Pope meets abuse victims, expresses shame, sorrow for their suffering
Catholic san Francisco Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper
(CNS PHOTO/ALESSANDRO BIANCHI, REUTERS)
By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service
Pope Benedict XVI arrives to celebrate Mass in Granaries Square outside St. Publius Church in Floriana, Malta, April 18. In his homily the pope said St. Paul urged his companions to confront the stormy seas by placing their complete trust in God. To save their troubled craft, they had to cast all their supplies overboard and pray God would protect them from harm, the pope said.
Holy Names Sister leaves legacy of service to Catholic education, students
VALLETTA, Malta – On a 27-hour visit to Malta, Pope Benedict XVI met with sex abuse victims, encouraged Maltese Catholics to keep the faith and walked in the footsteps of St. Paul. In the midst of a worldwide storm over how the church has handled clerical sex abuse, the pope met privately with eight local sex abuse victims April 18, assuring them the church was doing everything in its power to bring perpetrators to justice and to prevent further abuse of young people. The pope was “deeply moved by their stories and expressed his shame and sorrow over what victims and their families have suffered,” a Vatican statement said after the private encounter April 18. “He prayed with them and assured them that the church is doing, and will continue to do, all in its power to investigate allegations, to bring to justice those responsible for abuse and to implement effective measures designed to safeguard young people in the future,” the statement said. “In the spirit of his recent letter to the Catholics of Ireland, he prayed that all the victims of abuse would experience healing and reconciliation, enabling them to move forward with renewed hope,” it said. The meeting at the apostolic nunciature in Rabat came after a group of victims had asked to meet with the pope to tell him of their ordeal and ask for an apology. The encounter was not part of the pope’s official itinerary and was only announced publicly by the Vatican after it had happened. Participants said the victims cried as they told their POPE MEETS VICTIMS, page 20
Sojourn to Sacramento: the Gospel imperative of Catholic Lobby Day
By Tom Burke
By Rick DelVecchio
God opened the door to service as an educator and Holy Names Sister Marianne Viani is happy to admit she walked right through it. “God called me to this and I listened and responded,” said Sister Marianne, a Catholic school educator for more than 50 years. Sister Marianne will retire in June after 20 years as associate superintendent for curriculum and school improvement for the Archdiocese of San Francisco. “I think I always wanted to be a teacher because my childhood experience of the Sisters who taught me was wonderful. Administration just happened and I found out that I liked it and was good at it.” “The Archdiocese of San Francisco can be proud of the work accomplished and the legacy left by Sister Marianne Viani,” said Archbishop George H. Niederauer. “Sister Marianne has been tireless in her efforts as an educator and administrator.” Maureen Huntington, Superintendent of
Catholics from throughout California will converge on Sacramento next Tuesday, April 27, for the 12th annual Catholic Lobby Day, an event that enables Catholic citizens to meet with lawmakers and urge them to heed Gospel values in making policy. A bus will leave from the Pastoral Center in San Francisco at 6:30 a.m., carrying part of a diverse delegation of 75 or more Catholics from the archdiocese. They include Archbishop Riordan High School theology students, a mother and her two sons and members of the St. Dunstan Parish social awareness group. The archdiocesan group will gather with delegations from the state’s other dioceses for 10:15 a.m. Mass celebrated by Sacramento Bishop Jaime Soto, with Ned Dolejsi, executive director of the California Catholic Conference, as keynote speaker. The Mass will be followed by a march to the Capitol and a rally on the Capitol’s west steps. In the afternoon, the diocesan delegations will fan out for sessions with lawmakers or members of lawmakers’ staffs. The San Francisco group has scheduled meetings with Sen. Leland Yee, a Democrat representing San Francisco and San Mateo counties; Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, a Democrat representing San Francisco; and Assemblyman Jared Huffman, a Democrat representing Marin CATHOLIC LOBBY DAY, page 8 and southern Sonoma counties.
Holy Names Sister Marianne Viani at the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s Department of Catholic Schools. Schools for the Archdiocese of San Francisco has worked with Sister Marianne for eight years. “I have found Sister Marianne to be very professional and extremely capable,” Huntington told Catholic San Francisco. “She is a hard worker, always willing to take SISTER LEAVES LEGACY, page 7
INSIDE THIS S WEEK’S EDITION Young people and pope. . . . . 3 News in brief. . . . . . . . . . . 4-5 More apply to seminary . 10-11 Homily on Church’s failure 14
Cardinal Rosales on clergy renewal Audio interview on www.catholic-sf.org April 23, 2010
Scripture & reflection. . . . . 16
Confirmation at Epiphany Parish ~ Page 9 ~
Smithsonian exhibit: American Sisters ~ Page 12 ~
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www.catholic-sf.org VOLUME 12
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No. 14
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Catholic San Francisco
April 23, 2010
School Journalist of the Year. Ina, editor-in-chief of the school’s the broadview, said she’s been hooked on journalism since freshman year when her journalism advisor handed her a camera and “That was it.” She is aware of the profession’s “adrenaline rush” from interviewing celebrities and other newsmakers and also its “not so glamorous” side that includes sources tough to contact and deadlines. Tracy Anne Sena, the broadview adviser, said, “(Ina) is savvy, everyone trusts her, and she’s beyond reproach. I don’t think I’ve ever heard her By Tom Burke utter an unkind word or heard an unkind word said about her. I have no doubt she will continue to excel in photojournalism and find herself The Sacred Heart in exceptional circumstances Cathedral Advanced Acting because she will make them Class took a field trip to KGO happen.” Among some already TV and a live taping of the “exceptional circumstances” station’s afternoon show View are Ina’s securing official press from the Bay. Students were credentials for the 2009 inauimpressed by the immediacy of guration of President Barack on-camera work, and how a live Obama and counting among audience changes the dynamic those she’s photographed wellof the experience, the school knowns including Sen. Dianne said…. Congratulations to Feinstein, Sen. John McCain, Notre Dame Cheer of Notre and Secretary of State Hillary Dame High School, Belmont, Clinton. A $500 scholarship national cheerleading champiaccompanies the Journalist of ons for 2010. The team took the Year honor. Mighty proud is the honor at United Spirit Ina’s dad, Eamonn Herlihy…. Aileen Albertson and Jenifer Lake Association Nationals March 26 Fasting and alms giving led at Empty Bowl Dinner at On March 14th, Frances Parle Sigona was presented and 28 in Anaheim. Members the way in a Lenten art projEcole Notre Dame des Victoires. with a Papal Blessing at St. Dunstan Parish in Millbrae of the squad include Amanda ect at Ecole Notre Dame des where she has served as a catechist for more than Buchanan, Christina Goultas, Victoires in San Francisco. The 45 years. Presenting the prayerful pat on the back is Ashley Simms, captain; Jessica Velarde, Carli Tejada, Empty Bowl Soup Dinner featured ceramic soup bowls Holy Ghost Father Joe Glynn, a parochial vicar at St. Laura Forsythe, Vianca Rivas, Courtney Nichol, glazed by students and staff under the direction of art Meaghan Manos, Anna Lippert, Heather Holley, teacher, Jenifer Lake, who spearheaded the event with Dunstan. Also on hand was Fran’s husband Joe. Meagan Chin, Zoe Groff, Leslie Montano, Angela Megan Mulcahy. When money from sales of the bowls Bottarini, Rebecca DeLuna, Danielle Jow, Lauren and dinner admission were tallied, Guidotti, Lisette Palafox, and team leadership Pam some $2,300 went to Haiti Relief. Stilleson, program advi- Also on the help list were NDV’s sor; Morgan Craig, head Aileen Albertson and Rebecca coach; and Mario Crespin, Harvey as well as Sharon Hupf assistant coach. Rita who filled us in, and thanks to San Gleason is principal…. Francisco’s The Monk’s Kettle resEighth graders at Our taurant and #9 Fisherman’s Grotto Lady of Loretto School for vittles and beverages. Haitian in Novato reenacted the music, fun placemats about Haiti Passion at the parish church plus candles and flowers decorated on Good Friday. Among the church hall. “A fun time was had the ensemble were stu- by all,” Sharon said, and the hope dents Alexander Jacamo, is to do it again next year….This is Marco Martin and Tom an empty space without you. E-mail Bautista…. Always look- items and electronic pictures – jpegs ing for the scoop is at no less than 300 dpi – to burket@ St. Cecilia parishioner, sfarchdiocese.org or mail them to Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory students up close at KGO TV Ina Herlihy, a senior at Street, One Peter Yorke Way, SF Ina Herlihy and forLeah Vanderheide; View From the Bay host, Spencer Christian, Convent of the Sacred 94109. Don’t forget to add a followmer Secretary of State Isabella Betkowski, Alana Lundberg, Steven McEvoy, Heart High School and up phone number. Thank you. My Madeleine Albright John Herndon, and host, Janelle Wang. this year’s California High phone number is (415) 614-5634.
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Young people ask pope for guidance in facing their fears, doubts VALLETTA, Malta (CNS) – In an unexpected display of honesty and frankness, five young Maltese men and women spoke to Pope Benedict XVI about their hopes, doubts, and fears as well as the contradictions they sense within the Catholic Church. Their testimonies were part of a music-filled and prayerful gathering of about 40,000 young people along the Valletta waterfront April 18. The first young man on stage spoke on behalf of young people such as homosexuals, substance abusers, or children of broken or dysfunctional families who may feel marginalized by the church. He told the pope “we should be treated with more compassion – without being judged – and with more love.” Being shunned or looked down upon by some members of the Catholic community causes some young people to call God’s love into question, he said. “How can we believe that God accepts us unconditionally when his own people reject us?” he asked. Catholics who feel marginalized can experience great confusion and suffering especially when secular society seems more willing than the church to accept them and treat them with dignity, he said. “Your Holiness, what must we do?” he asked, and the crowd applauded. The next speaker, a young woman, spoke on behalf of Catholics who are active members of the church. She said faithful Catholics, “as a group, feel excluded by society.” They work to keep Catholic teaching and values alive in society even though they know that “we are consciously estranging ourselves from our contemporary culture.” She told the pope that it feels like “it is our faith itself that impedes us from entering further into dialogue with society.” Sometimes efforts to build a better world, be at the service of others and bring people closer to God feel like “a fruitless exercise,” like an unfinished building that “is far too expensive to complete,” she said. “We wish to leave our mark on the church even as we are young. Your Holiness, what must we do?” she asked. The next to speak were a young man and woman preparing to be married within the church. They said they want to have a marriage that is guided by God’s own spirit, and yet they are afraid “that life offers too many hurdles for us to live our married lives in God’s light.” A major concern, they said, was trusting completely that God would provide for their family. “We are not sure about our own interpretation of God’s providence: whether it is totally gratuitous or whether it is a form of compensation for our wisdom and prudence in raising our children,” the young woman said. “Show us the way to live our married life as a calling from God. Your Holiness, tell us, what must we do?” they asked.
(CNS PHOTO/ALESSANDRO BIANCHI, REUTERS)
By Carol Glatz
Pope Benedict XVI waves from the deck of a catamaran as he arrives to the Valletta waterfront to attend a meeting with youth in Floriana, Malta April 18.
The last young person spoke on behalf of all the young men and women preparing for consecrated life. He said God’s call to live one’s life completely for the Lord stirs up feelings of both happiness and despair. Those preparing for consecrated life are excited to be part of a community that is dedicated to building bridges with, not walls against, the modern world, he said. However, he said, they are often not taken seriously by members of society, especially at a time when there is heightened attention to “priests who fail other persons.” “It is our desire to grow closer to those who have distanced themselves from God, yet how are we to touch those hearts which are cold and suspicious?” he asked. He told the pope that the church “should be prepared to make everybody welcome, to find a place for everyone who needs it,” and invite “new people to discover God.” Yet it is hard to integrate into a society that seems to have no place for religious men and women, he said, adding “Your Holiness, what must we do?” The pope did not answer each person’s concern individually, but he gave a general response in a text that was prepared before the event, but was based on the young people’s questions. He said “every personal encounter with Jesus is an overwhelming experience of love.”
Even the hatred and anger St. Paul felt toward Christians before his conversion “was completely swept away by the power of Christ’s love,” he said. Some of the harsh words found in the writings of St. Paul may make it hard to believe that the Gospel is spreading a message of love, he said, but love means being challenged to convert, to cleanse oneself of sin and to become more perfect. “When (God) challenges us because something in our lives is displeasing to him, he is not rejecting us, but he is asking us to change and become more perfect.” The pope said: “God rejects no one. And the church rejects no one.” However, because God loves his children so completely, “he wants us to purify ourselves of our faults and build up our virtues so that we can have life in abundance.” He told the young people they should be proud that Malta “defends the unborn and promotes stable family life by saying no to abortion and divorce,” and he urged them to maintain a courageous witness to the sanctity of life and the centrality of marriage and family life in society. He also encouraged young people to fulfill their duty to show God’s love through service to others, especially toward the most vulnerable and marginalized in society. The world can learn from their Christian witness because “Gospel values are once again becoming countercultural, just as they were at the time of St. Paul,” he said.
Most Reverend George H. Niederauer Archbishop of San Francisco
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Catholic San Francisco
NEWS
April 23, 2010
in brief
Archdiocese files transfer tax suit SAN FRANCISCO – The Archdiocese of San Francisco has filed suit in San Francisco Superior Court to challenge the attempt by County Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting to impose a transfer tax on an internal reorganization of the family of Archdiocesan corporations. On January 26, 2010, the San Francisco Transfer Tax Review Board, the members of which are all City Hall administrators, issued a written administrative finding that the Archdiocese was not exempt from a transfer tax, despite the fact that the law pertaining to intra-church property transfers of this nature is overwhelmingly in favor of the Archdiocese. Among other things, the Archdiocese argues that the imposition of a transfer tax on a purely intradenominational reorganization is outside the San Francisco
ordinance, and violates the California and United States Constitutions by imposing a tax on a church for exercising its recognized constitutional rights to choose and change those civil law corporate forms that best accommodate its religious structure and needs. The Archdiocese maintains that to impose transfer taxes, penalties and interest on a religious organization in connection with an internal restructuring involving no exchange or receipt of money from which to pay any tax is inequitable and threatens to confiscate substantial Church assets that are devoted to religious purposes. The complaint asks the court, among other things, to direct the San Francisco Transfer Tax Review Board to set aside its ruling, to direct the Recorder to withdraw his notices of delinquent tax, and to award the Archdiocese its attorneys’ fees and costs.
San Jose Diocese installs solar panels SAN JOSE – What started out as parish meetings about recycling, conserving energy and eliminating water bottles has become part of a broad movement in the Diocese of San Jose, that has made green efforts a top priority, literally, by installing solar panels on the rooftops of five of its Catholic elementary schools. Solar panels also were installed this year at Gate of Heaven diocesan cemetery. As of February, solar power has been operating at all six sites and plans are under way to add more locations. According to diocesan news releases about
the installation, the current system of more than 5,000 solar panels, which cover 70,000 square feet of rooftop space, will eliminate approximately 21,000 tons of carbon dioxide in 25 years – equivalent to planting 377 acres of trees or removing 5,179 cars from the nation’s roads for one year. San Jose Bishop Patrick J. McGrath called the installation an “outstanding achievement” that “strengthens our goal of encouraging the Catholic community and all people of faith to examine how we use and share the earth’s resources.”
