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When the angels went away fro m them to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go, then, to Bethlehem to see this thing that has taken pla ce, which the Lord has made known to us. " So they went in haste and found Ma ry and Josep h, and the infant ly ing in the manger.
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A f irst f or Chinese A mericans AAonsignor Ignatius Wa ng is na med auxiliary bishop By Patrick Joyce
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Bishop-elect Ignatius Wang 's journey through life has been historic — from a tiny Catholic enclave in Beijing to his appointment as the first U.S. bishop of Chinese heritage - but the turning point was a simple matter of family. Bishop-elect Wang, then a priest serving in Grenada, came to San Francisco in 1974 to visit his widowed sister, Anna Yeun. "She had cancer, " he recalls. " 1 came really to visit her. When I saw her I knew I couldn 't leave her. She was dying." After his sister died in 1978, he couldn 't bring himself to leave. Again it was family obligations. His sister left three children - Marie , 18, Jane, 16, and Joseph, 9- "I became their guardian when she died. If I weren' t here, who would have become their guardian? The state." That wasn't acceptable. Father Wang decided to stay and help raise the children .
"It was good for me because I was close to them," he says. "It helps me to understand the church from the lay people 's point of view. It changed my conception of the priest's role . When 1 was in Grenada, I would function -1 would go to a funeral and function . I would never consider that you say the Mass not for this dead body only but here is the famil y -you have to take care of them. " Father Wang took an assignment at the archdiocesan tribunal. "It gave me evenings free, " he says. "I was in residence at St. John the Evangelist, ten minutes away from the children. After dinner I would go there and sit with them while they did their homework. I did that most days, at least five days a week. They taught me a lot. That was the good side of it I have seen children grow up without a single parent there. Necessity is the best university. You struggle BISHOP-ELECT WANG, page 17 and you survive."
Cardinal Law resigns
Archdiocese to mark 150 years ~ Page 7 ~
Ordinary Time: Prepa ring the way r Page 10 ~
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Deaf priest, seminarians add new dimension... 12-13 Christmas promise
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Hedging on life
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Datebook
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Preacher's Guide
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