“Mary is on the move,” says Kimberly Harmon. “Mary wants to be so close” to her children, “especially during this trying time in our Church. Mary’s giving us so much hope.”

St. Bernard Central Catholic High School’s football team won the Massachusetts Division 8 state championship Dec. 1 with a 46 - 35 victory over Pope John XXIII of Everett at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro.

Peter Dunbeck, chairman of the Worcester Diocese’s Environmental Stewardship Ministry, suggests that our way of Christmas gift-giving can serve the precepts of “Laudato Si’,” protecting the environment while taking care of those we love, and better providing for the needy.

Men from three different countries are scheduled to be ordained at a special Mass at 10 a.m. Dec. 15 at St. Paul Cathedral. Deacon Juan-Sebastian Sanchez Guzman, from Colombia, is to be ordained a priest. Vijaya Sagar Gundiga, expected to be the first person from India to be ordained for the Worcester Diocese, and Thiago Moises Da Silva, the second Brazilian, are becoming transitional deacons, preparing for priesthood.

When Maryknoll Father Robert Jalbert - a Southbridge native - went to East Africa in 1976 as a young missionary-in-training, he was excited about all he could offer to the poor. He never dreamed that the poor had something to offer him. he said.

WHITINSVILLE – St. Patrick Parish has been helping its people deal with the turmoil caused by the recent revelations about sexual abuse in the Church. Monday it hosted Francesco Cesareo, president of Assumption College in Worcester and president of the National Review Board, to give people a broader picture of the issue and how to respond to it.