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Sacred sites await spiritual trekkers across Alaska

For millions of Christians, including those in Alaska, summer is spiritual pilgrimage time. But if Alaskan pilgrims can’t make the long journey to Lourdes or the Holy Land, they can still make little pilgrimages — in the Far North. Here, the Catholic Anchor lists a few holy sites in Alaska ripe for spiritual venturing.
“We are all pilgrims,” Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has explained. And that pilgrimage is a “journey to Heaven,” he added – one in which the faithful are on a “perennial mission of proclaiming before the world the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Alaska’s Catholic summer camp geared up for second season

The second season of St. Therese’s Camp in the Mat-Su Valley begins June 28. The Catholic summer camp, located outside of Wasilla, offers four weeklong programs on a forested 57-acre lakeside campus. According to the camp website, programming for children ages 8-14 includes “swimming, kayaking, canoeing, singing, campfires, archery, volleyball, ultimate frisbee, arts and crafts and outdoor skills training.”

Alaska Catholic Youth Conference aims to ‘reinvigorate’ faith

Attendees will participate in daily Mass, go to eucharistic adoration and confession, perform service projects in the community and raise money for Heifer International. On Tuesday evening, Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz, Fairbanks Bishop Chad Zielinski and Juneau Bishop Edward Burns will join young people for an ice cream social, after which the youth will be able to grill the bishops with questions about the faith. This is a popular and well attended yearly event at ACYC.

New Alaskan deacons urged to be instruments of mercy

It’s no secret that the vast, sparsely populated expanse of Alaska suffers from a grave shortage of Catholic clergy. On May 1 at Our Lady of Guadalupe Co-Cathedral in Anchorage that burden was lessened just a bit when six Alaskan men, dressed in white albs, were called from their seats among family and friends to be ordained permanent deacons for the Archdiocese of Anchorage.

Fertility restoration brought life, strengthened our faith

Just prior to my fifth pregnancy, my husband Alex and I decided that we would close off our marriage to new life. With a vasectomy on the calendar, our daughter Bethany was conceived, and Alex went through with a sterilization that cost about $800 and took an hour. And that was it. No longer would we ponder the possibility of new life each month in our marriage; our family had grown even beyond what is considered a normal size and we certainly had plenty of children already, right?

Jesus makes absolute, universal claims like no other

Some believe it is arrogant to say that Jesus is the Savior of the world — the only name by which any can be saved. Such statements are narrow and dangerous, we are told, and they offend and alienate others. Past generations might have held such a view but we live in the modern world in which our neighbors are secular or Muslims or from various faith or non-faith backgrounds.

Doubts and challenges to faith are fair game at Alaska parish’s outreach

In a world that so often marginalizes and ignores matters of faith and religion, burning questions loom of the afterlife, of God, of a creator and how to live out fleeting lives here on Earth. For some that leads to questions about the Catholic Church. “Seekers,” a group that meets at St. Patrick Church in Anchorage, has gained momentum among Alaskans looking for answers to spirituality in general and interest in the Catholic faith.

EDITORIAL: Prioritizing sacred art

Given that the mission of the Catholic Church is to inspire and invite people into a deeper love of God in all his beauty and splendor, perhaps even frontier churches should reconsider ways to foster the vital role that sacred art has played since the earliest days of Christianity.

Alaska’s Pieta explores difficult questions of modern world

For Santo, the journey to making this sculpture began when he was an altar boy at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, and the pastor showed him a photo of Michelangelo’s renowned Pieta. He remembers wondering why that would happen — why God would allow Mary to go through so much suffering because of her Son’s Passion and death. This question, he believes, is the essential difference between his Pieta and that of Michelangelo. He said that through the centuries, most artists have not wanted to make another Pieta, for fear that it would not measure up to Michelangelo’s masterpiece, often considered the greatest sculpture ever created.

Holy Rosary Academy graduates six seniors in Anchorage

Holy Rosary Academy in Anchorage graduated six seniors this year. The k-12th grade school held its baccalaureate Mass at Holy Family Cathedral on May 19. Dominican priests from the downtown cathedral presided at the Mass and the choir consisted of the school’s faculty.