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)
 

Over 400 aspire to full membership in Catholic Church

Written by Cathy Locher
Sunday, 28 February 2010
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Sister Cristina Martinez, of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart ad Gentes, watches Msgr. Carl Kemme, diocesan administrator, ratify the names of catechumens from St. Alexius Parish in Beardstown. Sister Cristina instructs the Spanish-speaking RCIA sessions.Some 400 persons wishing to become Catholic or be fully initiated in the church participated in the Rite of Election of Catechumens and Call to Continuing Conversion of baptized candidates, held Feb. 20 and 21 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Springfield.

With a new bishop yet to be named for the diocese, Msgr. Carl Kemme, diocesan administrator, presided at the liturgy, ratifying the enrollment of the names of catechumens in the parishes’ Book of the Elect, and recognizing the parishes’ candidates for conversion.

Sponsors, godparents, priests, deacons, RCIA leaders, family members and friends joined the catechumens and candidates, who represent 70 parishes and the Newman Center at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston. The distance from Springfield is factor in as to which service day a parish’s catechumens and candidates attend.

“We don’t know why we have found our way to this Cathedral Church to be elected, chosen, as the beloved sons and daughters of God. We cannot explain the mystery of this divine love,” Msgr. Kemme said in his homily. “We can only acknowledge with profound humility and gratitude that for some reason, which may remain hidden to us until the end of our earthly lives, God has set his heart on each of us and has called us by name to share his life through the life-giving, transforming sacraments of the Catholic Church.”

Msgr. Kemme was assisted at the Saturday liturgy by Deacon James Ghiglione, parish life coordinator at Our Lady of the Holy Spirit in Mt. Zion, and Deacon Lawrence Smith of Cathedral. Assisting him at the Sunday liturgy were Deacon Smith and Deacon Jerry Cato from St. Cecilia in Glen Carbon. Father Christopher House was master of ceremonies for both celebrations.

While the Saturday evening service at the Cathedral looked comfortably crowded, “the Cathedral was packed at the Sunday afternoon service,” said both Msgr. Kemme, and Eliot Kapitan, director of the Office for Worship and the Catechumenate.

“The fact that the service this year was back in our beautifully restored and recently dedicated cathedral was just ‘icing on the cake’ for everyone who was there,” Kapitan said.

Following the Election and Call to Conversion, nothing stands in the way of these people becoming Catholic. For them, Lent is a period of purification and enlightenment, when they and their parish communities focus on conversion and reflect on their decision to join the church.

The elect and candidates will celebrate sacraments at the Easter Vigil on Saturday, April 3.

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Cathy Locher

Cathy Locher

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Diocese of Springfield in Illinois