September 30, 2005

Catholic san Francisco Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper

PRAYER OF SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI Lord, make me an instrument of your peace, Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy; O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

The feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, patron of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, is Oct. 4 (See Page 20).

Church increases efforts in support of parental notification initiative

By Maurice Healy With less than 40 days before the Nov. 8 special election, the California Catholic Conference and Catholic dioceses throughout the state are increasing their efforts in support of Proposition 73, the “Parent’s Right to Know” initiative.

Early this month, the California Bishops kicked off their support of Prop 73 with a statement declaring strong support for the parental notification initiative.

The California Catholic Conference (www.cacatholic.org) has made available to pastors and parishes various communication pieces designed to provide information to clergy and parishioners.

Many California bishops also plan to provide a personal expression of support for Prop 73 to the faithful in their dioceses.

The formal title of Prop 73 is “Termination of Minor’s Pregnancy. Waiting Period and Parental Notification. Constitutional Amendment Initiative.”

The initiative proposes to amend the California Constitution and place into law the mandate that parents receive notice of at least 48 hours before their daughter undergoes an abortion. The initiative provides for a judicial bypass for those minors who need protection.

Prop 73 also mandates record-keeping on minors’ abortions and provides access to juvenile courts for minors being coerced to have an abortion.

Thirty states have similar laws regarding parental notification.

California also put a parental notification statute into law in 1987, requiring parental consent before a minor’s abortion. But the law was prevented from going into effect by an appeal from Planned Parenthood.

After making its way through the courts, the California Supreme Court eventually upheld the constitutionality of the law. After two justices retired and

were replaced, however, the new court in July 1997 reversed this position and ruled the law unconstitutional.

Over the past eight years, several attempts were made to qualify a parental notification initiative, and in May, the “Parents Right to Know” initiative qualified for the November ballot as Proposition 73.

Proponents of Prop 73 point out that while public schools must obtain parental approval for field trips or sports participation, a public school official can arrange for a minor to leave the campus and have an abortion during school hours without her parents’ consent. Under California public school policy a girl as young as 12 can obtain an abortion without her parents being notified.

In a legislative analysis, proponents cited a study of 46,000 pregnancies of school-age girls in California, which found that more than two-thirds PARENTAL NOTIFICATION, page 5

INSIDE THIS WEEK’S EDITION Hurricane Rita . . . . . . . . . . 3 Seminary candidates . . . . . 7

Respect Life Section

Choosing a bishop

Scripture and reflection . . 12 Editorial and letters . . . . . 14 ‘Corpse Bride’ review . . . . . 17

~ Pages 8-11 ~

~ Page 13 ~

EWTN at 25 . . . . . . . . . . . 18

News-in-brief

Classified ads . . . . . . . . . . 19

~ Pages 4-5 ~

www.catholic-sf.org

September 30, 2005

SIXTY CENTS

VOLUME 7

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No. 29

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Catholic San Francisco

September 30, 2005

On The

St. Cecilia Elementary School honored retiring teacher, Patricia Pinnick, a member of the faculty for 49 years, and Karen Robertson, school secretary for 23 years, at a Mass closing the school year for 2004-05.

From left: Father Joe Landi, parochial vicar; Karen Robertson, Patricia Pinnnick, Holy Names Sister Marilyn Miller, principal, and Msgr. Michael Harriman, pastor.

Where You Live

by Tom Burke

Honored for their longtime service to Our Lady of Perpetual Help Elementary School were retiring kindergarten teacher, Betty O’Connor, and bookkeeper, Rosemary Valente. “The remarkable devotion of these two ladies was recognized at a retirement dinner June 10, at the Basque Cultural Center,” the school said.

Much of what we do, of course, is only possible thanks to what has gone before. This week we are proud to salute in surrounding pictures several retiring principals, teachers and staff members of Catholic schools.

With this item we extend the hats off to Bill Garza, who has stepped aside after 25 years as coach in sports programs at schools including St. Monica Parish, San Francisco. Glad to have been under his guidance are this year’s team members Noelle Garza, Sara Cassidy, Flora Lau, Emily Fu, Amanda Arenas, Patricia Chiu, Mary Lynch

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Lina Lavitsky. Bill’s proud folks are Betty Garza and afternoon of the celebration. Mary’s sibling, Holy the late Hugh Garza, whom Betty said is remembered Family Sister Mary John Lynch, was also in attenfor his years of coaching “St. Gabriel’s teams to many dance. Mary lived in San Francisco’s Eureka Valley – honors.”… A “Somore” salute to Liane Diggins and Most Holy Redeemer Parish – for 68 years until movMelissa Wong who have ing to St. Anne’s Home completed requirements in 2003 at age 98. for the Girl Scout Gold “Physically she is in pretAward and were honored ty good health,” said her with same – the group’s son, retired SF firefighthighest accomplishment er, Jim Lynch. “Her at ceremonies in May. mind is as sharp now as it Both young women are was in her youth. She’s 2005 grads of Notre current on local and Dame High School in national news and loves Belmont. Liane is conthe sports teams” Also at tinuing studies at College his mother’s side was of San Mateo and Mary’s son and Jim’s sib, Melissa is now a freshJoe, as well as Jim and man at Cal Poly his wife, Peggy’s, chilUniversity in San Luis dren, Julie Lynch, Obispo…. Happy birthKenny Lynch with his Congratulations to longtime and recently retired faculty day to Mary Lynch who wife, Chandra, and members at St. Anne of the Sunset Elementary School. turned 100 years old Emily Gallagher with Together, they’ve been helping students hit the books September 4th. The St. her husband Matt…. for nigh onto a century. LaVerne Fahey, left, has Anne’s Home resident Remember this is an been teaching for 28 years, Noreen O’Reilly for was honored at the “hapempty space without 34 years and Joan Hummeling for 32 years. piest address on Lake ya’!! The email address Street” with dinner, spirited fellowship and reiteration for Street is burket@sfarchdiocese.org. Mailed items of hundreds of memories from the 80 revelers who should be sent to “Street,” One Peter Yorke Way, SF joined her for the occasion. Sulpician Father Gerald 94109. Pix should be hard copy or electronic jpeg at Coleman, Mary’s nephew, presided at a Mass of 300 dpi. Don’t forget to include a follow-up phone Thanksgiving in the St. Anne’s Home chapel on the number. You can reach me at (415) 614-5634.

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September 30, 2005

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By Catholic News Service WASHINGTON – Hurricane Rita, the second hurricane to sweep into the Gulf Coast region in a month veered east of the most heavily populated parts of Texas, rather than hitting the Galveston-Houston area head-on as had earlier been feared.

The storm’s path brought it ashore Sept.

24 closer to Louisiana at the Texas coastal town of Sabine Pass, near Port Arthur.

Karen Gilman, editor of the East Texas Catholic, newspaper of the Diocese of Beaumont, told Catholic News Service Sept. 26 that she had seen photos showing damage to the dome of the recently renovated St. Anthony Cathedral, but had no idea yet what the extent of that damage was or what problems there might be for other church property.

There is one Catholic parish in Sabine Pass, much of which was under 5 feet of water the day after the hurricane, Gilman said.

Erik Noriega, editor of the Texas Catholic Herald of the Houston-based Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, said it seemed the diocese had received a fairly light blow from Rita.

When Hurricane Rita hit coastal areas of southwestern Louisiana, heavy rains caused

severe flooding and strong winds knocked down trees and power lines.

Tom Sommers, editor of the Acadiana Catholic, diocesan newspaper of Lafayette, La., said his family evacuated but he stayed at home, thinking the hurricane was heading more toward Texas.

“I’ll never do that again,” he told CNS, noting how the 80 to 90 mph winds shook his home in Crowley, about 30 miles west of Lafayette. The winds knocked some shingles off his roof but did not cause any other damage to his home.

Lafayette’s diocesan offices were operating according to their usual schedule. A preliminary diocesan report noted that 10 churches in the diocese had flood damage.

In many parishes, the damage occurred in rectories, parish halls and cemeteries.

Lafayette Bishop Michael Jarrell sent a letter to all pastors prior to Hurricane Rita urging them to follow evacuation protocols and to take all sacramental records with them.

Sherry Swaney Heflin, editor of the Catholic Connection, diocesan newspaper in Shreveport, La., said her diocese had not been hit hard by the storm, which mainly knocked down trees and power lines but did not cause significant flooding.

(CNS PHOTO FROM REUTERS)

Texas-Louisiana border areas hit hardest by Hurricane Rita

Destroyed houses are seen Sept. 26 near the coastal town of Cameron, La., about 40 miles south of Lake Charles, after Hurricane Rita hit the area. Parts of the U.S. Gulf Coast came back to life after the Sept. 24 hurricane, although many areas remained under rubble or floodwater after enduring a second major storm in less than a month.

Synod of Bishops to review liturgical issues, emphasize Sunday Mass

By John Thavis VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI presides in October over the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist, an assembly that will review liturgical issues, emphasize the importance of Sunday Mass and mark the close of the “Year of the Eucharist.”

More than 250 bishops from every continent will attend the Oct. 2-23 synod to discuss the theme “The Eucharist: Source and Summit of the Life and Mission of the Church.” Earlier this year, Pope Benedict shortened the assembly and changed the format to include more group discussion and less speech-giving in response to long-standing criticism of the synod process.

The synod will take an in-depth look at many pastoral aspects of the Eucharist, then formulate conclusions that are passed on to the

pope for possible use in a later document. The synod’s function has always been advisory.

Pope John Paul II announced the synod on the Eucharist several months before his death.

Pope Benedict has embraced the event, saying it will serve to highlight the Eucharist as “the true treasure of the church.”

The potential topics of conversation are many and varied, ranging from liturgical abuses to the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

Some bishops are expected to zero in on particular pastoral problems, such as the local shortages of priests to celebrate Sunday Mass or the church’s policy against reception of Communion by Catholics who have divorced and civilly remarried without an annulment.

The working document for the synod, which will be used as a starting point for the synod discussions, said that because Christ is truly present in the Eucharist the sacrament

must be treated with dignity and shared only by those who hold the same faith. It repeatedly called for balance in how the Eucharist is celebrated and for universal respect for liturgical norms.

The key problem, according to the working document, is that Catholics have a diminishing

awareness of the obligation and benefits of attending Mass and receiving the Eucharist every Sunday. In addition, it said, too few Catholics are aware that the Eucharist can only be received when they are in a “state of grace” — which means receiving the sacrament of penance if a serious sin has been committed.

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Catholic San Francisco

NEWS

September 30, 2005

in brief

WASHINGTON — With all major faith groups represented, the Sept. 24 protest march in Washington against the war in Iraq marked a new step in the effort to bring a more unified religious voice to the anti-war movement, according to a representative of Pax Christi USA. Michael Jones, director of communications for the Catholic peace movement, said at least 500 Pax Christi members and thousands of other Catholics participated in the demonstration, which drew an estimated 100,000 people for a march past the White House to the National Mall. In San Francisco, a diverse assembly of war protestors, estimated by police at 20,000, marched from Dolores Park to Jefferson Square Park. Franciscan Father Louis Vitale said the march was “very positive.” The former pastor of St. Boniface Church said, “People are making a ‘cut your losses’ statement” about Iraq. “Things are getting worse and we desperately need an exit strategy.” Father Vitale also attended a small interfaith peace gathering Sunday afternoon, Sept. 25, at St. Mary’s Cathedral.

Summit sidestepped nuclear disarmament, says nuncio NEW YORK — The Vatican nuncio at the United Nations criticized world leaders for sidestepping the issues of nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation at their mid-September summit. The final document on U.N. reform measures and efforts to alleviate world poverty was silent regarding disarmament and nonproliferation, said Archbishop Celestino Migliore. “Nuclear armament is simply devastating for peoples and the environment,” he said Sept. 23 in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly. Such weapons also drain economic resources that could be better used for peaceful purposes, he added. “We must insist on complete nuclear disarmament” and a stronger system to verify it, he said. The day before, in a talk at a U.N. conference promoting compliance with the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the archbishop, without naming them, criticized governments whose failure to sign the treaty is keeping the ban on nuclear testing from taking effect. So far, 175 countries have signed the treaty and 123 countries have ratified it. But the treaty cannot take effect until it is ratified by all 44 countries that possessed nuclear testing capabilities at the time the meeting that drafted the treaty in 1996. The United States is one of 11 such countries yet to take action.

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Catholic san Francisco Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper

Official newspaper of the Archdiocese of San Francisco

Most Reverend John C. Wester, publisher Maurice E. Healy, associate publisher & executive editor Editorial Staff: Jack Smith, editor; Evelyn Zappia, feature editor; Tom Burke, “On the Street” and Datebook

(CNS PHOTO BY NANCY WIECHEC)

Marches signal more unified faith-based voice in opposing war

Unionized worker Winston Scott of New York state joins more than 100,000 people for an anti-war rally and march in Washington Sept. 24.

New Notre Dame president seeks integration of academics, faith NOTRE DAME, Ind. — Pledging to integrate academic excellence and religious faith to make the University of Notre Dame “a great Catholic university for the 21st century,” Holy Cross Father John I. Jenkins became the university’s 17th president Sept. 23. He is only the third Notre Dame president in 53 years, succeeding Holy Cross Father Edward Malloy, president since 1987. Holy Cross Father Theodore Hesburgh was president from 1952 to 1987. In his inaugural speech, Father Jenkins said many pre-eminent universities that started out as religious institutions now experience “a disconnect between the academic enterprise and an overarching religious and moral framework that orients academic activity and defines a good human life.”

Notre Dame will not suffer that fate, he said, for he will be committed to making the university “a place of higher learning that plays host to world-changing teaching and research, but where technical knowledge does not outrun moral wisdom, where the goal of education is to help students live a good human life, where our restless quest to understand the world not only lives in harmony with faith but is strengthened by it.”

