April 27, 2007

Catholic san Francisco Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper

San Franc is Sisters of co native heads L it the Poor ~ See Pa tle ge V6

Page e e S ~ colyte a s a d stitute n i k n u id Sch v a D arian Semin

V4

WORLD DAY OF PRAYER FOR VOCATIONS ~ SPECIAL VOCATIONS SECTION

Sister Crecensia Guerrero celebrates silver jubilee ~ See Page V4 April 27, 2007

A PRIL 29 I ~ NSIDE

St. Patrick Seminary leader shares views on priesthood ~ See Page V1 SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS

Archbishop Niederaue r reflects on vocations ~ See Pa ge V3

Got Vocation? Novice talks about discernment ~ See Page V2 VOLUME 9

•

No. 14

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Catholic San Francisco

April 27, 2007

more than 30 youngsters from OLMC’s RE program …. add a happy anniversary to Father Dove who celebrates his Mighty proud are Lana and Tony Lou whose son, 46th year as a priest May 1…. Methinks we’d all like to Johnathan, has earned a place on the Dean’s List at Loyola have Lauren Jung goin’ to bat for us. The Notre Dame High Marymount University in Los Angeles School senior has established a Student where he is a freshman. Johnathan is an alum Anti-Genocide Coalition (STAND) chapter of St. Stephen Elementary School and St. on the Belmont campus aiming at the atrociIgnatius College Preparatory. “We couldn’t ties in Darfur. “As a STAND leader, I hope to be happier that Johnathan is continuing his motivate and inspire my peers to unite and education in the Jesuit tradition – Men and protect the people of Darfur,” Lauren said.

by Tom Burke Women for Others,” his mom said…. One Lauren has been accepted at Fordham Hundred and Two and enjoying every University in New York, Catholic minute of it is Leonie Olives! Hats off to this University in Washington. D.C. and UC Religious Education students and teachers from Our centenarian-plus who is “alert, healthy, intelDavis. Her proud folks are Margi and Stan.

Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish in Mill Valley visited the ligent and does not need glasses to read or Started just two years ago, STAND now has Presidio Officer’s Club and its sew,” said neighbor and some 800 branches at schools across the Remembered Light exhibition March 5. The friend, Irene Romios. country…. Speaking of good hearts and display included stained glass windows made “Leonie enjoys crafts and Notre Dame, think about making plans to from shards of stained glass collected from has made stuffed animals attend Raise the Roof, an auction, dance and Leonie Olives the rubble of WWII Europe. “The children and wall designs.” Leonie dinner raising funds for InnerChange, a thought the pieces were fabulous,” said and her husband, Bernardo, who is 94, are Christian missionary group reaching out to the poor of teacher, Janet Freemon, “and they were longtime members of St. Brendan Parish in Guatemala. InnerChange is headed up by Deacon Nate excited and happy to move along to each San Francisco …. Happy Birthday to Bacon and his wife, Jenny, of St. Peter Parish in the Mission unique display, but the other adults and I honPaulist Father Tom Dove who turned 73 District. Raise the Roof is being organized by Theresa estly sensed the destruction that these shards March 2. Father Dove, who has served at Vallez-Kelly, student activities director at Notre Dame. See represent. The exhibit is emotional, very Old St. Mary’s Cathedral for the last 14 years, Datebook…. This is an empty space without ya’!! The emoving and absolutely beautiful.” A story in is a native of Portland. Ore., where his sister, mail address for Street is burket@sfarchdiocese.org. Mailed Catholic San Francisco about the new Joan, and brother, Ron, live today with their items should be sent to “Street,” One Peter Yorke Way, SF Johnathan Lou exhibit is what drew the group to it, Janet said. Joining Janet families. Always missed is Father Dove’s twin brother, Jerry, 94109. Pix should be hard copy or electronic jpeg at 300 on the adventure were teachers Dalia Wilczynski, Louise who died two years ago. “We took a lot of razzin’ as kids over dpi. Don’t forget to include a follow-up phone number. Call Martin, Anne Bell, Wendy Speas and Amy Frost as well as the Tom and Jerry thing,” Father Dove said with a laugh. Let’s me at (415) 614-5634 and I’ll walk you through it.

On The

Where You Live

Above, Happy 63 years married to Josie and Al Vannucci who tied the knot at St. Peter Church in the Mission District and are today parishioners of St. Luke’s in Foster City.

Right, Reaching out at Notre Dame High School’s Camp Darfur are RaeAnne Dutto, left, Arabela MendezDiaz, Susan Ocon and Dora Tsang.

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Catholic San Francisco

The philanthropic works of Bebe and B.J. Cassin and the Cassin Educational Initiative Foundation were honored at the April 21 Loaves & Fishes evening; from left, Archbishop Niederauer, Bebe Cassin, and B.J. Cassin.

(PHOTO BY DREW ALTIZER)

Honorees Larry and Kathy Nibbi of Nibbi Brothers Construction; corporate philanthropy.

(PHOTO BY DREW ALTIZER)

The life and work of the late Leo T. McCarthy was honored for outstanding community service at the April 21 Loaves & Fishes Awards dinner. Family present included, from left: daughter Sharon McCarthy Allen, son Adam McCarthy, widow Jackie McCarthy, and daughter Conna Craigie.

(PHOTO BY DREW ALTIZER)

The Auxiliaries of the Little Children’s Aid received the Loaves & Fishes honor for community organization. Pictured from left, Archbishop George Niederauer; LCA president Joan Higgins, LCA Junior Auxiliary president Anne Alvarez, and CCCYO Executive Director Brian Cahill.

Honorees Sergio and Karen Nibbi of Nibbi Brothers Construction; corporate philanthropy.

Loaves & Fishes event raises $2.1 million for CCCYO SAN FRANCISCO — Catholic Charities CYO’s 10th Annual Loaves & Fishes Leadership Fund and Awards Dinner at the Ritz-Carlton on April 21 raised $2.1 million, which “directly benefits the Bay Area’s neediest via the social service agency’s 33 programs,� CCCYO officials reported Monday.

More than $8 million has been raised in support of Catholic Charities CYO through the Loaves & Fishes Fund and Awards Dinner over the past 10 years, they noted.

Janet and Clint Reilly, event chairs for the 10th year, hosted the evening which launched Catholic Charities CYO’s centennial celebration by honoring individuals and organizations in the Bay Area who have distinguished themselves by outstanding charitable works.

Archbishop George Niederauer, chairman of the CCCYO Board, presented the 2007 Loaves & Fishes Awards for Outstanding Service to the Community in memory of the life and works of the late Leo T. McCarthy; for Outstanding Corporate Philanthropy to the Nibbi Family and Nibbi Brothers Construction; for Outstanding Community Organization to the Auxiliaries of Little Children’s Aid; and for Outstanding Philanthropic Works to B.J. and Bebe Cassin and the Cassin Educational Initiative Foundation.

Child’s cancer care augmented by KC The Knights of Columbus Council of St. Dunstan Parish in Millbrae is sponsoring an evening of fun, food and caring May 5 to raise funds for the medical expenses of Madison Kitz, daughter of parishioners Lisa and Charlie Kitz.

A similar event four years ago raised $65,000.

The youngster was diagnosed with a rare kidney cancer, Wilms Tumor, just three months after her birth, Nov. 10, 1997. Last December she received a successful kidney transplant but in recent weeks there have been signs of rejection.

While Madison is covered by medical insurance, “the additional expenses of her treatment are steep,� said her father, himself a Fourth Degree Knight. “Madison is a regular kid who goes to school, is a Girl Scout and studies ballet,� Charlie Kitz added. “She will be at the fundraiser.� Madison is a fourth grader at Spring Valley School in Millbrae.

Tickets are $25. For more information, contact Samir Moghannam at (650) 692-0471 or Albert DeSantolo at (650) 697-0855. Madison’s Web site: www.maddiekitz.com.

3

(PHOTO BY DREW ALTIZER)

(PHOTO BY JERRY DOWNS & JOE BURELL)

April 27, 2007

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Catholic San Francisco

NEWS

April 27, 2007 Campbell, a Catholic from Fairfax, Va., had taught the English language and literature at the college since November. The 44-year-old disappeared April 8 in Banaue, more than 200 miles north of Manila. On April 18, local residents discovered her body buried in the town. Police said they suspect she was murdered. Campbell’s funeral service was to be in Fairfax, the family said.

Since 1961, approximately 8,000 Peace Corps volunteers have served in the Philippines. In 1998, another Peace Corps volunteer, Robert Bock, was gunned down by robbers in Iloilo, a central province.Campbell was among 136 volunteers assigned in the country at the time of her death.

in brief

Pope invited to U.N.

Christians flee Lebanon

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has invited Pope Benedict XVI to visit the United Nations headquarters in New York. During a private 20minute meeting April 18 at the Vatican, the two leaders discussed global trouble spots and cultural tensions.

Vatican sources have said the pope would like to make the visit, and that one possible time frame was late September, the opening of the U.N. General Assembly.

It would be Pope Benedict’s first visit to the United Nations and his first visit as pope to the United States. Pope John Paul II addressed the United Nations in 1979 and 1995, and Pope Paul VI did so in 1965.

BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNS) — Christians are fleeing Lebanon to escape an ongoing political and economic crisis amid signs Islamic fundamentalism is on the rise in the country.

Forty-three percent of Maronite Catholics — the largest of the country’s 12 Christian denominations — polled recently said they were considering emigrating.

Nearly a third of them have applied for visas in the last six months, according to the study by Information International, a Beirut-based research body. The study, which was to be published in May, was released early to Catholic News Service. “Some 60,000-70,000 Christians have left the country in the last six months,” said George Khoury, executive director of Caritas Lebanon.

Peace Corps teacher killed LEGAZPI, Philippines (CNS) — Colleagues and students could not suppress tears at a Mass for U.S. Peace Corps volunteer Julia Campbell. About 50 people attended the April 18 liturgy at the Divine Word College of Legazpi chapel after the school received confirmation of her death from the regional Peace Corps manager.

Ethics code issued for hospital LONDON (CNS) — A revised code of ethics will prevent doctors from providing contraceptives and abortion referrals at a London Catholic hospital popular with celebrity mothers. Expected to be passed by the hospital board May 16, the finalized code will encompass all staff and resident practitioners at the Hospital of St. John and St. Elizabeth. A code draft says services will not be provided if they conflict with Catholic teaching on the value of life or sexual ethics. This includes provision of the morningafter pill, amniocentesis to detect Down syndrome and in vitro fertilization. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor of Westminster ordered the code to be revised after doctors admitted prescribing the morning-after pill and referring women for abortions.

(CNS PHOTO/COURTESY OF WEST SEMITIC RESEARCH)

This copper scroll is the only Dead Sea Scroll written on copper that will be among the several on display in the San Diego Museum of Natural History June 29 through the end of the year. The scrolls were discovered between 1947 and 1956 along the northwestern shores of the Dead Sea in Israel.

(JOHN BLAUSTEIN PHOTO)

4

Irish back immigration reform DUBLIN, Ireland (CNS) — Irish citizens with family members living and working in the United States without visas are hoping for success of U.S. immigration reform, said the director of the Irish bishops’ Commission for Emigrants.

“The atmosphere in Dublin among the families was one of eagerness to find out what is going on in the campaign for immigration reform,” Father Alan Hilliard, commission director, told Catholic News Service after an April 14 rally in Dublin to show support for legislation in the United States. The rally, sponsored by the Commission for Emigrants, was attended by Irish politicians from major political parties.

Construction continues on the Oakland Diocese’s new Cathedral of Christ the Light near Lake Merritt.

In recent weeks giant shoring towers have been erected over the sanctuary floor and circular altar.

The oculus roof is assembled at the top of the towers and the balance of the superstructure is to be built from the roof down, according to planners.

Completion date of the $190 million project has been moved from late this year to the third quarter of 2008.

“There is a lot going on behind the scenes to create a cross-party partnership between Democrats and Republicans in the (U.S.) Senate, and we’re trying to assist that, but there is an understanding among family members that these efforts could come to nothing,” he said.

‘World must support Iraqi refugees’ ROME (CNS) — The international community must do more to welcome and support the thousands of refugees fleeing the “horrific violence” in Iraq, a Vatican official said. “The world is witnessing an unprecedented degree of hate and destructiveness in Iraq,” which not only destroys the “social fabric and the unity of Iraq,” but is exerting “a widening, deadly impact” on the whole Middle East, said Archbishop Silvano Tomasi. The Vatican’s representative to U.N. and other international organizations spoke April 17 at an international conference in Geneva addressing humanitarian needs of Iraq’s refugees and internally displaced people.

Group gives $4.7 million to pope VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The U.S.-based Papal Foundation has presented Pope Benedict XVI with a check for almost $4.7 million.

The foundation designated more than $4.1 million for 75 charitable projects and more than $575,000 for scholarships for priests, religious and laypeople studying at one of the pontifical universities or institutes in Rome.

Thanking the foundation members April 20, the pope said the projects promote Gospel values and “a profound sense of communion with the universal church in her service to the entire human family.”

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Catholic San Francisco editorial offices are located at One Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco, CA 94109. Tel: (415) 614-5640;Circulation: 1-800-563-0008 or (415) 614-5638; News fax: (415) 614-5633; Advertising: (415) 614-5642; Advertising fax: (415) 614-5641; Advertising E-mail: penaj@sfarchdiocese.org Catholic San Francisco (ISSN 15255298) is published weekly (four times per month) September through May, except in the week following Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day, and twice a month in June, July and August by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco, 1500 Mission Rd., P.O. Box 1577, Colma, CA 94014. Periodical postage paid at South San Francisco, CA. Annual subscription price: $27 within California, $36 outside the state.

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April 27, 2007

Catholic San Francisco

5

Portland Archdiocese ends bankruptcy: $75 million PORTLAND, Ore. (CNS) — The first Catholic diocesan bankruptcy proceeding in the nation ended April 17 when a federal judge approved a $75 million settlement of clergy sexual abuse claims and a financial reorganization plan for the Portland Archdiocese.

Smoothing the way for U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth Perris, lawyers at the last moment negotiated payment for all remaining sex abuse claims. A last case, which was not over sex abuse, was settled just a few hours before the court approval was announced.

Since February, lawyers from both sides worked out the two dozen most difficult cases, bringing the total settled claims under the 33-month bankruptcy to 177.

Checks will go out to victims at the start of May. The same day the Portland settlement was finalized, all parties to similar bankruptcy proceedings in the Diocese of Spokane, Wash., filed court papers there agreeing to a $48 million settlement of clergy sex abuse claims. More than 160 victims are reportedly involved in the Spokane settlement.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Patricia Williams scheduled a hearing April 24 at which she was expected to give the Spokane settlement the court’s official approval.

At a press conference announcing details of the Portland settlement, Portland Archbishop John G. Vlazny said, “It is my sincere prayer that our ability to compensate the many victims will assist them in their efforts to achieve personal healing and peace of heart. I pray for them daily and I know the Catholic people of Oregon join me in asking God to bless them.”

