With a degree in neuroscience and a job as a research assistant at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Oliver Avaritt had his life pretty well in order when he decided to hand it over to God and join the Dominican Friars of the Province of St. Joseph.

Bishop Newman’s episcopal model was “To live is Christ.” These few words speak volumes about him as a person. He was a priest and bishop who was loved by everyone who met him.

“We’ve got a consecrated altar now,” Father John Williamson, exclaimed to a parishioner greeting him in the narthex of the Church of the Ascension after a Mass May 28 in which the altar was blessed and the new sanctuary was dedicated.

While a church being replaced with a beerhall is sadly not uncommon in this day and age, the reverse is newsworthy.

This week’s 7 Quick Takes covers everything from Scruffy the Tugboat to fishing and cicadas.