Religion

A campfire confession exposes decades of child sex abuse claims at Baltimore megachurch — and inspires a group to seek justice for alleged victims.

A group raised to revere their pastors reaches out to former classmates and friends. They discover dozens of abuse allegations, including several linked to one family.

Baltimore's Holy Rosary Catholic Church was long a beacon for Polish families. Its parish will soon merge with a Latino one.

Removing bodies, finding new homes for stained glass and deconsecration are among the steps of a Catholic church sale — which can take a decade

In 2019, the year Kingdom Fellowship AME was founded, the church had about 3,000 members and an average weekly attendance of about 1,800 people, according to the church’s figures. Today, membership has swelled to nearly 8,000, and its weekly services draw about 2,500 attendees altogether.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michelle M. Harner set the claims deadline, which came 245 days after the Archdiocese of Baltimore filed a petition for Chapter 11 reorganization.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore filed for bankruptcy right before a new law, the Child Victims Act of 2023, was set to take effect in Maryland.

St. James the Less Roman Catholic Church once anchored an East Baltimore neighborhood that was home to many German Catholics, but it has languished since the parish was dissolved in the 1980s. A lightning strike sparked a fire in the towering steeple in 2020, and now it's up for sale with a $1 million asking price.

The blueprint released Wednesday closely tracks the draft plan that the archdiocese put out in April, reducing the number of parishes — or Catholic communities — from 61 to 23. The number of actual churches would shrink from 59 to 30. But Archbishop William Lori did spare eight churches initially, while delivering some late bad news to others.

A final plan announced by Archbishop William E. Lori would reduce the number of parishes in Baltimore City and parts of Baltimore County from 61 to 23, while shrinking the number of worship sites from 59 to 30, four more than originally recommended.

Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori on Wednesday announced a final church consolidation plan that would reduce the number of worship sites from 59 to 30. Many churches would get folded into merged parishes.

“Today, the court will provide time and space for listening,” U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michelle M. Harner said on Monday at the beginning of a hearing in the case.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore is set to finalize its plan to close churches next month. That includes some where Hispanic congregations worship.

The landmark Shaarei Tfiloh Synagogue by Druid Hill Park will get a new lease on life as a kind of community center rooted in Jewish traditions.

The 125th anniversary of Duke Ellington’s birth presents an opportunity for the Peabody Conservatory to ensure that another generation of musicians appreciates the meaning and significance of his work, says trumpeter and composer Sean Jones, who chairs Peabody’s jazz program.

Mount St. Joe’s seniors take part in a rite of passage stretching back to the early 1900s as they prepare to embark on life after graduation.

Maryland clergy leaders, who reach thousands on a weekly basis, are using the pulpit to emphasize the need to vote.

A plan by the Baltimore Archdiocese that includes church closures was made necessary by financial considerations and demographic changes, a member of the archdiocese’s board of financial administration says.

People begged the archdiocese to keep beloved churches open at a public meeting Thursday night on a proposal from the archdiocese to close a significant portion of Baltimore’s Catholic churches.

Catholic Charities unveiled plans Thursday for a resource center at a shuttered school in the Franklintown Road neighborhood.