The archbishop again apologized to those who were abused as children and said his door continues to be open.

He thanked Catholics who continued to back the Church’s mission throughout the bankruptcy proceedings, which began in July 2004, and apologized to laity, religious and clergy who have been “humiliated and penalized” by the clergy sex abuse scandal though they bore no personal guilt.

The archbishop announced a service for reconciliation and healing set for June.

Reconciliation with all who have been hurt is “the ultimate grace we seek,” he said. The archdiocese will open relevant clergy personnel files in mid-May, a step requested by lawyers for claimants and the media.

Confirmation of the reorganization plan followed a vigorous five-month mediation in which two judges hammered out settlements of sex abuse cases.

U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan, one of the mediators, said at the press conference the people of Oregon were

(CNS PHOTO/BOB KERNS, CATHOLIC SENTINEL)

By Ed Langlois and Robert Pfohman

Archbishop John G. Vlazny of Portland, Ore., speaks to reporters April 17 to announce the Archdiocese of Portland’s emergence from bankruptcy.

well served by the negotiation of settlements. He and the other mediator, Circuit Court Judge Lyle Velure, estimated they saved about six to eight months of trial time.

The bankruptcy proceedings involved 89 lawyers in all.

Kelly Clark, a Portland attorney who represents 55 abuse claimants, said the plan is in the best interest of his clients.

“They need closure, they need certainty, they need this chapter of their life concluded,” Clark said during testimony in bankruptcy court the week before. “I have serious concerns about the emotional health of some of my clients if they were thrown again into uncertainty.”

Clark said some settlements include letters of apology from the archdiocese and meetings between claimants and the archbishop. He said the archbishop already “graciously agreed” to pray with one man.

John Rickman, chair of a committee set up to look out for the interests of 400,000 Catholic parishioners in the archdiocese, praised the plan because it protects parish and school property from being counted in possible future

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claims against the archdiocese. Lawyers for families, alumni and backers of three archdiocesan high schools also voiced support for the plan. Those schools, Perris had ruled earlier, could have been tapped as part of a larger settlement.

Allied Irish Bank has agreed to loan up to $40 million to the archdiocese for settlements and other bankruptcyrelated expenses. John McGrath, the bank’s vice president, told the court that a cap on the fund for future claims was one reason the bank agreed to the loan.

Under the plan, no parish or school property will be liquidated to pay victims.

A court appeal over who is the owner of those properties halted in December when the two sides announced their settlement. Judge Perris ruled in late 2005 the archdiocese was the owner, meaning parishes and schools could be counted as part of the bankrupt estate. Before the issue became moot, a coalition of parishes vowed to appeal her ruling all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The confirmation April 17 lifted a gag order imposed by mediators. Lawyers from both sides had been unable to comment on the case.

In July 2004, Portland became the first of five dioceses to file for bankruptcy protection because of child sexual abuse claims. Since then the dioceses of Spokane; Tucson, Ariz.; Davenport, Iowa; and San Diego have entered bankruptcy proceedings to deal equitably with large sex abuse claims they face.

Tucson, which filed for bankruptcy protection in September 2004, emerged with a court-approved settlement and reorganization in July 2005. Spokane filed in December 2004, and the expected court confirmation of its settlement this April would make it the third diocese to complete the proceedings.

Davenport, which filed last October, and San Diego, which filed this February, are still in the early stages of the proceedings.

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Catholic San Francisco

April 27, 2007

Hundreds turn out to support St. Vincent School for Boys Hundreds of people from throughout Marin County attended a meeting of the Marin Planning Commission April 23 to express support for the right of St. Vincent School for Boys to develop a small portion of the school’s 780 acres of land for senior and caregiver housing.

St. Vincent School for Boys, a residential care facility for emotionally or physically abused boys, is located east of Highway 101 between San Rafael and Novato in Marin County. It operates under the direction of Catholic Charities CYO of the Archdiocese of San Francisco. St. Vincent School for Boys has no endowment other than the school’s undeveloped land.

St. Vincent officials envision development of 15 percent of the property for senior and caregiver housing.

Revenues generated would be used to rebuild the residential and school facilities; restore historical buildings; and establish an endowment to meet future needs. Under the proposal, most of the school’s land would continue to be reserved for agriculture or designated open space.

Mike Marovich, former executive director of CYO and St. Vincent’s School, said the goals of St. Vincent could be accomplished by a responsible and sensitive development of less than 15 percent of the school’s lands.

He spoke against a proposed “baylands corridor” which would limit allowable development to just five percent of the school’s land – a proposal that is widely thought to be intentionally targeted at severely limiting development on the St. Vincent property.

“If you so restrict the future development opportunity of these lands,” Marovich said, “you will be effectively eliminating St. Vincent’s ability to carry on its mission of charity and realize a reasonable and fair financial gain from modest development of a relatively small portion of its land endowment so that it can adequately provide for the needs of the boys.”

Marovich urged the commissioners “to seize the opportunity to balance the social, environmental, economic, housing, cultural and recreational needs and interests of the broader community on the future use of the St. Vincent’s land.”

(PHOTO BY MAURICE HEALY)

By Maurice Healy

With hundreds of supporters in attendance, Father Tom Daly addresses the Marin Planning Commission April 23 on behalf of St. Vincent School for Boys.

At the end of the day’s discussions, however, Marovich said there was no indication the planning commission was open to the case for fairness presented by St. Vincent. “The planning commission,” he said, “continues to support restrictions that limit development to only five percent of the school’s land.”

Father James Tarantino, pastor of St. Hilary parish in Tiburon, spoke at the April 23 planning commission meeting and noted the presence of representatives of other faiths who had come to the meeting to express their support for St. Vincent School. He urged the commission to consider the interests of the boys of St. Vincent: “St. Vincent School for Boys is an integral part of Marin County – serving the needs of vulnerable children while promoting core values common to all faith traditions.”

He asked the commissioners to act with fairness and equity.

EDUCATION & SUMMER CAMP

Father Tom Daly, chaplain at St. Vincent’s as well as president of Marin Catholic High School and director of vocations for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, said throughout its history “St. Vincent’s has asked little from the Marin community and, in turn, quietly and without much fan fare gone about its work of being mother, father, teacher, counselor and friend to that child who is no one’s child and yet that child who is everyone’s child and responsibility.”

He said, “We at St. Vincent’s continue to want to be a self-sustaining institution. We can do so by implementing a land conserving versus land consuming development plan that will not only provide for the needs of the boys but also the broader needs of the Marin community. However, that takes land use policies that will allow us to do so.”

The St. Vincent plan supporters point out the proposal addresses the county’s articulated needs for both senior and workforce housing. Among groups supporting St. Vincent’s position is the Marin County Commission on Aging. Those ST. VINCENT SCHOOL FOR BOYS, page 13

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April 27, 2007

Catholic San Francisco

7

(PHOTO BY JOSE PEÑA)

Members of Catholic Professional and Business Club chapters from around the country held their sixth annual national conference April 20-21 at the San Francisco Airport Hyatt.

Pictured above from left: Frank Borges, a founder of the CPBC with its first group in Santa Rosa; event keynote speaker, Raymond Flynn, three-time mayor of Boston and former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican; San Francisco Archbishop George H. Niederauer who welcomed participants; Cathlyne Scharetg, San Francisco chapter president; and William Applegate of San Francisco, national CPBC president.

Court ruling on partial birth abortion ban welcomed The bishops of California as well as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops say they “wholeheartedly” welcome the April 18 United States Supreme Court ruling which upheld a federal ban on partial-birth abortions.

At the same time, the California bishops said in an April 19 statement, “We grieve for all who have been hurt by abortion and hope and pray for the day when no woman will want, or feel that she needs, to make such a choice.”

“As bishops, we wholeheartedly welcome this significant decision which both reclaims the state’s legislative pre-

rogative to regulate actions affecting the common good and restates our society’s interest in preserving life.,” stated the California bishops, gathered in their semi-annual conference in Sacramento.

In San Francisco, the director of the Archdiocese’s Office of Public Policy and Social Concerns called the ruling “a significant victory and a testament and a sign of hope to the many people in the Archdiocese of San Francisco who have worked so long and hard for the pro-life cause.”

“I am convinced,” added George Wesolek, “that the partial birth abortion controversy was won in large part

because it was the first time in the abortion debate that the unborn baby was given a ‘face.’ Because we are talking about late-term, viable human beings being killed in a violent manner, finally the innate moral horror of the American people was awakened and many could see, for the first time, the loathsomeness of abortion.”

In its April 18 decision in Gonzales v.

Carhart, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003.

Shortly after passage, the law was challenged in federal courts. Although

the ban was ruled unconstitutional in lower court decisions, the Supreme Court’s 5-4 vote reverses those decisions and affirms the constitutionality of the federal legislation.

Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy stated, “The government has a legitimate and substantial interest in preserving and promoting fetal life.” He said the “government may use its voice and its regulatory authority to show its profound respect for the life within the woman” and acknowledges that “respect for human life finds an ultiPARTIAL BIRTH, page 13

8

Catholic San Francisco

April 27, 2007

Nearly 400 persons packed the parish hall at St. Peter Parish April 22 to hear updates on immigration issues, including Bay Area sweeps aimed at detaining illegal immigrants by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The largely Latino crowd heard San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom (left) pledge to discourage federal officials from conducting immigration raids in San Francisco and to “not allow any of my department heads” or other city employees to cooperate with the ICE program. Religious leaders from northern California, including Archbishop George Niederauer, have called for suspension of the ICE operations and increased attention to reform of immigration laws.

Immigration advocates learn strategies for lobbying WASHINGTON (CNS) — Providing a way for illegal immigrants to regularize their status is not “amnesty,” a roomful of immigration advocates was told April 18.

And when one is confronted by people who argue the Catholic Church has no business trying to influence legislation on behalf of immigrants, quotations from Scripture about welcoming the stranger and protecting those in need of protection can be helpful, they were advised.

In preparation sessions preceding a day of lobbying on Capitol Hill as part of a Justice for Immigrants national gathering, participants from 66 dioceses got a crash course in how

to effectively present the Church’s position about what a comprehensive immigration reform bill ought to include and why.

“Be clear that you are inviting and informing, not forcing,” said Joan Rosenhauer, special projects coordinator for the Department of Social Development and World Peace of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“It’s not like accepting the divinity of Christ or the existence of the Trinity,” she said. “You can be Catholic and not support the latest bill the bishops are backing in Congress.”

Sometimes, failing to acknowledge that “will turn off people who know better,” she added.

Start by explaining Catholic teaching and tradition about migrants, Rosenhauer suggested. “What does it mean to love our neighbor? To support a preferential option for the poor?”

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World Day of Prayer for Vocations ~ 2007

Catholic san Francisco Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper

God, our Father, in your love and providence, you call each of us to a more holy and abundant life. We pray for our young people in the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

Open their hearts and minds to know the vocation you have planned for them for all eternity. If they are being invited to follow you as a priest, Brother, or Sister, give them a generous heart to respond to your challenging call and the strength to follow wherever you lead them. May families desire to please you by encouraging and supporting vocations within their homes. We ask this through Jesus Christ, our good shepherd. Amen

The above art and prayer text are distributed by the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s Office of Vocations.

Interview with Father Gerald Brown, SS St. Patrick’s Seminary: diversity unifies priestly formation (Following is the first segment of an interview with Sulpician Father Gerald L. Brown, president and rector of St. Patrick’s Seminary, Menlo Park.)

By Dan Morris-Young From priestly formation to finances, the myriad challenges facing St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park are both daunting and invigorating, according to the man whose job is to oversee the training and education of men who will minister as priests in much of the western United States – including the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

In a recent, wide-ranging interview, Sulpician Father Gerald L. Brown outlined the task of serving a student population that: ● Ranges in age from early 20s to the 60s; ● Represents cultures from Anglo American, Latino and the deaf to Pacific Rim, African and Asian; ● Brings vastly different life histories to the class room; and ● Faces ministering to extraordinarily diverse Catholic communities after ordination.

Rector as well as president of the seminary since succeeding Father Gerald D. Coleman there three years ago, Father Brown underscores that regardless of a seminarian’s age, background or ethnicity, he will undoubtedly be required to hit the pastoral-leadership road running — in ways priests of previous generations were not.

It is not uncommon, he said, for a new priest to become a pastor of a parish within a few months of ordination. Of the dozen St. Patrick graduates ordained last year, three are already pastors, he pointed out.

“Some dioceses are simply forced into this position” by a shortage of priests, he said, “and this is happening more and more all over the country.”

As a result, he explained, St. Patrick’s not only focuses on traditional philosophy, theology and other academic areas, but on “working hard to help develop the attitudes, fundamental skills and understandings of how a parish works.”

One key to the latter is the pastoral year students spend in actual ministry prior to ordination, most often in a parish setting.

“The pastoral year helps a lot,” Father Brown said.

“Guys come back like different human beings. Each diocese tries to put guys into a situation, into a parish, that is going to stretch him – linguistically, educationally, culturally, all kinds of ways – to give him new experiences and help him to learn how to adapt.”

April 27, 2007

Father Gerald D. Brown, SS But the seminary experience in and out of the classroom must reinforce that, he emphasized. “It is a whole question of pastoral leadership. And so in our courses on the Church, on sacramental life, on the parish, on pastoral leadership, we have to address how we can learn in the midst of all that is going on, to understand multiple roles, how to collaborate.”

Collaboration is a core principle in a successful priest’s life and ministry, he said, underscoring “the capacity to dialogue, and the capacity to listen, to learn, and at the same time keep your own convictions.”

Father Brown pointed to the late Pope John Paul II as an example. “Nobody had more conviction than he did. There was no doubt what he believed. Yet he worked with Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus and with a large variety of people of all faiths and people with no faith. He could be very strong, but he was also a man who was capable of respecting the other, working with the other. To me that is crucial. If you can’t do that, you shouldn’t be ordained.”

“Now that does not mean that you are wishy-washy, or that you have no grounding or that you stand for nothing,” he continued. “But it does mean you stand for something and with love in your heart and in a way that invites people to the table. We try to establish an attitude of love and openness (in a seminarian) at the same time know what we stand for and why we have to study

SPECIAL VOCATIONS SECTION

– because people want to know their faith. We need to help people articulate their faith, to help them make the decisions they need to make, and want to make.”

The late pope’s emphasis on “the four pillars” of priestly formation undergirds much of the seminary’s approach, Father Brown pointed out. Those four areas of focus, he said, are human formation, pastoral formation, intellectual formation and spiritual formation.

“You can’t have a good priest if he’s not humanly well developed,” he explained. “Then you have spiritual formation which has to cut through everything you do. Then you get intellectual formation, which is truly important for today’s culture and society. You have to be able to be in touch with what is happening and at the same time help make things make sense to people, to help them interpret reality and also to have a sense of vision that captures the teachings of the Church and where the Church is today.”

