Inside Twenty Something Columnist Christina Capecchi reflects on the first Thanksgiving and Criterion its blessings, page 12. Serving the Church in Central and Southern Indiana Since 1960 CriterionOnline.com November 11, 2011 Vol. LII, No. 6 75¢ Vatican partners “God has been good to me’ with company to discuss stem-cell research Photo by John Shaughnessy Photo by VATICAN CITY (CNS)—New biotechnologies raise questions in the fields of medicine, economics, ethics and philosophy, and the Vatican plans to look at all of them during a three-day conference devoted to adult stem-cell research, officials said. The Pontifical Council for Culture partnered with NeoStem Inc., a U.S. company researching and marketing adult stem-cell therapies, to sponsor the Nov. 9-11 international conference, “Adult Stem Cells: Science and the Future of Man and Culture.” Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, council president, said that in the modern field of research all sorts of potential interests intertwine, including health care and economic interests. In searching for a partner to promote research and discussion about adult stem cells, the Vatican sought a collaborator whose Nearing her 90th birthday, Kathryn Massing, right, continues to add to her 28 years and 35,000 hours of volunteer service at Franciscan St. Francis ethical practices fit Health–Beech Grove. Here, she enjoys time with Sherri Walker, director of service excellence and volunteer services for the hospital. in with the Vatican’s Cardinal own views, he said. Gianfranco Ravasi Father Tomasz Longtime volunteer says she feels at home at Trafny, who works with the cardinal on issues of religion and science, said, “We Franciscan St. Francis Health in Beech Grove struggled to find the right partner,” and while NeoStem is a business, “it is one that By John Shaughnessy and continues to add to her 28 years and Hospital location at 8111 S. Emerson Ave. has a very clear ethical statement” that it 35,000 hours of volunteer service to the in Indianapolis. will not destroy human embryos to obtain It’s another Monday morning as hospital and its auxiliary. Scheduled to be complete by stem cells. Kathryn Massing flashes a smile and steps “I’ve been associated with St. Francis mid-March of 2012, the move is one that Stem cells have the potential to develop spryly into the craft room at Franciscan since the 1930s when my mother worked Massing won’t be making, but she still into many different types of cells and are St. Francis Health–Beech Grove. here for a couple of years. And all my plans to continue sewing items that the used primarily to regenerate damaged tissue Ten of her friends are already working children were born here,” says Massing, a auxiliary has always sold to help the or systems in the body. NeoStem executives at three long, rectangular tables—knitting, mother of seven. “My daughter, Paula, was hospital—for everything from pledges to said adult stem cells are being used to treat sewing and creating the baby blankets, a nurse here. I have a son, John, who has build a chapel to college scholarships for leukemia and other cancers, heart disease flower arrangements, and Thanksgiving worked here for 30-something years. This high school students who volunteer at and autoimmune disorders. and Christmas gift items that are sold to place is like home to me.” the hospital. At a Vatican news conference on Nov. 8 raise money for special projects at the Massing feels a certain nostalgia and She started as a volunteer at the hospital to discuss the stem-cell meeting, hospital. emotion these days as the longtime in 1983 after she had raised her children, Cardinal Ravasi and Father Trafny were Coming to the hospital and the craft hospital in Beech Grove—started in and after she had retired from 15 years of joined by Dr. Robin L. Smith, CEO of room is like coming to a second home for 1914—is in the process of transferring work as an elementary school clerk. NeoStem, and Tommy G. Thompson, the the energetic Massing, who will turn 90 on and combining most of its offices and When her daughter, Paula Curseaden, former U.S. secretary of Health and Human Nov. 11. She still drives, does aerobics, in-patient services to the St. Francis See MASSING, page 8 Services and a Republican candidate for the See STEM CELL, page 8 Participant and organizers say National Catholic Youth Conference will be a ‘life-changing event’ By Mary Ann Garber and John Shaughnessy right by a street lamp, and I gave a five-minute confession while a bunch of teenagers were For 18-year-old Brian Ross, his excitement walking around. After that, I felt a big load had about the upcoming National Catholic Youth been