Catholic Review

Robert John Sievers, former editor of The Catholic Review who later edited several trade publications, died Saturday of pneumonia at St. Joseph Medical Center. The Towson resident was 82. Born in Leadville, Colo., the son of an insurance salesman and a homemaker, Mr. Sievers was a 1945 graduate of Regis Jesuit High School in Denver. He enlisted in the Navy during the waning days of World War II and served aboard the cruiser USS Chicago in the Pacific. After being discharged from the Navy in 1946, Mr. Sievers attended the University of Colorado at Boulder on the GI Bill of Rights and earned a bachelor's degree in 1950.

Robert Keller, The Evening Sun's first metropolitan editor and later executive director of the Greater Baltimore Committee, died May 12 of complications from Crohn's disease at Harbor Hospital. He was 71. The son of a banker and a bookkeeper, Robert Keller was born in Trenton, N.J., and raised in Baltimore's Howard Park neighborhood. He earned his high school diploma and bachelor's degree in 1963 from St. Mary's Seminary & University in Roland Park. Mr. Keller was a reporter for The Catholic Review from 1963 until 1965, when he joined the staff of the Delmarva Dialog in Wilmington, Del. In 1967, he joined The Evening Sun as a reporter and in 1972 became city editor.

The Catholic Review, which has chronicled Catholic life in Baltimore in its weekly publication for nearly two centuries, has cut back to biweekly issues. The decision came after months of strategic planning and improvements to the publication's Web pages and social media sites, said Chris Gunty, its editor and associate publisher. The change is a move to preserve the paper and tailor it to the 21st-century reader, he said. "We are not cutting back," he said. "We are enhancing and adding to our content.

The Catholic hierarchy is, sad to say, shamefully deficient in the theology of their own church. During the recent election campaign, some bishops embarrassed themselves by their loathsome meddling in partisan politics. They presented their opinions as the "teaching of the church," in opposition to both a growing consensus among theologians and the developing belief of the faithful. Unremembered, apparently, are the failures of their predecessors who spoke out against the women's suffrage amendment using the same fantastic arguments of danger to children's welfare and peril to family structure and harmony.

The Catholic Review, the venerable 80-year-old voice of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, isn't just for maiden aunts anymore.With the recent revamping of the weekly, including a new colorful logo, the paper is out to win new converts among advertisers and readers."

S. Edward Kearns Sr., a longtime city editor for The Catholic Review whose career spanned four archbishops and nearly half a century, died Wednesday of complications from Alzheimer's disease at the Oak Crest Village retirement community in Parkville. He was 93. Known as "the Old Scout" to colleagues at the Baltimore diocesan newspaper, Mr. Kearns started working there at age 16 as a copy boy. He stayed for the duration of his working life, missing only one day of work -- in September 1960, when he had a slight heart attack and had to be hospitalized.

The Catholic Review, the august weekly newspaper of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, is undergoing a journalistic reformation.The newspaper, which since its founding in 1913 has been printed as a traditional, full-size broadsheet, will be converted next week to a magazine-like tabloid format.Editor Daniel L. Medinger said the changes have been contemplated over the last five years by the board of directors of the Cathedral Foundation, which publishes the Catholic Review, Maryland's largest paid weekly newspaper, with a circulation of 68,000.

One of Baltimore's oldest auto repair facilities will soon be reborn as the new headquarters of the Catholic Review newspaper and its parent organization, the Cathedral Foundation. This year, the nonprofit foundation purchased the former Griffin's Garage at 878 Park Ave. - a three-story, 1909 building that most recently housed the Park Sign Co. - and plans to begin converting it this summer. The project is the latest boost for the Mount Royal Cultural District and will keep an influential publishing house in the city.

Christopher Gaul, former managing editor of the Catholic Review and reporter for The Sun and The Evening Sun and area television stations, died of lung cancer Thursday at his home in Essex. He was 72. He joined the Catholic Review as a writer in 1995 and worked there until he retired in 2005. George P. Matysek Jr., the Review's assistant managing editor, remembered Mr. Gaul as a mentor to the junior writers at the paper, taking time to carefully edit their work. "He really showed us what went into a good story," Mr. Matysek said, "He was very nurturing in how he dealt with younger writers.

Robert Keller, The Evening Sun's first metropolitan editor and later executive director of the Greater Baltimore Committee, died May 12 of complications from Crohn's disease at Harbor Hospital. He was 71. The son of a banker and a bookkeeper, Robert Keller was born in Trenton, N.J., and raised in Baltimore's Howard Park neighborhood. He earned his high school diploma and bachelor's degree in 1963 from St. Mary's Seminary & University in Roland Park. Mr. Keller was a reporter for The Catholic Review from 1963 until 1965, when he joined the staff of the Delmarva Dialog in Wilmington, Del. In 1967, he joined The Evening Sun as a reporter and in 1972 became city editor.

