December 12, 2008

Catholic san Francisco Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper

Guadalupana Pilgrimage

(PHOTOS BY JOSE AGUIRRE/EL HERALDO)

As estimated 18,000 took part in the 15th annual 12-mile Guadalupana Pilgrimage on Dec. 6 from All Souls Parish in South San Francisco to St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco where Archbishop George Niederauer was principal celebrant of a Mass for the pilgrims that honored Our Lady of Guadalupe. Participants were greeted at the Cathedral campus by singers, Aztec dancers and a festive crowd. Lower left, Roxanna Garcia of St. Paul Parish in San Pablo portrayed Our Lady of Guadalupe; Alfredo Ruiz of Cathedral Parish represented St. Juan Diego.

Organizers hope to hold the 2009 pilgrimage on the Our Lady of Guadalupe feast day, Dec. 12.

San Francisco mayor’s speech sparks interfaith debate

By Michael Vick In a letter to Archbishop George Niederauer, the chair and executive vice chair of the San Francisco Interfaith Council’s board of directors expressed disappointment with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s address at the 11th Annual Mayor’s Interfaith Prayer Breakfast held Nov. 25 at the Cathedral Hill Hotel in San Francisco.

The mayor’s address focused largely on the passage of Proposition 8, an initiative on the November ballot defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

The Rev. James DeLange, council chair and former pastor at St. Francis Lutheran Church in San Francisco, told Catholic San Francisco the breakfast was not an appropriate forum to discuss the marriage amendment.

“We regret that Mayor Newsom chose this occasion to express his anger at the Catholic Church and other religious people whom he perceives as instrumental in the passage of Proposition 8 in the Nov. 4 election,” wrote Delange and executive vice chair Rita Semel in a Nov. 30 letter to Archbishop Niederauer.

DeLange said the council is drafting a public statement addressing the mayor’s speech. He said he expected the statement to be similar to his and Semel’s letter to

Archbishop Niederauer, but that the final language would have to be approved by the full board of directors.

The letter also praised “the impact that Catholic Charities and other religiously based social service organizations have in alleviating hunger in our city.”

‘We need some coming together on all kinds of fronts right now’ – Father Gerard O’Rourke The mayor’s speech criticized Proposition 8 supporters, singling out the Catholic Church in particular. Newsom, a Catholic, said he took exception to the Church’s position and did not feel it reflected the faith tradition in which he was raised.

The mayor also acknowledged that opponents of Proposition 8 had not done enough to express their opposition in ways that were acceptable to religious communities.

“We’ll continue the fight for full equality,” Newsom

said. “But I am encouraged that as we reflect upon the last few months, that some of us have been humbled, and as a consequence, we’ll do it in a more reflective and thoughtful way.”

The mayor briefly acknowledged the religious organizations honored at the breakfast for their work on hunger.

For some the mention was overshadowed by the focus on Proposition 8.

Semel told Catholic San Francisco the mayor’s speech missed the point of the prayer breakfast.

“What we tried to do with the people we were paying tribute to was to show that faith-based organizations in our city do more than our share to feed the poor,” said Semel. “I felt that it was too bad that the mayor missed the opportunity to pay tribute to all of the agencies we were honoring.”

Maurice Healy, communications director for the Archdiocese of San Francisco and an attendee of the breakfast, said the mayor’s speech was a continuation of disrespect toward religious proponents of Proposition 8.

“Mayor Newsom launched into an intemperate attack on those religions and people of faith who supported Proposition 8,” Healy said. “The mayor said those who supported the initiative sought to deny rights to others. He MAYOR’S SPEECH, page 16

INSIDE THIS WEEK’S EDITION Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Faith Formation . . . . . . . . . 10 Scripture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Datebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Senior Living, Health & Retirement ~ Special Section ~ December 12, 2008

Nuclear holocaust: ‘we’re still that close’ ~ Page 3 ~

U.N. honors slain Sister ~ Page 6 ~

SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS

‘Doubt’ reviewed . . . . . . . . . 13 Classified ads . . . . . . . . 14-15

www.catholic-sf.org VOLUME 10

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No. 38

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Catholic San Francisco

December 12, 2008

On The Where You Live

By Tom Burke Making all the right moves is St. Anne’s Elementary School fifth grader Nicholas Nip, who in March, just one month shy of his 10th birthday, became the youngest National Master of Chess in U.S. history. In an appearance in April on “Live with Regis and Kelly,” he played simultaneously against 10 adults defeating nine and tying with one. His proud family includes mom, Sophia, in…. Happy 88th birthday to Mary Ruggiero, parishiodad, Gregory, and sibs, Christopher in third grade, ner of St. Cecilia Parish in San Francisco for the last 57 years, and mom of Arlene Fife, Alexandra in first grade, and retired principal of Our Lady Elizabeth in pre-k. Nicholas has of Mercy Elementary School been “nationally ranked number in Daly City. Mary celebrated one on the United States Chess the occasion with friends from Federation Top 100 list 15 times,” “senior bingo” at St. Cecilia’s his mom told me. Nicholas’ dad Parish center where the letters graduated from St. Anne’s in and numbers are called each 1980, St. Ignatius in 1984 and Tuesday. Now much missed and UCSF School of Dentistry in remembered in prayer is Mary 1992. Nicholas’ mom is an alumCollins, who died shortly after na of the religious education proMary’s birthday gathering…. gram at Star of the Sea Parish Mighty proud of his sister, and completed undergraduate Rita Spillane, is Bill Spillane. work in accounting at Golden Rita, a Sacramento attorney, was Gate University…. Our Lady of Loretto Parish’s Helping Nicholas Nip with hosts Regis Philbin and honored recently with the St. Thomas More Award which is Hands volunteers raised $7,465 Kelly Ripa on the set of the celebrities’ in recent Thanksgiving outreach. popular show “Live with Regis and Kelly.” presented annually to a lawyer living and practicing her profesDonors’ generosity ensured 50 families in need had grocery store gift cards to help fill sion and faith with zeal and attention to the principles their holiday table. Thanks to Toni Basich for fillin’ us of martyred jurist St. Thomas More. On hand to witMary Ruggiero celebrated her 88th birthday recently with cake and bingo. Front from left: Mary, Mildred Vermola and Mary Collins; back from left: Marian Christie, Mary Hazard, Carmel Chaney, Diane Weinkauf, Agnes Cecilia Doyle, Henry Lee and Wendy Arao.

Congratulations to Maureen and Tom Byrne married 50 years Sept. 27. The couple recently renewed their vows with Capuchin Father Gerald Barron, former pastor of Our Lady of Angels in Burlingame who also witnessed all of their children’s weddings. Maureen and Tom were married at OLA as were Maureen’s folks in 1934. On hand for a surprise party to mark the occasion were, of course, the guests of honor and their children: Monica Truettner, next to dad, and Michelle Kozlowski, next to mom, with Melissa Albrand, back left, Michael Byrne and Mary Agnes Boals.

ness the presentation were Rita’s husband, Tom Flynn, their son, Andrew, and of course Bill and additional family members and friends. Rita said she attributes her dedication to justice and social responsibility to her Catholic upbringing including 12 years as a student at St. Paul elementary and high schools in Noe Valley.

“By virtue of our baptism, we are called to build up the Body of Christ,” Rita said. “All of us are beloved sons and daughters of an all-loving God.” Rita’s and Bill’s folks are the late Pat and Red Spillane, forever of St. Paul’s and forever remembered there….This is an empty space without you! Send items and pictures via e-mail to burket@sfarchdiocese.org. Mailed items should be sent to “Street,” One Peter Yorke Way, SF 94109. Pix should be hard copy or electronic jpeg at 300 dpi. Don’t forget to include a follow-up phone number. Call me at (415) 614-5634 and I’ll walk you through it.

Sister Helen Prejean, left, author of the best-selling book and then film, “Dead Man Walking,” visited Notre Dame High School in Belmont following a recent talk at nearby College of San Mateo. Rita Gleason is Notre Dame principal. Junior Hannah Ruwe played Sister Helen in a fall production of the stage adaptation of “Dead Man Walking.”

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December 12, 2008

Catholic San Francisco

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Bishop warns that world still under ‘Sword of Damocles’ The global arms race and nuclear threat are markedly more dangerous today than they were 25 years ago when he helped author the United States bishops’ pastoral letter “The Challenge of Peace: God’s Promise and Our Response,” said Bishop Thomas Gumbleton during a wide-ranging interview Dec. 2 during which he also: • Charged that too often “the Church is not listening to our own people” and that there is a “growing segment of Catholic people whom I bump into who are saying, ‘What the bishops are saying has no impact on my life’”; • Said he would “like to see the bishops’ conference go back to a stance toward the homosexual community that is much more understanding and much more aware of who these people are.”

“We really have to awaken our people to the danger” of nuclear weapons realities facing the world today, said the founding president (1972) of Pax Christi, USA. “We should be putting this out there in front of our people on a regular basis.”

The now-retired auxiliary bishop of Detroit was one of five bishops in 1980 appointed to a bishops’ conference committee to draft a document addressing the escalating arms race and the policy of deterrence – a precarious balancing act primarily between the United States and the then Soviet Union in which nuclear arsenals were at a level that would assure mutual total destruction if a nuclear conflict began.

That almost happened during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, Bishop Gumbleton noted, adding that in a recent documentary on the event, Robert McNamara, U.S. secretary of defense in 1962, nearly touches his index finger to his thumb to indicate “that it was that close.”

“If we were that close then, and with all the tumult in the world now, and with other nations possessing these weapons, at any instance we

(PHOTO BY RICK DELVECCHIO / CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)

By Dan Morris-Young

Bishop Thomas Gumbleton

are going to be that close,” the 78-year-old prelate continued. “I don’t think that you can get people to act just on the basis of fear, but there has to be an awareness, an acceptance of what is really happening, and then a determination that we have to change that.”

“We are living now under what President (John F.) Kennedy called a Sword of Damocles where either because someone chooses to do it or an accident happens, the planet could be made uninhabitable,” said the internationally known human rights activist.

In the Bay Area to initiate an Advent lecture series at St. Rita Parish in Fairfax at which he spoke on the peace pastoral’s 25th anniversary and other issues Dec. 1 to an audience of about 125, Bishop Gumbleton faulted “moral leaders, not just Catholic moral leaders, but religious leaders across the board” for not more prophetically “guiding the world’s people in morally acceptable

ways, toward making moral choices that are good, not for evil.”

“We are acting in an immoral way, and on a huge scale, a scale that threatens the very existence of the planet,” he said. “We cannot ignore that moral situation. In a sense we are in a state of sin because we are not moving toward progressive disarmament. We have these weapons in place. We have strategies to use them. And, in fact, we are even making plans to place such weapons in outer space.”

Referring to a United States Space Command document called “Vision for 2020,” the bishop said, “Our military leaders state very explicitly that we will begin to move such weapons into space so that we can dominate the earth from outer space. Well, that seems to me to push beyond all the bounds of rationality

and morality. There ought to be an outrage felt on the part of people that this is happening.

And there ought to be a strong reaction that we say we have to stop before it is too late.”

The nuclear weapons threat as well as potential environmental tragedy are “overriding moral issues” and affronts to God, he said. “In effect we are saying we can destroy everything you have made. It is sort of a total opposition to God. God out of love has drawn us and all of creation into being, and we are able to say now, like we were never able to say before, “We can destroy everything you have made.’”

While “there are still a few Catholic bishops who bring it forward as a major issue,” he said, “ we just have not had any engagement on the part of the conference as a whole in regard to the issue” of nuclear disarmament.

“I would think the Catholic bishops and other religious leaders should be in the forefront of saying we have to stop, because it is not only a physical evil, it is a moral evil,” the former leader of Bread for the World told Catholic San Francisco.

The bishop also indicated he thinks Church leadership has shifted in attitude toward the gay community in the years since publication of the 1997 U.S. episcopal pastoral letter “Always Our Children,” which he helped instigate.

“Recent statements,” he said, seem to indicate “we have reverted” to viewing “deep-seated homosexuality” as “something chosen and that if you work hard enough you can change.”

“That doesn’t seem to be the reality for the genuinely homosexual community, people who know they are homosexual,” he said.

“They know it from the time they are very young. And the struggle is to accept it and to accept themselves and to believe that God loves them as they are.

“And what it comes down to, I think, is truly listening to them and their stories SWORD OF DAMOCLES, page 7

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Catholic San Francisco

NEWS

December 12, 2008

in brief

Write Obama on Middle East WASHINGTON (CNS) – Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, Washington’s retired archbishop, has joined Christian, Jewish and Muslim religious leaders in calling upon President-elect Barack Obama to take an immediate leadership role in securing peace between Palestinians and Israelis in the violence-torn Middle East. Writing the incoming president Dec. 4, members of the National Interreligious Leadership Initiative for Peace in the Middle East expressed hope that Obama would follow through on his “clear and consistent commitment” throughout the recently concluded presidential campaign to make peace a high priority early in his administration.

Launch climate campaign WARSAW, Poland (CNS) – Catholic Church officials from 38 countries have launched a campaign with more than 170 Catholic organizations to persuade the United Nations to meet the “moral obligation” of tackling climate change. “Climate change is a reality today affecting the lives and livelihoods of millions in developing countries by exacerbating storms, droughts and natural disasters,” said an appeal signed by 92 bishops, archbishops and cardinals. The climate campaign and related appeal were launched by Caritas Internationalis, which represents 162 national Caritas church charities, and CIDSE, a Belgian-based alliance of 16 Catholic development agencies. The campaign was introduced Dec. 7 at the cathedral in Poznan, Poland, at a Mass concelebrated by Auxiliary Bishop Grzegorz Balcerek of Poznan and Auxiliary Bishop Theotonius Gomes of Dhaka, president of Caritas Bangladesh.

