TORONTO – The second person ever to serve as poet laureate for Toronto is also the first Catholic priest to hold the title. It’s an opportune pulpit for Father Pier Giorgio Di Cicco, 57, a priest-poet-philosopher who is now spreading ideas about how individuals, government officials and even business leaders can make cities and communities...Read More

WASHINGTON – Human dignity can be defended by fighting poverty, said the leaders of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development as they prepared for the program’s 2010 annual collection, which will be taken up in most parishes Nov. 20-21.Read More

The Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Middle River, Lady Cougars are poised and prepped to defend their Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland C Conference title this season, maintaining a strong hold on first place of the Conference’s Y Division. The Cougars are posting a 12-3 league record with their lone conference loss Dec. 20 to...Read More

When 17-year-old John Carroll School senior Robert Darin Owens Jr., known simply as “D.J.” to friends, teachers and teammates, endured the sudden death of his father a little over a year ago, football became his mainstay.Read More

CR readers share a few amusing wedding anecdotes. Dorothy Williams, principal, St. Clare School, Essex “My husband and I were married on May 3, 1975, at Loyola College Chapel in Baltimore. It was a beautiful day and everything was going perfect …Read More

VATICAN CITY – A deadly militant siege of a Catholic cathedral in Baghdad, Iraq, was a “savage” act of “absurd violence,” Pope Benedict XVI said.Read More

WASHINGTON – The U.S. government should emulate the Catholic Church and look for a dramatic way to improve relations with Cuba, said a U.S. lawmaker after returning from a fact-finding trip to the Caribbean island. Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass., cited the 1998 trip to Cuba by Pope John Paul II and said it had a...Read More

Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien’s column this week includes excerpts from his Respect Life Sunday homily.Read More