Catholic World Report
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Special Report
Dissenters, now calling themselves the American Catholic Council, plan a 2011 conference in Detroit “to create a new Church.”
By Anne Hendershott
 Claiming that they are attempting to address the “serious deterioration of the US Church today,” organizers of a new Catholic reform organization are planning a national conclave in 2011 called the American Catholic Council. In what is being billed as a kind of off-site Vatican Council, the proposed gathering promises “thoughtful discussion” of scholarly papers and presentations by Catholic theologians, scholars, and activists—all directed toward the goal of creating a new Church that is “fully in tune with the authentic Gospel message.”
Promising that the American Catholic Council will “recapture the universal call to ministry,” organizers claim to have launched the call for the national council in an effort to create a more responsive, accountable Church that “calls on the active participation of its people and more closely models the American experience.”
Although council leaders have denied that they are attempting to create their own church, the American Catholic Council website states their mission clearly: “We seek nothing short of a personal conversion of all to create a new Church.” And, while the organizers of the proposed council have appropriated the language and trappings of an authentic Catholic council, the reality is that the American Catholic Council will be conducted entirely outside the purview of the Church, flouting canon law, and ignoring input from current Church leaders.
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New canonical structure will allow union with Rome while preserving Anglican identity.By Catherine Harmon  In an unexpected statement issued October 20, the Vatican announced that Pope Benedict XVI will soon release an apostolic constitution establishing a formal structure through which former Anglicans can enter full communion with the Catholic Church.
The apostolic constitution—a formal document reserved by the pope for the most important declarations concerning canon law and Catholic practice—will allow the institution of “personal ordinariates,” according to the statement released by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. This new canonical structure will enable former Anglicans to join the Catholic Church “while preserving elements of the distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony.” The announcement was made at a press conference held in Rome with Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the CDF, and Archbishop Augustine DiNoia, secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. Notably absent from the press conference were any members of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, the council chiefly responsible for dialogue with other Christian denominations. Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of that council, had previous commitments elsewhere, Levada said; Kasper was scheduled to be in Cyprus attending a meeting of the International Joint Commission for Orthodox-Catholic Theological Dialogue.
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Special Report Joseph de Veuster, canonized as St. Damien of Molokai on October 11, brought hope and spiritual healing to the leprosy-ravaged people of Hawaii.By Sandra Miesel  Leprosy is an ancient horror. For millennia, people feared and shunned the ravaged bodies of lepers as “unclean.” A few dared to show compassion: St. Francis of Assisi famously kissed a leper for the sake of Jesus. But none ever charged headlong at the repulsive affliction with more Christian love and peasant gusto than Joseph de Veuster, who was canonized as St. Damien of Molokai, “Apostle to the Lepers,” on October 11.
Long known in Asia, leprosy had reached the Mediterranean world by the time of Christ. It became conspicuous in medieval Europe, prompting the founding of “lazar houses,” or refuges where doomed lepers could rot apart from “clean” folk. Common myths connected leprosy with lust: decaying flesh matched degenerate souls. By the 18th century, leprosy had mostly retreated to Scandinavia. Norwegian doctor G.H.A. Hansen first isolated the infectious agent, Mycobacterium leprae, in 1873. The medical term for leprosy is now “Hansen’s disease” in his honor.
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Web Exclusive
Former university president Robert Spitzer, SJ now teaches faith and reason in the world’s largest classroom—the Internet.
By Elenor K. Schoen
 After serving as president of Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington for 11 years, Robert J. Spitzer, SJ, PhD will be sharing his love of the Catholic faith and passion for education with more students than could ever fit into a traditional classroom. Pairing sophisticated web-based technology with philosophy, Spitzer is spearheading two new institutes to promote a Catholic understanding of God and the human person—the Magis Institute of Faith and Reason and the Spitzer Center for Ethical Leadership.
The popular Jesuit philosophy and ethics professor is a well-known author and speaker, and the creator of several Catholic television series for Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN). While at Gonzaga, Spitzer successfully restored the school’s financial health, while building up the campus and student enrollment.
