By Joyce LundPrincipal, Our Lady of the Valley Catholic School Music has been a treasured ministry at OLV for the past ten years. Students have brought music to various venues capitalizing on the abundance of talent within the student body. With the current COVID mitigation plans restricting singing at the parishes, creative minds decided to…
By Dominique JohnsonThe North Star Catholic Born and raised in Sitka, Deacon Ron Mathews received the sacraments at St. Gregory Nazianzen Parish, where he now serves. However, his journey to the diaconate was not straightforward. “I really thought that I was more being allowed, by God, to be a deacon. I didn’t really think I’d…
By Father Michael Kim, KMSThe North Star Catholic Cordova is located on the shore of Orca Inlet in Prince William Sound and is the home of St. Joseph parish. The parish was established in the summer of 1908, and the first church was dedicated to St. Joseph that fall. The original church was built on…
By Father Leo WalshThe North Star Catholic In 1971, Archbishop Ryan recognized a need for a new parish to serve the Catholic faithful on the east side of Anchorage. Without a facility, parishioners of St. Anthony Church came together to form this new parish community. The fledgling community met for several years in the gym…
By Dominique JohnsonThe North Star Catholic Sister Frances Vista, D.C., recalls having an interest in religious life when she was 13 years old, living in the Philippines. “I saw a group of sisters wearing habits walking in a little town in the Philippines. I thought, wow, look at them; they look so happy,” Sister Frances…
By Annette AllevaThe North Star Catholic COVID-19 dashed many dreams, taxed our souls, took our lives. No one in the world has been left unaffected. Those planning to wed in the Catholic Church, preparing to commit to a lifetime with one they love, hit a huge bump in the road at the start of their…
By Dominique JohnsonThe North Star Catholic The unity process of the Archdiocese of Anchorage-Juneau took another step forward on January 6, 2021, with the launch of the new archdiocesan website aoaj.org. The new website’s design process began shortly after the announcement of the new archdiocese and after meeting with different website designers. The archdiocese worked…
By Deacon Dan and Trish StoweThe North Star Catholic St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, the oldest Catholic Church in South Central Alaska, is located in Valdez, at the head of the eleven-mile long Prince William Sound fjord. Fr. Turnell celebrated our first Mass in Mrs. Johnson’s boarding house in 1903. The first church building was…
By Father Marino Cho, KMSThe North Star Catholic St. Gregory Nazianzen Parish is situated in Southeast Alaska, about 98 miles south of Juneau, our state capital. However, Sitka has been established much longer and was capital of Alaska from 1867 to 1906. In 1867, a petition signed by 120 people was sent to the Bishop…
By Anna SchultenThe North Star Catholic Alan Muise and his wife Nancy, began their ministry in Alaska when Alan was stationed at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage in 1991 as an F-15 pilot. “I enjoy doing music ministry the most,” said Alan. “We had been in music ministry at all the air bases that…