MADISON – St. Joseph Catholic School choir director Nancy Dent leads the student choir during weekly Mass at the school. Singing from left are Gypsy Macias, Lily Ratcliffe, Chamblee Ezelle, McKenzie Cummings, Atticus Gomez and Ashleigh Mason. (Photo by Terry Cassreino)PEARL – Father César Sánchez of St. Jude Parish visits a Sunday school class led by catechist Christina Overton. (Photo by Tereza Ma)CLARKSDALE – St. Elizabeth School first grade teacher Ke’Andra Lenard enjoys the annual parish fair with her niece, Pre-3 student Choyce Lenard. (Photo by Mary Evelyn Stonestreet)MADISON – St. Joseph Catholic School students Chad Davidson, left, Nick Glorioso and Ann Hardy Wright work on a project in their Human Anatomy and Physiology class. (Photo by Terry Cassreino)MADISON – Dr. and Mrs. Caskey, along with Grandmother Jane Santarufo, admire first grader Joseph Caskey’s work during Grandparents Day at St. Anthony School. (Photo by Kati Loyacono)
COLUMBUS – (Left) Annunciation School third grade students Thomas Nanney, Walker Robertson, Henry Hince and Bo Hamilton work in the school garden.
(Right) Eighth graders take part in the Living Rosary, with Brynn Clapperin center. (Photo by Jacque Hince)
SOUTHAVEN – (Left) Sacred Heart School fourth graders Alexia and Max help Pre-K4 students Theo, Jordan and Kartiar create a craft of the apostles Peter and Andrew in their fishing boat.
(Right) Sacred Heart School eighth graders process with candles during a special Mass on Sept. 17 celebrating the school’s 78th anniversary. Each candle represented 10 years of the school’s history, with eight smaller candles on the altar symbolizing the remaining years. (Photos by Sister Margaret Sue Broker)
MADISON – St. Joseph Catholic School Spirit Stepper Michael Michelle and Lady Bruins cheerleader JoJo take the floor during the school’s “Meet the Bruins” event on Sept. 24. Spirit Steppers and cheerleaders performed together to kick off the fall sports season. (Photo by Tereza Ma)
(OSV News) – It’s often said that death and taxes are two of life’s most enduring certainties. To that duo, anxious parents of teenagers might add another: rising college tuition.
For high school students yearning to attend a Catholic college, there is an encouraging development: Many Catholic institutions of higher learning are increasingly committed to making academia accessible through free, full tuition programs.
“There’s probably a significant number of students who would be interested in St. Mike’s,” said Brigid Lawler, until recently the vice president for enrollment management at St. Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont. “But they see that initial sticker price and think, ‘I’m not even going to have the conversation because I don’t think I can’t afford that.'”
St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, is pictured in this May 24, 2023 photo. It is one of many Catholic institutions of higher learning making academia accessible through free, full tuition programs. (OSV News photo/courtesy of St. Anselm College)
With about 1,100 undergraduate students from 21 states and 15 countries, St. Michael’s College is the only Edmundite college in the world – founded in 1904 by the French order of priests known as the Society of St. Edmund.
Boasting more than 40 majors and a 10:1 student to faculty ratio, the college has a history of social justice commitment, with more than 70% of students participating in service opportunities.
For the 2025-2026 school year, tuition, food and housing at St. Michael’s College totals $70,990, excluding books, supplies and incidental costs. However, over 90% of its students receive financial aid – and “The St. Mike’s Community Commitment” gives families whose income falls at or below $100,000 a total aid package covering full tuition after federal grants. In addition, all admitted students are automatically considered for merit-based scholarships.
Because the St. Mike’s Community Commitment launched in late 2024, it’s still difficult to judge the impact of the new financial aid program. But Lawler is both enthusiastic and emphatic.
“We are a campus that has this very strong sense of community, and there is this idea that we want to take care of the folks that are here and help them to stay,” she said, “because we all know that should be a huge part of the mission.”
St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, launched its Anselmian Community Commitment in 2024, “a program that allows New Hampshire students with a family income of $100,000 or less and a GPA of 3.25 or higher to attend the college tuition-free,” according to its website, with school leaders citing the school’s Catholic and Benedictine mission.
