benedict xvi

I am heartsick. The news coming out of the White House and the Vatican has left me despondent. Two of the world’s highest offices — the U.S. presidency and the papacy — are besmirched and fouled, leaving me with shattered ideals and a sense of violated trust.

William H. Keeler, the retired archbishop of Baltimore's Catholic Church, died Thursday at age 86.

Monsignor Robert Armstrong, the longest-serving rector at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in North Baltimore, died of heart failure March 1 at the Stella Ma

It's 8 a.m. Sunday at St. Hilda's in Catonsville, and the priest in the pulpit wears a white robe and green chasuble to celebrate the Episcopal Mass. Two hours later, he has exchanged the alb and chasuble for a black Joe Flacco jersey to lead an evangelical service.

In Sondheim Artscape Prize finalist Eric Kruszewski's documentary series "The Lost Flock" at the BMA, LGBTQ Catholics and their allies find community.

Pope Francis, who has declared 2016 a Holy Year of Mercy, published a much-anticipated exhortation on love and marriage Friday that eases the way for divorced and remarried Catholics to rejoin the faith, but reiterates limits on gay unions and the ban on contraception and abortion.

When it comes to Catholic politics, there is room for debate over civil issues, including immigration, welfare and education. However, there can be no room for disagreement regarding abortion and euthanasia.

When the Rev. Ryan Sirmons speaks from the pulpit at the United Church of Christ in Annapolis this Sunday, he says, he'll talk to his congregation about Lent, the 40-day period of fasting and reflection leading up to the Christian celebration of Easter.

Pope Francis moving church 'always forward'

As of Wednesday afternoon, the Rev. Sam Young, pastor of St. Paul Catholic Church in Ellicott City, has seen three popes on American soil. This week, he was a concelebrant at Pope Francis' Mass at Catholic University; in 2008, he attended Pope Benedict's mass at the Nationals stadium in D.C.; and in 1995, he attended Pope John Paul II's mass during his visit to Baltimore.

WASHINGTON -- Pope Francis will arrive in the United States on Tuesday amid raging partisan debates in Congress over abortion, immigration and climate change, giving him an extraordinary platform from which to influence -- and roil -- lawmakers of both parties.

As Pope Francis prepares to visit to the U.S. this week, it is a safe bet he is getting cautionary advice to stick to platitudes and avoid confronting controversial issues head on. Let's hope he ignores it.

It has come to be called "the Francis effect," this deep and direct connection that the pope, who will begin a six-day visit to the U.S. on Tuesday, has made with people around the world, both in and out of the faith.

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Knights of Columbus Council 7612 donates more than $1,100 to Springfield Hospital Auxiliary.

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Knights of Columbus Council 7612 donates more than $1,100 to Springfield Hospital Auxiliary.

Hundreds of parishioners at St. Ignatius Catholic Church in Hickory were treated to a Christmas Eve Mass Wednesday with Archbishop of Baltimore William E. Lori leading the celebration.

Hundreds of Catholics streamed up the aisles of Holy Rosary Church in Baltimore Sunday, through incense-sweet air, to venerate the relic of a pope who visited 38 years earlier. The relic — a drop of Pope John Paul II's blood — took on new meaning for the faithful that day. His first as a canonized saint.

As Pope John Paul II is canonized as a saint this weekend, Columbia native Melissa Brent recalls meeting the pontiff during his 1995 visit to Baltimore.

Nugent and Sister Jeannine Gramick founded New Ways Ministry in 1977 to support gay Catholics, drawing censure from church authorities.

Scholar Russ Breault to bring his multimedia presentation, "Shroud Encounters," to Hopkins tonight

The Retreat and Conference Center at Bon Secours is gearing up to celebrate an important period in the history of the Catholic Church: the fiftieth anniversary of the Second Vatican Council.

In a hopeful sign for gay rights, Pope Francis casts the issue of homosexuality and the priesthood in more accepting, compassionate terms

Pope Francis surprised the Catholic faithful on Monday by saying the Roman Catholic Church shouldn't marginalize gay priests, saying: "Who am I to judge?"

St. Timothy's Church of Baltimore County in Catonsville held its last service in their Ingleside Avenue building Sunday June 30

The new pope presents a more appealing figure than his predecessor, but for the church, the change is cosmetic.

The eighth grade students at St. Joan of Arc School participated in a Conclave web chat with William E. Lori, Archbishop of Baltimore

Three deer scurried past the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen as Steve Thomas and his wife, Debbie, arrived for Sunday Mass to celebrate the new spiritual leader for Catholics worldwide, Pope Francis.

Religious order has long history in Carroll County

In honor of the Roman Catholic Church naming Francis I its new pope, Baseball historian/statistician Bill Arnold put together a list of all-time, home-run leaders under each of the 11 popes since Major League Baseball was officially formed.

The new pope can have a profound influence on world affairs if he focuses on social, economic and environmental justice.

Around 2 p.m. Wednesday, the bell at Saint Margaret Parish in Bel Air pealed as word quickly spread from faithful observers in St. Peter's Square in Rome throughout the world that white smoke was pouring from the chimney at the Vatican, the formal announcement of the election of a new pope.

Surprise turned into joy as Baltimore Catholics celebrated the election of the first Hispanic and first Jesuit ever elected pope, saying it offered an often hidebound church a chance of rejuvenation.

Catholic leaders in Howard County rejoiced Wednesday at the naming of Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina as the new pope, Pope Francis I

Roman Catholic cardinals went into a virtual news blackout Tuesday to begin electing a new pope, but that has only has heightened interest in what's happening behind the closed doors of their conclave.

As their church's cardinals gathered in Vatican City to select a new pope, Catholic schoolchildren in the Baltimore area joined the worldwide buzz over the secret balloting process in an online chat on Monday with a fairly well-placed source, Archbishop William E. Lori.