Chicago man attends Mass at 365 parishes around the world in 365 days

CHICAGO – David Heimann’s dream was to spend 365 days in 365 different places, each destination a new opportunity to experience Christ made flesh in our world today.

“Forget about it,” his spiritual director told him. “If you can forget about it, then it was nothing, but if it keeps coming back to your heart, then it is something of the Spirit, and we need to pay attention to it.”

He could not forget.

Mr. Heimann, 33, pastoral associate of St. Ignatius in Chicago, has since made his dream a reality, having visited 365 different parishes around the globe in 2007 for daily Mass, with the support of Ad Sodalitatem, a group dedicated to “evoking solidarity in the Roman through prayer, education and development of the poor by building personal relationships with Christians throughout the world.”

“I abandoned everything I knew,” Mr. Heimann wrote in the blog he kept up each day of his travels. “I left my fishing nets at the boat. I followed.”

Every day, he began with the same simple prayer: “Lord, lead me where you need me to go and show me what you need me to see.” And every day he felt his prayer was answered.

On his pilgrimage, Mr. Heimann came to realize that true holiness comes from the miracle of Christ’s body in the Eucharist, wherever it is celebrated.

“The beauty of the Eucharist is not in how much gold is around our tabernacles but how we have surrounded our hearts with the sanctuary of love we experience in the Eucharist,” he said. It was in this love that he found the consistent comfort of Christ’s presence throughout such constant change.

“The Eucharist was the center of the experience – even when I felt lost and abandoned, I always understood the Eucharist,” Mr. Heimann said. “You can go to a poor village in Zimbabwe and still experience the same love. It was always there.”

Mr. Heimann said he now better understands “the mystery of the church as being one body yet diverse in its members.”

“The Eastern church has a heart to the church, and the European and American have an intellect,” Mr. Heimann said. “Africans have the soul of the church. The has a certain passion, almost like the blood of the church, and together they make a whole.”

It was amid these diverse cultures that Mr. Heimann came across a different type of abandonment.

“I wish I could show people how their fellow Christians are begging for recognition and divinity, but they feel forgotten and abandoned,” he said. “I wish I could show people that because they live in a Third World country they’re not lacking in faith, but in fact they are abundant in it – they have so little, yet they have so much more faith than us with so much privilege.”

Mr. Heimann now realizes that, more than a physical journey, it is the spiritual journey that counts.

“America doesn’t do pilgrimage because we think we’ve already arrived,” he said. “We think this is the Holy Land. In doing so we’ve lost that sense that there’s another journey that we must make, one to the center that lives in the heart of every human being. This discipline of being a pilgrim is recognizing that our ultimate home is not here – our ultimate home is in heaven.”

Mr. Heimann’s travel blog and photos from his pilgrimage are online at: www.adsodalitatem.org. Vocations, vocations, vocations!

In his commentary on the Scriptures for the fifth Sunday of Easter, Father Daniel Harrington, S.J., offers the following: “Philip’s request to Jesus (‘Show us the Father and that will be enough for us’) is the occasion for Jesus to express the central and most profound insight in all of John’s Gospel: ‘Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.’ John’s central message is that Jesus is both the revealer and the revelation of God. If we wish to know who God is, what God thinks and what God wants of us, we must attend to Jesus, the Word of God.”

Closing his column in that issue of America magazine, Father Harrington writes: “Keeping alive the memory of Jesus is the task of every Christian and of the church as a whole. If we really believe that Jesus is the way and the truth and the life, then we will find fresh and creative ways to keep alive his memory. If we really believe that whoever has seen and heard Jesus has seen and heard the Father, then keeping alive Jesus’ memory is the noblest and most important task that any of us can take up and carry out.”

Wow! What power in a few words, and what clarity about the importance of vocations. Keeping alive the memory of Jesus is the most important thing any of us can do with our lives.

Not long after reading that commentary, I read Father Ed Miller’s “Pastor’s Page” in St. Bernardine’s weekly bulletin. Here is part of what Father Miller said: “This weekend’s shepherding theme also reminds us of the need we have in our Catholic Church for shepherds, priests. Encourage our young men, share with them how proud you would be of them if they were to hear and answer the Lord’s call to priestly service. Pray for them, talk with them, encourage them and support them. I know that you feel that my life has been of value as a priest. Can’t your sons and grandsons know the same peace and joy that I have known, in loving service of God’s people, as God’s priest? I have been doing this for 37 years this May 15 (33 of them right here!), and I am still having a lot of fun. I would not trade one day of priesthood for anything – even the rough days, although I sure might wish they had not occurred! But who doesn’t have some rough days? Let’s promote and encourage vocations to the priesthood, diaconate, sisterhood and brotherhood.”

