Shawn Pourifarsi joined UMBC’s Catholic Retrievers as a freshman and began Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA) sessions his sophomore year. Now, he and eight others are preparing to enter the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil.

In this episode of Catholic Review Radio, host George Matysek speaks with Jason M. Baxter, a professor and executive director of the Center for Beauty and Culture at Benedictine College in Kansas. A convert to Catholicism, Baxter recently published a new English translation of “Inferno” through Angelico Press.

Nearly five months after Marylanders overwhelmingly voted to enshrine abortion in the state Constitution – and just weeks after Maryland lawmakers agreed to use a $25 million fund to help pay for abortions – hundreds of unwavering pro-life advocates took to the streets of Annapolis March 27 for the 46th annual Maryland March for Life.

Archbishop William E. Lori announced the appointment March 28 of David W. Kinkopf as the next executive director of Catholic Charities of Baltimore.

Del. C.T. Wilson, sponsor of the Child Victims Act that was passed by the Maryland Legislature in 2023, said he wants to ensure that the names of all perpetrators of child sexual abuse in the state Department of Juvenile Justice are made public. 

Conventual Franciscan Father Richard Florek, the first Franciscan to lead St. Clement Mary Hofbauer parish, died March 22 at age 80.

Archbishop Lori announces appointments, including pastor and deacon assignments

Margaret “Margie” Meyers, a longtime parishioner of St. Peter parish in Westernport and a force in Catholic faith formation and pastoral planning in Western Maryland, died March 10 at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pa., following a brief illness with a neuromuscular disorder. She was 65.

Groups from Hagerstown and Frederick were participating in Just Mercy, a daylong retreat for middle schoolers held in conjunction with the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s “Rise Up, Have Mercy” middle school day in Randallstown.

Patrick Brice, of Baltimore, will be retried for a first-degree assault charge on Mark Crosby, the then-73-year-old abortion protestor Brice pushed, punched and kicked in the face in front of a Planned Parenthood facility in Baltimore May 26, 2023.