Return to regular schedule

With this issue, Catholic Times returns to its regular bi-weekly schedule, after special coverage of the reception and installation of Bishop Thomas John Paprocki.

The next issue of Catholic Times will be July 18.

CNS News

3 Minute Roundup

Pope announces pontifical council for new evangelization
VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI announced he is establishing a pontifical council for new evangelization to find ways “to re-propose the perennial truth of the Gospel” in regions where secularism is smothering church practice.
Leading an evening prayer service June 28 at Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, Pope Benedict said there are areas of the globe that have been known as Christian for centuries, but where in the past few centuries “the process of secularization has produced a serious crisis” in people’s sense of what it means to be Christian and to belong to the church.
“I have decided to create a new organism, in the form of a pontifical council, with the principal task of promoting a renewed evangelization in the countries where the first proclamation of faith has already resounded and where there are churches of ancient foundation present, but which are living through a progressive secularization of society and a kind of ‘eclipse of the sense of God,’” he said.
The pope did not say what the formal name of the pontifical council would be and he did not announce who would head it, although in the weeks leading to the announcement, Vatican commentators suggested it would be Italian Archbishop Rino Fisichella, currently president of the Pontifical Academy for Life. (CNS)
 
High court won’t review case claiming Vatican liable for abuser
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court has left standing a lower court ruling that will allow an Oregon man to try to hold the Vatican financially responsible for his sexual abuse by a priest, if he can persuade the court that the priest was an employee of the Vatican.
By declining to take Holy See v. John Doe, the court June 28 left intact the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that said because of the way Oregon law defines employment, the Vatican is not protected under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act from potential liability for the actions of a priest who Doe, the unidentified plaintiff, said sexually abused him in the 1960s. The case will now go back to U.S. District Court, where Doe’s attorneys will attempt to prove that the late Andrew Ronan, a former Servite priest who was laicized in 1966, was a Vatican employee at the time the events took place.
In order for the District Court to have ruled that the case could move forward, a lower standard of having adequately “pleaded” a connection between Ronan and the Vatican had to be met. Before the issue of liability of the Holy See can be addressed, Doe’s attorneys will have to persuade the court under a higher standard “proving” that Ronan was a Vatican employee. (CNS)
 
Sainthood cause opened for Brooklyn priest who fought bigotry
BROOKLYN, N.Y. ­— In the midst of a New York heat wave, a small parish in Brooklyn opened a new chapter in the diocese’s history. About 200 people gathered June 24 at St. Peter Claver Church for the formal opening of an inquiry into the cause of canonization of Msgr. Bernard J. Quinn, who spent his life advocating for African-American Catholics in the Diocese of Brooklyn.
Msgr. Quinn, who was born in 1888 and died in 1940, was founding pastor of the all-black St. Peter Claver Parish and founder of Little Flower Children Services to care for black orphans. Today, St. Peter Claver is one of three worship sites in St. Martin de Porres Parish in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood.
After vespers on the feast of St. John the Baptist, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn spoke about his personal connection to Msgr. Quinn. A little more than a year ago, on his 65th birthday, the bishop underwent coronary bypass surgery. The doctors considered the surgery a success, he said, but a week later he found himself back in the hospital after fainting. He said blood clots in his lungs and heart threatened his life, and during the fervor that surrounded his second surgery, Msgr. Quinn came to his mind. He could not say why he thought of him or whether it was a miracle, but his prayers to him during that period have turned into a wellspring of devotion. (CNS)
 

Obituary - Sister Grace Jokerst, OSU

Sunday, 28 February 2010
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ALTON — Ursuline Sister Grace Jokerst, born Inez Julia Jokerst, died Feb. 9 at the Ursuline Queen of Peace Healthcare Community, age 95.

The daughter of Charles Joseph and Mary Magdalen Schilly Jokerst, she was born May 11, 1914, in Waco, Neb. She was educated by the Ursuline Sisters in York, Neb., and she entered the Ursuline community in 1936, making her vows in 1939. She completed her bachelor’s degree in history in 1948, at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, and her master’s degree in education in 1956, at St. Louis University.

Sister Grace taught on both elementary and secondary levels in Kirkwood, Arcadia, and Jennings in Missouri; Texarkana, Texas; Alton and Frontenac, Minn. In the Springfield diocese, Sister Grace taught at Marquette High School in Alton from 1957 to 1964  and at St. Teresa High School in Decatur from  1964 to 1967.

She also served on the staff of Cardinal Ritter Institute in St. Louis and as local treasurer in Frontenac, Minn. She joined the Queen of Peace Retirement Community in Alton in 1998. Her favorite saying was, “Humor heals.”

Of her 10 siblings, four survive her: Dr. Herman Jokerst of St. Augustine, Fla., James Jokerst of Salina, Kan., Irma Jokerst Gleason of Colorado Springs, Colo., and Colette Jokerst Hartley of Lexington, S.C. She was preceded in death by sisters Regina, Eileen, Alice, and Alta and brothers Carl and Francis.

A funeral Mass was celebrated Feb. 13, at the Ursuline Convent Chapel in Alton.

Memorial gifts may be made to the Queen of Peace Healthcare Community, 845 Danforth Street, Alton, IL 62002.

Staten-Fine Funeral Home in Alton was in charge of arrangements.

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More in this category: « Obituary - Father Elgar Bockenfeld, OFM Obituary - Sister Julia Becker, OSU »

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Diocese of Springfield in Illinois