CatholicAnchor.org Trail Life USA has launched its first troops in Alaska. According to the Trail Life USA website the group is a Christian adventure, character and leadership program for young men. The K-12 program centers on outdoor experiences that “build a young man’s skills and allow him to grow on a personal level and as…
CatholicAnchor.org On Feb. 2, Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz marks his 24th year as a bishop. Born in St. Paul, Minnesota on July 3, 1940, the 73-year-old prelate has been a member of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate since his first profession of vows on August 15, 1961. He was ordained to the priesthood in…
CatholicAnchor.org The Catholic Church opposes all direct abortions but does not condemn procedures which may result, indirectly, in the loss of the unborn child as a “secondary effect.” There are, for example, rare cases when a pregnancy can be life threatening, such as the case when a mother is suffering from an ectopic pregnancy…
CatholicAnchor.org The ancient pilgrim path, the Camino de Santiago, is the backdrop of a new film coming to Anchorage this month that traces the sacred pilgrimage route (The Camino) westward across Spain to the city of Santiago de Compostela where the bones of the apostle Saint James are said to be buried. Millions of pilgrims…
CatholicAnchor.org Jesuit priest Father Normand Amedée Pepin, an acclaimed composer and organist who served the Fairbanks Diocese for more than 30 years, died Jan. 4 in Weston, Mass. Born in Norwood, Massachusetts in 1933, Father Pepin grew up an avid hockey player and served as an altar boy. According to his obituary, in the…
CatholicAnchor.org The Anchorage Archdiocese has connections to one of the newly appointed cardinals chosen by Pope Francis last month. Nearly 10 years ago, Cardinal-elect Archbishop Orlando Quevedo of the Archdiocese of Cotabato, Philippines, entered into a Global Solidarity Partnership with Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz. The 2004 agreement provides mutual support between the sister archdioceses. Delegations…
CatholicAnchor.org While a number of laws in Alaska deal with trafficking, efforts are underway to strengthen these laws. In the last legislative session, Gov. Sean Parnell introduced a bill to provide stronger protections for victims and survivors, while strengthening penalties and sentences for sex trafficking and giving law enforcement more investigative tools to track down…
CatholicAnchor.org “I never tire of repeating those words of which take us to the very heart of the Gospel: ‘Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.’” Pope Francis offered…
CatholicAnchor.org The Sixth isn’t the only commandment Father Tad Pacholczyk’s December column about “good guilt” told some, but not all, truth. As the 1960s promised to “free” us from our inhibitions about sex, so the 1980s promised to “free” us from our inhibitions about selfish materialism. Today our secular-valued society preaches “Greed is good” and…