Father Harrington shows the central importance of a life lived for Jesus. Father Miller shows such a life so well lived. Finally, I want to share the words of another witness, Cardinal Avery Dulles, writing in the April 21 issue of America.

Cardinal Dulles writes: “Already as a college undergraduate 70 years ago, I felt the oppressive nature of a culture that had no place for objective moral norms and meaning. I was desperate for enlightenment about whether there was anything worth living for and worth dying for.

“As I mentioned earlier, I entered college in a quagmire of confusion about whether life and the universe could make sense at all. I was conscious of the emptiness of a selfish life based on the pursuit of happiness. Happiness, I gradually came to see, is the reward given for holding fast to what is truly good and important. To some extent, the philosophers of antiquity identified these goals. But Christian revelation brought a tremendous increase of light. God alone, I learned from the New Testament, was good and true in an unqualified sense. And the same God in all his beauty and majesty became one of our human family in Jesus Christ, the truth, the way and the life. The most important thing about my career, and many of yours, I feel sure, is the discovery of the pearl of great price, the treasure hidden in the field, the Lord Jesus himself.”

Later in the column, echoing Father Miller’s sentiments, Cardinal Dulles writes: “I often feel that there is no one on earth with whom I would want to exchange places. It has been a special privilege to serve in the , a religious community specially dedicated to the savior of the world.”

Talk to the young people in your life about a life of service to God. Share this column if you think it will help. After nearly four decades, New Cemetery employee to retire

For Anne Lucido, the complexities of life and death are part of the job – literally.

The St. Agnes, Catonsville, parishioner has worked at New Cathedral Cemetery in for 37 years.

People in need can find Mrs. Lucido sitting behind an outdated metal desk in a converted farmhouse, which is through the cemetery gates and to the left.

An IMB Correcting Typewriter is nearby, and the 79-year-old still takes notes in shorthand.

“It was not an easy beginning at the cemetery,” recalled Mrs. Lucido, who is preparing to retire in June.

A twinkle in her eyes, she said that the staff at the time consisted of “three grumpy men.”

She said she proved to the men that she was there to stay, lifting books out of the vault, handling office work and counseling the bereaved when necessary.

Mrs. Lucido has had several roles at the cemetery, including secretary and bookkeeper, as well as her current position of business manager. In 37 years on the job, she missed only 13 days of work.

She said she is “thankful to God for good health.”

While some might consider it a challenge to work at a cemetery, Mrs. Lucido considers her work to be “different” rather than difficult.

From her office, Mrs. Lucido looks to the brightly flowered entrance for moments of reflection. She may walk outside and stand on one of the higher points in the cemetery, where in the distance the Key Bridge and the tall buildings in downtown Baltimore are visible.

Mrs. Lucido is well-versed on the rich history of the cemetery.

The population of 125,000 resting amid the rolling hills includes the humble, the notable and the forgotten. Mrs. Lucido knows almost each by name and location. The land off of Old Frederick Road was purchased for Bonnie Brae (beautiful slope) in 1869 and was later named the New Cathedral Cemetery.

Although petite in stature, Mrs. Lucido has an enormous spirit when it comes to compassion. In shopping bags under her desk, she stores the dozens of cards and thank-you notes she has received over the years.

“You have to like people to work at a cemetery,” she said.

Although excited about retirement, Mrs. Lucido whispered, “I want to continue working, but as a volunteer.”

On June 30, she will cover her typewriter for the last time and say goodbye to her office before starting what she hopes is a new career as a volunteer.

Mount St. Mary’s graduates 200th class

EMMITSBURG – Holding her black graduation cap in one hand and gently dabbing a tissue to her eyes to stave off an allergy attack, Lola Jemibewon was filled with mixed emotions as she stood in line waiting for her May 11 graduation procession to begin at Mount St. Mary’s University.

The 21-year-old parishioner of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Ellicott City was elated to finish her undergraduate degree in international studies and Spanish, but sad to leave a place she described as a community like no other.

“It still hasn’t hit me,” said Ms. Jemibewon, who plans to teach English in Asia. “This is literally a place where everyone says hi to you. Even the dean knows everyone by name. There’s nowhere else like it.”

