Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote, a political action group with no ties to the Catholic Church, has written repeatedly about how his organization has used “the latest technology to find Catholics, connect with them, register them to vote and then get them to the polls.”

Manivannan was among 121 catechumens and 234 candidates participating in the Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion at the cathedral, where Archbishop William E. Lori presided. They represented more than half of the total who will be fully initiated or come into full communion with the church at the Easter Vigil,

Father Ernesto Cardenal, the Nicaraguan poet and revolutionary whose political work earned him a public admonishment from St. John Paul II, died March 1 in the Nicaraguan capital of Managua. He was 95.

The 41st annual Social Ministry Convocation was held Feb. 29 at Mercy High School in Baltimore.

Continuing his recovery from a mild cold, Pope Francis said that he would be unable to attend his annual Lenten retreat with Roman Curia officials.