Philadelphia grand jury report gives and gets sharp criticism PHILADELPHIA — Sharp criticism of Philadelphia

archdiocesan leaders in a grand jury report on local clergy sexual abuse of children drew an equally sharp response from the archdiocese. After a three-year investigation the grand jury issued a 423-page report Sept. 21 that said retired Philadelphia Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua, his predecessor, the late Cardinal John J. Krol, and their top aides “all abdicated their duty to protect children. They concealed priests’ sexual abuses instead of exposing them. ... There is no doubt that these officials engaged in a continuous, concerted campaign of cover-up over the priests’ sexual offenses.” In a 76-page response archdiocesan attorneys described the report as “a vile, mean-spirited diatribe against the church” and “a sensationalized, lurid and tabloidlike presentation of events that transpired years ago, which is neither fair nor accurate.” Philadelphia’s current archbishop, Cardinal Justin Rigali, said at a news conference that the church has “deep regrets and sorrow” over the abuse of children by priests. Outlining “extraordinary steps” taken by the archdiocese since 2002 to protect children, assist victims and remove abusive priests from ministry, Cardinal Rigali said, “In the end the grand jury affirms the actions already taken by the archdiocese to report any instances of abuse to the proper legal authorities and to safeguard young people.”

Archbishop thanks women for history of charity, service ATLANTA — More than 1,200 Catholic women and 50 priests from around the country gathered Sept. 15-18 in Atlanta for the National Council of Catholic Women’s convention celebrating 85 years of “making a difference.”

Celebrating Mass for the participants Sept. 17, Atlanta Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory praised the women for their steadfast work to build up God’s kingdom and his church, whether that be tucking a child into bed with prayers or contributing to Hurricane Katrina relief work. “Catholic women throughout the church in our nation and beyond have been the heart and soul of our efforts” following the devastating Hurricane Katrina, the archbishop said. “You have, as you have done on so many other occasions, rallied the church to undertake the works of charity and service.

“Quite simply, the face of Christ has been made more visible in the works of charity that you have spearheaded during the past fortnight and on so many other occasions within the local churches who are graced with your presence,” he added.

Teaching intelligent design gets court test in Pennsylvania WASHINGTON — A case before a federal district court in Pennsylvania could decide whether intelligent design is a religious belief or a scientific theory suitable to be taught in public school classrooms as an alternative to evolution. In at least 19 other states, teaching intelligent design is an issue before public school boards. The Pennsylvania civil suit challenges the decision of the Dover, Pa., public school board that intelligent design be presented to students as an alternative sci-

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

Parental notification . . .

■ Continued from cover

(CNS PHOTO FROM REUTERS)

were impregnated by adult men whose mean age was nearly 23 years.

Proponents state that investigations have shown that secret abortions on minors in California are rarely reported to child protective services, although these pregnancies are evidence of statutory rape and sexual abuse. This nonreporting, they argue, leaves girls vulnerable to further sexual abuse, rapes, pregnancies, abortions, and sexually transmitted disease.

Ned Dolejsi, executive director of the California Conference (CCC), said the initiative needs a simple

Pope Benedict XVI waves to the faithful during his Sunday Angelus in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, Sept. 25.

The pope said that the Eucharist should be an impetus for the faithful to love others and to attend to their needs through charity.

entific position. The suit claims that intelligent design is a disguised form of introducing belief in God into the classroom, thus violating the Establishment Clause of the Constitution prohibiting a state-established religion. Intelligent design holds that science can prove that there is a design and purpose inherent in life forms that springs from a unnamed intelligence. It opposes the evolutionary position of chance and randomness as the process for the development of life.

Parental Notification Prior to Termination of Minor’s Pregnancy The California Catholic Conference of Bishops supports Proposition 73, Termination of Minor’s Pregnancy.

Waiting Period and Parental Notification. Initiative Constitutional Amendment, which will appear on the November 2005 ballot. The proposed law, which has been called the Parents Right to Know by its sponsors, would require notification of the parent(s) or guardian(s) of a minor 48 hours before she obtains an abortion, unless a judge determines that such notification places the minor in danger.

The initiative states: “The People of California have a special and compelling interest in and responsibility for protecting the health and well-being of children, ensuring that parents are properly informed of potential healthrelated risks to their children, and promoting parent-child communication and parental responsibility.” We concur fully in the guarantee of these fundamental parental rights.

We hold that both the young woman’s welfare and society’s common good are best served when family

communication is promoted in public policy. A minor faced with a serious emotional, psychological and medical decision needs her parents—their love, their wisdom, their counsel. In addition, society’s common good is enhanced when family integrity is honored and parental responsibility is respected.

Our Catholic Catechism teaches that the family is the “privileged community” wherein children are meant to grow in wisdom, stature and grace. We are also counseled to work with public authorities to insure that the family’s prerogatives are not usurped.

We are convinced that “the Church must be committed to the task of educating and supporting... people involved in law-making, government and the administration of justice, so that legislation will always reflect those principles and moral values which... advance the common good.”

We strongly encourage Catholics in our state to offer their full support in promoting Proposition 73 as good public policy, and in exercising their citizenship in voting for it in November.

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CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy — In a democratic society the leaders and faithful of the Catholic Church have an obligation to promote ethical laws and behavior, but despite signs of sin in the world, they must speak with hope, Pope Benedict XVI said. In separate speeches Sept. 23 to Mexico’s new ambassador to the Vatican and to a group of Mexican bishops’ making their “ad limina” visits to Rome, the pope defended the right of Mexican Catholics to be involved in their country’s political debates. Addressing the bishops, who make “ad limina” visits to Rome every five years to report on their dioceses, the pope said, “The design and realization of pastoral programs must reflect ... trust in the loving presence of God in the world. This will help lay Catholics be able to face the growth of secularism and to participate responsibly in temporal matters enlightened by the social teaching of the church.”

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majority to pass, and noted that the concept of parental notification has garnered high poll numbers in the past.

“The success of the initiative will be driven by turnout of the electorate,” he said. With this in mind, the California Catholic Conference has developed materials for use in raising Catholic awareness of the important issues involved.

Stan Deveruex, of “Parents for Prop 73” (www.parentsfor73.org) an umbrella organization supporting the initiative, said he was pleased by Governor Arnold Schwarzeneger’s recent endorsement of the parental notification initiative.

“This is an initiative that Catholics can easily support, but it also is one that many people will favor whether they define themselves as pro-life or pro-choice. This has broad support because it is common sense,” he said.

Statement of the California Catholic Bishops in Support of Proposition 73:

Pope defends Catholics’ rights to be involved in politics

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September 30, 2005

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Catholic San Francisco

September 30, 2005

CRS official says Afghanistan needs war against poverty

By Carol Glatz VATICAN CITY (CNS) — As international troops continue their fight against terrorism in Afghanistan, the world community should be waging war against the country’s grinding poverty, said one Catholic relief worker. “It’s the war on poverty that needs to be won, because if we don’t change this, then the people will be easier prey for the insurgents,� said P.M. Jose, Afghanistan country representative for Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops’ international relief and development agency. “The international community has to choose to be in solidarity with the people of Afghanistan,� because decades of war, military intervention and outside control have rendered the country “in need and vulnerable,� he told Catholic News Service.

Jose was part of a Sept. 22 meeting hosted by the Vatican-based Caritas Internationalis, an umbrella organization for Catholic charities. Caritas partners working in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan meet once a year at Caritas headquarters at the Vatican to review their projects’ progress and needs.

Caritas agencies have raised more than $30 million as part of an emergency appeal for long-term development projects in Afghanistan.

Jose said the international community needs to support aid agencies in a coordinated battle against poverty, disease and illiteracy, which is as high as 80 percent for women, if it is to succeed in fostering a stable, democratic nation. “People cannot forget this country. We need to be

with them,� helping fund and carry out long-term development and educational projects, he said.

He cautioned people against believing that Afghanistan no longer needs the world’s support, “that the problem is over, but that is what the insurgents want. We mustn’t fall into their trap.�

Jose said their work has focused on accelerated education programs for youths and young adults, especially women, who may have “missed out on an education during the (rule of) the Taliban.�

Father Andrew Lawrence, an Army chaplain who served with the 25th Infantry Division in Afghanistan, said earlier this year that too little media attention is being given to the U.S. military’s nation-building efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq. “The international community has not stepped up because of the violence that still exists there and the pockets of resistance, so the Army has stepped up. We built a number of schools and dug wells. Our unit alone spent a couple million dollars on reconstruction in the areas where we were working.�

Caritas partners, including CRS, also work with refugees and displaced people and are involved in

Pride.

building wells and reconstructing homes and roads.

Jose said staff spend time with local communities and talk with the village elders or the “shura� in order to pinpoint which members of the community are the most vulnerable and in need. “We then offer these people some options; let’s say they can choose either a sewing machine, seeds and fertilizer, a loom, whatever it is� they would need to start up their own home-based industry in order to make a living and even a profit, Jose said.

Jose, who has been in Afghanistan since April 2004, said even though Afghanistan is an Islamic country “it’s an important symbol of solidarity for the church to be there.� “None of the Caritas members face suspicion of proselytism; the people there welcome the church organizations to be there because we do quality work� that also respects an individual’s human dignity, he said. “We are built on Catholic social teaching, and this makes us unique as opposed to an engineering organization or a health organization, and I think the people there see and recognize this� difference, he said.

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September 30, 2005

7

Catholic San Francisco

No date for Vatican document on homosexual candidates to seminary

By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) – While the Vatican has been working since 2001 on an official instruction regarding the acceptance by seminaries of homosexual candidates to the priesthood, several officials said that Pope Benedict XVI has not approved the document yet and a date for its publication has not been set.

A top official at one of the Vatican congregations working on the instruction insisted Sept. 22, “It has not been approved.

There is nothing new” to report about the document’s progress.

Since 2001 — when the Congregation for Catholic Education, which is responsible for setting seminary policies, decided an instruction was needed and began working with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on a draft — numerous reports have been published claiming it was about to be released.

As of late September, no publication date had been announced and no Vatican official was willing to be quoted by name about the document’s content.

However, Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien, who has been appointed coordinator of the Vatican-mandated study of U.S. seminaries, discussed his views on accepting homosexual seminarians earlier this month in an interview with the National Catholic Register newspaper.

“I think anyone who has engaged in homosexual activity, or has strong homosexual inclinations, would be best not to apply to a seminary and not to be accepted into a seminary,” said the archbishop, who heads the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services.

Archbishop O’Brien said even homosexuals who have been celibate for 10 or more years should not be admitted to seminaries.

He added, “The Holy See should be coming out with a document about this,” although he did not say if he knew when the document would be published.

Archbishop O’Brien was at the Vatican Sept. 21-22 with a

group of military chaplains and told CNS he did not have further information about the document’s publication.

As early as October 2002, Vatican sources told CNS the document would take the position that since the church considers the homosexual orientation to be “objectively disordered” homosexuals should not be admitted to the seminary or ordained.

“The document’s position (on admission of homosexuals to the priesthood) is negative, based in part on what the ‘Catechism of the Catholic Church’ says in its revised edition, that the homosexual orientation is ‘objectively disordered,’” said one source.

“Therefore, independent of any judgment on the homosexual person, a person of this orientation should not be admitted to the seminary and, if it is discovered later, should not be ordained,” he said.

Vatican officials have said the new instruction would be a reformulation of a 1961 document from the then-Sacred Congregation for Religious on the selection of candidates for the priesthood.

“Those affected by the perverse inclination to homosexuality or pederasty should be excluded from religious vows and ordination,” the 1961 document said. It said the community life and priestly ministry would constitute a “grave danger” or temptation for these people.

The document recommended that any person with serious unresolved sexual problems be screened out, saying that the chastity and celibacy required by religious and priestly life would constitute for them a “continuous heroic act and a painful martyrdom.”

The 1961 document has never been abrogated, so is still technically valid, officials said.

The issue also was raised in early March 2002 when Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told The New York Times that “people with (homosexual) inclinations just cannot be ordained.”

“That does not imply a final judgment on people with homosexuality,” he said. “But you cannot be in this field.”

Church officials, who asked not to be named, said at the time

EDUCATION

that the Vatican was not trying to impose an arbitrary norm against homosexuals, but was trying to make “prudent decisions” based on individual cases at the seminary level. They noted that the Vatican viewed the issue as mainly dealing with future priests, not those already ordained.

As for objections that screening homosexuals would violate their rights, the sources said the call to the priesthood was a matter of vocation or divine grace, not human rights. In the church’s view, no one has a “right” to be ordained, they said.

In a 2001 interview with CNS, then-Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, who was secretary of the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation, explained why church leaders view homosexual orientation as a potential problem in a seminarian.

Archbishop Bertone, now a cardinal and archbishop of Bologna, Italy, said that while the homosexual inclination is not sinful in itself it “evokes moral concern” because it is a strong temptation to actions that “are always in themselves evil.”

He defined the homosexual inclination as “a temptation that, for whatever reason, has become so predominant in a person’s life as to become a force shaping the entire outlook of the person.”

“Persons with a homosexual inclination should not be admitted to the seminary,” Archbishop Bertone said.

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Sesquicentennial Celebration The University of San Francisco is celebrating the 150th anniversary of its founding with the following free and public events:

Join us for Fall Preview Day, Sunday, October 9, 12 noon to 5 pm, or call the Admissions Office for more information (925) 631-4224 or (800) 800-4SMC. See our website at www.stmarys-ca.edu.

