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In the first reading Isaiah lifts up a prophetic vision of how God will save his people. He describes a God who opens the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf, gives new strength to legs and speech to muted tongues. This saving God, Isaiah tells us, can also turn arid desert […]

Your All Holiness, With great joy we welcome you to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore. We who are members of the Catholic laity, religious women and men, and clergy of the Archdiocese of Baltimore are joined this afternoon by members of the Orthodox Church, by leaders of […]

Your Eminence, Cardinal Hickey, Dear friends who serve the cause of justice through the law, To the John Carroll Society go my thanks for inviting me to pray with you, and to reflect with you, for all those who live their lives in service to the law. Your invitation came with a unique condition–or at […]

Six weeks ago Pope John Paul II came to the United States and to the United Nations. In a few full days, he gave our nation, and our world, a remarkable lesson in leadership, a lesson of consistency and courage, rooted in the gospel of Jesus. In pouring rain and driving wind and bright sunshine, […]

Most Holy Father, With joy we welcome you to Baltimore in Maryland. We welcome you, remembering how you have spoken in Eastern Europe with such persuasive power of the God-given right to religious freedom. We welcome you to Maryland where, before any other place in the English-speaking world, the Catholic-led general assembly legislated in 1639 […]

Most Holy Father, It is a joy to welcome you to the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen. Here to greet you are parishioners from throughout the Archdiocese of Baltimore, members of organizations, representatives of Catholic educational and health care institutions – in short the Archdiocese in miniature. Here, as well, are leaders of other Christian […]

“On a global level there is often a prepackaged story” about the Church said Cardinal-designate William Keeler of Baltimore, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and the U. S. Catholic Conference, in a presidential address Nov. 14 to the U. S. Bishops meeting in Washington. This prepackaged story tells “of an ailing pope […]

My brother bishops, observers and guests, and those who are with us by television, Charles Dickens saw good and evil at work in his own day and so came to write “A Tale of Two Cities.” Like Dickens, I wish to tell a tale of two cities, a tale of cities, like our land itself, […]

In recent months I have publicly addressed such current issues as racism, religious freedom, especially in Europe, justice and peace in the Middle East and in Central America, and ecological concerns. Today I turn to an issue daily featured in the news media, the issue of human life. In the first reading, the prophet Isaiah […]