Catholic san Francisco
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Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper
During the March 5-9 plenary meeting of the Pontifical Council on Social Communications,Archbishop George H. Niederauer of San Francisco, a recently appointed member, greets Pope Benedict XVI who addressed the Council.Archbishop John Foley (background) is Council president.The pope praised benefits of greater access to entertainment, information and education through the media, but also expressed concerns as well. See story on page 11.
Signature campaign targets assisted-suicide bill By Dan Morris-Young Thousands of signatures of local parishioners opposing proposed legislation that would legalize physicianassisted suicide in California will be delivered to the San Francisco office of Assemblymember Fiona Ma – a cosponsor of the bill –“within the next week or so,” according to George Wesolek, director of the archdiocesan Office of Public Policy and Social Concerns. A signature-gathering campaign in nearly every parish of the 29 within Assemblywoman Ma’s District 12 was started shortly after AB 374, titled “The California Compassionate Choices Act,” was introduced on Feb. 15. Nearly identical to legislation that died in a state Senate committee last June, AB 374 would allow a physician to prescribe a self-administered, life-ending drug for an adult who requested it and had been found by two doctors to be mentally competent and within six months of death. Similar to an Oregon law upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court last year, the bill would require state agencies to refer to assisted suicide as “aid-in-dying.”
In a March 2 letter to Assemblywoman Ma, Archbishop George H. Niederauer wrote, “On behalf of the people of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, I ask you to withdraw your support from this measure.” Calling legally assisted suicide “bad public policy,” the Archbishop said the bill would “turn doctors from their healing vocation,” jeopardize “those living with disability and chronic disease,” put the poor “at risk when killing becomes cheaper than curing,” and promote “a society where the value of life is measured by a utilitarian standard.” “We have worked well in the past together,” the Archbishop wrote, “fighting affronts to human dignity in the form of human trafficking. Legalization of assisted suicide also victimizes our poorest, weakest and most vulnerable members of society, those who are most in need of our care.” However, during a Sacramento press conference introducing the legislation, Assemblywoman Patty Berg, D-Eureka, contended, “Some people say this bill is about suicide. It is not.” “Suicide is when you can live but you choose to die,”
she said. “This bill, on the other hand, deals with people who do not have a choice about dying.” Berg, who is Catholic, is a co-author of AB 374 with Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Sherman Oaks. Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, a Los Angeles Democrat who is Catholic, at the press conference declared himself a joint author of the bill and said he is “ready to buck my Church” on the issue of assisted suicide. “There’s no question that this topic stirs a lot of emotion and a lot of debate,” he said. “I think when you pare it down to its essence, however, this is about how people are going to live in the last days of their life.” Ned Dolejsi, executive director of the California Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the state’s bishops, said he was disappointed at Nunez’s decision to support AB 374. “We are sad and frustrated the speaker would find it necessary to step out on a bill like this when there are so many other issues of importance to the vast majority of Californians, such as health care access, education and ASSISTED-SUICIDE, page 7
INSIDE THIS WEEK’S EDITION Immigration raids . . . . . . . 3 Senior living . . . . . . . . . 7-11 Domestic violence topic . . . 8 Datebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Books, CDs, media . . . . 20-21
Local clergy ‘stream’ nationally
Theologian’s work criticized
Scripture: Throwing stones
Classified ads. . . . . . . . 22-23
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www.catholic-sf.org
March 23, 2007
SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS
VOLUME 9
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No. 10
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Catholic San Francisco
March 23, 2007
On The Where You Live by Tom Burke Happy 100th birthday to Sister St. Julian Flaherty, a Sister of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and a former member of the faculty at the City’s St. Brigid and St. Paul schools. Sister St. Julian was an educator for 52 years eventually teaching in almost a dozen assignments in Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and, as menSister St. Julian tioned, California. The Flaherty, BVM new centenarian was honored March17 at her congregation’s retirement facility in Dubuque where she now resides. “Sister St. Julian taught me social studies almost 50 years ago in Nebraska and I learned from her that I could be a success,” said James Schmitz, now retired after 33 years in the classrooms of Bakersfield City schools. Sister St. Julian was born in Point Reyes and is an alumna of St. Vincent High School in Petaluma. She entered religious life in 1925. Sister St. Julian’s address is 1100 Carmel Dr. , Dubuque, IA 52003. Our thanks always to Sister Mira Mosle for gettin’ the good news to us…. Honored, too, to mention the 100th birthday of Holy Family Sister Malachy Hannigan. Born Dec. 4, 1906 in Ireland, she came to the United States in 1929 on the Queen Mary, and has said she knew from age 11 she wanted to be a religious. In 1934 at age 27 that wish came true when she entered the Sisters of the Holy Family. Throughout her religious life Sister Malachy has served her Sisters - literally, since she was often the cook wherever she was. In San Francisco, Sister Malachy developed her own “side-door ministry” at the San Francisco convent, where she prepared and gave out lunches at the kitchen door to anyone who needed one. It was there, in 1971, that she prepared “Sister Malachy’s Pastry Cookbook,” which was republished with great success in 2003. She also worked with the
LIVING TRUSTS WILLS ●
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elderly, who were often proud parents of Gina, a younger than she, at student at College of Laguna Honda, into her Marin, Kevin, a senior 90s and was a regular at Archbishop Riordan volunteer at St. High School, and adult Anthony’s Dining daughter, Amy… . Room until age 98. Happy 63 years marSister Malachy lives ried to Elizabeth and today at the Sisters of William Lynch of Holy the Holy Family Name of Jesus Parish Motherhouse, P.O. Box in San Francisco. “We 3248, Fremont 94539. wish them and their famMy deepest thanks to ily happiness and God’s Holy Family Sister blessings,” a recent bulMichaela O’Connor for letin said…. Also at telling us Sister Holy Name it’s congrats Malachy’s heartwarming and well deserved to and inspirational Marge Hagan who was story…. Not far behind recently honored with at 95 is Helen the San Francisco Weinschenk, a longtime General Hospital parishioner of Noe Heroes and Hearts Valley’s St. Philip the Award. Marge, who volApostle, whose birthday unteered at SF General was Jan. 14. In for the for 35 years, did everyfun from Chicago were thing from distributing her “baby” sisters Jo and magazines to helping Sister Malachy Hannigan, SHF Zoe, now both in their with newborns…. All 80s. Helen has been a hats off at St. Peter parishioner of St. Philip’s since 1949 and along the way Parish in Pacifica for Tom Murray who died Feb. 1. has served as weekend cook and collection counter, a “Tom will be remembered for a long time by all those task she’s happy to help whose lives he touched,” with even today. “Helen the parish said…. has been more than a Welcome Aboard at St. mother to me and so Mary Star of the Sea many others,” said Patti Parish Sausalito to new Wood, who with her secretary Maureen husband, Barry took W e s t m i l l e r . over Helen’s Mission …Remember this is an Renewal Shoe Repair empty space without in 1976 until selling it ya’!! The e-mail address themselves in 1998. for Street is “She is our parish treasburket@sfarchdiocese.org. Mailed items ure,” Patti said. More should be sent to than 60 people took “Street,” One Peter Helen to dinner at her Yorke Way, SF 94109. favorite spot, The Pix should be hard copy Chicken Coop on or electronic jpeg at 300 Taraval, after her special dpi. Don’t forget to Mass. Patti and Barry, include a follow-up now with SFPD’s phone number. Call me Airport Bureau, celeat (415) 614-5634 and brate 35 years married Helen Weinschenk I’ll walk you through it. Sept. 10. They are the
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Catholic San Francisco
March 23, 2007
Rally at basilica asks immigration reform and end to raids SAN FRANCISCO – At a March 16 rally on the steps of Mission Dolores Basilica a statement from the Archdiocese of San Francisco was read which acknowledged the federal government’s legitimate role in monitoring immigration and safeguarding borders, but which also called into question “some of the policies and tactics that our government has employed to meet this … responsibility.” Read by Deacon Nate Bacon of San Francisco’s St. Peter Parish, the statement issued by the Archdiocese’s Office of Public Affairs and Social Concerns called attention to “the pain and fear that has been created through various tactics practiced by the Immigration and Custom Enforment agency and rumor of such tactics that spread amidst this anxiety.” The statement added: “We oppose enforcement policies that are overly broad, that utilize local and state police resources, that divide families and violate the rights and dignity of the person.
Father William J. Justice takes part in the March 16 rally on the steps of Mission Dolores Basilica which protested raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the Bay Area and called for immigration law reform. Pastor at Mission Dolores as well as Vicar for Clergy, Father Justice was one of several Catholic representatives at the gathering.
Today we stand with communities that seek justice for immigrants and, as in the past, we are prepared to organize with you for just immigration reform.” The statement, according to officials in the Office of Public Affairs and Social Concerns, was based in part on a pastoral letter issued jointly by the bishops’ con-
ferences of both the United States and Mexico in 2003. Testimonials at the rally centered on alleged ICE raid abuses and their impact on families, particularly the separation of parents from children and spouses from one another. The raids are part of “Operation Return
to Sender,” an ongoing program to arrest illegal immigrants who are convicted criminals or have ignored deportation orders. Since it began last spring, however, many other immigration violators have been arrested in the course of the operation. It has been reported agents working in Northern and Central California arrested 838 people in that area between Oct. 1, 2006 and the end of January. Raids were staged in San Rafael and Novato March 6-7 with reportedly more than 30 alleged illegal immigrants being arrested. Education and community leaders report that many persons stayed away from work or kept children home from school in response. Organizations taking part or sending representatives to the March 16 rally included the San Francisco Organizing Project, Catholic Charities CYO, the San Francisco District Attorney’s office, Comite de Padres Unidos, the San Francisco Mayor’s office, and the office of San Francisco Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval.
(PHOTO BY JOSE LUIS AGUIRRE)
Justice for Immigrants manager suspended, accused of stealing
Crowds gathered in San Rafael on March 14 to protest the previous week's raids by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. A candlelight vigil was organized by the St. Raphael Parish youth group Jovenes Para Cristo and the area’s Canal Welcome Center.
WASHINGTON (CNS) — The director of the U.S. bishops’ national immigration campaign, Justice for Immigrants, has been suspended after police in Austin, Texas, issued a warrant charging him with the theft of approximately $63,000 from a diocesan program to aid immigrants. Leo Anchondo, 34, was charged with felony theft in an arrest warrant issued March 15. An affidavit accompanying the warrant included the report of an Austin police detective describing his investigation into the theft
NEW
of more than $60,000 from Immigrant Concerns, a program of Catholic Charities of Central Texas. Anchondo worked as director of Immigrant Concerns from 2002 to 2005. In 2005 he moved to Washington to become national manager of the Justice for Immigrants campaign of the USCCB. Mercy Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a USCCB spokeswoman, said that when the arrest warrant was made public Anchondo was placed on indefinite leave with pay.
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March 23, 2007 “As you well know, New Ways Ministry itself has several times been central in similar disputes,” he added. He said the plan to conclude the symposium with a Mass “makes it seem as though the symposium is a perfectly fine Catholic event.” In a consequent statement, New Ways Ministry executive director Francis DeBernardo said the archbishop’s decision “will cause great pain to faithful Catholics who are concerned about the Church’s pastoral response to lesbian/gay people and their families.”
in brief
Carjackers kill priest in Kenya Confession helps ‘guilt complexes’ VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Many people today seem to have a difficult time recognizing sin, but at the same time the number of people suffering from “guilt complexes” seems to be growing, Pope Benedict XVI said March 16. We see a humanity that wants to be self-sufficient, where not a few maintain they can do without God and still live well, and yet so many seem sadly condemned to face dramatic situations” of emptiness, violence and solitude. “Today it seems that a ‘sense of sin’ has been lost, but in return ‘guilt complexes’ have increased,” he told priests and seminarians participating in a Vatican-sponsored course on the sacrament of confession. Only Jesus, who died “to defeat forever the power of evil with the omnipotence of divine love,” can free people from “the yoke of death” that oppresses them, the pope said. Pope Benedict prayed all Catholics would “increasingly understand the value and importance of the sacrament of penance for the spiritual growth of every faithful.”
Reveals low Mass attendance
Symposium Mass banned
(CNS PHOTO/IT AR-TASS NEWS AGENCY VIA REUTERS)
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Archbishop Harry J. Flynn of St. Paul-Minneapolis barred a National Symposium on Catholicism and Homosexuality from celebrating the Eucharist during its March 16-18 meeting in Minneapolis. In a letter Feb. 23 to New Ways Ministry in Mount Rainier, Md., the sponsor of the symposium, Archbishop Flynn said that upon reviewing the planned program “I became concerned about some of the topics listed, and also about some of your featured speakers who are known to have publicly contested Church teaching.”
