March 18, 2011

(PHOTOS BY JOSE LUIS AGUIRRE/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)

Ash Wednesday at St. Mary’s Cathedral A woman praying, a young boy and a babe in arms are pictured during the March 9 service celebrated by Archbishop George Niederauer.

Lent is like baptism, Marianist Brother John Samaha writes (Page 14). And Lent is a time to exercise what St. Augustine calls “holy desire,” Salesian Father Jose Lucero, parochial vicar of Corpus Christi Parish in San Francisco, said in his Ash Wednesday homily (Page 15).

Japan’s agony unfolds as world rushes to help

Catholic san Francisco

If the scale of the devastation in Japan is to too much to take in, consider scenes from a hospital in the small town of Ishimaki on Japan’s northeast coast.

Every inch of floor space is covered with the more than 1,000 sick and injured brought in during the disaster’s first three days, Patrick Fuller said in a report for the International Red Cross March 14.

“The trauma is evident, written on the pale faces of many who have seen loved ones swept to their death,” he wrote.

The elderly have been hit hardest, with many shivering uncontrollably under blankets.

Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper

How to help, Page 6 “They are suffering from hypothermia having been stranded in their homes without water or electricity,” Fuller wrote. “At night, the town is plunged into darkness and it is bitterly cold. The night sky is penetrated by the searchlights of civil defense helicopters, which continue the around-the-clock search for stranded households.”

He said mobile medical teams venture out daily with medicine and food and return with accounts of the enormity of the disaster.

“In some areas, the tsunami destroyed everything in its path,” Fuller wrote. “The teams no longer venture northeast of the town as they know there were no survivors.”

Many of the injured were burned when fuel from sinking fishing boats ignited debris washing inland by the tidal surge. Others are at risk of pneumonia from having inhaled quantities of seawater.

“In the coming days, search and rescue efforts will turn toward the retrieval of dead bodies, which litter the devastated coastline,” Fuller wrote.

Japanese media reported that 2,000 bodies have been washed up on the shores of Miyagi prefecture in Japan’s northeast, Radio Australia News said JAPAN’S AGONY, page 5

Catholic lawyers take aim at death penalty abolish the death penalty but I think there are enough people who can be persuaded on this issue that we A group of Catholic lawyers in California is formcould turn it around and succeed,” said Uelmen, a ing to rally fellow Catholics to oppose the death pencriminal law and evidence specialist. “It is going to alty, saying it is morally wrong under church teaching take a lot of work.” and the system that administers it is dysfunctional Uelmen has helped create the Catholic lawyers’ and wasteful. website, www.ccladp.org, on which Catholic lawyers The plan is to establish groups of Catholic lawyers can join the effort. It also contains information on in each of the state’s 58 counties and dispatch membiblical references to the death penalty, what popes bers to speak at parishes, retreats and have said, what the Catechism of the anywhere Catholics congregate to ask Catholic Church says and the teachings them to join in a campaign to change of the U.S. and California bishops.

California law that permits capital punThe church teaches that each perishment. In the short term, the lawyers son is created in God’s image and that plan to pressure district attorneys not killing is wrong. The U.S. bishops, in to seek the death penalty. a 1999 statement, also said the death The mobilizing of Catholic lawyers penalty perpetuates a cycle of violence is one of the first steps toward launchand promotes “a sense of vengeance ing a ballot initiative, perhaps in a few in our culture.” In 2010, the California years, to repeal the death penalty in Catholic Conference said life without California, death penalty opponents the possibility of parole is an alternative Gerald Uelmen say. The law that authorizes the penalty that protects society. came via initiative, and it can only be amended or Uelmen, a Catholic, from Saratoga, is honing that repealed by initiative. message for his statewide volunteers and also makAlthough polling shows that support for the death ing a case that administering the death penalty is penalty among Catholics has declined in recent years, prohibitively expensive, costing California taxpayers those still supportive form an obstacle to abolition, $137 million a year when the state is mired in debt. said Gerald Uelmen, professor of law at Santa Clara Moreover, he said, the promises prosecutors make University and chairman of the advisory committee to the families of murdered victims – that they will for the group he has co-founded, California Catholic secure justice with executions – are “delusional.”

Lawyers Against the Death Penalty (CCLADP).

He added, “The idea that you are doing this for the “We are not going to get a unanimous vote to CATHOLIC LAWYERS, page 8

By George Raine

INSIDE THIS WEEK’S EDITION St. Mary’s cancer center . . . . 3 Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Laity and church reform . . . 13 Scripture reflection . . . . . . . 14 Father Rolheiser . . . . . . . . . 15

Official: Report clouds church response to abuse ~ Page 9 ~ March 18, 2011

Sunday Mass in a Kenyan village ~ Page 11 ~

High school drama roundup ~ Page 18 ~

ONE DOLLAR

Datebook of events . . . . . . . 17 Classified ads . . . . . . . . . . . 19

www.catholic-sf.org VOLUME 13

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No. 10

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Catholic San Francisco

March 18, 2011

On The

San Francisco’s St. John the Evangelist Youth Group spent a recent cold Saturday volunteering at the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry. “They helped clean and organize the pantry which provides for many families in the Mission every week,” said Joseph Ramos, youth coordinator and a candidate for the permanent diaconate. “We have outreach and volunteer activities every other month.” Pictured from left at work for the poor are Paul Arnott, Bill Elsbernd (SVDP), Leanna Cubias, Antonio Newman, Noah Cacacho, Angela Antonio, Natasha Rivera, Alyssa Antonio.

Where You Live

By Tom Burke Thanks to Capuchin Father Michael Mahoney for this exhortation as we make our way through Lent. “We learn our prayers by heart but are we praying with our hearts?” the pastor of Our Lady of Angels Parish in Burlingame asked. “Do we know the Shepherd or are we just reciting the psalm?”…

It’s “curtain up” for the musical “Annie” by the St. Cecilia School Gene Ide plays Daddy Drama Club April 8 Warbucks, Destiny plays and 9 at 7 p.m. and April Sandy, and Lucy Murphy plays the title role of “Annie” 10 at 2 p.m. Though at St. Cecilia School in April. retagged “Annie, Jr.” for the young cast, Daddy Warbucks is played by longtime St. Cecilia instructor and technology coordinator, and the Parkside’s own, Gene Ide. “Mr. Ide is the only adult in the production, the rest are students fourth through eighth grade,” said Cammy Blackstone, mom of fifth grader and cast member, Henry Novicki, and St. Cecilia seventh grader, Louis. “This year’s musical is dedicated to Janessa Greig, who was always an enthusiastic player in every St. Cecilia production,” Cammy said.

