She has been the president and principal of Baltimore’s Mercy High School for 31 years, and may have held such a position longer than anyone else in Catholic secondary education. But, Sister Carol Wheeler, R.S.M., somehow retains the creative energy, freshness and vision she had when she came to the newly opened Mercy as a teacher in 1961 and when she became principal in 1977.

One day after attending an April 24 White House summit on preventing faith-based schools from closing in the inner-city, Dr. Ronald J. Valenti, Baltimore superintendent of Catholic schools, welcomed a renewed proposal from President George W. Bush to establish a “Pell Grant for Kids.”

As part of an ongoing celebration of the 200th anniversary of the elevation of Baltimore to archdiocesan status, Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien introduced the John Carroll Lecture series April 22 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Baltimore. The series focuses on the history and heritage of Catholicism in America.

Father Wayne G. Funk, the longtime pastor of St. John the Evangelist in Frederick who was known for his encouraging, pastoral presence, died Feb. 16 at Frederick Memorial Hospital. The 70-year-old priest had battled cancer for nearly five years.

After a recently completed $700,000 restoration, the small chapel has been stabilized, a new roof added, the exterior made over and the interior returned to the elegant simplicity that characterized the structure at the time it was erected in 1855.

One-hundred-fifty-five years after he died in Maryland, Baltimore native Bishop John J. Chanche was interred Jan. 19 at St. Mary Basilica in Natchez, Miss. Bishop Chanche helped establish the Natchez basilica when he served as the southern city’s first Catholic bishop.

ANNAPOLIS – Father John Lavin, C.Ss.R., still chuckles when he remembers the day Jesus got held up by U.S. Customs.

The Towson Center Arena will be streaming red and blue on Jan. 25 as the 42nd meeting, known as “The Game,” of the Institute of Notre Dame and Mercy High School tips off at 7:30 p.m.

To know the background of Mother Mary Lange was to appreciate the atmosphere May 8 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore, where Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien led a Mass to pray for her sainthood.

Twenty-seven years after his death, leaders of Bishop Walsh’s home parish are working to raise awareness about a man whose virtuous exploits seem less recognized with each passing decade.