Issue of April 24, 2005

UPDATE

JPII’s last words promote mission
In his last message published to the world, Pope John Paul II called on the faithful to be “generous evangelizers” by fighting injustice and poverty while spreading the Gospel.
On April 15 the Vatican released the pope’s annual World Mission Sunday message, written in six languages, including Chinese. The message was signed by the late pope and dated Feb. 22, the feast of the Chair of St. Peter.
“In our day human society appears to be shrouded in dark shadows while it is shaken by tragic events and shattered by catastrophic natural disasters,” the late pope wrote. He said the eucharistic celebration is “bread from heaven, which gives eternal life and opens the human heart to a great hope.” World Mission Sunday will be celebrated Oct. 23.

Charities digs in for veterans
Catholic Charities was scheduled to break ground April 22 for the St. Leo Campus for Veterans at 7750 S. Emerald Avenue in Chicago.
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson was scheduled to join Auxiliary Bishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller and Catholic Charities Administrator Father Michael Boland in the ceremony. (See Page 23.)
Located at the former St. Leo the Great Parish in Chicago, the first-in-the-nation pilot project will include the St. Leo Residence for Veterans, providing housing for 141 chronically homeless veterans.
In addition, there will be a Veterans Administration VA Community-Based Outpatient Clinic and Resource Center offering a community-based outpatient clinic to serve veterans on the South Side.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded Catholic Charities funds to rehabilitate the former St. Leo’s rectory into 10 one-bedroom and four two-bedroom units for very low-income persons with physical disabilities.
The veteran’s portion of the campus is the first of five national pilot projects initiated under Homeless Veterans Comprehensive Assistance Act passed by Congress in 2001.

NEWS:

Three more schools raise funds, get reprieve
Three archdiocesan schools that were slated to close at the end of this school received word April 18 that they will remain open.
The three Chicago schools—St. Helena of the Cross, 10115 S. Parnell Ave, St. John Berchmans, 2511 W. Logan Blvd., and Pope John Paul II School, 4325 S. Richmond St.—all showed significant financial changes, including major six-figure donations, increased enrollment registrations, and revised planning, according to the Office for Catholic Schools.
Pope John Paul II School on the Southwest Side perhaps got the most media attention following the pope’s death. Not only is it named for the late pontiff, it is housed at Five Holy Martyrs Parish, which John Paul visited three times during his life.

End pharmacist rule, bishop asks
Two Illinois pharmacists are suing Gov. Blagojevich over his rule forcing druggists to fill prescriptions for contraceptives despite moral objections.
Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Paprocki, episcopal vicar of Vicariate II entered the fray in early April when he asked the governor to rescind the rule during remarks after a Mass for Pope John Paul II at St. Hyacinth Basilica. Blagojevich was in the congregation.
In February a Loop pharmacist twice refused to fill a prescription for an emergency “morning-after” contraceptive.
The governor later issued a rule requiring pharmacies to fill such prescriptions. In media reports, the governor said, “The pharmacy will be expected to accept that prescription and fill it. No delays. No hassles. No lectures.”
The rule is being opposed by some lawmakers and two downstate druggists filed suit April 13 claiming the governor’s mandate violates the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act.

Ex-Illinois State cop to lead U.S. bishops’ anti-abuse office
The U.S. bishops have hired a retired Illinois State Police colonel as the second female law enforcement officer to head the office that is responsible for helping them apply their child sex abuse prevention policies.
Teresa Kettelkamp, who helped conduct the audits in 2003 and 2004 of U.S. dioceses and Eastern-rite eparchies to monitor compliance with the bishops’ abuse policies, replaces Kathleen McChesney, who resigned in February.
The announcement of Kettelkamp’s appointment as executive director of the U.S. bishops’ Office of Child and Youth Protection was made April 15 in Washington D.C. by Msgr. William Fay, general secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Priest jubilarians
Twelve priests of the Archdiocese of Chicago are marking their silver jubilees this year. All except Msgr. Robert Dempsey were ordained in Chicago May 14, 1980. Dempsey was ordained in Rome, June 15, 1980. The Catholic New World joins with their families and friends in acknowledging their 25 years in priestly ministry.
Eighteen priests of the Archdiocese of Chicago are celebrating 50 years of priestly ministry this year, marking the golden jubilee of their ordinations in 1955. All except one were ordained May 3, 1955. One, Father Joseph Lee, was ordained in China on June 4, 1995, and later incardinated into the archdiocese. We join with those celebrating their years of service.

‘Love that builds peace’ goal of Family Fest 2005
“From the Piazza Campidoglio in Rome, welcome to Family Fest 2005,” shouted Lorena Bianchetti, RAI-TV’s youthful emcee, to the throng gathered on the Eternal City’s Capitol Hill April 16.
But in different time zones in six continents and in 200 cities around the world, from Iran to Ireland and even the Chicago suburb of North Riverside, people watched video clips from the Focolare Movement’s mega event, and combined their own local presentations. All spotlighted the family as “a masterpiece of God’s creative love,” a quote from Focolare founder, Chiara Lubich.
In original music featuring groups or soloists, one song typified the day’s theme of love that builds peace: “The world is a home and the fire is always burning.”

Life of Thomas Merton takes to a Chicago stage
The Hermit in New York’ draws from monk’s words, ideals
Thomas Merton, known as one of the most important spiritual writers of the 20th century, is the subject of a new play opening on May 8 at Chicago’s Prop Theater, 3502 N. Elston. The play, “The Hermit in New York,” is “not an autobiography,” said playwright Teresa Weed, “but a discussion, a mosaic.” Most of Merton’s lines are actual quotes from his journals or other writings.
Merton, who was born in 1915 and died in 1968, converted to Catholicism as a young man and then entered the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, a community of Trappist monks near Bardstown, Ky. Despite his monastic lifestyle in one of the most ascetic Catholic orders, he became a public figure and wrote more than 60 books and hundreds of poems and articles on topics ranging from spirituality to civil rights, nonviolence and the nuclear arms race. His political stand on non-violence and his blending of Eastern and Western spiritual thought propelled him to the center of controversy and attention among Catholics and non-Catholics.

‘Revelations:’ good story, bad theology
Prime time meets end time in “Revelations,” a limited dramatic series dealing with the apocalyptic prophecies foretold in the last book of the Bible.
Like “The Da Vinci Code”—whose phenomenal success no doubt weighed in NBC’s decision to produce the six-episode series—“Revelations” is good storytelling wrapped around bad theology. The first in the series ran April 13. Remaining episodes will appear April 27, May 4, 11 and 18 (8-9 p.m.)

Rwanda tale raw, compelling
Mark your calendars for a gripping and powerful film about the horrific Rwandan genocide of 1994, the first production actually shot on location in Rwanda. “Sometimes in April”—the month referring to the start of the Hutu majority’s indiscriminate and systematic slaughter of their age-old adversaries, the Tutsis—will be shown on PBS (WTTW-Channel 11), 9 p.m.-midnight May 4.

Dispute over Communion host on eBay settled
The Diocese of Sioux City has reported that the much-publicized sale on eBay of what was purported to be a consecrated host was not finalized and the Iowan who was selling the host has withdrawn it and given it to church officials.
Msgr. Roger J. Augustine, diocesan administrator, said he met April 15 with the seller, who was from a town in the diocese, and was advised that the sale would not be consummated.

---

top