Update

Contest eyes use for St. Boniface

Got an idea for a church? The Archdiocese of Chicago is holding a competition to invite input from architects on how to develop the shuttered St. Boniface Church, 1358 W. Chestnut, while preserving the historic building’s façade.

The archdiocese plans to sell the 101-year-old building but wants to stimulate ideas as to how the structure itself can be put to new use. By June, the archdiocese will select four architecture firms for the competition, and will announce a winner in September. Developers must submit proposals by Sept. 1 and will be encouraged, though not required, to use the winning design.

The St. Boniface church, school and convent were closed in 1989. While the competition is aimed at saving the church and school, the convent was structurally unsound and destroyed in May.

Icons on display

New works on panel by iconographer Joseph Malham will be presented at a May 30 fundraising exhibition for the recently fire-damaged St. Gregory the Great Church. The works are being presented in conjunction with Hilton Fine Arts, which has previously exhibited Malham’s works. For the past two years, Malham has been the artist in residence at the church.

A reception will be held from 6-9 p.m. at the parish center, 5545 North Paulina St. For information, call (847) 226-2100 or (312) 945-1800.

News

Zacchaeus House: A place of shelter, help, faith

Andre Frazier sits at a kitchen table eating a sandwich and drinking orange juice on a bright May morning while Deacon Abrom Salley entertains a guest a few feet away in the living room of this former convent on the South Side.

Both men call Zacchaeus House home.

Salley, tall and rail-thin, wearing a button-down shirt with a silk-screened portrait of Cardinal George, is the driving force behind Zacchaeus House. He describes it as a transitional “safe house” for men who want spiritual direction to get their lives on track, and Frazier is the first resident, occupying a small room across the hall from Salley’s three-room apartment.

Legislature poised for action on cuts to budget, life issues

As the Illinois legislature winds up most of its legislative work and lawmakers turn their attention to the state budget and its $5 billion deficit, Catholic political advocates are warning that hard-won state money for Catholic schools is on the chopping block.

Under the budget plan released by Gov. Rod Blagojevich, several separate school funding programs would be combined, with the money used to boost the basic, per-pupil level of funding for public schools by $250 per student, said Robert F. Gilligan, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Illinois.

One of those programs—the $30 million state Textbook Loan program—provides money to help pay for textbooks for every student from kindergarten through 12th grade in the state, and between $4 million and $5 million of that flows to Catholic schools, Gilligan said.

Healthier pope marks 83rd with canonizations

Surrounded by tens of thousands of well-wishers, Pope John Paul II celebrated his 83rd birthday by proclaiming four new saints during a festive liturgy May 18 in St. Peter’s Square.

The pope downplayed his own celebration and focused on the saints, saying they demonstrated how living the Gospel can produce “abundant fruits of justice and holiness” in this world.

Cristo Rey’s Chicago-based model gets big boost for growth from Gates

Jesuit Father John Foley, president of Cristo Rey High School, knew the congregation was on to something when they opened seven years ago, using a formula that allows students to provide the cost of 75 percent of their tuition by working as interns five days a month.

He didn’t know how quickly it would take off. There are now four schools operating on the Cristo Rey model around the country, with another to open this fall and seven more—including St. Martin de Porres High School in Waukegan—planned for fall 2004. And the program is getting a major boost with an $18.9 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Cassin Educational Initiative Foundation.

Vatican eyes dialogue between faith, science

The Vatican, with the support of the John Templeton Foundation, has launched new academic programs aimed at promoting a scholarly dialogue between faith and science.

The program was unveiled May 6 in the small villa in the Vatican gardens where theologians and scientists laid the groundwork for the Catholic Church’s 1992 formal recognition of its errors in dealing with 16th-century astronomer Galileo Galilei.

Laity have role in church and in secular society

While praising the range and depth of lay involvement in the church’s ministry, a member of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on the Laity wrote in his diocesan newspaper that it should not result in a de-emphasis of the laity’s role in the secular world.

“The primary place of the laity is on the front lines of society, bringing the Gospel values to places of work, commerce and all dimensions of society,” said Tucson Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas, a member of the laity committee and chair of its Subcommittee on Lay Ecclesial Ministry.

Seminary ‘treasures’ getting expanded home

With the first shovels full of dirt flung, University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary in Mundelein began expansion of the Feehan Memorial Library, the first major construction project at the seminary in 70 years.

Already known as a house of scholarly treasures, the library contains many unique book collections and artifacts. There is, for instance, the original first edition of the 1609 Douai-Rheims Bible, a complete collection of the first editions of Charles Dickens’ works, a rare 1515 edition of Dante’s Divine Comedy, as well as a 15th century handwritten, illuminated prayer book, and many other items.

Bishops to consider directives on deacon ministry, formation

The U.S. bishops will vote on revised national directives for permanent deacons when they meet in St. Louis this June.

