Baltimore’s Italian community will launch its 128th Columbus Day Commemoration & Parade Sunday, Oct. 7 – an event deemed the longest-running Columbus Day celebration in the United States.

The Franciscan Center’s most robust outreach is a meal program. In fiscal year 2018, nearly 300,000 meals were distributed through the hot, healthy lunch and dinner programs, and emergency grocery bags. Lunches are offered on weekdays, and dinners on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Paul McMullen finds boundless inspiration from young people.

Bill Ballantyne was honored Oct. 2 at Ceresville Mansion in Frederick as the 2018 John McElroy Award winner by the Friends of Catholic Education, an independent organization which provides scholarships and tuition assistance for Catholic schools in Frederick County.

Each year the U.S. Catholic Church observes October as Respect Life Month, which calls Catholics “to cherish, defend and protect those who are most vulnerable, from the beginning of life to its end, and at every point in between,” said the chairman of the bishops’ pro-life committee.