Issue of November 26, 2006

The following items are condensed. For the complete article, please read the print edition of The Catholic New World. To subscribe, call (312) 655-7777.

NewsUpdate

Knights group helps in Iraq

A small group of U.S. Catholic volunteers working in Baghdad, Iraq, has coordinated the overseas donation and distribution of hundreds of pounds of children’s shoes, clothes and school supplies to a Chaldean Catholic parish. The group, an unofficial council of the Knights of Columbus, is made up of temporary workers living in the International Zone, said Alexander Von Plinsky, who started the group. Some of the members are Knights, and some are interested in joining the Knights, he said.

Fr. Greeley gets Campion award

Father Andrew Greeley will receive the 2006 Campion award on Nov. 16 at America House, New York, New York. The Campion Award was established in 1955, and was named after Saint Edmund Campion, a Jesuit who was put to death in London in 1581 for refusing to deny his faith or his priesthood. Campion’s “Brag” in defense of his faith has become a classic and moving example of a person of faith, chivalry and unusual literary talent. The award pays tribute to those same qualities in modern authors to whom it is given.

News

New Congress has more pro-life Dems

The 110th Congress that goes to work in January will include more pro-life Democrats whose party’s majority in both the House and Senate also is likely to bring efforts to raise the minimum wage, roll back tax cuts for the richest Americans and take a broader approach to immigration reform.

Six new members of the House and one new senator who oppose legal abortion were elected Nov. 7 as part of a Democratic surge that put the party in control of both houses of Congress for the first time in 12 years.

Yes’ to most marriage questions; life issues fail

Voters in seven states approved constitutional amendments defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman Nov. 7, but Catholic-backed proposals to limit human cloning and embryonic stem-cell research in Missouri and abortion in South Dakota were defeated.

By a narrow margin, Arizona appeared to become the first state to defeat a proposed constitutional amendment on same-sex marriage. In another rebuff to the recommendations of the state’s Catholic bishops, voters in Arizona approved proposals sharply limiting state services to illegal immigrants and making English the state’s official language.

Bishops urge talks on transition in Iraq

In a statement endorsed by the full body of bishops gathered in Baltimore, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops called for a “substantive, civil and nonpartisan discussion” leading to “a responsible transition in Iraq.”

“We hope our nation has moved beyond the divisive rhetoric of the recent campaign and the shrill and shallow debate that distorts reality and reduces the options to ‘cut and run’ versus ‘stay the course,’” Bishop William S. Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., said in the statement.

Bishops fund clergy sex abuse study

By unanimous voice vote the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Nov. 13 approved spending $335,000 next year to fund the first phases of a massive study of the causes and context of clergy sexual abuse of minors in the U.S. Catholic Church.

Bishop Gregory M. Aymond of Austin, Texas, chairman of the bishops’ Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People, told the bishops that the New York-based John Jay College of Criminal Justice—which in 2004 completed a study commissioned by the bishops on the nature and extent of clergy sexual abuse of minors—needs funding in 2007 for the first three phases of its follow-up study on the causes and context of the abuse.

Serious sin a bar to CommunionEmphasizing that they were addressing all Catholics, and not just politicians, the U.S. bishops Nov. 14 voted for a document calling on those in a state of serious sin to refrain from receiving Communion. The vote was 201-24, with two abstentions.

An effort to amend the document to specifically name politicians as among those who need to examine their consciences before receiving the Eucharist failed on a voice vote.

Bernardin Conference at CTU

In the 10 years that have passed since Cardinal Joseph Bernardin’s death, those who knew him well and those who know him through his writings have had time to reflect on the legacy he left the Catholic Church, the Archdiocese of Chicago, and his friends.

Several of those who knew him best participated in a memorial Mass Nov. 9 and daylong conference on “The Spirituality and Vision of Cardinal Joseph Bernardin” Nov. 10 at Catholic Theological Union.

The conference was sponsored by the Bernardin Center for Theology and Ministry at the school; the center also will host a conference on Cardinal Bernardin’s ecclesial leadership Feb. 16 and his pastoral ministry April 27.

Cardinal celebrates memorial Mass

Cardinal George presided over a Mass in honor of the 10th anniversary of the death of his predecessor, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin at Holy Name Cathedral Nov. 17.

Retired Auxiliary Bishop Timothy J. Lyne gave the homily. The celebration also included the traditional reading of the names of all archdiocesan priests who died in the past year.

“The cathedral is much the same as it was 10 years ago,” Bishop Lyne said. “The readings and Mass today are the same as the funeral mass of Cardinal Bernardin.”

