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When the priest applied ashes to Mercy Kinyanjui’s forehead Ash Wednesday at St. Matthew, Northwood, the act symbolized more than just the start of Lent.

ANNAPOLIS – Gov. Martin J. O’Malley’s budget doesn’t do enough to help the state’s Catholic and other independent colleges, according to the leaders of Maryland’s three Catholic colleges.

The journey of the season of Lent always includes my own journeying around the archdiocese. On Ash Wednesday I had Masses for the students at Maryvale, and later a Mass at Annunciation Parish. The first weekend of Lent I had the privilege of leading a parish mission at St. Joseph in Sykesville.

Your support for people who choose to live in America without permission is troubling (CR, Feb. 7). Many fathers are leaving families behind in Central American countries to come here for money. The loss of a father’s presence in the home community is causing problems for their children. Girls are not protected and there is a big increase in out-of-wedlock births. Boys are joining gangs. This reaction to the missing fathers is very similar to the problems we saw happen to poor families when the War or Poverty encouraged fathers to abandon their children in Baltimore, so that mothers could benefit from government support.

Where did it all start? Is it a Church invention? The Church’s role in the forgiveness of sins is based on the very words of the Lord to Peter and on a separate occasion to the Apostles: “I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Jesus confirmed this gift as one of the first fruits of His Resurrection. Following the Crucifixion, the Apostles were locked in the upper room filled with fear, confusion and doubt. Suddenly, on the evening of the Resurrection, Jesus appeared in their midst with the greeting, “Peace be with you.” Jesus offered them His peace, forgiveness and reconciliation and then, the grace and ability to pass this gift along: “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”

HUNTINGTON, Ind. – Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops’ overseas aid and development agency, is requiring its foreign partners to give “complete and accurate” information on condoms in all HIV/AIDS programs.

JERUSALEM – The first question friends in the Gaza Strip ask each other when they meet these days is, “Do you have electricity?” “Three days a week we have no electricity for eight hours straight, depending on the area,” said Omar Shaban, project manager for the Gaza office of the U.S. bishops’ Catholic Relief Services. He said people no longer greet each other with “How are you?”

The Baltimore-based Knott Foundation recently awarded $1.4 million to 28 area organizations, including 12 Catholic programs. With more than $67 million in assets, the foundation provides grants to programs involved in arts and humanities, Catholic activities, education, health care, and human services.