Remembering Judgie: The family of Judgie Leary, who died in December, gathered at Florian Hall last Friday along with nearly 1,000 friends and neighbors who came out to remember the Dorchester native and union official. Pictured above is Judgie’s widow Gayle with her family:

Matt Casey finds it hard to describe his one-week experience treating earthquake victims in Haiti.

Matt Casey: Caritas Carney physician assistant and Dorchester resident Matt Casey, right, is shown alongside Caritas Christi Health Care’s Dr. Mark Pearlmutter in the Haitian town of Milot last month. Caritas Carney Hospital photo.

“It was like trying to hold up a waterfall,” said Casey, a 48- year-old Melville Park resident who works as a physician assistant in general surgery at Caritas Carney Hospital. “It was so massive, it was just overwhelming.”

Casey, a Boston native who has lived in Dorchester for the last decade, volunteered to join one of several medical teams dispatched to Haiti by the archdiocesan-run health care system. Casey was part of a second wave of Caritas docs, nurses and other staff who hit the ground in Haiti on Jan. 22.  Read more

After two weeks spent treating Haitian earthquake victims aboard a U.S. Navy-owned hospital ship, Dr. Laurence Ronan returned to Boston last Friday. A physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Ronan is the director of the Thomas S. Durant, MD, Fellowship in Refugee Medicine program, and is a member of a disaster response team that deploys to catastrophes all over the world. What the Savin Hill resident saw in Haiti last month has topped them all.  Read more

With open houses being held throughout the area as part of Catholic Schools Week, families of students who have been attending the Pope John Paul II Academy’s Central school are busy selecting other academy campuses in Dorchester for opening day next fall.

They are reacting to the recent announcement that the central campus, located on the site of the former St. Mark’s Grammar School, will be closed in June due to insufficient enrollment and the poor economy.  Read more

Several complaints were made to the city’s Inspectional Services Department in recent weeks about parking beyond the allowed capacity at the Eglise Baptise H. Bon-Berger de Boston Church at 487-498 Ashmont Street. And elected officials are now threatening court action if the violations continue.

The congregation’s pastor, Rev. David Milien, said he is trying to monitor the parking and added that he believes the complaints are being made because neighbors do not want the church there.  Read more

The Boston Police Department announced today it has terminated Justin Barrett, an Area B-3 officer who sent a mass e-mail last year with racially derogatory terms about Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates.

Police Commissioner Ed Davis said in a statement he could not allow somebody like Barrett to remain on the force:  Read more