A funeral Mass for Conventual Franciscan Brother Michael Thomas Duffy will be offered Dec. 11, at 2 p.m., at the Shrine of St. Anthony in Ellicott City. Brother Michael died Dec. 6. He was 65.

Catholic Review Editor Christopher Gunty sat down with Marilyn Santos, associate director of Evangelization and Catechesis for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, who will be coordinating resources for dioceses and parishes to use to help celebrate the jubilee. Gunty also talks with Religious Sister of Mercy Maria Juan Anderson, who is coordinator of the U.S. Bishops’ Office for Visitors to the Vatican in Rome.

Archbishop William E. Lori will ordain Deacon Rondall Howard to the priesthood Dec. 14 at 10 a.m. at St. Ignatius in Ijamsville.

Father McAndrews, who died Nov. 23 at age 96, is largely credited with putting the all-boys school on a path during his presidency (1979-98) to where it now is honored routinely as one of the best private educational institutions in Maryland.

A funeral Mass was offered Dec. 6 in Aston, Pa., for Sister Elaine Spangler, a member of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia for 65 years, who died Nov. 30. The former Sister Carlos Marie was 90. 

Archbishop Lori announces appointments, including retirements and deacon assignments

He’s worked with patients whose ears were bitten off in dog attacks. He’s seen people whose eyes or ears were lost in accidents or whose flesh was ravaged by aggressive cancers. And he’s helped others born without body parts or who suffered unimaginable gunshot wounds.

Christmas gifts made by hand offer many benefits, artists and crafters say, no matter if they are baked, painted, sewed or melted. They are one-of-a-kind and mean a lot to both the givers and the receivers.

At the Blue Peak Center for Applied Behavior Analysis, the aim is more than just working to modify the behavior of young children with autism. It is also to help them and their families thrive and learn to cope with the world around them.

Catholic Review Editor Christopher Gunty talks with Jason Cherubini, an executive-in-residence at Loyola University Maryland about the business behind holiday movies and why there are so many of them. It’s good business, he says, because people are searching for connection and comfort at this time of year. But the ones that become classics are those that resonate with people year after year.