January 14, 2026

The following is the North Country Catholic’s annual look back at the news highlights of the previous year. It was omitted from last edition due to space constraints.

• Jan. 3 – The Vocations Committee for St. Mary’s Cathedral Parish in Ogdensburg, St. Raphael’s in Heuvelton and Saints Philip and James in Lisbon holds their first trivia night to raise funds to help support diocesan seminarians. The event has become an annual event, and the second trivia night was to be held Jan. 5, 2026.

• Jan. 15 – Knights of Columbus Monsignor Morris L. Dwyer Council #255 in Plattsburgh announces that they had reached a donation milestone at their annual grant award dinner. The Knights donated over $1 million to local charitable organizations since 2007.

• Jan 29 – Bishop Terry R. LaValley announces that the generous support of more than 6,200 households enabled the Bishop’s Fund Appeal to surpass its goal of $1.3 million.

• Jan. 27 – Catholic Schools around the diocese mark the start of Catholic Schools Week.

• January – Father Scott R. Seymour is appointed executive director of Catholic Charities. The organization says it continues to build on its 106 years of service.

• Feb. 12 – At the Education Council of Immaculate Heart Central in Watertown, the school’s Board of Governors appoints Amy Mitchell as the school’s new principal effective July 1.

• Feb. 13 – Sister Mary Camillus O’Keefe, a Sister of Mercy of the Americas, celebrates her 100th birthday shortly before the sisters in the Lake Placid convent relocated to a Sisters of Mercy home in Westchester.

• March 5 – Pilgrimage Passports highlighting Jubilee Year of Hope pilgrimage locations around the diocese, are released. Copies are distributed in the pilgrimage churches and in the North Country Catholic.

• March 9 – Catechumens and candidates from around the diocese gather with Bishop Terry R. LaValley at St. Mary’s Cathedral for the annual Rite of Election and Call to Conversion.

• March 19 – Bishop Terry R. LaValley announces the approval of plans for 21 pastoral care areas as part of the 2025-30 Living Stones planning process.

• March 22 – A women’s discernment event, “Let Go, Let God,” a joint project of the diocesan Vocations Office and Campus Ministry, is held at St. Mary’s Church in Canton.

• March 26 – Bishop Terry R. LaValley announces the retirement of Sister Mary Eamon Lyng, diocesan Vocations coordinator, and Sister Bernadette Marie Collins, episcopal delegate for Religious. Both Sisters of St. Joseph, their retirements became effective July 1. Bishop LaValley appoints Deacon Garry Stevens to fill both roles.

• April – Augustinian Academy reaches its goal of collecting 1,000 pounds of plastics, products that typically can’t be recycled, to be recycled into composite decking and manufacturing materials. For its efforts, the school receives both a bench made of the recycled materials and recognition in the Green Apple Awards, a project of the Diocese of Ogdensburg Laudato Si Committee and the Diocese of Syracuse Education Office.

• April 10 – Bishop Terry R. LaValley is joined by priests from around the diocese at St. Mary’s Cathedral to celebrate the annual Chrism Mass.

• April 18 – The Immaculate Heart Central Mystery Players conclude their 45th season on Good Friday with their prayer in performance at St. Patrick’s Church in Watertown.

• April 23 – Bishop Terry R. LaValley celebrates Mass for the deceased pope.

• April 26 – Highway to Heaven, a Jubilee Year of Hope event focused on the Eucharist, is held at St. Agnes Church and School in Lake Placid.

• May 7 – The conclave to select a new pope begins.

• May 8 – On May 8, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost is elected Pope Leo XIV by the College of Cardinals as the 266th successor of St. Peter, making him the 267th pope and the first from the United States.

• May 20 – Bishop Terry R. LaValley celebrates the annual Jubilee Mass, part of the Presbyteral Assembly held in Lake Placid. Honored jubilarians – priests celebrating milestone anniversaries – include Father John L. “Jack” Downs and Father Gilbert B. Menard, 70 years; Father L. William Gordon, 60 years; Father Lawrence Marullo, 50 years; Father Guy F. “Bill” Edwards, Father Michael I. Miller, a Missionary of the Sacred Heart, and Father Raymond J. Moreau, 40 years; and Father Theodore A. Crosby, Father Joseph W. Giroux, and Father Michael H. Marzan, 25 years.

• May 22 – Dr. Michael Szostak, a concert organist from Warsaw, Poland, performs at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Ogdensburg, a Jubilee Year of Hope event.

