ROME – Pope John Paul II consulted with top aides about possibly resigning in 2000 and set up a “specific procedure” for papal resignation, says a new book by the pope’s former secretary. The pope eventually decided that it was God’s will that he stay in office, despite the illness that left him more and...Read More

WASHINGTON – Legislation pending in both houses of Congress would repeal the 15-year-old Defense of Marriage Act, allowing legally married same-sex couples to take advantage of the same benefits married heterosexual couples receive under federal law.Read More

VATICAN CITY – A recent sermon by the papal preacher, Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, took aim at John Lennon’s famous line, “Imagine there’s no heaven,” saying it represented an empty, secularized vision of human destiny. But an Italian biblicist, Father Carlo Buzzetti, has approached the question from a different angle: The modern church, he said,...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

Some graduates go back just for the sandwiches. The buffalo chicken wrap is popular, as is The Kevin Special: hot roast beef, melted provolone, barbecue sauce, mayonnaise, onions, lettuce and French fries (yes, French fries) wrapped in a flour tortilla. Both are favorites of students and alumni in the dining hall at Loyola Blakefield, Towson.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

There were two things that Kirk Salvo took away from his high school wrestling days at Mount St. Joseph, Baltimore, humility and excellence. Now into his second season as the Gaels head coach, Salvo, ’84, challenges his wrestlers to focus on the same.Read More

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Nuclear weapons have “threatened humanity” for far too long and the world’s leaders lack the political will to remove “this scourge,” said the Vatican’s ambassador to the United Nations.Read More