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I would like to address two problems my wife and I and our 10-year-old son encounter every time we attend Mass. We regularly attend the 5 p.m. Mass on Saturday but have also noticed this problem when our needs call for us to attend a Sunday Mass. That is the subject of people talking in church prior to Mass.

Patrick K. Clancy’s letter objecting to the term “Ranger Rosary” smacked of ignorance and ingratitude (CR, April 19). I suppose he would like to disarm St. Michael, excommunicated modern-day Joan of Arcs, and deny the final instruction Christ gave his disciples at the Last Supper – from now on sell your cloaks and buy swords (Luke 22:36).

A funeral Mass for Ellen V. Dunkes, formerly of Baltimore, was offered April 10 at St. Gabriel Catholic Church in Woodlawn. Mrs. Dunkes died April 5 in Lewes Convalescent Center, Lewes, Del. She was 100.

The gathering space at Church of the Crucifixion, Glen Burnie, was packed with people of all ages April 17 as they sat down to a large meal and waited anxiously for the first Discovering Christ session to begin. Discovering Christ is a six-week series, stretching through May 22, which explores the foundations of the Catholic faith and is designed to help men and women encounter Christ, said Father Erik Arnold, pastor. The program was designed by ChristLife, a lay Catholic apostolate of evangelization in Baltimore.

WASHINGTON – A workable comprehensive immigration reform bill on the table, more sympathetic leadership in Congress and a “this year or maybe never” incentive are prodding immigration advocates to action. After a day and a half of briefings and strategizing with advocates who work on immigration every day, activists from more than 66 dioceses took their campaign for immigration reform to Capitol Hill April 19.

LONDON – A revised code of ethics will prevent doctors from providing contraceptives and abortion referrals at a London Catholic hospital popular with celebrity mothers. The finalized code, which is expected to be passed by the hospital board May 16, will encompass all staff and resident practitioners at the Hospital of St. John and St. Elizabeth.

Maryland parishioners will have an opportunity to help educate the future priests of the Archdiocese of Baltimore when the second-collection plate is passed to them the weekend of May 5 and 6. Last year parishes throughout the Archdiocese of Baltimore raised more than $300,000 to help pay for the education of the seminarians enrolled in the six-year program, and members of the archdiocesan vocations office are hoping to top that record-setting figure this spring.

Dina Nagdimunova admits that much of what she learns in her finance textbooks at Loyola College in Maryland, Baltimore, is forgotten soon after exams. That’s why she thinks it’s important to apply what she studies in class in real-world situations. Ms. Nagdimunova, a 21-year-old senior who was born in Russia, serves as a paid intern with Safenet Corporation in Belcamp, an information security company. She found her internship through a career Web site offered by Loyola College.

In the April 12 issue, a book review reprinted from Catholic News Service praised “An Inconvenient Truth,” Al Gore’s book that accompanies his movie of the same name. A central theme of Gore’s efforts is to assert that we have a moral obligation to take action against carbon dioxide emissions. We read “The final 15 pages at the conclusion of the text are a composite of individual and collective action responses ….” The connection to morality gets the attention of religious-minded readers; and indeed, “global warming” is becoming something of a secular “religion” all by itself.