Catholic News Service

MADRID — A cloudless blue sky turned to inky night as hundreds of thousands of pilgrims participated in the opening Mass for World...]]> By Gretchen R. Crowe

Catholic News Service

MADRID — A cloudless blue sky turned to inky night as hundreds of thousands of pilgrims participated in the opening Mass for World Youth Day, celebrated by Madrid Cardinal Antonio Rouco Varela in the Plaza de Cibeles.

Protected from the heat by white umbrellas and streams of soft mists, dozens of bishops and priests gathered on and around the makeshift altar to celebrate the Mass for pilgrims representing their homeland with flags, special hats, T-shirts and banners.

In his homily, Cardinal Rouco said World Youth Day is inseparable from Blessed John Paul II, “the pope of the young,” whose memory they celebrated with the Mass. The relationship Blessed John Paul had with the young was “unprecedented,” he said “a hitherto unknown relationship between the church and her young: direct, immediate … imbued with a faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, enthusiastic, hopeful, joyful, contagious.”

This tradition has continued with Pope Benedict XVI, he said, who did not hesitate to highlight Blessed John Paul’s love of the young in his homily for his predecessor’s beatification in May.

World Youth Day inspires a new encounter with the Lord, the cardinal said: “He is the only one who can understand you and lead you to the truth giving life that never ends, to give you happiness, true love.”

Young people are looking for Christ, he said.

“Letting oneself be found by him is the key to the success of any World Youth Day,” he said. “It will be your success. Youths of the 21st century need, even more than previous generations, to find the Lord through the only path that has proven effective spiritually: the humble and simple pilgrim seeking his face.”

In comments following the Mass, Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, welcomed the crowd by telling them the event for which they had been waiting and preparing had finally arrived.

“These will be days you will never forget,” he said, “days of important discoveries and decisions that will be decisive for your future.”

Reflecting on the words of St. Paul that form the theme of this year’s World Youth Day: “Planted and built up in Jesus Christ, firm in the faith (Col 2:7),” the cardinal acknowledged the challenge of living out this call.

“This is very demanding because it contains a definite life plan for each one of us,” he said.

“Faith is like a root that is nourished by the lifeblood of the word of God and the sacraments,” he added. “It is the foundation, the rock on which life is built, the dependable compass that guides our choices and gives clear direction to our lives.”

In a world where so many people reject God, Cardinal Rylko said, World Youth Day shows that the Catholic faith lives.

“You have come to say aloud to the whole world — and in particular to Europe, which is showing signs of being very lost — your unwavering ‘Yes!’” he said. “Yes, faith is possible. It is, in fact, a wonderful adventure that allows us to discover the magnitude and beauty of our lives.”

For hours before the Mass, pilgrims lined the street. Many played cards, read, wrote in their journals or even napped, waiting for the event to begin.

Oblate Father Richard Hall, pastor of San Juan de los Lagos Parish in San Antonio, said the opening Mass, which united all the pilgrims attending World Youth Day for the first time, was what he and his group of pilgrims had been waiting for.

“To be here, beginning the experience with Mass (is what is) so wonderful about our church,” Father Hall said. “No matter where you’re at, you’re able to celebrate the liturgy in whatever language (you speak) or country you’re from. To come here around the archbishop of Spain with all the bishops in communion with our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, is a great experience.”

“It’s nothing I’ve ever seen before,” said Morgan Simon, 16, of Sydney. “The representations of all the countries around the world — it’s mind-blowing. Everyone’s happy and cheerful. They all want to talk to each other and get to know you and where you’re from and trade things. It’s one of the most amazing things ever.”

“We’re all here for the same reason,” said Leslie Comstock, 23, of St. Mary Parish in Holliston, Mass., who had just finished attaching an American flag to a nearby fence. “We may not be able to speak to each other very well, but the idea is the same. (Mass) is the only way to start.”

Walking down the street arm-in-arm with fellow pilgrims from Bogota, Colombia, Catalina Bamargo said she could not believe that she was living this experience with 3,000 pilgrims from her country — and with hundreds of thousands more from around the globe.

“This is wonderful, we’re excited,” she said. “The church lives.”

WILMINGTON — It’s the 23rd of March, so Emmanuel Dining Room West is bracing for a big lunchtime crowd. That’s because every month on the 23rd...]]> By Joseph Ryan, Assistant editor

WILMINGTON — It’s the 23rd of March, so Emmanuel Dining Room West is bracing for a big lunchtime crowd. That’s because every month on the 23rd the needy in the neighborhood know the Ministry of Caring’s dining room on Jackson Street will be serving fried chicken.

Br. Rudolph Pieretti talks to clients Starr Bush and her 5 year old nephew K.J. Bush as they eat lunch at Emmanuel Dining Room-West. (The Dialog/Don Blake)

Half an hour into the day’s meal the dining room is full of diners seated so volunteers can serve them restaurant style. The diners don’t linger; there are people waiting outside to eat, so there’s a steady stream of customers leaving and others being ushered in while servers navigate their way to the tables amid the crowd.

