Catholic New World - News Digest

News Update

Jazz for charity

From March 16 to 21, the first Chitown Jazz Festival will draw crowds of music lovers to clubs in the city and suburbs in support of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago and other charities, including the Greater Chicago Food Depository, the Northern Illinois Food Bank and West Suburban P.A.D.S.

Father John Moulder, a jazz guitarist and priest at St. Gregory the Great Parish, 5545 N. Paulina, organized the festival. Part of the festival’s proceeds will go to Catholic Charities’ nine food pantries in Cook County.

Schedule for series: 8 p.m., March 16, Evanston Space, 1245 Chicago Ave. Evanston, (847) 492-8860, Don Stiernberg Quartet and Kick the Cat; 8 p.m., March 17, Jazz Showcase, 806 S. Plymouth Court, (312) 360-0234, Ryan Cohan Quartet (with Geof Bradfield) and Chicago Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble with Victor Garcia; 5 p.m., March 18, Andy’s Jazz Club, 11 E. Hubbard St., (312) 642-6805, Jim Trompeter Trio, Ron Perrillo Quartet, Rich Corpolongo Group and Bobby Lewis Quartet; 9 p.m., March 19, the Green Mill, 4802 N. Broadway, (773) 878-5552, Josh Moshier, Mike Lebrun Quintet, Dee Alexander Quintet and The Skinny; 9 p.m. March 20, Fitzgerald’s, 6615 Roosevelt Road, Berwyn, (708) 788-2118, John Moulder Quintet and Paul Wertico’s Mid East Mid West Alliance; 4 p.m. March 21, Gorton Community Center, 400 E. Illinois Road, Lake Forest, (847) 234-6060, Chevere.

Music matters

Explore the role and importance of music in liturgy during “Sing to the Lord,” a series of study sessions sponsored the Office for Divine Worship, in collaboration with Loyola University, Chicago, 6:30 p.m., March 1, 8, 15 and 22, at Notre Dame de Chicago Church, 1336 W. Flournoy.

Steven Janco will facilitate the indepth study of “Sing to the Lord: Music in Divine Worship,” the 2007 music document from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Cost is $125 for individuals; $150 for groups. To register visit LUC.edu/continuum or call (312) 915-6501.

News Digest

News digest: Irish-Vatican summit on sex abuse ends with call for courage, honesty

Pope Benedict XVI said priestly sexual abuse was a "heinous crime" and a grave sin, and he urged Irish bishops to act courageously to repair their failures to deal properly with such cases.

At the end of a two-day Vatican summit on the sex-abuse scandal in Ireland, the Vatican said in a statement Feb. 16 that “errors of judgment and omissions” were at the heart of the crisis. It said church leaders recognized the sense of “pain and anger, betrayal, scandal and shame” that those errors have provoked among many Irish Catholics.

Andre Bessette to reach sainthood Oct.17

Pope Benedict XVI will create six new saints Oct. 17, including the Canadian Blessed Andre Bessette, who will be the first saint of the Holy Cross Brothers, and Blessed Mary MacKillop, who will be Australia’s first saint.

The pope announced the date for the canonization ceremony at the end of what is known as an ordinary public consistory, a very formal ceremony opened and closed with prayer, during which cardinals present in Rome express their support of the pope’s decision to create new saints.

Cardinal: Catholics, Mormons must defend religious freedom together

Catholics and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints must continue to stand together as a “vital bulwark” against those in American society who want to “reduce religion to a purely private reality,” the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops told a historic gathering at Brigham Young University in Provo.