St. Louis Review

04/08/2025

A project begun and financed by Catholics in the United States is nearing completion. James Nolan begin a project to replace a bell at Urakami Cathedral in Nagasaki, Japan, which was destroyed by the atomic bombing.

Archbishop Peter Michiaki Nakamura of Nagasaki said it’s meaningful that American Catholics have manufactured and donated a bell in place of the bell that was destroyed by the atomic bomb manufactured and dropped by American hands.

The archbishop said he also hopes the bell will serve as a memorial prayer for the victims who have died, and “to the world where war is still being waged, I would like it to be sent out as a cry of prayer that we end all wars and that ours become a world of peace with no war from now on.”

American project to replace bell in Nagasaki cathedral nears completion

04/07/2025

The Poor Clare nuns at the Monastery of St. Clare in Oakville encourage visitors to come and receive the Lord’s grace as part of a Jubilee pilgrimage.

The Monastery of St. Clare is one of nine Jubilee Pilgrimage sites in the Archdiocese of St. Louis designated by Archbishop Mitchell T. Rozanski for the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope

Whether visitors attend an event or simply come to the monastery for Mass or prayer, the monastery's abbess, Mother Mary Elizabeth, encourages all “to take the opportunity to come up and receive our Lord’s graces right now — the Lord knows we do need it, with everything going on!” she said. “And for our loved ones that are still in purgatory — that’s one of the things that seems to be a little closer to my heart right now…this Jubilee Year indulgence isn’t just for ourselves, but for the poor souls.”

The Monastery of St. Clare in Oakville is one of nine designated Jubilee Pilgrimage sites in the archdiocese

04/06/2025

In our response to trials, we know how easy it is to fall into a pattern of complaining, writes Archbishop Rozanski. If we pivot on the hardship into crying out, rather than complaining, we’ll deepen our relationship with God.

Scriptural stories of trial foreshadow the passion of Jesus during Holy Week

04/05/2025

Through the sacrament of reconciliation, we receive the gift of God's love and mercy. This sacrament can help us understand why we are reluctant to live how God calls us, Father Wester writes.

Fifth Sunday in Lent | Jesus assures us that He is here for all of us when we seek the mercy of God in confession

04/04/2025

Catholic organizations such as Catholic Charities and Society of St. Vincent de Paul participate in Multi-Agency Resource Center to address the tangible and spiritual needs of people affected by recent storms.

The St. Vincent de Paul Society provided MARC participants with monetary help, thrift store vouchers and connected neighbors with more resources. The needs are prioritized and referrals are made to the society’s parish-based conferences.

“We respond to the immediate needs, but the reality is the society will still be here for them a year later,” executive director John Foppe said. “Because of the generosity of donors, we’re able to help with their basic needs. We often see cases come back through” especially those who have been displaced and need help setting up once they’ve returned to their homes.

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Read the full story at the link in our bio!

04/04/2025

Catholic organizations such as Catholic Charities and Society of St. Vincent de Paul participate in Multi-Agency Resource Center to address the tangible and spiritual needs of people affected by recent storms.

The St. Vincent de Paul Society provided MARC participants with monetary help, thrift store vouchers and connected neighbors with more resources. The needs are prioritized and referrals are made to the society’s parish-based conferences.

“We respond to the immediate needs, but the reality is the society will still be here for them a year later,” executive director John Foppe said. “Because of the generosity of donors, we’re able to help with their basic needs. We often see cases come back through” especially those who have been displaced and need help setting up once they’ve returned to their homes.

Catholic organizations assess individual needs at Multi-Agency Resource Centers

04/01/2025

During ordination, priests and deacons make promises to pray with and for the people of God. This is just one part of the way clergy "continually offer God a sacrifice of praise” (Hebrews 13:15).

How are priests and deacons called to live a life of prayer?

03/31/2025

Invitations from friends helped nurture a desire to enter the Church for a group of teenagers at Good Shepherd Parish.
Jude Short accepted a friend's invitations to a few youth group events and last summer attended Mass with him for the first time. “I remember everybody going up to get Communion, to receive the Body, and I was like — whoa. I want to be part of this,” he said. “I thought about it, prayed on it, and I was like, this is the right thing to do. This is where I’m being called.”

Following friends’ examples, five teenagers prepare to fully enter the Church at Good Shepherd Parish

03/30/2025

The first time Issac Dessau and Jude Short asked their friend Seth Partney about the process of becoming Catholic, they were standing in front of a 7-Eleven drinking Slurpees after a game of pickleball.

The seeds of conversion had been planted long before. It started with Seth.

Seth describes himself as cradle Catholic who in high school was losing interest in the faith and “started doing wrong things and getting in with the wrong people.” But when a friend invited him to Encounter, an evening of praise and worship, eucharistic adoration and confession at St. Joseph Parish in Imperial, he decided to check it out.

“I went to confession for the first time in four or five years and just laid everything out. And the priest just told me, ‘welcome home,’” Seth said. “From there, it’s been the point of no return. I started going to youth group, trying to really learn about my faith instead of just halfway participating in it every Sunday.”

His friends at Hillsboro High School noticed.

“Someone told me, the only thing you can bring to heaven with you is the people around you,” Seth said. “So it was just like, well, these are my best friends. I’d be doing them a pretty big disservice to not, at least, show them how I want to live my life and what I believe is the one true way.”

Read more on how these five teens prepare to fully enter the Church at Good Shepherd Parish at the link in our bio!

