People

New leader for men's orders sketches hopes and fears

Capuchin Fr. John Pavlik was appointed on June 7 as the new executive director of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, which brings together leaders of more than 200 men’s religious orders in the United States. A native of Western Pennsylvania whose background is in formation and provincial leadership, Pavlik probably didn’t need convincing that his new gig is likely to be complicated -- but proof came anyway, in spades, just six days later.
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Jesus would laugh at a lot, says Colbert's 'chaplain'

By Josef Kuhn, Religion News Service
WASHINGTON -- Three priests -- a Dominican, a Franciscan and a Jesuit -- walk into a bar. According to the Rev. James Martin, it's not only the opening to a good joke, but quite possibly the saving grace of religion. Martin's new book, "Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor, and Laughter Are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life," says religious people would be a lot happier -- and holier -- if they lightened up and took themselves a little less seriously. "Joy, as a number of spiritual writers have said, is the surest sign of the Holy Spirit," the Jesuit priest said at a recent gig at Georgetown University. But, he continued, "there are certain Roman Catholics who seem to think that being religious means being deadly serious all the time." Martin, culture editor of the Jesuit magazine America and the unofficial chaplain to Comedy Central's "Colbert Report," is, well, wickedly funny.
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India provides perspective and grace

Away and back again
I spent most of August traveling through northern India with my youngest son, my brother and his family, the trip made possible by a donation from a generous friend who, like me, is an Indiaphile. My father, a cultural affairs officer with the United States Information Agency, was first assigned to India in 1962 and my family lived there for a total of seven years, in the absurdly privileged existence then available to American diplomats. I have returned three times since and remain addicted to the place of my early childhood.
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Active, inactive priests reconnect

Re-bonding comes naturally in order's AMICI group
Many priests who’ve left their active ministries -- some to marry, others to find new professions -- have carried pain within them, often for many years. For some, it has involved guilt; for others, sadness in the face of rejection by the official church. In some cases, the misuse of a simple adjective can add to the hurt, for the person -- or wider church community.
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Irish priest is the latest Catholic ecological voice

Feb. 22, 2012
By Arthur Jones
Columban Fr. Seán McDonagh (Margie Jones)

NAVAN, IRELAND -- There was a priest in America that Columban Fr. Seán McDonagh needed to see. McDonagh, recalled to the monastery in Navan, County Meath, Ireland, after several years in the Philippines, had himself routed through New York. It was 1980. Sent as a missionary to Mindanao in 1972, McDonagh had developed reforestation and land-use projects with the T’boli people. Standing up to the money interests was risky; a Passionist priest colleague, Carl Schmitt, had already been murdered “up in the mountains.”

Shift to laity sparks formation needs

Program seeks to preserve Catholic vision in health care under lay leadership

Feb. 21, 2012
By Alice Popovici

Nearly every month, supervisors, executives and others in positions of leadership at Avera Health System come together to reflect on the Catholic tradition of the businesses where they work. They remember the stories of the health system’s founders, the Benedictine and Presentation Sisters, who around the turn of the 19th century began caring for the sick and poor in what was then Dakota Territory, but they also talk about everyday routine in the more than 300 health care facilities the system now runs throughout the Great Plains. They talk about Catholic social teaching, and what it means to care for the patient as a whole, and they praise colleagues who do good work. Mostly, they try to keep alive the link between present and past.

Pax Christi pays tribute to Berrigan in NY

Feb. 20, 2012
By Patricia Lefevere
Jesuit Fr. Daniel Berrigan (Patricia Lefevere)

NEW YORK -- The man who for decades has stood against the powers that be needed the arm of his niece Frida Berrigan to steady him in the front-row pew of the Church of St. Joseph in Greenwich Village, and he needed help from sister-in-law Elizabeth McAlister to get to the pulpit, but once there, the power of his words filled the assembly.

Sainthood for Filipino catechist highlights evangelization, role of laity

Feb. 20, 2012
By N.J. Viehland
Blessed Pedro Calungsod (Courtesy of the Archdiocese of Cebu )

MANILA -- This weekend's announcement of the October canonization of Blessed Pedro Calungsod has delighted Filipino Catholics, especially those in the Cebu province, and has driven its archbishop to work for a celebration that would be as meaningful as it is joyful.

