As the Cold War raged in the late 1970s and early 1980s, 1,000 nuns packed secret messages into tubes of toothpaste and bits of candy – smuggling the reports of human rights abuses and church persecution out of Communist-dominated Lithuania.

In advance of the March 4 release of the Consolidation Plan and Report for archdiocesan schools, Archbishop Edwin F. O´Brien sat down with Catholic Review associate publisher/editor Christopher Gunty to discuss the process that led to the decisions, and the ramifications. Click here to read the Q & A

Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien is set to announce the consolidation of an unspecified number of schools March 4.

Their births made medical history as 29-year-old Stephania became the first known heart transplant recipient in the world to give birth to healthy twins.

(This is the first article in a two-part series.) There is a banner at St. Pius dated July 12, 1931. The date represents the 78th anniversary when the congregation of St. Barnabas located at West Biddle Street and Argyle Avenue relocated and became the congregation of St. Pius V located four blocks away.