Page 1681 – Archdiocese of Baltimore

ROME (CNS) — Logistical details are being finalized in an attempt to fly the body of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati to Sydney, Australia, for veneration by young people at World Youth Day in July.

WHY CATHOLIC?

Holy Orders: A Sacrament at the Service of Communion The memory of Saturday, June 26, 2004 will be with me forever as a special day. It was the day of my priestly ordination at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen. I remember promising respect and obedience to Cardinal Keeler and his successors as Archbishop of Baltimore. I remember my hands being anointed with sacred oil. I remember being vested in the chasuble and stole by my brother Jon. I remember the priests of Baltimore sharing in the celebration that day. And I remember concelebrating the Eucharist for the first time.

Respect Life group holds afternoon dedicated to chastity

When mothers and daughters gathered together for a fashion show at St. John’s Portico, they were just as concerned with inner beauty as outer beauty.

Priest says Ireland losing its faith, needs to be evangelized

DETROIT — Just as St. Patrick evangelized Ireland in the fifth century, an Irish priest studying in Detroit says the Irish of the 21st century now need the new evangelization called for by the late Pope John Paul II.

Russian bishops urge new president to work with religious

WARSAW, Poland — Russia’s Catholic bishops have urged the newly elected president, Dmitri Medvedev, to strengthen ties with religious communities and help remove bureaucratic obstacles to the work of foreign clergy in the country.

Sri Lankan navy confiscates housing built by Jesuit agency

ROME — The Sri Lankan navy has confiscated permanent housing that a Jesuit aid agency had built for refugees affected by the country’s civil war.

Former Franciscan seminary head calls attack ‘monstrous’

JERUSALEM — A Palestinian gunman’s attack on a Jewish seminary was a “monstrous” atrocity, said a former director of Jerusalem’s Franciscan seminary. Father Artemio Vitores, vicar of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, told Catholic News Service he has lived through five wars and two Palestinian uprisings in the Holy Land, but the attack on the seminary, or yeshiva, affected him on a more personal level.

Jesuits end meeting by approving decrees

ROME (CNS) — The Jesuit General Congregation concluded two months of work by approving five decrees, including one on obedience, and a separate document reaffirming the Jesuits’ allegiance to the pope and fidelity to church teaching.

Pope: Make confession a time for God’s merciful love

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — With fewer and fewer Catholics going to confession, Pope Benedict XVI urged priests and seminarians to make the sacrament of penance a time for sinners to feel God’s merciful love.

Catholic Charities presents distinguished service awards

More than 750 men, women and students packed a ballroom in Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel March 4 to applaud the efforts of the honorees at Catholic Charities’ annual distinguished service awards banquet.

Young lobbyists seek support for nonpublic schools

ANNAPOLIS – Standing on the marble floors of the State House just outside the House of Delegates chamber, 12-year-old Cameron Wood was still beaming after his first successful effort as a lobbyist. The seventh-grader from Our Lady of Victory School in Arbutus was one of 400 nonpublic school students who converged on Annapolis March 6 to ask their lawmakers to support nonpublic school students and teachers.

Journey of Holy Week is apparent tragedy