Dr. Thomas H. Powell, Mount St. Mary’s president, conferred undergraduate degrees on Ms. Jemibewon and 375 other students inside a packed Knott Arena during the university’s bicentennial commencement exercises.

Parents and friends snapped photos, waved and shouted out the names of their loved ones as the smiling students entered the gym while the Mount St. Mary’s University Band played “Pomp and Circumstance.”

Like Ms. Jemibewon, many of the students expressed deep affection for their small, tight-knit university as it celebrates its 200th year. Their prayers were also with the family of Dustin Michael Bauer, a senior who died in March after falling on campus. The graduates wore golden pins with angel wings and the initials DMB in his honor.

In his commencement address, Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien praised Mount St. Mary’s for remaining true to its Catholic identity and for maintaining a “joyful spirit” that is palpable.

The Mount has produced 1,900 priests, 49 of whom have gone on to become , said Archbishop O’Brien. He added that the university’s founder, Father John DuBois, established the university as an example of how Catholicism and democracy could coexist.

“It called for courage and foresight for it was a moment when Catholics were suspect in America and American democracy was suspect in ,” Archbishop O’Brien said.

The fledgling concept of religious freedom began in Maryland when the Act of Religious Toleration was enacted in 1649, he said.

“Just as Maryland is sacred ground for religious freedom, Emmitsburg, in singular fashion, is hallowed ground for Catholic education,” said Archbishop O’Brien. When “so many” other higher educational Catholic institutions are “embarrassed or ambiguous” about their Catholic identity, “Mount St. Mary’s University is clear and unambiguous,” Archbishop O’Brien said.

The archbishop called on graduates to take what they have learned and serve others as Christ demands.

“It’s what the hundreds of crucifixes call out to you daily as you pass them by on campus and in the hallways,” said Archbishop O’Brien, adding that it is only in giving one’s life for others that a person can find life.

“If the bicentennial graduate of Mount St. Mary’s University is driven by the engine of self-seeking and self-interest, that graduate has failed this institution and its traditions,” Archbishop O’Brien said.

The archbishop challenged students to be leaders in their communities.

“The timid move in crowds,” he said. “Leaders do not. Speak up for life, for the poor, for the outcasts in our midst.”

With the commencement exercises falling on Pentecost and Mother’s Day, the archbishop said he believed the Holy Spirit has much to do with the university’s unique character. He asked every graduate to thank the Blessed Virgin Mary for her patronage.

Dr. Powell also highlighted Mother’s Day, asking all mothers, grandmothers, great- grandmothers and step-mothers to stand and receive the thankful applause of the audience.

Jonathan M. Pressimone, senior class president and a theology major from Pennsylvania, told his fellow graduates “many of us don’t want to leave this mountainside.” The reason is love, he said.

“Do not forget this love,” he said. “We are the Mount. We always have been, and we always will be.” Paul McMullen appointed managing editor of The Catholic Review

Paul McMullen, a Baltimore native with four decades of experience in the newspaper business, has been appointed managing editor of The Catholic Review.

Mr. McMullen was a sports reporter at The Sun for 25 years, where his assignments ranged from interscholastic athletics to the Summer Olympics. Previously, he worked for the Capital Gazette Newspapers and began his career in the industry as a delivery boy for The News American.

Raised in Brooklyn Park, he attended the parish school at St. Rose of Lima and studied sociology at Towson University. He is the author of two books, and in 2006 he contributed the section on St. Francis of Assisi, Baltimore, to “First and Forever, The Archdiocese of Baltimore, A People’s History.”

“I am honored to join The Catholic Review and look forward to the challenge of improving an already great publication,” Mr. McMullen said.

Science, religion not in conflict, bishops say in stem-cell document

WASHINGTON – The brief policy statement on embryonic stem-cell research that is to come before the U.S. bishops at their June 12-14 meeting in Orlando, Fla., is designed to set the stage for a later, more pastoral document explaining why the Catholic Church opposes some reproductive technologies.

“While human life is threatened in many ways in our society, the destruction of human embryos for stem-cell research confronts us with an issue of respect for life in a stark new way,” says the statement drawn up by the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Although the topic of embryonic stem-cell research has been raised in several broader USCCB documents and has been the subject of testimony and many letters to Congress, there has never been a formal statement on the issue from the full body of bishops, said Cardinal Justin Rigali of , chairman of the pro-life committee, in an introduction to the draft document.

“The issue of stem-cell research does not force us to choose between science and ethics, much less between science and religion,” the document says. “It presents a choice as to how our society will pursue scientific and medical progress.”

