Catholic New World - Newspaper for the Archdiocese of Chicago

Appeal supports schools, parishes, ministries

Annual drive kicks off Feb. 4-5 in parishes across archdiocese

The Annual Catholic Appeal posted record numbers for its 2011 campaign, receiving more than $21 million in pledges from 97,500 donors.

“I think people really get it,” said Barbara Shea Collins, director of development services/Annual Catholic Appeal. “They know these ministries are necessary, and they know that so many people can’t support it like maybe they used to, so they are going to give what they can.”

Table of Contents

Schools in city see increase in enrollment

Catholic schools in the city of Chicago are celebrating the news that for two years in a row, enrollment has gone up. That’s the first time that has happened since 1965.

It might be too early to say Catholic schools have turned a corner, but Catholic schools superintendent Sister M. Paul Mc- Caughey is optimistic that efforts to promote the schools while keeping them on a sound financial footing will pay off.

High school students embrace life issues through clubs

Before this year, Pat Harrington said, he was like many of his classmates at St. Patrick High School when it came to life issues.

Youth presence awesome at annual March for Life

When Kelsey DiPietro helped to start a chapter of Students for Life at the University of Illinois-Chicago in November she knew that attending the March for Life in Washington, D.C., was a must.

Haiti rebuilding two years after quake

It is now more than two years since the 35-second, 7.0-magnitude earthquake in Haiti took the lives of roughly 230,000 people and left about 2 million homeless.

Film shows our misunderstanding of love

The Descendants” is all about cuckolded husband Matt King (George Clooney). Except his wife is in a coma when he finds out. Matt must choose how he will now feel about his wife (he can’t deal with her), and how he will deal with her lover. It’s a story of the choices surrounding forgiveness. Who will we forgive? When? How? Why?

Jesuit volunteers show faith in action

At Christ the King Jesuit College Preparatory School, 5088 W. Jackson Blvd., Daniel Zundel is practicing precisely what he preaches.

Send us your sports stuff

The Catholic New World is looking for sports-related news and information from our Catholic schools to fill our new sports page.

Send us your news bits and photos for consideration to Catholic New World Sports, 3525 Lake Park Ave., Chicago, IL 60653 or editorial@catholicnewworld.com. Photos should be in .jpg format and 350 dpi resolution.

And then follow this sports coverage at www.catholicnewworld.com/sports/.

Voices of Experience — A year ago seminarian Kyle M. Lee, a first-year theology student at Mundelein, learned of the 1956 misadventures of the arch’s Bishop Raymond Goedert, Msgr. John Dolciamore and Father Richard Wojcik. They were just young curates at the time, returning from classes in Rome on the Italian liner, Andrea Doria, when it collided with another vessel and sank in mid-ocean. Lee has spent months working on and praying over an oral history project he initiated to record the experiences of the trio for future generations.
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Sometimes it seems like all I do is say no. No, you can’t stay up until midnight. No, you can’t eat that right now. No, you can’t climb on the cabinets.

So it was a little strange to me that Teresa learned to say “yes” weeks before she said “no.”
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He is: Father Thomas Refermat, pastor of St. John Vianney Parish in Northlake. Served at St. Gilbert’s Grayslake and at St. Cornelius in Chicago. Ordained at Mundelein Seminary in 1994.
Youth: He attended Queen of Martyrs School in Evergreen Park, Marist High School then Niles College Seminary. Has one sister. Dad was a pipe fitter for U.S. Steel and Mom a homemaker.
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