Pope Benedict XVI and Russian President Vladimir Putin exchange gifts at the Vatican March 13. The pope and Putin discussed Catholic-Orthodox relations and ways to strengthen the relationship between the Vatican and the Russian government.
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NAIROBI, Kenya (CNS) — Carjackers shot at close range and killed a Missionaries of Africa priest before taking his car in Nairobi. Father Martin Addai, 46, was traveling near the Missionaries of Africa house when he died of massive bleeding from the gunshot wound March 10, said a March12 statement from Brother Anthony Baaladong, superior general of the Missionaries of Africa in Kenya. Father Addai was on his way to visit friends, the statement said. His body was thrown on the side of the road and assailants escaped with the vehicle, it said.
MEXICO CITY (CNS) — A report published by the Archdiocese of Mexico City said only 6 percent to 9 percent of its Catholics attend Sunday Mass regularly. The report, which was written by the archdiocesan information director, Carlos Villa Roiz, said the archdiocese’s churches are packed for Christmas, Ash Wednesday and popular saints’ feast days. If all the archdiocese’s Catholics attended Mass, the archdiocese would be challenged to meet the demand, said the report published March 11: “If all Catholics attended Sunday Mass, the (churches) of Mexico City would be inadequate, and priests would have to direct Mass outdoors.” Mexico City and the surrounding metropolitan area form one of the world’s largest urban conglomerations. Nearly 90 percent of Mexico City’s population say they are Catholic.
dent to better address human rights abuses in the former U.S. territory.
Philippine rights record on trial
No. Ireland cooperation grows
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Stories of harassment, violent attacks and murders of missionaries, indigenous leaders, farmers and human rights activists in the Philippines remind Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., of another place and time. Paired with information that the U.S. recently increased aid to the Philippine military, alleged to be behind many of the incidents, Boxer questioned a State Department representative about whether the situation has parallels to the U.S. role in Central America’s civil wars of decades past. “As with El Salvador, are we going to be attacked for training a military that goes out and does these things? Should we be attaching strings to the money we give them?” Boxer asked Eric G. John, deputy assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs. She questioned John during a March 14 hearing of the Senate Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs, which she chairs. Filipino religious and human rights activists, including a Catholic bishop, have asked the U.S. government to pressure the Philippine presi-
Sister Doris Moore of Little Rock, Ark., displays a drawing made for her by Vincent Gutierrez, an inmate on death row who is scheduled to be executed in Texas March 28. “I’ve been with him on the whole journey,” said Sister Doris, a Daughter of Charity, who began corresponding with Gutierrez in 1998 when he arrived on death row at age 19. He was sentenced to death for killing a 40-year-old U.S. Air Force captain during a 1997 carjacking.
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Progress for human rights and equality under the law is moving at a slow but steady pace in Northern Ireland, said a leading human rights activist. “You have to keep your patience going,” said Maggie Beirne, director of the Committee on the Administration of Justice, at a briefing March 15 for officials of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. While it is hard to get people in Northern Ireland to agree on major political issues, there is growing cooperation on the neighborhood and local levels to achieve common goals, she said.
“Must refuse life destruction’ VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Catholic health care professionals, including hospital administrators, have an obligation to refuse to participate “in any medical intervention or research that foresees the destruction of human life,” said the Pontifical Academy for Life. The academy, in a statement dated March 15, defended the right of individuals and hospitals to declare their status as conscientious objectors to procedures that destroy human life.
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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: penaj@sfarchdiocese.org Catholic San Francisco (ISSN 15255298) is published weekly (four times per month) September through May, except in the week following Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day, and twice a month in June, July and August 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, CA. Annual subscription price: $27 within California, $36 outside the state. 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.
Catholic San Francisco
March 23, 2007
Father Thomas M. Parenti, pastor of San Francisco’s St. Brendan Parish, enjoys an informational booth of the Carmelite Sisters of Reno. Because the Carmelites are cloistered, Sister Bernadette of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange (above) staffed the booth.
Sister Maria Sheerin, a Sister of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, views a catechetical volume at an exhibitor booth at the March 2-4 religious education congress in Los Angeles. Sister Maria directs religious education work at St. Matthew Parish, San Mateo.
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Marc Gonzalez, Ph.D., left, associate director of Hispanic catechesis for the Office of Religious Education and Youth Ministry for the Archdiocese, visits with Father Nils Hernandez of the Dubuque Archdiocese, one of many congress goers from around the United States.
Thousands encouraged to embrace ‘God’s transforming light’ By Ellie Hidalgo ANAHEIM, Calif. (CNS) — The transformational power of God’s light in individual lives, communities and the world was the theme weaving through scores of workshops, inspiring music, films and multicultural liturgies at the 40th anniversary gathering of the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress in Anaheim, March 2-4. The congress broke attendance records, topping more than 40,000 participants, including nearly 15,500 young people for a Youth Day on the day before the congress itself — and more than an estimated 300 parishioners from the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
“What impressed me most,” said Social Service Sister Celeste Arbuckle, director of the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s Religious Education and Youth Ministry Office, “was the enthusiasm of the catechists for their ministry, and wanting to be formed.” She lauded the more than a dozen local parishes’ “generosity in sending people” to the event. Tony Vela, 34, of Most Holy Redeemer Parish was among those. The chair of the San Francisco parish’s young adult group said he and the five other members of the parish who attended enjoyed themselves and returned “with good ideas for use in the parish,” notably for young adult outreach.
“We come today ready to stand afresh in God’s light,” said Sister of Charity Edith Prendergast, director of the Los Angeles’ religious education office, during the welcome and opening rite. “Much like in a theater as the play begins, the house lights are dimmed and a very strong light is centered onstage calling all attention to one central focus. Today the spotlight is on God, who is light,” she said. Father Bryan Massingale, a Marquette University theology professor and the March 3 keynote speaker, challenged participants to practice Jesus’ Gospel message
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of “wild inclusivity.” There are innumerable ways human beings justify “excluding, and hating and ostracizing each other,” he said. But all of society’s divisions, he added, “mean absolutely nothing to God.” “The shocking, scandalous, outrageous thing about Jesus,” said Father Massingale, is that “Jesus ate with anyone. This man welcomes sinners and eats with them in the name of God.” According to organizers, persons from nearly every state attended in addition to participants from several nations.
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Catholic San Francisco
March 23, 2007
obituary
Sister Alphonsus Nishikaze, OP FREMONT — Sister Alphonsus baby from an orphanage, Sister acted as Nishikaze, 87, a Dominican Sister of translator for the American, and it was her Mission San Jose, died March 9 at the responsibility to check with General Douglas order’s motherhouse here. MacArthur’s office, and often the general Born in Japan, Sister lived there for two himself, to see if the adoption was approved. years before her family moved back to Mrs. Komaye Nishikaze traveled from Canada. At about the age of 15, Sister and Canada to visit her daughter in Japan. Sister her family were interned in a camp for the was especially pleased that her mother was Japanese in Canada. baptized while in Japan. “This experience was one Unfortunately, Mrs. Nishikaze about which she never wanted passed away while preparing to speak, but it surely was a to go home to Montreal. life changing event for her,” a In 1953, Sister Alphonsus spokesperson for the commutransferred into the Dominican nity said. “Sister Alphonsus Sisters of Mission San Jose evidently had an independent where she served for 54 years. spirit which was obvious Her special love for the work when at 18 she decided to she did in Japan was to be conbecome Catholic.” tinued in her ministry in the Sister was a gifted pianist, United States where she served a top-notch swimmer and tenon the staffs at St. Mary of the Sister Alphonsus nis player, and held a black Palms in Fremont, St. Vincent Nishikaze, OP belt in Karate Throughout her School for Boys in San Rafael, life she maintained an avid interest in sports and St. Catherine Military School in Anaheim.” of all types, and was a devoted fan of the “In each of these schools that were homes Oakland Athletics baseball team and the for children, Sister was loved for her care of Oakland Raiders football team. the children and her devotion to their wellSister spoke French, Japanese and being. Colleagues appreciated Sister English. She entered the French-speaking Alphonsus for many reasons, but especially Missionary Sisters of Christ the King in enjoyed her sense of humor and her devotion Canada in 1944. In 1947 she was sent on to sports,” the spokesperson said. mission to Japan where she served as liaison Sister endeared herself to the young men between the U.S. Army and Japanese in the schools because she loved wildlife, orphanages. If a soldier wanted to adopt a and even allowed the collection of snakes. In 1988, Sister was assigned to the motherhouse as receptionist. She served in this position for 10 years. In 2003, Sister moved to St. Martin’s Residence where 18TH ANNUAL she spent her final days.
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Levia, who is 102 years old, shows off a Valentine placemat made by a schoolchild and delivered recently along with her Meals on Wheels repast by Jim Gustafson. Made by first through fifth graders for Catholic Charities CYO Meals on Wheels programs in San Mateo and Marin counties, the colorful placemats are so popular with clients that many put them on walls and refrigerators. Schools taking part in the outreach include Our Lady of Loretto, Novato; St. Isabella and St. Raphael, San Rafael, St. Dunstan, Millbrae; St. Matthew, San Mateo, St. Patrick, Larkspur, and Our Lady of Mercy, Daly City.
Meals on Wheels seeking help in Marin and San Mateo counties Parishes in Marin and San Mateo Counties are being “encouraged to participate in Catholic Charities CYO new Adopt-A-Route program in their own neighborhoods” to enhance the agency’s Meals on Wheels service there, an agency spokesperson said. Individual volunteer drivers are needed as well to deliver meals and provide “a friendly
visit to our neighbors who are frail and disabled adults who benefit greatly from a daily check-in, a link to supportive services and the opportunity to remain living with dignity in their own homes,” she said. To volunteer or learn more about Adopt-ARoute, contact CCCYO’s Megan Baker at (415) 972.1272 or e-mail mbaker@cccyo.org.
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Assisted-suicide . . . ■ Continued from cover prison reform,” he said. “We’re also frustrated with his somewhat cavalier attitude toward his faith and his lack of awareness of the strong indications by the Latino population in the state that they do not favor assisted suicide.” The California Catholic Conference has joined Californians Against Assisted Suicide, a coalition of medical, ethical and
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disability rights groups, to fight the new effort to legalize assisted suicide. The Web site of the CCC urges Catholics to call or fax their representatives in the Legislature, asking them to “oppose assisted suicide and to support laws that will continue to protect the medically dependent and the emotionally vulnerable.” According to the Web site, the measure is scheduled for a hearing before the Judiciary Committee March 27. Wesolek predicted AB 374 would pass the Judiciary Committee as well as other required
committees’ reviews such as those dealing with health, public safety, and appropriations. He and others contesting the bill are urging parishioners to request legislators to vote no or not to vote at all on the measure. In addition to the California Catholic Conference, members of the coalition include the Alliance of Catholic Healthcare, the National Council on Disability, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the American Academy of Medical Ethics, Center for Bioethics and Culture Network, Not Dead Yet and about three dozen other organizations.
Catholic San Francisco
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“It is important to note that California law already allows the refusal of extraordinary end-of-life treatment,” said Vicki Evans, coordinator of the Archdiocese’s Respect Life outreach. ”There is a profound difference between withdrawing extraordinary medical treatment for terminally ill persons and prescribing a lethal drug overdose for the purpose of causing the person’s death.”. Julie Sly, editor of The Catholic Herald, newspaper of the Sacramento Diocese, contributed significantly to this story.
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Catholic San Francisco
March 23, 2007
(PHOTO BY MARY SCHEMBRI)
Nearly 200 persons participated in a March 17 workshop addressing domestic violence, especially as it might impact the Filipino community, held at St. Augustine Parish in South San Francisco. "It was a privilege to be part of an event that brought faith, social and support services, government, law enforcement and legal services together to raise awareness for an issue that affects all communities," said Christopher Martinez, director of Catholic Charities CYO Refugee and Immigrant Services, adding: "The positive message of the Church that no one is expected to stay in an abusive relationship and that together we can put an end to domestic violence resonated loud and strong." CCCYO, CORA (Community Overcoming Relationship Abuse), and the Filipine Consulate sponsored the event. Among organizers and presenters at the three-hour meeting were, from left: Diana Otero, CCCYO parish immigration services coordinator; Msgr. Floro B. Arcamo, episcopal vicar for Filipinos; Archbishop George Niederauer; and Martinez. A second such workshop for the Spanish-speaking community will take place in September, CCCYO officials said.
