Three football rivalries that collectively span 195 years will take place on Sept. 29-30, and regardless of what has transpired over the first month of the prep season, winning this one will be special to three of the six teams clashing in the annual Archbishop Hannan Classic.

By Ron Brocato It’s amazing what can be accomplished over a plate of red beans and rice. Following a luncheon at the CYO Youth Ministry Office on Sept. 20, 16 head basketball coaches collectively set the brackets for the 2017 Allstate Sugar Bowl CYO Basketball Classic.

The axiom – “Life is about choices” – was certainly applicable last weekend in the National Football League. Actions to protest President Trump’s comments that owners should fire players who don’t stand for the national anthem were varied.

By Peter Finney Jr. Father Gary Thomas has served for the last 12 years in the Diocese of San Jose, California, as the priest authorized to perform the rite of exorcism, the Catholic Church’s largely hidden and often-misunderstood ministry of healing that Hollywood has transformed into a cash cow of blood, gore and fantasy.

By Peter Finney Jr. Pope Francis has called it “the globalization of indifference,” the idea that human suffering on a massive scale, such as the drowning deaths of immigrants trying to flee Eritrea and Somalia for a better life, has no meaning or connection to those living in freedom and prosperity.

Archbishop Rummel’s 4-star senior wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase is all smiles as he displays his Under Armour All-American game jersey and helmet at a special ceremony last week in the school library. The game will be played on Jan. 4, 2018, in Orlando, Florida, and televised on ESPN.

Outside the Royal Sonesta Hotel on Bourbon Street, jackhammers pounded away at a do-it-yourself maze of century-old, underground pipes snaking to destinations unknown, a New Orleans mystery more confounding than the Trinity.

By Peter Finney Jr. Tucson Bishop Gerald Kicanas, the former vice president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, was rector of Mundelein Seminary in the Archdiocese of Chicago in the 1990s when then-Cardinal Joseph Bernardin was falsely accused of sexually abusing a minor seminarian during his previous tenure as archbishop of Cincinnati.

By Peter Finney Jr. The explosion of pornography – statistics indicate the average age of first exposure is between the ages of 11 and 13 – is a major pastoral concern for the Catholic Church for both clergy and laity because of its impact ministry and family life, a licensed psychologist at Saint Luke Institute in Louisville told the Louisiana Priests’ Convention on Sept. 20.

“Catholic education is at the heart and mission of the church,” Deacon Drea Capaci read Sept. 22 as a petition at the ground-breaking ceremony of the new St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School in Kenner, part of Divine Mercy Catholic Parish.

Deadline: Submissions due Thursday (10 days before each issue) calendar@clarionherald.org (504) area code unless noted Oct. 3-Nov. 3 PARISHES ST. PIUS X , Mothers’ Club meeting, Oct. 3, 7 p.m., gym. Also the Fall Festival and Haunted House, hayride and pumpkin patch, Oct. 20, 6-10 p.m., with live music by local band GRaDU.

By Peter Finney Jr. New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan suggested to 435 priests of the state of Louisiana that humbly and openly sharing the “wounds” and shortcomings of the church might bring those who are alienated back to the practice of the faith.

Wh at struck you the most about the three-day Louisiana Priests’ Convention that was held last week in New Orleans? What struck me the most was the spirit of fraternity, a spirit of mutual support among the priests.

¿Qu é fue lo que más le impresionó de la Convención de los Sacerdotes de Luisiana de tres días, que se celebró la semana pasada en Nueva Orleáns? Lo que más me impresionó fue el espíritu de fraternidad, un espíritu de apoyo mutuo entre los sacerdotes.

Making a Difference Fifty years is a long time to endure forced suffering. Since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War when Israel captured and occupied the Palestinian territories of East Jerusalem, the remaining part of the West Bank and Gaza, the Palestinian people have lived under the heavy yoke of Israeli military occupation.

By Clarion Herald Staff The Rebuild Center, a day shelter that provides an array of services to the homeless and underserved in the heart of New Orleans’ downtown medical district, will mark its 10th anniversary Sept. 29 from 10:30 a.m. to noon at the center’s headquarters on the grounds of St. Joseph Church on Tulane Avenue.

By Beth Donze, Kids’ Clarion Editor The Archdiocese of New Orleans will mark Children’s Mission Day with a Saturday program of games, talks, music and Mass focusing on Christians’ shared baptismal calling to spread the Gospel both at home and abroad.

By Beth Donze, Kids’ Clarion Editor “I can see the moon!” “The sun is a smiley face!” “It looks like a banana!” These were just a few of the observations offered by moonstruck St. Dominic students as they gathered in their school yard Aug. 21 to watch a rare astronomical dance play out: a solar eclipse.

Pope Paul VI taught that if we want peace, we should work for justice. But what is really meant by justice? When we talk about Catholic social teaching, we tend to emphasize the life and dignity of every human person, the rights of workers and the dignity of their work, and placing the needs of the poor and vulnerable first.

The Cabrini High School Science Squad, a complimentary science outreach program sponsored by the Cabrini High School Science Department, sparks student interest and curiosity in a variety of science topics.