UPDATE:

Pope backs food, water for ‘vegetative’ patients

Patients who are in a persistent vegetative state, even for years, must be given nutrition and hydration as long as their bodies can absorb the nourishment, Pope John Paul II said.

“The administration of water and food, even when delivered using artificial means, always represents a natural method of preserving life and not a medical act,” the pope told an international group of physicians and ethicists.

The pope met the group March 20 at the end of a four-day meeting on the ethical decisions surrounding life-sustaining treatments for patients in a persistent vegetative state.

Kicanas: Ease border blockades

A former Chicago auxiliary bishop has chastised U.S. government for using the wrong strategy to handle illegal immigration along the Arizona-Mexico border.

Tucson Bishop Gerard Kicanas said in mid-March that tighter federal government control of the border “will lead to even more suffering and death” for Mexicans trying to clandestinely enter the United States.

Instead, he said, the government needs to “create legal avenues for migrants to enter in a safe and humane manner.” said the bishop, a former auxiliary bishop of Chicago.

CCI asks support on two measures

As the Illinois General Assembly reconvened March 23, the Illinois Catholic Conference issued statements urging members to act immediately on two issues “crucial to the well-being of Illinois families,” said Robert Gilligan, CCI executive director.

The Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the six Illinois Catholic dioceses, urged the general Assembly to support House Bill 4003, which would allow certain undocumented persons to receive Illinois drivers’ licenses, and to act to stem the rising tide of rising medical malpractice premiums.

Fire department

slurs criticized

Following incidents of anonymous racial slurs being made over the radios of The Chicago Fire Department, Heart of Mary Sister Anita Baird, director of the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Office for Racial Justice, made this statement:

“During the past several years, the Archdiocese of Chicago has initiated a comprehensive anti-racism strategic plan to eradicate all forms of racism in our society. In keeping with that initiative, we wish to join our voice with all the citizens of Chicago who are justly offended and embarrassed by the recent actions of a few members of the Chicago Fire Department.

“We invite all Catholics and people of good will to stand together and speak out against those who would attempt to divide our city and disrespect her citizens by their inflammatory and racist comments and work to make Chicago a model for racial harmony where every human being is treated with dignity and respect.

NEWS:

Six schools to become one

Two Southeast suburban campuses to keep

Catholic education available to families

For the pastors and principals at six schools in the Southeast suburbs, the writing was on the chalkboard last October: If they didn’t find a way to work together, their dwindling enrollments and rising tuition costs meant they would all surely close one by one.

Eventually, families in the area would have no access to Catholic schools.

So after months of discussion, the group announced their decision to faculty, staff and parents March 19. Starting in August, they will become one Catholic school housed on two campuses.

Life lessons

Job training program offers

to help clients transform lives

Patients at the University of Chicago’s Bernard Mitchell Hospital are in for a treat when Salwa Noaiman arrives with their meal trays.

Noaiman, a vivacious redhead, loves meeting new people, calling each a new friend, and says she has a smile and a word of encouragement for every patient she comes in contact with. Nearly all the patients smile back, Noaiman said, creating a connection that might dispel some of the patients’ pain and fear. What she knows for sure is that it replaces the sadness she felt in her heart with joy.

Celibacy formation a major part of seminary programs today

In recent years there has been significant improvement in celibacy formation throughout U.S. Catholic seminaries, said Franciscan Sister Katarina Schuth, one of the country’s leading experts in seminary research.

In interviews with Catholic News Service, she and others said celibacy formation programs are more comprehensive and thoroughgoing today than in the past.

One of the major recent influences on those programs was Pope John Paul II’s 1992 document on priestly formation, “Pastores Dabo Vobis” (“I Will Give You Shepherds”).

The pope called for much more attention to the role of human formation, a factor integrating the intellectual, spiritual and pastoral formation that formed the core focus of seminary formation efforts before 1992. Human formation includes development of emotional, psychosexual and social maturity.

CNS spoke with several seminary experts in the days before and after the Feb. 27 issuance of a major report on the causes and context of the U.S. crisis in clergy sexual abuse of minors.

Actor challenged by role of Cardinal Law in ‘Sin’

When the lights come up at the beginning of “Sin: A Cardinal Deposed,” James Sherman is dressed in vestments as Cardinal Bernard Law, former archbishop of Boston, kneeling in prayer.

Through the rest of play, Cardinal Law remains the central focus as he answers questions in depositions about the cases of serial clerical sexual abusers John Geoghan and Paul Shanley, who molested dozens of boys while priests of the Boston archdiocese. It ends with Cardinal Law’s December 2002 resignation as archbishop, although he remains a cardinal.

Preaching ... with the choir

Father Willard Jabusch takes his call to preach the Gospel seriously—and performs it prolifically. Preaching through music, he has written about 200 songs, and has released five compact discs. “Songs give a new vibrancy to the Scriptures and stories of our faith, and can maybe spark a new interest in the listener,” Jabusch said.

He is the author of some of the most recognized Catholic music, including “The King of Glory,” “The Song of Good News,” and “Whatsoever You Do.” Jabusch composes the music as well as writing all the lyrics, and his melodies are memorable, and give meaning to the phrase “beauty in simplicity.”