Catholic Review

In mostly affluent Anne Arundel County, huge pockets of poverty persist. The divide formed the backdrop for an Oct. 27 town hall meeting at St. Bernadette, Severn, where a Johns Hopkins researcher presented stark contrasts between the haves and the have-nots.

Aimee Murray can deal with carrying her 31-pound, 4-year-old son. She can handle putting a 1.5-inch feeding tube into a hole in his belly and inflating a small balloon inside his abdomen to keep it in place. She can even endure exhausting hours of constantly checking on her boy to monitor his breathing and comfort him when he has muscle spasms.

After three years at Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Middle River, Father T. Austin Murphy will be leaving July 1 to become the new chaplain of the Newman Center at Towson University. “As a priest you don’t forget your first parish,” said Father Murphy, 34, who is a graduate of University of Maryland Baltimore County. “I know I will leave with their prayers.” Father Murphy said he has truly enjoyed working with the elementary and high school students and helping with the sacraments.

WASHINGTON – As Democratic and Republican senators pressed their divergent views on the New START agreement with Russia outlining the next phase of nuclear disarmament during final debate in December, a wide array of Catholics played a major role in getting the pact ratified.

Two graduates of the University of Maryland College Park took a step closer to becoming Dominican priests after professing their solemn vows late in the summer of 2011 at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C.