February 25, 2005

What place for God in Europe?

Catholic san Francisco Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper

PARIS - As he urged closer ties with Europe this week, President Bush played down the current political disputes.

“No power on earth will ever divide us,” he said.

That may be true when it comes to Iran’s nuclear program. But his remark ironically hints at a transatlantic chasm over US and European values, and the role each side assigns to a fundamental facet of human life: religious faith.

Two events last year neatly frame the challenge: In the United States, a California man tried to remove “One Nation, Under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance. Americans cried foul - roughly 90 percent wanted to keep the phrase - and on June 15, the Supreme Court halted the bid on procedural grounds.

Three days later, in Brussels, officials agreed on the final text of the European Union’s new Constitution. The charter made no mention of God, despite calls that it recognize Europe’s Christian roots.

Indeed, its secularism has led to jokes that Europe is one big “blue” state. But Europeans aren’t laughing. Buffeted by the crosscurrents of secularism, Christianity, and Islam and mindful of a history of religious violence - they are wrestling with their values and identity as never before.

“The clash between those who believe and those who don’t believe will be a dominant aspect of relations between the US and Europe in the coming years,” says Jacques Delors, a former president of the European Commission. “This question of a values gap is being posed more sharply now than at any time in the history of European-US relations since 1945.”

Religion’s role in public life, and its influence on politics, have been center-stage questions worldwide since Sept.

11, 2001. But the debate in Europe has been complicated by the continent’s difficulty in integrating its fast-growing Muslim immigrant minority. It has been sharpened by tragedies such as the bombing of a Madrid train station last March, and the brutal murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh by an Islamic extremist last fall.

Those incidents “will reinforce secularism” in Europe, predicts Patrick Weil, a sociologist of religion at the Sorbonne in Paris. “The tendency now in Europe is to say we have to be clear on the limits to religious intervention” in public life.

“We are not going to sacrifice women’s equality, democracy, and individual freedoms on the altar of a new religion.”

Secularists who think like that are swimming in friendly waters in Europe, where religious convictions and practice have dropped sharply in recent decades, and where mainstream churches - especially the Catholic Church continue to lose members and influence.

Today, just 21 percent of Europeans say religion is “very important” to them, according to the most recent European Values Study, which tracks attitudes in 32 European countries. A survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that nearly three times as many Americans, 59 percent, called their faith “very important.”

Although a Gallup poll found last year that 44 percent of Americans say they attend a place of worship once a week, the average figure in Europe is only 15 percent, although the picture varies widely across the Continent.

GODLESS SECULARISM? For some Europeans, that slump marks a defeat for moral values at the hands of godless secularism.

“The new soft totalitarianism that is advancing on the left wants to have a state religion,” complains Rocco

(CNS PHOTO FROM REUTERS)

By Peter Ford The Christian Science Monitor

While only 15 percent of Europeans and 8 percent of French attend church services regularly, millions from around the world flock annually to Europe’s religious shrines like the Basilica at Lourdes (above).

Buttiglione, the Italian politician whose ambition to become the European commissioner for justice was thwarted last year by the European Parliament, which objected to his description of homosexuality as a sin.

“It is an atheist, nihilistic religion - but it is a religion that is obligatory for all,” Mr. Buttiglione adds.

Luis Lopez Guerra, the Spanish government’s point man in its campaign to wrest from Catholic influence social legislation on questions such as abortion, divorce, and gay marriage, sees things differently.

He wonders why, in a country where less than half the population ever goes to church, he should have found a Bible and a crucifix on his desk, along with the Constitution, when he was sworn in as undersecretary at the Ministry of Justice a year ago.

The Spanish government’s plans to legalize gay marriage this spring, to liberalize divorce and abortion laws, and to permit stem-cell research, do not represent an attempt to impose an atheist state religion, he insists. Rather, he says, they “extend civil rights and make the law independent of Catholic dogma.

He adds, “The government has a responsibility to represent the majority of the people. Our policy has to depend on the people’s will, not on the preferences of the Catholic church.”

Spain is currently the front line in the Vatican’s rear-guard battle to retain church influence over public policy in Europe.

But with public opinion ranged firmly on the government’s side, there seems little it can do but make its displeasure known.

Pope John Paul II lashed out at Madrid recently, accusing authorities of “restriction of religious freedom” and “relegating faith to the private sphere and opposing its public expression.”

The changes in Spain, Catholic church leaders worry, are part of a broader trend. Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, recently attacked “a new holy inquisition ... motivated predominantly by prejudice toward all that is Christian.”

Other traditional churches have felt the same cold winds. The president of the French Protestant Federation, Jean-Arnold de Clermont, warned Prime Minister JeanPierre Raffarin last December of a climate of “secularist zeal” that was undermining all faiths.

Such zeal has known peaks and troughs over the centuries, but it is not new to Europe, where political leaders and ordinary citizens experienced religion and felt its weight in ways quite unknown to Americans.

The differences are rooted in the 18th century, when the Enlightenment, the philosophical revolution that laid the foundations of the modern Western world, was interpreted quite differently by Americans and Europeans in one crucial respect.

ENLIGHTENMENT DIVERGENCE In Europe, says Grace Davie, an expert on religion at Exeter University in England, “the Enlightenment was seen GOD IN EUROPE, page 16

INSIDE THIS WEEK’S EDITION Archbishop’s letter . . . . . . . . 3 Compliance audit . . . . . . . . . 6 Quinn Colloquium . . . . . . . . 7 Editorial and letters . . . . . . . 8 Columnists . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Roots of Eucharist . . . . . . . 15

News-in-brief

Wedding Guide

Scripture

Lenten movie series . . . . . . 18

~ Pages 4 – 5 ~

~ Pages 9 – 12 ~

~ Page 14 ~

www.catholic-sf.org

February 25, 2005

SIXTY CENTS

VOLUME 7

•

No. 7

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Catholic San Francisco

February 25, 2005

On The Where You Live

by Tom Burke Family from near and far helped celebrate Father Jack Kavanaugh on the occasion of his 80th birthday December 23rd. Father Kavanaugh is former pastor of St. Finn Barr Parish in San Francisco and Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and St. Matthias parishes in Redwood City. He is also a former longtime faculty member at Junipero Serra High School. A priest for 56 years, he now resides at Serra Clergy House in San Mateo. The priest’s sister, Mary Jane Anderson, with her husband George, of St. Brendan Parish, hosted a birthday luncheon in the City, said the couple’s daughter, Liz Tesi. “Jack has taken a personal interest in each of his nieces and nephews when growing up,” Liz said. “Each year, he made a surprise visit to Our Lady of Mercy School and Holy Angels School.

Our classmates got a big kick out of that and enjoyed seeing him each year.” In addition to his presiding at the Anderson’s wedding in 1949, the beloved uncle has witnessed all of their children’s weddings and baptized all 13 of their grandchildren. “At the conclusion of our day,” Liz said, “Jack told us that he has loved being a priest and that his family is ‘the joy of his life.’ We trust that he knows, too, that he has been an inspiration

“Brrr…It’s cold!” said Darlene Schwarz, 7th grade teacher at All Souls Elementary. The school’s 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th graders took this as a challenge and with their friends and families collected more than 250 pairs of socks for people served by the Saint Vincent de Paul Society of San Mateo County. Back from left: Angelo Ocampo, Mark Pira, Robert Fabris, Darlene Schwarz, Chauntel Sapp, and Thomas Collins. Front from left: Paige Maligaya, Adreana Estigoy, and Natalie Claghorn.

Catholic san Francisco Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper

Official newspaper of the Archdiocese of San Francisco

Most Reverend William J. Levada, publisher Maurice E. Healy, associate publisher & editor Editorial Staff: Jack Smith, assistant editor; Evelyn Zappia, feature editor; Tom Burke, “On the Street” and Datebook; Patrick Joyce, contributing editor/senior writer; Sharon Abercrombie, reporter Advertising: Joseph Pena, director; Mary Podesta, account representative Production: Karessa McCartney, manager; Tiffany Doesken Business Office: Marta Rebagliati, assistant business manager; Judy Morris, circulation and subscriber services Advisory Board: Jeffrey Burns, Ph.D., Noemi Castillo, James Clifford, Fr. Thomas Daly, Joan Frawley Desmond, James Kelly, Deacon William Mitchell, Kevin Starr, Ph.D. Catholic San Francisco editorial offices are located at One Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco, CA 94109. Tel: (415) 614-5640 Circulation: 1-800-563-0008 or (415) 614-5638 News fax: (415) 614-5633 Advertising: (415) 614-5642; Advertising fax: (415) 614-5641 Advertising E-mail: jpena@catholic-sf.org Catholic San Francisco (ISSN 15255298) is published weekly except the Fridays after Thanksgiving, Easter, Christmas and the first Friday in January, twice a month during summer by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco, 1500 Mission Rd., P.O. Box 1577, Colma, CA 94014. Periodical postage paid at South San Francisco, California.

Postmaster: Send address changes to Catholic San Francisco, 1500 Mission Rd., P.O. Box 1577, Colma, CA 94014 If there is an error in the mailing label affixed to this newspaper, call 1-800-563-0008. It is helpful to refer to the current mailing label.

Helping Father “Uncle” Jack Kavanaugh celebrate his 80th birthday are 13 of his great-nieces and nephews. Back row: Jeffrey Monticelli, Katie DeMartini, Kevin DeMartini, Sara Anderson, Annie Radsliff. On sofa: Ellen DeMartini, Aldo Tesi, Father Kavanaugh, Monica Tesi, Amy Anderson. Front row: David Monticelli, Jack Radsliff, Gina Tesi, Patrick Radsliff.

to us and a joy in our lives.” In addition to Liz and her husband, Maryanne Kavanaugh Murray, ’54; Maureen Finegan Aldo Tesi, now of Nebraska, proud nieces and nephews Horan, ’69; Karen Mondon Scarpulla, ‘72 and Sally Alioto include Sue and Don Mangel of St. Robert’s in San Bruno; O’Connell, ’89, the last official graduating class at St. Rose and Viola and John Anderson of Michigan; Nan and Steve a mantle Sally is proud to wear. “It was a privilege to go to St. Monticelli and Jean and Rich DeMartini of Our Lady of Rose,” Sally told me. “It’s hard for me to drive down Pine Angels in Burlingame and Joan and Street, especially now that I have a Peter Radsliff of St. Matthew’s in daughter.” Sally and her husband San Mateo. …Happy 80th John, celebrate their 8th anniverBirthday February 17th to sary in July. They are the parents of Michael Desmond, a longtime Hannah, age 3. Catherine parishioner with his wife Nancy of McManus Dacre, ’78 and her sibs, the Sunset District’s Holy Name of Mary McManus Pliver, ‘68; Anne Jesus. Mike worked for the San McManus O’Donnell, ‘70; Francisco Park and Rec department Margaret McManus, ‘76; Carolyn for over 30 years concluding his McManus McNulty, ’84 are also career as the head tree topper for sending out the rallying cry. “It’s my Golden Gate Park. Helping him hope that some of the beloved celebrate the milestone are sons, Dominican sisters who taught us, Michael and Tiernan, as well as, such as Sister Rita Moore will be in Michael Desmond with son, Sean with his wife Suzi, and attendance,” Catherine said. See grandson, Michael, in Ireland. their children Michael, a 3rd gradDatebook….The email address for er at St. Stephen school, and Ryan, who is 3 years Street is now burket@sfarchdiocese.org. As this continues to old….Looking for classmates from all of its years is the now- be but an empty space without you, please jot it down and get closed yet remembered St. Rose Academy. The “all-class those items in here??!! All the rest is the same. Mailed items reunion” is scheduled for April 9th at the St. Francis Hotel on should be sent to “Street,” One Peter Yorke Way, SF 94109.

Union Square. Hard at work rustlin’ up the gang are former Pix should be hard copy or electronic jpeg at 300 dpi. You can principal Dominican Sister Karen Marie Franks, ’45; reach me at (415) 614-5634. Thank you!!!

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Catholic San Francisco

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Archbishop Levada speaks to the faithful of the Archdiocese in letter The following is the full text of a letter from Archbishop William J. Levada to the faithful of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, which he asked be read at all Masses this weekend, Feb. 26-27.

Dear Friends in Christ, The Archdiocese of San Francisco has, for many years, taken steps to provide for the protection of children and youth in church or school settings.

Throughout the country the Catholic Church had expanded these efforts, especially over the past three years with the adoption of the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.”

In this “Charter,” the Bishops have committed our Church to zero tolerance toward child sexual abuse by clergy or other church employees, prompt and

effective response to allegations, and full cooperation with law enforcement authorities. Independent review boards have been established, and background checks, fingerprinting programs, and candidate screenings have been expanded. An education program to ensure that all Church institutions are safe places for children and young people is being implemented.

At the same time, the Catholic Church has made sincere efforts to reach out with pastoral concern to adult victims of child sexual abuse by a member of the clergy or church employee. In making public apologies to these victims, Catholic bishops have urged others who suffered abuse to come forward, offering them professional counseling to help in their healing. Our Archdiocese

A new Boys Club at St. Francis of Assisi Parish in East Palo Alto welcomes neighborhood boys for sports, chat and use of nine donated computers.

