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News Digest

Issue of August 31 – September 13, 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

Holy Name now open for Mass

Holy Name Cathedral reopened for weekend Mass with the 5:15 p.m. liturgy celebrated by Cardinal George Aug. 30.

The cathedral had been closed since February when a large chunk of decorative wood fell from the ceiling, with regular Masses moved to other areas of the cathedral campus. Since then, engineers and workers have been making the sanctuary safe for occupation again.

While the cathedral was closed, workers also moved forward with renovations and improvements that were planned as part of the “Restore and Renew” campaign. Worshippers will find new restrooms on the lower level, along with a redesigned bride’s room, usher’s room and reconciliation room.

Construction will continue on weekdays, with daily Masses celebrated in the parish center.

Post-college vocations invited

Post college-age working men are invited to participate in InSearch, beginning at 7 p.m. Oct. 14 at Holy Name Cathedral, to pray, learn about, reflect upon and discuss with like-minded men and priests the possibilities of diocesan priesthood in Chicago. InSearch runs from October through March and meetings are held at Holy Name Cathedral, North State Street at Superior Street.

The program is guided by the discernment model of Cardinal Albert Meyer, archbishop of Chicago from 1958-1965,who believed a man must first attend to growth as a human being, then as a Christian disciple and finally a priest. For more information contact Father Joe Noonan at (312) 751-8298 or at [email protected]. Details are also available at ChicagoPriest.com.

News Digest

Bishops say Pelosi misrepresented abortion teaching in TV "Meet the Press" interview

The chairmen of the U.S. bishops’ pro-life and doctrine committees criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, saying she “misrepresented the history and nature of the authentic teaching of the Catholic Church on abortion” in a nationally televised interview Aug. 24. Pelosi (D-Calif.), who is Catholic, said in an appearance that day on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that church leaders for centuries had not been able to agree on when life begins.

Biden: a Catholic with a mixed record on church issues

Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, announced Aug. 23 as Sen. Barack Obama’s choice as his running mate for the White House, puts on the Democratic ticket a Catholic who supports legal abortion but on other issues has been an ally for the church’s public policy interests. Biden, 65, has come in for his share of conflicts with some in the church over his legislative support for keeping abortion legal. The National Right to Life Committee gives him a rating of zero for his positions on select issues, including federal abortion funding and stem-cell research as well as some relating to lobbying by groups like the National Right to Life Committee. But he’s no darling of the “pro-choice” view, either, earning a score of 36 percent once from NARAL (National Abortion Rights Action League) Pro-Choice America for his votes on their select issues. Obama has a score of 100 percent from NARAL.

Update: lawsuit part of original settlement

Recent news reports that a family of a boy who alleges abuse at the hands of Daniel McCormack is suing the Archdiocese of Chicago is part of the Aug. 12 abuse-settlement announcement and is not a new case.

This lawsuit, filed by attorney Kenneth Cunniff, is part of the settlement with 16 people who said they were sexually abused by 11 different priests. Since a minor is involved in the Cunniff suit, it is necessary to get court approval to settle. The lawsuit was filed to bring the matter before a judge to facilitate the court approval process.

When announcing the settlement on Aug. 12, the archdiocese also released the transcript of Cardinal George’s Jan. 30 deposition in the cases of several victims. The transcript, which runs to 307 pages, includes questions about several cases.

Where is the settlement money coming from?

Following Cardinal George's Aug. 12 announcement that the Archdiocese of Chicago will pay $12.7 million to settle 16 cases of clergy sex abuse, some Catholics wrote to the Catholic New World asking where the church would get the funds to pay the settlement.

Letter writer Larry Nazimek from Chicago asked for apologies from the archdiocese to “the parishioners who support it [the Catholic Church] through their contributions and to the various church functions that are getting less funding than would have been the case if not for these huge payments to the plaintiffs and their lawyers.”

All invited to study Bible roots

Scott Hahn, Jeff Cavins and Father Robert Barron are just a few of the noted biblical scholars who will participate in “The Bible and the Liturgy: Written Text Becomes Living Word” at the Liturgical Institute on Sept. 19-20.

The event, which is co-sponsored by the institute and the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology (a non-profit research and education institute founded by Hahn that promotes Scripture study in the Catholic tradition), will be held on the campus of the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary. It will bring together America’s leading preachers and teachers to discuss the biblical foundations of the church’s sacraments, intending to reach both an academic and popular audience.

Notre Dame talk examines immigration, Catholic teaching

The immigration system in the United States exploits undocumented workers for their labor while excluding them from U.S. society, said Allert Brown-Gort, the assistant director of the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame. That flies in the face of Catholic social teaching, said Brown-Gort, whose institute does research on, education about and outreach to the Latino population in the United States, especially in the Midwest.

Priest appointed spiritual director of adoration society

Father David J. Simonetti has been a priest only a little more than three years, but he has used that time to expand opportunities for Eucharistic adoration throughout the archdiocese.

Simonetti, who was ordained in 2005 at the age of 38, now has been appointed the spiritual director and chaplain of the Pope John Paul II Eucharistic Adoration Society, working with Bishop Joseph Perry, its episcopal moderator.

Abstinence program hopes for renewed state funding

As Chicago-area students head back to schools, it is likely that fewer of them will find Project Reality abstinence education curricula in their classrooms than in the past.

Project Reality, a Glenviewbased not-for-profit, had been working in Illinois schools, including Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Chicago, for 20 years, teaching students about the benefits of remaining sexually abstinent until marriage, as well as making good decisions in the areas of alcohol, illegal drugs and violence.