Incarnate Word Academy Middle Level students, faculty and staff celebrated the Crowning of Mary with a Mass on Friday, May 17, at the school’s James R. Dougherty Center.

Nearly 100 of the faithful came to Holy Family Parish in Taft, some from as far as Alice, to join Bishop Wm. Michael Mulvey celebrate a Mass for the Beginning of the Harvest. This is the second year that the bishop has celebrated the Mass.

The 8th grade class at St. Anthony School in Robstown completed a course on Theology of the Body for middle school under the direction of Roxanne Alvarado and Margie Willingham.

Marking 40 years of ecumenical dialogue, Pope Francis told the leader of 10 million Coptic Orthodox that their churches are united by an "ecumenism of suffering."

Students from St. Gertrude School celebrated the Crowning of Mary at the school Mass on Friday, May 10. Two students were randomly chosen from each class to walk in the crowning procession to honor Mary as the Mother of Jesus.

The Incarnate Word Academy high school level boys track and field team placed fourth in the TAPPS 4A State Track and Field Meet in Waco from May 10-11. Jackson Bright earned two gold medals in the 1,600 and 3,200-meter runs and breaking the state record in the 3,200 meter run.

Bishop Wm. Michael Mulvey has made the following appointments for the good of the people of God in the Diocese of Corpus Christi.

Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller, MSpS, hosted a Mass with the bishops of Texas for delegations from the various dioceses for the Year of Faith. The Mass took place at Mission San José the evening of April 22.

On Wednesday, May 15, Bishop Wm. Michael Mulvey of the Catholic Diocese of Corpus Christi will celebrate Mass at 6 p.m. at Holy Family Parish in Taft to mark the beginning of the harvest. The day is observed in the Catholic Church as the feast day of St. Isidore, patron of farmers.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Portland completed a men’s ACTS retreat on May 2-5 with pastor Msgr. Mark Chamberlin serving as spiritual director. Ervey Martinez directed the retreat and was assisted by co-directors David Krebs and Ramiro Ochoa.

Knights of Columbus from across the state gathered at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi on April 26-28 for their 109th Annual State Convention. Corpus Christi Bishop Wm. Michael Mulvey celebrated the opening Mass on Friday, April 26.

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Pope Francis has named Auxiliary Bishop Mark J. Seitz of Dallas as bishop of El Paso, Texas. Bishop Seitz, 59, succeeds Bishop Armando Ochoa, who was named bishop of Fresno, Calif., in December 2011.

Incarnate Word Academy’s boys varsity track and field team captured the TAPPS 3-4A district meet held at San Antonio Christian High School this weekend. The team earned 154 points to score the championship.

Nearly 90 Boy and Girl Scouts and adult volunteers gathered with their families at Corpus Christi Cathedral on April 14 to receive their religious emblems and scouting awards for the past year. These emblems are awarded to those who demonstrated outstanding moral example in their units and in the community as well as in leadership.

More than 8,000 Catholic educators at the annual National Catholic Educational Association convention April 2-4 in Houston included catechists, teachers and administrators who teach preschoolers to high school students in cities and rural areas across the country and around the world.

The Corpus Christi Cathedral was filled with priests, religious and lay faithful during the Chrism Mass on Tuesday, March 26. The Cathedral resonated with liturgical music from the Cathedral Choir as a procession of Knights of Columbus, Knights and Ladies of the Holy Sepulchre, representatives of various ministries, deacons, priests and Bishop Wm. Michael Mulvey made its approach to the altar.

Jesus’ last night on earth taught us a new spirit, a new covenant of sacrifice for each other, Bishop Wm. Michael Mulvey said in his Holy Thursday Homily on March 28 at the Corpus Christi Cathedral.

Recientemente, el Obispo Wm. Michael Mulvey ha encargado la labor de dirigir los Ministerios Hispanos de la Diócesis al Padre Julián Cabrera, quien funge como Párroco de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe en Alice, Texas.

Amid rising concerns about corruption and mismanagement in the central administration of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis named an international panel of cardinals to advise him on the latest reform of the Vatican bureaucracy.

While some Catholics would like to undo the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, others basically are trying to build a monument to it rather than fully live its teachings, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis named U.S. Archbishop-designate Michael W. Banach, a Vatican diplomat, to be apostolic nuncio to Papua New Guinea.

The last two remaining Dominican priests in the Diocese of Corpus Christi are returning home to Spain on July 1, bringing to end more than 80 years of service to the parish communities in San Diego and the surrounding area.