“We still need more funding,” said Father Larry Goode, pastor. The club also is an opportunity for college interns and volunteers, he said.

Longtime parishioner Barbara Pavis is program coordinator. Father Goode’s brother Tim, a retired Santa Clara school teacher, comes by to help.

For more information about the Boys Club, call the parish at (650) 322-2152.

Eucharist Adoration D

uring this Year of the Eucharist you are cordially invited to contemplate, to adore and to pray to Jesus Christ before the Blessed Sacrament every week day at ST. FINN BARR CHURCH, 415 Edna Street, San Francisco.

Hours of Exposition are Mondays through Thursdays from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and each Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. Saturday morning.

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has professionals who work with victims and direct outreach and assistance programs.

Many U.S. Catholic dioceses have made financial settlements with victims and their attorneys who have filed legal claims pertaining to past abuse. In most of these cases, the abuse occurred three or more decades ago. The Catholic bishops of California have spoken often of their desire to reach fair and reasonable settlements with victims of abuse by clergy or church employees. We have recognized our moral obligation to the past – to make sure we provide the care and support that will help them heal.

We also have a moral obligation to the future – to make sure that the parishes, schools, day care centers, clinics, and other social services people depend on are there and available for all who need them. Resolving and balancing these two moral imperatives is a responsibility I share with all of the people of God in the Archdiocese of San Francisco. It is a responsibility I take very seriously.

Next week, the Archdiocese will begin a court-ordered mediation process that may result in the settlement of many or all of its six-dozen pending lawsuits. It is also possible that some of these lawsuits, the first scheduled for March 7, may proceed to trial if settlements are not reached.

If our efforts in the mediation process lead to a settlement, or if juries decide on large financial awards after trials, the result will very likely put substantial financial pressure on the Archdiocese of San Francisco. I have reviewed this situation with both the College of Consultors and the Archdiocesan Finance Council, as required by Canon Law; I am very grateful for their wise counsel.

I want to say again what has been said before: the funds contributed to the 2005 Archbishop’s Annual Appeal will not be used for abuse settlements. The Annual Appeal contributions are restricted to the support of the ministries and programs designated in the annual campaign.

Adult victims of child sexual abuse by members of the clergy or church employees throughout the country have emphasized that they need to hear their Church say how sorry we are for the terrible crimes of sexual abuse committed against them. I willingly do so in your name and in my own. My sorrow is heartfelt for the pain and suffering that has come to abuse victims and their families. I join with the clergy and people of the Archdiocese of San Francisco in our prayer to God for the healing of all.

Sincerely yours in Christ, Most Reverend William J. Levada Archbishop of San Francisco

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Catholic San Francisco

NEWS

February 25, 2005

in brief

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court Feb. 22 rejected without comment a request that it reconsider its 1973 Roe vs. Wade ruling that legalized abortion.

Norma McCorvey, who was identified as “Jane Roe” in the 1973 case, and Sandra Cano, the “Mary Doe” of the companion Doe vs. Bolton ruling, petitioned the court to set aside the decisions, or at least order a new trial on the merits for reversal. Neither Cano nor McCorvey ever had the abortions at issue in their cases. Both women now oppose abortion. Their effort to see the Roe and Doe decisions overturned was backed by women from 19 states who say they regret having had abortions. However, the Court will review Oregon’s assisted suicide law next term in a case over the Bush administration’s efforts to hold physicians criminally liable for prescribing lethal doses of drugs. The court announced Feb. 22 that it would review the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling last May that said the federal Justice Department has no authority to use the Controlled Substances Act to punish doctors who prescribe lethal amounts of drugs to people who wish to commit suicide.

Three diocesan priests receive national honor for bravery KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Three diocesan priests have received national recognition for saving a father and two of his children from plunging over a waterfall during a hiking vacation in Montana. U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton presented the Citizen’s Award for Bravery to Tennessee priests Father Vann Johnston and Fathers John and Kevin Dowling earlier this month at the Department of the Interior’s 62nd awards convocation in Washington. The award is granted “to private citizens for heroic acts or unusual bravery in the face of danger.” Father Johnston is chancellor of the Diocese of Knoxville. Father John Dowling is pastor of St. John Neumann Parish in Knoxville, and his younger brother, Father Kevin Dowling, is pastor of parishes in Hohenwald, Centerville and Waynesboro in the Diocese of Nashville and a military chaplain at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.

Film on nun’s efforts to counter anti-Semitism up for Oscar NEW YORK — “Sister Rose’s Passion,” the story of a nun’s effort to counter anti-Semitism in Catholic teaching, is one of five Oscar nominees in the short documentary category for the Academy Awards, which will be presented Feb. 27. The film features Dominican Sister Rose Thering, a retired education professor from Catholic Seton Hall University. The film focuses particularly on her contribution to getting changes in Catholic school textbooks that included language traditionally used to blame the Jews for the death of Jesus. For her doctoral dissertation at Jesuit-run St. Louis University, she conducted one of the pioneering and influential

(CNS PHOTO BY DEBBIE HILL)

Court nixes Roe vs Wade review, will consider assisted suicide law

Arab Catholics attend a special Mass Feb. 20 in the Melkite Catholic church in Maghar, Israel, in the wake of Druze violence against Christians. The violence occurred after a rumor was spread about Internet photos.

studies of how the religion textbooks used in Catholic schools described the role of the Jews in the Crucifixion. She gained the support of Cardinal Augustin Bea, who said such teachings in Catholic textbooks “must go.”

Program urges young adults to consider church ministry CHICAGO — Passionist Father Robin Ryan has a mission: to reach out to young adults considering a life of service. In this, he is leading “Catholics on Call” to help young adults find their vocations. It is a Catholic Theological Union program planned with the religious communities that sponsor the Chicago school. Funded by a $2 million grant from the Lilly Endowment, the program is a mult-year project. Father Ryan met with representatives of the union’s 25 religious communities, with men and women who minister to young adults, and with a focus group of young adults. From their input, he created a program that includes a Web site with general information; a component to help the religious communities reach out to young adults; a summer experience for young people; and a follow-up gathering. Father Ryan said young people were clear in wantinf more of a discernment approach instead of a recruitment approach.

Caring for creation coalition urges environmental steps WASHINGTON – Efforts to build a broad coalition not only on climate change but on other environmental issues began with a Catholic workshop on global warming several years ago. The result is the interfaith statement, “God’s Mandate: Care for Creation,” issued this month with more than 1,100 signatories, with 200-plus Catholic signers among them, including one bishop, Auxiliary Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton of Detroit. As people of faith, “we feel called to express great dismay

and alarm at plans by the administration and the leadership of the 109th Congress to reverse and obstruct programs that protect God’s creation in our land and across the planet. There are now specific proposals before the government that would jeopardize public health, clean air and water; sustainable sources of energy; safety of natural habitats; and Earth’s climate, which embraces us all,” the statement says. “These measures would turn back protections in laws passed over decades with overwhelming public support. Moreover, there was no mandate, no majority or no ‘values’ message in this past election for the president or the Congress to roll back and oppose programs that care for God’s creation,” it says.

Brazilian authorities make arrests in brutal murder of U.S. nun ALTAMIRA, Brazil — Brazilian authorities have arrested three suspects in the murder of a U.S. nun but were still looking for the rancher they believe ordered her killing. Police said they caught Clodoaldo Carlos Batista as he tried to catch a ferry in Belo Monte, about 30 miles northeast of Altamira. Both cities are in the state of Para, where U.S. Sister Dorothy Stang, a 73year-old member of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur and an outspoken advocate for Brazilian peasants, was shot several times in the chest and head Feb. 12. Police said Rayfran das Neves Sales confessed to shooting Sister Dorothy and named others involved.

Police have charged rancher Amair Freijoli da Cunha with hiring the killers and said they suspect another rancher of ordering the killing. For nearly 40 years, Sister Dorothy, a native of Dayton, Ohio, and a naturalized Brazilian citizen, worked in rural Brazil, defending the rights of poor peasants. This fight made her many enemies, including some wealthy landowners. The nun’s death sparked an international outcry and since then Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has put nearly 19,900 square miles of Amazon land under

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federal environmental protection and suspended logging in some disputed areas.

Canadian cardinal says same sex law could affect religious freedom OTTAWA — A Canadian cardinal said he is concerned about the impact that proposed same-sex marriage legislation could have on the future of religious freedom. Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Quebec also said that by promoting same-sex marriage the Canadian government is “sowing confusion� and bringing “deep division to society on the basis of a supposed right.� In a telephone interview from Quebec City Feb. 17, the day after Prime Minister Paul Martin began debate on Bill C-38 in the House of Commons, Cardinal Ouellet said same-sex marriage discards the basic fact “that a man is a man and a woman is a woman, and their union is marriage.� He said, “There is a sort of abusive interpretation of discrimination and the fundamental right to marriage.� He said, “If you take (conjugality) out, you don’t have marriage. You have something else. You have a generic sort of union, but you don’t have marriage.�

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the communications media, but must learn to use them to promote the truth and must speak out when the media distort the truth, Pope John Paul II said. Modern media are instruments “God has placed at our disposal to discover, to use and to make known the truth, including the truth about our dignity and about our destiny as his children,� the pope said in a letter to communicators. The pope’s apostolic letter “to those responsible for communications� was released Feb. 21 at a Vatican press con-

ference. In addition to looking at the way Catholics can and must use the media and interact with them, Pope John Paul called for greater public involvement in the running of newspapers, television and radio stations. “If the communications media are a good destined for all humanity, then ever-new means must be found — including recourse to opportune legislative measures — to make possible a true participation in their managementy all,� he said.

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February 25, 2005

New audit finds near-total compliance with policies on sex abuse Catholic News Service WASHINGTON — An independent audit released Feb. 18 in Washington reported that 96 percent of the 195 U.S. dioceses and Eastern-rite eparchies were implementing every applicable article of the U.S. bishops’ policies to prevent clergy sex abuse of minors.

Despite the almost-total compliance, “continued external oversight and evaluation (are) essential” since compliance “may improve or diminish over time,” said the audit report for 2004 prepared by the bishops’ Office of Child and Youth Protection.

The 50-page report said that in 2004, U.S. dioceses and eparchies continued to receive reports of child sexual abuse that allegedly occurred decades ago. Most of the new allegations of past child sex abuse by diocesan or religious order priests were said to have taken place in the 1965-1974 period.

Full report at www.usccb.org During 2004, the U.S. church spent $158 million for sex abuse related activities, with more than $106 million paid in settlements to victims, the report said. The figures include money spent by religious orders. When added to other published figures, the U.S. church has now spent about $1 billion in child sex abuse related costs since the beginning of 1950.

The statistics are contained in the 2004 annual report on the implementation of the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People”; the report was released at a press conference at the National Press Club.

The child protection office prepared the report for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the National Review Board, appointed by the bishops to monitor compliance with the charter. The all-lay review board approved the report before it was sent to the USCCB. The charter was approved by the bishops in 2002 and calls for an annual compliance report.

“There is undoubtedly progress still to be made,” said Bishop William S. Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., USCCB president, in a cover letter to the report.

“Much of what dioceses face today is the result of past abusive behavior — often long past — and procedures are in place to deal with and put a stop to new instances of abuse that may be reported,” he said.

While the report shows great strides in the application of the U.S. bishops’ child sex abuse prevention policies, it also cautioned against complacency.

“It is dangerous to assume that compliance with the charter is all that is necessary to prevent abuse, restore confidence in the church, and to bring healing and hope to those who have been harmed,” said Kathleen McChesney, executive director of the child protection office, in a cover letter to the report.

As McChesney highlighted some of the findings of the audit and statistical study and the situation still facing the church, she punctuated the data with the refrain, “We know this crisis is not over.”

“We know this crisis is not over because many men and women who have been abused and their family members continue to suffer from psychological, spiritual and emotional wounds,” she said. “We know this crisis is not over because, despite the efforts of many, some victims have been frustrated, hurt and sometimes humiliated, by the response of the church. ... We know this crisis is not over because over 300 reports received in 2004 identified alleged abusers previously not known.”

“What is over is the denial that this problem exists, and what is over is the reluctance of the church to deal openly with the public about the nature and extent of the problem,” she added.

“While a measurable amount of progress has been made, much more is required, but nothing that is beyond our ability,” she said.

Nicholas P. Cafardi, dean of the law school at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and head of the U.S. Bishops’ National Review Board, said one of its major tasks is to look at how the 2005 audits will be done and “strongly encourage” the bishops to continue the audits in coming years.

Another is to monitor how the bishops respond to 26 recommendations made by the board in its initial report on the causes and context of the crisis, he said. He said many of those recommendations have been submitted to various committees of the bishops’ conference for a response, and the recommendations of the committees should be working their way back to the bishops.

Another major project of the board, Cafardi said, is “the other half of the ‘causes and context.’” The review board’s initial report on the causes and context of the abuse crisis mainly explored its “ecclesial context,” he said, but that will now serve as a springboard for a more in-depth, multidisciplinary study of the full context behind the crisis.

Cafardi said the board has put out a request for proposals from academic institutions to research the broader context and

causes underlying clergy sexual abuse of minors, including the cultural context, why the perpetrators of abuse engaged in such actions and why certain minors became victims. It plans to evaluate the research proposals in May and reach a decision on which institution will carry out the study, he said.