Needed: Social workers for elderly

Loyola University Chicago and the University of Chicago hope to help meet the needs of the elderly by doing what universities do best —training the leaders of tomorrow.

The schools are collaborating in a grant-funded program to provide an incentive to graduate students who specialize in providing social services to the elderly.

“There will be a deficit of social workers for the elderly,” said Marcia Spira, professor in Loyola’s School of Social Work, who spearheads the program. “Over the next 50 years, the population of older adults in this country will grow dramatically, as will their need for social services.”

Funded by the John A. Hartford Foundation in New York, grants are competitively awarded to students who participate in the new graduate level program.

Parishes get help to observe World AIDS Day

This year, as World AIDS Day is observed Dec. 1, an estimated 38.6 million people are thought to be living with HIV. According to the UNAIDS 2006 report, 4.1 million were newly infected in 2006.

The annual observance gives everyone—from national and international AIDS organizations to community groups and parishes to individuals—an opportunity to recommit themselves to the fight against AIDS, said Dan Lunney, executive director of the Chicago-based National Catholic AIDS Ministry Network.

“This is an opportunity for us to focus on the important opportunities we have to improve our ministry to our brothers and sisters living with, and affected by, HIV/AIDS,” said Cardinal George in a Nov. 1 conference call aimed at raising awareness about the disease and sharing resources for Catholic parishes to use to observe World AIDS Day.

Catechetical Conference certifies, enriches

Who do you say that I am?” was the theme of the 2006 Chicago Catechetical Conference, Nov. 17-18, held at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, Rosemont. The theme, taken from Mark 8:27-35, references when God revealed himself to Moses through the burning bush in Exodus 3.

School principals, directors of religious education, youth ministers and catechists came together for two full days of prayer, talks, certification courses and fellowship. Using this biblical reference as a starting point, they collaborated on new ways to inspire faith in religious education students.

“These next two days will bring together the hands and voices of the living God. This is a great start for the rest of the year,” said archdiocesan superintendent of schools, Nicholas Wolsonovich.

Supporting Chicago’s Irish immigrants of today

Irish, Catholic and Chicago can often seem to be synonymous terms. Men and women from the Emerald Isle built our city, leaving lasting legacies in the religious, educational and political arenas.

Though the days of bigotry against the Irish have, for the most part, passed their struggles as immigrants remain, with an estimated 50,000 undocumented Irish immigrants living in America today.

Chicago Irish Immigrant Support (CIIS) was established in the fall of 1998 following the agreement of Cardinal George to have an Irish immigrant chaplain work in the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Today, the nonprofit organization is led by executive director Breandán Magee, and Father Michael Leonard, who focuses on pastoral duties.

Pope says ending famine requires better distribution of food, other resources

If famine and malnutrition are to be alleviated, funneling most of the earth’s resources to a select few must end, and individuals need to adopt less consumerist lifestyles, Pope Benedict XVI said.

The unjust distribution of the world’s resources not only creates “the scandal of hunger,” it also plays a role in today’s environmental and energy crises, the pope said during his Nov. 12 Angelus address in St. Peter’s Square.

Vatican downplays tensions over papal trip to Turkey

Vatican officials downplayed new tensions over Pope Benedict XVI’s planned trip to Turkey in late November, following a shooting incident and an apparent political snub.

Police arrested a 26-year-old man who fired three shots in the air outside the Italian Consulate in Istanbul Nov. 2 in protest of the papal visit. After firing, he threw his gun onto consulate grounds.

A cup of justice

Tadese Meskela has a way to take the bitter taste out of your coffee.

As general manager of Ethiopia’s coffee growers union, representing 85,000 small farmers like himself, the 47-year-old “star” of the movie “Black Gold” recently featured at the Gene Siskel Theater has in the past five years made globalization work for some of his country’s poorest of the poor.

Since founding the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union after seeing middlemen and everyone else grab huge profits at the expense of Ethiopia’s mostly small farmers, Meskela has seen the growers’ share skyrocket from 25 cents a pound to about $1 per pound.

Deacons bring ‘Project Hope’ to New Orleans

Like most deacons, Sal Lema has a day job in addition to his pastoral duties at Our Mother of Good Counsel, Homer Glen.

His just happens to be communications director for the Carmelites.

After repeated television viewings of Hurricane Katrina devastation, “I really wanted to do something to help,” he said.

He learned that the sisters of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the Lakeview area of New Orleans suffered heavy hurricane damage to their motherhouse, print shop and all-girls high school.

The 37 sisters who resided in the motherhouse were instantly made homeless and stripped of their daily routines.

Lema realized that through his position at the Carmelite Communications Center, he had the perfect outlet for a relief effort.