Support the Catholic Communication Campaign
The Catholic Communication Campaign will take place in parishes the weekend of May 20-21 and helps the Church spread the Gospel message through the media locally and nationally. Half of all donations to the CCC stay in the Archdiocese of St. Louis to support local communications needs, such as radio and television programming and diocesan publications. Local efforts include Mass on the radio in areas such as Ste. Genevieve, a televised Mass for the homebound, technology improvement to reach a more mobile Catholic population and the annual Communications Colloquium, which provides communications and marketing resources and instruction to schools, parishes, and agencies, assisting them as they spread the Gospel message.
The campaign also supports projects elsewhere in the United States and in developing countries where the local Church lacks resources to spread the Gospel message. To learn more about the CCC or make a donation online, visit www.archstl.org/ccc.
National Merit scholars
Six students from St. Louis-area Catholic high schools were among 48 high school students statewide to be awarded National Merit $2,500 scholarships. The scholars: Edward Gartner and Robert Schaefer (St. Louis University High); Jessica Lauer (Villa Duchesne); Alexander Sepe (CBC); Ellen Seeser (Cor Jesu Academy); and James Orme-Rogers (St. Louis Priory).
Court coach
Dan Rolfes of Incarnate Word Academy is one of four court coaches selected for the 2017 USA Basketball Women's U16 National Team Trials. The trials are expected to feature 35 invited athletes and 115 applicant athletes vying for one of 12 roster spots on the 2017 USA U16 National Team. The court coaches will assist 2017 USA U16 head coach Carla Berube of Tufts University. Rolfes joins USA Basketball for the first time after a successful 2016-17 season in which Incarnate Word Academy finished with a 28-4 record and the Missouri Class 4 state championship. The title was Rolfes' seventh with the Red Knights. After a 31-1 season in 2013-14, he was named the 2014 MaxPreps Girls Basketball National Coach of the Year. After wrapping up his 17th season at Incarnate Word, Rolfes was inducted into the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame on April 22, and he was named the 2017 Missouri Basketball Coaches Association Coach of the Year, the seventh such award of his career.
New Missionary Oblates provincial
Father Louis Studer, OMI, recently was named provincial of the U.S. Province of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. A native of Iowa, Father Studer entered the Oblates' minor seminary in Carthage, Mo.; and later entered the novitiate in Godfrey, Ill., and professed temporary vows in 1972. He made perpetual vows in 1975 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1976. Among his assignments, Father Studer has served as director of the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville, Ill. While at the shrine, he also assumed the duties of director of the Missionary Association of Mary Immaculate, a major fundraising ministry of the U.S. Oblates.
Empower Missouri honorees
The St. Louis Chapter of Empower Missouri will honor Father Rich Creason and Review staff writer Joseph Kenny at its annual dinner and awards ceremony on May 25 at Il Monastero. Father Creason, retired pastor of Most Holy Trinity Parish in north St. Louis, will be honored with the Champion of Justice Lifetime Achievement Award. Kenny, a staff writer at the Review for 34 years, will be presented with the Media Award. Empower Missouri focuses its efforts on issues of housing, hunger, health care, poverty, criminal justice reform and more.
Essayists
St. Patrick Center recently announced winners of the Annual "Essays to End Homelessness" creative writing contest for eighth-graders. The first-place winner from among the 600 entries from 44 Catholic schools was Lauren Callaway of Incarnate Word School. Matthew Munsell of St. Clare of Assisi School took second place and Jessica Korte of Most Sacred Heart School was third.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Living Rosary
Our Lady of Guadalupe for Life is hosting its monthly Living Rosary at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, May 21, at Assumption Parish, 4725 Mattis Road in south St. Louis County. The 100th anniversary of the apparitions at Fatima will be commemorated with a May procession throughout the church. Each participant will receive a rose, to be placed at the foot of a statue of Our Lady of Fatima. There also will be a crowning of the statue. A reception with Ted Drewes frozen custard will take place afterward. Our Lady of Guadalupe for Life is a nonprofit organization that sponsors nine pro-life billboards along St. Louis area highways.
Retreat with the Carmelites
The Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus are hosting a retreat May 25-28 for single Catholic women, ages 17-29, who are considering religious life. The retreat will include talks by the sisters on discernment, religious life and Carmelite spirituality, as well as prayers and recreation with the sisters, time to talk with other young women discerning God's call, and an opportunity for silence and solitude, all within the framework of a monastic horarium. For more information, visit http://stlouisreview.com/bFt or [email protected]