Calling the death penalty “an expensive and utterly ineffective tool in deterring violent crime,” Gov. Martin J. O’Malley implored members of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee to allow his proposed capital punishment ban to reach the floor for a vote by the full legislative body.Read More

Conventual Franciscan Father Gregory Hartmayer, principal of Archbishop Curley High School during the mid-1980s, has been named Bishop of the Diocese of Savannah in Georgia.Read More

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican reported a budget surplus for the first time in four years in 2010, but said contributions from Catholics and dioceses around the world had gone down.Read More

Joseph Roberts says he’s still around because of a miracle – or maybe two or three.Read More

LINZ, Austria – Bishop-designate Gerhard Wagner said he would ask Pope Benedict XVI to withdraw his nomination as auxiliary bishop of Linz “given the fierce criticism” of his appointment.Read More

ROME – When Sudanese Bishop Paride Taban of Torit wanted to help stop traditional cattle raiding by rival groups of young men, he turned to the Catholic peace-building organization IKV Pax Christi from the Netherlands.Read More

VATICAN CITY – The most amusing headline to greet Cardinal Angelo Scola’s appointment as archbishop of Milan appeared in a British newspaper: “Pro-Vatican cardinal to head Milan church.”Read More

Three Mother Seton School, Emmitsburg, middle school students, Matthew Benjamin, Robin Wivell and Mitchell Swope are among dozens of students selected to participate in the Celebration of the Arts 2009 March 23 at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore. Middle and high school students from the Archdiocese of Baltimore gifted in art, dance, drama and...Read More