October 14, 2005

Page 1

Catholic Church Catholic san Francisco moves to aid quake victims

Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper

By Catholic News Service

(CNS PHOTO FROM REUTERS)

LAHORE, Pakistan — The president of the Pakistani bishops’ conference expressed his grief following the country’s worst-ever earthquake and urged all Pakistani Christians to contribute to relief aid. Archbishop Lawrence Saldanha of Lahore, conference president, expressed his “profound shock and grief at the large-scale destruction of life and property caused by the great earthquake” that struck Pakistan, India and Afghanistan Oct. 8. He said prayers were offered in all Pakistani Catholic churches the next day for the eternal peace of the deceased and for the recovery of thousands of injured survivors, according to an Oct. 10 statement issued by his office. “This was the greatest natural disaster in our country’s history,” he wrote, calling upon all Christians “to do their part” in relief efforts. He urged them to contribute one day’s salary to the President’s Relief Fund and announced a donation of 500,000 rupees (US$8,357) from the Pakistani Catholic Church, reported UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand. The earthquake along the Pakistan-India border was magnitude 7.6. Its epicenter was near the town of Muzaffarabad, almost 60 miles northeast of Islamabad in Pakistanicontrolled Kashmir. Pakistani officials said Oct. 11 that the death toll from the earthquake would surpass 35,000 people, and tens of thousands are injured. Officials in India Oct. 11 reported a death toll of 1,300. Some news reports said up to 5 million people were homeless. A woman mourns the death of her son in Muzaffarabad, capital Father Sebastian Kalapura, principal of St. of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Oct. 11, three days after a Joseph School in Baramula, in India’s Jammu powerful earthquake struck India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. and Kashmir state, said the devastation is “very EARTHQUAKE, page 3

Synod members offer local snapshots of Eucharist in church life By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Amid theological and spiritual reflections, several members of the Synod of Bishops offered snapshots of the Eucharist in the life of their local churches. Patriarch Michel Sabbah of Jerusalem told the synod Oct. 11 that in the Cenacle, the upper room where Jesus instituted the sacrament of Communion, the Eucharist is not reserved in a tabernacle and liturgies are not celebrated regularly. The chapel is on the second floor of a building

owned by the Israeli government. It is above the site venerated by Jews as King David’s tomb. “The Holy Land is a land of conflict, hatred and death, a land of blood spilled and dignity violated,” said the patriarch, according to the text of his speech published by the Vatican. But at the same time, he said, the Holy Land is a place where people seek peace and seek God, “the only source of true peace.” Patriarch Sabbah said Christians in the Holy Land, most of whom are Palestinians, need to realize that “adoration, the Mass and Communion are

not exercises in piety,” but a push for unity “in the parish and beyond the parish with the whole city or village and the whole country.” Education is needed to help Christians leave behind the “inferiority complex” of being a small, neglected minority who use “piety as a refuge,” and should instead use their piety as a source of power for their involvement in building a better world, he said. According to a summary of his talk, Cuban Auxiliary Bishop Alfredo Petit Vergel of Havana told SYNOD, page 4

INSIDE THIS WEEK’S EDITION Riordan’s building campaign. 4 Assisted senior care . . . . . . 8

USF celebrates 150 years ~ Pages 10-11 ~

October 14, 2005

Scripture and reflection ~ Page 14 ~

Commentary . . . . . . . . . . 13 Synod highlights . . . . . . . 15 Datebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

‘The Greatest Game Ever Played’ movie review

Pope’s new book . . . . . . . . 17

~ Page 18 ~

www.catholic-sf.org

SIXTY CENTS

Classified ads . . . . . . . . . . 19 VOLUME 7

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October 14, 2005 by Catholic San Francisco - Issuu