Lasallian head finds hope in young people

Feb. 17, 2012
By Joshua J. McElwee
Lasallian Br. Álvaro Rodríguez Echeverría visits with seventh-graders at the San Miguel School of Washington, D.C., Nov. 7.

You might call Br. Álvaro Rodríguez Echeverría the superintendent of the superintendents.

The global head of the De La Salle Christian Brothers, Rodríguez is responsible for a religious congregation that oversees more than 1,000 teaching establishments in 82 countries, where about a million students are educated.

Lawmakers in Washington state pass bill legalizing same-sex marriage

Feb. 10, 2012
By Catholic News Service
Members of the Knights of Columbus protest outside the capitol in Olympia, Wash., to protest a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage in the state. The House passed the measure that day and the Senate approved it Feb. 1. It now it goes on to Gov. Chris Gregoire for her signature. (CNS photo/Robert Sorbo, Reuters)

SEATTLE -- Members of the House of Representatives in Washington state voted Feb. 8 to legalize same-sex marriage, and Gov. Christine Gregoire was expected to sign the bill into law by mid-February.

The vote came one day after a federal appeals court in California struck down that state's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage.

In Washington, the legislation passed with a 56-42 vote in the House. On Feb. 1, the state Senate approved it 28-21.

Once it becomes law, Washington will be the seventh state in the nation, along with the District of Columbia, where same-sex marriage is legal.

Several Republicans in the House argued against the bill, saying that it went against the tradition of marriage.

In Jan. 23 testimony before a Senate committee, Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain urged lawmakers to oppose the measure "based on the grave challenge this legislation poses to the common good. By attempting to redefine marriage, it ignores the origin, purpose and value of marriage to individuals, families and society."

As warden, she oversaw executions; now she fights to stop them

Feb. 08, 2012
By Jacqueline Gilvard Landry
Jeanne Woodford

OAKLAND, CALIF. -- The woman who oversaw four executions by lethal injection is fighting to make sure it never happens again.

Jeanne Woodford served as warden of San Quentin State Prison in California from 1999 through 2004. Now she is the chief law enforcement spokesperson for SAFE California, a ballot initiative that would replace the state’s death penalty with life in prison without parole, require inmates to pay into a victims’ compensation fund, and allocate $100 million over three years to solving crime.

Catholics silent on football risks

While studies raise alarm about long-term effects of repeated blows to head, there is little discussion of ethics

Feb. 03, 2012
By Ken Briggs
The Ironmen of Don Bosco Preparatory High School in Ramsey, N.J., play football Nov. 24 against the Green Knights of St. Joseph Regional High School in Montvale, N.J. (Newscom/Icon SMI/Tyler Kaufman)

Growing scientific evidence that football players can suffer permanent mental disease has so far stirred no broad discussion among Catholic colleges and high schools or national church organizations about the ethics of continuing to sponsor the game.

Study: Black Catholics are more engaged

Feb. 02, 2012
By Jerry Filteau
Charlene Ward and her daughter Arym sing in the choir during Sunday Mass at St. Leo Catholic Church in Detroit Dec. 18. (CNS/Reuters/Mark Blinch)

A major new study of African-American Catholics has found that on average they are more religiously engaged than their white Catholic counterparts. They are also better-educated and more economically successful than their African-American Protestant counterparts.

On some educational and socioeconomic scales they exceed or rank equal in achievement with white Protestants, although they still rank below white Catholics.

Cardinal Bevilacqua, retired Philadelphia archbishop, dies at age 88

Feb. 01, 2012
By Catholic News Service
Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua addresses the congregation during the installation of his successor -- then Cardinal-designate Justin Rigali -- as archbishop of Philadelphia on Oct. 7, 2003. Cardinal Bevilacqua died Jan. 31 at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia. He was 88. (CNS photo/Nancy Wiechec)

PHILADELPHIA -- Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua, retired archbishop of Philadelphia, died Jan. 31 at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, where he resided.

According to the Philadelphia Archdiocese, he died in his sleep at 9:15 p.m. He was 88. The archdiocese said he had been battling dementia and an undisclosed form of cancer.

Cardinal Bevilacqua headed the archdiocese from February 1988 to October 2003.