Holy See sponsors U.N. panel: obstacles of migrating women NEW YORK – Economically motivated migration enables people to send money home to cover their families’ basic needs, but it often has a devastating impact on both the individuals who migrate and the families they leave behind, said panelists at a United Nations event April 12. Women are particularly susceptible to violence during and after their initial flight and have a difficult time resettling in cultures where women regularly work outside the home, they said. The event, “Women in Contemporary Society: Diasporas and Families,” is the fifth in a series called “The Human Dignity of Women in Contemporary Society,” sponsored by the Holy See Mission to the United Nations, the Path to Peace Foundation and the Vincentian Center for Church and Society at St. John’s University. Earlier NEWS IN BRIEF, page 5
ORANGE, Calif. (CNS) – Retired Bishop Norman F. McFarland of Orange, who led the southern California diocese for 11 years until his 1998 retirement, died April 16 after a brief illness. He was 88. Born Feb. 21, 1922, in Martinez, Bishop McFarland was ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of San Francisco in 1946. He soon afterward earned a degree in canon law from The Catholic University of America in Washington, and returned to San Francisco to teach and to work in the archdiocesan tribunal. He was appointed an auxiliary bishop of San Francisco in 1970. Four years later, he was appointed apostolic administrator for temporal affairs for what was then known as the Diocese of Reno. By the end of the year, Bishop McFarland had been named the apostolic administrator of the diocese, and was formally installed as its bishop in March 1976. Bishop McFarland ran the diocese, renamed the Diocese of Reno-Las Vegas, for close to 11 years – freeing the diocese from all of its
debt obligations during his tenure. In 1995 the statewide Nevada diocese was split into separate dioceses of Reno and Las Vegas. In a 1993 column in his monthly diocesan newspaper, Bishop McFarland called Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical “Humanae Vitae” (“On Human Life”) “one of the great and prophetic religious happenings of the 20th century” and said it summed up the church’s “vision ... regarding marriage, family life, human sexuality and responsible parenthood.” He added the encyclical was prophetic in its message that the use of sex only for pleasure was ruinous. “We have today the highest divorce rate in American history,” he added. “Could it just possibly be that artificial contraception is not all that beneficial to the stability and happiness of marriage after all?” Also in 1993, Bishop McFarland suspended the faculties of a priest who had led a boys’ choir after former members accused the priest of having abused them. In 1988, after the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, as it was known then,
disrupted an early morning Mass inside an Orange church to arrest seven people on suspicion of being illegal aliens, Bishop McFarland said he hoped the INS “realized that they made a mistake – one that was imprudent and irresponsible. ... Mistakes are mistakes,” he said. “But if they’re repeated one has to question the motives.” In 1992, the bishop commented on politicians whose votes were not consistent with Catholic teaching, saying their conscience may lead them outside of the church. “The bottom line is that you must always follow your conscience no matter what the consequence, and this would include the possibility of a situation where your conscience did not agree with Catholic teaching,” he said. Always an astute fiscal leader, Bishop McFarland was part of a three-bishop commission appointed by Pope John Paul II in 1990 to investigate the finances of the fiscally troubled Diocese of Fresno, Calif. The year before, he was part of a team that helped the Diocese of Tucson, Ariz., cut its $22.5 million debt. In 2005, he contributed money and lent his name to a writing fellowship sponsored by Act One, which seeks to populate Hollywood
(CNS FILE PHOTO)
Retired Bishop McFarland of Orange dies at age 88
Retired Bishop Norman F. McFarland of the Diocese of Orange, who served as Auxiliary Bishop of San Francisco, died April 16 at the age of 88.
with writers who have ethical and spiritual backgrounds as well as scriptwriting skills. Bishop McFarland said at the time the fellowship reaffirmed “the church’s continuing encouragement and support of artists in all arenas.”
3HARING THE MISSION
3TRENGTHENING THE FAITH
#ONTINUING THE LEGACY
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Women religious, archbishop and bishop meet for prayer and conversation San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer and Auxiliary Bishop William Justice met with 131 women religious representing 27 congregations for an afternoon of prayer and conversation March 30 at St. Paul Parish in San Francisco. Set in the context of prayer the afternoon included reflections given by Bishop Justice on the first reading of the Palm Sunday liturgy and reflections on that same Sunday’s gospel by Archbishop Niederauer. Both presentations were followed by small group sharing among the women religious and a time when comments and questions were directed to both Archbishop Niederauer and Bishop Justice. The event was planned by Presentation Sister Rosina Conrotto, Director of the Office for Women Religious, and the
Sisters’ Council. “The purpose of the day was two-fold” said Sister Conrotto, “to have an opportunity for Archbishop Niederauer and Bishop Justice to meet the women religious of the Archdiocese and to prayerfully reflect with them on the Scriptures and to provide an opportunity for Sisters to renew acquaintances, meet new Sisters and be in conversation with one another. Happily, the afternoon achieved both goals,” she said. Up-coming events planned by the Office for Women Religious and the Sisters’ Council are area meetings. These meetings will take place in Marin County at the San Rafael Dominican Sisters’ Center on May 1; in San Francisco County at Mercy High School in San Francisco on May 2; and in San Mateo County at Vallombrosa Retreat Center on May 9. These gatherings
News in brief . . .
the South or the Appalachian and Rocky Mountain regions than the tiny islands scattered in the western Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Japan. Although these islands seem like dots on a map, David Suley, director of Catholic Home Missions for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, is determined to get them recognition from U.S. Catholics. He said U.S. Catholics “need to recognize and affirm” the Catholics in this corner of the world who are “a living presence of the church.” For two weeks in February, Suley spent time with Catholic communities in this region, accompanying Bishop Michael W. Warfel of Great Falls-Billings, Mont., chairman of the USCCB’s Subcommittee on Catholic Home Missions. During their visit, Bishop Warfel and Suley found a strong sense of faith amid challenges of isolation and, in some places, extreme poverty. The Pacific Islands are just part of the U.S. territories to benefit from the
■ Continued from page 4 sessions explored women in migration, violence against women, economic injustice and caregiving within the family. Father Jean-Pierre Ruiz, associate professor in the theology and religious studies department at St. John’s, said U.N. statistics show that the number of international migrants has grown to 214 million people a year. In more developed countries, one of every 10 people is a migrant. Father Ruiz said the statistics make a profound impression by their enormity, but “the numbers can insulate us from the human reality that underlies them,”
US Catholics reach out to Pacific Islanders WASHINGTON – When people hear of U.S. Catholic missions, they are more likely to think about churches in Alaska,
Women religious of the Archdiocese share thoughts in small groups during the afternoon of prayer and conversation with San Francisco Archbishop Niederauer.
will provide an opportunity for women religious to suggest events and gatherings they would like throughout the year as
well as provide an opportunity to share the hopes, concerns and challenges they face as women religious today.
Catholic Home Missions Appeal taking place in parishes during the April 24-25 weekend. The appeal, which funds mission dioceses throughout the United States, finances religious education; ministry training, youth ministry and basic support for poor parishes.
and to the population stricken by a strong earthquake, which caused numerous losses in human lives, injuries and enormous damage,” the pope said April 14 at the end of his weekly general audience. “I pray for the victims and am spiritually close to those people tried by such a serious calamity; for them, I implore God to relieve their suffering and give them courage in this adversity,” he said. Pope Benedict also said he hoped the international community would offer whatever assistance the Chinese need to carry out rescue work and provide emergency assistance after the quake in Qinghai province. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake registered magnitude 6.9, and Chinese officials said it destroyed some 80 percent of the houses around its epicenter.
Pope offers prayers for Chinese after earthquake VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Benedict XVI offered his prayers for the people of northwest China after a strong earthquake struck April 14, causing at least 400 deaths and leaving more than 10,000 people injured. “My thoughts go to China
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Catholic San Francisco
April 23, 2010
Manila’s Cardinal Rosales visits archdiocese
(PHOTO BY ARNE FOLKEDAL)
Cardinal Rosales with parish volunteers at St. John the Evangelist.
(PHOTOS BY RICK DELVECCHIO/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO
Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales, archbishop of Manila, the Philippines, celebrated Mass at St. Boniface Church in San Francisco on April 18 before 300 worshipers. The visit commemorated the 150th anniversary of St. Boniface Parish and in particular the life of the Filipino community in the parish. The cardinal also unveiled a five-foot-high wooden statue of St. Boniface, which was carved by Filipino artist Kid Baldemor. The statue was donated by the Filipino community of the parish in recognition of St. Boniface’s role as an open door to generations of poor and immigrant Filipinos. On April 15, at St. John the Evangelist Church in San Francisco, Cardinal Rosales prayed a Holy Hour and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament with Filipino priests of the archdiocese.
Cardinal Rosales with Filipino priests of the archdiocese after praying a Holy Hour and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament at St. John the Evangelist.
Cardinal Rosales unveiled this statue of St. Boniface at St. Boniface Church in San Francisco.
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Catholic San Francisco
April 23, 2010
Sister leaves legacy . . .
Sister Marianne stays very busy
■ Continued from cover on new challenges, and eager to do what is in the best interest of our students, teachers, principals, and schools. “Sister Marianne has a great sense of humor, is fun to be with, and enjoys a good party! We will miss her easy laughter, quick wit and concern for others. I wish her a long and healthy retirement filled with many opportunities to travel and enjoy this next chapter in her life. ” Dominican Sister Glenn Anne McPhee, chancellor for the Diocese of Oakland, served as superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of San Francisco for 14 years from 1986 – 2001. “Sister Marianne is one of the finest Catholic School educators that I have been privileged to work with,” Sister Glenn Anne said. “In the late 1980’s I asked her to come to the Department of Education in the Archdiocese. Hers was a reluctant yes with a one year qualifier. She had succeeded me in the position I left in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles when I came to San Francisco. Daily, she has faithfully served all in the Catholic elementary and secondary schools in the Archdiocese of San Francisco and beyond. Catholic education has been strengthened by her commitment to excellence.” Catholic schools are permeated by moral and ethical values, according to Sister Marianne. “The USCCB’s 2005 statement on Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools in the Third Millennium says ‘Catholic schools afford the fullest and best opportunity to realize the fourfold purpose of Christian education, namely to provide an atmosphere in which the Gospel message is proclaimed, community in Christ is experienced, service to our sisters and brothers is the norm, and thanksgiving and worship of our God is cultivated.’ This is what is great about Catholic education!” The education landscape has changed, Sister Marianne pointed out. “Many family structures have changed so the sup-
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port that parents used to give educators has changed, sometimes in non positive ways,” Sister Marianne said, noting “both public and Catholic schools have taken on far more responsibility for the care of children, especially before and after school.” The emphasis on a safe environment for children is “a modern day reality in all schools,” she said. Sister Marianne said focus on the arts in education has resulted in a “far more rounded student.” In addition to her service in Los Angeles, Sister Marianne served as Community Supervisor for the Sisters of the Holy Names, as teacher and principal of San Francisco’s nowclosed St. Joseph Elementary School, and as a member of the faculty at St. Anselm Elementary School in Ross. She is a graduate of Oakland’s Sacred Heart Elementary School, Holy Names High School, and Holy Names University. “One of the greatest challenges, especially in the current economic climate, is keeping our Catholic schools, particularly in urban areas, available, accessible and affordable,” Sister Marianne said. ”I worry about the future of our inner city Catholic schools.” “God planted the seed of my Religious vocation very early and I responded. It’s a wonderful, challenging life rooted in community. The Sisters of the Holy Names formed me early on and continue to do so.” Sister Marianne’s best moments have included “serving God’s children, forming their parents, working with a multitude of colleagues, and expanding my horizon.” The future, she said, “holds a bit more free time to enjoy family, community and friends while continuing to keep my attention on Catholic education.” Like many religious and clergy who “retire,” Sister Marianne will not be leaving the education scene completely. “I will be working about 10 hours a week on the WCEA/WASC accreditation piece of the job,” she said.
During her 20 years in the Catholic Schools Department of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, Holy names Sister Marianne Viani was instrumental in starting the annual Choral Festival for elementary school students and the annual junior high Academic Decathlon. She is the Elementary and Secondary Commissioner for accreditations and does all of the accreditation training for chairs and teams as well as coordinates all of the Accreditation Visiting Teams for schools in the Archdiocese of San Francisco each year. She also chairs teams each year even traveling to other countries to do so. Sister Marianne started an Archdiocesan Staff Development Committee to provide ongoing systemic professional development for all Catholic school teachers and administrators and plans a full day in-service for all teachers, K -12 every year. She worked with the Archdiocese of San Francisco High School Curriculum directors to develop an Archdiocesan wide curriculum for all 14 secondary schools. She has been responsible for updating elementary curriculum and works with teams of teachers and principals to conduct the research on curricular changes and identify new instructional materials. A different content area is addressed each year. Sister Marianne coordinated the development of an Archdiocesan Report Card for elementary schools. She conducts school visits and works with teachers and principals on school improvement needs as identified by the accreditation process. Sister Marianne Viani will be honored at several events: • April 27th by the Council of Catholic High School Administrators • May 13th by school principals of the Archdiocese of San Francisco • May 28th by the Department of Catholic School of the Archdiocese of San Francisco For those she’s served with, Sister Marianne says, “Continue to give your very best to your students, their parents and families, your colleagues, your Church, and, most specially your God.” For those entering the education arena, she advises, “Know you are doing the work of Jesus, teaching his little and not so little ones. Put love, energy and laughter into it every day!”
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Catholic San Francisco
April 23, 2010
Catholic Lobby Day . . .
“We let people share personal stories,” said Monica Landeros, associate director of the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s Office of Public Policy and Social Concerns. “We ■ Continued from cover emphasize to make that human connection.” Legislators are impressed when they hear such stories The delegates will discuss legislative and budget issues that top the policy agenda of the CCC, the state bishops’ from hundreds of Catholics, especially when Catholic lobbying arm. The legislative issues include food aid for the themes are repeated by thousands of other Catholics who poor, sentencing policies for juvenile offenders, financial aid support Lobby Day by sending e-mail messages, Landeros for qualified students regardless of immigration status and said. For Father Patrick Donovan, CSSp, associate pastor at St. budget priorities. The budget issues focus on aid to the poor and disabled as a use of funds strongly supported by Catholic Dunstan and a Lobby Day delegate from the parish, affordable housing is an urgent social teaching and on aid social concern. He knows for family-planning orgaCatholic Lobby Day is about that in the parish community nizations that provide aborthere are many housebound tions as a use of funds that is elderly people who cannot opposed to the catechetical standing up for being Catholic go shopping or to Mass. If principle that human life transportation were available must be respected from the in a friendly, firm way. to them, their quality of life moment of conception. improve. Catholics have a moral – Kathy Fourre, would For Kathy Fourre, a obligation to participate of Church of the in the political process, Church of the Epiphany member Epiphany in San Francisco, according to Church teachLobby Day is a chance to put ing and guidance by the into action the civics lessons U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The guideposts for faithful citizenship are the seven she learned when she was growing up. “I was taught that it was our duty to vote, and that that was themes of Catholic social teaching: life and dignity of the human person; call to family, community and participation; how we controlled the government. Many of us felt we really rights and responsibilities; option for the poor and vulner- could not influence our legislators, that they were ignoring able; the dignity of work and the rights of workers; solidarity; us,” she said. “Only gradually did I realize that these people do care, but they really need to hear from us all the time, to and care for God’s creation. Lobby Day participants are encouraged to tell lawmak- know what is really important to us. Catholic Lobby Day is ers how these principles make a difference in the lives of about influencing our legislators. It is also about standing up for being Catholic in a friendly, firm way.” people they know.
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Lobby Day issues at a glance AB 1642 (Beall, D-San Jose) This bill would aid food-stamp recipients, who are primarily households with children, by moving the frequency of required reports to every six months instead of once a quarter. SB 399 (Yee, D-San Francisco) This bill would allow for the review and resentencing of some youth who were sentenced to life without parole for crimes committed before the age of 18. SB 1460 (Cedillo, D-Los Angeles) This bill would allow California high-school graduates who have been accepted into a California college – both U.S. citizens and undocumented – to apply for state financial aid. Abortion funding California Planned Parenthood received at least a third of its funds from taxpayers and performed one-quarter of all the abortions in California last year. Catholic social teaching opposes funding for organizations that provide abortions. Source: California Catholic Conference For John Ahlbach, who teaches theology at Riordan High School, this will be the tenth Lobby Day he has attended with his students. “I love the combination of solidarity, witness and prayer,” he said. “The testimonies, given by the victims of the injustices we are there to alleviate, are very powerful, as is the liturgy we celebrate together. I will never forget one student leaned over to me during Mass one year and said: ‘I didn’t know liturgy could be like this.’ My students come back feeling they have shared people’s suffering and wanting to tell others what they’ve learned. “Before we go home, I always make it a point to connect the injustices of the present with those of the past by taking the students to visit the California Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Capitol grounds,” Albach said. “It lists, by the city and town each person was from, the 5,800 Californians who died in that war.”
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April 23, 2010
Catholic San Francisco
9
Confirmation Mass at Church of the Epiphany
(PHOTOS BY JOSE LUIS AGUIRRE/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)
Archbishop George H. Niederauer confirmed 108 young adults April 17 at Church of the Epiphany in San Francisco. Epiphany pastor Father Eugene Tungol presented the candidates. The gifts of bread and wine were presented by four newly confirmed: Mark Anthony Arcia, Jamie Kaye Gulpo, Teanna Hart and Jorge A. Urroz Jr. Five newly confirmed greeted the celebrant in the sign of peace: Maricris Garrett, Jocyl Montero, Marissa Ramirez, Christian Rivas and Gabrielle Villanueva. The readers were Janessa Sabugo, Kevin Zamora and Rhiannon Soriano-Smith.
