March 11, 2010 |
|||||
 July 2009 Multimedia: Hurricane John Paul (this is only a drill)During the 2004 hurricane season, farmworkers in the small town of Pierson in northwest Volusia County found themselves without water, housing, food and help for over a week. Marcos Crisanto vowed that the next time would be different. “There were people without food, without water,” said Crisanto, a member of the community response organization Grupo Comunitario de Respuesta a Desastres, which formed among area farmworkers in the wake of the disastrous summer. “Now, the hurricanes are coming again. We’re working together this time.” The consistent annual threat of destructive hurricanes prompts Florida’s Catholic Charities offices to conduct yearly hurricane drills to test their statewide communication capabilities and disaster–relief equipment. Florida Catholic correspondent Karen Osborne was there for the drill July 15. Her multimedia report begins here. 07.17.09 | Return To Top Father–and–son Catholic clergymen?ORLANDO | Dr. John Thesing of Fort Lauderdale and his son Mark both ended up in vocations of healing. The father went into medicine, while his son went into the priesthood. Many years later, the father joined his son at the altar as a permanent deacon. The Thesings are one of a handful of families in Florida that have produced father–and–son holy–orders vocations. The St. Petersburg Diocese has Father Carlos Rojas and his father, Deacon Ron Rojas. Pensacola–Tallahassee has Michael Patrick Nixon as a permanent deacon and his son Michael John Nixon, who is newly ordained as a transitional deacon and is expected to be ordained to the priesthood next year. Continued... Lynn Ramsey | 07.15.09 | Return To Top Orlando shrine to become one of ‘Benedict’s churches’ORLANDO | Good things come in threes, including basilicas within Florida. The Sunshine State will be home to the 63rd basilica in the United States when Orlando’s National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe is granted the honorific title Aug. 22. The Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments forwarded the degree of the title of minor basilica to Orlando Bishop Thomas Wenski via a letter. Read the full story and see a slideshow of the shrine here. Jean Gonzalez | 07.14.09 | Return To Top Rehabilitation or killing: What’s in a word?Very recently I was asked to make public comment upon the new lethal injection protocol promulgated by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. California has the largest death row in the country (the only one larger than Florida). California has only had 13 executions in the last 32 years. It appears that some hoped to benefit from my Florida experience providing spiritual adviser services on deathwatch 12 times, and witnessing five executions on behalf of the man being executed. That included Florida’s horribly botched lethal injection of Angel Diaz in December of 2006. CONTINUED... Dale Recinella | 07.13.09 | Return To Top Schools’ plans: ride out recession, grow in futureORLANDO | With money tight these days, many families are scrutinizing every expense — including the tuition bill for keeping their children in Catholic school this fall. For some, the availability of a little help is making all the difference in the decision. “It means that my daughter can have a better education,” Christie Robinson said about a $1,000 grant from a Knights of Columbus council. It is making it easier for her to afford to send Jordan back to Sacred Heart School in Lake Worth for third grade this year. Though there are exceptions, Catholic school officials throughout the state told the Florida Catholic they generally are expecting fewer students for the 2009–2010 school year. They attribute some of the decline to the bad economy — parents who have lost or fear they will lose jobs and other income are choosing not to part with the tuition dollars. In response, school officials and supporters, such as the Knights of Columbus council assisting the Robinsons and 11 other families in the Diocese of Palm Beach, said they are working to make more tuition assistance available. School officials said they also made efforts to eliminate or limit tuition increases for the coming year. Many said they will ramp up fundraising efforts and look for ways to cut expenses as families weather the hard times. Read the complete story here. Denise O’Toole Kelly | 07.01.09 | Return To Top |
Advertisement
|
||||
| |
|||||