Featured News

As the Advent season draws to a close, St. John the Baptist Parish in Kenmore will welcome a special guest in the form of a multitalented musician, motivational speaker and world traveler. At 1 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 17, the parish will welcome Sujeet Desai, a local musician born with Down syndrome who, among other talents, is classically trained in seven instruments and has become a leading advocate for the rights of people with disabilities.

"What was the best part of your pilgrimage to Ireland?" I've heard that question a dozen times since our return from the "land of saints and scholars." The short answer is, the simple fact that I finally got there, for the first time, and just months before my 72nd birthday. Too long a wait, to be sure, but well worth it in every way. It was a truly blessed journey of faith and prayer, joy and beauty, history and ... fun.

The acclaimed Lira Ensemble of Chicago returns to Buffalo with a new production: "A Polish Holday! Carols, Song & Dance," on Saturday, Dec. 9, at 7:30 p.m. at UB's Center for the Arts, 103 Center of the Arts.

VATICAN CITY (CNA/EWTN News) - With debate on the status of Jerusalem heating up in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump's controversial decision to recognize the city as the capital of Israel, Pope Francis has urged international leaders to proceed with prudence and respect for current U.N. resolutions.

Advent is the time of year when we prepare our hearts and minds for the coming of the Lord's birth on Christmas, and there are many things we can do to ready ourselves. We can attend daily Mass, pray or use an Advent wreath. Even watching special programing can help put our minds and hearts in the right place.

Sister Carol Cimino, SSJ, has announced that she will step down as superintendent of Catholic Schools for the Diocese of Buffalo at the end of the current school year. "I think I've done what I was supposed to do here," said Sister Carol. "I think I've helped to grow some innovative programs in the diocese. I think we've stabilized the schools. We've got a crop of principals who are just second to none right now."

Students from Catholic elementary schools throughout the diocese met at St. Joseph's Collegiate Institute in Kenmore for the fourth year to have X-STREAM amounts of fun showing off their creations, ranging from the mechanical to the culinary and everything in between. The Dec. 3 X-STREAM Games and Expo, which the high school has hosted since its inception, is the pinnacle of the diocesan STREAM program, focusing on science, technology, religion, engineering, arts and mathematics. It allows students to compete against their peers as members of the newest generation of inventors, while community members, parents, family and friends come to see what their children can do.

Earlier this year, the Mercy Speech Center, located on Abbott Road in South Buffalo, permanently closed following the retirement of Sister Maralynn Sciarrino, RSM, the center's director of 49 years, and Sister Catherine Hunt, RSM, her administrative assistant. Although newly retired, Sister Maralynn hopes to remain active in the community, and spoke last month with the Western New York Catholic about her life as she plans to serve on a volunteer basis at Mercy Hospital.

Over her 78 years in religious life, Sister Mary Agnes Cobry, SSMN, has taught the young and the cheered the elderly. All the work she has done has been to please God on the day she meets Him.

As health care costs for all Americans have been rapidly increasing over the years, men and women religious are no exception. For Sister M. Lorianne Tylczynski, CSSF, who serves as a local minister for aging and ill Felician Sisters in the Blessed Mary Angela Care Center in Buffalo, has personally seen the need for funds to help orders care for retired men and women religious, particularly with many individuals in their 80s and older.

Catholics in the Diocese of Buffalo will have the opportunity to "give to those who have given a lifetime" as part of the collection for the Retirement Fund for Religious, to be held in parishes Dec. 9-10. Coordinated by the National Religious Retirement Office (NRRO) in Washington, D.C., the annual appeal benefits 32,000 elderly Catholic sisters, brothers and religious order priests whose religious congregations lack adequate retirement funding.

At St. John Vianney School in Orchard Park, students have been learning about science, technology, religion, engineering, the arts and mathematics as a school participating in the diocesan STREAM program. As December rolls around, they are preparing to take what they have learned to the X-STREAM by making their own video games.

NIAGARA UNIVERSITY — Niagara University capped off its 2017 celebration of Vincentian Heritage Week by announcing the coordination of a partnership that will donate leftover food items from its dining halls to two of its nonprofit community partners.

Last month, St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Tonawanda held a training session for Catholics looking to incorporate exercise into their daily prayer. Colleen Scariano and Deanne Miller, the co-founders of SoulCore, held a training session intended to introduce others to teaching the experience they first began in Carmel, Ind.

TONAWANDA — Adam Gorski plans to make his mark in the world through his sports writing.

Harmonia continues its tradition of a cappella Advent and Christmas music, performed in the beauty of candlelight.

This past September, four students of the Catholic faith entered the ranks of transitional deacon. They are in a unique place in their education. They are still students, not yet priests, but have been granted some of the faculties of clergy. These four men will spend about nine months developing their craft before being ordained to the priesthood this spring.

In July, Sister Dominica Hooper, OP, professed perpetual vows, the final step in becoming a Dominican Sister of Mary. Last month, Sister Dominica and her parents spoke about her experience and the importance of religious vocations today.

IRONDALE, ALA. (CNA/EWTN News) - EWTN Global Catholic Network has introduced a new service allowing free on-demand access to a large library of its video content, with more than 12,000 programs available, and more being added regularly.

DENVER, COLO. (CNA) - Sexual misconduct allegations against Republican candidate Roy Moore have brought Alabama's special election to fill a U.S. Senate seat into the national spotlight.

Bishop Richard J. Malone has announced the following clergy assignments.

