Updates

Donate directly with ParishPay

Chicago-area parishioners will soon be able to automate donations and tuition payments to participating parishes and parochial schools each month.

The program, through an agreement with ParishPay LLC, allows parishioners to make offertory gifts or pay tuition through a credit card or direct debit from their checking or savings accounts on a recurring basis. Parish Pay for the Archdiocese of Chicago was developed in cooperation with the archdiocesan Office of Stewardship and Development.

Parishes are being offered the opportunity to subscribe to the service which comes at a low cost.



Happy birthday, New World!

This issue marks the 110th anniversary of The Catholic New World, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Chicago. The New World, as it was originally known, was first published Sept. 10, 1892, with stories about the meaning of the world’s fair, an obituary for poet John Whittier and a pastoral letter on Catholic education.



News:

Mr. Delaney returns home from Springfield

Bishops’ public policy point man leaves post after 7 years on the job

Maybe it’s because seven years of making the three-hour drive to Springfield is enough for anybody. Maybe it’s because he thinks he has accomplished all he can. Maybe it’s because of the stress caused by trying to push the church’s message in the secular world of the state legislature.

Whatever the reason, Doug Delaney, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Illinois, leaves his position Sept. 1.

“After seven years, I realize that a position like this has a life to it,” Delaney said over lunch. “It’s like pastors have a term of six years, with the option for another six. It’s a very intense job, and there’s a lot of pressure. If something’s politically correct, then we’re on the other side.



Bishops turn to prayer, penance for clergy sex abuse of minors

As part of a national demonstration of repentance, Chicago’s bishops joined Cardinal George in fasting and prayer in mid-August in repentance for their past failures to protect minors from priests who molested them.

The scene was repeated in dioceses around the country. Also, several bishops took new steps to try to bring healing and reconciliation in their dioceses.

In Chicago, about 150 people came to the cathedral for an Aug. 14 evening service convened by Cardinal George and his seven auxiliary bishops to, in the words of an archdiocesan statement, “pray and do penance in atonement for the wounds inflicted by clerical sexual abuse.”



Sentimental journey
Trip home brings joy, celebration of faith

Clearly basking in the warm afterglow of his recent trip to his Polish homeland, Pope John Paul II told hundreds of pilgrims at his summer villa outside Rome that he was moved by the affection and intense participation of the huge crowds that turned out in his homeland.

While several hundred people cheered, chanted, prayed and serenaded him during a general audience Aug. 21, the pontiff tapped his hand and hummed along with their music, and at one point seemed to encourage a cheering contest when he remarked, “Let’s see who’s stronger, the Mexicans or the Italians.” He later gave the edge to the Italians.

He looked relaxed and happy as he delivered his talk in the courtyard of the villa in Castel Gandolfo, reviewing the highlights of his Aug. 16-19 visit to his home Archdiocese of Krakow. He said he felt he was able to “embrace all of Poland” during his stay.



Black Catholic gatherings have long history, sense of purpose

Eighteen years ago, Laurence J. Payne passed around copies of a piece of paper with just a few paragraphs on it at a meeting of black Catholic ministry diocesan leaders in Techny.

On the paper was a motion, simply stated but containing a powerful idea: Revive the National Black Catholic Congresses held annually between 1889 and 1893 before they abruptly ended.

The long-awaited sixth congress was eventually held in Washington in 1987, with subsequent congresses scheduled every five years: New Orleans, 1992; Baltimore, 1997; and Chicago, 2002.



Study says homosexual ‘subculture’ worries priests

A study of priests in 2001 found that substantial numbers believed there were homosexual subcultures among priests in their dioceses and religious institutes, but priests were more concerned about such subcultures in seminaries.

In a paper delivered Aug. 16 at the meeting in Chicago of the Association for the Sociology of Religion, the researchers said younger priests were more likely than older ones to describe their diocese or religious community or the seminary they attended as having a homosexual subculture.



Vouchers pressed in Illinois

As students return to school this year, leaders of private and religious school organizations are talking about the possibility of a school voucher program in Illinois.

A June 27 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court declared a Cleveland, Ohio, voucher program constitutional, sweeping away claims from voucher opponents that any program that would allow families to use state funds to pay tuition to a parochial school would violate the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution.



Pro-life walkers suffer spitting, snakebite on trek

After a 3,100-mile trek across the country to call for an end to abortion, a group of pro-life walkers called Crossroads reached Washington from the West Coast Aug. 9.

