This week, The Catholic New World presents Faith & Education, a special section devoted to Catholic schools and religious education.

Cardinal's Column

News

Conference says state should pay for unfunded mandates
One out of 10 children in Illinois is in a Catholic school. In Chicago, it’s one out of seven children.
And those Catholic schools spend lots of money every year complying with the requirements to be registered with the Illinois State Board of Education.
It’s only fair that the state help pay for that, said Doug Delaney, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Illinois. Full text available.

Cardinal goes door-to-door with St. Sabina parishioners
While the mission goal stamped on their T-shirts was to: “Make disciples of all the nations,” Cardinal George and St. Sabina’s pastor and parishioners started block by neighborhood block. Full text available.

Lutherans open S.C. hospice named for Cardinal Bernardin
Mere months after Lutherans and Catholics signed an accord, U.S. leaders of the two religions gathered April 2 in Columbia to dedicate The Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Hospice House in the birthplace of the late cardinal of Chicago.

Poll explores anti-Catholic bias
A Gallup Poll has found that roughly one-fourth of Americans have a negative view of the Catholic religion and nearly two-thirds view it favorably.
Contrary to widespread opinion that anti-Catholic bias exists disproportionately among evangelical or born-again Protestants, the survey found that only 29 percent of that group—compared to 30 percent of Protestants generally—described their opinion of Catholicism as “unfavorable.”

Pope beatifies five people
In a solemn ceremony in St. Peter’s Square, Pope John Paul II beatified three religious women and two priests, including Redemptorist Father Francis Xavier Seelos, a German who ministered to immigrants in the United States.

Death Penalty ineffective deterrent, says Illinois nun
Use of the death penalty has not deterred crime, says Providence Sister Dorothy Rasche, who has worked in prison ministry for 20 years.
Ministry offers help, support for annulments
Leaders say participants can find healing and growth in the process

Shrines around the world are supposed to be places where people come to find reconciliation and healing. The Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii, on Chicago’s Near West Side, is offering comfort to a group of Catholics who might feel estranged from the church.
The shrine is sponsoring an Annulment Support Ministry for people from all over the archdiocese who are either going through or considering an annulment.

School construction projects spring up all over the place
School groundbreakings and dedications are popping up all over the archdiocese this spring.
The current crop is strongest in the North and Northwest suburbs, but schools in all corners of the archdiocese have celebrated recently completed renovation and expansion projects, and others are hosting groundbreakings for projects that will get under way late this year.

Vatican wants psalter off market
A Vatican official has called on the International Commission on English in the Liturgy to do all it can to halt further publication or distribution of its “doctrinally flawed” 1994 English version of the Psalms.

Thousands rally for debt relief
Thousands of Americans formed a human chain around the U.S. Capitol April 9 to urge debt relief for the world’s poorest nations.

Catholic schools beacons amid growing secularization
Catholic schools stand as beacons in a progressively secular world and are remarkable exceptions in a society that is dismally failing many of its younger members, a U.S. bishops’ conference official told Catholic educators gathered in Providence.

Features
Readin’ Writin’ Recruitin’
Chicago-area Catholic schools need more teachers. The archdiocese is searching hard, but the task is made more difficult by a nationwide teacher shortage. Add local factors that pull certified teachers out of the availability pool and recruitment becomes an enormous challenge. Full text available.

First Communion: a family affair
First Communion preparation is a family affair in Kathy Drennan and Joyce Gillie’s parishes. They are part of a new era that believes part of the process of sacramental preparation should be done within the context of the family. Full text available.

The Interview
Jesuit Father knows movies and directors best
FADE IN: EXT. LOYOLA UNIVERSITY — DAY
A sunlit slender, silver-haired man strides toward the Crown Center, a university building.
The man, JESUIT FATHER GENE PHILLIPS, film historian and professor of English at Loyola, opens the exterior door.
INT. CROWN CENTER
Phillips walks past a young man in the lobby toward a receptionist.
He turns back toward the visitor.
“I thought it might be you,” Phillips says to Catholic New World staff writer Michael D. Wamble. “But I was looking for your photographer.” Full text available.

Commentary
Putting teeth into Lenten message
In Justice Talk, Mary Heidkamp and James Lund write: Repent and be happy! Change the way you’re living, and really enjoy yourself!
We don’t remember hearing it said quite that way when we were urged as children to give up candy for Lent. Nor did fasting as adults even if only on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday get translated as something that would be fantastically fulfilling.

Briefs
Religious life meeting in Mundelein
The Institute on Religious Life will host its annual meeting April 28-30 at the University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein. Cardinal George and Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo are among the scheduled speakers for the event. Bishop James C. Timlin of Scranton will receive the Pro Fidelitate et Virtute Award. For information, call (773) 267-1195.

Parish Pride
St. Andrew the Apostle
768 Lincoln Ave., Calumet City
Calumet City, once called West Hammond, conjures up visions of smoke stacks—not of churches worthy of Europe. St. Andrew's was the first Catholic church built here. A national parish, settled by Poles, it now serves an ethnically diverse community of blue and white collar families.

Church Clips
Chicago connection – Gene Randall, a lector once-upon-a-time at St. Joseph Parish (Wilmette), does hard news on the weekends from his latest beat, CNN’s Washington Bureau. His past reporting helped the network earn the duPont Award and one from the Overseas Press Club for his Russia coverage. Randall has been moving up since his Chicago days as anchor for WMAQ-TV and then as NBC’s Moscow correspondent/bureau chief. St. Francis Xavier (Wilmette) can boast of their own trench-coated journalists, ABC Ch. 7 reporter Frank Mathe and retired CBS Ch. 2 ace crime reporter John “Bulldog” Drummond. And St. Barnabas (S. Longwood) has Mike Flannery also with Ch. 2.

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