Kerry heresy charge untrue

An official at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said a California canon lawyer seeking a formal decree of heresy against Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, Democratic presidential nominee, has misrepresented his contact with the Vatican office.

“The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has had no contact with Mr. (Marc) Balestrieri,” said Dominican Father Augustine DiNoia, congregation undersecretary.

“His claim that the private letter he received from (Dominican) Father Basil Cole is a Vatican response is completely without merit,” DiNoia told Catholic News Service Oct. 19.

Balestrieri is the head of De Fide, described as an organization created “to deal with the burgeoning scandal of Catholic politicians supporting the ‘right to choose’ murder.” In an Oct. 15 interview on the Eternal Word Television Network, Balestrieri said he had “received a written response prompted by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith affirming that Catholic politicians who persist in supporting the right to abortion are ‘automatically excommunicated.’”

Vatican officials contacted said they did not agree with Cole’s conclusion that Kerry has incurred excommunication. “You can incur excommunication (automatically) only if you procure or perform an abortion,” one said.

One Vatican official contacted by Catholic News Service said no church official had seriously approached the point of declaring Kerry a heretic. “No, Kerry is not a heretic,” he said.

Priest charged in St. Bede case

Father Brian Lisowski, former pastor of St. Bede the Venerable Parish, was charged Oct. 14 for skimming more than $1 million from parish collections.

Lisowski, 49, resigned as pastor in July. Following an investigation, Lisowski admitted to misappropriation of $1.14 million over a five-year period. The money was later recovered by archdiocesan officials and returned to the parish.

Archdiocesan officials informed the Cook County State’s Attorney, which investigated further. The priest has now been charged with felony theft and money laundering.

A spokesman for the state’s attorney said Lisowski “pilfered between $2,000 and $3,000 from weekend Mass collections,” placing the money in a “secret bedroom safe.” In addition, he was accused of stealing other cash from parish events. The charges could result in 15-30 years in prison.

NEWS

Leadership Day: Inspiration, sharing

Organizers expect members of parish councils and commissions from all over the archdiocese to find inspiration and information at Parish Leadership Day, 7 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. Nov. 6 at Maria High School, 6727 S. California Ave.

“There’s a lot of sharing that takes place,” said Chris Tamani, one of the event co-chairs. “You just get so engulfed in the spirit, you get so recharged with enthusiasm to make your council work, to fulfill your leadership role.”

Cardinal Pell: Teach moral truth

Cardinal George Pell doesn’t want to speculate about what Cardinal John Henry Newman would think of the world situation today, but he knows one thing: many Catholics do not understand what Newman believed about the nature of conscience.

Cardinal Pell, the archbishop of Sydney, Australia, spoke about Cardinal Newman and conscience Oct. 13 at the University of Chicago in a presentation sponsored by the Lumenchristi Institute.

Translating liturgical text calls for good ear

The first thing to remember when translating texts for liturgy is that they will not be read silently; they will be proclaimed aloud and listened to, said Father Bruce Harbert, executive secretary to the International Commission of English in the Liturgy.

“You have to think about the ability of the person proclaiming the text to pronounce the words,” said Harbert, who will offer the opening keynote address at “Authentic Liturgy: Translation and Interpretation of Liturgical Texts,” an Oct. 27-29 conference sponsored by the Liturgical Institute at the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary. “It’s more like translating for the stage than for silent reading.”

The conference will offer discussions of several aspects of liturgical translation, from the pastoral ramifications of the way a text is translated to translating musical texts.

U.S. Senate candidates

Candidates for the Illinois Senate seat held by Republican Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, Alan Keyes and Barack Obama were invited by the Illinois Catholic Conference to complete candidate questionnaires about the issues in the Nov. 2 election. Neither candidate returned a completed questionnaire. Republican Keyes, a Catholic, was nominated following the sex-related scandal involving Jack Ryan. Democrat Obama is an Illinois state senator. The candidates recently presented their issues at forums held Oct. 3 and 5 at Benedictine University, Lisle.

Barack Obama

Democrat

The Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, state Sen. Barack Obama, spoke Oct. 5 at Benedictine University’s Jim Ryan Symposium on public affairs. Officials at the west suburban university had sought a debate forum, but the candidates declined.

One questioner chastised Obama for his record on partial-birth abortion. Obama explained his vote in the Illinois General Assembly, saying the law was repetitive and unnecessary. But he refused to shy away from the real point of the conflict, the issue of abortion.

