It was the 1930s, and Roger Baudier Sr., an ink-stained detective in relentless search of a dusty fact, usually had big plans for his large family on Sundays. As the editor of the Catholic Action of the South from 1933 to 1949, Baudier would have finished putting the weekly newspaper to bed on Fridays, leaving plenty of time for exciting Sunday excursions.

You know it’s “potluck day” at the Clarion Herald’s Howard Avenue headquarters when Peter Finney Jr., the newspaper’s executive editor, emerges from the elevator carrying a blue cooler. Worried that the cream cheese and sour cream-laden contents will spoil in transit from his home kitchen, Finney heads straight for the lunchroom refrigerator to deposit the precious cargo: a lemony crawfish dip so rich and perfectly spiced that it must be hidden in the back of the fridge so staffers aren’t tempted to have it for breakfast.

The following list of meatless recipes assembled by the Clarion Herald staff includes recipes that were published in the Feb. 23 printed edition of Holy Smoke, as well as many more that did not make it into the printed edition due to space contraints.

Five hundred women filled the room Jan. 25-27 at the 25th annual Holy Spirit Women’s Retreat held in Lafayette, sponsored by the Catholic Charismatic Renewal of New Orleans (CCRNO). Most were Catholic and yet others were just curious onlookers, hoping for a meaningful weekend.

Over 800 students, faculty and staff, 21 buses and 22 service partners comprised the 2013 Raider Pride Service Day at Archbishop Rummel High School on Feb. 1. After a prayer service led by Father Kurt Young, class of 2005, in the Raider Gym, the Raider Nation dispersed throughout the Greater New Orleans Area serving the community at elementary schools, Head Start schools, adult day care centers, food banks and special need centers.

It would be one of the great stories in all of sports: the New Orleans Saints, in the return of head coach Sean Payton, make a return trip to the Super Bowl. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell hands the Lombardi Trophy to Payton as the Saints triumph in the first Gotham City Super Bowl.

Class 5A baseball playoffs will take longer to decide which schools will compete for state championships. A small group of principals from the Louisiana High School Athletic Association’s highest classification recently voted to have both single-elimination rounds and best-of-three rounds, beginning with the 2013-14 school year.

When Jesuit won its sixth state football championship in 1953, it lost just one game. Fast forward to 1960, when the Blue Jays won their seventh and final title to date. The Jays lost just one game. Both setbacks were to Florida nemesis, Pensacola High.

A dozen of the top senior football players from various schools in the Archdiocese of New Orleans have signed and faxed their letters of intent to universities throughout the U.S. Nine decided there is no place like home and chose athletic careers at colleges within Louisiana.

At the annual Catholic Schools Week Mass Jan. 31, Archbishop Gregory Aymond and Dr. Jan Lancaster, superintendent of Catholic Schools, presented distinguished graduate awards to Stacie LeBlanc, left, and Deacon Lloyd Huck, right.

Driving around the other day, running errands and listening to music in between stops, I happened to listen to a live version of rock group U2’s song “Sunday, Bloody Sunday.” There should be a similar anthem for Jan. 22, 1973: “Monday, Bloody Monday.” But there were no violent clashes that day, no wave of protesters in the streets, no evidence of the judicial earthquake that enshrined violence in our society.

Independent auditors have found the Archdiocese of New Orleans to be in full compliance with the U.S. bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People for the period 2011-12, Sister of Mount Carmel Mary Ellen Wheelahan, safe environment coordinator for the archdiocese, said Feb. 5.

WASHINGTON (CNS) – The new proposed rules issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services regarding insurance coverage of contraceptives show movement but fall short of addressing the U.S. bishops’ concerns, New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan said in a Feb. 7 statement.

January 13, 2013 Dear clergy, religious, and lay faithful of the Archdiocese of New Orleans: Promulgation of the policy on infant baptism as particular law in the archdiocese The sacraments of the New Testament were instituted by Christ the Lord and entrusted to the Church.

The newly promulgated  policy for infant baptism is an attempt to bring more uniformity to the conferring of the sacrament throughout the archdiocese, Archbishop Gregory Aymond said Feb. 6. “We undertook this effort to make our pastoral practices uniform so that it would accomplish what the church requires for baptism and also be a uniform practice across the archdiocese,” Archbishop Aymond said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The biblical account of creation isn’t a textbook for science, Pope Benedict XVI said. Instead, the first chapter of Genesis reveals the fundamental truth about reality: that the world is not the result of chaos, but is born of and continually supported by God’s love, the pope said Feb. 6 at his weekly general audience.

February 17, 2013 To: The Clergy, Religious and Laity of the Archdiocese of New Orleans Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ: Last Wednesday we began our 40-day Lenten journey. It is a sacred time when God calls us not only to recognize the goodness in our hearts, but also to face honestly those actions and attitudes in our lives that need to change in order for us to embrace more fully our call to discipleship.

Sometimes, as Dorothy discovered in the land of Oz, it’s all about the man behind the curtain. When Justin Gibson, director of the archdiocesan Office of Information Technology, talks about the massive upgrades to the Catholic school system’s computer network since Hurricane Katrina, it’s understandable for laypersons to focus on the high-tech equipment, iPads and glitzy SmartBoards that are the final, visible link in the information chain.

A federal judge in Baton Rouge issued a stay of execution Feb. 7 for death-row inmate Christopher Sepulvado, who had been scheduled to be executed at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 13, despite the opposition of the seven Catholic bishops of Louisiana.

You might say that St. Benilde School has taken the spirit of the Year of Family and Faith and run with it. Over the course of five weekday mornings in January, students from all grades worked with their siblings, parents and grandparents to create a complete altar set for use at home as a hub of family prayer.