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When the homeless dine at the new Our Daily Bread facility when it opens in June, they will have a grand view of a superbly landscaped garden intended for reflection. However, a vision is all they will have of the oasis, unless they are accepted into a program designed to advance their employability. The reflecting garden – adjacent to the dining room of Catholic Charities’ new $15 million employment center and soup kitchen – was included in the plans of the 52,000-square-foot building specifically for the men of Christopher Place to relax, play basketball and enjoy nature’s splendor. It was also strategically placed to act as a dangling carrot for the estimated 700 homeless and needy Baltimoreans who will eat daily at the Fallsway building.

The Maryland State Court Catholic daughters of the Americas held their 44th Biennial State Convention May 4-6 at the Holiday Inn, BWI Airport Conference Center. The host court was St. Francis Xavier, Baltimore, who set the theme of “Smoot Sailing into the Future for Women Embracing the Gift of Humanity.” Some 150 Catholic Daughters convened to recommit and reinforce their motto of unity and charity.

WASHINGTON – As the Senate prepared to open two weeks of debate on immigration reform legislation in mid-May despite lacking a bill around which to shape the discussion, Catholic and other immigration advocates were troubled by some of the proposals they had heard. After no viable bill seemed to be on the horizon despite months of behind-the-scenes negotiation among Senate Democrats, Republicans and the White House, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said May 11 that he was prepared to reintroduce a bill approved by the Senate last year as a starting point. That bill died at the close of the 109th Congress in December after negotiators failed to reconcile it with a vastly different immigration bill approved by the House.

APARECIDA, Brazil – With their agenda broadly outlined by Pope Benedict XVI, the bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean began the conference that will lead to pastoral guidelines for the region for the next 10-15 years. Several bishops who spoke with journalists said the pope raised many of the issues likely to be addressed during the conference, including deeper formation in the faith and church social doctrine, poverty, ministry among indigenous peoples and family life. Archbishop Pedro Barreto Jimeno of Huancayo, Peru, called the pope’s May 13 speech to the bishops “inspiring” and “encouraging.” Archbishop Baltazar Porras Cardozo of Merida, Venezuela, told journalists that the pope did not “put us in a straitjacket” but “came to present a challenge to the church.”

APARECIDA, Brazil – On a five-day visit to Latin America, Pope Benedict XVI identified a host of social and religious challenges and said the church should respond by focusing more clearly on the person of Jesus Christ. “This is the faith that has made America the ‘continent of hope.’ Not a political ideology, not a social movement, not an economic system: faith in the God who is love – who took flesh, died and rose in Jesus Christ,” the pope said on the final day of his May 9-13 visit to Brazil. It was a comment echoed in many of his encounters, which included a rally with young people, the canonization of the first Brazilian-born saint, and the inauguration of the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean.

GUARATINGUETA, Brazil – In a meeting with recovering Brazilian drug addicts, Pope Benedict XVI said drug dealers will face God’s judgment for the damage they have inflicted on individuals and society. The pope made the remarks during a visit May 12 to Fazenda da Esperanca, or Farm of Hope, a church-run drug rehabilitation center in rural Brazil. After listening to emotional testimonials from young men and women who have struggled to break free of drug and alcohol dependency, the pope urged those helped by the center to become “ambassadors of hope” to other addicts.

APARECIDA, Brazil – In calling for a “renewal and revitalization of faith” in Latin America and the Caribbean, Pope Benedict XVI warned against a revival of indigenous religions, said the church should work for justice but not become directly involved in politics, and criticized both Marxism and capitalism for their detachment from “the decisive reality which is God.” Speaking at the opening session May 13 of a meeting of Latin American and Caribbean bishops that will set directions for the region for the next decade, the pope said the faith “has serious challenges to address, because the harmonious development of society and the Catholic identity of (the region’s) peoples are in jeopardy.”

LATROBE, Pa. – President George W. Bush praised volunteerism and service and encouraged the approximately 300 graduates of St. Vincent College to “take what you’ve learned here into the world and always live up to the high ideals that this college stands for.” “The volunteer spirit of America makes us unique; it represents the true strength of our nation and must constantly be reinvigorated and renewed,” said the president, who cited the traditions of St. Benedict and Blessed Teresa of Calcutta in his May 11 commencement address. He pointed out two students from the class of 2007 for giving to others: Anthony Fiumara of Walkersville, Md., who spent two breaks teaching at St. Benedict School in one of the poorest areas of New Jersey, and Kara Shirley of Saltsburg, who during a service project in Brazil visited an AIDS clinic and brought comfort to a dying man.

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI has approved stricter guidelines for determining which saints will be remembered with mandatory feast days throughout the Latin-rite calendar of the Catholic Church. The General Roman Calendar, the universal schedule of holy days and feast days, is so packed that more selectivity is needed, according to new norms and a commentary published in the official bulletin of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments. The pope determines who makes the universal calendar based on recommendations from the congregation, the commentary said. And, according to the new norms published in the bulletin in mid-May, those recommendations will be more difficult to obtain.