Janessa and her mom, Jackie, both died in last year’s San Bruno gas explosion. “Jackie and Janessa were always very proud of their M ex i c a n h e r i t a g e ,” Cammy said. “Jackie always provided delicious Mexican food for multi-cultural day, and Janessa would always dance at the show.” In Bradley Russell their memory, the St.

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Cecilia Mothers Club fundraiser this year is `Salsa to be ushered out so the next Mass could begin. From Caliente’ which will feature both the cuisine and the there, it’s been pretty much by the book, according to the classic steps, Cammy said. The event is March 26…. bride. “We exchanged phone numbers and started spendCongrats to Bradley Russell, a seventh grader at ing time together as friends. We started dating during Good Shepherd School and second place winner in the summer of 2009, got engaged in September of 2010, and we’ll be married at St. Monica’s the San Mateo County Science Fair in June.” Bobby - a plumber’s apprenheld recently at the Hiller Aviation tice with the San Francisco Water Museum at San Carlos Airport. “The Department – and Annette’s families scientific aspirations of our nation just have been friends for three decades, she received a major boost,” the school said. said. Seven St. Monica grads are in the An experienced archer, Bradley focused wedding party. In addition to Annette on concepts and principles related to and Bobby, they are Cathy Bonanno, precision and how this characteristic class of ‘01, Jackie Bonanno Pallas, influences the sport. “I found the projclass of ‘96, Janine Bonanno, class ect to be fun, and truly learned a lot,” of ‘92, Emily Seto, class of ‘93, and he said…. Congrats very much to Bill Olinger, class of ‘91. Father John Annette Bonanno and Robert Olinger Ryan pastor of St. Catherine of Siena – “everyone calls him Bobby,” Annette Parish in Burlingame, will preside at said – who will be married June 25, at the nuptial Mass and witness the vows.

St. Monica Church in San Francisco Paul Hance, now a teacher at Junipero where they both grew up and went to Serra High School, and Annette and school. When I asked Annette, now principal at Our Lady of Loretto School in Wedding bells are ringing in Bobby’s eighth grade teacher at St. Monica’s will be among the assembly.

Novato, if she indeed was “engaged to June for Annette Bonanno His daughters, Allison and Emily, be married?” she lit up the Internet with and Bobby Olinger. this reply. “Not just engaged to be marwhom Annette taught at St. Gabriel ried, but engaged to a man I graduated School, will be the altar servers…. from St. Monica’s with in 1993! We’ve known each other This is an empty space without you. E-mail items and since grade school.” Annette said she and Bobby “lost electronic pictures – jpegs at no less than 300 dpi – to touch after graduating from St. Monica’s; he went to St. burket@sfarchdiocese.org or mail them to Street, One Ignatius and I went to Lowell” but met up again at St. Peter Yorke Way, SF 94109. Don’t forget to add a Monica’s in 2007 at Christmas Mass with their families. follow-up phone number. Thank you. My phone number After Mass, the two gabbed for so long that they had is (415) 614-5634.

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March 18, 2011

Catholic San Francisco

3

Archdiocesan students to attend Youth Advocacy Day in Sacramento Youth from the Archdiocese of San Francisco will travel to Sacramento for Catholic Youth Advocacy Day March 22 to lobby state lawmakers, in an effort spearheaded by teens from the San Jose diocese.

The teens will lobby to abolish the sentencing of juveniles to life in prison without parole, to stop human trafficking and to increase food stamps. They will also protest budget cuts to California’s state college systems.

“Together as a team we can make a difference in our community even though we

might not think we can,” said Archbishop Mitty High School junior Sruthi Ramaswami.

“It’s a way to open communication and maybe get a little more involved,” said Naomi Cornejo, youth ministry coordinator at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Redwood City. Carnejo and two students plan to join Vivian Clausing, archdiocesan associate director of youth ministry and catechesis, on the trip.

“It will be a good opportunity for the youth that go to have the experience of being trained in how to meet with legislators and learn how to advocate for the poor,” Clausing said.

The event is sponsored by the California Catholic Conference which, along with Mitty students and faculty, planned the one-day event. The schedule includes Mass celebrated at Sacramento’s Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, information sessions, visits with legislators and debriefing at the end of the day with fellow students.

The idea is the brainchild of Mitty history teacher Mike Accorsi and his students.

Accorsi said the students picked four topics to focus on: Funding and admission cuts at the University of California and California State University systems; sentencing of juveniles to life in prison without parole;

Archbishop Niederauer to bless new St. Mary’s cancer center

By Tom Burke St. Mary’s Medical Center invites the public to a community celebration of its new CHW Cancer Center March 26 at 1:30 p.m. at 2250 Hayes St. in San Francisco. Archbishop George Niederauer will bless the new facility.

The 14,200 square-foot CHW Cancer Center is designed to help some 400 infusion and 200 radiation therapy patients annually. With its compact yet large setting, the center will meet many sometimes unaddressed needs of patients and their families, the hospital said.

“All too often, cancer patients must visit different facilities or different locations within medical facilities to receive their care,” said Margine Sako, executive director of St. Mary’s Foundation, the hospital’s development arm.

“This center is being designed as a patient-centric facility and will provide patients with a continuum of comprehensive cancer care, from diagnosis to

camp

education to treatment and recovery, all in one location,” she said.

St. Mary’s and its parent, Catholic Healthcare West, have determined that not enough radiation therapy services exist to meet the Bay Area’s growing needs.

Cancer incidence in San Francisco has averaged approximately 4,000 new cases annually, and that number is on the rise as the population ages. Some patients wait up to three weeks to begin treatment due to the lack of capacity, according to St. Mary’s.

The new center “will help St. Mary’s get ahead of the curve and fight back against cancer and heart disease, the leading causes of death in our country,” said Anna Cheung, St. Mary’s president and CEO. At the time of its founding by the Sisters of Mercy in 1857, St. Mary’s was the only Catholic hospital in San Francisco and the Bay Area and today remains the only Catholic hospital in San Francisco, said Mercy Sister Mary

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Kilgariff, liaison for community health.

The sisters maintain a vital role in assuring that St. Mary’s and Catholic Healthcare West serve the poor and disadvantaged, Sister Mary said. The new center “expands the original mission of continuing the healing ministry of Jesus at the first St. Mary’s Hospital,” she said.

With the sisters’ presence and the spiritual care provided by Catholic chaplains and staff of the Clinical Pastoral Education Program, St. Mary’s maintains an emphasis on spirituality and compassionate caring.

“St. Mary’s chapel, with its proximity to the new Cancer Center, is the heart of our medical campus,” Sister Mary said.

