When Monsignor Robert L. Hartnett was appointed executive director of schools planning for the Archdiocese of Baltimore in early 2009, the task was unenviable: head a team that would develop recommendations concerning school consolidations.Read More

As the Cold War raged in the late 1970s and early 1980s, 1,000 nuns packed secret messages into tubes of toothpaste and bits of candy – smuggling the reports of human rights abuses and church persecution out of Communist-dominated Lithuania.Read More

In her new book, “The Abbess of Andalusia,” Lorraine Murray aims to “uncover the self-portrait Flannery (O’Connor) created in the daily stream of letters that poured out of Andalusia,” the Georgia farm where the writer lived for 13 years until her death in 1964, when she was only 39.Read More

After medication did not have the desired effect on his high blood pressure, the 50-something sibling nearest my age underwent a cardiac catheterization last May.Read More

VATICAN CITY – A small but annoyingly persistent scandal over trumped-up accusations against a Catholic editor in Italy has underlined how much attention the Vatican pays to Italian affairs.Read More

BELFAST, Northern Ireland – The head of the Irish bishops’ conference welcomed an agreement that would give Northern Ireland control over its police and justice issues.Read More

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI recently urged the world’s priests to make better use of new media, but in his own backyard the digital revolution is still seen as a mixed blessing.Read More

PARKVILLE- Standing in St. Ursula School’s library with his classmates, third-grader Blessy Mbaya had the look of a boy who just entered a toy store.Read More