"News Notes" published by the Wonderer, Bishop Jerome Listecki of La Crosse

In "News Notes" published by the Wonderer, Bishop Jerome Listecki of La Crosse, Wisconsin, (a Chicago native) was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to Archbishop of Milwaukee succeeding Archbishop Timothy Dolan, According to a ZENIT News Agency report, the newly elected prelate stated "I am humbled by my selection" and "will do my best to fulfill the confidence His Holiness Benedict XVI has placed in me." The Milwaukee Archdiocese has some 680,000 Catholics, served by 347 diocesan priests and 322 religious priests, 191 permanent deacons, and 1,583 sisters. On that same day, the Holy Father accepted the resignation of Bishop John D'Arcy, 77, of Fort Wayne South Bend, Ind., for reasons of age, and named Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Harrisburg, Pa., as his successor. Kevin Rhoades was born in Mahanoy City, Pa., in 1957, and was ordained a priest in 1983 for the Diocese of Harrisburg. Bishop Rhoades has been serving the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, and has also been working for the U.S. bishops' conference. The Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend has some 160,000 Catholics, served by 249 priests, 18 permanent deacons, and 847 religious. A November 13 Vatican communiqué announced the Episcopal appointments.

News article by Catholic News Agency

According to a news article by Catholic News Agency, the Spanish daily El País published an article on Sister Veronica, a 43-year-old prioress who has revolutionized an old Poor Clares convent, turning it into a magnet for dozens of young professional women. The newspaper goes on stating, she "has become the biggest phenomenon in the Church since Teresa of Calcutta," as "she has made the old convent of Lerma into an attractive recruiting banner for female vocations. The majority of the young sisters who have been attracted to the cloister "have been in relationships and had careers." In addition, "None are immigrants. Most are from the middle class and thy have college degrees. This community offers a complete roster of lawyers, economists, physicists, and chemists, roadway engineers, industrial workers, agricultural workers and aeronautics engineers, architects, doctors, pharmacists, biologists and physical therapists, librarians, philologists, teachers and photographers" In an interview of one of the sisters by El País defines the cloister as "a house open to those who knock on our door. We want to share our faith, to make known what is happening to us." The growth of the cloister since the arrival of Sister Veronica has been explosive: In 1994, when she was appointed mistress of novices at the age of 28, nearly 30 sisters entered. In the years from 2002 to 2005 there were 269 sisters who entered, and late last September there were 134.