Career guidance at CTA?
A parish at the State University, Oswego, N.Y., financed six students to come to CTA/Detroit. Jim Kruger, a senior, told CTA News the weekend gave them "insight into our individual calls to action." Erin McCarthy, a sophomore, said, "It's like I had this fire in me, this fire for God, and to do something meaningful, but it was splintering in all different directions. CTA helped me to focus my fire for change." Tiffany O'Brien, a senior, said, "I keep getting different signs to what my future holds when I graduate. The message I received from CTA was to serve others. I'll definitely be back next year."

Justice on the Internet
Some homeless people in Brazil got seven-year prison terms for squatting in a slumlord's building. Their priest told Franciscans in New York, who told Tom Fox, publisher of the National Catholic Reporter. Fox suggested they create a web site on the Internet to publicize the story. Soon thousands of letters from around the world forced a Brazilian magistrate to release the captives. The web site had done its job, and was disconnected.

Fox and NCR colleague, Sr. Rita Larivee shared this story in a hands-on workshop on "Working for Justice on the Internet." They plugged in a laptop computer, demonstrated how to use a search engine, and visited relevant websites on the spot. Tap into their wisdom. Both have web sites that act as directories.
Tom's is Catholicism on the Web (also the title of his book); http://www.mispress.com/catholicism

Rita's is New Earth Ministries: http://www.anna-maria.edu.nem

Curran on history
To cope with authoritarian repression in today's Church, moral theologian Charles Curran recommends a sense of history, and a sense of humor. He told a story about St. Alphonsus Liguori, now revered as father of modern moral theology and patron saint of confessors. During his lifetime Liguori was in constant trouble with both church and civil authorities. The only way he could get his books from his publisher in Venice was to row a boat out of his native Naples and take delivery of the smuggled goods on an offshore island. Gumbleton on Iraq In a session on social justice, Bishop Tom Gumbleton related his own effort to get the fall meeting of U.S. Bishops to take a stand against our government's boycott of Iraq, which has so far resulted in the deaths of 500,000 children. His motion was defeated by a narrow vote, since it would interfere with scheduled discussions of liturgical propriety and the advisability of reintroducing fish on Friday.