The peaceful soul who is standing near the dining room’s door in his Capuchin robes and Lincolnesque gray beard is Brother Rudolph Pieretti, the director of three EDR sites. A Wilmington native, Brother Rudolph has been charged with seeing that things go smoothly at the dining rooms since November 2009. The logistics of each day’s servings unfold like a whirlwind, but the friar’s quiet management style, relying on God’s grace and the dedication of staff and volunteers, provides a calm center to the hustle and bustle.

Daily attendance at the Jackson Street dining room averages between 150 and 200 men, women and children, but since this is fried chicken day, Brother Rudolph has arranged for two floor managers, instead of the usual one, to supervise the seating and serving of the folks who line up before the doors open at 11:30. More than 230 would be fed that day.

Dewitt Smith and Tony Attaway, both Ministry of Caring employees, work the floor.

“Give me an eight,” says Smith, noting places available for seating, and Attaway lets in eight people from outside to fill the seats.

Brother Rudolph knows and greets most of the clients by their nicknames — Muscles, Jelly Bean, and Jimmy the Gentleman, who walks with a cane.

When Six Nine, a tall Emmanuel Dining Room regular, is served lunch, he pauses with eyes closed and lifts his hands in silent thanks. “It’s nice to see him pray,” says Brother Ru-dolph.

Rotating crews of volunteers

In the steamy EDR kitchen, Vicky Hackett is supervising volunteers from Mother UAME Church in Wilmington as they continuously serve up the chicken, green beans and rolls during the 90-minute seating. Hackett says she’s proud to have volunteered at Emmanuel Dining Room since it first opened in 1979 but she won’t take credit for the popularity of the chicken. “We all helped with the recipe.”

Mother UAME is one of about 100 churches — Catholic and Protestant — plus synagogues, businesses and civic groups that provide the meals, volunteers and donations for the three Ministry of Caring dining rooms, two in Wilmington and one in New Castle.

In addition to the rotating volunteer kitchen and serving crews each day, the dining rooms welcome individual volunteers such as Wayne Stanford, who was helping serve the tables.

EDR’s customers on the day we visited last month were mostly men with a few women and children. More children are present at the meals in the summer, Brother Rudolph said, and the clientele increases at the end of every month, when money gets thin.

Brother Rudolph Pieretti, director of the Ministry of Caring’s Emmanuel Dining Rooms, discusses the day’s crowd with Dewitt Smith, one of EDR’s floor managers. (The Dialog/Don Blake)

Smith’s and Attaway’s supervision is subtle but effective, especially when the makings of a fight erupt in a brief shout. The dispute is settled by the floor managers’ quickintervention. That moment is unusual amid the jovial mood of the diners.

Before he was hired full time, Attaway volunteered at the dining room after a prison stint. “Now he’s one of our shining stars,” Brother Rudolph said.

“I thought it was a punishment at first,” Attaway said of his first days at EDR. But the practice of serving others changed his mind. “I found out I became healed in the process. God rescued me. He showed me he loves everyone on the planet, no matter who.”

When many of the clients finish eating, they thank Brother Rudolph on their way out. “God bless you, Brother.” “Thank you, Brother. Say a prayer for me.”

For 18 years, Africa was home

Brother Rudolf is the son of Joan and Rudolph Pieretti of Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish, and has a sister, Lisa, and three brothers — Steve, Gary and Christopher. He attended IHM grade school and is a 1976 graduate of Salesianum School. After working in construction after high school he joined the Capuchin Franciscans in 1978.

He became familiar with the order during high school when he helped the late Father Thomas Pietrantonio at the St. Francis Renewal Center in north Wilmington with carpentry, plumbing and other odd jobs.

“The life of manual work, prayer and contemplation, community in a friary was everything I love,” Brother Rudolph said. “This is my vocation.”

He attended St. Lawrence of Brindisi Friary in Beacon, N.Y., for his novitiate and took his vows there in 1980. He was assigned to the friary there for 11 years before he was sent to a Capuchin mission in Zambia in southern Africa.

He served for 18 years in the bush at Chinyingi Mission with four other Capuchins in a small village without electricity or phones. “You had to build a fire under a barrel for hot water,” he recalled.

The Capuchins did pastoral work — catechesis, sacraments, Masses — serving 26 churches in the mission’s territory. Some of the churches got just two visits from the friars a year because of distance and lack of access during the rainy season.

Having worked with the poor in remote Zambia and in the city of Wilmington, Brother Rudolph contrasted what being poor means in both places.

“Poverty here is complicated; there’s substance abuse, physical abuse and fragmentation of family. In Zambia the poverty is simple. The people have an inherent dignity and there’s stability in the family unit.”

The contrast between Zambia and the United States was never more vivid than when he returned after 18 years to Wilmington.

“In the beginning I had to get used to the pace. Everything here is chop-chop. The volume of American lifestyle — the big plates of food, the highways, the cities. It’s a different world.”

It was hectic for Brother Rudolph mere days after he returned from Africa in 2009. He got back on a Saturday and the following Monday morning started as program director of the Emmanuel Dining Rooms.

“It was overwhelming. I was caught between two worlds. I had to wait for my soul to catch up to my body.”