Government representatives from around the world were meeting in Poznan Dec. 1-12 for the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Seton president and CEO named DALY CITY – By a unanimous decision by the Seton Medical Center Search Committee, the Seton Medical Center Board of Directors and the Daughters of Charity Health System (DCHS) Board of Directors, Lorraine P. Auerbach has been named the permanent President and CEO of Seton Medical Center and Seton Lorraine P. Auerbach Coastside. She has been serving as the Interim President

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Catholic san Francisco

and CEO for the past six months. Seton Medical Center and Seton Coastside are members of DCHS, a six-hospital health system spanning the California coast.

Urge action to save auto industry Russian Orthodox head dies DETROIT (CNS) – Detroit-area religious leaders convened by Detroit Cardinal Adam J. Maida emerged from a Dec. 4 meeting to call on Washington lawmakers to provide federal assistance to stabilize the American automobile industry. “There is great concern for the countless individuals and families who are under great stress because of the uncertainty of our economy,” Cardinal Maida said at a media briefing following the meeting. Meanwhile, on Dec. 3 in Rome Pope Benedict XVI urged the banking industry to help families who are facing financial difficulties. He reminded banks that one of their major objectives is to support the weakest members of the community along with aiding business activity.

Church cries foul on confessions COCHIN, India (CNS) – Indian police say a nun and two priests they arrested in Kerala have confessed to murdering a nun 16 years ago, but Catholic Church officials said the three are being framed. The Central Bureau of Investigation, India’s top investigating agency, said in court Dec. 2 it has evidence the trio committed the murder to cover up their sexual relations, reported the Asian church news agency UCA News.

“We don’t believe this. The investigation is proceeding with a preplanned script,” said Father Paul Thelakat, spokesman for the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, an Eastern rite.

Editorial Staff: Dan Morris-Young, editor: morrisyoungd@sfarchdiocese.org; Rick DelVecchio, assistant editor: delvecchior@sfarchdiocese.org; Tom Burke, “On the Street”/Datebook: burket@sfarchdiocese.org; Michael Vick, reporter: vickm@sfarchdiocese.org

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Benedict XVI asked the world’s Catholics to join prayers with “our Orthodox brothers and sisters” for the peaceful repose of the soul of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow died Dec. 5 at his home outside the Russian capital. He was 79. Although the cause of his death was not immediately Patriarch Alexy II made public, he had suffered from a heart condition and had been ill for some time.

A Vatican delegation, led by Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, was scheduled to attend the patriarch’s Dec. 9 funeral in Moscow. Patriarch Alexy led the world’s largest Orthodox church since 1990. As primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, the patriarch was the spiritual leader of more than 110 million church members in Russia, the former Soviet republics and the diaspora.

Philippine Church leaders protest Cluster bomb treaty signed MAKATI CITY, Philippines (CNS) – Some Philippine Catholic leaders planned to join civil society groups in a Makati City rally to protest a move in Congress to allow lawmakers to amend the Philippine Constitution. Benedictine Sister Mary John Mananzan, co-chair of the Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines, told the Asian church news agency UCA News that members of religious congregations would join protests Dec. 12 against the move in the House of Representatives.

Social encyclical in wings VATICAN CITY (CNS) – With his first social encyclical still waiting in the wings, Pope Benedict XVI has been honing his argument that the practice of real-world charity is a litmus test of Christian faith. To three very different audiences in November – diplomats, health care specialists and the Catholic faithful – the pope emphasized the indispensable connection between the Gospel and social justice. At his general audience Nov. 19, he envisioned God as the judge whose “single criterion is love.”

“What he asks is only this: Did you visit me when I was sick?

When I was in prison? Did you feed me when I was hungry, and did you clothe me when I was naked? And so, justice is

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The Vatican has signed and ratified a new treaty to end the production and use of cluster bombs, and appealed to the international community to ban “this inhumane type of weapon.” Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, Vatican secretary for relations with states, was one of more than 100 diplomats who signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Oslo, Norway, Dec. 3. In a speech during the signing ceremony, the archbishop said the Vatican chose to sign and ratify the convention the same day in order to send “a strong political signal” to the rest of the world.

Food for Poor now in Mexico COCONUT CREEK, Fla. – Food For The Poor, an international relief and development agency working primarily in the Caribbean and Latin America, has expanded its aid operations to include Mexico. The Order of Malta, with its countrywide aid distribution capacity, will partner with Food For The Poor in this new initiative.

SCRIPTURE SEARCH Gospel for December 14, 2008 Luke 1:26-38

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decided by charity,” he said. The pope began working on his third encyclical, tentatively titled “Love in Truth,” in 2007. A draft has been circulating quietly for months.

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Following is a word search based on the Gospel reading for the Third Sunday of Advent, Cycle B, about John the Baptist and his testimony. The words can be found in all directions in the puzzle.

A MAN LIGHT PRIESTS ELIJAH CRYING OUT BAPTIZING UNTIE

FROM GOD TESTIMONY TO ASK HIM ANSWER STRAIGHT AMONG BETHANY

TESTIFY JOHN DENY IT THE VOICE ISAIAH WORTHY JORDAN

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Catholic San Francisco

December 12, 2008

5

Cardinal Mahony and L.A. auxiliary bishops release message to homosexual Catholics The message emphasized the Church’s record of supLOS ANGELES (CNS) – In a message to homosexual Catholics in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger porting past civil rights battles, its history of spiritual and M. Mahony and the six auxiliary bishops of the archdiocese pastoral outreach to the homosexual community and its supsaid the recent vote in California defining marriage as the union port for the legal rights already guaranteed in the California of a man and a woman “does not diminish in any way (your) Constitution to various “groupings of people residing under importance� nor “lessen your personal dignity and value as full one roof� in the state. “Our efforts in this country to espouse members of the body of Christ.� equal rights for all citizens have frequently The message said Catholic support for created adverse reactions for our Church: our Proposition 8, the state constitutional amendsomewhat belated efforts to prohibit slavery; ment approved by a 52 percent to 48 percent our insistence on equal educational opportumargin Nov. 4, “was in defense of the longnities for all children; our strong support of standing institution of marriage understood as immigrants’ rights; our struggles on behalf of the lifelong relationship of a man and a woman unborn children and those at the end of life’s ordered to the good of the spouses and to the journey, and so many others,� it said. procreation and education of their children.�

The Los Angeles message was made pub“If we had ever thought that the intent of lic two days after San Francisco’s Archbishop this proposition was to harm you or anyone in George Niederauer appealed to people on both the state of California, we would not have supsides of the same-sex-marriage issue to be ported it,� the cardinal and bishops said. “We are personally grateful for the witness and Cardinal Roger Mahony tolerant of each other, to “disagree without service of so many dedicated and generous homosexual Catholics. being disagreeable� and not presume to know “the real motives� behind people’s viewpoint.

We pledge our commitment to safeguard your dignity.� “We need to stop hurling names like ‘bigot’ and ‘pervert’ Support for Proposition 8 should not be seen as a disregard for civil rights “but as an effort to resist a redefinition of marriage,� at each other. And we need to stop it now,� Archbishop Cardinal Mahony and the bishops said. “Supporting marriage as Niederauer said Dec. 1 in an open letter.

The Los Angeles message also expressed dismay that it has always been understood diminishes none of us.�

The message was dated Dec. 3 and was signed by Los “some people who opposed Proposition 8 have employed Angeles Auxiliary Bishops Thomas J. Curry, Gerald E. hurtful and accusatory language, and even threatening Wilkerson, Edward W. Clark, Gabino Zavala, Alexander actions, against those who voted for Proposition 8.� “This is most unfortunate since such strategies obscure Salazar and Oscar A. Solis, as well as Cardinal Mahony.

The churchmen noted that the understanding of marriage as the basic matter at issue: the preservation of the ordered a lifelong union of man and woman “is found in at least three relationship between man and woman created by God,� said major religious traditions which have described the origin, Cardinal Mahony and his auxiliaries, urging “thoughtful and civil dialogue� on marriage and other issues. meaning and intent of marriage in their sacred writings.�

The Hebrew Scriptures make explicit reference to marriage in 51 verses in 19 books, while the Christian Scriptures and the Muslim Quran each have 14 passages dealing with marriage, they said. “Our faith communities have never understood this term to be applied to other types of relationships between people,� the message added.

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6

Catholic San Francisco

December 12, 2008

obituary

Sister Renilde Cade dies after a fall A funeral Mass was celebrated Nov. 20 for of Orange, California, Department of Catholic Mission San Jose Dominican Sister Renilde Schools. The last five years, she served in Cade who died at the University of Arizona Tucson, Ariz., at Pio Decimo Center and Medical Center on Nov. 13 as a result of a most recently at St. Thomas More Catholic serious brain injury caused by a fall.

Newman Center, University of Arizona. During Sister Renilde spent her her time in Tucson, Sister early years in Montana but Renilde volunteered with Los then her family moved to Samaritanos, bringing humaniPortland, Ore. After attending tarian aid to migrants in the Blessed Sacrament Elementary desert. Sister often walked with School, she graduated from other volunteers in the broiling Immaculata Academy where sun bringing food and water to she was noted for being an those attempting to immigrate excellent student. to the United States.

In 1949, she entered the According to Dominican Dominican Sisters of Mission F a t h e r B a r t h o l o m ew Sister Renilde Cade, OP San Jose. An exceptional eduHutcherson, pastor of the cator and loved by her students, she taught at the Newman Center at the University of Arizona, Albertinum, Ukiah; St. Elizabeth High School, “Sister Renilde endeared herself to the entire Oakland; Marycrest High School, Portland, community as she reached out … to befriend Ore.; Immaculate Conception Academy, many of the young men and women of our San Francisco; St. Michael High School, unique ministry. She has been an ardent Los Angeles; and Queen of the Holy Rosary supporter of Newman’s mission. The student College, Fremont. Sister Renilde also served as community is in deep mourning as they have prioress at St. Catherine’s, Anaheim. lost a strong advocate and friend.”

In addition to her teaching career, Sister Survivors include a brother, Edmund Cade Renilde served 22 years in congregational of Oregon, and a sister, Thelma Albrecht of leadership for the Dominican Sisters, 10 as prior- Montana, as well as nieces and nephews. ess. Sister Renilde was a gifted writer, and was Interment was in the Sisters’ cemetery at the instrumental in writing the revised constitutions, motherhouse. Remembrances may be made to the governing document of her community. the Mission San Jose Dominican Sisters, 43326 Subsequently, she ministered in the Diocese Mission Blvd., Fremont 94539.

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U.S. nun murdered in Brazil honored with human rights prize UNITED NATIONS (CNS) – A U.S. nun who was murdered in 2005 while she worked to defend the rights of poor farmers in the Brazilian Amazon region has been named a recipient of a prestigious U.N. human rights prize.

Sister of Notre Dame de Namur Dorothy Stang is one of seven recipients of the U.N. Prize in the Field of Human Rights, awarded by the General Assembly every five years.

The Sister is a 1964 alumna of Belmont’s Notre Dame de Namur University.

NDNU and three other universities posthumously have awarded Sister Dorothy with honorary doctorate degrees.

In a Dec. 4 statement, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur expressed gratitude that Sister Dorothy was being honored.

A U.N. announcement said the prize “is an opportunity not only to give public recognition to the achievements of the recipients themselves, but also to send a clear message to human rights defenders the world over that the international community is grateful for, and supports, their tireless efforts to promote human rights for all.”

For nearly four decades, Sister Dorothy, a native of Dayton, Ohio, and a naturalized Brazilian citizen, worked in rural Brazil, defending the rights of poor peasants. Sister Dorothy, then 73, was killed Feb.12, 2005, in Anapu, a remote Amazon community. The murder sparked an international outcry.

In her 2007 book “Martyr of the Amazon” (Orbis Books), Notre Dame de Namur Sister Rosanne Murphy recounted that Sister Dorothy’s lifelong dream of mission work became a reality in 1966, when she was one of five Sisters from her order sent to Brazil following an appeal by Pope John XXIII.

The cover of the book “Martyr of the Amazon: The Life of Sister Dorothy Stang,” by Sister of Notre Dame de Namur Roseanne Murphy.

Sister Rosanne is NDNU’s executive director of planned giving and a professor emerita; she spent time researching, writing and traveling in Brazil in the summer of 2006 to talk with the farmers with whom Sister Dorothy had worked.

Last March NDNU established the Dorothy Stang Center for Social Justice and Community Engagement in honor of the slain rights activist.

The other U.N. award winners are slain Pakistani leader and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto; Louise Arbour, former U.N. high commissioner for human rights; Ramsey Clark, former U.S. attorney general; Carolyn Gomes, executive director and co-founder of Jamaicans for Justice; Denis Mukwege, cofounder of the General Referral Hospital of Panzi in Congo; and Human Rights Watch.

The awards were to be presented at a ceremony in New York on International Human Rights Day, Dec. 10, the 60th anniversary of adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Sister Dorothy’s brother, David Stang of Colorado, was to represent her family. Sister Jane Burke, who represents the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur at the United Nations, was to accept the prize on behalf of the order.

Among previous recipients of the human rights prize are former South African President Nelson Mandela, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Eleanor Roosevelt, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Amnesty International.

December 12, 2008

Catholic San Francisco

7

Maligayang Pasko!

Simbang Gabi: ‘unique mix of liturgy and popular religiosity’ Simbang Gabi is here again. This celebration of the Filipino Catholic tradition of Christmas novena masses at dawn (or now in the evening) always reminds me of the story of a pastor and his associate in a parish here in the U.S. where this has been done through the years.

The associate became uncomfortable and uneasy with the way he saw the parishioners and the pastor doing the preparations for and actual celebration of this particular blend of the Roman liturgy and Filipino popular religiosity.

Trained and formed in and strictly sticking to the principles of the liturgy with its inherent Roman emphases on sobriety, formality and linear discourse, the associate pointed out to the pastor that the way Simbang Gabi was done goes against the principles of the liturgy in many instances.

He thought that festive mode of the celebration through the display of the belen (nativity crèche) and parols (Christmas lanterns), floral decorations in the sanctuary, the singing of the Gloria and Christmas hymns, and the donning of white liturgical vestments should wait until Christmas Midnight Mass to usher in the Christmas Season and should not be done during the Simbang Gabi Masses which span from Dec. 16 (15 if celebrated in the evening) to 24.

