PEOPLE

A New Jersey church has made good on its promise to help Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts. Fountain Baptist Church in Summit has donated $1 million to help the Gulf Coast. It’s a pledge the church made in May 2006 and completed a few weeks ago, months ahead of its own timetable. The Rev. J. Michael Sanders told The Star-Ledger of Newark that the money has gone to job and life-skills training and housing and community projects, among other things.

Jesuit-run Seattle University has given its first St. Ignatius Medal to Jeanne Marie and Rhoady Lee Jr., for their “unwavering faith” and “selfless dedication” to the university’s mission. Both are Seattle University alumni. The Lees have helped fund at least five building projects on the campus. Their children donated to the university to name its performing arts center after their parents. Jeanne Marie Lee is a member of the NCR board of directors.

A private buyer paid nearly $11,000 at a Dec. 2 auction for a book bound in the skin of an executed Jesuit priest. The macabre, 17th-century book tells the story of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot and is covered in the hide of Fr. Henry Garnet, head of the Jesuits in England who was executed May 3, 1606, for his alleged role in a Catholic plot to detonate 36 barrels of gunpowder beneath the British Parliament. It once was common for the skins of executed criminals to be used to cover books about their lives, a process called anthropodermic binding.

The Merrill, Wis.-based Holy Cross Sisters have dropped the age restriction that prevented women over 50 from being considered for entrance to the congregation. Sr. Celine Goessl, the provincial, said the decision was spurred by the vitality of their elderly sisters and the congregation’s motto, “The need of the times is the will of God.” She said, “For us retirement has a very different meaning because there is always something that draws us to bring the good news to others, even at the age of 90.”

National Catholic Reporter, December 14, 2007