Father Arthur Gildea, of the community at the St. Alphonsus Villa, New Smyrna Beach, Florida, died March 29, 2022, age 80 and one month. 

The People Change. The Mission Does Not.

Father John P. Lavin, aka “Padre Juan,” of the community at the St. John Neumann Residence, Stella Maris, Timonium Maryland, died February 12, 2022, age 80 and nine months.

Father Ronald E. Bonneau, C.Ss.R., of the St. Mary’s community, Annapolis, Maryland, died on November 9, 2021, aged 76 and eleven months. Born on December 12, 1944, in Hanover, New Hampshire, he was the son of Edward and Helen.

Father Carl W. Hoegerl, a member of the St. John Neumann community at Stella Maris, Timonium, Maryland, died on November 4, 2021, age 98. Carl W. Hoegerl was born October 10, 1923, in Harmonsburg, Pennsylvania, near “metropolitan Meadville,” and was schooled in St. Peter’s Parish in Conneautville.

Father Richard K. Poetzel , a member of the St. John Neumann community at Stella Maris, Timonium, Maryland, died on September 24, 2021, age 85 and ten months. He was born November 1, 1936 in Baltimore, Maryland, to Carl and Magdalen (Weber).

Jean-Jacques “Jacky” Merlian, a member of the Redemptorists’ English-speaking Region, died on July 19, 2021, age 39 and two months. Born in Grand Bois, Ouest, Haiti, on May 22, 1982, to Jean and Marguerite (Pierristal), he was baptized on February 12, 1983, at St. Pierre de Grand-Bois.

The Rev. James Howard Geiger of the St. John Neumann community, Stella Maris, Timonium, Maryland, died July 15, 2021, aged 87 and seven months. Father Geiger is predeceased by his brother and fellow Redemptorist William Geiger who died in 2007.

Father Dennis Maurice Foley, C.Ss.R., of the San Alfonso Retreat House community, West End, New Jersey, died on June 6, 2021, at age 87 and five months. Born in Brooklyn, New York, January 16, 1934, he was the son of John and Mary (Glynn) Foley.

Largest graduating class in Franciscan University’s history celebrates outdoor graduation weekend. STEUBENVILLE, OHIO—Franciscan University of Steubenville celebrated its 73rd commencement exercises May 14-15 by bestowing 756 diplomas, making the Class of 2021 the largest in the school’s history.

Shortly after Christmas 2020, the government of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines issued an alert. “Increased seismic activity,” it read, “has been detected at the volcano located in La Soufriere.” Overnight, the celebrations of the source of our faith quickly yielded to focus on a summit far from Bethlehem.

The eruption of La Soufriere volcano on the eastern Caribbean Island of Saint Vincent began with a series of small earthquakes and tremors and peaked with an eruptive explosion on Friday, April 9, 2021 at 8:41 a.m.