Chicago Catholic News: From the Portico: On power and politics

From the Portico: On power and politics

(POSTED: 2/1/10) The Roman Catholic Church is more than just a spiritual entity: it's big business.

To that end, Crain's Chicago Business recently ranked the largest employers in the Chicago region, and two Catholic institutions were in the Top 25: Resurrection Health Care, with more than 10,000 full-time employees, and the Archdiocese of Chicago, with nearly 8,000.

A number of leaders of Catholic institutions also were featured in the Crain's "Who's Who" list, including: the superintendent of Chicago's Catholic schools, Sister Mary Paul McCaughey; the heads of DePaul, Dominican, Loyola and St. Xavier universities; and Cardinal Francis George.

Governor's race

Speaking of the cardinal, he's never been known to publicly, directly favor a political candidate.

But with the primary election fast approaching, you wonder who he'd back.

What about Jim Ryan -- one of the Republicans vying for the state's top elected job?

The cardinal's top issue is abortion, and Ryan's stance seems pretty in line with Church teachings.

Besides, Ryan's son is a top official at Chicago's Catholic Charities, and Ryan told ChicagoCatholicNews.com that he talks with the cardinal on occasion.

"I know the cardinal, and from time to time I talk to him; I value his opinion and his advice," Ryan said. "I'm a Catholic, so obviously what the cardinal thinks matters to me morally and personally."

What do they talk about?

"I talk to him every once and a while, but I don't want to talk about personal conversations with the cardinal," Ryan said.

Do you think you're his candidate of choice?

"I wouldn't say that . . . I would never presume . . . the cardinal is a prince of the Church, and the Church is a non-partisan organization."

But he must be happy with your politics on abortion and some other things.

"I hope so, I want to be on the right side," Ryan said.

George's press secretary did not respond to calls and emails.

Ryan, the former Illinois attorney general, also mentioned the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, whom he got to know when Ryan was battling cancer years back.

Latino surge

The University of Notre Dame recently compiled a report on Latinos and Catholic schools.

The gist: Catholic schools need to reach out more to the Hispanic community, which is a huge and important segment of the Catholic Church in America.

There were recommendations, etc. (You might have read about them here.)

But here's the most telling fact I found:

"In the United States, Latinos now comprise 35 percent of all Catholics and 67 percent of practicing Catholics aged 18 to 34."

That's 67 percent. Latinos are the future of the Church in Chicago and around the country.

Let's hope the Archdiocese of Chicago finally has figured that out. It's given the Hispanic population short shrift in a lot of ways, critics contend, although in recent months there have been signs that that's changing.

St. Boniface project inching forward

The redevelopment of Chicago's closed St. Boniface Church is moving ahead, but more slowly than initially planned.

Groundbreaking on a multimillion-dollar project to turn the property into a "senior living" complex -- which would retain the church's signature towers, as well as other parts of the historic but crumbling building -- was supposed to take place in spring.

But developer Ken McHugh of Oak Brook-based Institutional Project Management LLC said everything's still on track, just not moving as fast as originally thought. His guess is all the legal agreements will be wrapped up in June, with construction starting in late summer or early fall.

There are some schematics on the company's web site that are worth checking out.

Campus creation

Speaking of Institutional Project Management, the company has a hand in an interesting project out West: building a new Catholic college.

Wyoming Catholic College is new, housed in temporary quarters in Lander, Wy., while the school raises enough money to build a campus from the ground up.

For now, McHugh's group is serving as consultants on a variety of things, including fundraising. Ultimately, the company will be the developer of the new campus, which is planned for a sprawling patch of wild.

The school has an equestrian program and, McHugh said, draws many students that had been home-schooled.

McHugh knows a thing or two about Catholic colleges, having been an administrator at DePaul University for years.

This and that . . .

As the Catholics Come Home television ad campaign wraps up, a new smaller media campaign is underway: the Archdiocese of Chicago has been running radio ads to promote Catholic Schools Week, running on WBBM-AM, FM 105.9 and even Radio Disney . . . It goes without saying that Bishop J. Peter Sartain of the Diocese of Joliet -- which includes DuPage and Will counties -- has had a rollercoaster ride the last few weeks. First, one of his priests apparently tried to kill himself after being accused of sex abuse. Then, a new auxiliary bishop was ordained. And, just in recent days, a report recommending school closures or consolidations was released. A lot of news for a usually quiet operation . . . Just across the border in the Diocese of Gary, Ind., is Bishop Dale Melczek, who just left for a trip to the Holy Land, in what's described by his staff as a pilgrimage. . . . The back and forth continues between the Archdiocese of Chicago and attorney Phillip Aaron, whose clients have claimed the Church here shortchanges minorities in sex abuse settlements. Vicar General John Canary has angrily denied that, but Aaron recently released a report that asserts otherwise. Stay tuned. . . . On a selfish note, we wanted to mention that readership of ChicagoCatholicNews.com continues to grow, as does attention from outside news sources. Our stories in recent weeks have made the Huffington Post, the Chicago Sun-Times, the SouthtownStar and Fox News Chicago. Thanks very much for reading, and think of us for story ideas.

From the Portico is an occasional column -- written by ChicagoCatholicNews.com editor Robert Herguth -- that focuses on the people, policies and inner-workings of the Catholic Church in the Chicago region.

Contact: info@chicagocatholicnews.com

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