The associate pointed out that the Simbang Gabi days fall within the Advent liturgical season when the penitential ambiance of the season should be followed.

I wish the associate could see for himself the way Simbang Gabi is done in the Philippines, which in turn reminds me of a priest-friend from the U.S. who was visiting the Philippines years ago during the Simbang Gabi days. He was shocked when I invited him to concelebrate

(PHOTO BY NELLIE HIZON)

By Father Thaddeus Noel G. Laput, CM

During an August 2007 Simbang Gabi planning meeting at the home of Nellie Hizon were, left to right seated: Edna Amora, Bernadette Sy, Betty Esteva, Becky Parini and Estelle Oloresisimo standing: Betty Lacson, M. C. Canlas, Beth Asuncion, Zeny Opena, Louy Amora, Griselda MacDonald and Dan MacDonald.

in any of the two Simbang Gabi Masses in the parish – at either 3 a.m. or 4:30 a.m.

He said: “Are your crazy?”

After serving here in the U.S. for a number of years, I am still amazed and could only equally exclaim to those who flock to the malls on Black Friday at dawn: “Are you crazy?”

Started by the Spanish missionaries who evangelized the Philippines more than 400 years ago, Simbang Gabi (literally, “worship at night or when still dark”) is also called in Spanish, Misa de Gallo, “Mass of the rooster, or at cockcrow.”

Some also call it Misa de Aguinaldo, “Mass of the gift,” referring to the gift of the child Jesus and to evoke the spirit of gift-giving at Christmas. Some liturgical theologians in the Philippines have traced the roots of the Simbang Gabi to the Rorate Masses which were celebrated in Europe long ago. These were Masses in honor of the Blessed Virgin celebrated during Advent early in the morning or in the evening.

The emphasis on the timing of the Masses was to highlight on the light, who is Jesus Christ, that is in or breaking the darkness. Besides this

Vincentian Father Thaddeus Noel G. Laput is parochial vicar at Our Lady of Mercy Parish, Daly City.

of the event this year and 27 are participating in the novena. “The idea is to have nonFilipinos be aware of a beautiful spiritual tradition from the Philippines,” she said.

Dec. 13 ‘commissioning Mass’ to underscore growing impact of Simbang Gabi tradition

Several parishes have scheduled a Simbang Gabi novena: Dec. 15-23, (evening): • 6:30 p.m: St. Veronica • 7 p.m: Epiphany, Corpus Christi, St. Andrew, St. Augustine, St. Elizabeth, St. Paul of the Shipwreck, at St. Matthew with St. Bartholomew, St. Catherine, St. Gregory, St. Luke, St. Mark, St. Timothy • 7:30 p.m: Holy Angels, Our Lady of Mercy

Filipino-American Catholics in the San Francisco area are planning their most expansive Simbang Gabi novena ever, with a Dec. 13 “commissioning Mass” at St. Mary’s Cathedral. Archbishop George Niederauer will be principal celebrant of the 5:30 p.m. liturgy from which participants will go forth to their parishes to make the Christmas tradition an Archdiocese-wide event.

“This is the first such Mass in the Archdiocese to usher in Simbang Gabi, a novena that begins Dec. 15 (if in the evening) or Dec. 16 (if in the morning),” organizer Nellie Hizon said. “For several years, individual parishes celebrated Simbang Gabi quite in isolation, with no formal recognition on the archdiocesan level. It was a plain novena of Masses. Held in most parishes at odd –too early – hours, it almost seemed like an underground church activity.”

A member of the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council, Hizon said all parishes were informed

Dec. 16-24 (morning): • 5:30 a.m.: Holy Name of Jesus, Our Lady of Perpetual Help • 6 a.m.: St. John the Evangelist, St. Patrick (San Francisco), at St. Stephen’s with St. Anne of the Sunset, St. Brendan, St. Cecilia, St. Emydius, St. Finn Barr, St. Gabriel, Star of the Sea. Partial observation: • St. Bruno: (triduum) 5 a.m. on Dec. 22, 23 and 24 • Mater Dolorosa: (triduum) 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 21, 22 and 23 • All Souls: 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 21.

Bishop to speak Dec. 17

Sword of Damocles . . .

(PHOTO BY FATHER KEN WEARE)

■ Continued from page 3 and to their experience. When you try to make judgments about them without that kind of listening and without that kind of understanding of their experience, you are going to miss the reality. You are going to misjudge them. So that’s what I would like to see happen, but at the moment it does not seem likely that it will.”

He was similarly concerned about a disconnect between “the hierarchical Church” and parishioners.

Many Catholics “tell me that they don’t go to church anymore” and that “the Among those who stayed to greet Church is not in touch with the realities of Bishop Thomas Gumbleton (center) their lives,” he said, adding, “And a lot of after his Dec. 1 lecture at St. Rita Parish, bishops don’t seem to realize that a significant segment of the Church population is Fairfax, were, from left: Dorothy Sawyer, now seeing their kids dropping away from Dot Denko, Ralph DeRango, Margaret the Church.”

DeRango, Joe Allen, Mary Peirano, He singled out “the Liturgy of the Leslie Coady and Allan Sawyer.

Word,” particularly homilies. “We need to make sure that the word of God becomes a vibrant force in people’s lives,” he said. need to hear homilies that apply the Scriptures “People need spiritual nourishment. They to the real world.”

theology, the early missionaries kept this early morning schedule to accommodate the farmers who had to start work by sunrise and the fisher folks returning from a night of fishing.

For nine consecutive days the faithful flock to the churches in a festive mood. Church bells are rung before Mass begins and in some towns and villages a band of musicians goes around to awake people and invite them to church. With more people living and working in the cities and urban areas today, parishes also celebrate Simbang Gabi in the evening when people return from work.

The reason for the festive mood of the Simbang Gabi is basically that of the Christmas spirit of joy, the coming and the breaking in of the radiance of the Christ Child into the shadows of sin and unbelief. This seeming disconnect with the Advent liturgical emphasis on the penitential spirit is corrected when Simbang Gabi is understood as having this spirit in the sacrifice of the faithful who must rise early to make it to the dawn Masses and done in the festive anticipation of the nativity of Jesus.

To further enhance this unique mix of the liturgy and popular religiosity, the Church in the Philippines has been granted the indult to introduce elements proper to the Christmas liturgical season in the Simbang Gabi celebrations which in a way anticipates them. These include those environmental and ritual elements of the liturgy which the associate I mentioned was uneasy about. Here, we see how the otherwise sober and formal Roman liturgy has been beautifully blended with the festive and colorful elements of a culture and popular religiosity.

Maligayang Pasko (Merry Christmas)!

Internationally known peace activist Bishop Thomas Gumbleton will speak Dec. 17 at 7:30 p.m. at Most Holy Redeemer Parish, 100 Diamond St., San Francisco as part of the parish Advent lecture series. The retired auxiliary bishop of Detroit, Mich., is one of the authors of the U.S. bishops’ 1983 document “The Challenge of Peace,” and was a primary mover behind the bishops’ 1997 pastoral letter “Always Our Children.”

OFFICE SPACE AVAILABLE Approximately 2,000 to 3,500 square feet of space (additional space available if needed) at One Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco (between Gough & Franklin), is being offered for lease — preferably to a non-profit entity. Space available includes four enclosed offices, open work area with seven cubicles, large work room, and storage rooms on the bottom level of the Archdiocese of San Francisco Chancery/ Pastoral Center. We also have mail and copy services available, as well as meeting rooms (based on availability). Space has access to kitchen area and restroom facilities. Parking spaces negotiable. Ready for immediate occupancy with competitive terms.

For more information, contact Katie Haley (415) 614-5556; email to haleyk@sfarchdiocese.org.

8

Catholic San Francisco

December 12, 2008

Catholic san Francisco Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper

First Vespers of Advent

By Pope Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI delivered the following homily at the First Vespers of Lent Nov. 29 at St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.

With this evening liturgy, we begin a new liturgical year, entering into the first of its seasons: Advent. In the First Letter to the Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul uses precisely this word: “coming,” which in Greek is parusia and adventus in Latin (1 Thes 5: 23). According to the common tradition of this text, Paul urges the Christians of Thessalonica to keep themselves blameless “for the coming” of the Lord. However, in the original text one reads “in the coming,” almost as if the advent of the Lord were more than a future point in time -- a spiritual place in which to walk already in the present, while waiting -- and in which one is perfectly preserved in every personal dimension. In fact, it is exactly this that we live out in the liturgy. By celebrating the liturgical seasons we actualize the mystery, in this case the Lord’s coming as it were, “walking in it” toward its full realization at the end of time, but already drawing sanctifying virtue from it, since the last times have already begun with Christ’s death and Resurrection.

The word that sums up this particular state, in which one awaits something that is to be manifested but of which one also already has a glimpse and a foretaste, is “hope.” Advent is the spiritual season of hope par excellence, and in it the whole Church is called to become hope, for herself, and for the world.

The whole organism of the Mystical Body acquires, so to speak, the “color” of hope. The whole People of God continue on their journey, attracted by this mystery: that our God is “the God who comes” and calls us to go to meet him. How? In the first place in that universal form of hope and expectation which is prayer, which is eminently expressed in the Psalms, human words in which God himself has placed and continually places the invocation of his coming on the lips and in the hearts of believers.

“I have called to you, Lord; make hasten to help me! / Hear my voice, when I cry to you. / Let my prayer arise before you like incense, / the raising of my hands like an evening oblation” (Ps 141[140]: 1-2). Thus begins the first Psalm of the First Vespers for the first week of the Psalter: words which, at the beginning of Advent, acquire a new “color,” because the Holy Spirit makes them resound ever anew within us in the Church on her way between the time of God and human times. “Lord, hasten to help me!” It is the cry of someone who feels he is in grave danger but it is also the cry of the Church amid the many threats that surround her, that threaten her holiness, the irreproachable integrity of which the Apostle Paul speaks which instead must be preserved for the Lord’s coming. And in this invocation the cry of all the just also resounds, of all those who want to resist evil, the seduction of an iniquitous well-being, of pleasures offensive to human dignity and to the condition of the poor. At the beginning of Advent the Church’s liturgy once again makes this cry her own, and raises it to God like incense. Material sacrifices, as it also took place in the Jewish temple, are no longer offered in the Church, but the spiritual offering of prayer is raised, joined to that of Jesus Christ who is at the same time Sacrifice and Priest of the new and eternal covenant. In the cry of the Mystical Body we recognize the very voice of the Head: the Son of God who has taken upon himself our trials and our temptations, to give us the grace of his victory.

This identification of Christ with the Psalmist is particularly evident in the Psalm 142. Here, every word, every invocation, makes one think of Jesus in his passion, and in particular of his prayer to the Father in Gethsemane. In his first coming, with the Incarnation, the Son of God wanted to share fully in our human condition. Of course, he did not share in sin, but for our salvation suffered all its consequences. In praying Psalm 142 the Church relives every time the grace of this compassion, of this “coming” of the Son of God in human anguish so deeply as to plumb its depths. The Advent cry of hope then expresses from the outset and very powerfully, the full gravity of our state, of our extreme need of salvation. It is as if to say: we await the Lord not in the same way as a beautiful decoration upon a world already saved, but as the only way of liberation from a mortal danger and we know that he himself, the Liberator, had to suffer and die to bring us out of this prison.

In short, these two Psalms shelter us from any temptation to escape or flee from reality; they preserve us from a false hope that might desire to enter Advent and move towards Christmas forgetting the tragedy of our personal and collective existence. In fact, a trustworthy hope that is not deceptive, can only be a “Paschal” hope, as the canticle of the Letter to the Philippians reminds us in our praise of the Incarnate Christ, crucified, Risen and our universal Lord. Let us turn our gaze and our heart to him, in spiritual union with the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Advent. Let us place our hand in hers and enter joyfully into this new time of grace that God gives as a gift to his Church for the good of all humanity. Like Mary and with her maternal help, let us make ourselves docile to the action of the Holy Spirit, so that the God of peace may sanctify us totally, and the Church become a sign and instrument of hope for all.

Welcome change Barack Obama told us during the primaries he wanted to reduce abortions by assisting women in crisis pregnancies.

This desire, however, is inconsistent with his vow to sign the infamous “Freedom of Conscience Act” that would have the effect of actually increasing abortion rates.”

In a joint statement by the chairs of the pro-life and domestic justice committees of the U.S. bishops’ conference, Cardinal Justin Rigali and Bishop William Murphy reaffirmed Catholic teaching that “both opposing evil and doing good are essential obligations.”

The statement also said efforts to help women who have problems during pregnancy (doing good) “is not an adequate or complete response to the injustice of Roe vs. Wade” and that “the act of killing these fellow human beings was transformed from a crime into a ‘right’….”

The bishops tell us we are morally obliged to oppose these crimes (opposing evil), and that “reversing [Roe vs.

Wade] …is a moral imperative for Catholics and others who respect human life.”

Despite Obama’s stated intent to facilitate the evil of abortion, it is hoped the president-elect is sincere in his pledge to help pregnant women.

We will be able to test his sincerity if his actions translate into more support for, and a greater awareness of, more pregnancy resource centers (PRC), which do exactly what Mr. Obama says he wants.

The Pregnancy Resource Center of Marin is a shining example; it is the only place in the county where a woman may go for help when faced with an unwanted pregnancy which does not “offer, recommend or refer for abortions.”

This wonderful, caring clinic not only provides free prenatal care, ultrasounds, baby formulas, diapers, layettes and cribs, but a host of other support services (see www.prcmarin.org).

It is my hope the large numbers of Catholics who voted for Mr. Obama will step up and support the PRC of Marin and other PRC clinics.

And, I suggest these same voters join in this year’s Jan. 24 Walk for Life to register their opposition to abortion.

Now that would be change I could really believe in.

Robert Johnson Fairfax

the highlighted title, carries five times the words “ad usam,” a glaring misspelling of the well-known Latin “ad usum” (“for the use of”).

