EDGEMERE – Standing at the back of St. Luke Church following a Dec. 11 Mass marking his retirement, Monsignor Joseph S. Lizor Jr. extended both arms to shake hands with the many parishioners who wanted to greet him. Several children gave the 79-year-old pastor homemade cards, while hugs seemed to engulf the vested clergyman faster than he expected.

St. John’s Catholic Prep in Frederick has announced it will be moving to the campus of St. Thomas More Academy in Buckeystown. St. Thomas More will move to a yet to be determined site in Frederick County.

A Raphael masterpiece that hangs in the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore is getting national attention this holiday season as the U.S. Postal Service features the “Madonna of the Candelabra” as one of its 2011 Christmas stamps.

Ever the poetic soul, Xaverian Brother James M. Kelly died as the sun was rising Dec. 3, the feast day of his congregation’s patron, St. Francis Xavier.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti –On a sweltering October day, a team of leaders from Catholic Relief Services stopped at St. Francois de Sales Hospital here to receive an update on plans to rebuild and transform it into a teaching hospital.