Archdiocese

The Archdiocese of Baltimore will attempt to stem a decade of decline in its schools by asking all its parishes to help fund local Catholic education and creating a centralized system that leaves parish priests with a diminished role in making education decisions. After 16 months of study, a panel on Catholic education issued recommendations Thursday that attempt to stabilize a dwindling system that has closed 28 of its schools, or 40 percent, since 2000. "I cannot think of anything more important than arresting the decline of Catholic schools," said banking executive Frank Bramble, who headed the panel.

Until the lawyer for the archdiocese mentioned it the other day, I didn't know urban renewal and edifice-building were in the realm of the evangelist. I assumed an evangelist was simply a passionate preacher of the Christian Gospel. I should have paid better attention in theology class. Who knew the mission involved razing a historic apartment building in the midst of downtown Baltimore's efforts to preserve, renew and provide more affordable housing? But, nice thing about life and the newspaper business: You learn something every day. Monday, we learned from the archdiocese's lawyer that, in tearing down the Rochambeau Apartments, the Roman Catholic Church is "doing the work of an evangelist."

Saying gun control is a high-priority moral issue, the Archdiocese of Baltimore announced yesterday that hundreds of thousands of Roman Catholics will be recruited to pressure the General Assembly to clamp down on the sale of firearms in Maryland.Auxiliary Bishop John H. Ricard said a new poll shows that most of the state's Catholics strongly favor stricter gun controls. He said the archdiocese believes that restricting the availability of weapons is a moral and practical necessity."Our pastors find increasingly that they can't hold church meetings at night, can't let children play outside, that it's not safe to have festivals," the bishop said at a news conference in a Southwest Baltimore church hall.

Gregory A. Rapisarda has answered to the name "father" for decades, but that name will soon take on a much broader meaning. Rapisarda, a 62-year-old widower, father of four and grandfather of five, will be ordained today at the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in North Baltimore. The Rev. John C. Rapisarda, ordained in 2008, will perform the vesting honors for his own father, placing on him a cream-colored chasuble, the vestment worn at Mass. And then, for the first time in the 221-year history of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, a father and son will both serve as parish priests, according to church officials.

The former principal of a Catholic school in Glen Burnie will keep her teaching job with the Archdiocese of Baltimore despite pleading guilty last week to taking more than $60,000 over a decade from fund-raisers and other accounts of the school she headed, church officials said yesterday. Janice C. McIntosh, 53, who was principal of Arthur Slade Regional Catholic School in Glen Burnie, now teaches reading at St. Clement Mary Hofbauer School in Rosedale. "There was no new knowledge, nothing that surfaced during those deliberations that we had not already been aware of," said Ronald J. Valenti, the archdiocese's superintendent of Catholic schools.

Supporters of the Cardinal Gibbons School say the Archdiocese of Baltimore is refusing to hear their plan to keep the school open beyond the end of the academic year. Alumni have drafted a proposal to take over Cardinal Gibbons, now slated to close in June, and run it as an independent Catholic high school. But at a meeting this week at the Catholic Center, they say, Bishop Denis J. Madden refused to look at it. "Their minds are already made up," said Wayne McDowell, a board member.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore was notified yesterday to expect multimillion-dollar lawsuits on behalf of two women who allege that a priest at Archbishop Keough High School sexually abused them when they were students there more than 20 years ago.Three Towson lawyers representing the women sent by certified mail copies of the complaints with cover letters saying their clients will seek compensatory and punitive damages totaling tens of millions of dollars.Although...

A lawsuit that alleged a Baltimore Catholic elementary school teacher fondled five girls has been settled, with families of the five victims to receive $425,000 from the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The settlement of the lawsuit, which named David A. Czajkowski, the St. Thomas Aquinas School in Hampden and the archdiocese, was reached Thursday, said Paul Mark Sandler, a lawyer representing the families. Czajkowski, 39, pleaded guilty in May last year to three counts of child sexual abuse for fondling fourth- and fifth-grade pupils at the school.

Sister Mary Coia, who had been an auditor for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, died Monday at Mercy Medical Center from complications of Parkinson's disease. She was 74. Born Mary Asunta Coia in Hammonton, N.J., she took the name Sister Mary Gemma upon entering the Sisters of Mercy here in 1949. She later returned to her baptismal name. Sister Mary Coia earned her undergraduate degree at Mount St. Agnes College in Mount Washington and a master's in romance languages at Case Western Reserve University.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore, beset with allegations that priests have sexually abused minors, has named a panel of nine community leaders and educators to review the handling of past, present and future cases.Archbishop William H. Keeler's announcement yesterday that an independent review board will advise him on the adequacy of measures to deal with sexual abuse came as still another local priest was dismissed from his job because of such accusations.The Rev. Francis M. Sweeney, 60, has been removed as chaplain at the Charlestown Retirement Community in Catonsville and is undergoing psychological evaluation and counseling at an undisclosed location.