St. Anthony Foundation’s Marian Residence for Women celebrated International Women’s Day on March 8 by hosting a drumming workshop for residents. Offered by master drummer Afia Walking Tree, the event “was greatly appreciated by the residents, many of whom are recovering from histories of domestic abuse,” a St. Anthony spokesperson said. Domestic violence is a focus of this year’s International Women’s Day. “Many people don’t realize the correlation between domestic violence and homelessness for women,” noted Martha Sainz, shelter manager. “Offering tools to address the fear and violence is critical for many women in addressing their homelessness, ” she added. Afia Walking Tree brought African drums and percussion instruments for everyone, and started the program with affirmations of “I am alive. I am beautiful. I can do anything, if I work and put my heart into it.” Residents beamed as they drummed together. “Breaking the patterns of violence goes beyond what many know from their personal experience,” said Afia Walking Tree, who is an educator. “Creating and controlling a drum rhythm can be a
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Master drummer Afia Walking Tree (left) demonstrates drumming techniques at a March 8 workshop at Marian Residence for Women.
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Catholic San Francisco
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Catholic San Francisco
March 23, 2007
Hospitality cornerstone of Spiritual Life Center’s ministry By Tom Burke According to Rosemary Robinson, director of the St. Agnes Spiritual Life Center in San Francisco, the first thing she wants visitors to feel is welcome. It is important to be “very good at hospitality,” Robinson said, “and that’s a large piece of what we offer at the Spiritual Life Center. We welcome people. We want people to visit and we want them to visit again.” The Spiritual Life Center at St. Agnes Parish was established more than six years ago as a drop-in space for young adults. In the ensuing time, the site at 1611 Oak St. has evolved into a destination for all grownups, living up to its theme of being “a bridge to spiritual wellness.” “It is a pressure-free environment,” the trained educator said. “We have a bookstore, a lending library, a beautiful chapel, a beautiful garden. St. Agnes is central to the City with two parking lots and it is a very flexible space.” Drop-ins are welcome from noon to 5 p.m. on weekdays. Ongoing programs include a 9 a.m. Thursday faith sharing, and book club
Rosemary Robinson in the lending library of St. Agnes Spiritual Life Center.
meetings at 7 p.m. the last Friday of the month. In addition, spiritual direction may be arranged through the Center. Robinson said she has enjoyed having a hand in the growth of the Center. “The SLC is evolving and one of the things we’ve done is to make programs available weekdays, weekends and nighttime,” she said. “Funny thing is that no matter how I plan, I’ll get an e-mail that asks ‘Why aren’t you doing this when I can go?’ Every week we have an adult education opportunity — stuff for the everyday Catholic, the intellectual, the scholar. A wide variety of people attend our events.” The mother of three is a graduate in history and theology from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, and also holds a graduate degree in education with an emphasis on religious education. Upcoming events at the Center include: ● March 25 at 4:30 p.m.: Author Lindsey Crittenden will lead prayer and read from her new book “The Water Will Hold You: A Skeptic Learns to Pray.” ● April 16 at 1 p.m.: Sister Suzanne Stephan, CSJ, will screen the video “Get on the Bus,” and discuss this initiative which
unites children with their mothers and fathers in prison. ● April 17 at 7 p.m.: Jesuit Father Cameron Ayers, St. Agnes Parish pastor, will discuss praying the rosary. ● April 18, 25 and May 9 at 1 p.m.: Historian and St. Agnes parishioner Bill Issel, Ph.D., will present a three-part series titled “Catholic Action: San Francisco Stories from the 1930s and World War II.” ● April 19 and 26 at 7 p.m.: Catherine Kelly, a St. Agnes parishioner and theologian, will lead participants in “Stations of the Resurrection.” ● April 22 and 29 at noon: Albert Jonsen, Ph.D., will discuss “End of Life Issues: The Catholic Perspective” and parishioner Dr. Joe Barbaccia will speak about advance health care directives. The Center is also available for days of prayer, planning days, retreats, and other gatherings, Robinson said. Parishes and organizations that have used the Spiritual Life Center include St. Mary’s Cathedral, Catholic Charities CYO and the University of San Francisco. For more information, call (415) 4878560, ext. 228 or visit www.stagnesslc.org.
Centennial essay contest theme: life’s Good Samaritans SAN FRANCISCO — As a part of its centennial year celebration, Catholic Charities CYO has announced it will begin accepting entries for a Centennial Essay Contest for seventh and 11th-grade archdiocesan students. Contest participants are encouraged to “write about the importance and influence of Good Samaritans in their lives,” an agency spokesperson said. A $1,500 scholarship will
be presented by Archbishop George Niederauer to the two winning student authors. Certificates of recognition will also be awarded to the top three finalists in each category. Essays will be judged on originality, grammar and content, CCCYO officials said. The winning essays will be announced at the Catholic Charities CYO Centennial Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral on May 20 at 3:30 p.m., and posted on CCCYO’s Web site. A recep-
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tion will follow the Centennial Mass in the Patrons’ Hall of the Cathedral, where an exhibit of art created by third graders for the Centennial will also be displayed. The essay topic “reflects Catholic Charities CYO’s mission of living the Gospel values of charity and justice by caring for our neighbors, and illustrate that compassion should be for all people,” a CCCYO spokesperson said.
To participate, students must submit essays by e-mail or hard copy by 5 p.m. on April 16. Hard copies may be mailed or delivered to: Catholic Charities CYO Essay Contest, 180 Howard St., 1st Floor, San Francisco, Calif., 94105; or faxed to (415) 972-1201. E-mail submissions are to be sent to centennialessay@cccyo.org. Complete details, contest rules and guidelines can be found on the CCCYO Web site: www.cccyo.org/essay.
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Catholic San Francisco
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Pope, Catholic media workers strategize about new media By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Taking advantage of new media to spread the Gospel, the Catholic Church also has an obligation to point out areas where the media has a harmful effect, especially on children, Pope Benedict XVI said. The pope called on media operators “to safeguard the common good, to uphold the truth, to protect individual human dignity and promote respect for the needs of the family.� Meeting March 9 with members of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, including Archbishop George H. Niederauer of San Francisco,
Pope Benedict spoke of the benefits of greater access to quality entertainment, information and educational opportunities through the media. He also cautioned about “increasing concentration� of media in the hands of a few multinational conglomerates and said that “much of what is transmitted in various forms to the homes of millions of families around the world is destructive.� Strategies for using new technology to communicate the Gospel message and for counteracting the negative impact of the media dominated the council’s March 5-9 meeting at the Vatican. U.S. Archbishop John P. Foley, council president, told members that the church
must fulfill its responsibility to share with all people “the message of their origin in God, their destiny with him in heaven and their redemption in Jesus Christ.� The problem, he said, is that the message of salvation “must compete with thousands of other messages — messages that perhaps appear immediately more appealing or more tempting.� U.S. Sister Judith Zoebelein, a Franciscan Sister of the Eucharist who works in the Vatican’s Internet office, said the Church must expand its presence on the Internet. But it must do so in a way that helps lead people from a “virtual� experience of faith and community to a personal encounter with the Lord and participation in a parish, she said. The Vatican’s Web site has helped people who were already part of a real community
connect in a virtual community with the Vatican, accessing documents and even sending e-mail greetings to the pope, she said. That Web site address is www.vatican.va. Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office and Vatican television center, outlined several communications priorities, including efforts "to make the pope's thoughts and the position of the Church known in the Muslim and Arab-speaking world." He also suggested the Vatican form a group of consultants to help evaluate the mountain of requests from media outlets wanting to interview Pope Benedict XVI. (Ed. Note: The full text of Archbishop Foley’s homily at the Mass marking the opening of the council’s meeting was carried on page 12 of the March 16 Catholic San Francisco.)
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Catholic San Francisco
March 23, 2007
Forgotten Families: Anile, a 10-year-old Haitian girl, lives with her family along “the line” — the border and international road separating the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Locals refer to this border area as “the cut” — a place where forgotten families continue to endure extreme poverty every day. Anile is the only member of her family to attend school. She’s the eldest child and is her family’s hope for the future. But, because of the severe hunger that ravages the border area, Anile struggles to physically make it through each day. “I feel weak,” she said. “Even though I’m weak, I want to finish school every day. My stomach hurts. I learn to be strong.” If she can somehow complete her education, Anile’s greatest desire is to be able to help her family. Her other aspirations include becoming a nun and working with children in hospitals. But for now, Anile’s family struggles for survival. Poor Haitian families living along the border must rely on the farming of predominantly
barren land for food. They attempt to grow crops in environmentally degraded and severely deforested areas. Sadly, their efforts result in meager yields. And when the dry season plagues this already unfruitful region, the suffering caused by hunger and starvation intensifies for the local people.
“Nobody comes out here. No one can help. Everybody’s [all the border families] the same.” Upon our visit, Anile’s father, Marcello, had just gathered a few handfuls of undergrown, rotten vegetables for his family. Last month, the desperate family reaped absolutely no harvest. They went five days without food — a sad but common occurrence for families throughout the region. Yanna, Anile’s mother, says that during these harsh times, her children become dizzy and cry often. Regrettably, Yanna claims that, to an extent, her children have become
accustomed to going without food for long periods of time. “God give me strength,” Yanna prays. “Please help me sustain my children.” After her prayer, Yanna laments, “Nobody comes out here. No one can help. Everybody’s [all the border families] the same.”
“…the children beg for bread, but no one gives it to them.” (Lamentations 4:4b, NIV) Children living along “the line” beg for food in guttural grunts, their bodies heaving and bellowing like animals. Their famished mouths utter no words. Their expressions of hunger are limited to outstretched hands and frantic moans. If one child is offered bread, the others fall to the ground in search of crumbs. If an entire piece of bread falls to the ground, they all aggressively scrap for it, scratching and clawing for any means of nourishment — for who knows when anyone will visit this desolate “no-man’sland” again? This is why your support is so urgently needed. Today, your gift can feed forgotten little ones like these who have nothing to eat. Through Food For The Poor, you can provide their daily bread. Founded in 1982, Food For The Poor works to end the
“I know how to go to school without eating,” claims 10-year-old Anile. Living in the desolate border region, the languid girl and her family often endure consecutive days without food.
March 23, 2007
Catholic San Francisco
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Life on “the Line” suffering of the poor in the Caribbean and Latin America. Not only do we provide food for the starving, but we also build small houses for the destitute, dig water wells for parched villagers, provide medicine and medical equipment for the sick and elderly, support orphanages and education for children and much, much more. In 2006, more than 96% of all donations received went directly to programs that help the poor. Churches, missionaries and ministries within these areas tell us what they need to
serve the poor, and we strive to provide them with what’s needed. In order to relieve the border area’s suffering people, we’re working alongside compassionate individuals like Father Daniel Gee — an American priest from Virginia who is currently serving the destitute located within “the cut.” Like Father Gee, we must not forget those whom the world often neglects. Jesus taught us that although a good shepherd might have a hundred sheep, he will still search for the lost one that is missing from the fold.
“I will search for the lost… I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak…” (Ezekiel 34:16a, NIV) The families who are lost in “the cut” hold on tightly to God’s merciful promises. Severely hungry, sick and unsheltered, they patiently wait for relief from suffering. Faith helps sustain them in their time of need. After going five days without food, Yanna fervently prayed for her family and faithfully concluded, “Eventually God always resolves the problem.”
Through your generosity for those in greatest need, you can be an instrument of God’s healing mercy and love. Your gifts will help ease the suffering that sweeps across this desolate region and other areas where families desperately struggle to survive. Please help Food For The Poor ease the pain of suffering children through your gift today. May God bless you for reaching out to touch the outstretched hands of the forgotten poor.
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The sorrow that hunger brings to a family is evident on a mother’s face. Yanna prays that God will sustain her children as she cradles her listless 1-year-old girl, Maslin.
