Social media pronounces that there has never been this much discord and downright hate in our nation. I wasn’t around for the Civil War, but do recall the mess that was 1968.

As the General Assembly gathers in Maryland’s Capitol for its session beginning Jan. 10, the Maryland Catholic Conference is poised to provide input from the church’s perspective on a host of issues across the political spectrum.

Atonement Father C. Donald Howard, director of the office of liturgy for the Archdiocese of Baltimore from 1985 to 1988, died Jan. 6. He was 71. A funeral Mass will be offered Jan. 17 at 11 a.m. at Christ the Redeemer in Sterling, Va., the parish he served as associate pastor and then pastor for 25 years until his 2013 retirement.

Father Donaghy’s time at St. Paul included considerable improvements to its worship space. Restoration of the interior of its church, which dates to 1838, was completed in 1992, the year he arrived. Father Donaghy then oversaw an expansion of the worship space, which was rededicated in 2001.

“I am deeply concerned for the safety of the nearly 200,000 Salvadorans, 20,000 of whom are our neighbors here in Maryland, who are being forced to return to a country that is unsafe and is clearly unable to adequately handle their return,” Archcbishop Lori said.

In a 3-0 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit struck down a Baltimore ordinance that would have forced pro-life pregnancy centers in the city to post signs stating they do not provide or refer for abortions or contraceptives

Several major events are coming to the Archdiocese of Baltimore in 2018.

“He had a very deep faith, but it wasn’t a showy kind of faith,” said Capuchin Franciscan Father Gregory Chervenak, pastor of Our Lady of the Mountains. “He was very unassuming and never, ever drew attention to himself.

Brother Kevin Strong, a groundbreaking leader at Calvert Hall College High School in Towson and Cardinal Gibbons School in Baltimore who served as the first president of both all-boys institutions, died Jan. 3 in New Jersey after years of declining health.

The severe cold has caused broken water lines and other challenges at several parishes and schools across the Archdiocese of Baltimore.