God filters through

In his 16 months running the dining rooms eight hours a day and living upstairs in St. Felix Friary with other Capuchin friars, Brother Rudolph never worries about his work supervising the Emmanuel Dining Rooms.

“It’s a well-oiled machine, thanks to Brother Ronald [Giannone, the founder and director of the Ministry of Caring’s social-service programs] and the people who put it in motion. It’s something greater than me. You sense the working of God in here. Grace filters through the cracks in society.”

Brother Rudolph sees that grace working in the lives of the dining rooms’ clients. “[They] come in here closed up under the weight of life. After a couple of weeks you see they gradually open up, like a tulip in the spring.”

His greatest delight is when the people enjoying their free meal come to a realization, Brother Rudolph said. “That someone does care, someone does love them and life is worth living. If that happens once in a thousand times, this is a success. It’s all worth it.”

*****

If you go

The annual Emmanuel Dining Room Auction to benefit the Ministry of Caring’s dining rooms will take place Friday (April at 8 p.m. at Barclay’s Bank on the Wilmington riverfront. The event includes dinner, live and silent auctions, raffles and entertainment. Tickets are $100; call 428-3702 or go to ministryofcaring.org.

DOVER — About 70 people traveled to Dover on Tuesday to show their support for legislation that would require a minor under age 18 to receive...]]> By Gary Morton, Staff reporter

DOVER — About 70 people traveled to Dover on Tuesday to show their support for legislation that would require a minor under age 18 to receive parental permission before undergoing an abortion. They delivered 500 roses to members of the Delaware House of Representatives along with the names of 1,800 people who joined in prayer to support the legislation.

Rep. Greg Lavelle, a co-sponsor of the bill, speaks Tuesday in Legislative Hall to supporters of the legislation. For more photos go to cdow.org/dialog.html. (The Dialog/Don Blake)

The lobbying followed a gathering in Legislative Hall that coincided with the filing of House Bill 80, the parental consent legislation. Rep. Greg Lavelle (R-Sharpley), a co-sponsor of the bill with Sen. Robert Venables (D-Laurel), called it “commonsense legislation” that would change the current parental notification requirement to parental consent.

The gathering included a prayer service led by pastors of African American churches who act as an advisory group to A Rose and A Prayer, a grassroots organization that seeks to reduce the number of abortions in Delaware.

Deacon Bob Cousar of St. Joseph’s Church on French Street, a member of the advisory group, and Pat Radell of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, both of Wilmington, weren’t able to see their representative, Stephanie Bolden (D-Wilmington), because legislators were in session when the rally ended and then went immediately into party caucuses.

“It’s a shame to come all the way down here and then not be able to speak to our representative in person, but I understand that they are busy,” Cousar said after the two left roses and an information packet for Bolden. But, he added, “They know we were here, and they know why we were here.”

Radell, the mother of three and grandmother of six, said parental notification is needed because often, “young people don’t know what they are getting into. [Abortion] is presented as an easy, instant answer.”

Radell and Cousar were lobbying in Dover for the first time. Cousar was especially impressed with the list of names of Bolden’s constituents who participated in an April 3-5 prayer vigil on behalf of the bill. “There’s nothing like the power of prayer,” he said.

The Rose and a Prayer group prepares roses to give to State Representatives at Legislative Hall in Dover, Tuesday, April 5, 2011.( The Dialog/Don Blake)

Deacon Ken Pulliam of St. Elizabeth Church in Wilmington also made his first lobbying effort and hoped to connect with Rep. Valerie Longhurst (D-Bear). He preached on abortion as part of the black clergy group’s “End the Silence” campaign to spotlight the effects of abortion on the black community. As he became involved, he said, he came to realize that “no longer can we keep this issue in the shadows.”

On a related issue, Venables last week introduced a bill that would require the licensing and inspection of abortion clinics in Delaware. His bill specifically calls for inspection of abortion clinics, while earlier legislation by Rep. Bryon Short does not directly name abortion clinics and leaves much of the requirements to the discretion of the Delaware Department of Health and Human Services. Short’s bill passed the House. Both Short’s and Venable’s bills are in the Senate Health and Social Services Committee.

The proposed legislation comes in response to recent news reports in which Dr. Kermit Gosnell — a Philadelphia abortion doctor who also practiced at Atlantic Women’s Medical Services in Wilmington — faces multiple murder charges in Pennsylvania in connection with the reported death of one woman, as well as the late-term abortion deaths of seven newborn babies.

WASHINGTON (CNS) — In a detailed critique, the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Doctrine has concluded that a 2007 book written by Fordham University theology professor...]]> By Dennis Sadowski, Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) — In a detailed critique, the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Doctrine has concluded that a 2007 book written by Fordham University theology professor Sister Elizabeth A. Johnson “contains misrepresentations, ambiguities and errors” related to the Catholic faith.

In a detailed critique, the U.S. bishops' Committee on Doctrine has concluded that a 2007 book written by Fordham University theology professor Sister Elizabeth A. Johnson "contains misrepresentations, ambiguities and errors" related to the Catholic faith. Sister Johnson is pictured in an undated photo. (CNS photo/courtesy Fordham University)

The committee said in a 21-page statement released March 30 that the book, “Quest for the Living God: Mapping Frontiers in the Theology of God,” failed to take the faith of the Catholic Church as its starting point and chose to use standards from outside the faith to “criticize and to revise in a radical fashion the conception of God revealed in Scripture and taught by the magisterium.”

