Yesterday morning's front page of The Baltimore Sun carried a banner headline announcing that this past month of May, which has just ended, saw 43 murders in Baltimore City exceeding the record established 20 years ago. The question on everyone's mind, from the Mayor on down, is what to do in the face of the escalating killings that have mushroomed since the beginning of this year and have grown far worse in the wake of the violence that took place in early May due to the death of Freddie Gray.

As a response to the outbreak of this violence and the many murders taking place, our Catholic parish invited Pastor Joshua Smith of Gallery Church, an Evangelical Church in Sandtown/Winchester to speak at a recent meeting of our Pastoral Council. He spoke for an hour-and-a-half about the great hopelessness evident in the lives of the young people of West Baltimore and how we, in collaboration with him and other organizations he works with, might establish an on-going dialogue. From such conversations could possibly emerge some significant interaction between his church community and ours. We plan to work closely with Minister Smith and his people.

In addition, last Monday, 35 of our parishioners joined with me and another 100 people in accompanying our urban Catholic bishop, Denis Madden, on a Prayer Walk around St. Gregory the Great Church in Sand Town for almost two hours visiting five different places where a grocery store had been arsoned, autos had been stolen, a person had been shot to death in his car, a community rec center had been closed, and the corner where Freddie Gray had been brutally accosted leading to his death. We plan to do a Prayer Walk again this month in another part of troubled West Baltimore.

Meanwhile, Archbishop Lori has become directly involved himself by visiting the Catholic churches in Sandtown. He also recently spoke about restoring hope to the city in an interview which appeared in America magazine. (Click here to read). He intends to engage the Catholic Church and his fellow Catholics in seeking solutions to what he refers to as "the two Baltimores."

These small steps are an attempt to begin the healing process and to rebuild our city and its communities. We have a long journey ahead, but we undertake it with trust in God and the hope that these steps will lead to some very fruitful results.

Gratefully in the Risen Christ,