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After his father died, Father Gerald F. LaPorta suggested to his mother, “Let’s go someplace where it’s warmer.”

Though Monsignor James V. Hobbs resisted a celebration of the half century anniversary of his ordination, parishioners of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary insisted and the spotlight shown on the rector of the nation’s first cathedral May 20. Born in Thurmont, Monsignor Hobbs was educated by the Daughters of Charity at St. Anthony School in Frederick County and graduated from St. Charles School, Catonsville, before studying theology at St. Mary’s College on Paca Street in Baltimore and entering St. Mary’s Seminary, Roland Park, in the 1950s.

For the first 12 years of his life, Monsignor John J. Auer grew up in the parish of St. Joseph’s Passionist Monastery Church, Irvington. His family then moved to St. William of York, Baltimore, until the time he was ordained. Besides serving throughout Maryland for his entire career, Monsignor Auer, celebrating 50 years in the priesthood, served five years in Peru and Ecuador as part of the St. James Missionary Society.

Monsignor Edward J. Lynch, 77, was baptized nine days after his birth in his home parish of Immaculate Conception, Towson. The Baltimore native and Loyola College of Maryland graduate was ordained 50 years ago in 1957. The first parish he served was the former Shrine of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Woodlawn (now St. Gabriel); he was then assigned to St. John the Evangelist, Severna Park, as associate pastor.

Marge Steele’s two high-schoolers think they have too much homework – most students do. Mrs. Steele agrees with her sophomore and senior sons who attend Calvert Hall College High School, Baltimore. “Our biggest issue is that they play sports and the days they have games they get home very late,” said the mother of Ryan and Brendan Steele. “So usually they are rushing through their homework, going in early to complete it the next morning, and if they have free periods … they do it then.”

WASHINGTON – Precious Blood Father Clarence Williams has been chosen as Catholic Charities USA’s new director of racial equality and diversity initiatives. Father Williams, director of black Catholic ministries in the Archdiocese of Detroit for the last 12 years, starts the new job Sept. 1. A consultant to Catholic Charities for about nine years, Father Williams told Catholic News Service July 25 he would “hit the ground running,” visiting local Catholic Charities agencies around the country to share his approach on race relations, which he calls “racial sobriety.”

LORENZAGO DI CADORE, Italy – Pope Benedict XVI left the Italian Alps July 27, flying to Rome and then driving to the papal summer villa at Castel Gandolfo. On the eve of his departure from Lorenzago di Cadore, the pope met with the mayors of the 22 small towns in the region and with the police and forest rangers, who assured his safety and privacy since he arrived July 9. “I can only say, with all my heart, thanks to each and every one of you for your service and commitment,” the pope told the group gathered on the lawn in front of the house where he had been staying.

NEW ORLEANS – Manifesting joy and living a life of holiness are fundamental ways to attract young African-American men to consider a vocation to the priesthood, Redemptorist Father Maurice Nutt of Memphis, Tenn., told the joint convention of the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus and the National Black Sisters’ Conference July 25. The conference, attended by more than 200 black priests, deacons, sisters and seminarians, focused on vocations and enriching the spiritual, theological, educational and ministerial lives of the participants.

As a young girl in the late 1960s, Nancy Perlman boarded a school bus near her Rodgers Forge home five mornings a week that delivered her safely to nearby St. Pius X School. It was a luxury for which her parents happily paid, in addition to the annual tuition for the Catholic education the now 44-year-old Columbia mother and psychiatric nurse received. Today most Catholic schools within the Archdiocese of Baltimore, including St. Pius X, do not offer bus service, requiring parents to find their own way of transporting their children to and from school.