As I offer this Holy Mass, I join you in lifting up colleagues who died in this past year and in commending to the Lord the mission that is yours each day in serving the needs of individuals and in serving the common good of diverse communities across the State of Maryland.
From your beginnings in Hereford high school, throughout all the ups and downs of your history thus far, your commitment to your parish, dear parishioners, has been constant and preserving. I came today to say “thank you” and to pray with you, asking the intercession of Our Lady of Grace that you and your parish may have a bright future, indeed, ‘a future full of hope’.
The five-fold cross that we wear as members of the Order signals our historic and ongoing commitment to the Church in the Holy Land and to the overall welfare of a region that, for much of its history, has been torn by conflict and war. It is obvious that the mission of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre is more important, more critical than ever, both its spiritual mission and its mission to provide concrete assistance.
First let me offer a word of deepest thanks, to you Fr. O’Keefe, and to your collaborators in the Province, for making Fr. Dennis Baker available to lead Loyola-Blakefield. Recognizing the personnel challenges all of us are facing, I am doubly grateful that you have missioned to this great school such a wonderful priest, a true son of Ignatius of Loyola, an experienced educator, a missionary, and a pastor of souls.
(Baltimore, MD) – Dr. Donna Hargens, the superintendent of Archdiocese of Baltimore’s Catholic schools, announced Thursday she will retire at the end of the school year, kicking off a national search for her replacement. Hargens spent 45 years in education, leading the Archdiocese of Baltimore Department of Catholic Schools since July 2018. Catholic schools in […]
Building a better world—protecting innocent human life, caring for our common home, overcoming divisions, defeating evil with good—this can come about, and only then partially, when we as a community of faith, journeying together, embrace the reversal of values that Jesus lays out for us in the Beatitudes, not only by his words but by his life.
So it was that this man experienced, not just physical healing, but that inward healing that comes about when our hearts are touched by the reality of God’s powerful love: a love that both creates anew and redeems, body and soul.
Today’s dedication of the altar in this wonderfully renovated Cathedral of St. Thomas More epitomizes, not only the strength of this diocese, but also its beauty, and God-willing, a very bright future. So from the Province of Baltimore and its bishops – together with our shared neighbor, the Archdiocese of Washington, our warmest congratulations and heartfelt prayers – ad multos annos!
For in this Mass, we invoke the Holy Spirit not only to help us attain our goals and to overcome our fears, but indeed to keep us focused on the one thing necessary for authentic priestly formation.
I was saddened to learn of the fire that damaged the historic rectory at St. Anthony Shrine in Emmitsburg. I am grateful to the Lord that there was no loss of life. My thoughts and prayers are with the Institute of the Incarnate Word whose members serve at St. Anthony’s.
In this way, we are true to the love we see on the face of Santo Niño and the still greater love to which the Cross of Magellan witnesses – that love in which we share most fully on earth in the Eucharist.
The charity, unity, and fraternity for which the family of the Knights of Columbus is known were evident not only in your wonderful hospitality but especially in the works of faith and charity that you, the Knights of Columbus in the Philippines, are engaged in.