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Catholic San Francisco
✝
April 23, 2010
VOCATIONS
✝
More men applying to enter St. Patrick Seminary at Menlo Park Seminary rector knows holiness key to priesthood By Valerie Schmalz
Seminarians study in the library at St. Patrick Seminary and University. Ninety two men are currently enrolled from 16 dioceses and two religious institutions at the Menlo Park school.
By Valerie Schmalz Are the men applying to the seminary getting younger? Local anecdotal evidence indicates that may be the case, but national statistics do not yet show a defining trend. However, at St. Patrick Seminary and University in Menlo Park, the number of men in their 20s and early 30s applying to the seminary is up. “For the first time in many years we have had many men in their 20s considering St. Patrick’s,” said Father James L. McKearney, the Sulpician priest who was installed last year as rector and president of St. Patrick Seminary. The Archdiocese of San Francisco, 15 other dioceses, and two religious orders educate seminarians to become priests at St. Patrick’s. Two men will be ordained for the Archdiocese of San Francisco this year. Eleven of the 17 men studying for the priesthood in the Archdiocese are enrolled at the seminary. Ninety-two seminarians are currently enrolled at St. Patrick’s.
SOCIETY OF MARY
Seventy percent of all men in the seminary are 35 or younger, with 52 percent under 30, said Sulpician Father Thomas Ulshafer, U.S. provincial of the Sulpicians, who teach at the Menlo Park seminary, and two others in the U.S. About half of St. Patrick’s seminarians are Asian, of Filipino or Vietnamese ancestry, said Father Vincent Bui, dean of students and a Sulpician. Most are bilingual and many are trilingual, Father Bui said, reflecting the ethnic makeup of the Western states. Fifteen percent of St. Patrick’s seminarians are Caucasian, and 35 percent are from Africa and Latin America, mostly Colombia, Mexico, and Costa Rica. Eighty-five percent of the Asian seminarians are foreign born, many immigrants and some recruited by American dioceses, Father Bui said. In the 1960s, about 80 percent of seminarians were in their 20s, but by the ‘80s and ‘90s, many more priests were “second career” priests, said Father Ulshafer. The average age of seminarians expected to be ordained in May and June is 33, said Mary Gautier, senior researcher at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. Are seminarians getting younger? “It could be, but it’s too early to tell,” Gautier said. There is a slight increase in younger seminarians and the number of men in pre-theology programs is up, but other factors, such as older men needing to get enough philosophy for the theology graduate degree required for ordination are also in play, she said. How do men decide to be priests? “God calls. Priesthood chooses the man, he doesn’t choose the priesthood. He chooses to respond to it,” Archdiocese of San Francisco Director of Vocations Father Thomas Daly said. In eight years as vocations director, “What I‘ve seen is very talented
So GOD, what do YOU want ME to do for YOU?
Called by Mary To live, pray, and serve the Church and the world In the community which bears her name
maristsociety.org Discernment Days April 24 & May 15, 2010
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The new rector and president at St. Patrick Seminary and University in Menlo Park understands how hard it is to answer the call to become a priest. Sulpician Father James L. McKearney, who was installed as rector last year, was a music major and then worked as music therapist at an institution in Southbury, Connecticut, with children who had profound levels of retardation. “It was very Sulpician Father rewarding and helped James L. McKearney me to run away from the Lord’s call, which had always been there, to become a priest,” says Father McKearney, who says as the fourth of five children and the only boy he led a charmed life as a youngster. Eventually, at age 28, Father McKearney entered a diocesan seminary and eventually became a Sulpician. The Sulpicians are the only order in the world devoted to educating diocesan priests. Founded in 1641 in France, the order was invited to come to the United States in 1790 by the first U.S. bishop, John Carroll, and runs three seminaries in the U.S. today. Father McKearney said he sees his job the way the founder of the Sulpicians, Fr. Jean Jacques Olier, envisioned it. “In order to have holy people you have to have holy priests,” said Father McKearney, noting that in the years after the Council of Trent (1545-1563), when the first Sulpician seminary was founded in 1641, “there was a lot of debauchery just like in our own times, within the clergy.” Many priests in the 17th century were poorly educated as well. Father Olier “felt it was very, very important to form good and holy priests for the Church in order that the people maintain the holiness that their hearts’ desire as well,” said the seminary president. “That’s our basic philosophy. Holy priests equal holy people and the people of God in their holiness in turn make priests holy, calling us to the best we can be.”
young men who thought they had another path in life, engineering, teaching, accounting. There was this stirring there; this restlessness that came and someone asked them, ‘have you thought of the priesthood?’” “They see from their college years their various options to ST. PATRICK SEMINARY, page 11
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VOCATIONS
11
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â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Class of 2010â&#x20AC;&#x2122; ordination members bring education, job and life experience to ministry The vast majority (92 percent) of men being ordained to the priesthood report some kind of full-time work experience prior to entering the seminary, most often in education. Three in five (60 percent) of the men to be ordained this year completed college before choosing the priesthood, with one in five (20 percent) also receiving a graduate degree. One in three (34 percent) entered the seminary while in college. The median age for the ordination class of 2010 is 33. The youngest member of the Class of 2010 is 25; 11 men are being ordained at the age of 65 or older. On average, men were 18 when they first considered their vocation. This analysis is part of â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Class of 2010: Survey of Ordinands to the Priesthood,â&#x20AC;? an annual national survey of men being ordained priests, conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), a Georgetown
University-based research center. The entire report can be found at www.usccb.org/ vocations/classof2010, as well as on the new www.ForYourVocation.org which is set to launch on April 25, Good Shepherd Sunday and the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. The survey was commissioned by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). â&#x20AC;&#x153;One important trend evident in this study is the importance of lifelong formation and engagement in the Catholic faith,â&#x20AC;? said Cardinal Sean P. Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Malley of Boston, chairman of the U.S. Bishopsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations. He noted that, along with their education and work experience, half to three-quarters of the Class of 2010 report they served as an altar server, lector, extraordinary minister of holy Communion or other parish ministry. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Most ordinands have been Catholic since birth,â&#x20AC;? said Cardinal Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Malley, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Four
St. Patrick Seminary . . .
ministry, and he praised the Kairos, Agape and Ethos retreat programs for helping teens tackle questions of spirituality, responsibility and what God has called each to do in his or her life. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I would encourage every parish to do everything in their power to create good programs for youth,â&#x20AC;? said Father Bui, and he said with World Youth Day in Madrid, Spain, in 2011, â&#x20AC;&#x153;If possible, if every parish can sponsor several kids for that, that would be a good way to promote vocations.â&#x20AC;? Personal invitation to the priesthood is key because often a young man cannot believe he would have a vocation, said Father Ulshafer, noting that when high school students visit St. Maryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Seminary in Baltimore, a student will sometimes whisper in his ear, as though it is something out of the realm of possibility, â&#x20AC;&#x153;I sometimes think I should be a priest.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Why would anyone want to be priest? Because God calls them to be a priest,â&#x20AC;? Father Daly said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think when people see normal young
â&#x2013; Continued from page 10 go this way and that in secular society. They have just said, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;no, I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to go down that road,â&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;? said Father McKearney. Most applications come in during the summer, but this year already 19 have applied, as many as normally apply in the summer, the seminary president said. Many vocations come from World Youth Day and from parish youth ministry experiences, says Father Bui. â&#x20AC;&#x153;World Youth Day creates an opportunity for young people to get together not only locally but internationally and to energize them and let them know that the Church cares for them and the Church has an interest in their gifts and potential,â&#x20AC;? Father Bui said. Coming from his experience working with youth in parishes in the San Jose Diocese, Father Bui says he would encourage every parish to have an active youth
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Listen, O my son, to the teaching of your masterâ&#x20AC;Ś.â&#x20AC;? (Rule of St. Benedict, Prologue) Come then and live as a monk following the Rule of St. Benedict in the Trappist-Cistercian Tradition
in five report that both their parents are Catholic. Almost eight in 10 were encouraged to consider the priesthood by a priest. This speaks to the essential role the whole Church has to play in fostering vocations.â&#x20AC;? The survey had a response rate of approximately 77 percent of the 440 potential ordinands reported by theologates, houses of formation, dioceses, and religious institutes. They included 291 men being ordained for dioceses and 48 for religious orders, such as the Jesuits, Dominicans and Franciscans. In other findings, CARA reported: â&#x20AC;˘ Close to two in five (37 percent) have a relative who is a priest or religious. â&#x20AC;˘ Two thirds report regularly praying the rosary (67 percent) and participating in Eucharistic Adoration (65 percent) before entering seminary. â&#x20AC;˘ More than half of the men to be ordained (55 percent) report having more than two siblings, while one-quarter (24
percent) report having five or more siblings. Two in five (38 percent) are the oldest child in their family. â&#x20AC;˘ Seven in 10 report their primary race or ethnicity as Caucasian/European American/ white (70 percent). Compared to the adult Catholic population of the United States, ordinands were more likely to be Asian or Pacific Islander (10 percent of responding ordinands), but less likely to be Hispanic/ Latino (13 percent). Compared to diocesan ordinands, religious ordinands are less likely to report their race or ethnicity as Caucasian/ European American/white. â&#x20AC;˘ Nearly one-third (31 percent) of the ordination class of 2010 was born outside the United States, the largest numbers coming from Mexico, Colombia, the Philippines, Poland and Vietnam. Between 20 and 30 percent of ordinands to the diocesan priesthood for each of the last 10 years were born outside the United States.
Seminarians traditionally participate in a variety of picnic type activities during Community Day, held near the start of the school year at St. Patrick Seminary.
guys becoming priests, men they would have seen as their sons or their sons in law â&#x20AC;&#x201C; I think it renews peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s faith,â&#x20AC;? said Father Daly. He noted that parents are sometimes the biggest obstacle to a man accepting a vocation to the priesthood. Men considering a call to be a priest may be discouraged by their families who see the sacrifice of priesthood, without the great joy it brings. Father Daly cites Jesusâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; commission to his disciples in Lukeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Gospel (10: 1-9): â&#x20AC;&#x153;The harvest is great, the laborers are few. Pray the harvest master will send more laborers.â&#x20AC;?
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Two things we get from that,â&#x20AC;? says Father Daly. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a shortage so thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll never be enough. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s given us the first plan of action â&#x20AC;&#x201C; We pray. We encourage the people to pray, thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all Jesus asked us to do. Then we do our part, we encourage parentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; support, we have seminaries that teach what the Church teaches, and we have priests taking seriously Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s call to shepherd Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s people. To be holy, to lay down your life for Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s people. Because really priesthood is about relying on Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s grace but it is also about self sacrifice, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s about self discipline. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s about showing our people just how much God loves them.â&#x20AC;?
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April 23, 2010
VOCATIONS
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By Chaz Muth WASHINGTON (CNS) – A gallery at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington has taken on a mystical quality in the form of an exhibit called “Women & Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America.” The S. Dillon Ripley Center at the Smithsonian Institution holds more than a few nun’s habits and artifacts. The exhibit also features state-of-the-art multimedia images, photos and historic narratives depicting the impact Catholic sisters have had in the U.S. “It’s really amazing to see all they’ve done for our country,” Smithsonian spokeswoman Becky Haberacker told Catholic News Service on a recent tour. “It’s also really interesting to find out how rugged they are. That just isn’t something I imagined before when I thought about nuns.” For nearly 300 years communities of U.S. women religious have had a lasting place in the American social and cultural landscape and this new traveling exhibit honors their work and showcases their role in American society. The exhibit includes an 1804 letter from President Thomas Jefferson to an Ursuline nun, braided corn husk shoes worn by pioneer sisters, the nurse’s bag of a nun used
during the Civil War and student work from the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first all-black community. During the tour, Sister Annmarie Sanders – a Sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary who is communications director for the Leadership Conference of Women Religious – spoke of her pride in her organization’s role in assembling the traveling exhibit. Sister Annmarie also beamed when she talked about the women featured in the exhibit. “So if people come to the exhibit, they would meet sisters who have been doctors, lawyers and women who did incredible things in the early days who served the immigrant population in ways that people probably never dreamed possible,” she said. Perceptions of women religious 300 years ago, and today, are often not accurate, Sister Annmarie said. “So, we think this exhibit would show another side to what the public might normally perceive as the life of Catholic Sisters.” People who come to see the exhibit will learn that 12 Catholic Sisters arrived in New Orleans in 1727 eager to begin their work in what was considered the “New World.” In the subsequent centuries, the nuns have established hospitals, schools, universities, homeless shelters and orphanages, while
(CNS PHOTO COURTESY OF WOMEN & SPIRIT EXHIBIT)
Smithsonian exhibit shows past and present impact of Catholic Sisters in America
providing countless other social services to millions of people in the U.S., said Sister Mary Waskowiak, president of the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, who also was involved in launching the exhibit. “The fact that almost a quarter of a million women, as religious sisters, have shaped the life and culture of, I believe both the Catholic Church and American society,” is an amazing contribution, Sister Mary told CNS. “A quarter of a million people who felt called,” she said, “and as I think about these women whom I have read about, I see their stories and I know, some of them are alive today, for me they are women who cared and women who dared.”
This photo showing a contemporary Catholic Sister in education is part of the “Women & Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America” exhibit, which includes stories of Sisters’ involvement and ministry in parishes and schools, child care and senior care, hospitals and healthcare, social justice and civil rights, peace and the environment.
The “Women & Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America” exhibit was first displayed last May in Cincinnati, then moved to Dallas in September, before coming to the International Gallery in the Smithsonian’s Ripley Center in January. After the exhibit wraps up in Washington later this month, it travels to the Statue of Liberty National Monument/Ellis Island Immigration Museum in New York from Sept. 24 to Jan. 22. Then it moves to the Mississippi River Museum in Dubuque, Iowa, where it will be from February to April 2011. The exhibition’s Web site is www.womenandspirit.org.
Theology After Hours JJST-SCU is now offering evening/weekend graduate courses and degree programs for working professionals, part-time students or people already in ministry. Vocations Director: Sr. Marcia Krause, OP Email: vocations@msjdominicans.org Initial Contact: Sr. Pauline Bouton, OP Cell: 510.789.7079 www.msjdominicans.org
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April 23, 2010
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Catholic San Francisco
VOCATIONS
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“Year for Priests”
Juan Alejo Theology III
Rev. Mr.Wade Bjerke Theology IV
Rogelio Castaneda Pre Theology I
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Mill Valley
St. Anthony - Menlo Park
John Chung Theology III
St. Francis of Assisi East Palo Alto
St. Hilary - Tiburon
Roger Gustafson Theology I
Andrew Ginter Pre Theology II
Cameron Faller College IV
St Patricks - Larkspur
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St. Charles - San Francisco
Manolito Jaldon Jr. College IV St. Stephen San Francisco
Dat Nguyen Theology III
Felix Lim Pastoral Year
Jerome M. Murphy
Saint Francis of Assisi East Palo Alto
St. Raymond - Menlo Park
Thomas V. Martin Theology II
Theology III
St. Sebastian - Kentfield
Rev. Mr. David Schunk Theology IV
Andrew Spyrow Theology I
St. Anthony - Novato
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Epiphany San Francisco
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Archdiocese of San Francisco
Tony Vallecillo Theology I Holy Name of Jesus San Francisco
Father Thomas A. Daly Office of Vocations Archdiocese of San Francisco
Archdiocese of San Francisco 1 Peter Yorke Way San Francisco, CA 94109 415.614.5683
John 15:16 “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you…” Please pray for our seminarians.... and for an increase in vocations to the priesthood and religious life.
Archdiocese of San Francisco Father Thomas A. Daly Office of Vocations
One Peter Yorke Way San Francisco, CA 94109 (415) 614-5683
Please pray for our seminarians . . . . and for an increase in vocations to the priesthood and religious life.
