This week, The Catholic New World includes a travel section and Exciting Senior Perpectives, a pull-out section for the mature Catholic. News stories focus on the World Youth Day festivities in Rome and the 2000 presidential campaign.

Cardinal's Column

Exciting Senior Perspectives:

Volunteer brings God’s Love to people with HIV and AIDS
It's Friday morning and Gwen Currin's day is already in full swing on the fourth floor of the Kaplan Building of Michael Reese Hospital on the city's Near South Side.
This is only the start of a busy day. After three (or more) hours at this hospital, Currin will hop in her car to visit a fellow parishioner of St. Dorothy Church who is recovering at Mercy Hospital. Full text available.

News:

Cardinal prays for ‘vulnerable’

Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles opened the Democratic National Convention Aug. 14 with a prayer calling on delegates to be committed to protecting the life of all people, from unborn children and the elderly to those on skid row and death row.

Platforms agree, disagree with U.S. bishops

Both the Republican and Democratic party platforms agree with positions of the National Council of Catholic Bishops on some issues and disagree on others,
The Republican platform, adopted July 31, strongly affirms pro-life principles. It backs a human life amendment to the Constitution, opposes the use of public funds for abortions and calls for the appointment of judges who respect “the sanctity of innocent human life.” It also opposes partial-birth abortion and “attempts to compel individuals or institutions to violate their moral standards in providing health-related services.” The platform supports the death penalty, which the Catholic bishops oppose.

The Democratic platform, adopted Aug. 15, addresses the issues of economic justice, universal health care, empowering the poor, support systems for families and stewardship of the earth--all topics included in “Faithful Citizenship,” the bishops’ document on civic responsibility. But the Democratic platform differs sharply from the bishops on abortion and on school vouchers.

Clinton speaks at DePaul

President Clinton used DePaul University in Chicago, the largest Catholic university in the United States, as a backdrop to his announcement that the Direct Student Loan Program will reduce interest rates for students who make their payments on time.
In his appearance at DePaul, the president also announced that the Department of Education would propose forgiving up to $5,000 in student loans for teachers who spend at least five years in high-need schools, and urged Congress to pass a college tuition tax credit. Full text available.

Youths throng to Rome

Delighting Pope John Paul II and catching harried security and medical staff off guard, a record number of young people crammed St. Peter’s Square and surrounding streets for the opening of World Youth Day.
More than 400,000 youths—“without a doubt” the biggest crowd at the Vatican in recent memory, a press official said—braved scorching heat and the crush of the crowds Aug. 15 to catch a glimpse of the pope.

Chicago teens bring their ‘padrinos’ along

Juan Velazquez’s T-shirt, with a list of 140 sponsors on the back, looks like a uniform for an amateur sports team.
Closer inspection reveals these sponsors, or “padrinos,” in Spanish, didn’t fund a softball team. They made Velazquez’s World Youth Day pilgrimage possible.
Each of six “peer ministers” at Our Lady of Tepeyac Parish in Chicago had a specific role to play in making an appeal to the congregation, Velazquez explained at his Rome hotel Aug. 13, two days before the curtain raised on the gathering.

Hispanics transforming church

The growing number of Latino Catholics is transforming the Catholic Church in the United States, a Hispanic theologian told participants at a summer theology institute in the Milwaukee Archdiocese.
But the North American church needs to treat Latinos pastorally and not “run roughshod” over their sensitivities and popular religiosity in a drive for theological consistency, he said.

Features:

O’Hare chapel: a faith-filled oasis

Maybe it's the lingering fear of flying. Maybe it's the disorientation brought on by a strange and crowded place. Maybe it's the unexpectedness of a quiet place to encounter God, announced by public address system every day over the never-ending din of people on the move.
But for some reason, the chapel at O'Hare International Airport seems to touch some at a vulnerable point on their journeys. Full text available.

