These past three years of drought in Central America have destroyed crops of corn and beans, leaving families starving and causing Guatemala to declare a true state of emergency, said Catholic Relief Services officials.


These past three years of drought in Central America have destroyed crops of corn and beans, leaving families starving and causing Guatemala to declare a true state of emergency, said Catholic Relief Services officials.

Monsignor A. Thomas Baumgartner, a former pastor of three Baltimore-area parishes who was known for his commitment to the priesthood and his enthusiastic embrace of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, died March 4 at age 88.

Lent is a time to ask for God’s grace to chip away at hypocrisy, which is seen in the natural human attempt to appear “worthier than we are,” Pope Francis said

The clerical abuse scandal has caused everyone in the Catholic Church “pain and unbearable suffering,” Pope Francis said, but it also is a call to repentance and the renewal of the church.

We really love Ash Wednesday, don’t we? I love how it’s not even a holy day of obligation, and yet churches fill with people who want to receive ashes. There’s something about that mark of humility and repentance that feels so right.

The Maryland House of Delegates passed a bill March 7 that would legalize physician-assisted suicide.

Mark Pattison checks out fish sandwiches at fast-food restaurants this Lenten season.

Gym Meet traditions include Mary Bartel, chairwoman of the Physical Education/Health Department, serving as faculty moderator for nearly 30 years.

We fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and abstain from meat on the other Fridays of the season, but it’s not much of a sacrifice to splurge on lobster instead of beef as a Lenten meal.

The Church ought to sing the transcendence of God to Frank Gehry as it once sang it to Giotto, Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Dante, Gaudí, and the architect of Chartres Cathedral.

May this long Lent lead to an Easter of renewed hope and joy for ourselves, for the church, and for those who have been harmed.

To be human is to be worthy of God. God affirms the value of human life, by becoming human himself. But life is not easy.
