Sandtown-Winchester is home to over 10,000 of our fellow citizens. It once was the proud area where jazz greats like Cab Calloway and Billie Holiday lived. However, it is also the location of our city that has received extensive attention in the local, national and even international media and press because of the recent riots and violence that have traumatized Baltimore.

Located in West Baltimore, Sandtown is an area of some 72 city blocks. Many of its streets are populated with blighted and boarded up houses. The population is 98.5% African American. Its people suffer from high unemployment, poor health, low student achievement, illiteracy, teen pregnancy, substance abuse, crime and the impact of the Bloods and Crips gang members. Residents between the ages of 16 and 64 experience an unemployment average of 51.8%. Students between the 9th and 12th grade levels are chronically absent from school 49.3% of the time. Well over half the population, 25 years old or older, has less than a high school diploma. Over 33% of all residential properties are either vacant or abandoned. And there are almost 465 narcotics calls per 1,000 residents.

It is in this long-suffering neighborhood where Freddie Gray lived. It is also where he was arrested and brutally mistreated leading eventually days later to his death.

It is also the location of Saint Gregory the Great Catholic Church where Mass is celebrated each Sunday and every weekday morning. This center of the Church's presence in the midst of so much pain and suffering will be the site of one of the many Prayer Walks led every few months by our urban vicar, Bishop Denis Madden.  

Bishop Madden has extended an invitation for our parishioners to join him on Tuesday, May 26th, at 5:30 PM and to accompany him and the local parishioners as they walk through the streets of this struggling area of Baltimore praying and singing for God's blessings on its people, homes and institutions. I invite our parishioners to join me that afternoon as I participate with Bishop Madden in asking God to bless the citizens of Sandtown and to heal the lives of its hurting families.

We will gather at our church at 740 N. Calvert no later than 5:00 PM and will drive to St. Gregory Church located at 1542 N. Gilmor Street. For those who need a ride, we will make the parish van available.

Of course, we all realize that the needs of this part of our city are monumental and will require an enormous amount of time and resources to undertake the work that must be done to bring deep-seated change to Sandtown-Winchester. However, we recognize that our presence and prayer are also needed. Indeed they are essential to finding the road that will lead to a new moment in the life and welfare of these people who share with us the basic identity of being fellow human beings but lack almost all the common amenities that go with being productive and happy ones. Do join us, therefore, for this important prayer walk.

With great gratitude to you in the Risen Jesus,