PEOPLE

David Golemboski of Louisville, Ky., is the 2007 winner of the Cardinal Bernardin New Leadership Award given by the U.S. bishops’ Catholic Campaign for Human Development. Golemboski, 22, is in his first year at Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass. In his last two years as an undergraduate at the University of Louisville, he was the associate director of CrossRoads Ministry, a retreat program for high school and college-age youths that enables participants to minister to those in poverty.

Precious Blood Sr. Janice Bader is the new director of the National Religious Retirement Office. Her appointment was effective Oct. 31. She had been the office’s interim director since the death in July of Precious Blood Sr. Andree Fries.

Mercy Sr. Norma Giannini, 79, pleaded no contest Nov. 12 to two counts of indecent behavior with a child in connection with accusations from the 1960s when she was a principal and teacher at a Catholic school in Milwaukee. She faces up to 20 years in prison for what prosecutors say was sexual abuse of two male students. Although dozens of nuns have been accused of sexual abuse, often in civil lawsuits, Giannini appears to be the first to face criminal charges. She has not been in active ministry since 1992 when accusations surfaced.

A letter from the bishop of Boise, Idaho, may have provided the gravitas a campaign needed to persuade the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to change the name of a hill 38 miles north of Pocatello, Idaho, to St. Mary’s Knoll. It had been called St. Mary’s Nipple, which Bishop Michael P. Driscoll said needed to be renamed out of respect for all women. A local group had been petitioning for a change since 1995. In June, after the U.S. Board on Geographic Names deadlocked over the name change in a 4-4 vote, Driscoll wrote the board urging the change.

Bishop Michael D. Pfeiffer of San Angelo, Texas, called Nov. 12 for a “national day of prayer and remembrance” related to the Iraq war during Advent.

National Catholic Reporter, November 23, 2007