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Catholic San Francisco
April 23, 2010
Archbishop’s Journal
A pastor’s homily on the Church’s failure In recent weeks the issue of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy has been in the news, with an emphasis this time around on Europe and on accusations leveled at Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI. The Catholic Church in this country has learned that, in this matter, the first two concerns must be the healing of victims and the protection of children. For eight years now that has been our special concentration as a Church. Still, the present media storm has also caused dismay and confusion for Catholics and non-Catholics as well. I have asked the editor of Catholic San Francisco to reprint the following homily delivered by Rev. Msgr. Robert McElroy, Pastor of St. Gregory Parish, San Mateo, on April 11, 2010, Divine Mercy Sunday. To be sure, Msgr. McElroy did not do the impossible by addressing all the significant aspects of this complex issue within one homily. However, he did address three key questions in a clear and balanced way: 1) How could good men have moved previous offenders into other parishes? 2) What has changed in the approach of U.S. bishops in the protection of children and young people against such abuse? 3) What are we to think of the Pope’s role in these matters? I thank Msgr. McElroy for sharing this text with the Catholics of the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
I
n today’s Gospel the risen Christ appears to the very disciples who had betrayed him in the greatest crisis of his life, and reveals the immensity of God’s unending mercy and forgiveness. For Jesus’ first words to those who had so fully abandoned him were not condemnation and recrimination, but the magnificently consoling “peace be with you.” As if to underscore that God’s measure of judgment is fundamentally different from our own, the Lord uses this moment of reunion with the disciples to bestow the continuing gift of the Sacrament of Penance upon the Church. In our very sinfulness God reveals once more the limitless nature of divine mercy.
The core failure of the Church on the issue of child abuse prevention is that during the last century significant number of bishops reassigned priests to positions in the service of the Church even after these individuals had been proven to have molested minors. Typically on this first Sunday after Easter, the Gospel reminds us that in our own personal failings we find reconciliation through the grace of God. But on this particular Divine Mercy Sunday, the need for God’s mercy upon the whole of the Church seems especially apparent. For the Church itself stands guilty of sin in its past care for the protection of children from sexual abuse, and while we know that the Church as an institution both human and divine does sin, it is particularly painful to wrestle with the Church’s failure in this critical area of its life. But as people of faith we must wrestle with this failure and understand its origins and dimensions. Let us begin with the facts. The core failure of the Church on the issue of child abuse prevention is that during the last century significant number of bishops reassigned priests to positions in the service of the Church even after these individuals had been proven to have molested minors. How could this have happened? How could good men possibly have reassigned those who had been shown to have victimized children in their pasts? I believe that the failure to protect children in our Church arose not from callousness or indifference, but from the fact that for too many years the Church looked at cases of molestation through two defective lenses which have distorted its ability to address the abuse of children in a Christlike manner: the lens of psychological illness and the lens of forgiveness. These defective lenses were not confined to the Church by any means; they existed in society as a whole and created corresponding grave errors in the way in which other major social institutions – schools, families, the psychological professions and the justice system – dealt with the abuse of children. But the reality that our other major institutions also failed children is not a defense of the Church in this matter. For the Church is certainly called in a transcendent way to witness to how children should be treated in our world, and it failed in this call for far too many years. The lens of psychological illness led bishops and the Church to primarily approach the abuse of children as a mental illness of the abuser. During the period from 1950 to 1980 leading members of the psychological community told bishops that those who had abused children could frequently, with proper therapy, be healed so that they no longer posed a threat to children. By the 1980’s therapists no longer stated that abusers had been healed, but many therapists still advised bishops that abusers could safely be reassigned to positions which did not involve children, especially if their initial abuse had been linked to alcohol. As late as 1996 I remember the Archbishop receiving a letter from a prominent therapist who stated that a priest who had molested four minors could be safely reassigned with appropriate safeguards. The Archbishop did not reassign him. For the simple fact is that there are no adequate safeguards sufficient to prevent a priest or layperson who has abused from being a threat to minors in the active
ministerial life of the Church. The defect of the therapeutic lens is that it is client based – it focuses on the person who is ill rather than upon his potential victims. And thus it led bishops to reassign in the false belief that the best knowledge which society had to offer indicated that there was not substantial risk to children. The second defective lens which distorted the Church’s handling of child abuse allegations was the lens of forgiveness. The manifest mercy of God reflected in today’s Gospel is a foundation for the entire life of the Church, and many who had abused minors pleaded that this had been the only instance of their failing, and that of all institutions the Church should place forgiveness at the center of its decisions. Bishops, priests and lay leaders were often drawn into this psychology of forgiveness as the pathway for dealing with cases of abuse. Sadly, this tendency was all too often deepened by the fact that decision makers often knew those guilty of abuse well, knew that they had other, splendid human and spiritual qualities, and typically did not know their victims. Forgiveness is a magnificent quality. But forgiveness can become a distortion when it is separated from justice. The Church was far from the only institution in which an ethic of forgiveness contorted justice on issues of the abuse of children. Indeed, forgiveness is often the lens through which families deal with genuine cases of sexual abuse. Families are told that they must forgive and put behind them the acts of abusers even when those abusers still constitute a threat to children within the family. Forgiveness in such cases is not Christlike; it is irresponsible, whether within the Church or the life of the family.
… the failure to protect children in our Church arose not from callousness or indifference, but from the fact that for too many years the Church looked at cases of molestation through two defective lenses which have distorted its ability to address the abuse of children in a Christlike manner: the lens of psychological illness and the lens of forgiveness. Eight years ago, the bishops of the United States dramatically discarded the lenses of mental illness and forgiveness as primary prisms through which to judge cases involving the abuse of minors and replaced them with the only lens which should guide our Church, our schools, our legal system and our families in confronting this searing issue: the prism of an overriding focus on the protection of the young. The bishops established lay independent review boards with professional investigative resources to review and judge all allegations of abuse by priests, religious and lay employees or volunteers in the Church. In addition, the bishops removed all priests, religious and laity who had been found to have sexually abused minors from any public ministry in the life of the Church. They began comprehensive programs to educate children for self-protection, understanding that it is imperative for children to recognize the insidious methods which abusers often use to initiate their patterns of victimization. Finally, the Church now does background checks on both employees and volunteers who regularly work with children in the life of the Church; many of you present today have undergone such background checks, as have I. As the American bishops sought approval and implementation for these dramatic changes from the Vatican, there was one man who more than any other championed their cause: Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who is now Pope Benedict XVI. Because Cardinal Ratzinger had been given in 2001 the job of examining the issue of sexual abuse within the Church,
Archbishop George H. Niederauer
he had already come to reject vehemently the lenses of mental illness and forgiveness which had hobbled the Church’s efforts to combat what he termed “moral filth” in the life of the Church. And he has become the most ardent advocate for genuine reform on this issue in the Church throughout the world. Recent criticisms of the Pope’s past actions seem to me to reflect more western culture’s preoccupation with finding flaws in institutions and their leaders, at the expense of the wider truth that the current Pope has been the Church’s most vigorous exponent of reform in the global Church and has paid a heavy price for doing so. It is fair to criticize the Pope for actions that he personally took; it is not fair to condemn his moral character for actions in either the Archdiocese of Munich or the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for which he was not responsible. We as Catholics are called to love our Church. That love also means recognizing that the Church is flawed. On the issue of abuse, the Church too often failed in its responsibilities to protect Christ’s little ones. Moreover, shame over the existence of abuse within the ranks of the priesthood led to a culture of secrecy and concealment that massively compounded this failure and resulted in additional grievous harm to children. The fact that these failures were also shared by other faiths and other societal institutions does not lessen the Church’s sin. Nor does the fact that the Church’s failures in this critical area of its life were often motivated by the mistaken belief that healing and forgiveness should govern the handling of abuse claims. Eight years ago the Church in the United States faced its failure and revolutionized its handling of abuse allegations. Now the Universal Church is doing the same. We should pray for the Church as it does so. We should accept that criticism in the press and society which is truly motivated by a fair-minded and balanced approach to the handling of child abuse, and reject that criticism which singles out the Catholic Church as the only object of criticism for a problem which tragically permeates our society as a whole. And we should be consoled that the risen Lord stands constantly in our midst, calling us to continuing conversion and assuring us that he will always be present to his Church in times of its greatest need. Homily by Msgr. Robert McElroy, pastor, St. Gregory Church, San Mateo, April 11, 2010.
Msgr. Robert McElroy
Eight years ago, the bishops of the United States dramatically discarded the lenses of mental illness and forgiveness as primary prisms through which to judge cases involving the abuse of minors and replaced them with the only lens which should guide our Church, our schools, our legal system and our families in confronting this searing issue: the prism of an overriding focus on the protection of the young
April 23, 2010
Catholic San Francisco
15
Seminarian’s Perspective
It is the priesthood of Christ we all share Recent headlines about the sexual abuse crisis in the Church are so overwhelming that one can’t seem to escape them even if one is not a news junkie. As a seminarian for five years and a future priest within one year, this issue is particularly personal to me. I hope that by writing this commentary, you would see how the abuse issue may impact a young man’s life as he prepares to enter ministry. We are proud of our Catholic tradition; if not, we would probably no longer remain Catholics. Sometimes we are so proud of our tradition, and because of pride, we have a defensive tendency whenever the Church is being exposed for its faults. We quickly compare this type of exposure to Christ’s persecution. Although this sounds plausible for people of faith, it doesn’t make any sense for anyone else. Yes, Christ was persecuted and killed, yet he was innocent. In contrast, the Church made mistakes, or committed crimes, depending on how you look at the abuse issue. Once we stop comparing a crisis in our Church, no matter how grave it is, to the redemptive work of Christ, dialogue and truth will lead to reform. Reform, without a doubt, is happening faster than what the media is telling us. For example, when I applied to the seminary, I had to take a thorough physical examination by a medical doctor, a psychological evaluation by a psychologist-therapist, two interviews with the archbishop and seminary, as well as receiving recommendations from both clergy and lay people. We
want to make sure our candidates are capable of having a family and that celibacy is a conscious decision, not a default because of physical or psychological defects. We had to pass a training course on sexual abuse and attend workshops dealing with the abuse issue. It’s tragic that some in the priesthood committed the most despicable crime and sin involving minors. We should be vigilant, not hysterical, by training children in our parishes so they can be aware of what is going on. Sometimes, hysteria sets in and the church is accused of focusing too much on the issue, and parents might feel their children are receiving training in an area that should be reserved for parents. I am aware of many reform-oriented Catholic groups that call for the repeal of mandatory celibacy in the priesthood as one solution to the abuse crisis. Statistically, abuse happens at a higher percentage in the general population, and it doesn’t limit itself to unmarried persons. The repeal of celibacy argument is invalid and unsound. The solutions, perhaps, are better formation of seminarians, stricter enforcement of the law, and on-going spiritual training for our priests. Personally, I don’t see the Church forcing me to become a celibate before I get ordained, but rather, I believe I can live a healthy and holy celibate life, and the Church invites me to consider a vocation to the priesthood. As I approach ordination, I don’t see a halo glowing above my head, yet I see a dark storm gathering. I pray that this dark storm of the abuse scandal would turn into
a big rain of holy water, to wash away the filth in the church and in my heart. After the rain, the Easter flowers of the priesthood may blossom and give fragrance to a world seeking for meaning and in need Dat Nguyen of the Resurrection. In the Gospel of Luke, the angels asked the women, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen…” (Lk 24:5). We are a Church of hope and of the Resurrection. We should not look for the meaning of the priesthood among the headlines, but we should look at Christ, because we have “such a high priest, holy, blameless, unstained, separated from sinners, [and] exalted above the heavens” (Heb 7:26). It’s the priesthood of Christ we all share, both clergy and laity in our own ways, and it’s this priesthood of Christ that inspires me to continue in my formation in the seminary. Dat Nguyen is studying for the priesthood at St. Patrick Seminary in Menlo Park. He will be ordained a transitional deacon in June.
Guest Commentary Some facts to remember in clergy sexual abuse discussions There are a lot more myths than facts bantered around about clergy sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Here are six important points you don’t hear about in discussions regarding sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. 1. Catholic clergy aren’t more likely to abuse children than other clergy or men in general. According to the best available data (which is pretty good mostly coming from a comprehensive report by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in 2004 as well as several other studies), 4 percent of Catholic priests in the USA sexually victimized minors during the past half century. No evidence has been published at this time that states that this number is higher than clergy from other religious traditions. The 4 percent figure is lower than school teachers (at 5 percent) during the same time frame and perhaps as much as half of the numbers of the general population of men. Research states that 17 percent of American women and 12 percent of American men were sexually violated when they were children by an adult. Sexual victimization is tragically fairly common in the general population but luckily these numbers have been dropping in recent years. 2. Clergy sexual abuse in the Catholic Church can’t be blamed on celibacy. Not having sex doesn’t make children the object of one’s desire. First, if Catholic clergy aren’t more likely to be sex offenders than other clergy or men in general, then celibacy can’t be blamed by itself. Most sex offenders are not celibate clergy. Most are married or partnered. Furthermore, many men who don’t have sex for a variety of reasons (e.g., no suitable partners, marital or relationship distress) don’t turn to children for sexual gratification. They turn to other consenting adults. Think about it: If you don’t have sex who becomes the object of your desire? Children or other adults? 3. Clergy sexual abuse in the Catholic Church can’t be blamed on homosexuality. Although the vast majority of victims are boys (80 percent according to the 2004 John Jay study and other studies) and the Catholic Church has a large number of priests who are homosexual in orientation, homosexuality doesn’t make men sex offenders. No evidence exists that suggest that sexual orientation, in and of itself, makes someone at risk to commit sex crimes against children or others. Sexual orientation is not a risk factor for crime. 4. Clergy sexual abuse in the Catholic Church can’t be blamed on an all male clergy. If Catholic clergy aren’t more likely to be sex offenders than other clergy from other traditions, then an all male clergy can’t be blamed. Having women clergy doesn’t stop sex offenders from offending. 5. Almost all of clergy sexual abuse cases in the Catholic Church that we hear about in the news are from decades ago (usually the 1960’s and 70’s). Although these stories are horrific to hear, they are
almost never about incidents that occurred since the late 1980’s. Incidents of abuse in the past 20 to 25 years are quite rare compared to incidents during the 60’s and 70’s. This is also true for other groups such as school teachers. Incidents since the 2002 crisis in the USA unfolded are especially rare. Most of the more recent cases are from international priests who were both born and formed (i.e., trained and ordained) overseas who generally didn’t go through the screening and training process that local men go through. Some argue that more recent victims (i.e., since the mid 1980’s) just haven’t come forward yet. Perhaps that is true but thus far no published data supports this theory. 6. Most clergy sex offenders aren’t pedophiles. Research tells us that about 80 percent of clergy sex offenders abuse post pubescent teens, not pre pubescent children. So, the phrase “pedophile priest” is a misnomer. You might say that it doesn’t matter. Both categories involve victimizing minors. True, but the risk factor profile as well as the evaluation and treatment prognosis is much different between the two groups. Besides, while people may be worried about young children being victimized they may neglect the more likely victim, the teen.
We all may have particular beliefs and perspectives about the causes, contexts, nature, and scope of clergy sexual abuse in the Church but we should be informed by empirical quality data and reason. Perhaps the real issue here is that many are outraged with Church leaders (especially bishops) whom they believe have been defensive and arrogant. People demand responsibility and accountability and they don’t see it happening. Clearly, some Church leaders treated victims and their families very poorly. For many rank-and-file Catholics who often put priests on a pedestal, it is shocking to hear that some of these men have sexually violated anyone, let alone children. The Church’s unpopular positions on sexual ethics (e.g., masturbation, contraception, homosexuality, divorce) make sex crimes committed by priests even more scandalous. The secrecy and otherworldliness of the Catholic Church also make the story of child sexual abuse committed by priests of great interest to the media and to the general population. Finally, many of the 25 percent of Americans who are Catholic have ambivalent feelings about their Church
to begin with even before the clergy abuse crisis unfolded. Many who were raised in the Church during previous generations have deeply emotional stories of priests and nuns who had impossibly high standards for thought Thomas and behavior which G. Plante makes stories of clergy sexually violating children so hypocritical. Perhaps the Gospel verse “he who is without sin may cast the first stone” from John 8:7 sums up this sentiment. Let me be very clear. The sexual victimization of children by priests (or by anyone for that matter) is inexcusable. Church officials protecting offenders rather than victims is also inexcusable. There is much to be angry about. Many get even more upset when accountability and responsibility in the Church doesn’t seem to occur. Many reasonable and thoughtful people argue that the Catholic Church should allow married men, women, and those who are homosexual to be ordained as priests and deacons (as the Episcopals do) to prevent clergy abuse from occurring. But the current data on clergy abuse just doesn’t seem to support these arguments. Perhaps future data will change current findings but you have to go with the best available data to inform one’s thinking now. The recent clergy abuse stories coming out of Europe and South America are not surprising but we have to be reasoned, letting good data and logic inform us rather than relying on myths, anger, and hysteria. If someone (or some group) has empirical data that can contradict the six points mentioned above, please present it and let it be subjected to academic peer review. We all may have particular beliefs and perspectives about the causes, contexts, nature, and scope of clergy sexual abuse in the Church but we should be informed by empirical quality data and reason. Thomas G. Plante, Ph.D., ABPP, is professor of psychology at Santa Clara University and adjunct clinical associate professor of psychiatry and behavior sciences at Stanford School of Medicine. He is the author of “Sin against the Innocents: Sexual Abuse by Priests and the role of the Catholic Church” (2004) and “Bless Me Father for I Have Sinned: Perspectives on Sexual Abuse Committed by Roman Catholic Priests” (1999). The commentary above was published in the March 24, 2010 issue of Psychology Today.
