Addenda

National Catholic Reporter, Feb 14, 2003 by Gill Donovan

CENSUS BUREAU STATISTICS released in January confirm that Hispanics now constitute the largest minority in the United States, exceeding the numbers of African-Americans. Between April 2000 and July 2001, the Hispanic population rose 4.7 percent, from 35.5 million to 37 million. Hispanics make up 13 percent of the U.S. population and blacks make up 12.7 percent. Asians are 4 percent of the population, making them the next largest minority group, according to the census data. Whites remain the largest single population group, comprising 70 percent of an U.S. residents.

--Demetria Martinez

SR. ALICE HESS an Immaculate Heart of Mary sister and math instructor at Archbishop Ryan High School in Philadelphia, has been named one of the nation's Top 20 teachers by USA Today. Hess, 61, was chosen after USA Today learned that over 90 percent of her students have passed an advanced placement calculus course. Hess is the first nun to receive the award, which will provide $2,500 for her school. She told The Catholic Standard and Times, Philadelphia's archdiocesan newspaper, "I love math, but it is just an excuse to enter into students' lives. I'm teaching religion, I'm teaching God."

THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY of America awarded Benedictine Fr. Cyprian Davis its Johannes Quasten Medal for Excellence in Scholarship and Leadership in Religious Studies Dec. 4. A professor of church history at the St. Meinrad School of Theology in Indiana and a history professor at the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University of Louisiana, in New Orleans, Davis is the author of The History of Black Catholics in the United States.

THE LEGIONARIES of Christ are planning to open the first Catholic university in the Sacramento, Calif., area to be called the University of Sacramento. The Legionaries currently operate 11 universities in Mexico, Spain, Chile and Italy, and a graduate school of psychology in Virginia. Legionaries officials said they have been evaluating possible locations for a U.S. campus for nearly five years. They hope to be able to offer some programs in 2004 and provide a fun academic program in 2005.

THE CHICAGO ARCHDIOCESE has joined with Loyola University Chicago's Institute for Pastoral Studies to provide a new scholarship program for lay ecclesial ministers from African-American, Asian and Latino communities. The scholarship program assists individuals from underrepresented faith communities who participate in the Chicago archdiocese's Together in God's Service program, which provides support for lay people preparing to serve the archdiocese. The full-tuition scholarship is named for Loyola's president emeritus, Jesuit Fr. Raymond Baumhart, and is designed to enable the recipient to complete studies leading to a master of divinity degree or a master's degree in pastoral studies at Loyola.

BISHOP WILLIAM LORI of Bridgeport, Conn., has been elected chairman of the board of trustees of The Catholic University of America in Washington. Vincentian Fr. David M. O'Connell, university president, announced that Lori, 51; was elected Jan. 28 during a special board meeting. Lori replaces Cardinal Bernard Law, who resigned from the board Dec. 10, several days before resigning as head of the Boston archdiocese. Lori is a graduate of The Catholic University and was a priest of the Washington archdiocese for almost 25 years until being named to head the Bridgeport diocese in 2001.

BISHOP ALLEN VIGNERON, a Detroit auxiliary, has been named coadjutor bishop of the Oakland, Calif., diocese, currently headed by Bishop John Cummins who on March 3 will turn 75, the age at which bishops must submit their resignations to the Vatican. As coadjutor, Vigneron, 54, becomes the head of the diocese upon the retirement or death ctive ministry.

On Jan. 31 attorney Roderick MacLeish, whose firm is involved in numerous sex abuse lawsuits against the archdiocese, said new records produced by the archdiocese revealed 24 more priests who have been accused of sexually abusing minors. The Files, he said, had been erroneously grouped with those of priests accused of misconduct with adults.