MORAGA, CALIFORNIA, 94575-4300

The Phoenix and the Bell: A Pageant Celebrating USF at 150 Years S ATU R DAY, O CTO B E R 15, 3 P.M.

A light-hearted extravaganza presenting USF’s history and lore, held in St. Ignatius Church with a reception to follow on Welch Field.

University Green and Gold Gala SATU R DAY, O CTO B E R 15, 9 P.M.

A birthday bash in University Center featuring live music, entertainment, and dancing.

Sesquicentennial Mass

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S U N DAY, O CTO B E R 16, 11 A.M.

A Mass in St. Ignatius Church to commemorate the arrival of the Jesuits in San Francisco and the legacy and promise of USF, featuring a homily by USF President Stephen A. Privett, S.J., and Chancellor and Past President John Lo Schiavo, S.J.

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8

Catholic San Francisco

September 30, 2005

Respect Life ❖

Sunday October

a world where human life is always loved 2, 2005 ❖ Help andbuilddefended, every form of violence banished

Walk for Life fundraiser a success More than 200 people attended a Gala fundraiser and auction September 10 in support of pro-life outreach activities, including Walk for Life West Coast 2006. The event was sponsored in part by the Archdiocese of San Francisco Respect Life Program.

The inaugural Walk for Life West Coast was held January 22 this year on the anniversary of the 1973 Roe v’ Wade decision mandating abortion on demand in all 50 states. The march from Justin Herman Plaza to the Marina Green in San Francisco was led by Archbishop William J. Levada and attracted 7,000 peaceful participants who walked under the banner “Women Deserve Better than Abortion.”

Organizers expect twice as many participants when the event is hosted again on January 21, 2006. Thus far, Oakland Bishop Allen Vigneron is confirmed to attend and other California bishops are expected.

The auction and dinner raised $35,000 for

the walk and other pro-life activities. “It was a smashing success,” said Vicki Evans, coordinator of the Respect Life Program for the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Guests thoroughly enjoyed the “elegant gala” held at the Julia Morgan Ballroom at the Merchant’s Exchange Building, Ms. Evans said.

Fine wines for dinner and auction were provided by Fred and Peggy Furth of Chalk Hill Vineyards, Jim and Judy Barrett of Chateau Montelena, Fred Cline of Cline Cellars and Fugazi Travel. Fugazi also provided a trip for two to Rome on the occasion of the elevation of Archbishop Emeritus William J. Levada to cardinal.

Organizers of Walk for Life West Coast 2005 were presented a special Commendation at the event from the California State Convention of the Knights of Columbus.

Visit website www.walkforlifewc.com for more information on Walk for Life.

Did you know?

X Girls in California as young as 12 years of age can obtain abortions without their parents’ knowledge.

ADOPTION NETWORK OF CATHOLIC CHARITIES CYO

Do you know Catholic teaching?

X The family is a community uniquely suited to teach and transmit cultural, ethical, social, sexual and religious values.

Did you know?

X Proposition 73 will curb the abuses of parental prerogatives and rights that currently exist in California law.

(415) 972-1200 Free pregnancy counseling, infant adoptions, adoptive families needed for foster children Donations accepted for our Pregnancy Counseling Program

X On September 1, the Bishops of California released a statement saying: We strongly encourage Catholics in our state to offer their full support in promoting Proposition 73 as good public policy, and in exercising their citizenship in voting for it in November.

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Project Rachel A compassionate program of the Archdiocese offering hope, healing and forgiveness from the pain of a past abortion.

Services include: telephone support, one-to-one healing, referrals to understanding priests, counselors, group support and retreats.

Please call (415) 717-6428

Each of us is willed. Each of us is loved.

Each of us is necessary.

Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities United States Conference of Catholic Bishops 3211 Fourth Street, N.E. ● Washington, DC 20017-1194 Tel: (202) 541-3070 ● Fax: (202) 541-3054 Website: www.usccb.org/prolife

September 30, 2005

Catholic San Francisco

9

2nd Annual

WALKforLIFE WEST

COAST

January 21, 2006

•

San Francisco

Starts at 11:00 am Justin Herman Plaza

It was an historic day in San Francisco last January 2005! More than 7,000 pro-life women, men and children boldly entered the public square with the message that “Abortion Hurts Women” and “Women Deserve Better® than Abortion”.

A new tradition and new voice emerged with the first annual Walk for Life West Coast!

JOIN US AGAIN, Saturday, January 21st 2006, as we continue to peacefully proclaim our message in ever-greater numbers. Walk with us to challenge the belief that abortion is a good choice for women.Walk to proclaim that Life is the best and only choice!

www.WalkforLifeWC.com Tel: (415)586-1576

info@WalkforLifeWC.com

Confirmed speakers for 2006 include:

Pastor Clenard Childress Regional Director of LEARN Serrin Foster President of Feminists for Life Star Parker Founder and President of CURE ® Copyright 2005 Feminists for Life. All rights reserved.

10

Catholic San Francisco

September 30, 2005

Respect Life â?–

Sunday October

a world where human life is always loved 2, 2005 â?– Help andbuilddefended, every form of violence banished

Memorial Mass for children who died before or soon after birth

Her Choice – Diana Moses Botkin, 1996.

This artwork was on the cover-page for The Jericho Plan: Breaking Down the Walls Which Prevent Post-Abortion Healing.

It is a guide book for clergy and others in a position to be "healers" for those suffering the after-effects of abortion.

It was written by David C. Reardon and is available from Acorn Books.

After an abortion: Steps toward healing

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that others, too, were involved. Pray for God’s forgiveness for both yourself and everyone else who either encouraged the abortion or failed to help you avoid the abortion.

5. Forgive yourself. God does not want you to live a lifetime in mourning. Your sin has been forgiven. You have been made new in Christ. Rejoice in the knowledge that one day you will be with your child in the arms of the Lord.

6. Forgive others. Recognize that they, too, acted out of ignorance, fear, or petty human selfishness. If possible, let them know that you forgive them. Forgive even the abortion providers.

7. Give your childen over to the care of God, their Heavenly Father, and the true Parent of us all. Know that they are loved, happy, and well cared for. They, too, desire your joy and happiness. They miss you, but they do not resent or condemn you, because they live in the love and mercy of Christ. Do not try to hold onto them by prolonging your grief; hold onto them by sharing their happiness in heaven.

- This material supplied by the Elliot Institute which provides exhaustive resources on abortion after-effects and post-abortion healing at website AfterAbortion.org.

S

SAN MATEO PRO LIFE

U

1. Recognize that the road to full recovery can take time and effort. God’s forgiveness can be had instantly, but sorting out your life and your feelings, overcoming the ever-present temptation to give in again to despair and doubt—these take time.

2. Recognize that it is normal and good to mourn the loss of a loved one. Just as mourning the loss of a parent or spouse takes time, so does mourning the loss of an aborted child. In the case of abortion, the mourning process is often cut short and never completed because of denial or feelings of guilt which block the mourning process. You must courageously allow the mourning process to get back on track. Accept your grief as normal rather than something which must covered up or pushed away. Recognize that the pain of your loss will fade as your healing progresses.

3. Recognize that you are not alone. Others have been through the same experience and the same trials. Their experiences and understanding can help you. They want to help you, just as you may want to help others after you have finished going through the healing process. Finding a post-abortion counselor or support group be very helpful to you.

4. Admit your personal responsibility but also recognize

A Memorial Mass for all babies who have lost life for any reason, through miscarriage, abortion, or death in early childhood will be held at Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Colma on Saturday October 8 at 11:00 a.m.

The Mass and Healing Liturgy will be held at the Rachel Knoll at Holy Cross and will be concelebrated in English and Spanish.

The biennial event is for parents who have lost and mourn children, recently or many years past, and for their family and friends. All are invited to a reception and light luncheon at the main mausoleum following Mass.

The Mass and Healing Liturgy is sponsored by Project Rachel and Holy Cross Cemetery.

Project Rachel is a Catholic post abortion ministry offering free and confidential counseling to women trying to overcome grief, regret, isolation or emotional and spiritual wounds following an abortion. Help is also available for others affected by an abortion.

For more information on the memorial Mass call 415614-5572. Project Rachel can be reached confidentially at 415-717-6428. Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery is located at 1500 Mission Road in Colma.

Support the Walk for Life • West Coast • Jan. 21,2006 Phone 415•567•2293

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September 30, 2005

Catholic San Francisco

✿ ✿ ✿ SEEK COMFORT IN PRAYER TOGETHER ✿ achel ourning ✿ Remembering our babies who died ✿ Before, at, or after birth. ✿ We hold these children ✿ Gently in our hearts ✿ And pray for all who mourn for them. ✿ For I will turn their mourning into joy. – Jeremiah 31-13 ✿ Mourning Shrine ✿ Rachel Holy Cross Cememtery ✿ Colma, California ✿ ✿ M EMORIAL M ASS ✿ AND ✿ H EALING L ITURGY ✿ Remembering the children and praying ✿ for the healing of their family and friends. ✿ Saturday October 8, 2005 – 11:00 a.m. ✿ Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery, Colma, California ✿ Rachel Mourning Shrine ✿ Followed by a gathering and luncheon refreshments ✿ Sponsored by the Archdiocesan Project Rachel Ministry and Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery ✿ ✿ ✿ The Catholic Cemeteries ✿ Archdiocese of San Francisco ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ For further information contact Project Rachel Ministry (415) 717-6428 Or Respect Life Program (415) 614-5572

Please enter the main gate at Holy Cross Cemetery 1500 Mission Road, Colma Sign will give you directions

HOLY CROSS CATHOLIC CEMETERY MT. OLIVET CATHOLIC CEMETERY 1500 MISSION ROAD, COLMA, CA 94014 270 LOS RANCHITOS ROAD, SAN RAFAEL, CA 94903 650-756-2060 415-479-9020 HOLY CROSS CATHOLIC CEMETERY INTERSECTION OF SANTA CRUZ AVENUE, MENLO PARK, CA 94025 650-323-6375

11

✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿

12

Catholic San Francisco

September 30, 2005

TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Isaiah 5:1-7; Psalm 80:9, 12, 13-14, 15-16, 19-20; Philippians 4:6-9; Matthew 21:33-43 A READING FROM THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH (IS 5:1-7) Let me now sing of my friend, my friend’s song concerning his vineyard.

My friend had a vineyard on a fertile hillside; he spaded it, cleared it of stones, and planted the choicest vines; within it he built a watchtower, and hewed out a wine press.

Then he looked for the crop of grapes, but what it yielded was wild grapes.

Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard: What more was there to do for my vineyard that I had not done?

Why, when I looked for the crop of grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes?

Now, I will let you know what I mean to do with my vineyard: take away its hedge, give it to grazing, break through its wall, let it be trampled!

Yes, I will make it a ruin: it shall not be pruned or hoed, but overgrown with thorns and briers; I will command the clouds not to send rain upon it.

The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his cherished plant; he looked for judgment, but see, bloodshed! for justice, but hark, the outcry!

RESPONSORIAL PSALM (PS 80:9, 12, 13-14, 15-16, 19-20) R. The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.

A vine from Egypt you transplanted; you drove away the nations and planted it.

It put forth its foliage to the Sea, its shoots as far as the River.

R. The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.

Why have you broken down its walls, so that every passer-by plucks its fruit, The boar from the forest lays it waste, and the beasts of the field feed upon it?

R. The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.

Once again, O Lord of hosts, look down from heaven, and see; take care of this vine, and protect what your right hand has planted the son of man whom you yourself made strong.

R. The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.

Then we will no more withdraw from you;

give us new life, and we will call upon your name.

O Lord, God of hosts, restore us; if your face shine upon us, then we shall be saved.

R. The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.

A READING FROM THE LETTER OF SAINT PAUL TO THE PHILIPPIANS (PHIL 4:6-9) Brothers and sisters: Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me. Then the God of peace will be with you.

A READING FROM THE HOLY GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW (MT 21:33-43) Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: “Hear another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey. When vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce. But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat, another they killed, and a third they stoned. Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones, but they treated them in the same way. Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, ‘This is the heir.

Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.’ They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?” They answered him, “He will put those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times.” Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes?

Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.”

Scripture JESUIT FATHER LARRY GILLICK

Pruned to weed and feed PRE-PRAYERING FOR THIS SUNDAY’S READINGS Today’s liturgical readings invite us to pray for the spirit of cherishing and protecting what God has given us. We will hear a poem and an allegory or kind of parable about vineyards. We are invited to pray with all that constitutes our sections of God’s garden.

We can so easily take things “for granted” instead or “as granted” by God. If all is a gift and we are those to whom creation has been given, then as good tenants, we are challenged to care for creation. There is a deeper meaning to these readings and to our preparing to hear them and celebrate the Eucharist.

We have been given Jesus. We have been given our faith and the grace to live that faith in following Jesus in “fruitful” lives. Faith, as with any gift, can become an easy-come, easy-go thing. We have been entrusted with a treasure which forms us to be different from the attitudes and actions sponsored by the worldly tenants of the modern greedy garden of now!

We pray to be prepared to receive God’s nourishing Word and Sacrament by living what we hear and receive as well as cherishing the earthen vessels which this treasure in-fleshes.

REFLECTION Isaiah sings a poetic prophesy to the inhabitants of Israel in our First Reading.

Using an agricultural image, he speaks to Israel about its being a choice vine planted by God who is the friend of the prophet. The song hits a sour note when we hear that though the fields were fertile and the vine was healthy, no crops came forth at harvest time.

The prophet’s Friend declares that the fields will be left to rot and ruin with no rain clouds to nourish them. The fertile land of Israel is the vineyard and the people planted there are God’s vine. God looks for justice and virtue, but all there is to be found is bloodshed and vengeance.

