Page 1881 – Archdiocese of Baltimore

JERUSALEM (CNS) — Once again Christmas in the Holy Land is faced with “circumstances of death and frustration,” but the holiday still brings joy and announces salvation to all, said Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah of Jerusalem in his traditional Christmas message. Though the West Bank city of Bethlehem should be a city of peace it is a place of “conflict and death,” Patriarch Sabbah said. Peace could be reached if those responsible were “sincerely determined,” he said.

2007 promises a world of busyness for Pope

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A new Vatican calendar features photos of Pope Benedict XVI relaxing, but the pope’s own agenda for 2007 leaves little time for repose. The Vatican will be a busy place throughout the year, with hundreds of papal meetings, liturgies and other events already scheduled and several documents in the pipeline. The pope will make at least two foreign trips, including his first intercontinental journey, and sometime during the year is likely to name another batch of new cardinals.

Tradition gives way to vigil

ST. LOUIS (CNS) — Midnight Mass used to be one of the mainstays of a Catholic Christmas. But in recent years the tradition once celebrated at virtually every parish has given way to Masses at 11 p.m., 10 p.m. or even earlier. “The midnight Mass is a tradition that goes back to the 11th century,” said Father William McCumber, director of the St. Louis archdiocesan Office of Worship.

Argentine authorities to encase Virgin of Lujan

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNS) — Church authorities in Argentina are preparing to encase the country’s most revered icon — a 17th-century terra-cotta statue of the Virgin of Lujan, patron saint of Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay — in bulletproof glass to safeguard it from vandalism.

Part-time Christmas tree business becomes tradition

LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (CNS) — The question made Duane Olberding laugh: Are you as jolly as Old St. Nick? “I don’t know about being as jolly as Old St. Nick, but I do enjoy helping people get a nice Christmas tree,” said Olberding, a member of St. Joseph Parish in Leavenworth. Olberding, who recently retired as a guidance counselor at Immaculata High School in Leavenworth, has played a key role in making Christmas merry for Leavenworth families since 1984.

New Warsaw prelate a spy?

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Vatican and the Polish bishops are convinced Warsaw’s new Archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus was not a spy for the secret police under Poland’s former communist regime, the Vatican said. “In deciding to nominate the new metropolitan archbishop of Warsaw, the Holy See took into consideration all the circumstances of his life, including those regarding his past,” said a statement issued Dec. 21 by the Vatican press office.

Settlement for Portland sex abuse claims

PORTLAND, Ore. (CNS) — The Archdiocese of Portland will not need to sell off parish or school property under terms of a $75 million settlement between the archdiocese and almost 150 sex abuse claimants. The more than 100-page settlement plan was filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Portland Dec. 18, a week after U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan stood with church officials and victims’ lawyers in a federal courthouse in Eugene to say the claims had been settled after more than three months of arduous private negotiations.

Mercy VP searches Africa

“I felt like I was in National Geographic,” said Susan MacMillan, the senior vice president of Patient Care Services at Mercy Health Services, Baltimore, who returned Nov. 2 from a 15-day trip to Africa. “On safari, there are many highlights.” But Ms. MacMillan’s African safari also led her on another adventure.

Ship visitors are lifeline to AOS ministry

Imagine living away from family and friends for months, facing isolation, depression, and loneliness while working backbreaking, sometimes 24-hour shifts on a container ship in foreign ports; sometimes with insufficient food, nothing to foster spirituality, delayed paychecks, meager entertainment and limited recreational time. Such is the reality for some merchant marines who labor intensively on the bleak-looking ships docked at Dundalk Marine Terminal and other Baltimore ports.

New All Saints cake lady brightens holiday spirits

When approaching the front of Rita Martin’s Randallstown home, one can’t help but notice the attention the New All Saints, Liberty Heights, parishioner has given to the colorful Christmas decorations illuminating the house. But it’s the aroma of baking rum cakes that really lets new arrivers know the spirit of the holidays is alive and well in the 50-year-old Baltimore City school teacher’s home. In fact, Ms. Martin’s affinity for baking has earned her the nickname “the cake lady,” among parishioners.

CRS set to relocate to the Stewarts Building

Catholic Relief Services officials told about 50 dignitaries touring the renovation site of their new headquarters Dec. 15 they hope to move all 350 employees from their current building on Fayette Street to the old Stewarts Building, the former grand dame of Baltimore department stores, by July 2007. “It will once again be a building of dreams,” said Ken Hackett, president of the international relief organization.

Weinberg Foundation: $3.5 million to Catholic Schools