Catholic Charities, parishes respond to wildfire’s havoc
Catholic san Francisco Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper
(CNS PHOTO/DAVID MAUNG)
By Rick DelVecchio
Jim Plum embraces Dylan Cader, 10, while helping the Cader family sift through the remains of their home in the San Diego neighborhood of Rancho Bernardo Oct. 25. Friends and relatives joined many of the residents who returned to salvage what they could from the ashes. At least 1,800 houses were lost in the October wildfires in Southern California.
Point7Now! Activists focus on global poverty By Rick DelVecchio Global poverty can end if rich countries make good on their promises to help poor ones, and Congress must begin now by reforming U.S. foreign aid and trade policies, Catholic and interfaith representatives declared at a national conBridget ference in San Francisco. The urgent call for the House and Senate to pass a set of global anti-poverty measures pending in the current congressional session capped the Point7Now! Action Conference, which drew more than 500 activists to St. Mary’s Cathedral on Oct. 27. Conference organizers had planned to deliver the message in person to Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Reps. Anna Eshoo, Tom Lantos and Lynn Woolsey. Each was invited in a letter signed by Archbishop George H. Niederauer;
Marc Andrus, the Episcopal bishop of California; and Stephen Pearce, senior rabbi at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco. In addition, individual parishioners in the Archdiocese urged the lawmakers to attend. But none appeared, and only Pelosi sent an aide. “The empty chairs speak Chisenga for themselves,” Andrus said from the stage. “I was disappointed,” George Wesolek, director of Public Policy and Social Concerns for the Archdiocese, said after the conference. “You can almost tell it’s not an issue of high priority.” Feinstein had planned to attend but canceled because of the fires in Southern California. “The representatives who were unable to be here today are ready to work with you to achieve what you want,” said POINT7NOW, page 19
Catholic Charities in the hard-hit Diocese of San Diego is seeking donations to help victims of the Southern California wildfires with shelter, rent, food, furnishings, building materials and school supplies. At least 80 parishioners lost their homes, with damage reports from the rural Jamul area in the southeast part of the county yet incomplete. The fires destroyed two missions on Native American reservations in San Antonio de Pala Parish in north San Diego County, diocesan Chancellor Rodrigo Valdivia said. No diocesan property was damaged, although one church in upscale Rancho Bernardo had minor damage from violent winds that tore off roof tiles. The fires erupted Oct. 21 and by Oct. 23 more than 900,000 people had been evacuated throughout Southern California. Property damage in San Diego County alone has surpassed $1 billion. Catholic Charities is working with pastors to aid parishioners who lost their homes, especially in Ramona, Rancho Bernardo and Fallbrook. It is also reaching out to farm workers, especially those living in Pala and Fallbrook. In addition to direct assistance, Catholic Charities is offering individual and group counseling to fire victims and emergency responders. Six fires destroyed 1,597 homes north and east of San Diego County. The most destructive was the Witch Fire, which was responsible for 1,040 homes lost and 70 damaged. It caused two civilian deaths and 40 injuries to firefighters, surrounding Ramona on three sides and destroying 430 structures in that community. The San Diego Union-Tribune set up a searchable map at http://www.signonsandiego.com/firemap/search.html showing San Diego County structural losses by place and zip code. One of the county’s hardest-hit parishes was San Rafael in Rancho Bernardo. The entire parish was evacuated, beginning at 4 a.m. Monday, Oct. 22, amid whipping winds and an orange glow on the horizon. “It’s been a hell of week,” the pastor, Msgr. Dennis Mikulanis, wrote in the latest parish bulletin. Good Shepherd Parish in the city of San Diego took in Msgr. Mikulanis and opened its old convent and rectory to evacuees. More than 600 homes were destroyed in Rancho Bernardo, including those of 45 parishioners, Msgr. Mikulanis told Catholic San Francisco. “The winds were blowing all night long — these were huge winds,” he said. “I was born and raised here and I’d never seen anything like that in my life. The fires couldn’t even be fought.” In Poway, evacuees used the parking lot of St. Gabriel Church as a safe haven as the fires swept through community, according to the latest parish bulletin. Four parishioners lost their homes. Msgr. Mikulanis said St. Michael Parish in Poway lost 20 to 25 homes and St. Timothy in Escondido lost four. St. Bartholomew Church, a mission church on the Rincon Reservation, and several homes on the reservation were destroyed in one of the fires, according to Bo Mazzetti, a councilman for the Luiseno tribe on the reservation. He told the San Diego Union-Tribune that the loss of the church was a spiritual blow to the tribe. “That’s something we’ve all attended, that church. It’s devastating to see that,” Mazzetti said. The church is owned by the Luiseno Tribe, not by the WILDFIRE, page 6
INSIDE THIS WEEK’S EDITION U.S. bishops to meet . . . . . 5 Miller Brewing apology . . . 8 Scripture . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Dateboook . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Local authors release wide variety of books
St. Anselm Parish celebrates centennial
Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange jubilarians
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November 2, 2007
SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS
New parish ministers . . . . 22 Classified ads . . . . . . . 22-23
www.catholic-sf.org VOLUME 9
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No. 33