Gonzaga Trustee and Chairman of the Board Don Nelles calls Spitzer a “visionary” in handling all the various problems he faced when he arrived at the college. Spitzer created “a growth plan that will serve us well at Gonzaga University for years to come,” according to Nelles.
More importantly, Spitzer gave needed attention to the spiritual culture at Gonzaga. He made headlines in 2000 when he cancelled a campus appearance by a Planned Parenthood representative, stating, “I consider Planned Parenthood’s actions to be blatantly contrary to the Catholic and Jesuit character of the university and to its mission.” In 2002, Spitzer refused to allow performances of The Vagina Monologues to take place on campus, saying the play was contrary to the “Catholic and Christian view of marriage.” The speakers and productions permitted on campus, he said, “[speak] volumes about who we are, what our mission is, and what we believe."
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Web Exclusive
Though overlooked by many during her lifetime, Jeanne Jugan—now St. Marie de la Croix—founded an order that cares for thousands of the poor and sick around the globe today.
By Sandra Miesel
 Saints are supposed to be humble. Few have been as quietly humble as Jeanne Jugan, foundress of the Little Sisters of the Poor, who was canonized by Benedict XVI on October 11 as St. Marie de la Croix. Through humility she achieved what T.S. Eliot called “A condition of complete simplicity/ (Costing not less than everything.)” That simplicity lives on today in Jeanne’s religious daughters, who serve the elderly poor throughout the world.
Jeanne was a poor fisherman’s daughter, born at Cancale in Brittany on October 25, 1792, during the French Revolution. Her parish priest, who had conformed to the Revolutionary regime, left the village within a few years. Women kept the faith alive through private instruction. They defiantly continued their pilgrimages to pray for the safety of their men at sea. After Napoleon made peace with the Church in 1802, Mass returned and Jeanne was able to receive the sacraments.
Jeanne’s father drowned before she was four years old. Her mother scrabbled hard to keep her four children alive. Breton women were famously hardy and used to giving each other mutual support. Jeanne did her part by watching cows, spinning, and knitting. By age 15, she went out to work as a kitchen maid at a country estate. The kindly lady of the manor took Jeanne along when distributing food to the poor. This apprenticeship in discreet giving would prove invaluable to her in later years.
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Books
His autobiography exemplifies the narcissism and immaturity of much Church leadership in the years since Vatican Council II.
By Russell Shaw
 Probably the most telling passage in Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland’s autobiography A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church concerns an apparently trivial incident in late 1977. The newly arrived archbishop of Milwaukee was cleaning out his predecessor’s files when, at the back of a cabinet, he came across dusty copies of psychological and sociological studies of American priests published five years earlier. He took them home, read them, and “resonated” to the insight that immaturity was one of the most serious problems of clerics.
“To be honest,” Archbishop Weakland writes, “I had to recognize that same immaturity in myself. In addition, I was becoming concerned that narcissism was equally a problem among the clergy; again, I could see this in myself. For us priests self-centeredness seems to have come with our mother’s milk, and was later re-enforced by being treated as the favorite among our siblings because of our priestly vocation.”
Having thus unburdened himself, the author drops the subject—consciously at least. But the whole of his book shows the immaturity/narcissism pattern at work in the author’s career; indeed, the book itself is a significant part of it. Here are the memoirs of one of those self-centered, narcissistic priests, who, having risen to the highest levels of the American hierarchy at a crucial time, faltered tragically there.
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Web Exclusive The LCWR leadership continues to voice opposition to Vatican investigations into their activities, claiming to be “misunderstood” by Rome.By Ann Carey  It is reported that some law professors give this advice to future lawyers: argue the facts when the facts are on your side, argue the law when the law is on your side, but when neither the facts nor the law are on your side, pound the table.
The latter tactic seems to have been adopted by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR)—the largest leadership organization of Catholic sisters in this country—in reacting to both the Vatican’s ongoing doctrinal assessment of the group’s activities and the apostolic visitation of communities of women religious. In an August 17 press release, the LCWR did not argue the facts or the law; rather, the statement attacked the methodology of the inquiries, saying they “lacked full disclosure about the motivation and funding sources.” The LCWR also expressed displeasure that the visitation teams’ reports will not be disclosed to the orders visited.
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