VATICAN CITY – While Pope Benedict XVI probably has not begun packing his bags for his April 15-20 trip to the United States, one big Vatican package was prepared just after Easter.

VATICAN CITY – While Pope Benedict XVI probably has not begun packing his bags for his April 15-20 trip to the United States, one big Vatican package was prepared just after Easter.
BROOKLYN, N.Y. – When she was asked to choose a student to greet Pope Benedict XVI, Barbara Kavanagh, principal of Our Lady of Grace School in Howard Beach, said, “Kaitlin Karcher was the first student to pop into my head.”

VATICAN CITY – The importance of marriage and the family and the values needed to sustain family life can be an appropriate starting point for interreligious dialogue, said an official of the Pontifical Council for the Family.
After serving two years as administrator of St. John the Evangelist in Frederick, Father Richard J. Murphy has been named pastor of the 4,200-family faith community. Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien made the appointment, effective immediately.
Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien has appointed Father Raymond D. Martin to St. John, Westminster, as associate pastor for pastoral care at Carroll Hospital Center and The Dove House Hospice in Westminster effective March 24.
A funeral Mass for Dr. Frank J. Ayd Jr., a distinguished psychiatrist and world leader in medicine who was dedicated to the Catholic Church, was offered March 24 at St. John the Evangelist, Hydes.

WASHINGTON – Pope Benedict XVI will find a spiritual nation when he visits the United States in April, according to a new national survey commissioned by the Knights of Columbus.

NEW YORK – U.S. Cardinal John P. Foley, pro-grand master of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher, has been named the recipient of the Christopher Leadership Award by the Christophers.
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Deb Brunsberg, 52, of Coon Rapids still feels a bit woozy from the wild roller-coaster ride her life has been lately. Two years after a devastating divorce set her spiraling into the depths of despair, an 11-day trip to Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina shot her at breakneck speed to the height of happiness.

One of the few lights on inside the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen before the Good Friday Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion began March 21 was the light over the crucifix. It seemed to set a solemn tone as Catholics of all ages quietly knelt in prayer at the Homeland cathedral.
Cradle Catholics preparing for Easter might not be familiar with one Holy Week celebration: the Preparation Rites on Saturday morning for those who will be received into the church that evening.

ST. LOUIS PARK, Minn. – A funeral Mass was scheduled for March 27 at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis for Jon Hassler, an award-winning novelist and a professor emeritus of fiction at St. John’s University in Collegeville.
