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Forming our conscience

With the presidential election right around the corner, Catholics are called to evaluate candidates and policies through the lens of the Gospel

Knowing our elected officials and the candidates is only a small part in fulfilling our duty to be a faithful citizen. Elections are not only about who is pursuing which office, elections are largely about issues. As Catholics we have a duty to be a faithful citizen by considering the issues from a Catholic perspective. To help guide Catholics in evaluating how issues intersect with Catholic social teaching, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has published a document called, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” (www.faithfulcitizenship.org).

Table of Contents

Search for truth led her to religious life

The fascination with a search for truth was the reason Margaret Lekan knocked at the Dominican Sisters’ convent door one day in 1995 in Krakow, Poland. This search led her to later become Sister Margaret.

Since that time, she has studied theology at the Catholic University of Lublin in Poland, then at Gannon University in Pennsylvania, where she was sent by the Dominican Order. After finishing the first semester there, Lekan transferred to Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, where she finished both her bachelor’s and master’s degree in theology.

A man, a horse and a conversion

With the launching of the Pauline Year for St. Paul’s 2,000th birthday, many works of art depicting the Apostle’s life are coming out of storage.

These paintings, mosaics and sculptures rarely present what Paul called “my former life in Judaism.” Artists prefer the drama that begins with the stoning of Stephen. Paul never forgot that he was “a persecutor and a blasphemer and a man of arrogance” who had received mercy. “I persecuted the Church of God” is a comment we find St. Paul mentioning again and again in the Acts of the Apostles and in his own letters.

First Catholic men’s conference set for Sept. 6

Throughout our country, Catholic men have been gathering for conventions in Boston, Cincinnati, St. Louis along with men’s events in other major dioceses and archdioceses. On Sept. 6 at the Daniel Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, the Archdiocese of Chicago will join these efforts to provide Catholic men with an opportunity to grow in their faith, to unite with other Catholic men and to renew the vitality of their vocations as husbands, fathers and single Catholic men.

‘Sister Stat Sheets’ — Here she goes again! Sister of Providence Jean Kenny begins sensing football season shortly after 4th of July. She teaches, she prays, and then she studies her game plan for predicting the scores. As optimistic as a giddy Cubs fan, she believes “The Chicago Bears will win at least eight games this season.” Sister has three tickets for the sold-out first Sunday night game in brand new Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on Sept. 7.

Once upon a time, I was always doing things with my kids. Playing with them, running alongside their bikes as they learned to stay up on two wheels, even holding them on my lap in the dentist’s chair.

Now I seem to spend a lot of my time waiting for them.

That thought crossed my mind as I waited for them at the dentist’s office on an August morning.

When Caroline went to get her teeth cleaned the first time, she sat in my lap. We progressed to handholding, and then to lingering in the exam area, always in eye contact. Now my involvement is limited to filling out forms, receiving the dentist’s report at the end (no cavities, praise God) and paying the bill. Oh, and driving them there.

When Vicki Thorn started Project Rachel in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in 1984, no one else was talking about helping women heal after they had abortions. Now in dioceses around the country and the world, Project Rachel —a post-abortion healing ministry — has helped thousands of women. Thorn is now founder and executive director of the National Office for Post-Abortion Reconciliation and Healing, which networks with care providers and organizations that assist people affected by abortion.

The office is organizing the “Reclaiming Fatherhood” conference Sept. 8-9 at the Marriott Hotel in Oak Brook. The conference is sponsored by the Knights of Columbus and the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Office for Evangelization. A similar conference in San Francisco drew about 175 people last year.

Thorn discussed the effect abortion has on men in a telephone and e-mail interview with assistant editor Michelle Martin.