Media, lawyers fume over pope’s words on divorce
Perhaps the pope is smiling on Michael and Juanita Jordan’s divorce attorneys.

It was just days after Pope John Paul II made a speech urging lawyers to respect the permanence of marriage that the Jordans announced plans to reconcile rather than follow through with divorce proceedings.

But when Chicago-area attorneys first read news reports about the pope’s Jan. 28 address to the Roman Rota, many were stunned by the intimation appearing in the media that Catholic lawyers shouldn’t be involved in divorce cases at all.

Caring knows no age limit
Cathedral seniors find service satisfying

For ministers of care at Holy Name Cathedral, caring truly knows no age limit-both as givers and receivers.

The ministry reaches beyond its parishioners and provides two-way results, benefiting both the ministers of care and those they visit. Like care ministries in most parishes, it began with home visits to parishioners who wanted Holy Communion but could not attend Mass. Today it offers much, much more, organizers said.

Giving back in gratitude
Up to 10 times each month, Marianne Kaiser asks one of her Elizabeth Ministry volunteers from St. Daniel the Prophet Parish to deliver a gift for a family with a new baby.

The gifts are nothing big-maybe a couple of bibs, or diapers, or a donated outfit-but the sense of welcome and support the new moms get is huge.

“When I had my children, nobody said anything,” said Kaiser, whose children are grown. “For the mothers, it’s nice to know someone cares about them.”

The Elizabeth Ministry, a peer-support program for women in their childbearing years, operates in 44 parishes in the archdiocese with assistance and training from the Family Ministries Office.