Pro-life training: ‘Look at everything through clients’ eyes’

From a young age, Abby Johnson possessed a deep-seated desire to help women in need. As an adult, that led her to a career with Planned Parenthood, where she became a clinic director and attempted to serve women in crisis — despite a growing sense of unease about the organization.

Catechist Commissioning: Called to share the faith

Once again, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels was filled to capacity as more than 2,000 catechists received their official certification marking the completion of leadership courses in religious education at the Sept. 14 Service of Prayer & Commissioning.

‘Cool 2B Catholic’ Youth Rally: Finding the fun of faith

To make sure that the “Cool 2B Catholic” Youth Rally lived up to its name, organizers moved the inspirational talk/music jam from the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels Plaza to a large meeting hall at the Cathedral Conference Center when outdoor temperatures were predicted to be near 100.

Grand Marian Procession celebrates L.A.’s Catholic roots

When the near-lifed-size statue of the Blessed Virgin cradling a toddler Jesus had passed by, three Hispanic women quickly sidestepped out of their back pews in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. Getting down on their hands and knees, they collected pink rose pedals and small blue flowers fallen from bouquets at the feet of Mary, borne on the sturdy shoulders of seven men in purple robes.

Prayer Breakfast: ‘Something new out of brokenness’

We’re all broken, only in different ways, observed Sister Regina Marie Gorman at the Los Angeles Archdiocese’s prayer breakfast on Sept. 16. What’s important is opening that brokenness to God so God can heal it in maybe an unexpected but always beautiful way.

Good Shepherd Sisters celebrate 110 years in L.A.

As part of the celebration of 110 years of service to Los Angeles by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, a Mass was celebrated recently by Archbishop José Gomez in the convent chapel formerly used by the contemplative branch of the order.

St. John’s ‘Distinguished Alumni’

Since 2008, men who have served the Catholic Church with dedicated heart and joyful spirit have been honored as Distinguished Alumni from St. John’s Seminary.

The dinner, to support ongoing formation at St. John’s Seminary, has honored 30 Distinguished Alumni at a dinner held at the Camarillo seminary each September. Among the honorees are several bishops (three of them cardinals), as well as laypeople who received formation at the Camarillo seminary and then chose a different path to serve church and community.

St. John’s women: ‘They are very much part of our seminary’

More than a few good women have influenced life at St. John’s Seminary over its 75 years. From women’s initial roles as housekeepers and office staff, to their inclusion as faculty in the late ’60s, to admittance of laywomen (and laymen) in the 2000s as graduate students alongside seminarians, women have made a difference both on and off the campus.

St. John’s Seminary: A diamond in Camarillo

Camarillo was an active farming community long before 1939. But with the establishment of St. John’s Seminary on 100 acres of what had been farmland, it could be said that these historic grounds have, indeed, continued to produce a very unique and, yes, essential element to nurture the faith of an increasingly large and diverse flock.

From the beginning: Southland seminaries

California is one of those singular areas of the Church universal where the notion of a seminary system predated by ten years the actual establishment of a diocesan government.

As early as the 1830s, the Presidente of the California missions, Fray Narciso Duran, suggested a seminary for the education of young men who felt inclined toward the ecclesiastical state. Six years later, the Franciscan Comisario Prefecto proposed establishing a college “to which all the youth of the Californias may flock, as well as many of the Indians of the various idioms, in order to receive the education and knowledge peculiar to their state,”