The policy statement seeks to refute three arguments made in favor of permitting stem-cell research that involves the destruction of human embryos. Proponents of embryonic stem-cell research argue:

– “That any harm done in this case is outweighed by potential benefits.

– “That what is destroyed is not a human life, or at least not a human being with fundamental human rights. …

– “That dissecting human embryos for their cells should not be seen as involving a loss of embryonic life.”

Responding to the first argument, the document says that “the false assumption that a good end can justify direct killing has been the source of much evil in our world.”

“No commitment to a hoped-for ‘greater good’ can erase or diminish the wrong of directly taking innocent human lives here and now,” the statement adds. “In fact, policies undermining our respect for human life can only endanger the vulnerable patients that stem-cell research offers to help. The same ethic that justifies taking some lives to help the patient with Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s disease today can be used to sacrifice that very patient tomorrow.”

On the claims that a week-old embryo is “too small, immature or undeveloped to be considered a ‘human life’“ or “too lacking in mental or physical abilities to have full human worth or human rights,” the document notes that the embryo “has the full complement of human genes” and is worthy of the same dignity given to all members of the human family.

“If fundamental rights such as the right to life are based on abilities or qualities that can appear or disappear, grow or diminish, and be greater or lesser in different human beings, then there are no inherent human rights, no true human equality, only privileges for the strong,” the draft statement says.

The document also dismisses the argument that there is no harm in killing so-called “spare” embryos created for in vitro fertilization attempts because they would die anyway.

“Ultimately each of us will die anyway, but that gives no one a right to kill us,” the statement says. “Our society does not permit lethal experiments on terminally ill patients or condemned prisoners on the pretext that they will die soon anyway. Likewise, the fact that an embryonic human being is at risk of being abandoned by his or her parents gives no individual or government a right to intervene and directly kill that human being first.”

The document also addresses moves to permit human cloning and the “grotesque practice” – banned by the Fetus Farming Prohibition Act of 2006 – to develop cloned embryos in a woman’s womb in order to harvest tissues and organs from them.

“It now seems undeniable that once we cross a fundamental moral line that prevents us from treating any fellow human being as a mere object of research, there is no stopping point,” the policy statement says. “The only moral stance that affirms the human dignity of all of us is to reject the first step down this path.”

The draft document closes with a reminder that the use of adult stem cells and umbilical-cord blood have been shown to offer “a better way” to produce cells that can benefit patients suffering from heart disease, corneal damage, sickle cell anemia, multiple sclerosis and many other diseases.

“There is no moral objection to research and therapy of this kind, when it harms no human being and is conducted with appropriate informed consent,” it says. “Catholic foundations and medical centers have been, and will continue to be, among the leading supporters of ethically responsible advances in the medical use of adult stem cells.”

African Cardinal Gantin, former Vatican official, dies in

VATICAN CITY – Cardinal , a pioneering church figure for Africa and an influential voice at the Vatican for more than 30 years, died in Paris May 13 at the age of 86.

Pope Benedict XVI, in a telegram of condolences, praised the cardinal for his pastoral ministry and for his generous service in Rome, where he worked for several Vatican offices.

“This eminent son of and of Africa was respected by all, animated by a deeply apostolic spirit and a superior sense of the church and its mission in the world,” the said.

The cardinal’s death leaves the with 194 members. Of that number, 118 are under age 80 and therefore eligible to vote in a conclave.

Cardinal Gantin’s body was being flown from Paris for burial in Benin, a poor West African country where the cardinal was born and had lived in recent years.

Cardinal Gantin became the first black African archbishop in 1960. Sixteen years later, he became the first African to head a major Vatican department when he was made president of the Pontifical Justice and Peace Commission.

He was named a cardinal in 1977, and some observers gave him an outside chance in the two conclaves to elect a new pope in 1978. Another landmark came in 1984, when he was made head of the Vatican’s , which coordinates the selection of new bishops around the world.

In 1993, he became the first black African to be chosen as dean of the College of Cardinals. He stepped down from that post in 2002 and was replaced by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – a move that gave Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict, a leading role in the period leading up to the conclave that elected him in 2005.

While often seen as a Third World church leader who broke new ground in Rome, Cardinal Gantin was also a strong defender of the . At a 1991 synod, he criticized “certain ideas and anti-Roman attitudes, disseminated in the West through the teachings of theologians and masters of thought.”

In 2003, as one of six Vatican officials chosen to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s pontificate, he dismissed the idea that the Curia was sometimes not in perfect agreement with the pope and his directives.

