At its height, the Holy Name Society boasted more than 40,000 members in 135 parishes in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. More than a half century later, there are now about 500 members in 18 parishes.

HAGERSTOWN – A 13-year-old girl with pink hair, black fingernails, a shiny silver belt and a hip-hop cap sat two pews in front of an elderly woman with a black veil over her head during a special Tridentine Mass celebrated Sept. 11 at St. Mary in Hagerstown.

When Dr. Paul Rao taught for a year at St. Thomas the Apostle School in Washington four decades ago, he struggled to understand one of his students. The girl was born with a cleft palate, and had difficulty forming her words.

Father Leo Patalinghug was all set to make a pilgrimage to Lourdes, France, beginning Sept. 13, 2001, when the terrorist attacks of two days earlier abruptly ended his plans. International flights were canceled as the world fixed its attention on New York and Washington.

On the second day of the new semester at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, Father Michael DeAscanis and fellow seminarians were taking a mid-afternoon walk in the courtyard.