The book was identified for review by the committee during winter 2009-10, said Father Thomas G. Weinandy, executive director of the Secretariat for Doctrine at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. He did not identify who approached the committee or the exact date when the correspondence was received.

“We don’t go looking for things to criticize,” he said in an interview March 31. “It was only when it was brought to our attention and it was asked that the doctrine committee examine it that we did.”

The statement from the committee, chaired by Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington, indicated that the book was reviewed because Sister Elizabeth is a well-known theologian and that the book is aimed at a broad audience of general readers. The fact that it is used as a textbook in some theology classes at universities around the country also was a factor, the statement said.

In a statement released March 30, Sister Elizabeth said her book “endeavors to present new insights about God arising from people living out their Catholic faith in different cultures around the world.”

“My hope is that any conversation that may be triggered by this statement will but enrich that faith, encouraging robust relationship to the holy mystery of the living God as the church moves into the future,” she said.

Despite their criticism of the book, the bishops declined to take any disciplinary action against Sister Elizabeth as they have with other theologians who have been prohibited from publishing or teaching at Catholic institutions.

Sister Elizabeth also expressed concern that she was never invited to discuss the concerns that committee members had with the book. “This book was discussed and finally assessed by the committee before I knew any discussion had taken place,” she said.

The Fordham theologian said the committee’s conclusions “paint an incorrect picture of the fundamental line of thought the book develops.” The statement did not elaborate.

A conversation with the bishops about her intentions in the book “would have very likely avoided these misrepresentations,” she said.

“That being said, as a scholar I have always taken criticism as a valuable opportunity to delve more deeply into a subject. The task of theology, classically defined as ‘faith seeking understanding,’ calls for theologians to wrestle with mystery. The issues are always complex, especially on the frontiers where the church’s living tradition is growing. Committed to the faith of the church, I take this statement as an occasion to ponder yet further the mystery of the living God who is ineffable,” she said.

Sister Elizabeth added that she would welcome a conversation with the committee.

In developing their statement, members of the doctrine committee decided not seek a meeting with Sister Elizabeth to discuss their concerns, Father Weinandy told Catholic News Service.

“They felt it was self-evident in the book what she was saying and that it was wrong. The bishops felt it was expedient, since this book has become so popular, to act upon it immediately,” Father Weinandy said.

“The bishops felt that (meeting with her) would just prolong a process that they really didn’t want to prolong,” he added.

Cardinal Wuerl said in a statement that accompanied the committee’s findings that he would have preferred that Sister Elizabeth would have sought an imprimatur (“let it be printed”) that would have signified official permission to publish a book that touches on matters of Catholic faith or moral teaching.

“Although an imprimatur is not required for all books that treat sacred Scripture and theology, it is still a recommended practice,” he said. “By seeking an imprimatur, the author has the opportunity to engage in dialogue with the bishop concerning Catholic teaching expressed in the book. Thus, clarifications concerning the text can be made prior to its publication.

“It would have been helpful if Sister Elizabeth Johnson had taken advantage of this opportunity,” he said.

Cardinal Wuerl said the doctrine committee also welcomed the opportunity to discuss the book with Sister Elizabeth.

A member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood, N.Y., Sister Elizabeth is an accomplished theologian having published numerous works and lectured widely. She has been president of the Catholic Theological Society of America and the Ecumenical Theological Society and has been honored by numerous Catholic institutions with awards and honorary degrees. The book in question won a first-place award from the Catholic Press Association in the academic theology category.

The nine bishops on the committee raised seven concerns stemming from Sister Elizabeth’s book.

The first was that she misrepresented the traditional scriptural and Catholic understanding of God and offered instead “a thoroughgoing reinterpretation of the doctrine of God,” by questioning central beliefs of Catholic theology.

The bishops then said that Sister Elizabeth’s view of religious language was inadequate. She held that the language used in the Bible and the Christian tradition to speak of God can only be metaphorical because God is an incomprehensible mystery. However, the bishops maintained that while the faithful may not be able to comprehend fully the mystery of the one God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, it is possible to know that such is the case.

The bishops’ third point revolved around Sister Elizabeth’s discussion about whether God within his divine nature is able to suffer. Sister Elizabeth appeared to agree with those who say that God can and does suffer because of human failings. Such a view, the bishops maintained, undermined God’s transcendence. Sister Elizabeth, the statement said, incorrectly suggested that God is a being whose existence only different in degree and not in kind from that of created reality.

Fourth, the statement said Sister Elizabeth maintains that because all human language about God is metaphorical, that human names for God evolved out of a particular sociopolitical context. The bishops said that the theologian’s view does not take into account the authority of divine revelation and the biblical and traditional theological language used to speak of God.

