 |
 |
|||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||
 Issue of December 24, 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 weeks after Father Robert Stepek file a defamation lawsuit against two brothers who accused him of molesting them when they were minors, the brothers filed a countersuit against the priest and the archdiocese. The lawsuit filed by the brothers—who remain anonymous in court documents—said Stepek’s actions have caused them “severe emotional distress” and embarrassment and loss of religious faith. It seeks to hold the archdiocese responsible for permitting confidential information to be shared with those not involved in the case, including the accusers’ parents. The archdiocese first received the brothers’ allegations last May, at which time Stepek voluntarily stepped away from his post as pastor of St. Albert the Great Church in Burbank. In November, the archdiocesan Professional Review Board found “reasonable cause to suspect” abuse had occurred, and Cardinal George formally suspended Stepek from ministry and sent the case to the Vatican for further action. After Stepek filed his civil suit against the men, victims’ advocates, including the Survivor Network of those Abused by Priests, called on the cardinal to force Stepek to withdraw his suit. In a Dec. 11 statement, Chancellor Jimmy Lago said the cardinal had asked both sides not to do anything to undermine the process. “We cannot prevent anyone from seeking redress from the courts, and acknowledge that they have the right to do so,” Lago wrote. “However, we regret that the Cardinal’s advice and offer of assistance have not been taken. We repeat his invitation to the parties involved to support the existing process and seek alternatives to litigation in the civil courts.” News High schools offer placement test Archdiocese of Chicago Catholic high schools will administer their annual placement tests at 8 a.m. Jan. 13. Catholic, private or public elementary school eighth grade students who plan to attend archdiocesan high schools next fall report to the high school they wish to attend to take the test. More than 90 percent of students who take the test are accepted into the school of their choice, according to Catholic schools superintendent Nicholas Wolsonovich. In addition to test scores, schools take students’ elementary records and input from teachers and parents into account, he said. Those interested in taking the test are asked to bring two No. 2 pencils and a check or money order for the $25 exam fee made payable to the school. Test results will be mailed to students on Feb. 15. Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago, St. Martin de Porres High School in Waukegan and Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart in Lake Forest do not offer these placement tests. Students interested in attending any of these three high schools should contact the schools’ admissions directors. For a copy of the archdiocesan brochure that includes contact information and individual school profiles, please call (312) 751-5250. The brochure may also be downloaded from the Catholic Schools’ web page on the archdiocesan Web site at www.archchicago.org. Activist calls for action to end Darfur crisis The situation in Darfur may not be the world’s biggest crisis, but it’s the most urgent, syndicated columnist Nick Clooney warned during a recent appearance at the Chicago archdiocesan Africa Summit at St. Dorothy School, 7740 S. Eberhart Ave.. The good news is the 20,000 United Nations troops needed to end the three-year-old civil war would not include any Americans, said the father of Oscar-winning actor George Clooney and brother of 1950s singing legend Rosemary Clooney. The crisis has already killed an estimated 300,000 Sudanese and displaced at least 2 ½ million people The bad news is that if nothing is done soon, an estimated 100,000 men, women and children will start dying every month in what has already become more a matter of “ethnic cleansing” than war, said Clooney, a veteran reporter who has covered wars in Southeast Asia to and Central America. Thousands pay homage to Our Lady of Guadalupe Thousands of Catholics from the Chicago area and around the world made their way through Maryville Academy’s muddy grounds Dec. 11 and 12 to pay tribute to the Virgin Mary. The group made up one of the largest U.S. celebrations for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a commemoration of Mary’s appearance in Tepeyac, near Mexico City, from Dec. 9 to 12, 1531. Despite muddy conditions at Maryville’s grass parking lot, worshippers poured in throughout the night. Juan Perez, one of the organizers, said “we estimate between 60,000 and 120,000 people will participate in the events over the next two days.” The 8 p.m. Dec. 11 Mass, primarily in Spanish, was celebrated by Bishop Gustavo García-Siller. A different kind of banquet When members of the St. Vincent de Paul Society from the Archdiocese of Chicago gather to celebrate the beginning of their sesquicentennial year Dec. 30, they won’t be sitting down to a sumptuous dinner at a swank hotel. Coffee—not champagne—will be flowing, and the fashion item of the day likely will be an apron and comfortable shoes. That’s because St. Vincent de Paul Society members will celebrate their anniversary by doing what they do week in and week out: serving those who are in need. In honor of their anniversary, society members will hold three lunches for the hungry, at Catholic Charities’ St. Vincent Center, 721 N. LaSalle, Chicago; at Heimsath Hall at St. Pascal Parish, 6119 W. Irving Park Road, Chicago; and at the Catholic Charities building at 1717 Rand Road, Des Plaines. Student’s poem explains how immigrants made America great Ben Groselak is not an immigrant to the United States. Neither are his parents or grandparents, so far as he knows. But Ben, a fifth-grader at Ss. Cyril & Methodius School in Lemont, learned about a great-grandmother who came to the United States on her own at age 16 when he started asking his parents questions for the 2006 Celebrate America Creative Writing Contest, sponsored by the American Immigration Law Foundation and the American Immigration Lawyers Association. On Dec. 12, Ben found out his entry—one of more than 1,850 from fifth-graders at 52 Chicago public and archdiocesan schools—had won the contest. His entry, a poem entitled “immigration to Our Great Nation,” got him a Borders gift certificate, walkie-talkies, tickets to a Bulls game and a trip this spring to Orlando for the national contest. Auxiliary Bishop Francis Kane offered remarks at the reception where the five finalists were to read their compositions. Sister Stephanie goes to Africa Resurrection Sister Stephanie Blaszczynski will ring in the 2007 New Year in Africa. The former president of Resurrection High School likely will be tired but eager to face her new challenge, opening a boarding school for girls in the remote village of Buturu, Tanzania. The 22-hour, 9,132-mile flight to Africa will begin Dec. 29 at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. The long journey is one of many hurdles she will have surmounted to prepare for this unexpected assignment.
