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Catonsville resident Jeanne Marie Hannon doesn’t mind getting her hands dirty if it means slowly watching the plants at Catholic Charities’ Gallagher Services in Timonium transform into colorful flowers or luscious vegetables. Cultivating plant life for the summer is an annual tradition for the St. Agnes, Catonsville, parishioner and client of the residential and day program for people with developmental disabilities, and she was proud to contribute to Gallagher Services’ two-day annual flower sale during the second weekend in May.

Whether relaxing by the pool or stuck inside on a rainy day, reading is always a great summer activity. The Enoch Pratt Free Library is offering several programs dedicated to books this summer. Avid readers can sign up for the Summer Reading Club at all Pratt library locations June 9. The theme for the program, which ends in August, is a “reading road trip” to show young people they can use their imaginations to go places without leaving Baltimore, said Roswell Encina, director of communications for the Enoch Pratt Free Library. explained Mr. Encina. Avid readers can also join in the running to read the most books in Baltimore during the summer. “This encourages more kids to read during the summertime,” said Mr. Encina, adding that hundreds of youths participate each year.

The aroma of sizzling steak on a grill may permeate through Maryland neighborhoods mostly in warmer months, but it’s a scent Parkville residents – who live near Bob Delisle’s home – smell all year. The avid outdoor chef and St. Matthew, Northwood, parishioner doesn’t need to dust off his two grills in the late spring because he cooks on them even when snow blankets his back lawn. Dinner served on the family’s dining room table gets its start from the backyard grill at least three evenings each week, and it’s not only the meat prepared outside. “I can easily make the whole meal on the grill,” said the 50-year-old married father of three. “Typically, I put a bunch of vegetables in a tin foil packet with some butter, salt, pepper and other seasonings, and it all steams up nicely while the meat cooks.”

A memorial tree honoring “the life and supreme sacrifice” of Calvert Hall College High School, Towson, 1994 graduate E. Austin Koth was dedicated on campus May 10.

WASHINGTON – Five years after the U.S. bishops passed their landmark policies to prevent child sex abuse, they can look back at successes in institutionalizing safeguards and look ahead to challenges in restoring church credibility. But the basic question is: Are children safer now? “Absolutely yes,” answers Patricia O’Donnell Ewers, chairwoman of the National Review Board overseeing the bishops’ compliance with child protection policies.

SEATTLE – A funeral Mass was celebrated May 12 in a chapel at Seattle University for Walter Hubbard Jr., a national African-American Catholic leader who had headed the Seattle-based National Office for Black Catholics since 1970. Mr. Hubbard, 82, died May 5 in Seattle. No cause of death was given. He had served for two decades on Jesuit-run Seattle University’s board of regents. Born in New Orleans Oct. 19, 1924, he worked as a skilled cloth-cutter in the garment industry. He later became active in the trade union moment, serving as president of local unions in Seattle that represented garment workers and liquor store clerks, before becoming an insurance company executive.

NEW CASTLE, Ind. – Five weeks after fire destroyed historic St. Anne Church in New Castle during the early morning hours of Holy Saturday, Henry County authorities arrested William L. Abbott, 33, of New Castle on felony charges of arson, burglary and theft. County prosecutor Kit Crane said Abbott was arrested May 10 and charged with three felony counts of arson for endangering the lives of others, setting fire to a house of worship and causing a loss greater than $5,000. New Castle firefighter Jack Thurman injured his back while battling the April 7 blaze that gutted the 83-year-old brick church and county landmark. Abbott, a convicted felon with an extensive criminal history, is being held at the Henry County Jail.

VATICAN CITY – In early May, the Vatican opened its doors to 18 diplomats from Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries with significant Muslim populations. The young diplomats were attending a May 7-27 introductory course on the Vatican, Vatican diplomacy and the Vatican’s approach to Catholic-Muslim and intercultural dialogue. “We saw beautiful rooms in the Vatican that even my ambassador has not seen, and they allowed us to ask so many questions,” said Deniz Kilicer, a career diplomat currently serving at the Turkish Embassy to the Holy See.

APARECIDA, Brazil – The changes which have occurred in Latin America in recent years are so profound that they require fundamental changes in the way the church approaches pastoral work, said a cardinal from Honduras. “We need a pastoral conversion,” Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa said. “If these are difficult times, new disciples are needed – disciples who are able to respond to the difficulty, to resist the cultural storms that we are experiencing.” After listening to presidents from Latin American and Caribbean bishops’ conferences describe the problems the church is facing in their countries, Cardinal Rodriguez told reporters, “The question is how to respond to the new situations in Latin America.”