Priest

Baltimore prosecutors can proceed with sexual child abuse counts against Maurice J. Blackwell, the priest accused of sodomizing Dontee Stokes more than 15 years ago, according to a judge's ruling issued yesterday. Circuit Judge John M. Glynn denied a motion made by Blackwell's lawyers last month asking that sexual child abuse charges be thrown out because they were too old and politically motivated. Glynn ruled that although prosecutors first investigated the abuse claims in 1993 and didn't charge Blackwell until 2003, the delay "was not purposefully done ... to gain advantage over the defendant."

They remembered Mary-Marguerite Kohn's enthusiasm and service, even her style - one mourner recalled "a large, bright yellow brimmed hat, terrific dangling earrings. " There was hardly an empty seat Tuesday inside the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Baltimore, as family, friends, colleagues and congregants packed a memorial service for Kohn, who died from gunshot wounds sustained from a Thursday shooting at her church in Ellicott City. Kohn, 62, the church's co-rector, and Brenda Brewington, 59, the church's administrative assistant, were shot inside St. Peter's Episcopal Church offices.

Controversy over the new film ''Priest'' was predictable. But its content is much milder than the real-life horror stories about the clergy that appear in the media. The sensitive, fictional attempt to portray the human struggles of the priests has provoked outrage in some circles in the church. It would be comforting if the news stories of sexual abuse by priests provoked similar outrage.As a priest who resigned from the active ministry because of celibacy, I welcome the honest portrayal contained in the film.

Mary-Marguerite Kohn, the popular co-rector of St. Peter's Episcopal Church who was an outspoken advocate for social justice, died Saturday at Maryland Shock Trauma Center of gunshot wounds she suffered Thursday in a double shooting at her Ellicott City church. The Relay resident was 62. "She had gotten her degree in pastoral counseling, and she was the one I wanted to use in the diocese to counsel and help congregations get through their grief," the Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, said Monday.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore has launched its own investigation into a Towson priest arrested this month on charges of indecent exposure at an adult store. Mark Stewart Bullock, 47, is scheduled for a March 6 court appearance in District Court in Harford County on misdemeanor charges that carry a maximum fine of $1,000 and three years in prison. Church officials have removed "all his faculties to function as a priest," said Sean Caine, archdiocese spokesman. "The archdiocese is doing its own investigation and will be speaking to anyone who might help us understand what is happening in his life," Caine said.

A Gaithersburg priest who was put on administrative leave from his parish after a controversial funeral Mass at which he denied Communion to a lesbian said in a statement Wednesday that he "did the only thing a faithful Catholic priest could do" and suggested that archdiocesan leaders and the woman were lying. The Rev. Marcel Guarnizo had declined to comment publicly since the Feb. 25 Mass at St. John Neumann Catholic Church, where Barbara Johnson was mourning her mother. Having learned just before the Mass that Johnson, a 51-year-old D.C. artist, was a lesbian living with her partner, Guarnizo refused to let her receive Communion.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore has removed a Laurel priest from the ministry while it investigates allegations against him of sexual misconduct during the 1980s, the archdiocese said on Sunday. The Rev. John Wielebski, 62, pastor at Resurrection of Our Lord Church, has denied all of the allegations, the archdiocese said. The archdiocese revoked his authority to function as a priest in December. The misconduct is alleged to have occurred while Wielebski was at St. Dominic Church in Baltimore, where he was assigned from 1985 to 1988, and Monsignor Clare J. O'Dwyer Retreat House in Sparks, where he was assigned from 1988 to 1991.

For the Rev. Bruce Jarboe, coming up with a homily for Christmas Mass is both a challenge and an opportunity. He knows that in this time of war and economic anxiety, the holiday might be the only occasion all year that some of his listeners will be visiting a church. As worshippers pack Holy Trinity Church in Glen Burnie for the best-attended services of the year, the 50-year-old priest will have a chance - not to chide long-absent members of his flock, but to encourage them to nurture their spiritual life.

The Very Rev. Matthew J. O'Rourke, a Josephite priest and former superior general of his Roman Catholic religious order, died of congestive heart failure March 9 at St. Joseph Manor in North Baltimore. He was 93. Born in the Bronx, N.Y., he earned a bachelor's degree at Manhattan College and a master's degree from Loyola University in New Orleans. He was ordained a priest in 1947. In 1951, he helped found New Orleans' St. Augustine High School, a predominantly African-American institution.

