News Briefs
U.S. Cardinals
Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua
Archdiocese of Philadelphia
222 N. 17th St., Philadelphia PA 19103-1299
PH:215-587-3800 FAX: 215-587-3806
archbish@adphila.org
Cardinal Avery Dulles
Department of Theology/ Fordham University
441 East Fordham Road, Bronx NY 10458
PH: 718-817-3240/ FAX: 718-817-5787
Cardinal Edward M. Egan
Archdiocese of New York
1011 First Avenue, New York NY 10022
PH:212-980-6565/FAX:212-308-2674
Cardinal Francis George
Archdiocese of Chicago
155 E. Superior St., Chicago IL 60611
PH: 312-751-8230/FAX: 312-337-6379
Cardinal James Hickey
Archbishop of Washington
5001 Eastern Ave./P.O. Box 29260
Washington DC 20017
PH: 301-853-4540/FAX: 301-270-6225
Cardinal William Keeler
Archbishop of Baltimore
320 Cathedral St. Baltimore MD 21201
PH: 410-547-5437/ FAX 410-727-8234
cardinal@archbalt.org
Cardinal Bernard Law
Archdiocese of Boston
2121 Commonwealth, Brighton, MA 02135
PH: 617-782-2544/ FAX: 617-782-8358
Cardinal Roger Mahony
Archdiocese of Los Angeles
3424 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90010
PH: 213-637-7288/FAX:213-637-6510
CardRMM@aol.com
Cardinal Adam Maida
1234 Washington Blvd., Detroit MI 48226
PH:313-237-5816 FAX: 313-237-4642
infodesk@archdioceseofdetroit.org
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick
Archdiocese of Washington
5001 Eastern Ave./ P.O. Box 29260 Washington DC 20017
PH:301-853-4540 FAX:301-270-6225U.S. Bishops are listening
The U.S. Bishops' Committee on the Laity is asking lay Catholics to submit ideas on the Internet for improving local church life, especially in parishes. Ultra-conservative groups are flooding the website with their views. CTAers should try to offer contrasting, progressive ideas. To respond, go to www.laysurvey.org But hurry! Deadline is May 13.
Chittister ban backfires
The diocese of Peoria joined that of Pittsburgh in forbidding diocesan teachers to attend the National Catholic Educational Association in Milwaukee Apr. 17-20 because Sr. Joan Chittister, an outspoken dissenter from official teaching against women’s ordination, was a featured speaker. But to teachers who wanted to go anyway and needed financial help, the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas offered 25 convention scholarships, $300 to $500 each. Chittister is a keynote speaker at all three CTA National Conferences this year in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Chicago (see page 8).
Mary Ramerman, Denise Donato to be ordained
In an historic all-parish vote at all Masses, 99 percent of Spiritus Christi Parish in Rochester, N.Y. on March 31-Apr. 1 affirmed plans to have pastoral staffers Mary Ramerman and Denise Donato ordained to the priesthood and transitional diaconate, respectively. Ramerman’s ordination is scheduled for Nov. 17, 2001 by Bishop Peter Hickman of the Old Catholic Church — a group that has validly ordained bishops and priests, but has been in schism from Rome since the Bishop of Utrecht and other bishops at Vatican I refused to accept papal infallibility. Participating in the ordination will be international Catholic representatives, local interfaith ministers, and Spiritus Christi community. Donato will be meeting with Bishop Hickman in June and plans to schedule her ordination at that time.
Busing to Philadelphia
CTA Upstate New York has chartered buses to ferry members to the CTA East Coast National Conference Sept. 14-16 in Philadelphia. With stops in Utica and Syracuse, the roundtrip is $80. Western N.Y. CTA has similar plans. Their bus leaves from Buffalo, and also stops in Rochester. It costs $75. Why drive your own car? As they say, “The interaction on the bus is an extension of the interaction at conference.”
Plan “Shadow Synod”
Plan “Shadow Synod” When the International Bishops’ Synod meets in Rome in October, a “Synod of the People of God” will be held nearby, organized by two progressive networks: the European Network - Church on the Move, and the International Movement We Are Church. Like the alternative people’s meeting shadowing the European Synod of Bishops in 1999, and organized by the same groups, the 2001 gathering will address the same topics being discussed by the bishops inside St. Peter’s — in this case, the role of diocesan bishops and their relationship with the Vatican. After international Internet discussions in the months prior to the Rome event, the Synod of the People of God will culminate in a document that will suggest a new balance of power between local churches and Rome, and involvement of the people in Church decisions.
Individuals and groups are invited to participate. Contact Valerie Stroud at the Secretariat in Great Britain: admin@shadow-synod.fsnet.co.uk Or check the Website: www.shadow-synod.fsnet.co.uk/
Is Ireland post-Catholic?
Is Ireland post-Catholic? The new Cardinal Desmond Connell of Dublin, a veteran hardliner from Cardinal Ratzinger’s Vatican doctrinal commission, has called Ireland a post-Catholic country. Priest-sociologist Andrew Greeley recently co-authored a report challenging that view. According to social surveys in Ireland in 1991 and 1998, the Irish people believe in God (94 percent) and attend Mass weekly (63 percent) at the same rate as ten years ago. However, “If sex and authority are what Catholicism is all about, then the Irish are no longer Catholic,” writes Greeley in America (March 12). “But neither is anyone else.” Only 40 percent of Irish Catholics believe that abortion is always wrong (compared to 37 percent in the U.S., 31 percent in Poland, and 12 percent in Italy). Only 30 percent of Irish Catholics say premarital sex is always wrong (19 percent in the U.S., 18 percent in Poland, 17 percent in Italy). Irish Catholics’ confidence in church leadership is down from 46 percent in 1991 to 27 percent in 1998. (Among American Catholics, it’s 43 percent; Poles, 22 percent; Italians, 33 percent.)