Bishop Richard J. Malone announced the diocesan Upon This Rock capital and endowment campaign has raised $107 million since February 2016, surpassing its goal of $100 million, thanks to the donations and efforts of 27,000 benefactors who gave gifts of varying sizes. The bishop made the announcement during a press conference Nov. 20.

The Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican's highest judicial court, has ruled that Bishop Richard J. Malone, bishop of Buffalo, was within his rights to issue a decree on Aug. 14, 2013, closing St. Ann Church on Broadway in Buffalo.

LEWISTON — St. Peter School has been formally accepted into Cohort 4 of the Buffalo Diocese STREAM initiative. STREAM is an integrated approach to education that brings science, technology, religion, engineering, the arts and mathematics to all students in all grades. The goal is to better prepare students for successful careers in the 21st-century workforce in a field where jobs for recent graduates are in high demand.

VATICAN CITY (CNA/EWTN News) - On Wednesday, Pope Francis called out the common habit of chatting with people around you before Mass, stressing that this is a time for silent prayer, when we prepare our hearts for an encounter with the Lord.

The word "brotherhood" is used a lot around St. Francis High School. The Athol Springs institution, steeped deep into Franciscan values, uses the term to describe the all-male student body. Where the teachers provide the education and the friars imbue the Franciscan values, it is up to the students themselves to support one another.

In September, the Diocese of Buffalo began implementing a new faith formation curriculum, "Forming Disciples." To prepare parish leadership for this transition, diocesan staff from the Department of Lifelong Faith Formation have visited over 155 parishes to discuss it and answer questions. Parishes are being supported to develop their own implementation plans, likely to spread out over two to three years, rather than a few months.

Each day in the Diocese of Buffalo, permanent deacons assist priests and participate in the liturgy in parishes throughout Western New York. Last month, Deacon Timothy Chriswell, who was appointed the head of the diaconate program in the diocese on Sept. 1, spoke about the role of deacons in the Catholic Church, as well as what differentiates the unique vocation of deacons from that of priesthood.

A new initiative to develop a pastoral plan that would offer more support for Catholic marriages and families was approved by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops during their Fall General Assembly in Baltimore Nov. 14. Bishop Richard J. Malone of Buffalo presented the case before the bishops, calling on the body to take a new look at the issue.

As part of a humanitarian effort to help children in need throughout the world, St. Mary Parish in Canaseraga has formed a committee to raise money to purchase a van for Sister Stan's Children Inc., to help Sister Stan Terese Mario Mumuni, of the Marian Sisters of Eucharistic Love, transport children to her orphanage in Ghana. Sister Stan has made it her life's goal to help "spirit children," infants born with birth defects who would otherwise have been rejected by their families.

Deacon Miguel Santos has been to hell and back. He saw death, destruction and despair during a two-week stay in Houston while offering relief to the victims of Hurricane Harvey. He has also seen strangers helping strangers, and people forgoing aid because others need it more.

A recent family collaboration resulted in $200,000 to benefit Our Lady of Victory Organizations via their ongoing capital campaign. The campaign, entitled The Campaign for "Father Baker's" ­- Continuing His Legacy of Caring, which started in 2012, has now reached $11.5 million of its $12 million goal to enrich the lives of people in the Western New York area. The capital campaign runs until Dec. 31.

One of the Diocese of Buffalo's own military veterans received a special recognition just before Veterans Day. Msgr. Dino J. Lorenzetti was inducted in The Buffalo and Erie Country Naval and Military Park's Wall of Honor on Nov. 10.

A local family with a long history of service to their country and the Catholic Church had seven sons who served in wartime. On Sept. 1, the 78th anniversary of the start of World War II, the Allaire family received medals for Joseph Allaire Sr.'s Navy service aboard the USS Missouri, which officials of the Town of Tonawanda presented to the family in a formal ceremony in front of the Town of Tonawanda Veterans Memorial at Kenney Field in the town.

Msgr. James Campbell is probably best known for his long run as the rector of St. Joseph Cathedral in downtown Buffalo. It might surprise some to know that, years before entering the priesthood, he had a promising career in the military, serving in the Marines during the Korean War.

Father Jerome E. Kopec, pastor of SS. Peter & Paul Parish in Williamsville, received the Venerable Nelson H. Baker Award during the diocesan Youth Ministry Awards Banquet held Nov. 3. The evening saw both teens and adults receive recognition for their role in guiding young people through their faith journey.

Adults and teens, families and friends filled Lucarelli's Banquet Center on Nov. 3 to honor the dedication of those working in youth ministry. The diocesan Department of Youth & Young Adult Ministry sponsored the annual youth awards banquet, which recognizes both teens and adults.

If each of the months of the year were assigned a quality, it might be said that March is lucky and July is independent, but November is always grateful. Although the Thanksgiving holiday comes at the end of November, it lends an atmosphere of gratitude to the entire month. This month also marks the end of the Church's liturgical year, while the calendar year begins the last stretch toward the finish line. Thus, it is a fitting time to reflect on all that we have to be thankful for.

Considering it an "awesome privilege," Dr. Dennis R. DePerro was formally installed Friday afternoon as the 21st president of St. Bonaventure University.

VATICAN CITY (CNA/EWTN News) - Pope Francis has reportedly said he will allow for debate as to whether married men could be ordained to the priesthood in the region during a 2019 Synod of Bishops focusing on the Church in the Amazon basin.