I’ll never forget my conversation with Sean Payton in 2006, after the New Orleans Saints had shocked the NFL just a year after Hurricane Katrina by racing to a 5-1 start in advance of their bye week.

Last week you announced the appointment of a new rector-president of Notre Dame Seminary, Father James Wehner, who will begin serving in his position July 1. Father Wehner has served for the last three years in a similar capacity at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus.

Because his Polish surname is a bit foreign to south Louisiana dialects, Michigan-born Father John Cisewski (pronounced chi-SES-kee), the pastor of St. Katharine Drexel Parish, always has encouraged his parishioners to call him “Father John.” But now that Pope Benedict XVI has named him a monsignor based on his 41 years of dedicated priestly ministry in the Archdiocese of New Orleans, parishioners may feel compelled to come up with a loftier salutation.

Father James A. Wehner, who has served for the last three years as rector-president of the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, has been named the new rector-president of the Notre Dame Seminary, beginning July 1, Archbishop Gregory Aymond announced March 22.

Reading and spelling go hand in hand. Just ask Jessica Davis. The 13-year-old seventh grader, a straight-A student at St. Benilde and a member of the National Junior Honor Society, recently won the 24th annual New Orleans Spelling Bee.

During a series of four Lenten mission assemblies presented across the archdiocese this month, Dominican Sister of Peace Suzanne Brauer reminded the gathered fourth, fifth and sixth graders just how serious their roles are in spreading Christ’s message of love and forgiveness throughout the world.

Rather than making a one-time trip to a senior facility, Ursuline Academy’s eighth graders are building tangible fellowship with the elderly over the course of the entire school year by making quarterly visits to the Shirley Landry Benson PACE Center, where they spend more than an hour each visit doing theme-related crafts and swapping stories with frail elders who would likely be homebound, if not for PACE’s services.

During Catholic Schools Week last January, middle schoolers at St. Cletus got a small taste of how some children in eastern Kenya spend their days. In an event called “Walk for Water,” the St. Cletus students walked a mile loop around their campus’ grounds, while carrying buckets and cans filled to the brim with water.

View the image gallery Rita Dauterive chuckles whenever she thinks back to how she and her fellow “Crimson and Blue Gala” organizers would blanket the French Quarter in their quest to solicit auction donations for Archbishop Hannan High’s biggest annual fund-raiser.

Because his Polish surname is a bit foreign to south Louisiana dialects, Michigan-born Father John Cisewski (pronounced chi-SES-kee), the pastor of St. Katharine Drexel Parish, always has encouraged his parishioners to call him “Father John.” But now that Pope Benedict XVI has named him a monsignor based on his 41 years of dedicated priestly ministry in the Archdiocese of New Orleans, parishioners may feel compelled to come up with a loftier salutation.

El 5 de marzo, se organizó un servicio de oración interreligiosa para poner fin a la pena de muerte en Luisiana. Incluso entre los Católicos, la pena de muerte es un tema polémico. ¿Puede explicar lo que enseña la iglesia?

Deadline: Submissions due Thursday (10 days before each issue) calendar@clarionherald.org (504) area code unless noted March 25-April 1 EVENTS MEN’S DAY OF REFLECTION, March 24, 8:30 a.m.,  Teresian Spirituality Center, 18080 St. Joseph Way, Covington.

At the end of his weeklong Lenten retreat, Pope Benedict XVI thanked the leader of his retreat, Congolese Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya of Kinshasa. In particular, Pope Benedict XVI was struck by one of the cardinal’s stories, which the pope said could be a parable of our lives: “Often we find ourselves in a dark tunnel in the middle of the night, but through faith we see a light at the end and hear beautiful music, perceiving the beauty of God.” The pope’s message is poignant in two ways: first, it is a good way to think of our lives, particularly during the season of Lent; and secondly, I can see the parable of darkness and light in my own life.

What is the Epiclesis? Part of the Eucharistic Prayer is the calling down of the Holy Spirit upon the offerings of bread and wine. This calling down of the Holy Spirit is called the Epiclesis, and the priest asks the Father to send the Holy Spirit in order to sanctify these offerings so that they may become the Body and Blood of Jesus.

Let me start off by saying I am not a priest or church official and have not been educated intensely on this subject. However, I understand Communion because I have fallen in love with Jesus in the Eucharist.

Everywhere I go – and I mean everywhere – I am asked the same question: Will the Saints sign Drew? My reply? Of course, they will. The odds are pretty high that at some point in the very near future, Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints will sign a long-term deal that pays Brees in the neighborhood of $20 million per season.

For the second straight week, Brother Martin’s balance on the track and in the field carried the Gentilly school to a meet championship. The Crusaders chalked up 71 points on the track and 61 1/2 points in field events  behind solid performances by hurdler/sprinter Morgan Cormier and athletes in strength events to win the Christian Brothers Relays at St. Paul’s on March 17.

When Salesian Father Louis Molinelli summoned me to a meeting in his office last week to say that Archbishop Shaw will choose to compete in Class 5A athletics starting in 2013, I realized that the Catholic League may soon come out of its brief hibernation.

View the image gallery When a fire set by arsonists last month heavily damaged Resurrection of Our Lord School in New Orleans East, Dr. Si Nguyen, the school principal, lost one of his cherished possessions – an LSU helmet autographed by Coach Les Miles.

Kim Moss, the new executive director of Project Lazarus, knows the discrimination associated with being diagnosed with the AIDS virus HIV-positive. In 1987 as a father of two sons, Moss learned he contracted the disease.