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On a recent Sunday morning, I traveled to a conference center on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., where 75 of our permanent deacons were convened for their biennial convocation, along with many of their wives. On arrival, one could sense a very joyful and connected group, having prayed, deliberated and socialized together the whole weekend.

The Blue Ribbon committee chosen by Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien to develop a strategic plan for the future of the Catholic schools will hold 10 open-floor meetings.

It is an honor and pleasure for me to offer some modest reflections on “Nuclear Weapons and Moral Questions: The Path to Zero.” I am grateful to General Kevin Chilton and the U.S. Strategic Command for hosting this first annual Deterrence Symposium and for inviting me to be part of this impressive gathering.

It is an honor and pleasure for me to offer some modest reflections on “Nuclear Weapons and Moral Questions: The Path to Zero.” I am grateful to General Kevin Chilton and the U.S. Strategic Command for hosting this first annual Deterrence Symposium and for inviting me to be part of this impressive gathering.

The psalmist prays “The Lord hears the cry of the poor.” Who are the poor that God loves and hears? Who are the poor we meet in our daily lives? Who are included when the Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “God blesses those who come to the aid of the poor”? What about the hidden poor that God loves?

“You are like light for the whole world. In the same way your light must shine before people, so that they will see the good things you do and praise your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5: 14, 16 Good News Bible).

My Dear Friends in Christ, As reported in The Catholic Review last week, St. Michael School in Frostburg – the last parish elementary school in far Western Maryland – will close its doors for good at the end of the current school year after over 110 years of educating the children of Allegany County in the Catholic faith. Years of declining enrollment (there are just 85 students enrolled this year, down from a high of 345 in 1968) and a corresponding affordability gap (tuition has risen by 500 percent over the past 20 years), required that the inevitable and sad decision to close the school be made.

Father Ronald Rolheiser, O.M.I., says that Catholics must be modern-day missionaries and bring the Gospel of Jesus to an increasingly secular culture.