“‘The pope, yes; the Curia, no.’ What a strange way to conceive of our church, divided at the highest level in two parts … one part open and helpful, the other careerist and never satisfied,” he said.

As head of the bishops congregation, Cardinal Gantin was involved in his share of problematic issues.

In 1988, Cardinal Gantin oversaw a draft document on the limits of the authority of bishops’ conferences, which drew sharp criticism from several leading U.S. theologians and church law experts. Ten more years of study were needed before the pope issued an apostolic letter on the topic.

In the 1980s, Cardinal Gantin and Cardinal Ratzinger were key figures in the investigation and temporary removal of the pastoral authority of Seattle Archbishop Raymond G. Hunthausen, who had clashed with the Vatican on several policies. In 1989, Cardinal Gantin moderated an extraordinary meeting between U.S. bishops and Vatican officials to discuss tensions and problems.

Over the years, he met with a number of Latin American bishops to work out pastoral differences over such things as liberation theology. In 1995, he informed French that he was being removed from the of Evreux after refusing to modify his positions on married priests, AIDS and homosexuality.

Even after he retired in 1998 as head of the Congregation for Bishops, Cardinal Gantin continued to have an influential voice in Rome.

In 1999, he prompted much discussion when he suggested that bishops, once appointed to a diocese, should stay there the rest of their lives, instead of being transferred to larger sees. He said that would discourage careerism in the episcopate.

Born May 8, 1922, in what was then French West Africa, the future cardinal was ordained a priest in 1951. He studied canon law at Rome’s Pontifical Urbanian University and in 1957 was made an auxiliary bishop of Cotonou, in what is now Benin. He became archbishop of Cotonou in 1960, the same year his country, then known as Dahomey, achieved independence.

In 1971 he was called to Rome to be an assistant secretary at the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples; two years later, he was appointed secretary. In 1975 he was named vice president of the Vatican’s justice and peace commission, and later became president; he was also president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, which coordinates charity efforts.

When, at age 80, he retired as dean of the College of Cardinals, a post that can be held until death, he had to convince Pope John Paul to accept his decision. In an interview at that time, he said he was leaving Rome to return to Benin and end his life “in prayer and simplicity.” Mount St. Mary’s graduates 200th class

EMMITSBURG – Holding her black graduation cap in one hand and gently dabbing a tissue to her eyes to stave off an allergy attack, Lola Jemibewon was filled with mixed emotions as she stood in line waiting for her May 11 graduation procession to begin at Mount St. Mary’s University.

The 21-year-old parishioner of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Ellicott City was elated to finish her undergraduate degree in international studies and Spanish, but sad to leave a place she described as a community like no other.

“It still hasn’t hit me,” said Ms. Jemibewon, who plans to teach English in Asia. “This is literally a place where everyone says hi to you. Even the dean knows everyone by name. There’s nowhere else like it.”

Dr. Thomas H. Powell, Mount St. Mary’s president, conferred undergraduate degrees on Ms. Jemibewon and 375 other students inside a packed Knott Arena during the university’s bicentennial commencement exercises.

Parents and friends snapped photos, waved and shouted out the names of their loved ones as the smiling students entered the gym while the Mount St. Mary’s University Band played “Pomp and Circumstance.”

Like Ms. Jemibewon, many of the students expressed deep affection for their small, tight-knit university as it celebrates its 200th year. Their prayers were also with the family of Dustin Michael Bauer, a senior who died in March after falling on campus. The graduates wore golden pins with angel wings and the initials DMB in his honor.

In his commencement address, Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien praised Mount St. Mary’s for remaining true to its Catholic identity and for maintaining a “joyful spirit” that is palpable. The Mount has produced 1,900 priests, 49 of whom have gone on to become bishops, said Archbishop O’Brien. He added that the university’s founder, Father John DuBois, established the university as an example of how Catholicism and democracy could coexist.

“It called for courage and foresight for it was a moment when Catholics were suspect in America and American democracy was suspect in Rome,” Archbishop O’Brien said.

The fledgling concept of religious freedom began in Maryland when the Act of Religious Toleration was enacted in 1649, he said.

“Just as Maryland is sacred ground for religious freedom, Emmitsburg, in singular fashion, is hallowed ground for Catholic education,” said Archbishop O’Brien.

When “so many” other higher educational Catholic institutions are “embarrassed or ambiguous” about their Catholic identity, “Mount St. Mary’s University is clear and unambiguous,” Archbishop O’Brien said.