The findings of that study can be “extremely helpful to the church and society,” he said.

Responding to a criticism by a victim’s group, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, that the review board is not sufficiently independent or critical of the performance of bishops on their response to sexual abuse, Cafardi said, “You don’t have to be on the front page of a national newspaper every day to hold their (the bishops’) feet to the fire.”

He said public confrontation is not the only way to achieve results, although the board would not back down from it “if we thought that was appropriate.”

The 2004 audit reported major inroads in conducting background checks of clergy, lay employees and lay volunteers coming into regular contact with children. Important strides were also made in implementing

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“safe environment” education programs to prevent abuse. The background checks and education programs are considered crucial to long-term efforts to prevent child sex abuse.

Recommendations in the report for improving sex abuse prevention programs include: ● Informing people if a lawyer is being used by the diocese or eparchy to receive allegations and providing an alternative person for people uncomfortable talking to a lawyer. ● Special outreach to clergy and religious who have been victims of sexual abuse. ● Developing practices for monitoring priests and deacons at risk as offenders.

The report notes that the church needs to continually develop new prevention initiatives because full implementation of current policies “will not ensure that no child will ever be abused again in a church environment.”

It asks Catholics to be “unwavering in our commitment to ensuring the accountability of all Catholic bishops of the United States to their people in the future and to the safety of all our children.”

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Catholic San Francisco

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Pro-life Democrat to speak Homebound or ill ? at Quinn Colloquium The 9th Annual Archbishop John R. Quinn Colloquium on Catholic Social Teaching will be held Mar. 12 at University of San Francisco’s McLaren Center.

Speakers on this year’s topic, “Catholic politicians in the public square,” will address the question, “How does a Catholic politician integrate fidelity to the Magesterium, personal conscience, and responsibility to constituents in forming public policy today?”

Participants include Timothy J. Roemer, former six-term Congressman from Indiana; John L. Carr, secretary for social development and world peace at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; and John Huebscher, executive director of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference.

Former Representative Roemer is also president of the Center for National Policy and a member of the 9-11 Commission. Earlier this year, the Catholic, pro-life Democrat was among the leading candidates for the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee.

Roemer said that based on the results of the last

election, the Democratic Party had to become a “bigger bus,” making space for the views of Democratic constituencies who support the right to life. He suggested the party’s inflexibility on moral issues contributed to its losing, “97 of the 100 fastest growing counties in the country. If that’s a trend in business or politics you’re in trouble,” he said. His candidacy was strenuously opposed by a coordinated campaign led by the National Abortion Rights Action League. Roemer bowed out Feb. 7 and the chairmanship went to former Vermont Governor and Planned Parenthood physician and board member Howard Dean.

The Quinn Colloquium is jointly sponsored by the Archdiocese of San Francisco and the University of San Francisco. It is named for the former Archbishop of San Francisco and funded in part by the generosity of the clergy of the archdiocese.

The Quinn Colloquium is held from 8:30 a.m. till 12:30 a.m. at USF’s McLaren Center, 2130 Fulton St. Admission is free. Call 415614-5567 for more information or to RSVP.

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February 25, 2005

Catholic san Francisco Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper

Reign of freedom, justice

By Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. A little more than 40 years ago, on Dec. 10, 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. made the following remarks in accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway.

I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace at a moment when twenty-two million Negroes of the United States are engaged in a creative battle to end the long night of racial injustice. I accept this award on behalf of a civil rights movement which is moving with determination and a majestic scorn for risk and danger to establish a reign of freedom and a rule of justice.

I am mindful that only yesterday in Birmingham, Alabama, our children, crying out for brotherhood, were answered with fire hoses, snarling dogs, and even death. I am mindful that only yesterday in Philadelphia, Mississippi, young people seeking to secure the right to vote were brutalized and murdered. I am mindful that debilitating and grinding poverty afflicts my people and chains them to the lowest rung of the economic ladder.

Therefore, I must ask why this prize is awarded to a movement which is beleaguered and committed to unrelenting struggle, and to a movement which has not yet won the very peace and brotherhood which is the essence of the Nobel Prize. After contemplation, I conclude that this award, which I receive on behalf of that movement, is a profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression.

Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts. Negroes of the United States, following the people of India, have demonstrated that nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation. Sooner or later, all the peoples of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

The torturous road which has led from Montgomery, Alabama, to Oslo bears witness to this truth, and this is a road over which millions of Negroes are traveling to find a new sense of dignity. This same road has opened for all Americans a new era of progress and hope. It has led to a new civil rights bill, and it will, I am convinced, be widened and lengthened into a superhighway of justice as Negro and white men in increasing numbers create alliances to overcome their common problems.

I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the “is-ness” of man’s present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal “ought-ness” that forever confronts him.

I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsam in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality. I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of nuclear annihilation.

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant. I believe that even amid today’s mortar bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men.

I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed and nonviolent redemptive goodwill proclaimed the rule of the land. And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together, and every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid. I still believe that we shall overcome.

This faith can give us courage to face the uncertainties of the future. It will give our tired feet new strength as we continue our forward stride toward the city of freedom. When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds and our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, we will know that we are living in the creative turmoil of a genuine civilization struggling to be born.

Yet, when years have rolled past and when the blazing light of truth is focused on this marvelous age in which we live, men and women will know and children will be taught that we have a finer land, a better people, a more noble civilization because these humble children of God were willing to suffer for righteousness’ sake.

Now geese are ganders Columnist Frederica Mathewes-Green makes premarital sex and adultery seem like an either-or proposition (‘Fashionable adultery,’ CSF - Feb. 18). Unwed sex good!

Extra-curricular married sex bad! It might come as a shock to her, but even some nonreligious people feel both harm society.

Mathewes-Green’s evidence is that old movies, while avoiding “nudity, teen sex or potty jokes,” approved of cheating. Then she insists that today’s films do just the opposite.

Yes, some of those old comedies winked at straying by rich men. But the adulterous Anna Karenina stood in front of a train as early as 1930 and did it again in three remakes.

The big change has been in the switching of gender roles. Today, the cheating wives of film get nodded at in sympathy.

I first became aware of this shift with the 1989 movie “Shirley Valentine” in which an unappreciated wife finds happiness via a fling in Greece. Then came “Bridges of Madison County.”

In that one, the wandering wife came across as medal material.

I think Mathewes-Green should take a crash course by watching “Unfaithful,” in which we are made to feel “the girl can’t help it,” and “Fatal Attraction,” which sends the clear message that “if a man plays, he pays.” Better yet, she should watch “Desperate Housewives.”

James O. Clifford Sr. Redwood City

Living Lucia’s message

L E T T E R S

With the final passing of Sister Lucia, why doesn’t the Archdiocese declare it a national day for all to join in unison in saying the rosary? So many people commute to work these days. Think of all the folks who could be saying the Rosary instead of cursing at the traffic? My mom used to tell me to pray the rosary for strength, to get through life’s tribulations. For most the rosary has become only a prayer for people’s passing or pending death.

I think too, we should get children involved, as that is who the Virgin Mary came to in Fatima. Get the children excited. Have them create rosary beads. Get those beads blessed and give them to their family and friends. Have a contest to create the slogan to bring this wonderful prayer to the people.

Valentina Parkman Grass Valley

A silly review The review of “Million Dollar Baby” (CSF – Feb. 11) was silly. Human weakness is a reality; sin is part of life; stories without evil are fantasy. The reviewer appears to be the type of person who gets upset when people are killed in a murder mystery. By the way, the author of a murder mystery does not necessarily approve of or condone murder.

Frankie and Maggie are tortured individuals who fail to arrive at the perfect solution to an incredibly difficult and complex

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situation. Where could they have gathered the vision, the serenity, the maturity, the moral fortitude, the education, the formation, and the nurturing, which would have allowed them to make that perfect decision?

Frankie is so overwhelmed by guilt that he drives his parish priest crazy. Maggie grows up with a family who are total slobs.

She also admits that boxing is the thing that gives her any self-worth. At the end, Frankie gets a huge increase of guilt, and for Maggie everything is taken away from her. They fail the test; is anyone surprised?

Are Frankie and Maggie sinners? Of Course! End of discussion. A better question would be: How might God, or other people, or ourselves judge them? The reviewer condemns the director for approving their sin.

Nonsense! Actually, sin is all around us. We, as Christians, might profitably try to understand compassionately the obstacle Frankie and Maggie had to face. Meanwhile, we can be consoled by the fact that the mercy of God covers a multitude of sins.

Fr. Leonard Calegari St. Stephen Church San Francisco

Torture and scandal

I was shocked reading your Feb. 4 guest editorial by Father Gerald Coleman, “Torture and the Human Person.”

Father Coleman states that, five days after 9/11, Vice-President Cheney spoke of the need now to “work ... on the dark side . . . ,” implying he was referring to the use of torture. It’s more likely, and typical, he was referring to paying traitors and bribing officials. He states that the Bush Administration loosened rules governing interrogation of prisoners, citing that then White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales received a memo from an assistant attorney general with the “guidance” that “the President is within his legal limits to permit” cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners. (This might be because the subject Geneva Convention limits generally refer to uniformed national military prisoners.) He doesn’t show that the President saw, accepted or employed such guidance. He does acknowledge that the now new Attorney General Gonzales testified that “he and the Administration oppose torture in any form,” but implies he is lying because three years ago he wrote a memo to the President describing aspects of the Geneva protocols as “quaint” and “obsolete.” Gonzales might well have been referring to content and quantity of meals for military prisoners, maintaining of the privileges of rank, and the like.

Father Coleman then concludes that Gonzales’ position amounts to a “relative” attitude toward the use of torture, “a stance absolutely in conflict with Catholic moral teachings and values,” and goes on to imply that the issue is a scandal.

The real scandal is that our Catholic church has so many prominent priests who have a “relative attitude” toward the taking of innocent human life. Witness Father Coleman’s comment in the Oct. 29, 2004 Catholic San Francisco wherein he states, “For centuries the Church has taught the principle of the lesser of two evils.

Consequently, a Catholic who honestly believes that a pro-abortion/euthanasia candidate is wrong in this position, but also believes that the candidate in other stances promotes Gospel values, might then understandably conclude that a vote for this candidate represents a lesser evil than voting for a candidate who dearly does not support (such) Gospel values (other than the right to life).”

This allows voters to rationalize voting for pro-abortion politicians as long as they’re against drilling in Alaska’s northern frozen tundra or other such popular fads.

This is the real scandal which amounts to aiding and abetting the destruction of human life, ultimately the main threat to the Church, and to Western Civilization as we know it.

G.P. Heckert San Mateo

February 25, 2005

Catholic San Francisco

9

Wedding Guide A pastor’s view of the wedding season This time of year weddings are much on our minds.

While we welcome the engaged couple and try to I have six weddings in six weeks in May and June. They make them feel comfortable, we also challenge them with are joyful occasions. the values of the Gospel.

Preparation for marThe problem is that couples riage, however, is a conwho have had so little constant worry to pastors. I do tact with the church do not not prepare these couples willingly accept challenge for the sacrament by from the faith. myself. Like most North They may also think of American parishes, we themselves not as believinvolve experienced marers, but as consumers of ried couples in couple-tothe church’s “wedding couple ministry. services.”

While for many couples I do the initial interview. the “wedding” is an event, Then the engaged man and we try to get them to see waman meet with a trained that for us “marriage” is a “host” couple four or five vocation and a sacrament. times. They discuss spirituAt our marriage minality, sexuality, natural istry meeting, the “host family planning, communicouples” expressed anxiety cations, finances and role about what to do about the expectations. cohabitation issue. That is Many of the engaged a big problem and nobody couples have not been has a good solution. practicing the faith in any We do not endorse sin, discernible sense for years. but we don’t want to drive Some have been married them away either. before. Many have children by other relationWe never refuse marriage ships. Most have had sevbecause they are cohabiting. eral lovers. Few pray reguBut we do suggest, in a genlarly, even privately. More tle way, that abstaining from often than not they are of sex in our culture is probadifferent faiths. Roughly bly a greater sign of love 80 percent are living Christian marriage calls for commitment and fidelity. than indulging in it. together.

The problem with Sometimes they come to us because they want a cohabitation is not just the sex. It is the mind-set. “church” wedding in the photographs or because a parCohabitation is a mind-set of “convenience.” ent or grandparent has insisted.

Couples often get into cohabitation because it is “conPreparation for Christian marriage in these cultural venient.” They say things like, “She lived closer to my conditions is a challenge. The vision of Christian mar- work,” or, “His clothes were already in my closet.” They riage is counter to the one they have received from their have reasons like saving money on the rent or commutculture. ing. Often they say that they are “testing” their compat◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

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ibility.

Sometimes they have just “drifted” into living together and never really discussed what their commitment was to one another.

If cohabitation is about convenience, marriage is about commitment. You don’t “drift” into commitFather ment. You don’t “test” a vow.

Peter J. Daly In Christian marriage we ask for fidelity, even when it is a burden. We ask for commitment even when it is manifestly inconvenient.

Cohabitation is a mind-set of self-interest. Marriage is a mind-set of another’s interest.

We don’t pretend that any marriage preparation program can overcome the culture. But we also don’t pretend that the church has nothing to say on the topic.

