Page 1840 – Archdiocese of Baltimore

As more than 800 catechumens and candidates from the Archdiocese of Baltimore prepare to enter the Catholic Church during the Easter Vigil, April 7, Holy Saturday morning will provide an opportunity for prayer and reflection.
The elect, whose February ceremonies were cancelled because of snow, will make one final preparation at 10 a.m. during Preparation Rites, which will be held at three sites across the archdiocese on April 7.

Rights for gay, unmarried couples at odds with faith

VATICAN CITY – Supporting legislation that gives legal rights to gay or heterosexual couples who are not married is a position that is not consistent with the Catholic faith, said members of the permanent council of the Italian bishops’ conference. “The faithful Christian is obliged to form his conscience” in accordance with the teaching of the Catholic Church, the bishops said in a statement released March 28 as Italian politicians continued to debate legislative proposals recognizing unions formed by unmarried couples, including homosexuals. The bishops’ statement quoted the 2002 statement of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on “The Participation of Catholics in Political Life.”

Old parish properties have new owners

ST. LOUIS – When the Archdiocese of St. Louis put the real estate property of 20 closed parishes up for sale, with the proceeds to follow members of those closed locations to their new parish homes, the goal was to find the right buyers for the buildings. The archdiocese was determined to sell those properties in a timely fashion for the best price available, while making sure all reuse of the buildings would be proper and appropriate, said Thomas Richter, director of the archdiocesan Office of Building and Real Estate. But the properties in the urban South St. Louis Deanery and the suburban Northeast St. Louis County Deanery were quite dissimilar, so two different commercial real estate agencies – each with expertise particular to the type of properties to be sold – were chosen to market them.

The faith taught by Jesus

VATICAN CITY – The teaching of the bishops and unity with the pope guarantee that one’s faith truly is the faith taught by Jesus to his apostles, Pope Benedict XVI said. “The true Gospel is that imparted by the bishops, who have received it in an uninterrupted chain from the apostles,” the pope said March 28 at his weekly general audience. The pope’s audience talk focused on the ministry and writings of St. Irenaeus of Lyon, who died in the very first years of the third century.

Local artist to sign basilica painting

Baltimore artist Paul DeRemigis Jr. will be signing his newest original painting, a rendering of the restored Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Baltimore, April 12.

Loyola students clean up New Orleans

While loads of college kids headed to Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., for the typical “let’s party” spring break, 66 Loyola College in Maryland, Baltimore, students opted to travel to New Orleans to perform a selfless ministry. Spring Break Outreach, part of Loyola’s Center for Community Service and Justice, coordinated student-led groups to assist with disaster relief work in New Orleans and Violet, La., and Metairie, Miss., in the almost two-year aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Ongoing history

MENLO PARK, Calif. – Even though the average age of religious-order priests, sisters and brothers serving in the United States is increasing and their numbers are declining, don’t conclude religious communities are dying out, a well-known scholar said during a recent national meeting in Menlo Park. Instead, think of consecrated life as an “ongoing history” being written by the Holy Spirit, advised Oblate Father Frank Morrisey, adding that the divine author’s last chapter is “yet to come.”

Church intensifies efforts to derail abortion bill

MEXICO CITY – With protests, a pilgrimage and emphatic declarations, the Catholic Church has intensified its efforts to derail legislative proposals which would decriminalize abortion in Mexico. The issue also reignited tension between the church and Mexico’s left, and led to renewed questions over whether clergy and Catholic groups can participate in political activism in a nation where religion and state are divided by law. Events culminated March 25, when nearly 10,000 people took part in the Pilgrimage for Life in Mexico City to protest bills in the national Congress and the capital assembly which would allow abortions during the first three months of pregnancy.

Graphologist is witness for late pope’s sainthood cause

ROME – In connection with the sainthood cause of Pope John Paul II, a graphologist and a psychiatrist were called as expert witnesses in the investigation into the presumed healing of a nun suffering from Parkinson’s disease. Monsignor Slawomir Oder, the postulator of Pope John Paul’s cause, said the French diocese where the nun lives concluded its investigation March 23 and would hand all its documentation to the Congregation for Saints’ Causes in early April. Monsignor Oder spoke to reporters March 27 about the status of the cause and plans for the formal conclusion of the Rome diocesan phase of the process April 2, the second anniversary of Pope John Paul’s death.

‘Apostle of the Alleghenies’ up for sainthood

The sainthood cause for Father Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin, a former pastor of St. Joseph in Taneytown and St. Patrick in Cumberland, has been opened by the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, Penn. Father Gallitzin, a Russian prince who was the second priest ordained in the United States and the first to receive all his holy orders in this country, was the son of Prince Demetrius Alexeivich Gallitzin, the ambassador of Empress Catherine the Great of Russia to the Netherlands.

ARCHDIOCESE RECEIVES ALLEGATIONS OF ABUSE

In the past week, the Archdiocese of Baltimore learned of two allegations of sexual abuse of a minor against Monsignor Richard E. Smith, 67, pastor at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Ellicott City. The alleged abuse occurred in mid-late 1960s while Richard Smith was a priest at Shrine of Our Lady of Perpetual Help parish in Woodlawn (known as St. Gabriel since 1997).

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