St. Mary’s, with more than 550 physicians, 1,100 employees and 400 patient beds, “is committed to furthering the healing ministry of Jesus, and to providing high-quality, affordable healthcare to the community we serve,” the hospital said.

For more information, call (415) 6681000 or visit www.stmarysmedicalcenter. org.

human trafficking of both domestic workers and people forced into the sex trade; and increasing the number of people eligible for food stamps to qualify for more federal funding.

About 200 teens from the dioceses of San Jose, Oakland, San Bernardino and Orange plan to attend in addition to those from San Francisco, Accorsi said. This is the project’s first year, and the Archbishop Mitty teacher said the group is looking at this as a pilot year for an annual advocacy day.

For more information, visit mittyadvocacy.wordpress.com.

Lenten disciplines: Church rules for fast and abstinence Everyone 14 and older is bound to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday, each Friday of Lent and Good Friday. The faithful are not bound to abstain from meat on March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation.

Because of the penitential nature of Lent, the faithful are asked to voluntarily choose another day to abstain from meat.

Everyone 18 and older, but under 60, is also bound to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. This year Good Friday falls on April 22. On these two days, the law of fast allows only one full meal a day but does not prohibit taking some food during the day, so long as this does not constitute another full meal. Drinking liquids during the day is permitted. When health or ability to work would be seriously affected, the law does not oblige. In the spirit of penance the faithful should not lightly excuse themselves from this obligation.

About 80 students attended a Catholic Relief Services’ Food Fast educational program at St. Peter Parish in Pacifica March 5, to learn about hunger around the world. Pictured are high school students from Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St. Peter parishes with Our Lady of Mount Carmel youth minister Naomi Corenjo.

(PHOTO COURTESY YASMINE KHURY)

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Catholic San Francisco

NEWS

March 18, 2011

in brief

(CNS PHOTO/MOHAMED ABD EL-GHANY, REUTERS)

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Pope begins retreat, urges Lenten battle against evil VATICAN CITY – In his main Angelus address March 13 as he began his weeklong Lenten retreat, Pope Benedict XVI discussed the Gospel story of Jesus’ temptation in the desert.

He called it a reminder that evil and sin are real even though modern societies may pretend they are not. Just as there are only shadows when the sun or another light is shining, “so the eclipse of God necessarily leads to the eclipse of sin,” the pope said.

Film is a reminder of devil’s reality, Vatican paper says VATICAN CITY – The latest Hollywood movie on exorcism is a reminder that the devil truly exists and wants to prevail, said the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano.

“The Rite,” starring Anthony Hopkins as a priest and veteran exorcist, is an “honest and respectful” film that may even end up being “a kind of publicity promoting the priesthood,” said an article in the newspaper March 13. Despite several “forgivable flaws” and the usual stereotypes, “’The Rite’ is able to stay sufficiently credible,” especially in its portrayal of the characters’ doubts and convictions, the newspaper said.

1.5 million expected for World Youth Day 2011

A stamp showing Pope John Paul II, Jesus of Divine Mercy and St. Peter’s Basilica is being jointly issued by the Vatican and Poland to celebrate the May 1 beatification of the Polish pope.

The stamp will be available April 12.

(CNS PHOTO/COURTESY OF VAT ICAN)

VATICAN CITY – Organizers of World Youth Day

Madrid 2011 announced March 15 that they expect as many as 1.5 million people to attend the global gathering this August in Spain’s capital city. They said almost 300,000 young people have already registered for weeklong event, which will include an ecological theme. “Leaving a planet in good condition for future generations is a concern for every Christian and for World Youth Day as well,” organizers said.

Southern Sudan priest tells of families fleeing violence EUGENE, Ore. – Violence in the contested Abyei region of Sudan has displaced thousands of families and threatens to derail talks leading to the birth of Africa’s newest country in July. Satellite images show troops from the North and South digging in around Abyei, a contested region where at least 149 people were killed in fighting that began in late February. Aid groups estimate some 45,000 people have fled the region. “Because of the fighting, most people have fled to the South. The few people still in Abyei are gathering their property and preparing to leave as well,” Father Peter Suleiman, pastor of Our Lady of the Annunciation Parish in Abyei, told Catholic News Service.

Prelate says Obama trip can advance immigration reform SAN SALVADOR – The Catholic Church in El Salvador awaits “a word of commitment” on immigration reform from U.S. President Barack Obama during his March 22-23 visit to the country, Archbishop Escobar Alas of San Salvador said March 13. The trip is an “opportune moment,” as Obama is “coming to a country that is very much in need,” the archbishop said, according to the Catholic missionary news agency Fides. “We would like to ask the president for his efforts and his good will so that complete immigration reform may take place during his presidency,” he said.

A Muslim girl chants slogans and holds up a Quran and a cross during a rally to demonstrate unity between Muslims and Christians in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, March 11. The rally took place after recent sectarian clashes left 13 people dead.

Sister’s eyewitness report on Ivory Coast fighting ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast – Sister Rosaria of the Sisters of Providence gave the Catholic missionary news agency Fides an eyewitness account of fighting in one neighborhood in Adobo, the administrative capital of the Ivory Coast.

“People are terrified, and whoever can has fled,” she said March 15. “It is an exodus. Every day we are woken up by the noise of heavy artillery. Wherever possible, we try to help those who knock on our door, and there are many. It is complicated because we are also finding things difficult. I was a missionary in Rwanda in 1994, and on the first morning, when I opened the door of the mission, I saw all these gunmen in the streets, and I relived those moments here.”

Fighting is raging between those loyal to the incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo and members of the so-called “invisible commando,” a group that boasts some supporters of President-elect Alassane Ouattara.

Local group hails Israel’s decision to remove land mines SAN RAFAEL – Israel is launching a campaign, proposed by a San Rafael-based humanitarian non-profit group, to remove nearly one million land mines that are buried in soil from the port city of Eilat to the Golan Heights.

The group, Roots of Peace, had urged the Israeli Knesset, the legislative branch of government, to clear potential agricultural areas of land mines, and the vote in favor Monday was 43-0.

“This landmark legislation paves the way for humanitarian removal of explosive litter preventing the use of agricultural lands and access to religious sites sacred to Christians, Jewish and Muslim people alike,” said Heidi Kuhn, founder and CEO of Roots of Peace, and a parishioner with her family at St. Raphael Church.

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March 18, 2011

Japan’s agony . . .

A thousand bodies were spotted in the town of Minamisanriku, where the government has been unable to contact about 10,000 people, or over half the local population, Australia’s ABC News reported.

