Rome

Growing up in Rome, not far from Saint Peter's Basilica (whose dome I could see from my parents' bedroom) I did not think much of my circumstance. I thought it was just normal to drive my scooter by the Vatican walls and to see the Swiss guards seriously guarding the entrance to Vatican City. I also thought it normal to be able to go into Vatican City (as my father was a Vatican employee) to buy cheaper gas and imported goods free of the high Italian taxes. It is only after moving to America that I realized the exceptional luck of my youth.

In the grand scheme of things, most of the issues that seem important to a particular generation fade with time, even as the things that are truly important remain so throughout the ages. Thus, it isn't much of a surprise that people in Harford County feel strongly enough to turn out in substantial numbers in Bel Air to talk about a decision being made half a world away by people over whom they hold no sway. The decision being considered that drew a crowd over the weekend at St. Margaret Catholic Church in Bel Air is that of who will be the next pope.

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.

Growing up in Rome, not far from Saint Peter's Basilica (whose dome I could see from my parents' bedroom) I did not think much of my circumstance. I thought it was just normal to drive my scooter by the Vatican walls and to see the Swiss guards seriously guarding the entrance to Vatican City. I also thought it normal to be able to go into Vatican City (as my father was a Vatican employee) to buy cheaper gas and imported goods free of the high Italian taxes. It is only after moving to America that I realized the exceptional luck of my youth.

On June 11, 2003, MARCELLA A., (nee Donnelly) beloved wife of the late William A. Rome Jr., devoted mother of Ron W. Rome and his wife Virginia and Al W. Rome and his wife Sharon. Also survived by seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Funeral services will be held at the family owned Duda-Ruck Funeral Home of Dundalk Inc., 7922 Wise Avenue on Saturday at 10:30 A.M. Interment Oak Lawn Cemetery. Friends may call Friday 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M.

On May 10, 2006, THOMAS J. (Rome) SCHULTZ, made his journey home to God. He is survived by his devoted wife Patricia; his four children and seven grandchildren. A Funeral Mass will be held at St. Gabriels Catholic Church, 6950 Dogwood Road, Baltimore, MD 21244, on Monday, May 15, 2006, at 12 P.M.

Fortune's favorites in Republican Rome are a dinarius a dozen in this book, but the fickle deity only takes a few of them seriously. Colleen McCullough, up to her old tricks as a one-woman show, tells us their stories with no visible letdown in this third volume (after "The First Man in Rome" and "The Grass Crown") of her five-book series about the fall of the Roman Republic.If possible, it's even better than the first two. Or maybe I'm just getting used to all those ponderous Roman names (Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius)

Lavinia By Ursula K. LeGuin Harcourt / 282 pages / $24 At nearly 80, Ursula K. LeGuin is one of the doyennes of science and speculative fiction. Her work has received the most important awards for her genre, from the Nebula to the Hugo, as well as the National Book Award and the Pushcart Prize. She is - to use a much overused, but in her case apt, term - an icon. That said, LeGuin has not written a new work in a decade, although she's done a series of important translations, including one of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching.

ROME -- He could be a dentist or a promising bank clerk, with his well-ironed shirts, thin-rimmed spectacles and cool, serious air, the kind of 40-ish yuppie many a Roman matron would be glad to have as a son-in-law.On the posters, with his jacket slung nonchalantly over his shoulder, and on television, he looks highly respectable, appealing and reassuring -- and Gianfranco Fini, leader of Italy's extreme right-wing neo-Fascist party, next week may be mayor of Rome.The run-off between Mr. Fini and his Green left-wing opponent, Francesco Rutelli, in the second round of the municipal elections tomorrow is going to be extremely close.

The idea was planted at Mass, but the decision came at a bull roast.Bill and Betty Zeller were going to Rome."You don't go to Rome every day," said Mr. Zeller, 68.About 500 local people like the Zellers are following Baltimore Roman Catholic Archbishop William Henry Keeler to the Vatican to see him become a cardinal Saturday.Church members from metropolitan Baltimore and the Archdiocese of Harrisburg -- where the 63-year-old archbishop served before his appointment here in 1989 -- will be on the plane tomorrow evening.