lifted off my shoulders.” Conference in Indianapolis stems from During the conference, he also felt the thrill two amazing moments at the last gathering of of being Catholic. Catholic high school students from across “It was really neat to see all the people who the country. were there because they cared about their “The first time I walked into the conference Catholic faith,” said Ross, a member of the [at Kansas City in 2009], they were playing the Archdiocesan Youth Council. “It wasn’t like theme song ‘Christ Reigns,’ and everyone was they had to be in a religion class. They wanted having a blast,” recalled Ross, a senior at to be there. I’m just looking forward to another Bishop Chatard High School and member of great experience to grow even closer to my faith. St. Simon the Apostle Parish, both in Indianapolis. I’m looking forward to being with all the people “They were singing, dancing, clapping, laughing, who are excited about being Catholic.” and the conference hadn’t even started yet. That opportunity will happen on Nov. 17-19 “The other moment was on the second day when 23,000 high school students come when I randomly decided I wanted to give my together for the National Catholic Youth confession to a priest. I don’t know why, but I Conference at the Indiana Convention Center. pulled a priest off the street, and I asked him if I At the same time, the National Catholic could give him a confession. He said yes. It was See NCYC, page 8 Page 2 The Criterion Friday, November 11, 2011 Seven billion and counting—counting on help from somewhere WASHINGTON (CNS)—The these noncommunicable diseases are going United Nations chose Oct. 31 as the date of to be the major killers in short order,” the birth of the he said. 7 billionth person Cahill said the world would be better off inhabiting the planet. if the United States, the world’s largest The exact date when supplier of small arms, “invested our that number was reached energies and our monies in the health and Reuters CNS photo/Lucas Jackson, may be in dispute. How welfare of these 7 billion people and not the many people really live bombing of them. in Lebanon, which “Natural disasters are probably going to hasn’t taken an official census in nearly occur with increasing frequency, [and] there 80 years? How do little brothers and sisters are conflict disasters that are going to born surreptitiously under China’s strict continue in our unhappy world,” he said, “one family, one child” policy get counted? citing Somalia, which he visited annually Dates aside, though, how do we provide for 35 years to practice medicine. for the care and feeding of 7 billion Some things are predictable, he said, people—not to mention their dignity? such as the recent flooding in Thailand, but “What will it take for them to produce that is because “they’ve deforested the area.” enough food?” asked Bob Gronski, a policy Part of Cahill’s work at Fordham is Newborn baby Juwanda sleeps after being taken to a nursery at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in adviser with the National Catholic training students in “disaster risk reduction,” Brooklyn, N.Y., on Oct. 31. The United Nations set that day as the date that the planet’s population Rural Life Conference. “And the economic with, by his count, 1,600 graduates now reached 7 billion people. question: If they don’t have enough income working in 33 nations. “We train to produce the food, then what do they do? humanitarian workers to work in complex 10 That’s where we will see the stress.” humanitarian disasters, earthquakes, floods, 9 Billion Marks “And then energy becomes more conflict zones.” 8 expensive—scarce in some cases—water Abdi Kusow, an associate professor of 7 7 The global population hits 7 billion 6 resources become more expensive,” he said. sociology at Iowa State University, 6 this year, continuing a rapid growth 2011 that began around the 1950s. 5 It becomes an issue then, he said of tackled the issue of overpopulation and the 5 1999 “feeding not the total 7 billion per se, but chicken-and-egg question of whether 4 IN BILLIONS 4 1987 you’ve got to feed the local conditions.” development or political stability needs to 3 3 1974 Under that scenario, according to come first in order to rein in population 2 2 1 1959 Gronski, Americans must ask, “Are we numbers. 1804 1927 really able to take care of our own needs?” “In several examples, in Africa and in 1 “One kind of food cannot feed a Asia, the areas that are experiencing the YEARS TO ADD 1 BILLION PEOPLE 123 32 15 13 12 12 population. All kinds of food have to be most extreme poverty may be areas that are 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 grown here.