Getting a handle on culture underlies much of the seminary’s work, Father Brown said. For starters, the university’s 91 students themselves hail from four continents and many nations – three dozen men from Asian countries (Vietnam, the Philippines, Korea, and China), one man from the Pacific Islands, three men from Africa, two dozen from Hispanic countries (Mexico, San Salvador, Chile, Columbia and Honduras), and two dozen Anglos from various places.

Currently 18 dioceses and one religious community (Conventual Franciscans) send men to St. Patrick’s. The Archdiocese of San Francisco has 14 men enrolled, three of whom will be ordained June 9 at St. Mary’s Cathedral.

“We have a rich diversity of people,” Father Brown said. “Some of them have been married. As a matter of fact I baptized one seminarian’s first grandchild here in our chapel. We have people from many fields – CEOs, lawyers, truck drivers. It is quite an interesting mix, and that is a good thing.”

The presence of three deaf seminarians illustrates the point. No seminary in the nation, Father Brown said, is doing as much to provide seminary formation for the deaf, a costly and complex task. The priest says the deaf community should be seen as a culture within a culture, “deaf with a capital ‘D’.”

The student body’s pool of ethnic, age and life diversity provides students with a real-life practicum “on how to know, how to relate to, how to share with one another,” Father Brown said. “The young learn from the older, from the experience of others, and thus FATHER BROWN, page V4

VOLUME 9

•

No. 14

V2

Catholic San Francisco – Vocations

April 27, 2007

Got vocation?

It’s as if I’m asking God, ‘Am I hearing you right?’ ure as reminders of life in rural Oregon and of their father.

Marie likes to point out her links through her father to the Marie Brown wasn’t a Catholic in 1979. Recently grad- Chinook Indian Tribe, whose traditional lands are at the uated from the University of Washington, she was an mouth of the Columbia River in Washington. agnostic who needed a job. She happened into a position in In the summer of 2002 as the youth minister for the the reimbursement and audit Diocese of Baker in Oregon department at Sacramento’s she accompanied a group of Mercy General Hospital and 118 to World Youth Day in found that not only did the Toronto, Canada. The last job suit her, but the mission night there, they and of the Sisters of Mercy 300,000 other youth slept in appealed strongly to her. a former airport.

“I began to experience the “I went to sleep on the possibility of God,” she said. asphalt where it was hot and Her journey hasn’t been muggy,” she said. “I woke simple since then. She’s still up in middle of night, hearasking careful, penetrating ing rap music and then a questions. A petite woman young woman singing, ‘I with brown hair that falls long to know you and to give straight down her back, my life to you.’ It was a Marie has a calm about her. vocations prayer vigil I had She pauses thoughtfully and slept through. Tears were smiles before she speaks. streaming down my face. I “At Mercy General friendknew I needed to respond.” ships with the Sisters began, Marie began her discernand I felt drawn to the ment process, testing her Catholic faith.” responses and her decision to She worked for the Mercy become a Sister of Mercy.

Health Care Organization “It’s as if I’m asking God, (MHCO) and then St. ‘Am I hearing you right?’”

Joseph’s Medical Center in she said. “I prayed a lot, Los Angeles. Some of the wrote a lot to myself and to jobs required the precision of others who could help me sort her practical bookkeeping this out. I was in touch with skills, and others began to vocation ministers. All the Sister Marie Brown is a novice in the draw on her flare for writing right people were involved in Sisters of Mercy, currently taking part in the and public relations. the process, including friends congregation’s novitiate program in Laredo, Texas.

She wrote and edited pubof mine who were Mercy lications for MHCO and then Sisters and the pastor of my Kaiser Permanente. After becoming a Catholic in 1987, she parish. I was really drawn to Burlingame community.” began to support pro-life efforts in Sacramento and became Marie is now in the middle of her two-year novitiate. involved with the Davis Crisis Pregnancy Center, served as She will have spent 18 months at the Sisters of Mercy its second director and then moved on to found Bishop Institute Novitiate with six other novices in Laredo, Texas.

Gallegos Maternity Home One of the six, Shari in Sacramento.

Roeseler, is also from the As her commitment to ‘Don’t put on a front or a demeanor Burlingame Mercy comCatholic causes grew, so munity. They share prayer, did her involvement with that is not you just to be accepted. It cooking and cleaning the Sisters of Mercy. In duties and attend work1993 she became a Mercy is important that if you are called, shops on the vows of associate. After a few poverty, celibacy, obediyears she decided to work you are called as who you are.’ ence and service to the on a book for children poor. about Mercy founder As she lives through Catherine McAuley. Her research brought her frequently to questions, Marie said, “Part of the mystery is that this step the Sisters of Mercy Motherhouse in Burlingame. has nothing to do with having a relationship with God. It is She was making her way slowly toward religious com- about being a member of the religious community— difmunity. Her time was often punctuated with visits to Camp Sherman in Oregon, her beloved hometown where she and her twin sister grew up. Their father had dubbed Marie “Bear” and her sister “Bird,” names which they still treas-

By Liz Dossa

Date to view religious life set May 5 in Burlingame An informational meeting – “Where Are Religious Sisters Today?” – for women wanting to know more about religious life has been scheduled May 5 at Mercy Center, 2300 Adeline Dr., Burlingame from 9 a.m. to noon.

The event will be “an educational morning to learn what religious Sisters are doing today, where they live, pray and minister,” according to Sister Cindy Kaye, RSM, vocation minister for the Sisters of Mercy, Burlingame.

She and Holy Family Sister Kathy Littrell will direct the program which will include material on ministries of today’s religious communities as well as the forms those associations can take including monastic, cloistered and apostolic.

Participants should “look forward to lively discussion and sharing experiences of Sisters,” Sister Kaye said. Reservations by May 1 have been requested; call (650) 340-7434,

Religious communities of Catholic women serving in the Bay Area have joined to offer information on discernment of religious vocations, faith sharing, ministry, social justice, spiritual growth opportunities and counseling on the Web site www.bayareacatholicsisters.org. The site also provides contact information for 19 of the communities.

ferent from being single or being a dedicated single woman, or an associate.”

Her advice to those who think they might be called to religious community is to find the right people with whom to talk, most likely a vocation minister and a spiritual director. “The more trustworthy, credible people involved the better. It’s not just you deciding. This is a decision of the community.”

She adds, “And be real. You need to say how things are going. Don’t put on a front or a demeanor that is not you just to be accepted. It is important that if you are called, you are called as who you are.”

Steps toward religious life for women: from a phone call to final profession Many resources and individuals are available to help answer questions from any woman who is curious about religious life.

Most women’s religious communities have stages which begin with e-mailing or calling a vocation director. For a list of local vocations directors of 19 Bay Area women’s religious communities see www.bayareacatholicsisters.org.

Typically, the steps followed by women religious include: • Inquirer: The interested woman enters into regular conversations with the vocation director and spiritual director to evaluate her call to religious life. The inquirer visits regularly with the community for liturgies, retreats and offerings that help her know the community.

• Pre-candidacy: An application has been approved. The pre-candidate makes arrangements to live in community and sets goals for herself. This stage usually lasts two to four months.

• Candidacy: The applicant moves in with the community and begins theological studies, some ministry and participates in the life of the community through daily life and meetings. Candidacy typically lasts two years.

• Novitiate: Normally a two-year process, the novitiate includes studying the community’s vows, understanding the community’s charism, or special mission, and thinking and praying about the commitment to religious life. A novice receives a symbol of her entrance into novitiate.

• Temporary profession: The Sister makes a commitment to her religious community and spends the next three to nine years deepening her understanding of herself, the reality of religious life and ministry.

• Final profession: After the years of temporary profession, the Sister and community come together in an understanding that this is the woman’s life-long call, and final profession is made.

(Liz Dossa compiled the above information for Catholic San Francisco.)

April 27, 2007

Catholic San Francisco – Vocations

V3

World Day of Prayer for Vocations When was the last time the Lord heard from you about vocations?

The first person in the history of our Church to mention a vocation shortage was Jesus Christ himself: “He said to [his disciples], ‘The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.’” Jesus sees the crowds in need of good news and spiritual leadership, in need of the Word of God and those who proclaim it.

In his words to his disciples, Jesus suggests that prayer for vocations is essential: the harvest master will not send servants to those who do not want them and do not ask for them. God, who loves us all, does not force his love—or his servant leaders—on those who are indifferent.

We see the need increasing now in our Catholic Church here in the Archdiocese of San Francisco. It doesn’t help for us to say, “Why doesn’t the Church do something about the vocation shortage?” You and I are the Church. We need to pray for all vocations: for deeply committed Catholic wives and husbands, mothers and fathers, people called to the single life, religious Sisters and Brothers, deacons and priests. On this World Day of Prayer, however, we especially pray for servant leaders in the image of Jesus Christ, the High Priest. May God grant that men will step forward to answer the call of Christ to priestly life and ministry.

It’s true that we have experienced a welcome upturn in the number of seminarians studying for the priesthood in the San Francisco Archdiocese, but we still face a severe shortage in the years ahead. The Spirit calls but we must listen and respond. First of all the Spirit calls all of us to pray, to encourage, and to work for priestly vocations.

When you are urged to pray for vocations, and are given a prayer card, please keep it handy and say the prayer daily. When you are invited to join a vocations committee in your parish, please do so. When you are invited to visit St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, where our seminarians are educated for the priesthood, please go and visit. When a seminarian visits your parish to speak about vocations, introduce yourself, encourage him, and promise to pray for him.

When was the last time the Lord of the harvest heard from you about vocations?

Most Rev. George H. Niederauer Archbishop of San Francisco

Life Direction 101: ask God in prayer to guide you

By Father Thomas A. Daly Just before Easter I received a phone call from a former student who wanted to see me.

When he stopped by, he began with the honest admission: “I have been neglecting my faith.” He continued: “I’ll be taking a vacation and wanted to know if you could recommend any books that might help.” He went on to mention he hadn’t really prayed much since high school. When I asked him why, he responded without hesitation, “Laziness.”

I don’t doubt the sincerity of his answer, but I think there may be more to his current spiritual drought than just inactivity. For many young people in their 20s and even early 30s, options for the future seem endless. After college and world travels, they enter the market place to pursue what they think will bring fulfillment. Soon the experience can be found to be wanting, and their restlessness remains. This feeling may very well indicate the initial stirrings or even continued nudging of the Lord to follow him, possibly even as a priest, religious, or other Church vocation.

In the case of this young man, he might be avoiding quiet time with God because, when he has prayed in the past, he has experienced a truism expressed by the Trappists: God speaks loudest in the silence of our hearts (helpful advice to guide individuals unsatisfied in current careers and uncertain about the right path to choose).

After suggesting a few books to him (he took one by Father Thomas Merton), I encouraged him to spend more time in prayer, even if it was just a few minutes each day. I assured him this would do more for his faith than any book. “It will certainly give you the direction you need about your future,” I told him as we walked to his car.

SALESIANS BRING JESUS CHRIST

TO YOUNG PEOPLE St. John Bosco began his ministry to youth in 1841. Today the Salesians continue that ministry for young people in schools, parishes and youth centers throughout the world.

To talk to a vocation director or for information Salesians of Don Bosco: Brothers and Priests Phone: 636-260-3574 Email: vocation@salesianym.org WEB: www.salesianym.org

Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (Salesian Sisters) Phone: 562-866-0675 Email: fmasuovoc@aol.com WEB: www.salesiansisterswest.org

A few days after his visit, I found a note he had written to me a decade earlier. When he was leaving for college, he expressed trust in God’s plan for his future: “I know that God is going to lead me in the right path, because I have no idea what I want to do with my life right now.”

I can’t help but think those words can come from one who has a strong gift of faith, even a vocation. When he begins to pray, the Good Shepherd will certainly lead him in the right path.

World Day of Prayer for Vocations is Pope Benedict XVI’s reminder to the Catholic faithful to heed the words of Jesus : Father Thomas Daly “The harvest is great but laborers are few; so pray the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” (Mt 9:37-38) Father Tom Daly is president of Marin Catholic High School and director of vocations for the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

V4

Catholic San Francisco – Vocations

April 27, 2007

According to the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s Director of Vocations Father Thomas Daly, there are 21 seminarians currently in formation for the Archdiocese. Fourteen of those are enrolled at St. Patrick’s Seminary, Menlo Park, and several posed for a photo recently with seminary officials.

From left, front row: Dat Nguyen; Hansel Tomaneng; Armando Gutierrez; Father Gerald L. Brown, SS, president/rector; William Thornton; Juan Alejo.

Back row, from left: Ghislain Bazikila;Jerry Murphy; Deacon Ngoan Phan; Juan Lopez; Wade Bjerke; Deacon Paul Zirimenya; and Deacon Michael Konopik. Not pictured are Michael Quinn and Jesus Salvador Lopez who are taking part in pastoral work. Deacons Phan, Zirimenya and Konopik are slated to be ordained priests June 9 at St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco.

Father Brown . . .

(PHOTO BY REV. MR. SEAMUS GRIESBACH)

■ Continued from page V1

David A. Schunk (above, center), a seminarian for the Archdiocese of San Francisco studying at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, was instituted as an acolyte last month along with three dozen classmates. Cardinal George Pell, archbishop of Sydney, Australia, site of the 2008 World Youth Day, was principal celebrant at the liturgy. Now in his second year of studies, Schunk has now formally received the ministries of lector and acolyte. Acolytes are authorized to assist deacons and priests at eucharistic liturgies and to bring Communion to the sick.

have a bigger sense of Church. At the same time, it is a chance for the older students to learn how to relate to younger people. All of this is not always easy. A lot of adaptation is necessary. I think one of the qualities most needed in leadership in the Church today is the capacity to adapt, to be flexible enough to know what it is your are about, but at the same time to have an openness of spirit that allows you to be in dialogue with a diversity of people.”

“I am just one leader here” at the seminary, he added.

“We are all called to leadership. We are all going to learn from each other, and we all here to share and teach each other. The mix of the guys is quite interesting and makes for an interesting formation.”

Likewise, the St. Patrick’s faculty echoes a wide range of backgrounds. It includes a Vietnamese Sulpician, Father Nam Kim; a former seminary rector from the Philippines, Msgr. Peter Correa; a Sulpician from India, Father Andrews Amir; a Jesuit priest with Hispanic roots, Father George Schultz; an Argentinean canon lawyer, Father Luis Corneli; among others.

“You have to be very careful who gets on the faculty,” Father Brown said. “They need to be well grounded, well prepared in their fields, but also capable of listening and learning and accepting, and respecting.”

An area in which faculty and others are deeply involved is the increasing role the seminary plays in the continuing education of priests – pastorally and academically, Father Brown said.

Again noting that newly ordained priests are frequently being asked to assume wide responsibilities in a short period of time, Father Brown said the seminary is developing programs “to help guys in their early years of ordination” in concert with diocesan clergy continuing education personnel.

(Next: How has the clerical sex abuse crisis impacted seminary life? To what degree is celibacy a factor in seminarians’ lives? What is involved in discerning a religious vocation?)