The trial of a Towson-area priest who was arrested in January on charges of indecent exposure was postponed on Tuesday, March 6, with no information on a new trial date immediately available. The Rev. Mark Stewart Bullock, known as "Father Stew" to parishioners at Church of the Immaculate Conception in Towson, had been scheduled to appear Tuesday in District Court in Harford County. Asked which side requested the postponement and why, Harford County State's Attorney Joseph Cassilly responded in an email that it was, "a joint request for more time.

Each week The Sun's John McIntyre presents a moderately obscure but evocative word with which you may not be familiar - another brick to add to the wall of your working vocabulary. This week's word: MUMPSIMUS Misinformation has a long lifespan, as discussion of grammar and usage on the Internet reveal: stubborn adherence to bogus rules and refusal to consider empirical evidence about usage. That phenomenon reflects a larger human tendency: We think we know what we know, and we don't care to be contradicted.

The Very Rev. Matthew J. O'Rourke, a Josephite priest and former superior general of his Roman Catholic religious order, died of congestive heart failure March 9 at St. Joseph Manor in North Baltimore. He was 93. Born in the Bronx, N.Y., he earned a bachelor's degree at Manhattan College and a master's degree from Loyola University in New Orleans. He was ordained a priest in 1947. In 1951, he helped found New Orleans' St. Augustine High School, a predominantly African-American institution.

A Gaithersburg priest who was put on administrative leave from his parish after a controversial funeral Mass at which he denied Communion to a lesbian said in a statement Wednesday that he "did the only thing a faithful Catholic priest could do" and suggested that archdiocesan leaders and the woman were lying. The Rev. Marcel Guarnizo had declined to comment publicly since the Feb. 25 Mass at St. John Neumann Catholic Church, where Barbara Johnson was mourning her mother. Having learned just before the Mass that Johnson, a 51-year-old D.C. artist, was a lesbian living with her partner, Guarnizo refused to let her receive Communion.

The Rev. James J. McNamee III, a retired Episcopal priest who had pastored St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Annapolis, died Friday of cancer at his home in the Ambassador Apartments in Tuscany-Canterbury. He was 76. Mr. McNamee was born in Baltimore and raised in Roland Park. "His father was killed during World War II and his mother managed apartment houses," said Dr. John W. Payne, Richey Hospice medical director and a boyhood friend. After graduating from City College in 1953, he studied at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service for two years and spent his junior year abroad at the Sorbonne in Paris.

The trial of a Towson-area priest who was arrested in January on charges of indecent exposure was postponed on Tuesday, March 6, with no information on a new trial date immediately available. The Rev. Mark Stewart Bullock, known as "Father Stew" to parishioners at Church of the Immaculate Conception in Towson, had been scheduled to appear Tuesday in District Court in Harford County. Asked which side requested the postponement and why, Harford County State's Attorney Joseph Cassilly responded in an email that it was, "a joint request for more time.

The Rev. Joseph M. Kennedy, a Jesuit priest who taught in India for 30 years, died of heart failure Feb. 12 at the St. Claude la Colombiere Community, his order's Roland Park retirement home. He was 88. Born in Baltimore and raised in Chevy Chase, he was a Gonzaga College High School graduate who attended Georgetown University before entering the Society of Jesus in 1942. He studied at the old Woodstock College from 1946 to 1949. As a seminarian, he was granted permission to become an Indian missionary.

An auditorium filled with about 500 children, nearly all dressed in red, suddenly grew quiet when the call came. The Rev. Joseph F. Barr was communicating via Skype from a sunny St. Peter's Square in Rome. He smiled broadly from a screen set up in the auditorium of Immaculate Conception School in Towson. Barr and other Baltimore-area Catholics traveled this week to Italy to witness the elevation ofArchbishop Edwin F. O'Briento the rank of cardinal. "It is so good to hear your voices," Barr told the children.

"We need to understand what circumstances led to this incident," said an archdiocese spokesman ("Archdiocese investigating priest: He's suspended indefinitely after arrest on charges of indecent exposure," Jan. 24). Celibacy, that unnatural restriction, is forced on clergymen by the male-dominated Vatican. That's what led to these circumstances. Until the Catholic Church understands that it must change, these circumstances will lead other clergy to expose the church to embarrassment as a result of their natural desires.