Many blessings: La Reina celebrates 50th anniversary

Sr. Mary Josanne Furey, who served 13 years as principal of La Reina High School beginning in 1970, said the Catholic school for girls surpassed her dream for the future.

“We weren’t that sure that La Reina would make it at all,” said Fury, who began teaching at La Reina in 1966 and wrote the lyrics of the school’s alma mater. “There was nowhere to get students. I asked to have seventh and eighth grades, and that turned the tide. Since then, everything has been going well. Look how wonderful it is today.”

Mother Teresa and Us

‘Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta was probably the most familiar Christian face of our generation,” Los Angeles archbishop José Gomez writes in his foreword to The Love That Made Mother Teresa: How Her Secret Visions and Dark Nights Can Help You Conquer the Slums of Your Heart by David Scott. “Her works of love, done for the abandoned and forsaken in a remote city in India, made hers a household name the world over,” Archbishop Gomez continues.

Losing a limb to diabetes — the poverty factor

A diabetic middle-aged woman in South Los Angeles told me — after losing five toes, her right foot and ankle, along with nearly half her leg — that she was doing “just fine.” That’s what she said, even though the ugly sore on the sole of her good foot wasn’t healing, forcing her to use a wheelchair more and more, fearing another amputation was inevitable.

‘The Little Flower’ in our midst

Michel Pascal is a cradle Catholic, born in France. Church was his home, his soul, always. His parents brought him to Lisieux as a child of six and he became smitten with Thérèse, the Little Flower.

All these years later, “St. Therese” — the play he has written, directed and produced — has been staged all over the world, more than 700 times since 2009. This month, he’ll bring it to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.

CASA DEL MIGRANTE

TIJUANA— A minivan could drive through the gate to a Catholic-run center for deported migrants. The metal-mesh door swings open and the only place to knock is on the embedded mailbox.

It’s a big yellow building, four floors and sleeps hundreds. Guests, mostly recently deported immigrants, have to do chores. There’s a talk or meeting every night — Alcoholics Anonymous, or a presentation from a social worker or a lawyer. On one weeknight, there’s Mass.

New war on poverty alters tactics and premises

Why fight about the extent of blight in Toledo and how to combat it? T-Towns or a blight authority?

I say both.

Obviously both.

The city itself must be active cutting grass, clearing junk, citing slumlords. And neighborhoods have to take hold of their own destinies — they actually do a pretty good job of that in Toledo, not always getting a lot of help from the city.

CCC opposes bill that impinges on religious freedom

As the end of the California legislative session nears, the state’s bishops have recently issued Action Alerts about four key bills on Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk that they support and one which they oppose due to impingements on religious freedom.

Random shootings kill two parishioners from SFV churches

The parish communities of Santa Rosa de Lima Church in San Fernando and Guardian Angel Church in Pacoima are mourning the loss of two beloved parishioners, who were shot and killed on their way to Mass early Aug. 24 in an apparent series of random shootings in the San Fernando Valley.

Faith and each other come before sports in the talented Tuiasosopo family

Trying to ease an aching back, Matt Tuiasosopo emerges from an ice bath at Cheney Stadium in Tacoma.

Outside, his mother, Tina, waits patiently at the players’ entrance for her third-born son. She gives him a big hug and gently rubs his back.

Cathedral Chapel School celebrates 85 years of teaching

Students returned to classes at Cathedral Chapel School on Monday for what school administrators said will be a special year on campus. The school is celebrating its 85th anniversary, and will be holding a special ceremony in April for alumni, teachers, students and their families.