The earthquake was followed by tsunamis that wiped out entire cities and by fears of catastrophe at nuclear power stations damaged in the quake. Government officials estimated that tens of thousands of people lost their lives in the March 11 disasters.

The Diocese of Sendai, with 11,000 Catholics, includes the areas hardest-hit in the disaster.

Father Peter Shiro Komatsu, diocesan chancellor, said March 14 that Bishop Martin Tetsuo Hiraga of Sendai was unharmed but had not received complete reports on the damage because communications remained disrupted.

The priest said diocesan officials did not know about what had happened to several churches along the coast. He said one church in Fukushima was totally damaged and eight churches in Sendai were either unaffected or only slightly damaged.

The diocese said Father Andre Lachapelle of the Quebec Foreign Mission Society had died en route from Sendai to his church about nine miles away. There were conflicting reports of whether he suffered a heart attack or was lost in a tsunami.

As the magnitude of the disaster in Japan unfolded, religious and humanitarian aid organizations rallied to help.

Niigata Bishop Isao Kikuchi, president of Caritas Japan, said, “We have received so many e-mails from all continents, filled with words of compassion and prayer. We are very grateful for this solidarity. We believe that aid activity is needed, but prayer is also important in such a situation.�

(CNS PHOTO/YOMIURI SHIMBUN/REUTERS)

â– Continued from cover

A Japan civil defense officer holds a 4-month-old baby girl who was rescued along with her family from their home in Ishimaki, northern Japan.

The U.S. bishops’ Catholic Relief Services was working with Caritas Japan. A CRS spokeswoman said her agency was ready to help in other Asian countries where it already worked.

In a statement, Caritas Japan said it would concentrate its efforts on meeting the needs of people with no access to public services and on the rehabilitation phase of recovery.

The Salesians, who lost 250 children and adults at one school during the January 2010 Haitian earthquake, reported that most of the order’s convents, schools and churches were south of Tokyo and incurred only minor damage. The Salesian news agency reported from Tokyo that there was no news from one house in Nojiri, in the quake zone.

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Catholic San Francisco

5

The Sisters of Charity of Jesus reported all their sisters were safe, but the Salesian news agency said some students were missing from the nursery in Fukushima.

UCA News reported that Catholics in mainland China were among Asian Catholics who expressed solidarity with the earthquake victims in Japan and added prayers to their Masses March 13. Jinde Charities in northern China’s Hebei province also offered an initial $10,000 to support Caritas Japan’s relief efforts.

In central China, Bishop Anthony Dang Mingyan of Xi’an and Father Stephen Chen Ruixue, director of the diocese’s Catholic Social Service Center, have sent consolatory letters via email to their friends in Japan, including Chinese faithful who work there, Japanese priests and a layperson who studied in Xi’an years ago. “We expressed our concern and prayers for their safety, and asked if there is anything we can offer to help,� said Father Chen. The diocese also plans to dedicate requiem Masses for the deceased on the seventh day after the quake, according to Chinese custom.

Across mainland China, many parishes added prayers for the Japanese victims to their Sunday Masses.

The Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism announced it would send $89,000 and dispatch 500 volunteers.

The response of Catholics in Nepal was prayer. At Masses on Saturday and Sunday priests and faithful paused to pray for Japan. – Compiled by Catholic San Francisco. Catholic News Service and UCA News contributed.

‘Deeply horrified,’ pope calls for prayer for disaster victims VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Saying he, too, was horrified by the images of the death and destruction caused by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Pope Benedict XVI asked people to join him in praying for the victims. “May the bereaved and injured be comforted and may the rescue workers be strengthened in their efforts to assist the courageous Japanese people,� the pope said in English March 13 after reciting the Angelus prayer with visitors in St. Peter’s Square.

Speaking in Italian after the Angelus, the pope said, “The images of the tragic earthquake and the consequent tsunami in Japan have left us deeply horrified. “I want to renew my spiritual closeness to that country’s dear people, who with dignity and courage are dealing with the consequences of the calamity. I pray for the victims and their families and for all who are suffering because of these terrible events. I encourage all those who, with laudable speed, are working to bring help. Let us remain united in prayer.�

Bishop Marcellino Daiji Tani of Saitama, one of the dioceses hit hardest by the disaster, told the Catholic missionary news agency Fides that the catastrophe is a reminder that “life is in the hands of God and that life is a gift from God,� and he described the tragedy as a challenge for Christians during Lent “to practice and witness to the commandment of love and brotherly love.�

Meanwhile, the director of Caritas Japan told Fides, “This painful event may be an opportunity to spread the values of the Gospel, that is, the fraternity of all men and women, the building of common good, the recognition that every person has the dignity of a child of God and is important in the eyes of God. “If with our work and our witness, we can communicate that then from this evil will come good,� the Caritas official, Father Daisuke Narui, told Fides.

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Catholic San Francisco

March 18, 2011

(CNS PHOTO/REUTERS/KYODO)

(CNS PHOTO/ASAHI SHIMBUN/REUTERS)

Catastrophe in Japan

(CNS PHOTO/YURIKO NAKAO, REUTERS)

Otsuchi, located on the northeastern shore of Japan’s Iwate prefecture, is pictured March 14. Officials said that 12,000 people in Otsuchi’s population of 15,000 were missing following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

How to help Catholic Relief Services is accepting donations and will assist Caritas Japan with financial resources as well as with expertise if requested, George Wesolek, director of the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s Office of Public Policy and Social Concerns and archdiocesan director for Catholic Relief Services, said in a memo to priests and deacons March 14.

“Our faith calls for us to live our life in solidarity with the victims of this catastrophe and Catholic Relief Services asks all to give their prayers and support to the Japanese people,” Wesolek said.

CRS’ website at www.crs.org has information on how to donate.

To donate by phone, call (800) 736-3467 from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern Standard Time; by mail, address check or money order to Catholic Relief Services, Box 17090, Baltimore, MD, 21203-7090, and note “Japan emergency” on the memo portion of the check.

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A woman weeps in Natori Japan, March 13. “We don’t even know what has happened to our parishes along the coast,” Bishop Martin Tetsuo Hiraga of Sendai diocese told Vatican Radio. “We have no way of contacting them. “

A young woman evacuated from near the Fukushima nuclear power plant and isolated for signs of radiation is seen through a window of a makeshift isolation facility in Nihonmatsu, Japan, March 14. Japanese officials were fighting to contain two reactors at the plant and avoid a nuclear disaster in the area of the country hardest hit by the earthquake and tsunami.

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Catholic San Francisco

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U.S. bishops support unions but also call for their cooperation WASHINGTON (CNS) – Amid ongoing battles between Republican governors and organized labor in Midwestern states, U.S. Catholic bishops have echoed the long-standing church tradition of workers’ rights.

