THE UPDATE:

Smyth resigns Maryville post

In an apparent attempt to give Maryville Academy a fresh start, Father John Smyth resigned his longtime post as executive director and chairman George Rourke resigned as head of the Catholic non-profit’s board at the group’s Dec. 13 meeting.

If approved by Cardinal George, Smyth will become Maryville’s president emeritus/chancellor and Father David F. Ryan will be acting executive director. The changes become effective Jan. 1.

Smyth, 69, has spent four decades at the home for troubled youth. He had become a lightning rod for controversy after state and federal officials brought the facility under scrutiny over the past year in the wake of the suicide of a teenage girl and reports of violence and sexual assaults among the young residents.

While owned by the Archdiocese of Chicago, Maryville received most of its funding from the state in payment for its care of children in state custody. The crisis hits its peak in September when Gov. Rod Blagojevich announced his intention to remove all state wards from the facility.

Smyth, who had earlier promised to step back from day-to-day operations at Maryville, then agreed to a plan that would turn what was once the largest residential child-care facility in the state to an “academic enrichment center” for youth, and said he would focus his attention on fundraising and services for Maryville alumni.

Media reports say that Smyth butted heads with Rourke in early December, trying to interject himself back into daily operations and talking about seeking out more private clients for the facility.

The Maryville board tapped Charles Walsh, a real estate developer from Lake Forest, as chairman of the board. Walsh lived at Maryville as a youth, before Smyth’s tenure began.

Vandals again hit Lemont graves

One of the archdiocese’s most historic cemeteries, St. James at Sag Bridge, Lemont, has been targeted by vandals twice in recent months. The most recent damage occurred in early December when several limestone markers were smashed beyond repair, Father Edward Gleeson, pastor, said in media reports. Several other headstones were pushed over. Damage was estimated at more than $100,000.

The church, which dates to 1837 and is the oldest in the archdiocese, contains graves of many of the Irish immigrants who labored to build the Illinois and Michigan Canal in the mid-19th century. The graves that were damaged were from a later era.

NEWS:

On liturgy: President of bishop’s conference emphasizes theology behind liturgical changes

The new norms for celebrating the sacred liturgy must be understood in terms of the theology behind them, Belleville Bishop Wilton Gregory said at the annual Gaudete Lecture at Holy Name Cathedral Dec. 14.

His remarks came on the third Sunday of Advent, just two weeks after most parishes in the Archdiocese of Chicago began implementing the changes called for in the new General Instruction of the Roman Missal. The instruction is part of the third typical edition of the Roman Missal, which was first published in Latin in 2000.

The rabbi’s lesson

Looking at Christmas

from a different perspective

Rabbi Michael Sternfield was a member of a San Diego Rotary Club about 15 years ago when he got a call from the club’s program director. The club was planning a holiday program for December, and each of the three clergymen who belonged—Sternfield, a priest and a minister—would speak. The theme, the program director told the rabbi, was “What Christmas Means to Me.”

It sounds like a bad joke—a priest, a minister and a rabbi walked into this bar—and Sternfield said his first reaction was “What is this yutz talking about?”

Then he decided to go with it.

Bringing the war home

Face-to-face visit turns pen pals into ‘real people’

When Sgt. Ronnell Jackson of the Army’s 308th Civilian Affairs Brigade walked in to Incarnation School in Palos Heights Dec. 2, something happened.

The man who had sent the school’s junior high students e-mails and letters, answering their questions and thanking them for gifts for the past nine months, suddenly became human. He was more than a soldier, a symbol of war and the struggle for peace. He was a father, a neighbor and a friend.

Saddam’s capture ‘doesn’t excuse’ Iraq war

Vatican opposes death penalty

The capture of Saddam Hussein may help bring peace to Iraq, but it does not change the fact that “the war was useless, and served no purpose,” a top Vatican official said.

Cardinal Renato R. Martino, head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, said the Vatican wants Saddam to receive a fair trial for alleged crimes during his long dictatorship. As in other cases, the Vatican is opposed to the death penalty for the fallen Iraqi leader, he said.

Florida senior finds mission: spreading a little kindness

You’ve heard of “Chicken Soup for the Soul”? A south Florida senior has started her own book series, written by children and aimed at spreading the message of kindness.

“Kindness is the truest religion,” said Alice Johnson, 76. “Kindness is love in action.”

Johnson, a member of Christ the King Parish in Perrine, is editor and publisher of the Candlelights book series. The books are written by children from local public schools who share stories of how the kindness of family and friends has touched their lives.

Steinfels offers challenge for Catholic intellectuals

Catholic thinkers should ‘evangelize the culture.’

author says

Prominent religion writer Peter Steinfels laid out a challenge for Catholic intellectuals Dec. 8 at Loyola University Chicago: Become visible, make your voices heard and take up your role in evangelizing the culture.

Steinfels, author of “A People Adrift: The Crisis of the Roman Catholic Church in America,” offered his remarks on “Prophets and Scribes: Catholics, Intellectuals and the Pursuit of Wisdom” as part of the university’s Chapel Series, in which well-known Catholics are invited to reflect on the future of the church within the context of a prayer service.

Gibson’s ‘Passion’ gets good words at Vatican screening

Just days after Mel Gibson refused to allow his film, “The Passion of Christ,” to be shown at a Vatican-sponsored film festival, several Vatican officials were invited to private screenings in Rome and a copy was sent to Pope John Paul II.

It was not known if the pope had watched the film.

The film was shown Dec. 4 and 6 in a small screening room in Rome to invited guests, including U.S. Archbishop John P. Foley, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, U.S. Dominican Father Augustine DiNoia, undersecretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Msgr. Kevin C. McCoy, rector of the North American College.

PETA chickens out, but crows over offensive ad

A billboard promoting vegetarianism by using an image of the Blessed Mother with a dead chicken was removed Dec. 5 following more than a week of negative reaction from community and religious leaders.

The advertisement was bought by the national animal rights group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, after Vegan Outreach, a program within the national group, initiated the campaign.