Also in 2024, College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, also announced that students whose families have a total income of $100,000 or less “and reasonable assets” will receive a full tuition grant. The move was an expansion of the school’s current financial aid program, which in the 2022-2023 academic year stated that families with a total income of $75,000 or less were eligible for the full tuition coverage.
At Regis University in Denver, undergraduate students in 2025-2026 can expect to pay $47,490, excluding fees and living expenses. However, all first-year students received financial aid in 2023-2024.
“We strive to continue to evolve each year and meet students where they are,” said Catherine Rohde, assistant vice president of Financial Aid and Scholarships.
“We know how transformative a Jesuit Catholic education is, and we hope that these initiatives, including ‘Road to Regis,’ build awareness and excitement about the possibility of attending Regis University,” she continued. “While specific financial aid strategies may shift, especially in light of federal and state budget conversations, our goal of partnering with families to provide support stays the same.”
Unveiled in Oct. 2024, the “Road to Regis” program – through federal, state and Regis funding – provides a financial aid offer of full tuition for up to four years for eligible traditional first-year or transfer college students.
Rohde explained the funding mix that enables Regis to assist students.
“Although we are a private institution, we rely on federal grants and campus-based funding, and we are incredibly thankful for the grant support from the Colorado Department of Higher Education that we receive for our Colorado Residents pursuing a Jesuit Catholic education,” she said.
“Like other financial aid opportunities, we utilize federal and state grant allocations, but we also optimize institutional dollars. Most are unfunded tuition discount incentives, in order to help, particularly our financially neediest families,” Rohde added. “While our endowment dollars are a piece of the puzzle, many endowments are geared towards specific students or programs, per donor wishes. Therefore, these endowments, while critical for our overall budget conversations, do not directly correlate to our Road to Regis offer.”
As the only Jesuit Catholic university in the Rocky Mountain region, Regis offers 83 degree programs to 5,754 enrolled students, with a 9:1 student to faculty ratio. Designated as a Hispanic Serving Institution – 39% of full-time undergraduates identify as “Hispanic/Latine” – Regis is also moving toward becoming a bilingual campus.
According to the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, “On average, the published tuition at a Catholic college or university was $37,500 in 2023-2024, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. After financial aid, the average net tuition is $25,220.”
ACCU additionally reports that “84% of students enrolled at Catholic institutions receive any kind of financial aid, with an average amount of $23,771 per student in 2022-2023. Over 91% of students at Catholic institutions received institutional aid.”
There are 230 Catholic colleges and universities in the U.S. – distributed throughout 40 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico – attended by some 675,000 students as of fall 2023. In the United States, Catholic schools founded by the Dominican, Franciscan, and Jesuit orders dominate the higher education field.
“A lot of times, students never even considered us because we are a private university and they just automatically think, ‘Unaffordable; expensive; can’t do it,'” said Lynda McKendree, dean of scholarships and financial aid at the University of St. Thomas in Houston.
“So when we started getting more information about why maybe some of the Catholic students in our community weren’t looking at our school, that was the reason,” she explained. “And we knew that some of these families would qualify for very strong financial aid packages.”
Tuition and fees are $35,754 before scholarships and financial aid, but more than 85% of new freshmen – both domestic and international – receive a University of St. Thomas scholarship upon enrolling.
“The St. Thomas Promise” – launched three years ago, with approximately 6% of the student body benefitting – also offers help to prospective scholars.
“If you have a 3.4 or higher high school GPA – and if your family income is $50,000 or less – you qualify for the St. Thomas promise,” said McKendree. “And that is free tuition and fees for four years.”
Founded in 1947 by the Basilian Fathers – a congregation launched in France in the wake of the French Revolution – the University of St. Thomas provides more than 40 undergraduate majors and 30 graduate degrees to 3,600 students, offering a 13:1 faculty to student ratio.
“One thing that’s at the core of our mission at the University of St. Thomas is being able to bring students into that awareness of what is the Catholic university,” said Sara Nevares Johnson, the university’s dean of admissions.
Nevares Johnson said that both the values of “Ex Corde Ecclesiae” – an apostolic constitution issued in 1990 by St. John Paul II regarding Catholic colleges and universities – and the Basilian Fathers’ charism of “goodness, discipline and knowledge” contribute to student formation.
“We bring that into the conversation not only in the classroom, but before they even enter the classroom,” Nevares Johnson said. “When we’re outreaching and recruiting students and families, we’re talking about what it means to grow and thrive in a university community at the University of St. Thomas.”
