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The playground across the street from St. Martin’s church, Baltimore, was overgrown with weeds, the swings were broken, glass lay strewn all over the ground and many of the benches were damaged until a group of youth from the Baltimore/ Appalachia Work Camp arrived the week of June 17-22. A total of 160 youth and adult volunteers spent two weeks at 36 different sites around Baltimore and in the Appalachia area of West Virginia, doing manual labor for those who need help.

JERUSALEM – A new exhibit of never-displayed manuscripts written by Isaac Newton reveals the scientist’s fascination with theology and apocalyptic and biblical writings. Best known as the rational 17th-century mathematician and physicist who discovered the notion of gravity, Newton is considered one of the foremost scientific intellects of all time. “During that period religion and science were often connected with each other,” said Yemima Ben Menachem, curator of the exhibit and philosophy professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where the papers are on display. “Most of the great scientists of the 17th century were religious in different ways. Newton was also a very religious man.”

Participants in the June 28-July 1 Catholic Family Expo in Baltimore will be among the first to preview the much anticipated movie “Bella” during a June 30 screening at the Baltimore Convention Center at 7 p.m. The producer and the movie’s lead actor – both of whom are featured speakers at the expo – will also be on hand to discuss how their shared Catholic ideology shaped their professional alliance.

ATLANTA – The Georgia International Convention Center became “the cathedral of Atlanta” June 9 as Atlanta Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory processed into the cavernous building bearing the Blessed Sacrament in a golden monstrance with sunburst rays. A record of about 30,000 people – 10,000 more than last year – came to the convention center near Atlanta’s airport June 8 and 9 for the archdiocese’s 12th annual eucharistic congress. The theme of the 2007 congress, “The Food That Endures for Eternal Life,” drew from the passage in St. John’s Gospel in which Jesus, shortly after feeding a large crowd with a few fish and loaves of bread, says: “You are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.”