Parents have different roles from their children. Teachers have different roles from firefighters. Mothers have different roles from fathers. And individually we also have different personalities that play important roles. But — and this is the important part — amidst our diversity there is an underlying unity that holds us together.
In an effort to promote Catholic education, three Anchorage youth were awarded scholarships for winning essays on the theme: “Jesus loves us; How do we spread that love?”
The Catholic Daughters of the Americas court in Anchorage organizes the annual student essay scholarship. This year the Daughters partnered with the Knights of Columbus council at Holy Family Cathedral, which allowed for an increased number of award winners.
Seminarian Brother Thomas Aquinas Pickett, 25, is in Anchorage for his one-year field assignment — a period of training that all Dominican student brothers complete as part of their eight-year formation for the priesthood. A graduate of Gonzaga University and Bishop White Seminary, Brother Pickett has a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and a passion for utilizing creative ways to spread the Gospel.
Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz has issued a list of allowable activities for parishes to engage in during the upcoming political season. The June 6 memo was sent to all parishes and agencies of the archdiocese to remind them of allowable activity during elections.
Alaska’s Orthodox Christian leaders praised Pope Francis and applauded a series of recent high profile meetings between him and Orthodox Patriarch on Constantinople Bartholomew, but they also expressed guarded enthusiasm about whether the encounters constitute significant progress toward uniting the long-divided churches.
The Dominicans at Holy Family Cathedral are hosting their annual Friars’ Fest Aug. 9, from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the cathedral courtyard. The public is invited to partake in an afternoon of food and games. Entertainment throughout the day will be provided by AKSAXO Jazz, harpist Colleen Duncan, the Dynamic Dominicans and several dance groups. Various food booths will serve ethnic cuisines, along with Kaladi Bros coffee, ribs and Tastee Freez ice cream.
Redemptorist Father David Tobin, who served for a time in the Archdiocese of Anchorage, died June 27 after a heart attack. He was 77.
In the 1960s, he helped run a popular summer camp, St. Theresa’s, from Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church on the Kenai Peninsula.
In July Cardinal Orlando Quevedo, of the Archdiocese of Cotabato, Philippines, made his third visit to the Archdiocese of Anchorage and his first since Pope Francis made him a cardinal in February. The recent trip was part of the now decade-long Global Solidarity Partnership between Cardinal Quevedo and Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz. The arrangement, which seeks to build solidarity and friendships between Catholics in Alaska and the Philippines, has resulted in several priests from Cotabato coming to serve in Alaska over the years.
While in Alaska, Cardinal Quevedo sat down with the Catholic Anchor to discuss the future of the partnership and his recent appointment as a cardinal.
Few things shake a person’s feeling of self-worth and stability as much homelessness. Pope Francis, during Advent last year, spoke about the great difficulties faced by families without a fixed place to live, and compared their situation to that of the Holy Family facing the birth of Jesus in a stable.
Holy Family Cathedral in Anchorage lost an energetic priest with a passion for pro-family and pro-life outreach. Father Paul Raftery, who first arrived at the cathedral in 2012, has been reassigned to serve again as head chaplain at Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, Calif., a post he previously held from 2006 to 2012. Father Raftery’s love for outdoor adventures with parishioners was well known during his time at the cathedral.