After all, they have come to us. They are asking us to give our approval and lifelong support. We have a right and an obligation to provide a little Gospel challenge.

If challenging the culture makes for some pretty awkward conversations for everybody involved, we can’t shrink away from the challenge. We are called to preach the Gospel, in season and out.

That means even when it is inconvenient.

Father Peter J. Daly writes a column for Catholic News Service

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February 25, 2005

Wedding Guide The history of Christian marriage Q. I’m requesting any information you might offer

but in itself it could not be a source of grace, since sexual about the history of Christian marriage. Certainly the desire and fulfillment, even in marriage, was always bad.

St. Augustine, who wrote more about marriage than first converts to Christianity from among the pagans and any other early theologian, believed sexual relations were Jews did not receive the sacrament of marriage as we sinful, and anyone who engaged in them committed sin. “A know it today. My question is, When did the church estabman who is too ardent a lover of his wife,” he taught, “is an lish matrimony as a sacrament? Why was this done? adulterer, if the pleasure he finds in her is sought for its own sake” (“Against Julian,” 2,7).

A. Anything approaching a Marriage, in his view, was essential for the human complete response to both of race, but sex was a dangerous your questions is far beyond the force that could destroy society. scope of this column. Some For centuries this teaching made background information, howevit difficult to assume that marriage is a sacrament. er, should help.

The sacramentality of marFirst, in order to understand your riage, of course, was closely question “why,” it is essential to rememrelated to the church’s involveber what the word “sacrament” means. ment in the wedding ceremony. In In pre-Christian times, a “sacramentum” early Christian centuries the church was the Latin term for a pledge of Father John generally followed Roman marriage money, for example in lawsuits. The laws. A Christian marriage was simply one between two loser forfeited his deposit.

Later it was the oath of loyalty to Roman officers and baptized persons who dedicated themselves to live their gods, taken by recruits for military service. This was the faith in Christ together.

By the year 400, some bishops and priests began to meaning of the word picked up by the early Christians for bestow a blessing to the couple, either the day before the their primary ceremony of initiation.

When people committed themselves to a new life of marriage or at the festivities following the civil ceremony. holiness and service of Jesus Christ, baptism ritualized that The only Christians then actually bound to receive a church commitment and at the same time was the channel of grace blessing of their marriages, by decree of Popes St. Siricius needed to become faithful Christians. Other sacraments and St. Innocent I, were priests and deacons.

Gradually, more marriages were celebrated as sacred later followed this understanding, each in its own way.

It was this understanding, that the sacraments are ceremonies, until around the year 800 when liturgical wedthemselves sources of God’s life and help, that kept mar- dings in church were widely accepted as normal.

It took a long time, however, before theologians could riage off the “official” list for many centuries. Marriage, particularly sexual intercourse, was widely accepted as also acknowledge marriage as a sacrament, an authentic necessary to alleviate sexual desire and to have children, source of grace just as the other six sacraments

?

Couples renew marriage vows at anniversary Mass More than 100 couples renewed their marriage vows at the Annual Anniversary Mass held on World Marriage Day, Feb. 12, at St. Mary’s Cathedral. Archbishop William J. Levada was celebrant and homilist and Fr. Michael Padazinski, Judicial Vicar of the Archdiocese, was master of ceremonies. The crowd of nearly 600 included couples celebrating 25, 50 and more years of marriage as well as their families and well wishers. This year, couples celebrating less than 10 years were also invited. Longest married couple registered for the event was Francois and Mary Ma of St. Bartholomew in Hillsborough, celebrating 69 years of marriage. George and Helen Epperson of St. Raphael parish were celebrating 64 years and James and Teresa Hampton of Our Lady of Mercy celebrated 63 years. Nearly 50 couples celebrated 50 or more years of marriage. Couples were greeted and took pictures with Archbishop Levada at a reception following the Mass. Major assistance at the liturgy and reception was provided by the Marriage Encounter community.

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Young couples exchange marriage vows.

Augustine’s concept that original sin was transmitted from parents to children by sexual intercourse remained strong.

From St. Thomas Aquinas onward, however, it increasingly was accepted that Christian marriage is a true sacrament, continuing throughout their life, and enabling husbands and wives to live and grow in a holy life together.

At last, the ecumenical councils of Florence (1439) and Trent (1563) listed marriage as one of the seven sacraments. According to Trent, the fathers, councils and tradition of the church “have always taught that marriage should be numbered among the sacraments.”

Catholic teaching today contains many other profoundly rich biblical, theological and psychological insights on the sacrament of marriage. That marriage is a full-fledged sacrament, however, a source of divine grace for Christians in that vocation, remains of course the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church.

Father John Dietzen writes for Catholic News Service.

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11

Wedding Guide Better conversations make better marriages Cabrini College in suburban Philadelphia invited me some years ago to speak at an honors convocation on “Liberal Arts and the Future of Families.” The program began with a piano selection beautifully rendered by an artist-in-residence, an elderly woman, who if I recall correctly had lived most of her life in Hungary.

After playing, this woman remained to hear what I had to say. At the end of the lecture, she came forward and said: “As you were speaking, I recalled the words my late husband used to propose marriage to me when I was just 17: ‘Will you have a conversation with me for the rest of your life?’”

I’d mentioned in the lecture that colleges and universities across the country were not doing a very good job preparing the young for marriage. If commitment is the marriage bond’s cement, I remarked, conversation is the reinforcing rod. The colleges, I suggested, could do better in preparing the young for stronger commitments and better conversations.

Having something to talk about, I suggested, is a major need in most modern marriages.

In the early Middle Ages the seven liberal arts emerged in two packages: the “trivium” (grammar, dialectic and rhetoric) and the “quadrivium” (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music). My modern “trivium” — a “three-pack,” I called it — would include: (1) the language-based arts, (2) psychology and (3) communications skills. An appropriate four-pack, I suggested, would be: (1) music, (2) history, (3) theology and (4) the visual arts.

Roll these categories as shopping carts through any college curriculum, and you will be able to remove from the shelves a rich array of courses that would give any serious couple plenty to talk about their whole lives long.

Learning isn’t a material thing. It isn’t necessary for one person to have less learning or love so that another can have more, as usually would be the case in sharing material things. If both learning and love are recognized as mutually reinforcing as well as growth-producing, the importance of shared learning for the successful development of what I like to call the “marriage project” also will be recognized. There are so many great books waiting to be read, shared and talked about!

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“Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams,” says Father Zossima in “The Brothers Karamazov.” Dreams are not the stuff of solid marriages. As an antidote to the “dreamworks” dimensions of the popular understanding of love, I like to quote a woman of 47 — married 27 years with six children — who knows what love really is and described it this way: “Love is what you’ve been through with somebody.”

The point I was trying to make at Cabrini is simply this: The “been through” will have gone quite well if the “being through” that begins on the wedding day is seen as a long conversation. That conversation can be fed by good books that are shared, films and stage productions enjoyed and discussed together, visual art and music jointly appreciated, and the unpredictable response of mind and heart to the treasures of the liberal arts once those treasures are opened up and shared.

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Catholic San Francisco

February 25, 2005

Wedding Guide Your children, heading for a wedding Your family is heading for a wedding. Maybe not this year or the next but ...

It can be hard to imagine your child — whether a toddler or teen — vowing “I do,” but odds are someday that’s what will happen.

Yes, the big day may be many years away, but between now and then your children will continue to take clues from you when it comes to marriage — when it comes to all those days after the big day.

They’ll continue to watch you and your spouse live your

By the numbers: The Hallmark Web site offers these statistics (plus, not surprisingly, quite a few more on wedding invitations and thank-you notes): ● August is the top month for weddings, and June is a close second (both have more than 10 percent). ● Weddings are a $25.3 billion industry. ● For the past 20 years, 2.25 million to 2.4 million weddings have taken place annually in the United States, a third of them remarriages. ● Most brides (30 percent) plan their weddings for seven to 12 months. ● An average of 189 guests attend a wedding. The average cost of a wedding is $20,000 to $25,000.

(Don’t panic. A lot of lovely weddings are way below that price tag.)

marriage: how, together, you deal with sickness and health, good times and bad. Those combinations, those extremes, are part of every marriage because they’re a part of every life.

What you do and don’t do during your children’s growing-up years can deeply influence their view of marriage and how they see the roles of wife and husband, as well as a mother and father.

That’s why taking time for your own marriage, nurturing love through all those good and bad times, doesn’t just make your relationship better now and in the future, it also helps give your children a better chance at being happy — being successful — in their own marriage.

Your children are noticing how you carve out of time in a busy schedule for an evening out; visit with each other on a daily basis; share inside jokes; hold hands; pray together at home and at Mass (pray not just with but for each other).

Children notice how you offer kind remarks and refrain from the bitter, sarcastic, cutting ones; reach a consensus — a united front! — when it comes to children and discipline, and to finances; have a partnership; want the best for the other; live your love for each other daily.

Your children see it all, and it matters a great deal because they’re heading for a wedding.

Bill and Monica Dodds are the editors of My Daily Visitor magazine and the authors of “The Joy of Marriage” (Meadowbrook Press).

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Catholic San Francisco

13

Family Life

Pope’s Lenten message calls us to honor elderly Pope John Paul II in his 2005 Lenten message (Catholic San Francisco, Feb. 4) reminds us that the elderly, according to Biblical understanding, are people who retain a special favor from God and reflect a blessed sign of gracious benevolence from the Most High.

The Holy Father asks us to always welcome the elderly — who are favored by the Lord — with loving compassion, respect and dignity. Blessed by the Lord, and receiving the benefits of modern science and medicine, the elderly — our own mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles, cousins and neighbors — deserve our fullest admiration and appreciation. All of us can only hope that we may be graced to live a life with such fullness and favor as the elderly who walk among us today.

The Holy Father asks that we raise the awareness of public opinion to allow our elderly to be fully included in society, particularly in Western countries where older people through designed social disengagement often find themselves on the margins of social participation and inclusion. “For this reason,” the Holy Father said, “economic support and legislative initiatives, which allow them not to be excluded from social life, must be strengthened.”

In his 1999 “Letter to the Elderly,” the Holy Father expressed a very personal message of understanding and encouragement to all older people, quoting the Scriptures and adding his personal reflections on his aging experience.

“As an older person myself,” he noted, “I have felt the desire to engage in conversation with you. I do so first of all

thanking God for the gifts and opportunities which he has abundantly bestowed upon me up to now. … With the Psalmist, I say to him: ‘You have taught me, O God, from my youth, and till the present I proclaim your wondrous deeds. And now that I am old and gray, O God, forsake me not, till I proclaim your strength to every generation that is to come’ (Ps 71:17-18).

“My thoughts turn with affection to all of you dear elderly people of all languages and cultures,” he continued. “In this letter I wish simply to express my spiritual closeness to you as someone who, with the passing of the years, has come to a deeper personal understanding of this phase of life and consequently feel a need for closer contact with other people of his own age, so that we can reflect together on the things that we have in common.”

This Lenten season our attention turns to our elderly brothers and sisters, whom in their vulnerability, particularly for those who are ill or infirm, remind us of the compassion of our Lord and his continual love and grace for those among us who are most in need of our care and kindness. The Holy Father asks us to rediscover the mutual enrichment that emerges from each generation and the solidarity of the human experience that each generation contributes to the common good.

“If it is true that man lives upon the heritage of those who preceded him,” the pontiff wrote, “and that his future depends definitively on how the cultural values of his own people are transmitted to him, then the wisdom and experience of the elderly can illuminate his path on the way of progress toward an ever more complete form of civilization.”

“Human life is a precious gift to be loved and defended in each of its stages,” he continued.

“The commandment, ‘You shall not kill!’ always requires respecting and promoting human life, from its Al Hooper beginning to its natural end. It is a command that applies even in the presence of illness and when physical weakness reduces the person’s ability to be self-reliant. If growing old, with its inevitable condition, is accepted serenely in the light of faith, it can become an invaluable opportunity for better comprehending the mystery of the cross, which gives fullness to human existence.”

This Lent let us honor our elderly, particularly within our families: “This will allow many elderly not to think of themselves as a burden to the community, and sometimes even to their own families,” the pope asserted, “living in situations of loneliness that leads to the temptation of isolating themselves or becoming discouraged.”

Al Hooper is director of Social Ministry for the Archdiocese of Denver.

Media & Culture

Chris Rock hits on a profound truth It’s time for all of us in the pro-life movement to learn to appreciate the power of political satire. Comedian Chris Rock, slated to host the Oscars this month, is being accused of promoting abortion.

“Abortion, it’s beautiful, it’s beautiful abortion is legal. I love going to an abortion rally to pick up women, cause you know they are f*!@*%g,” Rock said during his club routine.

Whether Rock is pro-life or pro-choice, whether he intended to use satire or really believes what he said, is beside the point. What’s “beautiful” is that Chris Rock has exposed a profound side effect of legalized abortion — the sexual mistreatment of women.

It’s been over 30 years since the United States Supreme Court began our nation’s social experiment in legalized abortion. Millions of post-abortive women and their tragic stories prove that Alice Paul was right when she said “abortion is the ultimate exploitation of women.”