(Kimberley Heatherington writes for OSV News from Virginia.)
VICKSBURG – Young runners take off in the annual Flash Dash at Vicksburg Catholic School before the first home football game of the season. (Photo by Anna Griffing)JACKSON – Doctors, firefighters, bakers and more! Sister Thea Bowman students had fun dressing up as community helpers and sharing their “dream jobs.” From top left: Micaela Martinez Contreras, Kendyll Bass and Haniel Chia. From bottom left: Catelyn Jones and Zayden Washington. (Photo by Christopher Payne)GREENVILLE – St. Joseph Catholic School students line up to play a can-knockdown game for prizes during the parish’s annual Fall Parish Fair. (Photo by Nikki Thompson)MADISON – (Right) The St. Joseph Catholic School Bruin cheer squad perform during a home game on Sept. 12. (Photo courtesy of a student)SOUTHAVEN – Arianna Nathan, a first grader at Sacred Heart School, demonstrates different drum beats during music class as teacher Mr. Diehl looks on. (Photo by Bridget Martin)COLUMBUS – Father Jeffrey Waldrep of Annunciation Parish stands with pre-K student Alexander Robles during a recent school Mass. (Photo by Jacque Hince)
By Joe Lee MADISON – Terry Cassreino, checking correspondence before a recent broadcast journalism class at Madison St. Joseph Catholic School, is perturbed as he addresses his students.
“I don’t like surprises on production day,” he says crisply, bringing the chatter to a quick halt. “We work on deadlines. You can’t wait until the last minute to turn in your stories. When you do that, you slow everyone down.”
Cassreino’s direct manner is not unlike what his students will encounter from newsroom bosses should they go into journalism after college. Not all of them will. But the skill sets and real-world experiences his charges are acquiring will prepare them for success, regardless of their professional pursuits.
MADISON – St. Joseph Catholic School communications director Terry Cassreino works with students Luke Jones, Jason Buckley and Kaitlyn Evans during a broadcast journalism class as they film an edition of Bruin News Now in the Fine Arts Building lobby. The award-winning program has earned state and national recognition under Cassreino’s guidance. (Photos courtesy of Joe Lee)
Before joining St. Joe as communications director in 2012, the New Orleans native and Ole Miss graduate spent nearly two decades in print journalism. With the decline of the newspaper industry, he believes the future of journalism is in multimedia – a hybrid of video, photography and the written word.
The bar at St. Joe is now very high. In 2024, the Mississippi Scholastic Press Association (MSPA) recognized Bruin Sports Radio for having the state’s best high school livestream programming, and the Junior Varsity Bruin News Now was named the state’s best middle school newscast.
Such accolades are nothing new. St. Joe routinely wins MSPA awards, and Cassreino was named the National High School Broadcast Adviser of the Year in 2023 by the Journalism Education Association at the University of Kansas, marking the first time a Mississippi educator received the prestigious award.
“I’ve learned how to be poised on camera from him, and how to interact with others when reporting,” said St. Joe senior Thierry Freeman, who co-anchors Bruin News Now (BNN) with junior Noah Sanders. “We’ve interviewed a lot of notable people. It makes you focused and concise.”
Though BNN sports anchor Addyson Russell will consider nursing school, she says she has grown to love journalism and is confident what she has learned from Cassreino will put her ahead of her peers when she starts college.
Eighth grader Grace Barbour, a reporter on last year’s award-winning JV team, praises her older classmates for making her feel like part of the team. Among them is video editor Jason Buckley, a junior who took a big risk in seventh grade by overselling his capabilities.
“I told Mr. Cassreino I already knew how to edit, and I had no idea,” Buckley said. “He put me right into leadership and responsibility roles. I kind of figured it out, and he taught me along the way. Now I’m editing and producing the newscasts.”
In January 2025, Cassreino took 10 of his students to the Mississippi Capitol to cover the annual State of the State address and participate in an exclusive interview session with Gov. Tate Reeves.
“One team worked on a story about the speech, listening to it and interviewing lawmakers about the governor’s legislative agenda,” Cassreino said. “The other filmed our weekly newscast inside the Capitol and then covered the governor’s exclusive Q&A with BNN and Tupelo High School’s WTHS-TV.
