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ROME – Standing on the rooftop of the Pontifical North American College, Monsignor James Checchio smiled as he looked out onto the Eternal City six stories below and marveled at the 450-foot grand dome of St. Peter’s Basilica, pristine gardens and ancient buildings visible from every direction.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – As she held an umbrella to protect her from the blazing sun, Beverly Anderson clutched her rosary beads and prayed on the sidewalk near an abortion clinic on Duke Street in Alexandria June 21.

Across Baltimore and the nation, prices at the gas pump and grocery store are skyrocketing. Housing sales have slowed to a crawl and the unending debate of how to reform Social Security will be a key issue in the presidential debates over the next few months.

A funeral Mass for Sister Mary Dulcis Pilachowska, C.S.S.F., was offered May 5 at the Felician Sisters’ Infirmary Chapel, Our Lady of Lourdes Hall in Lodi, N.J. Sister Mary Dulcis died April 30. She was 95 and had been a sister for 77 years.

As I was leaving the hospital in May after treatment for my blood clots, another priest was returning to the hospital. I would have an extension of life. The life of Father Kevin Brooksbank would end at age 35.

Just a few weeks ago, a disturbing open-air drug market was forming right in front of St. Frances Academy and Community Center on Chase Street. Drug dealers were passing out free samples right next to the St. Frances Convent, and dealers were stashing drugs on the high school’s campus right beneath the statue of the Blessed Mother. Things were bad.

In late April and early May, the blogosphere was in an uproar over two documents circulated by the National Counterterrorism Center, which is charged with strategic coordination among federal agencies of the war against terrorism. “The Words That Work” and “Terminology to Define the Terrorists” urged government officials and U.S. diplomats to avoid “Islamism” and “Islamist,” “jihadism” and “jihadist,” and “mujahadeen” to describe groups like al-Qaeda and their program. Doing so, the documents suggested, could “unintentionally legitimize terrorism.” “Never use the terms ‘jihadist’ or ‘mujahadeen’… to describe the terrorists,” the argument went. “A mujahad, a holy warrior, is a positive characterization in the context of a just war.”

George Weigel reminds us in his latest column (CR, June 19) that there was indeed a time, not so long ago, when the bishops of America were willing to seriously discuss important issues of peace and justice. I agree with him that “Today, it is virtually impossible to imagine the bishops’ conference taking on a project of the magnitude of ‘The Challenge of Peace.’”