News - March 2021 RSS Feed

Learn more about Reach, a program, designed for children with autism and other special needs, assists students in their efforts to reach for the stars. Special guests include the program's Executive Director, Kristy Monsour, 'Reach' participants Jennifer and Olivia Dellorfano, 'Reach' instructor Yolanda Marseille, and Superintendent of Baton Rouge Catholic Schools, Dr. Melanie Palmisano.

Bishop Michael G. Duca pours balsam, a sweetly scented essence, into oil to be blessed during the Chrism Mass celebrated March 30 at St. George Church in Baton Rouge. Photo by Richard Meek | The Catholic Commentator

Palm Sunday, March 28, kicked off Holy Week, which commemorates the Jesus’ passion and the events immediately preceding it.

Hope is what anchors us to Christ when we don’t see the end result. Hope is what keeps us afloat when we feel like we’re drowning amidst the waves of confusion and despair. Hope is ultimately the pinnacle of who we are as Christians.

Julie Gianelloni, a former employee of the US Foreign Service reflects on a valuable lesson she learned early in her career.

We need the power of Christ’s resurrection to lift us out of our sadness and grief.  This hope is not a panacea that will protect us from the hard work before us to heal, restore and inspire our broken world.  But it is a hope that will sustain our mission in difficult times because our hope is in Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead who is greater than any difficulties we may face.  

Karen Carmody, her husband Chris and four children, are stationed in Aguada, Puerto Rico.  Missionaries live on not many dollars a month, so they don’t have much money to distribute to beggars.  At the same time, however, they often come upon individuals who, like Lazarus in Jesus’ parable of the neglected beggar, have no one to help them.  The story of how they brought Christ’s love to Nelson the beggar is one of inspired almsgiving.

On a balmy Friday night members of the Most Blessed Sacrament Church in Baton Rouge’s Men’s Club bantered as they lifted up deep fryer baskets dripping with sizzling golden oil that contained the “soul food” of Lent.

On a July day this past summer, Victor Howell eased into his favorite chair, settling in to watch an afternoon of golf, mindful of a few sniffles he had been recently experiencing. Two hours later, Howell was in the Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge emergency room, with doctors asking him if he had a living will.

One year after Catholic schools closed their doors on the 2019-2020 school year, principals, teachers, staff, parents and students have adjusted, altered and adapted to one of the biggest learning curves in their lives: how to educate more than 14,000 students during a global pandemic. 

Holy Week beckons us to set aside our sufferings and struggles, which have likely been many in this past year, and accompany Jesus in his Passion and death to save humanity. 

As the novel coronavirus began to spread its carnage in the Northwest and Northeast corners of the country a year ago, bishops in Louisiana began to meet to discuss their own plans. Bishop Michael G. Duca soon gathered Episcopal Vicar Father Jamin David, Vicar General Father Tom Ranzino and several other diocesan leaders to discuss the practical realities of what a lockdown might look like. By mid-March the diocese had drafted its own set of protocols. Churches were soon shuttered, church bells silenced, and choirs muted as Gov. John Bel Edwards issued a statewide lockdown. 

I cannot tell you how many times I question the Lord when that internal struggle to trust or fear presents itself. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve allowed fear to rule my decisions instead of freedom. I can tell you that the moments where I chose trust over fear are the moments that have most defined the course of my life for the better. I can’t see the future, and I don’t know what awaits me even in the next breath, but I am called at each and every moment to trust.

Bishop Michael G. Duca has issued guidelines for Palm Sunday and the Easter triduum, urging parishioners to wear masks at all times and continue to practice physical distancing.  Episcopal Vicar Father Jamin David said the bishop’s protocols are quite similar to what has been issued by the Holy See. Regarding Palm Sunday, which is March 28, Father David said the church has discouraged the traditional procession of palms at the beginning of Mass.