The superintendent presented challenges facing Catholic schools. A teacher suggested they pray. The response? Eucharistic adoration in schools throughout the diocese.

Catholic Charities, Worcester County has opened an office and home care center at 200 Main St. in Milford. The new office will allow Catholic Charities to become more involved in a larger, more diverse, community, according to Timothy J. McMahon, executive director.

The annual appreciation luncheon for certified parish catechetical leaders was held Oct. 23 at Cyprian Keys in Boylston. Those who were newly certified received their certificates and Bishop McManus presented gifts to those who were retiring.

The Vatican Signatura, the Holy See’s highest court, has rejected appeals by the Mount Carmel Preservation Society aimed at saving Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church. Msgr. F. Stephen Pedone, pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish at Our Lady of Loreto Church, said Bishop McManus was told of the Signatora’s decision when he visited the Vatican recently.

Equality and friendship were themes sounded for the visit 15 Haitian priests made to the diocese last week. They came from Haiti to renew covenants between their parishes and parishes here.

Click here for photo album of Thursday night's "Celebrate Priesthood!" which was attended by more than 300 laypeople and about 100 priests.

Celebrating our priests October 19 At the “Celebrate Priesthood!” gala in St. Vincent Hospital’s atrium Thursday night, hundreds of people gathered for a "Taste of the Diocese," but more importantly to honor their spiritual leaders. The event raises money for retired priests.

The possibility of starting a new Catholic school in Milford is the focus of a survey just posted online. Father Peter J. Joyce, pastor of St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Milford, told The Catholic Free Press this week about his dream for a school closely tied to the parish in teaching the faith and incorporating diversity.

Felician Sister Jeanne Marie Akalski accepted the annual Retired Religious award Sunday for her twin sister, Sister Mary Valenta Akalski, who, among other things, taught religion to kindergartners at St. Joseph Elementary School in Webster. Sister Mary Valenta died in June.

Worcester, MA -- In an effort to raise awareness of the need and as well as raise funds for Priests’ Retirement Care, the Diocese of Worcester is holding the Fifth Annual Celebrate Priesthood gala on Thursday, October 18 from 5:30 – 7:30 pm in the Atrium of St. Vincent Hospital. “Taste of the Diocese” will feature 24 stations with food from local restaurants, parish groups, and refreshments from Spencer Brewery, Global Wines, and Polar Beverages.

WORCESTER – Singing and dancing. A consecration to the Blessed Mother – inspired by an unexpected voice. Awards for church and city leaders. These were among ways the Ghanaian Catholic community celebrated its 10th anniversary at St. Joan of Arc Parish Sunday, Oct. 7.

SOUTHBRIDGE – The Hispanic Catholic community in town celebrated its 60th anniversay with Mass Sunday, Oct. 7, memories and ministers past and present. Bishop McManus and Father Kenneth R. Cardinale, pastor of St. John Paul II Parish, greeted the 200-plus worshippers in Spanish and they applauded.

A group of about 60 people marked the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of ecology and the environment, last Thursday by marching to three businesses on Park Avenue in a campaign against climate change. The group, called the October 4th Coalition to Stop Climate Change, was organized by the SS. Francis and Therese Catholic Worker of 52 Mason St.

Bishop McManus said climate change is an urgent moral issue which adds to the hardship of the poor. He spoke at the Worcester Catholic Environmental Stewardship Conference Sunday held at the College of the Holy Cross and sponsored by the diocese.

Holy Name Central Catholic Junior/Senior High School held the ribbon cutting for the Joseph Tham Pham Life Sciences Biotech Learning Center Sept. 14. It was Founders Day, when the school honors the Sisters of St. Anne. After the ribbon cutting, the family and friends squeezed into the school’s tiny chapel for the baptism of Josephine Hannah Linh Yao, daughter of Han Pham and her husband, Spencer Yao.

BERLIN - Bishop McManus will be principal celebrant at a Mass of Christian burial at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 2,  in St. Joseph the Good Provider  Church for Father Robert M. Spellman, 74, who died Sept. 22 at UMass Medical Center in Worcester.

Prayer, fasting, listening and teaching are among pastoral responses in the Worcester Diocese and elsewhere to the clergy sexual abuse crisis. This week Bishop McManus told The Catholic Free Press that sexual abuse is a terrible, embarrassing, dark part of the Church’s history and “people want to know that we’re doing something about it.” 

Bishop McManus is among four people from the Worcester Diocese attending the fifth National Encounter of Hispanic/Latino Ministry, or “V Encuentro,” in Grapevine, Texas, near Fort Worth. (Encuentro is Spanish for encounter.) 

“To Know Him, to Love Him, to Serve Him,” is the theme of the upcoming Worcester Catholic Women’s Conference. With this year’s slate of speakers and a variety of exhibitors, the organizers of the conference expect it to be sold out. The conference will take place Nov. 10 in the Tsotsis Family Academic Center at Assumption College. 

This fall, Gloria Josephs, who’s the youth ministry director at St. Luke the Evangelist Parish in Westborough, will help the Worcester Diocese’s Haitian Apostolateattempt to bring at least 17 new regional parishes into the apostolate’s successful twinning program that serves the Diocese of Les Cayes, Haiti.