In the second half of the 20th century, the world experienced explosive change. “And all that was happening in the wider culture was reflected in our community,” said Franciscan Sister Elise Saggau, author of “A Journey to New Frontiers, 1950-2018,” a new history of the Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls.

St. Augustine Parish in St. Cloud, which was established in 1919, has scheduled a year of celebratory centennial events. They begin with Mass at 9 a.m. Nov. 25, and a chili cook-off.

A group of 28 pilgrims from the St. Cloud Diocese recently toured special sites in Poland — and returned with a first-class relic from the convent of St. Faustina Kowalska in Krakow.

Paula Koshiol Kraus organized a bus tour for more than 60 family members from Minnesota, Florida and Illinois and visited five churches across Stearns County — churches that their forefathers had helped to build.

Dominican Sister Mary Jo Sobieck stood grinning at the pitcher’s mound at the Chicago White Sox game, ready to throw out the ceremonial first pitch for Marian Catholic Night, Aug. 18.

Two families of San Rafael Parish in Nuevo León, Mexico, live in new homes, thanks to the Franciscan Civil Association and more than a dozen Central Minnesotan volunteers on a mission building trip last April.

The Visitor asked educators with more than 30 years of service in the St. Cloud Diocese and who were retiring this spring to share aspects of their vocations.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the death of Venerable Bishop Frederic Baraga, a 19th-century Slovenian missionary who served in the vast Michigan Territory to help build up the Catholic Church in America.