NATION

National Catholic Reporter, April 13, 2001 by Gill Donovan

New York archdiocese makes cutbacks, closes schools

Initial steps by Cardinal Edward M. Egan to ensure that the New York archdiocese "is operating in a fiscally sound manner" were announced March 29. A news release issued by Joseph Zwilling, the cardinal's spokesman, said decisions had been made to consolidate the seminary system, put six elementary schools on notice that they may be closed and give "in-depth financial review" to all administrative units of the archdiocese.

The New York archdiocese has been wrestling with financial problems for a number of years and in 1990 announced sharp cutbacks in subsidies to schools.

In a news release and an interview, Zwilling said six priests in the seminary system would get new assignments at the end of this academic year. To take the place of three of the priests, Egan has appointed Msgr. Peter G. Finn, pastor of St. Joseph-St. Thomas Church on Staten Island, to serve as rector of the archdiocesan seminary system.

In a related consolidating action, the St. John Neumann pre-seminary program will move to St. Joseph's Seminary. Cathedral Preparatory Seminary is already based at St. Joseph's.

The other three seminary priests getting new assignments have had administrative positions. The remaining faculty will be asked to take on their functions in addition to their regular teaching load, Zwilling said.

He said the six elementary schools facing possible closure included three in Manhattan and three in upstate counties of the archdiocese.

A decision to close one of the archdiocesan high schools, John A. Coleman in Hurley, N.Y., was announced in February.

Jury rejects death penalty for VA nurse

Following a trial in which Springfield, Mass., Bishop Thomas L. Dupre had been asked to testify against the death penalty, a western Massachusetts judge sentenced nurse Kristen Gilbert to life in prison without possibility of parole March 26. Gilbert was found guilty in federal court of killing four patients under her care at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Leeds.

U.S. District Judge Michael Ponsor imposed the life sentence after the jury failed to reach unanimous agreement on whether Gilbert should receive the death penalty or life imprisonment. Gilbert, a 33-year-old mother of two, was the first defendant in the state to face the death penalty since 1975, when capital punishment was abolished in Massachusetts.

Because the people of Massachusetts have consistently rejected reinstating capital punishment, no jury in Massachusetts has had to face imposing the death penalty in more than 25 years. In the Gilbert trial, the jury had to consider the death penalty because the prosecution was able to have the case tried in federal court since the crimes occurred on federal property.

Many had questioned the justice of forcing a Massachusetts jury to consider the death penalty in a state that doesn't believe in having it as part of its justice system.

Higgins to get Notre Dame's Laetare Medal

Msgr. George Higgins, an expert in church social teachings who has spent most of his priestly life advocating for labor causes, is the winner of the 2001 Laetare Medal awarded by the University of Notre Dame. Higgins is scheduled to receive the medal May 20 at the university's 156th commencement exercises.

"The long career of George Higgins shows how an ardent embrace of Catholic doctrine intensifies the hunger and thirst for justice," said Holy Cross Fr. Edward A. Malloy, Notre Dame president.

Notre Dame named a labor study center for Higgins in 1993. The Laetare Medal is the latest honor during the priest's 60 years as a labor activist, author and university professor.

Last Aug. 9 Higgins, 85, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom at White House ceremonies presided over by President Clinton. In February, he was honored by United Auto Workers officials for his work with the UAW Public Review Board. Higgins was a founding member of the board and its chairman from 1966 until he retired from the board last September.

In the 1970s, he played a key role in mediating the settlement of grape strikes and the first United Farm Worker contracts with grape growers in California. In the early 1980s, he was a principal liaison between U.S. labor and the fledgling Solidarity union in Poland.

Higgins also wrote the book Organized and the Church: Reflections of a Labor Priest.

The Laetare Medal was established in 1883 as an annual award to be given to a Catholic who has contributed to society motivated by church ideals.

America says CDF procedures `are indefensible'

In an unsigned editorial April 9, Jesuit magazine America says that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's "inquisitional procedures are indefensible." Citing the recent investigation, trial and censure of Jesuit Fr. Jacques Dupuis, a theologian, (NCR, March 9) and a host of other prominent theologians who have been "harassed by the congregation," the editorial says that the congregation's inquiries disregard basic human rights and due process, and "should be dismantled without delay."