In April 1931, the Claretian Provincial Secretary in Mexico City informed Corpus Christi Bishop Emmanuel Ledvina that they could no longer serve the parish in San Diego. He informed the bishop that the order simply did not have enough priests who could “speak and preach in correct English.”

Fifty years ago, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. took a group of white Alabama clergymen to task for suggesting he find ways, other than demonstrations and protests, to seek racial equality.

When a team of health officials and investigators looking into illegal drug use raided Dr. Kermit Barron Gosnell’s Women’s Medical Society Feb. 18, 2010, they happened upon what many are calling a “house of horrors.”

Sister Maria Elizabeth Brehony attributes vocation to the grace of God and her family.

Dear brothers and sisters, the Lord is risen! The Easter season continues to bring to our minds and hearts the fact that God loved the world so much that he sent His only son.

The joy of a woman holding her newborn infant for the first time is so great that it is often beyond words. Indeed, the countenance of her face says all that can be said–in the glow on her face there can be seen wonder and awe, elation and bliss, tenderness and love beyond telling. Her love is a mystery that intertwines deeply between the woman and the child of her womb, a mystery that even she cannot fully fathom, yet one that exists nonetheless.

Resuscitating a patient who undergoes a cardiac arrest or stops breathing often involves multiple procedures. When resuscitation “Code Blue” is called in the hospital, something like a medical “flash mob” comes together to try to save the patient.

If the conclave of 2005 was about continuity—extending the legacy of John Paul II by electing his closest theological advisor as his successor—the conclave of 2013 was about governance.

Nothing comes to us from a vacuum. Just as God used history and the Catholic Church to give us the Christian Bible as we know it today, so too God used history and the Catholic Church to give us the Nicene Creed that expresses the most fundamental beliefs about the Trinitarian God.

All communities of consecrated life share some elements that are necessary in order for the Church to recognize them as a community. However, individual communities also differ in regard to certain elements that give their communities the specific character that makes them who they are.

In honor of Catholic Faith in Action Advocacy Day nearly 2000 Catholic Texans traveled to Austin and met at the steps of the state capitol on April 9 to rally with Texas bishops and meet with their senators and representatives.

CCD students from St. Mary Mission in Robstown released several blue balloons up into the gray sky on the morning of April 28. The event concluded National Child Abuse Awareness Month in honor of all children who die of abuse every year. All CCD students from pre-kinder to High School gathered outside of the small mission church for a prayer led by their pastor, Father Anthony Blount, before they released the balloons.

Our Lady of Consolation Parish in Vattman hosted their 10th Annual Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday, March 30. At the start of the egg hunt, Father Paul Peter Antony gave a blessing and handed out religious gifts to the children. The egg hunt included food, drinks, games and photos. A local parishioner brought baby animals for the children to enjoy.

Incarnate Word Academy’s Middle Level band and choir performed at Mount Carmel Home, an assisted living center, on Thursday, April 25. Students mingled with residents after their performances.

Five Incarnate Word Academy high school students will be competing in the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools (TAPPS) State Tennis Tournament from April 24-25 in Waco.

Stephanie Bonilla, Diocesan Director of the Office for Child and Youth Protection, spoke to middle and high school CCD students from St. Mary Mission in Robstown about child abuse awareness on April 14.

Blessed John Paul II High School announced the appointment of Justen J. Evans to the position of athletic director effective with the beginning of the 2013-14 school year. For the last three years, Evans has been with Santa Gertrudis Academy High School in Kingsville.

WASHINGTON—El Cardenal Timothy Dolan de Nueva York, presidente de la Conferencia de Obispos Católicos de los Estados Unidos (USCCB), dijo en una conferencia de prensa el 22 de Abril que “este es el momento” de arreglar el fallido sistema de inmigración del país.

WEST, Texas (CNS) -- Father Ed Karasek was driving home from a meeting in Austin when reports of a massive explosion at a fertilizer plant in West came across the radio.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will speak Wednesday, April 17, 2013 for CHRISTUS Spohn Health System Foundation’s 25th Annual South Texas Lyceum, held at the American Bank Center.

The Incarnate Word Academy band and choir placed at the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools (TAPPS) state music competition on April 13, held in Belton, Texas.

