August 28, 2009

News briefs from the Catholic Church in Indiana

Archdiocesan seminarians make pilgrimage to Vincennes

By SEAN GALLAGHER
The Criterion

Twenty-five seminarians from the Archdiocese of Indianapolis made a pilgrimage on Aug. 12 to Vincennes, the place where the Church in Indiana began 175 years ago.

That is when the Servant of God Bishop Simon Bruté came to minister in what is now known as the Old Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis Xavier, a church that was built in 1826.

The seminarians, accompanied by archdiocesan vocations director Father Eric Johnson, prayed in the crypt where Bishop Bruté and his first three successors are buried, celebrated Mass in the main church and visited the Old Cathedral Library, which was founded in 1794 and is the state’s first library. Much of Bishop Bruté’s own extensive library is preserved there.

Father Johnson said that it was important for the men who are discerning if God is calling them to serve the Church in central and southern Indiana as priests to visit the place where it began.

“It kind of makes the stories that we know and the history that we’re a part of more tangible and concrete,” he said. “We need something that we can touch that helps to make that [history] more real and causes us to reflect a little more deeply on who it is that we are and what it is that we’re called to.”

For the complete story and more news from the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, log on to the website of The Criterion at www.CriterionOnline.com

Roncalli principal follows in the footsteps of school’s namesake

By JOHN SHAUGHNESSY
The Criterion

For three weeks this summer, Chuck Weisenbach and his wife, Jane, traveled through France and Italy, following part of the life journey of Blessed Pope John XXIII.

Weisenbach has worked at Roncalli High School in Indianapolis for 25 years and has been its principal for the past 15 years.

For years, Weisenbach has longed to travel to Italy to follow in the footsteps of the man whose name graces the archdiocesan high school on the south side of Indianapolis.

The dream became a reality this summer thanks to an $8,000 creativity grant that Lilly En-dowment Inc. provides for teachers and school administrators. Weisenbach applied for the grant in 2008, 50 years after Cardinal Roncalli became pope in 1958.

The trip into Pope John XXIII’s past led Weisenbach and his wife back to the beginning, to the small Italian village of Sotto il Monte where he was born in 1881, the third of 13 children in a family of sharecroppers.

The couple visited the home where Angelo Roncalli lived, and the church where he was baptized, became an altar boy and first thought of becoming a priest.

“The simplicity of his life comes through in that church,” Weisenbach says. “If you read about him, all he wanted to be was a simple country priest. That’s the way he defined himself. But God had different plans for him.

For the complete story and more news from the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, log on to the website of The Criterion at www.CriterionOnline.com

The Year for Priests in Fort Wayne-South Bend

The Year for Priests was launched in Rome on the feast of the Sacred Heart and will end on the same feast day in 2010. This special yearlong observance is in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the death of St. John Mary Vianney, Curé of Ars, formerly the patron saint of parish priests and recently by papal decree, the patron saint of all priests.

The official launching in the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend of this noteworthy year took place on Aug. 4, the feast of St. John Vianney, at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Fort Wayne, when Bishop John M. D’Arcy concelebrated a special Mass with close to 40 priests of the diocese.

In his homily, Bishop D’Arcy made clear that this year designated for priests was not for elevation or separation of the priests, but rather for the sanctification of priests that they might become even “more dedicated and prayerful.” He went on to recount the history of St. John Vianney, who was devoted to the Eucharist.

For the complete story and more news from the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, log on to the website of Today’s Catholic at www.diocesefwsb.org/today

Parishes offer Catholic presence and care for Hispanics

SOUTH BEND — Father Christopher Cox grew up in a close, caring, Catholic neighborhood where, he laughs, “If you did something wrong, your parents knew about it before you got home.”

He’d like to see the west side neighborhoods surrounding St. Adalbert and St. Casimir par-ishes become more like that again.

Originally Polish, the area is now largely Hispanic. But it is also the area with the most abandoned homes, highest rate of poverty and diminished infrastructure in St. Joseph County.

“I would like to see this area get back to dense relationships, and what I mean by that is a place where people live in a home for a good period of time, where they know their neighbors and have quality relationships with them.”

Both churches host programs that keep people invested in the parish, observing what Father Cox calls “the sacramentality of the neighborhood.”

Although time constraints prevented him from doing the barrio (neighborhood) Masses this summer, he looks forward to holding them next summer, outdoors on the streets followed by potluck dinners.

“They really give us a chance to talk with people about their concerns, and also to plug the (St. Adalbert) school and the value of a Catholic education.”

English-as-a-second language classes, computer classes and counseling Latinos on everything from budgeting to their rights are just a few of the other programs. Used, donated computers are revamped with open-source, license-free software and then given away to needy families.