Catholic San Francisco
A READING FROM THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES ACTS 13:14, 43-52 Paul and Barnabas continued on from Perga and reached Antioch in Pisidia. On the sabbath they entered the synagogue and took their seats. Many Jews and worshipers who were converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who spoke to them and urged them to remain faithful to the grace of God. On the following sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and with violent abuse contradicted what Paul said. Both Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first, but since you reject it and condemn yourselves as unworthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, I have made you a light to the Gentiles, that you may be an instrument of salvation to the ends of the earth. The Gentiles were delighted when they heard this and glorified the word of the Lord. All who were destined for eternal life came to believe, and the word of the Lord continued to spread through the whole region. The Jews, however, incited the women of prominence who were worshipers and the leading men of the city, stirred up a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their territory. So they shook the dust from their feet in protest against them, and went to Iconium. The disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.
April 23, 2010
Fourth Sunday of Easter Acts 13:14, 43-52; Psalm 100:1-2, 3, 5; Revelations 7:9, 14b-17; John 10:27-30 RESPONSORIAL PSALM PS 100:1-2, 3, 5 R. We are his people, the sheep of his flock. Sing joyfully to the Lord, all you lands; serve the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful song. R. We are his people, the sheep of his flock. Know that the Lord is God; he made us, his we are; his people, the flock he tends. R. We are his people, the sheep of his flock. The Lord is good: his kindness endures forever, and his faithfulness, to all generations. R. We are his people, the sheep of his flock.
before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. Then one of the elders said to me, “These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
A READING FROM THE BOOK OF REVELATIONS REV 7:9, 14B-17 I, John, had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue. They stood
A
n elderly gentleman had been having hearing problems for many years. Finally he sought the help of a Hearing Aids Specialist who fitted him with a fine set of hearing aids that allowed him to hear 100 percent. Testing him after a month, the specialist said: “Your hearing is perfect. Your family must be really delighted that you can hear again.” The man replied, ‘Oh, I haven’t told my family yet. I just sit around and listen to the conversations. I’ve changed my will three times!’” Hearing others can be a gift and a challenge. It can change our lives – and our decisions. When it comes to the person who matters most in our lives, don’t we have the extra desire and longing to hear that person’s voice? Could that person be Jesus Christ? What would it be like to hear his voice? Would it be like the soulful music filling our being with pure delight? Could hearing his voice change our life? Would Jesus disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed? Would we alter our decisions in light of the call of Christ? In the Gospel, the Good Shepherd is certain that his sheep hear his voice. We cannot be his followers and be deaf to his voice. Because Jesus knows us and we hear his voice, we follow him. His voice has that irresistible effect on us. On hearing his voice, we choose to change our will! Letting go of our will, we let the Shepherd take control of our lives, as he will fulfill our deepest desire for immortality: “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.”
Scripture reflection FATHER CHARLES PUTHOTA
‘I give them eternal life, and they shall not perish’ In the Rite of Acceptance, the RCIA candidates are asked: What do you ask of God’s Church? The answer: “Faith.” The next question is: What does faith offer you? The answer: “Eternal life.” It is eternal life that we long for in the deepest sense. We are in this world for the long haul of eternal life. The Shepherd offers us the eternal life here and now. This is the insight of the Easter season. This everlasting life, as the Gospel affirms, is made possible because the Father and Jesus are one. So we too shall become one with the Father and the Son. Such will be the intimacy
“For this reason they stand before God’s throne and worship him day and night in his temple. The one who sits on the throne will shelter them. They will not hunger or thirst anymore, nor will the sun or any heat strike them. For the Lamb who is in the center of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of life-giving water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” A READING FROM THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN JN 10:27-30 Jesus said: “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”
(CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING)
16
of the union now and the beatific vision for all eternity. All this eternal blessing can spring from the simple act of our hearing the voice of the Good Shepherd in our heart and soul. There were those who refused to hear the voice of Jesus on account of their jealousy and hatred, as shown in the Acts of the Apostles. However, there were others who were ready to change their will and embrace the way, the truth and the life of the Good Shepherd. Jesus seeks out those who would hear his voice “from every nation, race, people, and tongue,” as Revelation indicates. The uni-
Resurrection of Christ is depicted in a mosaic at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. Easter.
versality of his call is obvious: ‘Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.” The whole world is challenged to respond to the call of Christ: to know and follow him and thus find the fulfillment of their destiny – the eternal life. The followers, “the sheep of his flock,” will stand “before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.” Having survived suffering and evil, “they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” The blood of Christ turns their robes white, purifying and making them worthy of eternal life. Jesus speaks and we follow him. He dies and we live. He rises and we have eternal life. He will lead us to the “springs of life-giving water.” This Easter season, the Lamb slain and risen from the dead speaks to us a fresh new language of tender love and undying hope. Hearing his voice in the clarity of our hearts would be a challenge because of other voices clamoring for our attention and allegiance. Having heard his voice, though, we will change our will. We will align ourselves with him and see the new and fullness of life only he can give us. As Albert Schweitzer suggests: “Day by day we should weigh what we have granted to the spirit of the world against what we have denied to the spirit of Jesus, in thought and especially in deed.” Father Charles Puthota, Ph.D., is pastor of St. Veronica Parish in South San Francisco.
Spirituality for Today
The mysterious work of the Holy Spirit By Father John Catoir There are about 68 million Catholics in the United States. Southern Baptists number about 16 million, while Methodists, in size, are next at nearly 8 million. In view of the fact that about 30 million Catholics left the Church in the last 30 years, they might be considered the second largest denomination in America, more numerous than the next five denominations combined. I wonder how the Holy Spirit cares for the 30 million Catholics who have left the Church. In a world where there is so much danger, one worries about the spiritual well-being of so many. Nevertheless, it comforts me to know that the Holy Spirit of love never stops caring. In the book and film, “The Secret Life of Bees,” a young white girl is sheltered in the home of a Southern black family.
The family had an ancestor who was Catholic, and each night the family recites the rosary. The girl, played by Dakota Fanning, thinks about the words, “Hail Mary, full of grace.” She concludes that it must be some kind of Catholic saying. She then asks the mother, played by Queen Latifah, if she is Catholic. The mother answers, “Well, yes and no. My mother was a good Catholic. ... My father was an orthodox eclectic.” The girl muses, “I had no idea what sort of denomination orthodox eclectic was, but I nodded like we had a big group of them back” home. The mother continued, “May and June and I take our mother’s Catholicism and mixed in our own ingredients. I’m not sure what you call it, but it suits us.” I wonder how many lapsed Catholics have kept elements of their faith alive. No doubt millions of them have. All lapsed
Catholics and ex-Catholics are still members of the mystical body of Christ; therefore, the Holy Spirit is still guiding and protecting them in ways they don’t even understand. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that all of God’s children are members of Christ’s body: the good and the bad, the believers and the atheists, and everyone in between. They are all part of the mystical body of Christ. So many interesting things happen as a result of this spiritual bonding. For example, Dorothy Day, an American who devoted her life to the poor and is now being considered for canonization, was born the third child of non-practicing Christian parents. We pray for all those who have separated themselves from the Catholic Church. They are still our brothers and sisters under the care of the Holy Spirit. By the mysterious grace of God we are all one.
April 23, 2010
Catholic San Francisco
17
Spirituality for Life
Living with frustration and tension Among William Blake’s infamous Proverbs from Hell we find this one: Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires. There are subtle layers of meaning to this, but on the surface it speaks volumes, especially for our generation. Today we are for the most part congenitally unwilling and existentially unable to carry tension for long periods of time, to live with frustration, to accept incompleteness, to be at peace with the circumstances of our lives, to be comfortable inside our own skins, and to live without consummation in the face of sexual desire. Of course, in the end, we do not have a choice. We are not above our humanity and simply have to accept and live with the tensions of incompleteness, but we struggle to do so without bitter impatience, pathological restlessness, and all kinds of compensatory activities. Emotionally and morally, this is our Achilles heel. Our generation has some wonderful emotional and moral qualities, but patience, chastity, contentment with the limits of circumstance, and the capacity to nobly live out tension are not our strengths. The effects of this can be seen everywhere, not least inside of our struggle to be faithful to our relational commitments. We have made life-long commitment in marriage very difficult because we find it hard to accept that any marriage, no matter how good, cannot take away our loneliness. We have desacralized sexuality and severed its link to marriage because we are unable accept sex as limited to a marriage commitment. We have basically rendered consecrated celibacy existentially impossible because no one, we feel, can be expected to carry sexual tension for a lifetime. And, most painful of all, we have sown a deep restlessness inside of ourselves because, in our incapacity to accept the incompleteness of our lives,
we torture ourselves with the thought that we are missing out on life, that we should not have to live with so much incompleteness, and that the full symphony for which we so deeply long should already be ours. And the fault is not entirely our own. Much of it lies with those who were supposed to prepare us for life and did not give us the emotional and psychological tools to more naturally and nobly accept life’s innate frustrations and the conscriptive asceticism that brings with it. More simply, too many of us were not taught that life is hard, that we have to spend most of it waiting in one kind of frustration or other, and that this is the natural state of things. Too many of us were given a false set of expectations. We were given the impression that indeed we could have it all, clear-cut joy without a shadow and full intimacy without frustration or distance. Worse still, many of us were not given the simple, basic permission to live in frustration, that is, to feel okay about ourselves and about our lives even when for the most part we are frustrated. We were not given permission to accept that frustration is natural, the normal state of things, and that it is okay to accept ourselves and our lives as they are and find joy and happiness inside of them, in spite of the frustrations. I’m still part of the generation whose moral and religious elders gave us this permission. I got this from my parents who, deeply schooled in the concept of original sin, understood themselves as “mourning and weeping in a valley of tears.” This, rather stoic, perspective which believes that on this side of eternity all joy comes with a shadow, did not make them morbid. The opposite, it gave them permission to accept the limits of their lives and the circumstances of their lives and, paradoxically, find joy in the imperfect precisely because they were
not expecting the perfect. They understood that it is normal to be frustrated, to not have everything you want, to have to live in incompleteness, and to accept that in this life we will experience more hunFather ger than satiation. Ron Rolheiser Most of us will have to learn this the hard way, through bitter experience, through tears, and through a lot of restlessness from which we might be spared if we already knew that hunger, not satiation, is what is normal. As Karl Rahner famously puts it: In the torment of the insufficiency of everything attainable we finally learn that here in this life all symphonies must remain unfinished. Wisdom and maturity invariably do find us and life eventually turns each of us into an ascetic. We may kick against the goad for a while, like a child kicking against a mother’s restraining arms, but eventually we tire, stop wailing, and accept the restraints, though not always peacefully. But it can be peaceful, if we accept that frustration is normal. And so I would amend Blake’s proverb: Better to murder an infant in its cradle … unless you give that child a realistic set of expectations with which to deal with unrequited desire and frustration. Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser, theologian, teacher, and author, is president of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, TX.
This Catholic’s View
The Catholic Church and the media The media is being attacked by some defenders of Pope Benedict who feel that its coverage of the sex abuse crisis is unfair. Do some reporters do a sloppy job reporting? Sure. Are some commentators over the top in their rhetoric? Sure. When the argument is between the New York Times and the Catholic Church, it may simply be one infallible institution taking on another. But let’s be honest. The Church has rarely been helpful in covering the sex abuse story, and without the media coverage, the Church would not have cleaned up its act. The Church owes a debt of gratitude to the media, especially the National Catholic Reporter, which was on this story from the mid-1980s, long before the Boston Globe. In addition, attacking the media is a stupid PR strategy that does not work; in fact it is counterproductive. It makes the Church look defensive and makes it look like the Church is trying to play down the problem of abuse. Calling the news coverage petty gossip or comparable to anti-Semitism is disastrous; it is pouring gasoline on the fire. More and more individual cases are making headlines as lawyers leak information to the media or documents are released by the courts. In these news stories, it is extremely important for the reporters and their audiences to pay attention to the timelines in the cases. Here are some questions that need to be asked and answered when looking at concrete cases. 1. When did the abuse take place? Most cases of abuse in the United States being reported by the media today occurred decades ago. We know from the 2004 study by the John Jay School of Criminology that the number of alleged abuses increased in the 1960’s, peaked in the 70’s, declined in the 80’s and by the 90’s had returned to the levels of the 1950’s. If the date of the abuse is buried at the end of the story, the superficial reader may think it is a recent case. 2. When was the abuse reported to the diocese? One of the tragedies of the sexual abuse crisis is that victims because of their age and vulnerability do not come forward right away. Some never come forward because they do not want their families, friends or acquaintances to know. As a result, not even the church knew the extent of the abuse. According to the John Jay report, one-third of the accusations were made in the years 2002-3. Two-thirds have been reported since 1993. “Thus, prior to 1993, only one-third of cases were known to Church officials,” says the report. The Church should be blamed for what it knew but can it be blamed for what it did not know? 3. Did the priest abuse again after he was first reported to the diocese?
Most accused priests (56 percent) according to the John Jay report had only one accusation against them. On the other hand, the 149 serial abusers (those who abused 10 or more children) were responsible for 27 percent of the abuse. That these serial abusers were not dealt with more quickly is unconscionable. 4. How long was it from the time the abuse was reported to the diocese to the time that the priest was suspended from ministry? In order to protect children, it is essential that abusive priests be quickly removed from ministry (not allowed to wear clerics, celebrate mass or the sacraments in public, present himself as a priest or work with children). The U.S. Bishops’ 2002 Dallas Charter requires that an accused priest be suspended while an investigation is conducted. Prior to 1985, most bishops handled these cases poorly. They got bad advice from lawyers and psychologists; they believed the priest when he said he would never do it again; they were focused on protecting the Church instead of protecting children. Some bishops learned faster than others that this was an inappropriate response. After the bishops issued their guidelines in 1992, most bishops did better but some like Cardinal Law ignored the guidelines. Although only Law resigned, most of the bishops who did a bad job prior to 1992 are no longer in charge of dioceses because bishops retire at 75 years of age. 5. How long was it from the time the abuse was reported to the diocese to the time that the priest was reported to the police? According to the 2002 Dallas Charter norms, the diocese “will comply with all applicable civil laws with respect to the reporting of allegations of sexual abuse of minors to civil authorities and will cooperate in their investigation.” Most dioceses have gone further and report allegations even if it is not required by law. The diocese also “will advise and support a person’s right to make a report to public authorities.” Often the police will not investigate the crime because it is past the statute of limitations. 6. How long was it from the time the abuse was reported to the diocese to the time that the diocese reported it to the Vatican? In 2001, Pope John Paul II mandated that if there is sufficient evidence that sexual abuse of a minor has occurred, the case should be reported to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In some cases, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Benedict XVI) is being taken to task when he was not notified of the cases for years and sometimes decades after the diocese knew.