But they have also noted that there are no easy solutions in today’s battered economy.

They have urged workers and government officials to work for the common good and called on the members of public employee unions to make sacrifices.

The bishops’ words haven’t gone unnoticed.

Just as this debate has stirred passions across the country, people have criticized the U.S. bishops for either being too supportive of unions or not supportive enough. Catholics on both sides of the issue also have weighed in on what’s best for workers and the country as a whole.

“Hard times do not nullify the moral obligation each of us has to respect the legitimate rights of workers,” Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki said in mid-February, during angry protests in Wisconsin over the Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to curb public employees’ collective bargaining power for benefits and increase the premiums they pay for health care and their pension contributions.

After a three-week standoff that brought tens of thousands of protesters to Wisconsin’s state capitol, the state’s Senate Republicans passed the governor’s plan March 9, bypassing Democratic senators who fled the state to block the legislation. The next day, the state Assembly passed a slimmed-down version of the bill that stripped nearly all collective bargaining rights from public workers.

The country has been watching Wisconsin as a possible indicator of a larger trend since legislatures in Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Idaho, Tennessee, Kansas and Michigan also are looking at ways to curb union rights.

Currently in the U.S., more than one-third of

(CNS PHOTO/DARREN HAUCK, REUTERS)

By Carol Zimmermann

Protesters scream outside of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s office while he holds a fireside chat at the state Capitol in Madison Feb. 22.

public employees – including teachers, police and civil service workers – belong to unions, while only 6.9 percent of private sector workers are unionized.

In the debate’s early stage, Archbishop Listecki balanced his remarks by saying that not “every claim made by workers or their representatives is valid” and that unions need to “make sacrifices when required” in adjusting to “new economic realities.”

Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ domestic policy committee, called the statement a “timely reminder of what the church teaches on the rights and duties of workers.”

Wisconsin’s capital city of Madison, the epicenter of the labor debate, was also where people were looking for the church’s response.

A statement on Madison’s diocesan website in

mid-February said “any report or claim stating that the church stands on one side, or another, of this issue is mistaken.”

This message was reiterated by Madison Bishop Robert C. Morlino in recent columns in the Catholic Herald, the diocesan newspaper. “Some people think that the teaching of the church is, ‘Support unions in every time, in every place, in every situation, no matter what,’” he wrote. “However, this is not the teaching of the church.”

In Ohio, legislation to limit unions’ collective bargaining rights was recently passed by the Senate and is awaiting action by the House.

The state’s bishops urged Feb. 28 that “unions and management work for the common good, to make sacrifices when required and to adjust to new economic realities.”

The church’s position on labor is spelled out in papal encyclicals from 1891 to 2009.

Pope Benedict XVI’s “Caritas in Veritate” (“Charity in Truth”) in 2009 said unions should be “honored today even more than in the past.”

Church teaching on work has always been “quite clear and quite consistent,” Clayton Sinyai, treasurer of the Catholic Labor Network, told Catholic News Service.

Joseph Fahey, professor of religious studies at Manhattan College in New York and chairman of Catholic Scholars for Worker Justice, compared the renewed focus on workers to a “great awakening” for Catholics and non-Catholic alike on workers’ rights on the function of work.

Father Robert Sirico, president of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, an economics think tank based in Grand Rapids, Mich., said unions should not necessarily get unilateral support from Catholics.

On the organization’s website March 2, the priest from the Diocese of Kalamazoo, Mich., said there is a “long-standing bias in Catholic social teaching toward unions” that he found exaggerated.

“Just because something is called a union does not make it automatically good and moral,” he said, noting that Catholics need to ask themselves if the unions they support are “the same type that are idealized in Catholic social teaching.”

As a case in point, he mentioned a teacher who was a union member who was opposed to his union dues being used to support candidates who support laws in favor of abortion.

David Gregory, executive director of the Center for Labor and Employment Law at St. John’s University School of Law in Queens, N.Y., said he hopes the “timeless truth” of the church’s voice for labor will be “made more timely” as people more fully understand it.

Priest loses 43 pounds for youth cause

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ARLINGTON, Va. (CNS) – Father Steve Schultz lost 43 pounds to raise money for parish teens to attend August’s World Youth Day in Madrid.

Some 348 parishioners and other supporters rallied behind Father Schultz’s fundraising effort last fall, pledging to give the teens anywhere from $1 to $11 per pound that he lost.

A total of $762 per pound was pledged, and a total of 43 pounds was lost.

“Making that sacrifice for the kids – granted, it was a sacrifice I needed to make – was the motivation that kept me going,” Father Schultz, parochial vicar of St. Timothy Parish in Chantilly, told the Arlington Catholic Herald, newspaper of the Arlington diocese.

Kelly Flannery, St. Timothy youth minister, said the money raised through Father Schultz’s effort helps to make the 10-day teen trip possible.

Aside from helping the youths, Father Schultz’s thinner self has more energy. He feels stronger physically and spiritually. And his clerical collar is two inches smaller.

Like any weight-loss effort, Father Schultz’s regime of diet and exercise wasn’t without its struggles. But, thinking about the youths, his motivation stayed strong – and they are grateful for it.

“I’m extremely grateful,” said Joseph Jacobeen, 17. “It takes a big chunk out of the cost.”

Though early March marked the end of the fundraiser, Father Schultz’s plan is to continue losing weight in anticipation of the summer pilgrimage.

“Not only was I trying to make the trip possible for the kids and the families, I was trying to make it possible for myself,” he said.

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Catholic San Francisco

March 18, 2011

Illinois governor cites church teaching in ending death penalty

By George Raine Illinois Gov. Patrick Quinn signed legislation March 9 abolishing the death penalty after concluding that the system of imposing it is inherently flawed and because, quoting the late Cardinal Joseph Bernadin of Chicago, “Other means than the death penalty are available and can be used to protect society.”

Illinois had a remarkably high number of inmates – 20 – exonerated from death row. “That is a record that should trouble us all,” said Quinn in a statement as he made Illinois the 16th state to abolish the death penalty.

“Since our experience has shown that there is no way to design a perfect death penalty system, free from the numerous flaws that can lead to wrongful convictions or discriminatory treatment, I have concluded that the proper course of action is to abolish it,” he said.

The legislation Quinn signed was passed by Illinois legislators on Jan. 11, and in the interim Quinn said he conferred

Catholic lawyers . . .

■ Continued from cover families of the victims, I think, is really cruel, because you are promising them something you can’t deliver,” Uelmen said. “Most of them will be dead before the perpetrator is dead,” given that it takes on average 17.2 years to carry out an execution after a death penalty has been pronounced.

