The parishioners were the first group of Americans to be received into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church through the newly established Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, an ecclesiastical structure created by Pope Benedict XVI to make it easier to welcome former Episcopalians into the Catholic Church.

WESTMINSTER – Sitting in the bleachers as the repeated booming echoes of bouncing basketballs filled St. John’s gymnasium, Larry Baker and Donald “Bo” Yingling seemed like proud fathers.

“I realize that this information may be shocking and painful for you to hear, which I sincerely regret,” Father Barr wrote in his letter to parishioners. “However, in the interest of transparency and out of an abundance of care for this parish and our community, I wanted to share this news with you directly and ask for your prayers for Father Bullock and for our parish.”

Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien challenged Baltimore pilgrims at World Youth Day to be a light of information when they return from Sydney, Australia.

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.

Expect more people in the pews in 2011, thanks to the base realignment and closure (BRAC) initiative, which will bring an estimated 28,176 new households to Maryland. Business managers from Baltimore-area parishes and schools filled an Archdiocesan workshop Oct. 18 that featured speakers from Harford, Baltimore a

Walking along the Johnston Square streets that surround St. Frances Academy in a forgotten corner of East Baltimore, Tom Nealis passed vacant lots overrun with weeds and boarded-up row houses tagged with graffiti.

Administrators of Beans and Bread and opponents of a $4.5 million renovation and expansion to its resource center agree that clients should wait for services inside the facility, rather than on the street.

When amateur actor and former Benedictine priest Benet Hanlon began working in a Fells Point theater in the late 1970s, he noticed a number of homeless men along the then-scrappy waterfront streets, got to know several of them and eventually rented a small row house on Aliceanna Street in 1977 in an effort to feed them.

While parishioners at Towson’s Immaculate Conception were coming to terms with his retirement announcement in mid-November, Monsignor F. Dennis Tinder was talking about a greater transition.