Altar Boy

Frederick County authorities have filed child abuse charges against a retired Catholic priest for alleged offenses against an altar boy in 1976. Monsignor Thomas Bevan, 73, of Cascade was released on $25,000 bail Thursday. He was indicted on two counts of child abuse Jan. 22 but the charges were kept sealed until Thursday, when an arrest warrant was served. Assistant State's Attorney Lindell Angel says Bevan sexually abused a 10-year-old boy in 1976 when he was associate pastor of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Frederick.

He may plug the middle of the Ravens' offensive line, but Matt Birk's life has always been more off-center. In high school, Birk went out for the golf team before trying football. The road to the pros took him through Harvard. And, after signing his first contract, he moved in with ... his parents. The only conventional thing about Birk is his unconventionality. During team breakfasts at the Ravens' complex, he eats granola brought from home. He is donating his brain to science, to help shed light on sports concussions.

The boy was 11 and full of religion, curiosity and hormones. The pastor was 46 and running St. Matthias in Lanham. The pastor gave the altar boy a cushy job in the rectory, answering the phones at the Catholic church.The kid could earn a few bucks, and his parents didn't have to worry about their firstborn working at a convenience or liquor store. Our boy -- chosen to be one of Father Schaefer's altar boys and given a job in the rectory. We'll keep his dinner hot for him and pick him up at the rectory at 9 p.m., his father thought.

Sewer line leak closes Stoney Run in Arundel 2 A sewer line leak of 25,000 gallons led the Anne Arundel County Health Department to post an emergency closing Friday of Stoney Run, a small creek in Linthicum and Hanover. A blockage or buildup of materials caused the leak near Science Drive in Linthicum, said Matt Diehl, a Public Works Department spokesman. The waterway is closed from there to the Patapsco River. Anyone who touches the water should wash well with soap and water, Health Department spokeswoman Elin Jones said, and clothing that comes into contact with that water should also be washed.

This Sunday, at gatherings from California to New York, friends and admirers of Mario Savio, the affecting and morally probing leader of the 1964 Free Speech Movement, will ponder just where he belongs in their personal and collective histories.But Savio's sudden death from heart troubles last month at age 53, more than 30 years after he was frozen in time as an icon of 1960s radicalism, has raised another intriguing question: What had he been doing all these years?It was a question that the intensely private Savio generally chose not to answer publicly as he taught school, raised three children and attempted again to involve himself in political issues, even while diligently fleeing the corruption of celebrity.

IT WASN'T that a young man had been killed that made me stop. The unfortunate truth, after all, is that young men are frequently killed. So, in itself, the shooting of 20-year-old Ibrahim Khoury in Coral Gables, Fla., seemed sadly ... ordinary. No, the thing that demanded a double take was the professed reason he was killed. According to a story published Feb. 6 in The Miami Herald, Mr. Khoury was an altar boy and engineering student who dealt pot on the side. Miami-Dade police say he and his cousin, George Khoury, had the misfortune to encounter three prospective customers, all teen-agers, who had no intention of paying.

Chicago. -- Some people who were drafted into the armed services wonder why women have been so eager to be included into that tough life. On a different scale, I have somewhat the same feelings about young Roman Catholic women who have been lobbying to become altar girls.The Vatican has just announced that girls will henceforth be allowed to perform these duties -- to light candles, to pour wine and water into the chalice held by a priest, ring bells and give the priest a little napkin to wipe his hands on.I spent many dark and cold mornings -- in Michigan, Wisconsin and Missouri -- performing those duties.

He may plug the middle of the Ravens' offensive line, but Matt Birk's life has always been more off-center. In high school, Birk went out for the golf team before trying football. The road to the pros took him through Harvard. And, after signing his first contract, he moved in with ... his parents. The only conventional thing about Birk is his unconventionality. During team breakfasts at the Ravens' complex, he eats granola brought from home. He is donating his brain to science, to help shed light on sports concussions.

NORTH MIAMI BEACH, Fla. -- A Florida man accused a priest yesterday of molesting him almost 30 years ago -- the same priest former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley alleges sexually abused him. In a suit filed against the Archdiocese of Miami in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, the unidentified man said that the Rev. Anthony Mercieca fondled and performed oral sex on him when he was 12 or 13 years old. At the time, the alleged victim was an altar boy at St. James Church in...

On their wedding day, Stephen Christ waited for Stephanie Tagliaferro at the very same altar where she first saw him 17 years ago.In August 1982, Stephen was a 12-year-old altar boy at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Baltimore. Stephanie, also 12, attended services there. One Sunday after church, Stephanie asked her mother about "that cute altar boy."Though their parents were acquainted, the two youngsters hadn't met each other at the large church. They didn't strike up an immediate friendship once they were introduced but they did join the same church youth group.

