Holy Days of Obligation
Children of the Morning Star Japanese School with a visiting bishop in the 1950s.
Memories of Pearl Harbor ling er in Japa nese Catholic community By Evelyn Zappia Before the bombing that President Franklin D. Roosevelt described as "the day that will live in infamy," St. Francis Xavier Mission on Octavia and Pine Streets was not unlike any other Catholic church in San Francisco. The women's auxiliary met frequentl y, parishioners joined the Knights of Columbus, the youth formed a Boy Scout Troop, the newly established Morning Star School was growing, and the most serious problem was raising money through church bazaars and bingo games so the debt could be paid off for the newly built church. On Dec. 7, 1941, however, the lives of the several hundred Japanese' Catholics changed drastically when the Japanese government bombed Pearl Harbor. No longer were they perceived as any other Catholic community in the city. They were the enemy, according to the U.S. government. Immediately following the bombing, federal agencies began mandatory "evacuations" of the Japanese people to relocation centers. The Japanese Catholics of St. Francis Xavier Mission were no exception. By May 21, 1942, the U.S. government had completed the final of three mandatory relocation efforts - having removed 5,280 Japanese who had been living in San Francisco on the day of the Pearl Harbor bombing. "For the firs t time in 81 years, not a single Japanese was walking the streets of San Francisco," the San Francisco Chronicle reported. JAPANESE, PAGE21
December features two of the year's four days of holy obligation - Dec. 8, Feast of the Immaculate Conception , and Dec. 25, Christmas. States The Catechism of the Catholic Church , "Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, 'full of grace ' through God , was redeemed from the moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed in 1854: The Most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception , by a singular grace and privilege of almi ghty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race , preserved immune from all stain of original sin. " The four hol y days of obligation for next year will be: Aug. 15, 2001 the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary; Nov. 1, 2001 All Saints; Dec. 8, 200 1 the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary ; Dec. 25, 2001 Christmas. The above interpretation of the Immaculate Conception is a mosaic reproduction of a painting by the popular 17thcentury Spanish baroque artist Bartolome Esteban Murillo (1618-1682). The original is in the Prado Gallery at Madrid Spain. The mosaic is housed at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. and the image used with the Basilica's permission.
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Vatican and national appointments g iven Archbishop Levada