Silver celebration
Cardinals to mark pope’s jubilee at Vatican
To mark Pope John Paul II’s 25th anniversary in October, the world’s cardinals plan to join the pontiff for five days of liturgical celebrations, speech-giving, discussion and a musical concert. Cardinal is scheduled to attend.

U.S. church leaders also announced plans to mark the pope’s silver jubilee.

The Vatican program was still being finalized, but the main features of the Oct. 15-19 events were taking shape.

Update

Cardinal George and Father Robert Vitillo, executive director of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, will announce $462,000 in grants to 20 Chicago-area organizations that help change the conditions that create poverty.

The Sept. 22 event, which includes a reception for people involved with the antipoverty groups, is designed to bring recognition to the work of the campaign, the U.S. bishops’ domestic anti-poverty effort for the last 32 years. The campaign is supported by an annual second collection taken at Masses the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Chicago-area Catholics have been the most generous in the country. Of the money collected, 75 percent goes to the national campaign while 25 percent stays to fund efforts within the archdiocese.

Aid for Women marking 25 years

Aid for Women, a non-profit pregnancy resource center in Chicago, will kick off its 25th anniversary year with a dinner and art auction Sept. 25 at the Chicago Hilton and Towers, 720 S. Michigan Ave.

Aid for Women provides teens and women facing unplanned pregnancies free pregnancy tests, ultrasound exams, counseling, one-to-one mentoring, parenting and referrals for other services.

“We are honored to have been part of the lives of more than 60,000 Chicago-area women and children over the last 25 years,” said Elaine M. Kindler, director. Special guests at the gala include Cardinal George and popular Irish singer and parliament member Dana Rosemary Scallon. For more information, call (312) 621-1101.

News

Prominent priests accused in sexual abuse cases

A Vatican diplomat from Cincinnati, who settled a clergy sexual abuse lawsuit in 1995, has resigned his post. Two Chicago Jesuits, including one who once led retreats for Mother Teresa of Calcutta, have been accused. One is ill and retired; the other has been placed on leave in the wake of an accusation that he abused a boy over 30 years ago.

Those were among the more prominent cases of Catholic priests in late August stemming from the sexual-abuse scandal.

Ratzinger: ‘Weakness of faith’ causes abuse

“Weakness of faith” was the root cause of the sexual abuse crisis in the U.S. church, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said in a television interview Sept. 5.

Interviewed on Eternal Word Television Network’s “The World Over” program, the cardinal said priests share in the weakness of all human beings, and if their faith is just an idea or hypothesis rather than a deep personal friendship with the Lord, they may give in to their weaknesses. EWTN is based in Birmingham.

Boston agrees to settle 500-plus abuse claims

Less than six weeks after becoming head of the Boston Archdiocese, Archbishop Sean P. O’Malley has reached the largest financial settlement in U.S. church history with hundreds of victims of sexual abuse by Boston priests.

“This is an important agreement. ... I hope that all the victims will choose to participate,” said Bishop Wilton D. Gregory of Belleville, Ill., president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Vincentians urged: Broaden social efforts

A deeper and broader collaboration is needed between two strong social justice groups in the Catholic Church, according to the president of Catholic Charities USA.

Father J. Bryan Hehir gave the keynote address Sept. 5 to the 89th national meeting of the St. Vincent de Paul Society.

Bishop Gregory reaffirms celibacy

Changing the discipline of clerical celibacy would not assure increased vocations in the Catholic Church, according to Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Bishop Gregory’s comments came in an Aug. 29 letter addressed to Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of Milwaukee.

The letter, made public Sept. 4, was in response to the Aug. 16 letter signed by 163 priests of the Milwaukee Archdiocese and mailed to Bishop Gregory Aug. 19. In that letter, written and circulated by Fathers Thomas Suriano, Joseph Aufdermauer and Steven Dunn, the priests urged that “diocesan priesthood now be open to married men as well as to celibate men.”

Laying down the law at Loyola

Dean starts 20th year at helm after being told

there was no place for a woman in legal education

It was 1959 when Nina Appel graduated from the Columbia University School of Law and passed the New York bar. One of only a handful of women in her class, Appel’s first paying legal job was as an instructor at her alma mater.

Now, starting her 20th year as dean of Loyola University Chicago’s law school, Appel recalls the words of wisdom one of her professors shared with her that year: “If you were a man, there’d be a future for you in teaching. As a woman, there is no future.”

Attacks on ‘conscience clause’ threaten hospitals

The ability of Catholic hospitals to provide services in accord with their values is under increasing attack by those opposed to the freedom of conscience guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, a priest and a law professor told the annual American Bar Association meeting in San Francisco.

Father Michael Place, Catholic Health Association president, and Lynn Wardle, law professor at Brigham Young University, participated in an August panel discussion on “Patients’ Rights: Refusal Clauses and Their Impact on Health Care Access and Rights.”

