An 11 a.m. funeral Mass for Franciscan Sister Joan Cooper will be offered at Assisi House in Aston, Pa., March 27. Sister Joan died March 18. She was 94 and had been a professed member of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia for more than 72 years.

As the nation’s first Catholic diocese, the Archdiocese of Baltimore is home to many trailblazers, including history-making women.

A funeral Mass for Franciscan Sister Elizabeth “Betty” Ellen Kane (formerly Sister Paul Anthony) will be offered at 11 a.m. on March 23 at Assisi House in Aston, Pa. Sister Betty died March 17.

Award-winning TV chef and “cooking priest” Father Leo Patalinghug and theologian and mixologist Dr. Michael P. Foley talk about their new book, “Dining with the Saints: The Sinner’s Guide to a Righteous Feast.” The book brings the liturgical year to life, pairing more than 200 saints’ stories with a smorgasbord of international recipes.

Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori has granted Catholics in the archdiocese a dispensation from abstinence from eating meat on March 17.

A funeral Mass for Daughter of Charity Sister Kathleen Marie (Marie Kathleen) Saffa was offered March 9 at the Villa St. Michael Chapel in Emmitsburg. Sister Kathleen Marie died March 6.

Dr. Timothy E. Trainor, who helped boost enrollment and recently launched an ambitious capital campaign, plans to retire as president of Mount St. Mary’s University, Emmitsburg, in the summer of 2024.

The cast and crew of 50 Immaculate Conception students from grades four to eight has been preparing for “Oliver! JR” since September – and it shows.

Sister Mary Charia served as a teacher at St. Mary School in Hagerstown (1963-64), a teacher at St. Ambrose School in Baltimore (1964-65), an administrator of special education at St. Ann School in Baltimore (1965-72), an administrator of special education for the Archdiocese of Baltimore (1970-72), principal of St. Jane Frances School in Riviera Beach (1972-76) and a teacher at St. Augustine School in Elkridge (1976-77).

A summer camp when she was 17 awakened in Maria E. Weimer the values that would come to define her life: She is a protector, a defender and a believer – and her future would be with the U.S. Navy.