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I don’t know what George Orwell, author of “Animal Farm” and “1984,” thought about abortion, cloning and stem-cell research and, not knowing, I’m not enlisting the British novelist and essayist, who died in 1950, in the pro-life cause. But I do know what he thought about the abuse of the English language. Based on that, I find him highly relevant to this debate.

I want to thank The Catholic Review and reporter Chaz Muth for the fine article in the Jan. 31 issue highlighting the history of our Community in St. Martin’s Parish in southwest Baltimore. I believe it would be of interest, too, to know that the Mission Helpers returned to the St. Martin’s community where our ministry began in 1890 one hundred years later. In the 1990s we initiated the Mary Frances Cunningham Ministries providing linkage with the various services offered through the Bon Secours Community Support Center such as Family Support Center (GED classes, parenting classes, child development), Head Start, Echo House, WIC (Medical and nutritional assistance for Women, Infants and Children) and other Social Services. Our Sr. Fran Gorsuch (now a Bon Secours sister), Sr. Liz Langmead, MHSH and Margaret Brogden gave leadership and direction to the Mary Frances Cunningham Ministries. This ministry provided Sr. Marietta Russell with an introduction to the parish through which she could carry out her sewing ministry.

Parishioners of St. Bernardine, Baltimore, are looking for 300 good warriors to deal with the city’s highest murder rate in eight years. Prayer warriors, that is.

The “Men in Black,” that fearsome basketball squad of priests and seminarians from the Archdiocese of Baltimore, will play the “DC Hood,” a team of priests and seminarians from Washington on March 2.

JERUSALEM – The Israeli Ministry of the Interior has agreed to provide multiple-entry visas to “high-ranking church personnel” who must travel in and out of Israel for their work.

VATICAN CITY – A Vatican cardinal defended Pope Benedict XVI’s reformulation of a prayer for the conversion of Jews and said he hopes it will not become an obstacle in Catholic-Jewish dialogue.

VATICAN CITY – A pilgrimage of U.S. mission directors left Rome with a sense that their efforts are making a difference in the universal church, participants said.

On Feb. 1, The John Carroll School, Bel Air, announced that it hired a new football coach, Keith Rawlings. The Patriots compete in the MIAA B Conference and finished their season 2-6 in league play and 2-8 overall.

There’s an interesting transformation that happens in stores right after the Christmas holidays. As the sights and sounds of Christmas disappear, suddenly store shelves are filled with Valentine’s decorations, candies and gifts.