Update

Pope keeps denouncing war
Churches host funerals, support groups
As the U.S.-led war on Iraq continued, Pope John Paul II and other church leaders maintained their opposition to the conflict while parishes across the United States held funerals, prayer services for peace and support groups for military families.

The U.S. Anglican-Roman Catholic Consultation has praised parts of the 1999 international dialogue statement, “The Gift of Authority,” but said other parts need significant improvement.

The U.S. dialogue group proposed a number of concrete interim steps Catholic and Anglican authorities can take to strengthen bonds on the way to full communion. Among these were: regular participation of some Anglican bishops in the world synods of Catholic bishops in Rome; changing the status of Catholic bishops at the decennial Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Communion from “ecumenical participants” to “Roman Catholic bishop-delegates” with rights to speak and participate in all conference activities, but not to vote; and having similar bishop-delegates from the other church, with voice but no vote, at the meetings of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Calif. diocese sues Boston

Facing a sex abuse lawsuit over a Boston priest, the San Bernardino Diocese has sued the Boston Archdiocese to recover damages.

It is believed to be the first time in U.S. history that one diocese has sued another in civil court. In 1990 the Boston Archdiocese attested to the good standing of Father Paul Shanley when the priest was moving to the San Bernardino area.

In Boston, Shanley faces criminal charges of sexually abusing minors. Kevin English, now 30, sued the San Bernardino Diocese, alleging that Shanley sexually abused him and sent him to other men while the priest was in the diocese.

News

Four archdiocesan schools will close their doors for the last time this spring. The four are: Our Lady of Mercy School, Chicago; St. Eulalia School, Maywood; St. Lambert School, Skokie; and St. Thaddeus School, Chicago.

An announcement that a fifth school, St. Philip the Apostle School in Northfield, also would not reopen in the fall was made in the last issue of The Catholic New World.

Vatican paper focuses on innocents

While front pages of U.S. newspapers have been dominated by the images of coalition soldiers slogging through Iraq, the Vatican’s newspaper has viewed the war through a different lens: the suffering of innocent people.

Day after day throughout the first weeks of the war, the front page of L’Osservatore Romano has featured images of bloodied children, distraught families fleeing in dusty pickup trucks and crowds of people shoving for humanitarian aid packages.

State could extend time for abuse claims

Both houses of the Illinois legislature passed bills on April 4 to extend the period of time a victim of child sexual abuse has to file a personal injury lawsuit.

The Senate bill, which passed by a vote of 45-9, also would extend the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution in child sexual abuse cases from 10 to 20 years after the victim’s 18th birthday.

The House bill passed 87-26.

Panel’s advice to Vatican: Be wary of dismissing abusers

While pleased that the Catholic Church is taking the problem of pedophilia seriously, an international panel of experts told Vatican officials that dismissing every priest guilty of sexually abusing a minor is not the way to handle the problem.

Eight internationally recognized psychiatric and medical experts were invited to lead an April 2-5 symposium at the Vatican.

Vocations at Mother McAuley: seeing the big picture

When seniors at Mother McAuley Liberal Arts High School have their annual vocation day April 28, they won’t see a parade of sisters from different religious congregations.

There will be sisters there—including the vocation director for the Sisters of Mercy, who sponsor the school, said Teresa LeCompte, who chairs the school’s theology and faith formation department. But there also will be music ministers, campus ministers, pastoral counselors, perhaps a hospital chaplain and a Mother McAuley alumna who served in the Peace Corps.

A journey of faith began with pastor’s strong words

How do you traverse the distance between the First Church of Deliverance and St. Ailbe Parish on South Harper Avenue in Chicago? For Michael and Elaine Jones, the answer lies in the homily of a visiting preacher.

Almost two years after hearing St. Ailbe’s pastor Father John Breslin speak his fiery and affecting words at their church, Michael and Elaine felt called to enter the catechumenate program at St. Ailbe and to begin their official journey to full participation in the Catholic Christian faith through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults.

RCIA: a real family affair

“It happened at the right time for me; I was open to it. I had felt left out.”

Scott Berggren knew how important his family was to him. A confirmed Lutheran, he had raised his children as Catholics, his wife Barbara’s faith, but he now wanted more knowledge of this faith, more opportunity to participate.

His son Matthew, then 10, was going through the children’s catechumenate process at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Streamwood, where parent participation was expected. Scott enrolled in the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) program, so that he and his family could learn and grow together.

Bringing faith to campus

Ministers urged to ramp up funding, efforts

Catholic campus ministry has too often been pushed to the fringes of both the church and the university, and it needs to be brought back to the center, campus ministers argued at their 2003 National Advancement Forum April 4.

But to do that, they will need to find ways to develop their own financial and staffing resources, said Father Vincent Krische, director of Catholic campus ministry at St. Lawrence Catholic Center at the University of Kansas.

Gibson’s version of ‘The Passion’ sparks discussion

Some concerned about violence, portrayal of Jews at crucifixion

The Jerusalem and Garden of Gethsemane sets were dismantled at Rome’s Cinecitta Film Studios in late March, but the talk about Mel Gibson’s upcoming film, “The Passion,” did not stop.

The film focuses on the last 12 hours of Jesus’ life and, not surprisingly, struck some nerves, particularly because of its graphic violence and concern over how the Jews will be portrayed.

 Integritas program probes place of women in the church

Two women—one a cradle Catholic who left and then returned to the church, and one a convert—said the church called to them with the power of the Eucharist and the strength of their faith in Jesus.

They were part of a panel discussion on “Why Would a Woman Be Catholic?” sponsored by the Integritas Institute of the John Paul II Newman Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago.