From April 27-29 in Visalia, more than 20 bishops, including Bishop Jaime Soto, from throughout California, Nevada and Hawaii will lead delegations of Catholic leaders for the Pacific regional V (Fifth) Encuentro gathering at the Visalia Convention Center.

The regional Encuentro will convene more than 1,000 Hispanic ministry leaders/delegates from dioceses, ecclesial movements, schools, universities and Catholic organizations from the three states. The selected delegates representing 15 dioceses participated in the local process over the past two years.

More than one out of every five students report being bullied, according to the National Center for Educational Statistics. The majority of bullying happens at school, but it can also take place on the way to school, through text messages or online (better known as cyberbullying).

At St. Mary School in Sacramento, trained peace managers are helping resolve conflicts between fellow students before they get out of control, creating a supportive school environment. Sixty-five peace managers, all sixth to eighth graders among the 138 junior high level students, must maintain good grades and be excellent citizens in order to stay in the program. They meet regularly with one another, teachers, and the school counselor to discuss incidents they’ve witnessed or prevented.

WASHINGTON—Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo, Archbishop of Galveston-Houston and President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, is welcoming the release of Pope Francis's apostolic exhortation, "Gaudete et Exsultate" ("Rejoice and Be Glad"), subtitled "On the Call to Holiness in the Contemporary World." In his statement, Cardinal DiNardo expresses his deep gratitude to the Holy Father for the exhortation and the call for each Christian to "acknowledge and be open to what God wants them to be."   

In the introduction to the exhortation, the pope emphasizes that the goal of his exhortation is to "re-propose the call to holiness in a practical way for our own time, with all its risks, challenges and opportunities."