The prelates of the Maryland Catholic Conference have written to President Donald Trump, urging him to not move forward with the planned federal execution of a Maryland man next month.

It’s not what was intended a year ago, but the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the death of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Jan. 4 could well be bigger than might have been possible before the COVID-19 pandemic curtailed in-person events and made people comfortable with online gatherings.

In a normal Christmas, the charity drive helps about 60 families. With COVID-19 increasing the number of households in need, this year it helped nearly 80, and directed a query from Rockville to local resources in Montgomery County.

On the Dec. 20 episode of Catholic Review Radio, Christopher Gunty interviews Father John Catoir, the longtime host of the TV show, “Christopher Closeup.”

Prayers, blessings and reflections from Baltimore-area religious and civic leaders, filmed in their own houses of worship and offices, have been gathered, for one last look at 2020 before stepping into 2021.

Working in the Emergency Department at University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, Smialkowski was among the first people in the country this week to receive the new vaccine for COVID-19.

The Maryland Catholic Conference – which represents bishops serving the archdioceses of Baltimore and Washington as well as the diocese of Wilmington, Del. – is recommending that the faithful receive COVID-19 vaccines developed by U.S. pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna when available.

New York Times bestselling and National Book Award-winning author Ibram X. Kendi will speak at Loyola University Maryland’s annual Martin Luther King, Jr., Convocation Jan. 20, 2021, at 7 p.m.

Father Steven Roth interviews the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s newest seminarian. Franz Belleza, a parishioner of Our Lady of Victory in Arbutus, is originally from the Philippines. He shares what it’s like to apply to become a priest in the archdiocese and why he wants to serve people in the Baltimore archdiocese.

Like almost all priests in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Archbishop WIlliam E. Lori and his auxiliary bishops will celebrate more than one Mass on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as the church proclaims to the world the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, born in Bethlehem.