News Archives - Page 783 of 1758 - Archdiocese of Baltimore

Silent erosion of religious liberty

“Religious Freedom expresses what is unique about the human person, for it allows us to direct our personal and social life to God, in whose light the identity, meaning and purpose of the person are fully understood,” – Pope Benedict XVI, Message for the World Day for Peace, January 1, 2011.

A hard-hearted approach to immigration

“If today you hear God’s voice, harden not your hearts.” “ It is a psalm sung in Catholic churches the world over, and a charge – our charge as Christians and followers of Christ for how we should treat others. “ Too often, however, we fail to heed this simple command. This is especially true...

An amazing grace

Agnes Kane Callum, my mother, is a wonder to behold. Historian, genealogist and researcher, she was born in Baltimore, the fifth child among 12. Her parents were the late Phillip Moten and Mary Kane (nee Gough) of St. Mary’s County in southern Maryland. She was educated in Baltimore public schools, and at age 44 she...

Harambee presses on for 25 years

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once gave an important insight in regard to achievement. “Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable. Even a superficial look at history reveals that no social advance rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering and the tireless exertions and passionate...

Lasting love

I know that the church’s official Christmas season is over with the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, but I wanted to squeeze one more bit of the Christmas season for us.

‘Silent Night’ at the Vatican

Exiting St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican just after midnight on Christmas, the young woman next to me hummed softly to her infant. The strains of “Silent Night” were not hard to discern, as she comforted her baby. It made me recall the Nativity scene we had just passed while exiting the Christmas Mass in...

Celebrate the time after Christmas

We Christians get a pretty good deal at Christmas time. We get two Christmas seasons! We get the retail Christmas, the time before Christmas, with all the lights and decorations and songs. This is the season to get people to buy things. It’s sort of a secular season of Advent, but, rather than focusing on...

Give all that we have to others

So what do cats and Christmas have in common? Perhaps more than we first think.

Wit & Wisdom: I feel the earth move

So where were you when the Aug. 23 earthquake hit? I was hearing confessions at Oak Crest in a room off the chapel. The whole room and chapel shook. After that, no one else came to confession! I guess people figured: “Don’t go in there! What kind of penance is Father Joe handing out?”

Ireland should look at Baltimore history

Catholicism is in crisis all over Old Europe. Nowhere is that crisis more pronounced than in Ireland, where clerical corruption and disastrous episcopal leadership have collided with rank political expediency and a rabidly anticlerical media to produce a perfect storm of ecclesiastical meltdown. The country whose constitution begins “In the name of the Most Holy...

Giving thanks for ‘all things in good plenty’

When Mary Chilton first spotted the New World in November 1620, the 13-year-old had been aboard the Mayflower for 10 weeks, stuck in the same clothes and cramped in dark, damp quarters among seasick passengers and dying goats. Each family was allotted one storage trunk for all their possessions.

Imagining Mary: Christmas paintings that open our eyes

I’ve been shopping for the perfect Christmas card, sifting through Nativity scenes framed in holly berries and bows.