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Woodmont Academy, Cooksville, met and exceeded a fundraising challenge issued by The Cunningham Family Foundation. Thomas C. Cunningham, a parent of four Woodmont students, committed to donate at least $900,000 to the school’s capital campaign, Building Faith … Forming Leaders, reliant upon the school raising $1 million on its own by the end of 2006.

WASHINGTON – For today’s Catholic schools to thrive, school officials must rethink traditional ways of operating and try innovative approaches, said a report highlighting the current challenges facing Catholic schools. The report also calls on the Catholic community at large to play a key role in restoring its schools. The 32-page report, “Making God Known, Loved, and Served: The Future of Catholic Primary and Secondary Schools in the United States,” was prepared by the University of Notre Dame Task Force on Catholic Education – a group of educators, administrators, diocesan representatives, philanthropists and investment specialists.

Seventh grader Cecelia Cellini was concerned with more than playing during recess one weekday afternoon. Instead, she busily collected students’ signatures who were as frustrated as she with the quality of the computers in their school’s computer lab. The result culminated in a “St. John 2007 Calendar” which has raised more than $10,000 to date for St. John Catholic School, Westminster.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. government should emulate the Catholic Church and look for a dramatic way to improve relations with Cuba, said a U.S. lawmaker after returning from a fact-finding trip to the Caribbean island. Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass., cited the 1998 trip to Cuba by Pope John Paul II and said it had a “dramatic impact” on improving the church’s situation in the communist-ruled country. “The pope’s visit opened things up for the church,” said Rep. McGovern at a Jan. 23 panel discussion in Washington on U.S.-Cuban relations. “We should learn by that example,” he said.

ROME – Pope John Paul II consulted with top aides about possibly resigning in 2000 and set up a “specific procedure” for papal resignation, says a new book by the pope’s former secretary. The pope eventually decided that it was God’s will that he stay in office, despite the illness that left him more and more debilitated, wrote Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz of Krakow, Poland, the late pope’s closest aide. In the book, “A Life With Karol,” Cardinal Dziwisz offers an inside glimpse at key moments of Pope John Paul’s life in Poland and his 26-year pontificate. The book was being published in Polish and Italian in late January.

DETROIT – Retired Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton said he hoped his parishioners would continue to work for justice and peace, as he celebrated his final Mass as administrator of St. Leo Parish in Detroit Jan. 21. “We, as a parish community, must carry on the work of Jesus, and that’s what I pray you will do as I leave you,” he said in his homily. After 23 years of service at the parish, Bishop Gumbleton was leaving St. Leo Parish just days short of his 77th birthday Jan. 26. He was pastor until Jan. 25, 2006, and has been parish administrator since then.

Responding to continuing declines in enrollment and increased financial challenges, Our Lady Queen of Peace and Our Lady of Mount Carmel schools in Middle River will reconfigure in September in a move pastors say will strengthen Catholic education in eastern Baltimore County. The Queen of Peace campus will become the new home for both schools’ pre-kindergarten and full-time childcare, while Mount Carmel will serve K-8 students. The reconfiguration grew out of discussions between Monsignor Robert Hartnett, pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and Father Jason Worley, pastor of Our Lady of Queen of Peace. It was announced to parents during parish meetings Jan. 22 and Jan. 23.