The bishops’ fifth concern is that Sister Elizabeth’s work did not uphold the complete and definitive revelation of Jesus as Lord and Savior. She argued that the fullness of truth can only be acquired by taking into account non-Christian religions. In doing so, according to the statement, Sister Elizabeth “denies the uniqueness of Jesus as the Incarnate Word” and that for the “fullness of truth about God, “one needs Jesus + Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, etc.,” which is “contrary to church teaching.

The statement also cited Sister Elizabeth’s panentheistic view of God, which undermined the traditional understanding of God as “radically distinct from creation.”

Finally, the bishops said, the theologian “wishes to limit our understanding of God to the economy of salvation,” reducing the traditional understanding of God as three persons to mere symbolism. Such understanding undermined the Gospel and the church’s belief that Christ is God’s son, the statement said.

Copyright (c) 2011 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

WILMINGTON — When a visitor walks through the doors of the unit on the sixth floor of St. Francis Hospital, thearea doesn’t look or sound much different...]]> By Mike Lang, Staff reporter

Nurse Nana Soto brings a smile to the face of Anna Gural as her husband, John, looks on March 24 at Compassionate Care Hospice’s inpatient unit at St. Francis Hospital. (The Dialog/Don Blake)

WILMINGTON — When a visitor walks through the doors of the unit on the sixth floor of St. Francis Hospital, thearea doesn’t look or sound much different than any other part of the hospital. Concerned family members and friends gather in a waiting room while nurses and other staff go over information at a central station.

But this is no traditional hospital unit. It is Compassionate Care Hospice’s inpatient unit, which opened more than a year ago as the first hospice inpatient unit in a hospital in Delaware.

The unit provides care and treatment for up to 14 terminally ill hospice patients when their symptoms cannot be managed at home.

Since it opened, more than 500 patients have been treated at the unit, with the average length of stay from five to seven days, said Dr. Dan DePietropaolo, the hospice’s medical director.

Hospice is traditionally associated with home care, which Compassionate Care provides for nearly 300 patients in Delaware. The inpatient unit at St. Francis provides more aggressive medical treatment for hospice patients who develop symptoms such as pain, anxiety, shortness of breath, or nausea and vomiting. Patients are cared for by staff who specialize in hospice and palliative care, which emphasizes managing pain and other symptoms, communication, and coordinated care. Hospice nurses and aides provide around-the-clock care and a hospice doctor visits daily to get symptoms under control. Social workers, chaplains, and volunteers are on duty to help families.

Once the symptoms are under control, the patients return home for regular hospice care.

Reminders of home

Each room in the unit has a single bed and a pull-out sleeper chair, and families are encouraged to add personal touches like photographs.

Volunteer coordinator Lisa Novalany visits with John Gural outside his wife’s room.

“We try to make their room as much as we can like their room at home,” said Gina McCoy, a registered nurse who is Compassionate Care’s community liaison.

That was the goal when Compassionate Care opened the unit last January, said Tom Taylor, regional director. “I wanted it to feel as welcoming as the community — an area and an ambience that would feel homey and where they would feel secure.”

Sandy McCaa made her first visit to the unit in early March to see a friend, Lilyan Poggi, who was dying from cancer. McCaa was impressed with the feel of the rooms but it was the staff that really caught her attention.

“From what I’ve seen, they treat the patients almost like they’re a relative. They want to make sure they’re comfortable. They try not to move them unless it’s absolutely necessary,” she said.

Joyce Lennon is a grief counselor with Compassionate Care and has helped many families with their losses. In early March, however, she was the one receiving comfort as she spent time with Poggi, who was also her friend.

“The thing that’s really eye-opening to me is I spent the night here last night with my friend, and the staff was in there every hour,” Lennon said. “They sang to her, they prayed with her, they gave her her medicine, they made her comfortable. Even though they know me, they treated me with the respect and the love and the support that, when you have a friend dying, you need.”

The unit has no restrictions on visiting hours and no age limits on who may come in. Quality of life, McCoy said, “means having those people by your side.”

A small meditation room provides solitude; it includes a flag that draped the coffin of a veteran who was a patient. His son, who donated the flag, has volunteered at the hospice and is now serving with the military in Afghanistan, Taylor said. The unit also includes a common kitchen/dining room with two stoves, a refrigerator and four sets of tables and chairs, so families of different patients can provide support to one other, McCoy said.

The unit is like “one big house supporting each other,” Lennon said.

Survivor comes back to talk

Joe Buday has been a regular visitor on the unit almost since it opened. His wife, Sharon — known as “Irish” — died March 12 of last year, and Buday has been returning regularly for therapy sessions with the staff.

“I’m kind of still down and depressed. I recently lost my job, and that doesn’t help,” he said. “It’s just someone to hash things out with, and I really appreciate it.” Buday sometimes brings his dog, Roxie, along with him; the Pembroke Welsh Corgi is welcome on the unit.

The unit includes a kitchen/dining room for families.

Compassionate Care’s employees are not employees of St. Francis, but Taylor said an advantage of being in the hospital is that the hospice has embraced St. Francis’s mission to serve the local community. That made the two organizations a good fit in the first place. “From the very beginning … we talked about the blending of our missions, the mission of Compassionate Care. I think that’s what made us synergistic.”

