Video report from : Cardinal O’Brien’s elevation

By Catholic Review Staff

ROME – Catholic Review newspaper assistant managing editor George Matysek was in Rome as the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s 15th archbishop became a cardinal Feb. 18.

He interviewed several Baltimore pilgrims and shares footage of Benedict XVI, Cardinal O’Brien and more from the consistory.

Prince of the Church

Click here for full consistory coverage!

Continue to check back for more stories, videos and slideshows. House of Delegates passes bill legalizing same-sex marriage

By Catholic Review Staff

By a slim margin, the Maryland House of Delegates passed a bill Feb. 17 that would legalize same-sex marriage.

The Maryland Catholic Conference issued a statement expressing its disappointment in the process saying, “It is only through extraordinary political pressures and legislative maneuvers by (Governor Martin O’Malley) and party leadership that the House of Delegates has pushed through legislation that will drastically alter society’s foundation for this generation and the generations to come.

“Instead of allowing a vote of conscience and a measured level of debate on an issue of such consequential impact on our state, they have strong-armed a bare majority of votes, and rushed a bill through committee and floor votes while ignoring customary legislative procedures.”

According to the MCC, Cardinal Edwin F. O’Brien issued a statement from Rome on the eve of his being made a cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI.

“Today is a sad day for the State of Maryland and for Maryland families. In one fleeting moment, the House of Delegates moved our state one step closer to undoing what civilizations surely have upheld for thousands of years, one step closer to violating a law deeply embedded in human nature, with tectonic repercussions for the future of family life and the common good of all. Neither the church nor the state has the right to alter the life-giving union created by God for the benefit of all society … this even for an attractive but fleeting goal for profitable political gain.

“At St. Peter’s Basilica tomorrow, I will pray that those in the Senate, please God, will have the wisdom and courage to vote their consciences in the face of tremendous and unprecedented political pressure, maneuvers and strong-arming, and will stand up for Maryland’s families by rejecting this radical and detrimental legislation.”

The MCC said it is now turning its attention to the Maryland Senate, which passed a similar bill last year and is expected to do so again.

“We urge them to reject the argument that government needs to redefine marriage so that same-sex couples can receive benefits,” the MCC said in a press release issued Feb. 17. “We urge them to give reasoned and honest consideration to the inevitable conflicts that passing this bill will create between government and religious communities. We urge them to allow the time that the House leadership denied to ensuring this issue will be treated with the serious and well thought-out examination it deserves.”

What is a cardinal?

According to the Encyclopedia of the Vatican and Papacy, cardinals are known as ecclesiastical “princes of the church,” who are designated by the pope to assist him in the administration of the church at the highest level. They are collectively known as the , and their primary role is to elect the new pope. Those cardinals under the age of 80 participate in the conclave (enclosure of the cardinals while electing a pope).

According to the encyclopedia, “Pope John XXIII (1959-1963) declared that men receiving cardinalatial honors must be ordained bishops.”

The pope choses those who will be named cardinal, and the names of the new cardinals are typically published at a papal consistory. There are three ranks in the College of Cardinals.

“Although all cardinals in the college are bishops, their rank within the College of Cardinals is characterized by one of the hierarchical ranks of bishop, priest or ,” according to the encyclopedia.

Cardinals typically wear red garb and the signature red .

Cardinals are called to dedicate their lives to further service to the church and the people of God. In the ceremony in which the “red hat,” or is conferred on the new cardinals, the pope says solemnly: “To the praise of God, and the honor of the Apostolic See, receive the red biretta, the sign of the cardinal’s dignity; and know that you must be willing to conduct yourselves with fortitude even to the shedding of your blood: for the growth of the Christian faith, the peace and tranquility of the People of God, and the freedom and spread of the Holy Roman Church.” SFA students reflect on Black History Month

Students from historic St. Frances Academy in Baltimore walk in the footsteps of Mother Mary Lange each day. She risked her life to educate black children and founded their school. Sitting in the Mother Mary Lange room inside St. Frances, students reflected on Black History Month, who makes a difference in their lives and how they will contribute to society as well.

Watch below:

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The face of Christ

What a privilege in 2005 – a sabbatical year at the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio.

While there, I met Katy and her three children. Katy cleaned the building where I lived, and her children did their homework at our residence. This summer I returned to Texas for her daughter Erica’s graduation from high school.

Erica and her best friend Brenda were graduating among the best and brightest of their class and were both accepted into the business school at The University of Texas. The difference is Erica will be able to go to UT and Brenda will not, because our country will not pass the DREAM Act.