Who was Alice Paul, you ask? She was the original drafter of the Equal Rights Amendment before it was hijacked by radical feminists. Alice Paul was one of our lead suffragette foremothers who fought along side Susan

B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to establish women’s right to vote.

As Harvard Law Professor Mary Ann Glendon has noted, “to earlier feminists who had fought for the vote and for fair treatment in the workplace, it had seemed obvious that the ready availability of abortion would facilitate the sexual exploitation of women.”

So here we are, five years into the new millennium, and a comedian has the nerve to say out loud what men across America know full well: that legalized abortion is great for their sex lives; that abortion on demand makes women into sex objects with the full consent of the highest court in the land; and that if their sexual use of a woman results in the unfortunate side effect of a pregnancy, then $300 and their “kindhearted” support of the woman’s “right to choose” will take care of the problem.

The real problem is that women have gotten the raw end of this deal. Roe has ruined romance. Every woman’s deepest desire to love and be loved has been distorted into a license to use and be used. Women have paid with their bodies and their souls. Abandoned emotionally and financially by the men they loved, and moved by profound grief at the loss of their children,

they stand in front of crowds with signs that say “I regret my abortion.”

Comedic satire may seem at first blush to be a harsh way to draw attention to the fact that legalized abortion allows men to sexually prey on women. But in our cul- Dorinda Bordlee ture of entertainment it makes the point well.

We need not throw rocks at Chris Rock for having the audacity to expose how abortion has impacted men’s view of women. He’s crass, he’s crude, he’s vulgar — but he has hit the mark.

Dorinda C. Bordlee is senior legislative counsel with Americans United for Life, a national bioethics law firm. The article originally appeared in National Review Online.

Spirituality

Gethsemane - A place to learn a lesson There’s nothing wrong with wanting health, success, beauty, power, glamour, money, or fame. Of themselves, these are good and can, if used properly, help God’s glory shine through in ordinary life. But they can also be dangerous and can just as easily corrupt and weaken rather than strengthen character. We want these things, but they aren’t always good for us.

Ironically, the reverse is also true: We don’t want failure, humiliation, or inferiority of any kind. Yet these, more than success and glamour, are what produce character and depth inside us. We see this, for instance, in a family who has a handicapped member. It’s this person who gives the family character and depth. The son or daughter who’s the professional athlete or the wonderfully beautiful fashion-model bring glory to the family, but not necessarily character.

If we examine ourselves with courage and honesty, we will see that almost all the things that have made us deep and given us character are the very things we’re often ashamed of: a plain body that won’t let us stand out in a crowd; a quirky family whose habits can only be understood from the inside; a frustrating job where our real talents can never emerge because we don’t have the right education or the right opportunities; a troubled history within which there have been too many instances where we were the dumb one, the weak one, the sick one, the excluded one. Beyond that, we’ve also been forever the frustrated one, the one who, despite the burning ache for greatness, has never and will never create the masterpiece, write the symphony, or dance on a world stage.

But character and depth aren’t given for scoring goals in the World Cup, or for being so successful or beautiful that

you become an icon for an adoring public. Character and depth are given for coping with powerlessness, inferiority, and humiliation, that is, for finding that deeper place inside of you where you can make a happy peace with the fact that your mother is too fat, that your father never blessed you, that you were abused, that the school bully humiliated you in front of your friends, and that even today you live a life of quiet desperation wherein sickness, addictions, loneliness, and inadequacies of every kind are barely kept at bay.

There’s an innate connection between attaining a certain level of depth and having experienced a certain level of humiliation. That’s one of the lessons of Gethsemane.

When Jesus walks into the garden of Gethsemane, he asks his disciples “to watch.” They’re meant to learn a lesson there, to see something illustrated. But, as Luke tells us, they missed the lesson because they fell asleep “out of sheer sorrow,” were blinded by simple depression, and were unable precisely to stare humiliation in the eye. That’s why on the morning of the resurrection, when Jesus meets two disciples walking away Jerusalem (the church, the faith, and the place of humiliation) towards Emmaus (a Roman Spa, a place of human consolation) he has to point out to them the necessary connection between humiliation and depth: “Wasn’t it necessary that the Christ should have to suffer in this way so as to enter into his glory?”

What they’d missed seeing in the Garden, missed seeing Jesus struggling with and eventually accepting, was precisely the innate link between the experience of humiliation and the resurrection of character. Resurrections come after crucifixions, Easter Sundays after dark Fridays, and

depth of soul after the kind of pain that one is ashamed of.

However, just like power and success, failure and humiliation are also dangerous. Power can corrupt, but so can powerlessness. Many are Father the acts of violence that Ron Rolheiser issue forth when people feel powerless and humiliated. Sometimes failure and frustration build character, but sometimes they build monsters and murderers. Feelings of inferiority drive us into the deeper parts of our souls, but demons, not just angels, lurk in those depths. That’s why Gethsemane is drama without a pre- written ending. Not everyone will handle things like Jesus did. The feeling of humiliation can make or break us, pushing us either into greatness or perversity.

In Jesus’ case, it pushed him into greatness. How he handled his humiliation was perhaps his greatest gift to us and his deepest revelation of wisdom. By accepting humiliation and powerlessness he taught us one of the deep secrets inside the very DNA of love itself, namely, that only when the private ego is crucified do real love, community, and character emerge.

Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser is President of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, TX.

14

Catholic San Francisco

February 25, 2005

THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT Exodus 17:3-7; Psalm 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9; Romans 5:1-2, 5-8; John 4:5-42 or 4:5-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42 A READING FROM THE BOOK OF EXODUS (EX 17:3-7) In those days, in their thirst for water, the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “Why did you ever make us leave Egypt?

Was it just to have us die here of thirst with our children and our livestock?” So Moses cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? a little more and they will stone me!” The Lord answered Moses, “Go over there in front of the people, along with some of the elders of Israel, holding in your hand, as you go, the staff with which you struck the river. I will be standing there in front of you on the rock in Horeb. Strike the rock, and the water will flow from it for the people to drink.” This Moses did, in the presence of the elders of Israel. The place was called Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled there and tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord in our midst or not?”

RESPONSORIAL PSALM (PS 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9) R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

Come, let us sing joyfully to the Lord; let us acclaim the Rock of our salvation.

Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us joyfully sing psalms to him.

R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

Come, let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before the Lord who made us.

For he is our God, and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.

R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

Oh, that today you would hear his voice: “Harden not your hearts as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the desert, Where your fathers tempted me; they tested me though they had seen my works.”

R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

A READING FROM THE LETTER OF SAINT PAUL TO THE ROMANS (ROM 5:1-2, 5-8) Brothers and sisters: Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God. And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For Christ, while we were still helpless, died at the appointed time for the ungodly. Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.

A READING FROM THE HOLY GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN (JN 4:5-42 OR 4:5-15, 19B-26, 39A, 40-42) Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there. Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well. It was about noon.

A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”

His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” —For Jews use noth-

ing in common with Samaritans.— Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep; where then can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?” Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

Jesus said to her, “Go call your husband and come back.” The woman answered and said to him, “I do not have a husband.”

Jesus answered her, “You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’ For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain; but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You people worship what you do not understand; we worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him. God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.”

The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ; when he comes, he will tell us everything.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one speaking with you.”

At that moment his disciples returned, and were amazed that he was talking with a woman, but still no one said, “What are you looking for?” or “Why are you talking with her?” The woman left her water jar and went into the town and said to the people, “Come see a man who told me everything I have done. Could he possibly be the Christ?” They went out of the town and came to him. Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” So the disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say, ‘In four months the harvest will be here’? I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest. The reaper is already receiving payment and gathering crops for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together. For here the saying is verified that ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; others have done the work, and you are sharing the fruits of their work.”

Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me everything I have done.” When the Samaritans came to him, they invited him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. Many more began to believe in him because of his word, and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”

Scripture FATHER GERARD O’ROURKE

Be open to a surprise encounter Upfront, I acknowledge that the Gospel reading for the Third Sunday of Lent is one of my favorites. As a piece of spiritual literature, it provides us with a host of spiritual insights.

Every sentence is a powerful reminder to us all of the inclusive love and commitment of Jesus to bring salvation to everyone.

For our newly elected people in the RCIA program (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults), this Gospel reading is a great preparation for the impact of Baptism which they are about to receive at the Easter Vigil.

For the rest of us, who are baptized, it is the perfect reading to remind us of the most generous and indispensable gift of Baptism in our lives.

As most of us received Baptism as infants, we must continue to find ways to remind ourselves of its ongoing presence in our lives. For the people who have participated in RCIA, it is an unforgettable experience.

Getting back to the Gospel reading, Jesus chose to go through the district of Samaria that was a hostile region for Jewish people. Yet Jacob’s well was a very sacred place for Him to visit. A Samaritan woman, whose name has not been given, came to the well also. Then Jesus stepped across a forbidden line, the line of rigid prejudice, of ethnic isolation and of religious intolerance. Jesus asked the Samaritan woman for a drink of water. His deliberate request startled the woman. A few minutes later it confounded the Apostles!

Jesus deliberately chose to break down a barrier that separates us humans that pits neighbor against neighbor, religion against religion, denomination against denomination, ethnic group against ethnic group, language group against language group, even sports group against sports group. Jesus took a stand against all that. Jesus broke through that horrendous division that separates so many of us by asking a Samaritan woman for a drink of water.

His action started an unlikely conversation that still sizzles with life after all these years.

The conversation went back and forth between Jesus and the Samaritan woman with Jesus raising the level with each encounter.

Jesus used the theme of water, raising it to the level of “living water,” a water that becomes “a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

We, of course, now link it with the sacramental water of Baptism that leads us to eternal life.

The woman then spoke flippantly about His enlivening words. Jesus handles the dismissive words be requesting her to call her husband. Then came the surprising news from Jesus that she has had five husbands and was living with someone who was not her husband. It was like a passage from a novel written today! For all of us who profess to be Christian it is a lesson not to reject or dismiss

anyone, especially someone we know for sure is not living a truly moral life.

For the Samaritan woman it was a conversion moment. It was a moment of revelation as she recognizes Jesus as a prophet and then as the Messiah. From this moment in the encounter, against all odds, she became an evangelist for her own people.

They miraculously transcended their rejection of her and listened to her testimony and story. They, like her, became believers that Jesus is truly the Savior of the world.

All of us need to listen and open our hearts to the words of Jesus as the Samaritan woman did. We too need to become “true worshippers.” “God is Spirit and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.” Those were the very words that moved the Samaritan woman to be a true believer.

May we too be moved by them. May our Lent be a time to develop our spirituality and relationship with God that flows from the ongoing graces and gifts of our Baptism.

May we take time out to deepen our relationship with the three persons in God in whose name we have received our Baptism. Especially, may our relationship with Jesus become more real and experiential for us. May we use Gospel readings like today’s to assist us with this endeavor.

It is clear from this reading that Jesus used the encounter as a great teacher to inspire the Samaritan woman to be an apostle for her people. Most of us would have dismissed her as incorrigible, given her moral background. Jesus spoke with her, conversed with her, engaged with her, taught her, and had miraculous results.

In the reading, the Apostles were judgmental of Jesus, yet withheld their judgments.

They were reluctant to open their hearts to Him. Jesus then patiently urged them to accept their vocations and generously acknowledge all their teachers and prophets who went before them who had a hand in their preparation as disciples of Jesus.

May we too during this Lenten season acknowledge all our teachers in the Faith over the years. May we especially be open to a great deepening in the truths of our Faith that will lead us to actions of healing, of generosity and of true worship. And may our model in all of this be the Samaritan woman who accepted conversion, listened attentively to Jesus and shared the miracle of her faith with all the people of her Samaritan town.

Father Gerard O’Rourke is Director Emeritus of the Office of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs for the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

Christ and the Samaritan Woman – Bernardo Strozzi.

February 25, 2005

Catholic San Francisco

15

Year of the Eucharist

The deep roots of our Eucharist At the Last Supper Jesus said, “This cup is the new But while the Exodus is at the heart of the Jewish peocovenant in my blood…” (Lk 22:20) Does this new ple’s relationship with God, it is not the beginning of it. We covenant negate the old? Some people at the beginning of might say that for the Jews the Exodus is a “new covenant” the Christian era thought so, but the Church recognized preceded by many events related in the Book of Genesis, that the Old Testament and the New are two parts of one events which are instructive for us Christians, too. Our first story. We venerate the Old Testament as the word of God Eucharistic Prayer (the Roman Canon) refers to these (CCC 121-123). Jesus described His mission in terms of ancient stories. As we offer to the Father the sacrifice the Old Testament, and the first Christians understood which Christ has given us, we ask Him to accept it “as once Him in light of the hisyou accepted the gifts of tory of God’s dealings your servant Abel, the with the Chosen “As we offer to the Father the sacrifice sacrifice of Abraham, People. The new our father in faith, and covenant did not negate which Christ has given us, we ask Him the bread and wine the old – it fulfilled it offered by your priest and expanded it to to accept it ‘as once you accepted the Melchizedek.” embrace the Gentiles as Abel is both the well as the Jews. first and the first gifts of your servant Abel, the sacrifice victimpriest in human history.

