Author Challenges Catholics to Live Church’s Social Teachings

(CNS photo/courtesy Liguori Publications)

Stephen White is a fellow in Catholic studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. In “Red, White, Blue and Catholic” he challenges American Catholics to understand and to live out Catholic social teaching in its fullness in their daily lives and more.
In his foreword, he cites three different Catholics who made a difference in their own times and ours: St. Thomas More, Dorothy Day and Jerome Lejeune.
These three, he writes, represent the vocation of all lay Catholics to “bring peace, joy, justice and truth” to all humanity through the “sanctification of the world” and support for the family, the unborn and the poor.”
Such efforts, of course, include but transcend politics.

Bert Tranel recalls farming and faith

(Observer photo)

East Dubuque man writes memoir

“Lucky 13: Rural Family of Faith” is a memoir of life on the farm in the far northwest corner of the Rockford Diocese.
Author Bert Tranel, the youngest of the 13 children, reflects on his life and the importance of faith to his family, from which came two priests for the Rockford Diocese and two sisters for the Sinsinawa Dominicans.
Tranel’s informal memoir has the tone of casual conversations in the family. In each section, he writes of a family member or a time in his own life, dropping in extraneious facts to help place each memory in historical perspective.
His father died shortly after the author was born, making young Bert the only family member who didn’t know him. “From then on, with the help of God’s grace and mom’s faith, we pulled through the rocky roads ahead,” he wrote.

Available on Amazon:
“Lucky 13: Rural Family of Faith”  by Bert Tranel. (River Lights Publishing, paperback) 167 pp., $17.99

Enter by Oct. 17, 2016, to win both books from The Observer Book Club. 

Joan Aubele considers her cure miraculous

(Observer photo/Louise Brass)

Somonauk woman shares her cancer fight

By Louise Brass
Observer Correspondent
Doctors thought she would be dead by the end of the week when the young mother of three, Joan Aubele, 29, was admitted to the hospital with stage-four acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
“My cancer was actually so advanced upon admission to the hospital that my chemo was postponed until the end of the week, assuming I would probably be dead by then,” Aubele said.
It seemed pointless to give her chemo at this stage — that was in March 1990.
Despite the diagnosis, and the anger and fear she was experiencing, she prayed and believed that somehow, someway her prayers would be answered.

“I was actually in constant prayer, begging God to let me live for the sake of my husband, and for my three little girls,” she recalled.

Richard Novak imagines building the church

(Observer photo)

Rockford novelist writes of early Christian lives

Take a step into the past for a tale of two orphans, abandoned in Rome at the time of the early Christian martyrs. One becomes a Christian deacon while the other is horrified when his adoptive parents become Christians.
“The Platonia Chamber,” a foray into historical fiction, is Dr. Richard Novak’s third book. Retired as professor and chairman of the Department of Pathology at the University of Illinois College of Medicine's Rockford campus. He was also chairman of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Rockford Memorial Hospital. He is a parishioner at Holy Family in Rockford.
His other books are “Topping the Dome: Art and Politics During the Construction of the Capitol Dome” and “Adelaide Johnson’s Portrait Monument” with Catherine Davidson.
Writing is only one of his creative hobbies. Dr. Novak also sculpts; more than 70 of his creations are in public and private collections.

“The Platonia Chamber”  by Richard F. Novak. (SW Publishing, paperback, 2015) 118 pp., $5.95

Enter by Oct. 17, 2016, to win both books from The Observer Book Club. 

Frank Ardito remembers Chicago's YCW

(Observer photo/Dan Szpekowski)

Huntley man's memoirs recall service to youth

By Pat Szpekowski
Observer Correspondent
Frank Ardito’s strong conviction of justice for the poor, his passion for playing the saxophone, and his strong belief in living his faith have followed him throughout his life. He believes it all moved forward and was bound together by Divine Providence.
It’s been the perfect assemblage that has given him a long successful career and now a busy retirement volunteering at St. Mary Parish in Huntley.
While in the parish narthex, Ardito displays a copy of his first book and brochures from the parish's child sponsorship program in Haiti.
Ardito has chronicled with fascinating details his experiences working with the poor and seeing the ravages of racism, riots and gang violence in Chicago in two books.
“The YCW I Remember” provides a snapshot of his faith journey from the time he was discharged from the army until he joined the Community Organization Division of the Chicago Commission on Youth Welfare.
“The Street Sweeper” offers a deeper look into his work in several inner city communities where he had the opportunity to express his faith and Gospel values in a variety of ways.

Durand family sustained by faith

(Observer file photos)

Walsh children recall 1955 polio outbreak

By Sharon Boehlefeld
Features Editor
In 1955, 11 of  the 14 children of Keron and Anne Walsh of Durand suffered from mild to severe forms of polio.
Five of the children were hospitalized. The two oldest children, teenage brothers Dan and Ed, died.
Sixty years later, Rose Walsh Landers, the youngest of the hospitalized children, along with family friend Mike Waller and sister Sue Walsh Cocoma, have written about the family’s struggles and survival in "Triumph on Baker Road: How the Walsh Family Defeated Polio."