Notice the audience for whom this parable is intended. Notice the exact details of the parable. A vine or vineyard is planted and prepared precisely for producing good fruit and wine. The whole enterprise is entrusted to a group of production engineers by the owner. No fruit results, but just the opposite.

Remember the audience who is listening.

After sending messengers, (prophets) to encourage production, the owner sends his son. The engineers plan to kill him and so possess the whole vineyard for themselves.

Jesus turns back to his intended audience and traps them in their answer.

The parable is Matthew’s central theme.

The hedge protecting the vineyard was the

St. Thomas More, Model of Integrity and Virtue in Public and Private Life St. Thomas More, Servant of the Word of V. Lord, have mercy God and the Body and Blood of Christ R. Lord have mercy St. Thomas More, Model of Holiness in V. Christ, have mercy the Sacrament of Marriage R. Christ have mercy St. Thomas More, Teacher of his Children V. Lord, have mercy in the Catholic Faith R. Lord have mercy St. Thomas More, Defender of the Weak V. Christ hear us and the Poor R. Christ, graciously hear us St. Thomas More, Promoter of Human V. St. Thomas More, Saint and Martyr, R. Life and Dignity Pray for us (Repeat after each invocation) V. Lamb of God, you take away the sin of St. Thomas More, Patron of Statesmen, the world Politicians and Lawyers R. Spare us O Lord St. Thomas More, Patron of Justices, V. Lamb of God, you take away the sin of Judges and Magistrates the world

LITANY OF ST. THOMAS MORE

history of the sacred covenants and the customs and laws associated with that sacred relationship and history. The hedge has perversely protected the “wretched men” who have not rendered the vineyard fruitful. The fruitfulness, the produce, is the important reality for which the vineyard had been generously planted.

Jesus is the stone, once rejected, Who becomes the cornerstone of the new “hedge.” The kingdom intended to be fruitful, is taken from His listeners’ hands and given to the people who will take care to produce the works of mercy, justice, and protection of the gifts of the vineyard.

This reading can seem to be a winnerloser story. It is so much more than that.

Those who are to follow the teachings of Jesus are a continuation of the relationship with God begun with creation and extended through the covenants. Those people are not the “winners,” but the challenged. We who set our lives upon that Cornerstone have much to do to take care of the vineyard. All that is created; all who are created, these are blessings meant to increase the presence of the “Owner.”

Rather than a “winner” I feel I am a “weeder.” I am a cultivator, a waterer, a nourisher, and a servant of all who are in the vineyard. I have to lean on the “hedge” for encouragement and comfort. The “hedge” is all the history of God’s revealational love. My life is the product of other vine dressers and servants who cared for this vine and became part of God’s saving history.

Yes, there are always weeds we cannot remove. There are those who have other ideas about Who the Owner is and what is fruitfulness. The vineyard seems divided into ours and theirs. When I lean on the “hedge” and listen, the vineyard belongs to the Owner, as do I and every other little things and persons.

The great consolation is that Jesus is not off on a journey and waiting to hear that the harvest has taken place. Jesus is laboring with us and through us all to bring about the Kingdom. The kingdom is not ours and we belong to it and are responsible for keeping it His. His work is helping each of us bring forth the produce which reveals Jesus. So each of us is constantly being weeded and at the same time, sent to feed, weed, seed this world with His gestures, personality, and farming techniques.

“The Lord is good to those who hope in him, to those who are searching for his love.”

– Lamentations 3, 25 Jesuit Father Larry Gillick works at the Deglman Center for Ignatian Spirituality at Creighton University.

R. Graciously hear us O Lord V. Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world R. Have mercy on us Let us pray: O Glorious St. Thomas More, Patron of Statesmen, Politicians, Judges and Lawyers, your life of prayer and penance and your zeal for justice, integrity and firm principle in public and family life led you to the path of martyrdom and sainthood. Intercede for our Statesmen, Politicians, Judges and Lawyers, that they may be courageous and effective in their defense and promotion of the sanctity of human life - the foundation of all other human rights. We ask this through Christ our Lord. AMEN – Written by Bishop Michael Saltarelli of Wilmington, DE for Respect Life Month.

September 30, 2005

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Choosing a bishop The ultimate decision in appointing bishops rests with the pope, and he is free to select anyone he chooses. But how does he know whom to select?

The process for selecting candidates for the episcopacy normally begins at the diocesan level and works its way through a series of consultations until it reaches Rome. It is a process bound by strict confidentiality and involves a number of important players — the most influential being the apostolic nuncio, the Congregation for Bishops, and the pope. It can be a time consuming process, often taking eight months or more to complete. While there are distinctions between the first appointment of a priest as a bishop and a bishop’s later transfer to another diocese or his promotion to archbishop, the basic outlines of the process remain the same.

STAGE 1 — BISHOPS’ RECOMMENDATIONS Every bishop may submit to the archbishop of his province the names of priests he thinks would make good bishops. Prior to the regular province meeting (usually annually), the archbishop distributes to all the bishops of the province the names and curricula vitae of priests which have been submitted to him. Following a discussion among the bishops at the province meeting, a vote is taken on which names to recommend. The number of names on this provincial list may vary. The vote tally, together with the minutes of the meeting, is then forwarded by the archbishop to the apostolic nuncio in Washington. The list is also submitted to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

STAGE 2 — THE APOSTOLIC NUNCIO By overseeing the final list of names forwarded to Rome, the apostolic nuncio plays a decisive role in the selection process. He not only gathers facts and information about potential candidates, but also interprets that information for the Congregation.

Great weight is given to the nuncio’s recommendations, but it is important to remember that his “gatekeeper” role, however, does not mean that his recommendations are always followed.

For Diocesan Bishops After receiving the list of candidates forwarded by a province, the apostolic nuncio conducts his own investigation into the suitability of the candidates.

A report is requested from the current bishop or the administrator of a diocese on the conditions and needs of the diocese. If the appointment is a replacement for a diocesan bishop or archbishop about to retire, consideration will be given to the incumbent’s recommendations. Broad consultation within the diocese is encouraged with regard to the needs of the diocese, but not the names of candidates. ● The report is to include the names of individuals in the

diocese with whom the Nuncio might consult and how to contact them. ● Previous bishops of the diocese are consulted. ● Bishops of the province are consulted ● The president and vice president of the USCCB are consulted. ● If the vacancy to be filled is an archdiocese, other archbishops in the United States may be consulted.

At this point, the nuncio narrows his list and a questionnaire is sent to 20 or 30 people who know each of the candidates for their input.

All material is collected by the nuncio, and a report is prepared. Three candidates are listed alphabetically – the terna – with the nuncio’s preference noted. All materials are then forwarded to the Congregation for Bishops in Rome.

For Auxiliary Bishops A diocesan bishop must justify to the apostolic nuncio his need for an auxiliary bishop. This is easier if he is requesting a replacement for a retired or deceased auxiliary.

The diocesan bishop prepares the terna, or list of three candidates, for his requested auxiliary and forwards it to the apostolic nuncio.

The nuncio then conducts his own investigation of the priests on the diocesan bishop’s terna, sending the names to Rome with a report and his own recommendations.

On average, this part of the process may take two to six months.

STAGE 3 — CONGREGATION FOR BISHOPS Once all the documentation from the nuncio is complete and in order, and the prefect approves, the process moves forward. If the appointment involves a bishop who is being promoted or transferred, the matter may be handled by the prefect and the staff. If, however, the appointment is of a priest to the episcopacy, the full congregation is ordinarily involved.

A cardinal relator is chosen to summarize the documentation and make a report to the full congregation, which generally meets twice a month. After hearing the cardinal relator’s report, the congregation discusses the appointment and votes. The Congregation may follow the recommendation of the nuncio, chose another of the candidates on the terna, or even ask that another terna be prepared.

STAGE 4 — THE POPE DECIDES At a private audience with the pope, the prefect of the Congregation for Bishops presents the recommendations of the Congregation to the Holy Father. A few days later, the pope informs the Congregation of his decision. The Congregation then notifies the nuncio, who in turn contacts the candidate and asks if he will accept. If the answer is “yes,” the Vatican is notified and a date is set for the announcement.

It may take six to eight months, and sometimes

Saint Augustine – Sandro Botticelli, 1480. Bishops are chosen by different methods in the Eastern Catholic Churches. The process of selecting bishops has also varied over time in the Roman Church and according to political necessity and custom in different geographic areas. Following his Baptism in Milan in 387, Augustine returned to his native Africa with the intention of leading a life of poverty and study. Because of his fame, he avoided certain cities for fear of being elected bishop.

While in Hippo, the people saw him praying and started cheering him and demanded Valerius, Bishop of Hippo, make him a priest. Later, Valerius chose Augustine as his coadjutor with the consent of the Primate of Africa.

longer, from the time a diocese becomes vacant until a new bishop is appointed.

This information was provided by the Office of Communications for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

–––– Key Terms –––– Apostolic nuncio The pope’s representative to both the government and to the hierarchy of a given nation; a key person in deciding what names are recommended to the Congregation for Bishops for possible episcopal appointment. The Apostolic nuncio to the United States is Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo Higuera.

Congregation for Bishops One of nine Vatican Departments. The head of the Congregation, called the “prefect,” is Cardinal Giovanni

Battista Re of Italy. Among the congregation’s responsibilities are moderating all aspects of episcopal appointments; assisting bishops in the correct exercise of their pastoral functions; handling ad limina visits (regular visits to Rome by bishops every five years); and establishing episcopal conferences and reviewing their decrees as required by canon law. Its membership consists of approximately 35 cardinals and archbishops from around the world.

Province A territory comprising one archdiocese, called the metropolitan see, and one or more dioceses, called suffragan sees. The Code of Canon Law spells out certain limited obligations and authority that the metropolitan archbishop has with respect to the dioceses within his province.

Terna A list of three candidates for a vacant office, including the office of bishop.

Year of the Eucharist

When Sacraments shall cease On his deathbed, St. John Vianney wept when the Eucharist was brought to him and exclaimed, “It’s sad to receive Holy Communion for the last time!” The Curé of Ars was sorrowful because throughout his life the moments of his greatest intimacy with God were centered on the Eucharist, but he also rejoiced that he had completed his earthly pilgrimage and was ready to go to the Lord.

When Holy Communion is given to the dying it is called “viaticum”, a Latin word meaning “provisions for the journey”, and the Catechism calls this “the last sacrament of the Christian”. The Eucharist is “…the seed of eternal life and the power of the resurrection, according to the words of the Lord: ‘He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.’” (CCC 1524) After death, the body of the deceased is carried to the church for a final celebration of the Eucharist; the rites recall baptism with which the disciple’s pilgrimage began, and the faithful offer the holy sacrifice of the Mass for the friend who has gone before them “marked with the sign of faith”.

It is above all when we confront the mystery of death that we should call to mind what a great gift Holy Communion is: a communion with Christ Himself, but also with all the members of His Body, the Church, including the deceased. Ronald Knox once described the Church as “all saints, all souls, and all sorts”— the Church in glory, those undergoing final purification and the followers of Christ still making their earthly journey – and the Eucharist unites us with all these.

The Eucharist is also “the pledge of the glory to come”, and the Catechism devotes four paragraphs to this aspect of the mystery (CCC 1402-1405). According to St. Ignatius of Antioch, one of the earliest Fathers of the Church, the Eucharist is “the medicine of immortality”. (CCC 1331) In the celebration of the Mass we already participate in the heavenly liturgy and anticipate the gift of eternal life (CCC 1326). The drama of salvation, which began in Genesis with the creation of man and woman, reaches its triumphant conclusion in Revelation with the wedding feast of Christ and His Bride, the Church. Our Eucharistic celebration is the first course of that joyful gathering.

We cannot even begin to imagine what the beauty of heaven will be, anymore than we could imagine the marvel of this world during the first nine months of our life, when our existence was circumscribed by our mother’s womb. And yet this world surrounded us, and for those nine months we were developing the eyes, ears and the other organs which would allow us to experience the delights of this earthly creation.

Our faith tells us we are undergoing a spiritual gestation now, preparing us for the glory of the risen life.

None of this is apparent to our senses. The Blessed Sacrament appears to be a morsel of bread; only faith can pierce through the veil of the appearances of bread and wine to recognize that this is Christ, the living bread. During His earthly life Christ hid His divine glory because mere human beings could not look upon that majesty before which even the angels hide their faces. With consummate humility the Son of God adapted Himself to our frail

mortal condition, and He continues to do so today in the Eucharist. Without the material gifts of bread and wine there would be no Eucharist, and yet those humble elements contain a reality which is literally “out of this world” – Christ Himself, true God and true Man. If it seems audacious to claim that what appear to be mere bread and wine can “contain” God, we must recognize that this is no more than what we say of the humanity of Jesus. The Eucharist simply prolongs the mystery of the Incarnation into our own time and space.

In the heavenly banquet we will move beyond the provisional sacraments of our earthly pilgrimage. As we pray in the third Eucharistic Prayer, “On that day we shall see you, our God, as you are. We shall become like and praise you for ever through Christ our Lord.” All of the lights and shadows of human history, and of our own history, will be carried to the altar of the liturgy of heaven, where Christ is seated at the right hand of His Father, surrounded by a throng of saints and angels. Whatever sadness we may have felt at our last earthly Communion will be swallowed up in the glory of that Eucharistic celebration which will not conclude with a rite of dismissal; there will be nowhere to go, because we will be in our true home forever.

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

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Catholic San Francisco

September 30, 2005

Catholic san Francisco Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper

Jesus with an MBA In a conversation this week with Jesuit Father Thomas Reese, former editor of America magazine, he said “The process now in place for choosing a bishop was set up by Pope Paul VI. This process has a very formal procedure for consulting, but it is rarely used any more.”

