Oblates to celebrate life of Mother Mary Lange More than 30 years before the Emancipation Proclamation, Mother Mary Lange fought to establish the first religious order for black women and the first black Catholic school in the United States. To honor the 126th anniversary of their founder’s death, the Oblate Sisters of Providence have planned a Feb. 3 Mass of Thanksgiving at 1 p.m., which will be celebrated by Cardinal William H. Keeler in the Our Lady of Mount Providence Convent Chapel in Catonsville. The Mass will be followed by a reception, offering guests the opportunity to view Mother Mary Lange memorabilia. A novena will also be held Jan. 25-Feb. 2 in the chapel. Sister M. Virginie Fish, O.S.P., and several of her colleagues in the Archdiocese of Baltimore have devoted nearly 20 years to working on the cause of canonization for Mother Mary Lange, who, along with Father James Hector Joubert, S.S., founded the Oblate Sisters in 1829. With the help of two other black women, Mother Mary Lange also founded St. Frances Academy, Baltimore, in 1828, which is the first black Catholic school in the country and still in existence. Sister Virginie said the sisters see honoring Mother Mary Lange as a fitting way to kick-start National Black History Month. Father John Bowen, S.S., postulator for Mother Mary Lange’s cause, completed the canonization application three years ago and sent it to Rome, where it is currently under review. There is no timetable for the Vatican to complete or reject sainthood for Mother Mary Lange, Father Bowen said. The anniversary Mass and celebration at the convent take place on the same day Mother Mary Lange died at the age of 98 on the Baltimore campus of St. Frances Academy on Chase Street in 1882. Therese Wilson Favors, director of the Office of African American Ministries for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, said her office will host the Mother Mary Lange Awards Banquet Feb. 8 at 7 p.m. at Martin’s West in Woodlawn. The annual banquet celebrates the service and ministry of black Catholics, focusing on the areas of leadership, service through the corporal works of mercy and youths who illustrate both service and leadership within their parish and the archdiocese at large. In light of the efforts and accomplishments of Mother Mary Lange, Ms. Favors said it is only natural that Marylanders should celebrate Mother Mary Lange’s life during National Black History Month. “For so long, no one ever heard of Mother Lange, but now she is getting her just due,” said Sister John Francis Schilling, O.S.P., president of St. Frances Academy. “She was someone who saw the need for things before others did and took the risks to make them happen. “Mother Lange continues to be an inspiration to me,” Sister John Francis said. “Every time I need money for the school I pray to her and she always comes through. She needs to be celebrated by the church.” Special care collection helps priests pay for medical needs A second collection Jan. 19-20 will give Catholics in the archdiocese the opportunity to support priests requiring special medical care in nursing homes and assisted living facilities, as well as those priests – regardless of age – who are convalescing following surgery, serious injury or illness. “Give to them as they gave to us,” is the theme of this year’s Special Care for Diocesan Priests Collection, which helps cover priests’ expenses that aren’t covered by health insurance or Medicare, said Carol A. Purwin, of the division of clergy personnel for the Archdiocese of Baltimore. “We had a priest this year who suffered from severe circulatory issues and needed special stockings, which Medicare and insurance didn’t cover, and they were very expensive,” said Father Jay F. O’Connor, director of the division of clergy personnel. “We were able to provide them for him. Those stockings have greatly improved his quality of life.” In a letter to the pastors in the archdiocese, Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien said, “It is hoped that this campaign will serve as a reminder that those of our many brother priests who are no longer in active and visible parish settings are still in need of prayers and financial support. Further, it is hoped that it will cause our people to reflect on the sacrifices made by these men of God and on the many ways their lives were graced by their priestly work.” The archdiocese slightly surpassed its collection goal of $315,000 in 2007 and hopes to do the same this year, Ms. Purwin said. The average daily cost for standard health expenses for a retired priest in the archdiocese is more than $137 and the average daily cost for a priest residing in an assisted-living facility or nursing home is more than $487, Ms. Purwin said. The archdiocese currently has 67 retired priests who still have faculties for ministries, Father O’Connor said. The special fund also pays 50 percent of the priests’ expenses for hearing aids, as well as vision and dental care, he said. “We try to provide for the health care and personal needs for our priests in ways that attempt to respect their personal dignity and acknowledge the many contributions they have made for the people of the Archdiocese of Baltimore,” Father O’Connor said. “This isn’t a handout, but something that should rightly be provided for them.” MLK Day honored with blood drive and testing In memory of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Office of African American Ministries of the Archdiocese of Baltimore and the American Red Cross will sponsor a blood donation drive and a bone marrow testing Jan. 21 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. at St. Frances Academy, Baltimore. A special prayer service in memory of Dr. King will be held 10 a.m., followed by the blood donation and bone marrow matching at the campus, which is located at 501 E. Chase St., said Therese Wilson Favors, director of the office of African American ministries. “In both activities you will be helping to save lives or improve the quality of life for your brothers and sisters in Maryland,” Ms. Favors said. “Your donation is needed and as you give, you will be joining a national effort this day with other offices of black Catholic ministries and the American Red Cross throughout the United States. Let’s make this a banner year for the Archdiocese of Baltimore in memory of Dr. King.” Free lunch and gifts will be given to all who participate. New photo resource provides peek into Vatican’s past VATICAN CITY – Scholars, history buffs and the public at large will now be able to peek inside some of the Vatican’s historical black-and-white photograph collection. The written contents of the Vatican photo service’s entire Giordani Collection have been transcribed into a searchable Microsoft Word file that can be sent, free of charge, to anyone on request by e-mailing [email protected]. Thanks to the new resource, some half-million images, mostly black and white and taken between 1933 and 1975, will be available more easily to the public for research and sale. Prospective buyers also can request the photos they would like to purchase by e-mailing [email protected], specifying the photo caption and the corresponding number. The variety of pictures is astounding. One can find the usual pictures of the meetings and travels of Popes Pius XI, Pius XII, John XXIII, and Paul VI; of important curial officials and visiting cardinals from all over the world; and of world leaders like Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and U.S. Presidents John F. Kennedy and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Also captured are unique historical moments, like American soldiers stopping at St. Peter’s during World War II, Vatican personnel attending the 1960 Summer Olympic Games in Rome, and Pope Paul VI meeting U.S. astronauts from Apollo 11, which landed the first men on the moon. There are also more than 100 shots of Michelangelo’s famous “Pieta” statue being packed in a crate and hauled out by crane for shipping to the 1964 World’s Fair in New York. Sometimes the snapshots just capture daily life in Rome and the Vatican or immortalize the ordinary: There is a picture of Pope John XXIII’s shoemaker, ID snapshots of Vatican employees, and a photo of a man named “Galassi” who in 1960 was the Vatican’s oldest “sampietrino” – one of the workers responsible for the upkeep of St. Peter’s Basilica and St. Peter’s Square. But here and there are the odd and unusual, like a picture of someone’s kidney stones, photos of ceramic cats, and – perhaps because cars were still a novelty at the time – countless shots of fender benders and car accidents in and around the Vatican. Readers can sift through the text line by line or do a word search of the 367 pages of photo captions in the electronic file. Unfortunately, the file does not show the images. It is an exact transcription of the photographer’s archival notes which means it is written in Italian and names are sometimes misspelled. When looking for Neil Armstrong and Pope Paul, for example, typing in “Armastrong” for the U.S. astronaut will yield a find. But, on the whole, a search for “Spellman” to look for what images the file has of the late New York Cardinal Francis J. Spellman in Rome will give the reader numerous hits.