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Issue of August 17, 2003
Update Priests’ Sunday set for Oct. 26 The Chicago-based National Federation of Priests’ Councils, joined by several Catholic organizations, has asked Catholics to observe Oct. 26 as “Priesthood Sunday.” The NFPC called on parishes across the country to take that occasion “to celebrate the gifts of priesthood in service to the Catholic community.” Others supporting the initiative include the National Association for Lay Ministry, Serra International, Pastoral Summit, the Raskob Foundation and The Official Catholic Directory. Settlement offer in Boston cases Barely a week after Archbishop Sean P. O’Malley became its head, the Boston Archdiocese offered $55 million to settle 542 lawsuits over clergy sexual abuse of minors. If accepted, it will be the largest settlement ever reached for a group of victims of clergy sexual abuse, although not the largest settlement per victim. Father Christopher J. Coyne, archdiocesan communications spokesman, citing archdiocesan policy of not commenting on pending litigation, declined requests to confirm or deny the proposal. The proposal reportedly requires that in order to take effect, at least 95 percent of the plaintiffs will have to sign on within 30 days. The amount will be reduced by 1/542—about $101,000, for every plaintiff who does not sign on.
News Catholic conference: State action will affect parochial school students, staff Leo High School, last year’s Class AA boys basketball champion, not eligible to play in the state tournament. Students from St. Ignatius College Prep shut out of some scholarship programs. Teachers at 570 Illinois Catholic high schools and elementary schools denied some professional development opportunities. That’s the picture state Catholic leaders are painting of a July 24 decision by the Illinois State Board of Education to end its program of offering official recognition to non-public schools that met certain academic and health and safety requirements. Because the state processed applications for recognition for the coming school year, the changes would not take effect until the 2004-05 school year.
Make a difference, Knights urged at congress At the annual Knights of Columbus convention in Washington, more than 2,000 Knights and their families were encouraged to continue to stand up for their Catholic beliefs to have an impact on today’s political climate and on society and to continue to be leaders in the church, working with the bishops and priests.
Critics ‘distorting’ 1962 Vatican sex abuse document Cardinal George and the U.S. bishops’ communications office have sharply repudiated media and legal claims that a 1962 Vatican instruction on church procedures to deal with priests accused of using the confessional for sexual solicitation provided a “ground plan” for a church cover-up of sexual abuse. In an Aug. 7 statement, Cardinal George said: “It is hard to understand how anyone could construe this severely punitive document (against priests who commit the crime of solicitation) as a ‘blueprint for deception’ by Pope John XXIII.”
ND study probing Chicago Hispanics’ faith and more A two-month study conducted by the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame should give researchers a more complete picture of the religious experience of Chicago-area Latino families, as well as information about other areas of their lives and how Latinos are viewed by other ethnic groups.
Pope asks prayers for end to fires in Europe, urges prayers for rain Pope John Paul II asked pilgrims to join him in prayer for the victims of fires burning out of control in Europe and urged them to join his prayers for rain. The brush and forest fires, particularly intense in Portugal, have provoked deaths, forced people from their homes and led to “enormous damage to the environment,” the pope said after reciting the Angelus with visitors at his summer villa south of Rome.
With weighty problems in mind, migration advocates seek answers The list of problems for immigrants raised at this summer’s the National Migration Conference is lengthy and complex. During the July conference, nearly 800 workers from various Catholic agencies working with immigrants and refugees looked for answers and support with problems ranging from international trafficking in human beings to how to get visas for foreign priests to work with immigrant communities.
Plague of racism decried Thirty-five years after the Rev. Martin Luther King’s assassination, racism still plagues the nation and exists in many parishes and church institutions, said the president of the National Black Sisters Conference during the organization’s meeting July 27-29 in Miami.
Corporate heroes? Jesuits and the soul of business When St. Ignatius Loyola and his nine companions decided to formally organize themselves into a religious order, they called themselves the “Compañía de Jesus.” Still, Loyola and the other founders of the Jesuits hardly saw themselves as an example of a business enterprise. Chris Lowney does.
Song of Songs’ inspires local composer’s work Steve’s 15th wedding anniversary inscription to his wife read,
“For Béa, I know how you like flowers but I decided to get you this CD instead. I am faint with love.”
The last line may sound familiar, because it is a quote from Scripture, in the Song of Songs. “Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among young men. … Sustain me with raisins, revive me with apples; for I am faint with love.”(3:59) Steve Rashid didn’t just pick up his gift at the store; it was his own creation, a collection of songs released in January on compact disc and inspired by “the eight beautiful love poems from the Song of Songs,” Rashid said. Rashid is an Evanston-based composer, performer and producer, and his gift to his wife was very much one of himself.
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intercession has been approved by the church, moving her cause for beatification forward. The church news source says it is Catharine Emmerich’s journal that inspired the script of actor/film director, Mel Gibson’s graphic film “The Passion,” to be released next year.