Jaimie Bibby and Kevin Smith will sign letters of intent with the University of the Incarnate Word on Wednesday, April 17, at 3 p.m. at Incarnate Word Academy High School’s Mother M. Patricia Gunning Gymnasium.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Five Incarnate Word Academy High School Level students participated in the Texas Art Education Association’s Visual Art Scholastic Event (VASE) in Bryan, Texas on April 5-6, 2013.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – On April 18, he Incarnate Word Academy Foundation will host a Scholarship Recognition Luncheon for more than 200 students, contributors, as well as Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament (IWBS) Sisters. This special event, which starts at 11:30 a.m. at the James R. Dougherty Center, is in its 10th year.

CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-South has reduced the number of elective inductions and caesarean deliveries performed before 39 completed weeks of pregnancy and has earned March of Dimes recognition for this efforts.

Several Incarnate Word Academy High School Level students and faculty are at the Texas State Capitol today, April 9, for Catholic Faith in Action Advocacy Day, which is organized by the Texas Catholic Conference.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Incarnate Word Academy held a campus-wide Mass for the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord and the Incarnation on Monday, April 8, at the high school level’s Gunning Gymnasium with Msgr. Roger Smith as celebrant.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Incarnate Word Academy varsity baseball team helped children with physical and mental challenges play ball on April 2 at Evelyn Price Park. The special-needs baseball players belong to Padre Little League Challenger Division.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Incarnate Word Academy sixth grader Gabriel Rauen has qualified to compete in the State Geography Bee on April 5 at the Pat May Center in Bedford, Texas.

The Diocese of Corpus Christi Office of Youth Ministry is hosting three "Mini Youth Spectaculars." These smaller scale events will culminate in the main event in September, which will celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Youth Spectacular in the diocese.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis has decided not to move into the papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace, but to live in a suite in the Vatican guesthouse where he has been since the beginning of the conclave that elected him, said Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Here is the English translation of Pope Francis I's remarks delivered from the balcony after his election as pope.

Diocese of Corpus Christi seminarian Eric Chapa has a better vantage point than most on the historic events unfolding in Rome. Chapa is a second year theology student at the Pontifical North American College (NAC) located just outside the walls of the Vatican. He recently shared some observations on Pope Benedict’s resignation.

On Sunday, March 3, the Pontifical North American College installed 62 seminarians to the ministry of acolyte during a celebration of the Eucharist at the school’s chapel. Eric Chapa a seminarian with the Diocese of Corpus Christi and a second year student of theological studies was among those seminarians instituted.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In one of his last public appearances, Pope Benedict XVI told an overflow crowd in St. Peter's Square Feb. 24 that his upcoming retirement does not mean he is abandoning the church, but that he will be serving it in a new way, through prayer and meditation.

CIUDAD DEL VATICANO (CNS) -- Por más que él asombrara al mundo cuando anunció su renuncia el 11 de febrero, en retrospección la decisión del papa Benedicto XVI parece casi predecible. Dado sus declaraciones previas sobre el tema y sus recientes señales de envejecimiento, uno podría decir que la gente debió verlo venir.

CIUDAD DEL VATICANO (CNS) -- Diciendo que ya no tiene la fortaleza para ejercer el ministerio sobre la iglesia universal, el papa Benedicto XVI anunció el 11 de febrero que estará renunciando a fin de este mes después de un pontificado de ocho años.

A U.S. District Court judge Feb. 8 dismissed a lawsuit filed against the federal contraceptive mandate by the Springfield and Joliet dioceses, their respective Catholic Charities agencies and Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Saying he no longer has the strength to exercise ministry over the universal church, Pope Benedict XVI announced Feb. 11 that he would be resigning at the end of the month.

For the past 15 years, Catholic parishes throughout the Palestinian territories and many in Israel have been celebrating Easter on the Greek Orthodox date. Now, following a directive from the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land, within two years all Eastern Catholics and the Latin Patriarchate in the Holy Land will officially adopt the Greek Orthodox Julian calendar date.

The Feb. 1 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) related to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act shows some movement by the Administration but falls short of addressing U.S. bishops’ concerns, according to a statement issued by the United Stats Conference of Catholic Bishops.

An appeals court issued a preliminary injunction Feb. 1 against the federal government's contraceptive mandate, saying a Catholic-owned company, Annex Medical, does not have to comply with that part of the Affordable Care Act while its legal challenge makes its way through the courts.

WASHINGTON (CNS)–Catholic institutions were still analyzing the effect of a new set of proposed rules on insurance coverage of contraceptives issued by the Department of Health and Human Services.

