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The Catholic New World
News Digest: Week in Summary
Issue of September 11, 2005

UPDATE

USCCB: Appeal bankruptcy rule

Citing the “national consequences,” Bishop William S. Skylstad of Spokane said he will appeal a federal bankruptcy court’s ruling that parish properties must be included in the Spokane diocesan assets used to settle millions of dollars in clergy sex abuse claims.

A U.S. bankruptcy judge ruled Aug. 26 that civil property laws prevail in a bankruptcy proceeding despite any internal church laws that might bar a bishop from full control over parish assets. Diocesan lawyers had argued that in church law parish assets belong to the parish itself, not to its pastor or to the bishop.

They said that, while the diocesan bishop was nominally the owner in civil law, even in civil law he only held those properties in trust for the parishes themselves.
Audit turns up discrepancies

A routine audit by archdiocesan personnel uncovered financial discrepancies at St. Christopher Church, Midlothian.
Following the March audit, archdiocesan officials turned the matter over the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office which is continuing to investigate. The pastor, Father Mark Walter, told parishioners Aug. 16 in a letter that new procedures to handle and count the weekly collection have been put in place.


News:

Pope urges Christian unity to spur Eucharist

The lack of full communion between Catholics and Orthodox and the resulting inability to concelebrate the Eucharist together should spur Christians everywhere to increase efforts toward achieving full Christian unity, Pope Benedict XVI said.

“Reaching full communion among Christians must be the objective of all those who profess their faith in a church that is one, holy, catholic and apostolic,” he said.


Pope at WYD: Rediscover power of faith

In back-to-back encounters with more than a million young people from around the world, Pope Benedict XVI urged them to discover the transforming power of the faith and join the “true revolution” of personal holiness.

At a World Youth Day vigil Aug. 20 and a closing Mass the next day, the pope preached about the inspiration of the saints and the mystery of the Eucharist, encouraging the youths to change themselves if they want to change the world.
“Only from the saints, only from God does true revolution come,” he told a vast candlelit crowd spread across a field outside Cologne.
The pope was presiding for the first time over World Youth Day, and he did so in a solemn and dignified style. At the vigil, he sat quietly as he watched slow liturgical dancing and listened to Scripture readings.


‘It was worth it! It was so worth it!’

Dan Cozzi, a student at the University of Chicago, felt connected to the universal community of faith in a new way Aug. 21, as he stood on the Marienfield and watched Pope Benedict XVI make his way to the sanctuary for the Mass that concluded World Youth Day 2005.

Cozzi’s group, from the John Paul II Newman Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago, was standing near a group of Italian women. He said several of the women were very short, and they stood on their chairs to see the pontiff pass. In the midst of cheering and chanting, the women were grabbing Cozzi and his companions on their shoulders, trying to steady themselves as they called out Benedict’s name.

“They didn’t speak any English, and we couldn’t communicate,” Cozzi said. “But they believed the same things I did.”

Lake County groups get organized

What does faith have to do with lobbying suburban village boards for more attainable housing, or working with immigrants to help them attain citizenship?
For members of Lake County United, a consortium of faith communities, labor unions and not-for-profits, quite a bit.

The group, which was founded two years ago, has a dual goal of developing a cadre of community leaders and advocating for change, said Tom Lenz, a veteran of community organizing efforts in the Chicago area. Eighty percent of its members are faith communities, with 20 Catholic parishes among the largest supporters.

Lake County United is among 14 organizations in the Archdiocese of Chicago that will receive $252,000 in grants from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ domestic anti-poverty program. The grants will be officially presented by Cardinal George at a Sept. 22 reception.


Immigration to be evening’s focus

When representatives of the 22 groups that will receive grants from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development gather Sept. 22, they can learn about one another and the issues they work on.

The main topic for the evening will be immigration reform, said Elena Segura, the archdiocesan CCHD director. In addition to distributing $252,000 in grants to the organizations, the cardinal is expected to speak about the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Catholic Campaign for Immigration Reform.

