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The Southern Cross, Page 2 Former Aquinas TEACHER SENTENCED Augusta F ormer Aquinas High School teacher Vanessa Velez-Cruz pleaded guilty in Richmond County Superior Court and was sentenced to 30 years in prison for systematically stealing $227,774 from students and their parents, friends, businesses and charitable organizations from 1993 through 1999. Ms. Velez-Cruz defrauded the students and parents by creating the false impression that she was depositing monthly installment payments for overseas trips into two business accounts. Twenty-eight Aquinas students were stranded in Europe when their accommodations and return flight were canceled after Ms. Velez-Cruz’s checks to a travel agent bounced. No school funds were involved. Colorado priest named COADJUTOR BISHOP IN Wyoming Washington (CNS) P ope John Paul II has named Father David L. Ricken, a priest of the Diocese of Pueblo, Colorado, and an official of the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy since 1996, as coadjutor bishop to Bishop Joseph H. Hart of Cheyenne, Wyoming. Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, apostolic nuncio to the United States, announced the appointment December 14 in Washington. As coadjutor, Bishop- designate Ricken, 47, will automati cally become head of the Cheyenne Diocese upon Bishop Hart’s death or retirement. Thousands pay tribute TO FALLEN FIREFIGHTERS Worcester, MA (CNS) T he people of the City of Worcester and of Worcester County gathered by the thousands December 9 to pay tribute to six firefighters who laid down their lives in a fire at an aban doned warehouse building December 3. People, in respectful silence, lined To Subscribe Send this in to your parish, together with your check for $15, made out to the parish. Name Hie the route of a procession of an estimat ed 20,000 firefighters from Worcester, from cities and towns in Worcester County, from fire departments from across Massachusetts and New England and from departments throughout the United States, Canada and as far away as Ireland and Australia. They were joined by President Clinton, Vice President A1 Gore and Massachusetts Senators Edward M. Kennedy and John F. Kerry. John XXIII expected to BE DECLARED VENERABLE, BEATIFIED Vatican City (CNS) P ope John Paul II is expected to declare Pope John XXIII venera ble in late December and beatify him next September. Famiglia Cristiana, Italy’s top-selling weekly magazine, devoted the cover of its December 12 issue to Pope John and said his beati fication would take place September 3. Pope John Paul’s calendar for the Holy Year 2000 includes a beatifica tion ceremony September 3 in Saint Peter’s Square, although the person or people to be beatified were not named. Pope John headed the Catholic Church from 1958 to 1963 and convoked the Second Vatican Council. Officials involved in saint hood and beatification processes told Catholic News Service the September beatification of Pope John was likely. Jesuit finds HUD job a NEW PLACE TO SERVE Washington (CNS) J esuit Father Joe Hacala’s Roman collar probably stands out a bit in the federal government office build ing where he works. And it may strike some people as odd when they call the Department of Housing and Urban Development about a project proposal and wind up working with a Catholic priest. But to hear HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo talk, HUD’s Center for Community and Interfaith Partnerships, which Father Hacala was hired to open and run, creates exactly the right kind of inter action between government and faith groups. The center has made it possi ble for nonprofit groups, particularly religiously based organizations to “have an institutional seat at the table” in community development, Cuomo said November 30. Pope lauds restored Sistine Chapel frescoes AS ‘VISUAL HYMN’ Vatican City (CNS) B lessing a restoration job financed largely by American benefactors, Pope John Paul II viewed resplendent frescoes in the Sistine Chapel and said they constituted a “visual hymn” to God. On December 11 Vatican officials unveiled the final phase of a 20-year cleaning project in the chapel, which began with Michel angelo’s famed ceiling paintings and ended with a series of 15th-century frescoes on the side walls. The 12 side wall frescoes, by artists includ ing Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino and Domenico Ghirlandaio, feature scenes from the lives of Moses and Christ, including Moses’ crossing of the Red Sea and Christ’s handing the keys of the kingdom to Saint Peter. Tom Jones, Lionel Richie to perform at Vatican concert Vatican City (CNS) I nternationally acclaimed singers Tom Jones and Lionel Richie will take the stage at the Vatican’s annual Christmas concert December 18, organizers said. Proceeds from the concert, the seventh of its kind, will go to construct 50 new churches in the periphery of the Diocese of Rome. Pope John Paul II is expected to meet with the musicians, but he is not scheduled to attend the concert. Children’s Bill of Rights advocated New York (CNS) S ister Mary Rose McGeady used the annual candlelight vigil of Covenant House, the shelter program for homeless and runaway youth, to launch a “Children’s Bill of Rights” Thursday, December 16, 1999 December 7. “We believe every child has the right to be put in touch with the God who loves him or her,” says the first of 10 “basic and inalienable” rights in the list. Sister McGeady, a Daughter of Charity who has been president of Covenant House since 1990, said after the vigil that being put “in touch with God” would include being taught the kind of behavior expected from a child in God’s covenant. Court: Jesuits may be LIABLE IN CASE San Francisco (CNS) A California court has been ordered to reconsider a former seminarian’s lawsuit claiming he was sexually harassed while studying at Jesuit institutions. In a December 1 ruling, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unani mously said the U.S. District Court of Northern California erred in dis missing John Bollard’s lawsuit against the California, Oregon and Maryland provinces of the Jesuits. The district court had said civil courts lack jurisdiction in discrimina tion suits involving ministers and the churches that employ them. “That rationale does not apply here,” the 9th Circuit said, “for the Jesuits most certainly do not claim that allowing harassment to continue unrectified is a method of choosing their clergy.” Team will push for more Vatican papers Vatican City (CNS) H istorians commissioned to review Vatican documents relat ing to the Holocaust indicated December 7 their primary thrust would be pushing for the opening of all Vatican archives that might con tain pertinent documents. “The search for truth, wherever it may lead, can be best promoted in an environment in which there is full access to archival documentation and other his torical evidence,” said the team of Catholic and Jewish historians in a joint statement read at a press confer ence. The team held its first meeting in New York December 6-7. Address Phone Parish For more information call The Southern Cross (912) 238-2320 J (USPS 505 680) Publisher: Most Rev. J. Kevin Boland, D.D. Director of Communications: Mrs. Barbara D. King C P a )f Editor: ^ Rev Douglas K. Clark, S.T.L. Editorial and Business Office: Catholic Pastoral Center 601 E. Liberty Street Savannah, GA 31401-5196 (912) 238-2320 FAX: (912) 238-2339 E-mail: DCIark5735@aol.com Internet Home Page: http://www.dioceseofsavannah.org Deadline: All material for publication on Thursday must be received at the latest by noon on the previous Friday. POSTMASTER: Send Change of Address to circulation office: Chalker Publishing Southern Cross Subscription Department P. O. Box 948 Waynesboro, GA 30830 Subscription Price: $15 per year Periodicals Postage Paid at Waynesboro, GA 30830 Published weekly except the second and last weeks in June, July and August and the last week in December. At 601 E. 6 th Street Waynesboro, GA 30830