• Sophia Institute offers teachers ongoing theological formation
    August 15, 2014  |  In The News  |  No Comment

    The Sophia Institute for Teachers, founded last year to “renew Catholic culture through Catholic education,” made five daylong presentations Aug. 4-8 in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

    The program, an initiative of Sophia Institute Press, offers training programs, lesson plans and ongoing advice and support to teachers and schools.

  • Immigrant youth: ‘The real question is what happens now’
    August 14, 2014  |  Around the ADLA  |  No Comment

    It was just after lunchtime at the temporary housing shelter at the Port Hueneme Naval Base, and the Central American migrant teenagers coming inside from their tented dining room on the way to afternoon activities smiled and waved as they passed by the archdiocesan visitors.

  • Last of the old, first of the new’: Archdiocesan Golden Jubilarians for 2014
    August 14, 2014  |  Around the ADLA  |  No Comment

    “Supported only by the weapons of truth and charity, we intend to pursue the dialogue that has begun and to advance, as much as it will be in our power, the work that has been undertaken.”

    Not long after he succeeded Pope John XXIII in 1963, Pope Paul VI issued this statement to verify that the work of the Second Vatican Council started by John in 1962 would continue. Indeed, in 1964 the third session was held with three documents issued on Nov. 21: Lumen Gentium (the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church), Orientalium Ecclesiarum (the Decree on the Catholic Churches of the Eastern Rite), and Unitatis Redintegratio (the Decree on Ecumenism).

  • C3 keynote: Evangelizing and ministering in the digital age
    August 14, 2014  |  Around the ADLA  |  No Comment

    Spreading the Gospel — especially for Christians in the last century — often meant traveling to foreign lands, meeting the people, learning the language and then putting into those words (and maybe images) the message of the church.

    That chain of events is identical for church leaders today who are looking to bring the message of Jesus to the masses in this highly sophisticated, and often overwhelming, digital age.

  • Seminary announces new faculty
    August 14, 2014  |  In The News  |  No Comment

    St. John’s Seminary is celebrating its 75th year forming priests for the Roman Catholic Church at its campus in Camarillo. the school recently appointed the following five new faculty/staff members.

    The Rev. Rodel Balagtas will work with the pastoral formation team at the school, collaborating with pastors throughout Southern California in providing internships for seminarians in their third year of formation.

    Balagtas has been pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Hollywood for the past 12 years and taught homiletics at St. John’s in the 2012- 13 school year.

  • Vatican’s social media head encourages Catholics to ‘develop imagination’
    August 13, 2014  |  The Latest  |  No Comment

    Pope Francis told the Vatican’s social media to “listen, converse and encourage” when embracing the challenges of the technical revolution, according to Msgr. Paul Tighe, the Pope’s social media expert, who spoke at the Archdiocese’s 3rd Annual Catholic Communication Collaboration (C3)
    Technology Conference.

  • Follow Pope Francis on Twitter For Some Inspirational Messages
    August 13, 2014  |  In The News  |  No Comment

    Pope Francis has social media clout. The @Pontifex Twitter account, started by his predecessor Pope Benedict, has grown to more than 4.3 million English language followers (and a total of 14 million in followers in nine languages). I now follow the Pope on Twitter and read messages like ”young people don’t give up on your dreams of a better world”, ”those who live attached to money, power and pride it is impossible to be happy”, and ” I thank all those who are courageously helping our brothers and sisters in Iraq.”

  • ‘This is not war. This is genocide’
    August 13, 2014  |  Around the ADLA  |  No Comment

    “There’s just a lot of killing — a lot of killing of innocent Christians,” Donna Panoussi, 43, was saying after the only Sunday Mass at St. Paul Chaldean and Assyrian Catholic Church in North Hollywood. Many of the congregants filing out still had family and friends in Iraq.

    Her mother, Rosa Bouganian, 67, pointed out how she was half Armenian, on her father’s side, and half Assyrian. “They’re killing everybody, kids and adults.” she said.

  • Evangelizing online forum kicks off C3 conference at LMU
    August 13, 2014  |  Around the ADLA  |  No Comment

    The great evangelists Sts. Peter and Paul took full advantage of the network of Roman Empire roads to spread of Good News of Jesus Christ throughout the then-known world. Today’s evangelists must do likewise with the Internet and social media, the director of the Los Angeles Archdiocese’s Office of New Evangelization stressed during opening remarks at the Digital Church Conference this week at Loyola Marymount University.

  • Tweeting in Latin: Social media and the Catholic church
    August 13, 2014  |  In The News  |  No Comment

    This week, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is hosting a technology conference at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

    The conference is aimed at teaching those within the Catholic faith how to best use social media to bring people into the church.