Priest

I did a double take one afternoon when I spotted a large ad plastered across an MTA transit bus. The elongated placard was from the Archdiocese of Baltimore and bore the words "The Light Is on for You." The ad caught me off my guard. It was saying to Baltimore's Roman Catholics during Lent: Get up and go to confession. Confess to a priest. 'Fess up - and seek spiritual advice from someone trained in giving it. Confession, Reconciliation, Sacrament of Penance - whatever its name - went into a sharp decline after the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s.

On Palm Sunday morning, the Rev. Jim Hannon awoke at 5:30, prayed and then exercised on a treadmill for 20 minutes. By 7:30, the priest was set for a day of ministry in Western Maryland. That's when the real workout began. The 55-year-old Hannon pastors six churches in Allegany and Garrett counties, the result of a priest shortage that the Archdiocese of Baltimore faces in Maryland's westernmost jurisdictions. The number of priests in the region, on the decline for years, has dwindled further since 2004, from 14 to 10. As Catholic churches throughout the world celebrate Holy Week, the sacred - and busy - period on the Christian liturgical calendar, Hannon's road-warrior routine has become even more frenetic.

The Rev. Francis Charles Bourbon, a Jesuit priest, former Loyola College faculty member and Baltimore City Fire Department chaplain, died Tuesday of pneumonia at Lankenau Hospital in suburban Philadelphia. He was 80. Born in Baltimore and raised on Belvieu Avenue, he was a 1944 Loyola High School graduate. He entered the Jesuit order that year and was ordained a priest June 23, 1957, by Archbishop Francis P. Keough. He joined the Loyola College faculty in 1959 and became dean of men and a theology teacher.

I wonder if my cousin, my cousin's daughter and I will be going to hell - not to mention the priest who sat by as the three of us eulogized Aunt Elizabeth in the Catholic parish where she had been baptized into the faith more than 80 years ago. Eulogies are supposed to be forbidden at Catholic funerals. That's why, over the years, we've seldom heard priests make personal remarks about the departed. Those few who did might have been asking for trouble. I assume the priest who celebrated the funeral of Aunt Elizabeth probably still has his job; I've not heard otherwise.

The Rev. John Anthony Delclos, a retired Roman Catholic priest known for his emotional preaching style, died of cancer Sunday at his Northwood home. He was 67. Born in Baltimore and raised on Bartlett Avenue, he attended St. Ann's parochial school. He was a 1957 graduate of Loyola High School and earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from Loyola College. He joined the old Maryland National Bank and became its commercial credit department manager, but after six years decided on a career change.

"What do you do when you're not sure?" If you're John Patrick Shanley, you write a play, call it Doubt, and begin with exactly that line. On stage, the line is spoken by a parish priest named Father Flynn at the beginning of a sermon. Ninety taut minutes later, at the end of Shanley's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, currently at the Hippodrome Theatre, this affable priest's actions will be the subject of doubt -- and that's a good thing. It's what thought-provoking theater is all about. Doubt runs through May 13 at the Hippodrome Theatre, 12 N. Eutaw St. $27-$67.

The kitchen at Mount Clare, the Colonial mansion of Charles Carroll the Barrister in Southwest Baltimore, was, on the one hand, a modern foodie's dream - airy, spacious and chock-full of locally grown, organic, hormone-free meat, fish, eggs and vegetables. But there were some down sides. Those vegetables, this time of year, would be limited to carrots, onions and other roots waiting to be exhumed from the dirt floor of the cellar. And the meat, larded for as long as three years in casks of salt, would look about as succulent as a piece of petrified wood.

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Four years ago, The Rev. Ronald P. Pytel's doctors took one look at his severely damaged heart and said he could die at any time. Months later, in a recovery doctors struggled to explain, he was found to be problem-free, taken off medication and sent home.Yesterday, Pope John Paul II declared that his cure was a miracle.And he decreed the miracle happened through divine intervention of a deceased Polish nun, Blessed Faustina Kowalska. The decision means she will be canonized a saint in April.

The Rev. Robert Nugent sits at the dining room table in his rowhouse near Camden Yards, surrounded by cards and letters he has received since the Vatican gave him and a Baltimore nun a lifetime ban from ministering to gay and lesbian Roman Catholics.The silver-haired cleric whom everybody calls "Father Bob," who describes himself as "a typical Irish Catholic priest," who loves to perform the pastoral tasks of celebrating Mass and performing marriages, struggles to describe his emotions."It's not anger.