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Catholic San Francisco
March 23, 2007
Catholic san Francisco Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper
Catholic identity, apostolic faith Dallas Morning News columnist Bill Murchison recently noted that comments by the head of an American Protestant congregation made him wonder whether the speaker was the leader of a Christian church or the secretary general of the United Nations — due to the speaker’s focus on global human wellbeing with little reference to a Supreme Being. The non-religious vision – a spinning globe made spic-and-span by human methods — and the Christian vision — the same globe offering to God humble obedience — constantly collide in history, says Murchison. “Barely does the second vision gain wide recognition before scene and sets change, and man himself becomes a god, issuing orders, drawing up blueprints.” In the 1960s, the West and its churches turned from the vision of human dependence on God to that of human exhilaration with human means and ends, states Murchison. “However, the traditional Christian vision, for all its fervent encouragement of good works, encourages infinitely more deference to divine direction.” In a different context, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago took up similar questions in a January column in the archdiocesan newspaper, Chicago New World. Responding to a list of “contested mysteries of faith” – the Eucharist, ordained priesthood, reconciliation, marriage, the Blessed Virgin Mary — put forward for discussion by the Archdiocese’s Pastoral Council, Cardinal George said his first impression was “that we’re back to the Protestant Reformation.” He noted that at the time of the Reformation, the Mass became a memorial service for most reformers, its unity with Christ’s sacrifice at Calvary became purely “spiritual” and the objective, sacramental, substantial re-presentation of that sacrifice was denied. In turn, the ordained priesthood was reduced to ministry, a function or service based only on baptism. With the loss of ordained priesthood, the sacrament of penance or reconciliation became unnecessary, for neither the Church nor the priest mediated the penitent’s relationship to God’s mercy. The bond of marriage also did not have the character of sacramentality, states Cardinal George, “opening that tie to the contemporary reduction of marriage to an external, legal permission to have sex between two consenting adults.” He said, “The individualism that is left when mediation disappears makes even the saints competitors with Christ, so there is no room for the Blessed Virgin Mary and other saints to pray for us or care for us. At best, they become reminders of good behavior in past history; devotion to them is classed as a form of idolatry.” Cardinal George said, “There are many good people whose path to holiness is shaped by religious individualism and private interpretation of what God has revealed. They are, however, called Protestants. When an informed and committed group of Catholics, such as the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council, comes up with an agenda for discussion that is, historically, Protestant, an important point is being made.” According to Cardinal George, “Catholics assimilated to American culture, which is historically Protestant, are now living with great tension between how their culture shapes them and what their Catholic faith tells them to hold. This is not surprising. Many writers who claim to be Catholic make names for themselves by attacking truths basic to our faith. Without the personal integrity that would bring them to admit they have simply lost the faith that comes to us from the Apostles, they reconstruct it on a purely subjective, individualistic basis and call it renewal.” He noted, “The Second Vatican Council wasn’t called to turn Catholics into Protestants. It was called to ask God to bring all Christ’s followers into unity of faith so that the world would believe who Christ is and live with him in his Body, the Church. The de-programming of Catholics, even in some of our schools and religious education and liturgical programs, has brought us to a moment clearly recognized by the bishops in the Synod of 1985 (when the Catechism of the Catholic Church was proposed as a partial solution to confusion about the central mysteries of faith) and acknowledged by many others today.” While the Church is and should be “a very big tent,” said Cardinal George, “the posts are firmly planted in divine revelation and the Church’s response to God’s self-revelation over 2,000 years. It’s a communal response; the individual and his or her self-expression are never normative. That’s a hard saying in a culture shaped by Protestantism and the later Age of Enlightenment. If we are to propose to the world our faith, we need to be better grounded in it. Proposing, as Pope John Paul II often said, is not imposing. Any proposition should be respected because of the person proclaiming it; but it should also be contested when it is false.” Cardinal George concluded by saying, “ What seems clear to me is that God is calling us to be authentically Catholic in our faith and also, perhaps paradoxically, Protestant in our culture. We live where we are, not in some ideal world where everything works smoothly. Those who withdraw into sectarian enclaves, even in the name of orthodoxy but without respect for or obedience to the mediators called bishops, are simply repeating the Protestant Reformation with Catholic tags. The one thing necessary is to live with discerning hearts and minds. We need to keep asking ourselves what is influencing our ways of thought, our decisions, our feelings and affections. A life of constant discernment is not always easy, but it’s joyful because it means living with the Holy Spirit, whose presence brings truth and consolation and unity.” MEH
Word made fresh The need Father Ron Rolheiser seems to satisfy is one of showing the immediate relevance and pertinence of God’s word to situations of our time, rather than confining the Good News or enshrining it in specialized vocabulary accessible to the academic, the historian or the theologian. Our struggles with life and searches for wholeness are with pain, loss, stress, disillusionment, depression, and suicide. If we can’t find God in these experiences, maybe we won’t find him at all. Father Rolheiser introduces us to Mary, a transformer of stress, an end point of anger, a holder of hurt; and through the grace of God, one who gives back peace, calm, time and mildness; a powerful example in a world where righteousness, defensiveness, and self-vindication are making us more intolerant and entrenched in patterns that show no hope. He shows us Jesus sweating blood as he bears the tension of choice, and pays the price, trusting. I trust that Father Rolheiser will continue to digest God’s word in a way that we may enflesh it in our lives. Long may he continue to pursue the 99! Maureen Lundy San Francisco
Conversion of heart
L E T T E R S
A great article on the lecture on immigration by Father Stephen Privett, SJ (Catholic San Francisco, March 16, page 5.) As I read the article {and reread it very slowly a second and a third time} I stopped to thank God for such wonderful meditation for the Easter Season. I asked myself: what is God telling me here? What should Lent really mean to me?. More prayers, more fasting and more visits to the church? These are all good , but for me the sprit was saying: I want from you “a conversion of your heart” — not just a Lenten conversion of heart but an ongoing conversion where you will see Jesus in all of your brothers and sisters and act toward them as you would like Jesus to act toward you. I thought of my 1954 year at USF when the Jesuits gave me a real foundation on social justice when we studied Pope Leo’s work on the subject. I thank Jesus for the many different ways he has used during my life to help me understand God’s way of thinking. What an ongoing adventure! Alan A. Cereghino Merced
False analogies I wonder when pacifism and pacifist became bad words among some Catholics or Christians. John Paul II couldn’t have had anything to do with it, for he seemed to have been the number one pacifist of the Church, especially when he went against the war in Iraq and told President Bush to his face. The Iraq war and the “war on terror” are not World War II, and the analogies are false. It has been stated over and over
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again and even by the White House that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. If that is the case, why are we there? In regard to letters from Sandra Mangold (Feb. 16) and Jane L. Sears (Feb. 23) browbeating pacifists, I find it rather odd Catholics would be criticizing pacifists, considering that Christ has left words that are much more supportive of the pacifists than those who wage war. I believe one of the Beatitudes states: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.” Did I miss a Beatitude about the warmongers, the war-profiteers, the leaders of countries who attack the innocent civilians of a foreign country based on cooked intelligence? I believe Christ instructed us to turn the other cheek, but that is in the New Testament. For Christians, it has always been the toughest principle to accept. However, it seems the Old Testament’s “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” is much more popular in America among Christians. I find it sad, bewildering and unconscionable. Richard Morasci San Francisco
Terrorist threat real
“Pelosi on target” was a letter Feb. 16 by a letter writer who seems to believe he must attack the pro-life movement to celebrate those who call this an unjust war. Nancy Pelosi should spend her time shopping, where she could do little to harm our nation, rather than criticize our administration for protecting us without offering any viable solution for abolishing terrorism. Most Catholics who are so quick to call this war immoral think of the right-to-life movement as unimportant. God’s law clearly states in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that our primary concern should be to follow the infallible teachings of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, and fight to protect all life: the innocent, the unborn (embryos being brutally ravaged for stem cell research), and the elderly who are facing death. The Blessed Mother told the children at Fatima in 1917 that war is a punishment for sin. Is there any sin in our world today? Yes, our world and our nation is drowning in sin and the worst sin is legalized abortion. Claire P. Rogus San Mateo
Corrupted by office Father Larry Lorenzoni takes more than 400 words to tell us what, exactly? That Father Bob Drinan, SJ, was a good priest? That it’s OK for priests to hold political office because political positions are often derived from moral positions? That the pope’s ordering priests not to hold political office was unwise? Unfortunately, some elementary research shows that Father Larry could not have picked a worse example. In a law review article Father Drinan wrote in 1965, he argued that “unborn children are human beings with a right to life over which no one else’s health or happiness may take precedence.” That’s unequivocal and correct. But by 1996, he was writing his scandalous piece in the New York Times, calling on Congress to uphold President Bill Clinton’s veto of a ban on partial-birth abortion (hardly the action of a good priest)! What had happened in the intervening years? How had he fallen from being a staunch opponent of abortion to a supporter of the “right” to infanticide? Well, he had been elected a Democratic member of congress. He spent years hanging around and working with people who supported abortion, and who despised his Church. He spent years defending and articulating his party’s position on abortion, while attacking the position of his Church. If ever there was a priest corrupted by holding political office, that priest was Bob Drinan. Gibbons J. Cooney San Francisco
March 23, 2007
Catholic San Francisco
15
Twenty Something
March Madness: a lens for real life March Madness thrills sports nuts and statisticians alike. There are 65,000 possible combinations of teams that could make the Final Four, statisticians calculate – which means we can expect our 64,999th guess. Consequently, we lose our temper, our $10 and our bragging rights at work. Last March, little-known, 12th-seeded George Mason University made the Final Four. The black-and-white tale of David vs. Goliath was played out in vivid color on highdefinition TVs across the country. March Madness delivers what it promises: the reality that anything can happen and the knowledge that the biggest surprises often occur in the final seconds. Yet for the sake of tradition and amusement and folly, we brazenly cast predictions. We apply theory to the inexplicable. We watch ESPN’s experts, we listen to radio reviews, we read on-line guides, we swap notes with friends and we synthesize all the data. At last, we fill out that bracket in our neatest handwriting, the signature of tightly-wound hope and strategy. Then we watch the tournament unfold, that amorphous mix of skill and drive and momentum and magic. More than other tournaments, this three-week contest resonates with viewers because it is like life: packed with madness, short on method. In the Big Dance of life, there are buzzer beaters and bracket busters. Trying to accurately predict an outcome in life is as futile as predicting the victor of March Madness.
And yet we try. We can’t help it. It is a human impulse: We want a plan, we want to prepare, we want to know where the heck we are headed. Young adults feel this most acutely. The blankness of the future and the vastness of possibility frighten because they allow for many missteps. When I interview people, I’m always intrigued to hear the arc of their lives. The career that leapt from economics to pottery. The address that jumped from New York to Iowa. Cindy found romance in a Minnesota blizzard. Her car quit and she sought refuge in the nearest house, the home of her future husband. Rich landed his dream job when he sat next to a company president during a train ride. He usually took the 8:10 a.m., but he had been running late that morning. Chuck daydreamed about an early retirement somewhere sunny. Then his teen-age son became a father, and the new grandpa stayed put and beheld an undesirable accident become his greatest blessing. Life never goes according to human plan. Our call as Catholics is to relinquish the comfort of control and to place our trust in God. St. Francis de Sales, a 16th century sage, spent considerable ink making this point. “God’s reasons and judgments are impenetrable,” he wrote, “yet ever sweet, ever gentle, ever useful.”
When life takes unexpected turns, St. Francis wrote, we must focus on our creator: “Everything may be topsy turvy, not only around us, but within us. But whether we are sad or happy, delighted Christina or disgusted, scorched Capecchi by the sun or refreshed by the dew, the fine point of our heart, our spirit, which is our compass, must ever tend toward the love of God.” I love that phrase “topsy turvy.” It makes me picture a basketball rolling around the rim, evoking breathless suspense. Will it go in? Will I land the job? Will I meet my mate? Will I find a home? Will I beat the buzzer? It’s OK to be an underdog if you’re a person of faith. It’s OK to be sweaty and tired. Because God has crafted a wise and loving master plan – and it always ends in victory. Christina Capecchi is a graduate student at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. She may be e-mailed at christinacap@gmail.com.
