The Academy of Holy Angels in Richfield has hired a hockey coach with an NCAA Division I championship on his resumé.
Trent Palm will come on board to replace Billy Hengen, who has accepted a position as director of hockey at Northern Educate Sports Academy in Blaine. Palm was a member of the University of Minnesota Duluth hockey team that won the national championship in 2011. An Edina native, he played high school hockey at Shattuck-St. Mary’s in Faribault.
Palm currently serves as an assistant coach for the USA Hockey National Team Development Program in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Former principal named to NCEA post
Patrick Lofton, former principal at St. Thomas More School in St. Paul has been named executive vice president of the National Catholic Education Association. He will assume his new post on July 1.
Lofton, who worked as principal of St. Thomas More for five years and also worked as a middle school coordinator and teacher in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, currently is the associate superintendent of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.
“I look forward to joining NCEA at this vital time in the history of Catholic education,” said Lofton. “I believe that NCEA can be the compass and the catalyst for providing the leadership and the changes that are needed to ensure a promising future for Catholic education.”
Local Serrans celebrate feast of Junipero Serra
All members of the Serra Club and their guests are invited to celebrate the feast of Franciscan missionary Blessed Junípero Serra — from whom the organization gets its name — July 1 at the Cathedral of St. Paul. Father John Ubel will celebrate Mass at 5:15 p.m. and a reception will follow in the Cathedral’s Hayden Hall. For information, call (651) 690-4460.
Three local students join national choir
Three students from the archdiocese are participating in this year’s National Catholic Youth Choir: Jacob Ahles of St. Charles in Bayport, Michael Loes of St. Stephen in Anoka and Anna Stolte of St. Peter in North St. Paul.
The choir is made up of 35 high school students from 17 states and is sponsored by St. John’s University School of Theology. They will meet on the grounds of St. John’s in Collegeville.
During the two-week camp, the choir will tour three states, with the theme, “For All the Saints.”
For more information, to make a donation or host a future concert, visit www.catholicyouthchoir.org.
City of St. Paul allows statue of Jesus to stay
The battle between Tuan Pham and the City of St. Paul over a statue in his yard is over.
Pham lives just above the Mississippi River and has a large statue of Jesus on display in his yard. The City Council voted in April 2011 to remove the 7-foot marble statue from his property after receiving an anonymous complaint that it was too close to the bluff.
The city also told him that the placement of his statue violated a city code that forbids development within 40 feet of the bluff that drops sharply off his back yard.
Pham petitioned the city, then was set to file a lawsuit, but the city has since agreed to let him keep the statue.
A blessing ceremony for the statue is planned for July 6 from 4 to 6 p.m. at 231 Isabel Street W. in St. Paul.
