Archdiocese

The Archdiocese of Baltimore has removed the pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Roman Catholic Church in Ellicott City from ministry after he admitted to sexually abusing two girls nearly 40 years ago. The incidents took place while Monsignor Richard E. Smith served as a priest at the former Shrine of Our Lady of Perpetual Help parish in Woodlawn from 1966 to 1967, according to a news release. That parish is now known as St. Gabriel. One woman called the archdiocese March 16 after seeing a photograph of Smith in The Catholic Review, said archdiocese spokesman Sean Caine.

Hiring practices allow new chances Sunday's column by Dan Rodricks unfairly criticizes the Archdiocese of Baltimore's actions and responses on the termination of a parish employee with a criminal record ("Church's `scandal' is others' kindness," Nov. 18). Mr. Rodricks paints a picture of inconsistent responses by the archdiocese to media questions about this employee. But he fails to mention that he named the employee in question when asking about his offenses. Because of privacy concerns, the church, like other employers, generally does not disclose such information about specific employees.

Annapolis Ban considered on plastic bags That standard checkout-line question, "Plastic or paper?" could be rendered moot in the state capital and Baltimore under ordinances being proposed to reduce litter and protect the environment. The Baltimore and Annapolis city councils are scheduled to hear legislation that would outlaw common plastic bags at grocery stores, pharmacies, clothing shops and other retailers. Baltimore and Annapolis are joining a handful of cities questioning the wisdom of widespread use of the bags.

I DON'T understand the bellyaching about the way things turned out with Our Daily Bread. Sure, the downtown business crowd overstated things by attributing an array of problems -- aggressive panhandling, shoplifting, car break-ins, empty retail space on Charles Street -- to the hundreds of men who congregate at ODB each day. And sure, the symbolism was vulgar -- wealthy white men (Peter Angelos, Jimmy Rouse, retired T. Rowe Price CEO George Collins)...

WHEN Catholic Charities' officials announced plans to move Our Daily Bread out of downtown, it said it would take six months to assess feedback.That was three months ago.The plan has already been scrubbed.The Archdiocese of Baltimore, which operates the charity and Our Daily Bread, didn't anticipate the stiff opposition of the Johnston Square neighborhood in East Baltimore, where it planned to move the soup kitchen and expand an existing job-training center. Next time, even at the risk of inflating the price of a prospective site, the host neighborhood needs to be invited into the planning early.

Robert D. Miller is looking for a quality, faith-based education for his 4-year-old daughter, Becky -- but he isn't sure the schools will have room for her.The schools the Crofton parent has in mind are parochial, and in Anne Arundel County they had a waiting list yesterday of 318 applicants. "It is competitive," Miller said. "But that is just the way it is around here."He was among some 50 parents and young children attending a ceremony yesterday as the Archdiocese of Baltimore detailed plans for an elementary school on Waugh Chapel Road in Crofton that will serve families in five county parishes.

The pastor of St. Mary's Church in Annapolis is to meet today with officials of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore in hopes of resolving the verbal skirmish the priest provoked when he announced a restructuring of the parish's two schools.The changes at St. Mary's elementary and high schools have pitted many parents and teachers against the schools' management and have threatened the 131-year tenure of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, who have said they might leave because of the proposed changes.

The pastor at St. Mary's Church in Annapolis, backing away slightly from his controversial school-restructuring plan, said yesterday that he will talk with parishioners and consider their concerns before making any changes."

The pastor at St. Mary's Church in Annapolis, backing away slightly from his controversial school-restructuring plan, said yesterday that he will talk with parishioners and consider their concerns before making any changes."

Roman Catholics can't attend Mass or be absolved of their sins on-line, but in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, they will soon be able to conduct a lot of other parish and spiritual business via computer.At St. Jane Frances de Chantal parish in Riviera Beach, parishioners can have the parish bulletin delivered by computer days before it's handed out in church and check the calendar for future events. Parents with children in parish schools can keep tabs on their youngsters' homework assignments and send messages to teachers, who have computers on their desks.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore has removed the pastor of a Cumberland church as it investigates allegations that he sexually abused a minor in the 1970s, the archdiocese announced Sunday. Monsignor Thomas Bevan, pastor of St. Patrick Church since 1997, has denied the allegations, according to the archdiocese. Representatives of the archdiocese met with parishioners and staff at St. Patrick on Sunday to inform them of the allegations and to answer questions, according to the archdiocese.

