Page 1856 – Archdiocese of Baltimore

Enacting a ban on human cloning in Maryland will be a central focus of the 28th annual Maryland Candlelight March for Life, March 12 in Annapolis. Prolife supporters from across the state will rally at the state capital, asking lawmakers to support the Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2007 – a Senate bill that prohibits the manufacture of human embryos through the cloning process.

Lost Calvert Hall ring returned after 40 years

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 Hall College High School, Towson. Now 40 years later, it’s back on his finger.

Cristo Rey School appoints three positions

The president of Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, Baltimore, Father John Swope, S.J., announced the appointment of three key staff positions for the new school slated to open fall 2007.

Catholic women’s group forms in Pakistan

LAHORE, Pakistan – Posters pasted on billboards and trees by the country’s main Muslim political alliance blare the “Quran-prescribed” punishments of 100 lashes or death by stoning for women who have sex outside of marriage. As a new bill liberalizing strict women’s laws makes its way through Parliament, hard-line groups have been fighting to keep a status quo they claim has divine sanction. The same day the new bill went before the National Assembly Feb. 13, the first national Catholic women’s organization was launched in Lahore, reported UCA News, an Asian church news agency.

Migrants lose camp, chapel

SAN DIEGO – Migrant camps have existed in the Carmel Valley area of north San Diego County longer than most of the area’s housing, certainly longer than the million-dollar homes that now carpet the valley east of Del Mar. Home to the men and women who work in the vegetable and flower fields, the makeshift camps are out of sight and, typically, out of mind for the majority of residents in the area. But some residents, worrying about the potential for crime, are wary of having the camps so close to their homes.

Christian leaders call President Bush ‘morally bankrupt’

Baltimore Christian leaders used the backdrop of Ash Wednesday and props of dead soldier’s combat boots as they called President Bush’s Iraq War policies immoral and urged Maryland’s faithful to take part in an organized anti-war rally in Washington. The 13 religious leaders from varying Christian faiths – which included Auxiliary Bishop Denis J. Madden of the Archdiocese of Baltimore – chose the first day of lent to launch their collective anti-war platform, because it’s a penitential season.

Parish opens teleconferencing center

When pastoral leaders from the westernmost corner of Maryland participate in archdiocesan meetings, it often means a 165-mile trek to Baltimore. Monsignor Thomas Bevan, pastor of St. Patrick in Cumberland, hopes the travel burden will be lightened now that his parish has opened a new media/teleconference center that will soon make it possible to see and hear what is happening in Baltimore and elsewhere without leaving “Mountain Maryland.”

St. Agnes presents Caritas Award

The St. Agnes Foundation will honor Albert “Skip” and Margie Counselman by presenting them with the Caritas Award at the annual spring gala, March 24 at M&T Bank Stadium. The award is given each year to a couple who demonstrate an ongoing commitment to St. Agnes Healthcare and the Baltimore community.

Prime meridian in Vatican Gardens

VATICAN CITY – Although the Global Positioning System has made meridians obsolete in mapmaking, a group of geographers used the GPS to mark the exact spot where the old prime meridian of Italy passed through the Vatican. Standing at the end of a technologically guaranteed straight line of flower pots, the geographers and Vatican officials dedicated a plaque marking the spot in the Vatican Gardens Feb. 23.

Pope to canonize Brazilian in May

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI will canonize a Brazilian Franciscan during his May trip to Brazil and will declare four other new saints in June. During a prayer service in the Apostolic Palace Feb. 23, the pope set May 11 as the date for the canonization of Blessed Antonio Galvao, an 18th-century Franciscan and founder of the Sisters of Our Lady of the Conception of Divine Providence.

Thousands gather to mark 40 years of renewal

DETROIT – One of the world’s foremost Catholic preachers told a Feb. 16-18 gathering of more than 3,000 people involved in the charismatic renewal movement that they should be focusing more on the future than on the movement’s past. Even as they gathered to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the charismatic movement, Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa told charismatic Catholics from across the United States, “We should expect a new Pentecost, not just celebrate that others experienced a new Pentecost 40 years ago.”

Pope supports Polish archbishop who resigned