7. How long did the canonical process take to determine the innocence or guilt of the accused? If it is not finished, at what stage is it? The canon law of the Church, like the Father American criminal justice system, has proce- Thomas J. Reese dures for due process. Due process can take time under both systems. Cases where the evidence is overwhelming or the priest confesses can be dealt with expeditiously. Cases where it is one person’s word against another are difficult. Despite all its resources of money and expertise, the American criminal justice system too frequently convicts the innocent and frees the guilty. It has difficulty dealing with cases of rape and sexual harassment where it is one person’s word against another. It should not be surprising that the church is not perfect with such cases either. The Vatican website has a description, in layman’s terms, of the process for handling accusations of sexual abuse. For ongoing cases, the Church needs to be transparent in describing at what point in the process the case is. 8. What punishment was applied to the guilty and when? The 2002 norms approved by the Vatican state that the offending priest “will be removed permanently from ecclesiastical ministry, not excluding dismissal from the clerical state, if the case so warrants.” They state that the penalty of dismissal might not be applied “for reasons of advanced age or infirmity.” In theory, dismissal from the priesthood (defrocking, forced laicization) can be distinguished from suspension from ministry. As long as the priest observes the conditions of his suspension, children should be safe. Children may in fact be safer when a priest is suspended and confined to a monastery under supervision than they would be if he is dismissed and thrown out on the streets with the Church washing its hands of him. But dismissal may be necessary to show victims and others that the diocese believes the accusation and has responded appropriately. It may also help in the healing process for victims. Jesuit Father Thomas J. Reese is a Senior Fellow at Woodstock Theological Center, Georgetown University and the former editor of America.
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Catholic San Francisco
April 23, 2010
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19
Good Shepherd Sunday Marking the World Day of Prayer for Vocations in the Year for Priests By Father Thaddeus Noel G. Laput On April 25, the Fourth Sunday of Easter, the Catholic Church commemorates the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. This Sunday also is called Good Shepherd Sunday as the Gospel readings for this day in the three-year cycle of readings (Jn 10:1-10.; Jn 10: 11-18; and for this year: Jn 10:27-30) portray Jesus as speaking of himself as the Good Shepherd. In 1963 Pope Paul VI designated this Sunday to be the World Day of Prayer for Vocations to invite everyone to pray for faithfulness to oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vocation in life and to pray that those discerning their vocation may listen to the voice of God and be guided by it. In this â&#x20AC;&#x153;Year for Priestsâ&#x20AC;? proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI, the Church on this special Sunday has the timely opportunity to reflect in more depth about the vocation to the ordained priesthood. Reflecting on the image of the Good Shepherd, we take this occasion to examine a recent Church teaching on the priesthood which often is missed by many except by those involved in priestly formation, mostly in seminaries. To hopefully gain a richer understanding of the vocation and identity of priests, we turn to Pastores Dabo Vobis (PDV), Pope John Paul IIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 1992 Apostolic Exhortation on Priestly Formation, which resulted out of the 1990 Synod of Bishops that discussed the same topic. The opening line of PDV comes from Jeremiah: â&#x20AC;&#x153;I will give you shepherds after my own heartâ&#x20AC;? (Jer 3:15), hence the Latin title, Pastores Dabo Vobis, â&#x20AC;&#x153;I Will Give You Shepherds.â&#x20AC;? As this is substantially about the formation of seminarians and priests, the document devotes four of its six chapters to the topic: the challenges facing priestly formation (Ch. 1); vocational ministry in the context of the Churchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work (Ch, 4); the formation of seminarians (Ch. 5), and the continuing
formation of priests (Ch, 6). But PDV is not just a seminary document as two of its chapters discuss â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Nature and Mission of the Ministerial Priesthoodâ&#x20AC;? (Ch. 2) and â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Spiritual Life of the Priestâ&#x20AC;? (Ch. 3). The title of the document highlights Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s promise to provide shepherds to care for his people. This Sundayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Gospel readings in its three-year cycle about Jesus as the Good Shepherd appropriately develop this overarching theme in PDV and provide its biblical foundation. Here we also see the documentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s primary image of priests as shepherds of the flock of God. Pope John Paul II refers to priests as shepherds, in Latin pastores. Images play an important function in all religious matters. They underlie much of our theological reflection as it deals with mystery. We use images when we speak of the Church, for example, as the People of God, the Body of Christ, and the Temple of the Holy Spirit. Likewise, we also need images to speak of the ordained priesthood. We turn to images to express the mystery of the priesthood to focus the peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s thinking and expectations regarding the priesthood and so mold the priestâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s identity. By portraying the priest as shepherd, PDV emphasizes the pastoral nature of the ordained ministry. Priests are ordained to serve and be men for others. By the grace of ordination, the priest is configured to
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closely signified the biblical images of shepherd and flock. The Latin word, pastor, which means â&#x20AC;&#x153;shepherd,â&#x20AC;? long ago evolved into the English word â&#x20AC;&#x153;pastor,â&#x20AC;? a term applied to priests in relation to the parish or people which they serve, to bishops in relation to their diocese, and to the Pope as the shepherd of the universal Church. The word â&#x20AC;&#x153;pastorâ&#x20AC;? is related to and implies the term â&#x20AC;&#x153;congregation,â&#x20AC;? which stems from two Latin words, grex, meaning â&#x20AC;&#x153;flock,â&#x20AC;? and cam, meaning â&#x20AC;&#x153;withâ&#x20AC;? or â&#x20AC;&#x153;together.â&#x20AC;? A congregation is therefore a flock gathered together, and its servant-leader is a shepherd, pastor or priest. We cannot conclude without mentioning the raging priest sexual abuse and episcopal cover-up crisis which engulfs the Church worldwide. A relatively small number of priests and bishops have let Christ and the Church down. Similar to the context of Jeremiah, some, who were supposed to be shepherds taking care of the flock, have instead been fleecing them. During this World Day of Prayer for Vocations, all of us are encouraged to pray then for the faithfulness of all priests just as everybody is to be faithful to oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vocation in life. In this â&#x20AC;&#x153;Year for Priests,â&#x20AC;? each one is especially invited to pray that more young men who are discerning their vocation may hear and generously respond to the particular call of Jesus Christ the Good Shepherd for them to become the futureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s good and faithful priests. Father Thaddeus Noel G. Laput is parochial vicar Our Lady of Mercy Church, Daly City.
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Jesus Christ the Good Shepherd. By this, the priest shares in the threefold service of Christ: the ministries of word, of sacrament, and of pastoral charity. Here PDV alters the traditional language of the threefold â&#x20AC;&#x153;powersâ&#x20AC;? (Latin, munera) of the priest reflecting that of Christâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s: teaching (prophetic); consecrating (priestly); and governing (kingly). â&#x20AC;&#x153;Pastoral charityâ&#x20AC;? is introduced to take the place of â&#x20AC;&#x153;governingâ&#x20AC;? to explain the function of the priest which better mirrors the image of a shepherd. Pope John Paul II explains the image of the priest as shepherd of the flock by citing its biblical foundation. Aside from the exhortationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s title, he takes this from another passage from Jeremiah which presents Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s promise: â&#x20AC;&#x153;I will set shepherds over them (my sheep) who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayedâ&#x20AC;? (Jer 23:4). The definitive fulfillment of this promise is Jesus Christ the Good Shepherd (Jn 10). Moreover as â&#x20AC;&#x153;the great shepherd of the sheepâ&#x20AC;? (Heb 13:20), Jesus â&#x20AC;&#x153;entrusted to the apostles and their successors the ministry of shepherding Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s flockâ&#x20AC;? (Jn 21:15ff; 1 Pt 5:2)... The ordained priesthood has always
Glory Tours will be happy to serve you For individuals you may join the ff. public tours:
OBERAMMERGAU PASSION PLAY Germany with Rome, Assisi, Florence, Shroud of Turin, Switzerland May 6-17, 2010 (12 days) â&#x20AC;˘ Estimated cost of tour: $3,390 land only, Air cost: $850+air taxes TBD
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OBERAMMERGAU PASSION PLAY GERMANY w/ CZECH REPUBLIC, SWITZERLAND
Berlin, Prague, Munich, Oberammergau, Vaduz, Lucerne, Zurich June 15-26, 2010 (12 days) â&#x20AC;˘ Estimated cost of tour: $3,390 Land only, Air cost: $850+air taxes TBD *****************************************************************************
OBERAMMERGAU PASSION PLAY GERMANY W/ AUSTRIA, CZECH REPUBLIC, POLAND
Salzburg, Prague, Krakow, Divine Mercy-Wadowice, Czestochowa-Warsaw May 28-June 8, 2010 (12 days) â&#x20AC;˘ Estimated cost of tour: $3,390 land portion only, Air cost $850+taxes TBD *****************************************************************************
FOLLOW THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST.PAUL JOIN US ON A PILGRAMAGE TOUR TO GREECE & TURKEY
Spiritual Directors: Rev. Fr. Hieu & Fr. Zibi Fraszezak, Pastor, St. Joachim Catholic Church
GREECE, GREEK ISLANDS CRUISE & TURKEY, NOVEMBER 6-17, 2010 TOUR PRICE $2,990, PORT CHARGES $95 PLUS AIRLINE TAXES $350
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Catholic San Francisco
April 23, 2010
Pope meets victims . . .
(CNS PHOTO/TONY GENTILE, REUTERS)
ists before the trip that any eventual meeting with abuse victims would not be announced in advance and would take place out of the media ■ Continued from cover spotlight to guarantee “the real chance of listenstories, and that the pope had tears in his eyes ing and private conversation.” During his public events in Malta, the pope as he listened. “We now have peace in our hearts, even did not refer explicitly to the problem of the because the pope found time to meet us. We sexual abuse of minors by priests. He did make now look forward to the end of the court case, two subtle references to the problem when he and closure of this chapter,” one unidentified spoke to journalists aboard the papal flight from Rome to Malta. victims told the Times of Malta. Speaking about the vitality of the Catholic The Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, told journalists that the faith in Malta, he said even when the body of private meeting in the chapel of the nunciature the church “is wounded by our sins, God loves lasted about 20 minutes. He said the pope, this church, and its Gospel is the true force that Archbishop Paul Cremona of Malta, Bishop purifies and heals.” He then spoke of Mario Grech of Gozo how St. Paul turned the and eight male victragedy of being shiptims of abuse began wrecked on Malta into the encounter kneela positive opportunity ing in silent prayer. when he decided to heal The pope then the sick and preach the stood by the altar power of Christ. Out of and met with each tragedy can come a new victim one by one beginning and “life’s to hear his story shipwrecks can be part and to speak with of God’s plan for us each privately, Father and they may also be Lombardi said. The useful for new beginvictims were in their nings in our lives,” the 30s and 40s, Father pope said. Lombardi said. Father Lombardi At the end of told journalists aboard the meeting, particithe plane that the pants said a prayer pope’s comments were together in Maltese in reference to the sex and the pope blessed abuse crisis facing the the victims. One church. victim said the pope Welcoming gave each of them a Pope Benedict XVI holds his crosier as the pope at Malta’s rosary and promised he celebrates Mass in Granaries international airport them they would be Square in Floriana, Malta, April 18. April 17, President in his prayers. George Abela said One of the victims, Lawrence Grech, told the Maltese paper “the Catholic church remains committed to that the two bishops with them shed tears during safeguarding children and all vulnerable people, their meeting. Another said the pope had tears and to seeing that there is no hiding place for those who seek to do harm.” in his eyes. “It is therefore the church and even the state’s “I admire the pope for his courage in meeting us. He was embarrassed by the failings of duty to work hand in hand to issue directives and enact legislation so that effective, transparent others,” said Grech. Grech, one of the victims who had asked for mechanisms are set up, together with harmothe papal meeting, has said he and others were nized and expeditious procedures in order to abused as boys by four priests at the St. Joseph curb cases of abuse so that justice will not only be done but seen to be done,” he said. Orphanage in Santa Venera. A group of 10 victims announced April 16 The meeting came after the pope returned from a public Mass to the nunciature, where he that they had been granted a meeting with the has been staying during his April 17-18 pilgrim- promoter of justice in the Congregation for the age to Malta. Father Lombardi had told journal- Doctrine of the Faith, Msgr. Charles Scicluna.
Year of the Priest: How is being a priest like being a businessman?
Jesus’ words to troubled disciples can guide us, archbishop says who walk faithfully with the Lord in a time of searing and seismic testing.” Archbishop Quinn also offered the example of a number of priests whose lives were worthy of emulation, including Father Emil Kapaun, a priest of the Diocese of Wichita, Kan., who died as a prisoner of war during the Korean War; Divine Word Father Joseph Guetzloe, who went voluntarily with his Japanese-American parishioners when they were relocated to internment camps during World War II; and Father Stanley Rother, a priest of the Oklahoma City Archdiocese who returned to Guatemala despite death threats and was killed there. Like those priests, “there are humble, faithful priests expending their talents and energies in serving Christ and his people everywhere in the United States,” he said. “I have seen them.” But he said upheaval in the church might make priests today ask the question broached by Father Karl Rahner years ago: “Why would a modern man want to become or to remain a priest today?” “The deepest and most enduring reason why a modern man would want to become and to remain a priest is the person of Jesus Christ,” Archbishop Quinn said. “If our love for Jesus Christ is truly genuine, then there must stir within us the desire to be like him.” The archbishop also recalled the words of St. John of the Cross during “a similar time of disaster for the church”: “The Lord in every age has always revealed the treasures of his wisdom and his Spirit. But in these times when the face of evil bares itself more and more, so does the Lord bare his treasures more.”
By Catholic News Service HOUSTON – Jesus’ words to his “very troubled and confused disciples” before his passion and death offer guidance today at “a perilous and critical point in the life of the church,” Archbishop Emeritus John R. Quinn told participants in the National Federation of Priests’ Councils convention April 13. The retired archbishop of San Francisco spoke about “Christ present in the darkness” during the annual NFPC meeting April 12-15 in Houston. Saying that “the great works of God have been accomplished in darkness,” Archbishop Quinn cited chapters 14-17 of the Gospel of John as containing the words that should guide priests and the church today. Jesus “begins by giving them a forthright commandment: ‘You are not to let your hearts be troubled,’” the archbishop said. “This is not an exhortation. It is a command.” Jesus tells his disciples that “in the trouble and the crisis they confront, where disaster seems inevitable and there is no solution, with the Father and the Spirit he will be with them,” Archbishop Quinn said. “This is how the Bible teaches us to persevere in darkness and in trial.” He acknowledged that priests are “the ones who meet the angry or confused or troubled people at the Sunday Masses in your parishes and missions” and the ones “whose hearts break at the anguish of our people over the robbed innocence of their children.” He called U.S. priests today “a body of men who do not seek praise or acclaim and The meeting with the monsignor, who handles the cases local dioceses have brought against allegedly abusive priests, was to take place sometime in June at the Vatican. Grech said of the planned meeting at the Vatican: “This is very good news for us. It shows that the Maltese church and now the Vatican are now taking our case and our pain seriously.” In an extensive interview with the Times of Malta April 11, Msgr. Scicluna, who is from Malta, said the church is still “on a learning curve” concerning the handling of sex abuse allegations and that they “should learn to do things more expeditiously.” “I think that efforts to render the process more transparent will only help the church,” he said.
He said the doctrinal congregation has had to deal with “the frustration some of them (cases of abuse) made us feel because justice was not meted out as it should be.” Justice has not always been served, he said, “because of a misplaced sense of protection of the institution; the mentality that you don’t criticize the clergy because otherwise you’re going to betray the institution,” he said. The fear of criticizing exists on all levels within the church and includes “even the inability of certain people to denounce abuse against minors,” he said. There is “a culture of silence” in Italy, he added, but that same culture of not speaking out about abuse exists in all parts of the world.
SCRIPTURE SEARCH Gospel for April 25, 2010 Acts 13:14, 43-52 Following is a word search based on the first reading for the Fourth Sunday of Easter, Cycle C: Paul and Barnabas proclaim Christ in Antioch. The words can be found in all directions in the puzzle.
