Five St. Mary’s High School students will attend the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis this year, with three others heading to military academy prep schools and two more ready for Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC).

Many stellar students who excelled in academics, sports, community service and more were among the graduating seniors from Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The Catholic review highlights a few of them.

Graduates of Baltimore-area Catholic schools are at the top of their games when it comes to grabbing national attention in the professional ranks and on the pre-Olympic stage this summer.

Whether celebrating Mass on the hood of a Humvee in a war zone or inside a clear-glass church near Deep Creek Lake looking out to the mountains of Western Maryland, Father Thomas Gills sought to convey the same sense of the sacred.

For the last 12 years, Father William “Bill” Foley has served the 80 or so retired priests in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, which also included helping those priests who are about to retire adjust to the changes they can expect. Now, that group includes Father Foley himself as he will retire effective July 1 as the Director of Senior and Retired Priests.

If you listen to people who work at Church of the Resurrection in Ellicott City and interact with Monsignor John A. Dietzenbach, its pastor since 2009, you hear of a dedicated Catholic who is the picture of work ethic, selflessness, humility, positivity and deep love for his parish and the Holy Trinity.

“A real pleasure,” says Monsignor Baker about his 43-year priesthood that has taken him from an associate pastor to the archdiocese’s director of vocations and for the last 23 years as pastor of bustling St. Ignatius in Hickory.

The legacy of Father Keith Boisvert is tangible, especially on the site of an old farm in Frederick County. After 45 years in the priesthood, Father Boisvert, the founding pastor of St. Katharine Drexel in Frederick, will retire in July 2024.

Father Franken, 75, who will retire as pastor of St. Joan of Arc in Aberdeen effective July 1, enjoyed his work with young people, but the call to the diocesan priesthood was strong.

Catholic Review Editor Christopher Gunty talked with Hans Plate, founder and president of Vinea Research, about the new study the firm released showing that about 60 percent of Massgoers believe in the Real Presence.