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Most Americans think of Gaza as a place of suffering and militancy, but the reality is that Gaza is home to some of the most inspiring and creative people in the Middle East. For the past two years, as the area’s representative for Catholic Relief Services, I’ve traveled there as much as I can. I see what the front-page newspaper photos don’t show you: this tiny sliver of land on the Mediterranean is a place of energy and dynamism, of humor and warmth and unbelievable hospitality, of delicious fish and crabs and the romantic fragrance of apple tobacco.

The Catholic News Service quotes Father Artemio Vitores, former director of Jerusalem’s Franciscan seminary (CR, March 13). When asked about the deadly attack by a gunman on Mercaz Harav Seminary students, he described the attack as “monstrous.” It was indeed. No word could better describe what happened.

It used to be said that Roman Catholics were the largest religious body in the United States and ex-Roman Catholics the second largest. Now that needs revising. It seems that former Catholics are only the third largest group, behind Catholics and Southern Baptists. Is this progress?

St. Bernardine, Baltimore, will use its April 13 Festival of the Arts event as both an evangelization tool and to help ring in the parish’s 80th anniversary.

INDIANAPOLIS – As she sat in the chair giving blood, Kathy Mears thought of her sister, Jean Burton.

He might not text with a cell phone, but God still calls young people to vocations. Sister Annuntiata Cornelio, a 32-year-old member of the Congregation of the Sisters of Merciful Jesus, who wears a black habit and a ready smile, is proof.

Fifteen-year-old Samantha Deangler earned the Spirit Alive medal from the Girl Scouts, one of the highest medals she can earn as a senior Scout.

The Mission Sunday collection in the Archdiocese of Baltimore in October 2007 resulted in more than $240, 000 that will help fund more than 1,100 missions worldwide.