BALTIMORE (CNS) -- When the Baltimore Ravens defeated the San Francisco 49ers on Thanksgiving night in 2011 -- and John Harbaugh beat younger brother, Jim, in the first NFL matchup of coaching brothers -- Jack Harbaugh peeked into the Ravens' locker room after the game.

Social media need to promote more logic, kindness and Christian witness than bluster, star-status and division, Pope Benedict XVI said.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Incarnate Word Academy’s Middle Level Geography Bee will be held at the James R. Dougherty Center on Friday, Jan. 11, at 2:30 p.m. The top 10 history classroom winners will participate in the school’s Geography Bee.

Cecilia Bauer, an altar server at Our Lady of Refuge in Refugio, has signed a letter of intent to play softball at Houston Baptist University in the fall.

We are in the last few days before the presidential elections. The last several months have been filled with speeches, debates, campaign ads, conflict and controversy.

For more than a year, the U.S. bishops have been sounding the alarm about what they see as serious threats to religious freedom in this country. At both the state and the federal level, there have been a series of legislative and court actions that are cause for grave concern: The restriction of the church in terms of ministering to undocumented workers and the requirement that Catholic adoption agencies give children to same-sex or unmarried couples are but two examples.

My dear brothers and sisters, we are well into the final weeks before the presidential elections. Perhaps you will agree that this has been a very difficult campaign.

It’s the economy, stupid! James Carville’s memorable note-to-self during the 1992 presidential race will be the determining factor in the 2012 campaign, according to the common wisdom.

In a little more than a month, the American people will go to the polls to elect their president for the next four years.

Patients and families sometimes struggle with the question of whether dialysis is “worth it.”

The following are capsule reviews of new and recent DVD and Blu-ray releases from Catholic News Service. Theatrical movies have a Catholic News Service classification and Motion Picture Association of America rating. These classifications refer only to the theatrical version of the films below, and do not take into account the discs' extra content.

For the 11th year the international relay run of the Antorcha Guadalupana passed through the Diocese of Corpus Christi and stopped at Holy Family Church located at 3157 MacArthur, on Oct. 30 arriving for a Mass at 7 p.m.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Even before the recent turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa–including attacks on U.S. embassies and the killing of an American ambassador–the region was experiencing increasing hostilities and tensions involving religion.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – There will be no sleeping-in this weekend for some students at Incarnate Word Academy High School. About 35 students will be painting fences and tending to the landscape at Central Catholic Elementary School on Saturday at 7:30 a.m.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Incarnate Word Academy Booster Club is hosting a golf tournament on Saturday, Sept. 15, at the North Shore Country Club in Portland.

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- In a dozen courts around the country, attorneys representing more than 40 Catholic dioceses or institutions have filed briefs arguing against the federal government's call to dismiss lawsuits against its contraceptive mandate.

NEW YORK (CNS) -- The following are capsule reviews of movies recently reviewed by Catholic News Service.

Over the past year, the Catholic Church and its bishops have been tirelessly occupied in defending our rights to religious liberty and freedom of speech. Now is the chance for us to make good on what that fight has been about; it is time for us to step up and lend our voice to the public debate. What we do--or do not do-- this Nov. 6 can have important consequences for the future.

NEW YORK (CNS) -- The following are capsule reviews of movies recently reviewed by Catholic News Service.

Those who seek to justify abortion often try to minimize or deny the humanity of the embryo.

The Supreme Court’s minor mistakes have few systemic consequences. But when the Supremes make a big mistake, the error tends to seep throughout the entire political process, poisoning everything in its path.

Faced with threats toward our first freedom of religious liberty, the U.S. Catholic Church is a Church being pushed by civil authorities and interests which fail to honor the role of the Church in the common good and the public square.

Who would have thought that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dissenting opinion in Thursday’s healthcare decision would help opponents of the so-called contraceptive mandate?

As Catholics, we are led to raise questions for political life other than “Are you better off than you were two or four years ago?”

The master plan for the New Evangelization in Latin America is rather long—20-times longer than the Gospel of Mark, I’d guess. But in virtually every other respect it’s an entirely admirable piece of work that should be known throughout the world Church.

The film “For Greater Glory” features a stellar cast of American and Mexican actors portraying the lives and events of a conflict in Mexico known as the Cristero War.

The use of ventilators can pose particularly challenging problems during end of life situations for families. When should we place a loved one on a ventilator?

WASHINGTON—Today the United States Supreme Court issued a decision upholding as a tax the provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that requires individuals to purchase a health plan—the so-called “individual mandate.”

