Page 1841 – Archdiocese of Baltimore

While loads of college kids headed to Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., for the typical “let’s party” spring break, 66 Loyola College in Maryland, Baltimore, students opted to travel to New Orleans to perform a selfless ministry. Spring Break Outreach, part of Loyola’s Center for Community Service and Justice, coordinated student-led groups to assist with disaster relief work in New Orleans and Violet, La., and Metairie, Miss., in the almost two-year aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Ongoing history

MENLO PARK, Calif. – Even though the average age of religious-order priests, sisters and brothers serving in the United States is increasing and their numbers are declining, don’t conclude religious communities are dying out, a well-known scholar said during a recent national meeting in Menlo Park. Instead, think of consecrated life as an “ongoing history” being written by the Holy Spirit, advised Oblate Father Frank Morrisey, adding that the divine author’s last chapter is “yet to come.”

Church intensifies efforts to derail abortion bill

MEXICO CITY – With protests, a pilgrimage and emphatic declarations, the Catholic Church has intensified its efforts to derail legislative proposals which would decriminalize abortion in Mexico. The issue also reignited tension between the church and Mexico’s left, and led to renewed questions over whether clergy and Catholic groups can participate in political activism in a nation where religion and state are divided by law. Events culminated March 25, when nearly 10,000 people took part in the Pilgrimage for Life in Mexico City to protest bills in the national Congress and the capital assembly which would allow abortions during the first three months of pregnancy.

Graphologist is witness for late pope’s sainthood cause

ROME – In connection with the sainthood cause of Pope John Paul II, a graphologist and a psychiatrist were called as expert witnesses in the investigation into the presumed healing of a nun suffering from Parkinson’s disease. Monsignor Slawomir Oder, the postulator of Pope John Paul’s cause, said the French diocese where the nun lives concluded its investigation March 23 and would hand all its documentation to the Congregation for Saints’ Causes in early April. Monsignor Oder spoke to reporters March 27 about the status of the cause and plans for the formal conclusion of the Rome diocesan phase of the process April 2, the second anniversary of Pope John Paul’s death.

‘Apostle of the Alleghenies’ up for sainthood

The sainthood cause for Father Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin, a former pastor of St. Joseph in Taneytown and St. Patrick in Cumberland, has been opened by the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, Penn. Father Gallitzin, a Russian prince who was the second priest ordained in the United States and the first to receive all his holy orders in this country, was the son of Prince Demetrius Alexeivich Gallitzin, the ambassador of Empress Catherine the Great of Russia to the Netherlands.

ARCHDIOCESE RECEIVES ALLEGATIONS OF ABUSE

In the past week, the Archdiocese of Baltimore learned of two allegations of sexual abuse of a minor against Monsignor Richard E. Smith, 67, pastor at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Ellicott City. The alleged abuse occurred in mid-late 1960s while Richard Smith was a priest at Shrine of Our Lady of Perpetual Help parish in Woodlawn (known as St. Gabriel since 1997).

Right or Wrong?

Let’s look at a new phenomenon you may know very little about. It is the remarkable rise of eucharistic adoration in Catholic parishes and institutions in every part of the world. Why is it happening? And what is it? “The Catholic Church,” says the Catechism, “offers to the … Eucharist… adoration, not only during Mass, but also outside of it, reserving the consecrated hosts … exposing them to the solemn veneration of the faithful, and carrying them in procession,” (No. 1378).

Mount St. Joseph rugby worth a try

Only in its second year, the Mount St. Joseph High School, Irvington, Rugby Football Club, has already surpassed initial expectations in terms of participation and success. More than 130 students attended an information session on the sport during orientation last fall and head coach Mike Finley was quite frank and upfront, saying, “If you don’t want to get hit or hit someone, do something else.”

Weigman and company coast early, hope for three-peat

If the first two regular season games are any indication, the Archbishop Spalding High School, Severn, softball team is looking good for a three-peat in 2007. With 5-1 and 5-0 wins over St. Vincent Pallotti, Laurel, and Mount de Sales Academy, Catonsville, the team returns a majority of its starting line-up. The real shift comes in a changing of the guard as skipper of the team. Paul O’Brien, who successfully coached the St. Vincent Pallotti, Laurel, team for seven seasons, took the reigns just two weeks before the start of the season.

Detroit parishes lose hundreds to deportation

DETROIT – Father Anton Kcira first began to notice the absence of more and more of his regular parishioners at St. Paul (Albanian) Church in suburban Rochester Hills back in 2005, and the loss due to deportations has escalated since then. “Last year we lost about 200 families, and Our Lady of Albanians lost 120,” said Father Kcira, pastor of St. Paul’s, of the situation in his parish and at the other Albanian ethnic parish in Beverly Hills, another Detroit suburb.

God’s love is great, but hell ‘exists and is eternal’

ROME – God’s mercy and love are great, but those who reject him should know that hell “exists and is eternal,” Pope Benedict XVI said. The pope made the comments during a visit March 25 to a Rome parish that serves a predominantly immigrant population, including the city’s Filipino community. In a sermon, the pope focused on what has become a running theme of his pontificate: the importance of divine love.

‘Public correction’ to Marquette professor’s views