Silver jubilarian views seminary community as her spiritual family

By Tom Burke While Sister Crecensia Guerrero Cordero will celebrate her 25th anniversary as an Oblate of Jesus the Priest in September, Archbishop George Niederauer presided at a Mass commemorating the occasion at St. Patrick’s Seminary and University April 17.

The order of Oblates of Jesus the Priest supports the priesthood through work in seminaries, diocesan offices and parishes. In the United States the Sisters serve at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park and St. Mary of the Lake Seminary in Mundelein, Ill. as well as at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago and St. Paul the Apostle Church with the Paulist Fathers in New York City.

Sister Crecensia has served at St. Patrick’s for the last six years. Previous assignments have taken her to Chicago, New York, Rome and several locations in her native Mexico.

“We pray for priests all the time,”

Sister Crecensia said recently as she helped prepare breakfast for the soon-toarrive seminarians, faculty and staff of St. Patrick’s. “Our prayer and work is offered to God for priests and seminarians.” Sister Crecensia said she considers those to whom she ministers as “family.”

Seminarians and priests mostly enjoy the foods they grew up with, but “will eat Mexican food for all three meals if you let them,” Sister Crecensia laughed.

While the Sisters have acquired many recipes since their founding in 1924, they continue to look for new culinary ideas, often now on the Internet, Sister Crecensia said. She especially likes to bake, and numbers strawberry shortcake and pineapple upside-down cake among her favorites.

“Every day when I see the seminarians and priests happy to serve the Church, then I am happy,” Sister Crecensia said. “Those are my delicious moments, and I give thanks to God for their vocations and mine.”

Participants at an April 17 liturgy marking the silver jubilee of the vows of Sister Crecensia Guerrero Cordero as an Oblate of Jesus the Priest included, from left: Sister Elisa Elizarraras OSJ, mother general of the order; Deacon Jesse Reyes; Archbishop George Niederauer who presided; Sister Crecensia; Deacon Paul Chen, Sister Ana Marie Juarez Martinez, OSJ, superior of the Sisters at St. Patrick’s.

April 27, 2007

Catholic San Francisco – Vocations

V5

PRIESTS FOR THE FUTURE You haven’t chosen me. I have chosen you.” “Tu no me has elegido. Yo te he elegido a ti.”

PRIESTS FOR THE ARCHDIOCESE

OF

SAN FRANCISCO

John 15:16

God, our Father, In Your love and providence, You call each of us to a more holy and abundant life. We pray for our young people in the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Open their hearts and minds to know the vocation You have planned for them from all eternity.

If they are being invited to follow You as a Priest, Brother, or Sister, give them a generous heart to respond to Your challenging call and the strength to follow wherever You lead them. May families desire to please You by encouraging and supporting vocations within their homes. We ask this through Jesus Christ, our Good Shepherd. Amen

Archdiocese of San Francisco Seminarians Juan Alejo Ghislain C. Bazikila Wade E. Bjerke John P. Brown John Chung

Armando J. Gutierrez Amnolito S. Jaldon Jr. Rev. Mr. Michael J. Konopik Felix Lim Jesus S. Lopez

Juan M. Lopez V. Jerome M. Murphy Dat Nguyen Rev. Mr. Ngoan V. Phan Joseph Previtali

Michael F. Quinn David Schunk William Thornton Hansel P. Tomaneng Tony Vallecillo Rev. Mr. Paul M. Zirimenya

“Please pray for our seminarians, those currently in discernment, and our three transitional deacons who will be ordained to the priesthood at St. Mary’s Cathedral on June 9th, 2007.”

Please complete this form and mail to the Vocation Office ❑ I will pray for vocations daily. ❑ I would like information on studying for the priesthood would make a great priest(s). Parish ❑ I believe that ❑ I wish to make a gift to ensure priests for the future. ❑ I have or would like to remember the education of future priests in my will. ❑ I would like information about joining a parish vocation committee.

Name

Phone Number

Address City

State

Zip

Please return to: Father Thomas A. Daly, Office of Vocations Archdiocese of San Francisco One Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco, CA 94109 (415) 614-5683 e-mail: daly@sfarchdiocese.org

V6

Catholic San Francisco – Vocations

Sisters’ devotion, love inspired Mother Celine Following is excerpted from a message sent to Catholic San Francisco from Mother Celine of the Visitation, superior general of the Little Sisters of the Poor, in response to questions about her religious vocation.

I was born and raised in San Francisco. We lived in St. Anne Parish and I attended St. Anne Grammar School and Presentation High School. I graduated from St. Anne in June of 1952 and from Presentation in June of 1956.

During high school I belonged to the Legion of Mary.

We did our Legion work at the Home for the Aged which the Little Sisters of the Poor have in San Francisco – St. Anne’s Home for the Aged on 300 Lake Street. I really did not plan to enter the Little Sisters as I was interested in teaching. In my senior year I felt the Lord was calling me to care for the elderly. With the blessing of my parents, I asked to enter the Little Sisters and left for the convent in San Francisco on July 2, 1956. Two of us from Presentation entered together on July 2, and in November we left for New York where we have our U.S. novitiate.

I am the oldest of six children, and was the first to leave home. My mother and father are no longer living but my sisters and brothers with their own families live in Wisconsin, Maine and Marin County. We usually come home to visit about every three years. When we get together, we usually just enjoy being at home in Fairfax where my mom and dad last lived.

I was influenced by what I experienced at the home for the aged. The Sisters gave me example by their lives of prayer and their devoted care of the aged. I found a family-like home where many elderly men and women were receiving loving care. This attracted me and I enjoyed helping the Sisters even though in the beginning I never dreamt of becoming one.

Today, I am the mother general of the Congregation. I was elected in September of 1996 and re-elected in 2002 at our General Chapter. Actually I have been in France in our motherhouse as assistant general since 1976.

A vocation to religious life is a call from God. Through baptism, we have received the divine life, and we are all consecrated to God forever. Texts of the Second Vatican Council explain that religious consecration is rooted in this baptismal consecration.

Today we need dedicated persons willing to live for God alone and commit themselves to the service of others.

The apostolic activities and the charisms of the different institutes and congregations are numerous and varied.

Whatever the concrete tasks of our mission, among the young or old, in the service of the sick or in works of social advancement, in parish life or by a presence in particularly de-Christianized areas, in our own country or in faraway lands, we are all called to be faithful witnesses of the love of Christ, to reveal his mercy.

Jeanne Jugan founded the Little Sisters of the Poor with a simple, yet dramatic gesture. One winter’s evening in 1839, she opened her heart and home to an elderly, blind, paralyzed woman who suddenly found herself alone. Moved by her need, Jeanne carried Anne Chauvin through the streets of their town, brought her to her apartment and placed her in her own bed. Soon another old woman followed, then a third. The Congregation of the Little Sisters of the Poor – with its unique mission of hospitality to the elderly – was born!

What moved Jeanne Jugan to give up her own bed and devote her whole life to the service of the aged poor? It was because everything in her life came from God and was directed to God. There are many generous young people in this world today, and I pray they will have the courage to listen to God’s call.

April 27, 2007

San Francisco-born Little Sisters leader: provide the aged ‘homes, not houses’

By Brian Davies SYDNEY, Australia (CNS) — When Mother Celine of the Visitation decided as a 17-year-old U.S. schoolgirl in San Francisco that she wanted to join the Little Sisters of the Poor, she had no idea the decision would lead her to become the first nonFrench superior general in the order’s nearly 170-year history.

Mother Celine was in Sydney in March to visit one of the 31 countries on five continents where the order runs 200 homes for 14,000 residents, most of them the elderly poor. In Australia the Little Sisters of the Poor have homes in Sydney, Melbourne, Kalgoorlie and Perth.

“Homes, not houses,” Mother Celine said, emphasizing the extra vow Last October the six Raber Family siblings gathered in Fairfax where their parents of hospitality that Little last lived and where one of them, Pat Winiecki, is a longtime member of St. Rita Sisters of the Poor make in Parish. From left, back: James Raber from Augusta, Maine; Mother Celine (Joan addition to chastity, poverRaber); John Raber from Forestville, Calif.; front, from left: Diane Jordan ty and obedience. from El Granada, Calif; Pat Winiecki; and Mary Kaiser from Auburndale, Wisc.

“Our home is your home,” she said. “Hospitality in the full meaning of the word is our bond and the source of and who was she? Well, there are a number of St. Celines, our apostolic energy — it is consecrated hospitality.” most prominently one who was the mother of a French The superior general said the calling of the Little saint, St. Remi, and she’s my Celine.”

Sisters, founded in 1839 by Blessed Jeanne Jugan, is “to She praised “the wisdom of the order” in requiring care for the aged and an ultimate care — preparing them every new member to “spend a final year at the motherfor eternity, as one day we too shall need.” house in France — 12 months to be sure that we do want to How are people prepared for eternity? go ahead to take final vows and, while contemplating that, “By us nuns showing that we are there to care for them, 12 months intensively learning French.” showing them love in the solitude of old age, where they may “No matter where in the world we come from, we can be fearful,” Mother Celine said. “And, when they are really ill then all speak to each other,” Mother Celine said. and at the point of dying, being with them right to the end.”

Mother Celine said some religious congregations “went through terrible stresses” in the years following the Second Vatican Council, but the mission of the Little Sisters “was simply to continue what we had been founded to do — caring for the elderly with the love and respect they deserve.”

During a “family day” March 11 at the order’s historic home in Randwick, Mother Celine met Australian Little The Little Sisters of the Poor have scheduled an Sisters and their families, and welcomed seven postulants April 29 open house from 3:30-4:30 p.m. for to the Little Sisters’ novitiate. women interested in religious life. To be held at St. “The strength of the order worldwide is not quite 3,000, a Anne’s Home, 300 Lake St., San Francisco, the healthy number,” she said. “Seven is fine, but 77 would be open house will be followed by a holy hour and more like it.” benediction.

Recalling her own days as a novice, Mother Celine said For more information, call Sister Caroline or she put aside her previous tentative career paths as a teacher leave a message at (415) 751-6510. or nurse for her vocation as a nun. To her surprise, however, during her novitiate the order sent her off to train as a nurse.

Her choice of Celine of the Visitation as a religious name?

“The practice of the order was to group new arrivals.

More than a Career…

My batch of 24 were labeled ‘of the Visitation,’” she said with a smile. “We didn’t get to choose our religious names, they were given to us, so I was Celine of the Visitation ...

Little Sisters of Poor schedule open house

Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary Explore possibilities for Ministry, Spirituality, and Community as a Sister, Associate, Volunteer.

Life Fully Lived ~~ Love Fully Shared Serving the Archdiocese of San Francisco Since 1854 For information, please contact:

Sister Stephanie Still, PBVM E-mail: sstill@pbvmsf.org 281 Masonic Ave. San Francisco, CA 94118

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Sr. Kathy Littrell, Vocation Director Sisters of the Holy Family P.O. Box 3248, Fremont, CA 94539 • 510-624-4511 shfmem@aol.com • holyfamilysisters.org

April 27, 2007

Catholic San Francisco – Vocations

V7

‘Beyond the Gates’: film affirms priestly vocation

By Harry Forbes

M OVIE R EVIEW Father Christopher is inspired by an actual Bosnian priest named Father Vjeko Curic who sheltered Tutsis during the genocide.

The school grounds — guarded by Belgian security forces on the behest of the United Nations (but only to maintain the peace, not enforce it) — become a sanctuary against the violence just outside its gates. Among the students is a sensitive young Tutsi girl, Marie Clare-Hope Ashitey, to whom the priest and Joe form a paternal attachment.

When the violence reaches a critical stage, Father Christopher finds hundreds more Tutsis begging for shelter.

The U.N. security forces are inclined to refuse entry, but Father Christopher insists they be let in.

Some 2,500 Tutsi citizens ultimately found refuge there, but it would only be temporary. Even with machete-wielding Hutus hovering with deadly intent, the U.N. — which refused to label the Rwandan atrocities “genocide” as it would oblige them to intervene (a stance echoed by the United States and the United Kingdom) — would recall its troops, leading to a hasty evacuation, but shamefully, of only the white people. The decisions made by Father Christopher and young Joe at this point are pivotal to the film’s theme of personal choice.

The Catholic element here is strong. Father Christopher believes in saying Mass no matter what the outside danger, and throughout, is shown carefully explaining the significance of Catholic doctrine and rituals.

Despite a short-lived despair, stemming from his helplessness at the violence he’s powerless to alleviate, his character is one of the most positive cinematic depictions of a priest in recent memory.

Hurt — in real life, a clergyman’s son and monk’s brother – gives a wonderfully committed and believable performance, and Dancy – currently winning raves on Broadway for his terrific performance in the classic World War I drama “Journey’s End” — convincingly conveys the growing horror and disillusionment of his character.

Director Michael Caton-Jones has shot the film (from a compelling script by David Wolstencroft) at the actual locations of the horrific events with survivors among the cast and crew, some of whom are poignantly showcased in the closing credit sequence.

This important film — with its cautionary reminder of worldwide indifference that must not be allowed to happen again — is acceptable for mature teens, despite the primarily adult classification.

The film contains much disturbing if discreetly handled violence, description of atrocities, images of dead and wounded, some rough language and mild profanity uttered under duress, and a childbirth scene.

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

God Invites Vocations.

You Can Help Close the Deal.

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

CUTLINE: (CNS PHOTO/IFC)

NEW YORK (CNS) — “Beyond the Gates” (IFC) towers above most current films, with even the more worthy ones seeming like fluff in comparison. It’s a gripping film about one of recent history’s most regrettable episodes: the international community’s failure to come to the aid of thousands of men, women and children who lost their lives during the Rwandan genocide.

The film was previewed by members of the Pontifical Council on Social Communications in early March.

Archbishop John Foley, Council president, praised the production in a consequent letter to IFC, stating: “All who saw the film at our meeting — and there were about 30, at least half of them cardinals and bishops from around the world – were profoundly affected, and they join me in sending their gratitude and their congratulations on such an outstanding cinematic achievement.”

The dramatization focuses specifically on the 1994 siege of a secondary school there. Father Christopher (John Hurt), a dedicated Catholic priest who runs the Ecole Technique Officielle and Joe Connor (Hugh Dancy), an idealistic young British teacher who hopes to “make a difference” – both fictional characters — view with growing alarm the escalating violence just outside their gates by the Hutu majority against their Tutsi brethren whom they regard as mere “cockroaches.”

John Hurt, foreground, and Hugh Dancy star in a scene from the movie “Beyond the Gates.”

The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III — adults.

The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying adult.