“When it was all over and I saw how excited my students were, I don’t think I have ever felt as much pride in my students as I felt deep in my heart. Watching them work together, cooperate with students from Tupelo to film a co-production newscast, and interview the governor in a mock press conference setting was nothing short of amazing.”
Noah Sanders, a junior, left, and Thierry Freeman, a senior, film an edition of Bruin News Now, St. Joseph Catholic School’s award-winning broadcast journalism program, in the lobby of the Fine Arts Building.
Jack Hall, a 2016 St. Joe graduate and now a practicing attorney in Jackson, won the inaugural MPSA Orley Hood Award in 2014 for being named the outstanding sports journalist in the state.
“It was a watershed moment for me in high school,” Hall said. “Terry taught me to focus on the human aspect of sportswriting, which has helped me in several fields.”
BNN was new in spring 2016 when Cassreino asked Jason Price, then a St. Joe junior, to audition.
“I didn’t like to write, but he told me he believed I’d be great at it,” said Price, who would go on to major in broadcast journalism at Ole Miss and was the NewsWatch Ole Miss sports director for three years. “I started as a sports anchor that spring. He always encouraged enthusiasm, but I grew the most from his advice on my writing.”
“What Terry does for young people is so critical,” said MSPA executive director R.J. Morgan. “He gives them the tools they need to interrogate the world, to discern and understand it.”
“My students work hard,” Cassreino said. “They will learn to be strong, effective leaders. And they will know that successful journalists and successful adults adhere to Catholic and Christian-based morals and ethical behavior.
“I am so thankful for the support I receive from the diocese, the school, and the parents. It is so rewarding for me to know I have made a difference. I try my hardest to give my students experiences the high school student doesn’t normally get.”
MADISON – (Left) St. Anthony sixth graders Cruz Warwick and Mimi Heitzmann test their engineering design skills during a STEM project. (Photo by Celeste Tassin)MERIDIAN – (Above) From left, St. Patrick School seventh graders Brandon Franklin, Juan Garcia and Brooklyn McCurty experiment with density towers during science class. (Photo by Glenda Rives)
MERIDIAN – (Above) From left, St. Patrick School seventh graders Brandon Franklin, Juan Garcia and Brooklyn McCurty experiment with density towers during science class. (Photo by Glenda Rives)
NATCHEZ – With hands folded and heart lifted, Cathedral pre-K3 student Henry Carter pauses to pray during atrium time. (Photo by Brandi Boles)MADISON – Nothing says Color Party Day like Kona Ice! Assisi Early Learning Center toddlers cooled off with sweet treats and big smiles. (Photo by Chiquita Brown)JACKSON – St. Richard student Luke Mayronne reads a letter to his grandmother and plays a special Bingo game during the school’s annual Grandparents Day celebration. (Photo by Celeste Saucier)LELAND – Father Aloys Jost, OFM, of St. James Parish, blesses students’ backpacks on Sunday, Aug. 10. (Photo by Debbie Ruggeri)
VICKSBURG – Father Rusty Vincent of St. Paul Parish blesses students’ backpacks on Sunday, Aug. 10. (Photo by Allyson Johnston)
JACKSON – Father Joe Tonos blesses fourth-grade students and their new Bibles during the annual Blessing of the Bibles Mass at St. Richard School. After Mass, Father Tonos spoke with the students about the importance of Scripture in their lives. Front row, from left: Jay LeBlanc, Morgan Gomez, Aeden Flood, John Ellis Ehrgott, Amanda Donovan, Warren Davis, Sunny Davis and Reid Brown. Back row: Eddie Owens, between Warren Davis and Sunny Davis; and Raegan Nelson, between Sunny Davis and Reid Brown. (Photo by Celeste Saucier)
NEW ALBANY – Bishop Joseph Kopacz celebrated the sacrament of confirmation at St. Francis of Assisi Parish on Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025. Pictured with Bishop Kopacz are Father Jesuraja “Raj” Xavier and confirmation students. Top row, from left: Mason Hall (Corinth), Amy Cunningham, Maria Palomeque (Corinth), Diego Moreno, Bishop Kopacz, Valeria Vera, Anthony Chambers, Alex Chambers and Roberto David Loredo Valdez (Corinth). Middle row, from left: Father Xavier, Sonia Rojas, Mina Hall (Corinth), Karen Ortega Antonio, Emily Romero, Isabella Kimmons, Joely Moreno, Ashley Flores, Samantha Navarro, Jesus Gonzalez, Rubi Reveles and Ivan Guzman. Front row, from left: Marcos Rojas, Luis Lopez, Luis Angel Guerrero and Alan Romero. (Photo by Joanna Manning)