Uelmen was motivated to launch the group after seeing the results of an American Civil Liberties Union poll in 2007, never made public, that showed that Catholic voters were not well informed about the church’s position and that, among religious groups, Catholics showed the greatest support for the death penalty.

That appears to be changing, not only because of moral opposition but because of the cost to taxpayers. Uelmen was the executive director of a commission formed by the California Legislature in 2006, the California Commission on the Fair Administration of

with many people on both sides of the issue. Among those groups making their case to Quinn was the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Bishop Stephen Blaire of the Diocese of Stockton, chair of the bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, told Quinn in a letter that the legislation helps “to begin building a culture of life in our country.”

The U.S. bishops said in a statement, “We applaud Gov. Quinn for his courageous decision to abolish the use of the death penalty in Illinois. We stand in solidarity with all those who work for a just and safe society that protects its citizens and upholds the sanctity and dignity of all human life.”

Quinn, a Democrat who became governor in 2009 and was elected to a full term in 2010, said the decision was his most difficult in office. But he was persuaded in part, he said, because of what Cardinal Bernadin had said about alternatives, in particular natural life imprisonment.

“These means should be sufficient to satisfy our need for retribution, justice and protection,” Quinn said.

California’s death penalty law was created by initiative and would have to be repealed by initiative as well, and many believe the timing is not right now in California. But a group of Catholic California lawyers opposed to the death penalty is studying the development in Illinois.

“The Illinois law gets the issue in the press out here and basically forces Californians to ask the question, ‘Is it worth it for us?’” said Christopher Boscia, a Contra Costa County deputy district attorney, a Catholic and a death penalty opponent.

Boscia, who stressed he does not speak for his office or District Attorney Mark Peterson, said he believes that the U.S. bishops were influential in making a case to Quinn. “I think the church has a role when it comes to bringing these issues to the consciousness of leaders and then helping to shape the dialogue with its experience,” he said.

Boscia noted that district attorneys have the discretion to seek the death penalty or not seek it. “I think we should examine our desire to flaunt a system like the death penalty that just doesn’t work,” he said.

Justice, that found that death penalty trials cost at least $500,000 more than other trials and possibly much more, and that housing a prisoner on death row adds $90,000 a year to the costs of normal imprisonment.

A November, 2010 poll for the Death Penalty

the possibility of parole and restitution to the victim’s family; 13 percent sided with no parole and 9 percent supported life with the possibility of parole.

In contrast to the 2007 ACLU poll on Catholic thinking, the Lake Research survey of 1,500 people found that Catholics were more supportive of alternatives than Christian non-Catholics and non-Christians, said Richard Dieter, the anti-death penalty group’s executive director.

Slightly less than half of all respondents said the death penalty is against their moral beliefs, but for Catholics it was 6 out of 10.

This growing Catholic opposition to the death penalty, said Dieter, may reflect a joining of traditional liberal opposition with the conservative view that sees it as a right to life issue. “They come together on this issue,” said Dieter.

The executive director of the lawyers’ group is Paul Comiskey, a retired lawyer in Newcastle (Placer County) and a former Jesuit priest. “If we can show that the death penalty is a pro-life issue we can change the minds and hearts of Catholics,” he said.

Since 1978 when California reinstated capital punishment, 54 condemned inmates have died from natural causes, 18 committed suicide, 13 were executed, one was executed in Missouri and six died in prison violence.

There are currently 712 offenders on death row at San Quentin State Prison.

‘If we can show that the death penalty is a pro-life issue we can change the minds and hearts of Catholics.’

– Paul Comiskey Information Center in Washington, D.C, found that 61 percent of U.S. voters would choose a punishment other than death for murder if given a choice. Lake Research Partners found that 39 percent would support life without

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Official: Report ‘puts cloud over’ church efforts to prevent abuse WASHINGTON (CNS) – A grand jury report alleging past sexual abuse by clergy and other church personnel in the Philadelphia archdiocese “puts a cloud over everything” the church is doing to prevent abuse, said Teresa Kettelkamp, executive director of the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection.

In the wake of the archdiocese placing 21 priests on administrative leave March 7 in its ongoing response to the grand jury inquiry, Kettelkamp said people want to know what happened, how it happened and what can be learned from it.

“Every bishop wants to hear how this could happen” to assure Catholics it won’t happen in their diocese, Kettelkamp told Catholic Service March 11.

She does not attribute any failure in responding to claims of abuse to the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People,” adopted by the U.S. bishops in 2002 at their Dallas meeting and revised three years later. The charter and its norms are meant to put a comprehensive system in place to address and stop abuse.

What needs to be examined, said Kettelkamp, is the extent to which dioceses are following the “spirit and the letter” of the charter.

The grand jury Feb. 10 called for the archdiocese to “review all of the old allegations against currently active priests and to remove from ministry all of the priests with credible allegations against them.” It said that by the archdiocese’s own account, “at least 37 priests remain in ministry despite reports that they have engaged in improper behavior with minors. That should not be acceptable to anyone.”

(CNS PHOTO/NANCY WIECHEC)

By Carol Zimmermann

Teresa Kettelkamp, executive director of the U.S. bishops’ Office of Child and Youth Protection, talks with Catholic News Service March 11 in Washington.

The 128-page grand jury finding opened by noting that a previous grand jury released a report “detailing a sad history of sexual abuse by priests of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.”

That abuse “was known, tolerated and hidden by high church officials,” the report said.

The 21 priests’ placement on leave is not a final determination and follows an initial examination of files “looking at both the substance of allegations and the process by which those allegations were reviewed,” the archdiocese said in a statement. The archdiocese said each case will

Scottish cardinal slams British foreign policy LONDON (CNS) – A Scottish cardinal has accused the British government of operating an “anti-Christian foreign policy.”

Cardinal Keith O’Brien of St. Andrews and Edinburgh criticized Foreign Secretary William Hague for increasing overseas aid to countries such as Pakistan without demanding greater protection for religious minorities persecuted there.

“I urge William Hague to obtain guarantees from foreign governments before they are given aid,” the cardinal said at the March 15 launch in Glasgow, Scotland, of “Persecuted and Forgotten,” a 2011 report on persecuted Christians around the world by Aid to the Church in Need, a Catholic charity.

In a reference to the Jan. 4 assassination of Salman Taseer, the Pakistani governor of Punjab, and the March 2 killing of Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti, both of whom had opposed the country’s controversial blasphemy laws, the cardinal said that “to increase aid to the Pakistan government when religious freedom is not upheld and those who speak up for religious freedom are gunned down is tantamount to an anti-Christian foreign policy.”