While the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights is not receiving funds through the archdiocese’s CCHD program this year, the statewide group will receive CCHD funding through the Diocese of Joliet, Segura said.


New ‘safety program’ aims to protect kids from danger

Children in archdiocesan schools and parish religious education programs to help stem child abuse.
“We will be conducting age-appropriate sessions teaching our young people the signals that may indicate ‘boundary violations,’ said Jan Slattery, director of the archdiocesan Office for the Protection of Children and Youth.
“We want them to know that if they feel uncomfortable in a certain situation, they should go and tell, tell and tell. About 80 percent of abuse is from people they know,” she said.


Year of Eucharist closes with Mass, conference

The Real Presence Association will mark the closing of the Year of the Eucharist Sept. 24 with Benediction, Mass, speakers and luncheon.
The Year of the Eucharist, opened by Pope John Paul II in October 2004, ends with the assembly of the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican, Oct. 2-29. The synod theme is “The Eucharist: Source and Summit of the Life and Mission of the Church.”
The Sept. 24 conference, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Drury Lane Oakbrook Terrace, will include talks and witnesses about faith in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist and about Eucharistic adoration.

In wake of disaster, society reflects on mission to poor
As scenes of destruction along the gulf coast played on television, more than 700 members of the St. Vincent de Paul Society gathered Aug. 31-Sept. 3 at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Chicago to discuss and reaffirm their mission to serve the poor.

Samuel Carocci, the chairman of the national disaster response committee, took the microphone before the keynote address Sept. 3 to update members on the situation.
“We have to aid these people,” said Carocci, a member of a St. Vincent de Paul Council in Buffalo, N.Y.


Seminary visitations to begin

The Vatican-run apostolic visitation of U.S. Catholic seminaries and houses of priestly formation will begin late this September.

Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, who will coordinate the visits, announced details of the plan Aug. 19.

Sparked by the sexual abuse crisis that hit the U.S. church in 2002, the visitations will pay special attention to areas such as the quality of the seminarians’ human and spiritual formation for living chastely and of their intellectual formation for faithfulness to church teachings, especially in the area of moral theology.

New start for a new school
Chicago Jesuit Academy opens on West Side

Four days into the school year, the “gentlemen” of Chicago Jesuit Academy sprawled on rugs and curled into cubbyholes.
Despite the clean blue-collared shirts, creased khakis and polished shoes, they slumped and leaned and rested their heads in their hands as they read silently, each absorbed in his own world for a short time.
These 19 gentlemen are all in the fifth grade, and they are embarking on the beginning of the rest of their educational lives. They are the first to do so at their new West Side school, a new institution modeled after Nativity School in New York and sponsored by the Chicago Province of the Society of Jesus.

“I think they have a sense of coming home,” said school president Matthew Lynch, looking a bit tired as he finished the first week of classes at the school—itself an accomplishment. “For many of them, for the first time, it’s OK to be smart. It’s OK to be curious. It’s OK to love learning.”


Fielding 42 years
of inspiration, loyalty

In an individualistic society, values like self-sacrifice, teamwork and loyalty are often not emphasized. But these were just some of the principles Tom Winiecki, former head football coach at Gordon Tech High School, tried to instill in the students he worked with and coached for 42 years.
Winiecki retired in June from Gordon Tech, where he served for four decades in several positions, including head and assistant football coach, athletic director and administrator.


Catholic coaches size up da Bears

Three seasoned observers—two Chicago Catholic high school football coaches and the unofficial team chaplain— each offered widely divergent advice for the Chicago Bears’ upcoming season.
St. Patrick High School’s Dan Galante wants the club to concentrate on its defense, retired Gordon Tech coach Tom Winiecki thinks “a good offense is the key,” while Claretian Father Nick Marro, the Bears’ chaplain who coached football in Canada for five years, said the team “definitely needs a strong leader at the quarterback helm.”