The DREAM Act would allow students raised, but not born, in the U.S. to attend college. Brenda, who was brought to the U.S. at the age of 2, has lived 16 years on this side of the border. Both Brenda and Erica are true Americans. Brenda just doesn’t have papers. Both cried after graduation – Brenda because she could not continue to UT and Erica because of the injustice done to her friend.

That day Katy planned a small graduation party for Erica at a nearby Mexican restaurant. She had sacrificed much for her children by cleaning offices and homes six days a week for years. Erica, too, had gone to school, worked with her mom cleaning after school, and still managed to graduate in the top 10 of her class.

At graduation, Katy found out that Brenda’s family could not afford a party so — right on the spot — she invited them to come to Erica’s party. The family of 10 arrived and all were welcomed as if the party had been planned that way all along.

Before the end of the party Katy, as hostess of the event, invited anyone who wanted to speak “un deseo” (a wish) for the graduates to do so. One by one everyone took a turn offering their “deseo” for the girls. I was moved to tears by the beauty and simplicity of the prayers and wishes.

When Tío Jorge spoke, he reminded Erica and Brenda that he had crossed the Rio Grande to follow his dream of providing for his family. He asked God’s blessing on them, praying that they might follow their dreams despite the many setbacks and difficulties along the way. The party was very special. The Holy Spirit was truly present. It reminded me of a line I had read that morning that “the next face you see may be the face of Christ.” I met Christ during the fiesta that afternoon. The face of Christ shone through the eyes of the people at the party.

Felipe, Erica’s 16-year-old brother, had gotten a job at Freddy’s Hamburger and Ice Cream. The next day with his first pay check, he treated his mother, sisters, and me to lunch to celebrate Erica’s graduation. Again, I saw the face of Christ.

That evening three of us toured the downtown in a river boat. It was delightful and the boat driver was “tan simpático” (so very kind). One of the women asked his name. “Josue,” he replied. “Spell it,” she asked. “J-o-s-u-e.” Then he shared the story of a teacher he had in school who pronounced his name like Joe-sue. He tried to give her the correct pronunciation but she arrogantly insisted, “In America we speak English.” Josue has never forgotten the humiliation of that day when all the class laughed at the boy with a “girl’s” name. Josue has been deployed to Iraq twice and will probably be returning to Afghanistan – defending his country, our country, for that teacher and all of us. His face was the face of Christ.

As Martin Buber said, “All real living is meeting,” meeting Christ in our brothers and sisters. Breathe deeply. The next face you see may be the face of Christ.

School Sister of Notre Dame Linda Stilling teaches Pastoral Spanish at Notre Dame of Maryland University and has worked with Hispanics in the States and in America for more than 35 years.

Frederick students make lunch, times 2,000

By Catholic Review Staff

Across the state, schools in the Archdiocese of Baltimore participated in a variety of events to celebrate Catholic Schools Week (Jan. 29-Feb. 5). Students at St. John’s Catholic Prep in Frederick marked the week by making more than 2,000 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches during their theology classes for the Frederick Rescue Mission.

Retreat reveals challenges for immigrant women

One of the joys of working in the Office of Hispanic Ministry is that I have the opportunity to offer special spiritual programs for Hispanic immigrants. Our goal is to nourish their dire need to reconnect with their roots, to offer relief for their feelings of alienation and have an experience of Christ and of a church which welcomes them. This past March, I had the opportunity to provide a retreat for 20 immigrant women from different countries. The office rented a minibus and took the women to a house on the beach in Ocean City, which a generous benefactor had lent us for the weekend.

The retreat was intended to be a time of prayer, relaxation, and reflection on the deep query of, “Where is God in our immigration stories? We looked at the sacred Scriptures for answers and we found that time after time, God elected people, gave them a mission and sent them … somewhere else. Abraham left his land for the land that God would show to him. Moses took the people back to the land, involving in the process a great deal of walking. Would not it have been better, God, to use the local folks? Why did you want the foreigners to accomplish your mission? Then, Jesus came and said, go to ends of the world and announce the good news of salvation. Then he really put people on the move!