Christmas crèche keeper Dee Lisy and her husband, Tom, of Divine Providence Parish in Westchester, know how to “keep” Christmas. Years ago Dee acquired a few favorite Christmas crèches. Then in December 2000, Tom pointed out an item in the Church Clips column of The Catholic New World. That was how Dee became acquainted with “Friends of the Crèche,” the national and international organization “for all who love, own or collect crèches.” In 2004 Dee wrote The Catholic New World that since learning about Friends of the Crèche, “my life has never been the same.” She had become “a serious collector,” and her letter said she had acquired 80 crèches from around the world. The Lisys said they set up the display each Christmas and invited neighbors and parishioners to enjoy it, too. Through the years Dee has attended Friends’ conventions from the Midwest to Prague. She said the meetings and trips can include 600-800 devotees. “The group is ecumenical and diversified; it’s wonderful,” she said. Rockford’s Bishop Doran has surgery for lung cancer Doctors at the Mayo Clinic removed approximately one-fourth of Bishop Thomas G. Doran’s left lung during a four-hour surgery Dec. 14. Two spots, one in each of the bishop’s lungs, were discovered during his annual routine physical exam earlier this month. Doctors notified the bishop of the discovery and asked him to return to the clinic for additional testing on Dec. 12. Those tests revealed a benign condition in the right lung but suggested a malignancy in a tumor located in the left lung.
Babies return
St. Symphorosa pastor Father Marcel Pasciak had the happy task of reuniting Southwest Side residents with their statues of baby Jesus that had been stolen from their lawns. The parish received 32 purloined plastic figures of the infant Dec. 16, a day after they turned up in the backyard of a parishioner. “She said they were all lined up in an orderly fashion along the back fence, almost like toy soldiers,” Pasciak said. The parishioner brought them to the parish and asked Pasciak to announce that he had the statues at weekend Masses. Word soon got out to the media, and people from a couple of miles around began turning up to look for their statues. Cardinal George rededicates chapel on Iowa campus Christ the King Chapel on the St. Ambrose University campus in Davenport has been renovated and rededicated in hopes of energizing, renewing and rejuvenating students on their spiritual journey for years to come. Cardinal George presided at the Dec. 10 rededication Mass. Concelebrants were Bishop Martin J. Amos of Davenport, and his predecessor, retired Bishop William E. Franklin; Bishop David R. Choby of Nashville, Tenn., who is a 1969 St. Ambrose graduate; Abbot Brendan Freeman of the Trappists’ New Melleray Abbey in Peosta; and priests of the university. During his homily, Cardinal George referred to the Gospel reading from Matthew in which Christ promises to give Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven. The cardinal said the passage reminded him of the April 2005 conclave in which he participated to choose a successor to Pope John Paul II.
Delivering Hope When Lenishia Horton was five months pregnant, she was walking by Marillac House and decided to stop in. “I had heard they had a parenting program, but I thought it ended,” said Horton, 20. “I decided to go in and ask.” It hadn’t ended, and Horton was welcomed into Project Hope. Now her daughter, Timonisha Boyd, is a year old. Lenishia is still involved in Project Hope, coming to group meetings with other young mothers once a week and getting home visits from Anita Moss, who also visited her throughout her pregnancy. Moss serves Project Hope both as a doula—a woman who accompanies a mother during labor and delivery—and a home visitor for girls who have already had their babies. She worked with Horton throughout her pregnancy, offering information and emotional support. “She gave me the support that my family never gave me,” said Horton, who was living with her daughter’s father. Newman Center at University of Illinois to expand Ground has been broken for a $26 million, 316-bed residence hall expansion at St. John’s Catholic Newman Center at the University of Illinois in Champaign, which is in the Peoria Diocese. Father Gregory Ketcham, chaplain and director, called the beginning of construction on the long anticipated project “a momentous occasion for St. John’s Catholic Newman Center, for the Diocese of Peoria and for the Catholic Church throughout Illinois.” |
||
 |
||||||||||||
