“For me, it’s the most important day of the year,” said Gietka, a Holy Rosary parishioner who gave up skybox tickets at Oriole Park at Camden Yards to attend the liturgy. “I feel lighter. It makes you feel so happy.”

The past and the future came together in a big way at St. Peter in Hancock April 25 when more than 300 parishioners crowded into the tiny brick church to celebrate their parish’s 175th anniversary.

“I find it insulting,” he said. “I find it insulting for all the men and women who are over there fighting wars, for the ones who came back, for our veterans, for the parents who have buried their children, for wives – it’s an insult that anyone would hide behind a freedom that so many people in this country have died for.”

Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien reacted strongly against comments made by Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa that seemed to link criticism of the Catholic Church’s handling of the clergy sexual abuse scandal with anti-Semitism.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore is suing Baltimore City to overturn a controversial new law that requires the city’s pro-life pregnancy centers to post signs saying they do not provide abortion or birth-control.

The palpable love for the Stoopses runs deep among the guests – many of whom have turned to the weekly meal for years, and, in some cases, a decade or more. It goes beyond just having a meal. The Stoopses have sparked hope and, for many, a profound new life.

School Sister of Notre Dame Irene Pryle faked out Dr. Ronald J. Valenti in the best way possible at the 19th annual Teachers’ Awards Banquet, held March 18 at Martin’s West in Woodlawn.

“As all good leaders do, Joe led by example,” said Jesuit Father Brian F. Linnane, the Loyola president. “He’s a person of enormous integrity. Joe could be really tough if you didn’t live up to those standards, in terms of not just athletic performance, but representing the university in ways we could be proud of.”

In advance of the March 4 release of the Consolidation Plan and Report for archdiocesan schools, Archbishop Edwin F. O´Brien sat down with Catholic Review associate publisher/editor Christopher Gunty to discuss the process that led to the decisions, and the ramifications. Click here to read the Q & A

As the Cold War raged in the late 1970s and early 1980s, 1,000 nuns packed secret messages into tubes of toothpaste and bits of candy – smuggling the reports of human rights abuses and church persecution out of Communist-dominated Lithuania.