Alan Keyes

Republican

Speaking Oct. 3 at the Jim Ryan Symposium on Public Affairs at Benedictine University, Lisle, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Alan Keyes stressed that the decisions he has made in his life, and the decisions he would make in public office, reflect his values and morals as a Roman Catholic.

“I put the emphasis in my campaign on the moral priorities,” he said. ... I just wanted to be clear that I stand forward in order to do what Lincoln did in his time, in order to do what Martin Luther King and others had to do in their time—to call attention to the fact that the conscience of America has been violated and that if that violation continues, the freedom of America will be lost. ... Once you have acknowledged that, the consequences of that acknowledgement will then run through policy in every area, including, by the way, the area of how you understand marriage and other things we are now getting into.”

The faithful of Christ

Archdiocese honors lay people

for service, ministry to People of God

f you’re a regular worshipper at St. Hyacinth Basilica on Chicago’s Northwest Side, chances are, you’ve met James Zygmunt.

Maybe he was answering the office telephone, filling in for the regular receptionist. Maybe he was replacing burned out candles. Maybe he was ushering

Zygmunt’s dedication was honored Oct. 17, as he received one of about 140 Christifideles Awards at the annual Archdiocesan Awards Ceremony. Those recognized for their exemplary participation in parish life come from 110

parishes, nominated by their pastors.

Review board gets new chair, 5 new members

The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has appointed a new chairman and five new members on the National Review Board for the protection of children.

The USCCB president, Bishop Wilton D. Gregory of Belleville, Ill., announced the appointments in Washington Oct. 15.

Poverty is a ‘religious issue’ at rally for justice

Poverty is a religious issue, and all people of faith are duty-bound to make it a political issue in the upcoming election, an interfaith group of clergy warned.

Nothing less than the American Dream itself, in fact, will be put to the test Nov. 2, said Aaron Garcia, a parishioner at Our Lady of Mercy and a member of the Albany Park Neighborhood Council. Garcia spoke at an Oct. 10 “Let Justice Roll” rally at North Park College in Chicago.

Catholic social teaching part of political responsibility

Catholics can have a major impact in the Nov. 2 presidential election, a Dominican University panel agreed last week. After all, for decades the church’s social teaching has fueled development of national policies from the New Deal of the 1930s to the War on Poverty of the 1960s.

It’s a trend as old as Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical “Rerum Novarum” defending the rights of workers to unionize and as recent as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ “ Faithful Citizenship,” designed to guide this year’s voters, Liesl Orinec said Oct. 12 at Dominican’s Siena Center. The discussion included experts on jobs, health care and global solidarity, and was the last of a series on Catholic political responsibility.

Images of the divine

Wisconsin monks blend

Web business, prayer life

sacred and secular.

So why, Cistercian Father Bernard McCoy wonders, does it come as any surprise that his small abbey in Sparta, Wis., is supporting itself and its good works by engaging in the enterprise of the information age?

McCoy, 37, led his brother monks to start Lasermonks.com two years ago as the community looked for a new way to raise money.

Full agenda for USCCB meeting

When the U.S. Catholic bishops meet in mid-November, they will be asked to approve a first-ever U.S. national catechism for adults and elect a new president to lead them for the next three years.

They will be asked to vote on joining a new national ecumenical association, Christian Churches Together in the USA, which will be known by the acronyms CCT or CCTUSA.

One of the most controversial public issues they have faced over the past year will come up on the floor in the form of a report by their task force on how bishops should deal with Catholic public officials whose policy stands contradict Catholic teachings on fundamental issues such as abortion.

Priests generally happy, but roles changing: Greeley

For Father Andrew Greeley, being one of the country’s most prolific authors is just another facet of being a priest.

After all, storytelling has always been an integral part of the priesthood’s role in passing on the faith to new generations, Greeley told a gathering Sept. 29 at St. Alphonsus Church.

But at the same time, he said, the priesthood itself has been evolving, sometimes in two different directions at the same time.

In the service of the Lord

Congratulations, jubilarians!

They have taught our children, cared for our sick and spread the Good News of our Lord around the world.

Twice each year, The Catholic New World takes time to recognize members of religious communities who are celebrating jubilees, or special anniversaries. In April, we honored those who had been in the religious life for 60 years or more. Now we honor the silver and golden jubilees of sisters, brothers and religious priests who have dedicated 25 or 50 years of their lives to serving God’s people. In these pages, you will meet nurses and cooks, college presidents and administrators, and many, many teachers.

There are a few who are celebrating more years of service—mostly those whom The Catholic New World learned about after our April issue went to press—but the majority are either still active or only recently retired. We salute their efforts, and encourage our readers to do the same.