CatholicAnchor.org Gov. Sean Parnell signed legislation April 17 to prohibit Alaska abortion practitioners from being reimbursed by the state for performing so called “elective” abortions that are not necessary to preserve the life or physical health of the mother. The legislation underwent a series of contentious hearings before final passage and it failed to draw…
CatholicAnchor.org “Why Catholic?,” a scriptural and catechetical program for parish small groups presented by Renew International, has experienced increasing popularity since beginning two years ago in the Archdiocese of Anchorage. The program received a boost in May when Franciscan Sister Maureen Colleary visited for five days, giving mini-retreats in several archdiocesan parishes. Sister Colleary serves…
CatholicAnchor.org In an effort to solidify relationships that have provided the Anchorage Archdiocese with much needed priests and religious, Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz visited South Korea earlier this spring. His travels took him to the Diocese of Cheongju, which has sent priests and religious sisters to serve the Anchorage Korean Catholic Community for many years….
CatholicAnchor.org Earlier this year, Father Michael Shields received an invitation to give an eight-day retreat in Rome for nuns of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity congregation. He had no idea that the invite would land him face to face with Pope Francis, in the pontiff’s private chapel. Since the early 1990s Father Shields has served…
CatholicAnchor.org Michael Lucas defeated hundreds of young wrestlers on his way to becoming a national champion this past March. Having just completed 8th grade at Holy Rosary Academy in Anchorage, Lucas’ success on the mat is a continuation of his wrestling dominance the past five years in Alaska. Lucas recently traveled to Virginia Beach to…
CatholicAnchor.org After living as an atheist lesbian, Melinda Selmys converted to Catholicism and has authored several books, including “Sexual Authenticity: An Intimate Reflection on Homosexuality and Catholicism.” She writes and speaks regularly about issues pertaining to the church and the LGBTQ community. In May she traveled to Alaska in order to participate in two public…
Notes there’s ‘something special’ in Anchorage One of the highest ranking clerics in the Catholic Church — Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York — addressed Catholic high school students in Anchorage telling them, “You are worth every ounce of sacrifice” that goes into Catholic education. More than 100 students and faculty members…
Once every three months, I spend an evening driving with a chaplain to Nebraska’s death row. The chaplain, a woman who is a spiritual director to a death row inmate, organizes the group visit and submits our names.
Long before changing her name and swapping her wardrobe for a long, white nun’s habit, former Alaskan Rhia Viens, now 30, had an inkling that the religious life might be in her future.
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.