Issue of April 15^th–28^th, 2007
The following items are condensed. For the complete articles, please read the print edition of The Catholic New World. To subscribe, call (312) 655-7777.

News Update

Interfaith lecture set for April 30

In honor of his tenth anniversary as archbishop of Chicago, Cardinal George will present a lecture entitled "Gratitude for the Past, Hopes for the Future" April 30 at Holy Name Cathedral Parish Center. The event will be from 7-9 p.m. and will include a conversation with leaders of other faith traditions.

The four panelists will include His Eminence Metropolitan Iakovos from the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago; Bishop Paul R. Landahl from the Metropolitan Chicago Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; Rabbi Ellen W. Dreyfus, the past president of the Chicago Board of Rabbis; and Professor M. Cherif Bassiouni, research professor of law at the DePaul University College of Law.

The event is free. Please RSVP by April 16 by phone (312) 751-5325 or e-mail [email protected].

'Younger adults' must be reached

The U.S. Catholic Church's relationship with younger adults is problematic, says a newly published study by four leading sociologists of religion.

In one recent survey "just over half of American Catholics said that young adults' lack of participation in the church is a serious problem," the 205-page book says. That concern was reflected not just by older Catholics, but even by nearly half of the younger adult Catholics surveyed, it says.

The new book is titled "American Catholics Today: New Realities of Their Faith and Their Church." It was co-authored by William V. D'Antonio, James D. Davidson, Dean R. Hoge and Mary L. Gautier.

News digest

On Easter, pope laments wars, 'slaughter' in Iraq

In his Easter message, Pope Benedict XVI lamented the countless wars, disasters and horrors ravaging the world, including "the continual slaughter" in Iraq and the situation in the Darfur region of Sudan.

"Natural calamities and human tragedies that cause innumerable victims and enormous material destruction are not lacking" in the world, he said in his April 8 message, broadcast to millions of people in more than 65 countries.

The pope highlighted his concern for all those suffering from exploitation, hunger, disease, terrorism, kidnappings and the "violence which some people attempt to justify in the name of religion."

New project offers a place for vets to call home

In 1996, Lester Richardson was on top of the world. The young Navy veteran had spent his time in service as an aviation electrician at Jacksonville Naval Air Base, graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology and landed a job with Motorola.

It seemed, he said, like the good times would never end.

But then Motorola slashed its workforce in 1999, and he was laid off. He found work with a cable company-AT&T Broadband-but soon they were bought out and he lost that job, too.

All the while, he was trying to keep up a lifestyle he couldn't really afford even when he was working.

"I was living beyond my means," he said. "And I was financially ruined."

Parishioner's group finds kids' 'Hidden Talents'

It wasn't hard to come up with the name "Hidden Talents" for a youth group. Jeff Kenny believed the kids he was working with had talent; they just didn't know it yet. He had the key to unlocking the treasures each child possessed.

His proof: This spring Hidden Talents begins production on its ninth play, "High School Musical."

Kenny, a social worker, knows the key is relationships. As a husband, father and mentor he puts his beliefs into action. Once an athlete at St. Laurence High School, Burbank, he passed that love of sports to his children, along with a "can do" spirit.

Medical Missionaries of Mary celebrate 70th anniversary

It was on the Sunday after Easter 70 years ago that the Medical Missionaries of Mary were founded by Marie Martin.

An Irish woman who had already spent years in Nigeria, she returned to Ireland and found a small group of people who wanted to found a missionary congregation. She returned to Nigeria to continue her work, and was thought to be on her deathbed in Nigeria when she professed vows in the new congregation April 4, 1937.

Catholic Charities staffer lived civil rights history

Mary Bell does not believe in living in the past nor holding ill-will towards anyone. But the memories of growing up black in segregated Alabama during the 1950s remain.

"I try not to think about the bad things that happened to my family and me but learn from them," said Bell, case management assistant at Catholic Charities Northeast/Northwest Elder Abuse Case Management. "I've never been a prejudiced person and try to understand those who treated us poorly. Thinking otherwise would only make me a bitter individual."

Bell was number six in a family of 12 children.

"Even though our family was poor, we were very close," said Bell. "But once any of us stepped outside our yard, that love changed to fear. We were always called names other than those given us at birth."

Annual Justice Day scheduled for May 12 in Oak Park

The third annual Archdiocesan Justice Day will be held May 12 at St. Giles Parish, Oak Park, from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The theme of this year's conference will be "The Challenge of Christian Faith and Social Justice: Globally and Locally."

Two important social justice issues the conference will focus on are immigration reform and housing.

New study on TV food advertisements and kids

Ten years ago, the Pontifical Council for Social Communications issued a document called, simply, "Ethics in Advertising."

The document condemned advertising oriented toward children which "intrudes upon the parent-child relationship and seeks to manipulate it to its own base ends."

Catholic Conference of Illinois criticizes HPV vaccination mandate

Catholic leaders in Illinois are speaking out against proposed legislation that would require all girls entering sixth grade in the state to be vaccinated against the human papillomavirus, or HPV, saying the mandate could have an adverse moral impact on minors.

Approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in June 2006, the vaccine, marketed as Gardasil, protects against four HPV strains that are responsible for 70 percent of fatal cervical cancers and 90 percent of contagious sexually transmitted diseases, according to Curtis Allen, a spokesman for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"The HPV vaccine can be a responsible way to protect young women from the horror of cervical cancer," said the Catholic Conference of Illinois, the public policy arm of the Catholic Church in state, in a statement on its Web site.

Catholic school teacher brings Civil War to life

Civil War soldiers and today's teenagers would have had a lot in common, students at St. Matthias/Transfiguration learned recently during a morning-long encampment in their school's front yard.

"I teach the kids the war was fought by people just like them. Although the average age was 17 to 19, many 14 to 16-year-olds also served," said eighth-grade history teacher Steve Adams, also known as Sgt. Andrew Gleason, Company C, 5th Georgia Infantry in a Civil War reenactment group.