• May 22 – An Indigenous Human Trafficking Listening Session in Akwesasne draws participation from Patrick Dussault, Herbie Herne, Felicitas Frugo Onetti, Amie Barnes, Joyce Muchan, Dr. RJ “Dolly” McDonald, Father Jerome Pastores, Chief Lisa Francis Benedict, Lisa Zeran, Chief Cindy Francis Mitchell, Hattie Taylor, Father Scott Seymour, Diane Noiseux, Bishop Terry R. La Valley, William La Page, Shelly Jacobs, Susan Griskonis, Matt Rourke, Father Michael Carson, Colin McNamara, Hawi Thompson, John Bay, Sister Mary Ellen Brett, SSJ, and Julia Kaplan Toce.

• May 24 – Bishop Terry R. LaValley ordains three deacons, Deacon Michelet Boncoeur, Deacon Dennis Ombongi and Deacon Tyler Fitzgerald, at Sacred Heart Church in Massena. The three men are seminarians for the diocese and are scheduled, God willing, to be ordained to the priesthood in 2026.

• May 28 – Bishop Terry R. LaValley announces 14 priest assignment changes, including three retirements. Father Douglas A. Decker, Father Robert L. Decker and Father Donald A. Robinson. Father Sony G. Pulickal became pastor of the Catholic Community of St. Peter and St. Mary and St. Hedwig in Lowville; Father James V. Teti became pastor of St. James Major Church in Lake Pleasant and St. Ann’s Church in Wells; Father Albert J. Hauser, became Senior Parochial Vicar of The Roman Catholic Community of Brownville and Dexter in Brownville, St. Andrew’s Church in Sackets Harbor, St. Cecilia’s Church in Adams, and Queen of Heaven Church in Henderson; Father Joseph W. Giroux became pastor of the Catholic Community of Moriah in Port Henry, St. Elizabeth Church in Elizabethtown and St. Philip of Neri Church in Westport; Father Severinus Torwoe became pastor of St. Alphonsus-Holy Name of Jesus Parish in Tupper Lake, St. Henry’s Church in Long Lake, and St. Therese Church; Father Bryan D. Stitt assumed additional duties as pastor of St. Mary’s Church in Potsdam and St. Patrick’s Church in Colton; Father Shane M. Lynch became pastor of The Roman Catholic Community of Brownville and Dexter in Brownville, St. Andrew’s Church in Sackets Harbor, St. Cecilia’s Church in Adams, and Queen of Heaven Church in Henderson; Father Medenel Angrand assumed additional duties as pastor of the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Crown Point; Father Clement Rimonds, HGN, assumed additional duties as pastor of The Catholic Community of St. Philip of Jesus and St. Joseph in Willsboro; Father Matthew S. Conger became parochial vicar of St. André Bessette Parish in Malone; Father Jude Nnadibuagha became parochial vicar of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Watertown; Father Jose Kanyiankunnel John, HGN, became parochial vicar of Holy Cross Parish in Plattsburgh; Father Scott A. Belina became parochial vicar of St. Mary’s Church in Potsdam, St. Patrick’s Church in Colton and The Roman Catholic Church of St. Mary’s in Canton; Deacon Paul White, in addition to The Catholic Community of Moriah in Port Henry, was assigned to St. Elizabeth Church in Elizabethtown and St. Philip Neri Church in Westport; Deacon James M. Snell, in addition to The Roman Catholic Church of St. Mary in Canton, was assigned to St. Mary’s Church in Potsdam and St. Patrick’s Church in Colton; Deacon Richard L. Burns, in addition to St. Mary’s Church in Potsdam and St. Patrick’s Church in Colton, was be assigned to The Roman Catholic Church of St. Mary in Canton; Deacon Lawrence R. Ambeau, in addition to St. Cecilia’s Church in Adams and Queen of Heaven Church in Henderson, was assigned to The Roman Catholic Community of Brownville and Dexter in Brownville and St. Andrew’s Church in Sackets Harbor; Deacon Gerald F. Bouchard, in addition to The Roman Catholic Community of Brownville and Dexter in Brownville and St. Andrew’s Church in Sackets Harbor, was assigned to St. Cecilia’s Church in Adams and Queen of Heaven Church in Henderson.