We can deepen our He offered to God the understanding of the firstborn lamb from his Eucharist by studying of Abraham, our father in faith, and flock, and was subsethe Old Testament. The quently murdered by his central event is the the bread and wine offered by your brother Cain. Abel is Passover Exodus. At named by the Jesus as the time of Jesus the priest Melchizedek.’” the first in a series of Passover celebration upright, holy people consisted of both a sacrifice and a meal, with the blood of the lamb signifying killed unjustly (Mt 25:35). His blood cries out from the soil deliverance from death (the Angel passed over the for vengeance (Gen 4:10), but the blood of Christ pleads homes marked with the blood) and liberation into free- more ardently for mercy (Heb 12:24). Our Eucharist dom (the Jews passed over the wilderness into the expresses our desire to offer our best gifts to God, and to Promised Land). It is fitting that on Holy Thursday we rejoice in the forgiveness which comes through the blood listen to a description of this annual celebration. The of Christ.

Melchizedek is a shadowy figure, a pagan priest and meaning of the Passover for the Jews helps us understand the meaning of the death and resurrection of Jesus king who offered bread and wine and blessed Abraham for us, and the power of His blood to deliver us from sin after a victory; in turn, Abraham gave him a tenth of his booty (Gen 14: 18-20). He figures significantly in the and bring us into eternal life.

Letter to the Hebrews, where his mysterious origins are interpreted in terms of a priesthood which is eternal, symbolic of the high priesthood of Christ. The fact that the offerings he made (bread and wine) are the same as those we use in the sacrifice of the Mass made it natural that Christians associated Melchizedek with the Eucharist.

Abraham is the great figure of faith in the Old Testament. At the command of God he left all that was familiar to journey to an unknown land; he believed that God would give him a promised heir even when he and Sarah were well beyond childbearing years; and he was willing to offer up that only son in sacrifice when God asked him to. God halted the sacrifice and provided a lamb to be offered in place of Isaac, a foreshadowing of God’s offering of His own Son as a sacrifice for us. In the words of Origen, “Abraham offered God a mortal son, who was not put to death; God offered to death an immortal Son for mortal human beings.” It is this generous gift of God which we celebrate in the sacrifice of the Mass.

Our Lenten journey brings us into the wilderness, and one advantage of a desert landscape is that it enables us to contemplate vast horizons. As we survey the drama of the Old Testament, we can marvel at how the Eucharist embraces the whole of human history: “all the just, from Abel, the just one, to the last of the elect will be gathered together in the universal Church in the Father’s presence” (CCC 769).

Part of a series presented by the Liturgical Commission of the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

Season of Lent

By Father Christopher Anandappa, SSS Many of us are baffled by prayer these days. Those of us who grew up in the pre-Vatican II Catholic Church learned many prayers. We ‘said’ prayers morning and evening, participated in novenas and rosaries and ‘attended’ or ‘heard’ Sunday mass. However there is more to it than all of that. Prayer groups, scripture studies and renewed liturgies have raised our consciousness and called forth for a deeper prayer life in us. In this respect the Catholic Church has been unimaginative in creating ways to respond. We can all be quite at home with the plea of the Lord’s disciples: “Lord, teach us how to pray.”

More tragic and unfortunate is the fact that still many of us pray as pagans. This might seem like a terrible thing to say, but it seems to be true. Jesus warned us about that when he said “we are not to rattle like pagans do thinking that we are going to win God’s favor by the sheer multiplication of words.” (Mt. 6:7) Yet isn’t this what many of us do? I remember one man coming to the sacristy after I led an hour of prayer. He was distraught and afraid that prayer would not work because I had missed a phrase by mistake.

This poor man was giving some magical property to the words alone. Further, it was also not long ago that I came across “chain” prayers left in our parish. All of these have the same pattern. We are told that if we recite this prayer exactly the way it is written, and make certain number of copies, we will infallibly receive what we are praying for.

Some people actually believe this. On the other hand if we break the chain, dire consequences are threatened.

Examples are given of people who broke the chain and had the misfortune to be run over by a vehicle, shot by some passing thieves, or who have experienced some other disaster. People believe this as well.

Certainly, this is not what Jesus taught us when he told us to call God ‘Our Father’. Jesus tells us that this father of ours is good and loving: “Your father knows what you need before you even ask him,” (Mt.6:8) He also said “if you are wicked know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will the father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”(Lk.11:13) Thus the most important thing to keep in mind when praying is that God cares. As St. Paul was convinced: “Nothing in this world can ever separate us from the Love of God manifested in Jesus Christ” (Rom.8:38, 39). This attitude is what will enable us to recognize that we pray not so much to change God’s mind, so that he will give us something that he really did not want to give, but which he relents and finally comes across because he is tired of hearing us beg.

We pray instead in order to change ourselves, so that we can dispose our minds and hearts to receive the things that we need from God. The most important thing that we long for is union with God. In fact God is within us when we think of God as the Spirit. Jesus himself said “the kingdom of God is within you.” God is our depth, our roots so to speak. Or to change the image: we are in God as fish in the sea. “In God we live and move and have our being.” This is the goal of all prayer. Making this realization come true is what matters in prayer.

The first thing to note is that God’s grace and love is like an inexhaustible fountain. We are free to come and draw.

As the prophet Isaiah proclaimed, “We can draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation.” But if come only with a small cup, we will get only a cup full. If we have a larger container, we will be able to take away more. It was for this reason that Jesus reminded his followers that we should love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our mind and with all our strength.

Secondly, we realize that our soul vessels are often filled with all sorts of junk: Self pity, pride, envy, selfishness, laziness, lust and numerous other things. Any or all of these prevent us from allowing God to fill us with himself.

There is no room for two people within. We have to clear out whatever that prevents God from fully taking up his dwelling within us.

Having cleansed our interior castle, it is only then that we can truly begin to pray as Christians. For many Catholics, however, the most popular form of prayer is the prayer of petition. We are constantly praying to God for ourselves or our friends or for the world. It is as if we always had our hands out to receive, and seldom to give.

This lent is an opportunity for us to rethink about our attitude toward God. The greatest gift that we could give to the Lord is to take time to listen to him.

The process is quite simple. We could sit with the Bible and begin to read attentively and reflectively until a word, phrase or scene strikes the imagination or the heart. At that moment we pause and put the text aside, and give ourselves to prayer. The prayerful pause might last less than a minute or might be extended for a number of minutes. When attention is faltered, we could resume reading until the next moment of insight. By doing so, we allow the word of God to touch and awaken our hearts.

‘Indeed’ says the author of the letter to the Hebrews, “God’s Word is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword… it judges the reflections and thoughts of the heart.” (Heb.4:12) This form of prayer which the ancient fathers called

(CNS PHOTO BY SAM LUCERO, CATHOLIC HERALD)

Discovering “prayer”

“Lord, teach us how to pray.” (Lk 11:1-4)

lecio divina is a process of assimilating the Word of God and letting its meaning spread in our blood into every part of our being. It’s quite simple and good to know that the Lord does not come to us in an earthquake, but in a soft whispering sound. (1Kings. 19:12) I am quite sure that this experience of reading sacred scripture would have a tremendous effect in our lives as in any method of prayer.

Finally, always keep in mind this saying of the desert fathers: “the nature of water is yielding, and that of a stone is hard. Yet if you hang a bottle filled with water above the stone so that the water drips drop by drop, it will wear a hole in the stone. In the same way, the word of god is tender, and our heart is hard. So when people hear the word of God frequently, their hearts are opened to the fear of God.” We should also note that this form of prayer is a long and slow process. Many of us will find the ideas of the bible foreign to us; some of us may think of it as boring and meaningless and that it is just a waste of time. But don’t give up. Little by little one word, one moment of silence at a time, we come to know ourselves and the barriers we put between ourselves and God. Finally we could be able to share the experience of St. John proclaimed that “God is love and anyone who lives in love, lives in God and God lives in him.”

Father Christopher Anandappa, SSS, is associate pastor of St. Patrick Parish in Sonora.

16

Catholic San Francisco

God in Europe . . .

■ Continued from cover as freedom from religion ... getting away from dogma, whereas in the [US] it meant freedom to believe.”

In America, a country founded in part by religious dissidents fleeing an oppressive government, “religious groups are seen as protecting individuals against the interference of the state,” says Mr. Weil.

In Europe, on the other hand, the postEnlightenment state “is seen as protecting individuals from the intrusion of religious groups,” Weil argues, after centuries during which the official church, be it Catholic or Protestant, had always been closely identified with temporal powers.

While religion and democracy have always been intertwined in America, where churches were at the forefront of battles against slavery and in favor of civil rights, this has by no means been the case in Europe. There, established churches in countries such as Spain and France long opposed political reform.

European mistrust of public religion is heightened even further, however, when it is mixed with patriotism in the kind of rhetoric that President Bush often uses.

“God and patriotism are an explosive mixture,” cautions Nicolas Sartorius, an éminence grise of the Spanish left who spent many years in jail during Gen. Francisco Franco’s dictatorship. The dictator’s guiding ideology, he recalls pointedly, was known as “Catholic nationalism.”

After a tortured, centuries-long history of wars fought over religion, in whose name millions died, Europeans are deeply skeptical today of patriotic exhortations infused with religious meaning, says Karsten Voigt, German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s adviser on relations with Washington.

And nowhere is this truer than in Germany, he adds. “The mixture of patriotism and religion is anathema and heresy in German religious life because it was misused and went too far in the past,” Mr. Voigt explains. “Remember, German soldiers in World War I wore belt buckles reading ‘Gott Mitt Uns’ [God With Us].”

Dominique Moisi, one of France’s most respected political analysts, agrees. Viewed from this side of the Atlantic, “the combination of religion and nationalism in America is frightening,” he says. “We feel betrayed by God and by nationalism, which is why we are building the European Union as a barrier to religious warfare.”

HOW VALUES AFFECT POLICY EU members have gone further than any other group of nations in pooling their national sovereignty in the interests of collective security. It’s a concept completely foreign to the US, where Bush has repeatedly insisted that he will do whatever he sees fit to protect Americans.

That divergence “is a matter of principle, a matter of values,” says Martin Ortega, an analyst at the EU’s Institute for Security Studies in Paris. “Europe’s history has led Europeans to a more cosmopolitan worldview, which tries to understand ‘the other,’ “ he suggests.

One of the implications of this approach,

February 25, 2005 Mr. Ortega argues, is that a ban on the use of force except in extreme circumstances has become a European value, just like its corollary: reliance on international law.

That, too, sets Europe apart from America in a fundamental way when it comes to coping with world crises.

The differences were stark over the war in Iraq. They persist with regard to Iran, where Europe’s three largest nations are pursuing diplomatic efforts to prevent Iran from enriching uranium - efforts the US has refused to join.

The values gap is evident in Washington’s wariness of multilateral approaches to world affairs: The US has rejected the Kyoto treaty, designed to slow global warming, which came into force last week, while the EU embraced it. And Europe supports the International Criminal Court, which the US opposes.

Some European leaders, eager to mend diplomatic fences with the US, fear that such different perspectives could tempt Washington to dismiss Europe as an unreliable ally.

“In some segments of conservative US opinion, anti-European feeling is on the rise,” worries Mr. Voigt. “They see us as soft on terrorism, or as simply immoral.”

On the contrary, retorts Ortega, who describes himself as a Catholic believer, “I interpret my religion in a more modern, humane, and universal manner. I find the American manner quite antiquated. For example, I’m sure that when President Bush applied the death penalty in Texas, or decided to use force in Iraq, he felt it compatible with his religious beliefs.”

In fact, the fundamental values that Europe and the US proclaim are almost identical.

Few Americans would quibble over the proposed EU Constitution’s declaration that “the Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights.” It goes on to promote “tolerance, justice, solidarity, and equality between women and men.”

PHILOSOPHICAL DIFFERENCES These shared sentiments, however, flow from different metaphysical head waters. In his inaugural address last month, Bush founded his commitment to human rights on the belief “that every man and woman on this earth ... bear[s] the image of the Maker of Heaven and Earth.”

That thinking does not sit well in Europe, where human rights are rooted in a tradition of secular humanism, which holds that mankind is capable of ethical conduct and self-fulfillment without recourse to the supernatural.

In Europe, secularism is not understood as necessarily hostile to religion. In France, the term denotes a level playing field, on which the state allows all religions to operate freely, but stands aside. Elsewhere, it means an indifference to faith. More generally, secularism refers to an approach to life grounded not in religious morality but in human reason and universal ethics.

At the same time, European governments have chosen to adopt a broader set of moral values in setting their foreign policy than they see apparent in US policy, which to them often seems wholly focused on “the war on terror.”

That leads them to attach more importance to issues such as the environment and poverty, as British Prime Minister Tony Blair

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Religious commitment has declined across Europe, but traditionally Catholic countries have higher rates of worship than Prostestant ones.

SWEDEN 5%

NORWAY 5%

DENMARK 3%

IRELAND 56%

NETHERLANDS 12% POLAND 54%

GERMANY 9%

BRITAIN 13%

LUXEMBOURG 13% BELGIUM 4%

AUSTRIA 19% HUNGARY 11%

FRANCE 8% SWITZERLAND 11%

CZECH REP. 9%

ITALY 32%

SLOVENIA 20% 0 – 15% 16 – 30 31 – 45 45 – 60

SPAIN 20%

Percentages of Europeans who report worshiping at least once a week.

