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This year Stella Maris’ highest form of praise, the Mercy Spirit Award, went to Stephanie Gramling and Phyllistine Davis. The award is given to two employees who live the values of the Sisters of Mercy. Nominees must demonstrate four of the seven core values of the Mercy Health Services, including respect, hospitality, mercy/justice, excellence, empowerment, stewardship and prayer.

MEXICO CITY – Whenever the freight train rolls into town, Father Alejandro Solalinde and his team of pastors know it’s going to be a long night. The freight trains, loaded with hundreds of Central American migrants heading north to the United States, stop in Father Solalinde’s town of Ixtepec, an important rail junction in southern Mexico. The migrants who wait for the next train to carry them on to Veracruz are prime targets for criminal gangs, who kidnap them until relatives can wire thousands of dollars in ransom money.

ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – Amid the media hype at Super Bowl XLI Feb. 4 in Miami, at least eight players and coaches from the Chicago Bears were expected to spend about 30 minutes on bended knee the morning of game day as Scalabrinian Father Nick Marro, Bears chaplain, celebrated Mass at the players’ hotel. While his homilies obviously reflect the Gospel of the day, he said, he also considers who is in the congregation.

WASHINGTON – At the National Prayer Breakfast Feb. 1, President George W. Bush cited a Pennsylvania Catholic teenager who started an outreach to poor and homeless people in memory of her favorite priest, the late Franciscan Father Mychal Judge.

LAS VEGAS, Nev. – A Las Vegas priest accused of attempted murder and sexual assault on a parish employee was captured near Phoenix Feb. 1 after a six-day manhunt across several states. Father George Chaanine, 52, has been charged with attempted murder with a deadly weapon, sexual assault, kidnapping and other charges in connection with an alleged attack Jan. 26 on Michaelina Bellamy, an employee at Our Lady of Las Vegas Parish where Father Chaanine was administrator. He also faces federal charges of fleeing to avoid prosecution.

“Bishops Address Public Policy” (CR, Jan 25) is among a number of articles that distort the real issues. These articles tout “earned legalization,” the “death” of illegal aliens attempting to enter our country and sending the wrong signal to the international community. These one-sided articles distorted the total picture of illegal aliens. It failed to mention the death and violence committed by illegal aliens who are currently in prison today convicted of murder, rape, etc. against U.S. citizens, the negative impact illegal aliens have on our citizen’s job opportunities, schools, health care, and other social programs.

On Jan. 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down two decisions that wiped out all existing state laws limiting abortion and made it nearly impossible to enact any new abortion-limiting legislation. Through its decisions in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, the Court made abortion available to any woman for any reason at any point in her pregnancy. It also removed the abortion debate from the public forum. Fast-forward to Jan. 22, 2007. On that day more than 100,000 people went to Washington in the cold and snow to give a voice to the voiceless in the annual March for Life.