V8

Catholic San Francisco – Vocations

April 27, 2007

With a Mass of Thanksgiving and community celebration April 21 at St. Elizabeth Parish in San Francisco, the Sisters of the Good Shepherd marked the 75th anniversary of the religious community’s ministry to young women of the Bay Area and northern California. Sisters present for the occasion included, from left seated: Sisters Liz Schille, community animator for San Francisco; Christopher Mullen, visitor from Los Angeles; Barbara Beasley, provincial superior from St. Louis; Rosalina Fumes and Danielle Fung, members of local community; standing, from left: Sisters Joan Tubbs, local community member; Carolina Madariaga, visitor from Los Angeles; Mary Catherine Massei, leadership team in St. Louis; Madeliene Munday, visitor from St. Paul, Minn.; Joan Spiering, visitor from Portland, Ore.; and Nancy Bolton, local community. Homilist was Jesuit Father Don Sharp, a faculty member at St. Patrick’s Seminary, Menlo Park.

Heroes of faith challenge us, encourage us, give us hope

By Sister Celeste Arbuckle, SSS When I was growing up I lived with the stories of saints, martyrs and family heroes. It was part of everyday life. I wanted to be like those people. Oh, to go to the jungle like Tom Dooley and bring comfort to the sick or to be brave enough to speak my voice like Theresa of Avila was my life’s dream.

As a Sister of Social Service I still look to heroes to challenge, encourage and give hope. Blessed Sister Sara Salkahazi, just named “blessed” last Sept. 17 in Budapest, Hungary, continues my quest for models today. She was a Sister of Social Service in my community, and was martyred Dec. 27, 1944, because she hid Jewish women and children.

She was a writer. Much of her writings dealt with the working poor, especially women. She denounced injustices and urged improvement of women’s conditions.

Sara met the Sisters attending a social work program.

The Sisters were to take the Gospel message to all spheres of human life, including politics, and lived the spirit of Benedict and Scholastica. Sara realized she had to give up much and she did. She entered the community in 1929.

Sara chose as her profession motto, “Alleluia, here I am, send me.” This meant she wanted to make the gift of her life with a joyful heart. This Easter season I continue to be challenged by her motto. Do I have a joyful heart: willing to give, eager to minister, hopeful in the Lord’s resurrection?

I feel especially related to Sister Sara in my religious education work. She established the first adult education program for working women in Hungary. I continue to ask, “How can we make religious education relevant to people today?” And, “How do people get introduced and strengthened in their faith?”

Sister Sara stated, “Belonging to God is the only happiness. It is such happiness that it outshines every-

Blessed Sister Sara Salkahazi

thing else.” I want this to be operative in everyone’s life today.

In 1941 Sister Sara joined with the community in hiding Jewish people in the two hostels at which she was in charge. Her courage to save lives was guided by justice, love and a spirit that respects the human dignity of the

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weak, the poor and the oppressed. During this time she felt a deepening desire to offer her life as a sacrifice to God. Sister Sara was reported to authorities and taken away with a catechist and three Jewish women she was hiding at that time. They all were shot to death on the banks of the Danube and their bodies thrown into the river. Sister Sara became a martyr for Christian love, human rights, and the Church. Her diary shows her struggle to live her life authentically. In my own morning prayers I ask to live life with the courage that Sister Sara did.

Sister Sara’s life illustrates that God calls people from all walks of life to a personal, loving relationship with Christ and to give service in a variety of ways. Blessed Sara gives us an example of a feminine way to holiness.

She is a woman for women and children. God continues to call me and you to personal holiness.

Blessed Sara faced Hitler’s false ideologies by knowing her God and God’s truth. She calls each of us to work for reconciliation among nations, races and religion. We need more than ever her intercession in the war-torn parts of the world today and in our cities, families and personal lives.

In the end there is only one thing that matters: love.

Sister Sara knew this in every part of her body. She wrote, “A burning lamp is this love that burns in my heart for you. How much we have to safeguard this love! Only burning love can enlighten the dark road, and turn its cold into warmth; burning love can make its ruggedness bearable.”

When I think of my vocation I, too, want that burning love of Jesus. May I enlighten the dark roads that come my way and share how this can be done with the people I touch.

Social Service Sister Celeste Arbuckle directs the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s Office of Religious Education and Youth Ministry.

April 27, 2007

Catholic San Francisco

9

FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER Acts 13:14, 43-52; Psalm 100:1-2, 3, 5; Revalation 7:9, 14b-17; John 10:27-30 A READING ACCORDING TO 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.

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.

A READING FROM THE BOOK OF REVELATION (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 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. 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.”

Scripture Reflection FATHER JIM MAZZONE

Listening for Jesus’ voice in tumult of day-to-day life We all have stories of voice recognition.

We have friends or family from whom we hear often and friends and family from whom we do not hear often who call us on the telephone and it seems as if we only need to hear the first utterance from their voices and we know exactly who they are— even if we have not heard from them in months, sometimes years.

We may have a person in our lives — and elderly aunt or even a grandparent who calls us often but humorously always feels the need to identify themselves — as if we could ever mistake their voices.

Some of us may have a cassette recording of the voice of a loved one who has passed away. It might be years since they died, and it might be years since we have heard the recording of his or her voice, but streams of memories flood our mind when we hear his or her voice.

A friend of mine was listening to the news on NPR one day as she was driving and suddenly she was flooded with warmth and love for no apparent reason. She soon realized she was listening to a report from a newsman reporting from India with whom she attended college and with whom she was dear friends. She did not know he was working in India and she could not tell me a single fact that was reported, but just hearing her friend’s voice caused this phenomenon.

The same kind of instant recognition can be observed when a child hears the voice of his mother. For example, picture three young mothers sitting side by side on a park bench on a sunny, weekday afternoon with their toddlers enjoying the activities found in a playground. Sounds whipping around a playground can be many and varied.

However nothing cuts through the air to the ear of a toddler who is climbing a bit too high on the jungle gym like the voice of his own mother. It is instantly recognizable. He hears it above all other competing sounds.

If you have ever traveled through the crowded, narrow streets of the old, walled city of Jerusalem you have experienced the competing calls for your attention by the vendors lining the way. The voices call out to you from every direction for your attention by saying just the right thing, in just the right tone, in your own, native language — which they try to guess by the clothes you wear, your hair style, the way you walk. However, in the end, it all sounds like babble; for they are not recognizable in a personal way.

Like can feel like that: a lot of noise, a lot of calls, and we are not sure which way to turn or look. At other times, we hear the voice of our mother, or a friend, or the recording of a deceased loved one — and our response is instantaneous and trusting.

The relationship between a shepherd and his sheep is no different.

I once read of the common occurrence of shepherds who would pool their resources to safeguard and patrol their flocks at night against predators. They would agree to shepherd their flocks to a large, common pasture before sunset and then they would set up their shared campsite overlooking the combined flocks — which could total hundreds of sheep. Each shepherd would take a shift canvassing the flock, its perimeter, and watching for any commotions. The shepherd would stand ready to charge into the large, combined flock armed with a staff, a sling and stones in order to rescue any one of the sheep from danger. At sunrise the Shepherds would ready themselves for another day of work and journey their separate ways.

What amazes me is how the shepherds would separate the sheep in the morning.

They would simultaneously call out and hundreds of sheep would separate themselves by shuffling in the direction of their own shepherd. The sheep truly did know the voice of their shepherd. The shepherd knew his sheep; and they knew him.

Our challenge is to hear the voice of Jesus — to recognize it and to follow it. I wish we lived in a world that mirrored the early morning departures of the shepherds where all those being called to where Jesus wishes to lead us would follow without hesitation.

Instead, we are too often funneled and pushed down the vender-lined streets of Jerusalem with no hope of recognizing a personal call.

Perhaps the big question we need to ask ourselves is: are we listening? Do we take the time to listen for the voice of Jesus?

Can we listen for the voice of Jesus coming through others as instruments of his love and concern? Can we continuously finetune our spiritual ears to pick out Jesus’ callings in our day to day lives? Would we do well to rid ourselves of the competing babble in our lives?

Father Jim Mazzone is director of vocations for the Diocese of Worcester, Mass.

By John Thavis VATICAN CITY (CNS) — In his new book, “Jesus of Nazareth,” Pope Benedict XVI says Christ must be understood as the Son of God on a divine mission, not as a mere moralist or social reformer.

Emphasizing Christ’s divine nature is especially important in a world that tends to ridicule religious faith and that is experiencing a “global poisoning of the spiritual climate,” the pope said.

While Christ did not bring a blueprint for social progress, he did bring a new vision based on love that challenges the evils of today’s world — from the brutal-

ity of totalitarian regimes to the “cruelty of capitalism,” he said.

The 448-page book was presented in its Italian, German and Polish editions at the Vatican April 13. It was to go on sale April 16, the pope’s 80th birthday, with subsequent editions in English and 18 other languages.

The book, the first of two planned volumes on Christ’s life, covers the public acts of Jesus from his baptism in the Jordan River to the transfiguration before his disciples. Its 10 chapters analyze Scriptural passages and explore commentary from early Church fathers and modern scholars.

In a preface, the pope makes an

unusual disclaimer, saying the book should not be read as an expression of official Church teaching, but as the fruits of his personal research.

“Therefore, anyone is free to contradict me,” he said.

Throughout the text, the pope cites Old and New Testament passages to show that to understand Christ one must understand his “union with God the Father.”

Pope Benedict XVI looks at a copy of his new book, “Jesus of Nazareth,” presented to him at the Vatican April 13.

(CNS PHOTO/L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO, REUTERS)

Pope in new book: know Christ as Son of God

10

Catholic San Francisco

April 27, 2007

Catholic san Francisco Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper

Guest editorial An open letter to Nancy Pelosi I am writing this letter to ask you to reconsider your position on abortion.

What brought me to this was reading your quote in the April 22 San Francisco Chronicle about the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on partial birth abortion. You said, “This isn’t really an abortion issue.” You went on to say that this is “about a procedure that any parent would want her daughter to have access to if she needed it.”

Frankly, I am horrified by that statement and the callousness it represents. I do not know any parents who would want their grandchild to be killed in such a brutal manner. We are, after all, talking about a viable, almost full-term human being, a child of God. I quote the same Chronicle article for a description of the process: “Rather than the more common practice of dismembering the fetus in the womb, the doctor partly removes the intact fetus from the uterus before aborting it, usually by puncturing its skull.”

Even these somewhat antiseptic words cannot hide the reality of what is happening. First of all, I do not know anyone who calls their unborn child or grandchild a “fetus.” It is a baby. This is just common sense. Other terminology: disarticulating a fetus (ripping the baby’s limbs off so it can more easily be suctioned out), separating the calvarium (sever the head with scissors)is meant to hide what every fourth grade elementary student knows about human biology – that this is a unique, wholly contained human being with its own genetic code and DNA, never to be replicated.

Where this reality becomes very clear is in the case of late-term infants. That is why so many Americans, even those who call themselves pro-choice, are against this particular procedure.

So how can you attempt to further obfuscate the issue by saying that it isn’t about abortion but, rather, it is about the Supreme Court meddling in medical decisions because an exception was not made for the health of the mother?

I quote Kathleen Parker from the Washington Post (April 23) commenting on the ruling: “The main argument from the prochoice side, and the constitutional issue at stake, has been that the partial-birth abortion is sometimes needed to protect the health of the mother. But in no single court case were doctors able to demonstrate that it was ever a medical necessity.” (My italics) Unfortunately, this gruesome procedure is chosen for a myriad of other reasons, from the baby being an inconvenience to the indication of abnormalities. In any case, medical testimony given throughout the history of the case made it clear other safe methods are available.

I believe you are out of the mainstream by supporting this particular form of abortion. By doing this you make people of good will, especially people of faith who believe in the sanctity of all life, skeptical. All of the good work that you do on the many things that are also part of our obligation to uphold life — your advocacy for the poor, the immigrant, the health and safety of born children, your work for peace — become mere footnotes to the most foundational issue of all, that you continue to avoid or to speak abstractly about abortion as if it were a mere medical procedure.

As the leader of your party, you have responsibilities far beyond this issue. Do not let it define you as out of step with a civilized society.

(George Wesolek is director of the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s Office of Public Policy and Social Concerns which encompasses archdiocesan respect life work, including Project Rachel, a ministry for women who have undergone abortions.)

Environmental literacy Thank you for your recent focus on the sustainability programs at San Domenico School in San Anselmo. Now, more than ever, in a country that too often can be focused on consumerism there is a critical need to provide values-based education for today’s youth, and San Domenico School remains committed to meeting this challenge.

While our recent NAIS award reflects a school-wide commitment to sustainability and environmental stewardship, these “green” values have long been at the heart of San Domenico’s mission and that of the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael.

The practice of self sustaining communities dates to the Dominican Monastic communities of the 1200s. Today, it is San Domenico’s goal to engage students to instill a sense of responsibility and respect for all of life. It is also our goal to develop outreach programs that highlight our campus garden as a learning center and model of sustainability for others.

Never before has this ethic been as critical as it is now and San Domenico is very proud of its distinctive program of ecological literacy and environmental science. In 2006 the Sisters of San Rafael gathered to endorse the principles of the Earth Charter, further expanding our community-wide commitment to these practices.

Anyra Papsys Communications Manager San Domenico School (and graduate of the upper school)

CCHD sends thanks

Letters welcome Catholic San Francisco welcomes letters from its readers. Please:

➣ Include your name, address and daytime phone number. ➣ Sign your letter. ➣ Limit submissions to 250 words. ➣ Note that the newspaper reserves the right to edit for clarity and length.

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

Souls led astray Father Robert Drinan, SJ, who died in January, voted to permit abortion when he served in the U.S. House of Representatives, counseled our Catholic legislators to vote for abortion, partial birth abortion, destruction and experimentation on human embryos.

He was a professor of Georgetown University Law School from 1981 until his death.

As a shepherd he led many sheep astray and continued to have full faculties as a priest and say Mass until his death.

I think the Roman Catholic Church should make public statements that such a priest or theologian is in error or silence him. Such priest leaders and teachers not only play a role in the destruction of the lives of the innocents, but lead many souls astray.

May God have mercy on the soul of Father Drinan.

Ann Marie Meagher, M.D. Tiburon

L E T T E R S

(The following was addressed to Archbishop George H. Niederauer for the faithful of the Archdiocese of San Francisco.)

I wish to acknowledge with deep gratitude your archdiocesan contribution from the 2006 Appeal for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD).

In his first encyclical, Pope Benedict XVI defines clearly a vision for a just society which includes eliminating poverty and protecting human dignity. He writes, “… within the community of believers there can never be room for a poverty that denies anyone what is needed for a dignified life.”

Your recent contribution of $100,371 from your 2006 Catholic Campaign for Human Development collection will make a real difference in our efforts to break the cycle of poverty in America. Thank you very much for this generous support.

Last year CCHD was able to grant nearly $9 million to community organizing and economic development projects in 47 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The projects are planned and managed by local groups who are working for affordable housing, living wages, accessible health care, improved schools and access to social services. Your leadership and the faithful and committed service of

Send your letters to:

your archdiocesan director, Mr. George Wesolek, are sources of great encouragement to all of us.

Timothy F. Collins CCHD, Executive Director Washington, D.C.

People with guns …

There is wisdom in the slogan one often hears, “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.”

