The live audience, at George Mason University, in Virginia, included people whom CNN had flown in: gun owners, gun sellers, survivors of shootings, and relatives of victims.

The first three questions came from skeptics of greater gun control—the widow of a Navy SEAL, a rape survivor from Colorado, and a Republican sheriff running for Congress in Arizona.

Then the Reverend Doctor Michael L. Pfleger, a Roman Catholic priest dressed in a black jacket and a white collar, took the microphone. "I happen to be from one of those cities where violence is not going down," he said. "There's been eleven killed in seven days in Chicago."

For forty years, Pfleger has worked and lived at the Faith Community of St. Sabina, Chicago's largest African-American Catholic church. His neighborhood, Auburn-Gresham, is ninety-eight per cent black.

Pfleger is white. At sixty-six, he has heavy eyes and side-swept brown hair that has not changed much in color or style since the Johnson Administration. "It's easier to get a gun in my neighborhood than it is a computer," he told the President, adding, "For many years, nobody even cared about Chicago, because the violence is primarily black and brown."

In Chicago, Pfleger is a showman of the first order. He usually preaches with an eight-piece band, a choir, and a troupe of dancers, all arrayed beneath a painting, twenty feet tall, of a young black Jesus wearing a white robe.

His parishioners once nicknamed him Cecil B. De Pfleger. At a funeral that I attended for Vince Clark, his assistant and friend, Pfleger concluded the eulogy by putting on one of Clark's signature fedoras and downing a shot of rum, the deceased's favorite drink. He drew a standing ovation. Continue reading

Sources

• The New Yorker, an article by Evan Osnos, a staff writer who covers politics and foreign affairs.
• Image: ABC News

Fr Michael Garanzini, SJ, a former president of the university, said until Pope Francis opened up avenues of discussion, he didn't expect to see change in this area.

Fr Garanzini said the issue is likely to come up during the synod on the family in October, given the public statements of some bishops, notably in England.

"It's spurring the obvious point that one priest with a wife operates just as effectively or perhaps more effectively than the priest down the block," Fr Garanzini said.

"There will always be a role for celibate clergy and there will probably be an opening of ministry positions to a noncelibate or married clergy."

In an article on the Crain's Chicago Business website, he pointed to the Eastern church practice where priests can marry before ordination.

"I don't think it's a huge hurdle, but I think it will take some open thinking," Fr Garanzini said.

He said the discussion of priests marrying has come as a result, in part, of "the fallout of the priest sexual abuse problem".

"Some good things" have evolved since then, he said, "and one is this question of openness to a priest's physical and psychological health".

"The second is that the hierarchy, the leadership, that we have needs to be more open and transparent and admit problems and faults as they happen and that we're not above the law. Those two things are a direct result of the scandal."

Another result, he said, is lay Catholics speaking up more about the Church.

"Those are tremendous positives," Fr Garanzini said.

Sources

• Crain's Chicago Business
• Image: Loyola University Chicago

He was 78.

As head of the United States' third-largest archdiocese, Cardinal George shepherded the Chicago church through school closings and the priest sexual abuse scandal.

He strived to reconcile his support for the clergy with the pain of victims.

He also became a point person between the US and the Vatican on the abuse scandal and matters such the English translation used in the Mass.

In November 2014, Cardinal George became the first Chicago archbishop to retire, following his third cancer diagnosis.

He was succeeded in Chicago by Archbishop Blase Cupich.

Continue reading

According to a New York Times report, Cardinal Francis George stated that Francis has "said some wonderful things".

But Cardinal George added: "But he doesn't put them together all the time, so you're left at times puzzling over what his intention is."

"What he says is clear enough, but what does he want us to do?"

Cardinal George, who is 77 and being treated for cancer, remains a voting cardinal until age 80.

A former president of the United States Catholic Bishops Conference, he finishes as Archbishop of Chicago next week.

Cardinal George said he would like to travel to Rome to see Francis.

"I'd like to sit down with him and say, Holy Father, first of all, thank you for letting me retire. And could I ask you a few questions about your intentions?"

In an interview last week, Cardinal George's successor in Chicago, Archbishop-elect Blase Cupich said the Pope is saying some very challenging things to people.

"He's not saying, this is the law and you follow it and you get to heaven.

"He's saying we have to do something about our world today that's suffering, people are being excluded, neglected.

"We have a responsibility, and he's calling people to task."

The US bishops have been meeting this week in Baltimore.

Jesuit media commentator Fr Thomas Reese said: "There is no bishop who is standing up and being the real leader of a Francis faction."

"They grew up in conservative families, went to conservative seminaries and have been told not to talk to theologians who are creative because they've been labelled heretical.

