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News Digest

Issue of March 16 – March 29 , 2008
The following items are condensed. For the complete articles, please read the print edition of The Catholic New World. To subscribe, call (312) 534-7777.

News Update

Distinguished pastor honored

Father Carl Morello, pastor of St. Paul of the Cross Parish in Park Ridge, is one of eight pastors from across the country to receive the first Distinguished Pastor Award from the National Catholic Educational Association. Since becoming pastor in 1996, Morello has made it clear that St. Paul of the Cross is dedicated to the future of Catholic education.

"With the guidance of Father Morello, our students grow in their relationship with Christ," said Lorelei Bobroff, principal of St. Paul of the Cross elementary school. "He supports programs that foster catechesis and faith development and he shares the responsibility for education ministry."

On March 25, Morello will be honored on the opening evening of the 105th annual NCEA Convention in Indianapolis.

Play explores racial identity

"Incognito," a one-man play written and performed by Michael Fosberg, will be staged in the Holy Name Cathedral Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. April 4, the 40th anniversary of the death of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The play recounts Fosberg's journey after discovering at age 32 that, despite his upbringing in a white middle-class family, he is black. Cost is $10 for adults, $5 for students and seniors, in advance and $15 at the door.

Call the Office for Racial Justice at (312) 751-8336 for information.

News Digest

Cathedral will remain closed for now

Holy Name Cathedral will remain closed until early May in order to repair the ceiling and roof structure for the cathedral building. Engineers originally hoped to have the cathedral's repairs completed in time to reopen for Easter services.

According to Father Dan Mayall, pastor of the cathedral, most regular parish liturgies will remain scheduled on the cathedral campus and at nearby locations. Weekend Masses, as well as Holy Week liturgies, will be celebrated in the Parish Center Auditorium, weekday Masses are offered in the Club Room on the lower level of the Parish Center, Baptisms will take place in the cathedral's chapel on Superior Street and confessions are heard in the Casa Jesus Chapel, 750 North Wabash Ave.

Maryland boy's miraculous case goes to the Vatican

Joey Peacock, 13, shown at his home in Silver Spring, Md., March 4, holds a painting of Pierre Toussaint, who was declared venerable in 1997. When Joey was 5, doctors determined he had scoliosis, so his parents, John and Lisa Peacock, decided to pray to Toussaint for his intercession to help their son. Later X-rays showed the boy's condition seemed to have disappeared and his doctors had no medical explanation.

The case has been submitted to the Vatican for Toussaint's cause and the Peacocks hope it will be deemed the miracle needed for his beatification.

Pope urges priests to make confession a time for Jesus Christ's merciful love

With fewer and fewer Catholics going to confession, Pope Benedict XVI urged priests and seminarians to make the sacrament of penance a time for sinners to feel God's merciful love.

"Sin does not lie at the heart of the sacramental celebration, but rather God's mercy, which is infinitely greater than each of our faults," he said March 7.

Human rights movement gone astray, says Glendon

The new U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, Mary Ann Glendon, said the international human rights movement needs to return to some of its original principles - including protection of the family.

In a front-page interview March 7 with the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, Glendon said she was helping to organize a series of four one-day conferences on human rights over the next nine months.

Dec. 10 marks the 60th anniversary of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Christ's passion taken through Chicago streets on Good Friday

On Good Friday, March 21, amid Chicago's sleek linear skyscrapers, the stark silhouette of a carried wooden cross will be seen, with a crowd gathered in its wake. It's a Way of the Cross procession that will begin downtown at Daley Plaza, Washington and Dearborn Sts., at 9:30 a.m, in memory of Christ's walk to Calvary. Bishop Thomas Paprocki will lead the procession, which stops at the Chagall Mosaic, Millennium Park, Tribune Tower Plaza and Water Tower Plaza before ending at Holy Name Cathedral, 735 N. State St., in time for the 12:10 p.m. service.

Chrism Mass is blessed event

The annual chrism Mass, held this year at 3 p.m. March 18 at St. John Brebeuf, 8307 N. Harlem Ave. in Niles, is a gathering of the whole archdiocesan family, with people coming together from parishes all over the Chicago area. It is a feast of good liturgy and music, with combined choirs from our various communities. During this Mass, Cardinal George blesses the oil of catechumens, the oil of the sick and the oil of chrism. These oils form an important part of the sacramental life of our parishes throughout the year.

Sex-abuse costs up, cases down

The costs to the Catholic Church for legal settlements in abuse cases, therapy for victims of sexual abuse, support for offenders and legal fees soared to more than $600 million in 2007, the fourth year of reporting on the handling of abuse cases by U.S. dioceses and religious orders.

The 2007 Survey of Allegations and Costs released by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops March 7 also reported a continued decrease in the number of new credible allegations of abuse: 599 new allegations were made in 2007, compared with 635 in 2006, 695 in 2005 and 898 in 2004, the first year of the survey.

What's a little hair loss when it's for a good cause?

Brendan Bedell's theology class at Mount Carmel High School may have gotten away from the books for part of March 5, but his students were still learning their religion lessons. More than 30 kids and about seven or eight teachers, including Bedell himself, got their heads shaved. The school raised more than $21,000 for the St. Baldrick's children's cancer research foundation. Throughout Chicago, 46 states and more than a dozen countries around the world, the annual St. Patrick's Day seasonal event has collected more than $30 million and shaved 46,000 heads over the past eight years for childhood cancer research through fundraisers at schools such as Mount Carmel, the police and fire academies and even bars such as Gaynor's Irish Pub in suburban Medinah.