No wonder we seem to find it difficult, almost half a century after Vatican II, to find priests capable and willing to celebrate Mass in Latin.

God bless your good work.

Father Larry Lorenzoni, SDB San Francisco

One America Both the Nov. 21 commentary by Cardinal Francis George and the George Weigel commentary use intellectually dishonest language. I appreciate “pro-life” arguments; but dismiss any who use the term “pro-abortion.”

I’ve known many on both sides of the discussion and several who have faced this decision. Not one of these pro-choice people can be called “pro-abortion.” There is a big difference, and therein lies the rub.

Not one was what Weigel callously calls “pro-abortion.”

With such dishonesty in the commentary and in the Weigel column, I dismiss their arguments as political spin. Such abuse of language would demand that we call the pro-life side “pro-birth.” This is especially true for Weigel who has justified torture, violation of habeus corpus, and even the same Iraq invasion and deaths condemned by the pope.

The editorial commentary by Cardinal George talks of constitutional order and common good, but what constitutional order? Constitutional order in a democratic society means the society itself (not one group) decides what the common good is.

The order the cardinal speaks of is a theocracy, which we are fighting worldwide. I’m a Catholic American, but I can’t be both unless I remember that no one has the right to impose religious beliefs on another.

The debate continues. Those who chose abortion also had no health safeguards when abortions were illegal. That will continue if again made illegal. What’s pro-life about that?

Weigel dismisses Obama as “the most radically pro-abortion candidate in American history.” Based on what, FOX News? Remember, G.W. Bush was the most radically pro-life, faith-based candidate ever. Mr. Weigel, how’d that work out? A war of choice against those unconnected to 9/11, state-sponsored torture, almost 5,000 U.S. dead, millions of Iraqi displaced, and more than 100,000 dead Iraqi civilians. Quite a body of work for a “pro-life” candidate.

Mr. Weigel, we’ve suffered under your version of America for eight years. It’s time for a change; for a culture of hope, and open and honest debate, and inclusion – as Obama campaigned for, One America!

Peter Mandell San Francisco

L E T T E R S

Brave priest In a Dec. 5 letter, Raymond D. White chides Father Louis Vitale for his courageous stand against the School of the Americas.

I wonder if Mr. White knows that literally thousands of innocent people have been killed by those trained at the school and that the protests of Father Vitale and many others is to stop training people to commit violence on innocent people in Latin America.

Father Vitale and many others have continued year after year to stand firm in their attitudes about justice. Father Vitale has also been arrested at San Quentin protesting the death penalty, and at other locations where violence is perpetrated.

Thank you, Father Vitale for standing up for life.

Deacon George Salinger Redwood City

Usum or usam I’m surprised that Father Ron Rolheiser’s (of all people!) Dec. 5 column, including

Letters welcome Catholic San Francisco welcomes letters from its readers.

Please send your letters to: Catholic San Francisco One Peter Yorke Way San Francisco, CA 94109 Fax: (415) 614-5641 E-mail: morrisyoungd@sfarchdiocese.org

Clear leadership Many articles have been written, many words have been said, and many arguments have been put forward; however, Archbishop Niederauer’s Dec. 5 “open letter” in Catholic San Francisco is the clearest I have read.

Thank you for your leadership in this critical issue, and we also thank our dearest Blessed Mother for protecting her children from the evil one.

There is no doubt that evil stalks all around us, but with firm leadership and continued support of the truth, our Church will prevail, in spite of the attacks. How we have longed for our bishops to guide us. I suspect this is just the beginning and we anxiously await God’s truth and love to be made known to Catholics, and all men and women of good will.

We all pray for “peace and justice,” but I consider truth to be the most important. May it be God’s will that we tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Justine Nunan San Bruno

December 12, 2008

Catholic San Francisco

S1

SENIOR LIVING, HEALTH & RETIREMENT Advent: season of caring San Carlos Adult Day Services â&#x20AC;&#x201C; lifeline for families Ninety-four year-old Adrian Ante grew up in the San Juan Bautista area where he played baseball on the earthquake fault.

He also loved to fish and, as an avid reader, used to read a book a day.

For the last 17 years, Ante has been attending San Carlos Adult Day Services (SCADS), a licensed adult day program at Catholic Charities CYO that provides a safe, therapeutic and caring environment for frail seniors while also providing respite for their caregivers.

His daughter, Gloria Maldonado, used to be a kindergarten teacher but now works as a home school teacher. This position allows her to work from home, which is critical as she cares for her father fulltime.

Ante started attending SCADS after suffering a stroke that left him confined to a wheelchair and without the ability to speak. After the stroke, Maldonado was the only family member able to provide 24-hour care for her father. â&#x20AC;&#x153;His stroke was a complete shock. I was completely unprepared for the way his life â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and my life â&#x20AC;&#x201D; would change,â&#x20AC;? she said.

As Maldonado and her family struggled to manage the exhaustive physical care Ante needed, they found respite

through SCADS. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is very time consuming and hard to coordinate all of the things that my father needs and still take care of my children, family and myself,â&#x20AC;? she said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I feel stretched so thin. The staff at SCADS is so loving and so giving that I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to worry when my father goes to the center.â&#x20AC;?

Over the years, Ante has undergone intensive language therapy to regain some of his speech, but he also suffers from dementia and has trouble with short-term memory. At the center, he participates in games and activities, interacts with the staff, and has made friends with other seniors. â&#x20AC;&#x153;My father gets confused easily and therefore canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t spend much time alone,â&#x20AC;?

Maldonado said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;SCADS has brought him a sense of security and has really helped us to meet his health needs.â&#x20AC;?

At one point, Ante developed a serious medical condition that required the use of an indwelling catheter. SCADS staff developed a specialized care plan for him in collaboration with his nurse case manager and primary care physician. Staff members were trained in proper functioning and care which enabled Ante to stay in the program which was critical for his SEASON OF CARING, page S2

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Catholic San Francisco

December 12, 2008

Pope lays concerns at feet of Mary (CNS PHOTO/ALESSIA GIULIANI, CATHOLIC PRESS PHOTO)

By Cindy Wooden ROME (CNS) – Laying a basket of white roses at the foot of a statue of Mary, Pope Benedict XVI said Catholics can lay everything at the feet of their heavenly mother including the struggles of aging.

“Symbolically, these roses can express everything beautiful and good that we have done during the year,” the pope said during his visit to the center of Rome Dec. 8 for the traditional ceremony alongside the statue of the Immaculate Conception near the Spanish Steps.

He prayed for elderly people living alone, for the sick, for immigrants struggling to build a new life in a new country, for families who barely make ends meet and especially for people who recently have lost their jobs.

“Mary, teach us to be in solidarity with those who are in difficulty, to bridge the increasingly vast social disparities; help us cultivate a livelier sense of the common good,” Pope Benedict prayed.

“But, as the saying goes, ‘Every rose has its thorn,’ and the stems of these stupendous white roses are not lacking thorns, which represent the difficulties, sufferings and ills that have marked and still mark the lives of people and of our community,” the pope said.

Under brilliantly sunny skies, bundled up against a crisp chill, thousands of Romans and tourists jammed the square around the Spanish Steps to see the pope and pray with him.

Offering the roses to Mary, the pope also entrusted to her his special prayers for children, particularly those who are sick, disadvantaged or suffering because of family problems.

The pope said the beauty of Mary, conceived without sin, “assures us that the victory of love is possible; in fact, it is certain. It assures us that grace is stronger than sin and therefore it is possible to be redeemed from any form of slavery.”

The example of Mary’s life helps Christians believe in goodness, graciousness, service, nonviolence and the power of truth, he said.

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Catholic San Francisco

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â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Roombaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; has stolen my wifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s affections!

After 44 years of marriage a robot named Roomba has stolen my wifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s affections. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s right! She is crazy in love like a teenager again. I find her talking to Roomba. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Roomba this and Roomba that and â&#x20AC;&#x153;I love you Roomba. â&#x20AC;&#x153; â&#x20AC;&#x153;Heâ&#x20AC;? works all day long for her. Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s showing Roomba off to all the neighbors. Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s like a newlywed talking about the love of her life. I confess, I like Roomba, too, but not for all the same reasons.

Humor Roomba is quieter than our old vacuum cleaner. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Heâ&#x20AC;? goes under beds, tables and chairs. I hate the loud noise of a vacuum, and I hate moving furniture so my wife can vacuum under things. With Roomba, I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to move furniture.

He goes under beds and chairs and finds his way back out.

There are three of us in the house that are always losing our hair, a Yellow Lab, a cat and me. Our floors havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t ever been this clean before.

Roomba has a docking station like a space ship. On occasion when Roomba has finished cleaning a floor, he goes and docks himself and recharges, waiting for his next assignment. When he needs emptying of dirt, he shuts himself off and gives my wife messages like, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Check my wheelsâ&#x20AC;? or â&#x20AC;&#x153;Clean my brushes.â&#x20AC;? In the beginning, because we had so much unseen dirt on our floors, he had to shut himself off quite a bit. But, now that we are caught up on our dirt removal, he can do two rooms before needing to have dirt offspring will be able to do. Who knows, pretty soon one A resident of Frazier Park, Calif., Jim McDevitt removed. The floors looks brand new. They are so clean, I of his descendents might be driving me around or getting focuses his writing talent on want to get down on them and play with our grandchildren me a can of soda from the refrigerator. â&#x20AC;&#x153;the humor of our senior years.â&#x20AC;? when they visit.

When Roomba is working, he keeps going, going, going. When he bumps into something, he finds a path around it. He wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t fall down the stairs. He goes right to the edge of the stairs, cleans and then turns around. Neither the dog nor cat are upset by him. The Lab walks around him and the cat likes to come into the room after its been cleaned and inspect.

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Catholic San Francisco

December 12, 2008

December 12, 2008

Diamond jubilee of ordination

Father Clement A. Davenport, also known as retired Army Colonel Clement A. Davenport, was ordained 60 years ago and through it all he has been a parish priest.

“I always just wanted to be a parish priest,” said Father Davenport, who grew up in St. Joseph Parish in Berkeley.

“Father Thomas Brennan, my pastor, is the reason I became a priest,” he said. “He kept me from being expelled from the school. He had five homburgs and would hide them and give me two bits for every one I’d find. I’d bring the hats back and he’d give me a quarter. He was a very good priest and my main inspiration.”

In 1952, after just three years as a priest, the opportunity for military service came Father Davenport’s way. He thought he’d be stationed stateside at the Presidio in reserve until returning a phone call he thought was to May Spiegel. “It was Major Spiegel,” he recalled, roaring with laughter. “`You’re in the Army,’ he told me.”

Next stop was the front line of the Korean War. “There were 5,000 soldiers on the troop ship to Korea,” Father Davenport recalled. “I got on the microphone and said a priest will be available for anyone who wants to go to confession.” Five minutes later there was a knock on the door. “I heard confession for 36 hours.”

In Korea, then-Lieutenant Davenport found himself with 4,000 men and women under his pastoral care. “I had an entire regiment,” he said, shaking his head as he remembered the enormity of the task. Mass was celebrated in the midst of the military action.

“We had bunkers so we’d try to get 15 or 20 people together for Mass right there. Very often I’d say nine or 10 Masses a day.”

He remembers carrying “sacks of hosts” for the liturgies. “It was cold – 30 or 35 below – but so many good spiritual things.”

John Smith was a sergeant from Louisiana. “I’m serving your Mass,” he’d tell me. One night Father Davenport received word that Smith had been seriously injured and was being treated at one of the three aid stations the priest covered. The soldier had been shot in the neck and would not survive. “All of a sudden he cried out, `Mama,’ and died,” Father Davenport remembered.

Smith was calling to his own mother but then and now, Father Davenport saw the appeal as a reminder that the “world needs Mary.”

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“The world is spiritually and morally going down the tubes, I think. We need Mary. I’ve never lost that feeling that we need Mary in our lives,” he explained.

Mel Cirito was a soldier Father Davenport instructed in the faith in Korea. “One night we knew we were going to be hit and he came over and said, `Father, I want to be baptized and receive Holy Communion.’”

Father Davenport said he took his canteen and administered the sacrament and then gave the enlisted man Communion.

“That night all hell broke loose and I didn’t see him again until 10 years later when he came into the sacristy in Menlo Park after Mass and asked if I remembered `baptizing him in the trench.’ He said he recognized my voice.”

Bob Mooney was a seminary classmate who left before ordination and went on to practice law. Father Davenport and the attorney were both part of the Army’s 45th Division in Korea.

“We got together in my small tent with barely room to sit,” Father Davenport said. “Because I had no other place to keep the Blessed Sacrament, I would take Our Lord and put him in my footlocker every night. We got talking about the Blessed Sacrament and Bob asked `Where is he now?’ ‘You’re sitting on him,’ I said. He jumped up and we both laughed.”

Father Davenport came home in 1953 to serve as parochial vicar at parishes including San Francisco’s Holy Name of Jesus, St. Philip the Apostle, St. Thomas the Apostle, and as chaplain at St. Mary’s Medical Center.

“Happy everywhere I’ve been,” the priest said.

Father Davenport remembers how he felt when he first was appointed to Church of the Nativity in Menlo Park as a parochial vicar in 1960. “It was like going to heaven.”

Military service called again in 1967 when he was deployed to Vietnam, again on the front lines.

“It was in the jungles and I had seven battalions of infantry in my care,” Father Davenport said. His parishioners numbered some 22,000 over an area of hundreds of square miles.

Helicopters were the priest’s main conveyance. “I was flying everywhere. I knew all the young pilots and they’d take me to say Mass. We’d phone ahead, the kids would gather, I’d come in a chopper, say Mass and be off to another installation.”

“The kids were brave and spiritual,” Father Davenport said.

He remembers receiving a phone call from a woman offering corded handmade rosaries for the troops. “The kids going on patrol put the rosaries around their necks because they did not make any noise as the beads were soft knots of twine. They all wanted a rosary.”

At the completion of his active military service in 1971, Father Davenport became pastor of St. Peter Parish in Pacifica serving there until 1976 when the gates of heaven opened again and he became pastor of Church of the Nativity where he served until retiring in 1999.