MADISON – Father Joe Tonos, co-canonical administrator of St. Joseph School, visits with students during lunch on the first day of school Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025. Sitting at the table from left: Ellery Skipper, Ollie Davis and Olivia Burrough. (Photo by Terry R. Cassreino)JACKSON – First-day energy filled the halls of St. Richard School as the Stanton family explored the brand-new campus, walking their children to homerooms. Back: Jack Stanton; Middle: Pre-K assistant Sharon Shipman, Anne Stanton, Edmund Stanton, Frances Stanton, John Stanton; Front: Mary Anne Stanton. (Photo by Celeste Saucier)VICKSBURG – Father Rusty Vincent, pictured with Luke Richards, shares a joyful moment with kindergarteners on their first day of school. (Photo by Jordan Amborn)
Father PJ Curley shares a warm hug with Nola Brasfield and chats with other Pre-K4 students on the first day of school. (Photo by Laura Kidder)MCCOMB – St. Alphonsus Parish hosted Vacation Bible School June 2-6 with the theme “A Cool Kingdom Party: Mary Leads Me Closer to Jesus.” Pictured are participants and volunteers. (Photo by Kristen L. Jones)
MERIDIAN – Meridian High School valedictorian Dane Hill was awarded the first Father Cosgrove Scholarship by St. Joseph Catholic Church. Pictured, from left, Father Augustine Palimattam, Dane Hill, Kim Hill and Demetrius Hill. (Photo courtesy of parish)
By Staff Reports MERIDIAN – St. Joseph Catholic Church has awarded the first Father Cosgrove Scholarship to Dane Hill, valedictorian of Meridian High School’s Class of 2025.
The scholarship honors Father Frank Cosgrove, former pastor of St. Joseph and St. Patrick Catholic churches and St. Patrick School in Meridian. Now retired at St. Catherine’s Village in Madison, Cosgrove is remembered for his wisdom, humor and deep pastoral care.
Thanks to an anonymous donor, the parish established a $10,000 scholarship fund to be awarded annually to the school’s valedictorian for as long as funds are available.
“Father Cosgrove has had a profound and lasting impact on our community,” said Father Augustine Palimattam, current pastor of the Catholic Community. “This scholarship honors his legacy by encouraging and supporting the academic and moral excellence he always championed.”
Hill, the first recipient, will attend Clark Atlanta University this fall.
By Carol Glatz ROME (CNS) – The fullness of life depends on how much one joyfully welcomes and shares in life while also living with a constant yearning for those things that only come from God, Pope Leo XIV told young people.
“Aspire to great things, to holiness, wherever you are. Do not settle for less. You will then see the light of the Gospel growing every day, in you and around you,” he said in his homily during Mass concluding the Jubilee of Youth Aug. 3.
The outdoor Mass, held in Rome’s Tor Vergata neighborhood, marked the culmination of a week-long series of events for the Jubilee of Youth.
More than 1 million people were estimated to be gathered across the 130 acres that had been prepared for the morning Mass, the prayer vigil the evening before, and for the hundreds of thousands of people sleeping overnight.
A priest distributes Communion to a young woman during a Mass closing the Jubilee of Youth in Rome’s Tor Vergata neighborhood Aug. 3, 2025. (CNS photo/Pablo Esparza)
After touching down by helicopter less than 12 hours after leaving the evening vigil, the pope rode in the popemobile throughout the open areas – dotted with tents and tarps, and filled with young people, cheering, waving their nation’s flag, and sometimes launching at him shirts and gifts.
“Good morning!” he said in six languages from the stage set up for the Mass.
“I hope you all rested a little bit,” he said in English. “We will shortly begin the greatest celebration that Christ left us: his very presence in the Eucharist.”
He said he hoped the concluding Mass would be “a truly memorable occasion for each and every one of us” because “when together, as Christ’s church, we follow, we walk together, we live with Jesus Christ.”
In his homily during the Mass, the pope again highlighted the importance of the Eucharist, as “the sacrament of the Lord’s total gift of himself to us.”
