catholic relief services

Four employees of the Baltimore-based Catholic Relief Services were killed in the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash.

By Sarah Meehan

Mar 11, 2019

Americans used to not take the holidays off from the problems of the world, they helped solve some of them. Do we still?

In celebration of World Refugee Day on Wednesday, Baltimore-based Catholic Relief Services and award-winning Nashville photographer Jeremy Cowart have launched the “Be Unafraid” campaign, a traveling photo exhibit that attempts to address the fear surrounding refugees.

By Brittany Britto

Jun 20, 2018

Joseph G. Chamberlin, a former Catholic Relief Services manager, mediator, and Baltimore writer, died Saturday of cancer at Gilchirst Hospice Care in Towson. The Hamilton resident was 71.

By Frederick N. Rasmussen

Nov 20, 2017

NFL protest is no insult, but an affirmation of freedom

By Dan Rodricks

Sep 26, 2017

Thomas Awiapo, a native of Ghana orphaned as a boy, survived childhood famine because of U.S. foreign aid, and he tells us his heartbreaking story of survival.

By Dan Rodricks

Sep 12, 2017

Volunteers pack meals for West Africa

By Jacques Kelly

Sep 2, 2017

Lawrence A. Pezzullo, a career diplomat who became the first layman to head Catholic Relief Services, died July 26.

By Frederick N. Rasmussen

Aug 1, 2017

A unanimous Supreme Court revived President Donald J. Trump's travel ban Monday, allowing the government to impose restrictions on some people traveling to the United States from six mostly Muslim countries.

Let's bring together all the talent and dedication in Baltimore to find ways to quell the violence.

William C. Newman Jr., a longtime auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, who oversaw the Catholic schools and chose the priesthood over a chance to play professional baseball, died Saturday of heart failure at Mercy Ridge retirement community in Timonium. He was 88 years old.

By Tim Prudente

May 21, 2017

William Clifford Newman, a Baltimore native who served for nearly 20 years as an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, died Saturday in hospice

By Matthew Hay Brown

May 20, 2017

William Clifford Newman, a Baltimore native who served for nearly 20 years as an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, died Saturday in hospice care at the Mercy Ridge Retirement Community in Timonium, the archdiocese said. He was 88.

By Matthew Hay Brown

May 20, 2017

There has been horrendous news coverage of orphanages recently: children starving in an orphanage in Belarus, a fire killing 40 girls in an orphanage in Guatemala, children being made to clean septic tanks and scavenge for food at an orphanage in India. This all gives rise to a hugely important question: Why are millions of children around the world living in orphanages when they could — and should — be growing up in families?

The reductions that Donald Trump and his phalanx of billionaires and millionaires propose in assistance to the most vulnerable people in the world is a disgrace and a shameful insult to the humanitarian values for which America stands.

More than 27 years after they were shut, the doors at the old Hutzler's Howard Street department store are open again, this time for The Contemporary museum

By Jacques Kelly

Mar 17, 2017

Reaction to President Donald Trump's revised travel ban appeared to fall mainly along partisan lines Monday, with Democrats suggesting the new order still

By John Fritze

Mar 6, 2017

World Relief, a Baltimore-based non-profit that helps resettle refugees, said Wednesday it will lay off more than 140 staff after the Trump administration's decision to allow in fewer refugees.

By Colin Campbell

Feb 16, 2017

The eight semifinalists in the MacArthur Foundation’s $100 million grant challenge announced.

A day after an executive order halted the flow of refugees to the United States, immigrant advocates in Maryland and elsewhere condemned a policy they said punishes innocent people fleeing violence while failing to make the nation more secure

By Lorraine Mirabella

Feb 7, 2017

Yvonne M. Theodore, former assistant to the provost at johns Hopkins University whose philanthropic interests were Roman Catholic-faith based charities, died Jan. 22 from cardiovascular disease at her Canton home. She was 78.

By Frederick N. Rasmussen

Feb 2, 2017

Three guests provide insight and commentary on the president's executive order.

By Dan Rodricks

Jan 31, 2017

A chance encounter late at night at an isolated intersection in Nicaragua over a quarter of a century ago remains a vivid memory for Sean Callahan.

Carl F. Foreman Sr., a longtime Catholic Relief Services worker whose career took him from managing a fleet of trucks in Sierra Leone to Capitol Hill, died monday from a heart attack at St. Agnes Hospital. He was 65.

By Frederick N. Rasmussen

Dec 15, 2016

Six years after a devastating earthquake struck Haiti that left millions homeless, Towson's Caprece Jackson-Garrett volunteered to help gather backpacks.

When Haiti's first lady asked Caprece Jackson-Garrett to gather backpacks for the country's children in need, Jackson-Garrett knew she couldn't say no.