Former priest accused of child sex abuse A former Catholic priest from North Carolina has been accused of sexually abusing a child in Ocean City more than 30 years ago. Ocean City police say 64-year-old Michael Barnes of Haywood, N.C., has been arrested in his home state and is being held there. Police say they got a complaint about the abuse this spring and that the incidents took place between 1977 and 1982. A Baltimore County man in his 40s filed a lawsuit against Barnes in Delaware in June.

The Rev. Hugh A. Kennedy, a Jesuit priest who in his 45 years in the administration of the his religious order was known as its Maryland "corporate memory," died of pneumonia Sept. 6 at Manresa Hall in suburban Philadelphia. The longtime Roland Park resident was 90. Born in Braddock, Pa., he was a graduate of St. Vincent's College Prep School in Latrobe, Pa. Friends said he developed a lifelong affection for Gregorian chants and church music while being taught by the school's Benedictine priests.

EMMITTSBURG -- A veteran of video production, the Rev. Leo Patalinghug hates having to film a second take. So as he was preparing his recipe for fajitas before the Food Network cameras, he was so focused on getting the shot right the first time that he didn't see the man standing, arms crossed, directly in front of him. It took a producer to point out the surprise guest: celebrity chef Bobby Flay, who had come to Mount St. Mary's University to challenge the...

Monsignor Myles J. McGowan, the oldest priest in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and pastor of St. Ursula's Roman Catholic Church in Parkville for more than two decades, died Saturday of a stroke at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. He was 96. "He was thoroughly a priest and was the patriarch of the archdiocese. He was well-regarded and loved by priests both young and old," said Bishop William C. Newman, a friend of 55 years. "He had a practical common sense that he was noted for. He was willing to move forward with the church, and it must have been difficult for him after Vatican II, but he did it," Bishop Newman said.

The bad news for the Roman Catholic Church: Father Alberto Cuti?, the widely popular priest at St. Francis de Sales in Miami Beach, was photographed cavorting romantically on a Florida beach. The good news: He was with a woman, thank God, not an altar boy. Given the torrent of sordid revelations in recent years, the church should be positively giddy with relief that one of its rising stars was caught snuggling with a very adult-looking female. No apparent felony was in progress while Mr. Cuti?

Married priests ready to serve I have unqualified respect for the Rev. Jim Hannon and his tireless care of the Catholic community of Western Maryland ("A busy shepherd," April 10). However, one priest serving seven parishes is completely unnecessary. Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien of Baltimore refers to the "priest shortage" to explain Father Hannon's demanding situation. But the truth is that there is no true shortage except in the frozen thinking of the Vatican and its bishops. The fact is that by some estimates there are some 25,000 married Catholic priests in America alone, most of whom would happily serve the faithful if church authorities would simply get out of their own legalistic way. There are also countless women who qualify for priestly ordination and would generously and joyfully bring the Eucharist and a full sacramental life back to many starving Catholic people.

On Palm Sunday morning, the Rev. Jim Hannon awoke at 5:30, prayed and then exercised on a treadmill for 20 minutes. By 7:30, the priest was set for a day of ministry in Western Maryland. That's when the real workout began. The 55-year-old Hannon pastors six churches in Allegany and Garrett counties, the result of a priest shortage that the Archdiocese of Baltimore faces in Maryland's westernmost jurisdictions. The number of priests in the region, on the decline for years, has dwindled further since 2004, from 14 to 10. As Catholic churches throughout the world celebrate Holy Week, the sacred - and busy - period on the Christian liturgical calendar, Hannon's road-warrior routine has become even more frenetic.

I did a double take one afternoon when I spotted a large ad plastered across an MTA transit bus. The elongated placard was from the Archdiocese of Baltimore and bore the words "The Light Is on for You." The ad caught me off my guard. It was saying to Baltimore's Roman Catholics during Lent: Get up and go to confession. Confess to a priest. 'Fess up - and seek spiritual advice from someone trained in giving it. Confession, Reconciliation, Sacrament of Penance - whatever its name - went into a sharp decline after the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s.

The Rev. Joseph C. Martin was recalled yesterday during his funeral Mass as a "wounded healer" who offered a "way up and a way out for God's broken people." An emotional overflow crowd in Baltimore heard the Roman Catholic priest who worked with the addicted eulogized as a good Samaritan who advised others to "go as far as you can and take one step more." The funeral Mass was held at the 'Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. In a homily, the Rev. David M. Carey recalled Father Martin's powerful preaching that was always infused with humor.

The Virgin Mary is split in two. That's the first thing the audience sees in Everyman Theatre's current production of Doubt - and we notice it even before the play begins. That long crack, running from halo to heel in the full-sized triptych, divides this mother from the holy infant dangling on her knee. Like much in this staging, it's not particularly subtle, but it effectively communicates the main themes of John Patrick Shanley's play, which picked up both the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award in 2005.