This week, The Catholic New World welcomes students and teachers back to school by providing Words of Wisdom from renaissance man Steve Allen and Maryville Academy’s Father John Smyth.

The issue features our monthly Faith & Education insert and the start of a new series, Black and Catholic in Chicago.

Cardinal's Column

Faith & Education:
New facilities greet students

Sticks and mortar are keeping pace with the growing interest in Catholic education. Signs of renovation and new additions dot the landscape of parish schools throughout the Archdiocese of Chicago.
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Father Smyth heads back to school(s)

Maryville Academy executive director is on a mission from Cardinal George to advise the 66 Catholic schools that receive financial grants from the archdiocese. After visiting 10 schools, he said he’s been “pleasantly surprised.”
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Black and Catholic in Chicago

The struggles of black Catholics in the settlement that would become Chicago predate the establishment of this diocese in 1843.
Through this series, The Catholic New World will examine some of the issues to be discussed during the convocation and explore those issues in the lives of Chicago’s Black Catholics.

Faith of our Founder - Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable
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Memories of the Mother Church - Pauline Williams
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www.BlackCatholicChicago.org

What’s red, black, green and hyper-linked all over? Black Catholic Web sites, of course.

Due to the work of the Black Catholic Convocation Steering Committee for African-American Catholics, Chicago’s black Catholics have a Web site of their own at www.blackcatholicchicago.org

Update
Questions about Mass rules?
Questions have arisen about the status of new Mass rules reported in a Catholic News Service story, printed in the Aug. 6-19 edition of The Catholic New World. The new rules would revise the 1975 General Instruction of the Roman Missal.

Sheila McLaughlin, director of the Office of Divine Worship, notes that the document the story refers to is a study document, or a draft translation of the approved Latin text. It will be revised again before new official rules for the Mass are published.

The study text will be reviewed by the National Council of Catholic Bishops, which can suggest revisions to the translation as well as adaptations for the dioceses of the United States. After the U.S. bishops finish their review and approve the document, it will be sent back to the Congregation for Worship and the Sacraments at the Vatican for final confirmation.

Parishes will not be required to change the way they celebrate the Mass until an official document is approved.

Observations
It’s Transition Time

September is a transition month. Vacations are over, kids are back in class and the promise of fall is in the air. So, this column celebrates transitions.
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Interview
Steve Allen battles for better television for kids

Have you gotten a letter from Steve Allen recently? Millions of families have.

Allen, the multi-talented star of the first “Tonight Show,” author of 53 books (and counting), composer, musician, actor and funny man, isn’t laughing these days. He calls TV’s once sacred family hour (from 8-9 p.m.) “a moral sewer.” Allen says he’s “mad as hell and he’s not going to take it anymore.”

Catholic New World staff writer Dolores Madlener talks with entertainer, author and activist Steve Allen.
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News
Chicago pilgrims join cardinal at World Youth Day

More than 400 Chicago Catholics traveled to Rome to participate in the 15th World Youth Day celebration Aug. 15-20. Participants came from more than 20 parishes and schools throughout the archdiocese.
They were joined by Cardinal George, and Auxiliary Bishops Edwin Conway and Thad Jakubowski.

Several of the Chicago groups met for Mass with Bishops Conway and Jakubowski on the first day. “I was impressed with the enthusiasm and piety all of the kids showed,” said Bishop Jakubowski.

Grant funds new housing office

The archdiocesan Office for Peace and Justice has been awarded a $275,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to establish a housing office and has named Jonathan Njus to become its first housing coordinator.

The grant funds the new Office for Housing that will coordinate affordable housing development and community acceptance campaigns. The archdiocese and its agencies are presently involved in nine different housing programs.

Catholic New World moves into new home

On Aug. 30, The Catholic New World moved to a new home—on the fourth floor of Catholic Charities Near North Center at 721 N. LaSalle St.
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Grant helps save homes

Becoming a homeowner may be one of the most important dreams in a family’s life. With hard work and good planning this dream can become a reality, but it takes persistence and discipline.
Unfortunately, what is difficult to acquire is also easy to lose if the owner is not careful.

Letters/Commentary

Readers defend the Catholic position on the death penalty; DePaul University criticized for President Clinton’s visit to the institution.

Pilgrims to explore history on the ‘Way of Faith’
Pilgrims who make the 3-mile lakeside trek during the “Way of Faith” celebration Sept. 16 and 17 will not only be making a journey of faith, they’ll be making a journey into the history of the Archdiocese of Chicago.

The “Way of Faith” is the next major jubilee year celebration in the archdiocese.
Full text available

Parish Pride
St. Denis Church
8301 S. St. Louis Ave.

As St. Denis gears up for its 50th anniversary in 2001, its Ashburn neighborhood is feeling the tug of cultural diversity. A new image of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the church is symbolic of those merging cultures in its anticipation of “new life.” Happily each year’s “Taste of St. Denis” welcomes different ethnic flavors and new neighbors.

Church Clips

Chicago Connection—Joe Gentile, “The Baron of Barrington,” has just been named Midwest chairman for the National World War II Memorial. It’s the first national memorial dedicated to all who served during WWII, as well as the citizens on the home front. It will be located on the National Mall in Washington D.C. at the east end of the Reflecting Pool, between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. Ground-breaking is slated for Veterans Day, Nov. 11, 2000. At a cost of $200 million, it will take about a year to complete. Gentile, who was the Navy’s youngest lieutenant commander in the South Pacific, will meet with fellow WWII Navy pal Rep. Henry Hyde, to kick off the fund raising locally. Send your deep pocket donations to: World War II Memorial Fund, American Battle Monuments Commission, PO 98147, Washington DC 20090-8147.

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