Stitching hearts together

By Beth Donze

Sometimes the most gratifying stories encountered by Catholic newspaper journalists are the stories that happen “after the stories.”

I learned of one of those today.

Eleven years and counting… on your stories for Kids’ Clarion!

St. Joseph the Worker first graders Justin Favorite Watson, Kyron Smith and Matthew Moore (l-r) were on the cover of the September 2000 edition of Kids' Clarion, the publication's debut issue. They are now high school seniors.

By Beth Donze

Although it’s been 11 years since Kids’ Clarion debuted as the Clarion Herald’s monthly publication for and by Catholic children in grades K-8, I will never forget the beaming little faces that graced the cover of our very first issue back in September 2000.

Justin Favorite Watson, Kyron Smith and Matthew Moore, then first-graders at St. Joseph the Worker School in Marrero, are pictured smiling from ear to ear on their first day of school, wearing the construction-paper watermelon necklaces they had made in art and holding a real watermelon that their teacher would later cut for snack.

St. Mary of the Angels pastor: Just say ‘hi’

Franciscan Father Dennis Bosse, pastor of St. Mary of the Angels, speaks to parishioners gathered for a July 27 meeting on crime and blight in New Orleans' Upper Ninth Ward.

By Beth Donze

Sometimes, anti-crime measures can be as simple as saying “hi” to a stranger in your neighborhood, said Franciscan Father Dennis Bosse, pastor of St. Mary of the Angels Church in the Upper Ninth Ward.

Father Bosse, who came on as pastor earlier this year, said he used to get quizzical looks from people – and even warnings that he was “in a dangerous neighborhood” – as he went on his regular runs.

But it didn’t take long for things to turn.