In the face of what she sees as an increasingly polarized and splintered world, the newly-elected global leader of the School Sisters of Notre Dame said she hopes to promote a sense of solidarity among humanity.

The pastor of St. Leo church in Little Italy has been removed from ministry by his religious order and stripped of his faculties to function as a priest.

On the same day Maryland lawmakers concluded a three-week special legislative session to address the state’s budget deficit Nov. 19, the leader of the Maryland Catholic Conference praised lawmakers for making the poor a priority in their planning.

When police arrested the serial rapist who brutally assaulted and murdered Shannon Schieber in 1998, the Schieber family faced unrelenting pressure to seek the death penalty.

Cardinal J. Francis Stafford made a stop in Emmitsburg before he attended Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien’s Oct. 1 installation ceremony at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Homeland. There, he prayed for the new Baltimore archbishop at the tombs of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and Archbishop James R. Bayley – two New York natives who served in the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

Calling the death penalty nothing more than “legalized vengeance,” Sister Helen said the gift of being a Catholic is embracing the “seamless garment of life” – respecting the dignity of life from conception until natural death.

In an assembly line that would make Henry Ford proud, dozens of volunteers from St. Peter in Hancock transformed their parish hall into an apple dumpling factory Sept. 12-14 – filling the air with the delightfully dense aroma of sweet cinnamon and fresh-baked apples that attracted visitors from near and far.

In a sign of deep affection for the man who has served as the fatherly face of the Archdiocese of Baltimore for 18 years, nearly 2,000 people gathered in the Baltimore Convention Center Sept. 6 to honor the long ministry of Cardinal William H. Keeler.

Wearing hooded grey robes cinched at the waist with ropes, nearly a dozen Franciscan Friars of the Renewal marched through the streets of downtown Baltimore Aug. 9 carrying a large crucifix, an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe and a papal flag.

Father Adam J. Parker, pastor of Church of the Ascension, Halethorpe, has been named vice chancellor for the Archdiocese of Baltimore and will serve as secretary to Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien, effective Sept. 17.