Issue of March 14, 2010 – March 27, 2010 The following items are condensed. For the complete articles, please read the print edition of The Catholic New World. To subscribe, call (312) 534-7777.
News Update
Eating on St. Joseph day
The Solemnity of St. Joseph, March 19, falls on a Friday this year. The question arises regarding the requirement of abstinence from meat. Since St. Joseph’s Day holds the rank of a solemnity and the character of a solemnity is one of rejoicing, penitential practices such as abstinence from meat are not required. People may choose voluntarily to abstain from meat on March 19 but it is not required. Hence, Catholics are able to participate in a St. Joseph Table without worrying about breaking the penitential discipline of Lent.
See Canon 1251: “Abstinence from eating meat or another food according to the prescriptions of the conference of bishops is to be observed on Fridays throughout the year unless they are solemnities; abstinence and fast are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and on the Friday of the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ.” From the archdiocese’s Office for the Vicar General.
Lifetime achievement
Bishop Joseph Perry and Father Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina Parish, will receive the archdiocese’s Office for Racial Justice Lifetime Achievement Awards in recognition of their lives of service in pursuit of dismantling racism, injustice and inequalities on behalf of African Americans and all people of color.
The awards will be presented at 7 p.m. April 7 at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Prayer Service at Christ the King Jesuit College Preparatory School, 5088 W. Jackson Blvd.
The Office for Racial Justice will also pay tribute to the 2010 St. Katharine Drexel Racial Justice honorees: Michael Rabbitt of St. Mary of the Woods Parish in Chicago; Elena Segura, director of the archdiocese’s Office for Immigrant Affairs and Immigration Education; Dominican Sister Kathleen Tate, principal of Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights; and Phyllis Winter, president of Children of Peace School on Chicago’s near west side.
The St. Katharine Drexel Racial Justice Award is named in honor of the American founder of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, who devoted her entire life to holiness and work among Native and African American peoples.
News Digest
Vatican suspends papal gentleman implicated in gay prostitution ring
The Vatican has suspended a member of the ceremonial corps of papal ushers and a singer in a Vatican choir amid reports of their alleged involvement in a gay prostitution ring, news reports said.
Anglicans entering Catholic Church should blend well, Vatican cardinal says during March 6 event
Groups of Anglicans entering into communion with the Catholic Church will not be absorbed the way “a teaspoon of sugar would be lost in a gallon of coffee,” said Cardinal William Levada, prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. Instead, Anglicans will provide a distinct sound within the church, the way the different instruments in an orchestra blend in a symphony, Cardinal Levada told a fundraising dinner for Catholic Christian Outreach and the Queen’s University Newman Center March 6.