The Catholic Difference Last September, on a lovely afternoon during what Poles call “Golden September,” a friend took my wife and me to Jamna, in the forests of southern Poland between the Beskidy Mountains and Cracow. You won’t find Jamna on many maps - it’s that small. Despite its obscurity, though, Jamna is indelibly imprinted on the spiritual map of the 20th century. The men of Jamna were active in the Polish anti-Nazi resistance during World War II. On Sept. 25, 1944, the Germans wreaked a terrible revenge. While the men of the village were hiding in the woods so as not to endanger their wives and children, German troops rounded up the women, children, and old people of Jamna and murdered some 40 of them in cold blood in and near their church. One mother held up an icon of Our Lady to shield the three children clutching her breast and her skirt; all were killed. The villagers’ wooden huts were then burned. Jamna, the Germans thought, was no more. Father Jan Gora, a Polish Dominican, was determined that Jamna’s sacrifice and the faith that sustained the villagers in their trial by fire not be forgotten. With great persistence, he rebuilt the church in Jamna and surrounded it with a retreatand-conference center. On a hill above the center is a two-story wooden hermitage for those who wish to make a silent retreat. Near the original church, Father Gora erected starkly modern, locally carved wooden statues, one for each of the victims of Nazi barbarism: small statues for the children, bent statues for the elderly, the mother and her three children
together in memoriam, all where they fell. Father Gora also commissioned a set of four panoramic paintings for the old church’s interior: in the first, a local priest says Mass for the resistance fighters in the forest; in the second, bullets strike the icon-shield being held in front of the children; in a third, Pope John Paul II (who supported Father Gora’s passion for Jamna) blesses a re-creation of the icon once shattered by bullets; in the fourth, Our Lady looks over the now-peaceful clearing in the forest where embodied evil once thought itself triumphant. I remembered my afternoon at Jamna recently while watching two films: “The Ninth Day” and “Sophie Scholl: The Final Days.” “The Ninth Day” tells the true story of a priest from Luxembourg who is temporarily released from the horrors of the Dachau concentration camp and sent home on “leave” — so that the SS can tempt him to become a turncoat, who will pronounce Nazism and Catholicism compatible. Cunningly enough, the moral and spiritual fulcrum of the film doesn’t have so much to do with the priest’s wily SS tempter (a former seminarian with a gift for argument), but with the priest’s sense of his own imperfections and faults, which have been magnified under the brutal conditions of Dachau. “Sophie Scholl” (which is distributed by Ignatius Press) is set in Munch in 1943, where the young students of the White Rose resistance movement are trying to alert their university colleagues to the catastrophe that the Nazis are bringing upon
Germany. The scenes of the interrogation of 21year-old Sophie Scholl offer some brilliant acting, based on the actual interrogation transcripts. Even though one knows that this is going to end grimly, with George Weigel Sophie and her friends beheaded after a mock trial, the moral drama of a young soul trying to wrestle with the demands of conscience in a world gone mad is nonetheless riveting. The film is not without flaws: it underplays the Christian dimension of the White Rose resistance; Sophie’s last cellmate is morphed from the evangelical Christian she was into a kindly German communist who avers that, “You have to believe in something.” But by the end, it is clear what Sophie Scholl believed in: the truth of God in Christ, which reveals the truth about human dignity — truths that made resistance to neo-pagan tyranny imperative. Jamna, “The Ninth Day,” “Sophie Scholl”: three reminders of the modern martyrs who walk the way of the cross with us, this Lent and every Lent. George Weigel is a senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.
Spirituality for Life
Praying when we don’t feel like it Most of us find it difficult to pray. We want to pray, make resolutions to pray, but never quite get around to actually praying. Why? It’s not so much that we are insincere, ill-motivated, or lazy It’s just that invariably we are too tired, too distracted, too restless, too emotionally preoccupied, too angry, too busy, or feel ourselves too distant from God to feel that we can actually pray. We have too many headaches and too many heartaches. And so we come home after a long day and simply can’t work up the energy to pray and instead call a friend, watch television, rest, putter round the house, or do anything to soothe our tiredness and wind down from the pressures of life, except pray. How can we pray when both our bodies and our hearts are chronically stressed and on over-load? By understanding what prayer really is. Prayer, as one of its oldest definitions puts it, is “lifting mind and heart to God.” That sounds simple, but it is hard to do. Why? Because we have the wrong notion of what that means. We unconsciously nurse the idea that we can only pray when we are not distracted, not bored, not angry, not emotionally and sexually preoccupied, and not caught up in our many heartaches and headaches so that we can give proper attention to God in a reverent and loving way. God then is like a parent who only wants to see us on our best behavior and we only go into his presence when we have nothing to hide, are
joy-filled, and can give him praise and honor. Because we don’t understand what prayer is, we treat God as an authority figure or a visiting dignitary, namely as someone to whom we don’t tell the real truth. We don’t tell him what is really going on in our lives but what should, ideally, be going on in them. We tell God what we think he wants to hear. Because of this we find it difficult to pray with any regularity. What happens is this: We go to pray, privately or in church, and we enter into that feeling tired, bored, preoccupied, perhaps even angry at someone. We come to prayer carrying heartaches and headaches of all kinds and we try to bracket what we are actually feeling and instead crank up praise, reverence, and gratitude to God. Of course it doesn’t work! Our hearts and heads (because they are preoccupied with something else, our real issues) grow distracted and we get the sense that what we are doing - trying to pray - is not something we can do right now and we leave it for some other time. But the problem is not that our prayer is unreal or that the moment isn’t right. The problem is that we are not “lifting mind and heart to God.” We are trying to lift thoughts and feelings to God which are not our own. We aren’t praying out of our own hearts and own heads. If we take seriously that prayer is “lifting mind and heart to God,” then every feeling and every thought we have is a valid and apt entry into prayer, no matter how irreverent,
unholy, selfish, sexual, or angry that thought or feeling might seem. Simply put, if you go to pray and you are feeling bored, pray boredom; if you are feeling angry, pray anger; if you are sexually preoccupied, Father pray that preoccupation; Ron Rolheiser if you are feeling murderous, pray murder; and if you are feeling full of fervor and want to praise and thank God, pray fervor. Every thought or feeling is a valid entry into prayer. What’s important is that we pray what’s inside us and not what we think God would like to see inside us. That’s why the Psalms are so apt for prayer and why the Church has chosen them as the basis for so much of its liturgical prayer. They run the whole gamut of feeling, from praising God with our every breath to wishing to bash our enemies’ heads against a stone. From praise to murder — with everything in between! That is indeed the range of our thoughts and feelings. The Psalms are a keyboard upon ROLHEISER, page 16
JOHN EARLE PHOTO
Lent and the modern martyrs
16
Catholic San Francisco
March 23, 2007
Music TV
Books WEB Film
Stage
Local clergy to be featured on national streaming video By Tom Burke Nine clergy of the Archdiocese of San Francisco will be featured on a national Internet streaming video site of the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops beginning later this month. Individually they will be offering threeminute commentaries on the Mass Scripture readings of Tuesdays from March 27 through Sept. 25. Clergy and bishops from other dioceses offer observations on other Scripture passages of other days. The exhortations can be seen and heard on the USCCB’s streaming video site: www.ccc-tv.org. Daily readings are also posted as text on www.usccb.org/nab, according to Ellen McCloskey, director of production for the Catholic Communication Campaign which funds the projects. “It seemed natural to offer visitors to that site a reflection on those readings by the bishops, priests and deacons across the country,” she said. “It also puts a face on the priesthood and adds a flavor of our Church nationwide.” “The Internet is available 24/7,” McCloskey said, noting that it cooperates well with the goal of the Catholic Communication Campaign, “Get the Good News Around.” The eight local priests plus Deacon Jim Myers taped their talks at the Pastoral Center of the Archdiocese in early February. “I applaud the idea,” Deacon Myers of
Rolheiser . . . ■ Continued from page 15 which we can play every song of our lives — and our songs aren’t always all happy or pious. The Psalms give us an apt language to help us raise mind and heart to God. What’s so unfortunate is that, most often, because we misunderstand prayer, we stay away from it just when we most need it. We only try to pray when we feel good, centered, reverent, and worthy of praying. But we don’t try to pray precisely when we most
Father Tom Daly delivers a three-minute commentary on the Mass readings for July 24 which will be shown that day on the U.S. bishops’ Internet site: www.ccc-tv.org.
St. Isabella Parish in San Rafael said. “The Internet is a way to reach people 15 to 50 who are locked into their seats in front of the computer. The last time we put the Church front and center in the media was television in the days of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen. That was the medium of that time need it, that is, when we are feeling bad, irreverent, sinful, emotionally and sexually preoccupied, and unworthy of praying. But all of these feelings can be our entry into prayer. No matter the headache or the heartache, we only need to lift it up to God. Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser, theologian, teacher, and award-winning author, is president of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas. He can be contacted through his Web site: www.ronrolheiser.com.
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and the Internet is the medium of today.” Deacon Myers is a former general manager and vice president at KRON – TV and KSFO Radio. He is co-founder of enterprises including the American Institute of Ethics, now aligned with the Leo McCarthy Center of the University of San Francisco. Deacon Myers’ will be on the USCCB “feed” May 29, June 26 and July 31.
Following are the schedules of the priest homilists: ● Father Jim Tarantino, pastor, St. Hilary Parish, Tiburon - July 3, Aug. 7, Sept. 4 ● Father Gerard O’Rourke, director emeritus of the Office of Ecumenical and Interfaith Affairs - March 27, April 24, May 22. ● Father Ken Westray, pastor, St. Sebastian Parish, Greenbrae - April 3, May 1, June 5. ● Father Jim Garcia, pastor, St. Anthony of Padua Parish, Menlo Park - April 10, May 8, June 12. ● Father Mark Reburiano, parochial vicar, St. Matthew Parish, San Mateo April 17, May 15, June 19. ● Father William Nicholas, parochial vicar, St. Cecilia Parish, San Francisco July 10, Aug. 14, Sept. 11. ● Msgr. Harry Schlitt, archdiocesan vicar for administration - July 17, Aug. 21, Sept. 18. ● Father Tom Daly, president, Marin Catholic High School and director of vocations for the Archdiocese - July 24, Aug. 28, Sept. 25. Other dioceses that have participated in the program include Galveston-Houston in Texas, New Orleans in Louisiana, Fort Wayne-South Bend in Indiana, San Antonio in Texas, Raleigh in North Carolina, Miami in Florida, Buffalo in New York and Washington D.C. In addition to the daily reflections visitors to the Internet site can access other video activities of the bishops’ conference including “One on One” that features interviews and other information about the bishops; and “Teaching Corner” which focuses on faith and Catholic traditions.
