local news
Cumberland town meeting addresses need for parish restructuring
CUMBERLAND – In an April 28 town meeting marked by a combination of hopefulness, apprehension and anger, approximately 250 people gathered at St. Mary in Cumberland to ask questions about a proposal to create a new area parish out of five existing ones.
Pope John Paul II’s visit to Baltimore touched many lives
Jim and Pat McDonnell spent less than a minute in the presence of Pope John Paul II, but it was enough to change their lives.
Clergy shortage, shifting demographics bring need for change
“Since I have been working in multiple-parish ministry, I have been struck by the importance of working with a team of people – most of whom, of course, are lay Catholics,” Monsignor Hannon said. “We work together for the good of our parishes and for the good of the archdiocese.”
First blood of the Civil War spilled in Baltimore 150 years ago
Days after Confederate forces in South Carolina captured Fort Sumter without any casualties, the first bloodshed in the Civil War happened in Baltimore on April 19, 1861.
Woodmont Academy to close due to enrollment issues
Officials at Woodmont Academy, a once-bustling independent Catholic institution in Western Howard County, have decided to close the school later this spring due to declining enrollment.
Cumberland-area parishes consider uniting into one faith community
Cumberland-area parishes currently have two funerals for every baptism. One third of registered parishioners are age 60 or older. The city’s population has declined from 30,000 in 1979 to 20,859 today, while the number of priests serving the five parishes has plummeted from 13 to four – the result of a clergy shortage.
St. Philip Neri parishioner contributes ‘amazing’ skill
With spring here, Kay Bowman’s fancy turns lightly to thoughts of love – not the romantic kind the poet Tennyson had in mind, but love for the children of her parish, St. Philip Neri in Linthicum Heights, and its school.
Ravens’ Matt Birk speaks up for life
“It seems like our society and media want to push pro-lifers to the side and hope that we would shut our mouths and go away quietly,” said Birk, whose 6’4’’, 310-pound frame struck a distinct figure among the hundreds of marchers who filed through downtown streets. “Let’s not do that.”
Archdiocesan youths lock in to their calling at “Adore-a-thon”
GLEN BURNIE – After a week of classroom stress and social angst, many high schoolers use Friday nights to blow off steam at parties.
Interfaith leaders pray for end to death penalty
After her brother became Baltimore’s 21st murder victim of 2007, Erricka Bridgeford couldn’t wait for the police to find the person who did it. Bridgeford dreamed of spitting in the murderer’s face. Male relatives thought of even more violent ways of exacting vengeance, she said.