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The requirement to participate in a March 15 commencement of a Catholic Charities program was to stay out of prison for two years. But for the 23 graduates of the Baltimore-based Maryland Re-entry Partnership, the ceremony celebrated a new outlook on life. “If you told me three years ago I wouldn’t be back in prison right now, I wouldn’t have believed you,” said John Lightner, 45, of Woodlawn, a graduate who has been in and out of prison since he was 18. “But now, I can’t imagine ever going back.”

Despite last week’s defeat of a bill to ban the death penalty in Maryland, Catholic leaders are encouraged that the abolitionist cause appears to have gathered significant strength after many years of frustrated efforts. Senate Bill 211, which would have replaced the death penalty with prison sentences of life without parole, was killed March 15 in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee on a 5-5 vote. The bill needed six votes to go the Senate floor.

WARSAW, Poland – A Polish archbishop has said there is no need to tighten anti-abortion laws by amending the Polish Constitution. “I’m convinced our constitution protects life decisively enough at this moment,” said Archbishop Tadeusz Goclowski of Gdansk. “The stable situation now created should prompt us not to take actions which could dramatize or complicate things even more.” The archbishop told Poland’s Catholic information agency, KAI, March 11 that people have the “right to life from conception to natural death – if we want to be Christians, we should never abandon this.”

WILMINGTON, Del. – Here’s how Rocco Palmo announced his appearance at the March 22 Theology on Tap session in Wilmington in his blog, Whispers in the Loggia: “Two nights later … it’s a short trip down I-95 to Wilmington and another ToT, this time for Bishop Mickey and Co., offering some reflections and” – whoa! Did he say Bishop Mickey? He did. If Bishop Michael Saltarelli is startled by the chummy reference, it could be worse. Mr. Palmo’s nickname for his hometown’s archbishop, Cardinal Justin Rigali, is “Pharaoh.” Mr. Palmo’s blog also features occasional references to “Fluffiness” and “The Fluff” – that would be Pope Benedict XVI, so-dubbed, Mr. Palmo says, because of his wispy white hair. Mr. Palmo, 24 and single, has created buzz in certain church circles for Whispers, which he writes from his home in South Philadelphia.

Although the entire room calls Dorothy Dixon “Grandma,” she has no grandchildren. The 91-year-old soup kitchen coordinator answers to the pet name from some 100 community members who visit St. Cecilia, Baltimore, on Thursdays to eat a hot supper. The lively Ms. Dixon walks three blocks daily from her home that she shares with her 86-year-old sister, Lucille Talley, to serve her parish of 53 years. Her first self-appointed duty is to feed the birds.

VATICAN CITY – Many people today seem to have a difficult time recognizing sin, but at the same time the number of people suffering from “guilt complexes” seems to be growing, Pope Benedict XVI said. “We see a humanity that wants to be self-sufficient, where not a few maintain they can do without God and still live well, and yet so many seem sadly condemned to face dramatic situations” of emptiness, violence and solitude, the pope said March 16.

BOSTON – After federal immigration officials spirited away to Texas nearly half of the 327 people arrested in a March 6 raid on a New Bedford handbag and backpack factory, Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston called for “some kind of comprehensive immigration reform.” “While immigration reform is urgent, the needs of the women and children in New Bedford are desperate,” Cardinal O’Malley said in the March 15 Boston Globe in an opinion piece titled “A more humane immigration policy.”

VATICAN CITY – As Pope John Paul II’s sainthood cause rolled forward, two people close to him have offered quite different insider accounts of his life and times. Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz of Krakow, the late pope’s personal secretary for 39 years, has produced a conversational memoir called “A Life with Karol.” In anecdotal fashion, it sketches many of their major and minor experiences together. Pope Benedict XVI has meanwhile released “John Paul II: My Beloved Predecessor,” a more analytical look at the philosophical and theological impact of his pontificate. Although the books focus on the same subject, they don’t make for redundant reading. That says something about the breadth of Pope John Paul’s 26-year pontificate.

LORETTO, Pa. – The sainthood cause for the second priest ordained in the United States, a Russian prince who became known as the “apostle of the Alleghenies,” has been initiated by the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown. Bishop Joseph V. Adamec of Altoona-Johnstown held the opening session of the diocesan inquiry for the canonization cause of Servant of God Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin March 11 at the Basilica of St. Michael the Archangel in Loretto.

NEW ORLEANS – More than 500 students from Jesuit colleges, universities and high schools gathered in New Orleans March 9-11 to discuss racism and poverty and engage in spring-break service work. They were among the approximately 2,000 Jesuit-affiliated students who were to descend on New Orleans in a 10-day period to aid in the city’s ongoing recovery efforts. The teach-in, “Rebuilding Our Communities: Facing Racism and Poverty,” featured discussions on institutional racism, economic development and poverty, environmental racism, fair housing and employment.