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Members of the St. Vincent de Paul committee at St. Francis de Sales, Abingdon, signed their parish up for a $1 million challenge sponsored by the Feinstein Foundation to help fight hunger in their community. “Through the St. Vincent de Paul Society we set aside time for people in the community to come in and ask for help,” said Patti Kazlo, vice president of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. “Any given week we get about 30 people coming in for help with money or food. Toward the end of the month we start to run low on food.”

MILWAUKEE – Dismas Ministry, a Milwaukee-based national outreach program for Catholic inmates, has begun distributing a Spanish-language Bible-study correspondence course for prisoners. The course is called “Dios con Nosotros” and is the Spanish version of “God With Us,” a Bible study course especially designed for prisoners.

LAGOS, Nigeria – Lagos Cardinal Anthony Olubunmi Okogie called the smuggling of arms into Nigeria a few weeks before the general elections a “danger signal.” “These arms are not in the military barracks; neither are they in the hands of law enforcement agents who are authorized to carry arms,” he said. Speaking with media executives during a March 29 seminar organized by Caritas Nigeria, the archbishop said the weapons were in the hands of politicians and their agents who were prepared to use them in urban warfare if the elections did not go their way.

VATICAN CITY – The Catholic Church must take sin seriously, but it must do so like Jesus did, by emphasizing God’s mercy and trust in the sinner’s ability to change, said the preacher of the papal household. In criticizing the Pharisees, “Jesus does not deny that sin and sinners exist,” said Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, offering a Lenten reflection March 30 to Pope Benedict XVI and top Vatican officials. But Jesus “was more severe” toward those who “condemned the sinners than toward the sinners themselves,” the preacher said.

The Maryland State Court Scholarship Tea sponsored by the Catholic Daughters of the Americas will take place April 22 from 11:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. at Musket Ridge Golf Club, Myersville.

Click here for Holy Week schedules for the bishops of Baltimore.

Laurie A. Jones, principal of Battle Grove Elementary School in Dundalk, has been named the new principal of Notre Dame Preparatory School in Towson effective July 1. Ms. Jones, a parishioner of Ss. Philip and James in Baltimore, succeeds Clare Pitz. Ms. Jones said she learned about the position in an advertisement in The Catholic Review and was impressed by NDP’s mission to form highly educated, well-rounded young women.

The Catholic Review is to be commended for its continuous coverage of the abject plight of the Palestinians, both Christian and Muslim.