St. Ann parishioners Maribel Merlos (left), 17, and Paula Hammersley (right) join priest-in-residence Father Joseph Uko (center) in viewing the damaged statue of the Blessed Mother at the Gary parish on July 8. On July 3, an apparent vandal or vandals pushed over the five-foot concrete statue, which was discovered...

  Shon Peterson of Schererville extends his arms to pick up his son Zachary, 4, at the back-to-school picnic held indoors last August at St. John the Evangelist School in St. John. After spending the final three months of the 2019-20 school year learning from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic,...

  Father Jacob McDaniel, ordained into the priesthood just three weeks earlier, accepts the gift of a new chalice and paten from Virgil Pop of Highland, faithful navigator for the Abraham Lincoln Assembly of the Fourth Degree Knights of Columbus, at a presentation Mass on June 27 hosted by Our Lady...

Principal Lorenza Jara Pastrick picks the winning raffle tickets live during The Big Reinvent, the annual Bishop Noll Institute fundraiser that went virtual this year on May 23. (Provided photo)    BY MARLENE A. ZLOZA Northwest Indiana Catholic         The COVID-19 pandemic that closed churches, businesses and schools this spring as people were urged...