Presently a visiting scholar at Santa Clara University, Reese said consultation could involve a very public forum where people could talk about the qualities they might want to see in a new bishop. This could be a way for the laity to talk about the challenges of the particular diocese.

However, he said, “The process forbids names being floated.”

Reese noted that the process set forth for consultation was carried on for a time under Paul VI, but added, “The practical results have not been encouraging.”

“The kinds of things people say tend to be very general. They want someone who will be pastoral, compassionate, sensitive to the needs of the diocese,” Reese said.

“What you end up with is a desire for Jesus Christ with an MBA from Harvard or Stanford,” he noted.

The process, he said, was unrealistic, because it raised expectations which could be deflated when a normal human being was named.

Despite these shortcomings, Father Reese believes we need to find ways to allow for meaningful consultation.

Reese noted that there are ways for lay people to express their view of the qualities or attributes they might desire in a bishop. Individuals can write to the papal nuncio or the pope. He added that individual people in a diocese may be approached, under strict confidentiality, by the nuncio for feedback as well.

In his 1989 book, Archbishop: Inside the Power Structure of the Catholic Church, Reese notes that the official “Norms for the Selection of Candidates for the Episcopacy in the Latin Church” are very explicit about the qualities the provincial bishops should look for in a candidate.

“He must be ‘a good pastor of souls and teacher of the Faith.’ They must examine whether the candidates enjoy a good reputation; whether they are of irreproachable morality; whether they are endowed with right judgment and prudence; whether they are even-tempered and of stable character; whether they firmly hold the orthodox Faith; whether they are devoted to the Apostolic See and faithful to the magisterium of the church; whether they have a thorough knowledge of dogmatic and moral theology and canon law; whether they are outstanding for their piety, their spirit of sacrifice and their pastoral zeal; whether they have an aptitude for governing. Also, consideration must be given to ‘intellectual qualities, studies completed, social sense, spirit of dialogue and cooperation, openness to the signs of the times, praise-worthy impartiality, family background, health, age and inherited characteristics.’”

The process for appointing an archbishop does not differ substantially from that of appointing any other diocesan bishop. Greater care may be taken, and more people may be consulted, but the process is basically the same. The man chosen to be archbishop is more likely to be already a diocesan bishop at the time of his appointment.

While the selection process has been different in each circumstance, the Archdiocese of San Francisco has been extraordinarily fortunate in the seven Archbishops – Alemany, Riordan, Hanna, Mitty, McGucken, Quinn, Levada – who have served as shepherd of the local Church.

MEH

Visitations not one issue Despite some press reports to the contrary, the long-planned “apostolic visitations” of U.S. seminaries, which begin this month, will focus on a wide range of issues.

The decision to conduct U.S. seminary visitations was made in April 2002 in response to the clergy sexual abuse crisis. From the start its chief goals were to assess how well the seminaries are preparing their students for chaste, celibate living and how well they are preparing priesthood candidates to know and follow the church’s moral teachings.

Of 56 questions that will serve as the framework for the visitations this academic year, only one deals with homosexuality. Other questions, for example, include: Are the church’s liturgical norms faithfully observed? Does the seminary reflect a prayerful atmosphere? Do the seminarians show an aptitude for and dedication to intellectual work? Does the seminary present a sound spirituality? How does the formation integrate harmoniously the spiritual dimension with the human one, above all in the area of celibate chastity? Do the seminarians receive a substantially complete and coherent grounding in Catholic dogmatic and moral theology?

Sulpician Father Thomas R. Hurst, rector of Theological College, the U.S. bishops’ national seminary in Washington, said consideration of an applicant’s sexual history is an important part of the admissions procedure. But he said it would be a shame if the homosexuality question became the main focus of people’s perception of the visitation program.

MEH

Thanks from St. Mary’s On behalf of the Cathedral parishioners, staff and Board of Regents, I want to thank and commend the people of the Archdiocese, the City and the entire Bay Area for their support of the Hurricane Katrina relief services, which were provided here at Saint Mary’s Cathedral Event Center from September 4 until September 19.

We can be proud of our local Church and city communities for coming together in a true spirit of cooperation to help survivors of the worst natural disaster in our nation’s history. Along with the city staff from the Office of Emergency Services, the Health Department, the Sheriffs Department and the Program for Housing and Homeless, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, the Saint Vincent de Paul Society, the Archdiocesan Office of Public Policy, Sacred Heart/Cathedral College Prep and other faith-based service providers were inspirational in their skilled and compassionate response to the needs of hundreds who fled the Gulf Coast and found their way to the City of Saint Francis.

Likewise, I thank John Marks, President of the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau and Katherine Horton of his staff for helping us to relocate meetings and banquets originally scheduled in our Cathedral Event Center. We were most grateful to other Catholic facilities like the University of San Francisco and Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep as well as our neighbors at the First Unitarian Church and Grace Cathedral for opening their doors to such events. and we were amazed by the generosity of hotels and conference facilities like the Raddison Miyako Hotel, the Hyatt Regency, the Regency Ball Room, the Hotel Nikko, the Merchants’ Exchange Building, the Masonic Auditorium, Fort Mason Center and the Flamingo Ballroom in Fremont.

In particular, our thanks go to Dean Lehr and his staff at the Raddison Miyako Hotel as well as Janet Reilly and Linda Heylin of the Merchants’ Exchange Building, who were so willing and anxious to make space available at their own great expense so that our space could be ready to house survivors of the hurricane.

Countless calls to offer housing, resources and volunteer services overwhelmed our Cathedral staff and the staff of Catholic Charities, who so generously supported us throughout the two weeks. You should be very proud of your Cathedral and your Catholic Charities. We all felt helpless watching images of the hurricane’s devastation along the Gulf Coast. Still our Catholic community should take some comfort in having built this Cathedral complex, which stood apart as the ideal facility to provide such shelter in San Francisco, and in supporting Catholic Charities, which continues to provide hurricane survivors with rental assistance, senior services, back to work

assistance and transportation services for the reunification of families.

Rev. John Talesfore Pastor, St. Mary’s Cathedral

Vote for life Between the September 10 Gala Auction Evening for Life and the January 21 Walk for Life I hope California Catholics will remember to vote for life on November 8. Voters have the opportunity to amend the California Constitution to restore to parents of young girls under 18, their right to know whether their daughters are planning an abortion. At this time even girls in grammar school can get an abortion and no parent has to be notified, leaving the parent to deal with the physical and psychological aftermath of invasive surgery.

Often these girls are bullied into abortions by older boyfriends, or even sexual predators. They need the help of a parent to avoid making a tragic and deadly mistake.

Catholic parents, and all rightthinking people, please vote yes on Proposition 73 on November 8. This is a proposition that all the Catholic Bishops urge you to vote for.

Laurette Elsberry Sacramento

L E T T E R S

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.

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

Get enlightened

As a Catholic, Pastoral Associate, mom, wife and heterosexual, I was appalled by your blatant homophobic attitude towards gay marriage. When two people love and wish to commit to each other that shows that Jesus is present. I know our Lord would be saddened by the leaders of our church today. It appears that the “Inquisition” is alive and well in the Catholic church. Now we look at the seminaries and weed out these horrible men! It’s time for a change!

We need this newspaper to give a more intelligent viewpoint. We need our hierarchy to get a grip of its-self and be more in touch with Jesus and how he would act! The author should resign so that we can hire someone who is a little more “enlightened”.

Barbara Loughrey San Francisco Ed. Note – The editorial of Sept.

16 encouraged Gov. Schwarzenegger’s promised veto of AB 849, a bill by San Francisco Assemblyman Mark Leno which would introduce “gender-neutral” marriage in California. The editorial praised and encouraged advancements toward an increased “dignity and respect” for homosexual persons in line with Catholic teaching.

The editorial also favored continued recognition of marriage as belonging to a commitment between one man and one woman. This position is in line with the consistent and public teaching of Archbishop William J. Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Pope Benedict XVI, Pope John Paul II, the California Conference of Catholic Bishops, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and the persistent teaching of Sacred Tradition as handed on through the Apostles and their successors.

Other Comments “Westerners, and perhaps Americans most of all, will have to face the simple fact that in this globalized church, their issues and concerns will, more and more, not set the agenda.… This reality will pose a challenge to the ‘catholicity’ of some American Catholics. How willing are we to see ourselves as part of a worldwide family of faith, even if things don’t go the way we believe they should?… Can we bring ourselves to accept that … our own dreams are always more limited than those of the entire communion spread across space and through time?”

- John L. Allen of the National Catholic Reporter. Excerpted from his Sept. 20 speech to Dominican University in River Forest, IL.

September 30, 2005

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The Catholic Difference Brother Roger Schutz, founder of the Taize Community in France, was one of the great Christian spirits of the 20th century. An ecumenical pioneer, Brother Roger, in the apt words of Cardinal Walter Kasper, promoted an “ecumenism of holiness, that holiness which changes the depths of the soul and which alone leads toward full communion.” Tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of spiritual wayfarers have tasted something of that holiness in visiting the ecumenical monastery at Taize. The late John Paul II once described the experience in evocative terms: “One passes through Taize as one passes close to a spring of water.”

Cardinal Kasper’s tribute to Brother Roger took place at his funeral, this past August 23. On August 16, while attending evening prayer at Taize’s Church of the Reconciliation, the 90-year old monk was stabbed to death by a deranged woman, dying almost instantly. One might have hoped that the death of such a great soul would have become an opportunity to ponder a life lived in complete dedication to Christ, and to Christ’s reconciling work in the world.

It was not to be, though, as the New York Times ran a story on Brother Roger’s funeral that launched an unnecessary and untoward controversy. Here is the lead of the Times story: “Brother Roger Schutz pursued many ecumenical dreams in his life, but in death one of them came true. At a Eucharistic service celebrated Tuesday by a Roman Catholic cardinal for Brother Roger, a Swiss Protestant, communion wafers were given to the faithful indiscriminately, regardless of denomina-

tion.” The first falsehood here is that Brother Roger believed in open and “indiscriminate” intercommunion, which he did not. The second falsehood is the suggestion that Cardinal Kasper (who presided at the funeral at the request of the Taize Community) distributed holy communion “indiscriminately, regardless of denomination” - which he did not.

But what with the Times’ (ever-increasingly unwarranted) position as the newspaper of record, a controversy was soon raging in the blogosphere and elsewhere, to the point where the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, of which Cardinal Kasper is president, prepared a note for those interested in what had really taken place at Taize on August 23. The note explains that the celebration of Brother Roger’s funeral “followed the usual practice at Taize,” which had developed during the 1970s, in conversation and agreement with the Vatican, “for the singular circumstances” of this ecumenical monastic community and the pilgrims who spend time there. As the note put it, “everything possible is done to ensure that the Eucharist is celebrated in a way that excludes confusion regarding Church membership, or is against the rules in force.”

Since the 1970s, all Eucharistic celebrations at the Church of the Reconciliation at Taize are Catholic liturgies, presided over by priests or bishops. “For those who...cannot or do not wish to receive communion in the Catholic Church, a special arrangement enables them to receive the ‘blessed bread.’ After the Gospel reading...a basket of small pieces of bread is blessed by the celebrant and set on a table next to the

altar. At the moment of communion, the distribution of the Eucharist and the distribution of the blessed bread are done in a way that clearly indicates the difference. In this the Orthodox and George Weigel Easter-rite Catholics recognize their traditional practice of distributing the ‘antirodon,’ namely parts of the altar bread that have not been consecrated. At Brother Roger’s funeral, in accordance with the usual practice at Taize, those present could receive either the consecrated Eucharistic species or the blessed bread.”

The Times’ story suggests that a policy decision was made to give holy communion to non-Catholics at Brother Roger’s funeral. That is simply not true. The suggestion demeaned both the faith of Brother Roger in the Real Presence and the delicacy and integrity with which Taize has tried to live both the truth of the Eucharist and the quest for ecclesial reconciliation. It also set off a wholly unnecessary controversy that would have pained Brother Roger deeply.

The Times owes Taize (and Cardinal Kasper) an apology.

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

Family Life

Co-creators with God When my husband and I first got married, we practiced NFP. So did most of our close friends. NFP stands for Natural Family Planning. Back then, we called it “No Family Please.” We knew the teachings of the Church. We knew following these teachings would benefit our marriage. It’s just, we weren’t ready for children. At all.

I’ll admit that NFP, for me, was a tad overwhelming and frightening. I sat through our pre-wedding sympto-thermal classes (which I’m sure were led by very competent and articulate instructors) and don’t remember a thing. I was young and in love and ready to be married. After our wedding, we used NFP, and it worked just fine. But I always had a sense of uneasiness about it, like it was only a matter of time before the method would fail me.

My insecurity stemmed from the fact that, growing up, everyone’s parents practiced NFP. And everyone had really big families. I’m the oldest of eight; my husband is the oldest of seven. Our neighbors to the left had ten children, and to the left of them was a family of nine. I had one friend who was an only child, and everyone else had at least four siblings. And all of these people practiced NFP. For me, NFP meant a first-class ticket to a very large family, which I wasn’t convinced I wanted. This didn’t keep us from practicing NFP, but it certainly left me feeling like my fate had been decided. NFP, it seemed, was not terribly effective.

Two years into our marriage, we had our first son. What a delight. It wasn’t that we set out to get pregnant. Rather, we had moved away from wanting to postpone pregnancy. NFP works great, I realized, when you follow the rules. Two years after that, another son. Two years again, and boy number three. Finally, after yet another two years and yet another boy, I told my husband that we really needed to hunker down. I was ready for a break. I’d be lying if I said each of these boys came into being out of a pre-meditated and planned agenda. It was more like, maybe it wouldn’t so bad to have another baby. And there you go. We decided to get lax with the method, and out of that came unexpected joy.