As the U.N. General Assembly meets to discuss the worst refugee crisis in history, humanitarian agencies based in Baltimore are joining the call to overhaul the way the world comes to the aid of people forced from their homes by wars and disasters.

By Ian Duncan

Sep 20, 2016

Sean Callahan, a 28-year veteran of Catholic Relief Services, is to become president and CEO on Jan. 1. He succeeds Carolyn W. Yoo, the former business school dean who has headed the organization for five years.

By Jonathan M. Pitts

Sep 16, 2016

Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori is planning to mark the canonization of Mother Teresa of Calcutta on Sunday with masses at local churches she visited in the 1990s.

By Matthew Hay Brown

Aug 29, 2016

Baltimore is a jewel of a city, but with broken strips of neighborhoods that have descended into something approaching anarchy. But even in that condition, the assault of a 90-year-old woman has left people stunned. Someday, perhaps quite soon, we will look at ourselves and say that we weren't meant for this. We were meant for something much, much greater. I pray that it's soon. Ms. Hines deserved so much more.

As Easter dawns Sunday, Catholic Relief Services and other humanitarian relief agencies in Baltimore and across the U.S. are reaching out to Christians and other religious minorities facing persecution in the Middle East. This month Secretary of State John Kerry declared that Islamic State attacks on Christians and other minorities constitute genocide.

By Jonathan M. Pitts

Mar 26, 2016

When the Orioles traveled to Havana in 1999 to play a goodwill game against a team of Cuban All-Stars, it had been nearly 40 years since a major league team had set foot in the tiny island nation. Little did anyone suspect at the time that it would be another 17 years before another big league team would do the same, but the Tampa Bay Rays will arrive in Cuba this week to play the Cuban national team against a much different geopolitical backdrop.

By Peter Schmuck

Mar 19, 2016

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.

By Pamela Wood

Feb 9, 2016

Godfrey Garvey, 86, retired owner of a Howard County plumbing business, died Saturday at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Columbia.

By Jacques Kelly

Dec 29, 2015

The deadly terror attacks in Paris sparked a heated political debate in the U.S. on Monday as policymakers sparred over President Barack Obama's plan to settle thousands more Syrian refugees in the country.

A Catholic Relief Services official told federal lawmakers on Tuesday that the U.S. should increase its investment in humanitarian assistance for refugees fleeing violence in Syria.

By John Fritze

Oct 20, 2015

As the pope's first U.S. visit comes to an end, church leaders, lay members and Francis fans plan ways of harnessing its goodwill and making its lessons last.

By Jonathan M. Pitts

Sep 26, 2015

Patrick C. "Pat" Johns, a legendary Catholic Relief Services figure whose expertise as Director of Emergency Operations earned him the moniker of the "Master of Disaster," died Sept. 14 of kidney and heart failure at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was 66.

By Frederick N. Rasmussen

Sep 21, 2015

Sister Rosalie Murphy, a member of the Sisters of Notre Dame deNamur who had been Director of the Division of Collegial Services at the Pastoral Center of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore for more than 20 years, died of respiratory failure at her order's U.S. East-West Province Center in Roland Park.

By Frederick N. Rasmussen

Sep 16, 2015

The Syrian boy on a Turkish beach is that "least brother" Jesus commanded us to care for.

A+ Care at Babcock, a before and after school childcare center for about 30 students from Pleasant Plains and Cromwell Valley elementary schools, is now a Certified Wildlife Habitat.

In a sweeping environmental manifesto aimed at spurring action, Pope Francis called Thursday for a revolution to correct what he called a "structurally perverse" economic system in which the rich exploit the poor, turning Earth into an "immense pile of filth."

Riders of Maryland's MARC trains urged Gov. Larry Hogan Monday to delay fare increases announced by the Maryland Transit Administration and to order the agency to hold public hearings on hikes of as much as 67 percent for weekly ticket purchasers.

By Michael Dresser

Jun 15, 2015

Under Armour senior director of innovation survived the earthquake in Nepal during his mountain climbing mission to fight human trafficking

By Lorraine Mirabella

May 16, 2015

Baltimore aid groups, including Catholic Relief Services and Lutheran World Relief, had sent people and supplies to Nepal to help the country recover and have already reached about 30,000 people. But with monsoon rains expected in a few weeks, workers say they are now assessing how the new quake will affect their attempts to get people to shelter.

By Ian Duncan

May 12, 2015

Rebecca Sue Palasits, an active community volunteer who earlier had served with the Peace Corps and taught school, died May 2 of breast cancer at her Columbia home. She was 59.

By Frederick N. Rasmussen

May 8, 2015

Locally based aid groups offer citizens an easy way to help victims of the disaster

Baltimore-based Lutheran World Relief says it is gearing up to provide aid to help those affected by Saturday's large earthquake in Nepal.

By Luke Broadwater

Apr 26, 2015

U.S. should invest more in humanitarian aid to those suffering abroad and less in waging war on them