One even suffered a snakebite as the group, primarily made up of college-age volunteers, spent the summer on a pilgrimage walking across the United States to be a witness to the pro-life movement.

At a Mass celebrating their safe arrival at the Crypt Church of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, Auxiliary Bishop Francisco Gonzalez of Washington said the need to respect life is what life itself is all about.



Plug pulled on radio show after cathedral sex stunt stunt

A pair of “shock jock” radio hosts were fired and their show canceled days after a stunt which apparently encouraged a couple to have sex in St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

The stunt raised the ire of many, including the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.



Faith & Education:
Schools open; tell new projects

School bells rang at four new elementary and middle schools in the Archdiocese of Chicago as students headed back to the books this year, and more than 20 schools are working on expansion projects totaling more than $45 million, according to the Office for Catholic Schools.

Three of the new schools will open in Chicago—the first in 13 years—and one will open in northwest suburban Inverness.

“These new school openings and expansions are wonderful examples of the vitality of the Chicago Catholic school system,” said Nicholas Wolsonovich, superintendent of schools. “This is good news for our Catholic school students and families. This is a clear demonstration that our parishes and families have great faith in our school system.”



Dedication by the decade
Humble Hoffmans bless St. Gall’s with years of service

Lillian and George Hoffman’s lives revolve around St. Gall, parish and school. They wouldn’t have it any other way. The couple-who recently celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary-has been involved in its parish life for as long as they can remember.

“It seems as though we’ve been at St. Gall’s forever,” said Lillian Hoffman who serves as a teacher at the parish school, a position she’s held for more than 25 years.



Seton Academy to accept boys

First girls’ school in a quarter-century to go coedSeton Academy, a college preparatory high school in South Holland, will become the first all-female archdiocesan high school in 25 years to accept male students.

Two other previously all-boys high schools, Gordon Tech and Marist, are opening their doors to female freshman students this academic year.

The first male freshman students will be accepted at Seton next fall. Eighth-grade boys can take the Seton entrance exam in January 2003. Admission of sophomore, junior and senior young men will be phased in through 2006.



Parish builds school in Africa

Building an entire school for a mere $22,000 sounds like a tall tale. It’s not. Just ask the people of St. Athanasius Parish in Evanston. They did it.

The parish answered a plea from Father Charles Muhigirwa-a seminary friend of associate pastor Father James Heyd-and helped make the Cardinal Nsubuga Memorial Senior Secondary School a reality in Nyenga, Uganda.



Madonna shuttered; mission continues

The doors of Madonna High School closed more than a year ago, but the vital Madonna mission lives on. It continues in the name of the Madonna Foundation, which maintains the school’s rich tradition of educating young women and supporting the community in which they live.

The Franciscan Sisters of Chicago-who staffed the school on Chicago’s West Side until its closing-established the Madonna Foundation to provide an opportunity for then-current [Madonna] students to continue their education.

“We didn’t want to limit it just to the cream of the crop scholastically,” said Jan Sisler, Madonna Foundation executive director. “The foundation chose to provide opportunities for all students who were attending the school when it closed to continue their education at another Catholic girls high school.”

Schedule for Our Lady of the New Millennium

The Our Lady of the New Millennium statue will be at the following locations:

Sept. 1-15: St. Frances of Rome, 1428 S. 59th Ct., Cicero, (708) 652-2140.
Sept. 15-29: Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica, 3121 W. Jackson Blvd., Chicago, (773) 638-0159.
Sept. 29-Oct 13: St. Jerome Croatian, 2823 S. Princeton Ave., Chicago (312) 842-1871.
Oct. 13-27: St. Margaret of Scotland, 9837 S. Throop St., Chicago (773) 779-5151.
Oct. 27-Nov. 10: St. Florian, 13145 S. Houston Ave., Chicago, (773) 646-4877.
Nov. 10-24: St. Andrew the Apostle, 768 Lincoln Ave., Chicago, (708) 862-4165.
Nov. 24-Dec. 8: Queen of the Universe, 7114 S. Hamlin Ave., Chicago, (773) 582-4662.

Movies at a Glance
Capsule reviews of movies from the U.S. Catholic Conference's Office for Film and Broadcasting, judged according to artistic merit and moral suitability. Go to reviews

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