Update

Bishops: Vatican’s response ‘positive’
The chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse said a U.S.-Vatican commission would be looking at “minor details”-not major problems-when it meets to revise the bishops’ sex abuse norms.

The committee should easily be able to complete its work before the plenary meeting of U.S. bishops in mid-November, Archbishop Harry J. Flynn of St. Paul-Minneapolis said in an interview in Rome Oct. 22.

Pfleger honored with Egan award
Father Michael Pfleger, activist pastor of Chicago’s St. Sabina Church, was given the first Egan Social Justice Award Oct. 9 by DePaul University’s Egan Urban Center.

The award is named for the late Msgr. John J. Egan, a Chicago priest active for decades in social justice movements. It was presented at a breakfast marking what would have been Egan’s 86th birthday.

“I am humbled to receive this award for getting out of bed every morning and doing what I am supposed to do,” said Pfleger, long an advocate for justice for the poor and a voice against racism.



Good Counsel to close doors
Faced with a steady decline in student enrollment over the past 12 years, Good Counsel High School announced Oct. 18 that it will close at the end of this school year after 75 years.

Officials at the all-girls school attribute the decline in enrollment to demographic shifts in its North Side community.

“In recent weeks, we’ve come to the realization that with the current size of our school, it isn’t economically feasible to stay open,” said president Andrea White.

Good Counsel has 340 students, with 120 expected to graduate next May. Remaining students who wish to continue at another all-girls Catholic high school will receive financial help from Good Counsel.



News

Conference on church buildings, building church
When Washington D.C.-based architect James McCrery decided to try to come up with a proposal for a church design that would combine traditional elements like icons and statues, the liturgical imperatives of Vatican II and a contemporary cultural sensibility, he knew it could be done.

He just didn’t know how it would be accepted.

The proposal, first displayed in a five-minute computer-generated video and booklet at the Liturgical Institute’s “Building the Church 2010” conference last fall will be back for a return engagement, and perhaps more input, at this year’s conference, which runs Oct. 30-Nov. 1 at the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary.



Parish to show relics
Chicago-area Catholics can honor the saints on Nov. 1 in a way that is both old and new this year.

Providence of God Parish, 717 W. 18th St., will host an exhibition of about 100 first- and second-class relics of saints which have been collected over the years by a small group of priests from the Archdiocese of Chicago and the Diocese of Joliet, said Father Bob Perez, Providence’s pastor.



‘Mysteries of Light’ added to rosary
Pope urges Catholics to revitalize Marian devotion

Vatican City - The rosary is a powerful prayer for peace, for families and for contemplating the mysteries of Christ’s life, Pope John Paul II said in a new apostolic letter.

While praising those who regularly pray the rosary in its traditional form, the pope also encouraged the addition of five “mysteries of light”-moments from Jesus’ public ministry-to further underline the rosary’s focus on Christ.

Pope John Paul marked the 24th anniversary of his election Oct. 16 by signing the apostolic letter, “Rosarium Virginis Mariae” (“The Rosary of the Virgin Mary”), during his weekly general audience.



Death-penalty hearings challenge opponents
As members of the Illinois Prisoner Review Board spent nearly two weeks in mid-October listening to petitions for clemency from about 140 Death Row inmates, anti-death penalty activities were trying to keep their main message in front of the public: The death penalty system is flawed and fallible, and should never be used.

But as case after case came before the review board, in multiple hearings in multiple venues each day, and the details of one murder more horrific than the next were related during what was expected to be a nine-day process, those who oppose the death penalty found it harder to make their voices heard.



Age no bar for seniors ministering in Alaska
With six grown children and 18 grandchildren, Charles Takes says that for him and his wife, Gail, “family is our life.”

Yet, the couple from the Archdiocese of Dubuque have agreed to spend a year in ministry at one of the most isolated parishes in the country: St. Christopher by the Sea in Unalaska. In August, Chuck became pastoral administrator there, with Gail as helpmate.

Why, after a battle with leukemia, would Chuck Takes take himself and his wife from their family and home to a little fishing town 800 miles southwest of Anchorage?

Schedule for Our Lady of the New Millennium

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., Calumet City, (708) 862-4165.
Nov. 24-Dec. 8: Queen of the Universe, 7114 S. Hamlin Ave., Chicago, (773) 582-4662.
Dec. 8-15: St. Denis, 8301 S. St. Louis., Chicago. (773) 434-3313.

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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