PORTUGAL 29% SOURCE: European Social Survey, 2003

TOM BROWN – STAFF

While only 41 percent of Europeans say and French President Jacques Chirac stressed in speeches to the World Economic Forum in they believe in a personal God, another 33 percent believe in a spirit, or life force.

Davos, Switzerland, earlier this month.

It is on that reservoir of spirituality that reliThough the broad moral values at the foundations of public policy in Europe draw clear- gious leaders of several faiths hope to draw, in ly on Christian inspiration, the established order to bring religion back from the margins churches are equally clearly losing their grip of public life in Europe. And they are finding on social attitudes to personal moral questions. encouragement from some unlikely sources.

In France, perhaps the most militantly secA look at the dramatic fall in birthrates all over Europe reveals how faithfully couples ular society in Europe, and which this year are following Catholic teaching on contra- celebrates the 100th anniversary of a law sepception. And as religion’s importance fades arating church and state, one of the men most in people’s lives, their permissiveness likely to succeed Jacques Chirac as president increases, the European Values Study found. broke a strict political taboo late last year.

In a book-length series of interviews entiFor example, of the 10 countries where religion is most important to people’s lives, eight tled “The Republic and Religion: Hope,” are among the 10 least tolerant of euthanasia. Nicolas Sarkozy, the president of the ruling An increasing number of European govern- conservative Union for a Popular Movement, ments are following Britain’s lead in legalizing broached controversial subjects such as state stem-cell research, with public support, despite funding for religious institutions.

He was motivated by a feeling that would opposition from Catholic leaders.

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Frequency of worship in Europe

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Lenten Opportunities Sundays: Concerts at 4 p. m. at National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi, Vallejo and Columbus, SF. Call (415) 983-0405 or www.shrinesf.org. Open to the public. Admission free. Feb. 27: The Scola Cantorum sings the music of local composers.

March 6: Eric Hamilton with a classical guitar recital.

Sundays: Walking with Biblical Personalities along the Path of the Enneagram: Spiritual Reflection for Lent 2005 at St. Thomas More Church in San Francisco. Claudia Devaux facilitates. $50 for entire series. Enrollment limited. Call (415) 452-9634.

Fridays: Lenten Soup and Scripture Agape, a simple meal, Readings and prayer at Star of the Sea School auditorium in San Francisco at 6 p.m. Call (415) 751-0450.

Feb. 25, 26: “Smallest of All” A musical rendition of “Song of Bernadette” at 7:30 p.m. St.Thomas More 1300 Junipero Serra near Brotherhood Way. Donation of $10 suggested. Kids 14 & under Free. Also playing Feb 18, 19 at 7:30 p.m. and 20th at 2 p.m. at St. Boniface Theater 175 Golden Gate Ave near Leavenworth. Contact www.stmchurch.com or (415) 637-1484.

Feb. 26: Handicapables gather for Mass and lunch at St. Mary Cathedral, Gough and Geary St., SF, at noon.

Volunteer drivers always needed. Call (415) 585-9085.

Feb. 25: St. Dominic Church Black History Month Interfaith Celebration featuring Our Lady of Lourdes Choir, 7 p.m., at St. Dominic’s, 2390 Bush St. at Steiner in San Francisco. Father J. Matthew, ordained in 1974 and said by St. Dominic’s to be the first black priest ordained in Northern California is featured speaker. Call (415) 567-7824 or contact www.stdominics.org.

Feb. 26: Training for New Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion at St. Matthew Church, 675 1 Notre Dame Ave., San Mateo Sat., 9 a.m.-3:30.p.m.

Please pre-register at (415) 614-5585.

Feb. 26: Potluck Supper at 6:30 p.m. at St. Mary’s Cathedral conference center. Sponsored by Divorced and Separated Ministry of the Archdiocese. Call Vonnie at (650) 873-4236.

March 2: The Year of the Eucharist, a Lenten Series with Father David Pettingill at St. Gabriel Church, 40th Ave. at Ulloa in SF, 7 – 8:30 p.m. Call (415) 731-6161.

March 5, 2005: Annual United for Life Dinner, 6 PM No Host Cocktails & Fellowship 7 PM Dinner, Irish Cultural Center, 45th Avenue at Sloat in SF. Curtis Martin President & Founder “Fellowship of Catholic University Students” (FOCUS) is guest speaker. Tickets are $40 per person. Call (415) 5672293 for reservations.

The 5th annual Tom Caruso Memorial Run benefiting students at the University of San Francisco’s graduate business school is Sunday, February 27th in Golden Gate Park by the Conservatory of Flowers at 9 a.m. Register online at www.active.com (search “Caruso”) or www.onyourmarkevents.com. Registration in advance is $20.

Race day registration: $25 Race day registration and Number pick up begins at 7:30 a.m. “Last year almost 200 people participated, “ said Maureen Atkins, who helps coordinate the event at USF.

2005

official directory

ORDER FORM Name City Credit Card #: Signature:

17

Reunions April 9: St. Rose Academy All-School Reunion at Union Square’s Westin St. Francis Hotel. “All who attended St. Rose are welcome.” No-host cocktails at 11 a.m. and luncheon at noon. For more information contact Maureen Finigan Horan ’69 at (650) 595-1913 x305 or mhoran@ndhsb.org or Sally Alioto O’Connell ’89 at (650) 340-7437 or soconnell@mercyburl.org.

We are on a Star Search for graduates of Star of the Sea Academy, Class of ‘55. A 50th Reunion is in the planning stage. Let us know where you are. Contact Patricia Lawless Sack at 415-472-5732.You won’t want to miss this one!

Single, Divorced, Separated Feb. 26: Potluck Supper at 6:30 p.m. at St. Mary’s Cathedral conference center. Sponsored by Divorced and Separated Ministry of the Archdiocese. Call Vonnie at (650) 873-4236.

Meetings Feb. 28: San Francisco Council of Catholic Women met at St. Finn Barr Parish Hall, 415 Edna St. off Monterey Blvd., SF, at 7:30 p.m. Theresa Cronin Cordoza will speak about emergency services. March 21st is an “Evening of Recollection” at Star of the Sea Church in San Francisco beginning with Mass at 6 p.m.

In from Florida and almost out of the frame is 6’10” NBA star Hedo Turkoglu who took time to visit recently with aspiring basketball greats at Star of the Sea Elementary School. The appearance was arranged by the family of Kurt Eskicioglu – far right in Orlando Magic jersey - a student in Star’s Religious Education program and player on its 5th grade basketball team. Kurt’s dad, Murat, is from Turkey as is Hedo and they became friends while Hedo was a player in Sacramento. “The kids were thrilled,” said school mom and girls athletic director, Christine Sellai, whose son Frank Kaniewski is also a member of the 5th grade team. “They couldn’t get over how nice he was.”

March 9: Carol Williams, British concert organist, performs an exciting and unusual “classical jazz” program on the great organ of St. Mary’s Cathedral at 7 p.m.

Composers will include Philip Glass, William Bolcom, Dan Locklair, Giles Swayne and more! Carol Williams is well known for her delightful concerts in Balboa Park in San Diego. Suggested donation will be $10. For more information please call (415) 567-2020 ext. 213 or email ctietze@stmarycathedralsf.org.

March 9: St. Mary’s Cathedral will host a Grief Support Workshop 10:00 – 11:30 AM in the Monsignor Bowe Room. Pathways Hospice Social Workers will present the workshop, providing information on the grief process and tips on “Coping with the Loss of a Loved One.” For further details, call Sr. Esther McEgan at 415-567-2020 ext. 218.

Mar. 12: Training for New Lectors at St. Matthew Church, 1 Notre Dame Ave., San Mateo. Sat., 9 a.m.

- 3:30 p.m. Please pre-register at (415) 614-5585.

March 19: Day of Recollection sponsored by SF Guild – Catholic Medical Association in the Green Room of St. Cecilia Church, 17th Ave. and Vicente, SF, beginning at 9 a.m. Talks focus on Christ’s Passion with Philip Calanchini and Richard Sonnenshein. Tickets $35 per person include lunch. Father Mark Taheny, chaplain, will guide the day. Call (4150 219-8719.

St. Anthony Padua Dining Room in Menlo Park needs volunteers Wed., Thurs, and Sat. from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. to help prepare and serve noon meals. More than 500 people daily are helped by the program. Call (650) 365-9664.

St. Mary’s Cathedral The following events are taking place at or are coordinated by the cathedral of the Archdiocese located at Gough and Geary St. in San Francisco. Call (415) 567-2020 for more information.

March 4: Exposition of the Most Blessed Sacrament every First Friday after the 8:00 a.m. Mass Friday and

continuing throughout the day and night until 7:45 a.m.

Saturday with Morning Prayer and Benediction.

(Exposition is suspended during scheduled Masses at 12:10 noon, 7:00 p.m. and 6:45 a.m. according to liturgical norms.) Join us as we pray for world peace, a culture of life, priests and the special intentions commended to our prayers. For more information or to volunteer please call (415) 567-2020 x224.

Food & Fun March 5: Crab Feed at St. Luke Church Community Center in Foster City. Socialize, dance, bid on super auction items and eat. Tickets $40 per person include all you eat crab, pasta, salad, and more. No host wine and beer are available. Starts 6:30 p.m. Call (650) 345-6660.

Feb. 27: Columban Fathers annual Dinner and Raffle at United Irish Cultural Center, 45th Ave. and Sloat Blvd. In San Francisco with no-host cocktails at 5:30 p.m. and dinner at 6:30 p.m. Tickets $35 per person. Call Anne at (415) 586-8017 or Molly at (415) 587-1637.

March 9: Annual Spring Luncheon and Boutique of North Marin Auxiliary of the St. Vincent de Paul Society.

No-host cocktails at 11 a.m. Luncheon at 12:15 p.m.

Proceeds benefit SVDP Dining Room in San Rafael and works of SVDP Conference of St. Anthony Parish in Novato. Tickets $37 per person. Call Gwen Johnson at (415) 883-3055.

3rd Wed.: All you can eat Spaghetti Luncheon at Immaculate Conception cafeteria, 1550 Treat St., SF. $7 per person includes salad and French bread.

All you can eat from noon on! Reservations not required. Call (415) 824-1762. Proceeds benefit St. Anthony-Immaculate Conception School.

4th Sat.: Handicapables of Marin meet at noon in the recreation room of the Maria B. Freitas Senior Community adjacent to St. Isabella Church, Terra Linda, for Mass, lunch and entertainment.

Call (415) 457-7859.

Taize Prayer 3rd Wed. at 7:30 p.m. with the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in their Province Center Chapel, 1520 Ralston Ave., Belmont across from Ralston Hall on the campus of their Notre Dame de Namur University. Call (650) 5932045, ext. 350 or www.SistersofNotreDameCa.org.

1st Fri. at 8 p.m. at Mercy Center, 2300 Adeline Dr., Burlingame with Mercy Sister Suzanne Toolan.

Call (650) 340-7452; Church of the Nativity, 210 Oak Grove Ave., Menlo Park at 7:30 p.m. Call Deacon Dominic Peloso at (650) 322-3013.

3rd Fri. at 8 p.m. at Woodside Priory Chapel, 302 Portola Rd., Portola Valley. Call Dean Miller at (650) 474-2882.

1st Sat. at 8:30 p.m. at SF Presidio Main Post Chapel, 130 Fisher Loop. Call Catherine Rondainaro at (415) 713-0225

Respect Life/ Family Life March 18-20: Rachel’s Vineyard, a weekend retreat for women and men seeking healing from an abortion in a supportive and non-judgmental environment. Call Mary Peter at (408) 426-7343 or (888) 467-3790. For information about additional Project Rachel services, please call the Archdiocese of San Francisco at (415) 717-6428.

Are you in a troubled marriage? Retrouvaille, a program for couples with serious marital problems, might help. For information, call Tony and Pat Fernandez at (415) 893-1005.

Information about Natural Family Planning and people in the Archdiocese offering instruction are available from the Office of Marriage and Family Life of the Archdiocese, Chris Lyford, director, at (415) 614-5680.

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.

ARCHDIOCESE OF SAN FRANCISCO 2005 DELUXE DIRECTORY

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Archdiocese San Francisco

Joan of Arc: Child of War, Soldier of God, a docudrama from the producers of acclaimed pieces on St. Francis of Assisi and St. Patrick will premiere at a special showing March 10th at 6 p.m. at Notre Dame des Victoires Church at 566 Bush St. in San Francisco. Anna Paquin, who won an Academy Award for her work in The Piano, is the voice of the title character. Tony Award nominee and star of Spiderman II, Alfred Molina, narrates. Additional comment on the youthful saint and her efforts provided by historical experts.

Admission is free but seating is limited and reservations are required. Call (888) 254-4104. The film is scheduled for March 21st on the Hallmark Channel. Check local listings for times.

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Catholic San Francisco

February 25, 2005

Lenten movie series A Man for All Seasons Following is part of a series of movie reviews for Lent.

A Man for All Seasons (1966) is listed by the Vatican as one of the 15 top films relating to a religious subject.

Available on DVD and VHS.

Reviewed by Steve D. Greydanus Who are you, in the end? What, if anything, defines you?

What is it that makes you you?

