Issue of September 17, 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

Two miracles for Archbp. Sheen

Documentation of two alleged miracles attributed to the intercession of the late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen were sent to Rome this summer as part of the promotion of his sainthood cause. The cases claiming the archbishop’s intercession involve a woman from Champaign and a baby in Pittsburgh. The cases were investigated and documented and, following ceremonies in Peoria and Pittsburgh, documentation was sealed and prepared for delivery to the Vatican Congregation for Saints’ Causes for further study.

Archbishop Sheen, a native of El Paso in the Peoria Diocese, gained worldwide fame as a radio and television host and author. He died Dec. 9, 1979. The Diocese of Peoria officially launched his cause for canonization in September 2003.

Baby boy found at St. Michael

A newborn baby boy was found abandoned on the steps of St. Michael Church, South Shore, on Sept. 3.

The boy, who appeared to be in good health, was taken to Trinity Hospital as a precaution.

Hospital officials said the boy was full-term, weighed 6 pounds, 13 ounces and was 12 hours old when brought to Trinity.

According to police spokesperson Marcel Bright, the case is being treated as child abandonment because houses of worship are not considered “safe havens.”

According to the Illinois Safe Haven Law, parents may drop off newborns at police stations, firehouses and hospitals without penalty.

The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services took custody of the boy.





News

Parishes share more than money

When parishes in the Archdiocese of Chicago began reaching out to one another across racial, ethnic and economic lines, it was most often an informal relationship, more often than not a product of existing friendships between pastors being extended to their worshipping communities.

This year, when the parish sharing program hosts its 30th annual parish sharing Mass at 3 p.m. at Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica, 3111 W. Jackson Blvd., much has changed—but much has also remained the same.



Faiths must work together on charity, justice issues

In a time of ongoing global struggles often cast as a battle between the Islamic east and Judeo-Christian west, leaders from all three faith traditions emphasized their common values Sept. 3 at the ninth annual Inter-Religious Unity Banquet at the Islamic Society of North America’s annual convention at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare.

The convention brings together nearly 40,000 Muslims who belong to dozens of Islamic groups—from the Muslim Student Association to the Congress of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago. This year’s convention featured a speech by former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, in which he called for better interfaith relations.



Islamic conference welcomes dialogue

A workshop on a Catholic-Muslim dialogue about divine revelation was among the events featured at a gathering of more than 30,000 Muslims over the Labor Day weekend.

They came to Chicago from across North America for the annual conference of the Islamic Society of North America at the Rosemont Convention Center. The society is the only Islamic organization in the world that has succeeded in bringing together such a diverse group of Muslims: black, white, Shiite, Sunni, people who trace their origins to the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.



Conference offers ‘bottom-line’ ideas for fundraisers

When hundreds of fundraising specialists from Catholic dioceses and institutions around the country gather for the annual National Catholic Development Conference’s convention Oct. 1-4, they will get lots of opportunities to learn the ins and outs of generating financial support for the work of the church.

And they will get it from some of the best-known Catholic leaders in Chicago, including Jesuit Father Michael Garanzini, president of Loyola University Chicago; Passionist Father Donald Senior, president of Catholic Theological Union; Father Richard Fragomeni, a professor at CTU and rector of the Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii; and Jesuit Father Michael E. Dorrler, a personal retreat director. Francis Butler, president of Founders and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities (FADICA) also will be a featured speaker.



Catholic anti-poverty campaign helps fund ‘walking school bus’

Three years ago, parents at Kohn Elementary School on the far South Side were afraid for their children.

They were afraid of what would happen to them as they walked the blocks between home and school, traveling streets where they might become victims of violence, where they might pick up drug paraphernalia discarded in the gutter, where they might get into fights with other children.



‘Alumni’ remember St. Vincent’s

St. Vincent de Paul is remembered around the world as the patron saint of charities, helping the impoverished and sick attain a better quality of life.

In Chicago, the name “St. Vincent” carries special meaning. St. Vincent’s Orphanage, located at 721 N. LaSalle St. from 1931-1972 touched thousands of lives forever.

At 7 p.m. Sept. 28, its alumni of volunteers, Daughters of Charity, student nurses, nurses, social workers, adoptive and foster parents, birth mothers and babies will gather for Mass in the former orphanage’s third floor Marillac Chapel. Celebrating is Father Roger Coughlin, chaplain at St. Vincent’s from 1956-72.

“For 16 years I missed nothing and I was never late,” he joked. “It was a wonderful place—we were able to help a lot of children there.”



Pope Benedict goes home

Most of the 2,700 residents of this town near the Austrian border gathered in Market Square to welcome Pope Benedict XVI when he returned to the place he spent the first two years of his life.

Red and gold cloths adorned windows, and yellow and white were tied around pine tree twigs.

For Bavarians, one’s birthplace remains of primary importance throughout one’s life.

As one Marktl official, Peter Biebl, said: “Unlike all the other places in his life, his birthplace has a permanent significance. If you look in a biographical reference, you will always see a person’s birthplace given. Everything else can change.”



Advocates make long march to push for immigration reform

Walkers who participated in a four-day, 50-mile march for immigration rights over Labor Day weekend said the experience was “like a pilgrimage.”

Members of several ethnic groups and organizations supporting comprehensive immigration reform started walking from St. Therese Chinese Catholic Church in Chinatown Sept. 1 and ended up outside U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s (R-Ill.) Batavia office Sept. 4.



Cardinal Mahony: Failure to pass immigration fixes cannot be allowed

Los Angeles Cardinal Roger M. Mahony kicked off a week of immigration-related rallies nationwide with Labor Day letters to President George W. Bush and congressional leaders, urging them to push for comprehensive reform legislation and not let it become mired in partisan politics.

“Failure to enact comprehensive and fair immigration reform will simply continue the inequality of those living and working in our country for the benefit of all of us,” said Cardinal Mahony in the Sept. 4 letter to Bush. “We simply cannot allow that to happen.”



St. Alexius’ Golden Circle embraces seniors

Hospital group offers fun, education, with dozens of activities each month

The Golden Circle at St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates is a large one.

About 2,000 seniors—mostly residents of the Northwest Suburbs—belong to the circle, which gets them access to a variety of free and low-cost social, recreational and health programs—from free health screenings to exercise classes to excursions to Chicago’s cultural attractions, some 40 to 50 activities a month.



Speaker: Dialogue means going beyond comfort zones

Too many Christians want dialogue with Muslims these days just to reassure themselves how tolerant they are rather than to grow out of their comfort zones, a leading Muslim theologian told a mostly Catholic audience recently.

“Muslims aren’t here just to make you feel comfortable. We’re here to add to your discomfort, just as you’re here to add to ours,” the South African religious thinker and political activist told listeners Sept. 7, at Dominican University’s Siena Center in River Forest.



Putting the Bible in order: Cavins brings Scripture class to Chicago

The Bible is not meant to be a big book that sits on the corner table, displayed for guests but not to be read.

It is not meant to be a jumbled up collection of incomprehensible, contradictory writings from long ago that have little relevance for the world today.



Bishop Perry calls for unity among Africans

In calling for more common bonds among Africans during the first African National Eucharistic Congress in the United States, Auxiliary Bishop Joseph N. Perry of Chicago reminded his audience, “We eat the same food. We share the same life that food sustains.”

Recalling some of Africa’s wars, Bishop Perry reminded the priests and nuns, “Reconciling is a task you cannot sidestep.”

“In the Eucharist,” he added, “we are sharers of the same word of life. We are partakers of the same bread of life.”