PEOPLE

Diana, an 18-year-old college freshman who helped change Illinois law so that undocumented teens can qualify for in-state college tuition rates, is the 2003 recipient of the Cardinal Bernardin New Leadership Award. Because she is in the process of seeking legal residence, she requested that only her first name be used. The award, presented annually by the U.S. bishops’ Catholic Campaign for Human Development, honors a young Catholic between 18 and 30 years old who takes a strong leadership role in fighting poverty and injustice.

Thomas DeStefano, a 33-year veteran with Catholic Charities of Brooklyn and Queens and that organization’s first lay chief executive officer, has been named interim president of Catholic Charities USA. DeStefano will hold the post until a permanent replacement is found for Fr. J. Bryan Hehir, who will return to Boston Jan. 1 to head Catholic Charities in his home archdiocese.

John Gagliardi, football coach for St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minn., became “America’s winningest coach” Nov. 8 when his team beat Bethel College 29-26, giving the Johnnies the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title and Gagliardi his 409th career victory. Gagliardi, 77, has coached football for 55 years, 51 at St. John’s University. On Nov. 15, Gagliardi got his 410th win in a 50-0 shutout over Crown College in St. Bonifacius, Minn. The Johnnies are to play their first game in the NCAA Division III playoffs Nov. 29. The coach was honored at the White House Nov. 17.

Luis Alberto Pérez Barillas, a Guatemalan journalist, has received the International Prize for Press Freedom 2003 for investigating the responsibility of former dictator Efraín Rios Montt (1982-83) in the death and disappearance of thousands of leftist and indigenous people. In June Pérez Barillas attracted international attention with a series of newspaper articles and a live radio report about the exhumation of bodies from a mass grave. Shortly afterwards, his house was set on fire while he slept. He and his family have been living clandestinely since. Rios Montt, who was attempting a political comeback, was eliminated as a presidential candidate in the first round of elections Nov. 9.

Evangelist Billy Graham turned 85 Nov. 7 and began solidifying plans for continuing his evangelistic ministry next year. “I never dreamed that I would live to be 85,” Graham said in a statement. “I am grateful to the Lord for the strength he gives me to hold additional crusades.”

Michael Steier, secretary for evangelization and catechetical formation for the Camden, N.J., diocese, has been named assistant secretary for catechesis and leadership formation in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Department of Education. He succeeds Sr. Maureen Shaughnessy, who has become general superior of the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth in Convent Station, N.J.

National Catholic Reporter, November 28, 2003