Catholic Charities

The new brick building on the eastern edge of downtown Baltimore looks curiously like a train station, with its arched windows and overhanging roofline. But trains will never stop there. It's home to the Our Daily Bread Employment Center, and it was designed as the starting point for a different sort of journey. Scheduled to begin full operation June 4 after a dedication Thursday, the $15 million building at 725 Fallsway represents an unprecedented attempt by Catholic Charities of Baltimore to fight hunger, unemployment and homelessness.

Making their second joint appearance in five days, Gov. Parris N. Glendening and Democratic mayoral nominee Martin J. O'Malley toured a revitalized Cherry Hill shopping center yesterday and pledged to strengthen city and state ties.Glendening dedicated $1 million in state money to add six "hot spots" in Baltimore to a crime-fighting effort in city neighborhoods. The governor said the state will also pay $5 million to improve roads around the former Procter & Gamble Co. plant being redeveloped in Locust Point.

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.

An East Baltimore neighborhood group is challenging plans to move Our Daily Bread from downtown, believing that the Archdiocese of Baltimore and Associated Catholic Charities Inc. are trying to turn their community into a dumping ground for undesirables.Alice M. Coe and other Brentwood Village residents -- in the area bounded by Preston Street, Greenmount Avenue, the Fallsway and Madison Street -- huddled this week at St. Frances Academy to vent frustrations and map a strategy against the move.

In Baltimore CountyStudent achievement is topic of three-day schools workshopsTOWSON -- Teachers, administrators and parents from about 140 Baltimore County schools will meet for three days starting today to discuss ways to increase student achievement next year, an official said Friday.The workshops, from 8: 30 a.m. to 3: 30 p.m. each day at Perry Hall Middle School, 4300 Ebenezer Road, and Perry Hall High School, 4601 Ebenezer Road, will focus on teaching strategies, curriculum, staff development and classroom management, said spokeswoman Marjorie Hampson.

The first objections to Associated Catholic Charities Inc.'s plan to move the Our Daily Bread soup kitchen from downtown to East Baltimore are surfacing from an unlikely source: the Oblate Sisters of Providence.The Catholic order operates a high school and convent near the building in the 400 block of E. Preston St. that the Archdiocese of Baltimore is proposing for the new Our Daily Bread site.School operators and the nuns object to not being told about the soup kitchen move and question whether the struggling East Baltimore neighborhood is the best place for an influx of downtown poor.

At a time when Baltimore County has 2,500 low-income senior citizens waiting for affordable housing, the federal government announced $12 million in grants yesterday to develop two housing projects in Randallstown and Reisterstown for the elderly poor.The money to build 142 apartments comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.The Randallstown project, to be built with $6.4 million in grants at Liberty and Old Court roads, will accommodate 74 apartments for the elderly.

WHEN THE downtown business community and cultural institutions complained last year about the impact of Maryland's largest soup kitchen, Our Daily Bread, a compromise seemed a long shot.Associated Catholic Charities, which serves lunch to more than 800 people a day at Our Daily Bread, took the challenge to heart. Its proposal, unveiled yesterday, won't satisfy everyone, but it nimbly addresses several conflicting concerns.The $20 million plan includes moving Our Daily Bread to a site just east of Interstate 83 and north of the state prison; adding job training and a men's shelter to that location after an old garage is razed; and moving a daytime shelter for women and children called My Sister's Place to the current Our Daily Bread building, opposite the Enoch Pratt Central Library.

Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke delivered his final annual address to the city's Downtown Partnership yesterday, gaining a standing ovation from business leaders who commended him for bringing the city center to the brink of a $350 million reawakening.Last month, Schmoke, after three terms as mayor, said he would not seek re-election next year. In a speech titled "The Next Chapter for Downtown Baltimore, 1999 and Beyond," Schmoke conveyed optimism that plans to renovate the west side of downtown will finally connect Charles Center, the Inner Harbor and the University of Maryland, Baltimore.

Making their second joint appearance in five days, Gov. Parris N. Glendening and Democratic mayoral nominee Martin J. O'Malley toured a revitalized Cherry Hill shopping center yesterday and pledged to strengthen city and state ties.Glendening dedicated $1 million in state money to add six "hot spots" in Baltimore to a crime-fighting effort in city neighborhoods. The governor said the state will also pay $5 million to improve roads around the former Procter & Gamble Co. plant being redeveloped in Locust Point.

For Cockeysville businessman Ron Ryba, the long walk from the parking lot to the stadium in Philadelphia was a 29-year trail of memories. He had come to meet the son he and his high school sweetheart had never dared to look at when they gave him up for adoption nearly three decades earlier. Now the baby was a grown man. What would he say to him? What would he look like? For Phil Bloete, too, the 2004 meeting at a Phillies game was the culmination of a lifelong dream. He was 28, a high school English teacher in New Jersey.