The 217-page text reflects extensive revisions by the Holy See in a proposed set of directives the bishops approved three years ago.

The document is titled “National Directory for the Formation, Ministry and Life of Permanent Deacons in the United States.”

24 new deacons being ordained May 25 for archdiocese

Cardinal George was scheduled to ordain 24 men May 25 as permanent deacons for the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Those to be ordained are as diverse as the church they serve, representing white, African-American, Latino and Asian cultures and range in age primarily from the mid-40s to mid-60s. All but three of the men are married. The majority of the wives of these men have participated in many of the classes with their husbands.

Cardinal George ordains 15 priests for archdiocese May 24

Cardinal George was scheduled to ordain 15 men to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Chicago May 24 at Holy Name Cathedral.

From all over the world they have to minister as priests of the Church of Chicago—from Poland, from Kenya, the Philippines, Ecuador, Colombia and of course, the United States. The new priests range in age from 25 to 63 and many have worked in varied careers before entering the seminary.

Mentoring magic
First-time teachers get help at St. Malachy

Katie Konieczny followed her heart and changed careers. She left her advertising job, returned to school, received certification and joined the teaching ranks at Chicago’s St. Malachy School. This June, Konieczny will complete her first year teaching seventh grade there.

“I’ve always had a desire to teach,” said Konieczny. “I wanted some life experiences first. When the opportunity came, I left advertising and went back to school for the required education courses.”

Although new to the field, it will have been a successful year for Konieczny, due in large part to a special mentoring program for new teachers at St. Malachy made possible by a grant from the Sisters of Mercy.

Christmas in June? You bet—it’s summertime, and catechesis is easy

Is it possible to teach a catechetical lesson about Christmas on June 20? That’s just what Franciscan Sister Donna Schmitt, director of religious education at St. Gilbert’s Parish in Grayslake, plans to do as part of her summer religious education program. With a sparkle in her eyes, she describes the children’s enthusiasm as they sing carols, hear the nativity story and eat Christmas cookies during this summer educational experience.

Schmitt’s effort is one of a quartet of parishes whose catechetical leaders offer the a summer program alternative to traditional school year-based models of catechesis and is very enthusiastic about this option.

The best and the brightest

We call them the best and the brightest—the students who have distinguished themselves by achieving top academic honors at Catholic high schools across the Archdiocese of Chicago.

The students listed in these pages come from a variety of backgrounds—some from the suburbs, some from the city, several immigrants from other countries. Once they graduate, their college plans will take them all over the United States, from Massachusetts to California, although some will continue their educations right here in Chicago.

While their career plans run the gamut from engineering to medicine to teaching, they all have one thing in common: They believe they can change the world and make it a better place. Here’s to them.

Chicago Catholic school big part of quilt to honor pope

Students from across the country have been brought together to use their creativity in honor of Pope John Paul II. And one Chicago Catholic school has a special role.

“We’ve selected one school from each state to help create a spiritual USA quilt,” said Jack Terrazas, coordinator of this project and director of the Christian Academy of Fine Arts in Morton Grove. “Each school has, in turn, selected an art class or group of students to design one square in the quilt.” The 50-piece quilt will be sown together and presented to the pope.

Eleanor Roosevelt praised for religious freedom efforts

Eleanor Roosevelt and those who worked with her to include religious liberty in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were pioneers “in modeling a way of bringing their moral convictions into the public square,” according to Mary Ann Glendon, a professor at Harvard Law School.

“While remaining true to themselves, they took great pains to explain their views in terms accessible to men and women of good will, and to listen carefully to what others had to say,” she said.

Making Latin an ‘everyday language’ a challenging task

If the history of the war in Iraq is ever written in Latin, people will no doubt read about a “bellum prohibitivum” undertaken to eliminate “universalis destructionis armamenta.”

Those who don’t immediately recognize the Latin equivalents of “preventive war” and “weapons of mass destruction” needn’t worry—a team of Vatican scholars is making sure you can look it up.

Mother Teresa—the Musical’

(Or, scrappy nun sings, dances and fights for the poor)

Mother Teresa and her fight against poverty, hunger and sickness are the unlikely protagonists of a stage production gaining popularity across Italy.

“Mother Teresa—The Musical” combines songs, dance and a plot woven around episodes from the life of the Albanian-born nun, who will be beatified by Pope John Paul II in October.

As a culture, Americans are believing less in sin

A March Gallup poll of 1,007 American adults found that 84 percent believe in sin, while 14 percent do not.

“Although many social observers maintain that the United States is in a period of ‘postmodernism’—a time of fragmentation of religious and cultural norms—it is interesting to note that the vast majority ... continue to affirm a belief in the concept or doctrine of ‘sin,’” George H. Gallup Jr. chairman of the George H. Gallup International Institute, wrote in a commentary on the poll.