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St. Joseph’s Feast is March 19th, but you can see St. Joseph’s Altars set up in places like Vermilionville and other churches across Acadiana.“We always have Saint Joseph’s during Lent, and Lent is a big thing for the Catholics,” says Belle Roullete who is visiting from Valcherie, La. The history dates back to the late 1800s in Italy, when a famine...

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The Italian American Marching Club is one of the largest ethnic organizations in the Southeastern United States. It was founded by Joseph Cardenia and friends in 1970 and has climbed to heights of 1500 members in recent years. The objective is to keep Italian heritage prevalent in New Orleans, the destination of so many of their forefathers in the...

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The Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Feast Committee will honor Louis Napolitano III as Man of the Year at its kickoff dinner on April 28 at Elmcrest Banquets in Elmwood Park. The De Chrisopher Family and Padre Pio candle houses will be honored at the event, and James V. (Jimmy) Lorenzo will receive the Fr. Benjamin Franch Biretta Award. Donations are $65 pe...

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Andrea Vicini was one of two dozen religious scholars who between 2015 and 2017 shared nearly $3M awarded jointly by NASA and the John Templeton Foundation (administered by the Center of Theological Inquiry, Princeton) to investigate how the religious community would respond to the discovery of life in outer space. As I’ve already reported, inform...

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  Joan D’Agostino keeps Old World traditions alive for a new generation when she bakes in her Leawood kitchen. A mother of four, D’Agostino is passing along her Italian heritage to her four grandchildren, including 20-month-old twins Angelina and Luca Casanova of Leawood.A native Kansas Citian, D’Agostino grew up with the tradition of helping prepa...

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During the Comstock mining days, many of the miners who came here to work the mines were Irish, Welsh, Scotch and Cornish. There were countless lively squabbles and skirmishes among the different groups after hours in the local saloons. Nearly all of the successful Comstock mining figures were of Irish descent, including the “Big Four,” John Macka...

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Green and gold T-shirts bearing, “Kiss me, I’m Irish,” fill store windows around town, waiting to be snatched up by revelers who prepare for St. Patrick’s Day, a festival now celebrated around the world. But in a country not far from Ireland, there’s a lesser-known saint with his own set of followers. Every March 19, St. Joseph’s statue is paraded...

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Baking cookies is a labor of love for many of those devoted to St. Joseph. This time of year, volunteers spend hundreds of hours making Italian cookies for area St. Joseph altars built to honor the saint. It takes time and organization to produce the many cookies that visitors expect to taste and see when they visit an altar. The bakers gladly acce...

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On July 1, 2016 the Church of Our Lady of Sorrows in Garfield, New Jersey, was merged with Our Lady of Mount Virgin and ceased to exist. Established in 1917 as a mission of Mount Virgin, in many ways one can say that “the mission came home” as a result of this merger. Unfortunately, due to declining attendance (300 families, of whom about 150 or so...

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The following parishes, schools and entities of the Archdiocese of New Orleans will host St. Joseph Altars. The tradition, which is Sicilian and Roman Catholic in origin but is carried on locally by Italian-Americans and people of all nationalities and faiths, includes baking cookies and cakes and preparing foods for the altar. The offerings accomp...

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