Local News

What can participants expect when they arrive at their parishes for the Synod small groups? A carefully crafted process, for starters. That’s because this part of the Synod process is critical, said Jean Stolpestad, the archdiocese’s director of Marriage, Family and Life and a member of the Synod Executive Committee who has been co-leading small group trainings since February.

When Archbishop Bernard Hebda launched the Archdiocesan Synod in 2019, he asked Catholics to reflect on the local Church’s strengths and challenges through 30 Prayer and Listening Events held across the 12-county area. More than 8,000 Catholics attended, providing more than 35,000 comments.

Every school-day morning, Joe Miley walks into Cretin-Derham Hall high school in St. Paul to meet with students in his role as learning specialist. Above the entryway is the Lasallian crest called the “signum fidei” (sign of faith). A star in the crest symbolizes the story of the three Wise Men who followed the star to Bethlehem, trusting it would lead them to Christ, Miley said.

Just three years into his priesthood, Father Timothy Nolan was questioning his vocation and wondering if he should leave.

When a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck southwestern Haiti Aug. 14, and two days later Tropical Storm Grace slammed into the country, Haitians hadn’t fully recovered from disasters years earlier that were compounded by government instability and rising crime, friends of Haiti in the Twin Cities said.

A Catholic has a right to seek an exemption from a vaccine requirement, but that decision shouldn’t depend on a priest’s confirmation, Archbishop Bernard Hebda said in a letter to priests Aug. 20.

When Harriet Wiederholt — who turned 97 Aug. 21 — was growing up, her family sat on the “St. Joseph side” during Sunday Mass at St. Joseph in Miesville.

When Thomas Carey and three other young dads from St. Gerard Majella in Brooklyn Park decided to form a faith-sharing group back in 1982, they had no idea how much staying power it would have.