St. Katharine Drexel’s legacy endures as Black Catholic university she founded turns 100 October 3, 2025By Peter Finney Jr. OSV News Filed Under: Black Catholic Ministry, Colleges, News, Saints, World News In a city renowned for its seemingly genetic ability to parade, party and partake, the 100th anniversary of Xavier University of Louisiana has focused on the gifts of faith, love and reading the signs of the times.
20 years ago, Katrina hit New Orleans hard; today, Crescent City is rising with faith, hope August 28, 2025By Peter Finney Jr. OSV News Filed Under: Disaster Relief, News, World News New Orleans’ battered, 300-year-old history has been marked by fire, pestilence and storm, but Katrina was unprecedented in scope and pain: 1,400 people died; 200,000 homes in Orleans Parish — 80 percent of the city — flooded; and hundreds thousands fled or were transported to safe havens across the country, many never to return.
Air pollution link to fetal, maternal problems calls for a Catholic lens April 11, 2025By Peter Finney Jr. OSV News Filed Under: Environment, Feature, News, Respect Life, World News The Catholic health conference, four years in the making, was cosponsored by the Catholic Climate Covenant, the Jesuits’ USA Central and Southern Province, the Loyola Institute for Ministry and Rise St. James Louisiana, a community watchdog group that advocates for environmental justice in towns along the Mississippi River teeming with petrochemical facilities.
Families are ‘not alone’ in sorrow over deaths, injuries suffered in NOLA terror attack, Biden says January 9, 2025By Peter Finney Jr. OSV News Filed Under: Feature, News, World News Saying he carried with him the sorrow of the nation for a “horrific act of terrorism” on New Year’s Day that claimed the lives of 14 people on Bourbon Street, President Joe Biden told grieving families at an interfaith prayer service Jan. 6 at St. Louis Cathedral that they would one day be released from their shared pain.
New Orleans archbishop: ‘God always gives us hope, even in the midst of tragic situations’ January 2, 2025By Peter Finney Jr. OSV News Filed Under: Feature, News, World News Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond and 600 worshipers struggled to make sense of the death and carnage perpetrated by a man who drove a pickup truck into a dense crowd of early-morning New Year’s revelers just five blocks away on Bourbon Street.
The street named ‘Abundance’ still speaks to Catholic Education August 15, 2023By Peter Finney Jr. OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Schools Parents who sacrifice to send their children to Catholic school are practicing divine abundance, giving even when the giving hurts because there is a child at stake.
New Orleans Auxiliary Bishop Cheri dies at 71; archbishop thanks God ‘for his life, ministry’ March 22, 2023By Peter Finney Jr. OSV News Filed Under: Feature, News, Obituaries, World News Bishop Fernand (Ferd) Joseph Cheri III, a New Orleans native who had served since 2015 as auxiliary bishop of New Orleans, died March 21 at Chateau de Notre Dame in New Orleans following a lengthy illness. He was 71.
Professor sees religious tapestry woven across the millennia in Lent’s history, traditions February 19, 2023By Peter Finney Jr. OSV News Filed Under: Feature, Lent, News, World News When Thomas Neal, a professor of spiritual theology at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, reflects on the history and traditions of Lent, he sees a religious tapestry woven across the millennia.
