Employees of the Diocese of Baton Rouge, including educators and support staff from diocesan schools and staff workers from church parishes, gathered today at the Catholic Life Center to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the diocese. Bishop Michael G. Duca, top, led a prayer service, assisted by St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church parishioner Vera Dunbar, lower right, and Deacon Dan Borne. The day featured four food trucks, a cornhole contest and a live band. Photo by Richard Meek | The Catholic Commentator

Protecting our brothers and sisters and providing a healthy and safe environment for all, especially for our children, faculty, and staff of our Catholic Schools, are chief concerns of our Church...Now that the state superintendent of education has clarified the department’s return-to-school guidelines as being recommendations and not requirements, we have reconsidered elements of the policy that was distributed earlier this week.

VATICAN CITY (CNA) - Pope Francis is scheduled to lead the Angelus from his hospital room July 11 as he recovers from intestinal surgery, the Vatican said. The pope was at Rome’s Gemelli University Hospital after undergoing a July 4 operation to remove part of his colon.

VATICAN CITY (CNA) - Pope Francis is recovering from his colon surgery in the same hospital room where John Paul II was treated throughout his pontificate. The Vatican said July 6, two days after the operation, that the pope had “rested well overnight” and his routine follow-up examinations were good.

Pope Francis has “reacted well” to a surgery he underwent at a Rome hospital July 4 to relieve stricture of the colon caused by diverticulitis, the Holy See Press Office stated.

Bishop Michael G. Duca announced the following chaplaincies in the Diocese of Baton Rouge: • Father David Dawson chaplain of Catholic High School in Baton Rouge; • Father Joshua Johnson chaplain of Cristo Rey Franciscan High School in Baton Rouge; • Father Danny Roussel chaplain of St. Joseph Academy's in Baton Rouge.

On a recent Tuesday morning overcast weather reflected the heavy hearts of women approaching Delta Women’s Clinic abortion facility, which they thought would take care of their pregnancy “problem.” Like rays of sunshine streaming through those clouds were prayers from a group of LSU students, part of the generation most impacted by abortion, to let them know someone is praying for them and wants to help. 

Bishop Michael G. Duca celebrated mass for 40 permanent deacons and their wives at the second annual convocation for deacons at St. George Church in Baton Rouge on June 5.

Juneteenth, which is celebrated June 19, is a time for African Americans to visit the past, to learn where they have come from and find inner freedom by embracing God’s call to become the people God called them to be, say clergy of the Diocese of Baton Rouge.

Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University received approval to move forward on its first major building project in the history of the university. The 75,000 square foot, three-story building will be dedicated to better accommodate student learning and development at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. St. Francis Hall represents the initial step in the development of the university’s campus master plan. Located at the corner of Brittany and Picardy Avenues, the building will serve as the front door to a cohesive and identifiable campus. 

atican-issued revisions to the Code of Canon Lawhave tightened up clerical sexual abuse penalties, are holding lay men and women responsible for their own inappropriate behavior and have also addressed the recent development of an increasing number of women allegedly claiming they have been ordained priests, which could be considered canonically criminal.  Pope Francis’  announced the revisions in apostolic constitution “Pascite gregem Dei,” (“Tend the Flock of God”), released June 1. These revisions to Book VI of the Code are the most significant changes to the legal framework of the Catholic Church since 1983.

Eleven years after hearing an initial calling from the Lord, Father Taylor Sanford was ordained to the priesthood May 22 at St. George Church in Baton Rouge. 

Before assuming his first assignment as parochial vicar at St. George Church in Baton Rouge on July 1, Father David Dawson will take a sailing trip in Florida. An avid fisherman, his recreational time on the water speaks of his sailing into his vocation as a fisher of men.

Father Danny Roussel found himself at a crossroad, a brief pause at the intersection of the future and the past, with the present only offering a detour.

Bishop Michael G. Duca held a press conference May 25 at the Catholic Life Center in Baton Rouge to discuss his decision to lift the dispensation of the obligation to attend Sunday Mass and relaxing the use of masks. The Diocese of Baton Rouge recently announced the updating of these two COVID-19-related protocols in a letter dated May 21.

Three New Priests Ordained

Bishop Duca has officially announced the end of the dispensation from the obligation to attend Mass (on Sundays and holy days of obligation, or their vigils) for all without a sufficient reason effective June 6, 2021. The bishop also notes that masks are no longer required in church although we should be respectful of those who wish to continue to be cautious.

In consultation with the Clergy Personnel Board, Bishop Michael Duca has appointed new pastors, administrators, parochial vicars, and deacons.

On April 22 Gov. John Bel Edwards presented new guidance concerning our response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and these guidelines allow us the opportunity to begin opening our churches to full capacity again.  In considering these new guidelines, I want us to be aware that COVID is still spreading, even if at low and stable levels, and this should be a part of our consideration.  To pretend that the danger is completely over could sabotage all the efforts and progress we have made up to this point. Yet with this caution acknowledged, I want to offer for the first time since this pandemic began a more proactive process to bring us all back together in our churches again.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pope Francis' proclamation of the Year of St. Joseph and the diocese's 60th anniversary, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge will be celebrating “60 Years in the Year of St. Joseph” from May 1 (The feast of St. Joseph the Worker), to March 19, 2022 (The solemnity of St. Joseph, husband of Mary).