Love one another. Every gift to this landmark campaign demonstrates your love – for the Church, for Jesus, and for the faces you will never meet. Thank you for being a disciple of Christ, and for your following His commands and desire to serve. https://youtu.be/7QiqprIDKjg
Love your neighbor as yourself. Through this campaign you showed mercy. Your gifts helped develop new buildings serving the poor, and continue to provide many services through Foundation for Senior Living, St. Vincent de Paul, and Catholic Charities. https://youtu.be/S0hx38AGoIY
On this rock I will build my Church. Parishes across the diocese used funds from this campaign for a variety of parish improvements…from structural improvements to painting, coffee bars to gift shops, an adoration chapel to 2 new churches – this campaign helped beautify parish homes! https://youtu.be/Paf_N6MGiks
Teach them all that I have commanded. Schools across our Diocese bring the face of Jesus directly into education. This campaign helped build two new schools, make school improvements, and provided tuition assistance. Your support helps families choose a world-class, faith-based education! https://youtu.be/B17FYtazgoU
Excitement is building among the community as, brick by brick, the St. John Paul II Catholic High School campus begins to take shape. Sr. Mary Jordan Hoover, OP, principal of the new high school, said that after spending 10 weeks in a Spanish-immersion program in Guatemala, she is eager to resume the work of establishing the school, as the walls of the gym and academic buildings are going up and steel rebar glints in the summer sun.
When Sophia Falter started at Grand Canyon University three years ago, there was no Catholic Church within walking distance of her dorm room. She started watching Mass on television for a few Sundays, and eventually found a ride with another student to the local parish. Her life changed when a GCU Newman Center opened just one street over from student housing about a year ago. Falter is now able to attend daily Mass, regular Bible studies and fellowship events, and is also a student leader.
Catholic schools play an important role in the New Evangelization, wrote Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted in his new apostolic letter, Evangelizing through Catholic Schools, promulgated on March 3 of this year. In his letter, the bishop identified five ways in which a Catholic school assists the Church in the mission of evangelization: by being a place of encounter; being a Spirit-filled community; imparting a Catholic worldview through its curriculum; helping students in becoming free; and sending them out as “missionary disciples to transform the culture.”