But after Virginia Tech, and after the six 2006 school shootings — Nickel Mines, Pa. (Oct. 2), Cazenovia, Wisc. (Sept. 29), Bailey, Col. (Sept. 27), Pittsburgh, Pa., (Sept 17), Hillsborough. N.C. (Aug. 30), and Essex, Vt. (Aug. 24) — one is inclined to reflect more seriously on the experienceinspired and perhaps deeper wisdom of the dictum, “Guns don’t kill people. People with guns kill people.”

Tragedies like Virginia Tech do not happen in the United Kingdom, Canada or Japan where gun ownership is restricted.

Father Larry N. Lorenzoni, SDB San Francisco

Infuriatingly trapped Perhaps we are trapped now in Iraq.

None of this had to be. It is known Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 and did not have weapons of mass destruction. Being loyal citizens, Americans fell for something that led to disaster. Now that Iraq has broken wide open, can we leave those people to cope with a horrendous civil war?

This administration abandoned diplomacy from the start, rejecting discussion with countries and interests it does not like and even refusing to listen to friends.

It was going to make an example by force.

Not only did the breaking open of Iraq result in civil war, it created a hatred that radicalized people from around the region, many of whom have no doubt now found their way into Iraq.

Iraq’s old enemy, Iran, has been strengthened by what we have wrought.

Our government says more than one million Iraqis have become refugees in their own country and more than a million have fled from Iraq. How many tens of thousand have been killed since the invasion with thousands more maimed? No one knows the number of children made parentless. And now the infant government of Iraq is being blamed for not controlling things. Is nothing known about how long fundamental nation building takes,especially when it is at odds with established culture? It is infuriating we have been trapped and may have to go on for years with something that never needed to be.

Donovan Russell Moravia, NY

April 27, 2007

Catholic San Francisco

11

The Catholic Difference On April 16, 2005, the staff of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith hosted a small party for the congregation’s prefect, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Cardinal Ratzinger turned 78 that day. The conclave to choose a new pope would be sealed on April 18, So, a combination birthday/bon voyage party seemed in order. It was, some of those present told me, an emotional moment. Cardinal Ratzinger’s way of handling his office had won him the intense loyalty of his subordinates and more than a few of them wanted to see him elected pope.

But if there was any wish farthest from Joseph Ratzinger’s mind as he marked his 78th, it was that he might spend future birthdays in Rome. He and his older brother Georg, a priest and distinguished musician, had acquired a small property in their native Bavaria where they could keep house together. The cardinal had every intention of offering his resignation as prefect of CDF to the new pope, and every hope John Paul II’s successor would do what John Paul had three times refused to do — accept that resignation.

The conclave had other ideas, of course. So Joseph Ratzinger did, indeed, spend his 80th birthday in Rome, as Pope Benedict XVI. When he stepped out onto the loggia of St. Peter’s on April 19, 2005, to meet and bless “the city and the world” according to the ancient tradition, I couldn’t help feeling sorry for the new pontiff, with whom I had been in conversation since 1988 and for whom I felt gratitude, affection

and respect. One doesn’t wish impossible jobs on those one admires.

But, somebody has to do the impossible job of the papacy, and, on further reflection, I felt rather happy for Joseph Ratzinger, the man. His election as pope had, I thought, freed him to be himself. No longer would he stand in the giant shadow of John Paul the Great. No longer would he be confined to a disciplinary role. The world could now see, unfiltered, the man whom I had come to know over 17 years: a Christian gentleman of remarkable intelligence, genuine modesty, spiritual depth — and good humor.

Some of that does, indeed, seem to have happened.

While too much of the world media still has its Ratzingerian default positions set on “enforcer,” a lot of people have discovered Joseph Ratzinger is a master catechist, able to distill the most difficult points of Christian doctrine into language and imagery that can be grasped by anyone. That, I am convinced, is why the crowds at Pope Benedict’s general audiences continue to be the largest in history: tired of the soul-withering allures of secularism and the thin gruel of “spirituality,” people are coming to be fed solid food, food for the journey, food that nourishes mind and spirit.

Thoughtful observers have also figured out that Joseph Ratzinger, by reason of his personal gifts and his office, can do what no president, prime minister, king, queen, chancellor, mullah, or secretary-general can do: put the really urgent

questions on the global agenda in a way that can’t be ignored. While I wish some of my journalistic friends would have honored the pope’s 80th birthday by repeating, a few thousand times, “The George Weigel pope did not make a gaffe at Regensburg,” others have already figured that out. The September 2006 Regensburg Lecture put two grave problems on the world agenda — the danger of irrational faith, and the danger of a loss of faith in reason — in a way no other world figure could have managed. If the later 21st century finds a way to engage genuine interreligious dialogue through a rediscovery of the arts of reason, the seeds for that flowering will be seen to have been planted in Regensburg.

Prior to his election as pope, Joseph Ratzinger worried he was not a man of “governance,”and the effects of his governance on the Church remain to be seen. That he has established himself as a master teacher for the world, as he enters his ninth decade, no one can now doubt.

George Weigel is a senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.

Twenty Something

Thoughts on the dreaded bouquet toss My friend Tauna’s New Year’s resolution was to find romance. Last year’s wedding circuit took a toll on her and now she’s determined to find a mate before 2008.

The year started off slowly, she acknowledged in her blog, but it’s early yet. Thankfully, there are resources for Tauna, like Janis Spindel’s book, “Get Serious About Getting Married: 365 Proven Ways to Find Love in Less Than a Year.”

And if Thanksgiving rolls around and Tauna is still single, she could read Wendy Stehling’s how-to book on finding a spouse in 30 days. (No joke.)

I understand the anxiousness of being unattached.

Every time wedding bells ring for a friend, my biological clock ticks a little louder. And when their firstborn cries, the ticking gets louder yet.

I’m a content, confident person, but it’s impossible not to compare my personal life with a friend who’s standing in front of the altar. And it’s hard not to feel a bit behind.

Unlike some of my single friends, I enjoy weddings. I love getting dressed up, dancing and celebrating a happy union. So the “save the date” cards accumulating on my fridge don’t depress me. (I’m already planning my outfits.)

There’s just one moment I dread: the bouquet toss. We single ladies are displayed before the entire group. There’s a palpable sense of desperation, the embarrassing notion that we should elbow and claw each other for the coveted prize. I hide in the middle of the pack and lay low when the flowers fly.

Pop culture lends a sense of urgency to the pursuit of a partner. Romance is the endpoint of the romantic comedy.

Despite ascending planes or pounding rain or oncoming traffic, our fearless stars always connect before the credits roll.

Getting married is the object of reality TV and the subject of women’s chatter. It is the goal and the cure. “She’s made it now.” Sigh. “She’s married.”

A bare ring finger can seem like a defect. The single life can feel achingly single. And more Catholics are experiencing that ache as the average age of a bride and groom keeps inching up.

For many of us, it creates a conundrum. In waiting on God’s will, are we being passive? In acting on our will, are we defying his?

That’s the issue my friend Emily wrestled when she joined www.catholicsingles.com. “I was having one of those panicky moments where I could visualize myself as still single, 50-years-old, and only buying Christmas gifts for nieces and nephews,” she recalled. “I must have sat for five minutes before hitting the ‘enter’ button, pondering if my act was desperation or if I was simply taking charge of my possibilities.”

I know Emily lifts these questions to the Lord, and I believe that’s important. Pray along the path to marriage – or religious life or single life. Pray for patience. Pray for trust.

The first reading for Feb. 14 was fitting for singles

struggling with that inyour-face holiday. After 40 long days afloat, Noah sends out a dove.

“But the dove could find no place to alight and perch, and it returned to him in the ark.”

Noah is tired and Christina seasick, so he tries Capecchi again. And finally, the dove returns with an olive leaf. Hallelujah!

If you’re feeling tired and seasick from the romantic quest, hang in there. Your dove will find a place to perch – in God’s perfect timing, according to his infinite wisdom.

He’s writing a script that’s way better than Steven Spielberg’s. (And the soundtrack rocks.)

The longer it takes, the more ready you’ll be for your mate, and the better you’ll fit together.

So go dance the electric slide with crazy Aunt Sue. I’ll see you at the bouquet toss. Meet me in the middle.

Christina Capecchi is earning a master’s degree at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. E-mail her at christinacap@gmail.com.

Spirituality for Life

Einstein as an apologist for God and religion A recent issue of TIME magazine carried a series of excerpts from the diaries of Albert Einstein that give us an insight into how he felt about God and religion. There is a lot of disagreement as to whether he was an atheist or a believer.

These excerpts let him speak for himself.

What exactly did he believe about God and religion?

Asked at a dinner party if he was religious, he replied: “Yes, you can call it that. Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature and you will find that, behind all the discernible laws and connections, there remains something subtle, intangible, and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything we can comprehend is my religion. To that extent I am, in fact, religious.”

He was Jewish, but his parents were agnostic about Judaism and sent him to a Catholic school as a boy. There he studied both the Catholic catechism and the Jewish scriptures with some enthusiasm.

Asked to what extent Christianity influenced his life, he answered: “As a child I received religious instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarean .... No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life.”

Asked whether or not he believed in God: “I am not an atheist. I don’t think I can call myself a pantheist. The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn’t know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see the universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws, but only dimly understand these laws.”

At one point, he composed a personal creed. Here’s one of its tenets: “The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder or stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle. To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is something that our minds cannot grasp, whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly: this is religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I am a devoutly religious man.”

As well, he was always harder on atheists than on believ-

ers in his criticisms: “What separates me from most so-called atheists is a feeling of utter humility toward the unattainable secrets of the harmony of the cosmos.”

Doctrinaire atheists, he suggested, are unconFather sciously and unhealthily Ron Rolheiser reacting to their past: “Fanatical atheists are like slaves who are still feeling the weight of their chains which they have thrown off after a hard struggle. They are creatures who - in their grudge against traditional religion as ‘the opium of the masses’ - cannot hear the music of the spheres.”

But, despite these insights, his faith was not traditional.

He doubted God was personal and he didn’t believe in personal immortality.

So where does he really land in terms of God and religion?

He didn’t get some things right, but then who does? As ROLHEISER, page 13

JOHN EARLE PHOTO

Pope at 80: master teacher on world stage

12

Catholic San Francisco

St. Mary’s Cathedral The following events are taking place at or are coordinated by the cathedral of the Archdiocese located at Gough and Geary St. in San Francisco.

May 4: Exposition of the Most Blessed Sacrament after the 8 a.m. Mass Friday and continuing through the day and night until 7:45 a.m. Saturday with morning prayer and benediction. (Exposition is suspended during scheduled Masses at 12:10 noon, 7 p.m. and 6:45 a.m. according to liturgical norms.)

Join prayer for world peace, a culture of life, priests and special intentions. For more information or to volunteer, call (415) 567-2020, etc. 224.

May 17: Persons 55 and older are invited to a Cathedral Autumn Group Angel Island Ferry Ride leaving at 10 a.m. from Pier 41 and returning at 3:20 p.m. Tickets are $14.50. per person. Reservations required. Call (415) 567-2020, ext. 218 by May 10.

April 27, 2007 the Evangelist Church, St. Mary’s Ave., San Francisco with lunch at the United Irish Cultural Center, 45th Ave. and Sloat Blvd., San Francisco.

The class of ’57 will honored. Call Diane Gragnani at (415) 564-2077.

April 29: St. Gabriel Elementary School’s Golden Diploma Reunion for members of the class of ’57 with Mass at 11:30 a.m. and a reception after.

Members of the ’57 class should contact Sue Phelps at (415) 566-0314 or sphelps@stgabrielsf.com.

Datebook

Prayer/Lectures/Trainings

Food & Fun April 27, 28, 29: Our Lady of Mount Carmel School Annual Spring Festival at Fulton and James Street in Redwood City Three days of food, live entertainment, carnival rides, and kid-friendly games. Admission is free. Call (650) 366-8817 for more details.

April 28: Handicapables gather for Mass and lunch at St. Mary Cathedral, Gough and Geary St., at noon.

Volunteer drivers needed. Call (415) 751-8531.

April 28: Annual Country Fair Tri-tip BBQ benefiting Immaculate Conception Academy, 24th St. at Guerrero, San Francisco, beginning at 4:30 p.m. Tickets $15 adults/$8 children in advance, $20/$10 at door. Tables for 12 available. Talent show entertainment and fun activities highlight the evening. Call (415) 824-2052.

May 5: St. Brendan School’s annual dinner dance auction Fiesta Elegante at the school, 234 Ulloa St., San Francisco. Begins at 6 p.m. with a silent auction, sit-down dinner, live auction, dancing and more. Tickets are $85. Proceeds benefit school programs. For more information: (415) 681-4225.

May 5: The Parent Association of Archbishop Riordan High School announces Fashion Fiesta 2007. No-host cocktails 11:30 AM, luncheon and fashion show 12:30 p.m.. Fashions presented by The White Rose Boutique and Selix Formal Wear. Tickets are $40; tables of 8 available at $320. For reservations and information, call Sharon Udovich, special events director (415) 586-8200, ext 217.

May 5: St. Stephen Women’s Guild’s Spring Bake Sale. Homemade treats of all kinds will be sold after each Mass. Proceeds benefit St. Stephen School. To contribute or volunteer, contact co-chairs: Ethel Rohan (415) 682-8008, e-mail epmtrohan@comcast.net; or Maureen Mallon (415) 566-9865.

May 12: Bid on one-of-a-kind fashions transformed from discarded clothing into couture wear by Bay Area designers and design students at St. Vincent de Paul Society’s “Discarded to Divine” fashion show and live auction, 6 - 8 p.m. at Gap Inc. Headquarters, 2 Folsom St., San Francisco. More than 100 designs include full-length evening wear, casual clothes, coats and accessories. Live and silent auction, live models, food, music. Proceeds go to the Vincentian Help Desk, which serves up to 80 poor and homeless men and women each day. Space is limited. Tickets are $35 advance; $45 at the door. Call (415) 977-1270, ext.

3021, or purchase online at www.svdp-sf.org.

May 12: St. Sebastian Parish is taking reservations for its annual “Whale of a Sale” to be held 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. Spaces are $50. Reserve early to guarantee a space. Participants sell crafts or household items and

2007

official directory

ORDER FORM Name City Credit Card #: Signature:

keep all proceeds. Benefits the St. Vincent DePaul Conference.Take a space and raise money for a group or club. For information or reservations, contact Kathie Meier (415) 461-4133 or e-mail whaleofasale@comcast.net or visit http://www.sswhaleofasale.com.

May 12: Raise the Roof, a benefit for InnerChange, Guatemala, a Christian missionary order working with the poor and marginalized; 6:30 –11 p.m. at Notre Dame High School, 1500 Ralston Ave., Belmont. Evening includes a silent and a live auction plus salsa/merengue dance lessons, and dinner! InnerChange, Guatemala is a project of Deacon Nate Bacon and his wife Jenny. For information, contact Theresa at (415) 279-9168 or email shoeshineboys@gmail.com or visit www.innerchange.org/raisetheroof.