“Pressure should now be put on the government of Pakistan – and the governments of the Arab world as well – to ensure that religious freedom is upheld,” the cardinal said.

The Aid to the Church in Need report noted a “huge surge in Christians fleeing persecution” and that about 75 percent of all religious persecution today anti-Christian, Cardinal O’Brien said. “This reality is both shocking and saddening.”

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Gina Maisto Smith, the veteran child abuse prosecutor hired by the archdiocese Feb. 16 to lead the intensive re-examination of all the cases cited by the grand jury, recommended the actions to Cardinal Rigali after completing her initial review.

The grand jury also handed down five criminal indictments against a former priest, three current priests and a former parochial school teacher. The five were in court March 14 for a preliminary hearing.

In one of a number of statements he has issued in response to the report, Cardinal Rigali called sexual abuse a crime and “always wrong and always evil.”

“Many people of faith and in the community at large think that the archdiocese does not understand the gravity of child sexual abuse,” he said Feb. 16. “We do. The task before us now is to recognize where we have fallen short and to let our actions speak to our resolve.”

On March 11 Cardinal Rigali presided at a penitential service where he acknowledged “the grave offense to God and the great harm to innocent victims of the evil of sexual abuse of minors, especially by members of the clergy.”

As the Philadelphia cases of alleged abuse are re-examined, Kettelkamp said it should become clear if unreported cases of abuse were the result of human failure or a weakness in the process itself.

“We have a good charter and a good audit, but we’d be foolish and irresponsible not to take a fresh look at everything we do,” she told CNS. For starters, she noted that every diocese should be asking if it has sent every reported allegation of abuse to the local diocesan review board, and if not, why not.

Philadelphia’s grand jury report cites instances where archdiocesan review board members, who examined reported cases of abuse, found some allegations lacked sufficient evidence to justify a priest’s permanent removal. In some instances when these priests were not removed from active duty, the report showed, further allegations of abuse were made against them.

The charter’s “zero tolerance” policy calls for the permanent removal from ministry of any priest or deacon found to have abused a minor in any way – even if only once.

The policy has strong support among victims’ groups as a sign that the church is serious about protecting children, but critics say there should be different levels of penalties for different types of child sex abuse, that a cleric who only touches a child should not be given the same penalty as a cleric who has raped numerous children.

Kettelkamp stands by the “zero tolerance” policy, especially given the current scandal, and is confident that answers will come to light as the Philadelphia abuse cases are carefully scrutinized.

Kettelkamp said she hoped that during the archdiocese’s review, “all the good work the church has done” to combat abuse will not be completely overshadowed.

“On any given day there are at least 1,000 people (across the country) working on the charter,” she said, adding that the Philadelphia scandal “demoralizes so many people who have worked so hard.”

– Catholic San Francisco contributed to this report.

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Catholic San Francisco

March 18, 2011

Former Planned Parenthood chain closing; financial problems cited

By Valerie Schmalz The former Planned Parenthood Golden Gate announced it is closing all of its clinics in the Bay Area, saying it did not have enough money to pay its employees.

Golden Gate Community Health President and CEO Therese Wilson said her management team had reduced operating costs by 33 percent and saved $600,000 a month. GGCH is still trying to raise funds to keep one or two locations open. But, Wilson said in a press release, slow reimbursement by the state and reduced donor giving made it impossible to close the revenue gap.

The March 1 announcement by Golden Gate Community Health came just eight days before 40 Days for Life Lenten prayer vigils were to begin at GGCH’s San Francisco and San Mateo clinics. It also comes less than six months after Planned Parenthood Federation of America cut ties with the Bay Area affiliate.

“You can’t have the employees coming in if you don’t know how to meet your payroll,”

Andrea Porter, a bankruptcy attorney serving as spokesman for the organization, said in an interview. “This looks like it will be liquidation. It is possible that circumstances will change and that we can keep one or two locations open.”

The shutdown leaves San Mateo County – at least temporarily – without a free standing abortion clinic, said Katie Short, attorney for Life Legal Defense Foundation, a pro-life nonprofit that provides legal counsel and defense.

“We’ve just joined the 83 percent of counties in the United States that don’t have abortion clinics,” Short said.

“I think the Lord is answering our prayers,” said Ron Konapaski, an organizer of the San Francisco 40 Days for Life initiative, which has prayed each Lent since 2009 outside the abortion clinic at 815 Eddy St. He said the group will pray outside the Eddy Street location until it closes March 18, as the location is handling all of Golden Gate Community Health’s already scheduled appointments systemwide.

On March 19, the San Francisco 40 Days for Life vigil will move to 1650 Valencia St. in the Mission District, where Planned Parenthood Shasta Pacific opened a clinic in January. That clinic is within a 10-minute walk of Corpus Christi Church and school, said Corpus Christi Associate Pastor Salesian Father Jose Lucero, who began praying with parishioners outside the clinic on Ash Wednesday.

“It is clear that there should not be abortions allowed – period,” said Father Lucero, who began recruiting parishioners at all the Masses on the weekend of March 5-6. “They should not be happening. Anyone Catholic needs to uphold that.”

Since the Golden Gate Community Health clinic at Palm Avenue in San Mateo is already closed, San Mateo Pro-Life is praying outside a site on El Camino Real in Redwood City, where Planned Parenthood Monte Mar has applied for the city’s permission to operate, said President Jessica Munn.

“By having this demonstration 12 hours a day for 40 days straight, it is going to get people

to think,” said Munn, noting the proposed clinic site is across from a Holiday Inn Express on a well-traveled stretch of El Camino Real.

Surgical and chemical abortions remain available in many area hospitals in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In September, Planned Parenthood Federation of America severed ties with Planned Parenthood Golden Gate, which had operated in the Bay Area since 1923, at least partly because PPGG lost $2.8 million during the tax year 2008–09 in addition to running losses since 2006. Golden Gate Community Health attempted to continue operations with a reduced number of clinics, two in Oakland, and one each in San Mateo, San Rafael and San Francisco.

Even as Planned Parenthood Golden Gate was struggling to survive financially, it contributed more than $750,000 to defeat three California ballot initiatives in 2005, 2006, and 2008, that would have required parental notification before a minor could have an abortion, said Short.

(CNS PHOTO/GEORGE P. MATYSEK JR.)

Maryland bill to legalize same-sex marriage dead for rest of legislative session

By George P. Matysek Jr. ANNAPOLIS, Md. (CNS) – A bill to legalize same-sex marriage in Maryland is effectively dead for the current legislative session after a member of the House of Delegates asked that it be recommitted to the House Judiciary Committee March 11.

