ADDENDA

National Catholic Reporter, Dec 22, 2000 by Teresa Malcolm

MSGR. GEORGE HIGGINS, 84, for 60 years one of America's most noted labor priests, received the 2000 Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award Dec. 3. The award is given by the Davenport, Iowa, diocese and a consortium of area institutions to people prominent in the work for justice and peace. Davenport Bishop William E. Franklin presented the award during an afternoon ceremony at St. Ambrose University, with about 100 people in attendance.

THE UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON'S children's center will be renamed the Bombeck Family Learning Center, honoring the late humorist Erma Bombeck, a 1949 graduate of the Marianist-run university. The center will be renamed and dedicated in the fall of 2001. Bombeck, who died at age 69 in 1996, became a Catholic while a student at the university. The Bombeck family recently contributed $1 million to the university's Call to Lead fundraising campaign. The donation will go to the $3.8 million conversion of the child-care center into an early childhood learning demonstration school.

CARDINAL ANTHONY J. BEVILACQUA of Philadelphia announced the convocation of an archdiocesan synod he said will "foster communion and mission" in shaping the pastoral activities of the entire archdiocese. A synod has not happened in 66 years in the archdiocese. What will be Philadelphia's 10th synod is set to convene in the spring of 2002 and will be preceded by a preparation phase that officially begins Jan. 8, the cardinal said.

SOULFORCE, an ecumenical gay rights group, plans to lead a delegation to Rome in January to hold a silent vigil outside St. Peter's Basilica and tape their demands to the Vatican's door. In 2000, Soulforce led hundreds of people to be arrested in nonviolent demonstrations outside the meetings of the United Methodists church, Presbyterian church (USA), Episcopal church, Southern Baptist Convention and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. The group's Rome action, planned for Jan. 5-6, 2001, is in cooperation with Dignity/USA, the nation's largest group of gay Catholics.