2005 Archive

1. January 2, 2005

   2005: the Year of the Eucharist and the search for peace

   At the beginning of each new calendar year much of the world pauses, takes stock of the past and tries its hand at predicting the future.

2. January 16, 2005

   Dependencies: Good and bad

   Last week, Msgr. Ignatius McDermott, a priest of the Archdiocese for 67 years, was buried from Holy Name Cathedral. He was 95 years old when he died, and he had touched many thousands of people throughout the years through his tireless work with chemically dependent and temporarily homeless people in Chicago.

3. January 30, 2005

   If war is hell, why are there military chaplains?

   Pope John Paul II, in his message for the World Day of Peace this year, wrote: "Evil is never defeated by evil." Peace is a good to be promoted by good", violence is an unacceptable evil."

4. February 13, 2005

   Observing Lent is like temporarily growing old

   I was in Rome for meetings when Pope John Paul II was taken to the hospital because he was having difficulty breathing.

5. February 27, 2005

   Three to get married ...

   The late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen wrote a book about marriage to explain that a Catholic couple welcomes into their marriage a third party: Jesus Christ.

6. March 13, 2005

   ‘And God saw that it was good ...’

   After each act of creation in the Book of Genesis, God is depicted as stopping and looking at what he had made. He then declares his handi-work good, until he comes to the creation of the first human begins. This act of creation is very good.

7. April 10, 2005

   The loss of a shepherd

   I write this on April 1, as Pope John Paul II is dying. It will appear next week, when I expect to be in Rome for the Pope’s funeral and for the events leading up to the Conclave which will elect his successor.

8. April 24, 2005

   “We have a Pope!” Father George Rassas

   Cardinal George is in Rome for the conclave to elect a new pope. This column is written by Father George Rassas, archdiocesan vicar general.

9. May 8, 2005

   Apostolic governance: The power of the keys

   A curious thing happened during my several weeks in Rome for the funeral of Pope John Paul II and the conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI. There was a sense of deep loss. It started, naturally enough, with a sense of personal loss on the death of Pope John Paul II. He had been a father and a friend.

10. May 22, 2005

    Pentecost: Why the Church is alive and young

    Cardinal George wrote this column in early May before leaving on a pilgrimage to Ukraine. During his homily at his inaugural Mass as Pope, Benedict XVI said that the Church is full of life and is young.

11. June 05, 2005

    Catholic schools: as necessary as ever

    In June, school graduations mark many family calendars. This June, a number of graduations will be the last to be held in some Catholic schools here and in other dioceses. The usual bittersweet celebration of students leaving a school will mark also the closure of the school itself. This is a great loss for the Church and for the community at large.

12. June 26, 2005

    A conclave of cardinals, a conference of bishops, a convocation of priests

    I’m writing this on Fathers’ Day, thinking about why we call priests “Father” in the Church. Fundamentally, the title is a recognition that priests are life-givers, especially in their celebration of the sacraments.

13. July 17, 2005

    Lenin in America 2005

    During the meet of the Conference of Bishops in Chicago last month, a TV reporter asked me if I believed that the religious faith of a politician should be private and have no influence on the judgements that he or she makes as a public figure.

14. August 14, 2005

    Pope Benedict at World Youth Day, 2005

    One of the greatest cathedrals in the world stands above the Rhine River at Cologne, Germany. Important in the history of the Church in Germany, the gothic cathedral also is known worldwide as the shrine of the Magi, the three “wise men” who came from the East bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, to pay homage to the newborn Savior at Bethlehem.

15. September 11, 2005

    Fervor and the Faith

    On my way to Cologne, Germany, for the World Youth Day celebrations in August, I stopped in England to make a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in East Anglia. This was the most famous Marian shrine in Catholic England, with pilgrimage routes well marked throughout England and much of Europe.

16. September 25, 2005

    The Eucharist in the Third Millennium

    Pope Benedict XVI used a talk he gave at a Eucharistic Congress in the Italian city of Bari last May to recall the story of the small Christian community in Tunisia, north Africa, in the year 304. Forty-nine Christians had gathered in a home to celebrate Mass, defying the decree of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, who had forbidden Christians to assemble.

17. October 9, 2005

    A visit with a purpose

    Social visits are part of family and community life; but some visits are more serious than others. Visits that are part of Church government are called “visitations,” and they are more like audits than a social call. The word “audit” comes from the Latin word meaning to listen or to hear. A financial audit of a company, for example, includes not only the examination of the account books but also the interviewing of personnel to determine that the company is doing what it says it’s doing. Accreditation teams visit universities and colleges to “audit” the program and the personnel.

18. October 23, 2005

    November and the Communion of Saints

    The great Cathedral in Cologne, Germany, was the center of pilgrimage for the young people of the world last August during World Youth Day.

19. November 6, 2005

    Mission and money

    Toward the end of October each year, the universal Church celebrates Mission Sunday. That occasion speaks to the mission given to the entire Church by Jesus before ascending to the Father. The mission is to convert the entire world to Jesus Christ in his body, the Church. A collection is taken up each year on Mission Sunday and sent to the Propagation of the Faith Office in Rome for distribution among dioceses in Africa, Asia and Oceania to help the Church meet the challenges to her mission there.

20. December 4, 2005

    Picturing the mysteries of faith

    Last week I went down to Daley Plaza and blessed a Christmas crib. The history of Nativity scenes goes back to the Church of St. Mary Major in Rome, which guards a relic of what is believed to be the manger in which Christ was placed when he was born in Bethlehem. When the relic is brought out at Christmas Mass, it is placed among statues recreating the scene described in the Gospel according to St. Luke read at Midnight Mass on Christmas.

21. December 18, 2005

    On not whittling Jesus down to size

    Christmas is the occasion for many people to weigh in on who Jesus is. Usually, Jesus ends up looking suspiciously like the person telling the story or making the argument. If the author is involved in political life, Jesus ends up looking like a social reformer or even a revolutionary. If the writer is Thomas Jefferson, Jesus ends up a moral philosopher with a life devoid of miracles or anything which might leave one thinking He is divine. If the speaker is a multi-culturalist, Jesus is the all-inclusive acceptor of anyone or anything, certainly never a judge. Each nation likes to portray Jesus as a countryman in dress and manner; and that is true, because Jesus is the Savior of the entire world. He is always one of us, no matter who we are. But He is always more, which is why He can call the entire world to conversion.