Issue of October 15, 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

Catechetical events planned

Franciscan Father Leslie Hoppe will speak on “Fundamentalism: What It Is and How Catholics View It” Oct. 28 at Queen of All Saints Basilica, 6230 N. Lemont in Chicago.

Hoppe will discuss the Left Behind book series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, the fundamentalist way of reading the Bible and of envisioning the “end-time,” compared to the Catholic approach, and how the Left Behind series reflects the fundamentalist viewpoint.

The event, sponsored by the Chicago Catholic Scripture School of the Office for Catechesis and Youth Ministry, runs from 1-5 p.m. Cost is $20, which includes beverages and snacks. Register by Oct. 18

Also, this year’s Chicago Catechetical Conference, themed “Who Do You Say that I Am?” is scheduled for Nov. 17-18 at the Stevens Convention Center, Rosemont.

The conference includes 84 presentations, and three keynote addresses, including one by Cardinal George, provides a variety of perspectives on knowing Jesus, relating to him, and joining in his mission.

Visit www.catechesis-chicago.org or call (312) 243-3700 for information.

Marytown ceiling collapse

Four people were treated for minor injuries after a 20-by-20-foot section of ceiling fell inside Libertyville’s Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament chapel Oct. 7. Father Steve McKinley, rector and guardian at Marytown, was preparing for a service in the chapel around 6:45 p.m. and saw a piece fall from the ceilings followed by a rumble.

The chapel will remain closed until the repairs are made and the structural integrity of the ceiling can be assured.



News

Conference helps develop fundraising skills, networks

Catholic fundraisers gathered in Chicago Oct. 1-4 to learn more about the tools of their trade, support one another in their work and pray together.

Members of the National Catholic Development Conference heard from leaders of some of the best-known institutions 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. Dorrier, a personal retreat director.

Cardinal George offered the homily at the Oct. 2 Mass at Holy Name Cathedral, his first homily, he noted, since undergoing surgery for bladder cancer July 27.



Theologians: Unbaptized babies in heaven, not limbo

To hope that babies who die without being baptized will go to heaven makes more sense than the idea that they go to limbo, says a group of papally appointed theologians.

While no one can be certain of the fate of unbaptized babies who die, Christians should trust that God will welcome them into heaven, said members of the International Theological Commission.



Discernment for pre-teens

Book asks middle-schoolers to think about what God wants them to do with their lives

Students in the middle school years are on the cusp of life, getting ready to leave childhood for adolescence and start to think about the future.

That’s why it makes sense to teach children about vocations during the last years of elementary school, said Father Joseph Noonan, vocation director for the Archdiocese of Chicago.



Pope offers wisdom on marriage, reconciliation

Pope Benedict XVI offered thanks to God for the witness given by Catholic couples whose commitment to each other in marriage remains strong in both joy and sorrow.

“God himself is the author of matrimony,” the pope said Oct. 8, commenting on the day’s Mass readings, which recounted the creation of man and woman and Jesus’ statement that “what God has joined together, no human being must separate.”



Catholic-Muslim ‘good faith’ events spring up

he initial outcry of offense following recent remarks by Pope Benedict XVI perceived as critical of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad has been followed by an unprecedented series of “good faith” events on local, regional, national and international levels.

On Sept. 20, The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called on Muslims in America and worldwide to donate to help repair Palestinian churches in the West Bank and Gaza damaged in the aftermath of Benedict’s talk on Sept. 12, by sending a donation to the Catholic Near East Welfare Association and earmarking the donation for “Palestine Damaged Churches.”



Ramadan dinner serves up unity

About 200 people of various faiths—including Cardinal George—attended the Eighth Annual Catholic-Muslim Unity Ramadan Dinner hosted by Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago.

This year’s iftar was held at the Prayer Center of Orland Park. The new mosque is hard to miss as its gold dome rises above the landscape.

“Iftar” is the breaking of the Ramadan daylight fast. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims fast from sunup until sundown. Based on a lunar month of approximately 28 days, Ramadan seems to move backwards through our calendar each year, a sort of “moveable fast.” It ends with the great celebration of Eid.





Local Catholics honor Scalia

U. S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told an audience of 300 that society tends to “accommodate gospel values to secular trends” at an Oct. 7 dinner.

Similarly, he said, courts have tended to look to spiritual values or historical trends in considering constitutional questions, he said. In both cases, he said, the truth is found in the words—of the constitution and of the Bible. “Once we depart from the Constitution,” he said, “just where short of that do we stop?”

Scalia was being honored by the American Catholic Press, who presented Scalia with its highest acknowledgement, the Gratiam Dei Award, at Flossmoor Country Club.



Pfleger: Religion prophetic voice to government

Father Michael Pfleger, longtime pastor at St. Sabina Parish in Chicago’s South Side, is no stranger to the world of politics.

Last month, he was protesting Mayor Richard M. Daley’s veto of the big-box living wage ordinance, which would have forced retailers such as Wal-mart, Target and Home Depot to pay more than $10 per hour.

Later this month, he will join the mayor to lobby in Springfield for an increase in the minimum wage statewide.

He has taken on liquor stores that sold alcohol to minors and billboard companies that concentrated cigarette and liquor advertising in minority neighborhoods

Now he is advicating for mandatory HIV/AIDS testing in high schools and prisons, and voluntary testing in churches, to check the spread of the disease.

So it’s no secret that he believes religion and politics need to be sitting at the same table, a point he made in a speech to the First Friday Club of Chicago Oct. 6.



A Polish pope and an artist’s dream of Christmas

Lucy learned in “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” Narnia is a place that is “Always winter and never Christmas…!” Sadly, today some people say, “It’s beginning to look a lot like Narnia” in America.

Have you noticed it’s OK to say “Happy Holiday,” or celebrate Winter Carnival, watch a Parade of Lights, or decorate a Community Tree with images of Scooby Doo and Pluto—but never “Christmas?”

Kenneth M. Kaminski wants to be a counter force. He was an American student in pre-democracy Poland in 1988. At Christmas he saw men dressed as St. Nicholas, in a bishop’s robe and miter. “Like my parents back home taught us,” he said, “it was a holy season.” Seeing people proud of their faith resonated with him.