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At the end of January, the Archdiocese of Baltimore will introduce an ethics hotline for its employees, volunteers, parishioners, vendors and other interested parties to report financial and human resource issues confidentially. The week of Jan. 15, a brochure and poster detailing the new hotline was mailed to all schools and parishes in the archdiocese, and prior to that, a letter was sent from Cardinal William H. Keeler to all pastors, associate pastors, pastoral life directors and principals announcing the program. “The use of a hotline is growing more common in other Arch/diocesan and nonprofit organizations and we believe will help us achieve our goals of transparency and accountability throughout the Archdiocese of Baltimore,” the cardinal wrote.

It is not surprising that the local and national media has been touting the arrival of Nancy Pelosi to her powerful position as majority speaker in the House of Representatives. However, it is confusing to witness the praise and honor which has been enthusiastically lavished upon the new speaker of the house by her former neighbors in Little Italy, and other local Catholics, priests and nuns when considering her terrible voting record.

I wish to respectfully disagree with James Dickinson’s letter (CR, Jan. 4), in which he states that the right to life should take issue before all others – meaning the end of legal abortion. I agree with him that Democrats should change the pro-abortion platform. In the same breath, if the Republicans think that prolife is the one and only issue in their platform, why don’t they try a little harder with this administration in their quest for “peace” to use other methods than militarism, bullets and bombs?

There were two things that Kirk Salvo took away from his high school wrestling days at Mount St. Joseph, Baltimore, humility and excellence. Now into his second season as the Gaels head coach, Salvo, ’84, challenges his wrestlers to focus on the same.

As support from parishes and schools in the Archdiocese of Baltimore continues to help relief efforts in violence-riddled North Sudan, a Catholic Relief Services representative working in that country urged local Catholics to endorse United Nations aid. “The Catholic population has been extremely generous throughout this conflict,” said Mark Snyder, a CRS field representative stationed in Khartoum, who was in the organization’s headquarters in Baltimore for a press call Jan. 10. “But, we need the people here to lobby their political representatives for more U.N. support and to insure funding, so our programs won’t fade away.”

The Cardinal Gibbons School, Baltimore, mourns the loss of yet another member of their school community – 49-year-old former head basketball coach and athletic director Bob Flynn died of a massive heart attack in his Catonsville home Jan. 12. Flynn was rushed to St. Agnes Hospital, Catonsville, where he later died, just a stone’s throw from his high school alma mater and coaching dream.

WASHINGTON. (CNS) – A federal judge in Louisville, Ky., has denied a Vatican request to dismiss a sex abuse lawsuit seeking damages from the Holy See. U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn II ruled Jan. 11 that U.S. bishops and priests are employees of the Vatican within the terms of the Federal Sovereign Immunity Act.

WASHINGTON – An increase in the federal minimum wage, its proponents would argue, is not only an idea whose time has come, but an idea whose time had come long ago. The minimum wage was last increased in 1997. The 10-years-and-counting gap between increases is the longest since the minimum wage was instituted in 1938. Its purchasing power also has dropped. According to Catholic Charities USA, it’s now equal to $3.95 in 1995 dollars – when the minimum wage was $4.25.

When Tom Kinstle of Homeland retired from Lockheed Martin in 2002 and joined his wife’s Timonium-based design business, he wasn’t worried that too much togetherness would cause conflicts at work or at home. “I dabble here,” the 73-year-old Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, Homeland parishioner said. “It’s Ruth’s business.” That statement caused his youthful-looking 60-year-old wife to erupt in laughter and then wag her finger at him. “Wait a minute,” Ms. Kinstle playfully protested. “I don’t know that I like the tone of that. It sounds like you want to spend more time on the golf course. You can’t quit on me.”