This week, The Catholic New World features a special section looking back at the June 24 Field of Faith celebration.

Cardinal's Column

Special section:

Keeping the faith: Soldier Field celebration brings Catholics together
"Receiving Communion, in our stadium, in our parish, is a public act, as the church is a public body," said Cardinal George to the nearly 30,000 Catholics who weathered showers and heavy downpours June 24 to celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi in Soldier Field at one of the largest outdoor ceremonies in archdiocesan history.
While the showers may have lowered attendance, it couldn't dampen Cardinal George's spirit, as he looked out at the soaked faithful that mirrored the diversity of the city and surrounding counties. Full text available.

The language of youth: bilingual

Is it a right turn, or a left turn?
Breathe. Breathe!
Our Lady of Guadalupe-pray for us.

These are likely some of the thoughts that raced through Claudia Guzman's mind, as she stood before parish representatives and priests and bishops of Illinois, awaiting the OK to go forth.
Guzman, 18, was one of 42 members of Horizontes Mexicanos, the folk dance troupe that entered first onto the Field of Faith at the start of vigil Mass. Full text available.

News:

Even prisoners deserve a jubilee

Former prisoners, families of inmates and any one else touched by the correctional system are invited to a jubilee Mass for Prisoners to be celebrated by Cardinal George at 1:30 p.m. July 9 at the Basilica of Our Lady of Sorrows, 3121 W. Jackson Blvd. Full text available.

Court overturns partial-birth abortion ban

Catholic and other pro-life leaders decried the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 28 narrow decision to overturn Nebraska’s ban on partial-birth abortions because it could violate women’s rights to abortion and did not include an exception for the health of the mother. Full text available.

Cardinal George on revised ICEL: U.S. bishops, Vatican work on sticking points

Ahead of an important meeting of the episcopal board of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy, the board’s U.S. representative discussed possible sticking points in ICEL’s revised constitution with the Vatican’s top liturgy official.

Many faces meet at Encuentro

The 3,000 Catholics who flocked to Los Angeles July 6-9 for "Encuentro 2000" indeed found "many faces in God's house."
Although previous Encuentros have focused on Hispanic Catholics, the Bishops' Committee on Hispanic Ministry decided to broaden the scope of this year's event by inviting representatives of all racial and ethnic groups. Full text available.

Features:

Animals—providing a unique kind of therapy

Catholic Charities social workers might have one more tool in their "bag of tricks," thanks to a training session where the stars came on four feet, or no feet, and showed how easily animals can break through social barriers. Full text available.

Interview:

Coach keeps the faith ... on the football field

This week, Catholic New World staff writer Michael D. Wamble talks with Todd Kuska, head football coach at St. Rita of Cascia High School.
Todd Kuska’s not a fan of the NFL. At least he can’t condone the actions that prompted several professional players to enter pleas to judicial rather than league officials. Nor does he find some of the hot doggin’ televised on Sundays and Monday nights very appealing.
Who cares about the Broncos vs. the Cardinals when you can watch the Mustangs vs. the Caravan down the street?
Mount Carmel vs. St. Rita. For Kuska, that’s football the way God intended it. Full text available.

Commentary:

Ethics and the genome: a future of promise, peril

Special contributor Franciscan Father Thomas Nairn writes: Last month, in a press conference conducted on both sides of the Atlantic, President Clinton and Prime Minister Tony Blair, along with scientists from both governments and private industry, announced the mapping of the human genome, that sequence of four chemical bases comprising over three billion entries in our 46 chromosomes which provides the instructions for the genetic make up of a human being. President Clinton remarked that “without a doubt, this is the most important, most wondrous map ever produced by humankind.”
Like any other map, the genome gives people knowledge and direction. Yet along with such important knowledge also come ethical questions regarding how such knowledge will be used and who will benefit from it. Full text available.

Wills’ ‘Papal Sins’—full of old arguments and new bitterness

Special contributor Colt Anderson writes: Gary Wills’ book, “Papal Sin,” will disturb or mislead many Catholics. Though it calls for married priests, women’s ordination, approval of abortion and a more democratic church, these positions are nothing new.
What is upsetting is the way Wills attacks doctrines concerning the Eucharist and apostolic succession as part of what he called “structures of deceit” in the Catholic Church. Full text available.

Briefs:

Cardinal George to visit Israel

Cardinal George and a delegation of leaders from the local Jewish and Catholic communities will travel to Israel and the Palestinian Territories Oct. 23-31.
As part of its efforts to advance interfaith dialogue and relations between Jews and Catholics in Chicago, the delegation “hopes to come to a better understanding of the reality of the diverse religious communities in the Israeli and Palestinian civil societies in which they live,” said Dominican Sister Joan McGuire, director of the Archdiocese of Chicago's Office of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs.
“In particular,” McGuire said, “the representatives of the delegation will seek to learn more about the ways in which the civil society and religious communities in Israel and the Palestinian Territories affect each other.”

Parish Pride:
St. Theresa Church
455 N. Benton St., Palatine

During the Great Depression 25 hopeful families in the village of Palatine, with a few businessmen and farmers, raised $1,243 for a church building fund. The newly formed parish was named for the “Little Flower,” canonized in 1925. A $5.2 million church renovation and addition to their school was dedicated by Cardinal George May 13, 2000. Two new windows depicting its patron saint, flank the altar, with a Holy Spirit window near the new immersion baptismal font. With nearly 4,000 registered families today and 1,700 children in the parish school and religious ed classes, St. Theresa’s continues to grow as a community of faith.

Church Clips:

Turning the tables — Everyone has heard by now of the young waitress in Chicago recently who was promised a $10,000 tip by a loquacious customer from Great Britain. In the end her employer made good for the deadbeat because of all the favorable publicity the young lady’s good-natured attitude brought to his establishment. You probably don’t know that Melanie Uczen, the waitress, got her first job as a teen receptionist at St. Constance Rectory (W. Strong). A graduate of the parish school, her mom, Nancy Uczen, is parish secretary. With the new monetary windfall, Melanie hopes to continue her college education in about a year.

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