Instead of a regimented approach (December shall be the best time for us to have a baby), these boys came out of our great love for each other. How beautiful.

What I began to realize several years into our marriage is that NFP doesn’t create large families. The couples do.

They co-create with God and have an openness to life that helps them weigh the pros and cons of adding another baby to the mix. “Is this the time for us to have another baby,” each couple is forced to ask every month. Sometimes the answer is a resounding NO. Sometimes the answer comes from the lack of No. Maybe not yes, but definitely not no.

NFP has worked marvelously well for us these last few

years in our desire to postpone having another baby. Four boys in six years keeps me on my toes. And the Church not only honors and respects my free will and intellect — it requires it of me. We as Catholic parents have a Rachel Swenson responsibility, to our famBalducci ily, our spouse and our Lord, to prayerfully consider our openness to life.

Sometimes having another baby is the good and beautiful thing to do. Sometimes the good thing to do is wait, maybe indefinitely, to care for the children we already have.

Beyond the last few years of effective spacing, NFP has actually been a gift to us our entire marriage. It has forced the issue of children, of co-creating with God, in a way that has blessed us more than we could have ever known. It has strengthened our marriage and brought us closer together.

Rachel Swenson Balducci is a freelance writer living with her husband and children in Augusta, Georgia.

Spirituality

On being jealous of God’s generosity “The cock will crow at the breaking of your own ego there are lots of ways to wake up!”

John Shea gave me those words and I understood them a little better recently as I stood in line at an airport: I’d checked in for a flight, approached security, saw a huge line-up, and accepted the fact that it would take at least 40 minutes to get through it.

I was alright with the long wait and moved patiently in the line - until, just as my turn came, another security crew arrived, opened a second scanning machine, and a whole line-up of people, behind me, who hadn’t waited the forty minutes, got their turns almost immediately. I still got my turn as I would have before, but something inside of me felt slighted and angry: “This wasn’t fair! I’d been waiting for forty minutes and they got their turns at the same time as I did!” I’d been content waiting, until those who arrived later didn’t have to wait at all. I hadn’t been treated unfairly, but some others had been luckier than I’d been.

That experience taught me something, beyond the fact that my heart isn’t always huge and generous. It helped me understand something about Jesus’ parable concerning the workers who came at the 11th hour and received the same wages as those who’d worked all day and what is meant by the challenge that is given to those who grumbled about the unfairness of this: “Are you envious because I’m generous?”

Are we jealous because God is generous? You bet! And ultimately that sense of injustice, of envy that someone else caught a break is a huge stumbling block to our happiness.

In the gospels we see an incident where Jesus goes to the synagogue on a Sabbath, stands up to read, and quotes a text from Isaiah - except he doesn’t quote it fully but omits a part. The text (Isaiah 61,1-2) would have been well known to his listeners and it describes Isaiah’s vision of what will be the sign that God has finally broken into the world and irrevocably changed things. And what will that be?

For Isaiah, the sign that God is now ruling the earth will be good news for the poor, consolation or the broken-hearted, freedom for the enslaved, grace abundant for everyone, and vengeance on the wicked. Notice though, when Jesus quotes this, he leaves out the part about vengeance. Unlike Isaiah, he doesn’t say that part of our joy will be seeing the wicked punished.

In heaven we will be given what we’re owed and more (unmerited gift, forgiveness we don’t deserve, joy beyond imagining) but, it seems, we will not be given that catharsis we so much want here on earth, the joy of seeing the wicked punished.

The joys of heaven will not include seeing Hitler suffer.

Indeed the natural itch we have for strict justice (“An eye for an eye”) is exactly that, a natural itch, something the gospels invite us beyond. The desire for strict justice blocks our capacity for forgiveness and thereby prevents us from entering heaven where God, like the Father of the Prodigal Son, embraces and forgives without demanding a pound of flesh for a pound of sin.

We know we need God’s mercy, but if grace is true for us, it has to be true for everyone; if forgiveness is given us, it

must be given everybody; and if God does not avenge our misdeeds, He must not avenge others’.

Such is the logic of grace and such is the love of the God to whom we must attune ourselves.

Happiness is not Father about vengeance, but about Ron Rolheiser forgiveness; not about vindication, but about unmerited embrace; and not about capital punishment, but about living beyond even murder.

It is not surprising that, in some of the great saints, we see a theology bordering on universalism, namely, the belief that in the end God will save everyone, even the Hitlers.

Maybe that will never happen. God leaves us free. But, when I, or anyone else, is upset at an airport, at a paroleboard hearing, or anywhere else where someone gets something we don’t think he or she deserves, we have to accept that we’re still a long ways from understanding and accepting the kingdom of God. Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser is a theologian, teacher and award-winning author.

JOHN EARLE PHOTO

An unnecessary and untoward controversy

16

Catholic San Francisco

September 30, 2005

St. Mary’s Cathedral The following events are taking place at or are coordinated by the cathedral of the Archdiocese located at Gough and Geary St. in San Francisco. Call (415) 567-2020 for more information. Please check with Cathedral to see if your event has been relocated.

Oct. 7, 8, 9: Catholic Charismatic Conference.

Friday: Praise Night at 7-p.m. Free admission.

Doors open at 8 a.m. Sat & Sun. $20 per day/$30 for the weekend. Lunch available for $5. Call (800) 700-1849 or (415) 753-3732. High School/Middle School Youth Teen Holy Spirit Conference, Friday night Upbeat Praise/Worship at 7pm, Doors open at 8am Sat./ Sun, Special $10 price for weekend includes lunch. Visit our web-site www.sfspirit.com/events or call 1-800700-1849. Yes, the conference will be held at St. Mary’s Cathedral Oct. 7: Exposition of the Most Blessed Sacrament every First Friday after the 8:00 a.m.

Mass Friday and continuing throughout the day and night until 7:45 a.m. Saturday with Morning Prayer and Benediction. (Exposition is suspended during scheduled Masses at 12:10 noon, 7:00 p.m. and 6:45 a.m. according to liturgical norms.)

Join us as we pray for world peace, a culture of life, priests and the special intentions commended to our prayers. For more information or to volunteer please call (415) 567-2020 x224.

Food & Fun Oct. 1: Carnivale benefiting Holy Name of Jesus Elementary School from 10am to 5pm.

Enjoy carnival games, rock-climbing, a variety of food and more. Holy Name is located at 3300 Lawton Street (at 40th Ave.) Admission is free.

Call (415) 731-4077 or visit www.holynamesf.com for more information.

Oct. 7: Catholic Marin Breakfast Club gathers for Mass at 7 a.m. in St. Sebastian Church, Bon Air Rd. and Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Kentfield.

Breakfast and presentation follow in parish hall.

Today’s speaker is U.S. District Court Judge Eugene F Lynch, a Santa Clara University alumnus and among winners of the annual St. Thomas More Award. He will address the current process surrounding Supreme Court Chief Justice nominee John Roberts. Members’ Breakfast: $7. Visitors’ Breakfast: $10 . Call 4610704 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. or contact Sugaremy@aol.com.

Oct. 8: Fiesta Filipiniana at St. Anne of the Sunset Parish beginning at 6 p.m. Tickets - $30 adults/$12 children – include Dinner and much fun. Call Josie Contreras at (415) 564-1031 or Yoly Lawrence at (415) 602-9833.

Oct. 8, 9: 86th Annual Columbus Day Bazaar benefiting St. Peter and Paul Elementary School on Washington Square, SF. Sat.: 10 a.m. – 7 p.m. and Sun.: 10 a.m. – 7 p.m. A North Beach family festival of games, food and entertainment. Call (415) 421-0809.

Oct. 7, 8, 9: All Souls Parish Festival featuring games, prizes, music, food, silent auction and more. Fri: 6 – 10 p.m.; Sat.: noon – 10 p.m.; Sun.: 11 a.m. – 8 p.m. Come join the fun at 315 Walnut Ave. in South San Francisco.

Oct. 15: Holiday Boutique benefiting Sisters of the Holy Family at their Fremont Motherhouse, 159 Washington Blvd., 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. All types of needlework, seasonal items holiday decorations baked goods and more.

Oct. 4: Catholics for the Common Good monthly meeting. This month: “Parents’ Right to Know” (Proposition 73). It is only common sense that parents know when their minor daughter is seeking an abortion. Proposition 73 will make sure they do. Everyone is invited to come and learn more about this vital initiative and how to help get it passed in the November 8 election. Wine/cheese reception at 7 p.m., meeting 7:30 p.m. – 9 p.m. Tues., Oct. 4 at Ss Peter & Paul Parish Center, 620 Filbert St, SF. Free, well-lighted parking corner of Powell/Filbert. Info: email PresSFCCG@cftcg.org, visit www.catholicsforthecommongood.org or call 415-654-4171.

Datebook

Sept. 30: LCA Juniors took service to another level at a recent going-away party for former San Francisco Archbishop William J. Levada, now busy at the Vatican.

Juniors provided many of the night’s refreshments and, in addition, handled bartending and serving duties. The party was held at the San Francisco home of Dorthea and Ted Kitt. Father John Talesfore, pastor, St. Mary’s Cathedral was also on hand. From left: Penne Tognetti , Anne Alvarez, Kimberly Duggan, Father Talesfore, Maureen Hurley, Maureen Barry, Mary Rotunno.

Oct. 15, 16: St. Augustine Parish marks its 35th anniversary with a parish fair. Saturday: 10 a.m. 6 p.m. Sunday: 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Come and join us for children’s games, home and garden booths, Silent Auction, good food and much more. The address is 3700 Callan Boulevard, SSF. Oct. 15: Annual Fall Festival benefiting St. Thomas More Elementary School, 50 Thomas More Way, Sf, 11:30 a.m. – 9 p.m. Booths, games, food, and plenty of fun for all. Call Patricia at (650) 756-9525 or Linda at (650) 7551297.

Oct. 15: Immaculate Heart of Mary School Golf Fundraiser at Crystal Springs Golf Course followed by catered Awards Dinner at San Mateo Elks Club. Call Tim Connolly for Tee Times (650) 592-7714 Golf $150; Dinner $50; Golf & Dinner $180. All Proceeds benefit IHM School Programs. 4-person scramble, games, prizes, contests, raffles Oct. 16: Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Fashion Show 2005 at the Argent Hotel, 50 3rd St. between Mission and Market in SF. Proceeds benefit St. Brendan Elementary School. Festivities include silent auction and raffle. Tickets: $60 adults/$45 children. Call (415) 731-2665.

Oct 22: The Saint Stephen Women’s Guild is sponsoring its annual fashion show at the Olympic Club Lakeside at 11am. Tickets to this fun event—”Cougar Couture”—are still available through event chairs Nancy Crowley and Colleen O’Meara. Raffle tickets are also available for grand prizes including a $500 shopping spree at Stonestown Galleria. (Winner need not be present to win; free drawing ticket available at school office upon request.) Contact Nancy @ 415/6647164 or email: nancycinsf@aol.com; or Colleen @ 415/731-4736 or email: colleenomeara@comcast.net.”

Respect Life/ Family Life Oct. 2: San Francisco Life Chain, a peaceful, prayerful witness to life at 2:30 p.m. Takes place on Park Presidio Blvd between Geary Blvd. and Clement St. in San Francisco. “Give an hour to save a life,” said Beatrice Smalley , an organizer of the event. Call (415) 567-2293.

Oct. 8: Memorial Mass and Healing Liturgy at the Rachel Mourning Shrine in Holy Cross Cemetery, Colma at 11 a.m. The prayerful hour remembers children living and dead and asks for the healing of their families and friends.

A luncheon follows. Sponsored by the Project Rachel Ministry of the Archdiocese and Holy Cross Cemetery. Call (415) 717-6428 or (415) 614-5572. Last year’s Mass drew several hundred people.

Reunions Oct. 8, 9: Archbishop Riordan High School Reunion Weekend for Classes of 1960, 1965, 1975, 1979, 1980 and 1985. For information email vrassam@riordanhs.org.

Oct. 8: Class of ’50, Holy Name of Jesus Elementary School. Contact Joe Murray at jdmsail1@cs.com or www.holynamesf.com/alumni.

The school is searching for class members from’65. Contact Helen Sigmund Fisicaro at (415) 973-1022.

Oct. 10: Archbishop Riordan High School Alumni and Friends Golf Tournament. $250 per person. Lake Merced Golf Club. For information email vrassam@riordanhs.org.

Oct. 19: Class of ’40, Presentation High School at Delancey Street Restaurant on the Embarcadero. Contact Anne Brickley

Oct. 15: The San Francisco Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women’s Fall Convention at St. Sebastian Parish, 373 Bon Air Road at Sir Francis Drake Blvd, Greenbrae. Trafficking: Human Exploitation of Women & Youth is the topic of the day. Keynote speakers include Holy Names Sisters Jean Cather and Mary Alice Heinz. Panel discussions with political, governmental, social justice/human rights and law enforcement representatives follow. Day begins with Mass at 9 a.m. and ends after lunch. For more information or for a ride, call Diana Heafey (415) 731-6379 or Carole Gianuario (650) 593-5681. $25.00 cost covers the program, continental breakfast, luncheon and handouts.

(516) 824-7990 or Grace Schotz at (415) 664-9678.

Oct. 20: St. Joseph Grammar School and St. James High School Reunion at Archbishop Riordan High School ‘s Lindland Theatre. For information email vrassam@riordanhs.org Oct. 22: Archbishop Riordan High School Alumni Homecoming. $15 per person includes lunch and admission to the game. For information email vrassam@riordanhs.org Reunion in planning for Class of ’55 from St. Cecilia Elementary School. “Come back to the finest, the greatest and the best,” said classmate.