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Catholic San Francisco
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Vatican issues criticism of liberation theologian’s work experience in the United States when they go up for tenure and/or promotion,” he explained. “As part of this promotion VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Vatican has strongly process their scholarly works are sent out for review to criticized the work of Jesuit Father Jon Sobrino, a leading experts whose identities remain confidential.” Father Bretzke emphasized that neither liberation theolproponent of liberation theology, saying some of his writings relating to the divinity of Christ were “not in con- ogy nor Father Sobrino’s “good standing as a Catholic theologian, priest, and Jesuit” had been questioned. formity with the doctrine of the church.” “Indeed, quite the opposite,” he said, “as the document In notification released March 14, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) said it wanted to warn pas- praises Father Sobrino for his attention and devotion to the tors and ordinary Catholics of the “erroneous or dangerous poor.” The doctrinal congregation said objections fell into six propositions” in Father Sobrino’s work. The notification did not impose disciplinary measures, categories: — Father Sobrino’s “methodologisuch as limiting the priest’s right to cal presupposition,” it said, identifies teach or publish as a Catholic theolothe ecclesial foundation of Christology gian. Father Sobrino, 69, was born in with “the church of the poor” instead Spain and has taught for many years at of the apostolic faith as transmitted the Jesuit-run Central American through the Church for generations. University in El Salvador. — It said Father Sobrino’s proposFather Sobrino, in a letter to Jesuit al that the divinity of Christ is found superior Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, in the New Testament only “in seed” said the Vatican criticisms misrepresentand was formulated dogmatically ed his theology. He claimed the notificaafter later reflection, although not tion is part of an effort by some Vatican denying the divinity of Jesus, fails to curial officials and other Church leaders affirm it with “sufficient clarity.” to extinguish liberation theology. — Because of the way Father His letter was posted on the Sobrino treats the divine and human Internet and dated March 13. In it, he natures of Christ, “the unity of the says it was written after receiving a person of Jesus is not clear,” it said. copy of the notification from his Jesuit — Father Sobrino distinguishes superiors. between Jesus as mediator and the The Vatican spokesman, Jesuit kingdom of God in a way that Father Federico Lombardi, said that obscures the universal and absolute while the Vatican has not imposed Father Jon Sobrino, SJ nature of Christ’s salvation, it said. sanctions on Father Sobrino “this does — By emphasizing Christ’s humanity, the congregation not mean other authorities, for example a bishop, cannot decide that in light of this notification Father Sobrino cannot said, Father Sobrino downplays Christ’s awareness of his teach or give conferences” in a specific diocese or institution. own divinity and the divine plan of salvation. — In some of Father Sobrino’s texts, it said, he appears Archbishop Fernando Saenz Lacalle of San Salvador, where Father Sobrino resides, told reporters March 11 that to presume Jesus did not attribute a salvific value to his Father Sobrino would not be able to teach theology unless own death, but only saw it as having exemplary value for others. he revised his positions in light of the Vatican critique. In an accompanying explanatory note, the doctrinal conThe Vatican notification came after six years of study by the doctrinal congregation, which focused on Father gregation said its issues were not with Father Sobrino’s Sobrino’s widely read books, “Jesus the Liberator: A concern for the poor but with his Christological concluHistorical-Theological View” and “Christ the Liberator: A sions. “Father Sobrino manifests a preoccupation for the poor View from the Victims.” In 2004, Father Sobrino was sent a list of Vatican objec- and the oppressed, particularly in Latin America. This pretions to his works. He responded in 2005 in a way that indi- occupation certainly is shared by the whole Church,” it cated modification of his thought, but which the Vatican said. But the Church cannot express its preferential option for still deemed unsatisfactory. In October 2006 Pope Benedict XVI approved the noti- the poor through “reductive sociological and ideological fication in an audience with U.S. Cardinal William J. categories,” it said. Father Jose de Vera, a spokesman for the Jesuits in Levada, prefect of the doctrinal congregation. It was the first public declaration against a theologian’s work under Rome, said the order accepted the congregation’s notificaPope Benedict, who headed the doctrinal congregation tion and planned no formal statement. “Father Sobrino is ready to obey his superiors, as he has until his election as pope in 2005. “Clearly, the CDF notification and Father Sobrino’s always done,” Father de Vera said. The Jesuit spokesman pointed out the notification carnon-acceptance of the notification will cause a certain amount of conflict and division within the Church,” ried no penalties or sanctions, and was a theological criobserved Jesuit Father James T. Bretzke, professor and co- tique rather than a condemnation. “Father Sobrino is not a rebel. He does not have heretichair of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies cal opinions. His faith is the faith of the Catholic Church — at the University of San Francisco. The USF theologian, who holds a doctorate from the he says that. The only thing is that he is presenting it in a Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he also different way,” Father de Vera said. He said Father Kolvenbach had presented his views on taught for three years, said the doctrinal congregation had followed “due process” in evaluating Father Sobrino’s Father Sobrino’s works to the doctrinal congregation. In general, Father de Vera said, the Jesuits emphasize that work, adding, “and here we should note a much greater Father Sobrino’s theology was born out of his experience in transparency and openness than was found in the past.” “To some extent the process followed resembles an impoverished El Salvador, a country plagued by violence in independent review which academic professors would the 1980s and ‘90s. Father Sobrino saw many of his com-
By John Thavis
Theologian described as ‘exemplary Jesuit’ Following is the text of a statement provided to Catholic San Francisco on March 14 from Father Joseph Daoust, SJ, president of the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley: In 1989, one month after the El Salvador government’s murder of the Jesuit university companions of Father Jon Sobrino, S.J., the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley was privileged to have him deliver a convocation address and receive our honorary doctorate. In the citation for that doctorate, the Jesuit School of Theology stated: “You and your martyred colleagues through your teaching, scholarship and active participation in the life of El Salvador have born witness to the dangerous memory of Jesus the Christ. . . for this we honor you.” The Vatican notification of today, which contains neither a condemnation nor a sanction, does not change the affectionate high regard we have for our brother Jon. He is an exemplary Jesuit priest, loves the Church deeply, and has been a real path-breaker as a theologian. Certain aspects of his work, like that of most of the important theologians in Church history, may be challenged. They may even be in need of some revision. But there can be no doubt that Jon remains a faithful and fruitful Catholic theologian of especial importance for the Church in Latin America. panions murdered, In 1989, he escaped being killed with six Jesuit colleagues because he was out of the country. “This was a place of injustice and sin. These experiences have perhaps pushed him to express his thought in a THEOLOGIAN CRITICIZED, page 19
SCRIPTURE SEARCH By Patricia Kasten
Gospel for March 25, 2007 John 8:1-11 Following is a word search based on the Gospel reading for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, Cycle C: the tale of the people in the midst of an adultery scandal. The words can be found in all directions in the puzzle. MOUNT TEMPLE CAUGHT THE LAW TEST HIM FIRST GROUND
OLIVES ALL THE PEOPLE ADULTERY MOSES CHARGE THROW WENT AWAY
EARLY WOMAN TEACHER TO STONE AGAINST WROTE ONE BY ONE
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Datebook Lenten music combined with readings and reflections from great writers of the Church’s past. For information, call (650) 591-7349, ext. 32. March 31: Come to the Table, a healing retreat from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. at Mater Dolorosa Parish, 307 Willow Dr., South San Francisco. An opportunity to prepare for Easter and experience spiritual healing. Free admission, free lunch. Pre-registration required. Call (650) 583-4131 or e-mail lidwellf@mdssf.org. Wednesdays in Lent: Most Holy Redeemer, 100 Diamond St., San Francisco, will offer a prayerful Lenten season; a different speaker each week for 7:30 p.m. vespers. Call (415) 8636259 St. Stephen Church, San Francisco, is offering a Chinese Bible Study group to anyone who is interested in knowing more about Scripture. The group will meet every Thursday, 7:30 – 8:45 p.m. at the O’Reilly Parish Center, 451 Eucalyptus Dr,, San Francisco. For information, call Veronica Wong at (415) 681-2444, ext. 33. Star of the Sea Parish, 4420 Geary Blvd. and Eighth Ave., San Francisco, will offer “Lenten Soup & Scripture Agape” on the Fridays during Lent (excluding Good Friday) beginning at 6 p.m. in the school auditorium with readings from Scripture. Stations of the Cross follow in the church at 7 p.m., concluding with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Free parking. Children welcome. Call (415) 751-0450.
Taize/Chanted Prayer 3rd Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.: Sisters of Notre Dame Province Center, 1520 Ralston Ave, Belmont. Call (650) 593-2045, ext. 277 or visit www.SistersofNotreDameCa.org. 1st Friday at 8 p.m.: 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. Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m.: Notre Dame Des Victoires Church, 566 Bush at Stockton, San Francisco, with Rob Grant. Call (415) 397-0113. 2nd Friday at 8 p.m.: Our Lady of the Pillar, 400 Church St., Half Moon Bay. Call Cheryl Fuller at (650) 726-2249. Sundays: Gregorian Chant at the National Shrine of Saint Francis at 12:15 p.m. Mass. All are welcome to worship at this intimate historical treasure in the heart of San Francisco’s North Beach, 610 Vallejo St. at Columbus Ave. For more information, call (415) 983-0405.
St. Mary’s Cathedral Through April 22: The Cathedral, 1111 Gough St., San Francisco, will host an exhibition, “Bringing Health & Hope to the World,” featuring
the photographs of Peter Lemieux. The exhibit in the Event Center hallways documents efforts of the Daughters of Charity to serve the poorest of the poor in Africa , Asia and Latin America. Viewing hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sponsors are St. Vincent de Paul Society and Cathedral Pastoral Council. March 28: A panel discussion on poverty in conjunction with the Peter Lemieux exhibit (see previous entry) will be held at 6:30 p.m. in the St. Francis Room. The panel will include Daughter of Charity Sister Joan Gibson, Eugene Smith of the Seton Institute, and Peter Wise of the San Francisco St. Vincent de Paul Society. For information, call (415) 567-2020.
Food & Fun May 12: St. Sebastian Parish is taking reservations for its annual “Whale of a Sale” to be held May 12, from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. Spaces are $35 early bird, $50 after April 15. Reserve early to guarantee a space. Participants sell crafts or household items and keep all proceeds. Benefits the St. Vincent DePaul Conference. Take a space and raise money for your group or club. For information or reservations contact Kathie Meier, (415) 461-4133 or e-mail whaleofasale@comcast.net or visit http://www.sswhaleofasale.com. March 17: St. Patrick’s Day dinner benefiting St. Matthew Elementary School, now in its 75th year; starts at 6 p.m. in school auditorium, Ninth Ave. at El Camino Real, San Mateo. Tickets are $15 per adult, $5 per child. Menu includes corned beef and cabbage plus entertainment and children’s bingo. E-mail Charliejad@yahoo.com to make reservations or call (650) 628-6848 March 24: The San Rafael Knights of Columbus No. 1292 invites interested parties to an informational meeting at 6 p.m. at Knights Hall, 167 Tunstead, San Anselmo - $5 dinner/$1 drinks. Call Joe Tassone at (415) 215-8571. March 24: Networking Luncheon/Planning Meeting of Kappa Gamma Pi, 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. at Holy Names University, 3500 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. Tickets $5.50 per person. Call Betty at (925) 284-2028. March 30: Catholic Marin Breakfast Club gathers for Mass at 7 a.m. in St. Sebastian Church, Bon Air Rd. and Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Kentfield. Breakfast and presentation follow in parish hall. Speaker will be Father Paul Arnoult, administrator, St. Patrick Parish, Larkspur. Members $7, visitors $10. Call (415) 461-0704 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. or e-mail Sugaremy@aol.com. April 1: Palm Sunday Brunch at St. Mary Church, Nicasio, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. Tickets are $15 adults/$5 children 5-12. Raffle and silent auction, too. Proceeds benefit the church preservation fund. Call (415) 662-2077.
Music Theatre Conservatory is an intensive nine-week professional training program, a joint project of Broadway by the Bay and Notre Dame de Namur University. Tiered tuition: including nine units of college credit $3,200, and $2,200 without college credits. Admission is by audition (April 14 or May 12). Video-taped auditions accepted until May 12. Classes include: acting, career management, jazz, music theater audition technique, voice tutorials, scene study, tap. Master classes with top Broadway talent. Application deadline is April 13. Contact Marc Jacobs at (650) 579-5565, ext. 209.
March 30, 31: Lenten retreat with composer and singer, Dan Schutte, including concert Friday at 7:30 p.m. and a morning of Lenten reflection Saturday at 10 a.m. at St. Andrew Church, 1571 Southgate Ave., Daly City. Concert: $10 in Dan Schutte advance; $15 at the door. Day of reflection cost: $10. Schutte is composer of “Here I Am Lord,” “City of God,” and other popular liturgical songs. For more information and reservations, call Leo at (650) 756-3223.
May 5: St. Brendan School, 234 Ulloa St., San Francisco, will hold its annual dinner-dance auction, “Fiesta Elegante.” Evening begins at 6 p.m.with a silent auction, followed by dinner, live auction, dancing. Tickets are $85 per person. Proceeds benefit school programs. For information, call (415) 681-4225 or visit www.stbrendansf.com.
Arts & Entertainment March 23, 24, 29, 30, 31 at 7:30 p.m.; March 24, 31 at 2 p.m.: The Broadway musical, “Chicago,” at Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory School, San Francisco. Performances will be held in DePaul Auditorium, 1100 Ellis St.. Tickets are $5 for students and seniors; $10 for adults. Call (415) 775.6626, ext. 715. March 23, 24, 30, 31 at 8 p.m.; April 1 at 2 p.m.: Archbishop Riordan High School presents the Broadway show “Big” in its Lindland Theater, 175 Phelan Ave., San Francisco. Tickets are $10 adults; $7 students and seniors. Call (415) 5875866.
Reunions Events continue for the 75th Anniversary of St. Matthew Elementary School, San Mateo. Alumni may call Nancy Carroll at (650) 3729536. March 29: Classes of ’39 to ’45, Star of the Sea Academy at 11:30 a.m. at Basque Cultural Center in South San Francisco. Call Marie at (415) 564-2603 or Dorothy at (415) 681-1493. April 14: The San Francisco Chapter of Notre Dame Alumnae will hold its annual Mass and Luncheon beginning at 10 a.m. at Mission Dolores Basilica followed by lunch at the Irish Cultural Center, 45th Ave. at Sloat Blvd., San Francisco. Honorees will be the Golden Belles of 57, and 75, 70, 60, 40 and 30 year anniversary classes! Call Debbie Calgaro at (650) 583-1102 for information and reservations.