Catholics who include holy Mass in their celebration of Independence Day on July 4 will hear the call to justice in the first reading, from the Book of Amos. The Declaration of Independence expressed the same desire.

In the Church’s struggle for the protection of religious freedom, Bishop Wm. Michael Mulvey asked the people in the Diocese of Corpus Christi to pray. The bishop told a full Cathedral on July 21 that the Church is calling into question “secular tendencies that seek to limit the divine”

Most Americans haven’t the foggiest idea that a quasi-Stalinist, violently anti-Catholic regime once existed on our southern borders. Those who don’t know how bad Mexico was in the late 1920s are about to learn, though: at least those who see “For Greater Glory,” a recently-released movie about the Cristero War, a passionate (and bloody) defense of Catholicism that’s remembered today, if at all, because of Graham Greene’s novel, The Power and the Glory.

In a 1999 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, patients with serious illness were asked to identify what was most important to them during the dying process. Many indicated they wanted to achieve a sense of control.

Politics is about values and issues as well as candidates and officeholders. In this brief summary, the bishops of the United States call attention to issues with significant moral dimensions that should be carefully considered in each campaign and as policy decisions are made in the years to come.

One widely encountered idea today is that there is no black and white when it comes to morality, only a kind of “gray area.” This is often taken to mean that we really can’t know with certainty what is right and wrong, allowing us to “push into the gray” as we make certain moral decisions that at first glance appear to be immoral.

The consistent ethic of life provides a moral framework for principled Catholic engagement in political life and, rightly understood, neither treats all issues as morally equivalent nor reduces Catholic teaching to one or two issues. It anchors the Catholic commitment to defend human life, from conception until natural death, in the fundamental moral obligation to respect the dignity of every person as a child of God.

Washington D.C. (CNA) - New York Times writer Ross Douthat has defended Catholic theological and moral teachings, in a series of articles explaining how the Church is not “fundamentalist” but simply “orthodox.”

On Jan. 20, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a mandate placing first amendment rights and religious freedom in the crosshairs.

At the turn of the twentieth century, news of the universal Catholic Church was sparse and moved slowly across oceans, mountains and plains. News of the local Catholic Church mostly went unreported, as no local Catholic press existed.

NEW YORK (CNS) -- "Every life is beautiful." That's the tagline -- as well as the underlying theme -- of the thoroughly honorable, if not always fully effective, drama "October Baby" (Provident/Samuel Goldwyn).

A few years ago, I spoke with a young man preparing to get married. His aunt told him that she thought he and his fiancée were too financially strapped to have a child, and that it would not be fair to bring up a baby in poverty. Keenly aware of his joblessness and his minuscule bank account, he concluded she was probably right.

During a 2011 roundtable discussion on Fox News, guest commentator Jay Thomas argued that young people should not be too concerned when it comes to pre-marital sex, because nobody would choose to “buy a car without driving it first. You don’t get married, and you don’t learn about sex, by not having it.” Any reasonable person would prefer to avoid someone who might be, in his words, “odd in the sack,” much as any reasonable person would prefer to avoid getting a lemon when purchasing a new car.

Most unborn children diagnosed with Down syndrome, in fact, are never allowed to be born. Data from the United Kingdom indicates that between 1989 and 2006 approximately 92 percent of women chose to terminate a pregnancy with a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome, while in the United States, several published studies suggest the figure may be somewhere between 87 and 98 percent. A great many Down syndrome children, indeed, never see the light of day.

Publishing a monthly “newspaper” has its challenges. First, it is hard to report “news” when you come out once a month. The events you report on are very often dated or premature. It is only occasionally when you get to report an event in a semi-timely manner.

Last month, an advisory committee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta recommended that nine to 12 year old boys be vaccinated against the human papillomavirus (HPV), a virus transmitted through sexual contact. The goal of the recommendations was to prevent cancers caused by HPV, such as certain cancers of the digestive tract.

Ignatius Press recently announced that it is moving two of its monthly magazines online and ceasing their print editions. Let me assure everyone that is not happening at the South Texas Catholic.

In a recent column, David O’Brien, the Associate Director of Religious Education for Lay Ministry in the Archdiocese of Mobile, Alabama recounted the story of Agnes and Jake, devout Catholics who conceived and delivered four children during the first five years of their marriage.

As we observe Respect Life Month this October, we should keep in mind the fullness of the human person.

Making Sense of Bioethics