For the first 12 years of his life, Monsignor John J. Auer grew up in the parish of St. Joseph’s Passionist Monastery Church, Irvington. His family then moved to St. William of York, Baltimore, until the time he was ordained. Besides serving throughout Maryland for his entire career, Monsignor Auer, celebrating 50 years in the...Read More

One of the qualities that Pikesville resident Nia Wheeler has always admired about her father was his endless supply of energy. So, when his diabetes threatened to sap that oomph, the St. Ann, Baltimore, parishioner decided to furnish him with a healthy kidney.Read More

Marge Steele’s two high-schoolers think they have too much homework – most students do. Mrs. Steele agrees with her sophomore and senior sons who attend Calvert Hall College High School, Baltimore. “Our biggest issue is that they play sports and the days they have games they get home very late,” said the mother of Ryan...Read More

WASHINGTON – Precious Blood Father Clarence Williams has been chosen as Catholic Charities USA’s new director of racial equality and diversity initiatives. Father Williams, director of black Catholic ministries in the Archdiocese of Detroit for the last 12 years, starts the new job Sept. 1. A consultant to Catholic Charities for about nine years, Father...Read More

NEW ORLEANS – Manifesting joy and living a life of holiness are fundamental ways to attract young African-American men to consider a vocation to the priesthood, Redemptorist Father Maurice Nutt of Memphis, Tenn., told the joint convention of the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus and the National Black Sisters’ Conference July 25. The conference, attended...Read More

WASHINGTON – Members of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom heard testimony July 25 from witnesses regarding the persecution of the ancient, non-Muslim minority religions in Iraq. The witnesses mentioned their personal experiences as religious minorities as well as their professional experience working in Iraq.Read More

As a young girl in the late 1960s, Nancy Perlman boarded a school bus near her Rodgers Forge home five mornings a week that delivered her safely to nearby St. Pius X School. It was a luxury for which her parents happily paid, in addition to the annual tuition for the Catholic education the now...Read More

When Bishop Denis J. Madden was ordained a priest in 1967, the April Fools Day date assured the anniversary of the event would be forever etched in his memory. “It really is a memorable date,” said the 67-year-old urban vicar of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, with his trademark jocular chuckle. “For better or worse, people...Read More