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 2007 DELUXE DIRECTORY
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March 24: Day of recollection, 9 a.m.–2 p.m. in the Green Room of St. Cecilia Church, 17th Ave. and Vicente St., San Francisco; $35 fee includes breakfast and lunch. Dr. Richard Sonnenstein will speak on “The DaVinci Code.” Father Mark Taheny will facilitate and preside at Mass. Call Dr. George Maloof at (415) 219-8719. March 24: Called to the Center, a centering prayer workshop with Mercy Sisters Marguerite Buchanan and Suzanne Toolan at Marin Catholic High School, 675 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Kentfield, from 9:30 a.m. – 4 p.m. Catherine Regan, Ph.D., will be workshop presenter. Call Vicki Bornstein at (415) 435-1122. Cost: $20 per person. Sponsored by Deaneries 6 and 7. March 24: First Annual Crab Feed benefiting St. Finn Barr Parish, 415 Edna St. at Hearst, San Francisco, beginning with no-host bar at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are $45 in advance/$50 at door. Evening includes dancing until midnight. Call (415) 5854524 or (415) 333-3627. March 26: 21st Annual evening of recollection for women beginning with Mass at 6 p.m. at Star of the Sea Church, Geary Blvd. at Eighth Ave., San Francisco. Dinner follows in school hall. Father Brendan McBride, chaplain to the Irish community, will facilitate. Cost: $15. Call Cathy Mibach at (415) 753-0234. Sponsored by San Francisco Council of Catholic Women. March 26: “Rights and Responsibilities of Baptized Catholics” will be the title of an address at 7:30 p.m. St. Raphael Parish’s Kennedy Room, 1104 Fifth Ave., San Rafael. Sally Vance-Trembath, Ph.D., ethics program coordinator and theologian in residence for the Sacred Heart Schools in Atherton, and a lecturer for Santa Clara University’s theology department, will deliver the talk. She holds a doctoral degree in systematic theology from Notre Dame University. March 26: “Catholics and Religious Freedom” with Father Jim MacDonald at 7 p.m. and part of lecture series on faith and Church history at St. Pius Parish, 1100 Woodside Rd., Redwood City. For information, contact Kevin Staszkow (650) 365-0140, e-mail kevin@pius.org, or www.pius.org. March 27: “The Church in California,” a lecture by Stockton Bishop Stephen Blaire in light of P o p u l o r u m P r o g r e s s i o (“Development of Peoples”), Pope Paul VI’s 1967 encyclical, St. Rita Church, 100 Marinda Dr., Fairfax. A simple soup dinner at 6 p.m.; lecture begins at 7 p.m. For Stockton Bishop information, call Noelle Kostelic at Stephen Blaire (415) 456-4815 or e-mail nkostelic@sbcglobal.net. March 28: The Sacred Triduum: An Evening of Powerful Words and Healing Music at St. Gabriel Church, 40th Ave. and Ulloa, San Francisco, 7:30 p.m. Call (415) 731-6161. March 28: The Holy Name Society at Star of the Sea Church, 4420 Geary Blvd at Eighth Ave, is sponsoring a showing of “The Passion of Christ” in the school auditorium at 7 p.m. as a preparation for Holy Week. There will be a freewill collection to cover costs and to benefit the new pre-school. Free parking. For information, call (415) 751-0450. March 30: St Charles Parish, 880 Tamarack Ave., San Carlos, will offer Lenten music and meditations at 7:30 p.m. This is a service of
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FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT Isaiah 43:16-21; Psalm 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6; Phillipians 3:8-14; John 8:1-11 A READING FROM THE BOOK OF ISAIAH ( IS 43:16-21) Thus says the LORD, who opens a way in the sea and a path in the mighty waters, who leads out chariots and horsemen, a powerful army, till they lie prostrate together, never to rise, snuffed out and quenched like a wick: Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; see, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? In the desert I make a way, in the wasteland, rivers. Wild beasts honor me, jackals and ostriches, for I put water in the desert and rivers in the wasteland for my chosen people to drink, the people whom I formed for myself, that they might announce my praise. RESPONSORIAL PSALM (PS 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6) R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy. When the Lord brought back the captives of Zion, we were like men dreaming. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with rejoicing. R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy. Then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.” The Lord has done great things for us; we are glad indeed. R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy. Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the torrents in the southern desert. Those that sow in tears shall reap rejoicing. R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy. Although they go forth weeping, carrying the seed to be sown, they shall come back rejoicing, carrying their sheaves. R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy. A READING ACCORDING TO THE LETTER OF PAUL TO THE PHILLIPIANS (PHIL 3:8-14) Brothers and sisters: I consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having any righteousness of my own based on the law but that which comes through faith in Christ, the
Theologian criticized . . . ■ Continued from page 17 way that is not that of pure, scientific theological expressions,” Father de Vera said. In a concluding section, the Vatican notice said theological reflection cannot have a foundation other than the faith of the Church, and must be carried out “in communion with the magisterium,” the Church’s teaching authority. In a written commentary, Father Lombardi said the Vatican was not questioning Father Sobrino’s good intentions or his observations about situations of dramatic injustice. Theologians who experience poverty and injustice firsthand can be led to construct a “Christology from below” that emphasizes Christ’s humanity, Father Lombardi said. “This was certainly the situation of Father Sobrino, in the characteristic path of Latin American theology, which is so atten-
righteousness from God, depending on faith to know him and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by being conformed to his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. It is not that I have already taken hold of it or have already attained perfect maturity, but I continue my pursuit in hope that I may possess it, since I have indeed been taken possession of by Christ Jesus. Brothers and sisters, I for my part do not consider myself to have taken possession. Just one thing: forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus. A READING FROM THE HOLY GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN (JN 8:1-11) Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. But early in the morning he arrived again in the temple area, and all the people started coming to him, and he sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and made her stand in the middle. They said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” They said this to test him, so that they could have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger. But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he bent down and wrote on the ground. And in response, they went away one by one, beginning with the elders. So he was left alone with the woman before him. Then Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She replied, “No one, sir.” Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.” tive to the journey of human and spiritual liberation of the populations of the continent,” Father Lombardi said. This approach can undervalue Christ’s divine nature, placing in question fundamental elements of the faith, he added. Vatican Radio interviewed Augustinian Father Prosper Grech, a consultor to the doctrinal congregation, who said a key reason for the notification was that Father Sobrino’s books are not only widely read but are used in seminaries. The books in question are not in any way prohibited, he said, but should be used with caution. “It is a question of telling the faithful, look, read (Father) Sobrino’s books as much as you like, but remember that these points which we have touched upon are, let us say, dangerous for the faith,” Father Grech said. Catholic San Francisco contributed to this article.
Scripture reflection ARCHBISHOP GEORGE H. NIEDERAUER
‘Words we love… and have failed to live by’ Following is the text of a commentary on the Scripture readings for the Fifth Sunday of Lent by Archbishop George H. Niederauer that will be broadcast nationally and internationally on Catholic radio stations subscribing to “radio retreats” produced by Franciscan Communications in cooperation with the Catholic Communications Campaign. To experience the audio presentation, visit www.franciscancommunications.org. “Let the one among you who has no sin, be the first to cast a stone at her.” That’s one of the most famous sayings of Jesus. One writer has described it as “words we have grown to love, and failed to live by.” This story in John’s Gospel shows Jesus on trial: He is teaching one morning in the temple in Jerusalem and a group of scribes and Pharisees — religious officials who have come to hate him — try to trap him into a no-win situation: if he says that the woman captured in adultery should not be stoned to death, he will discredit himself by seeming to contradict the Law of Moses. If Jesus says that she should be stoned to death, he will go against his reputation for mercy and compassion, and he will also defy the Roman officials, who have forbidden the Jewish people to condemn anyone to death without Roman approval. Let’s not miss the contrast here between the heartlessness of the Pharisees and the compassion of Jesus. To the Pharisees, the woman is not a person, she is merely a weapon to be used against Jesus, to be used and humiliated publicly. She is a “case in point,” convenient for starting an argument they feel they can win. Jesus, however, doesn’t want to condemn her; instead, he wishes to understand and reclaim a sinner. For that reason, she stands for every person who is in need of compassion, and that is how Catholics have always understood the story: it’s not mainly a story about adultery, it’s a story about sin and forgiveness. Once Jesus has shamed her accusers into slinking away, one by one, he savors the irony of the situation when he asks the woman, standing alone beside him: “Woman, where did they all disappear to? Has no one condemned you?” She answers, “No one, sir.” Then Jesus speaks those words which are the perfect illustration of the ancient advice to Christians: “Hate the, sin, but love the sinner.” He says to her: “Nor do I condemn you. You may go. But from now on, avoid this sin.” Jesus forgives the sinner without denying the sin. He doesn’t want to let her off the hook of grace; instead, he calls her to change, to a conversion of her heart and her life. Our Lord doesn’t engage in the fuzzy thinking and psychobabble so common in our conversations today: “Now, my dear, I understand you were very young when you entered this marriage that your parents arranged for you, your husband was much older than you, he was away so often on business, social mores are changing quickly all around us, and Jerusalem is a big city with temptations everywhere.” Jesus doesn’t talk like that. He respects the woman and cares about her. He
pays her the compliment of regarding her as a free person who can take responsibility for her actions and choose to change her behavior. Jesus gives the woman a second chance, because he believes in her, and he believes that she can do it. “Let the one without sin cast the first stone.” Remember, these are words we have grown to love, but failed to live by. God, the giver of repentance, is never the problem. We are. We get discouraged in our pride and tell ourselves that we cannot change, cannot do better. Just as often we cast stones of thought and word and judgment against others. We turn the subject of discussion to the sins of others because it helps us feel better about our own. How we enjoy gathering with others to deplore the behavior of someone who’s not around! Sometimes we toss pebbles and sometimes we hurl boulders, but the activity is much the same. This habit is strong, and deeply ingrained in us and in society’s behavior. So we had better not tell ourselves, “Oh, I can stop that whenever I want to — or at least cut back a bit from my worst harsh judgments.” It’s probably easier to quit smoking “cold turkey” than it is to quit this habit of gossip and backbiting. However, that’s what Jesus is asking us to try to do. Jesus does not compromise when he calls us to be loving in speech and action. He doesn’t say to that crowd today, “Those of you who haven’t sinned so terribly much recently may toss a few of the smaller rocks.” No, it’s “Let the one among you who is without sin cast the first stone.” Our first two readings today are important and encouraging as we try to meet this challenge of the Lord. We cannot change ourselves by ourselves, but God can change us, if we ask him to, and if we let him do so. As Jesus says elsewhere in the Gospel, “For people it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” In fact, that is his promise to us. The prophet Isaiah in the first reading speaks for God, saying what a difference he wants to make in our lives: “I am doing something new. I will make the same difference that water makes in the desert. Remember not the events of the past. I am doing something new.” How does God work this wonder in our lives, if we let him? Jesus Christ makes the difference. For the Catholic, Jesus is the most “significant other” in life, and everything is held up to the light of Christ to test its place in our lives. If we do something bad, there are people in our lives about whom we say: “I hope she doesn’t find out.” “I hope no one tells him.” And if we accomplish something good, they are the first people with whom we wish to share it. That’s who Jesus wants to be for us, his followers. That’s what Paul is saying about himself in the second reading, when he says that he has come to rate all else as loss in the light of his Lord Jesus Christ. He says: “I give no thought to what lies behind but I push on to what is ahead.” What is Paul’s goal in life? “I wish to know Christ and the power flowing from his resurrection.” Does Paul think he has it made? He says, “It is not that I have reached it yet ... but I am racing to grasp the prize if possible, since I have been grasped by Christ Jesus. I do not think of myself as having reached the finish line. My entire attention is on the finish line as I run toward the prize to which God calls me — life on SCRIPTURE REFLECTION, page 21
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March 23, 2007
~ BOOK GUIDE ~ Choral festival draws audience to St. Cecilia Choristers from throughout the Archdiocese of San Francisco came together for the annual Archdiocesan Choral Festival March 11 at San Francisco’s St. Cecilia Church. Choirs from 25 parishes were represented in the 95-voice ensemble. An audience of more than 200 people gathered to enjoy the performance. Simon Berry, music director at St. Dominic Parish in San Francisco, conducted. “Simon is a very good musician,” said Patrick Vallez-Kelly, director of the Office of Worship for the Archdiocese. “He has affirmed prayer as an element of our rehearsals and has emphasized the sung-prayer dimension of the songs we are singing.” The program covered a wide array of Church music, Vallez-Kelly said, noting conductor Berry had nicknamed the afternoon, “Around the Church Year in 90 Minutes.” “Even though we are in the middle of Lent we sang music from all the liturgical seasons,” Vallez-Kelly said. Immediately recognizable titles included “O God Our Help in Ages Past,”
(PHOTO BY TOM BURKE, CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)
By Tom Burke
Choir members and musicians, under direction of Simon Berry (foreground), rehearse prior to their main performance at the March 11 Archdiocesan Choral Festival.
which became the echoing plea of Masses in months following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and the staple, “A Mighty Fortress is Our God.” Contemporary music was represented
with “Praise to You O Christ Our Savior” by popular composer, Bernadette Farrell. The piece is used widely to herald the Gospel during Lent when the Alleluia is omitted.
