjoys significantly more freedom and official recognition than it did when Blessed John Paul II made the first papal visit to the island in 1998.

After papal request, Cuba makes Good Friday 2012 a national holiday

People take part in an outdoors Stations of the Cross procession in Havana March 7. Cuba’s government, after a request from Pope Benedict XVI, declared Good Friday 2012 a national holiday.

VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican spokesman praised Cuba's decision to accept Pope Benedict XVI's request to make Good Friday a national holiday this year.

"It is certainly a very positive sign," Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said April 1.

Good Friday, the commemoration of Jesus' passion and death, falls on April 6 this year.

During the pope's private meeting with Cuban President Raul Castro in Havana March 27, the pope asked for further freedoms for the Catholic Church in the communist nation, including the declaration of Good Friday as a holiday.

Evangelization faces challenge from Cubans who syncretize religion

SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba -- In this Caribbean nation of 11.3 million, one of the greatest challenges to Catholic evangelization comes from Cubans who practice traditional African religions.

The fusion of diverse spiritual currents was occurring even before the Catholic Church began expanding throughout the world. When colonizers brought Christianity to the New World, it was expected that other religious systems would adhere to the mother Church.

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