Another Road to Baltimore

I never quite fit in at any parish. My next one may be no different.

But I hope to move to Baltimore in two years, before the housing prices go through the roof, like everywhere else. I am looking for a place where the Mass is reverently celebrated, in a traditional fashion, without being stodgy about it. At the same time, it would also have a committment to social justice and related issues. Such a combination, outside the usual conservative/liberal rut, was the vision of Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker movement.

I may have found the place. Saint Benedict in Baltimore is staffed by Benedictine priests from the Archabbey of Saint Vincent in Latrobe PA, where my mother's cousin is a Brother, and who managed the bookstore of adjoining Saint Vincent College for many years. The pastor is Father Paschal, whom I've met before. The parish church has a bookstore, and a chapter of Oblates.

I only wish I could live nearby. One look at the neighborhood, and I wonder if it's ripe for gentrification just yet.

Nah. Maybe not. Stay tuned...