The women who came to the retreat responded to a simple invitation to come to participate in a free retreat for women to reflect on their immigrant stories in the light of faith and Scriptures. They were from a variety of countries of Latin America, and from different levels of education and social and economic backgrounds. There was one with a Ph.D. A few had one or two years of formal education, and the rest, everything in between. Some left their countries and got here walking through the desert. A couple came with special visas for their particular intellectual expertise, and others came as refugees. They came from the city and different counties of the archdiocese. We (myself and two other Hispanic women pastoral ministers) had a little apprehension that this diversity may hinder the familiarity that we wanted to create for the weekend. We had decorated the house with images of our countries and phrases of Scripture. We had the help of a Puerto Rican woman, who was going to fill up the house with aromas of homeland cooking, but still we might just be too different and the common ground of being all immigrants could prove insufficient.

The “magic” of the weekend began in the bus, when it left the Catholic Center at 6 p.m. After they had finished the sandwiches and refreshments we had prepared for them, somebody opened up tamales and began sharing with others. People began laughing, singing and joking. By the time they got to the house in Ocean City, they were ready to start.

At the center of our immigrant stories, there was in us all a deep, mostly devastating story of suffering almost to death. Discounting our Ph.D., who came from success to more success, the stories were heartbreaking: We couldn’t feed our children. They would cry at night of hunger, and we did not have anything to give them. There were no jobs in our countries. The guerrillas displaced us. Drug traffickers were trying to kill my husband because he worked for the government. We went into hiding, but when we received threats against our children, we decided to leave … with nothing. Our children traveled in the plane to America hugging their favorite toy throughout the flight. We took nothing and left behind the most precious of all our treasures, our families, our friends, our community.

From the 20 of us, (minus our dear Ph.D.) nobody was able to tell their story without sobbing, and yet we were not a weak, defenseless group. We were women who have risked everything for our families, for our own futures. We have survived rape, starvation and domestic violence. We are working here as lions to provide for our families here and for our families left behind. We work long hours, take care of our children and still are incredibly generous with our time to serve in the church. Some may feel compassion for us and would lovingly offer us support (you know, inspired by those words of “love your neighbor, as I love you, and be merciful because I have been merciful with you”). Others would like to throw at us the heavy book of the law (administrative law by the way, not criminal law) and say to us “you do not have proper documents, and you don’t belong here. I will make your life so miserable that you better go back by yourself where you come from.” May God in his great goodness not put the second group under the same circumstances as we, las mujeres, because I am pretty sure that if they were under the same circumstances they would do just the same.

We, las mujeres, what we need most is the opportunity to develop our gifts, our desire to give of ourselves for others, beginning with our families and extending to the whole community and country. We have so much to give, and we want to give it freely as the Holy Father asked us to do this past April at the Nationals Park during his brief words in Spanish at the end of his homily: “Do not let yourselves be overcome by pessimism or inertia because of the problems. Rather, faithful to the commitments that you have acquired in your baptism, deepen each day in the knowledge of Christ and let your hearts be conquered by his love and forgiveness. Freely you have received it. Give it freely.”

Maria Johnson is director of the Office of Hispanic Ministry for the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

Valentine’s Day advice from third graders … Who is special in your heart?

By Matt Palmer [email protected] The day has arrived. Before you go home to your loved ones, get one last child-like reminder about cherishing people around you from the students of Ss. James and John School in Baltimore.

Vocations from abroad

Gonzalo Cadavid-Rivera, a young man from Colombia came to Baltimore in 2004 to enter the seminary for the Archdiocese of Baltimore. I had the opportunity to meet him and introduce him to a couple of parishes with Hispanic Ministry. I remember we went to St. Patrick on Broadway Street for Sunday Mass. It was Mother’s Day. There were flowers handed to moms, special blessings, songs to Mary and a home cooked breakfast for everybody. However, all of these acts to honor our mothers and the emotions of many immigrants who have left their mothers back home were making Gonzalo very homesick. He had recently left his family, his profession, his friends and his country. He was experiencing the pain of separation, an inevitable sacrifice in order to follow the call to be missionary in another country.

History repeats itself. A young man aspiring to be a priest arrived to New York one April in the year 1836. He had sailed close to 40 days on board of the Europa from his native Bohemia. His name was John Neumann. He came with the conviction that God wanted him to be a priest and a missionary in America. On those days, many priests journeyed from Europe to minister to the thousands of people who went overseas to America in giant waves of emigration. Today as thousands of people from all over the world come to America and in large numbers from Latin America, God continues to move the hearts of men and women who feel the call to serve today’s new immigrants.

