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VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI asked Romania’s new ambassador to the Vatican for his help in stopping construction of a skyscraper next to Bucharest’s St. Joseph Cathedral. Welcoming Marius Gabriel Lazurca to the Vatican Jan. 20, the pope said smooth relations between the government and church communities present in the country would contribute to “social peace.” “In this regard, I can only express my concern over the matter of the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Bucharest,” the pope told the ambassador.

Most people instinctively shudder when they learn that human cloning is currently legal in Maryland. But the definition of cloning, and why the church teaches that it is immoral, may not be clear.

Tristan Deppe acknowledges that then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s “Introduction to Christianity” was not exactly at the top of his reading list. But the text by the future Pope Benedict XVI was just one of several weighty theological works the 16-year-old parishioner of Immaculate Heart of Mary, Baynesville, read for the first time last semester as one of 23 students enrolled in the Pinkard Scholars Program of Youth Theological Studies at St. Mary’s Seminary and University, Roland Park.

When it comes to the worth of St. Ursula School volunteers, Sister Joan Kelly, S.N.D. de N., says she could never “put a dollar figure on it.” “They help as classroom volunteers, they work in the library, and they work in the lunchroom and schoolyard,” the principal of the Parkville school said. “They assist in the art room; they open car doors in the morning. They organize and run all fundraisers.” They also save the school money, the principal acknowledged. “Our whole building was wired for computers by a parent,” she noted.

VATICAN CITY – A recent sermon by the papal preacher, Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, took aim at John Lennon’s famous line, “Imagine there’s no heaven,” saying it represented an empty, secularized vision of human destiny. But an Italian biblicist, Father Carlo Buzzetti, has approached the question from a different angle: The modern church, he said, does a lousy job imagining what heaven is like and communicating it to the faithful. Most Catholics, Father Buzzetti said, understand heaven as a vague place of eternal survival, where happiness can become monotonous and where the absence of human passions creates an “anemic” atmosphere.

WASHINGTON – Among four U.S. senators in Washington, there was optimistic talk of a bipartisan commitment to expand health coverage for the nation’s 9 million uninsured children. But 40 miles away at a Catholic hospital in Baltimore, there was more nitty-gritty talk of getting children into state and federal health programs – and keeping them there.

As Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, Homeland, parishioner Kelly Bradford was approaching her mid 30s, her mother wondered if her “bohemian” daughter was ever going to settle down and marry a “good Catholic boy.” The Mount Washington social worker had already tried meeting “the one” in a variety of venues, including Catholic organizations, church and bars, but a true match continually eluded her. Then about five years ago a nun she knew presented her with a Valentine’s Day Card containing an advertisement for a Catholic internet meeting place and suggested this site may provide an end to her single status.

Most couples preparing themselves for marriage begin to have doubts as the wedding date nears and it’s a state of mind St. Matthew, Northwood Pastor Father Joseph L. Muth believes is a good sign. “I would be worried if they didn’t get cold feet,” said Father Muth, who officiates at about 15 weddings a year. “It means they are taking the commitment seriously.”