The archbishop called on graduates to take what they have learned and serve others as Christ demands.

“It’s what the hundreds of crucifixes call out to you daily as you pass them by on campus and in the hallways,” said Archbishop O’Brien, adding that it is only in giving one’s life for others that a person can find life.

“If the bicentennial graduate of Mount St. Mary’s University is driven by the engine of self-seeking and self-interest, that graduate has failed this institution and its traditions,” Archbishop O’Brien said.

The archbishop challenged students to be leaders in their communities.

“The timid move in crowds,” he said. “Leaders do not. Speak up for life, for the poor, for the outcasts in our midst.”

With the commencement exercises falling on Pentecost and Mother’s Day, the archbishop said he believed the Holy Spirit has much to do with the university’s unique character. He asked every graduate to thank the Blessed Virgin Mary for her patronage.

Dr. Powell also highlighted Mother’s Day, asking all mothers, grandmothers, great- grandmothers and step-mothers to stand and receive the thankful applause of the audience.

Jonathan M. Pressimone, senior class president and a theology major from Pennsylvania, told his fellow graduates “many of us don’t want to leave this mountainside.” The reason is love, he said.

“Do not forget this love,” he said. “We are the Mount. We always have been, and we always will be.”

George Weigel speaks on evolution of papal power

It may be tempting to view Pope John Paul II’s many accomplishments in the political arena as the product of his unique personal experiences growing up as a Pole under Nazi and Communist domination.

But George Weigel argues that while the late pope was certainly shaped by his background, his effectiveness in the public square had much to do with two centuries of trends in Catholicism that paradoxically led to lessened temporal power for the pope but increased moral suasion.

Speaking at the second John Carroll lecture, held May 12 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore, Mr. Weigel said the public accomplishments of Pope John Paul II helped restore politics “to its true dignity while keeping politics within its proper sphere.” The pope did so by “demonstrating in action the linkage between profound moral conviction and effective political power,” said Mr. Weigel, author of a biography of Pope John Paul II and senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.

“Contrary to ideas widely accepted since the late-18th century, the public impact of John Paul II suggests that politics, or economics, or some combination of politics and economics, is not the only, or perhaps even the primary, engine of history,” said Mr. Weigel, whose lecture was titled “, Power and World Politics: From Leo XIII to Benedict XVI.”

“The revolution of conscience that John Paul II ignited in June 1979 in Poland – the moral revolution that made the nonviolent political revolution of 1989 possible – cannot be explained in conventional political-economic categories,” he said.

From at least the fifth century, popes have been “players” in the world of power, Mr. Weigel said. Many of them employed a kind of conventional temporal power he described as “Constantinian.”

It was in the mid-19th century when a new form of papal engagement with the world of power began to emerge, he said. By then, the pope’s temporal power waned with the loss of the Papal States to Italian nationalism. Yet popes were speaking with a different kind of voice.

Quoting Cambridge historian Owen Chadwick, Mr. Weigel pointed out that Pope Gregory XVI condemned the slave trade in 1839 – a condemnation he had no political power to enforce. Mid-19th century popes also defended local bishops and local churches on contested questions such as local episcopal authority and marriage law in Europe, he said.

“Here, for the first time, the popes brought into play the levers of international public opinion and the international press,” he said. “During this period, the papacy gained more effective control over local churches; but this trend, often deplored as centralization, also meant that the popes could help local churches against various governmental pressures,” Mr. Weigel said. Pope John Paul II demonstrated his strategy of political change through moral revolution – a “post-Constantinian” model – during his first pilgrimage to Poland in 1979, Mr. Weigel said.

“By returning to his people their authentic history and culture, and thus giving them a form of power that the regime’s rubber bullets and truncheons could not reach, the pope demonstrated that the Communist emperor had far fewer clothes than realist analysts – including both Western political leaders and Vatican diplomats – suggested,” he said.

Pope John Paul II revitalized the papacy for the 21st century by “retrieving and renewing the office of Peter’s first-century roots, which lie in the New Testament’s portrait of Peter’s unique role as the apostle who ‘strengthens the brethren,’” Mr. Weigel said.

Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien, thanking Mr. Weigel for his talk, said Baltimore is “very, very fortunate” to have him as a native son. He commended the speaker for shedding light on the church’s international character.

The final installment of the John Carroll Lecture Series will be held June 9. Colleen Carroll Campbell, author of “The New Faithful: Why Young Adults are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy,” will speak about young adults in the church. The free lecture is open to the public and will take place at 7 p.m. at the basilica.

