Sacrament

Hard, loud, raunchy rock faded precisely at 2 p.m. yesterday, to be replaced for one reverent hour by a high-decibel rosary on the earphones and boomboxes of 400 marching teen-agers and pre-teens.Adult chaperons were awed -- if the young people were not."It has to be heavenly intervention for a rock station to do this," said Janet Tsambikos, 43, a member of St. Mark's Roman Catholic Church in Catonsville.She stood on the columned porch of the Basilica of the Assumption as the youthful procession, part of the National Marian Conference in downtown Baltimore, converged on the old cathedral for a Mass.

People who admire Rick Bass' resplendent 1989 story collection, "The Watch," as well as his several intervening nonfiction books on what the publishers call "the outdoors," have been looking forward to his new book of fiction with unusual interest. Some may be gunning for him, a writer who makes his reputation all too easily with a single book, but most of us are simply eager.We want to see where Mr. Bass' jumpy, oddly lyrical voice -- a voice entirely his own -- takes him a year or two down the road; we want to see if he's getting closer to the truths of his slightly fractured sense of reality, whatever those truths may be. We want to see if he's still putting it all on the line every time he writes.

WASHINGTON -- The revival of 1970s kitsch -- hip-hugging bell-bottoms, the Brady Bunch -- and the descent of feminism into farce continues with two measures designed to resuscitate the Equal Rights Amendment.For 15 years it has been a-moldering in its grave, but this week, the 25th anniversary of the vote by which Congress sent the amendment to the states for ratification debates, it is being reintroduced in Congress.Congress, never known for its sense of irony, passed the amendment in a chivalrous mood, trying to please regiments of women who regarded chivalry as phallocentrism in drag.

PROSECUTORS IN Oregon are understandably eager to find and convict the people who perpetrated the brutal murders of three teen-agers. Likewise, the defense attorneys for one of the suspects understandably want to do their best in representing their client's interests.But in pursuing their own ends, both the prosecutors and the defense have trampled rights that go beyond any particular criminal case, no matter how horrendous. They have violated centuries of respect for the confidentiality of the clergy-penitent relationship, known in the Catholic Church as the sacrament of reconciliation.

The man who stood at the doorway of Our Lady of Good Counsel in the Dorchester County hamlet of Secretary may have needed good counsel more than most."

Sister Mary Aurelia Benedetto, a member of the Sisters of Mercy who used her skills as an educator and an administrator working with the poor and the elderly of Baltimore, died Nov. 23 at Columbus Regional Medical Center in Georgia of complications from a fall. She was 86. Sister Mary Aurelia, who had lived since 2003 at The Villa, an assisted-living facility in the Woodbrook section of Baltimore County that her order shares with the Mission Helpers of the Sacred Heart, had been visiting friends in Columbus at the time of her fall.

On April 25, 2004, MILDRED E. The family will receive friends at Blessed Sacrament, 4103 Old York Road on Thursday at 10am. Funeral at 10:30am.

On January 23, 2004; MARY DOLORES (Doris) O'DONNELL; beloved sister of Rosalie M. O'Donnell; dear cousin of Kenneth Bena. Also survived by loving family and friends. Friends may call at the family owned Mitchell-Wiedefeld Funeral Home, Inc., 6500 York Rd. (at Overbrook) on Tuesday, 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 PM, and at Blessed Sacrament Church, Wednesday 9:30 to 10 AM, at which time a funeral mass will be offered. Interment New Cathedrial Cemetery. Those desiring, may make contributions to Blessed Sacrament Church, 4103 Old York RD., Baltimore, MD., 21218.

On May 17, 2007 BERNARD S. SCOTT. Funeral Services will be held today, May 23, 2007 at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, 4103 Old York Road. Wake 11 a.m. Funeral Mass 11:30 a.m. Interment Garrison Forest Veterans Cemetery.