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a column of benevolent gossip

• Lent’s white flag —

  “What are you giving up?” is the question going ’round these 40 days. According to Paddy Power, Ireland’s largest bookmaker, here are the odds on popular Lenten penances: chocolate is the 11/8 favorite folly Catholics will “give up,” followed by red meat and alcohol. New on the list are Twitter and Facebook, the 10/1 favorites folks say they’ll avoid. Mobile phone abstinence is a toughie at 33/1, just behind iPods. (“Not betting” is ninth on the list of the 14 most popular Irish penances.)
  
  Pope Benedict XVI, on the other hand, is aiming for “concrete charity” during Lent. He visited a homeless shelter recently and greeted Rome’s poor. Church Clips wants to know what unique Lenten ideas readers are working on. Find Clips contact info below, and please include your name and parish.

• Old home week —

  The sacrament of confirmation was celebrated at St. Francis of Assisi (Orland Park) by Bishop Francis Kane on Feb. 13. Pastor Father Edward Upton, Deacon Joe Truesdale and the bishop were once students together at Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary.

• ‘Miracles’ today —

  An orthopedic surgeon in Britain used a man’s own bone marrow stem cells mixed with a collagen paste to repair his fractured leg. The man broke his leg in five places while rock climbing. After three operations, the bones still weren’t setting and the wound became infected. Doctors said he was likely to lose his leg. Then they mixed his adults stem cells and Cartifill, and caulked the fractures with the paste. Next the leg was fixed in a metal cage to gently squeeze the bones together. Six months later, his leg can hold weight and the fractures are healing.

• Black History Month —

  Carter G. Woodson, known as the “Father of Black History” is quoted as saying: “We should emphasize not Negro History, but the Negro in history. What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world void of national bias, race, hate and religious prejudice.” [from St. Dorothy Parish (S. Eberhard) bulletin].

• Spring around the corner? —

  Father Ken Fleck, pastor of St. George (Tinley Park) is planning a greenhouse or “experiential lab” on their church property for interested students and adults. Right now he’s signing up parishioners who can help with stages from initial design to finished product, tending the plants or working with the children. He calls it “Seeds of Faith” because it’ll teach kids about the earth’s blessings, the work of their hands and they’ll have a chance to grow veggies for families and the Tinley Park Food Pantry.

• Something different —

  Serious music lovers are praising “The Small Hours,”
  A new album of William Ferris.
  melodies of the late William Ferris for soprano and baritone solo voices with piano accompaniment. These original songs are inspired by the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay, Dorothy Parker and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. It is $15 + shipping from (773) 325-2000. The William Ferris Chorale will perform Faure’s “Requiem” at Loyola’s Madonna della Strada Chapel at 7:30 p.m. March 13. Then on Sunday afternoon, March 14, their concert site will be St. Cletus Church (LaGrange).

• Ahoy! —

  Irish-American inventor John Philip Holland from County Clare, “father of the modern submarine,” was born Feb. 29, 1840. He taught with the Irish Christian Brothers, his former teachers, for a time, but came to America in 1873. His first sub, the “Fenian Ram,” (hoping it could someday be used against the British), is in a museum today in Patterson, N.J. In 1900, the U.S. Navy purchased his sixth design, which was christened the U.S.S. Holland, our first submarine.

• Marking milestones —

  Sister Francis Webster, the oldest living Medical Mission Sister, turned 99 Jan. 22. She’s an alum of St. Gertrude’s (N. Glenwood) and Immaculata High, class of ’28. A medical doctor and public health specialist, Sister ministered stateside as well as in India, at a Leprosarium in Ghana for 10 years, in Rome, Kenya and since the late 1980s, in Philadelphia, where she lives with other senior sisters.
  

Send your benevolent gossip to Church Clips, Catholic New World, P.O. Box 1979, Chicago, IL 60690-1979; or e-mail to dmadlener@catholicnewworld.com.