Affinity travel linking seniors on the go

Affinity travel - linking people with common interests for joint travels - is perfect for seniors on the go.
Many travel agencies and nonprofits specialize in such travel. The shared interests making seniors traveling companions include religion, history, education, adventure, disabilities and even grandchildren.

Holy Land beckons disabled travelers

For any serious Bible student, there comes a point when they want to travel to the Holy Land, to walk where Jesus walked.
But for people with physical disabilities, it’s not just as simple as getting on a plane and going. There are airline connections to make, hotels with wheelchair access to find, difficulties with stairs and narrow doorways to overcome.
That’s one reason Stauros-U.S.A., an ecumenical organization that promotes the study of human suffering, first started organizing trips to the Holy Land for disabled people and their companions in 1987, said Larry Huiras, the group’s executive director. Full text available.

The Interview:

Shroud display invites World Youth Day pilgrims

This week, Archbishop Severino Poletto of Turin, Italy, talks about the famed and controversial Shroud of Turin—believed by many to be the image of the crucified Christ—which is again being displayed. The interview was conducted by Zenit, a Vatican-based news service.

Commentary:

Get ready, get informed on election

Augustinian Father John Paul Szura writes: Summer is slowly winding down; autumn is coming. We are near a change of seasons. And at this time, another season is at hand. We are approaching the beginning of our nation’s 2000 election campaigns.
Of course, the campaigns, which officially start in September, have really been running for some time. But they will soon shift to high gear. So we would do well to begin preparing for the upcoming election campaigns. It is appropriate that we do so, for on Aug. 28, the church celebrates the feast of St. Augustine.

Briefs:

Chicago woman protests sanctions

Kerry Doyle spent 10 days fasting and holding a vigil in Federal Plaza in Chicago to protest the 10th anniversary of United Nations economic sanctions against Iraq Aug. 6.
Doyle, a member of St. Gertrude Parish, made 150 clay figures every day to draw attention to the 150 Iraqi children the United Nations estimates die every day as a result of the sanctions.
Ken Hannaford-Ricardi of Voices in the Wilderness, a Chicago-based organization that sends people to Iraq in violation of the sanctions, returned from the southern Iraqi city of Basra days before visiting Doyle during her vigil, which ended Aug. 16.
He described conditions where people, especially children and older people, suffer from a lack of common medications, clean water and an adequate diet. There is no sign the sanctions will ever lead to the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, he said.
“On a practical level, we’ve been doing this for 10 years and it hasn’t worked,” he said. “On a moral level, there is no way we can justify killing children, the old and the infirm to carry out a foreign policy objective.”

Obituaries

Actress Loretta Young, friend to Family Theater

Movie and TV star Loretta Young, a lifelong Catholic who died of ovarian cancer Aug. 12 in Los Angeles, was an essential part of Catholic-sponsored Family Theater Productions for 53 years, said Holy Cross Father John P. Phalen.

Actor Sir Alec Guinness, Catholic convert

Sir Alec Guinness, a convert to Catholicism who died Aug. 5 in London at the age of 86, was perhaps best known to the current generation of moviegoers for a part he almost turned down.
Guinness was initially put off by the science fiction label on the script for “Star Wars.’’ But after he read the script, he was fascinated by the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi, the knight of the Jedi.

Parish Pride:
St. Joseph Church
4821 S. Hermitage Ave.

Those who cannot travel to Europe to see a church treasure may visit a treasure-of-a-church on the South Side. It is historical, founded as a Polish parish by Archbishop Feehan in 1887. It has traditional magnetism, with Romanesque arches, hand-carved altars and enough gorgeous stained glass windows to be a “pane” in the neck. Built on a monumental scale, it is astonishing what $200,000 bought in 1914 when the edifice was dedicated by Archbishop Quigley.

Church clips:

Junior Clips -- When it was all counted, Carmel High School (Libertyville) raised over $5,000 in sponsorships in its 16-hour “2000 Relay for Life” at Libertyville High School. The money went to fight cancer and provide services for cancer patients and their families.

BACK