“This can be a very good experience for the singers,” Vallez-Kelly, himself a member of the chorus, said. “They learn technique and musicianship and they get exposed to a selection of sacred music they might not get to sing at their home parish. In addition, the people who are in the audience seem to love it. It’s been growing each year and we hope to keep this going as a tradition that will build spirit among musicians and offer an opportunity for people to hear sacred music they don’t often get to hear.” Soloists included Peggy Kang of St. Ignatius Parish and Wayne Eastwood, Joseph Bergen and Catherine Rondinaro of the St. Dominic Parish Solemn Mass Choir. Members of the committee coordinating the event included Linda Myers, St. Isabella Parish; Laura Flaviani, St. Paul Parish; Dolores O’Halloran, St. Anselm Parish; and Vincent Stadlin, St. Hilary Parish. CD recordings of the concert are available by calling the Office of Worship at (415) 614-5585. Cost is $15. Past conductors of the festival include Christoph Tietze, St. Mary’s Cathedral; Russell Ferreira, St. Cecilia Parish; Claire Giovannetti, St. Charles Parish, San Carlos.
Vampire author shows herself to be solid scholar and apologist “CHRIST THE LORD: OUT OF EGYPT,” BY ANNE RICE. Knopf (New York, 2005) 322 pp., $25.95.
Reviewed by Charlotte Miller Catholic News Service “Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt” by Anne Rice is a remarkable book. First, it is remarkable because the author is a popular writer of vampire novels who left the Catholic Church when she was 18. Second, it is a riveting account of Jewish life in the first century in Egypt and Israel. Third, it is a mind-stretching exploration of Jesus, Mary, Joseph and their extended clan. First, then, the author: In an afterward Rice explains how she researched the book. Readers should begin here because I cannot imagine reading the novel without first reading the explanation of her scholarship (absolutely meticulous and in-depth) and her testimony about her return to faith. Rice’s return was, in fact, facilitated by her study. She was curious about who Jesus was and is. In her pursuit of truth about Jesus, an academic and historical investigation, she bumped into “the Truth.” Like C.S. Lewis, her intellect led her to belief and then her heart changed. Contrary to what some popular evangelists say, intellectual assent can precede the change (“metanoia”) of the heart. She expected arguments of skeptical
New Testament scholars would demonstrate “that Christianity was, at heart, a kind of fraud.” Instead, she found their arguments were “reached on the basis of little or no data at all.” I have tremendous respect for her willingness to examine so dispassionately, and then set aside a position with which she had been in fundamental agreement. She read, thought and concluded these writers were wrong; Jesus really is who the Church has said he is. And she has consecrated her work to Jesus. The first century historical setting gives a vivid picture of Jewish life with many new insights. (For example, Jewish homes, which I had previously imagined as one-room mud bungalows, actually may have been quite lovely, with beautiful rugs on the dirt floors and decorative borders on whitewashed walls.) Finally, and importantly, the characterizations of Jesus, Mary and Joseph are nothing short of inspired. With these three, as with the historical setting, my imagination had been limited to only what the Gospels relate. This book freed me to reflect upon what they might have been like (not as a matter of faith but as a matter of love). Rice presents Jesus as a boy eager to understand himself, exploring who he was, knowing he was different, but required to grow up as a child. The bottom line is this: Believers (and nonbelievers) need to read the book. Believers will enjoy the narrative and maybe explore some new ways of think-
Now In Paperback! CHRIST THE LORD: Out of Egypt Visit her website: www.annerice.com
ing. And nonbelievers? Well, as I think of their reading, I find myself doing what Jesus’ Uncle Cleopas did throughout “Christ the Lord”: I am laughing a
low and happy — very happy — laugh. Miller is an English teacher at Mount St. Mary Academy in Little Rock, Ark.
March 23, 2007
Catholic San Francisco
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~ BOOK GUIDE ~ Volumes outline different paths for the spiritual journey “ORDINARY WORK, EXTRAORDINARY GRACE: MY SPIRITUAL JOURNEY IN OPUS DEI,” BY SCOTT HAHN. Doubleday (New York, 2006). 192 pp., $19.95. “A CATHOLIC PERSPECTIVE ON ‘THE PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE,’” BY FATHER JOSEPH M. CHAMPLIN. Catholic Book Publishing Corp. (Totowa, N.J., 2006). 108 pp., $7.95.
Reviewed by Sister Mona Castelazo, CSJ Catholic News Service “Ordinary Work, Extraordinary Grace” by Scott Hahn and “A Catholic Perspective on ‘The Purpose Driven Life’” by Father Joseph Champlin are books about religious approaches to life. Both authors deal with specific directives, a clear set of rules and a plan to follow with the support of a group. Scott Hahn, whose book is subtitled “My Spiritual Journey in Opus Dei,” is a former Presbyterian minister, drawn to Catholicism when befriended by Bible-carrying Catholics who were Opus Dei members. The book describes Opus Dei as a special vocation, “both a family and an army,” that offers work to God in sacrificial worship for the sanctification of the world. Their founder, St. Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, encouraged a “healthy anti-clericalism” coupled with a “truly priestly soul and a fully lay mentality.” Hahn therefore points out that desktops, workstations, construction sites, kitchens and even the marriage bed serve as altars of redemptive sacrifice through which members act as channels of grace for others.
Scripture reflection . . . ■ Continued from page 21 high in Christ Jesus.” Jesus is the compass we carry in life. We get direction from him. That’s who Jesus wants to be for each believer, for each Christian: the goal and the means. Jesus is the goal: Easter resurrection, through a sharing in all that goes before (Lent and Holy Week). Our dying and rising is one with the dying and rising of Jesus, and draws its meaning and power from his. Jesus is the means: the one we turn to; the one we imagine is there with us, because he is. Christ is the one with whom we do everything and in front of whom we say everything, not like a policeman or a bodyguard, but a loving companion, our guide and savior. Jesus Christ stands by us in all our moments; and in the worst and weakest and most sinful of those moments we hear him say: “Nor do I condemn you. But from now on, avoid this sin.”
The founder envisioned a member to “be a man of God and seem a man of the world: to pass unnoticed.” Consequently, Opus Dei members maintain anonymity, except for ongoing personal contacts for recruitment. However, Hahn presents the reader with a number of contradictions. Although Opus Dei members believe that the redemptive works of Jesus “divinized humanity” and that creation itself is good, they also believe that their calling is a continuous attempt to sanctify reality through the redemptive sacrifice of their work. Work is considered worship, ordered to “purer” worship on the Sabbath, the purpose of which is for recuperation to work again.
St. Escriva stated that Opus Dei is in no way like religious life, but its members do see themselves as set apart, commit to 12 religious practices a day, make both temporary and lifelong commitments and believe that celibacy is the more “generous gift of sexuality.” Hahn writes that they are not like a church, but their higher members do have authority over their spiritual formation. Readers may conclude that perhaps in their criticism of an elite clergy, Opus Dei has created its own type of elitism, not based on power so much as on moral superiority and rectitude. Father Champlin’s book, giving Catholic views of “The Purpose Driven
Life,” was written out of the author’s experience of conducting retreats based on the Rev. Rick Warren’s best-selling book, which is a guide to a 40-day “spiritual journey.” Rev. Warren believes that our purposes in life are to please God, to be part of God’s family, to become Christ-like, to serve God and others, and to spread God’s message as found in the Bible. Father Champlin’s book applies official church teachings to subjects in Rev. Warren’s text, pointing out differences, similarities and further insights into Catholic tradition and practice. The points of disagreement are few: differences in biblical texts, questioning the Bible as the sole source without the wisdom of tradition, discussing the sacraments as purely symbolic, and formal baptism as a requisite for entering heaven. Generally, most of the differences seem to be questions of terminology. Much of the book extrapolates Catholic teaching and Father Champlin’s insights without reference to Rev. Warren’s book. Whereas “The Purpose Driven Life” appears to be meant for those just discovering that God exists, Father Champlin’s book could serve as a review for Catholics or as material for adult catechesis. However, both books present God as mainly transcendent, to be related to through intellectual assent and external action, rather than providing the adult reader with insights into the depth, growth and development necessary for an interior life based on personal experience. Sister Mona, a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet, has taught English for many years in Los Angeles.
Dramatic series on ‘Planet Earth’ debuts Sunday More than five years in the making, an 11-part series on the Discovery Channel titled “Planet Earth” that starts March 25 is said to feature never-before-seen animal behaviors and locations captured by high-definition camera techniques for the first time. Narrated by actress Sigourney Weaver, the first three one-hour programs airing explore, respectively, the sun as it touches the lives of creatures across the planet, bringing a fresh understanding of how the world is interconnected and how the seasons produce the greatest spectacles on Earth; the planet’s mightiest mountain ranges and the rare animals that inhabit them; and the depths of the oceans to discover some of this mysterious world’s most spectacular species. More than 70 camera operators invested more than 2,000 hours in the field videographing the series, some spending weeks at a time in some of the world’s most remote areas. More than 200 locations are featured in the series. For Mexico’s Cave of Swallows, a crew descended 1,300 feet on a single rope no thicker than a finger, taking a half hour to reach the cave site. More than 300 hours of filming were logged before capturing what Discovery officials say is the never-filmed-before 90-second mating ritual of the Blue Bird of Paradise. The Planet Earth series concludes with a full-day marathon of every episode and the presentation of the final episode on April 22, Earth Day.
The mountain lion will be explored during the March 25 episode.
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March 23, 2007
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ARCHDIOCESE OF SAN FRANCISCO OPEN POSITIONS Looking to make a difference? We, the Catholic Church of San Francisco, pledge ourselves to be a dynamic and collaborative community of faith known for its quality of leadership; richness of diversity of culture and peoples; and united in faith, hope and love. The Archdiocese of San Francisco is seeking several professional, highly talented individuals for several important positions at the Pastoral Center in San Francisco. Each position has competitive compensation with non-profit organizations, a very substantial benefits package including medical, dental and vision insurance coverage, employer-funded Pension Plan, 403B and Flexible Spending Account, generous holiday schedule and free, gated parking. TRIBUNAL CANONICAL AUDITOR ● Strong interpersonal skills, Detail Oriented person
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PLEASE SUBMIT RESUME, COVER LETTER & 2 REFERENCES BY E-MAIL ONLY TO: http://www.sfarchdiocese.org/hrjobopeneings.html Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco Office of Human Resources Attn: Patrick Schmidt, Associate Director
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2007 – 2008 CATHOLIC SCHOOL JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER POSITION
Catholic San Francisco
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Catholic San Francisco
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Catholic San Francisco
March 23, 2007
Hope for the Bereaved Many times when someone we love dies, we feel that we have died also, and that we will never come to life again. As the Seasons of the year change, so in our own time the winter of our grief opens to the budding of spring growth and the warmth of summer. Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery invites you to attend a prayer service on Holy Saturday, April 7, 2007 at 11:00 a.m. in All Saints Mausoleum Chapel msgr. Harry G. Schlitt will officiate.
This will be a time to pray, remember, reflect and find new hope on the journey of grief. Please come to remember and be comforted as you share time with others who are grieving. Mass will not be offered.
Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery The Catholic Cemeteries | Archdiocese of San Francisco Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery Santa Cruz Ave. @ Avy Ave., Menlo Park, CA 650-323-6375
Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery 1500 Mission Road, Colma, CA 650-756-2060
Mt. Olivet Catholic Cemetery 270 Los Ranchitos Road, San Rafael, CA 415-479-9020
A Tradition of Faith Throughout Our Lives.