“He reminded them that the life of every human being was no mistake,” Father Carey said. “God had wonderful plans for each of them.”

Sulpician Father Joseph C. Martin, a leader in the addiction treatment field who cofounded the Father Martin’s Ashley treatment center, died March 9. He was 84.

Mike Mandella opened the doors to the mostly darkened church and immediately looked in the direction of pools of bright light that spilled onto the floor from the two open reconciliation rooms.

As associate publisher/editor of The Catholic Review for 24 years, Mr. Medinger transformed a once-struggling newspaper into one of the most honored publications in the Catholic press.

Its transparent wings beating in a flutter of motion, the locust almost seems ready to jump from the calf-skin parchment on which it is painted. Resting on a delicately arching green leaf, the insect is a physical reminder of a passage in the sacred text that fills the page.

Concerned that the famous blonde is a bad role model who promotes a materialistic lifestyle and unnatural body image, many think parents should box Barbie and put her back on the shelf.

Daniel L. Medinger, under whose direction The Catholic Review won more than 350 national and regional awards, resigned as associate publisher and editor Feb. 9.

“I was always very mission-minded,” said Mrs. Chesnavage, a former president of her parish’s sodality who has taken courses in auto mechanics and cooking. “I felt like God needed me. He gave me 12 healthy children, so I felt like I have to give something back.”

A day after Gov. Martin J. O’Malley released his Jan. 20 budget in Annapolis, leaders of the Maryland Catholic Conference expressed grave concerns about how it could hurt the poor, children in nonpublic schools and the unborn.

Eric Greene knows three classmates from his Catholic elementary school who have died. Others he knows from his old neighborhood are strung out on drugs or in jail.