Christopher Gaul, former managing editor of the Catholic Review and reporter for The Sun and The Evening Sun and area television stations, died of lung cancer Thursday at his home in Essex. He was 72. He joined the Catholic Review as a writer in 1995 and worked there until he retired in 2005. George P. Matysek Jr., the Review's assistant managing editor, remembered Mr. Gaul as a mentor to the junior writers at the paper, taking time to carefully edit their work. "He really showed us what went into a good story," Mr. Matysek said, "He was very nurturing in how he dealt with younger writers.

The Catholic Review, which has chronicled Catholic life in Baltimore in its weekly publication for nearly two centuries, has cut back to biweekly issues. The decision came after months of strategic planning and improvements to the publication's Web pages and social media sites, said Chris Gunty, its editor and associate publisher. The change is a move to preserve the paper and tailor it to the 21st-century reader, he said. "We are not cutting back," he said. "We are enhancing and adding to our content.

Darren Artuso has been a presence on the sideline for the Loyola men's lacrosse team for years. Yet the 27-year-old son of Joe - the university's assistant athletic director and sports medicine director - and Gretchen Artuso became nationally known via ESPN for his on-screen bear hug of coach Charley Toomey after the top-seeded Greyhounds defeated Maryland, 9-3, in the NCAA tournament final on Memorial Day. Matt Palmer, formerly of The Baltimore...

Charles Adam Fecher, a self-taught Baltimore scholar, author and editor who undertook the formidable task of editing the controversial diaries of H.L. Mencken, died Monday of respiratory failure at St. Agnes Hospital. The longtime Govans and Rodgers Forge resident, who was living at St. Elizabeth's Home for Nursing Care in Southwest Baltimore, was 94. "Charles Fecher was an erudite and superior writer, the giant among Mencken scholars," said Marion Elizabeth Rodgers, author of "Mencken: The American Iconoclast," and editor of "Mencken and Sara: A Life in Letters.

Thursday, in Rome, the pope asked for forgiveness for child sexual abuse by clergy, while in Baltimore, the archbishop asked for money for parochial schools. And thus we had, on one day, the confluence of two streams of Catholic consciousness that have been flowing briskly this spring: a church whose leadership for decades tolerated immeasurable abuse of children claiming the noble desire to continue educating them. In March, Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien announced the closings of 13 more schools in Baltimore and Baltimore County, setting off protests and an impassioned but fruitless effort by parents, students and alumni of the Cardinal Gibbons School to save their beloved high school.

Robert John Sievers, former editor of The Catholic Review who later edited several trade publications, died Saturday of pneumonia at St. Joseph Medical Center. The Towson resident was 82. Born in Leadville, Colo., the son of an insurance salesman and a homemaker, Mr. Sievers was a 1945 graduate of Regis Jesuit High School in Denver. He enlisted in the Navy during the waning days of World War II and served aboard the cruiser USS Chicago in the Pacific. After being discharged from the Navy in 1946, Mr. Sievers attended the University of Colorado at Boulder on the GI Bill of Rights and earned a bachelor's degree in 1950.

Eugene Marriott Connor, a retired oil company field supervisor and lifelong Ednor Gardens resident, died Wednesday of liver cancer at Stella Maris Hospice. He was 82.Mr. Connor and his fraternal twin brother, George Connor, were inseparable until the latter's death in 1994 -- through high school, college, in early jobs they held, and in the Army during World War II.They resided in their boyhood home their entire lives.The Connors graduated from Loyola High School in 1937 and Loyola College in 1941, then both went to work at the Catholic Review.

The Catholic hierarchy is, sad to say, shamefully deficient in the theology of their own church. During the recent election campaign, some bishops embarrassed themselves by their loathsome meddling in partisan politics. They presented their opinions as the "teaching of the church," in opposition to both a growing consensus among theologians and the developing belief of the faithful. Unremembered, apparently, are the failures of their predecessors who spoke out against the women's suffrage amendment using the same fantastic arguments of danger to children's welfare and peril to family structure and harmony.

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.

S. Edward Kearns Sr., a longtime city editor for The Catholic Review whose career spanned four archbishops and nearly half a century, died Wednesday of complications from Alzheimer's disease at the Oak Crest Village retirement community in Parkville. He was 93. Known as "the Old Scout" to colleagues at the Baltimore diocesan newspaper, Mr. Kearns started working there at age 16 as a copy boy. He stayed for the duration of his working life, missing only one day of work -- in September 1960, when he had a slight heart attack and had to be hospitalized.