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Issue Date:  July 18, 2003

PEOPLE

Jesuit Fr. Michael A. Fahey of Marquette University has received the John Courtney Murray Award for excellence in theology from the Catholic Theological Society of America, its highest award. Fahey edits the quarterly journal Theological Studies, and his areas of specialization include ecclesiology and ecumenism. The award is named for Fr. John Courtney Murray (1904-1967), a Jesuit theologian whose work was instrumental during the Second Vatican Council reform of Catholic teaching on religious liberty.
 

Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk, 68, of Cincinnati will lead the Catholic Common Ground Initiative (NCR, April 25). He succeeds Archbishop Oscar H. Lipscomb, 71, of Mobile, Ala., who has chaired the initiative since October 1996. Cardinal Joseph L. Bernardin of Chicago established the initiative in August 1996 to end bitter divisions in the U.S. church through dialogue, reconciliation and building a new sense of unity and mission based on all Catholics’ common ground of faith in Jesus Christ.

 

Raymond L. Flynn, a former mayor of Boston who was U.S. ambassador to the Vatican from 1993 to 1997, has been named president of the activist arm of Your Catholic Voice, which aims to bring Catholics into greater political participation. A statement from the organization said, “Ray Flynn is loyal to the church, understands and practices her social teaching, and has a practical knowledge of political participation, garnered from real political experience, that he will now use to build a massive grass-roots movement of faithful Catholic citizens.”
 

Sr. Mary Regis Barczynski, 98, still works every day in the sewing room of the Felician provincial house in the Detroit suburb of Livonia. “God gave me health; I have to use it,” said Barczynski, who is marking 80 years of vowed religious life. For 50 years, she taught school in Detroit, Hamtramck and Bay City, Mich., Fort Wayne, Ind., and Toledo, Ohio.

 

The Rev. Jeffrey John, an openly gay priest in the Church of England whose appointment as bishop angered conservatives in the Anglican Communion, has asked to have his nomination withdrawn. John, who was named suffragan bishop of Reading last month, was well known for his advocacy of gay rights, and church leaders apparently knew of his 27-year relationship with another man. John said he has been celibate since 1991.
 

Archbishop Renato R. Martino represented the Vatican at a global conference on food engineering technology in Sacramento, Calif., last month. He said the pope is interested in learning more about genetically modified food and whether it could be used to feed billions of starving people around the world. Martino is president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. Agricultural ministers from more than 100 countries -- mostly nations with limited technology -- attended the conference.

 

 

Photos by CNS.

National Catholic Reporter, July 18, 2003

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