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

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.

As Baltimore’s Franciscan Center celebrated its 40th anniversary with a block party, Sept. 10, volunteer Ellen Daniels stood in the hubbub and spoke about how the nonprofit organization was able to help her.

After three years at Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Middle River, Father T. Austin Murphy will be leaving July 1 to become the new chaplain of the Newman Center at Towson University. “As a priest you don’t forget your first parish,” said Father Murphy, 34, who is a graduate of University of Maryland Baltimore County. “I know I will leave with their prayers.” Father Murphy said he has truly enjoyed working with the elementary and high school students and helping with the sacraments.

WASHINGTON – As Democratic and Republican senators pressed their divergent views on the New START agreement with Russia outlining the next phase of nuclear disarmament during final debate in December, a wide array of Catholics played a major role in getting the pact ratified.

CLARKSVILLE – St. Louis School principal Terry Weiss sat in her Clarksville office on the evening of Sept. 8 reading e-mails.

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.

As 2008 begins, the pastor of St. Vincent de Paul, Baltimore, will order all makeshift tents used by the homeless in the park adjacent to the church to come down.