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Bishop John Dolan will make this year’s annual Sovereign Order of Malta Pilgrimage to Lourdes alongside the ill and infirm who will travel with the organization. “Fantastic. That is awesome,” exclaimed Terra Billingsley, 58, one of three malades from the Diocese of Phoenix who will be with the Order’s Western U.S. Association April 30 thru May 8 at the southern French town in the Pyrenees Mountains. The town includes the grotto where 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous encountered 18 apparitions of the Virgin Mary in 1858.

Crowds poured into Sheraton Phoenix Downtown March 21 for a chance to listen to blockbuster Catholic podcaster Fr. Mike Schmitz. Fr. Schmitz was on hand to deliver the keynote address at the Witness to Hope gala, the annual fundraiser for the Diocese of Phoenix’s John Paul II Center for Theology of the Body. Michael Villanueva, coordinator of the center, welcomed guests as a video that featured footage of Pope St. John Paul II played on large screens at the front of the packed ballroom.

Last weekend, thousands gathered from the Diocese of Phoenix to celebrate the combined Rite of Election and Call to Continued Conversion, the next step toward full initiation into the Catholic Church. The Rite of Election includes the enrollment of names of all the Catechumens seeking baptism at the coming Easter Vigil. The Catechumens publicly express their desire for baptism to the diocesan bishop. Their names are recorded in a book and they are called the Elect. 

Members of Catholic mental health ministries from around the world gathered to raise awareness and open conversations on mental health issues.

The gift of my Catholic faith is one I cherish above all others. And, yet, how do I love a church that once considered my brother and sister to be unworthy of eternal life with God?