“It was extraordinarily jarring the first time the bombing sirens went off,” Kraska said. Equally jarring was traveling into downtown Lviv and seeing the paintings and statues of the cathedral and other buildings swathed in boards and metal in an attempt to protect them.

Is there intelligent extraterrestrial life elsewhere in the universe? And if there is, what do the Catholic Church, Scripture and theology have to say about it?

Standing before more than 100 Baltimore police officers gathered with their families, Bishop Bruce A. Lewandowski called for God to protect them and grant them courage and wisdom in their actions to keep the city safe.

On Aug. 6, Ann Dutrow will profess final vows with the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia in Aston, Pa., with her biological and Franciscan families on hand.

Brother Francis J. (Frank) O’Donnell, a tireless advocate for the downtrodden who served on numerous local boards, died July 22. Brother O’Donnell, who would have turned 80 next month, had been a member of the Marianist community for 62 years and a practicing lawyer for the past three decades.

Despite a day of blistering heat, members of St. Bernardine Catholic Church in Baltimore, weren’t dissuaded from celebrating the restoration of the parish’s iconic dome.

It’s been about a year since Archbishop William E. Lori established the Office of Parish Renewal to help strengthen faith communities throughout the archdiocese and support parishes in forming missionary disciples.

A 25-foot statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary was returned July 20 to her perch at the National Shrine Grotto overlooking Mount St. Mary’s University, but not yet as a finished product.

A funeral Mass for Daughter of Charity Sister Mary Clare (Anne Clare) Hughes was offered June 30 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg. Sister Mary Clare died June 25. She was 97.

Approximately 50 pro-life leaders gathered in Baltimore July 18-20 for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Diocesan Pro-Life Leadership Conference, livestreamed for remote participants.