To view a video of Mr. Weigel’s lecture, which was attended by 205 people, visit www.archbalt.org.

Governor signs legislation regarding abuse reporting, death penalty commission

Gov. Martin J. O’Malley signed a number of bills into law May 13, including House Bill 1111/ Senate Bill 614 establishing a Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment and Senate Bill 238/ House Bill 75 requiring nonpublic schools to receive a report when one of their students is arrested for a serious offense. Both measures were supported by Maryland’s Catholic bishops.

“We’re gratified not only that the governor has signed this important legislation into law, but by his commitment to repeal the state’s death penalty statute,” said Richard J. Dowling, executive director of the Maryland Catholic Conference, regarding HB111/SB 614.

While the MCC had hoped the death penalty could have been repealed this year, Mr. Dowling said the death penalty commission will provide recommendations regarding racial, jurisdictional and socioeconomic disparities in death penalty sentencing as well as the risk of executing innocent people.

The commission, which is authorized to hold public hearings, is required to issue a report by Dec. 15.

“The commission is expected to begin its proceedings, which should involve some public hearings, late this summer,” Mr. Dowling said. “While the members of the commission haven’t yet been named, I expect that they will reflect a variety of views in the matter of how we treat people who commit grievous crimes. I think we’ll learn a lot from the public hearings, and I’m sure the commission will reflect the views of those who testify in its final report.”

The notification law for nonpublic school superintendents and principals will help promote the safety and well-being of children said Alison D’Alessandro, director of the archdiocesan Office of Child and Youth Protection. Under the new law, nonpublic school officials will be notified of the arrest of a nonpublic school student for a reportable offense. It provides for the confidentiality of information obtained by the nonpublic school official.

“It’s a very important child protection measure, and we’re very happy to see the bill was passed unanimously in both the House and the Senate,” said Mary Ellen Russell, MCC deputy director for education and family life.

“It’s as important for students who may be involved in a situation as it is for the entire school community,” said Ms. Russell, noting that the bill provides parity between public and private schools in providing access to information.

The legislation will help ensure nonpublic schools are able to provide “appropriate supervision over students who may pose a potential danger to others,” Ms. D’Alessandro told The Catholic Review.

George P. Matysek Jr. contributed to this story.

Chinese priests work around disruptions to assess quake damage

CHENGDU, China – Chinese priests had to work around disrupted telephone systems and damaged roads as they tried to assess the damage from the May 12 earthquake centered under Sichuan province.

Responding to appeals for aid and prayers on Catholic Web sites, Catholics across China have begun donating money and clothes to help survivors, the priests told the Asian church news agency UCA News. The magnitude 7.9 earthquake, which hit just after midday May 12, had its epicenter beneath Wenchuan County in Sichuan province. Wenchuan is less than 60 miles northwest of Chengdu, the provincial capital.

By May 13, government officials reported more than 12,000 people had been killed in the quake, but the death toll was expected to rise. Officials said in one city alone more than 19,000 people were buried in the rubble.

Father Simon Li Zhigang, administrator of the Chengdu Diocese, told UCA News May 13 that he could not reach by phone the priests serving in Wenchuan and Beichuan. About 100 Catholics live in Wenchuan and several hundred more in Beichuan, he said.

In the Nanchong Diocese, about 150 miles from the epicenter, Sister Wang Yan told UCA News the activities room added to their church building shook for seven minutes and almost everything fell to the floor.

“I thought it was the end of the world,” she recalled.

The night after the quake, dozens of laypeople stayed inside a wooden church in Nanchong because they feared sleeping in their damaged brick houses, she said.

In the neighboring Chongqing Diocese, Father Xie Bangyong told UCA News fissures appeared in some old churches after the quake, but all priests and nuns in the city were safe. Chongqing priests divided into groups to see if parishioners were safe and assess damage to old churches, but it was difficult to contact Catholics in the affected areas, Father Xie added.

Auxiliary Bishop Paul He Zeqing of Wanxian told UCA News the residence for priests and another for nuns in Liangping became unsafe after the quake and was vacated immediately.

“Other churches, all newly built, are not affected,” he said.

Bishop He led Catholics in praying for the quake victims during a May 13 morning Mass and urged them to donate to relief efforts.

The Chongqing and Wanxian are in the Chongqing municipality, formerly part of Sichuan.

