EDITOR’S PICKS

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.

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.

Outdoorsman priest with pro-life passion departs cathedral for new assignment in California

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.

Young women bring a passion for Catholic camps to Alaska

Three young women with a passion for inspiring faith in youth have landed in Alaska to help launch the inaugural season of St. Theresa’s Camp — a Catholic summer camp in the Mat-Su Valley. Thanks to the work of a local non-profit, Southcentral Alaska will again have a vibrant Catholic summer camp for the first time in nearly a quarter century. The last camp on the Kenai Peninsula closed in the early 1990s.

Copyright © 2025 Catholic Anchor Online - All Rights Reserved