After spending a sabbatical here in 2009, Benedictine Father Joseph McGilloway of Ireland has returned to Alaska hoping to make the Far North home. With the permission of his abbot of Glendal Abbey in Limerick and Archbishop Roger Schwietz of Anchorage, the 48-year-old monk and priest arrived back in Alaska on March 5 “to see…
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 liturgies and inspiring Alaskan clergy during the annual priest convocation. During his visit, he…
CatholicAnchor.org On any given summer day dozens of neighborhood children gather at St. Anthony Church in Anchorage for lunch and playtime on the parish’s expansive green lawn and parking lot. Games and free play often follow a hastily eaten meal, sometimes organized by teens from the south Mountain View parish and other youth volunteers. Beginning…
CatholicAnchor.org Forty-six year old seminarian Arthur Roraff is on the cusp of a pivotal moment in his journey to become the newest Catholic priest for the Archdiocese of Anchorage. On June 6, Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz will ordain Roraff to the transitional diaconate. After five years of seminary studies and formation, this is the last…
The issues raised by the group are timely as Pope Francis has taken a keen interest in highlighting the role of women in both the church and society. In creating a new papal commission on sex abuse, he named women as half the membership, a sign that he hopes to create more leadership opportunities for women in the future.
More than 20 million Americans are fallen away Catholics but Eagle River parishioner Virginia Marquez is no longer among them. Rather, she is part of a subtle current of formerly lapsed Catholics who have found their way back into the church. This phenomena happens for a variety of reasons. For Marquez, it was a combination…
Two more young Alaskans are heading off to train for the Catholic priesthood this fall. The development continues a vocations surge in the Anchorage Archdiocese and will bring the total number of men in formation for the priesthood to five. Spencer Hodgson will graduate from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., this spring, and will…
Sean Lemaire looked serene processing forward with several young people as they brought forth the gifts during a recent Mass at St. Andrew Church in Eagle River. But this wasn’t a usual Mass, or a typical procession. The Special Religious Development Mass, held March 2, was the culmination of a year of training and faith…
In 1998, Alaska became the first state in the union to amend its constitution and define marriage as between one man and one woman, and despite a trend among more than a dozen states to legally recognize same-sex marriage, Alaska will hold the line. Alaska Attorney General Michael Geraghty recently told the Associated Press that…
University of Alaska Anchorage students, faculty and staff received ashen crosses on their foreheads March 5 for Ash Wednesday — the start of the Lenten 40-day period of prayer, fasting and alms giving that culminates in Holy Week and Easter Sunday. Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz traced the ashes on about 20 people who attended the…