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Attendees sometimes find themselves standing in the hallway outside Sister Carol Cimino’s, S.S.J., meeting room as she delivers engaging sessions to packed audiences during the annual National Catholic Educational Association convention. The Clifton Park, N.Y., educational consultant “always draws a huge crowd,” said Brian Gray, editor of NCEA’s Momentum Magazine and part of the communication department at NCEA headquarters in Washington, D.C. “She’s on target and very entertaining.”

Not a day goes by when Pat Evans doesn’t receive phone calls and e-mails about ranger rosaries. Ever since the parishioner of St. Mary in Annapolis made a public plea for help crafting the military-style prayer beads, Ms. Evans has been flooded with inquiries from just about every state and several countries including Italy and England. The Catholic Review published a Nov. 28 story about the shortage of ranger rosaries for American servicemen. The story was picked up by Catholic Online, a news Web site, where it spent many weeks as one of the site’s most viewed and e-mailed articles.

For more than 100 years the National Catholic Educational Association has dedicated itself to handing Catholic educators the tools to provide stellar learning environments and moral enrichment for the thousands of students enrolled in member schools. As the NCEA prepares for its national convention and exposition April 10-13 in Baltimore – its third gathering in the city since 1916 – organizers are eager to offer ideas and materials to the thousands of participating educators that will allow them to get their students ready for future challenges.

VATICAN CITY – Israel postponed a major negotiating session with Vatican officials on questions regarding the church’s legal and financial status in the Holy Land. The Vatican expressed disappointment at yet another delay in the on-again, off-again talks, which began 15 years ago. The meeting of the joint commission on church-state issues had been scheduled for March 29 at the Vatican and would have been the first plenary session of the commission since 2002.

LONDON – A British cardinal has said that by sponsoring legislation for gay rights, the government is “legislating for intolerance.” Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor of Westminster also questioned “whether the threads holding together democracy have begun to unravel.” “My fear is that, under the guise of legislating for what is said to be tolerance, we are legislating for intolerance,” he said during a March 28 lecture in London a week after the government forced through new gay rights legislation with minimal debate in the House of Commons.

As more than 800 catechumens and candidates from the Archdiocese of Baltimore prepare to enter the Catholic Church during the Easter Vigil, April 7, Holy Saturday morning will provide an opportunity for prayer and reflection.
The elect, whose February ceremonies were cancelled because of snow, will make one final preparation at 10 a.m. during Preparation Rites, which will be held at three sites across the archdiocese on April 7.

VATICAN CITY – Supporting legislation that gives legal rights to gay or heterosexual couples who are not married is a position that is not consistent with the Catholic faith, said members of the permanent council of the Italian bishops’ conference. “The faithful Christian is obliged to form his conscience” in accordance with the teaching of the Catholic Church, the bishops said in a statement released March 28 as Italian politicians continued to debate legislative proposals recognizing unions formed by unmarried couples, including homosexuals. The bishops’ statement quoted the 2002 statement of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on “The Participation of Catholics in Political Life.”

VATICAN CITY – The teaching of the bishops and unity with the pope guarantee that one’s faith truly is the faith taught by Jesus to his apostles, Pope Benedict XVI said. “The true Gospel is that imparted by the bishops, who have received it in an uninterrupted chain from the apostles,” the pope said March 28 at his weekly general audience. The pope’s audience talk focused on the ministry and writings of St. Irenaeus of Lyon, who died in the very first years of the third century.