Local News

Ray and Bridget Pieper’s family near Lonsdale took a loss when they shipped out 40 cows for slaughter that would have continued producing milk if schools and restaurants hadn’t closed and demand dropped in mid-March because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Seeking God’s intervention in the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic, Catholic Rural Life of St. Paul will hold a national, livestreamed novena beginning May 7 and ending May 15, the feast day of St. Isidore, patron saint of farmers and of the nonprofit outreach ministry.

Catholic and other high schools couldn’t hold open houses on campus this spring because of Minnesota’s stay-at-home orders to help prevent spread of the novel coronavirus. But that hasn’t stopped the schools from reaching out.

Educating children can feel like a massive construction project, building on fundamentals in order to reach great heights.

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of 71-year-old Bishop Daniel Conlon of Joliet, Illinois, just over four months after the bishop took a medical leave of absence.

More than $120,000 is being distributed to 11 parishes in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis from a coronavirus-prompted relief fund set up by the Catholic Community Foundation.

Under the bishops’ plan, public Masses are expected to resume, under heavy restrictions, May 18 — exactly two months after public Masses were suspended in the archdiocese.

With local hospitals tightening restrictions for entering the rooms of patients with COVID-19, Bishop Andrew Cozzens is addressing an important pastoral need — administering the sacrament of the anointing of the sick to those suffering from the illness who are in danger of dying.