May 13: Mother’s Day Champagne Brunch sponsored

by Sisters of the Holy Family at their motherhouse, 159 Washington Blvd., Fremont with seating at 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Reservations required. Tickets $40 adults/$15 children 4 – 12. Call (510) 624-4512.

May 4: First Friday Mass at St. Peter Church, 700 Oddstad Blvd., Pacifica, Rosary at 7 p.m. and Mass at 7:30 p.m. Visit www.sfspirit.com or contact John Murphy at exmorte@aol.com.

May 19-20: A Spanish-language Catholic Charismatic Congress at Sequoia High School, 1201 Brewster Ave., Redwood City, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Theme: “My Household Will Serve the Lord.” Donation $5 per day. For information, call Father Joseph Corral (415) 333-3627, Father James Garcia (650) 3664692; Josefa or Joel Sanchez (650) 368-7110.

May 11-13: Three-day Vietnamese Charismatic Conference at St. Veronica Church, 434 Alida Way, South San Francisco. Free admission. Visit www.thanhlinh.net for further information.

5th Ave., San Rafael, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10/$5 students and seniors; under 12 free. Call (415) 4853236 or visit www.duwbc.org.

May 4: Ave, an acclaimed choral ensemble devoted to sacred music of the Renaissance, will present a concert at St. Ignatius Church, Parker and Fulton St., San Francisco, to raise awareness about conditions in Darfur. Under direction of St. Ignatius organist Jonathan Dimmock, the ensemble is in its third season. The 7:30 p.m. concert is titled “Life and Death: A Requiem for the Victims of Darfur”, and will benefit relief organizations serving in the Sudan.

Interpretive dancer Noëlle Morris will also perform.

The featured musical selection is a very poignant and stirring requiem by the Portugese Renaissance composer, Duarte Lobo. Ticket and concert information at: www.ave-music.org.

May 4: Spring Concert at Lick-Wilmerding High School, 755 Ocean Ave., San Francisco at 7:30 p.m.

Evening features voices of school’s Chamber Singers and Mixed Chorus. Tickets are $5 at the door. Call (415) 585-1725, ext. 287.

Through May 6: Dominican University of California’s Fringe of Marin Festival featuring new one-act plays and solo performances. Tickets $12/$9 seniors and students;$5 children. Takes place in Meadowlands Assembly Hall, 50 Acacia Ave., San rafael. Contact Annette Lust at (415) 673-3131 or www.dominican.edu/events for times and titles.

May 12: The St. Stephen Parish Choir in a fundraiser concert at 8 p.m. featuring choruses, arias and songs of great composers. Dawn Farry, soprano, and Miles Graber, piano, will lead the event with Angela Cadelago, soprano. Proceeds benefit church music ministry in the purchase of a portable and electronic piano. Suggested donation is $15. Tickets will be available at the door and in advance. E-mail dawn.farry@gmail.com or call (925)691.5584.

Arts & Entertainment

Reunions

May 4: Dominican Winifred Baker Chorale performs works of Mozart at St. Raphael Church, 1104

April 28: Annual Mass and Luncheon of St. John Ursuline High School at 9:30 a.m. at St. John

Catholic Charismatic Renewal

Young Adults Office of Young Adult Ministry and Campus Ministry: Connecting late teens, 20s and 30s, single and married to the Catholic Church.

Contact Mary Jansen at (415) 614-5596, or e-mail jansenm@sfarchdiocese.org. Check Web site for Bay Area events, or download quarterly newsletter at www.sfyam.org.

May 11-13: Every Moment, God’s Time: A Retreat for Young Adults, ages 20-40. Young adults are welcome to share with a team of peers and older mentors, a weekend of prayerful conversations in the spirit of Kairos retreat tradition, recognizing the invitation of loving God in each moment at the Jesuit Retreat House in Los Altos. Visit www.sfyam.org for information and link.

Datebook is a free listing for parishes, schools and non-profit groups. Please include event name, time, date, place, address and an information phone number. Listing must reach Catholic San Francisco at least two weeks before the Friday publication date desired.

Mail your notice to: Datebook, Catholic San Francisco, One Peter Yorke Way, S.F. 94109, or fax it to (415) 614-5633.

ARCHDIOCESE OF SAN FRANCISCO 2007 DELUXE DIRECTORY

of

Archdiocese San Francisco

May 3: Evening at the Oaks: Celebrating the Sisters of Mercy features gracious dining, wine tasting by Starry Night winery, and a silent auction. All at Kohl Mansion, 2750 Adeline Dr., Burlingame, 6 to 9:30 p.m. in support of the Sisters of Mercy and their ministries. For tickets and information: (650) 340-7487 and www.mercyburl.org.

May 5: Our Lady of Angels Dinner Dance and Auction at The Olympic Club, Lakeside.

This year’s theme “Stairway to Heaven: Prom 2007” leads to an enthusiastic, reminiscent evening filled with dining, dancing, auctioning (both live and silent). Michelle Privitera, left, Libby Longinotti, and Martha (Moe) Summa chair the event. Proceeds benefit Our Lady of Angels Parish and School.

For ticket information, contact Libby at (650) 558-0805 or Moe Summa (650) 558-1522.

May 3: The Daughters of St. Paul open at 7 p.m. a month-long Marian Art exhibition: All Nations Call me Blessed. Father Kevin Kennedy will give a short presentation on the place of Mary in CatholicChristian culture. The exhibit will feature unique Madonnas from the old and new worlds, and will include statues, carvings, icons, photos and paintings. Pauline Books & Media, 2640 Broadway, Redwood City. For information, call (650) 369-4230.

May 3: Keeping Easter Alive: Finding God in All Things - a series on developing a personal prayer. Learn an Ignatian method of praying with Scripture; reflect on personal gifts and how to share them with others. Takes place 7 – 8:30 p.m. at St. Bart’s Media Center, Columbia Dr. and Alameda de las Pulgas in San Mateo. Patrick O’Halloran, Ph.D., a licensed clinical psychologist with graduate degrees in theology, will facilitate. Call (650) 347.0701, ext. 19 for information.

May 7: 26th Annual May Crowning and Living Rosary in All Hallows Chapel, Newhall and Palou St., San Francisco at 7:30 p.m. Sponsored by Young Ladies Institute #182. Call Sue Elvander at (415) 467-8872.

May 7, 8, 9: Looking More Like God, an Easter Season Mission at St. Raphael Church, 1104 5th Ave., San Rafael. Dominican Father Jim Marchionda combines music and reflection in his talks at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and at Masses May 5 at 5 p.m. and May 6 at 7:30, 9 and 10:30 a.m. Contact Judith Howell at (415) 454-8141, ext. 28 for more information.

May 13: Bilingual Healing Mass; main celebrant: Father Robert Faricy at St. Veronica Church, 434 Alida Way, South San Francisco. Praise and worship at 6:30 p.m. with Mass at 7 p.m. Contact Augustine Nga Pham (415) 472-1567.

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St. Vincent School for Boys . . .

■ Continued from page 6 opposing St. Vincent’s land-use hopes include environmental groups and the Marin Audubon Society.

Susan Stompe, representing Marin Baylands Advocates, expressed the view that only five percent or less of St. Vincent’s land should be developed. She said the school would have to look elsewhere for the resources it needs.

Partial birth . . .

■ Continued from page 7 mate expression in the bond of love the mother has for her child.”

While state lawmakers might now try to write bills to place further restrictions on abortion, one congressman was ready to reintroduce a bill with the intent of nullifying the Supreme Court’s April 18 ruling. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, DN.Y., said he would reintroduce the Freedom of Choice Act April 20. He says the bill would “for the first time” codify a right to an abortion guaranteed under the 1973 Roe v.

Wade decision.

“It would bar government — at any level — from interfering with a woman’s fundamental right to choose to bear a child, or to terminate a pregnancy,” he said in a statement.

In an April 18 critique of the Supreme Court decision, Paul Benjamin Linton, special counsel for the Thomas More Society, which filed friend-of-the-court briefs supporting

Rolheiser . . .

■ Continued from page 11 Christians we believe the first thing we need to affirm is that God is ineffable. God escapes our thought. That means that, while we can know God, we can’t imagine God, can’t conceptualize God, and can’t speak with any accuracy about God. God is infinite being and that, by definition, is beyond the categories of our thought and imagination.

Trying to imagine God is like trying to imagine the highest number possible, an impossibility because numbers have no limit.

That God cannot be imagined with any accuracy is, in fact, a Christian dogma. The Fourth Lateran Council (1215) taught dogmatically that any words we use about God

Renee Silveira, speaking for the owners of Silveira Ranch, which is adjacent to the St. Vincent land and subject to the same restrictions, said the actions contemplated by the planning commission represent a taking of private property.

The April 23 meeting was one of several public hearings on the draft “Marin Countywide Plan Update.” The planning commission will continue discussions at meetings April 30 and May 7. In its final form, the plan update will go before the Marin County Board of Supervisors.

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Catholic San Francisco

April 27, 2007

SCRIPTURE SEARCH

By Patricia Kasten

Gospel for April 22, 2007 John 21:1-14 Following is a word search based on the Gospel reading for the Third Sunday of Easter: Cycle C, the miraculous catch of fish after the Resurrection. The words can be found in all directions in the puzzle.

TIBERIAS NATHANAEL CAUGHT BOAT JESUS LOVED CHARCOAL NOT TORN

the government in the partial-birth abortion cases, said the ruling is welcome but would have little practical impact.

“First, it is apparent — and undisputed — that a physician who causes ‘fetal demise’ before beginning a partialbirth abortion is not subject to prosecution under the act.

Moreover, causing fetal death ... generally involves little or no risk to the pregnant woman,” Linton pointed out.

Further, he added, “it is questionable whether any physician who performs the procedure prohibited by the act could be successfully prosecuted, as the (U.S.) district court judge in the Nebraska case, Richard Kopf, noted in his opinion striking down the act. That is because the government would have to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the physician had the intent, at the outset of the procedure, to perform a partial-birth abortion. Proof that a partial-birth abortion procedure was performed, in and of itself, would not suffice.”

Masci suggested, though, that the now reshaped abortion debate will affect the 2008 presidential election.

SIMON PETER GALILEE NOTHING FIND IT IS THE LORD BREAD THIRD

THOMAS TWO OTHERS CHILDREN CAST IT SHORE FIFTY-THREE RAISED

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© 2007 Tri-C-A Publications

Sponsored by WEST COAST CHURCH SUPPLIES 369 Grand Ave., So. San Francisco 1-800-767-0660 ● westcoastchurchsupplies.com

Compiled from local and Catholic News Service sources.

are more inaccurate than accurate, suggesting that Einstein’s “feeling of utter humility towards the unattainable secrets of the harmony of the cosmos” is perhaps close to the truth of faith.

When the person who is perhaps the greatest scientific mind in history tells us there is an unimaginable, benign, awe-inspiring, ordering presence beyond us that is under-girding everything and that we should live in wonder and humility in the face of that, then the arguments of lesser minds that faith is naive and superstitious become considerably less compelling.

Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser, theologian, teacher and author, is president of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas.

Catholic San Francisco invites you

to join in the following pilgrimages FATIMA, SPAIN & LOURDES

Tour 70605

October 1–10, 2007 Departs San Francisco 10-Day Pilgrimage

only

$

2,399

($2,499 after June 23, 2007)

Fr. Ralph Fraats Spiritual Director

Cruise to

Greece & Turkey CRUISE TO GREECE AND TURKEY

Visit: Paris, Lisbon, Fatima, Alba de Tormes, Avila, Segovia, Burgos, Garabandal, Lourdes and more

Lourdes

June 27 – July 8, 2007 Departs San Francisco 12-Day Pilgrimage

only

$

3,599

($3,699 after March 9, 2007)

Fr. Donald Hying Spiritual Director

June 27-July 8,

2007

Visit: Athens, Piraeus, Istanbul, Mykonos, Patmos, Kusadasi Rhodes, Lindos, Heraklion, Santorini Corinth

Acropolis

SOUTHERN ITALY Nov. 26 – Dec. 7, 2007 Departs San Francisco 12-Day Pilgrimage

only

$

$3,599 before March 19, 2007

2,599

($2,699 after August 18, 2007)

Fr. Jack Wintz, Spiritual Director Visit: Rome (Papal Audience), Orvieto, Assisi, Loreto, Lanciano, Mt. St. Angelo, San Giovanni, Sorrento, Amalfi, Pompeii

Roman Forum

For a FREE brochure on these pilgrimages contact: Catholic San Francisco (415) 614-5640 Please leave your name, mailing address and your phone number

California Registered Seller of Travel Registration Number CST-2037190-40 (Registration as a Seller of Travel does not constitute approval by the State of California)

14

Catholic San Francisco

April 27, 2007

Catholic San Francisco

classifieds PUBLISH A NOVENA Pre-payment required Mastercard or Visa accepted

Cost $25

If you wish to publish a Novena in the Catholic San Francisco You may use the form below or call 415-614-5640

For Advertising Infor mation Call: 415-614-5642 Fax: 415-614-5641 Email: penaj@sfarchdiocese.org

St. Jude Novena

Prayer to the Blessed Virgin never known to fail.

\

Acceptance of an advertisement in Catholic San Francisco while based on an assumption of integrity on the part of the advertiser does not imply endorsement of a product or service.

St. Jude Novena

\

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

Say prayer 9 times a day for 9 days.

Thank You St. Jude.

Never known to fail.

You may publish.

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

Say prayer 9 times a day for 9 days.

Thank You St. Jude.

Never known to fail.

You may publish.

M.L.

M.H.D.

St. Jude Novena

Prayer to the Blessed Virgin never known to fail.

Most beautiful flower of Mt. Carmel Blessed Mother of the Son of God, assist me in my need. Help me and show me you are my mother. Oh Holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and earth. I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to help me in this need. Oh Mary, conceived without sin.

Pray for us (3X).

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

Say prayers 3 days.

M.L.

Your prayer will be published in our newspaper

Prayer to the Blessed Virgin never known to fail.

Name Adress Phone MC/VISA # Exp. ❑ Prayer to the Blessed Virgin ❑ Prayer to the Holy Spirit

Select One Prayer: ❑ St. Jude Novena to SH ❑ Prayer to St. Jude

Please return form with check or money order for $25 Payable to: Catholic San Francisco Advertising Dept., Catholic San Francisco 1 Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco, CA 94109

SERVICE DIRECTORY For Advertising Information Call 415-614-5642 Fax: 415-614-5641 E-mail: penaj@sfarchdiocese.org

AUTO SALES

\

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

Say prayer 9 times a day for 9 days.

Thank You St. Jude.

Never known to fail.

You may publish.

Most beautiful flower of Mt. Carmel Blessed Mother of the Son of God, assist me in my need. Help me and show me you are my mother. Oh Holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and earth. I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to help me in this need. Oh Mary, conceived without sin.