Andi Thuesen Ibarra. Contact Andi at (415) 6650959 or andrea.ibarra@med.va.gov.

Class of ’56, Notre Dame des Victoires High School is planning a reunion for June 2006. Call Marilyn Donnelly at (650) 365-5192.

Marin Catholic High School announces upcoming reunions for class of ’65, Nov. 5; ’95, Nov. 26. Contact LeAnn Tarrant at (415) 4643843 or ltarrant@marincatholic.org.

Oct. 29: Class of ’55, Immaculate Conception Academy at Embassy Suites in Burlingame.

Contact Anne Nolan Dowd at (650) 359-2601 or andown@aol.com.

Nov. 5: Class of ’85, Mercy High School, San Francisco, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Patio Espanol, 2850 Alemany Blvd, San Francisco. Tickets are $40 per person.

Please contact mercyhs85@yahoo.com or call (510) 845-5728 for tickets.

Nov. 5: Class of ’60, All Souls Elementary School. Call Nancy Eli-Galli at (650) 593-5334.

Nov. 4, 5, 6: Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory Reunion Weekend 2005. Friday, Nov. 4 begins the festivities with Back to School Day. Saturday, Nov. 5, enjoy the reunion dinner featuring cuisine from the various diverse neighborhoods of San Francisco. Sunday, Nov. 6, attend Alumni Mass and Brunch. For more information, contact Gregg Franceschi, Director of Alumni Relations at 415.775.6626 ext. 636 or gregg.franceschi@shcp.edu.

Nov. 12: Class of ’65 from St. Emydius Elementary School at the United Irish Cultural Center at 2700 45th Ave., San Francisco.For reservations, please contact one of the following people: Christine Terry (Hutson) at (408) 2987676; Dennis Warde at (510) 208-4811 or Emmet Monahan at (415) 586-4588.

Prayer/Lectures/Trainings Oct. 4: Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont is pleased to announce that the first speaker of their Catholic Scholars Series is Sulpician Father Gerald Coleman who will offer a talk “Addressing the Stem Cell Issue” at 7 p.m. in Ralston Hall on the University campus. The free lecture is open to the public. For more information call Sister Roseanne Murphy at (650) 5083551.

Oct. 8: The Saturday Morning of Prayer series, “To Live in Hope in Today’s World,” continues at Notre Dame Province Center, 1520 Ralston Avenue, Belmont. Refreshments at 9 a.m. with prayer from 9:30 -11:30. Call (650) 593-2045 x277 or contact www.SistersofNotreDameCa.org.

Oct. 15: Training for New Lectors, 9 a.m. -3:30 p.m. at St. Thomas the Apostle Church, San Francisco. Sponsored by the Office of Worship.

Please pre-register at 415-614-5585 or at vallezkellyp@sfarchdiocese.org. Cost $15.

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.

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Catholic San Francisco

September 30, 2005

17

Tim Burton’s ‘Corpse Bride’ Reviewed by Steven D. Greydanus The story of the corpse bride goes back to a Jewish-Russian folk tale in which a young man, en route to his wedding, sees what he takes for a gnarled stick or tree root poking out of the ground, looking like a bony hand with finger extended like the hand of a bride.

Jokingly, he takes the ring from his pocket and places it on the “stick,” reciting his marriage vows and dancing around his “bride” three times singing the Jewish wedding song.

No sooner has he done this than the earth opens up and a bedraggled corpse emerges, clad in bridal white, declaring herself to be his wife and demanding her marital rights. Aghast, the young man flees, seeking the advice of the rabbis, but is pursued by the corpse bride, a victim of murder on the way to her own wedding. In the end, though the corpse bride’s tragic plight is regarded with compassion and sympathy, the tale affirms that the dead have no claim upon the living; the young man is ultimately free to marry his living fiancée, while the corpse bride is laid to rest.

As imagined by Tim Burton in stunning, wildly stylized stop-motion animation overtly reminiscent of The Nightmare Before Christmas yet technically far beyond it, this macabre fairy tale becomes, variously, a poignant meditation on the daunting weightiness of the vows of marriage, a raucous danse macabre in jumping jazz rhythms and florid colors, a visually rich celebration of Edward Gorey Gothic-Victorian and Charles Addams grotesque, and, perhaps most surprisingly, a touching portrait of tragedy, doomed love, empathy, and sacrifice.

Weightiness and sacrifice are concepts often lost at weddings in this age of expressyourself non-ritualism, in which young couples who’ve already drawn up and signed contingency plans for their divorce approach the wedding as an occasion and platform to declare to the rest of the world their own deeply personal insights and theories regarding the nature and purpose of marriage — an estate with which they have, as yet, no firsthand experience, and which five years hence they are as likely as not to have left behind, or putatively re-entered with different partners, and certainly different vows.

Corpse Bride, with its indeterminate 19th-century European setting, recalls a time and place when marriage vows meant something — and more, did something. The film offers, in fairy-tale terms, a distinctly sacramental vision of the recitation of those words prescribed by society and the church — words that are not merely declarative, but performative, that actually bring about a new state of affairs which one cannot then simply abrogate by later changing one’s mind.

It’s true that the fanciful ceremonial phrases that give sensitive young Victor (Johnny Depp) such trouble at the rehearsal for his arranged wedding to Victoria (Emily Watson) bear no resemblance to the actual vows historically used in the Christian tradition, or in any other.

The larger point, though, is that the words of the vow are those prescribed by Victor’s society and church, not ones he’s cobbled together himself. And at least one key clause of the traditional vows — “till death do us part” — does play a crucial role (though still with a fairy-tale spin).

In our self-oriented culture, “till death do us part,” and the whole vow thing generally, represents a rather alarming prospect — one perhaps not fully exorcised by prenups and easy divorce, and better avoided altogether by opting for cohabitation over even noncommital 21st-century American marriage. After all, who knows at the altar what one is really getting into? What if the person to whom you find yourself married isn’t the person you thought you were marrying? You might say your vows, only to discover that you’re married to a monster.

If the fascination of horror, as E. Michael Jones and others have argued, lies in part in its power to give imaginative voice to the suppressed testimony of conscience, then Corpse Bride perhaps resonates with a deep ambivalence in our culture regarding the institution of marriage.

At the same time, amid the film’s grotesquerie and sometimes rowdy musical numbers, it’s possible to see important truths about marriage. Though the film satirizes the anti-romantic, utilitarian view of marriage represented by the controlling in-laws-to-be, it also suggests that in marriage emotion is secondary to responsibility, and that marriage

is less about spontaneous romantic feelings than about learning to love someone within the context of chosen commitment.

As my colleague Peter Chattaway has pointed out elsewhere, Victor doesn’t start out with romantic feelings for either of the two women in his life, his living fiancée Victoria or his corpse bride Emily (Helena Bonham Carter). In fact, neither relationship is his idea. He doesn’t even meet Victoria until the day before the wedding; their marriage was arranged by their respective conniving parents, for reasons of their own.

And of course his “marriage” to the corpse bride is simply a ghastly mistake.

And yet Victor does come to consider himself, at different times and in different ways, to have some sort of responsibility to each of these women, and he is willing to act on this responsibility and make commitments, and what feelings he has are seen in this light. As Chattaway puts it, it’s “a nice illustration of the principle that we should love the one we are married to, rather than — as our post-Romantic culture would have it — that we should marry the one we have feelings for.”

Ultimately, though, Victor belongs with one of these brides and not with the other.

The film plays to an extent with an imaginative picture of the afterworld, or perhaps it would be better to call it simply the grave, that is a lot like life on earth, except in a more fun part of town. There’s even a suggestion that our departed loved ones, while they may be less cuddly than in life, are basically the same people we knew and loved while they lived.

Yet ultimately it’s the dividing line between life and death that has the final word.

As seen here, the current state of the dead is neither heaven nor hell — and there’s little reason to call it purgatory either, though there is a suggestion in the end that this brokendown version of life after death may not be our ultimate destiny. What that ultimate destiny is is somewhat ambiguous; the film’s final shot can be interpreted in different ways.

Despite the visual (and musical) similarities between Corpse Bride and The Nightmare Before Christmas, the former is clearly a darker, more mature film.

Nightmare put a spooky Halloween twist on the old Rankin-Bass holiday specials like “Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” but at least there was still room for Christmastown and Santa Claus. Here, the macabre imagery finds no merry counterpoint; the world of the living is in a way more lifeless than the world of the dead.

Yet Corpse Bride is genuinely soulful and heartfelt where Nightmare was merely clever. In its way, Corpse Bride is about real life — yes, and death, whereas Nightmare was perhaps basically about having fun in happy and creepy ways. The land of the dead may be as entertainingly raucous as Halloweentown, but it doesn’t have Halloweentown’s charming naivete; this is not a place a living soul would actually want to visit, even one day out of the year.

By contrast, the living world may be gray and chilly, but it does have beauty of a kind, and there is reason to think that good people like Victor and Victoria can find happiness together there.

Catholic San Francisco invites you to join in the following pilgrimages FRANCE

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January 9 – 19 , 2006

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18

Catholic San Francisco

September 30, 2005

Book explores role of suffering in life of EWTN founder MOTHER ANGELICA: THE REMARKABLE STORY OF A NUN, HER NERVE, AND A NETWORK OF MIRACLES, by Raymond Arroyo, Doubleday (September, 2005), 400 pp., $23.95.

Reviewed by Fr. Phillip Bloom Last week a parishioner gave me Raymond Arroyo’s unauthorized biography of Mother Angelica. With mild curiosity, I read the dust jacket and table of contents. My plan was to skim the book, then return to it when I had more time. I liked Mother Angelica, but I knew little about her life or how she founded the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN). I also admired Raymond Arroyo, often listening to his news and interview program, “The World Over.” As I began skimming the biography, I quickly became hooked. It turned out to be what I call a “dangerous book.” Every year or two I will pick up a book which so grabs my attention that I wind up devoting every spare moment to reading it. Besides the most basic duties, everything else takes second place.

I was expecting a somewhat saccharine story about a folksy contemplative sister.

Instead the book depicts what to me is the most difficult reality: the intense and often bitter suffering to which God apparently calls some souls. With the unflinching eye of an investigative reporter, Raymond Arroyo recounts painful details of her childhood. Rita Rizzo (the girl who would become Mother Angelica) had a wandering father who abandoned her at an early age. Her mother, never well balanced, became unhinged by the divorce - at that time a terrible stigma - and wound up reversing the normal mother-daughter roles. She increasing-

ly demanded emotional support from her daughter and provided very little in return.

In her twenties, Rita met a Catholic convert turned mystic, who transformed the young woman’s life. Entering a contemplative religious order, against her mother’s bitter protests, she encountered more painful forms of suffering. Physical ailments (such as knees swollen to the size of cantaloupes) almost ended her religious vocation. Raymond Arroyo, cautious as a newsman should be, relates the seeming miraculous cure which enabled her to continue in the convent.

The story of how this contemplative sister founded a world-wide television and radio network is too complex to describe here.

Without giving away the story, let me state that it was hardly a smooth journey from one triumph to the next. The biography reads like a novel depicting the suspense and mounting opposition which Mother Angelica and her sisters confronted. Inability to pay enormous bills, the betrayal of co-workers and the death of dear ones (including her mother who had become one of her sisters) led to bouts of anguish and near-despair. During this long “dark night of the soul” only her iron will and her prayer to Jesus kept her going.

This book will probably be read mainly by “conservatives.” That is a shame - and perhaps makes this a dangerous book in another sense.

It is easy for those concerned with doctrinal integrity to feel betrayed by official teachers.

The book describes Mother Angelica’s strong reaction even against bishops who, for example, promoted women’s ordination or who watered down difficult teachings (such as marital fecundity). In that atmosphere, one can take aim at the wrong target - as Mother Angelica sometimes did. For example in his

photo restoration and design

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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

Contractors State License Board 800-321-2752

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• Family • Work • Depression • Anxiety

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RESIDENTIAL & COMMERCIAL

Unhealed wounds can hold you back - even if they are not the “logical” cause of your problems today. You can be the person God intended.

• New Floor Installation • Refinishing • Water & Fire Restoration • Patching • Sanding • Staining Free Estimates. Call Anytime

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SERVING THE BAY AREA • MANY LOCAL REFEFERENCES

Painting & Remodeling John Holtz

Ca. Lic 391053 General Contractor Since 1980

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

Weekend Inner Child Workshop Fri. Sept. 30, 7 – 10 p.m.

Sat. & Sun. Oct. 1 & 2 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

A small, safe & loving group to help you heal your childhood wounds.

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

(650) 355-4926

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Painting & Remodeling

Licensed Marriage, Family and Child Therapist.

Offers individual, couple + family and group counseling.

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415-205-1235

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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 statelicensed. Advertisments appearing in this newspaper without a license number indicate that the contractor is not licensed.

For more information, contact:

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• DRAIN-SEWER CLEANING SERVICE • WATER HEATERS • TOILETS • COPPER REPIPING • SEWER REPLACEMENT • GAS PIPES

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special edition of “Life on the Rock,” a weekly youth program, at 4:00 p.m.

Telecasts on Sunday Oct. 2 include a keynote address at 8:00 a.m. and a Solemn Mass of Thanksgiving offered by Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput at 10:30 a.m.

EWTN is carried on Comcast Digital Channel 229; RCN Channel 80; DISH Satellite Channel 261; and Direct TV Channel 422. Comcast Airs EWTN on Channel 54 in Half Moon Bay and on Channel 74 in southern San Mateo County.

1537 Franklin Street • San Francisco, CA 94109

John Bianchi

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Fr. Phillip Bloom is pastor of Holy Family Parish in Seattle.

