Catholic New World - News Digest

News Update

Effort insures 1,217 Illinois kids

Resurrection Health Care's campaign to sign up 1,000 uninsured children for Illinois' All Kids health insurance program on June 21 was a success, with 1,217 children enrolled in the program.

The campaign attracted many partners, including the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Public Schools and the Archdiocese of Chicago. It's aim was to help individual children and families, and to draw attention to the fact that even with affordable insurance available for children, an estimated 376,000 are not covered.

Archdiocesan Chancellor Jimmy Lago was among the campaign's representatives at a hearing in front of the Chicago City Council's Joint Committee on Health and Human Relations June 18.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has partnered with the Catholic Health Association on efforts to increase the number of people who have health insurance, Lago said.

"We are excited about the impact that this campaign will have on the lives of 1,000 children and their families," Lago said. "We hope that the dialogue it generates will promote consensus about the values that should guide us as we seek to reform our nation's health care system."

New finance director named

Kevin J. Marzalik has been appointed the new Director of Finance for the Archdiocese of Chicago, effective July 5.

"I am impressed with Mr. Marzalik's very extensive background, but especially his immediate grasp of the critical relationships between financial realities and local pastoral concerns and sensitivities," said Cardinal George. "I am confident that he will work hard to make sure that the ongoing financial situations faced by pastors, priests and local ecclesial ministers are understood by the Pastoral Center and local Vicariate office staffs and that creative solutions are developed to assist them."

The appointment is for five years and is in accord with the provisions of Canon Law and Book V regarding the "Temporal Goods of the Church."

Marzalik takes the place of former Finance Director Tom Brennan. He is a CPA with a degree in accounting from the University of Illinois, and he attended Quigley Preparatory Seminary High School South. He has more than 20 years of business experience.

Marzalik, his wife Penny and their three sons reside in Western Springs and are members of St. John of the Cross Parish. He received the Chritifideles Award for extraordinary lay ministry in 2005.

News Digest

Pope opens year of St. Paul, says apostle should serve as model

Joined by other Christian leaders, Pope Benedict XVI opened the year of St. Paul and said the apostle's courageous witness to the faith should serve as a model for contemporary Christians. "Paul is not a figure of the past that we remember with veneration. He is also our teacher, an apostle and a herald of Jesus Christ for us, too," the pope said at an evening prayer service June 28 in the Rome Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

Pope appoints Archbishop Burke to head Vatican's highest court

Pope Benedict XVI has appointed U.S. Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis to head the Vatican's highest court. The Wisconsin native replaces Italian Cardinal Agostino Vallini who was appointed by the pope to replace Cardinal Camillo Ruini, who is retiring as papal vicar for Rome.

California Catholic bishops affirm sanctity of marriage

Less than a week after couples of the same sex began marrying under California law, Archbishop George Niederauer of San Francisco released a statement explaining that church teaching about marriage stresses its "unique place in God's creation." In the June 23 statement, the archbishop said the purposes of marriage "are the mutual loving support of husband and wife, and their service of human life by bringing children into the world and raising them with cherishing love and true wisdom."

Religious leaders among officials calling on president to ban torture

Religious leaders, former government officials and retired generals are calling on President George W. Bush to sign an executive order outlawing torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees as tools in the socalled global war on terror.

Archdiocesan parishes keep eye on economy

With the housing boom gone bust, foreclosures on a record pace and spiraling food and gasoline prices putting pressure on family budgets, parishes in the Archdiocese of Chicago are facing financial challenges of their own.

Higher gas prices and more snow forced many parishes to spend higher than expected amounts on snow removal last winter - sometimes two or three times what they budgeted, said Tom Brennan, the longtime director of finance who resigned at the end of the fiscal year.

Mundelein site of Assyrian-Catholic meeting

An informal consultation between representatives of the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East took place near Chicago June 13-14. This was a follow-up meeting one year after the visit of His Holiness Patriarch Mar Dinkha IV to Pope Benedict XVI in Rome.

The meeting was hosted by the Assyrian Church of the East at the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary in Mundelein, Ill.

Love for Christ grows out of Scripture seminar

"Enriched." That was the word most often used by participants of the annual Summer Scripture Seminar at the University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein June 22- 27. Fifty-five people from inside and outside of the Archdiocese of Chicago attended the event, which had the theme of "The Bible and the Church."

Five Scripture scholars, including university provost Father Thomas Baima, gave presentations about where Scripture speaks of the formation of the Catholic Church and issues faced by the early Christians.

The resurrection of Cicero's Mary Queen of Heaven Parish

Sanchez keeps on his computer of the condition of Mary Queen of Heaven Parish in Cicero when he arrived three years ago tell a story of disrepair and decay.

There were holes in the ceiling, yellowed and cracked walls, dirty floors, rodent holes and, among other things, a less-thanbeautiful looking altar with a black table in the center.

In spite of this depressing situation, Sanchez didn't think of giving up, didn't drown himself in regret and didn't go to Cardinal George asking to be sent to another parish. He would have none of that. Armed with the Word of God, a hammer, brush and broom, he went to work.

Young people get fired up for WYD in Australia

Teens and 20-somethings got pumped for their trip to World Youth Day in Australia at a kickoff Mass celebrated by Cardinal George on June 25 at St. John of the Cross Parish in Western Springs.

No one said "G'day, Cardinal," but young people turned up the energy level at the Mass by clapping and singing along with Catholic music dynamo John Angotti. About 40 youth sang in a choir alongside his band.

"This is the blessing and sending forth Mass for those going to Australia, and also for those who can't afford travel to Australia and will attend the World Youth Day celebration in Chicago on July 19th," said Maria Perez-Eraci, the Archdiocese of Chicago's coordinator for youth ministry for Vicariate V.

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