A new edition of the New Catholic Encyclopedia was published this fall by The Catholic University of America Press and the Gale Group. Franciscan Father Berard Marthaler, executive editor of the New Catholic Encyclopedia, said that making way for coverage of new developments meant, in technical terms, cutting 3.5 million words from the 1967 edition. He also said the revised edition already is setting itself up for a sequel. For example, he said, it has a good entry on the rosary but, of course, did not contain the five new mysteries of the rosary proposed by Pope John Paul II this October. "Just when you think you have the last word, Pope John Paul II trumps your ace," he said.

"In the wake of Enron, Arthur Anderson, WorldCom, Adelphia, Tyco and a national sex-abuse scandal, I think it’s fair to say that we’ve got two big problems," Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver said in an Oct. 10 address to Denver’s Rotary Club. First is a "problem of leadership in all our public institutions, not just business and religion," he said. Second is "a much deeper problem in American culture at large, a crisis in personal moral character at the grassroots level."...

"What makes a good leader?" Two things: character and competence," said Chaput. He continued: "You need the professional skills necessary to the task; that’s competence. And you need the moral conscience to use those skills properly; that’s character." The archbishop said that "a good leader creates a vision that other people can believe in and build together. And a good leader always acts honestly."...

A good leader also puts "the needs of his people before his own," Chaput stressed. He said that "people followed Jesus of Nazareth because he lived for them, he died for them and he created hope for them. That’s what a real leader looks like. And I think we don’t see enough of that anywhere today in American public life."...

"The flaw in American leadership in 2002," Chaput said, "is that too often it’s disconnected from the people it serves, focused on short-term gain and blind to the links between public behavior and personal moral integrity." Noting what he called "an unhealthy fracture between public behavior and personal belief," Chaput said "I can’t respect and I can’t trust an elected official or any other leader who claims that he or she personally believes one thing, but then publicly does another." The archbishop said: "I want my elected officials to inform their actions with their religious and moral beliefs, even if I don’t agree with them. I want them to do it prudently and in a spirit of reasonable compromise, but on the hard issues I want them to act on their principles because then I can respect them."

Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston asked the forgiveness Nov. 3 of victims of sexual abuse by priests. In a statement delivered at the start of Sunday Mass at Holy Cross Cathedral in Boston, Law said he never intended to place a priest in a position where children would be at risk; but "however well intentioned, I made assignments which I now recognize were wrong. With all my heart I apologize for this, once again." He said, "The forgiving love of God gives me the courage to beg forgiveness of those who have suffered because of what I did." In a meeting with abuse victims Oct. 29, Law said he was willing to resign if the pope wanted him to, but "I feel I have the responsibility to get this right."