At the beginning of the month of February, our diocese had the privilege of welcoming Bishop Gerard County from our sister diocese, the Diocese of Kingstown in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Bishop County preached the mission appeal in Brainerd, Duluth and Nashwauk area parishes. He also participated in a celebratory Catholic schools week at St. Francis of the Lakes School in Brainerd and St. Joseph’s School in Grand Rapids. He loved our schools, and I think he actually liked the snow!
I ask your ongoing prayers for all of our Catholic schools and perhaps especially at this time the Duluth Area Catholic Schools. We have embraced a plan to unify our operations into a citywide school with multiple campuses in the city of Duluth. “Called To Be One,” the name of our planning team, went well beyond a plan for school configuration, engaging a new approach to forming our young people and families in the Catholic faith.
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| Bishop Paul Sirba Fiat Voluntas Tua |
All of our Catholic schools are committed to providing high quality, financially stable Catholic school education and faith formation for all.
My gratitude to all of you for making Catholic education a possibility in our diocese. Along with our religious education programming, we hope to pass on the Catholic faith and practice to the next generation of believers in Jesus Christ. This is the work of the New Evangelization called for by Pope Francis.
Many of our priests will be making their annual retreat at King’s House in Buffalo the week of Feb. 12. Please ask God to bless all of our priests and make them shepherds after the Lord’s heart.
Remember the Sisters of St. Scholastica Monastery in a special way on Feb. 10, the feast day of St. Scholastica. The Sisters have dedicated their lives to the service of Jesus. We are grateful for their “yes” to the Lord and service throughout our diocese! Sts. Scholastica and Benedict, pray for us.
Don’t forget the first-ever “Catholics at the Capital,” sponsored by the Minnesota Catholic Conference in St. Paul on Thursday, March 9. You are encourage to join me, my brother bishops from Minnesota and more than 1,000 fellow Catholics as we work to protect life and dignity in Minnesota. Registration can be found on our diocesan website: www.dioceseduluth.org.
February ends with Mardi Gras. That means that the holy season of Lent is fast approaching!
Bishop Paul D. Sirba is the ninth bishop of Duluth.