School year begins anew
Two new Catholic schools opened their doors for the first time in late August as students from pre-kindergarten through high school returned to Catholic school classrooms.
The school year opened with 218 Catholic elementary and 40 Catholic secondary schools in the Archdiocese of Chicago in the wake of the closings of 18 elementary schools and one all-girls high school in the archdiocese.
Academy of Our Lady, a new Catholic school in Waukegan, was formed by uniting Lake Shore Catholic Academy and Immaculate Conception elementary schools in the eastern part of the county
.

St. Edmund partnership aims for long-term benefits

St. Edmund School, Oak Park, was among the score of archdiocesan schools slated for closure last spring because of low enrollment and debt. Fundraising, outside donations, enrollment increases drew reprieves for four schools. In St. Edmund’s case, the life preserver included an anonymous donor as well as a new and unique partnership with a local university.

Dominican University, in nearby River Forest, will serve St. Edmund in an “advisory capacity,” said Christine Kelly, an education professor at Dominican and the liaison between the school and the university. Dominican faculty will offer advice and expertise to St. Edmund teachers and university students will tutor and observe at St. Edmund, among other things.
Four other schools were able to keep their doors open.
Dialoguing on today’s issues

When Elizabeth Jeep started in the business of religious education, it meant serving as a resource for people doing CCD in the diocese where she worked in Oklahoma—at the time, the only diocese in Oklahoma.

Since then, Jeep has married, raised children, moved to the Washington D.C. area and then to Chicago, and earned a doctorate in theology and psychology. She got involved in ecumenical and interreligious dialogue and written extensively about catechesis and faith formation. Along the way, the idea of Catholic religious education grew up, said Jeep, now the associate director of the Siena Center at Dominican University.

The center, which bills itself as “engaging in dialogue about contemporary issues in the context of faith, provides the kind of religious education that adults need and want,” she said.

Writer’s quest becomes book for Marian Catholic teacher
The storyline reads like a melodrama: a teenage Polish girl from a noble family is orphaned, impregnated by rape and married off to a stranger, even while she falls in love with someone else.

She lives during a time of revolution and war, out-scheming her duplicitous husband and joining forces with a less-than-reputable cousin. In the end, she reunites with her soulmate as the world around her falls to pieces.

It’s all true, said writer James Conroyd Martin, who authored “Push Not the River” (St. Martin’s Press, 2003) with the help of the diary the Countess Anna Maria Berezowska kept during those tumultuous years.


A century of faith
Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary’s formation program

The soaring Gothic architecture of Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary has long been a Near Northside landmark. But the school’s century of forming the faith and fostering vocations for young men is no less spectacular.
On Sept. 10, the school, at 103 E. Chestnut, began its year-long centennial celebration with a reminder of its mission in question: “What path would God have me take, as I consider his call to, ‘Come, follow me?’”

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

Celtic classics — The North Side’s Irish American Heritage Center will sponsor the great Irish-American Bake-off, 6-8 p.m. Oct. 8. There are six categories: scones; soda bread; brown bread; boiled/porter/ or fruit cakes; queen cake and sponge cake. The contest is for amateur cooks only and there’s no entrance fee. Pre-register by Oct. 1 by calling the Center at (773) 282-7035, Ext. 10. The IAHC will also spotlight the performance of those Irish Sopranos from Kerry, Cork and Wexford at 8 p.m. Oct. 1 at 4626 N. Knox. Reserved seat tickets are $25. . . . The Irish Sopranos will also star at Gaelic Park (Oak Forest) at 7 p.m. Sept. 17 as part of its variety of 25th anniversary celebrations. Call (708) 687-9323 for tickets.

