Gabriel Award for STL
The Year of Mercy video series produced last year by the Communications Office of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, with local footage as well as footage shot in Israel, has been awarded the 2017 New Media Campaign of the Year Gabriel Award. Entrants go through a highly selective process of preliminary screening and blue-ribbon judging. Gabriel Award winners this year include CBS's 60 Minutes, National Geographic and EWTN among others. The 2017 Gabriel Awards Presentation will be held June 22 in Quebec City, Canada. Watch the series at www.stlouisreview.com/bsJ.
Students earn National Merit honors
Five students from Catholic high schools in the archdiocese are among more than 1,000 students nationwide who have received corporation-sponsored scholarships from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. The students: Jacob Swyers and Philip M. Cibulka (St. Louis University High); Kyla Luechtefeld (Cor Jesu Academy), Maggie Moran (Nerinx Hall) and Alexandria Schomaker (Ursuline Academy).
Fontbonne professor selected for NEH session
Brian Matz, Fontbonne University's Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet Endowed Chair in Catholic Thought, was among 537 faculty nationwide selected to attend the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Institute, "Beyond East and West: The Early Modern World, 1400-1800." The three-week program will be at Indiana University. Matz will research the reception of a sixth-century Syriac text, "Hymn of the Pearl," that was translated into Latin in the Middle Ages then picked up by Shakespeare in the Early Modern era and used in his play, "Merchant of Venice." This is the third NEH project to benefit Fontbonne within a year. The NEH also awarded Fontbonne a $100,000 Humanities Connection grant for a study titled "Primary Source: Memory and the Construction of Identity across Time and Place" and a $100,000 matching Humanities Access grant for Fontbonne's Bosnia Memory Project.
Honors for Marygrove CEO
A Community Development Award will be presented to Sister Helen Negri, a Daughter of Charity and CEO of Marygrove, at North County Incorporated's 40th Annual Leadership Breakfast Friday, May 19. Marygrove, a Catholic Charities agency, helps children, teens and young adults learn how to transcend an abusive past or overcome other challenges. It enriches the lives of more than 1,300 children, teens and young adults each year through residential and community-based programming. Also being honored is the Community Health Access Program Partnership, which includes SSM Health DePaul Hospital.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Veterans retreat
For the second consecutive year, White House Retreat in South St. Louis County will host a multidenominational spiritual retreat for veterans the weekend before Independence Day — Friday, June 30 to Sunday, July 2. Jesuit Father James Conroy, a Vietnam War veteran will lead this retreat, which will include lectures, small group discussions, prayer services and more. Private lodging and meals are provided. The only cost for veterans is $25 for registration. White House conducts fundraisers to support this event. Registration is open and taken on a first-come first-served basis. To register or to make a donation to support the continuation of this retreat, please call (314) 416-6400. For information about the White House, which is at 7400 Christopher Drive in south county, visit www.whretreat.org.
Series addresses infertility
Dr. Patrick Yeung, director of the Center for Endometriosis–Obgyn & Women's Health, will be the featured speaker on Friday, May 5, at St. Louis University's First Friday Mass and Speaker Series at Boileau Hall. The free event starts with Mass at noon, followed by a light lunch, and Yeung's presentation, "Can a Catholic Treat Infertility? Ethical Alternatives to IVF." Boileau Hall is at 38 N. Vandeventer Ave. For registration, visit www.stlouisreview.com/bsY
CSJ's host Taizé evening
The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, St. Louis Province will host an evening of prayer and discussion Saturday, May 6, as part of the upcoming Taizé Pilgrimage of Trust sponsored by the archdiocese. Pilgrimage of Trust evenings bring together people of different backgrounds — socio-economic, racial, faith and more — to foster trust between people through living and praying together, discussing and discovering common ground. The event will be from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Sisters of St. Joseph Carondelet Motherhouse at 6400 Minnesota Ave. in south St. Louis. RSVP to [email protected] or (314) 481-8800. For information about Taizé, visit www.pilgrimageoftruststl.com.
Labor Mass
The 38th Annual Union Labor Mass will be held at 9 a.m. Sunday, May 7, at the Shrine of St. Joseph, 11th and Biddle Streets north of Downtown St. Louis. The names of members who died on the job specifically or from work-related illness or injury during 2016-17 will be recognized at a ceremony and prayer service outside the church at 8:30 a.m. Funds raised at a brunch afterward support restoration of the Shrine of St. Joseph. Reservations are requested. Call (314) 291-8666.