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The Catholic New World
News Digest: Week in Summary
Issue of April 16, 2006

The following items are condensed. For the complete article, please read the print edition of The Catholic New World. To subscribe, call (312) 655-7777.

NewsUpdate

Schools prepare for registrations

Elementary schools in the Archdiocese of Chicago are accepting new student registrations for the 2006-07 school year.

Most schools have openings for students in three- and four-year old pre-school, kindergarten and grades one through eight. Parents registering new students should contact the Catholic schools in their area for information on enrollment procedures, space availability, tuition rates and financial assistance. A directory of schools is available online at www.archchicago.org.

St. Xav donation

James and Jacque McDonough have pledged $1 million to fund capital improvements at Saint Xavier University’s Chicago campus. An earlier donation by the couple allowed for the construction of McDonough Chapel, which opened in September 2000.







News

‘Father’ of Mercy Mission

Close retires, was ‘proxy parent’ to 8,000-plus kids over 33 years

When Cardinal John Cody asked Father James Close to head Mercy Home in 1973, Close said he’d prayed about it and didn’t think he’d be a good fit.

But Cody also said he’d prayed and decided Close should take the job.

“That was the way things were done in those days,” chuckled Close, who retired April 14, 33 years and almost 9,000 kids after a cardinal made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.

“What did I know about raising kids,” asked Close, 70, recalling how he discovered there was “no manual on being a parent, even a proxy parent.”



Racial justice an elusive goal

When Cardinal George wrote “Dwell in My Love,” his pastoral letter on racism, he told about his own experience growing up in Chicago, where he was always told racism was wrong, yet his family had few social contacts with people from other racial groups.

“The teaching in my home and parish were good,” he wrote in the introduction to his 2001 letter. “The experience just didn’t match the teaching.”

That statement could be made about the Catholic Church in the United States from its earliest days, when several U.S. prelates endorsed slavery despite a 15th century statement by Pope Pius II calling it “a great crime,” to the present, when Latino immigrants feel that legislation now being debated in Congress has a racist impetus behind it.



Audit shows abuse costs rising

Clergy child sex abuse allegations dramatically declined in 2005 over the previous year, but costs skyrocketed, according to the yearly audit on how the U.S. church is applying child protection policies.

Dioceses, Eastern-rite eparchies and religious communities paid out $467 million in child sex abuse-related costs in 2005, $309 million more than in 2004, while new credible allegations dropped by 28 percent to 783, said the audit report made public March 30.



Chicago and the world recall, celebrate John Paul II

Pope John Paul II was a “rock of faith,” communicating the Gospel even when he could no longer speak and suffering racked his body, Pope Benedict XVI said, celebrating a memorial Mass for the late pope.

Just as he did a year earlier when he lay dying, Pope John Paul drew tens of thousands of people—mainly young people—to St. Peter’s Square to mark the first anniversary of his death with an April 2 nighttime vigil and an April 3 evening Mass.



Vacation Bible school gets a Catholic flavor

Not that there’s anything wrong with it .... using a Protestant-based vacation Bible school program for Catholic kids … But if you had your druthers?

Now Catholics have their druthers. And much credit goes to a spirited Indiana family.

Margaret Windle and her husband raised eight children, never imagining they would become a human evangelization enterprise.

An author, songwriter and poet with a degree from the Minnesota Institute of Technology, Windle has had a thing about the lives of the saints. She spent 15 years researching them while instilling her family with a joyous love for church and tradition.

> Front Page

Church Clips by Dolores Madlener
    
Dolores Madlener
a column of benevolent
gossip

Memories of Catholic Action — Mention of Jesuit Father Daniel Lord in the April 2-15 Clips brought back good times for several readers. Servite Father Conrad Borntrager, provincial archivist, has copies of Father Lord’s other well known composition “Mother Beloved” in the music archives of Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica (W. Jackson). Father Lord’s name reminded him of “old CISCA days—and even from our senior prom.” (For the uninitiated, CISCA stood for Chicago Inter-Student Catholic Action. Perhaps even a young Francis George once belonged to it.) . . . Bob Coates and his wife wrote that they have Father Lord’s autograph on the sheet music to another of his songs, “America, We’ve Just Begun,” obtained in 1940 at a Summer School of Catholic Action at Chicago’s Morrison Hotel. . . . Catherine Rondenelli of St. Gregory the Great Parish (N. Paulina) would make Father Lord proud. She sent all the words as she remembers them from her days with Catholics in Action in Morganstown, W.Va. . . . In the meantime, you can sing-along with the Non Nobis Domine Choir of Manassas, Va. It consists of 50 students, parents and teachers singing in four-part harmony, some a capella, some with organ. There are 29 hymns ranging from “Bring Flowers of the Rarest” and “O Lord, I Am Not Worthy,” to YES! Father Lord’s “For Christ the King” (aka “An Army of Youth”). The CD is $12 + $4 postage for priority mail; $8 for a cassette + postage. Make check payable to Seton School Recording, mail to: Peggy Gregory, Seton School Recording, 9314 Maple Ave., Manassas, VA 20110. . . . Finally, do not let your children or grandchildren become atheists, and let us all pray Julia Sweeney BACK into Holy Mother Church.

