Category: News

The triumphant chant “Hail Thee, Festival Day” was a fittingly joyous opening for the May 21 Ordination of Alexander T. Brown as a Transitional Deacon. Bishop Alfred Schlert administered the first degree of Holy Orders during a concelebrated Mass at the Cathedral of St. Catharine of Siena, Allentown.

High school-aged young men and women are encouraged to sign up now for the Diocese’s popular Quo Vadis and Fiat Days retreats July 17-21 at DeSales University.

Bishop Alfred Schlert will celebrate Mass on the grounds of Holy Saviour Cemetery, Bethlehem on Saturday, May 28 at 10 a.m., in commemoration of Memorial Day, a federal holiday dedicated to mourning those who have died while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces.

New assignments are designed to meet the needs of the faithful in the Diocese’s 80 parishes, as well as fulfilling pastoral needs at college campuses, at hospitals, and at diocesan high schools.

Seminarian Alexander Brown, who worked during high school as an apprentice blacksmith, is about to take a major step in forging his new life as a priest of the Diocese of Allentown.

As the Year of the Real Presence draws to a close, the Diocese of Allentown is making plans for a Solemn Mass of Corpus Christi and Eucharistic Procession to formally end the year on June 19.

Campus ministry efforts at DeSales and Lehigh universities and Lafayette College were boosted by three young women who won awards for their efforts.

“May our prayer and fasting be a peaceful, civil, and faith-filled response to the ever-increasing violent and coarse discourse that has come to a head regarding the impending Supreme Court decision,” said Bishop Alfred Schlert.

“I am proud of our graduates for their academic accomplishments,” said Father Mark Searles, Director of Vocations. “Academics are one of the four pillars of formation to become a priest, with the others being pastoral, spiritual, and human formation.”

There is no one who is not in need of some sort of healing in our world. We become wounded by many things: by the result of our actions or sin; the result of another’s actions or sin toward us; or through circumstances beyond anyone’s personal control (accidents, natural disaster, disease) … or just as a result of our own mortality.

With its factory so close by, you might say Allen Organ is the “home team” organ supplier for parishes in the Diocese. The company estimates it has sold about 75 church organs to diocesan parishes over the years.

A total of 126 students from diocesan elementary and high schools and the special learning centers were presented with $120,000 in scholarships during a ceremony at Bethlehem Catholic High School.