archdiocese of baltimore

"Welcome to St. Margaret," students announced eagerly as they held open the doors of St. Margaret Middle School to Archbishop William Lori on Wednesday.

On the eve of the celebration of the birth of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and the inauguration of President Barack Obama, more than 300 communicants and friends packed East Baltimore's historic St. Francis Xavier Church.

This season's flu outbreak was declared an epidemic by federal health officials Friday as Maryland hospitals and clinics continued to treat unusually high numbers of patients for the virus and manufacturers reported low supplies of the vaccine to treat the illness.

Dr. Ellen G. McDaniel, whose distinguished career in psychiatry spanned more than 40 years and influenced patients, medical students and even juries, died of lung cancer Thursday at her home in Highland. She was 71.

Like preachers across the country preparing for Christmas services today, William Lori has grappled with the question of how to celebrate the joy of the day so soon after the devastation of Newtown. But for Baltimore's new archbishop, the challenge is also "rather personal."

As many as 240 AmeriCorps members will relocate from Perryville to Baltimore's Graceland Park in the coming months, as a division of the national service organization establishes its first urban campus.

The Church should treat child sex abuse as a felony first, a sin second

A symposium on a proposed streetcar draws movers and shakers from around the city Dec. 5 although a city representative was conspicuously missing. The streetcar line would link the Inner Harbor and north Baltimore institutions, such as Hopkins Homewood and the BMA

In child sex abuse cases, the Church has much to answer for

An Archdiocese of Baltimore official says the church acted responsibly in its reporting of the child sex abuse allegations against John Merzbacher.

Former state Sen. Francis Kelly helped engineer the deal that will bring St. Joseph's Medical Center in the University of Maryland Medical System, effectively throwing a lifeline to his local hospital.

Born with half a heart and abandoned in a village west of Beijing, nobody believed Liu Fang would survive long after being adopted by a Baltimore County family. Even the Bartlinskis, deeply religious Catholics, expected the girl's lungs would fail even if her heart could be repaired.

Archdiocese must admit wrongdoing in Merzbacher abuse incidents

Proposed reforms come in wake of a Baltimore Sun investigation that revealed several Catholic officials having knowledge of a teacher's repeated sex crimes on students – years before he was prosecuted and ultimately convicted.

Several incidents outlined in court documents, analyzed in a Baltimore Sun investigation, indicate that Catholic officials were aware of John Merzbacher's sexual abuse of students in the 1970s but did not report it until he was criminally investigated in the 1990s.

Attorneys for the convicted child rapist argue that he should have been offered a plea deal. The Maryland Attorney General's office says his four life terms should stand.

Bolton Street Synagogue is phone banking and door canvassing to drum up support for Question 6 on the ballot for marriage equality. The rabbi and his volunteers say its part of their mission to "repair the world" and to comply with the Torah's teachings that one should treat others as they wish to be treated.

Archbishop William Lori celebrated Mass at St. Joseph Parish in Cockeysville Saturday, giving the area's oldest church community a chance to show off its renovations to the church's new leader

Local leaders of the Catholic, Mainline Protestant and black churches are planning to speak this evening in favor of in-state tuition breaks for illegal immigrants at Maryland¿s public colleges and universities, advocates said.

Rosella M. Beeler, a retired department store worker and homemaker, died of pneumonia Oct. 4 at Manor Care Health Services in Ruxton. The Campus Hills resident was 91.

The churches are placing a particular emphasis on African-American voters because many are becoming open to same-sex marriage after President Barack Obama and the NAACP's board of directors announced their support for it.

St. Augustine School in Elkridge was one of 10 Maryland schools, and the only school in Howard County, to receive a 2012 National Blue Ribbon honor from the U.S. Department of Education.

3rd District Councilman Todd Huff explains why he voted the way he did on Parkton, Sparks,Phoenix, properties in the Baltimore County Comprehensive Zoning Map Process.

Even amid an economic downturn that has many parishes struggling and a declining enrollment that prompted the closing of many Catholic schools, the Archdiocese of Baltimore is confident it can raise $100 million during its first capital campaign in 15 years.

Recently St. Vincent's Villa campus in Cockeysville was the site of a summer camp project and multi-cultural day that showcased the Olympics and the countries that participated in the London Games ...

New, all-boys Catholic high school opened its doors in 1962.

Councilman Todd Huff decides on 71 rezoning requests in 3rd District and doesn't vote for downzoning

Those who want to limit development in Council District 3, which is represented by Councilman Todd Huff, point to environmental concerns and the area's agricultural history. They also worry new residential building would further crowd the area's public schools.

A Catholic priest from Towson was sentenced to 360 days in jail, with all of the time suspended, after pleading guilty in Harford County Wednesday to an single charge of indecent exposure, stemming from his arrest inside an Abingdon adult bookstore in January.

A year ago Thursday, an earthquake in Virginia was felt in Baltimore and across a third of the country, with some signs of damage still remaining.

Gary Rand II succeeds retired Sister Marie Rose Gustatus as principal of St. Thomas Aquinas School in Hampden

Sister Marie Rose Gustatus retires after 32 years as principal of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School in Hampden. She is also a 50-year School Sister of Notre Dame.

As the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council approaches, Archbishop William E. Lori puts it in context of church teachings.

A federal appeals court has granted a new hearing in a case challenging whether Baltimore can require faith-based pregnancy counseling centers to post signs saying they don't offer abortion or birth control advice and services.

The Cardinal Gibbons School is counting the 62-student Class of 2012 among its alumni after a ceremony at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County Saturday.

Msgr. Damien George Nalepa, the pastor of a West Baltimore Roman Catholic parish who led campaigns to take guns out of his neighborhood, died of an apparent heart attack Saturday. He was 70.

Howard County police detectives searched the office of the Columbia Housing Corporation on Wednesday in an investigation involving an employee, a lawyer representing the nonprofit agency said in a statement.