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St. Francis of Assisi, Baltimore, parishioner and Baltimore City Council Vice President Bob Curran extinguished his last cigarette in 1998, and by the end of this year he would like to see all bars and restaurants in Baltimore become smoke-free zones. The 56-year-old Northwood resident is lobbying to get the eight votes he needs for passage of his city smoking-ban legislation when the bill comes up for a final vote at the Feb. 26 City Council meeting.

Excellent job emphasizing the well attended 34th Annual March for Life in Washington, DC, which was all but ignored by much of the media (CR, Feb. 8). However, the front page featured a photo of Gov. Martin J. O’Malley and three Catholic sisters in honor of Catholic Schools Week. In the accompanying article, the governor, sisters, school administrators, and the Maryland Catholic Conference exchange praises to one another.

An Irish Catholic governor (CR, Feb. 8), a Polish Catholic U.S. senator, an Italian Catholic Speaker of the U.S. House . . . all Catholic educated, and all pro-abortion. To be sure, Catholic education emphasizes social conscientiousness. Even in the 1950s at Ss. Philip and James, we knew what it meant to be socially responsible. It was from the pulpit, and Monsignor John J. Duggan that I received the “life” message. On an annual basis, long before “Roe v. Wade,” Monsignor Duggan told the following story:

How does faith call us to bring hope and healing to the world? Discuss this topic March 12-16 at Mount St. Mary’s University, Emmitsburg, when they host the third annual Callings Conference: Bearers of Hope and Healing. Callings is a program for the theological exploration of Christian vocation.

Mary Ellen Russell, deputy directory for education and family life with the Maryland Catholic Conference, called on state lawmakers to pass a bill that would require nonpublic school administrators to be informed when one of their students has been arrested for a violent or sexual crime and when such a student from another school transfers to their school.

At the turn of the New Year, there was much excitement around my home. It seems that TIME magazine had declared me their Person of the Year. And, God bless them, TIME did the same for you. And you. And you as well.

In a wooden frame on a curved brick wall in the lobby of Our Lady of Victory School, Arbutus, a large mural of the community painted by method of pointillism is now visible when entering the building. Pointillism is the art of applying small strokes or dots of color to a surface so that images blend from a distance. The images in this particular mural include those significant to Our Lady of Victory, including a prominent illustration of their building and other local Catholic schools such as The Cardinal Gibbons School, Baltimore, and Mount St. Joe, Irvington.

VATICAN CITY – Two months after taking over as head of the Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy, Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes has issued a strong and lengthy defense of priestly celibacy. “Priestly celibacy is a precious gift of Christ to his church, a gift that must continually be meditated upon and strengthened, especially in the deeply secularized modern world,” Cardinal Hummes said. The cardinal made the comments in a full-page article he wrote for the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano. It was published Feb. 14 under the headline “The importance of priestly celibacy.”

LONDON – The size of the Catholic Church in the British capital is being boosted by waves of illegal immigrants, according to a new report. Undocumented or irregular migrants now make up more than three-quarters of the congregations of at least three London parishes, said “The Ground of Justice: The Report of a Pastoral Research Inquiry Into the Needs of Migrants in London’s Catholic Community,” published Feb. 14. Many migrants live in abject poverty and fear of deportation, said the report by the Von Hugel Institute of St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge.

VATICAN CITY – An Italian legislative proposal that would grant some legal rights to unwed couples – including same-sex partners – has set the stage for a major church-state showdown. On one side is a wide spectrum of Italian social and political forces, including many lay Catholics, who say the bill would end discrimination against unwed couples in areas of health care, pensions, housing and employment. On the other side is the Italian bishops’ conference, which has argued that the law would undermine marriage and the traditional family. Some bishops have warned Catholic legislators that they are duty-bound to vote against the proposal.