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Last Saturday I stopped by the Social Ministries Convocation at Seton Keough High School. Bishop Mitchell Rozanski accompanied me in the visit; Bishops Malooly and Madden came by later in the day. This gathering, organized by Monsignor William Burke with the help of a special committee, brought together hundreds of people from around the Archdiocese to focus on the Gospel call to serve the poor and those in need. Speakers and group meetings dealt with different areas of concern.

OXFORD, England – A Polish newspaper has reported that diocesan officials and an archbishop ignored cases of pedophilia and sex abuse of minors by priests in the Diocese of Plock, Poland. The Rzeczpospolita daily reported March 6 that Archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus and other officials of the diocese had been kept informed for at least six years by pastors of victims’ parishes about priest sex abuse of minors. Archbishop Wielgus was the head of the Plock Diocese from 1999 until he was appointed to head the Archdiocese of Warsaw in January. He quickly resigned after admitting he had collaborated with the communist secret police.

One out of every three people will need blood in his or her lifetime. The United States alone uses 38,000 units of blood each day. Each unit of blood given can help up to three people, and yet less than 5 percent of healthy Americans actually donate blood, reported Dr. Moira Larsen, a pathologist at Good Samaritan Hospital, Baltimore.

Marylanders are taken to hospital emergency rooms in need of care every day and doctors throughout the state are ready to help save their lives, but that task might be impossible without blood donors. Parishes throughout the Archdiocese of Baltimore are calling on the faithful to pull up their sleeves and literally give of themselves to make sure the supply of blood is plentiful for those in need. St. Ignatius, Hickory, hosts the Greater Chesapeake & Potomac chapter of the American Red Cross every January and September, times when the demand for blood is traditionally at its greatest, said Debbie Czawlytko, R.N., the pastoral associate and parish nurse.

According to Thomas J. Zabetakis’ address “Illegal immigration should not be tolerated,” (CR, Feb. 15), it is evident that he is unaware of the “total picture of illegal aliens.” While it is understood well that illegal immigrants seek “to escape poverty and gain employment to support their families,” he fails to consider their social position in the possibility of forcing transformation in their own nation. By the time they come here, they have already done what they can. If not, they come here to spare their lives, and those of their friends and families. The world is being blinded by the culture of death and facts like this are ignored because of today’s self-centered society. We Americans are unaware of the dreadful conditions in their countries and should not judge outside of their shoes.

VATICAN CITY – The hierarchical structure of the Catholic Church was willed by God to ensure unity in faith, Pope Benedict XVI said. The church “is not a place of confusion or anarchy where each person can do what he wants at the moment,” the pope said March 7 at his weekly general audience. The pope’s speech marked the beginning of a new series of audience talks on the “apostolic fathers,” the first and second generation of church leaders after the Twelve Apostles.

VATICAN CITY – Catholics, and especially Catholic communicators, must ask forgiveness for the times they have failed to share God’s love and compassion, said U.S. Archbishop John P. Foley. “Certainly, it is necessary to identify the evils in society and warn people against them, but our major effort should be in proclaiming the knowledge and love of our merciful savior, Jesus Christ,” said the archbishop, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. The archbishop made his remarks in a March 5 homily during the opening Mass of the council’s annual plenary session at the Vatican.

ROME – A leading canon law expert said that in applying the Vatican’s directive against admission of homosexuals to the priesthood, seminary authorities should make use of psychological sciences to distinguish between “deep-seated” and transitory homosexual tendencies. Jesuit Father Gianfranco Ghirlanda, rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University and an adviser to several important Vatican agencies, said the use of psychology was a complex but necessary means of establishing the true nature of homosexual traits. Psychological evaluations alone can never substitute for the informed decisions of bishops and seminary authorities, but such testing must be taken into serious consideration, Father Ghirlanda said.

According to Katie McGuire, marketing and communications manager for the Greater Chesapeake and Potomac blood services region of the American Red Cross, giving blood is quick and simple. The 1995 graduate of The John Carroll School, Bel Air, said the actual process of giving blood lasts about 10 minutes, while the entire process takes just one hour. Before giving blood, donors should drink extra water and non-caffeinated, non-alchoholic beverages and eat plenty of iron-rich foods.

Doctors have long known of the connection between anemia and physical ailments like fatigue and muscle weakness. Now researchers at Johns Hopkins believe there is a relationship between anemia and mental health, too. Anemia is a condition in which blood is deficient in oxygen-rich red blood cells, hemoglobin or total volume.

As nearly 1,000 young Catholics take to the streets of Baltimore March 31 to celebrate the coming of Easter – a time of new life and new beginnings – the 14th annual Archdiocesan Youth and Young Adult Pilgrimage will be undergoing a conversion of its own. For the first time in two years, the youth and young adult participants will visit the recently restored Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Baltimore. The 2.8-mile route itself is also different, now beginning with a rally in Canton at 11:30 a.m. at O’Donnell Street Park, next to St. Casimir. After eucharistic adoration at St. Casimir, the procession will kick off at 1:30 p.m. with pilgrims carrying a 10-foot wooden cross through the streets.