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January 2016
Local News
Lilly grant will enable SHU/high school theology
FAIRFIELD—Committee members for the Lilly Endowment High School Youth Theology Institutes gathered for the first time on January 12 to discuss the week-long workshop for local youth in June. The event, funded by a $559,654 grant from Lilly Endowment Inc., will be hosted jointly by Sacred Heart University (SHU) and the Diocese of Bridgeport. This planning team includes members of the SHU faculty, campus ministry and student life who are working with staff from the diocese to plan and develop this week-long Institute, “SHU Journey: To God and the World.” The six-day residential pro-
SACRED HEART UNIVERSITY Catholic Studies Program Director Michelle Loris conducts a meeting with the Lilly Endowment Summer Theology Program committee on January 12. (PHOTO BY TRACY DEER-MIREK)
gram will provide 24 high school students with an experience of faith education, self-discovery and fun activities. Six SHU student mentors will act as guides in this exploration of faith. They will share in small group conversations about real life issues, prayer, liturgy, music ministry and community service. The week will include keynote talks by Bishop Frank J. Caggiano and Kerry Robinson, noted Catholic lay leader and executive director of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management. The participants will also visit the Cloisters in New York City. The faculty and staff leaders for the week will include Dr.
Two judges join Tribunal BRIDGEPORT—Two judges have been appointed to serve on the newly restructured Diocesan Tribunal, which is the canonical court responsible for ruling on petitions for marriage annulments in the diocese. Bishop Frank J. Caggiano has announced that Magdalen Ross of New York will be the first lay person to serve as a judge on the Tribunal, and Father Zbigniew Zielinski comes to his new post with a doctorate in Canon Law. Their appointments became effective on January 4, and both judges are now at work in the Tribunal Office at the Catholic Center. “As we prepare for the implementation of the new Canon Law governing annulments, we welcome Magdalen Ross and Father Zielinski. They bring tremendous knowledge, experience and compassion to their work on the Tribunal,” said the bishop. Msgr. Dariusz Zielonka, newly named judicial vicar of the Tribunal, said that the naming of the first lay person and woman judge is consistent with the 1983 Code of Canon Law. In his new role, he will serve both as a judge in the Tribunal, and as director of the Tribunal responsible for canonical affairs of the diocese. “Magdalen Ross comes to us
from the Metropolitan Tribunal of the Archdiocese of New York. In naming her a judge we’re fortunate to be able to take advantage of the 1983 change to canon law that permits lay judges. She is extremely qualified and I believe many people will welcome the presence of a lay person on the Tribunal,” he said. Msgr. Zielonka added that Father Zielinski, who recently was awarded a doctorate in Canon Law, brings experience in the Roman Rota to his work in the diocesan tribunal. “He has a great background and international experience. We’re fortunate that he has come to our diocese.” Magdalen Ross is a San Francisco native who also spent some of her youth in Hungary, where she grew up under a socialist system. She later earned a degree in history from San Francisco State University and began work in a medical office while moonlighting as copy editor for a literary review After her parents passed away, she joined a monastery in Wales, but discovered she did not have a cloistered or hermit vocation. She moved to Rome and spent five years at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross studying philosophy, theology and canon law, earning the licentiate in canon law in 2009.
Michelle Loris, director of SHU’s Catholic studies program; Father Anthony Ciorra, assistant vice president for Mission & Catholic Identity at SHU; Dr. June-Ann Greeley, professor of religious studies at SHU; Father David Buckles, director of Campus Ministry and Chaplaincy at SHU and Evan Psencik, coordinator of Youth and Young Adult Formation for the Diocese of Bridgeport. “This will be an extraordinary and transformative week for those high school young men and women who want to become more knowledgeable, effective, confident and faith-filled leaders in their parishes, schools, and communities,” Dr. Loris says. n
Tribunal to reopen
FATHER ZBIGNIEW ZIELINSKI
MAGDALEN ROSS
Ross has served in the archdioceses of San Antonio and Denver, and after doctoral studies at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Louvain) and the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC., she was appointed as a judge for the Inter-diocesan Tribunal of the New York Province, an appellate court. Father Zbigniew Zielinski, J.C.D., formerly a priest of the Archdiocese of Katowice, Poland, was born in Miasteczko Slaskie, Poland. After graduation from high school, he entered the diocesan seminary of the Archdiocese of Katowice and was ordained on May 16, 1998. After ordination, he served as parochial vicar in several large
parishes of the archdiocese, and was sent for further studies in canon law at the Catholic University of St. John Paul II, in Lublin, Poland. He received a licentiate degree in Canon Law there and completed his doctorate in canon law in 2008. He was later sent to study in the Roman Rota for two years. Returning to Poland, Father Zielinski worked in several parishes of the Archdiocese of Katowice, teaching classes in the university and serving as a parish priest in Poland. During his summer vacations over the past 14 years he was able to visit Connecticut and became familiar with the area. He will reside at St. Stephen Parish in Trumbull. n
BRIDGEPORT—The Diocese of Bridgeport will be one of the first dioceses across the U.S. to implement the new norms related to the annulment process, according to Msgr. Dariusz Zielonka, judicial vicar of the Tribunal. Msgr. Zielonka said the Tribunal Office is ahead of schedule in its restructuring process and will officially re-open February 1. In the meantime, judges are reviewing cases and people are downloading forms on the new Tribunal website. The changes are a response to the September 8, 2015, Apostolic Letter by Pope Francis entitled Mitis iudex dominus Iesus (MI), regarding the restructuring of the Church’s process pertaining to marriage annulment cases. The new law took effect on December 8, 2015. “We have moved ahead to implement the new norms, and we already have the forms posted on our website to inform people and enable them to apply according to the new rules,” said Msgr. Zielonka, who is serving both ➤ CONTINUED ON PAGE
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