The CYO/Youth and Young Adult Ministry Office of the Archdiocese of New Orleans recognized outstanding youth April 27 at its annual leadership celebration at St. Louis Cathedral. Archbishop Gregory Aymond presided over a prayer service and awards presentation.

Mount Carmel and Ursuline Academy’s softball teams may still feel the sting of sudden elimination in quarterfinal round of the LHSAA’s “Fast Pitch 56” state tournament last week, but their vast number of underclass players gives them a reason to return to the 2015 tourney in Sulphur: It’s called vindication.

No sport is as absolute as track and field. Either you run fast, throw long or jump far and high enough to win – or you don’t. And five locals who fit the criteria of excellence in this sport return to Baton Rouge’s Bernie Moore Stadium May 8-10 to defend their individual titles at the state track and field meet.

It is always about money? When it comes to the Louisiana High School Athletic Association, it is a legitimate question. In the middle of the girls’ basketball championships, I asked an LHSAA official if the association was happy with the Burton Coliseum in Lake Charles.

Human smarts aren’t enough to truly understand God’s word and how he is working in people’s lives, Pope Francis said. Christians need the help of the Holy Spirit to “go beneath the surface of reality and peer into the depths of God’s thinking and his plan of salvation,” he said.

The Office of Religious Education will offer the Archdiocesan Catechist Certification Program (ACCP) in June and July to help religion teachers and parish catechists achieve and maintain basic or advanced certification in different areas of catechesis.

Celebrating Mass in a stole and chasuble worn by St. John Paul II during his 1987 visit to New Orleans, Father Patrick Wattigny told students at Pope John Paul II High in Slidell that their school’s newly canonized namesake had more “cred” than most when he urged the people of the Communist world to “be not afraid.” Lessons on unflinching faith in God, observed Father Wattigny, are easy to take from a man who met with his would-be assassin in jail – and forgave him.

When the two disciples fleeing Jerusalem after Jesus’ death realized the risen Christ had been with them all along on the road to Emmaus, they couldn’t wait to tell others the amazing news, said Dominican Father Thomas Schaefgen, speaking to 1,200 fifth graders assembled at Mount Carmel Academy April 29.

Archbishop Gregory Aymond was the featured speaker May 5 at the interfaith prayer service in St. Louis Cathedral for the inauguration of Mayor Mitch Landrieu.

The Archdiocese of New Orleans has launched a capital campaign called “I Will Give You Shepherds: The Campaign for Priestly Formation” aimed at funding $25 million in capital improvements to Notre Dame Seminary and St. Joseph Seminary College.

Have you gotten any feedback from people after officially opening the 9th General Synod of the archdiocese? Yes, I have. I want to mention, in particular, an incredibly moving letter I received from a woman, Mrs. Jacqueline Juge, who is in hospice care with Notre Dame Hospice.

Gayle Gaubert knows Wal-Mart, and she knows baby bottles. Every year, the St. Andrew the Apostle parishioner, the mother of three adult children, places an order for hundreds of bottles. She’s done it so regularly for the last seven years that the retailing giant gives her a volume discount.

Second Harvest Food Bank and local letter carriers will celebrate the 22nd annual “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive on May 10 by collecting nonperishable food items throughout the New Orleans area. Residents of Orleans and Jefferson parishes are asked to leave nonperishable food items such as peanut butter, soups and stews, canned fruits and vegetables, canned meats, tuna fish, chili, cereals, beans, rice or pasta next to their mailboxes prior to regular mail delivery May 10.

The Greater New Orleans Foundation, along with donors, presents its inaugural GiveNOLA Day on May 6. From 12 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. on that day, individuals are encouraged to give online to nonprofit organizations in our community that are making a difference in the lives of others.