McCoy hopes the presence of Compassionate Care educates and encourages hospital staff and patients about the benefits of hospice care. It is not, she said, about “giving up.”

“It is being realistic. It’s about walking alongside somebody through that journey.”

The 10 Ursuline sisters who live on the campus of Ursuline Academy in Wilmington are looking for new housing after deciding that their current convent is no longer...]]> Dialog report

The 10 Ursuline sisters who live on the campus of Ursuline Academy in Wilmington are looking for new housing after deciding that their current convent is no longer suitable for their aging community, the school has announced.

The sisters have lived in the convent on Pennsylvania Ave-nue in Wilmington since 1924. (Dialog file photo)

The sisters will continue to live in the convent on Pennsylvania Avenue while they look for new housing over the next 18months, Cathie Field Lloyd, president of Ursuline Academy, said in the school’s March newsletter.

“The sisters envision their move from the convent building on campus as enabling the academy to further develop its programs through the use of expanded space and facilities,” Lloyd said. The pre-K through 12th grade academy uses much of the first floor of the convent for music and visual arts programs.

The Ursulines’ role at the school will not change, Lloyd said; they will continue to serve on the board of trustees and Sister Betty McAdams will remain on the faculty. Most of the sisters are retired, though some are engaged in various active ministries in and around the city.

The Ursuline sisters have operated the academy in Wilmington since 1893; the property on Pennsylvania Avenue was donated to them in 1922 by financier John J. Raskob and the sisters moved in two years later.

Sister Maureen Welch, head of the Ursuline community in Wilmington, could not be reached for comment by press time Tuesday.

WASHINGTON — With the bulk of U.S. population growth coming among Hispanics, the Catholic Church must get out ahead in welcoming Latino newcomers...]]> By Patricia Zapor
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON — With the bulk of U.S. population growth coming among Hispanics, the Catholic Church must get out ahead in welcoming Latino newcomers or they will become involved in other institutions and activities instead, cautioned panelists at a conference on immigration and the church.

Some types of welcoming might include offering Mass in Spanish, creating an environment around parish property where immigrants without family will feel at home hanging around with friends there, or being able to rally support at Catholic universities for the DREAM Act, said Father Virgilio Elizondo, professor of pastoral and Hispanic theology at the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies.

“Immigrants bring with them a profound faith that God is with them,” he said at a daylong conference on the pastoral, policy and social implications of immigrants in the Catholic Church. “Yet many are not made welcome in our churches.”

Father Elizondo was among panelists at the March 21 event co-sponsored by The Catholic University of America and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Just a few days later, the Census Bureau released data from the 2010 census showing that one in six Americans is Hispanic, their largest percentage of the population to date, up by 43 percent in a decade.

And Latinos are a young demographic, making up 23 percent of the under-17 population, compared to 16 percent of the total U.S. population, according to the census. It showed that though most Latinos still live in just nine states as they have for generations — Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, New Mexico, New Jersey, New York and Texas — the Hispanic population more than doubled in nine others, primarily in the Southeastern region. Those include Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Maryland and South Dakota.

‘Real challenge’

The data affirmed what speakers at the conference said about the church needing to recognize that it has new members in places where Catholics have been a small part of the population.

Immigrants need help adjusting to their new home, learning English and figuring out paths to leadership in society and in the church, he said. From the parish office and pastoral staff through organizations like the Knights of Columbus, the various people and functions of the church need to consciously reach out to these newcomers, he added.

“Even if people walk out,” when a priest preaches about the need to welcome newcomers, as sometimes happens, said Father Elizondo, the church’s pastoral responsibility is to embrace those who may change the demographic face of a community.

“This is a moment of real challenge,” he said. In some places, that will mean confronting racist attitudes that people may not recognize in themselves, Father Elizondo said, adding that the current tone of political debate about immigration helps mask some people’s xenophobia in arguments such as “what part of illegal don’t you understand?”

In the same panel discussion, Timothy Meagher, associate history professor at Catholic University, explained that the only reason the Catholic Church in the United States is as large as it is today — about 25 percent of the population — is because of the massive immigration of poor, low-skilled people from Ireland, Italy and Germany in the 19th century.

Then, as now, many of those immigrants came because what is now called globalization undermined entire economies.

Poor farmers and artisans found themselves undermined by lower-cost agriculture and factories in other countries when railroads and steamships made it possible to send food and manufactured goods around the world, Meagher said. Much like today, those who were pushed out emigrated to the United States, where growth in low-skilled jobs offered them a chance to support their families

Data from the 2010 census affirmed that the church needs to recognize that it has new members in places where Catholics have been a small part of the population. CNS

‘U.S. Catholicism will be different’

Another panelist, Jesuit Father Alan Figueroa Deck, executive director of the USCCB’s Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church, said there is “no doubt this is a critical moment in the history of the church.” The church’s young people are no longer predominantly of European ancestry, he noted, adding that the church’s leadership, institutions and even the style of worship “must take this transformation into account.”

It’s because of recent immigration that the Catholic Church has become much more established in all parts of the country, he said, giving the example of North Carolina, where the Catholic population has doubled because of immigrants.

