“He reminded them that the life of every human being was no mistake,” Father Carey said. “God had wonderful plans for each of them.”

Mike Mandella opened the doors to the mostly darkened church and immediately looked in the direction of pools of bright light that spilled onto the floor from the two open reconciliation rooms.

Sulpician Father Joseph C. Martin, a leader in the addiction treatment field who cofounded the Father Martin’s Ashley treatment center, died March 9. He was 84.

As associate publisher/editor of The Catholic Review for 24 years, Mr. Medinger transformed a once-struggling newspaper into one of the most honored publications in the Catholic press.

Its transparent wings beating in a flutter of motion, the locust almost seems ready to jump from the calf-skin parchment on which it is painted. Resting on a delicately arching green leaf, the insect is a physical reminder of a passage in the sacred text that fills the page.