• May 28 – Father Mark R. Reilly, pastor of St. Peter’s Parish in Massena and dean of the St. Lawrence Deanery, is awarded the LeMoyne College Ignatian Award, Daniel J. Mulhauser, SJ, Veterans Service. The award recognizes exceptional support to the veteran and/or military community.

• June 5 – Sister Louella Pelletier, of the Sisters of Charity of St. Louis, celebrates her 60th jubilee.

• June 6 – Bishop Terry R. LaValley presided at a ceremony to designate seven aspirants, Lucien Leroux, Daniel Haycock, Russel Backus, Jason Scull, John Lucia, Michael Salaun, and David Hunt, as candidates to the diaconate.

• June 11 – St. Augustine’s Church in Peru announces the formation of the North Country Community Disaster Hub, a regional initiative to provide coordinated response, training and relief services in the event of natural disasters or community emergencies.

• June 22 – Twenty-four individuals from around the diocese were commissioned by Bishop Terry R. LaValley to serve as lay ministers in a commissioning held at St. Mary’s Cathedral.

• June 27 – The North Country Catholic receives first honorable mention in the Best Newspaper – Weekly Category of the Catholic Press Awards.

• June 29 – St. James Major Church marks 100 years of prayer and service to the communities of Lake Pleasant, Morehouse, Piseco and Speculator with a Mass celebrated by Bishop Terry R. LaValley.

• July 13 – Knights of Columbus from around the diocese travel to St Anne’s Shrine in Isla LaMotte, Vermont, for their annual pilgrimage.

• July 29 – June LaShomb, 91, and her daughter, Jane Bain, 55, visited St. Mary’s Cathedral, the last stop in their effort to hit every diocesan Jubilee Year of Hope pilgrimage site.

• July 30 – Bishop Terry R. LaValley celebrates a Jubilee Mass honoring Sisters of St. Joseph who hit milestone years of service in religious life. Honored were Sister Jean Marie Chiovitti. 85 years; Sister Mary William Argy, 75 years; Sister Judith Baumert, 70 years; Sister Norma Bryant and Sister Bethany Fitzgerald, 65 years.

• Aug. 9 – Six new deacons, Deacon Francis Sczerzenie of Piseco, Deacon James Law of Saranac Lake, Deacon Nicolas Tsibulsky of Massena, Deacon Gordon Burdo of Peru, Deacon James “JB” Kavanaugh of Clayton, and Deacon Garry Stevens of Carthage, are ordained at St. Mary’s Cathedral by Bishop Terry R. LaValley.

• Aug. 24 – Musicians from around the diocese gather at St. Bernard’s Parish in Saranac Lake to perform as part of “The Look, Feel & Sound of Hope,” a Jubilee Year of Hope event that also included visual art made by artists from around the diocese.

• Aug. 24 – St. Bernard’s Church in Lyon Mountain celebrates its 150th anniversary with a Mass celebrated by Bishop Terry R. LaValley.

• Sept. 3 – Father Alfred H. Fish, pastor of St. Ann’s in St. Regis Falls and Holy Cross in Hopkinton, retires. Consistent with pastoral planning efforts, the two communities are now grouped with St. Mary’s in Brushton and St. Augustine’s in North Bangor under Father Kris C. Lauzon, pastor.

• Sept. 7 – Married couples from around the diocese gather at St. Mary’s Cathedral for the Celebration of Love and Marriage, a Mass celebrated by Bishop Terry R. LaValley.

• Sept. 13-14 – The annual Bishop’s Fund Appeal, “United We Bring Hope” kicks off around the diocese.

• Sept. 19-21 – Youth from around the diocese gather at Camp Guggenheim for the annual Leadership Weekend.

• Sept. 28 – Bishop Terry R. LaValley celebrates the diocesan Blue Mass, a Mass honoring law enforcement, emergency responders and emergency dispatchers, at St. Bernard’s Church in Saranac Lake.

• Nov. 20 – Deacon Tyler Fitzgerald, a seminarian for the diocese, was honored with the Diakonia Award by St. Vincent’s Seminary in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.

• Nov. 29 – “Dying with Christ, Living with Hope,” an event focused on end-of-life issues and the New York Physician Assisted Suicide Bill, is held in Saranac Lake. Additional sessions are being planned in 2026.

• Dec. 18 – Pope Leo XIV accepts the retirement of Timothy Cardinal Dolan and appoints Archbishop-elect Ronald Hicks, currently of the Diocese of Joliet, Illinois, as his successor.