“If one member suffers, all suffer together with it” (1 Cor 12:26). These words of Saint Paul forcefully echo in my heart as I acknowledge once more the suffering endured by many minors due to sexual abuse, the abuse of power and the abuse of conscience perpetrated by a significant number of clerics and consecrated persons. Crimes that inflict deep wounds of pain and powerlessness, primarily among the victims, but also in their family members and in the larger community of believers and nonbelievers alike. Looking back to the past, no effort to beg pardon and to seek to repair the harm done will ever be sufficient. Looking ahead to the future, no effort must be spared to create a culture able to prevent such situations from happening, but also to prevent the possibility of their being covered up and perpetuated. The pain of the victims and their families is also our pain, and so it is urgent that we once more reaffirm our commitment to ensure the protection of minors and of vulnerable adults.

Bishop Glen John Provost accepted three seminarians to Candidacy for Admittance to Holy Orders in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

WASHINGTON — Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), has issued the following statement after a series of meetings with members of the USCCB’s Executive Committee and other bishops. The following statement includes three goals and three principles, along with initial steps of a plan that will involve laity, experts, and the Vatican. A more developed plan will be presented to the full body of bishops at their general assembly meeting in Baltimore in November.

The homily of Bishop Provost for the Solemnity of the Assumption, preached at St. Mary Magdalen Church for the beginning of the Fête-Dieu Procession in partial observance of the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Diocese of Lafayette.

Brother Lucius (Jacob) Rigmaiden, 27, a native of the Diocese of Lake Charles, has received his habit and started his novitiate with the Dominican Province of St. Joseph.

LAKE CHARLES – The Catholic schools of the Diocese of Lake Charles will begin the 2018-2019 school year with the return of students to classes on Friday, August 10, at Our Lady Immaculate Catholic School in Jennings and on Thursday, August 16, at the six schools located in Calcasieu Parish.