It is Christ, the Risen One, he said, “who transforms our lives and enlightens our affections, desires and thoughts.”
“We are not made for a life where everything is taken for granted and static, but for an existence that is constantly renewed through the gift of self in love,” he said.
Much like a field of flowers, where each small, delicate stem may dry out, become bent and crushed, he said, each flower is “immediately replaced by others that sprout up after them, generously nourished and fertilized by the first ones as they decay on the ground. This is how the field survives: through constant regeneration.”
“This is why we continually aspire to something ‘more’ that no created reality can give us; we feel a deep and burning thirst that no drink in this world can satisfy,” he said. “Knowing this, let us not deceive our hearts by trying to satisfy them with cheap imitations!”
Pope Leo urged the young people to listen to that yearning and “turn this thirst into a step stool, like children who stand on tiptoe, in order to peer through the window of encounter with God,” who has been “waiting for us, knocking gently on the window of our soul.”
“It is truly beautiful, especially at a young age, to open wide your hearts, to allow him to enter, and to set out on this adventure with him towards eternity,” he said.
Speaking briefly in English, the pope said, “There is a burning question in our hearts, a need for truth that we cannot ignore, which leads us to ask ourselves: what is true happiness? What is the true meaning of life? What can free us from being trapped in meaninglessness, boredom and mediocrity?”
“Buying, hoarding and consuming are not enough,” he said. The fullness of existence “has to do with what we joyfully welcome and share.”
“We need to lift our eyes, to look upwards, to the ‘things that are above,’ to realize that everything in the world has meaning only insofar as it serves to unite us to God and to our brothers and sisters in charity, helping us to grow in ‘compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience,’ forgiveness and peace, all in imitation of Christ,” he said.
Evoking St. John Paul II’s words during the XV World Youth Day prayer vigil held in the same spot 25 years ago, Pope Leo reminded the young people that “Jesus is our hope.”
“Let us remain united to him, let us remain in his friendship, always, cultivating it through prayer, adoration, Eucharistic communion, frequent confession, and generous charity, following the examples of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati and Blessed Carlo Acutis, who will soon be declared saints,” he said.
Wishing everyone “a good trip home,” he encouraged the young people to “continue to walk joyfully in the footsteps of the Savior, and spread your enthusiasm and the witness of your faith to everyone you meet!”
(OSV News) – Pope Leo XIV will have a “real-time digital encounter” with participants attending the National Catholic Youth Conference this fall.
The news was announced Aug. 15 by the annual conference’s host, the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry. The Washington-based organization, launched in 1981 with the support of the U.S. bishops, fosters collaboration among the country’s Catholic youth ministry leaders.
During the gathering, which will take place Nov. 20-22 in Indianapolis, the pope will address an expected crowd of 15,000 or so young people ages 14-18.
Pope Leo XIV carries the Jubilee Cross as he walks to the altar before the start of a prayer vigil with young people gathered in Tor Vergata in Rome Aug. 2, 2025, during the Jubilee of Youth. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
The digital appearance – scheduled for Nov. 21 at 10:15 a.m. (ET) amid the event’s general session – will feature a 45-minute dialogue with a pre-selected group of young people. Details of that selection process will be released at a later time, said organizers. EWTN will broadcast and livestream the exchange.
“This historic moment will mark a powerful opportunity for young people to witness the universal Church’s care and concern for their voices, experiences, and hopes,” said the NFCYM in its press release, noting that it had timed the announcement’s date with that of the Aug. 15 feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary as part of “entrusting this event to the Blessed Mother.”
While it did not issue a formal announcement of the pope’s scheduled appearance, the Vatican press office distributed copies Aug. 15 of the national federation’s press statement in English, Spanish and Italian, according to OSV News partner Catholic News Service Rome.
NFCYM executive director Christina Lamas said her organization was “humbled and thrilled to welcome the Holy Father” to the upcoming conference.
“His presence is a profound reminder that young people are at the heart of the Church and that their voices matter,” said Lamas.
“Even in a globalized world, the Church can seem far away for young people,” said Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez of Philadelphia, episcopal adviser and board member of NFCYM. “The Holy Father’s choice to encounter the American youth in this way is an expression of his closeness to Catholic youth, following in the footsteps of his predecessor Pope Francis who called the youth the ‘now of God.'”
