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WASHINGTON (CNS) – Catholic Charities USA Jan. 10 launched an ambitious campaign to cut poverty in America in half by 2020. “The poor do belong to us. … They are our brothers and sisters,” Father Larry Snyder, Catholic Charities USA president, told an overflow crowd at a Capitol Hill briefing announcing the Campaign to Reduce Poverty in America. Noting that 37 million Americans – 12.6 percent of the population – currently live below the poverty line, he said Catholic Charities USA and its affiliates, working in partnership with government, the private sector and other nonprofits, will launch “a concentrated, systematic effort to cut poverty in half by 2020.”

It’s a new year and a new team for the Mercy Magic this season. Returning eight varsity players from 2005-2006, head coach Mary Ella Marion, in her 23rd season, has expanded her roster to 14, bringing up new energy and young talent from the junior varsity this year. The Magic compete in the IAAM A Conference, along with top ranked St. Frances Academy, Baltimore, Towson Catholic, Archbishop Spalding, Severn and The Seton Keough High School, Baltimore. Indeed, it’s a tough league and Mercy, Baltimore, is hanging tough, posting a 3-3 conference record, 8-6 overall.

WASHINGTON (CNS) – It’s apt that the start of the new congressional term coincides with the time of year when people are optimistically making New Year’s resolutions. Lose weight, get to the gym more often, pass comprehensive immigration reform, raise the minimum wage, make sure the farm bill reauthorization helps protect family farmers … you know, the usual. With Democrats controlling both houses of Congress for the first time in 12 years, the dynamics behind what legislation advances will differ from what they have been under the Republican majority, which could be good news for some long-standing wish lists.

BOSTON (CNS) – In a column marking the fifth anniversary of the crisis over clergy sexual abuse of children, Boston Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley said that scandal was a “dark and unremitting truth” that had to be confronted. Cardinal O’Malley’s comments appeared Jan. 7 as an opinion piece in the Boston Globe, the daily newspaper whose unrelenting expose of child sex abuse by priests in the Boston Archdiocese turned the secret of such abuse into a national crisis five years ago.

When W. Gregory Halpin retired as the administrator of the Maryland Port Administration in 1985, he had amassed quite a collection of adventures. During his time leading the agency, he oversaw the construction of the World Trade Center in Baltimore. His work took him to far-flung corners of the world like Brussels, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Poland, Malaysia and Russia. He even entertained the brother of the last Chinese emperor. Although he did some consulting work in other ports after retiring, the parishioner of Immaculate Conception in Towson wasn’t satisfied with his much-slowed-down schedule. That’s when he turned to the Renaissance Institute at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland in Baltimore.

The large gymnasium stage at Sacred Heart, Glyndon, was draped with red, green, blue, black and yellow streamers Jan. 5, while Olympic rings hung on the wall and some 120 balloons scattered the floor. The planning group for the Olympic themed lock-in, Katie Beinstein, Mary Bosley, Haley and Allison Boyd and Joe Miller, had worked on the event for high school-age youth for months and were anxious to see how everything played out on the rainy Friday evening. “They really put their all into it,” said Mae Richardson, the boisterous youth minister for the parish. “It’s an opportunity to experience the church outside the building.”