News - May 2023

Of the three young men about to be ordained as priests in June, two went to public schools all their lives, and one attended Catholic schools. But all three began considering the priesthood during their childhood as altar servers.

“We left Venezuela because of the violence and not enough jobs. And even when I could get a job, it didn’t pay enough to feed my family and make it through a week,” said Jose Sanchez, standing with his wife and three young children in a shelter not far from Bush Intercontinental Airport, where Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston operates its Houston Transfer Center.

You are not alone if talking about end-of-life planning feels a bit awkward or uncomfortable. Jesus Himself experienced a sense of frustration when He encountered His disciples’ repeated resistance to announcing His going to Jerusalem to suffer and die.

The Church often gets a bad rap because it sometimes tells people not to have sex. The Church encourages teenagers to practice abstinence and wait for marriage. The Church tells individuals struggling with same-sex attraction that they should not act on those inclinations. In the world’s view, these messages seem harsh or “judgey,” and many people believe that the Church is then sentencing these individuals to a life of sorrow and loneliness.

How’s your Easter going? Have you been asked that lately? Probably not. These kinds of questions are usually reserved for Lent when we are checking on that friend who gave up caffeine.

Beginning on June 19, 2022, (the Feast of Corpus Christi), the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) began a nationwide Eucharistic Revival that will last for three years until June 2025, with a National Eucharistic Congress from July 17 to 21, 2024. Their goal was to reawaken our understanding and devotion to the real presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist.

As an Asian American Catholic, I am part of a long and rich history of resilience, cleverness and pure grit. Our community has overcome incredible obstacles, from the first wave of Asian immigration in the 1850s to the Vietnam War. Despite the challenges, we have always maintained a strong sense of sacrifice and silent determination, which has become the foundation of my life and the lives of other Asian Americans.

Peace is urgently needed in today’s world, and women should be more greatly appreciated, Pope Francis told hundreds of Catholic women.

A statistic shared in USA Today states more than 70% of college students will fall away from their faith if not supported during their first year. The Catholic Newman Centers provide support at colleges and universities in the Archdiocese to help decrease that statistic.

With the reversal of Roe v. Wade in June 2022, the Gabriel Project has seen in influx of pregnant women seeking assistance. Niki Sikinger, co-coordinator of the Gabriel Project ministry at St. Thomas More Catholic Church, said that, before the ruling, the program would average around 40 women annually. Last year, the ministry helped more than 100 women, most of them migrants from South America.

The alluring scent of roses, orchids and other fresh flowers seemed to be just as noticeable as the flourishing bouquets of greenery and petals that towered over hundreds of Vietnamese Catholics at Our Lady of Lavang Church in northwest Houston.

Name by name, the 1,820 registered candidates and catechumens of the Archdiocese were announced during four Rite of Election celebrations on Feb. 26 held around the Archdiocese. Pew by pew, hundreds stood up as their names were called, a visible sign of their commitment to enter fully in to the Catholic Church as a candidate or catechumen.

To be a disciple is to follow the model of the teacher so closely that we begin to act and live as the teacher does. As Catholics, our teacher is Jesus, the Son of God, and so discipleship means not only following His model but aligning our own wills with His. It is to follow the instruction given by Mary at Cana to “do whatever He tells you” (Jn 2:5).

Praising the piety and charity of Hungarian Christians and their commitment to supporting traditional family life, Pope Francis said Christ also calls them to open their hearts — and perhaps their borders — to others in need.

Meeting leading Hungarian academics, researchers and inventors, Pope Francis said humility and humanity are the keys to creativity and to ensuring that technology serves people and not the other way around.

As the small Texas community of Cleveland grapples with a mass shooting, the local Catholic parish is turning to prayer and trust in God.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) have issued the North American final document for the Continental Stage of the 2021-2024 Synod: For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission.

Out of more than 800 Catholic school students submitting poems in an annual contest, 16 were chosen for their winning imagery at an awards ceremony sponsored by Catholic Literary Arts. And of the dozens of local schools that participated, the outstanding poet laureate came from the same school — St. Theresa Catholic School in Sugar Land — as the previous poet laureate.

The role of the catechist, one who answers the vocational call to educate children, young people and adults in the Catholic faith, involves the sharing of a living, conscious and active faith, one that opens hearts “to hear the Gospel and accept the invitation to live and grow in Christian life.” (Pope Francis, Third International Congress on Catechesis, Sept. 2022)