Showing her knack for timing, director Christy Stanlake has announced the U.S. Naval Academy Masqueraders will bookend Halloween with weekend performances of "Titus Andronicus" — "Shakespeare's first and bloodiest play" is the way she describes it — Oct. 26-27 and Nov. 2-4 at Mahan Theatre on campus. In her 11th year as Masqueraders director, Stanlake, who is also an associate professor, is known for her insightful and courageous choices of plays. When she came aboard in fall 2002, Stanlake immediately displayed vision by focusing on the role of female military leadership in George Bernard Shaw's "Saint Joan.

If the crime rate spikes in Howard County, blame Shakespeare. The Bard's most violent play, "Titus Andronicus," is being staged by the Laurel-based theater company Rude Mechanicals at the Howard County Center for the Arts in Ellicott City. This production follows close on the bloody heels of the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company's outdoor staging of the same play at the Patapsco Female Institute Historic Park in 2010. Considering that "Titus Andronicus" is rarely staged anywhere, it's really unusual that local audiences have had two opportunities to be appalled by a play with such a high body count.

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.

While Baltimore rapper Los seems ready for his close-up because his style and delivery fit in well with the times, Rome Cee continues to carve out his gritty throwback lane. Rome's latest video, "Something Beyond," is the first clip from his forthcoming album/mixtape "The Grey Area. " "Something Beyond," directed by 87Conceptions, recalls the anti-flossy days of Wu-Tang Clan. It's a palette cleanser from the flashy MCs more concerned with snapback hats than tight rhymes.

It was with more than passing interest that I read Jacques Kelly 's account of the auction at St. Michael's Roman Catholic Church. I grew up in Sacred Heart of Jesus parish in nearby Highlandtown and remember well the summer carnivals that Mr. Kelly described. I am sure that the closing of St. Michael's has been a painful experience for its parishoners. I recently finished reading Jason Berry's "Render unto Rome: The Secret Life of Money in the Catholic Church, " which discusses the issue of parish closures.

A 28-year-old guy living in his parents' basement in South Philadelphia just might be one of the foremost experts on the Archdiocese of Baltimore, if not the whole American Catholic Church. Rocco Palmo facetiously calls himself "The Church Whisperer," and over the past six years, his blog has become a must-read for ecclesiastical insiders. After starting with just three readers a few days before Christmas in 2004, Palmo has built up a audience of roughly 500,000 unique visitors each month.

ROME -- President Bush paused yesterday between a summit session of the Atlantic alliance and economic talks in the Netherlands to renew his increasingly defensive battle with Congress.He charged that if it had been left up to the Democrats, the United States would be sitting "fat, dumb and happy with Saddam Hussein maybe in Saudi Arabia."The president firmly turned aside the Democrats' latest plan to stimulate the economy -- a tax credit for working Americans combined with higher taxes on the wealthy -- and argued that the nation was no longer in a recession.

ROME -- Unaccustomed to being far from home on Thanksgiving Day, friends and admirers of Cardinal-designate William H. Keeler celebrated the historical links between Rome and Baltimore with him here yesterday."

Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien flies to Rome next month for a new job leading a global order of Catholic knights, a post that likely will lead to his elevation to cardinal, but which also begins his departure from the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Pope Benedict XVI named O'Brien, 72, grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, the Vatican announced Monday. The predominantly lay order, which traces its history to the 11th-century Crusades, now ministers to Christians and people of other faiths in historical Palestine.

Rome Cee is counting in German. “Eins, zwei, drei, vier …” It's an oppressively humid July afternoon and the 29-year-old rapper, born Jerome Carrington Jr., is dressed in black and gray, sipping a hot cup of coffee in a Fells Point shop. In between sips, the former military brat recalls buying schnitzel in Kaiserslautern, Germany “like it was yesterday.” But when Rome was 8, his father left the Marines and moved the family back to his hometown of West Baltimore. The transition wasn't easy on Rome.