The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) recently announced the distribution of a second round of grants to support criminal justice reform activities across the nation. A total of $530,500 was awarded to 16 organizations.

The U.S. Catholic bishops have allocated $1.5 million to fund local criminal justice reform and education projects. A first round of grants totaling $500,500 was announced in November 2001 and a third round will be announced later this year.

Father Vitillo noted that this round of grants includes several projects aimed at educating citizens, and especially Catholics about criminal justice issues. "Although the general concept of social justice is understood by most people, issues of criminal justice and restorative justice for ex-offenders have been harder to understand on an individual level." Father Vitillo said.

The 2002 Congress on Vocations in North America is the third such regional gathering and follows a Latin American Congress held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1994, and a European Congress held in Rome in 1997.

The objective of the North American Congress is to build a positive environment in North America for (1) promoting vocations to ordained ministry and consecrated life; (2) unifying and guiding the church in North America in its commitment to identify, discern, and nurture vocations; and (3) welcoming future "workers to the harvest."

The Canadian and U.S. Bishops’ Conferences have the principal responsibility for the event. To plan the gathering, they are working in close collaboration with the Pontifical Work for Ecclesiastical Vocations in Rome, leaders of religious institutes, and diocesan and religious vocation directors’ associations in the United States and Canada.

More than 1,000 delegates are expected to attend the April 18-21, 2002 Congress in Montreal, scheduled to coincide with the 39th World Day of Prayer for Vocations, which occurs April 21. More information on the Congress can be found at www.vocations2002.org.

The Reverend Godfrey Diekmann, a small-town Minnesota boy who gained worldwide stature in the Catholic church he helped change, died Friday, February 22, 2002, in the care center of St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, MN, where he had been a monk for three-quarters of a century.

Diekmann’s death, at the age of 93, marks the end of nearly a century of important theological contributions by the Benedictine monastery, dating to a monk-priest named Virgil Michel (1890-1938) and closing with Diekmann. It was Diekmann’s strong voice in support of liturgical reform that helped usher in new and dramatic ways for Catholics to worship, including celebration of the Mass in the local language instead of Latin.

A Papal letter was sent to heads of all state and government, to present the "Assisi Decalogue for Peace." The document reviewed the commitment made by religious leaders of the world to work together in a common search for authentic progress and peace in the heart of the whole human family. The 10 point declaration was dated February 24 and was delivered to governments world wide on March 4, 2002.