Nevertheless, the lack of priests in the immigrants’ country of origin does not allow for a proportional response. In the Archdiocese of Baltimore, there are nine external priests serving the Hispanic community and six American priests for a population according to the last census update of about 90,000 people of Hispanic origin. Among the American priests, the Redemptorist Congregation merits special mention, since they have served to Latin American immigrants at St. Michael and St. Patrick Church for the past 25 years and more recently at St. Mary’s in Annapolis. Other religious communities have also served throughout the years, the Jesuits, the Franciscans and others. Some of the diocesan clergy are learning Spanish and Hispanic culture to better minister to Hispanics in their parishes, a significant commitment that is very much appreciated by the immigrant community.

Immigrant priests who come to provide sacramental and pastoral care to immigrants follow a process of adaptation like any other immigrant. The “cultural shock” might be stronger in some than others. The challenges of learning a new language, different cultural values, and a different pastoral approach are very demanding. But most of them adapt, learn, and in time they appreciate even more the gifts that they bring to the whole church as well as recognizing the richness of the local church.

Natives or immigrant priests who serve in the Hispanic community are edified and supported by the love and affection of the people. They see in the Latinos a hunger for God, devotion for Jesus, Mary and the saints expressed in public forms of devotions. They ask for prayer vigils, spiritual retreats and to learn more about the Bible and their faith. Young adults, most of them men, meet frequently to pray the rosary, sing and enjoy fellowship with their peers. The ministry of priests many times consists in a pastoral of accompaniment, even for those who do not speak Spanish a shake of hand at the end of Mass is interpreted as “él está con nosotros,” “he is with us.”

Gonzalo is now very close to his aspiration; on June 13 he will be ordained together with Hector Mateus-Ariza (who is also from Colombia), Marc Lanoue, and Ernest Cibelli. So I went this past Mother’s Day to St. Michael in Overlea, where he is ministering. I went to the Spanish Mass hoping to ask him if he remembered that first Mother’s Day. I couldn’t see him. He was serving as deacon in the English Mass. I thought how much he has accomplished in these past five years. He is now moving comfortably from one community to the other. In his ministry, he will be able to model for others how to be “bridge people” promoting mutual understanding, recognizing and accepting the challenges of our differences, but united intrinsically by our one faith. Let’s pray for these four men who are going to be ordained June 13, that they may be filled with the fervor that inspired St. John Neumann to be a priest and a missionary. Maria Johnson is director of the Office of Hispanic Ministry for the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

Thoughts on our Church: To Rome with sobering thoughts of home

By Cardinal-designate Edwin F. O’Brien

As I go to Rome for next week’s consistory, at which I will be elevated to the College of Cardinals, I do so with thoughts of the faith and ethical traditions that have long marked the Church in Baltimore, and the ethical standards that have been the hallmarks of the Maryland “experiment.”

I look forward to the joy of the ceremonies at St. Peter’s as I wear the pectoral cross worn by Archbishop John Carroll. I anticipate that the day will be mingled with thoughts of four happy years in Baltimore. I also expect to be mindful that day of the extremely troubling challenges to our most basic values confronting our Church and her people.

For a second straight year, our Church will celebrate World Marriage Day just as many leaders in Annapolis – some Catholic, sad to say – are determined to redefine the sacred institution of marriage. From time immemorial, marriage has been singled out for special recognition by societies throughout western civilization based solely on one unique fact: it is the only relationship capable of bearing children and thus contributing to the good of the family and thus the overall good of society.

After all, the family is the most basic unit of society. The family – by nature – can only begin through the union of one man and one woman. We cannot allow our state law to defy this simple truth. We recognize that families come in all shapes and sizes and that all families deserve support and protection. But we also know that every child brought into this world deserves to know that he belongs to both a mother and a father. If our elected officials redefine marriage, it removes from the law the recognition of this unique bond between children and their natural parents.

The Maryland Court of Appeals supports this obvious benefit, commenting in its 2007 ruling upholding the state’s marriage statute: “In light of the fundamental nature of procreation, and the importance placed on it by the Supreme Court, safeguarding an environment most conducive to the stable propagation and continuance of the human race is a legitimate government interest.”

Those seeking to overturn the state’s definition of marriage claim that same-sex couples are unjustly denied the same rights and benefits available to married couples. Yet Maryland’s Legislature has already chosen to provide many of these benefits (including health care visitation, medical decision-making and exemptions from recordation, transfer and inheritance taxes) through domestic partnership laws.

As was the case last year, those who do not share our views on this issue have tried appealing to popular sentiment by labeling it a civil rights issue and all who oppose it, as bigots. I reject being branded a bigot simply because I believe marriage should continue to be reserved – as it has for millennia – for the God-ordained union of a man and woman.