What can a retired Wall Street executive, mutual fund pioneer, and father of six kids tell us about the Catholic priesthood? Quite a lot in fact, when he’s a priest himself. Fr. Andrew Johnson of San Francisco’s St. Thomas More parish, shares a unique perspective on the “Year of the Priest”. Before his ordination in 2004, he was a top exec at Franklin Templeton, and was known as “The Money Doctor” on his radio and television programs. To his priesthood, in service to Christ and his Church, Fr. Andrew now brings all that he has learned in business, in the world, and in family life. WHEN: Wednesday, May 12, 5:30 to 7:30pm WHERE: Chancellor Hotel, 433 Powell (btwn Post and Sutter), San Francisco COST: $20 for members, $30 for non-members (become a member for $45) Includes delicious appetizers and no-host bar PAY AT THE DOOR or for RESERVATIONS: Mail your contact information & a check payable to “CPBC-ADSF” to: CPBC, Attn: Mary Jansen, One Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco, CA 94109
www.cpbc-sf.org
PAUL JUDAISM WHOLE CITY REJECT A LIGHT REGION CITY
ANTIOCH BARNABAS JEWS ETERNAL LIFE SALVATION WOMEN DUST
SYNAGOGUE GRACE BOLDLY GENTILES DESTINED LEADING MEN JOY
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April 23, 2010
TV/Radio Fridays at 9 a.m.: The Archbishop’s Hour on Immaculate Heart Radio, KSFB - 1260 AM, San Francisco. Enjoy news, conversation and in-depth look at local and larger Church. Program is rerun Fridays and Mondays at 9 p.m. and Sundays at 11 a.m. e-mail info@sfarchdiocese.org with comments and questions about faith. 1260 AM also offers daily Mass, rosary and talk on the faith. Visit www.ihradio.org Sunday, 6 a.m., KOFY Channel 20/Cable 13 and KTSF Channel 26/Cable 8: TV Mass with Msgr. Harry Schlitt presiding. Sunday, 7 a.m.: TV Mass on The Filipino Channel (TFC) (Channel 241 on Comcast and Channel 2060 on Direct TV. Saturday, 4 p.m.: Religious programming in Cantonese over KVTO 1400 AM, co-sponsored by the Chinese Ministry and Chinese Young Adults of the Archdiocese. 1st Sunday, 5 a.m., CBS Channel 5: “Mosaic,” featuring conversations on current Catholic issues. 3rd Sunday, 5:30 a.m., KRON Channel 4: “For Heaven’s Sake,” featuring conversations about Catholic spirituality. EWTN Catholic Television: Comcast Channel 229, AT&T Channel 562, Astound Channel 80, San Bruno Cable Channel 143, DISH Satellite Channel 261, Direct TV Channel 370. For programming details, visit www. ewtn.com.
Taize/Sung Prayer 1st Friday at 8 p.m.: Mercy Center, 2300 Adeline Dr., Burlingame with Mercy Sister Suzanne Toolan. Call (650) 340-7452; young adults are invited each first Friday of the month to attend a social at 6 p.m. prior to Taize prayer at 8 p.m. The social provides light refreshments and networking with other young adults. Convenient parking is available. For more information e-mail mercyyoungadults@sbcglobal.net. Tuesdays at 6 p.m.: Notre Dame Des Victoires Church, 566 Bush at Stockton, San Francisco with Rob Grant. Call (415) 397-0113. 3rd Friday, 8 p.m.: Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose, Motherhouse Chapel, 43326 Mission Blvd. Fremont, CA 94539. For further information, please contact Dominican Sister Beth Quire at (510) 449-7554. May 12: Taize Prayer with Kayleen Asbo and Robin O’Brien accompanied by piano and cello. Santa Sabina Center, 25 Magnolia Ave, San Rafael, CA 94901, 7 - 8:30 p.m.; introduction session precedes the evening’s prayer. Donation $20. For more information: (415) 457-7727; info@santasabinacenter.org.
Arts and Entertainment April 23, 24, at 7 p.m. and 25 at 2 p.m.: St. Cecilia’s Drama Club’s Once on This Island Junior at St. Cecilia School, 17th and Vicente in San Francisco. Once on This Island, Jr. is a Caribbean adaptation of “The Little Mermaid”, featuring a poignant story and catchy, Caribbean flavored score. Now in its 5th year, the St. Cecilia Drama Club includes students in the 4th through 8th grades directed by Katy Porter. Tickets are $10 and available at the door. For more information, email cammyblackstone@mac.com or call (415) 731-8400. April 24, 7:30 p.m.: The San Francisco Boys Chorus and The American Boychoir will perform a special joint concert at the historic St. Peter and Paul Church in San Francisco’s North Beach. The Grammy award winning San Francisco Boys Chorus (SFBC) under the direction of Artistic Director Ian Robertson and Associate Artistic Director Margaret Nomura Clark will perform with the world-renowned American Boychoir under the direction of Fernando Malvar-Ruiz. Suggested donation is $20 per person. Reserve at www.sfbc.org/jointconcert, or donate at
May 22, 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.: Whale of a Sale at St. Sebastian Church, Sir Francis Drake Blvd. and Bon Air Rd. in Greenbrae. Spaces available for items you might want to sell at $35 if reserved before May 13 and $50 per space after that date. Vendor supplies their own tables and chairs. Spaces accommodate eight foot table or two card tables. Call (415) 461-0704 or visit www.sebastian94904.com.
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’80 planning a reunion sometime in June 2010 to coincide with graduation day of May 31 1980. E-mail Maria Rinaldi Vincent at vncntmtvincent@aol.com or call (650) 349-1642.
Datebook
Holy Cross Cemetery 1500 Old Mission Rd. in Colma, (650) 756-2060 May 1, 11 a.m.: First Saturday Mass in All Saints Mausoleum.
Special Liturgies
Fathers and Brothers are sponsoring monthly days of discernment for men between the ages of 18 and 35 at St. Peter Chanel Seminary, 2335 Warring St. Berkeley. These days will provide an opportunity to think, pray and discuss their Christian calling to remain single, get married or to commit to the consecrated life as a religious priest or brother. Call (510) 486-1232 or e-mail maristvocations@sbcglobal.net.
May 5, 7:30 p.m.: 29th Annual May Crowning and Living Rosary at All Hallows Chapel, Newhall and Palou in San Francisco. Sponsored by All Hallows #182 Young Ladies Institute. Call Sue Elvander at (415) 467-8872. Third Tuesdays, 7:30 p.m.: Manifest Mysteries Rosary Prayer – Examine how the mysteries of the rosary are manifested in daily life using short film and the Dominican Rosary prayer. 7:30 - 8:30 pm at Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose, Motherhouse Chapel, 43326 Mission Blvd. (off Mission Tierra), Fremont. Call Sister Beth Quire, at (510) 449-7554 or visit our website at www.msjdominicans.org for more information. Fourth Tuesdays, 7:30 p.m.: Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament –Silent prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. 7:30 - 8:30 pm at Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose, Motherhouse Chapel, 43326 Mission Blvd. (off Mission Tierra), Fremont. Call Sister Beth Quire, at (510) 449-7554 or visit our website at www.msjdominicans.org for more information. The Tridentine Mass is celebrated Sundays at 12:15 p.m. at Holy Rosary Chapel at St. Vincent School for Boys. For more information, call St. Isabella Parish at (415) 479-1560. First Fridays: Latin High Mass of the Sacred Heart of Jesus at 6 p.m. at St. Francis of Assisi Church, 1425 Bay Road at Glen Way, East Palo Alto. Mass is followed by the Litany of the Sacred Heart and Exposition of the Most Blessed Sacrament until midnight. Confessions are heard before Mass. Low Mass in Latin is offered every Friday evening at 6 p.m. For further information, call (650) 322-2152. First Sundays at 6:30 p.m. at Mater Dolorosa Parish, 307 Willow at Miller in South San Francisco. For more information, call Ando Perlas at (650) 892-5728.
Reunions
Food & Fun
April 29: Luncheon reunion for class of 1950 from St. Cecilia Elementary School. Contact Doris at (415) 664-2247 or amadoris@sbcglobal.net May 2, 12:15: Centennial Alumni Mass, School Open House, and Tour of Future Science Lab, Star of the Sea Church and Schools, 360 9th Ave. For more information, call (415) 221-3399 or visit www. staroftheseasf.com/centennial/ June 26: Class of ’60, Star of the Sea Academy. E-mail erhunt@mail.com or noniloretta@att.net October 22: Class of ’60, St. Cecilia Elementary School Wine and Cheese Party in the parish Collins Center. Event includes tour of the school and the opportunity to participate in the annual Parish Festival. Contact Bob O’Donnell at rjodfc@yahoo.com or Nancy Sarlatte Murphy at nancymurphy1248@comcast.net. October 23: Class of ’60, St. Cecilia Elementary School Reunion Dinner at the Irish Cultural Center. Contact Bob O’Donnell at rjodfc@yahoo.com or Nancy Sarlatte Murphy at nancymurphy1248@comcast.net Class of ’60 from Holy Angels Elementary School in Colma. Contact Linda Brewer at brewer@sbcglobal.net or visit www.holyangelscolma.com or call (650) 755-0220. Class of ’60 from Notre Dame High School in Belmont is planning its 50th reunion. Contact Bettina Igoa McCall at Mcbett@comcast.net or (510) 851-2344. St. Paul High School, San Francisco, class of
April 30, 11:30 a.m.: Epiphany Center’s Celebrating Mothers Luncheon at St. Francis Yacht Club, San Francisco. Tickets: $75 per person, RSVP deadline April 21. For more information, call (415) 351-4055 or visit www.theepiphanycenter.org On behalf of event chair Irene Holmes, the Epiphany Center League, and over 150 families we serve annually, Epiphany Center invites you to our second annual luncheon Celebrating Mothers. We will have a Songbirds Chorale performance, an inspiring testimony from a client, and great gifts for sale for mothers and other special women in our lives. Proceeds benefit the Epiphany Center, a ministry of Mount St. Joseph-St. Elizabeth and the Daughters of Charity, to provide life-changing and life-saving services for women, children, and families in San Francisco. May15, 1:10 p.m.: “Parish Family Day at AT&T” advance ticket sales - $14 per person - only by March 30. The SF Parish & School Baseball League will host a free ‘tailgate’ party of hot dogs and sodas, and we will feature 84 of our longest throwers in a ‘long-toss’ competition by grades 3 - 8. If he is not pitching, Giants’ long-toss champ, Barry Zito will hand out the trophies. Parishioners wishing to attend should contact their Athletic Director, or they can contact e-mail bstableford@sfpsbl.org or phone (415) 559-8728.
May 2, 12:15: Centennial Alumni Mass, School Open House, and Tour of Future Science Lab, Star of the Sea Church and School, 360 9th Ave. For more information, call (415) 221-3399 or visit www.staroftheseasf.com/centennial/. A Centennial Fashion Show brought alumni and friends out in great numbers in December. Carol Slade, Sister Judy Breslin, CSJ; Diane Beltrano Panelli; Sister Katie O’Shea, CSJ; and Star of the Sea principal, Terry Hanley, were among those enjoying the fun day. the door. St. Peter and Paul Church is located at 666 Filbert Street on Washington Square.
Trainings/Lectures/Respect Life April 24, 11 a.m.: Are you afraid of being a victim of crime or a red light runner? Then, come to the Church of the Epiphany’s Community Safety Meeting in the parish cafeteria (corner of Naples and Italy Sts, in San Francisco). Guest speaker is Jon Shepherd from S.F. Safety, Inc., who will present personal safety tips and give an overview of Neighborhood Watch. All are welcome to attend. Call Carol Haunert (415) 585-9549. April 24, 9 a.m. – noon: Women Mystics Come of Age, a presentation by Paulist Father Terry Ryan at Old St. Mary’s Paulist Center, 660 California St at Grant in San Francisco. Coffee and treats at 9 a.m. Admission is free. Sponsored by Contemplative Outreach and the Paulist Center. Contact Mary Wyman at mary.wyman@yahoo.com. May 12: Contemplative Day of Prayer, Santa Sabina Center, 25 Magnolia Ave, San Rafael, 9:30 a.m.-2 p.m.; Eucharist at 1:15 p.m. Donation $20. For more information: (415) 457-7727; info@santasabinacenter.org. Saturdays: San Mateo Pro-Life prays the rosary at Planned Parenthood, 2211 Palm Ave. in San Mateo at 8 a.m. and invites others to join them at the site. The prayer continues as a peaceful vigil until 1 p.m. The group is also open to new membership. Meetings are held the second Thursday of the month except August and December at St. Gregory Parish’s Worner Center, 138 28th Ave. in San Mateo at 7:30 p.m. For more information, call Jessica at (650) 5721468 or visit www.sanmateoprolife.com. Saturdays, 9 a.m. – 10 a.m.: Rosary for Life 815 Eddy St. – Planned Parenthood – in San Francisco.
Vocations April 24, May 15: The Society of Mary, Marist
May 8, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.: Come join your Catholic brothers for the 1st Annual Peninsula Catholic Men’s Conference. The battle is raging all around us and it’s time to stand up and fight the good fight. Theme is The Lord’s Gym with talks on Christian Fatherhood and other topics of the times. Takes place at St. Luke’s Catholic Church in Foster City. Day features talks from Catholic speakers including Jesse Romero and Terry Barber. Tickets are $35 each and include a continental breakfast and lunch. Call Jesse Romero Terry Barber or e-mail Johnny Garcia at (626) 331-3549, ext. 413 or johnny@saintjoe.com for more info. You may also visit www.saintjoeconferences.com
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, e-mail burket@sfarchdiocese.org, or visit www.catholic-sf.org, Contact Us.
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Catholic San Francisco
April 23, 2010
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A-A Limousine Service • 415.308.2028 email: Augustshi@sbcglobal.net
Ph. # (415) 281- 0999
www.primarypaintingsf.com
Handy Man Painting, roof repair, fence (repair/ build) demolition, carpenter, gutter (clean/ repair), kitchen/bathroom remodel, decks, welding, landscaping, gardening, hauling, moving, janitorial.
Call (650) 757-1946 Cell (415) 517-5977 NOT A LICENSED CONTRACTOR
Plumbing ADÁN PLUMBING, HEATING, A/C ◆
Serving all your plumbing needs. ◆ Complete bathroom renovations ◆ Senior, parishioner discounts
Serving the entire S.F. Bay Area www.adanplumbing.com 650.270.7766 Lic# 841835
HOLLAND Plumbing Works San Francisco ALL PLUMBING WORK PAT HOLLAND CA LIC #817607
BONDED & INSURED
415-205-1235
BEST PLUMBING, INC. Your Payless Plumbing
Lic. # 872560
➤ Drain-Sewer Cleaning Service ➤ Water Heaters ➤ Gas Pipes ➤ Toilets ➤ Faucets ➤ Garbage Disposals ➤ Copper Repiping ➤ Sewer Replacement ➤ Video Camera & Line locate PROMPT AND UNPARALLELED SERVICE
(650) 557-1263 EMAIL:
bestplumbinginc@comcast.net Member: Better Business Bureau
S
anti Plumbing and Heating
415-661-3707
Michael T. Santi
Since 1972 Ca License # 663641 24 Hour Emergency Service
Notary
Breens’ Mobile Notary Services Timothy P. Breen Notary Public
License #698355
BILL HEFFERON
PAINTING INTERIOR, EXTERIOR All Jobs Large and Small
10% Discount: Seniors, Parishioners
KEANE CONSTRUCTION ➮ Exterior / Interior Additions ➮ Baths ➮ Foundations, Stairs, Dry Rot ➮ Architect Available ➮ Senior Discount
Call: 415.533.2265
Lic. 407271
Matthew W. Johnson General Contractor 650.591.7243 www.mwjqc.com • Residential kitchen and bath remodeling • Additions • Free estimates • Safe clean secure worksites
Family Consultation –Bereavement Support
Quality Service Since 1946
Striving to Achieve Optimum Health & Wellbeing
Commercial & Residential Serving SF & San Mateo Co. St. Charles Parishioner
(650) 593-5959
www.garibaldimaintenance.com
Fully Insured
Roofing
John Holtz Ca. Lic 391053 General Contractor Since 1980
Painting & Remodeling •Interiors •Exteriors •Kitchens •Baths Contractor inspection reports and pre-purchase consulting
In Home Care IN YOUR HOME CARE FOR SENIORS Caring compassionate and committed to our client’s well-being and safety. Specialize in Dementia, Alzheimer, Cancer patients, Hospice and wheelchair cound.
San Francisco: 415.337.9474 Complimentary phone consultation www.InnerChildHealing.com
Marriage and Relationship Counseling David Nellis M.A. M.F.T.
