Names and Numbers: Retirees, confirmation service and parade of ‘saints”

 

 

This installment of Names and Numbers includes service by confirmation students, a parade of “saints” in Towson and recognition of two retirees.

 

 

Donation by the Middle Atlantic Lieutenancy of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem to Bethlehem University in Bethlehem, Palestine. The gift will underwrite the university’s Institute for Community Partnership Expansion Project.

“As the only Catholic university in the Holy Land, Bethlehem University gives daily support to the remaining Christian community,” said Michael J. Ruck, lieutenant of the Middle Atlantic Lieutenancy”

A longtime parishioner of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore, Ruck was appointed lieutenant by Cardinal Edwin F. O’Brien, archbishop emeritus of Baltimore and Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher.

 

 

Pounds of potatoes and pumpkins harvested by confirmation students at St. Margaret Parish in Bel Air. The students attended an October retreat at the Monsignor O’Dwyer Retreat House in Sparks, experiencing new forms of prayer, working in small groups and learning about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Each group also volunteered at First Fruits Farm, a nonprofit that donates food to those in need and has fields across from the retreat house. The harvested produce was sent to flood-ravaged areas of North Carolina and West Virginia.

 

Approximate number of students and teachers who visited The John Carroll School Nov. 10 for “Lessons of the Shoah,” a program on the Holocaust and its ramifications. This year’s event focused on refugees from the Holocaust to present day. Co-hosted by the Bel Air Catholic high school in conjunction with the Jewish Museum of Maryland, the Baltimore Jewish Council, the Associated and Klein’s ShopRite, the program included a new film on Anne Frank’s family, which attempted to secure refugee status and was denied. It also included the story of the St. Louis, a ship of Jewish refugees that was turned away from various countries, including the U.S. Most passengers ended up returning to Europe, where they were sent to death camps.

 

Approximate number of people who turned out for an Oct. 26 forum, “Hungry for Change: How Our Daily Bread Changes Lives,” at Loyola University Maryland. The panel discussion featured keynote addresses by Kathryn Edin, a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University and co-author of “$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America,” and Sister of Notre Dame de Namur Patricia Chappell (pictured with Bishop Denis J. Madden, auxiliary bishop of Baltimore), executive director of Pax Christi USA.

The forum was presented by Catholic Charities of Baltimore as part of its observation of the 35-year anniversary of Our Daily Bread.

 

Rosaries created by middle-schoolers at Immaculate Conception School in Towson last month, during its “Celebration of the Saints and Service.” The rosaries were distributed by the Missionaries of Charity, the order founded by St. Teresa of Kolkata, who was a focus of the event. It culminated Oct. 31, when students dressed as their favorite saint for an All Saints Day Parade. Father Francis M. Ouma, associate pastor, is pictured with some of the “saints.” The event included the donation of 1,200 new pairs of socks to Sarah’s Hope and a visit by the third grade, in their costumes, to the Bykota Senior Center, and the donation of 1,200 new pairs of socks to Sarah’s Hope.

 

Years of service provided by Ann Popilok, patient advocate at Mercy Medical Center who was recognized Oct. 19 at a retirement ceremony at the Baltimore hospital founded by the Sisters of Mercy. Popilok said she drew inspiration from Sister of Mercy Mary Thomas Zinkand, who ran the hospital from the 1950s to 1990s and died in 2003.

“Sister Thomas taught me that patients always come first,” Popilok said. “I learned from her and the other Sisters of Mercy to listen to what patients are saying and hear what they’re not saying.”

 

Citizens inducted Oct. 27 into the Maryland Senior Citizen Hall of Fame, a nonprofit that seeks to immortalize men and women for their caring and volunteer efforts. Among them was Joan Bonthron, a member of the Catholic Faith Community at Oak Crest retirement community in Parkville since 1996. An extraordinary minister of holy Communion, Bonthron (second from left) is also responsible for counting the offering and maintaining the altar at the Oak Crest Chapel for weekly Mass. For 15 years she has been a member of the Oak Leaf Quilters, which makes blankets for children and hats for babies at nearby MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center in Baltimore.

 

Years CeCe Zunic served as office manager at St. Paul Parish in Ellicott City, her home parish. Zunic retired earlier this year, and a reception was held in her honor. She is shown with Father Matthew Buening, former pastor of St. Paul. Father Warren Tanghe, pastor, said in the bulletin, that Zunic “made every person who walked through the office door know that he or she was totally welcome, and that this parish would do everything it could to help them.”

 

Clergy honored by St. Joseph in Sykesville for Clergy Appreciation Day during weekend Masses Oct. 29 and 30. Marianist Father Neville O’Donohue (pictured), the pastor, was recognized with Marianist Father David McGuigan, associate pastor, and Father John Worgul, pastoral associate for evangelization and adult formation, as were Deacon Michael Dvorak, Deacon Vito Piazza Sr. and Deacon Karl Bayhi. Marianist Brother Jesse O’Neill and Marianist Brother Justin Quiroz, who support their brother priests in the Marianist community at St. Joseph, were also recognized. Both serve at Mother Seton Academy in Baltimore.