Pope’s health a question as celebrations set

Closing a year dedicated to the rosary, Pope John Paul II came to a Marian sanctuary in Pompeii Oct. 7 and prayed for world peace with an estimated 30,000 pilgrims.

The pope joined in reciting the five “mysteries of light” which he added to the rosary last year. Then, in a halting voice, he read a speech calling for a new movement of prayer and peacemaking to help heal the “conflicts, tensions and tragedies of every continent.”

UPDATE:

Abuse office chief talks here

Kathleen McChesney, a former top FBI official and current director of the U.S. Bishops’ Office for the Protection of Children and Young People, will speak on “The Day the Future Changed: Sept. 11, 2001” at St. Scholastica Academy’s annual Alumnae Board Benefit at 2 p.m. Oct. 26.

McChesney will receive the board’s “Woman for the World” Award. Former Chicago Mayor Jane Burke Byrne, class of 1951, will receive the Alumnae Acknowledgement Award. Tickets for the benefit range from $50 to $125. For information, call the alumnae office at (773) 764-5715 ext. 364.

Vatican on Iraq: ‘Told you so’

Seven months after he tried to convince President George W. Bush not to invade Iraq, papal envoy Cardinal Pio Laghi said events have proved the Vatican right about the consequences of war and the difficulties of consolidating peace.

Cardinal Laghi recounted in detail his meeting last March with Bush and other White House officials Oct. 4. In March, three weeks before the United States launched its offensive against Iraq, Pope John Paul II sent Cardinal Laghi, a former ambassador to the United States, to plead the case against war with Bush and his aides, but the cardinal said he did not feel his arguments were given much weight.

“I had the impression they had already made their decision,” Cardinal Laghi said. Today, as U.S. and allied forces try to resolve vast problems in Iraq, “Events have shown that the worries of the Holy See were well-founded,” he added.

NEWS:

15 abuse claims settled

$8 million to be split among victims of 11 clergy

After months of negotiations, the Archdiocese of Chicago announced Oct. 2 that it will pay a total of $8 million to settle 15 victims’ claims of sexual abuse by 11 priests.

In his statement, Chancellor Jimmy M. Lago said he understands that the financial settlement, which includes money to pay for counseling and other services, cannot compensate for the pain the victims and their families suffered.

Keating says he was victim of smear tactics

Former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating said he was subjected to a smear campaign in church circles while chairman of the U.S. bishops’ National Review Board investigating clerical sexual abuse of minors.

In the October issue of Crisis, a Catholic monthly magazine, Keating said a letter “purportedly” from the vicar general of the Oklahoma City Archdiocese accused him of not attending Mass and of having a mistress.

Maryville gets chance to continue in new form

Maryville Academy’s Des Plaines campus might have new life breathed into it as an “academic enrichment” center for troubled youths under a plan announced by Gov. Rod Blagojevich at an Oct. 3 press conference.

Under the plan, instead of taking the most troubled children living under the care of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, Maryville would become home to a maximum of 130 high-school age state wards who have been successful in previous placements and appear to be on track to graduate.

‘Freedom Rides’ promote immigrant workers’ rights

From clasping the rough, wounded hands of migrant farm workers in southern Illinois to lobbying for the workers’ rights in the halls of the U.S. Capitol, Graciela Contreras and hundreds of others made a journey of hope and discovery Sept. 27-Oct. 4.

Contreras, who coordinates Hispanic ministry for the Archdiocese of Chicago in the Northwest suburbs and Lake County, was among about 200 people who set off in four buses from the Federal Plaza in Chicago Sept. 27. They were part of a nationwide network of “freedom rides” to Washington D.C. and New York to raise support for increased rights for immigrants, especially undocumented workers.

‘Lunch with Luke’ raises awareness of St. Joseph

About 35 priests and employees of parishes and the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Pastoral Center sat down to “Lunch with Luke” Sept. 30 at St. Joseph College Seminary on the campus of Loyola University Chicago.

The event featured an introduction to the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles from Passionist Father Donald Senior, a noted Scripture scholar and president of Catholic Theological Union. It was the first of five lunch lectures that will focus on Luke’s writings between now and mid-March, as the church works its way through Luke’s Gospel in the lectionary cycle.

Pope adds voices to group who’ll pick successor

Pope John Paul II’s latest cardinal appointments added new perspectives and new voices to the international group that someday will elect his successor.

The pope named 30 cardinals—plus announced one whose name was kept secret—and will induct them into the College of Cardinals during a consistory Oct. 21. Twenty-six of the new appointees are under age 80 and thus eligible to vote in a conclave.

For Chicago missionary in Africa, it all began with a campfire song

The summer after her freshman year at Resurrection High School in Chicago, Francine Maas was on a camping trip with her Girl Scout troop from Immaculate Conception Parish. As the girls spent the evening sitting around the camp fire singing songs, Maas first felt the call to mission work.

“We sang the sing ‘Jacob’s Ladder,” Maas recalled in an e-mail from her assignment in Tanzania, “a song that we sang very often. But this time it struck me in a deeper way. There is one verse that goes, ‘If you love him, why not serve him?’ Well, the thought came to me, ‘Why not be a missionary?’ I knew that there are many ways to ‘serve him,’ but this is how it struck me. The thought of being a missionary never left me and I never contemplated being any type of religious other than a missionary.”

Missionaries canonized at Mass with song, dance

At a Mass marked by the song, dance and “ululations” of African and Asian pilgrims, Pope John Paul II canonized three priests who dedicated their lives to missionary activity.

The three men declared saints Oct. 5 were Daniel Comboni, founder of the Comboni missionary priests and sisters; Arnold Janssen, founder of the Divine Word missionaries and the Holy Spirit missionary sisters; and Joseph Freinademetz, a Divine Word missionary to China in the late 1800s.

Pro-life Irish singer tops life celebration

For a nonprofit organization that operates out of a small suite of offices and has only three full-time employees, Aid For Women certainly knows how to throw itself a party.

Celebrating its 25 years of service, Aid For Women hosted a lavish anniversary dinner Sept. 25 in the Grand Ballroom of the Chicago Hilton and Towers. More than 600 guests honored the pregnancy crisis center started by now-retired Deacon Tom Bresler. Since 1981, Aid For Women, 8 S. Michigan Ave., has aided more than 60,000 women through education, support and practical referrals.