VATICAN CITY – If he looked around the chapel during his Lenten retreat this year, Pope Benedict XVI would have seen an all-male assembly. The absence of women was not deliberate. The invitation to attend the pope’s spiritual exercises goes out to the top two or three officials of Vatican agencies, and almost all of...Read More

The Archdiocese of Baltimore has begun offering a new benefit for employees and their dependents that will provide help addressing personal issues like problems with relationships, stress, anxiety, depression and substance abuse. Launched on Nov. 1, the "Employee Assistance Program" (EAP) is run through ComPsych Guidance Resources and provides no-cost confidential assistance.Read More

JERUSALEM – Catholic biblical scholars and an Israeli archaeologist rejected filmmakers’ claim that a tomb uncovered nearly 30 years ago in Jerusalem is the burial site of Jesus and his family. Dominican Father Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, a biblical archaeologist and expert in the New Testament at the French Biblical and Archaeological School of Jerusalem who was...Read More

As a religion and science teacher for the sixth, seventh and eighth grades at Our Lady of Grace School in Parkton, Addison Beck knows that she is challenged with forming young people at an important age.Read More

When Calvert Hall 1966 graduate John “Jay” H. Comi served in the Merchant Marine 1967-69 aboard a cruise ship, his heart sank along with his class ring when he realized he lost the gold piece in the surf of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. As a junior, Mr. Comi had received the ring from Calvert...Read More

VATICAN CITY – Vatican officials are at an advanced stage in studying the possibility of a papal trip to Mexico and Cuba in the spring of 2012, the Vatican spokesman said.Read More

ST. LOUIS – The need for states to help inmates turn their lives around was a central but undisputed part of a case before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis Feb. 13. But the question before the judges, including retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, was...Read More

NEW YORK – Catholics and Jews can most effectively capitalize on five decades of progress in their relations by joining forces to promote religious freedom, defend immigrants, face a common threat from fanatics and advocate for civility in politics and society, said New York Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan.Read More