“It was like coming home for me,” Father Davenport said. “I’ve

Father Clement Davenport, left, with longtime Church of the Nativity parishioner, John Conway, on play area named for Father Davenport on the occasion of his 60th year as a priest and in commemoration of his 23 years as pastor of the Menlo Park parish.

loved it here. I’ve made many friends here – good solid friends.”

Father Davenport is very happy with the 24-hour adoration available at Church of the Nativity. “It is so important that we started the adoration. I think it’s 13 or 14 years that the church has not been locked.”

Admitting it would be impossible to get an accurate count, Father Davenport puts the number of couples he’s married in the hundreds and the baptisms and funerals he’s presided over at an even greater total.

Now 84, retirement for the priest includes golf on Tuesdays.

“Tuesday has been my day off for 60 years,” he laughed.

“I would do it all again,” the diamond jubilarian said. “I would never hesitate to tell men to think about priesthood.

Think constantly of life as a parish priest, service to people.

That’s what Jesus was all about. He washed his disciples’ feet.

He was always taking care of them. I love being a priest.”

Father Davenport, who now resides in retirement at Nativity, is being honored Dec. 13 with a banquet at the parish.

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Fathers Thomas, Knapp and Kavanaugh marking diamond jubilees of ordinations

Father Davenport: ‘I always just wanted to be a parish priest’ Ministry included front-line deployment in Korea and Vietnam

Catholic San Francisco

Priests of the San Francisco Archdiocese celebrating 60 years of ordination this year include Father George Thomas, Father William Knapp and Father John Kavanaugh.

Ordained at a time when the Archdiocese of San Francisco covered a larger part of Northern California than it does today, the priests’ service includes locations now part of the Diocese of Oakland Father George Thomas Father John Kavanaugh Father William Knapp (established in 1962), Diocese of Stockton (established in 1962), the Diocese of San Jose (established in 1981) Joseph in Alameda; Holy Angels in Colma; St. Charles and the Diocese of Sacramento. Though the Diocese in San Carlos, and St. Isabella in San Rafael.

Father Knapp is also a former member of the faculty of Sacramento was established in 1886, the redrawing of boundaries in 1962 moved Solano County from at St. Patrick’s Seminary and University in Menlo Park the Archdiocese of San Francisco into the capital and St. Vincent School for Boys in San Rafael. He currently resides at Nazareth House in San Rafael. city see.

Father John Kavanaugh is retired pastor of Our Lady Father George Thomas is the retired pastor of Our Lady of the Wayside Parish in Portola Valley where he of Mt. Carmel Parish in Redwood City and former passerved for 34 years. Father Thomas also served as paro- tor of St. Finn Barr, San Francisco, and St. Matthias in chial vicar at parishes including St. Louis Bertrand in Redwood City.

Father Kavanaugh has also served at parishes includOakland, St. Stanislaus in Modesto, St. Nicholas in Los Altos, St. Martin in Sunnyvale and St. Thomas More in ing St. Francis Cabrini in San Jose; St. Raphael in San San Francisco. Today he resides in Pine Grove, Calif. Rafael; St. Gregory in San Mateo; St. Bruno in San Father William Knapp is retired pastor of St. Bruno; and San Francisco’s St. Monica and St. James.

Father Kavanaugh is also a former member of the Stephen Parish in San Francisco and former pastor of Mater Dolorosa Parish in South San Francisco. Father faculty at Junipero Serra High School and currently Knapp has also served at parishes including St. Mary’s makes his home next store to the San Mateo school at Cathedral in San Francisco; St. Basil in Vallejo; St. Serra Clergy House.

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Catholic San Francisco

December 12, 2008

Annual collection for retired religious this weekend

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The annual collection for retired religious will be renewed this weekend in parishes of the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

The appeal for the Retirement Fund for Religious (RFR) has generated a greater response than any annual appeal in U.S. Catholic Church history. Almost $550 million has been raised through the appeal since 1988.

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Catholic San Francisco

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Holy Days and Special Days of Prayer for 2009 noted The Office of Worship of the Archdiocese of San Francisco has announced on behalf of Archbishop George Niederauer solemnities to be observed as Holy Days of Obligation for 2009: â&#x20AC;˘ Nov. 1, All Saints Day (Sunday) â&#x20AC;˘ Dec. 8, the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Tuesday) â&#x20AC;˘ Dec. 25, Christmas (Friday).

In addition, Archbishop Niederauer has determined that,

in accord with the practice of neighboring dioceses, the obligation to attend Mass on Jan. 1, 2009, the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God, is dispensed.

The Solemnity of the Ascension of Our Lord will be observed May 24, 2009, the Seventh Sunday of Easter, as approved by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and confirmed by the Congregation for Bishops. Aug.15, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, falls on a Saturday and is not a holy day of obligation. The precept to attend Mass is dispensed when this solemnity falls on a Saturday or Monday.

Police following out-of-state lead on suspicious package The suspicious package sent to Star of the Sea Church in San Francisco on Nov. 21 was mailed from an outof-state post office and had a phony San Francisco return address, a police investigator told Catholic San Francisco.

San Francisco Police Department Inspector Rich Alves said the department is working with the postal authorities to identify a suspect. In order not to jeopardize the investigation, he declined to specify the city where the package was mailed.

The package was an 8 ½-by-11 envelope containing four AAA batteries and a purple liquid in a plastic bag.

It was addressed to Star of the Sea. Father Cliff Martin, parochial vicar at Star of the Sea, was suspicious of the packageâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s shape and called the police, who closed Geary Boulevard as a precaution and disposed of the envelope.

The package contained no wires and was â&#x20AC;&#x153;not even closeâ&#x20AC;? to a convincing fake explosive device, Alves said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think it was a prank,â&#x20AC;? he said.

There was no written or verbal threat connected with the package.

Alves said anyone who spots a suspicious package of any kind should call 9-1-1 or the local police.

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The following dates in 2009 have been designated as Special Days of Prayer for the Archdiocese of San Francisco and are not days of obligation to attend Mass: â&#x20AC;˘ Jan. 1: Day of Prayer for World Peace â&#x20AC;˘ March 1: Day of Prayer for the General Needs of Humankind â&#x20AC;˘ Sept. 7: Day of Prayer fir Human Rights and Labor â&#x20AC;˘ Nov. 26: Day of Prayer for the Fruits of the Earth The faithful of the Archdiocese are asked to observe these Special Days of Prayer in their devotions or other private prayer.

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Catholic San Francisco

9

Of Grace and Sippy Cups

Mary and ‘Mo’ My two-year-old son adores a certain Sesame Street monster. Anytime Matthew catches a glimpse of red fur and an orange nose, delight breaks over his face like the dawn.

“Mo!” he exclaims, leaving off the initial “El.” To be honest, I don’t think my son’s devotion is entirely due to Elmo’s charm. I think it’s more about exposure. After all, Elmo has his own daily segment on “Sesame Street,” and he stars in two DVDs my son received from his cousins.

Elmo also appears on everything from swimsuits and cereal bowls to wrapping paper. It’s rare to take Matthew on a trip through Target without hearing an excited cry of “Mo!” as we pass through the aisles.

So one thing I’ve learned is that exposure creates loyalty. And lately, I’ve realized that if it can happen with a furry monster, it can happen with people, too. I’m thinking specifically of religious figures, the ones who have no marketing muscle other than the love and devotion of centuries’ worth of Christians.

In our house, we have a crucifix on the living room wall. Over the fireplace is a statue of Mary embracing her infant boy. Matthew knows them by name. “Jesus,” he’ll

say, pointing to the crucifix, as distinct from “Baby Jesus” on the mantel. He loves touching both the infant and adult Christ. I love seeing him do it. He knows Mary, too, which is pretty hard to avoid given the number of figurines of the Blessed Mother that I have around the house. “Meee-y,” he’ll say, pointing to her with a smile.

I didn’t set out to collect religious figures for Matthew to recognize. It just happened that way. But as he grows up, I’m realizing how much these images can plant the seeds of a true affection for Jesus and his mom. These figures are more than just decorations; they are regulars in the ever-expanding cast of characters that populates Matthew’s world. Like Elmo, they offer comfort precisely because they are so familiar.

And while Elmo can teach Matthew about numbers and letters, about pets and potties, Jesus and Mary can teach him about more foundational things. As he grows up and hears the stories of Jesus and his mom, he’ll find out about forgiveness and justice. He’ll learn about generosity to the less fortunate, and daring faith in God. Most of all, he’ll learn that in times of confusion and doubt, our default

position is – has to be — love.

It’s probably too early for these spiritual concepts to be sinking in. But something is getting through. A few months ago, when Matthew and I were Ginny playing in the yard, he Kubitz Moyer spontaneously toddled over to the white stone statue of Mary on the patio. As I watched, he opened his arms and gave her a hug. If you think I got misty-eyed, you’d be right.

Mary may not have her own TV show, but she clearly has a starring role in Matthew’s heart.

Ginny Kubitz Moyer is the author of “Mary and Me: Catholic Women Reflect on the Mother of God.” Contact Moyer via her blog at www.maryandme.org.

Spirituality for Life

Longing, desire and the face of God At the center of our experience lies an incurable dis-ease, a disquiet, a restlessness, a loneliness, a longing, a yearning, a desire, an ache for something we can never quite name. For what are we longing?

Anne Frank, in her famous diary, asks exactly this question: “Today the sun is shining, the sky is a deep blue, there is a lovely breeze and I am longing – so longing – for everything. To talk, for freedom, for friends, to be alone. And I do so long ... to cry! I feel as if I am going to burst, and I know it would get better with crying; but I can’t. I’m restless, I go from room to room, breathe through the crack of a closed window, feel my heart beating, as if it was saying, ‘can’t you satisfy my longing at last?’ I believe that it is spring within me; I feel that spring is awakening. I feel it in my whole body and soul. It is an effort to behave normally, I feel utterly confused. I don’t know what to read, what to write, what to do, I only know that I am longing.”

That same question is asked everywhere. What would satisfy us? Why this relentless restlessness? In her “Children of Violence” series of novels, Nobel-prize-winning novelist Doris Lessing has her heroine, Martha Quest, pose that question as life’s central question: Toward what is all of our energy directed? Devoid of a religious perspective, Martha can only understand human desire as blind, erotic energy, a kind of voltage, 10,000 volts of energy inside us. For what? For whatever we choose - creativity, love, sex, hate, martyrdom, boredom.

What are we longing for ultimately? What would satisfy our restless hearts?

Classically, Christian spirituality has answered the question with a single image: all our disquiet is ultimately a longing

to see the face of God. Most famously, Augustine put it this way: “You have made us for yourself, Lord, and our hearts are restless until the rest in you!” In writing that, Augustine drew upon personal experience, but also upon a motif that had long expressed itself within religious men and women.

The idea begins early in the Jewish scriptures. Already at the time of Moses, people are asking the question: Who can see the face of God? We see this in Moses himself when he goes up the mountain to meet God. He asks to see God’s face. God replies, “No one can see the face of God and live!” (Exodus 33,20) However, when Moses asks this question, his desire is still quite literal. His desire is to physically see God. But as their faith matures, the people of Israel begin to understand this motif differently. Longing to see the face of God eventually is understood not so much as the physical curiosity to see what God looks like, but rather as an image, a symbol, an end-point for all human desire. To see the face of God is to have all desire quenched, all restlessness stilled, all aching quieted.

To see the face of God is to attain complete peace.

This is what the Psalmist means by the words: As a deer yearns for flowing streams, so I yearn to see the face of God. I thirst for the living God; when shall I see the face of God? (Psalm 42,1-2) By the time of Jesus, the idea is everywhere present in Jewish spirituality that the only answer to human longing is to see the face of God. To see God’s face is to come to peace.

But we are still left with the question: Who can see the face of God? How is this achieved?

Jesus answers simply: “Blessed are the pure of heart, they

shall see the face of God.” (Matt 5:8) That simple phrase then became a one-line mandate to encompass the entire spiritual quest. The Desert Fathers, the classical mystics, and subsequent Christian spirituality have Father focused on one thing in Ron Rolheiser their praxis – attaining purity of heart to see the face of God. To work at attaining purity of heart is the ultimate spiritual task.

It is also life’s ultimate task. We long for many things and like Doris Lessing’s heroine, Martha, are both buoyed up and fatigued by our own insatiable energies. These energies push us in every direction, toward creativity, love, sex, hate, martyrdom, boredom. Sometimes we know what we want, a particular relationship, achievement, acceptance, status, job, or home, and we believe we will find peace by attaining it, but experience has taught us that full peace of heart will not be found, even there. Where will it be found? In purity of heart, in removing things inside us that block our connection to the author of all the persons, places, beauty, love, color and energies for which we ache.

Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser can be contacted through his website: www.ronrolheiser.com.

The Catholic Difference

St. John Lateran – the Church standing erect ROME. Because the media drama of the papacy often has St. Peter’s for its stage, many Catholics may not know that the Patriarchal Vatican Archbasilica isn’t the pope’s cathedral.

St. Peter’s belongs, in a sense, to the whole Church, and the pope presides there as universal pastor of the Church. The Lateran Basilica – or, to give it its full name, the “Patriarchal Archbasilica of the Most Holy Savior and of Saints John the Baptist and Evangelist” – is the pope’s cathedral, the site of the cathedra of the Bishop of Rome.

Long styled as “mother and head of all churches in the city and the world,” the Lateran basilica was built by Constantine as a votum or thanksgiving offering for his victory over Augustus Maxentius, and consecrated by Pope St. Sylvester I in either 318 or 324. (The foundations of Constantine’s basilica were once the barracks of an elite Roman cavalry unit that had backed the wrong horse, so to speak, in Constantine’s struggle with Maxentius.)

For some 900 years, the popes lived in the Lateran palace adjacent to the basilica. There, the special vocations of St. Dominic, St. Francis of Assisi, and their followers were confirmed by Pope Innocent III. The palace now houses the Vicariate of Rome, the local diocesan administration. In the 15th century, the Lateran basilica was home to the first Jubilee “Holy Door,” symbolizing pilgrims passing from sin to grace – a tradition that has continued down to the Great Jubilee of 2000.

