When Monsignor Robert L. Hartnett arrived at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Essex 12 years ago, the neighborhood parish was trying to hold together a surrounding community undergoing great change.

The Sept. 19-21 reunion, sponsored by Mega Millions winner Bernadette Gietka, was the first time many of the graduates had seen each other in decades, and brought back memories of their long-closed school.

Nationally known Christian rock artist Josh Blakesley will perform at the Sept. 28 Immersed in God’s Love event at The John Carroll School in Bel Air. The event will feature an outdoor Mass and a concert with Mr. Blakesley and Jackie Francois. Single tickets are $5 and families pay $20. The event begins at 5:15 p.m.

As the canoe-like boats adorned with dragon heads raced across the water in Hong Kong, Harold A. Smith’s mind drifted back to Baltimore.

When Catholics first gathered for Mass in Hagerstown 250 years ago, they did it in secret. Since English penal laws prohibited them from worshipping publically, Hagerstown Catholics met in family homes and relied on Jesuit circuit riders from Conewago, Pa.

In his 38 years of priestly ministry in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Bishop W. Francis Malooly earned a reputation as a man of good humor, deep commitment to his faith, genuine humility and a pastoral sensitivity to others.
All those qualities were on display at St. Elizabeth Church in Wilmington, Del., Sept. 8, when Baltimore’s former western vicar was installed as the 9th bishop of Wilmington.

When Monsignor John Dietzenbach pushed open the doors of the new St. Peter the Apostle Church in Libertytown during a Sept. 7 dedication liturgy, more than 900 parishioners looked on in stunned silence.

Responding to an apocalyptic posting to a Web site by Dr. Gianna Talone-Sullivan claiming that the Blessed Virgin Mary told her of an impending worldwide disaster, the Archdiocese of Baltimore released an Aug. 29 statement reaffirming its position that Dr. Sullivan’s alleged visions “are not supernatural in origin.”

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.

Baltimore’s auxiliary bishops appreciate Bishop W. Francis Malooly’s steady influence.