Pray for us (3X).

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

Say prayers 3 days.

B.K.

C.L.

VAULT & SAFE DEPOSIT

Most beautiful flower of Mt. Carmel Blessed Mother of the Son of God, assist me in my need. Help me and show me you are my mother. Oh Holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and earth. I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to help me in this need. Oh Mary, conceived without sin.

Pray for us (3X).

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

Say prayers 3 days. K.M.

Need Money Need to increase your business capital?

Trying to expand? Need cash for any purpose?

650-244-9255 Spells Wally 650-740-7505 Cell Phone

Hall for Rent

• Strict and total confidentiality

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HALL FOR RENT

TABLES SEATING LINENS SETTINGS SERVEWARE STAGING

MUSIC ACADEMY

●

MUSIC PROGRAMS FOR YOUR SCHOOL www.westbaymusic.org

General Music, Instrumental, Mass Music Serving Catholic Schools since 1996

linda@westbaymusic.org 650.365.1494

GARAGE DOOR REPAIR

Discount

Garage Door

Repair Lic #376353

Broken Spring/Cable?

Operator Problems?

Lifetime Warranty All New Doors/Motors

One Price 24 /7

415-931-1540 0% Financing Available

REAL ESTATE SPECIALIZING IN SAN MATEO COUNTY REAL ESTATE If I can be of service to you, or if you know of anyone who is interested in buying or selling a home, please do not hesitate to call me . . . * Parishioner of St. Gregory’s Church, San Mateo

Today

MIKE TEIJEIRO Realtor (650) 523-5815 m.teijeiro@remax.net

ABBEY party rents sf

411 ALLAN STREET DALY CITY, CA 94014 FAX 415-715-6914 TEL 415-715-6900

Featuring Pressure Washing ● Repairs ● Safety Grab Bars ●

MICHAEL A. GYDESEN

SELL your house,

Lic. # 778332

(650) 355-8858

PLUMBING HOLLAND Plumbing Works San Francisco

car,

ALL PLUMBING WORK PAT HOLLAND

SM

1- 800-717-PARTY

50% of our proceeds will go to Catholic Charities

415.215.8571

www.TrinityShawls.com

St. Robert’s Parish San Bruno

Quality products!

Reasonable Prices!

Friendly Service!

Knights of Columbus San Rafael #1292 Dining and dancing rooms for up to 120. Kitchen facility. Ideal for Baptisms, graduations, birthdays, anniversaries, etc. tassonejoe@hotmail.com

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FINE SERVICE, BETTER EVENTS.

www.healthywithlife.com anthony@healthywithlife.com

Gydesen Const., Inc. General Contractor

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All Mfg. Warranty: Rebates and Special Dealer Finacing goes to Registered Owner/s

CALL FOR FREE SAMPLES 1-415-505-1934

Trinity Shawls

• Safe deposit boxes of all sizes

PARTY RENTALS

Nite Works: Enhance blood flow to the heart and improved circulation.

Ask me how!

Call today (877) 885-9783

Wally Mooney Auto Broker

Made easy with Herbal Life

GENERAL CONTRACTOR

• A private depository

121 First Street, Los Altos, CA 94022 Tel: 650-949-5891 • www.losaltosvault.com

LOSE WEIGHT & FEEL GREAT!

Shawls

LOS ALTOS VAULT & SAFE DEPOSIT CO.

• To the general public – should there be a bank holiday in the near future – you would always have accessibility to your valuables in this vault.

Weight Loss

CA LIC #817607

or any other items with a Classified Ad in Catholic

BONDED & INSURED

415-205-1235 Plumbing • Fire Protection • Certified Backflow

San Francisco

John Bianchi

Call

Phone: 415.468.1877 Fax: 415.468.1875

415 614-5642

100 North Hill Drive, Unit 18 • Brisbane, CA 94005 WWW.ABBEYRENTSSF.COM

Painting & Remodeling John Holtz

COUNSELING TWO SAN FRANCISCO GROUPS Group Counseling: Wednesdays, 6:30 to 8 p.m.

Want to do a little work on yourself?

Group work is more challenging, more fun, more creative than private work alone and makes you want to practice what you preach!

Women Retiree’s Group: Mondays, 10:30 to 12 Noon. Starts April 9th These are the Golden years, but only you can make them Gold! Come and enjoy a morning with hope and laughter!

Time for a little Spring Cleaning?

Call for more information and to talk it over!

Lila Caffery, MA, CCHT San Francisco: 415.337.9474 Belmont: 650.888.2873 Complimentary phone consultation www.InnerChildHealing.com

When Life Hurts It Helps To Talk • Family • Work • Depression • Anxiety

• Relationships • Addictions

Dr. Daniel J. Kugler Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Over 25 years experience

Confidential • Compassionate • Practical (415) 921-1619 1537 Franklin Street • San Francisco, CA 94109

Tell our advertisers you saw their ad in Catholic San Francisco!

Ca. Lic 391053 General Contractor Since 1980

(650) 355-4926

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

Construction MORROW CONTRUCTION Specializing In Wood Fences

(650) 994-6892 lic. 343633

Handyman

Painting, roof repair, fence (repair/ build) demolition, carpenter, gutter (clean/ repair), skylight repairs, landscaping, gardening, hauling, moving, janitorial. All purpose.

Call (650) 757-1946 Cell (415) 517-5977 NOT A LICENSED CONTRACTOR

Lic. No. 390254

Expert Plumbing Repairs ●

General Repairs Clean Drains & Sewers Water Heaters ●

●

SANTI PLUMBING & HEATING

FAMILY OWNED

415-661-3707

Lic. # 663641

24 HR

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

M AXX-CAL

PLUMBING

Kitchen – Bath – Remodels Lic# 822482

Sewer Video Sewer Repair Copper Pipes

– – –

Water Heater Gas Lines Furnace

415-469-9620

◆

650-877-7777

NOTICE TO READERS 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 information, contact:

Contractors State License Board 800-321-2752

April 27, 2007

Catholic San Francisco

classifieds For Information Call: 415-614-5642 Fax: 415-614-5641 Email: penaj@sfarchdiocese.org

Piano Caregiver Caregiver Lessons Available Needed PIANO LESSONS BY

CAROL FERRANDO. Conservatory training, masters degree, all levels of students.

CALL (415) 921-8337.

(650) 281-8826

Temporary caregiver needed, 2 to 3 weeks in May. Caring person needed to assist caregiver of disabled lady.

Some light housekeeping, Thurs-Sun eves, 6pm to 9pm, Daly City, car required.

(415) 586-0357

EDUCATION / HIGH SCHOOL POSITIONS

Help Wanted COORDINATOR OF YOUTH MINISTRY Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon has several openings offering competitive salaries, benefits, training, and continuing educational opportunities for qualified CYMs. Emphasis on comprehensive youth ministry and implementation of Renewing the Vision. Openings in western Oregon include metropolitan, suburban, and rural parishes, all less then two hours from the beautiful Oregon coast or the majestic Cascade Mountains.

Send cover letter and resume to: Michal Horace Youth & Young Adult Ministry 2838 East Burnside Street Portland, OR 97214.

E-mail: ym@archdpdx.org.

Elderly companion, housekeeper, live-in, Spanish speaking.

San Joaquin Memorial HS, a 630-student 9-12 Catholic school in Fresno, has the following positon openings for the 2007-2008 school year: Director of Campus Ministry (retreat/music experience preffered), Athletic Director, Religion Teacher, Girls Varsity Basketball Head Coach, Football Assistant Coach, PT Grounds/Utility Worker. SJM also is acceptiing applications for the 20082009 school year for Principal.

We are looking for you.

heaven can’t wait Serra for Priestly Vocations Please call Archdiocese of San Francisco Fr. Tom Daly (415) 614-5683 ADVERTISING SALES For The Largest Publisher of Catholic Church Bulletins This is a Career Opportunity!

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

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

• Honest • Generous • Compassionate • Make a Difference • Respectful

Work Full or Part-time in San Francisco – Marin County • Provide non medical elder care in the home • Generous benefit package Fax your resume to: Jeannie McCullough Stiles, RN 415-435-0421 Send your resume: Jeannie McCullough Stiles, RN Special Needs Nursing, Inc. 98 Main Street, #427 Tiburon, Ca 94920

The Cemetery Department of the Archdiocese of San Francisco is seeking an Assistant Accounting Manager. Our office is located on the grounds of Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma.

The Cemetery offers a generous benefit package and competitive salary.

In addition, employees have the satisfaction of knowing they are being of service to others by fulfilling one of the corporal works of mercy.

WORK SCHEDULE: Full time, Tuesday – Saturday QUALIFICATIONS / REQUIREMENTS: Associate degree in accounting required / Bachelor degree in accounting preferred.

Minimum of 3 years of progressive experience in accounting.

Advanced MS Office skills with extensive knowledge of Excel and Word.

Knowledge of the Unix operating system and IT experience very helpful.

Ability to troubleshoot and tackle PC and office equipment problems.

Experience with A.D.P. payroll processing Valid California Driver’s License required Professional dress required Ability to speak Spanish helpful Must be comfortable working in a Catholic cemetery environment and sensitive to the needs of grieving individuals

Qualified applicants are asked to submit a cover letter, resume and salary requirements to: lmharrington@holycrosscemeteries.com.

In subject line please note: Accounting Position

St. Anthony Church FULL-TIME POSITION AVAILABLE Coordinator of Religious Education A local Catholic church in the Redwood City – Menlo Park area is seeking a qualified individual for ministerial work in a large and well-established Spanish/English sacramental program involving a 2-yr preparation for First Reconciliation & Holy Communion for 600 grade school students. Classes are held on Monday & Tuesday evenings and Saturday mornings. This position is supported by 2 part-time administrative assistants. Start date is July 1, 2007.

Position Requirements/Qualifications ●

Religious Education experience in other parish as well as classroom experience in either public or private school; Catechist or Master Catechist certification required

●

Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail required to successfully manage the sacramental program including its various aspects and special events

●

Strong interpersonal and communication skills essential in cultivating positive relationship with volunteer teachers and classroom aides; also acts as liaison between teachers and parents of students preparing for sacraments

●

Ability to prepare and administer fiscal budget of religious education programs

●

Supervisory experience required in overseeing 30 volunteer teachers, classroom aides as well as office personnel; provides them opportunities for advancement, enrichment and certification

●

Administrative skills required in scheduling and coordinating sacramental events, including student registration and parent orientation; Computer literate with proficiency in MS Word

●

Responsible for integrating Religious Education programs with parish life and Sunday Eucharist

●

In charge of recruiting, orienting, training new teachers in order to strengthen lesson plans and impart best practices for the classroom; also provides pedagogical solutions to teachers in order to handle difficult and sensitive situations effectively

●

Willingness to seek ongoing opportunities for theological enrichment and to acquire diocesan certification

●

Must administer and implement diocesan safe-environment policies, procedures and standards; "Out of Harm’s Way" or equivalent training required

●

Fluency in oral and written Spanish and English required

RNs and LVNs: we want you.

Provide nursing care for children in San Francisco schools.

Full or part time.

Generous benefit package.

Send your resume to: Email: Fax: Mail:

Jeannie McCullough Stiles, RN, PHN RNTiburon@msn.com 415-435-0421 Special Needs Nursing, Inc. 98 Main Street #427 Tiburon, CA 94920

Special Needs Nursing, Inc.

WEB SITE CONSULTANT CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO Help vision, plan and manage the development of an advanced generation web site for Catholic San Francisco – the newspaper of the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Working as a consultant on a project management basis, the selected individual also may play a similar role in the development of a new, state-of-the-art, web site for the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Project requirements include a strong background in innovative web site design, problem-solving skills, and proven solution-oriented approach.

E-mail summary of experience and sample projects to healym@sfarchdiocese.org.

15

ASSISTANT ACCOUNTING MANAGER POSITION

See sjmhs.org for job descriptions and to download application.

Send applications to “Employment-SJM High School, 1406 N. Fresno Street Fresno, CA 93703

Special Needs Companion Services

Catholic San Francisco

We offer competitive compensation with religious organizations, a substantial benefits package including medical, dental and vision insurance coverage, employer-funded Pension Plan, 403(b) Plan and Flexible Spending Plan, etc.

PLEASE SUBMIT RESUME, COVER LETTER & 2 REFERENCES TO: Fr. James Garcia jgarcia@catholic.org

16

Catholic San Francisco

April 27, 2007

My Will I have a will.

Two months ago I couldn’t say that.

It took the death of a close friend to wake me up. Now I’m wondering why I procrastinated so long.

Let me tell you about my will.

My will reflects my wishes. Instead of the courts

I can change or amend my will. It is not set in

appointing an executor (personal representative), my son will handle this, and without bond.

concrete. I can change it easily, whether adding a codicil or by simply having it redrafted. The important thing is that I have a workable will in place-right now.

My will makes provision for family members in a way state laws would not do. My will lets me give money to my children and grandchildren in an orderly manner after I pass on. My will identifies my parish and the Archdiocese to receive special bequests. In short, my will allocates my assets according to my desires.

My will is safely stored. I have a copy of my will in my files at home, but I keep the original in a safety deposit box. I don’t want to lose this important document through fire or theft. I also made sure my personal representative, my son, knows how to find my will.

My will is legally valid. I went to an attorney who

My will provides peace of mind. For years, I lived

specializes in estate planning. She knew the right questions to ask and the best way to accomplish my goals. I was tempted to take a short cut and use one of those will documents I saw at the stationary store.

I even thought of just sitting down and writing out my will on a piece of paper, a sort of do-it-yourself project. I’m sure glad I didn’t fall into that trap.

After all, why do a will and then spend the rest of your life or the last moments of life wondering whether it is truly valid?

with a nagging apprehension about what would happen if I died without a will. Those feelings are gone. I now have a sense of peace about these matters. It took a little time and effort and it cost a few dollars, but it was well worth it all.

My will is up-to-date. This is because I only

If you do not have a current, valid will or comprehensive living trust, we at the Archdiocese of San Francisco urge you to care for this very important matter. Not only will such planning benefit your loved ones, we believe that you will want to remember the Archdiocese as well.

recently created it and it reflects my current situation. But life never stays the same. Within a few years, new laws may arise. Family members may have different needs. My estate may change.

As my attorney says, “An out-of-date will could be as harmful as having no will at all.”

Michael O’Leary, our associate director of development, can assist you by providing information about wills and charitable bequests. Feel free to call him at (415) 614-5582, email olearym@sfarchdiocese.org, or use the handy response coupon below.

Dear Mr. O’Leary, ____________ Please send me free literature about making a will. ____________ I have already provided a bequest for the Archiocese of San Francisco in my will. ____________ Please invite me to the next Planned Giving Seminar.

Name: Address: City:

State:

Zip:

Phone:

Mail this form to: Archdiocese of San Francisco, Office of Development One Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco, CA 94109 Phone (415) 614-5582 ● Fax (415) 614-5584 ● Email: olearym@sfarchdiocese.org