The most notable papal tombs in the Lateran basilica

are those of Lotario de’Conti di Segni and Gioacchino Pecci, better known to history as Innocent III and Leo XIII. Thirtyseven years old when elected to the papacy in 1198, Lotario was already a noted canonist, theologian and liturgist. During his papacy, Innocent III was Europe’s most powerful political figure, and a forceful exponent of the view that papal authority trumped that of kings and emperors. He died in Perugia a relatively young man, in 1216, on a mission that combined diplomacy with the spiritual renewal of northern Italy.

Innocent’s tomb remained in Perugia until 1891 when Leo XIII (who had served as bishop of Perugia) brought it to the Lateran, where the greatest of medieval popes now rests in the arm of the basilica’s transept. Leo XIII is buried opposite, in the transept’s other arm – a papal memorial parallelism that prompts some thought.

When Pecci was elected pope in 1878, the papacy controlled no sovereign territory (the Papal States had been absorbed into the Kingdom of Italy). The pope was the “prisoner of the Vatican;” and many among the worldly wise imagined the Office of Peter a spent force in human affairs. (England’s Cardinal Henry Edward Manning, fearful of Italian interference in the conclave of 1878, proposed holding the papal election in Malta under the protective guns of the Royal Navy.) Yet Leo XIII’s 25-year pontificate saw the papacy begin to assert the kind of influence that would culminate in the pivotal role played

by Pope John Paul II in the collapse of European communism

and the liberation of central and eastern Europe. This was the power of moral argument and persuasion, and Leo XIII was its first successful modern papal exponent.

Sovereignty is imporGeorge Weigel tant for the exercise of the papal office. To fulfill his mission as universal pastor of the Church, the pope cannot be subject to any other sovereignty. So the Lateran Treaties of 1929, which created the Vatican City micro-state, were not unimportant. But just as important, and arguably more important, was Leo XIII’s assertion of the moral authority of the keys – the papal mandate to teach and persuade the nations, using the tools of both faith and reason.

In the Lateran, the statue of Innocent III lies recumbent upon his marble catafalque. The effigy of Leo XIII stands erect, boldly proclaiming the moral truths that make society possible.

Leo, architect of the modern papacy, embodied the Church persuasive in life; fittingly, that is how he is sculpted in death.

George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.

Catholic San Francisco

Divine Word Father Ted Magpayo, associate pastor at St. Bartholomew Parish in San Mateo, leads an audience in song at Saturday’s “Let the Children Sing” workshop.

December 12, 2008

David Lorentz, religion teacher at St. Ignatius College Preparatory in San Francisco, plays guitar at a Saturday workshop on liturgical song and dance for children led by wife Kathy Lorentz (not pictured), liturgical coordinator, campus minister and teacher of prayer and spirituality at Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory in San Francisco. Lorentz is accompanied by daughter-in-law Melissa Scott-Lorentz, campus minister at Notre Dame High School in San Jose, and son Bryan Lorentz, religion teacher at St. Francis High School in Mountain View.

(PHOTOS BY MICHAEL VICK/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)

10

Author and professor Michael Carotta speaks on the need for revitalization in confirmation programs to reflect studies in adolescent psychology and spirituality.

Faith Formation Conference draws large crowd to Santa Clara The 47th annual Faith Formation Conference, held Nov. 21-22 at the Santa Clara Convention Center, drew nearly 2,200 participants, including more than 600 from the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

The event, organized and sponsored by the Archdiocese of San Francisco and the dioceses of Monterey, San Jose, Stockton and Oakland, featured dozens of speakers from around the country.

Theme of this year’s conference was “Witnessing Hope to a Suffering World.”

Sue Rogers and Manuel Pinto of Portable Prayer Life Chapels showcase a modular, portable prayer chapel, a relatively inexpensive alternative to standard chapels for use in homes, hospitals and churches. The display was one of several dozen in the large exhibit hall at the convention center, including booths for local Catholic universities, Catholic Radio and Ignatius Press.

(PHOTO BY CLARENCE MAMARIL)

Youth group helps families

The 180-plus-member St. Isabella Parish Youth Council in San Rafael gathered food and vouchers for a dozen families during the Thanksgiving holiday. The families were referred to the 50-year-old youth program by the St. Vincent de Paul Society. PYC members personally delivered Thanksgiving baskets to the families on Nov. 24. “It was great for our teens and the families to meet each other, and to share their blessings with the community,” said Clarence Mamaril, parish high school youth minister. Among the PYC members taking part were, left to rightseated: Alyssa Duran, Paige Graham-Ratto, Lyn Gatti, Sissy Ratto, Shane Graham, Lindsey MacQuarrie, Aidan Chambers, Karen Tachihara-Hill; middle row: Zoe Vais, Kristin O’Leary, Satpal Khalsa, Lauren Skinner; standing: Joey Decicio, Sam Maxim, Nathaniel Clark, Rebecca Gawronski, Kevin Maloney, Mark Smylie, Danny Fishman and Pat McCann.

December 12, 2008

Catholic San Francisco

11

Third Sunday of Advent Isaiah 61:1-2a; Luke 1:46-48, 49-50, 53-54; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24; John 1:6-8, 19-258 A READING FROM THE BOOK OF ISAIAH IS 61:1-2A, 10-11 The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to announce a year of favor from the Lord and a day of vindication by our God. I rejoice heartily in the Lord, in my God is the joy of my soul; for he has clothed me with a robe of salvation and wrapped me in a mantle of justice, like a bridegroom adorned with a diadem, like a bride bedecked with her jewels. As the earth brings forth its plants, and a garden makes its growth spring up, so will the Lord God make justice and praise spring up before all the nations.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM LK 1:46-48, 49-50, 53-54 R. My soul rejoices in my God. My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked upon his lowly servant.

From this day all generations will call me blessed: R. My soul rejoices in my God. the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name.

He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation.

R. My soul rejoices in my God. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.

He has come to the help of his servant Israel for he has remembered his promise of mercy, R. My soul rejoices in my God. A READING FROM THE FIRST LETTER OF PAUL TO THE THESSALONIANS 1 THES 5:16-24 Brothers and sisters: Rejoice always.

Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit.

Do not despise prophetic utterances. Test everything; retain what is good. Refrain from every kind of evil.

May the God of peace make you perfectly holy and may you entirely, spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless for

Scripture reflection FATHER CHARLES PUTHOTA

May Jesus’ voice be heard amid the din and distraction

the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will also accomplish it.

A READING FROM THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN JN 1:6-8, 19-28 A man named John was sent from God. He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.

He was not the light, but came to testify to the light.

And this is the testimony of John. When the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to him to ask him, “Who are you?”

He admitted and did not deny it, but admitted, “I am not the Christ.”

So they asked him, “What are you then?

Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.”

“Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.” So they said to him, “Who are you, so we can give an answer to those who sent us?

What do you have to say for yourself?”

He said: “I am the voice of one crying out in the desert, ‘make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.”

Some Pharisees were also sent. They asked him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ or Elijah or the Prophet?”

John answered them, “I baptize with water; but there is one among you whom you do not recognize, the one who is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.” This happened in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

Consider the pure joy of being. Waves crash endlessly on the shore. The moon dances on the lake. Stars sparkle. The sun rises in the glorious east. It sets on the ocean in a burst of red and orange. Flowers paint the world bright. The wind whispers in the trees. Animals romp. Rivers flow to the oceans. Forests are thick with trees. Birds sing. Deserts hide vast secrets.

All creation possesses the innate joy of being, fashioned by the Creator himself. God finds good everything he has created. It is because God’s life itself has been infused into everything. His Spirit broods over the created order, bringing everything to life and light, giving it purpose and direction.

In the creation of human beings, God says, “Let’s make man in our image, after our likeness,” blowing into “his nostrils the breath of life.” Fully human and fully alive, humans luxuriate in the joy of being. Have you watched little children frolic in the garden, lovers stroll on the beach, young people leap and flow, and the old glow gracefully?

Poets hunt for metaphors. Artists make new worlds. There is a drive within us toward the joy of being, the fullness of life.

Abraham Maslow puts it eloquently: “A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is ultimately to be at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be.”

Even in sorrow and sadness, the joy of being cannot be repressed. Poet Rabindranath Tagore says, “In sorrow after sorrow it is his steps that press upon my heart, and it is the golden touch of his feet that makes my joy to shine.”

The joy of life is the motif of the Gaudete (Rejoice) Sunday. Despite the darkness and cruelty of the world, as demonstrated in the recent events in Mumbai, there is hope for joy.

Nothing can negate the joy that comes with the God who comes. Joy is deeper than mere cheerfulness. It is more profound than happiness. A fruit of the Spirit, joy is the divine masterstroke.

The God who comes in Jesus Christ makes our joy a continuous, dynamic reality.

John the Baptist’s joy springs from the one whose way he prepares. He is not the

Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet, but just a voice speaking for the one whose voice will ring irresistibly till the end of time.

Self-effacing, the Baptist’s voice exists only for the one who comes, the Messiah. His joy of being lies in that his entire life, even his death, is to witness to the Lord who comes.

Those of us who prepare for the coming of the Lord in Advent are to be just a voice, a self-effacing presence, so that the voice of Jesus might be heard amid the din and distraction; so that his presence may be discerned through the smog and haze of clutter and confusion.

In Isaiah, the mandate of the prophet, which would become that of Jesus in Nazareth, is the precondition of the joy of living. The Spirit anoints him to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to captives, and release to prisoners. When we are thus “clothed in the mantle of justice,” when we do our part to heal the wounded world, we can “heartily rejoice in the Lord.”

Becoming channels of joy for others, we arrive at our own joy of being. Jesus’ joy of being lies in his mission to bring about peace and justice, healing and liberty.

Mary’s Magnificat in the responsorial hymn celebrates her joy at God’s marvellous deeds to her and to all the lowly and downtrodden. Paul, too, urges us to “rejoice always” as he charts a spiritual path for Christians’ joy.

In Philippians 4, we see that this rejoicing is possible because “the Lord is near.”

In the time between the first and second coming, Jesus journeys into our lives here and now, as we prepare for Christmas. He is the joy of our being. In him we rejoice to find our fulfillment. Being his voice to the world, we are sent to heal the brokenness of humanity. He is the God who comes. As Tagore says, “Have you not heard his silent steps? He comes, comes, ever comes. Many a song have I sung in many a mood of mine, but all of them have always proclaimed, he comes, comes, ever comes.”

Father Charles Puthota, Ph.D., is pastor of St. Veronica Parish, South San Francisco.

Advent: week 3 Help us make straight the pathways of our own lives The following Advent Wreath prayer is intended to help busy households make Advent a prayerful time during the rush of Christmas preparations. The language is simple to be used for personal prayer and reflection or by groups of adults or adults with children.

Leader: With the start of this third week of the season of Advent we are half way to Christmas, so as we prepare our hearts for the birth of Christ and for the second coming of the Lord, we light three candles, including a special one of a different color.

• Light the first two candles on the Advent Wreath again, and the third one – one that is a lighter color, usually pink or white. (Choose a different person for this task each week?)

• (optional) Read aloud Isaiah 61:1-2a, 10-11; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24; John 1:6-8, 19-28. (A different person might read each passage.)

• Leader: Lighting the lighter-colored candle this week is a sign that what was dark is getting brighter, and joy is on its way. We can hardly wait to rejoice and sing at Christmas. We know that the wonder of the season tends to push all our sadness and sorrow away, so we start to feel that special feeling already. The prophet Isaiah in this third week of Advent recalls for us what that joy is like. Feeling God in our lives lifts our spirits. And what is it that will make even the poor happy and the hurting healed? Praise for God and justice for others. St. Paul reminds us to pray, to be holy, and to not let anything quench our joyous spirit.

Closing prayer: (Leader may read all, or others in the household may each read a segment) Father in heaven, help us hear again the voice of John the Baptist crying out in the desert. Help us make straight the pathways of our own lives so that those paths lead to eternal life with you.

God above, do good and avoid evil is so easy to say yet so hard to put into practice.

Be with us in each and every moment of each and every day so that we remain blameless and worthy of your coming.

Help us, Lord, not to dampen the joy

of others. Remind us this week to rejoice always and to pray without ceasing.

Holy Spirit, guide us so that our lives may be testimony of the wonders and the love of God, so that others might believe through us.

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Catholic San Francisco

Advent Opportunities Sundays, 3:30 p.m.: Concerts featuring local and international musical artists at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Gough and Geary Blvd. in San Francisco. Open to the public. Free-will offering helps support Cathedral’s music ministry. Call (415) 567-2020, ext. 231. Dec. 21: David Phillips, organist; Dec. 28: David Hatt, organist.

Dec 13, 14: Paulist Father Larry Boadt, president of Paulist Press, will sign his new book, “Life of Saint Paul,” at The Paulist Center at Old St. Mary’s, 614 Grant Ave. in San Francisco, following the Saturday 5 p.m. Mass and Sunday’s 8:30 and 11 a.m. Masses. For information, call (415) 288-3845 or 288-3850.

Dec. 13, 11 a.m.: Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery Christmas Remembrance Service at All Saints Mausoleum Chapel, Old Mission Rd. in Colma. Father John Talesfore will preside. Call (650) 756-2060.

Dec. 13, 8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m.: “A Time for Healing” with Father John Struzzo at Holy Redeemer Retreat Center, 8945 Golf Links Rd. in Oakland. Father Struzzo has been involved in healing ministry for 25 years. Fee is $25. Sponsored by the Divine Mercy Eucharistic Society. Call (5100 412-4715.

Dec. 14, 2 p.m.: The choirs and musicians of San Mateo’s St Bartholomew Parish, 300 Alameda de las Pulgas at Crystal Springs Rd., present their annual Christmas Concert. Program features Respighi’s “Laud to the Nativity.” Performing are the Festival Choir, Contemporary Choir, Children’s Choir, and Faith Formation Choir. Conducted by Tim Cooney with organist Jim Dahlstrom. Free-will donations appreciated.

