Choir voices may no longer be rising from the choir loft at the former Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church, but new voices of residents will soon echo in the apartments that were carved out of the former church on St. Bernard Avenue.

There it is, right in the middle of today’s Gospel – the statement we might consider God’s particular word to the church in our time: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea” (Mk 9:42).

More than 200 priests of the Archdiocese of New Orleans gathered Sept. 18-20 for a convocation and heard from Archbishop Gregory Aymond and experts from the National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) on life issues.

Second Harvest Food Bank is well known for its work helping those who are food insecure, but many might not realize that it also steps up in times of national disasters. Even though it has been 13 years, New Orleanians won’t ever forget the generosity of others in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

GRAPEVINE, Texas (CNS) – Hispanic Catholic leaders are living an important moment in the history of the Catholic church in the U.S. and are called to rise and continue the work of building the church, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez said Sept. 23.

A Memorial Mass will be celebrated Oct. 6 at 10 a.m. at St. Joseph Church, New Orleans, for Vincentian Father Louis J. Franz, a New Orleans native who died July 11 at Apostle of Charity Residence, Perryville, Missouri. He was 86.

The Clarion Herald invites you to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day with a pilgrimage to the beaches of Normandy and the shrines of France, June 11-23, 2019.

Every building has a story, and the new Rouquette Library at St. Joseph Abbey and Seminary College has quite a story to tell. The 19,000-square-foot, $6 million building was barely in the works when the Abbey grounds north of Covington were inundated by flood waters in March 2016.

John L. Allen Jr., the editor of the Catholic online news platform Crux who specializes in coverage of the Vatican, will be the keynote speaker Nov. 3 at daylong event, “A Celebration of Faith: Transforming the World, Witnessing to Jesus,” sponsored by the Archdiocese of New Orleans as a spiritual close to the Tricentennial celebrations of the City of New Orleans.

A gym full of volunteers and parish Respect Life coordinators were energized Sept. 15 with words about the sanctity of life from birth to natural death from Archbishop Gregory Aymond, archdiocesan Respect Life coordinator Debbie Shinskie and others who, in their small way, make a difference for life. It was the third annual “Jazzed for Life!” event. 

When the levees broke in 2005 and Lakeview became Lake Pontchartrain, Katrina launched its mad-scientist experiment.

Seminarians from Notre Dame Seminary, the Dominican Sisters of Peace who staff the Peace Center on Broadway Street and neighbors gather with Rev. Victor Pratt, pastor of St. Peter’s Baptist Church, and Father Peter Finney, pastor of St. Rita Church, for a prayer service in memory of Dalton Stone, 25, who was shot and killed Sept. 4 around noon just steps away from the Baptist church in the 3000 block of Broadway Street.

Gordon Stevens was in a fitting location when he received word he’d been chosen by The Catholic Foundation as the recipient of this year’s St. John Paul II Award. Stevens was in Poland – the homeland of the award’s pontifical namesake – unbeknownst to the person who was phoning him with the happy news: Archbishop Gregory Aymond.

BATON ROUGE, La. – From the outside, the LSU fraternity house where 18-year-old freshman Max Gruver died last year as a victim of what prosecutors called alcohol-fueled hazing looks remarkably similar to the 10 or so other Greek homes on fraternity row, if not a little spiffier.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Inviting presidents of the world’s bishops’ conferences to the Vatican to discuss abuse prevention reflects an understanding that “lovely” words and promises are not enough – concrete, concerted action by the whole church is needed, said Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta.

Orientation Week at Notre Dame Seminary, above, began in August when Father James Wehner, rector/president, welcomed 46 new seminarians, the largest incoming class in 20 years. The enrollment of 144 men represents the commitment of bishops and vocation directors to provide seminarians a quality formation experience. This is the 95th year of Notre Dame preparing future priests of the church.

Abigail Markey’s resolve to become a cardiothoracic surgeon has been bolstered throughout her 17 years of life. When Markey displayed an early knack for building model airplanes from the tiniest of components, her grandfather commended her steady and exacting “surgeon’s hands.”

Priests of the Archdiocese of New Orleans will gather next week for a three-day convocation on bioethics issues, with addresses from experts from the National Catholic Bioethics Center. During the Sept. 18-20 convocation, Communion services may be celebrated in parishes instead of Masses.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis is calling the presidents of every Catholic bishops’ conference in the world to Rome Feb. 21-24 to discuss the prevention of the abuse of minors and vulnerable adults.

Over the last 300 years, one bold person after another has stepped forward to defend and fortify the faith of New Orleans’ black Catholics, even in the most impossible of times – such as when the city was the 19th-century epicenter of America’s slave trade, and even more recently, during the decades in which Jim Crow laws relegated black Catholics to the back pews and choir lofts of the city’s white churches.