Lumen Christi High School in Anchorage graduated 11 seniors this year. The 7-12th grade school held its baccalaureate Mass on May 13 at St. Benedict Church in Anchorage. The next day, May 14, the seniors participated in the graduation ceremony at in the school’s gymnasium. Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz attended and spoke to the graduates.
After five years of formation, six men are on the cusp of the moment when Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz will lay his hands on their heads, invoke the Holy Spirit and ordain them permanent deacons for the service of the church. Family members, friends, priests, religious and fellow deacons are expected to pack Our Lady of Guadalupe Co-Cathedral on May 1 at 7 p.m. to witness the ordinations.
Joy is a word Bailey uses frequently to describe the highlights of his time at the school. Of the things he is most proud of, the spirit of love and inclusiveness among the students is one of them. Normally soft-spoken, Bailey’s voice lowered a bit more when he describes how two students with muscular dystrophy have found nothing but support and acceptance at the school.
In a debate before the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce, candidates Ethan Berkowitz and Amy Demboski were sharply divided on the question of whether Anchorage should adapt legislation to establish sexual orientation and transgender identity as protected classes under the city’s nondiscrimination laws.
David Belanger, the longtime manager of Catholic cemeteries for the Anchorage Archdiocese, passed away on the morning of Good Friday, April 3, after battling cancer. He was 77. Over the past 15 years he dug scores of graves and laid to rest the bodies and ashes of hundreds of Alaskans, while helping those left behind deal with their loss.
The Alaska Legislature approved Gov. Bill Walker’s nominee, Lumen Christi High School Principal John Harmon, to serve on the Alaska State Board of Education & Early Development for the next five years. Confirmed with a 48-11 vote, Harmon will fill Esther Cox’s seat on the nine-member board, which has a mission statement “to ensure quality standards-based instruction to improve academic achievement for all students.”
Last year, Scannell hatched the postcard plan — called Any Refugee — and then convinced his fifth grade class in Anchorage to participate by drawing pictures on one side, writing a message on the other, and sending them to refugee children around the world.
Cardinal Francis George had planned to be in Alaska this summer to celebrate the 25th year since his long-time friend Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz was ordained a bishop. That visit is not possible now as Cardinal George, 78, passed away April 17 after a long bout with cancer.
Most states took Roe as the final judicial word on abortion. Alaska was no exception. No one expected that a judge would use the right to privacy in Alaska’s constitution to further liberalize abortion, firstly because the United States Supreme Court had the opportunity to do so, and did not.
My time in Russia has been a time of great faith building and a time of great faith testing. I have been in a crisis of faith on a number of occasions and each time the Lord shows a way through it. I bless the Lord for this knowledge and want to share some with you because there are many of you who are in a crisis, coming out of a crisis or ready to go into a crisis and have no idea what to do. I have cried out so many times these words: “God help me!”