Although there’s been great progress in the past 60 years in developing leadership capability among Hispanic Catholics and ministries for them, Father Deck said much of the church doesn’t recognize that “U.S. Catholicism will be different” because its growth is coming from Hispanics.

For instance, the people involved in the charismatic renewal and Cursillo movements are primarily Hispanics and more than half of Hispanic Catholics say they have been influenced by the charismatic renewal movement, he said.

“This is a way of being Catholic that’s more celebratory and festive,” said Father Deck. Holding onto these Catholics will take evangelization that appreciates such culture, he said, and avoids trying to make people with different traditions fit into the “American” type of church. That runs the risk of driving these new generations not toward evangelical churches, but toward a secular attitude that doesn’t include any faith.

“We’re Americanizing people out the front door of the church,” he said.

Catholic News Service

PEORIA, Ill. — Father John J. Dietzen, the foremost question-and-answer columnist in the Catholic press for 35 years, died March 27 at OSF St. Francis...]]>

Father Dietzen sorts through letters from readers in the 1990s. The Catholic Post

Catholic News Service

PEORIA, Ill. — Father John J. Dietzen, the foremost question-and-answer columnist in the Catholic press for 35 years, died March 27 at OSF St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria. He was 83.

A priest of the Diocese of Peoria whose weekly “Question Corner” columns have appeared in papers including The Dialog since 1975 and were later compiled in book form, Father Dietzen had been hospitalized since suffering a heart attack March 6 at his Peoria residence.

Bishop Daniel R. Jenky of Peoria was to be principal celebrant of a funeral Mass at 11 a.m. March 31 at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Peoria. Burial will follow in St. Mary’s Cemetery, Peoria.

Father Dietzen served as associate editor of The Catholic Post, the newspaper of the Diocese of Peoria, from 1957 — when it was known as The Register — until 1973. He is a former board member and secretary of the Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada.

Following the Second Vatican Council, Father Dietzen in 1968 began a question-and-answer column in The Catholic Post called “The Question Box” to help readers understand the changes taking place in the church.

Letters began coming in on all aspects of Catholic life, ranging from marriage and family issues to ecumenism, Scripture, the sacraments and more. After the column was syndicated by CNS, Father Dietzen would regularly receive hundreds of questions each week.

The purpose of his column — and book compilations which followed, including “The New Question Box” first published by Guildhall in 1981 and the current 560-page “Catholic Q&A: All You Wanted to Know About Catholicism” (Crossroad) — was to help readers “recognize how our Catholic faith, in all its living expressions of worship, faith and service, can enhance (our) intimacy with God,” Father Dietzen wrote in 1997.

“What is very moving and inspiring is the desire that so many people, good people, have to grow in their faith and understanding, to grow in their grasp of their movements with God and prayer,” Father Dietzen said in an interview with the Catholic New World, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Chicago, in 2000. “They’re really wanting to become more intimate in their spiritual lives, with each other, with God, and that surfaces so much.

‘Most popular’

Father Dietzen has for years been “the most popular and widely circulated columnist in the stable of Catholic News Service,” said Tony Spence, director and editor-in-chief.

“His great and enduring talent was his pastoral response to the thousands of reader questions he answered over the years,” said Spence. “He never compromised the church’s teachings and always encouraged his readers to look to their parishes and the sacraments for solace. He never forgot that, at the end of the day, it was a human being who put a question in his box and that person required a human answer.”

Gwendolin Herder, publisher at Crossroad, called Father Dietzen “truly a unique author” who “understood that the teachings of the Catholic faith were not merely to be memorized but celebrated as a rich treasure to guide and sustain our lives.”

“What many may not know about Father Dietzen is that he was also a joyful professional,” she added. “He brought a rare combination of commitment and a sense of humor, and we believe this outlook played, and continues to play, a large role in people’s enthusiasm for his work. We will miss his boundless curiosity, energy and infectious love for the people of the church.”

In addition to his question-and-answer compilations, Father Dietzen also was author of two other books: “With Heart and Hand: A Guide to Personal Prayer for the Modern Catholic,” published in 1966, and “Doors of Hope: Paths for Renewal in the Catholic Church” (Templegate, 2009).

Born in Danville on Aug. 19, 1927, to John W. and Margaret (Leven) Dietzen, he attended St. Joseph’s Grade School and Danville High School. After two years at St. Bede College in Peru, Ill., he explored the field of radio and television broadcasting for a time before completing his studies for the priesthood at St. Mary of the Lake Seminary in Mundelein, from which he earned a master’s degree in English and bachelor’s and licentiate degrees in sacred theology.

He was ordained to the priesthood June 6, 1954, by Bishop William E. Cousins at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Peoria.

A former parochial vicar at St. Mary’s Cathedral Parish in Peoria, he served as pastor of St. Mark’s Parish, Peoria, from 1973 to 1983, and of Holy Trinity Parish, Bloomington, from 1983 until being granted senior priest status in 1998

Family-life activities

Father Dietzen also was a pioneer in the areas of pro-life and family life. While with the diocesan newspaper, he served as diocesan director of family life programs, introducing and coordinating new programs such as Cana nights for married couples, pre-Cana for engaged couples and Beginning Experience for the divorced, widowed and separated.

