The seeds of Holy Family began in the late 1870s when Catholics began worshiping at a tavern with the assistance of Jesuit priests from nearby Woodstock Seminary.

An 11 a.m. funeral Mass for School Sister of Notre Dame Mary Laurentilla Back will be offered Aug. 25 at the chapel at Stella Maris in Timonium. Sister Mary Laurentilla died Aug. 10. She was 93.

Catholic schools across the Archdiocese of Baltimore are investing in new classrooms, athletic facilities, gathering spaces and student commons designed to strengthen academics, faith formation and community life. Here are some examples of the larger projects underway.

Conventual Franciscan Father Donald Grzymski will succeed Monsignor Jay O’Connor as eastern vicar of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, with the transition set to take place next year, Archbishop William E. Lori announced Aug. 18.

After several years as the order’s vicar general, Father Bomberger, 82, was elected in late July to succeed the late Bishop John H. Ricard as leader of the society. He will serve the remainder of Bishop Ricard’s term, which ends in June 2027, when a new superior general will be elected.

Twenty years ago, Wednesday night Mass in Spanish at Christ the King in Glen Burnie drew about 10 people. Today, the Hispanic community there and at neighboring St. Bernadette in Severn fills three crowded Masses every weekend – a surge of growth that has brought new energy and new growing pains to the pastorate’s ministries.

In this episode of Catholic Review Radio, Catholic Review Editor Christopher Gunty interviews Maria Ruiz Scaperlanda, promoter of the canonization cause of Father Stanley Rother, a priest from Oklahoma who became a martyr in Guatemala.

For 59 years, Jacqueline “Jackie” Brock has built her nursing career around a simple calling: caring for people when they are at their most vulnerable. At Ascension St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, she has served patients in orthopedic nursing, the emergency department, operating room and registration area, bringing the hospital’s mission and values into each role.

The damage was extensive, but so was the gratefulness that no one was hurt after what parish and archdiocesan leaders suspect was an Aug. 10 lightning strike which led to a fire within a building on the campus of St. Joseph in Fullerton.

The Redemptorists’ Baltimore Province is about to become part of a much larger province, combining with Redemptorist communities in Denver, Mexico and Vietnam as the order reorganizes its North American mission. But the change in structure is not expected to end the Redemptorists’ presence in Baltimore.