News - May 2024 RSS Feed

Going to a movie. Signing up for a holy hour. Joining a procession. Venerating relics and viewing an exhibit about eucharistic miracles inspired by a teenager about to be canonized.These are among opportunities available to local Catholics in the next several days, as the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi) is celebrated this weekend.

Priests are happy. And they have a unique ability to bring people to God. Those observations helped a man of the Worcester diocese pursue such a life, despite uncertainty. On June 1 Luke Andrew Johnson, now a transitional deacon, is to be ordained a priest at St. Paul Cathedral.

WORCESTER – St. Joan of Arc Parish inaugurated its 75th anniversary Sunday with a standing-room-only Mass celebrated by Bishop McManus, who also broke ground for a Marian shrine.

WORCESTER – When Joonho Kim, a new graduate of St. Paul Diocesan Junior-Senior High School, found out that he recorded the highest score in the nation in the Catholic Math League’s advanced math competition this year, he was proud and stunned.

“People live longer lives today,” Deacon Mullaney said. In a way, his life is just beginning.

What would it mean for every parish in the diocese to embrace this “missionary option”? What if all our customs and ways of doing things were channeled for the purpose of making disciples who joyfully live out the mission of Jesus Christ?

WORCESTER – As Our Lady of Lourdes Parish celebrated its 75th anniversary with the universal Church’s birthday, Bishop McManus compared attendance of the past and present, spoke of praying for a new Pentecost and challenged listeners to invite others to Mass.

Bishop McManus ordained John Anthony McManamon and James Clement Guillette, permanent deacons, and Jonathan Elliot Amidon and Zachary Tyler Sullivan transitional deacons who are preparing for priesthood.

Sister Maria Manzano, a sister of the Order of St. Benedict, died May 17 at St. Scholastica Priory in Petersham at the age of 92.

When Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Webster needed a new floor in the parish hall, parishioner Melissa Orlowski asked her boss at McGee Toyota of Dudley for help.

“I never doubted that God existed,” he said. “I rationalized [that] God didn’t need my worship.” That was partly true; “God doesn’t need anything.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – “The time has come for a new Jubilee when once more the Holy Door will be flung open to invite everyone to an intense experience of the love of God that awakens in hearts the sure hope of salvation in Christ,” Pope Francis said in a document formally proclaiming the Holy Year 2025.

The program’s annual recognition reception, held May 8 at St. Paul Diocesan Jr./Sr. High School, raises money for scholarships for students in the diocesan schools: St. Paul’s and St. Peter Central Catholic Elementary School.

OXFORD – Less than two weeks before Mother’s Day, children sat or lay in the center aisle of the dimly-lit St. Roch Church, quietly coloring. It was May 1. Catholic Moms Group, which meets at St. Roch’s, was having its monthly Eucharistic adoration, during which mothers and older children can avail themselves of the sacrament of penance.

John McManamon will be ordained a deacon on Saturday, May 18, at 10 a.m. at St. Paul Cathedral and he believes it was predestined. His identical twin brother Phil is already a deacon in the Archdiocese of New Orleans, and he is scheduled to place the dalmatic vestment on him at the ordination.

In the twenty years since the installation of Bishop McManus as the fifth bishop of Worcester, the diocese has changed demographically and structurally for numerous reasons, but one thing remains a constant for the people of the Catholic Church in the diocese – that is, faith in Jesus Christ.

The Rebels are fortunate to have Ms. Cullen as their coach. She and her brothers Matt, Mike and Nick Marrone own the two courses where NDA practices and plays its home matches, Wachusett Country Club in West Boylston and Kettle Brook Golf Club in Paxton.

St. Stanislaus church hall was packed with children, youth and adults for Fabiola, a play based on Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman’s 19th century novel about early Christian martyrs.

Jane F. (Anisko) Banach, 91, of Auburn, entered eternal life on April 21. Two days after celebrating her 91st birthday.

Catherine L. Fleming, a Boston College junior, heads to the Colorado Rockies this month for training to be a counselor at Camp Wojtyla, a Catholic adventure program for middle school and high school students.