Page 1815 – Archdiocese of Baltimore

Monsignor Richard E. Parks was a sixth grader at the old St. Paul School in East Baltimore when a Franciscan sister asked him if he ever thought about becoming a priest. As an altar boy who served daily Mass at St. Paul, the young student had been a constant presence at his parish – helping wherever he could with church and school activities. He even visited sick and shut-in parishioners for his pastor, letting them know when a priest would be stopping by to give them Holy Communion. “When that nun said that to me, the idea stuck in my mind,” remembered Monsignor Parks, pastor of Sacred Heart of Mary in Graceland Park since 1982. “I was always hanging around the rectory. I got to know good priests. They had such dedication to their parishioners.” Forty eight years after Archbishop Francis Keough ordained him to the priesthood, Monsignor Parks is preparing to retire July 1. A farewell liturgy will be celebrated at noon on July 8 at Sacred Heart of Mary, with a reception to follow.

Eastern Shore parishes welcome vacationing Catholics

Summer in Maryland means long drives to the Eastern Shore with the sunroof open and the windows down. Thousands of Marylanders migrate to the beach every summer for vacation, but what kind of effect do they have on the Eastern Shore parishes? According to Bishop Michael Saltarelli, who has been bishop of the Diocese of Wilmington, Del., for almost 12 years, there has been an increase of parishioners from the Archdiocese of Baltimore and surrounding states to the Eastern Shore. The increase in beachgoers means packed churches and added Masses for many of the parishes in Ocean City, Bethany Beach and Rehoboth Beach. “When they talk about the faith being lost, you can’t tell it by the Catholics that come to the Eastern Shore,” said Bishop Saltarelli. “They are a wonderful inspiration to me and our priests.” In order to accommodate all of the vacationing Catholics, parishes in the southern and northern parts of the Eastern Shore bring in more priests to help with the added weekend Masses. In fact, one parish and its mission parish have 18 Masses during the weekends in the summer, said the bishop.

Proud 74-year-old college graduate wants to set example

Northwood resident Barbara Williams discovered it was possible for a 74-year-old black woman to become a college graduate when she received her bachelor’s degree May 20, and now she wants to inform the youth of her race the only obstacle in their way of educational achievement is complacency. Armed with a hard-earned diploma from Morgan State University, the St. Francis Xavier, Baltimore, parishioner wants an opportunity to speak with black students in the Baltimore public and Catholic schools to urge them to take advantage of educational opportunities and not to squander their prospects.

Marquette University receives $51 million

MILWAUKEE – Marquette University is receiving $51 million from an alumni couple to help build a new law school facility. A university news release described it as “the largest gift ever made by individuals to a Wisconsin college or university” as well as one of the largest gifts ever given to any U.S. law school. Raymond A. and Kathryn A. Eckstein of Cassville, Wis., and Boca Raton, Fla., said they made the gift as an “expression of gratitude” to the university. Raymond Eckstein, a retired transportation entrepreneur, is a 1949 graduate of the law school. His wife received her bachelor’s degree in speech from Marquette that year.

Years after Pope John Paul II visits N.Y., his plays do likewise

NEW YORK – Playwrights Tom Stoppard and Harold Pinter needn’t worry about their names being usurped in posterity’s annals by Karol Wojtyla, the archbishop of Krakow, Poland, who became Pope John Paul II. But there is much to admire in the late pope’s drama, “The Jeweler’s Shop,” currently on view in New York, courtesy of the Storm Theatre, the first in an ambitious and praiseworthy series of all his major works. The 1960 play is probably the best-known title (if any can truly be considered well-known) of the former actor’s theatrical work. There was a movie with Burt Lancaster and Olivia Hussey in 1988. On stage, in Boleslaw Taborski’s translation of the original Polish, the definition of “play” is stretched to the limit. The playwright himself slyly subtitled it “A Meditation on the Sacrament of Matrimony, Passing on Occasion Into a Drama” when it was first published, as if to acknowledge the lack of dramatic incident. Still, it’s a fascinating piece.

