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The Baltimore Archdiocesan Holy Name Union annual convention was held at the Basilica of the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Conference and Retreat Center, Emmitsburg, on April 15. Some 80 members were in attendance, from a total of 24 different parishes. Father Joseph Breighner had planned to be the conference moderator but was ill and unable to participate. Concelebrants at the Mass in the basilica were Father Michael Kennedy, C.M., chaplain for the Daughters of Charity at the basilica, and Father Michael Carrion, spiritual director for the AHNU and pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary, Baynesville.

In honor of the St. Agnes Auxiliary’s 100th anniversary a reception was held April 18 at St. Agnes Hospital, Baltimore. The Auxiliary was founded in 1907 and it is the oldest continuously serving auxiliary of its kind in the nation.

BALTIMORE – Enrollment figures for Catholic schools in the 2006-07 academic year show “a continued significant decline in the elementary school population and a slight increase in secondary school enrollment,” according to a report by the National Catholic Educational Association. Total enrollment fell by 1.8 percent, or 42,569 students, said the annual statistical report prepared by Sister Dale McDonald, a Sister of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary who is NCEA director of public policy and educational research.

It’s heating up in the IAAM softball league as defending A Conference champions Archbishop Spalding High School, Severn, and defending B Conference champions, Maryvale Preparatory School, Brooklandville, continue their winning ways. On April 13, Spalding’s top hurler, Stephanie Weigman, threw a no-hit, shutout by sitting down all but one batter in a 1-0 win over home team Institute of Notre Dame, Baltimore, at Patterson Park. The Cavs (5-1, 9-2) are ranked No. 3 and the Indians (4-2, 12-2) are right behind them in the Metro Prep Poll. The Cavaliers and Indians will meet again April 27 at Randazzo Park.

A funeral Mass for Sister Joseph Miriam (Mary Elizabeth) Sheehan, S.P. was offered April 3. Sister Joseph died March 29. She was 88.

A funeral Mass for Deacon Thomas Yorkshire will be offered at 10 a.m. April 21 at St. Gregory the Great, Baltimore. Deacon Yorkshire died April 11. He was 72. Born in Mechanicsville in 1935, Deacon Yorkshire was a son of the late Booker T. and Hazel Yorkshire Everett.

MOSCOW – A Russian Orthodox leader said U.S. government attitudes toward religious freedom follow a Western “ideology of human rights.” “U.S. experts are superficial and biased when judging the Orthodox Church’s approach to understanding human rights and the problems of church-state relations,” said Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations.

Mary Breslin, reviewing Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” (CR, April 12) asserts “cause for a meltdown among those who would refute Mr. Gore’s claims.”

A bit of a correction to your piece “Baltimore is cradle of U.S. Catholic Education” (CR, April 5).

St. Agnes, Catonsville, is inviting Catholics who have become inactive in the church to take another look at the church. If individuals have friends or family members who have “fallen away” and are not sure how to reach out to them, members of the Catholics Returning Home team at St. Agnes would be pleased to contact them and extend a personal invitation.

How can we make the Blessed Virgin weep? How about taking the sacramental that is associated with her and with world peace and naming it for an elite corps of killers – say, a “Ranger Rosary?” (CR, April 5)