Green means two things at St. Vincent de Paul, Baltimore: air conditioning at virtually no cost, and heat in a way that spares the environment.

As the small jet carrying 10-year-old Xavia Pirozzi’s new heart approached Philadelphia International Airport the evening of Jan. 5, there was a 20 percent chance the aircraft would not be able to land in the dense fog. Inside the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Xavia’s parents, Nicolle Borys-Pirozzi and Ralph Pirozzi, waited anxiously, knowing the fog was just one of many challenges their daughter has weathered in her short lifetime.

A Baltimore Catholic parishioner and an Owings Mills Jewish cantor will be honored by the Steven Kaufman AIDS Outreach Project April 10 during an interfaith Seder tribute to those touched by HIV.

As at least seven women entered a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic on Howard Street in Baltimore April 10, about 200 Catholics stood on the opposite side of the street and peacefully prayed for them and their unborn children.

A funeral Mass was offered Nov. 27 for Father Robert O’Connell, S.S.J., who at 101 was the longest-lived Josephite priest, one who had served God for 66 years.

Father John C. Kemper, S.S. can’t help but feel humbled when he works as the director of the St. Mary’s Spiritual Center and Historic Site on Paca Street in downtown Baltimore.

Erica and Sean Kerchner find it hard to spend quality time together at the moment. Mr. Kerchner has been training with the U.S. Navy in Norfolk, Va., for four months while his wife of three years stays with her parents in Silver Spring. Mrs. Kerchner said when her husband visits on the weekends, it is important for them to find time for themselves in between visiting friends and family. They try to set aside one night to go out to dinner or a movie, “nothing really fancy,” she said.

Patrick Williams always wanted to play football, but his parents thought he would get hurt.

K.C. Bersch first visited Haiti in 1997, when she was a student at the Institute of Notre Dame in Baltimore. She accompanied her mother on a mission of mercy rooted in their family’s long-distance support of a child there.

Although his 40-year career spanned the globe and taught this priest four languages, Monsignor John L. FitzGerald is back in his native town of Baltimore doing what he knows best: ministering to seafarers. As a child, he attended St. Mark, Catonsville. Once ordained, he was assigned first to St. Matthew, Northwood, then St. Peter the Apostle, Baltimore.