Looking back, Deacon Berghausen said he realizes God was present even in that time of great suffering. He reflects often, he said, on the date of the tsunami — the feast of St. Stephen, who was the first martyr and one of the first deacons of the early church.

Several Catholic high schools are mourning former students among the victims of a Jan. 1 terrorist attack in New Orleans.

As the Jubilee Year picks up speed, the faithful must participate by sharing what we have with the disadvantaged, Catholic charity Mary’s Meals urged.

Pope Francis has asked Catholics around the world to pray with him in January that migrants, refugees and victims of war will have a chance for an education.

Pope Francis was “deeply saddened” to learn of deaths and injuries caused by the attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Day, which killed 15 people.

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.

Opening the Holy Door of the oldest Marian shrine in the Western world, Cardinal Rolando Makrickas prayed that the world would entrust itself to Mary, “the door to heaven.”

Italian Cardinal Angelo Amato, who served as secretary of the Vatican’s doctrinal office and then as head of the then-Congregation for Saints’ Causes, died in Rome Dec. 31 at the age of 86.

Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond of New Orleans offered prayers for victims of what he described as a “sign of utter disrespect for human life” perpetrated by a man who drove a pickup truck through crowds celebrating the New Year in New Orleans’ French Quarter around 3 a.m. Jan. 1.

Marking the feast of Mary, Mother of God, and the start of the new year, Pope Francis renewed his appeal for a “firm commitment” to respect all human life worldwide.