Dec. 14, 2 p.m.: San Mateo Pro-Life sponsors its annual December march under the banner of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the unborn child.

The rosary accompanies the walk from St. Gregory Church, 28th and Hacienda in San Mateo, to Planned Parenthood one mile away. The rosary continues at the site and on the return walk to St. Gregory’s. Pro-life signs are available for anyone wishing to carry one. All are invited. Call Jessica Munn at (650) 572 – 1468.

Dec. 14, 5 p.m.: 17th Annual Candlelight Christmas Concert by Mission Dolores Basilica Choir, 16th and Dolores in San Francisco. Tickets are $25, $18 and $15. Parking available. Conductor is Jerome Lenk. Call (415) 621-8203 or visit www.missiondolores.org.

Dec. 14, 4 p.m.: “Lessons and Carols” at St. Cecilia Church, 17th Ave at Vicente in San Francisco featuring the St. Cecilia Choir under the direction of Russell Ferreira. Parking available. Call (415) 664-8481 for more information.

Dec. 14, 8 p.m.: A Christmas Concert featuring voices of the Philippine Saringhimig Singers at St. Gregory Church, 28th and Hacienda Ave. in San Mateo. Priest ensemble will also sing. Tickets are $20. Call Merle at (650) 703-1415 or the parish office at (650) 345-8506.

Sponsored by St. Gregory Filipino Ministry.

Dec. 15 – 23, Sacrament of Reconciliation, 6:15 – 6:45 p.m.; Las Posadas at 6:45 p.m.; Mass at 7 p.m.: Parishes of Deanery 10 including St. Bartholomew, St. Catherine, St. Gregory, St. Luke, St. Matthew, St. Mark, Our Lady of Angels, Immaculate Heart of Mary, Our Lady of the Pillar and St. Timothy, celebrate “Simbang Gabi,” a Filipino tradition of preparation for Jesus’ birthday. All Masses and pre-Mass rites are at St. Matthew Church, 1 Notre Dame Ave., San Mateo.

Archbishop George Niederauer will preside at the opening liturgy. All are welcome.

Dec. 16, 7 p.m.: “Las Posadas” Christmas celebration at Mission Dolores Basilica, 16th St. at Dolores in San Francisco. Mariachi Band and holiday song with candy-filled piñata for the children are among highlights of the evening. Tamales, pastries and snacks will be served. Parking available in schoolyard. For more information, call Bob or Kati Huerta at (415) 239-9107 or Gloria DeLeon at (415) 334-3549.

Dec. 16 to 24, 6 a.m.: “Simbang Gabi” at St. Stephen Church, Eucalyptus at 23rd Ave. by Stonestown Mall in San Francisco.” Eight parishes sponsor the novena: St. Anne of the Sunset, St. Brendan, St. Cecilia, St. Emydius, St. Finn Barr, St. Gabriel, St. Stephen and Star of the Sea. Liturgies include scenes from the Gospel of the day. Archbishop George Niederauer will celebrate

December 12, 2008 Blessed Sacrament until midnight. Confessions are heard before Mass. Low Mass in Latin is also offered every Friday evening at 6 p.m. For further information, call (650) 322-2152.

Datebook

Arts & Entertainment Celtic Voices Children’s Choir is for youngsters in grades 3 – 8. The group specializes in music of Irish heritage. Rehearsals take place in San Francisco’s Sunset District Wednesdays from 3:45 – 4:45 p.m.

For more information, contact Mary McKeever at mairemusic@aol.com or (415) 379-4484.

Feb. 27, 7:30 p.m.: “The Gospel of Mark” performed

by Michael Reardon and directed by Patrick Lane at Notre Dame des Victoires Church, 566 Bush St. in San Francisco. Reardon and Lane have performed the spellbinding proclamation of Scripture more than 1,000 times around the world. A meet-the-artists reception follows the play. Admission to the two-hour event is free; free-will offerings will be accepted. Call (415) 397-0113 for more information.

Food & Fun Jan. 17, 6 p.m.: Young Men’s Institute (YMI) Crab Cioppino Dinner at All Souls Church Hall in South San Francisco. At the stove is chef Richard Guaraldi of the Italian-American Social Club. Tickets are $37 before Dec. 31 and $40 after that date. Send checks made payable to YMI Grand Council, P.O. Box 281047, San Francisco or call (800) 964-9646.

Guests donated more than 600 infant items at Seton Health Services annual “Hospital-a-Tea” in November. The proceeds benefit the St. Elizabeth New Life Center where “expectant mothers and their families otherwise unable to receive care” are treated, said a release about the event. Among those on hand for the celebration were Daughter of Charity Sister William Eileen Dunn, vice president of Mission Integration Seton Medical Center and Seton Coastside; Dee Canepa, vice president of First National Bank of Northern California and event co-chair; Cheryl Jennings, ABC 7 news anchor and event emcee; Margarita Mendoza, manager of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton New Life Center; Colma Mayor Helen Fisicaro, event co-chair, and Lorraine Auerbach, CEO of Seton Medical Center and Seton Coastside.

Mass on Dec. 24 followed by a Pasko sa Baryo potluck Christmas party with cultural dances, music and festival. Contact Nellie Hizon at (415) 699-7927.

Dec. 17, 7:30 p.m.: Take time for the real meaning of the Advent season. The Dominican Sisters’of Mission San Jose invite women considering religious life for Lectio Divina - Scripture faith sharing at the main parlor of the motherhouse, 43326 Mission Blvd. in Fremont. For more information, contact Dominican Sister Beth Quire at 510-657-2468 or beth@msjdominicans.org.

Dec. 17, 7:30 p.m.: Advent Speaker Series at Most Holy Redeemer Church, 100 Diamond St. in San Francisco. Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, founding president of Pax Christi USA, will offer this address. For more information, call (415) 863-6259 or visit www.mhr.org.

Dec. 19, 7:30 p.m.: St. Charles Parish, 880 Tamarack Ave. in San Carlos, presents its annual Christmas Concert celebrating Advent and Christmas music including carols both old and new, some for listening and some for singing along. Adult and children’s choirs, under the direction of Claire Giovannetti, will perform. Admission is free. An offering will be taken for the support of parish music programs. Call (650) 591-7349, ext. 32 for more information.

Dec. 19 – 25, and Jan. 4: Our Lady of the Pillar Knights of Columbus Council 7534 announces its annual “Live Nativity Scene” at OLP, Kelly and Church St. in Half Moon Bay. Presentations include music and singing with special presentations Dec. 20 from 2 – 4 p.m., with the Mansfield Family and Dec. 21 from 10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. with the Our Lady of the Pillar Choir. For more information, including times of presentations, call Mel Schwing at (650) 726-6765 or Jose Diaz at (650) 728-0274.

Dec. 20, 6:30 p.m.: Join the Divorced and Separated Catholics of the Archdiocese of San Francisco and celebrate the Christmas season with a social hour,

potluck dinner and sing-a-long at St. Dominic Church, lower level, Bush and Steiner St. in San Francisco. Call for more information: Gail Castro at (650) 591-8452 or Vonnie McGee (650) 873-4236.

Taize/Chanted Prayer 1st Friday at 8 p.m.: Mercy Center, 2300 Adeline Dr., Burlingame with Mercy Sister Suzanne Toolan.

Call (650) 340-7452; young adults are invited each first Friday of the month to attend a social at 6 p.m. prior to Taize prayer at 8 p.m. The social provides light refreshments and networking with other young adults. Convenient parking is available. For information contact mercyyoungadults@sbcglobal.net.

Tuesdays at 6 p.m.: Notre Dame Des Victoires Church, 566 Bush at Stockton, San Francisco with Rob Grant. Call (415) 397-0113.

3rd Friday, 8 p.m. beginning Dec. 19: Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose, Motherhouse Chapel, 43326 Mission Blvd in Fremont. Contact Maria Shao at (408) 839-2068 or maria49830@aol.com or Dominican Sister Beth Quire at (510) 449-7554 or beth@msjdominicans.

Tridentine Mass The traditional Latin Mass according to texts and rubrics from before Vatican II is celebrated at locations and times below.

Sundays at 12:15 p.m.: Holy Rosary Chapel at St. Vincent School for Boys. For more information, call St. Isabella Parish at (415) 479-1560.

First Friday: Latin High Mass of the Sacred Heart of Jesus at St. Francis of Assisi Church, 1425 Bay Road at Glen Way, East Palo Alto. Mass is followed by the Litany of the Sacred Heart and Exposition of the Most

TV/Radio Sunday, 6 a.m., WB Channel 20/Cable 13 and KTSF Channel 26/Cable 8: TV Mass with Msgr. Harry Schlitt presiding.

Saturday, 4 p.m.: Religious programming in Cantonese over KVTO 1400 AM, co-sponsored by the Chinese Ministry and Chinese Young Adults of the Archdiocese.

1st Sunday, 5 a.m., CBS Channel 5: “Mosaic,” featuring conversations on current Catholic issues.

3rd Sunday, 5:30 a.m., KRON Channel 4: “For Heaven’s Sake,” featuring conversations about Catholic spirituality.

Dec. 24, 3 p.m.: A one-hour Christmas special filmed at the Porziuncola Shrine and featuring Msgr.

Harry Schlitt on ABC, Channel 7; program encores at 5 a.m. on Christmas day.

KSFB Catholic Radio 1260 AM offers daily Mass, rosary and talk on the faith – visit www.ihradio.org EWTN Catholic Television: Comcast Channel 229; Astound Channel 80; San Bruno Cable Channel 143; DISH Satellite Channel 261; Direct TV Channel 370.

For programming details, visit www.ewtn.com.

Trainings/Lectures/Respect Life Dec. 14, 2 p.m.: San Mateo Pro-Life sponsors its annual December march under the banner of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the unborn child. The rosary accompanies the walk from St. Gregory Church, 28th and Hacienda in San Mateo, to Planned Parenthood one mile away. The rosary continues at the site and on the return walk to St. Gregory’s. Pro-life signs are available for anyone wishing to carry one. All are invited.

Datebook is a free listing for parishes, schools and non-profit groups. Please include event name, time, date, place, address and an information phone number. Listing must reach Catholic San Francisco at least two weeks before the Friday publication date desired. Mail your notice to: Datebook, Catholic San Francisco, One Peter Yorke Way, S.F. 94109, or fax it to (415) 614-5633, or e-mail burket@sfarchdiocese.org.

ARCHDIOCESE OF SAN FRANCISCO 2009 DELUXE DIRECTORY INCLUDES: Archdiocesan Officials and Departments, Catholic Charities, Parishes & Missions, Parish Staff Listings. Latest E-mail Addresses, Phone Directory Yellow Pages, Mass Schedules. Schools: Elementary, High Schools, Universities & Colleges.

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December 12, 2008

Music TV

Catholic San Francisco

13

Books RADIO Film stage

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Doubtâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;: screen version as excellent as stage

By Harry Forbes

(CNS PHOTO)

NEW YORK (CNS) â&#x20AC;&#x201C; The New York and London Pulitzer Prize-winning stage hit â&#x20AC;&#x153;Doubtâ&#x20AC;? (Miramax) makes an equally engrossing movie experience, and one that â&#x20AC;&#x201C; despite the reminder of a dark chapter in the Churchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s recent history â&#x20AC;&#x201C; should resonate with Catholic viewers.

The story is set in 1964 at a fictional Bronx parochial grammar school. Autocratic principal Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep) comes to suspect a popular priest, Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman), of impropriety with 12-yearold Donald, the schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first black student, a sensitive boy whom Father Flynn has treated compassionately.

Sister Aloysius, together with idealistic young teacher Sister James (Amy Adams), sets out to confront him. Sister Aloysius has little proof, but rather a deep-seated conviction she is right. When Sister James observes Father Flynn putting something in Donaldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s school locker, and smells alcohol on the altar boyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s breath when he returns to the classroom after meeting with the priest, she suspects the worst, and gives Sister Aloysius the ammunition she needs.

Is he guilty or not? Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s natural for viewers to side with the feisty, not unlikable Sister Aloysius. But things might not be what they so readily seem, and this is writer-director John Patrick Shanleyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s point.

Shanley has successfully adapted his drama, deftly recreating the Catholic milieu of the era through small period details of the classrooms, the principalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office, the rectory, the convent, etc.

Shanley, who won an Oscar for the screenplay of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Moonstruckâ&#x20AC;? and has not directed since 1990â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;Joe Versus the Volcano,â&#x20AC;? directs here with a sure hand. The pace never flags.

Cinematographer Roger Deakins uses the College of Mount Saint Vincent, founded by the Sisters of Charity (the order of nuns in the film), and other apt locations â&#x20AC;&#x201C; many in the neighborhood where Shanley grew up and set his story â&#x20AC;&#x201C; to beautiful effect.

There are several subtle touches that illuminate the strongly hierarchal structure of the Church in that period, as exemplified in the contrast between the high-spirited, clubby affability of the priestsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; dining table, and the austere formality of the Sistersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; meals. And how, when summoned to Sister Aloysiusâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; office, Father Flynn assumes itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s his right to appropriate her seat behind the desk, while the two Sisters obsequiously serve him tea, even as they are planning their accusatory salvo.

Streep and Hoffman are impressive. After a few seconds of adjusting to Streepâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s iconic face in her period black cape and bonnet, one completely accepts her in the role, Bronx accent and all, as she deftly balances the formidable side of this old-school nun â&#x20AC;&#x201C; who even decries the use of ballpoint pens â&#x20AC;&#x201C; with flashes of sardonic humor.

Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams star in a scene from the movie â&#x20AC;&#x153;Doubt.â&#x20AC;?

Hoffman is equally convincing. His Father Flynn delivers impassioned sermons from his pulpit or cheerfully bucks some of the old-school sternness to which Sister Aloysius still firmly adheres. Their scenes together play like a fascinating chess match.

Viola Davis is magnificent in her one big scene as the distraught mother of the putative victim who astonishes Sister Aloysius by her unexpected reaction.

