Archive for January, 2011

Jesuit Father Michael Sparough, a retreat director at Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House, in Barrington, Ill., and author of a number of books, is now leading an effort to bring Chicago Cardinal Joseph Bernardin’s life story to the big screen.

Fr. Sparough is working with two Hollywood scriptwriters to turn Bernardin’s best seller, The Gift of Peace, into a mainstream feature film.

“It’s a classic hero’s journey, and I think it’s a story that needs to be told in our time — and my hope is it’s a healing story for those who have been wounded by the Church, and a story that will remind us of some of the best parts of our Catholic tradition,” said Sparough.

Sparough, who has a background in theater directing, said the project “has been incubating” for about eight years, and he’s getting help from a program called Act One that tries to enhance the Christian presence in Hollywood.

Sparough hopes to have the project in good enough shape this coming spring to start shopping it around.

“I’m encouraging people to pray for the project, there are lots of obstacles, but I really believe that if the Lord wants the story to be told . . . it’s going to happen.”

Read more about Sparough’s project at Chicago Catholic News.

Jesuit Father Michael Sparough, a retreat director at Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House, in Barrington, Ill., and author of a number of books, is now leading an effort to bring Chicago Cardinal Joseph Bernardin’s life story to the big screen.

Fr. Sparough is working with two Hollywood scriptwriters to turn Bernardin’s best seller, The Gift of Peace, into a mainstream feature film.

“It’s a classic hero’s journey, and I think it’s a story that needs to be told in our time — and my hope is it’s a healing story for those who have been wounded by the Church, and a story that will remind us of some of the best parts of our Catholic tradition,” said Sparough.

Sparough, who has a background in theater directing, said the project “has been incubating” for about eight years, and he’s getting help from a program called Act One that tries to enhance the Christian presence in Hollywood.

Sparough hopes to have the project in good enough shape this coming spring to start shopping it around.

“I’m encouraging people to pray for the project, there are lots of obstacles, but I really believe that if the Lord wants the story to be told . . . it’s going to happen.”

Read more about Sparough’s project at Chicago Catholic News.

McQuaid Jesuit High School in Rochester, N.Y., has selected its interim president, Jesuit Father Edward Salmon, to lead the school on a permanent basis.

Fr. Salmon, the former president of St. Peter’s Prep in Jersey City, N.J., served at McQuaid from 2002 until 2007 as superior of the Jesuit community, faculty and staff chaplain. He also taught Latin at the school and was chairman of the board’s Ignatian Identity Committee.

Salmon was named interim president in April to replace outgoing leader William Hobbs, who stepped down after the school year to become vice president of the Jesuit Secondary Education Association in Washington, D.C.

“McQuaid is blessed to have his wisdom, eloquence and spiritual nature to guide us through the years ahead,” said Jesuit Father James Fischer, former president of McQuaid.

Jesuit Father Greg Boyle was a guest on The Dr. Phil show that aired in December on “Trouble Teens Turnaround.” Fr. Boyle, who is executive director of Homeboy Industries, a gang-intervention and rehab center, discussed strategies to help troubled kids.

“We get about 15,000 folks who walk through our doors every year, gang members trying to redirect their lives,” said Boyle, who is also author of “Tattoos on the Heart” (#12 on the Los Angeles Times bestseller list for December 26, 2010). “They might come for tattoo removal and discover that we can locate a job for them or maybe they need counseling.”

One former gang member talked about how Boyle helped him. “Upon release [from prison], I came and talked to Fr. Greg, and he just signed me up and told me, ‘My son, come back Tuesday.’ After that, I’ve been working here ever since. Without Homeboy Industries, I’d probably be back in jail right now.”

“Los Angeles is the gang capital of the world,” said Boyle. “In L.A. County, we have 1,100 gangs and 86,000 gang members. I buried my first young person in 1988. I buried my 170th this morning.”

Boyle said the kids need to have an alternative to gangs. “You want to be able to say ‘Leave that behind; come over here and we’ll help you. We’ll give you a job and make sure you stay in school.’”

For more on the episode, visit the Dr. Phil website.

Jesuit Father Kevin Quinn, recently named the next president of the University of Scranton, takes great pride in Jesuit education, which he said is motivated in the gospel messages of Jesus Christ through engaged, integrated and global means.

“It’s my contemporary spin on a tradition that’s 500 years old,” he said.

Fr. Quinn said he expects to find a balance between respecting Catholic beliefs and the need for intellectual exploration when it comes to hosting events and speakers at the university who may not share the same Catholic values.

One of his roles in his current position as executive director of the Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education at Santa Clara University is to promote a Jesuit vision within the school’s faculty and staff. He said he plans to address the problem of the declining number of Jesuits and Catholic priests, especially on campus.

“The key is for our traditions to be carried on by our lay colleagues,” Quinn said, who succeeds Jesuit Father Scott Pilarz as president in July 2011.

Read more about Quinn in an article from the Scranton Times Tribune.