Bringing teens to ‘Life’

Life Teen aims to help youths feel

loved and ‘fall in love with Christ’

A vibrant liturgy and a focus on the Eucharist lie at the heart of Life Teen, an international youth ministry program that has arrived at a handful of parishes in the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Life Teen began when a youth minister and a music minister at St. Timothy’s in Mesa, AZ, got together in 1985 to plan Masses tailored for teens. Each week, the Life Teen Mass was followed by a “Life Night.” at which teens came together to discuss issues of faith and culture. The program was so popular that within a few years other parishes were asking for tips and beginning Life Teen Masses and Life Nights of their own.

There’s something about Rob ...

Working with paralyzed football player tranforms deacon’s ministry, life

Every morning, 21-year-old Rob Komosa starts his day by praying for a miracle. Paralyzed almost four years ago from the neck down after a high school football injury, his request is for physical healing. This miracle has not yet occurred. But it is clear to Rob and to his friend and mentor Don Grossnickle that God has indeed worked miracles in—and through—that paralysis.

“My job continues to be to find ways to make the miracles happen right now!” said Grossnickle, the energetic deacon from Our Lady of the Wayside Church in Arlington Heights, whose life has been turned upside down by his relationship with Komosa. “Rob calls me his ‘personal assistant.’ I’ve had lots of roles in his life in the past four years—his friend, his beggar, his spiritual guide,” said Grossnickle.

Five sextuplets begin kindergarten together

Mom says parents chose Catholic school for prayer and principles

Darby Leonard, one of five surviving sextuplets, likely was excited about starting kindergarten Aug. 20 because she found a kitchen set in her classroom.

But the mother of the famous fivesome is enthusiastic about St. Columba School in Ottawa for a different reason.

“I want our kids to pray every day in school,” said Jennifer Leonard. “I want our kids to go to church. I want our kids to know Jesus. And I want them to know the principles taught in this school.”

‘Bonhoeffer’ movie returns

“Bonhoeffer,” filmmaker Martin Doblmeier’s documentary biography of a German pacifist theologian who turned double agent and conspired to kill Adolf Hitler, returned to the Gene Siskel Film Center for a third engagement Sept. 12. It will play through Sept. 25.

High-school guide offers inside tips, information

Chicago family’s search inspired handy reference

When Linda Thornton’s son, Alexander, started junior high at Mount Carmel Academy, what had been a niggling thought in the back of her mind grew to be a major concern: Where should her son attend high school?

That question proved the catalyst for Thornton’s self-published book, “The Report Card: The Savvy Family’s Guide to Chicago High Schools.” The book offers listings for 30 Catholic high schools; 75 public high schools, including magnet and charter schools; and 10 independent or non-Catholic religious high schools.

Energy, excellence

How one parish empowers catechists

Nancy Polacek, youth catechesis director at St. John of the Cross in Western Springs, is ready for a new year of faith formation in partnership with the parents of the 1,000 students in her program. About 130 catechists, most returning from last year, will be involved in the dynamic process of relating the experiences of daily living to the insights of the Catholic Christian tradition.

This is a community of young families. Polacek and Father Richard Hynes, pastor, have engineered the evolution from a religious education program to youth catechesis, embracing pre-school through high school. Hynes does not see a competition between the parish school and the youth catechesis program, but an opportunity to build bridges between the two.

Schools offer training, development opportunities

When Jen Kowieski met with some of her first-year teachers at the end of their first week teaching classes, they were doing well, she reported.

“The first year of teaching is always a shock to the system” said Kowieski, coordinator of a new Loyola University Chicago program that allows new teachers to earn certification and a tuition-free master’s degree in education in exchnage for two years of service in needy Catholic schools. “They were surprised at how much being the full-time teacher took out of them.”

Catholic schools growing

More than a dozen archdiocesan schools have completed expansion and renovations projects totaling more than $37 million. An additional 11 schools have projects under way totaling more than $50 million and six schools have projects in the planning process totaling more than $45 million.

Pope has shaped events, inspired millions for years

As Pope John Paul II celebrates 25 years in office, the world is taking stock of a pontificate that has helped shape political events, set new directions for the Catholic Church and offered spiritual inspiration to millions of people around the globe.

By any measure, this is a papacy for the ages. Since his election Oct. 16, 1978, Pope John Paul has delivered more speeches, met with more world leaders, canonized more saints and kissed more babies than any previous pontiff.

‘Get mad,’ bishop says; culture at war with Christ

In a passionate call to defend the faith that drew sustained applause at an outdoor Mass on Peoria’s riverfront Aug. 24, Bishop Daniel R. Jenky declared contemporary culture is “at war with Jesus Christ” and asked Catholics, “What will it take to finally get us mad?”

“Will you tolerate the holiest things of our religion on a daily basis being mocked and ridiculed on TV, in the press and in the movies?” he asked the crowd of 800 worshipping under a tent on the grounds of the city’s annual Irish festival.