When Monsignor Robert L. Hartnett arrived at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Essex 12 years ago, the neighborhood parish was trying to hold together a surrounding community undergoing great change.

When Monsignor Robert L. Hartnett arrived at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Essex 12 years ago, the neighborhood parish was trying to hold together a surrounding community undergoing great change.
ANNAPOLIS – Clergy members criticized the death penalty as immoral in testimony before a commission that will make recommendations to state lawmakers by year’s end.
VATICAN CITY – The current financial crisis pummeling the United States and beyond is a sign that the so-called “new economy” and its risky investments have failed, the Vatican newspaper said.
WASHINGTON – Despite evidence that sex-selection abortions may be occurring in the United States, U.S. law affords “less protection from sex-based feticide” than India or China do, according to proposed legislation that is to be introduced soon in the House of Representatives.

WASHINGTON – Father Patrick Desbois said he will never forget one of the first interviews he had with an elderly man who saw Nazi soldiers murder Jews in Ukraine.

Susan Skiles, a parishioner of St. Bernardine, Baltimore, and St. Bartholomew, Manchester, has published a children’s book, “The Lamplighter,” the first in a planned series of 10 “Tell Me Nana Books” targeted for ages 2-10. With the aim to encourage children to treat others with kindness and compassion, the story offers fresh ideas on challenging children to make good choices.
This wasn’t the column I had planned – I changed my mind on Sunday, and I hope it doesn’t get me run out of town.
You likely did not know Marie Rolfes. She was one of those many people who were too great to be famous. She died last month at the age of 93. I had the privilege of celebrating her funeral liturgy.
As early as 1917, the Oblate Sisters of Providence, at the request of Bishop William T. Russell, began missionary work among the black Catholics in the unique city of Charleston, S.C. Previously, the Sisters of Charity of Charleston taught the black children. However, in the mid 1830s, Bishop John England, after attending the First Provincial Council and visiting the Oblates School for Colored Girls, decided to start such an institution in his diocese. The bishop encountered much opposition and threats and as a result, closed the school.

With the Archdiocese of Baltimore not likely to receive an auxiliary bishop to replace Bishop W. Francis Malooly, former western vicar and now bishop of Wilmington, the archdiocese is restructuring its vicariate system.
ANNAPOLIS – Clergy members criticized the death penalty as immoral in testimony before a commission that will make recommendations to state lawmakers by year’s end.
WASHINGTON – Abortion supporters, including members of Congress and candidates for public office, are being challenged to explain their understanding of abortion by Priests for Life and other pro-life leaders.
