Catholics celebrate at Baltimore’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade

Thousands lined Charles and Pratt Streets under cloudless skies  March 11, to watch the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade wind its way from the Washington Monument down to the Inner Harbor in Baltimore.

Cardinal Edwin F. O’Brien smiled and waved from the front steps of his residence as the marching bands, pipes, Catholic school students, Irish dancers, Ancient Hibernians and drums corps paraded past. 

Earlier that morning, Cardinal O’Brien celebrated the Official Mass of the St. Patrick Parade at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, where he reminded everyone, “When you celebrate a saint, remember to try to be as saintly as you can.”