(415) 242-3355 www.counselingforchristians.com
When Life Hurts It Helps To Talk • Family • Work • Relationships • Depression • Anxiety • Addictions
Dr. Daniel J. Kugler Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Over 30 years experience • Reasonable Fees
Confidential • Compassionate • Practical (415) 921-1619 • Insurance Accepted 1537 Franklin Street • San Francisco, CA 94109
Senior Care Homecare for Seniors by Accredited Caregiver Specialists
SF Bay Area
$17/hr
Free in-home assessment www.accreditedcaregivers.com 650-307-3890
SUPPLE SENIOR CARE “The most compassionate care in town”
1655 Old Mission Road #3 Colma, SSF, CA 94080 415-573-5141 or 650-993-8036 *Irish owned & operated *Serving from San Francisco to North San Mateo
Healthcare Agency
Construction CAHALAN CONST. Foundations, Earthquake Dryrot, Termite, Siding, Stucco Additions. Remodels
“Large Enough to Matter, Small Enough to Care”
FREE ESTIMATES (415) 441-2454
Licensed contractors are required by law to list their license numbers in advertisments. The law also state that contractors performing work totaling $500 or more must be state-licensed. Advertisments appearing in this newspaper without a license number indicate that the contractor is not licensed. For more info, contact: Contractors State License Board
(650) 355-4926 Kathy Faenzi, MA, Clinical Gerontologist Office: 650.401.6350 Web: www.faenziassociates.com
Lila Caffery, MA, CCHT
NOTICE TO READERS
800.321.2752 painting and Clinical Gerontologist remodeling Care Management for the Older Adult
❖ 30 years experience with individuals, couples and groups ❖ Directed, effective and results-oriented ❖ Compassionate and Intuitive ❖ Supports 12-step ❖ Enneagram Personality Transformation ❖ Free Counseling for Iraqi/Afghanistani Vets
FREE ESTIMATES
Free counter top appliance w/completed proposal Free food processor with kitchen
Safe Non-Toxic, No Shampoo, Dry in Hours not Days
Complete Janitorial – Window Cleaning
Lic # 526818 Senior Discount
www.sospainting.net
PHONE: 415-846-1922 FAX: 415-702-9272
GARIBALDI MAINTENANCE CO.
Interior-Exterior wallpaper hanging & removal
Bonded, Insured – LIC. #819191
Construction
Inner Child Healing Offers a deep spiritual and psychological approach to counseling:
Painting S.O.S. PAINTING CO. 415-269-0446 650-738-9295
bheffpainting@sbcglobal.net Member of Better Business Bureau
Carpet Cleaning
Maintenance Services
Unhealed wounds can hold you back - even if they are not the “logical” cause of your problems today. You can be the person God intended.
Call BILL 415.731.8065 • Cell: 415.710.0584
Certified Signing Agent
* Member National Notary Association *
Do you want to be more fulfilled in love and work – but find things keep getting in the way?
Ayrton B. Sobral
(TCP 10581P)
N. San Mateo County - SFO…$30 San Francisco - SFO………….$40* *plus airport fee Any other charter with reasonable price. Good Service.
Counseling
lic# 582766
415.279.1266
MORROW CONTRUCTION Specializing In Wood Fences
(650) 994-6892 lic. 343633
The Irish Rose
Home Healthcare Agency Specializing in home health aides, attendants and companions. Serving San Francisco, Marin & the Peninsula.
Contact: 415.447.8463
Home Care
24 hours, 7 days a week
(415) 786-0121 • (415) 586-6748
• Non-Medical Companion • Personal Hygiene • Medication Reminder • Other Medical Assistance • Errands – Doctor’s App’t • Meal Preparation
• Companionship, Socializing, Outing • Light Housekeeping • Special Needs • Affordable Rates
Emily Bion Wagman License #39702
Lic. # 907564
650-834-7227 Cell ebw8bion@yahoo.com
QUALITY HOME CARE SERVING THE BAY AREA SINCE 1996
PLEASE RECYCLE THIS PAPER!
* Attendants * Companions * Hospice * Respite Care Competitive Rates • Screened • Insured • Bonded
CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO
Tel: 415 759 0520
Full Payroll Service www.irishhelpathome.com
April 23, 2010
Catholic San Francisco
classifieds Visit www.catholic-sf.org
For website listings, advertising information & Place Classified Ad Form OR Call 415.614.5642, Fax 415.614.5641, Email penaj@sfarchdiocese.org
Office space for rent
Certified Live In Geriatric Companion Aide Needed CERTIFIED GERIATRIC HOME AIDE, native San Franciscan, 19 yrs. exp. seeks employment with elderly woman exc. ref. Will work overnight shifts 415-947-9858
Seeking mature, healthy, sincere, honest, single woman for a live-in companion. Free room and private bath. For more information, please call (415) 921-8337
Visit www.catholic-sf.org
SHARE OFFICE SPACE IN VAN NESS CORRIDOR
For your local and international Catholic news, website listings, advertising information, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Place Classified Adâ&#x20AC;? Form and more!
An ideal space for a single professional, bright modern office space with use of large conference room, telephone system, computer networks. Share 1/3 of the office expense.
Help Wanted
Contact Jack at (415) 474-9765, ext. 101
OFFICE SPACE FOR RENT We are offering a clean & spacious 3 Bedroom & 1-1/2 Bath second-floor office space, located in the sunny Candlestick Heights district. This is ideal for a nonprofit organization seeking a home in a great location with public transportation (T-Third line) and very easy freeway access (Hwys 101 & 280). We are a religious organization, and seek a responsible & respectful business tenant. The rental also includes: â&#x20AC;˘ Separate/Private Entrance â&#x20AC;˘ Large Living Room â&#x20AC;˘ Spacious Kitchen â&#x20AC;˘ 984 Square Feet (approx) â&#x20AC;˘ New Flooring and Fresh Paint â&#x20AC;˘ Covered Parking for 1 car (additional fee) The property is available for immediate move-in. A security deposit is required as well as references. Showing Schedule: Monday â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Fridayâ&#x20AC;Śâ&#x20AC;Śâ&#x20AC;Śâ&#x20AC;Śâ&#x20AC;Śâ&#x20AC;Ś10:00 am to 3:00 PM. Weekendsâ&#x20AC;Śâ&#x20AC;Śâ&#x20AC;Śâ&#x20AC;Śâ&#x20AC;Śâ&#x20AC;Śâ&#x20AC;Śâ&#x20AC;Śâ&#x20AC;Śâ&#x20AC;Śby appointment only.
heaven canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t wait Serra for Priestly Vocations
Catholic San Francisco
23
Help Wanted DIRECTOR
OF
MUSIC:
Full time position in a large suburban parish,
ST. JOAN
OF
ARC CHURCH,
SAN RAMON, CA. For a complete job description, contact Fr. Ray Zielezienski, (925) 830-0600, ext. 223 or frray@sjasr.org.
We are looking for full or part time
RNs, LVNs, CNAs, Caregivers In-home care in San Francisco, Marin County, peninsula Nursing care for children in San Francisco schools If you are generous, honest, compassionate, respectful, and want to make a difference, send us your resume:
Please call Archdiocese of San Francisco
Jeannie McCullough Stiles, RN Fax: 415-435-0421 Email: info@sncsllc.com Voice: 415-435-1262
Fr. Tom Daly (415) 614-5683
Chimney Cleaning
Please call Loretta at: 415-468-3434.
OFFICE SPACE AVAILABLE Approximately 2,000 to 10,000 square feet first floor office space available (additional space available if needed) at One Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco (between Gough & Franklin), is being offered for lease to a non-profit entity. Space available includes enclosed offices, open work area with several cubicles, large work room, and storage rooms on the lower level of the Archdiocese of San Francisco Chancery / Pastoral Center. We also have mail and copy services available, as well as meeting rooms (based on availability). Reception services available. Space has access to kitchen area and restroom facilities. Parking spaces negotiable. Ready for immediate occupancy with competitive terms. Come view the space. For more information, contact
Katie Haley, (415) 614-5556 email haleyk@sfarchdiocese.org.
Automotive
Hilltop Buick Pontiac GMC Truck I P L B A ! â&#x20AC;˘ Extensive inventory means selection â&#x20AC;˘ Competitive pricing â&#x20AC;˘ Give us your bid â&#x20AC;˘ We can offer YOU SAVINGS! â&#x20AC;˘ Exceptional customer service â&#x20AC;˘ Easy access off I-80 at Hilltop Richmond
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. .
24
Catholic San Francisco
TV
April 23, 2010
Music
Books RADIO Film
stage
“When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story,” April 25, CBS By John Mulderig NEW YORK (CNS) – Millions of people around the world are familiar with the life story of Bill Wilson (1895-1971), the co-founder – together with Dr. Bob Smith – of the spiritually based recovery group Alcoholics Anonymous. In fact, the organization’s meetings are often discreetly referred to as gatherings for “the friends of Bill W.” Far fewer may be aware of the role played in Wilson’s long, torturous struggle against addiction by his tenaciously loyal wife, Lois (1891-1988), who herself founded the parallel organization Al-Anon to benefit those harmed by a loved one’s drinking problem. Her achievements, and the story of the Wilsons’ remarkably resilient marriage, are chronicled in the 240th Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation, “When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story.” This sensitive, though at times necessarily bleak, dramatization, which stars Winona Ryder in the title role, airs on CBS Sunday, April 25, 9-11 p.m. Despite an initially successful career on Wall Street during the boom years of the 1920s, Bill Wilson (Barry
Pepper) – a small town Vermonter who had married the self-described sophisticated New Yorker Lois Burnham in 1917 – fell rapidly and disastrously under the sway of his compulsion, a decline only accelerated by the onset of the Great Depression and the concurrent loss of his job. As portrayed here, Bill’s downward spiral – unchecked by repeated promises of reform solemnly inscribed in the family Bible and even by a binge that almost proves fatal – leaves Lois hiding money from him and forced to sell or pawn more and more of their possessions. Though the script implicitly indicates her lifelong religious commitment, Lois eventually finds her seemingly unavailing prayers for her husband “turning to ashes in my mouth.” Only when Bill himself, confined in a hospital and on the verge of complete despair, cries out to God for help
and suddenly experiences the divine presence and a sense of release and freedom – as recounted here in a moving scene visually reminiscent of an Edward Hopper painting – does his life begin to change. Now relying on God’s power, rather than his own, Bill achieves lasting sobriety and begins the ministry that would evolve into AA. While enthusiastically supporting Bill’s newfound vocation, Lois discovers that her own unresolved emotions of resentment, inadequacy and guilt – she fears her inability to bear children may have contributed to Bill’s problem – are widely shared among the wives of the men Bill counsels. So Lois begins hosting simultaneous therapeutic discussions for them, leading to the birth of Al-Anon and Alateen. As an exemplar of marital fidelity – she separates from Bill briefly, but relents in response to his anguished plea for help – and of religiously motivated outreach, Lois, subtly portrayed by Ryder as prim yet courageous, is a historical figure well deserving of this laudatory profile. Though its subject matter entails scenes of drunkenness and discord not appropriate for the most impressionable, this is otherwise uplifting and unproblematic programming. Mulderig is on the staff of the USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting. More review online at www.usccb.org/movies.
Authors offer sometimes conflicting perspectives on the Crusades “GOD’S BATTALIONS: THE CASE FOR THE CRUSADES” by Rodney Stark. HarperOne (San Francisco, 2009) 276 pp., $24.99. “HOLY WARRIORS: A MODERN HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES” by Jonathan Phillips. Random House (New York, 2010) 464 pp., $30.
Reviewed by Brian Welter Catholic News Service In “God’s Battalions” and “Holy Warriors,” authors Rodney Stark and Jonathan Phillips present two different, sometimes opposing viewpoints of the Crusades. Either the Crusades were part of a much larger Christian-Muslim relationship or they were European and Christian expansionism, prefiguring the imperialism of the 17th through 20th centuries. Stark, who argues for the first idea, begins by telling of the centuries of forceful Islamic expansion into ancient Christian lands such as Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor and Spain. The Muslims, no angels, slowly marginalized the occupied Christian, taxing them at a higher rate and greatly reducing their economic and social status. Additionally, “God’s Battalions” examines the more immediate causes of the Crusades, such as the violent harassment of European pilgrims to the Holy Land and the incessant civil wars among European aristocratic warriors that, Pope Urban II believed, needed venting elsewhere. Stark does depict well the heavy violence that the crusaders inflicted on the Muslim peoples, and highlights as well the religious and political aspects of the wars, showing how the Crusades grew out of a complicated cultural milieu. Current Western anti-colonialists claim that the crusaders were the second and third sons of noble families looking for adventure and loot. Stark shows that this is hardly the case. Rather than gaining financially, families had to mortgage and sell their possessions and beg for contributions. Even the church itself was at times taxed heavily for the Crusades.
Not only that, but the entire male side of families, including a father and all his sons, went crusading. Crusaders tended to be related to one another, and so the movement was at its core the work of the same interrelated noble houses. The Crusades were a huge financial sacrifice. One reason the crusading ideal collapsed in the 14th century was because of the heavy costs associated with it. “Holy Warriors” is not as pro-Western or balanced, notably by beginningg the story much nearer to the time of thee Crusades themselves, depriving readerss of a historical view that would show the he violent aspects of Islam in Spain and nd elsewhere. Yet Phillips makes up for this lackk by detailing the lives and work of manyy individual crusaders and Muslim lead-ers. “Holy Warriors” sometimes acts as a series of mini-biographies, offering readers another sociological and cultural insight into the movement. Phillips, like Stark, admits to the complicated origins of the Crusades, though he does see them as part of church expansionism. Phillips avoids the frequent overly fuzzy feelings for Kurdish-Muslim leader Saladin, who played a crucial role in breaking the spirit of the Crusades by fending off the great Richard the Lionhearted in the Third Crusade, which was perhaps the high-water markk off the Crusades: “Saladin’s ultimate success came about through a complicated cocktail of the political and the personal,”
including includ the “ability to arouse religious passion,” Phillips writes. passi While Phillips does not doubt W Saladin’s religious commitment, he Sala highlights how for the Kurdish warhigh lord, lord as for countless Crusaders on the other side, religious passion often came cam at crucial moments in a battle or siege, playing a pragmatic, even military role. In other words, Phillips mi conveys the religious intensity that co lay la behind the Crusades, and the Muslim resistance. M Through his various character sketches, Phillips shows how the s crusaders, originally united in c their hunger for victory, became through the decades increasingly fragmented and exhausted both financially and spiritually, while f the t Muslims, originally fragmented, finally united themselves and grew fi in religious intensity as they first resisted and then eventually defeated re the whole crusading movement. While neither book has any time for a romantic, wholly pro-Christian or pro-Western view of crusading, both authors avoid the black-and-white nonsense of current secular thinkers, non who condemn the Crusades as part of their th condemnation of the Catholic Church Chur and of much later Western imperialism. rialism Phillips and Stark demonstrate a more mor sophisticated view of history, religion religio and culture than that. Brian Welter is studying for his doctorate in systematic theology and teaching English in Taiwan.
Notre Dame de Namur University presents operas
Listen to ‘The Archbishop’s Hour’ Immaculate Heart Radio – 1260 AM
Notre Dame de Namur University’s Department of Music and Vocal Arts will present two new operas May 1 in Belmont. “Children of the Sun,” composed by Henry Mollicone with libretto by William Luce, is a new music theatre work based on the story of Juan Diego’s vision of the Virgin Mary in Tepeyac, Mexico, in 1531. Mollicone is a member of the NDNU faculty. Broadway playwright William Luce will appear as a guest artist. “Angel of the Amazon,” written and composed by Evan Mack, was inspired by the life of Notre Dame de Naur Sister Dorothy Stang, who was murdered in the Amazon of Brazil in February of 2005. Scenes from the opera will be presented in association with the Dorothy Stang Center for Social Justice and Community Engagement. The opera presentations will be May 1 at 7:30 p.m. in the Cunningham Memorial Chapel, located on the NDNU campus at 1500 Ralston Avenue in Belmont. Cost is $20 general admission and $10 for students and seniors. For tickets and information, call 650.508.3729 or email concerts@ndnu.edu.
“The Archbishop’s Hour” with San Francisco Archbishop George H. Niederauer airs each Friday morning at 9 a.m. – with encore broadcasts Friday evening at 9 p.m., Sunday at 11 a.m., and Monday at 9 p.m. Be informed, inspired and entertained, while meeting interesting Catholics from the Bay Area and beyond. Produced by the Office of Communications of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, the Archbishop’s Hour is broadcast without charge by Immaculate Heart Radio-1260 AM San Francisco.