Don’t tell me about your job, your family, your hobbies or interests. All of those are hostage to circumstance, subject to change. Given the right price, the right circumstances, you could leave your job. Your family could be taken away from you, or you from them. Important as these things may be, they are, in principle, transitory. Is there anything in you that is not transitory, not hostage to circumstance, not subject to renegotiation or compromise?

Is there anything, for instance, that you could never, ever bring yourself to do, regardless of the price, or whatever pressure might be brought to bear upon you? And if there is nothing like that — if you are infinitely malleable, capable of becoming, under the right circumstances, anything at all — then are you really anyone at all? Do you have an identity, a self? Or only a particular configuration under present conditions?

A Man for All Seasons is the story of a man who knows who he is. The 1966 film (there is also a 1988 Charlton Heston made-for-TV version), which won six Acadamy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor (Paul Scofield), is brilliant and compelling, steely with conviction, luminous with genuine wisdom and wit. The screenplay, well adapted by Robert Bolt from his own stage play, is fiercely intelligent, deeply affecting, resonant with verbal beauty and grace. Scofield, who for years starred in the stage play before making the film, gives an effortlessly rich and layered performance as Sir Thomas More, saint and martyr, the man whose determined silence spoke more forcefully than words, and who then spoke even more forcefully by breaking it.

Quick-minded, urbane, meticulous, cheerful, admirable, and humorous, Thomas More rises to the rank of Lord Chancellor of England before falling out with King Henry VIII over the King’s plan to end his marriage to Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn. When the English bishops break with Rome and Henry is declared “Supreme Head of the Church in England,” More, a pious Catholic, can no longer in conscience serve as chancellor, and gives up his high office,

income, and great household. To preserve his freedom and protect his family, he also gives up his political and public life, trying to keep a low profile.

But Sir Thomas is too well known to drop out of the public mind, and his silence is widely construed as disapproval, becoming a source of private anxiety and public embarrassment to Henry. What ensues is a riveting cat-and-mouse game, a fox hunt with More as the wily and elusive fox using every trick in the book to elude the king’s hounds baying for his blood. Literally in the book; More is a brilliant lawyer, and his defense is a legal one: if he maintains his silence he cannot be accused of opposing the king.

But presently that is no longer enough, and More must give up his freedom and property in order to save his neck. And when even that is not enough, to preserve his integrity More lays down his neck. All this, because there is something he will not do: He will not swear under oath that he accepts the King’s title and new marriage.

“When a man takes an oath,” Sir Thomas explains to his daughter Margaret in a crucial scene, “he’s holding his own self in his hands. Like water.” He cups his hands. “And if he opens his fingers then — he needn’t hope to find himself again. Some men aren’t capable of this, but I’d be loath to think your father one of them.”

All this is foreign to this era, when the ability of celebrities and politicians to reinvent themselves is widely regarded as a basic survival skill, and getting or holding onto power or fame is the highest good. When a brilliant and charismatic lawyer becomes his country’s highest ranking government official, and is then accused and tried for a crime, we do not expect him to be so concerned about perjury that he chooses to sacrifice his career, income, holdings, freedom, and eventually his life. We find it more practical to suppose that, when push comes to shove, people say or do whatever in in their own best interests.

Unless, of course, you happen to want to really commit yourself; unless it is vital to you on some point that you be taken at your word. To be doubted then — to be told that your most solemn assurance is empty, that you are incapable of vouching for the point in question — it’s like being told that you are no one at all, that you have no character, no identity, no soul.

There is, in fact, a character to whom More tells this very thing: Richard Rich, a superficial young man who in the end has a hand in More’s undoing. Rich wants a job in court, but More, knowing Rich’s lack of character, will not put him

S E R V I C E

where he’ll be tempted. Rich begs and pleads, finally professing fervently that he “would be faithful.” More looks him in the eye and says deliberately: “Richard, you couldn’t answer for yourself even so far as tonight.” And that night Rich proves More right. He’s a kind of reverse type of St. Thomas: As More’s integrity leads to waning material fortunes but increasingly heroic virtue, Rich’s lack of substance causes him to rise rapidly in wealth and status as he becomes increasingly corrupt.

The performances are uniformly excellent. Wendy Hiller brings unrefined dignity to Thomas’ wife Lady Alice, a simple woman who doesn’t understand her sophisticated husband or the invisible threat that gathers round him, and masks her concern with defiance. The film doesn’t mention it, but Alice was More’s second wife, married only four months after the death of his first wife to be a mother to his children.

Intellectually they have nothing in common, yet they have come to love one another fiercely; and Alice’s final lines in the Tower invariably bring tears to my eyes.

This is a great film. I believe it is the most profound cinematic depiction of the life of any saint. The fact that it was written by a non-Christian to me only makes the compelling power of More’s faith and virtue more apparent: Here is a man whose inner light is so radiant that the very unbelievers are drawn to pay tribute to it. (The same might be said for Joan of Arc, who so dazzled that crusty old skeptic Mark Twain that he wrote her life story and loved it best of all his works.)

In fact, the spirit of St. Thomas and the beauty of his speech have been captured in part by incorporating some of More’s own words. “For the rest,” Bolt wrote in his preface to the play, “my concern was to match with these as best I could so that the theft should not be too obvious.” He succeeded.

Steven D. Greydanus reviews films for National Catholic Register.

D I R E C T O R Y

For Advertising Information Call 415-614-5642 • E-mail: jpena@catholic-sf.org COUNSELING

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Home Loans Real Estate Purchase

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Painting & Remodeling •Interiors •Exteriors •Kitchens •Baths Contractor inspection reports and pre-purchase consulting

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CHURCHES – SCHOOLS – THEATRES COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS – SPORTS FACILITIES ●

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AUTO SALES Wally Mooney Auto Broker

650-244-9255 Spells Wally 650-740-7505 Cell Phone All Mfg. Warranty: Rebates and Special Dealer Finacing goes to Registered Owner/s P.O. Box 214 San Bruno, CA 94066

St. Robert’s Parish San Bruno

Catholic San Francisco

February 25, 2005

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Free Housing in Exchange for Companionship Elderly catholic lady needs another lady, preferably mature, but not elderly, to be at home overnight. This is not for a caregiver, but for someone to be in the home in case of emergency. There are caregivers with my sister during the day, so it is O.K. for a working woman. The home is located on 17th Avenue near Noriega. The lady we choose would have a separate bedroom and the run of the house. There is a laundry in the home, plus a parking space for use of whomever becomes a resident.

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Marketing Position Beyond Freedom – A Personal, Professional and Spiritual Development Program and easy to follow system. Learn to earn $100K+/Yr working from home PT. Call 24hrs. for free info 800-631-8230. email: sales@achieveverything.com website: www.achieveverything.com

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Prayer to the Blessed Virgin never known to fail.

Most beautiful flower of Mt. Carmel Blessed Mother of the Son of God, assist me 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.

G.A.

Archbishop Riordan (San Francisco) Convent of the Sacred Heart (San Francisco) Immaculate Conception Academy (San Francisco)

Prayer For Motherhood O good St. Gerard, powerful intercessor before God and Wonder-worker of our day, I call upon thee and seek thy aid.

Thou who on earth didst always fulfill God’s design help me do the Holy Will of God. Beseech the Master of Life, from Whom all paternity proceedeth to render me fruitful in offspring, that I may raise up children to God in this life and heirs to the Kingdom of His glory in the world to come.

Amen.

T.D.P.

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Junipero Serra High School (San Mateo) Marin Catholic High School (Kentfield) Mercy High School (Burlingame) Mercy High School (San Francisco) Notre Dame High School (Belmont) Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep. (San Francisco) Sacred Heart Preparatory (Atherton) Saint Ignatius College Prep. (San Francisco) San Domenico Upper School (San Anselmo) Stuart Hall High School (San Francisco) Woodside Priory (Portola Valley)

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Catholic San Francisco

February 25, 2005

In Remembrance of the Faithful Departed Interred In Our Catholic Cemeteries During the Month of January HOLY CROSS COLMA

Thomas J. Dillon Rev. Charles A. Donovan CSP Juliette Dornlas Colleen A. Drissi Michael F. Durrenberger Daniel Dushkewich Joseph S. Espinosa Sr. Margaret Patricia Flaherty PBVM Msgr. Vincent A. Fleming Marianne V. Flynn Emilio A. Fontana Frank J. Franceschini Peter R. Francis Paulo Fua Raphael L. Gai Joanne M. Gelardi Kathleen Kiernan Harrington Pia M. Harvey Arlene M. Hayes Marie Deramos Hernando Florence J. Hoag Richard B. Hodgkinson Roberta Hansen Hoffman Francisco Y. Igtanloc Judy M. Ingebretsen Consuelo V. Jones Anthony J. Kane John J. Keeley John B. Kelley Siclieta Keusen Anton G. Kowaczek Sau Hing Kwan Librada Lacosta Lola D. Landucci John D. Landucci Catherine Rose Flynn Langford Eleuteria M. Laxamana Helen M. Lenehan John Henry Lowe Edward L. Maffei Irene C. Magnone Leona M. Marchi Albert A. Marovich Martha R. Mason James D. McCann

Avelina B. Abaya Faustina M. Acob Paul Aha Barbara Ahlgren Marjorie Alholm Mary P. Aliano Bahieh J. Araj Irene K. Arnaud Rosetta E. Barlow Edward J. Behan Antonette Blanco Michael G. Borovina Andre B. Bourdet Elva G. Bowman Harold L. Breitenstein Margaret Madigan Brissette Ellen G. Brosnan-Carroll David J. Buckley Eduardo Buhay Lillian E. Bulgarrelli Elva M. Buoncristiani Frank J. Burns Joan M. Butler Bruna Iacopi Butovic Ruth A. Caffrey James D. Cannata Natividad M. Capitulo Clara Cardona John F. Carlson Carmen G. Carrillo Calixto (Alex) C. Casayuran Carmela Christiansen Helen L. Clapham Caroline J. Contreras Helen (Haluska) Copploe Peter Cresci Richard U. De Alba Zaida Malca DeJimenez Sophie B. Denehy Beatriz Devincenzi Isabel E. Devlin Mark R. Dias

John W. McCarthy Margaret (Fran) McCausland Julia McGrath Lillian A. Meals Miryam A. Melendez Charles F. Merillion Gilda Model Msgr. George D. Monaghan Richard J. Murphy Palmira O'Neill Pauline Page Eduardo D. Pascual Josephine C. Paule Angel E. Pe Benito Minnie Penna George M. Peralta Edythe L. Peters Don Peters Cherry Phillips Joseph B. Puig, Jr. Joseph S. Re Kasimiera K. Regalado Catherine B. Reuter Edithe A. Reynolds Shirley Ann Sheridan Rider Isidra Rocha Saundra V. Rossi Evelyn "Elvie" Sennett Rull Sandra J. Sacha Elena P. Santiago Charlene L. Schiappacasse Elizabeth V. Schmitz Patricia E. Schwahn Dorothy Jane Scorpiniti Denzil G. Scott Ana C. Segarra Phyllis O. Shaft Ruth L. Silver Amelie Sorhondo Alice M. Spitler Michael Srnka Thomas J. Stanghellini Ida M. Stefani Jose M. Thomas

Janice H. Thomas Philip A. Tomasello Mary J. Trepanier Charles D. Tsai Soledad S. Turla Maria A. Vallejo James Michael Van Zant Amedeo Vania Margarita A. Villalon Basilisa P. Villanueva Betty J. Sullivan Wentworth Charles J. Wintroath, Jr. Edna Marie Woods Margaret M. Woulfe Yip Tsun Ngun Yan John R. Zakis

HOLY CROSS MENLO PARK Joan Borchers Louise V. Curran Robert Charles Kugler M. Carne Linder Maria Josephina Ramirez Adrienne M. Yocum

MT. OLIVET SAN RAFAEL Dorothy G. Bradley Louise E. Carson (Ghiringhelli) Noe Espinoza Betty Lester Kathryn V. Lewis Maria Eulalia Ortega Beth Payne Santos Joseph Sanchez Mary M. Sigari Anthony J. Silveira

HOLY CROSS CATHOLIC CEMETERY, COLMA First Saturday Mass Saturday, March 5, 2005 – 11:00 a.m.

Rev. Dermot Kavanaugh, Celebrant St. Dunstan Parish All Saints Mausoleum Chapel

80th Annual Mass Honoring Father Peter Yorke (1864-1925) Palm Sunday, March 20, 2005 – 10:30 a.m.

Rev. Anthony Hannick, Celebrant All Saints Mausoleum Chapel

Planning Your Christian Funeral Please join us for a free workshop designed to educate and present options in planning your Christian Funeral.

This is an opportunity to explore the meaning of the Catholic Funeral Rites. Presentations from your parish priest, a local funeral director and Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery Director, Katherine Atkinson, will be offered in: St. Dominic’s Parish – Saturday, March 12, 2005 – 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

For more information, please call Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery.

The Catholic Cemeteries Archdiocese of San Francisco Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery 1500 Mission Road, Colma, CA 94014 650-756-2060

Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery Intersection of Santa Cruz Avenue, Menlo Park, CA 94025 650-323-6375

Mt. Olivet Catholic Cemetery 270 Los Ranchitos Road, San Rafael, CA 94903 415-479-9020

A Tradition of Faith Throughout Our Lives.