Alaska teens and college students plan to join Pope Francis and more than 2 million people at the World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland this month. It is a pilgrimage meant to change lives and open life-long connections.
As an intelligence officer in the Air Force and with a desire to marry and have children, Father Tom Lilly wasn’t planning to become a Catholic priest.
Under the leadership of adult parishioners and Deacon Kevin Woodvine a group of eight youth from Our Lady of the Angels Church in Kenai traveled to St. Gregory Nazianzen Church in Sitka. There the group met up with local parishioners and Father Andy Sensenig, a priest of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.
Earlier this spring, students from Our Lady of the Valley Catholic School in Wasilla got their hands dirty as they put into actions Pope Francis’ call for a “Year of Mercy.” The idea took shape with a phone call from Diane Krauszer, pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Palmer. She asked if students were willing to till soil, weed a community garden and prepare it for planting vegetables to give to Mat-Su Valley residents in need.
A tourist riding one of the fleet of buses exploring Alaska this summer might be surprised to learn that the personable young tour director enthusiastically reciting the state’s attributes is actually a seminarian studying for the Catholic priesthood.
The founding charism and signature trait of the Dominicans would be born of Saint Dominic’s dedication to preach the truth to ordinary people, wherever he found them. “If Dominic were alive today he would probably say ‘go to the mall,’” said Dominican Father Anthony Patalano, outgoing pastor of Holy Family Cathedral.
Growing up, I loathed going to Mass at St. Paul Church in Juneau. This began to change, however, during my sophomore year of college at University of Alaska, Fairbanks when I began attending a …
The annual Cardboard City event in Palmer aims to raise awareness of homelessness and raise money for Family Promise to support the homeless in the Mat-Su. A number of churches including St. Michael’s in Palmer and Sacred Heart in Wasilla support Family Promise and take shifts in opening their parishes to house the homeless.
The Catholic Anchor was recognized six times for excellence in journalism by the Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada. The awards came for work published in 2015 and were announced in June at the Catholic Media Convention in St. Louis, Missouri.
If donor giving is any indication, then Alaskan Catholics value priests and want to see many more. The first of several events to support the Archdiocese of Anchorage’s growing seminarian population kicked off on June 9 with the “Seminarian Endowment Challenge” at St. Patrick Church in Anchorage. Sold out weeks in advance, some 200 Catholics packed the parish hall in support of their future priests.