It was one of the strangest things that ever happened to me. It was a mixture of Paul Harvey’s “the rest of the story” and Rod Serling’s “Twilight Zone.” It’s true. Let me tell the story.Read More
Since the strokes in my eyes in 2002, I’ve found that tears come pretty easily. However, I needed no such excuse when I first heard that Father Stan Janaites had died on Aug. 5. I cried again as I stood at his coffin in St. Joseph’s Church in Sykesville.Read More
VATICAN CITY – They are not pushy or pesky; rather, the pope’s own paparazzi are the epitome of discretion and class. Vatican photographers stand out from other media shutterbugs, not just because they’re always dressed in ironed dark suits and ties, but because, coolly clicking away, they are the ones standing right next to the...Read More
NEW YORK – Religiously mixed marriages are becoming more common among those who practice Reform Judaism but have shown a significant decline among American Catholics in the past 20 years, speakers said at a recent meeting of a Catholic-Jewish dialogue group.Read More
Advisor and assistant to three men who directed the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Bishop W. Francis Malooly most deftly handled that role in October 2006, when tragedy struck.Read More
WASHINGTON – Along with all the other military jargon and abbreviations, a relatively new term keeps bubbling up to the surface at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, as well as in popular parlance: IED. It’s short for improvised explosive device. IEDs account for a large share of the wounds sustained by U.S. soldiers in Iraq...Read More
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is to be honored by the St. Thomas More Society of Maryland Oct. 21 in Annapolis. The following is adapted from the homily given by Monsignor James P. Farmer, pastor of St. John Westminster and St. Ursula Parkville, at the group’s 2008 Red Mass.Read More
VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI, lamenting the high number of traffic accidents over the summer holiday period, called on Christians to make “a personal examination of conscience” about the way they drive.Read More
SHENYANG, China (CNS) -- For World AIDS Day, the nuns leafleted the train stations in Liaoning province, and members of parish youth groups handed out information at parishes. But while many agencies offer AIDS awareness programs for World AIDS Day each Dec. 1, the Diocese of Liaoning offers such programs year-round, said Immaculate Heart of...Read More
VATICAN CITY – Two Syrian Catholic bishops living in Lebanon told the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East that the blossoming number of Catholic-Muslim dialogue projects has not and may never lead to real understanding.Read More
After three years at Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Middle River, Father T. Austin Murphy will be leaving July 1 to become the new chaplain of the Newman Center at Towson University. “As a priest you don’t forget your first parish,” said Father Murphy, 34, who is a graduate of University of Maryland Baltimore County....Read More