The North Star Catholic / Joel Davidson, Author at The North Star Catholic

Dominicans to host Friars’ Fest at Anchorage cathedral

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.

Clearing the air around legalizing marijuana

Part of the unethical character of drug abuse flows from the fact that we are treating something good, namely our personal, conscious experience as if it were an evil to be avoided. Recreational drug users seek to escape or otherwise suppress their lived conscious experience, and instead pursue chemically-altered states of mind, or drug-induced pseudo-experiences. Any time we act in such a way that we treat something objectively good as if it were an evil by acting directly against it, we act in a disordered and immoral manner.

Redemptorist priest Fr. David Tobin dies

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.

Cardinal visits Alaska: Says leaders must serve

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.

Catholic youth: Record number of teens take part in annual conference Alaska youth challenged by ancient faith Record number of teens attend AK Catholic Youth Conference

CatholicAnchor.org At a time when sociologists find traditional forms of faith weakening among U.S. young people and increasing numbers claiming no religion, an estimated 350 Alaskan teens descended on Anchorage for four days of intense Catholic immersion. The 14th annual Alaska Catholic Youth Conference in Anchorage took place June 2-5 at Lumen Christi High School…

Priest sharing insights during 513 mile walk across Spain

CatholicAnchor.org Father Tom Lilly is somewhere along an ancient pilgrimage path, hiking the narrow footpaths, farm trails, cobbled streets and byways of Spain. The pastor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Anchorage is on his way to the historic cathedral that houses the relics of Saint James the Apostle. Known as Santiago de Compostela, the…

Faith can’t help but inform politics, governor tells teens

CatholicAnchor.org Alaska Governor Sean Parnell spent the better part of an hour fielding questions about his Christian faith from Catholic teens during last month’s Alaska Catholic Youth Conference (ACYC) in Anchorage. Invited by Alaska’s Catholic bishops to participate at this year’s ACYC, Parnell accepted and spoke candidly about how faith and political leadership have shaped…

Pope invites Alaskan missionary priest to Mass in private chapel

Earlier this year, Father Michael Shields received an invitation to give an eight-day retreat in Rome for nuns of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity congregation. He had no idea that the invite would land him face to face with Pope Francis, in the pontiff’s private chapel.

Alaska & the future of U.S. Catholicism

Cardinal Dolan: Smaller and mission-minded church may be the future of U.S. Catholicism A leading voice of the Catholic Church sees Alaska as where the rest of the U.S. church may be heading in the future. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, stopped in Anchorage March 24-26 to spend three days teaching, celebrating…

AK high court says same-sex unions akin to marriage

CatholicAnchor.org Homosexual activists are hoping a recent Alaska Supreme Court ruling on property exemptions is the beginning of even wider legal recognition and public affirmation of same-sex relationships in Alaska. Homosexual activists have their eye on overturning of the state’s constitutional definition of marriage as between one man and one woman. The Alaska Supreme Court…