Jinde Charities, in China’s Hebei province, appealed on its Web site for prayers and donations for the quake survivors. As a Catholic nonprofit organization registered with China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs, Jinde provided aid during last summer’s flooding in Chongqing and during snowstorms around the Chinese new year earlier this year.

In an appeal to potential donors, Bishop Peter Feng Xinmao of Jingxian, chairman of the board of Jinde Charities, said as soon as roads were cleared Jinde planned to send a team of 20 nuns to help meet victims’ medical needs. The bishop said Father Li Zhigang of the Chengdu Diocese reported many church buildings were either completely collapsed or seriously damaged. The bishop also said a priest in Dujiangyan reported that 80 percent of the houses in the city were uninhabitable.

Bishop Feng said the Taize Community in had pledged 10,000 euros (US$15,500), but “the gap between the needs and the resources is still huge.”

“Now, with great trust and confidence, we’d like to turn to you, our dear and loyal friends, for support and help,” the appeal said.

In eastern China, the Shanghai Diocese donated 1 million yuan (US$143,000) for earthquake relief, the diocese’s Web site reported. Bishop Aloysius Jin Luxian of Shanghai directed all parish priests to pray for victims and survivors during special eucharistic adoration sessions May 18 and donate Mass collections that day to the relief effort.

In northeastern China’s Heilongjiang province, Bishop Joseph Wei Jingyi of Qiqihar circulated a prayer he wrote asking God to look after the people who were physically and spiritually wounded by the disaster.

In southern China, the Zhongshan-based Tianrun Service in the Jiangmen Diocese used its Web site to urge Catholics to donate medical aid, clothes, tents and money that it would send through the government’s civil affairs department or charitable organizations.

At the Vatican, Fides, the news service of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, said Catholics in the Diocese of Yi Bin, about 180 miles from Wenchuan, began organizing assistance immediately.

“One of the faithful told us, ‘We are followers of Christ; we must witness to Christ in every circumstance, especially at a time like this. We are praying for the peace and safety of our brothers and sisters, for our country, for everyone,’“ Fides reported.

Pope urges Israel to help keep Christians as force for peace, stability

VATICAN CITY – Welcoming Israel’s new ambassador to the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI urged Israel to help its Christian citizens remain in the country where they could be a force for peace and understanding.

“Christians are not alone in suffering the effects of insecurity and violence as a result of the various conflicts in the region, but in many respects they are particularly vulnerable at the present time,” the pope told Mordechay Lewy, the new ambassador.

Presenting his letters of credential to the pope May 12, Ambassador Lewy said, “We shall do our utmost to help strengthen the Christian communities in Israel as their essential presence in the Holy Land is deeply rooted and historically self- understood.”

The ambassador also asked the Catholic Church to continue working with Israel and Jewish groups in combating anti-Semitism, and he warned about increasing instability in the region, apparently in reference to Iran’s nuclear program.

While Ambassador Lewy said the Israeli government was committed to continuing the Middle East peace process, “the European continent and the entire Mediterranean region may face, however, nightmarish perils if the process of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East is not brought to a halt.” “Against the backdrop of our traumatic experience in the middle of the last century,” the ambassador said, referring to the Holocaust, “no one should be surprised that we take such threats seriously.”

Offering his best wishes to Israel as it celebrates its 60th anniversary of statehood, the pope said, “The joins you in giving thanks to the Lord that the aspirations of the Jewish people of a home in the land of their fathers have been fulfilled and hopes soon to see a time of even greater rejoicing when a just peace finally resolves the conflict with the Palestinians.”

Many of the difficulties experienced by Christians in the region and the “alarming decline in the Christian population of the Middle East, including Israel, through emigration,” are connected to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he said.

Both communities, the pope said, have a right to the peace and security that will allow their people to flourish.

“Accordingly, I would urge your government to make every effort to alleviate the hardship suffered by the Palestinian community, allowing them the freedom necessary to go about their legitimate business, including travel to places of worship so that they, too, can enjoy greater peace and security,” he said.

Pope Benedict also asked the Israeli government to keep its promise to act seriously and quickly in the negotiations with the Vatican on a treaty settling questions regarding the tax status and some financial questions related to church institutions in Israel. The negotiations have dragged on for years.

And, he said, uncertainty over the legal rights and status of the Catholic Church in Israel, “especially with regard to the question of visas for church personnel,” continues to create difficulties for the Catholic community.

“Only when these difficulties are overcome will the church be able to carry out freely her religious, moral, educational and charitable works in the land where she came to birth,” the pope said.