Father Gregory Sakowicz, recruiter for the priesthood at Niles College Seminary of Loyola University, says he`s ”thrilled and honored” that the documentary he co-produced for WBBM-Ch. 2, will run Sunday from 1-2 p.m. as the lead-in to ”NFL Preview `89.” It`s only fitting for a man who really wanted to be a sportscaster.
”I`ve always had an interest in broadcasting, even as a little boy growing up and thinking of myself doing play-by-play for the White Sox, the Cubs, the Bears and the Bulls,” he said. ”I even got accepted, as a senior in high school, to Northwestern to study radio and television, but then I felt the call of God to give the priesthood a chance.”
In a world in which fewer and fewer young Roman Catholics are giving Holy Orders any kind of chance at all, Sakowicz is a worried man. Hence, the documentary, ”Greater Things to Come,” in which, through a mix of old and new film footage, he traces Catholicism from Vatican II, when Pope John XXIII ”opened the windows” and changed the church forever, to the present when, for a variety of reasons, the priesthood is becoming an endangered profession.
”We really are in a priest shortage crisis,” he said. ”There are dwindling numbers entering the seminars. For a growing number of high-school- aged young men, the priesthood is not an option. The celibacy thing is one reason, but we live in a society today that doesn`t support the priesthood as a way of life. We`re taught to be takers-to want money, power and fame. The priesthood is contrary to this: It`s giving.”
”Greater Things to Come,” co-produced with J. Robert Parkinson, associate professor of radio, television and film at Northwestern, and his wife, Eileen, will attempt to change all that by re-glamorizing the priesthood.
– Shoppers at Sears-and 2.2 million of them parade through 850 stores every day-will find themselves drowning in peacock feathers this fall when, in a joint promotion deal with Sears, Continental Airlines and Buick, NBC sets out to hype its 1989-90 prime-time schedule.
The cross-promotional deal was announced in May, but the network added a new set of bells and whistles this week. Through a ”Be a Star” contest demanding only that contestants write down the names of NBC`s new shows-”Nutt House,” ”Hard Ball,” ”Mancuso, FBI,” ”Bay Watch” and ”Sister Kate”-
one viewer a week will be chosen to spend a week in Hollywood, act in a cameo role in one of the new shows and walk away with $50,000 in prizes.
– Steve Wilson, of Fox`s ”The Reporters,” will incur the corporate rage of Pan American Airlines Saturday (7:30 p.m., WFLD-Ch. 32) when he airs a story he contends will show that Pan Am security in Frankfurt, Germany, still is ”totally dismal.”
It was from that airport that the Pan Am Flight 103 took off last Christmas, carrying the terrorist bomb that sent it down with no survivors in Lockerbie, Scotland. To learn if security had been beefed up since then, Wilson infiltrated a secret anti-terrorist training session where, without checking his credentials, officials ”gave me the entire Pan Am security manual.”
”It sets out several specific warning signals that would indicate a potential terrorist,” Wilson said. ”We sent a guy through with four of them and nobody even questioned him. To make matters worse, the bag he checked went on the flight without him, just like the one carrying the bomb did on the Lockerbie flight.”
Wilson said Pan Am officials have written to Fox in a bid to quash the report, but that they refuse to be interviewed on the program because of
”impending lawsuits” filed by families of the victims.
– CBS News will explore the nation`s drug crisis with more than 10 hours of programming through the week of Sept. 11. Under the banner, ”Drugs: One Nation, Under Seige,” the ”Evening News,” ”CBS Morning” and ”48 Hours,” which makes its season debut Sept. 14 with a three-hour ”Return to Crack Street,” all will contribute. President Bush is scheduled to announce his new anti-drug policy on Sept. 5.
