As regular readers will remember, I arrived in Rome late last week for meetings of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and of the Council of Cardinals advising the Holy Father. The commission met Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and there were other meetings with a number of different dicasteries, including the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Congregation for Bishops, and the Congregation for Religious.

[This is the ninth in a series of articles profiling each of the 13 men who will be ordained to the priesthood on May 18.] BRIGHTON -- Deacon Carignan Rouse was born in Tallahassee, Florida, and baptized into the Catholic Church as an infant. His mother was Catholic, and he grew up attending Mass and Sunday school.

BOSTON -- Priests, deacons, seminarians, religious, and laypeople gathered at the newly renovated Cathedral of the Holy Cross on April 16 for the annual Chrism Mass. The Chrism Mass serves as a symbol of unity in dioceses throughout the Catholic world during Holy Week each year, as the local bishop blesses the sacred oils used to administer sacraments for the coming year -- the oil of catechumens, the oil of the infirm, and the sacred chrism.