Colin Powell also rejected the idea of treating the issue of sexual orientation as a civil rights issue. In 1992, General Powell told the Armed Services Committee: “Skin color is a benign, non-behavioral characteristic. Sexual orientation is perhaps the most profound of human characteristics. Comparison of the two is a convenient but invalid argument.”

Sadly, even the United States government has embraced this “convenient but invalid argument.” When the Obama Administration announced a year ago that it would no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act, which upholds traditional marriage at the federal level, the Justice Department equated those in favor of DOMA to racists.

Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote to President Barack Obama to protest against the decision and the shameful tactics. “It is especially wrong and unfair to equate opposition to redefining marriage with either intentional or willfully ignorant racial discrimination, as your Administration insists on doing,” he wrote. “While all persons merit our full respect, no other relationships provide for the common good what marriage between husband and wife provides. The law should reflect this reality.”

Marriage between one man and one woman, with a view toward family, is a basic human and social institution … indeed, the most basic of such institutions. True, to protect the institution of marriage civil law and Church law will always set regulations around it. But marriage precedes all human law, originating in and guided by the natural law of God. Therefore, neither the Church nor the state can alter its basic meaning and structure. “God created man in the image of himself, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them. God blessed them, saying to them, ‘Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.’ (Gen. 1: 27-28).”

Wit & Wisdom: We win some, we lose some

By Father Joseph Breighner

Since I often write my columns well in advance of their publication, it’s difficult to be “timely” in my topics! For example, I’m writing this column the day after the Ravens’ loss to the Patriots. Right now this is a “hot” topic. In a few weeks it may just be a game we fans want to forget.

But I think there are important things we can learn from sports. Perhaps the most important is that we all look for perfection. (Perhaps, we want perfection from others more than we want it from ourselves.) We want our players to catch every pass, to make every field goal. But we learned from the Ravens’ loss that humans are human after all.

Where does this yearning come from? St. Augustine said it best: “Our hearts are restless until they rest in God.” There is something in us that knows that there is more to us than mere flesh and blood. We have indeed been made in God’s image and likeness. We yearn for that Oneness.

Then where does imperfection come from? Ah, back to the Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve. As someone humorously said: “Original sin wasn’t the apple in the tree, but the pair on the ground!” The pair on the ground made the wrong decision about the apple in the tree. (Actually, the Bible doesn’t tell us what kind of fruit it was.)

But you and I inherited that tendency, that proclivity, to make wrong choices. My working definition of Original Sin is: “That which makes it impossible to always do the right thing.” No one on earth would want to be perfect more than I, and, yet, I know how short I fall of perfection. I know Original Sin when I see it!

So we learn from sports something important about life. We need to forgive our team’s imperfection, just as we hope to be forgiven for our own. From our own weakness we learn compassion for the weakness of others. A great line that I heard from the AA tradition is: “It’s too bad we didn’t get the other fellow’s problems. We all know what he should do!” All of us are experts on someone else’s life! We know what they should have done. But, none of us is an expert in our own lives. We all make choices we wish we could do over. Wouldn’t Billy Cundiff like another chance? Wouldn’t Lee Evans like another chance?

One of the nice things about God is that there is always a another chance. None of us change the past. All of us can change in the present.

A second thing sports teach us is that our pleasure comes at the price of another’s pain. We rejoice when our team wins. Someone else may be weeping on the other side. This time you and I are feeling the pain. (As an aside, one of the nuns at my Mass today whispered to me: “I’m from Boston. I’m happy about yesterday’s results! Others just glare at me if I say that.”) I smiled at her. When you’re a sports fan you have to accept both sides.

In life we do win some and lose some. Competitive sports do prepare us for a competitive world. But our faith also reminds us of compassion. St. Paul spoke of weeping with those who weep and rejoicing with those who rejoice. He reminds us that our oneness in God is more important than any apparent division. Our minds divide the world up into pieces. Jesus, in John’s Gospel, says that he came that “all might be one”. So, yes, we can cheer for our teams in our make-believe world of competition. Compassion, however, moves us to a higher level.

Vince Lombardi was widely quoted as saying: “Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing!” What he actually said was: “It’s the only thing worth striving for!” If you live in a competitive world strive to win. But remember there is more to the world than competition. A lot of people have been successful in sports and business, but losers at what really matters: faith, family and friends.

When we live for eternity, we get the best of time and eternity!