Dr. Daniel J. Kugler

PLUMBING

Do you have worn, torn, faded, discolored or otherwise imperfect photos?

We can make them look as good as new without damaging the originals.

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

The Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) was founded in 1981 by Mother Angelica, a Poor Clare nun in Alabama. It is now available to millions of households in the U.S. and abroad and also has a Spanish language channel serving Latin America and U.S. Spanish speakers.

The network will broadcast celebrations of its 25th anniversary in Denver this weekend. Live coverage begins Saturday Oct. 1, at 8:00 a.m. and includes Mass with the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word at 10:00 a.m., an afternoon anniversary session at 12:45 p.m., and a

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

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complaint from one of the EWTN crowd.”

Whether Raymond Arroyo’s book will increase polarization or reduce it depends on how people read the book. It is easy to get caught up in the political dimension and miss what I believe is Raymond’s deeper purpose: to show us a woman who came from a difficult background and who by her own admission has many flaws, but who has embraced suffering with its redemptive power. In a word, he wants to help us glimpse the mystery and the triumph of the cross.

EWTN celebrates 25th Anniversary

SERVICE DIRECTORY

PHOTO RESTORATION

AUTO SALES

1987 visit to the U.S., the pope was in Phoenix for the Feast of the Holy Cross (September 14). The organizers provided a large, bare cross for him to kiss. Mother Angelica railed against the organizers, seeing this as a sign of how the American Church wants to take Jesus off the cross.

No doubt every pastor in the country, including the most orthodox, has had conservatives attack him for what they perceive as liturgical or doctrinal deviations. They can magnify the smallest misstep until it seems to include all the abuses of the past four decades. For this kind of misguided zeal, many pastors are only too eager to lay the blame at Mother Angelica’s feet. “Another

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The Peninsula Men’s Group, now in it’s 7th year, is a support group which provides affordable counseling in a safe and nurturing setting. Interested candidates may call for a free brochure.

(650) 591-3784 974 Ralston Ave. #6, Belmont, CA 94002

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Catholic San Francisco

SPIRITUAL HEALING

September 30, 2005 Prayer to St. Jude

Pre-payment required Mastercard or Visa accepted

Land for sale:

Oh, Holy St. Jude, Apostle and Martyr, great in virtue and rich in miracles, near Kinsman of Jesus Christ, faithful intercessor of all who invoke your special patronage in time of need, to you I have recourse from the depth of my heart and humbly beg to whom God has given such great power to come to my assistance. Help me in my present and urgent petition. In return I promise to make you be invoked.

Say three our Fathers, three Hail Marys and Glorias. St. Jude pray for us all who invoke your aid. Amen.

This Novena has never been known to fail. This Novena must be said 9 consecutive days. Thanks.

L.R.

PUBLISH A NOVENA

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

Incredible 72 acres. Hunter’s paradise.

Turkey, deer and tons of wildlife.

Gorgeous timber surrounds brand new, all wood, old west style barn.

Fenced and cross-fenced. Corrals and stalls. Road to building site winds through woods and beautiful pastures.

Totally secluded on dead-end road.

Easily commutable to KC Int'l Airport.

Priced to sell at less than $4K per acre.

Your prayer will be published in our newspaper

Call Niki McKenzie at 785-214-0237 or 785-242-7700.

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

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.

J.F.

Organist

CLOTHING ALTERATION AND REPAIR.

ORGANIST WEDDINGS • FUNERALS

Announcement The Catholic Professional & Business Club of the Archdiocese of San Francisco invites you to its monthly meeting!

Wednesday, October 12, 2005 7:00 to 8:30 a.m.

Saint Mary’s Cathedral San Francisco

The Gospel of Work Michael Nader will discuss the principles of the Theology of Work, which provides Catholic professionals with the most profound reasons for our work, and with the moral energy to undertake our daily responsibilities in a spirit of charity and joy.

Mr. Nader studied Catholic Social Teaching while completing his Master of Laws degree at the Notre Dame Center for Civil and Human Rights, and his law degree at the Notre Dame Law School. He also served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy, and studied John Paul II’s contributions to the Theology of Work while on fellowship with the Tertio Millennio Institute in Krakow, Poland. Come hear Michael’s exciting perspective at the next Catholic Professional & Business Club breakfast on October 12th at St. Mary’s Cathedral.

Mr. Nader is currently an Employment Law specialist with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto. He has also served as a judicial clerk for federal judges in Milwaukee, WI, and with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago, Ill. A recipient of several public service awards, Michael has also received the Outstanding Public Service Award from the Bar Association of San Francisco.

Catholic San Francisco

FOR SALE

For Information

110 stained glass windows in 1913 church, for sale.

Also antique furnishings, pews, doors, etc.

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

* WANTED *

Please confirm your event before contracting music!

Elderly Unwanted Statuary Care for a memorial.

ORI’S ELDER CARE AGENCY Personal care companion.

Help with daily activities; driving, grocery shopping, doctor appts. Required: CNA, Nurse’s Aid, Certificate, honest, reliable, excellent refs, bonded.

Call Ori 415-713-1366

Please call (415) 504-7054

Help Wanted DIRECTOR OF ADMINISTRATION SACRED HEART CHURCH, MEDFORD, OREGON Full-time position. 2,500 family parish and parochial school.

A degree in accounting/business administration & a minimum of 5 years financial, accounting, office management, human resources, computer systems & facility management experience is required.

Practicing Catholic preferred. Spanish language skill helpful.

REPLY TO: Search Committee, 616 West 11th Street, Medford, Oregon 97501

Special Needs Companion Services We are looking for you.

• 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

About the Catholic Professional & Business Club (CP&BC) The CP&BC meets for breakfast on the second Wednesday of the month. At our meetings, Catholic business people come together to share our common faith, to network, and to hear speakers discuss how we can incorporate our spirituality and uphold our ethics in the workplace.

Fax your resume to: Jeannie McCullough Stiles, RN 415-435-0421

You are invited to become a member of the CP&BC of the Archdiocese of San Francisco. To register as a member or to make a reservation for the breakfast meeting, please visit our website at www.cpbc-sf.org.

Or fill out the form below, and send it along with your payment. Questions? Call (415) 614-5579.

Send your resume: Jeannie McCullough Stiles, RN Special Needs Nursing, Inc. 98 Main Street, #427 Tiburon, Ca 94920

Come and hear this exciting speaker at the next Catholic Professional & Business Club meeting!

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Michael J. Nader, Esq. Through work a person can become “more human” and “more Christian.”

Michael Nader Pope John Paul II

19

Misc.

Church Items for Sale

CALL (785) 453-2112

Clothing Alteration Hemming pants, skirts and jackets.

CALL MARIA (415)643-5826

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Catholic San Francisco

September 30, 2005

National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi to mark patron’s feast day The National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi will honor the feast day of San Francisco’s patron saint Oct. 4 with a Mass at 12:15 p.m. celebrated by Auxiliary Bishop Ignatius Wang, and concelebrated by Father Robert Cipriano, Chaplain.

Music will be provided by the renowned Scola Cantorum.

Following Mass, Bishop Wang, once pastor of the church, will bless the Shrine’s new gift shop at a formal opening.

St. Francis of Assisi Church, along with nearby Sts. Peter and Paul Church, have been the mainstays of Catholic life in North Beach for decades. St. Francis of Assisi Church was closed after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. However, Archbishop William J. Levada reopened the Church as a Shrine to St. Francis, and it now is a national shrine.

The Portiuncula Gift Shop, named after the little Church St. Francis built in Assisi, Italy, transforms the corner of Columbus Avenue and Vallejo, replacing the building’s old Marini Gymnasium with a gift shop filled with imported items from Italy. Some of its objects are works of art available nowhere else outside of the Vatican and the Uffizi Gallery.

Angela Alioto, former president of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors, is the inspirational force behind the Portiuncula Gift Shop.

“She should be acknowledged publicly for her zeal and the love she has for St. Francis and the Shrine,” said Father Cipriano. “I’ve never met anyone so extremely devoted to St. Francis as Angela, who is a Third Order Franciscan – for 30 years.”

Unique and exclusive only to the shop are copies of the masterpieces of Giotto frescoes made by a 92-year-old artist of Assisi, Italy. The hand-painted frescoes are on stone, paper, and ceramics celebrating Francis’ canticle “Brother Son, Sister Moon.”

The gift shop has affordable merchandise priced for all browsers, including unique glass tree ornaments and other Christmas items. There is also a well-stocked inventory of books, rosaries, cards, copies of the famous Peace Prayer of St. Francis and reproductions of Fra Angelico, Gozzoli, Rafaello, DaVinci and Michelangelo paintings.

Volunteers staff the gift shop. All profits from sales support the Shrine that is located at 610 Vallejo Street, San Francisco, Ca. 94133. For further information call (415) 983-0405.

St. Francis of Assisi, founded in 1849, was the oldest parish church in California.

It now serves as the only National Shrine to St. Francis in the U.S.

Saint Francis of Assisi celebrations around the Bay Area St. Boniface – All are invited to the 16th Annual Blessing of the Animals at St. Boniface Church, 133 Golden Gate Avenue in San Francisco. Father Floyd Lotito will preside. Blessings are at 1:30, 2:15, and 3:00 p.m. on Saturday October 1.

St. Finn Barr – Bishop John C. Wester will officiate at the Blessing of Animals at St. Finn Barr School in San Francisco on Tuesday October 4 at 8:00 a.m.

Animals will include pets of St. Finn Barr students, Horses of the Mounted Police Unit and an African Hedgehog from the San Francisco Zoo. St. Finn Barr School is located at 419 Hearst Avenue.

St. Mary’s Cathedral – The Third Annual Gospel/Jazz Mass and Prayer for World Peace will be held in anticipation of the Feast of St. Francis on Saturday October 1 at St. Mary’s Cathedral. Mr. Sean Aloise will conduct a combined choir including the Inspirational Voices of St. Paul of the Shipwreck Gospel Choir and the Jubilation Choir of Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory.

Earlier in the day, children’s choirs from throughout the Archdiocese will perform at the 10:00 a.m.

Blessing of the Animals on the Geary Blvd. Plaza.

St. Francis of Assisi – The East Palo Alto parish will be holding “the biggest celebration” of St. Francis in the Bay Area named for him. The three day festival begins Friday September 30 at 7:00 p.m. with Aloha

Night – Dress Hawaiian - prizes and refreshments.

From Noon to 6:00 p.m. in the Church parking lot Andre Thierry, Zydeco Magic and Motor Dude Zydeco will perform during a Louisiana Zydeco Festival including Cajun, Pacific Island Food, and Tamales.

Sunday October 2 festivities include 9:30 a.m. Mass with traditional Michoacan dance, 12:30 p.m. multilingual Mass, 3:00 p.m. entertainment with food and games for children and 4:00 p.m. raffle. St. Francis of Assisi Parish is located at 1425 Bay Road in East Palo Alto. Call (650) 322-2152 for more information.

St. Isabella – All are invited to a Blessing of the Animals in honor of St. Francis of Assisi at St. Isabella Church on Saturday October 1 at 10:00 a.m. St. Isabella is located at Freitas Parkway and Las Pavadas in San Rafael.

Franciscan School of Theology – All are invited to gather for celebration of the Transitus of St. Francis of Assisi on Monday, October 3 at the Franciscan School of Theology at 1712 Euclid Avenue in Berkeley.

“Transitus” marks the time of passage from earthly life to everlasting life and is a memorial, remembrance, and celebration of the Saint. Celebration of the Transitus and Eucharist will be at 7:30 p.m. on October 3 and Mass for the Feast will be at 5:10 p.m. on October 4. A reception follows each event. RSVP to (510) 848-5232 or bschulz@fst.edu.

Saint Francis of Assisi St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) was the son of a wealthy merchant in the Italian town of Assisi. He was a carefree youth who enjoyed parties and extravagance.

After he returned from a war, Francis became convinced of the need to find a deeper meaning in life.

He gave away his and his father’s riches, much to the anger of his father, and rejected wealth, trying to live out the Gospel completely in a joyful and humble manner.

He heard Christ speak to him from the crucifix of San Damiano. Christ told Francis to rebuild His Church, which was falling apart. Francis sold some goods from his father’s warehouse and used the proceeds to reconstruct the dilapidated church of San Damiano. His angry father disowned and disinherited him, and Francis embraced his new life of poverty.

His simple and sincere faith attracted many followers, and in 1210 Pope Innocent III authorized Francis and his companions to travel about Italy, preaching the Gospel. The pope’s favorable decision is said to have been influenced by a dream in which he saw Francis supporting a crumbling church.

Francis went about rebuilding church structures, but his mission also included rebuilding the Church, the people of God, through preaching and ministry to the poor of body, mind, and spirit.

Francis and his followers — the Friars Minor (later called the Franciscans) — devoted themselves to poverty, chastity and obedience, living a life of penance and preaching. Their efforts contributed to a major spiritual renewal in thirteenth-century Italy. In 1212 Francis aided his friend St. Clare of Assisi in established an order for women based on the same vows of the Franciscan order. Several orders of St. Francis of Assisi now exist, including an order for lay people, the Secular Franciscan Order (SFO).

Francis is especially known today for his gentleness and his great love for all God’s creation, especially animals and nature. It is Francis who originated the practice of commemorating the Birth of Christ with the nativity scene.

Though never ordained a priest, Francis was blessed with many spiritual gifts, particularly the stigmata — the wounds in the hands, feet, and side suffered by Christ on the Cross. During his last two years of life, when he was half-blind and seriously ill, Francis remained joyful and humble; he died at the age of forty-four, surrounded by his beloved friars in the little church of the Portiuncula. He was canonized only two years later.