Chad Pregracke, a Quad-Citian recognized worldwide for energizing people to join him cleaning up rivers and planting trees, will receive the Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award. He is the first recipient in the interfaith award’s 60-year-history receiving recognition for work on environmental justice and care for creation. Bishop Dennis Walsh, the new bishop of the Diocese of Davenport, will present the award Dec. 3 at 7 p.m. at St. Ambrose University in Davenport.

The Pacem in Terris Award Committee has chosen Barb Arland-Fye, editor of The Catholic Messenger, to receive the One Among Us Justice Award, first presented in 2017 to recognize local peace-fostering efforts.

Even though the Immaculate Conception is transferred to Monday, it IS a Holy Day of Obligation this year.

By Barb Arland-Fye The Catholic Messenger Their journeys began from different starting points but the three Iowa women featured in this story share a common passion for accompanying refugees striving to rebuild their lives in Iowa. We share their stories to raise awareness about National Migration Week, Sept. 23-29, which culminates with the World Day of Migrants and Refugees (WDMR) on Sept. 29. Some 43.4 million refugees are among 120 million people forcibly displaced as of May 2024, USA for the UN Refugee Agency reports.

Election Day 2024 is just two months from today, a good reminder that we have a responsibility to model faithful citizenship that sets a respectful, charitable tone for democracy in the public square. This responsibility requires more than good intentions. It requires prayer, Scripture reading and reflection, studying Catholic Social Teaching and applying that teaching to the platform priorities of each major political party and the stated priorities of our candidates for political office.

While visiting a parish in his diocese recently, Bishop Gabriel Edoe Kumordji, SVD of Ghana, Africa was dismayed to find the church building without a roof. A strong wind blew it off in the coastal community of West Africa. Just a year ago, he advised the parish to plant trees to serve as a windbreak to protect the building. Trees had not been planted.

A month-long commemoration of prayer and action that begins Sept. 1 unites Christians worldwide to care for their common home. Here in the Diocese of Davenport, the Season of Creation opens with Vespers at 4 p.m. at St. Anthony Church in downtown Davenport, featuring Evening Prayer and an exploration of this year’s theme, “Hope and Act with Creation.” “The Season of Creation is a time of grace that the Church, in ecumenical dialogue, offers to humanity to renew its relationship with the Creator and with creation, through celebration, conversion and commitment,” the organizers said. They are the diocesan Social Action Office and Pope St. John XXIII Fraternity of the Secular Fran­ciscan Order. The season continues through Oct. 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology whose life and ministry more than 800 years ago resonates with Christians of various denominations today.