When the COVID-19 pandemic forced the nation into lockdown restrictions last spring, Father Michael Zimmerman, like many people, took advantage of the extra time to work on a project that otherwise wouldn’t fit into his schedule.

The goal was to create a resource, or guide, for men discerning the priesthood. Given the new widespread virtual lifestyle of the pandemic, he did so in the form of a three part, 27-episode vocational discernment series.

This past week, the Archdiocese of Boston released its new vocation discernment initiative, Scivias, designed to bring vocational guidance to a COVID-19 online world.

Giordano Contu profiles the Scivias series in this Italian language piece.

A new video series from the Archdiocese of Boston is bringing vocational guidance to a COVID-19 online world. The series called Scivias began this week and was created, written and narrated by Father Michael Zimmerman.

Lumen Verum (Latin for “True Light”) Academy is slated to open in the fall of this year and will feature an educational model meant to provide unique learning opportunities to its students. Students will work from home on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, and will participate in on-site activities on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The distance learning component will allow for guest speakers to teach units of particular interest, and that is where Eduard Hapsburg comes in. He is Hungary’s ambassador to the Holy See

St. Benedict Classical Academy began in 2013 with about 25 students from kindergarten through grade six in a leased space on Pleasant Street in Natick. The following year, the school moved across the street to its current location. In 2015, the year Jay Boren was hired as the headmaster, there were 63 students. This year, the school has 164 students and had to waitlist over 20. They are projecting 190 for the next school year.

As thunderstorms rolled through Boston Wednesday evening, activists marched through the city, calling for an end to police brutality one day after Derek Chauvin, a white former Minneapolis police officer, was convicted for the death of George Floyd. Earlier Wednesday, community leaders, including Acting Mayor Kim Janey and Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley of the Archdiocese of Boston released statements saying the Chauvin verdict is an important step in addressing racism in America.

A seamless and natural transition to become a new parish is currently taking place between St. Mary of the Assumption Church of Revere and Our Lady of Grace Church serving Chelsea and Everett that includes a beautiful, spiritual Haitian community and a growing Vietnamese community. The newly-formed parish will be named with suggestions from Fr. John Sheridan, Pastor, the staff of both churches, and the parishioners of each church. Final approval for a new parish name will be made by Cardinal Sean O’Malley who received three final proposals last week.