A miniature pump, so small that it can be inserted through an artery and placed inside the heart within a few minutes, offers new hope to critically ill heart attack and heart failure patients.

Cardiothoracic surgeon John Bell-Thomson, MD and interventional cardiologists, Henry Meltser, MD and Salvatore Calandra, MD, of the Catholic Health Heart Center at Mercy Hospital have become the first physicians in the Buffalo area to offer the new Abiomed Impella 2.5 catheter-based heart pump to patients in need of this lifesaving device. Considered the smallest heart pump in the world, the ventricular assist device (VAD) replicates the natural function of the heart by assisting the heart’s main pumping chamber to drive blood through the body.
 

Now that the Vatican has approved a new version of the Roman Missal, dioceses across the United States will begin the catechesis process so priests and their parishioners are prepared for the first major changes to the Mass in decades.

The Roman Missal is the ritual text containing prayers and instructions for the celebration of the Mass. Vatican officials are now finishing the editing of the Missal and will soon forward it to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
 

Following last January’s killer earthquake in Haiti, the people of Western New York again proved that when disaster strikes, whether at home or abroad, they are more than willing to respond with financial support.

A special collection in the Diocese of Buffalo right after the quake resulted in a contribution of $676,643.02 according to Catholic Relief Services which has coordinated the Catholic Church’s humanitarian response in Haiti. Another $246,526.25 was received from other groups and individuals within the eight counties of Western New York. The total contribution from the region was $923,169.27

More than 900 men died on 31 July 1945, when the USS Indianapolis, was torpedoed and sunk in the Philippine Sea. Bill Milhomme tells the story of U.S. Navy Chaplain, Father Thomas Conway, who stayed in the water for three nights praying with survivors, until he died.

Father Thomas M. Conway, a 37-year-old Navy Chaplain from Buffalo was sleeping soundly on July 31, 1945, on board the USS Indianapolis, a heavy cruiser. At 12:14 a.m. the first torpedo from the Japanese submarine, I-58, blew away the bow of the ship.

An instant later the second struck near midship on the starboard side, the resulting explosion split the ship to the keel, knocking out all electric power. Within 12 minutes the unescorted cruiser slipped beneath the surface of the Philippine Sea, midway between Guam and Leyte Gulf.