On New Year’s Eve 2013, while Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor was aboard a train bound for New York City to help Miley Cyrus drop the ball in Times Square, a legal brief filed just hours earlier by Mark Rienzi was making its way into her hands.

Human trafficking is often hidden in plain sight in Baltimore. Behind the statistics are survivors rebuilding their lives, advocates working to expose exploitation and a network of people determined to offer hope and healing.

Niccolini’s company, Hotel Shield, works with the hospitality industry to help identify suspicious activity and connect hotels with law enforcement in real time.

As Maryland lawmakers prepare to revisit legislation that would legalize physician-assisted suicide, Catholic leaders, ethicists and physicians are encouraging Catholics to think carefully about end-of-life decisions, arguing that compassion for the seriously ill should focus on care, dignity and accompaniment rather than assisted death.

The Office of Black Catholic Ministries will host Hope, Unity and Relationships Mental Health Retreat Nov. 7 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at New All Saints in Liberty Heights.

The University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) held a groundbreaking ceremony Oct. 30 for a new $110 million outpatient care center on the University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center (UM SJMC) campus in Towson.

Hennessy will speak about Dorothy Day’s life and legacy at a symposium beginning at 2 p.m. Nov. 8 at St. Joseph’s Monastery in Baltimore. Jesuit Father Timothy Brown, associate professor of law and social responsibility at Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore, will also speak.

Archbishop William E. Lori has announced the appointment of several priests to serve as pastors, vicar for clergy, vocations director and vicars forane. A vicar forane assists and supports the pastors and parishes within a geographic region of the archdiocese, serving as a liaison between local parishes and the archbishop while helping coordinate pastoral initiatives and fostering collaboration among clergy.

The superior general of the Baltimore-based St. Joseph’s Society of the Sacred Heart is urging Catholics to defend the right of all eligible Americans to participate in the nation’s democratic process, expressing concern about public rhetoric that questions the civic participation of vulnerable and historically marginalized communities.

Archbishop William E. Lori brought a message of hope and redemption to nearly 75 inmates in Hagerstown, urging them to see themselves as God does and to make their prison “a sanctuary.”