It’s a rare block of uninterrupted time on Don Bouchard’s calendar when we sit down together at Catholic Charities Diocese of Kalamazoo’s offices. The busy physician not only guides the agency as its Executive Director, but he also runs his six-year-old practice, Holy Family Healthcare, and serves in his diaconate ministry for St. Augustine Cathedral Parish, Kalamazoo. It’s a demanding schedule that keeps him busy with stops all around Southwest Michigan, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Each Easter Vigil thousands of people across the world enter into full communion with the Church through the sacraments of initiation. Southwest Michigan Catholic interviewed Jessica Woods, a 27-year-old Ferris State University pharmacy student and parishioner of St. Mary Parish, Marshall, who was baptized and confirmed into the Catholic Church last year.

Living the Mission of the Eucharist - For a group of neighborhood children, living the mission of the Eucharist meant turning an otherwise ordinary summer day into a way to help other children.

Living the mission of the Eucharist - Last month, Bishop Paul J. Bradley began the first of 26 pastoral visits to the 26 Parish Collaboratives in the Diocese of Kalamazoo. The first stop on the “Loving God and Your Neighbor” pastoral tour was on Feb. 28 when Bishop Bradley visited St. Mark Parish, Niles. The day began with a series of meetings with Parish and Finance council members as well as the clergy serving St. Mark’s. The day also included the celebration of the Vigil Mass followed by a parish dinner featuring a talk by Bishop Bradley. The pastoral visit concluded with Benediction.