With a new executive director taking over for the first time in more than three decades, now, traditionally, would be the time to consider new directions that Catholic Charities might take. But Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien, who chairs the board that oversees the organization, is planning to take an "if it ain't broke ..." approach as William J. McCarthy Jr., former Sun Trust Bank Greater Baltimore president, succeeds Harold A. "Hal" Smith as executive director. "I don't think that there's a Catholic Charities program throughout the country to match ours," says O'Brien, spiritual leader of the area's 500,000 Catholics.

Banker William J. McCarthy Jr. is quick to acknowledge he'll have big shoes to fill when he succeeds Harold A. "Hal" Smith as executive director of Catholic Charities of Baltimore. Smith is stepping down Aug. 1 after 33 years at the charity's helm. "In Baltimore terms, that's kind of like replacing Brooks Robinson at third base," McCarthy said Tuesday after his hiring was announced. Adding to McCarthy's challenge is that he is taking over amid a recession that has seen Catholic Charities grapple with record demand for services as its financial resources have diminished.

On November 25, 2008, ELMER A., beloved husband of the late Mary B. Rosenberger, devoted father of John Rosenberger, Kathleen White and Ann Patek, loving grandfather of Amy, Melissa, Rachel and C.J. All are invited to attend a Memorial Mass at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church on Saturday, December 13, 9 A.M., 1704 Old Eastern Ave. Contributions to be made if desired to St. Jude Children's Research Center, 332 N. Lauderdale, Memphis, TN 38105. www.stjude.org. or Catholic Charities of Maryland, 320 Cathedral St., 3rd flr, Baltimore, MD 21201-4421 www.catholiccharities-md.

Angelo Boer is disturbed by what he sees happening. As the ranks of the jobless have swollen, more and more people are running out of food and money to pay bills. An emergency fund for utility cutoffs and evictions that was supposed to last the winter has already been depleted. He's no less bothered, as development director at Catholic Charities of Baltimore, by what he isn't seeing: donations. In past downturns, giving has risen. Not so far this year. With contributions off 5 percent, the agency is on pace to miss its fundraising target by $500,000.

Residents of Abingdon Senior Housing gathered in their community room for a blessing on their new home, a ceremonial ribbon-cutting, and a reception marking the completion of another residential project for Catholic Charities. The $8.1 million four-story building, which is fully leased, includes 76 one-bedroom apartments for older adults, several community rooms and landscaped grounds. Abingdon, at the intersection of Singer Road and St. Clair Drive, has been open for a year, allowing the 83 residents to become well acquainted.

Agreement made to create health center for Latinos Catholic Charities signed an agreement yesterday with three medical providers to open a health center to serve the region's uninsured Latino population. The center, a joint effort of St. Joseph Medical Center, Johns Hopkins Medicine and St. Agnes HealthCare, is expected to open early next year at Catholic Charities' Hispanic Apostolate at 430 S. Broadway in Fells Point. The project seeks to expand on a decadelong effort by St. Joseph Medical Center, which makes twice-weekly visits to the Hispanic Apostolate to provide primary care to about 2,000 adults a year.

With Baltimore's largest soup kitchen scheduled to start operating from a new location June 4, its owner is poised to begin renovating the current property for a different but related use. Catholic Charities of Baltimore plans to spend $3 million starting this summer to convert the Our Daily Bread dining facility at 411 Cathedral St. and two adjacent rowhouses at 17 and 19 W. Franklin St. to a permanent home for My Sister's Place, a day shelter and...

Elected and religious figures gathered yesterday to dedicate the new Our Daily Bread Employment Center on Fallsway, designed to offer new opportunities to disadvantaged people. The 52,000-square-foot building, constructed on land donated by the city, cost $15 million in public funds and private donations to build. It will house three Catholic Charities programs of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, including Our Daily Bread, the city's largest soup kitchen, and employment services. "We see this building as a beacon in the community, calling people to change their lives, calling employers to hire people we've prepared and calling volunteers and supporters to keep us going," said Mary Anne O'Donnell, Catholic Charities' community services director.

The new brick building on the eastern edge of downtown Baltimore looks curiously like a train station, with its arched windows and overhanging roofline. But trains will never stop there. It's home to the Our Daily Bread Employment Center, and it was designed as the starting point for a different sort of journey. Scheduled to begin full operation June 4 after a dedication Thursday, the $15 million building at 725 Fallsway represents an unprecedented attempt by Catholic Charities of Baltimore to fight hunger, unemployment and homelessness.