For nearly 30 years, Sister Rose DiFluri has had her finger stalwartly on the pulse of the Catholic school landscape. Now, as the Servant of the Immaculate Heart of Mary retires from her role as assistant superintendent of Catholic schools for the Diocese of Camden, friends and colleagues are recalling an intellectually gifted, straightforward, fun...
READ MOREItalian feast days have a storied tradition in the Archdiocese of Newark, especially when summertime rolls around. Some feasts are more than a century old, with generations of Italian Americans keeping the tradition alive. The richness and history of these feasts are at the heart of Italian-American faith culture, according to Eric Lavin, the direc...
READ MOREMother Frances Xavier Cabrini is one of many saints whose lives show that God often makes miracles using the weakest of instruments. Born in Lombardy, Italy, in 1850, little Francesca was such a fragile and tiny baby that she was immediately taken to the church to be baptized in case she didn’t survive the night. She was small and physically frail...
READ MOREAn estimated 3,000 people are expected to pass through the doors of Naperville’s Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church Tuesday for an encounter with the relics of St. Pio of Pietrelcina. Francesco Forgione, known as Padre Pio or St. Pio, was an Italian Franciscan Capuchin friar, priest and mystic who was beatified in 1999 and canonized in 2002 by Pop...
READ MOREBlessed Pier Giorgio Frassati was born on April 6, 1901, in Turin, Italy, to an agnostic family and found himself from an early age drawn to the faith and to serving the poor. He was known for giving his own possessions away, even as a young boy. He joined the St. Vincent de Paul Society at age 17. The young Frassati also had a great love for art,...
READ MOREIn an impressive ceremony held on Sunday, June 11, 2023, the new Casa Italiana building housing the Holy Rosary rectory and the Italian-American Museum of Washington, D.C., was named Centro Scalabrini in honor of San Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, known as the “Father of Migrants.” The naming ceremony, held in front of the museum entrance at 229 F S...
READ MOREThe feast must go on! When faced with a rainout, those five words became the battle cry for ISDA’s Sacro Monte Lodge during this year’s “La Madonna Del Sacro Monte Feast” in Clifton, N.J. Under normal circumstances, rain during an Italian feast would be a disaster. However, this year, the rain turned out to be a blessing in disguise! The enthusiasm...
READ MOREAlthough he grew up in a farming family in Modesto, California, Father David Bava has spent more than four decades of his 50 years as a priest serving in predominantly African American parishes in the city of Washington, D.C. Interviewed about his 50th anniversary, Father Bava – the pastor of Holy Redeemer in Washington since 1995 – said he has le...
READ MOREThe Vatican is celebrating 50 years of the Vatican Museums’ Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art. Commemorating the anniversary as a significant moment for the museum’s youngest collection, the Holy Father met with world-renowned artists in the Sistine Chapel. Addressing them, he praised – like his predecessor Paul VI – the beauty of art, sayi...
READ MOREA special Mass in honor of their patron saint and an outdoor festival will draw parishioners and community members to Windham on Saturday, July 15 for the third annual St. Anthony of Padua Festival. The festival, which will be held on the grounds of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church on 919 Roosevelt Trail, was initially held in 2021 to celebrate th...
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