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03/30/2025

How do you imagine heaven? Reminding ourselves that heaven is greater than our greatest joys can help increase or desire for eternal life, writes Archbishop Rozanski.

Let’s do the work of developing images of heaven that are worth living and sacrificing for

03/29/2025

In the readings for the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Jesus interacts with individuals considered unclean and unworthy of God’s love. Father Wester asks us, what kind of example can we give to those around us who are hungry for authentic disciples of Jesus?

Fourth Sunday in Lent | God’s mercy and forgiveness are gifts that are freely given to us

03/29/2025

Camie Dickherber is in her third year coordinating a neighborhood Stations of the Cross in St. Charles. The idea came to her as she lamented how difficult it was to find a good time to take her six young children to a traditional Stations of the Cross prayer service at a church; the opportunities seemed to all fall during nap time, dinner time or bedtime, she said.
“We’ve had neighbors this year that aren’t even Catholic, that wanted to be part of it just because they thought it was so beautiful, and that was something that was really neat. It’s a good evangelization tool,” Dickherber said. “…One gentleman who has a station in his yard, he told us the first year, he had not been to church in like 15 years, and now he comes out every time someone stops at their house and he’ll pray with them. It’s just so fun how God provides when He has a mission.”

Archdiocesan news Neighborhood Stations of the Cross make Lenten devotional visible on the streets JACOB WIEGAND | [email protected] Camie Dickherber and her daughters Miriam, 6, and Gertrude, 6 months, talked with Hope Rudy, left, at the starting point of the Stations of the Cross route spre...

03/28/2025

Eureka Fire Protection District became one of the newest Safe Haven Baby Box locations in Missouri with a blessing held March 19.
Located on an external wall of Engine House 2, the box allows parents in crisis to surrender their infant safely, legally and anonymously.
“It takes a whole village to keep a village safe,” said Eureka Fire Chief Scott Barthelmass . “If a mom is in crisis, this is one more resource for her.”

Most Sacred Heart Parish assisted with funds, support for the project

03/28/2025

Ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas will have “dire consequences” for civil society’s future and is likely to worsen the region’s tensions for another generation, Bishop A. Elias Zaidan, chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace, said in a statement following the breakdown of a ceasefire agreement in the Holy Land.

U.S. news Bp. Zaidan warns renewed Israel-Hamas war has ‘dire consequences’ Hussam Al-Masri | Reuters People gathered as smoke rose following an Israeli airstrike at Nasser hospital, according to the Palestinian civil defence, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip March 23. On March 18, Isra...

03/27/2025

St. Simon the Apostle School to close at end of 2024-25 year due to declining enrollment

St. Simon the Apostle School in south St. Louis County will close at the end of the 2024-25 school year, the archdiocese announced March 27. The school’s

03/26/2025

We are used to thinking about mysteries as a type of story with a puzzle we try to solve before we are told its answer. In theology, a “mystery” is a truth that human beings cannot discover on our own but relies upon revelation from God to become known, writes Father Chris Schroeder.

And even when we do have revelation showing us the way, a true theological mystery still remains mysterious insofar as our human intellect will never exhaust its depths of meaning. We cannot know the mind of God, and even when He reveals it to us, there is a wisdom, beauty and greatness in God that will always be beyond our understanding.

Why do we call the meditations in the Rosary “mysteries”? They don’t seem that mysterious.

03/25/2025

St. Alphonsus Liguori “Rock” Church Parish has received a $500,000 grant to go toward preserving the church’s 120-plus-year-old stained-glass windows.

The parish was one of 30 Black churches across the country — and the only Catholic church — to receive a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation through its African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. The grant program is part of the fund’s Preserving Black Churches project.

Shannon Horstmann, a “Rock” parishioner for nearly 25 years who submitted several requests for the grant over the past few years, said she was awestruck when she got the news.

Horstmann sat in the back of church near one of the windows during Sunday Mass after she found out the news in late February, “just silently with tears in my eyes looking at the sun coming through the windows,” she said. “This is such a huge honor for the Black community, for the Catholic community and for the Black Catholic community. The historic, spiritual and cultural aspects — there are so many components that make up our church.”

Archdiocesan news St. Alphonsus Liguori “Rock” Church receives $500,000 grant for stained glass window restoration Photos by Jacob Wiegand | [email protected] St. Alphonsus Liguori “Rock” Church in north St. Louis has received a $500,000 grant from the National Trust for Historic Pres...

03/24/2025

Damon Ackerson is one of six bakers currently employed by Bridge Bread, a nonprofit social enterprise that employs people who are transitioning out of homelessness. The work provides them with a stable income and supportive work environment with job training and additional skills development.

Bridge Bread hired Ackerson more than two years ago in what he described as an opportunity after a life “mishap — and I’ve made the best of it.” His employer helped him find housing and provided some assistance with rent. His job’s proximity to home — he’s about a 15-minute bus ride away — was an added bonus.

Ackerson has risen to the role of professional baker, mentoring newer employees. Most of the time that involves guiding them through the work, but he’s also been known to talk them through personal issues.

“I try to keep the guys heading forward in the right direction,” he said.

Bridge Bread got its start in 2011 and opened its first retail location in 2015. The bakery moved into the historic Vandora Theatre building on Cherokee Street in south St. Louis in 2017 and has expanded its mission through consignment bake sales at churches and other organizations and businesses. A lease agreement was signed in March to open a new retail location in the Delmar Loop.

Catholic parishes support mission of Bridge Bread, which employs people moving out of homelessness