CatholicAnchor.org Supporters of a ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana use in Alaska submitted 46,000 signatures to state election officials on Jan. 8 with hopes of forcing a statewide vote on the issue in August. The group needs 30,000 signatures to be certified for the measure to move forward. The push for liberalizing marijuana…
CatholicAnchor.org Alaska’s Commissioner of Health and Social Services defended the state’s new regulation that requires abortion practitioners to explain why they thought an abortion was “medically necessary” before they receive compensation for the procedure from Alaska’s public funds. As in other states, Alaska is subject to the long-standing federal law — the Hyde Amendment —…
CatholicAnchor.org The Catholic Church opposes all direct abortions but does not condemn procedures which may result, indirectly, in the loss of the unborn child as a “secondary effect.” There are, for example, rare cases when a pregnancy can be life threatening, such as the case when a mother is suffering from an ectopic pregnancy…
CatholicAnchor.org The ancient pilgrim path, the Camino de Santiago, is the backdrop of a new film coming to Anchorage this month that traces the sacred pilgrimage route (The Camino) westward across Spain to the city of Santiago de Compostela where the bones of the apostle Saint James are said to be buried. Millions of pilgrims…
CatholicAnchor.org A group of 75 pro-life advocates braved the chill and freezing rain to pray at the 14th annual Ecumenical Memorial Prayer Service on January 18th at Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery. Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz opened the ceremony with prayer, reflecting upon Pope Francis’s recent statement about a “throwaway society” that thoughtlessly discards anything undesirable…
CatholicAnchor.org Jesuit priest Father Normand Amedée Pepin, an acclaimed composer and organist who served the Fairbanks Diocese for more than 30 years, died Jan. 4 in Weston, Mass. Born in Norwood, Massachusetts in 1933, Father Pepin grew up an avid hockey player and served as an altar boy. According to his obituary, in the…
CatholicAnchor.org The Anchorage Archdiocese has connections to one of the newly appointed cardinals chosen by Pope Francis last month. Nearly 10 years ago, Cardinal-elect Archbishop Orlando Quevedo of the Archdiocese of Cotabato, Philippines, entered into a Global Solidarity Partnership with Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz. The 2004 agreement provides mutual support between the sister archdioceses. Delegations…
CatholicAnchor.org When the Spanish sailor Juan de Camus sorted through the ashes of a burned-down house in the Philippines in April 1565, he happened upon a plain pine box. Opening it, he found what would in later centuries become one of the most important icons in Filipino culture — a discovery that continues to…
CatholicAnchor.org While a number of laws in Alaska deal with trafficking, efforts are underway to strengthen these laws. In the last legislative session, Gov. Sean Parnell introduced a bill to provide stronger protections for victims and survivors, while strengthening penalties and sentences for sex trafficking and giving law enforcement more investigative tools to track down…
CatholicAnchor.org People outside Russia usually ask me how and what I am doing. I then give a litany of what we are doing, leaving out what we should be doing and our failures. At the end of the conversation I run to the nearest priest to confess the sin of exaggerating in order to look…