Faced with rapidly declining enrollment and mounting debt, Towson Catholic High School will not open for classes in September and becomes the archdiocese's first high school to close in many years. The co-educational school notified parents and its 20-member faculty of the decision by letter and e-mail on Tuesday. Towson Catholic, founded in 1922 as the parish high school for Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church, claims among its alumni the NBA's Carmelo Anthony and Donte Green, Olympic gold medalist Anita Nall, Christian music artist Janna Long and several Maryland legislators, including Sen. Katherine A. Klausmeier.

The treatment for terminal cancer that Annapolis resident Mary Ellen Heibel took at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 2004 and early 2005 worked beyond anyone's wildest hopes, wiping out malignant tumors in her lungs, liver, stomach and chest. Her doctor did not expect it, nor could he explain it. Surely the outcome was remarkable, but was it - in the sense applied by the Roman Catholic Church in such cases - a miracle? In a few weeks, a committee appointed by the Archdiocese of Baltimore will begin exploring that question, examining 11 witnesses, including Heibel, pressing her doctors, nurses and friends in an attempt to understand what happened.

A Baltimore County man in his 40s is suing the Archdiocese of Baltimore for an undisclosed amount of money, alleging negligence by the Roman Catholic Church after what he claims were years of sexual molestation by one of its priests. The lawsuit, filed in Delaware, alleges that the Rev. Michael L. Barnes abused the plaintiff while he was a minor at the St. Clare School in Essex. The suit names Barnes, the school and St. Clare Roman Catholic Church as co-defendants. Barnes, who left the priesthood in 1988 but was employed by the Archdiocese of Washington as lay director of adult faith formation at a Rockville church as recently as January, could not be located Friday.

Two people who claim that DNA tests prove they are the biological offspring of a now-deceased Roman Catholic priest have filed a lawsuit seeking $10 million in damages from his Baltimore-based order. Carla A. Latty, 56, of New Jersey and her brother, Adrian Senna, 63, of British Columbia, say the Rev. Francis E. Ryan, a member of Saint Joseph's Society of the Sacred Heart, had a long-running relationship with their birth mother beginning in Montgomery, Ala., in the 1940s. But rather than acknowledge his paternity and take financial responsibility for his children, the plaintiffs argue, Ryan and his superiors in the order concealed the sexual affair and instead moved Ryan to a succession of assignments in Washington, D.C., and New Orleans.

St. Mary of the Assumption School, a 135-year-old Catholic school in Govans, will be closing at the end of this school year, according to Sean Caine, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The kindergarten through eighth-grade school, which has suffered declining enrollments in recent years, was $1 million in debt and needed additional funds from the archdiocese to meet payroll this year, said Caine. "It has served needy children in the area and those families, while they sacrifice a lot, aren't able to pay full tuition, and it puts a heavy burden on the parish," Caine said.

A 5 percent drop in Catholic school enrollment this year will leave the majority of the Archdiocese of Baltimore's schools in serious financial trouble, according to Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien. O'Brien said he would convene a summit of priests next month to consider innovative ways to combat the continuing decline in enrollment in schools from Western Maryland to the Eastern Shore. The summit will consider higher tuition, consolidations and school closings, but O'Brien said the archdiocese will also look around the country for solutions Although Catholic schools have been gradually closing for decades, the concern became more acute a few weeks ago when enrollment figures were collected from the schools that serve nearly 20,000 students in primarily kindergarten through eighth grade.

Bishop W. Francis Malooly has spent four decades ministering to Roman Catholics in and around his native Baltimore. Now he is moving 70 miles north to take on his biggest job: leading the Diocese of Wilmington, Del. Malooly, 64, was introduced to his new community at a news conference at a Wilmington church yesterday after his appointment by Pope Benedict XVI. Malooly will succeed Bishop Michael A. Saltarelli, who is retiring at the age of 75, as required...

A Roman Catholic priest and former chaplain at the Naval Academy who is HIV-positive is expected to plead guilty today to exploiting his position of authority to have sexual relations - both forced and consensual - with male service members, according to military officials and sources familiar with the case. Lt. Cmdr. John Thomas Lee, 42, came into contact with some of his alleged victims, including gay midshipmen, after they were referred to him for counseling under the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy on homosexuality, sources said.

Hiring practices allow new chances Sunday's column by Dan Rodricks unfairly criticizes the Archdiocese of Baltimore's actions and responses on the termination of a parish employee with a criminal record ("Church's `scandal' is others' kindness," Nov. 18). Mr. Rodricks paints a picture of inconsistent responses by the archdiocese to media questions about this employee. But he fails to mention that he named the employee in question when asking about his offenses. Because of privacy concerns, the church, like other employers, generally does not disclose such information about specific employees.