Though sexual misconduct is at the heart of the story, it is the balance between doubt which, as Shanley has said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;allows for

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Mosaicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; rescheduled An installment of the TV program â&#x20AC;&#x153;Mosaicâ&#x20AC;? scheduled for Dec. 7 was pre-empted and rescheduled for Dec. 14 and Jan. 4, both Sundays at 5 a.m., on KPIX CBS Channel 5.

The program features discussion of the Jan. 24 Walk for Life West Coast in San Francisco and an interview with a woman who shares her story of giving up a child for adoption when she herself was 16. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Mosaicâ&#x20AC;? is a joint production of KPIX and the archdiocesan Office of Communications.

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;A short pro-life march is held every December by San Mateo Pro Life under the banner of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Pre-Born Child.

We pray the rosary as we process from St. Gregoryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in San Mateo (at Hacienda and 28th Avenues) over to Planned Parenthood (at 2211 Palm Ave.), a distance of about one mile. We continue the rosary in front of Planned Parenthood, and also during our return to St. Gregoryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. We provide pro-life signs for anyone desiring to carry one.

This year the march will be from 2 to 3 p.m. on Sunday, December 14.

Everyone is welcome to join us.

growth and changeâ&#x20AC;? and premature certainty, which only leads to a â&#x20AC;&#x153;dead endâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201C; that forms the principal thematic subtext.

The film contains a discreetly handled sexual abuse theme. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III â&#x20AC;&#x201C; adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; parents strongly cautioned.

Forbes directs the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. More reviews are available online at www.usccb.org/movies.

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‘Saturday for Engaged’ sets six 2009 workshops Old St. Mary’s Cathedral Parish will host “Saturday for Engaged Couples” workshops for engaged couples exploring the meaning of marriage from a Catholic perspective.

The workshop is one of the Archdiocese’s approved premarriage preparation programs.

The 2009 daylong sessions, scheduled Feb. 7, March 28, May 30, July 18, Sept. 19 and Nov. 14, include presentations, couple exercises and group discussion.

Each couple will receive a copy of the book “A Decision to Love” by family life counselors John and Susan Midgley.

Cost for the workshop is $200 per couple, and includes continental breakfast and lunch. Registration is by mail only. Pre-registration is required.

Applications should be sent to Old St. Mary’s Cathedral Parish, 660 California St., San Francisco 94108. For more information, call (415) 288-3866 or (415) 288-3809.

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Oh Mary, conceived without sin. Pray for us (3X).

Holy Mary, I place this cause in your hands (3X).

Say prayers 3 days. E.A.G.

Most beautiful flower of Mt. Carmel Blessed Mother of the Son of God, assistme in my need. Help me and show me you are my mother.

Oh Holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and earth. I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to help me in this need.

Oh Mary, conceived without sin. Pray for us (3X).

Holy Mary, I place this cause in your hands (3X).

Say prayers 3 days.

S.C.

St. Jude Novena

Prayer to the Blessed Virgin never known to fail.

Your prayer will be published in our newspaper

❑ Prayer to the Blessed Virgin ❑ Prayer to the Holy Spirit

Please return form with check or money order for $26 Payable to: Catholic San Francisco Advertising Dept., Catholic San Francisco 1 Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco, CA 94109

May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be adored, glorified, loved & preserved throughout the world now & forever. Sacred Heart of Jesus pray for us.

St. Jude helper of the hopeless pray for us.

Say prayer 9 times a day for 9 days.

Thank You St. Jude.

Never known to fail.

You may publish.

L.S.

Most beautiful flower of Mt. Carmel Blessed Mother of the Son of God, assistme in my need. Help me and show me you are my mother.

Oh Holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and earth. I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to help me in this need.

Oh Mary, conceived without sin. Pray for us (3X).

Holy Mary, I place this cause in your hands (3X).

Say prayers 3 days. S.G.

Help Wanted ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OFFICE OF PUBLIC POLICY AND SOCIAL CONCERNS Reports to Director, Office of Public Policy and Social Concerns Looking to make a difference?

We, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco, pledge ourselves to be a dynamic and collaborative community of faith known for its quality of leadership; richness of diversity of culture and peoples; and united in faith, hope and love.

The Archdiocese is seeking a qualified individual to fill the open position of Associate Director, Office of Public Policy and Social Concerns. This is a full-time, exempt position that reports to the Director of the Office of Public Policy and Social Concerns.

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Retreats and small intimate weddings

Contact Larry at 707-591-3500 Visit our Website: www.MoonMountainRetreat.com

Help Wanted

heaven can’t wait

Serra for Priestly Vocations Please call Archdiocese of San Francisco Fr. Tom Daly (415) 614-5683

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This is a Career Opportunity!

• Generous Commissions • Minimal Travel • Excellent Benefit Package • Stong Office Support • Work in Your Community. E.O.E.

Call 1-800-675-5051, Fax resume: 925-926-0799

We are looking for full or part time

PARISH OUTREACH • To develop and coordinate grassroots leadership training in parishes. To build relationships among the lay leaders and priests and parishes of the archdiocese for effective advocacy and action on behalf of social justice based on the principles of Catholic Social Teaching, using community-organizing methodology. Issues may include: affordable housing access to health care, etc.

CATHOLIC LOBBY DAY • To coordinate all aspects of Catholic Lobby Day. Recruit and train leaders from parishes in effective lobbying so that they can engage in dialogue with political representatives regarding education, health, economic justice (immigrant issues), housing and life issues (abortion, the death penalty, euthanasia, and assisted suicide).

• Recruit and train parishioners to lobby in the local districts of federal, state and local representatives.

• Recruit and train high school students for effective lobbying using the principles of Catholic Social Teaching.

LEGISLATIVE NETWORK • Disseminate information, education material and legislative alerts to the 1200 Archdiocesan parishioners in an effort to provide avenues for Catholic parishioners to engage with their legislators on issues nationally, locally and globally.

• Coordinate the issues in the alert system with the Director so that alerts can be received and acted upon in a timely manner.

RNs, LVNs, CNAs, Caregivers In-home care in San Francisco, Marin County, peninsula Nursing care for children in San Francisco schools If you are generous, honest, compassionate, respectful, and want to make a difference, send us your resume: Jeannie McCullough Stiles, RN Fax: 415-435-0421 Email: info@sncsllc.com Voice: 415-435-1262

DIRECTOR OF MUSIC MINISTRY

CATHOLIC CAMPAIGN FOR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT • Coordinate all aspects of CCHD, the US Catholic Bishop’s domestic anti-poverty campaign established in 1970 in an effort to address root causes of poverty nationwide. This includes processing all requests for grants; communication with the applicants, communication with the national CCHD field director.

• Recruit and train members for the Archdiocesan CCHD Committee, chair their meetings, schedule site visits for applicant groups.

• Review all recommendations from the Committee with the Director for submission to the Archbishop.

• Promote the annual CCHD Archdiocesan collection by giving talks and putting already funded groups in relationship with parishes and parishioners.

QUALIFICATIONS • Faithful Catholic • Deep understanding and commitment to Catholic Social Teaching as it pertains to “the moment of conception until natural death.”

• Trained in Community Organizing methodology • Good public speaker, writer and communicator • Able to bring concepts of “faithful citizenship” to the civic and political communities • Knowledge of how parishes and parish life work • Experience with diverse and low-income communities • Able to work in a team environment • Some evenings, weekends and travel required

EDUCATION • College Degree or equivalent experience

15

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Name Adress Phone MC/VISA # Exp. Select One Prayer: ❑ St. Jude Novena to SH ❑ Prayer to St. Jude

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• Bilingual Spanish and English preferred

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CATHEDRAL OF CHRIST THE LIGHT, OAKLAND CALIFORNIA 2121 HARRISON STREET, OAKLAND, CALIFONRIA 94612

(510) 271-1945 A Music Director for the new Cathedral of Christ the Light is being sought to develop a cathedral music program which will fulfill the norms and expectations contained in the decree Sacrosanctum Concilium of the Second Vatican Council and other relevant Church documents on liturgy and sacred music.

The music program is to serve as a model of liturgical and artistic excellence for the Diocese of Oakland. The program will serve both diocesan liturgical events and the regular services of the multi-cultural Cathedral parish. A detailed job description is available at the diocesan website www. oakdiocese.org and go to the link “What’s New” or e-mail pminnihan@oakdiocese.org for the complete job description.

The Deadline for application is 15 January 2009.

16

Catholic San Francisco

December 12, 2008

In a hushed Tenderloin church, the homeless and worshipers mix prayerfully

‘Sacred sleep,’ private devotion and Mass share worship space Story and photos by Rick DelVecchio The Wednesday noontime scene at St. Boniface Church in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood shows three communities using the same space, each in its own prayerful way.

The sanctuary is dark and peaceful as homeless men and women stretch out in the pews, finishing their morning sleep. They are guests at St. Boniface and under the supervision of the non-profit Gubbio Project, which is called to the charism of St. Francis of Assisi.

A handful of individual worshipers leave the street people alone, and one or two pray to Jesus and Mary at the church’s many shrines. In the front pews, a gray-haired man and a young woman, her child lying down on the pew next to her, pray the rosary.

Quietly, the third community begins to gather. The church doors open more frequently, letting in bursts of sunlight, as parishioners come together for the weekday 12:15 p.m. Mass.

The organist takes his seat and Mass begins. Christ is the vine, FranciscanFather Vincent Hughes says in his homily. “If we live in Christ, we can say we have been pruned.”

By now most of the homeless have left the church as Gubbio Project volunteers clean up.

But one man in the back rests his head on the pew in front of him, his bedding piled on the seat. And nearby a woman wearing a parka looks toward the altar: she had been awakened by a Gubbio volunteer when it was time to go but stayed on a little longer.

A glance at the bulletin board in the back gives a glimpse into the lives of the people who seek sanctuary in the church. There is a notice for a man who disappeared after his mother died, and another for a man whose worried family in Ohio has been trying to reach him.

The Gubbio Project serves 1,000 people a month, said Jennifer Sacramento, the group’s new executive director.

“We provide sanctuary for the homeless who need sleep and rest during the day,” she said. “At night many homeless people have to stay up because it’s very dangerous.”

The project is developing closer ties to other service providers in the neighborhood, including St. Anthony Foundation and Episcopal Community Services. The idea is to extend employment and health services to the homeless. The project is “always looking for volunteers,” Sacramento said. Its website is http://thegubbioproject.org.

Mayor’s speech . . .

■ Continued from cover did not give any respect for people holding religious beliefs about the nature of marriage.”

In his speech, the mayor said that while he respects the separation of church and state, he felt his role as a government leader put him in conflict with religious leaders who favor the marriage amendment.

“My job is to represent the state, and in representing it, to represent people equally and fairly regardless of gender, regardless of race, and regardless of sexual orientation,” Newsom said.

This statement drew a standing ovation from much of the crowd, with the notable exception of, among others, Catholic representatives at the head tables including Archbishop Niederauer and auxiliary bishops Ignatius Wang and William Justice.

Iftekhar Hai said he supported the mayor’s talk. A member of the Interfaith Council Board of Directors and the director of interfaith relations for the United Muslims of America, Hai told Catholic San Francisco Dec. 9 that “this is what democracy is about” and that he did not come away with the impression the mayor had categorized all Prop 8 advocates as bigoted.

Hai also lauded Archbishop Niederauer’s comments at the breakfast as “eloquent.” He said he has been out of the area and was not aware of a statement being drafted by the Interfaith Council directors.

On Dec. 1, Archbishop Niederauer released an “open

letter” in which he exhorted a more civil discourse in the wake of the often rancorous Proposition 8 campaigns. He also defended faith communities’ role in advocating its passage.

“Some voices in the wider community declare that there could only be one motive: hatred, prejudice and bigotry against gays, along with a determination to discriminate against them and deny them their civil rights. That is not so.”

A member of the Interfaith Council Board of Directors and director emeritus of the Archdiocese’s Office of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, Father Gerard O’Rourke said, “I think the Archbishop’s plea was right on.

It creates a space for healing and peace in our hearts. And for whatever time that takes, we have to be willing to give it. It will take a lot of good will.”

“This is not a sound-bite kind of thing,” Father O’Rourke said, adding, “We need some coming together on all kinds of fronts right now.”

For some, the mayor’s breakfast address damaged interfaith dialogue. George Wesolek, director of the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s Office of Public Policy and Social Concerns, said he was taken aback by the speech.

“The main impression I had was shock,” Wesolek said. “I have worked more than 12 years in the interfaith movement in San Francisco, and one of the unwritten rules is that we work from a point of our common ground on issues. I was shocked to find at a forum bringing us together on food issues, that the mayor broke that bond.”

“He used (the breakfast) to talk about a highly divisive issue, and also to cast blame while he was doing it,” Wesolek said. “He really did change interfaith relations tremendously

with that one talk. Now we have to repair it, and I think we’re on the road to doing that.”

Jesuit Father Donal Godfrey, executive director of University Ministry at the University of San Francisco, said that while he “personally opposed Prop 8 which is a matter of conscience,” he “did not feel that this was the right occasion for a speech such as this.”

“The topic the mayor had been invited to address was world hunger, so to then come and speak on this issue in such a way seemed odd, whatever one’s position on the issue. It took away from the issue the inter-faith group had decided to highlight.”

Newsom, whose speech was self-described as extemporaneous, played a high-profile role in the Proposition 8 campaign. In 2004, fewer than three weeks into his first term, the mayor began issuing marriage certificates for samesex couples. The move ignited a firestorm of controversy nationwide, and was later declared illegal and halted by a court injunction.

The issue again came to the fore in May, when the California Supreme Court ruled same-sex marriage was constitutional. The court decision set the stage for the Proposition 8 initiative, which passed with roughly 52 percent of the vote. In the interim, some 18,000 same-sex couples wed statewide, with more than a quarter of that number coming from San Francisco, according to estimates from UCLA’s School of Law. Calls to the mayor’s office for comment on Monday and Tuesday had not been returned by press deadline.

Dan Morris-Young contributed to this story.