Italian bishops insist on air time to rebut BBC program

VATICAN CITY – Church officials must have an opportunity to comment on-air if Italy’s state-run television airs a British documentary about the priest sex abuse crisis, said an Italian bishops’ conference official. “We do not want any censorship,” Bishop Giuseppe Betori, general secretary of the Italian bishops’ conference, told reporters May 22 in the midst of a very public debate over whether RAI, the state-run television network, should broadcast “Sex Crimes and the Vatican,” a 2006 documentary of the British Broadcasting Corp.

Fellowship is crucial

After reading Tony Hall’s letter about “chatter” at Mass (CR, May 3), I must say that I agree with his call to make sure that electronic parishioners are silenced during Mass, but I can’t say the same for his condemnation of “socializing” before Mass.

Victory for Loyola and Curley, Gibbons thwarted again

After a slow start to the lacrosse season, the Loyola Blakefield Dons bounced back by smoking out-of-conference Dulaney High School, Timonium, 10-1, April 9. From there, the team kept rolling, right into the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association’s A Conference championship match-up May 14 at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where they demolished Boys’ Latin, Baltimore, 10-6 before 4,500 fans. The team was led by junior attackman Steele Stanwick with four goals and four assists on the day. The Dons secured the lead by halftime and never looked back as Loyola’s Stanwick demanded the attention of Boys’ Latin, freeing up seniors Jared Gangler and Spence Daw, and junior Joe Cummings for additional goals.

Time to Time

Catholic social teaching calls us to defend the dignity of life through our compassion for the poor and vulnerable, and our commitment to the just treatment of all persons. This week, with the dedication of Catholic Charities’ Our Daily Bread Employment Center, we take another bold step toward changing the course of history in the City of Baltimore for thousands of people, and forever altering the fight to eradicate poverty and despair. This fight is not new. For over 26 years, Our Daily Bread has served the hungry of Baltimore—providing more than five million hot meals in that time. Here in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Our Daily Bread has become a symbol of our commitment to serving those who are less fortunate and living among us. In many of the parishes in this Archdiocese, you will find a sign-up sheet or a stack of aluminum casserole pans awaiting the eager hands of parishioners who so faithfully labor each month to cook, transport, and even serve our city’s hungry. Physical nourishment, however, is not going to break the cycle of poverty that is so pervasive in many of our city’s neighborhoods.

Summer trip stops at shrines, sees baseball legend

Father Matthew Buening, associate pastor of Immaculate Conception in Towson, just happened to be wearing his Cal Ripken Jr. jersey on the day it was announced the baseball star would be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, and Father Buening felt it was a sign. Father Buening and Wendt Touring have created a Catholic Shrines and Cal Ripken Jr. pilgrimage for four days and three nights July 26-29. “We wanted to do a pilgrimage to the shrines and it just so happened that Cal Ripken will be inducted when we will be up there,” said Father Buening. “It’s a mix of fun and faith, secular and sacred. People think faith-based trips should be boring, but I’m open to having a lot of fun.”

An estimated 50,000 recite rosary at Rose Bowl

PASADENA, Calif. – Southern California’s largest rosary recitation in more than 50 years offered a broad cross-section of ages and ethnicities in the local Catholic Church, and a link to a storied tradition. Some 50,000 people at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena May 19 prayed the rosary during the Rosary Bowl, an event sponsored by Holy Cross Family Ministries and its Family Theater Productions in conjunction with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. With the theme “A World at Prayer is a World at Peace,” the event continued the work of the late Holy Cross Father Patrick Peyton, the founder of Holy Cross Family Ministries. Before his death in 1992, Father Peyton conducted more than 40 events throughout the world reaching more than 28 million people. Taryn Wilson, a member of Sacred Heart Parish in Lancaster, attended the Rosary Bowl with her son, Trenton, 16, and her mother, LaVelle. She said she was attracted by the idea of praying the rosary as a family.

Venezuelan president demands papal apology