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WASHINGTON – The University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education program has been placing college graduates as volunteer teachers in Catholic schools since 1994. That means the current participants were in elementary school when the program started and could have been taught by ACE teachers.

ERIE, Pa. – Dottie and Skip Glover could have done what many couples do when they retire: travel, spend more time with friends or take up a new hobby. Instead, they enlisted with Mercy Volunteer Corps, a program of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas that invites women and men to serve people who are economically poor or marginalized. Last summer, the Glovers, now 63, rented their home in suburban Erie and, with the blessing of their four grown children, took off for a year of service in Philadelphia.

MONTCLAIR, N.J. – They’ve traveled a great distance to open doors and touch hearts, one person at a time. Sister Faustine of Jesus and Sister Jeanne Marie, from the Community of the Apostolic Sisters of St. John in Burgundy, France, recently arrived in Montclair to serve as Catholic campus ministers at Montclair State University’s Newman Center. Archbishop John J. Myers of Newark, the archdiocese in which the university is located, invited the sisters to serve in the archdiocese several months ago.

Once, the most dreaded question was, “Will you be my bridesmaid?” After all, only a good friend would buy an unflattering, expensive, formal dress, wear it once in front of everyone and then never wear it again. But a trend that’s emerged in the past few years means that bridesmaids actually might be able to wear the dress again. And once they’re done with the dress, they can donate it to the Priceless Gown Project, which matches the dress with girls in Baltimore City who can’t afford a prom dress.

In a sign of deep affection for the man who has served as the fatherly face of the Archdiocese of Baltimore for 18 years, nearly 2,000 people gathered in the Baltimore Convention Center Sept. 6 to honor the long ministry of Cardinal William H. Keeler. Coming from all over the archdiocese – including the westernmost reaches of Garrett County, Central Maryland, the Baltimore metropolitan area, Harford County and the southern tip of Anne Arundel County – priests, sisters, deacons, brothers and lay people extolled their spiritual shepherd’s leadership and commitment to his faith.

OMAHA, Neb. – The relationship between the Archdiocese of Omaha and Creighton University remains strong, despite some media accounts that called the cancellation of a speaker at Creighton part of a “growing rift” between the university and the archdiocese.

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy – Pope Benedict XVI met with Israeli President Shimon Peres and expressed hope that new diplomatic moves can bring peace in the Middle East. After 60 years of suffering endured by the peoples of the region, it is imperative to make “every effort” to find a just settlement, the Vatican said after the Sept. 6 meeting.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – A new spam scam targeting Catholics and church institutions promises recipients that they are among 100 people worldwide chosen at random to receive $650,000 from the Catholic Church in Italy “for your own personal, educational and business development.”