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IMAGE: CNS photo/courtesy Will KirkBy Christopher GuntyBALTIMORE (CNS) -- In October1791, five men began studies for the priesthood at the first seminary in theUnited States, just a couple years after the Diocese of Baltimore wasestablished as the first in the country in 1789.At the time of that humblebeginning -- when Bishop John Carroll, Baltimore's first bishop, welcomed fourpriests from the Society of St. Sulpice and the five seminarians -- the Dioceseof Baltimore encompassed the whole fledgling nation.Sulpician Father Phillip J.Brown, president rector of today's St. Mary's Seminary and University, noted inhis welcome to commemorate that occasion that the seminarians began their studiesat St. Mary's downtown on Paca Street a month before Georgetown University inWashington opened, making the Baltimore seminary the oldest American institutionof higher learning.The remark brought a chuckle ofpride from the congregation gathered Nov. 15 in the seminary's chapel to markthe 225th anni...
IMAGE: CNS photo/Shiraaz Mohamed, EPABy Bronwen DachsCAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNS) --Hunger levels are so severe in drought-ridden southern Madagascar that manypeople in remote villages have eaten almost nothing but cactus fruit for up tofour years, said a Catholic Relief Services official.Eating this fruit leaves crimsonstains on people's faces and hands, and there is a "shame of povertyassociated with these stains in Madagascar," an island nation 250 milesoff the coast of mainland Africa, said Nancy McNally, CRS information officerfor East and Southern Africa.The cactus plant "is theonly thing that grows" in southern Madagascar, and the plants "aregrowing everywhere" in earth "that looks like white silt," shesaid in a Nov. 23 telephone interview from Nairobi, Kenya.A father of three, sitting withhis wife and children outside the town of Beloha in southeastern Madagascar, "toldme that his family had been living on cactus fruit for a year," McNallysaid."With whatever money hecould m...
VERBANIA, Italy (AP) -- Italy's Emma Morano, the world's oldest living person, marked her 117th birthday Tuesday, blowing out all the candles on her cake....
PIGEON FORGE, Tenn. (AP) -- Raging wildfires fueled by high winds forced the evacuation of thousands of people and were believed to have wiped out an entire resort of more than 100 buildings in the Great Smoky Mountains as National Guard troops arrived early Tuesday to help overwhelmed firefighters....
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- The Somali-born student who carried out a car-and-knife attack at Ohio State University complained on his Facebook account about U.S. interference in countries with Muslim communities, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press....
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- The Latest on the Colombia plane crash involving members of a Brazilian soccer team (all times local):...
LA UNION, Colombia (AP) -- A chartered plane carrying a Brazilian soccer team to the biggest match of its history crashed into a Colombian hillside and broke into pieces, killing 75 people and leaving six survivors, Colombian officials said Tuesday....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday that anyone who burns an American flag should face unspecified "consequences," such as jail or a loss of citizenship - a move that was ruled out by the Supreme Court nearly three decades ago....
NEW YORK (AP) -- President-elect Donald Trump made two Cabinet selections on Tuesday, choosing fierce Obamacare critic Georgia Rep. Tom Price to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, and Elaine Chao, who served in the Cabinet of George W. Bush, to serve as the secretary of the Department of Transportation....
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis said on Tuesday that true Christian humility is the virtue of the childlike and is never a theatrical humility. His words came at his morning Mass celebrated in the chapel of the Santa Marta residence.Taking his inspiration from the day’s readings the Pope’s homily was a reflection on how God reveals himself to the humble and childlike rather than the wise and learned as recounted in the gospel of Luke. He noted that the day’s first reading from the book of Isaiah is also full of references to little things such as the small shoot that “shall sprout from the stump of Jesse” rather than an army that will bring about liberation. Pope Francis went on to explain how in the Christmas story too the leading figures are the small and the humble.“Then at Christmas, we see this smallness, this little thing: a baby, a stable, a mother, a father… little ones. (They have) big hearts but the attitude of a child. ...