NFCYM described Pope Leo’s participation in the event as “inspirational,” adding that it will “build on the hope-filled encounters with millions of young people both online through the first-ever Digital Influencers Jubilee, and in person at the recent Jubilee for Youth in Rome.”
(Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X @GinaJesseReina. Cindy Wooden, bureau chief for Catholic News Service Rome, contributed to this report.)
Editor’s note: As another school year comes to a close, we offer our heartfelt congratulations to the graduates of the Class of 2025. Whether you are stepping into college, a career, or new adventures, know that your parish community is proud of your achievements and prays for your continued growth in wisdom, faith and service. May the foundation you’ve built carry you confidently into the future. Well done, graduates!
BAYOU ACADEMY
VALEDICTORIAN: AVA COSUE GPA: 4.483 – ACT: 30
From her speech: As I look out at my classmates tonight, I don’t just see graduates. I see God’s handiwork. Each person designed for a special purpose that they don’t even know about yet. I see athletes, future doctors, lawyers, teachers, engineers, entrepreneurs, artists and leaders. I see people who will go out and change lives – not because of who they are on their own, but because of who they are in Christ. And I’m so proud to have been able to know each and every one of them.
Church: Our Lady of Victories, Cleveland
Favorite service project: My favorite service project has been the “Tutus and Dancing Shoes” project that the seniors of Leslie’s Dance Company came up with and executed. The seven of us did a donation drive for old dance costumes and shoes, and afterwards, we donated them to the Boys and Girls Club of Cleveland. Not only did we make a donation, but we also spent time with them by hosting a dance class. This has been my favorite service project because it felt so heartwarming to see my old dance shoes – objects that held the memories of my growing love for dance – be repurposed and passed down to younger girls. I not only got to help foster the love for this art for girls who had never gotten to experience it, but most importantly, I got to make them feel special. Dance, choreographing, kids and teaching are all things I love, and this service project perfectly encompassed them all.
Plans to attend: University of Mississippi
Plans to study: Double major in Biology and Psychology (Pre-Med Track)
Awards/honors: Faculty Scholar Award; 4-year Math Award; 4-year English Award; 4-year Science Award; 4-year History Award; Hall of Fame; Kossman Outstanding Junior Award; Dr. James Robinson Award; Dr. Granville Scholarship; Chamber of Commerce Finalist Award; Exchange Club Student of the Month Award; Junior Auxiliary Scholarship; Forever Colt Award; MAIS All-Star Cross Country Runner; Outstanding Senior Leadership Cross Country Award; 2x All-American Cheerleader; Rookie of the Year Cheer Award; Most Dedicated Cheer Award; 2x Lead Soloist in local production of The Nutcracker; “Step-Up” Dance Award; 11x Highest Average Award in different subjects; Eminent Scholar; and Delta Honor Graduate
Activities: Community Service Club (president); Future Medical Professionals Club (vice president); Leslie’s Dance Company (captain of Elite Troupe); Fellowship of Christian Athletes (devotion leader); Internship with nonprofit organization (The RISE League); Bayou Academy Ambassador; Catholic Youth Organization; Cross Country Team; Cheerleading Squad; National Honors Society; Mu Alpha Theta; Mock Trial Team; Decorating Committee; Finance Club; Cleveland Cotillion Club; ACT 25 and Above Club; and Bolivar County Relay for Life Team
Favorite subject: Science
CLEVELAND CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL
VALEDICTORIAN: RACHEL TIBBS GPA: 4.0 – ACT: 35
From her speech: Another piece of advice I want to give you all comes from my Dad. Whenever I’m having a particularly bad day, he always leaves me with these words: “let the rough edge drag.” I never really understood exactly what he meant by this, but I always interpreted it as to simply go on about your life, and the difficulties of your journeys will pass on.
Let your hardships run their course, and don’t spend all your time dwelling on them. Live your life day by day, and everything will come together in the end, as Romans 8:28 reads: “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose.”
Church: Our Lady of Victories, Cleveland
Favorite service project: My favorite service project is Teddy Bear Tea with the Cleveland Junior Auxiliary. I loved being able to interact with all the kids and help make their Christmas special.
Plans to attend: University of Mississippi
Plans to study: Business and then advance to dental school
Awards/honors: Valedictorian; and Star Student
Activities: Working at La Michoacana; Beta Club; National Honor Society; and Mu Alpha Theta