"Now Francis is saying, let's go in a different direction and let's have a discussion," Fr Reese said.

"The last two pontificates, there was no room for discussion, and this makes them nervous and confused."

Sources

• New York Times (MSN)
• Image: Sun Times

Instead, Archbishop Blaise Cupich will live in the rectory of Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago.

Archbishop Cupich acknowledged the mansion's history, but said he wanted to live near the cathedral so he could celebrate Mass there was often as possible.

In addition to the residence area, the historic mansion includes offices, a space for receptions and a 5,800-square-foot coach house, where three nuns live.

Archbishop Cupich will use the mansion to host guests and hold functions, the archdiocese said.

An Archbishop's Residence Committee has been established to study how best to use the mansion.

Continue reading

"He so quickly got us," said Andrew Lyke, a participant in the meeting who is now the director of the Chicago Archdiocese's Office for Black Catholics.

The group succeeded in inserting its priorities into the congress's plan for churches, Mr Lyke said, and "Barack Obama was key in helping us do that."

By the time of that session in the spring of 1987, Mr Obama — himself not Catholic — was already well known in Chicago's black Catholic circles.

He had arrived two years earlier to fill an organising position paid for by a church grant, and had spent his first months here surrounded by Catholic pastors and congregations.

In this often overlooked period of the president's life, he had a desk in a South Side parish and became steeped in the social justice wing of the church, which played a powerful role in his political formation.

On Thursday, Mr Obama met with Pope Francis at the Vatican after a three-decade divergence with the church.

By the late 1980s, the Catholic hierarchy had taken a conservative turn that de-emphasised social engagement and elevated the culture wars that would eventually cast Mr Obama as an abortion-supporting enemy. Continue reading.

Source: The New York Times

Image: Joe Wrinn, Harvard University/AP Photo

New York's Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Chicago's Cardinal Francis George have both expressed a little concern about the bringing the conclave forward.

Cardinal George told reporters, Sunday after celebrating Mass, there should be no rush to convene the conclave because the days leading up to the election are when cardinals can lean the most about the candidates.

"You take the time needed to make a good decision ... We will go into conclave when collectively the cardinals decide that we have [had] the conversations necessary to make a good decision," said George, as reported by the Chicago Tribune.

"The most important thing is to choose well, and we'll take the time necessary to do that."

And while eager to hear some information and instructions, Cardinal Timothy Dolan admitted, Saturday, to not yet hearing anything.

"I'm eager along with the rest of the cardinals to hear some information and instructions about what will happen" he said, adding, "I would think one would not want to rush into the conclave."

The conclave, the meeting which will bring together the 117 cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church, could start before March 15 if all the cardinals are already in Rome, Vatican Spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi said.

Lombardi had previously said the conclave was likely to start between March 15 and 19, however recently gave new details saying because the pope has resigned, the conclave could be brought forward.

Well informed Editor of the Irish Catholic, Michael Kelly (@michaelkellyic) tweeted two days ago "Non Rome-based cardinals not happy about possibility of #Conclave being brought forward...I think they suspect Curia is up to something."

Sources

• Chicago Tribune
• New York Post
• Christian Post
• @michaelkellyic

The aim was to keep the government from getting it, prosecutors said.

Bishop of Wiaona diocese Rev John Quinn has suspended the Rev Eugene Klein from his priestly duties and has expressed his sorrow at the incident.

Klein ministered to former Chicago Outfit hit man Frank Calabrese Sr, (photo above) who is serving a life sentence at a federal prison in Missouri for 13 murders.

Calabrese was among five mobsters jailed after his son Frank Calabrese Jr agreed to wear a wire for the FBI.

Calabrese is barred from having contact with anyone outside the prison except his lawyer, a priest and certain immediate family members, but the mobster managed to use Klein to get the word out by passing the priest messages through the food slot in his cell.

He also convinced Klein to speak with two unnamed individuals to help them find the violin, which he told the priest was worth millions and was hidden in Calabrese's Wisconsin house.

"There are a lot of unprecedented parts of this case. This is another one," retired FBI agent James Wagner said of the investigation. "I would guess this is not the first time this has happened, but this is the first time I can remember a priest getting indicted for it."

The government had already seized more than $1 million in cash, jewelry and other items from Calabrese's Illinois home and had also put the Wisconsin house up for sale to help cover the cost of the $4.4 million in restitution Calabrese owed to the families of his victims.

It wasn't clear from the indictment what Klein stood to gain from the plot for which he faces up to 10 years in jail and a $500,000 fine.

Sources

• AP
• Washington Post
• Image: CBS Chicago