Loyola University New Orleans’ PRSSA Bateman team is running a campaign for the nonprofit, “With Purpose,” which seeks to improve healthcare conditions for those with pediatric cancer through youth advocacy, community partnerships and advancing treatment. The Bateman Case Study Competition is the premier national case study competition for public relations students, sponsored by the Public Relations Student Society of America.

Throughout the season of Lent, Phyllis Hale’s music students at Holy Rosary School in New Orleans sing a hymn that uses some powerful imagery to describe Jesus’ walk to Calvary. Entitled “Under the Weight of the Wood,” the lyrics ask questions often pondered by children and adults alike: “Lord, must the journey always end this way, under the weight of the wood? How many times have we nailed you up today?”

The interest from Southeastern Louisiana came quickly. “I didn’t go out looking for anything,” said Nicholls State football coach Tim Rebowe. But, with one year remaining on his original contract, Rebowe signed a new, four-year deal. “Our administration understands the value of athletics,” said Rebowe.

Academy of the Sacred Heart’s Mary Nusloch has earned First Team All-American honors in cross country by running under the 3-Mile Gold Standard time of 18:05. She achieved a time of 17:59.83 on an AAU-certified course at the Northshore Metro Championships in Hammond this past fall.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Senior guard Kourtney Weber was the main cog in Ursuline Academy’s offense that won a district and select Division II championship. The Florida State signee was named the LHSAA Division II Most Valuable Player. Weber, who missed her entire junior campaign because of an ACL injury, was named MVP of the 2016 Class 4A championship game as a sophomore.

St. Paul’s senior center Chandler Owenby attempts to penetrate the Scotlandville defense during the select Division I finals at the Sugar Bowl/LHSAA boys’ championship tournament. The veteran Hornets, making their ninth consecutive title game appearance, defeated St. Paul’s, 63-40, on March 10 in Lake Charles to end the Wolves’ finest season in its 106-year history with a 27-6 record.

Francisca Aleman or “Panchita,” as she is affectionately known to family and friends, counts herself a blessed person. Twenty-two years ago she left Vera Cruz, Mexico, alone, seeking a better life in the United States. “Coming to the United States gave me hope, and I was happy to work here to help my family in Mexico,” she said.

As St. Clement of Rome sixth grader Esteban Duchesne read the story of “The Missing Crayon,” you could have heard a pin drop. Esteban’s audience –  St. Michael Special Lower School students Will Davis and Mateo Plaza-Gibson –  were captivated by the saga of a rainbow’s search for its missing colors. In the end, the rainbow was made whole again. The little listeners pointed out and named each hue. “I thought they would just look at it and say, ‘Oh, it’s another book about colors,’ but apparently not. They were excited about the book!” said Esteban, who illustrated and co-wrote the story with his St. Clement classmates Matthew Brooks and Evan Helffrich.

For 18th-century French and later Creole New Orleanians, Lent was a special time of fast and abstinence, meditation, prayer and good works. Social life closed down entirely during the entire 40-day period: the Old Opera House was shuttered, and music was not heard even in private parlors during Lent. Almost from the time of its founding, the New Orleans Catholic community looked forward to having special preachers or guest priests for Lenten missions, a custom that remains even today in many New Orleans churches.

In 1995, Pope John Paul II, writing in his encyclical, “Ut Unum Sint,” examined the nearly thousand-year split between the Eastern and Western Church with a keen sense of yearning. “The Church must breathe with her two lungs (its Eastern one and its Western one),” St. John Paul II wrote. In that spirit, Notre Dame Seminary has established The Dathel and John D. Georges Endowment for Orthodox-Catholic Relations to educate Catholic seminarians about those issues, said Father James Wehner, rector-president of the seminary. The endowment was funded through a $250,000 gift of John Georges, publisher of The New Orleans Advocate.

Seniors from the northshore gathered Feb. 26 at Our Lady of the Lake School in Mandeville for a day of retreat and formation. Students from the St. Paul’s School, St. Scholastica Academy, Pope John Paul II High School and Archbishop Hannan High were invited. We all had no clue what the day would entail. I was really looking forward to talking to students from other schools and to see how their senior year was going as they prepared to take the next step in their lives.

“I was there. Were you?” This question will be asked by characters in the live, poetic rendition of Jesus’ passion and crucifixion, “A Journey to Calvary,” March 23 at 6 p.m. at St. Peter Claver Church. It’s the same question that resonates with Christians who participate as the crowd in the Palm Sunday Gospel at Mass, yelling, “Crucify him!”

The agony of infertility comes in waves for Tamara Labat. She is no stranger to pain. As a child, when she was sexually abused and shuttled among five schools in Missouri and Oklahoma, Labat, now 23 and married, carved out her safe house. Every school had a library. The stacks of books were true friends that helped her escape the horrors of a childhood violated. She learned to cherish the silence; she could control the message and no one could tell her that what she had experienced had never happened.

The Geometry Bridge Project for ninth and 10th graders at Brother Martin High School combines the real world application of geometry and fun. “Student contractors” who are architects, accountants, carpenters and project managers, are divided into groups, select a name and build a bridge from coffee stirrers that supports at least 30 pounds.

Palm Sunday in New Orleans is steeped in tradition, in the warm promise of spring and in the solemn procession into churches of Massgoers holding shiny green sago palms to re-enact Jesus’ triumphant procession into Jerusalem. This year, Palm Sunday will usher in another color (brown) and another size (skinny).

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis has cleared the way for the canonizations of Blesseds Paul VI and Oscar Romero. At a meeting March 6 with Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes, Pope Francis signed decrees for the causes of 13 men and women – among them a pope, an archbishop, two young laywomen and a number of priests and nuns.

A papal foundation called Aid to the Church in Need recently examined the reality of religious persecution around the world, and it concluded that not only is Christianity “the world’s most oppressed faith community” but also that “genocide and other crimes against humanity” threaten the very existence of the church in major countries and regions. How difficult is it for this to sink in with most Americans?

Una fundación papal llamada, Ayuda a la Iglesia Necesitada, examinó recientemente la realidad de la persecución religiosa en todo el mundo, y concluyó que, no solo es el cristianismo, “la comunidad de fe más oprimida del mundo” sino también que, “el genocidio  y otros crímenes contra la humanidad” amenazan la existencia de la Iglesia en los principales países y regiones. ¿Qué tan difícil es que esto sea comprendido por la mayoría de los estadounidenses?

Mass isn’t a paid arrangement for salvation but rather the commemoration of Christ’s sacrifice of his life, given freely to all, Pope Francis said. Christians can make a silent prayer during Mass or donate money to offer a Mass for a loved one who is in need or who has passed away, but should never feel obliged to make a payment, the pope said at his weekly general audience at the Vatican March 7.

ST. RAYMOND/ST. LEO THE GREAT, open to public March 17 with a blessing at the 4:30 p.m. Mass, and viewing until 6 p.m.; March 18 altar viewing and feast noon-4 p.m.; March 19, altar viewing from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Hosted by the Knights of Peter Claver/Ladies Auxiliary and Junior Daughters Court No. 78. 2916 Paris Ave., New Orleans.