PEOPLE

SEN. RICK SANTORUM, R-Pa., and his wife, Karen, received the third annual John Cardinal O’Connor Award from the Sisters of Life in New York. The award is named after the late archbishop of New York. “The Santorums are being honored for the courage, nobility and love with which they live their vocation to marriage and family life,” said Mother Agnes Mary, superior general of the Sisters of Life. “They have publicly witnessed to a private suffering shared by many families throughout the world.” When Karen Santorum was pregnant with the fourth of their seven children, the couple discovered that the child they named Gabriel Michael was gravely ill and would die shortly after birth. She later published letters she had written to the child in a book called Letters to Gabriel.

FR. JOSE RODRIGUEZ CARBALLO, 49, has been elected to a six-year term as minister general of the Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans), during the order’s four-week general chapter in Assisi, Italy. Carballo, a Spaniard, said he was convinced that modern society is thirsting for fraternity and humility. He is the 119th successor of St. Francis as head of the Friars Minor, which counts more than 16,000 members in 110 countries.

SR. ANNE BROOKS, an osteopathic physician in Tutwiler, Miss., celebrated her 65th birthday June 4 working in the clinic she started 20 years ago with help from Chicago-based Catholic Extension. The clinic annually serves 9,000 patients in Tallahatchie County, where the median household income is $18,000 -- less than half the national average -- and the unemployment rate is more than twice the national average. “I’m not thinking of retiring,” said Brooks, a member of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary. “I’m having too much fun.”

BLESSED DAMIEN DE VEUSTER of Molokai, Hawaii, seems one step closer to canonization. The six-member tribunal formed earlier this year by Honolulu Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo has concluded its investigation into alleged healing attributed to the intercession of Blessed Damien, who served at the leper colony of Molokai from 1873 until his death in 1889. The tribunal’s report has been forwarded to the Congregation for Saints’ Causes in Rome.

RUDOLPH GIULIANI, the former New York City mayor, was to head the U.S. delegation to the Conference on Anti-Semitism, hosted by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Vienna, Austria, June 19 and 20. The conference will address the problem of anti-Semitism and its manifestations in Europe, Central Asia and North America, and the role of governments and civil society in promoting greater tolerance. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell asked Giuliani to head the delegation in recognition of Giuliani’s leadership as mayor in combating ethnic hatred and prejudice.

SCOTT HAHN of Franciscan University of Steubenville has been named to the Cardinal Pio Laghi chair for visiting professors in scripture and theology for 2003-05 at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio. The Josephinum educates seminarians from the United States, Asia, Africa and Europe. Alumni serve the church in 22 countries and 48 states.

THE CATHOLIC NETWORK OF VOLUNTEER SERVICE reports in its just published catalog that volunteer opportunities are available in animal husbandry, community organization, elderly outreach, grant writing, migrant worker ministry, occupational therapy, translating and tutoring according to the just published catalog of the Catholic Network of Volunteer Service. For 40 years, the network has been a clearinghouse of information for its 235 member organizations and volunteers.

National Catholic Reporter, June 20, 2003