Parish potpourri — St. John Fisher Parish (S. Washtenaw), like a number of parishes, had a send-off blessing for its college students heading back to classes at the noon Mass Aug. 7. . . . Sister Kinga Hoffmann professed her perpetual vows Aug. 20 at St. Constance Church (W. Strong). She is a member of the Missionary Sisters of Christ the King for Polonia. . . . Laura Carfang of St. Joan of Arc Parish (Skokie), produced a documentary on women in the Catholic Church. Her work, “Passing the Torch,” was selected as a finalist for the Good Fruit Productions Film Festival in San Diego this summer.

Full of life — The Nashville Dominicans (aka Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia in Nashville) are renovating their original motherhouse built in 1860. They’ll get central air and add a huge wing and bigger chapel in the $45 million building project. The congregation currently numbers over 200 sisters—the highest number in their history, with an average age of 36. (Average age of sisters nationally is 69.) In their modified white full length habits, they have received about 15 candidates a year for more than a decade. Last month 17 new postulants joined the teaching order, with schools mainly in the South. For more info, go to: www.Nashvilledominican.org. . . . Claretian Missionary Father Richard White from St. Christina Parish (W. 111th St.), will be in Chicago Sept. 19 for two weeks. He’s asking people to drop off wheelchairs (electric or manual) and any old laptops at the Auto Pro Shop, 9928 S. Vincennes. The owner will store them until White delivers them to his parish in Juarez, Mexico. He and another Claretian celebrate at least five Masses every weekend at seven different desert and village sites.

Is da pope Cat-lic? — Italian newspapers say Pope Benedict XVI, in his former life as Cardinal Ratzinger, used to stroll the streets of his neighborhood east of the Vatican, with the charm of a St. Francis or Dr. Doolittle. While he didn’t carry on a conversation with them, stray cats would run to him when they saw him coming. Neighbors say he’d prepare food for the strays on special plates every day. The pope has two cats back in Bavaria, but the Vatican frowns on pets, so he found strays to befriend. Italians are historically fond of felines, and with the pope as an excuse, Roman shops are now selling a little miter for cats. They’re flying off the shelves at $15 each!

Pride of Poland —
The American Polish Assistance Association, a Catholic non-profit organization in Michigan, began in the late 1960s helping the needy of Poland. One of its non-profit fund-raisers for Polish orphanages (as well as for Catholic elderly in Belarus, Ukraine and Kazahkstan) is the sale of hand-crafted costumed dolls representing various ethnic regions of Poland. They are made in Warsaw, by a family of artists who have researched the traditions and folk dress of Poland and other Eastern European countries. The costumed dolls are 10-12 inches high; 4-6 inches wide, on 3x6-inch wooden bases. A male or female doll averages $26 a piece, plus $6.50 for shipping, payable by money order or check. Saturday mornings, APAA volunteers sort and pack clothing and other items for the orphans as well as completing orders for folk dolls. Call them in Eastpointe, Mich., at (586) 778-9766, or visit www.apaa.us to see their whole assortment.

The Brothers McGinnity —
Mundelein Seminary will honor two of its alums, Father Bob McGinnity (ordained 1955) and Father Joe McGinnity (ordained 1956) with the “In Service of One Another Catholic Humanitarian” award at a golf outing dinner Sept. 15. The two have served the arch for nearly 100 years—at least it feels like that. Fortunately there is no sibling rivalry here—they both agree Fr. Bob is better looking and Fr. Joe is younger—or was that vice versa??

Painless Latin — Patrick Keleher of St. John Cantius Parish (N. Carpenter) begins another series of his famous non-credit Latin classes. Student-friendly for lifelong learners, with “no prerequisites or quizzes,” they run for an hour and 20 minutes, Saturdays, Sept. 17-Dec. 17 at North Park University, 3225 W. Foster. Some of Keleher’s basic or advanced students have been Chicago police officers, a music teacher, interior designer, psychotherapist, hair stylist, a yarn studio owner and some seminarians. For more info or to register, call him at

(847) 256-8460 or go to

[email protected]

Send your benevolent gossip to:
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