These are certainly dark days for the Catholic Church--especially for those of us who live in the Philadelphia Archdiocese. I have felt and continue to feel blest to be a product of a Catholic education from elementary school through college. The faith my parents gave to me through the sacrament of Baptism was nurtured by their example at home and it grew in maturity and understanding immersed in the safe and loving and well-run Catholic schools in which my siblings and I were educated. In June, my youngest will join her older three siblings as a proud graduate of St. Katharine of Siena …

The Japanese earthquake is a disaster of unimaginable proportion and the misery is far from over. The folks in many areas have lost power, phone water and gas, fires are burning and rescue and response are hampered by highways either blocked by debris or clogged with people heading for safer areas. On top of all of this is the nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Unfortunately our press seems to dwell on the nuclear issue and fails to adequately address the scale of the overall problem. The word of the day is “meltdown” and it strikes terror in our collective mentality. …

I first became a fan of North Wayne when I was a kid.  The fanciful Victorian architecture in particular had me at hello, just like Cape May, NJ. North Wayne has grand Victorian homes with sweeping porches and smaller homes of a more fanciful bungalow style.  Many of these homes have been lovingly restored.  You see Queen Anne, Second Empire, Tudor, shingle style, stick style, craftsman, and colonial revival homes dot the streets neatly laid out on a grid pattern. Like many other towns on the Main Line, Wayne popped as the Pennsylvania Railroad developed and connected Philadelphia to points …