He was founding chairman of the diocese’s Respect Life Board, which oversaw the establishment of the Family Resources Center in 1980, a free-loan library in downtown Peoria offering thousands of books and films to teach reverence for life in all its stages.

A retreat master, teacher, lecturer and participant in ecumenical dialogue, Father Dietzen had been episcopal vicar for senior clergy of the Diocese of Peoria since 2002.

He is survived by a brother, Donald, of Danville; a sister, Holy Cross Sister John Margaret Dietzen of Notre Dame, Ind.; and many nieces and nephews.

WILMINGTON — It was an 18th birthday Olivia Cusack might never forget.

A smile crossed her face and she danced a bit when she...]]> By Mike Lang
Staff reporter

Tina Lake (left), Laura Kelly and Geoff Steggell are introduced to the crowd at St. Mark’s High School last Friday at the start of the annual fashion show. Each of the “buddies” in the school’s friendship program dressed up and was recognized. The Dialog/Don Blake

WILMINGTON — It was an 18th birthday Olivia Cusack might never forget.

A smile crossed her face and she danced a bit when she was introduced to the full house at the Blue-Gold Fashion Show last Friday night at St. Mark’s High School. Olivia and several friends were all dressed up for the annual event that raises funds and awareness for the Delaware Foundation Reaching Citizens with Intellectual Disabilities (DFRC).

“I’ve never seen her so excited,” said Olivia’s mother, Libby, a 1984 St. Mark’s graduate. “She’s been looking forward to this all month.”

Olivia was born with a rare brain malformation and sometimes suffers seizures, her mother said. This was her second year participating in the fashion show and her 10th year as part of DFRC’s friendship or “buddy” program, which teams clients with high school students for activities throughout the year.

St. Mark’s was the first high school in the country to organize the buddy program, the first in Delaware with a Blue-Gold Club, which began in 1983. This week has been Blue-Gold Week at the school, kicking off with the 25th annual fashion show, a two-night event that gave about 100 students, along with some of the buddies and the event’s moderators, a chance to strut their stuff on stage in the school auditorium.

The observance has continued this week with basketball, pingpong and volleyball tournaments, and tonight is soccer’s turn. The week culminates with a dance tomorrow night; this year’s theme is “Grease.”

Yearlong effort

Blue-Gold Week is part of an endeavor that lasts the entire school year at St. Mark’s. The students involved in the friendship program participated in a kickoff picnic, Halloween party, Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas/New Year’s party and Valentine’s Day party. The year will end with an ice cream social. That’s where senior Amanda Walsh met her buddy, Kristen Hanifee, as a sophomore.

“Right when I met her was when I knew that I wanted to do this for the rest of my high school career,” Walsh said. “I think the thing that inspires me the most about our buddies is that they’re so down-to-earth. They love life. You’ll never see one of our buddies unhappy. They’re the happiest people I know.”

The buddy program is limited to upperclassmen, but freshmen and sophomores are encouraged to get involved. At the Blue-Gold Week events they help set up and clean up and work the concession stand.

“We need every single person for this to work,” said Walsh, whose buddy for DFRC’s statewide flagship event, June’s Blue-Gold football game, will be Olivia Cusack. Walsh will attend as an ambassador for her school.

Walsh is the executive chair of St. Mark’s Blue-Gold Club this year and says the club is one of the most popular activities at the school. She is supported by four vice chairs and a large leadership team that plans and executes the activities.

The experience has taught her a lot about time management as well as helping other people.

“We’ve really figured out how to work together as an organization, as a team. It just teaches you so much about life in general,” she said.

A primary function is fund raising for DFRC. “We’ve donated close to $500,000 in the past 20 years,” said Diane Kuczmarski, one of three moderators of the St. Mark’s club. The club also gives money to the St. Mark’s Blue-Gold Scholarship Fund.

Each of the teams in the sports tournaments paid a fee to enter, said Patrice Soares, another moderator. Those funds, along with whatever is raised through concession sales, will go to DFRC or to the scholarship fund.

‘It’s about how we treat each other’

More important than fund raising is changing attitudes, said Tony Glenn, executive director of DFRC.

“It’s not even about fund raising. It’s about how we treat each other, how we see each other as a gift, and how sacred each life is. And nobody does it better than the folks here at St. Mark’s,” he said.

Glenn was a physical education teacher at St. Mark’s and a member of the statewide Blue-Gold Committee in 1983 when he told his students the committee was looking for ways to expand into the high schools. They reacted with enthusiasm and established the first school club in Delaware. Today, he said, more than 50 such clubs exist in the state. He credits high school students with “literally changing consciousness, the way we look at each other. We don’t see disability any more, we see the great gift of the person and the abilities of the person.”

Many of the students who get involved expect that they are going to change someone’s life, Soares said, but it’s often the other way around. “I think it’s surprising for a lot of the students.”

Walsh agreed. “I think it stays with people a long time after they leave St. Mark’s. It’s been such an amazing experience. I can’t imagine how I would view my life and how I would view life in general if I hadn’t done this.”