Much deserved — Francine Demma is the “other lady” of the giant steel statue Our Lady of the New Millennium. She has continued the apostolate begun by her late husband, Carl Demma, who commissioned the statue. She continues to underwrite its monumental transfer from parish to parish around the arch. How fitting that St. Joseph College Seminary is honoring Mrs. Demma with its Mater Dei [Mother of God] Award at a Mass and brunch April 22 at the seminary.

Parish potpourri — Proud mom and dad Bernie and Roseann O’Reilly of Queen of Martyrs Parish (Evergreen Park) were on hand when daughter Christine O’Reilly was presented with her White Sox World Series ring April 4 at U.S. Cellular Field during a postgame party. As senior director of community relations, Christine now owns one of the official classic keepsakes with its 95 diamonds around a black onyx base and the diamond-studded team logo in the center. . . . St. Norbert Parish (Northbrook) watched Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” on a 20-foot wide screen in church April 2 after 5:30 p.m. Mass. This is the parish that made a pilgrimage, after the movie was shown in theaters, to the ancient city of Matera, Italy, where the story had been filmed. . . . The bad news is organist Heath Morber will be leaving St. Emeric Parish (Country Club Hills) in June. The good news for Heath and Shannon is they’re moving to Champaign, Ill., where he will be director of music at the Catholic chapel on the University of Illinois campus. (The Champaign parish is where the couple met and were married.) . . . St. Ann Parish (Lansing) just marked the 20th anniversary of its “Living Stations,” done each Lent by young people from grades six to 12. The kids come and go, but Vera Seymour, Ken Toosevich and Dan Lemon have remained.

Praying twice — How can pastor Father Bob Oldershaw retire? According to folks at St. Nicholas Parish (Evanston), sadly, he plans to. One of his many ministries has been an incredible 40+ years sharing faith through music. He’s been coordinator for many Archdiocesan Children’s Choir festivals. Providentially he was associate director for music for the Office of Divine Worship during Pope John Paul II’s visit to Chicago in 1978. That treasured papal Mass recording you purchased was a combination of many efforts, but ultimately of the ODW, whose director at the time was Father Dan Coughlin (now chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives). St. Nicholas Parish is organizing a reunion of Oldershaw’s children/teen choirs from St. Thomas the Apostle (S. Kimbark), Holy Name Cathedral (N. State), St. Clement (W. Deming), and St. Nicholas parishes for May 6. Former members are invited to offer ideas and find out more details at www.nickchurch.org.

We get letters — To folks asking where they can get a copy of Pope Benedict’s first encyclical, “God Is Love,” Our Sunday Visitor will send a free excerpted copy. Mail a self-addressed, stamped (39 cents), #10 envelope to Our Sunday Visitor, 200 Noll Plaza, Huntington, IN 46750. Bulk orders of 50 are $14.95 +$5.95 shipping. For information call (800) 348-2440. The entire encyclical is available at the Vatican’s Web site, www.vatican.va.

Calling Boy Scout Leaders — The Archdiocese of Chicago Catholic Committee on Scouting is hosting the 2006 National Catholic Scouting Biennial Conference, April 24-29 in Schaumburg. Speakers include Father Dan Coughlin (see above) and Chris Bury of ABC’s “Nightline” (also an Eagle Scout). Its 20 workshops will range from youth ministry to Sea Scouts and special needs youth. Special tours and family events are scheduled. For more info, call Fulvio or Katherine Gil at (847) 729-5166.

Got bookz? — Josephinum Academy (N. Oakley) will accept your unwanted books in the school’s main office, 1501 N. Oakley, now through May 5. Then they’ll sell them from 4-8 p.m. May 5; and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. May 6. Proceeds will expand “The Jo’s” own library collection. Call (773) 292-3964 Ext. 232.

Send your benevolent gossip to:
Church Clips
721 N. LaSalle St.,
Chicago, IL 60610
or via
e-mail.

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Capsule reviews of movies from the U.S. Catholic Conference's Office for Film and Broadcasting, judged according to artistic merit and moral suitability.