Frederick County authorities have filed child abuse charges against a retired Catholic priest for alleged offenses against an altar boy in 1976. Monsignor Thomas Bevan, 73, of Cascade was released on $25,000 bail Thursday. He was indicted on two counts of child abuse Jan. 22 but the charges were kept sealed until Thursday, when an arrest warrant was served. Assistant State's Attorney Lindell Angel says Bevan sexually abused a 10-year-old boy in 1976 when he was associate pastor of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Frederick.

NORTH MIAMI BEACH, Fla. -- A Florida man accused a priest yesterday of molesting him almost 30 years ago -- the same priest former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley alleges sexually abused him. In a suit filed against the Archdiocese of Miami in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, the unidentified man said that the Rev. Anthony Mercieca fondled and performed oral sex on him when he was 12 or 13 years old. At the time, the alleged victim was an altar boy at St. James Church in...

Scene 1: A Coach's Heart Long before Coach Anthony Floyd Sr. married his wife Crystal, before his sons Anthony Jr. and Christopher were born, before he started his job as athletic director of Mount Zion Baptist Church Christian School, there was room in the coach's heart for two things: God and football. The love of both was born early. The grandmother who raised him in Turner's Station, in Baltimore County, introduced him to the Catholic Church. He was an altar boy who played peewee ball at age 9. Though he was too small as a 150-pound freshman to make the football squad at Morgan State University, the desire to play, plus the lessons the game taught him -- discipline, teamwork, perseverance -- stayed with him. It was during a communion rehearsal at Mount Zion one day, years later, when Anthony was struck by an unusual idea.

The World Afghan president Hamid Karzai survived an assassination attempt as a man dressed in a soldiers uniform opened fire on the president's car in Kandahar. A car bomb in Kabul killed about 25 people. German authorities arrested a Turkish man suspected of being a follower of Osama bin Laden and the man's fiancee, an employee of the U.S. military, for planning an attack on a U.S. military base on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attack. Two Israeli soldiers were killed when their tank was blown up by Palestinian fighters.

A suspended Carroll County priest, arrested last month in the alleged abuse of a youth from the Westminster parish where he was assigned two decades ago, was indicted yesterday in the alleged abuse of a second boy about the same time. The Rev. Brian M. Cox, 63, was indicted by a Carroll County grand jury on five counts of felony child abuse and three counts of second-degree assault. He is accused of fondling and engaging in oral sex with the youth on three occasions while Cox was an assistant pastor at St. John Catholic Church in Westminster.

IT WASN'T that a young man had been killed that made me stop. The unfortunate truth, after all, is that young men are frequently killed. So, in itself, the shooting of 20-year-old Ibrahim Khoury in Coral Gables, Fla., seemed sadly ... ordinary. No, the thing that demanded a double take was the professed reason he was killed. According to a story published Feb. 6 in The Miami Herald, Mr. Khoury was an altar boy and engineering student who dealt pot on the side. Miami-Dade police say he and his cousin, George Khoury, had the misfortune to encounter three prospective customers, all teen-agers, who had no intention of paying.

Sewer line leak closes Stoney Run in Arundel 2 A sewer line leak of 25,000 gallons led the Anne Arundel County Health Department to post an emergency closing Friday of Stoney Run, a small creek in Linthicum and Hanover. A blockage or buildup of materials caused the leak near Science Drive in Linthicum, said Matt Diehl, a Public Works Department spokesman. The waterway is closed from there to the Patapsco River. Anyone who touches the water should wash well with soap and water, Health Department spokeswoman Elin Jones said, and clothing that comes into contact with that water should also be washed.

No one believed the boy at first. Yeah, right, his mother said. What's wrong with you? his friend asked. He was only 14 then -- he still forgot to carry his plate to the sink -- and besides, wanting to become a priest was such a big deal. His great-grandfather had been one in Greece. It had happened anyway, the Thursday of Holy Week. Spellbound by candles, incense and ancient chants, a feeling came over Alex Haziminas, and "it was just one of those feelings you always want to have." Finally, he told his priest.

NEWS ACCOUNTS of seniors seeking to recapture a touch of youth by much bodily exertion seem to be on the increase. Awhile back, George H.W. Bush parachuted down; John Glenn rocketed up. But efforts at sports, some strenuous, predominate. Breathless paeans to ancient tennis leapers and scramblers appear, chronicling their geriatric joy of the game. I've dabbled at that net sport awhile; the '30s, after all, were not yesterday. It is with good reason that in the slightly refurbished lobby of the Twin Lakes Racquet Club I am known as "The Human Backboard."