The move came at the end of a passionate and lengthy debate on the floor of the House of Delegates.

On a voice vote, delegates approved the recommendation made by Delegate Joseph Vallario of Prince George’s County, and did not have to vote on the legislation.

Stunned supporters of the bill wept in the halls of the Statehouse, while jubilant supporters of traditional marriage cheered and honked horns outside.

“People of faith stood up and legislators stood their ground,” said Mary Ellen Russell, executive director of the Maryland Catholic Conference.

“The voice of the people was heard here.”

Supporters of traditional marriage demonstrate in Annapolis, Md., prior to a March 11 debate in the Maryland House of Delegates.

Baltimore Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien had spoken out strongly against the measure and urged Catholics to contact their lawmakers on the issue. In late February, he joined Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington and Bishop W. Francis Malooly of Wilmington, Del., in

issuing a statement that commended Catholics for their efforts and urged them to keep up the fight against same-sex marriage.

“The entire church – from our bishops to our pastors to our parishioners – really pulled together to ensure that the voices of Catholics in Maryland were heard,” Russell said. “It’s that kind of advocacy that swayed the day.”

During the debate, Baltimore County Delegate Emmett C. Burns Jr. rejected attempts by bill supporters to equate same-sex marriage with the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

He challenged proponents to “show me your Birmingham, Alabama. ... Show me the billy clubs and the howling mobs.”

“Those who desire to ride in on our coattails are historically inaccurate,” said the Democrat,

an African-American Baptist minister. “The civil rights movement was about putting teeth into the Declaration of Independence. (It) had nothing to do with same-sex marriage.”

Burns said his life had been threatened for his opposition to same-sex marriage. He asserted that same-sex marriage “turns a moral wrong into a civil right.” It violates natural law, he said, and “always denies a child either a father or mother.”

Although she described herself as a “prolife, Catholic Democrat,” Delegate Anne Healey of Prince George’s County said she supported the bill. She said she knew her position would disappoint many of her constituents.

“I believe I must vote to be sure that everyone is treated equally before the law,” she said.

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March 18, 2011

Catholic San Francisco

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(PHOTOS BY NANCY WIECHEC, CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE)

Sunday Mass in a Kenyan village

A boy holds the Scriptures aloft during the procession.

A procession of dancers makes its way down a path leading to St. Joseph Church for Sunday Mass in Mutunguru, Kenya, Feb. 20. The parish is located in an agricultural community 60 miles north of Nairobi.

Local residents enter the church, followed by visiting priests from the U.S.

Bishops to start scholarship fund for Eastern Africa church WASHINGTON – The U.S. bishops will begin a scholarship program to support educational needs identified by the bishops’ conferences of Eastern Africa.

The church in Africa is growing at a fast pace, and enormous needs outweigh the capacity of the local church. The Solidarity Fund supports pastoral projects all over Africa, aids its growth and in some cases renews hope. U.S. dioceses and parishes schedule this special collection at their discretion throughout the year.

The new program is one of many supported by U.S. Catholics through the Solidarity Fund for the Church in Africa, a USCCB National Collection whose 2011 theme is, “It’s possible, join us.”

Initial funding for the scholarship program comes from a $500,000 anonymous 2008 gift to the U.S. bishops’ Africa church subcomittee.

Since its beginning 139 U.S. dioceses have given over $9 million to the Solidarity Fund.

“The church in Africa is blessed with a faith rooted in hope – a hope attained from surviving amidst the critical and unique challenges each parish, village and country faces,” said Bishop John H.

Ricard of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Fla., chairman of the bishops’ Africa church group.

“Countries throughout Africa are rich in culture and resources and just plain human values” and Africans’ faith sustains them in the face of HIV/AIDS, war and oppression and extreme poverty and famine, Bishop Ricard said.

Funded projects range from catechetical training of lay people in Namibia to training of pastoral caregivers for the sick in Catholic-founded hospitals and medical units in Uganda. Other projects supported by the Solidarity Fund include workshops on justice, peace and development in West Africa, assistance for Catholic radio stations in Liberia, training of catechists in Nigeria and the development of education and leadership training for Catholic teachers in Ghana.

In Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, the Solidarity Fund supports The Action of Talitha Kum, a center that educates children, adolescents and young adults who have been traumatized by civil strife.

They learn their faith and a trade in a safe, Catholic environment.

For more information, visit www. usccb.org/nationalcollections.

Children raise their hands in celebration at the end of Mass. Fervor, devotion and, especially, joy are three of Kenyan Catholics’ greatest attributes, Bishop Anthony Muheria of Kitui said Feb. 12. “I think our church in Kenya is visibly and organically young – both in spirit and in average age.” Kenyan Catholics are willing to give God their time, he said, and no one gets edgy or looks at a watch. “On Sunday we come at 10 – they are willing to stay there until 2 – sometimes under the sun,” he said.

Global call to end gender violence; Congo mass abuse ‘shames us all’ NEW YORK – The U.N. marked International Women’s Day March 8 with a call to end gender discrimination and violence, singling out sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a veritable war on women.

“The persistence of sexual violence in DRC shames us all, a disturbing and horrifying reality for thousands of children, women and men,” said Valerie Amos, undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs.

She stressed the need for education to ensure that girls and women have the confidence to stand up for themselves, to challenge and to shape their own futures, according to a U.N. statement.

Margot Wallstrom, U.N. envoy for sexual violence in conflict, said that the war in the eastern part of the DRC is being “waged on the bodies of women and girls.” The DRC is “ground zero in the fight against sexual violence in conflict,” she said, calling for an end to the culture of impunity and the illegal trade in smuggled minerals that funds the fighting and sustains sexual violence and other atrocities.

In Geneva, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe called for “a world where all women can protect themselves and their children from HIV, all women have access to HIV treatment and women and girls do not fear rape, violence and HIV infection.”

The celebration of International Women’s Day also noted the progress women have made in many parts of the world, including Africa. For example Liberia’s Ellen-Johnson Sirleaf is Africa’s first democratically elected female head of state.

Karak Mayik, the country director of the Sudan chapter of Women for Women International, led a special celebration for International Women’s Day at the Payii River Bridge near Rumbek, Sudan. Vatican Radio reported. She urged the people of the newly created nation of South Sudan to promote peace, love and unity and shun tribalism and violence.

Women bore the brunt of the suffering during Sudan’s decades-long civil war and were often the target of sexual assaults and murder, Vatican Radio said.

“Today we are breaking all the demonic spirit of tribalism and all the demonic spirit of fighting, hitting one another,” Mayik said in an interview with Vatican Radio.

“The women who really suffered through all the years of violence – today we are given a chance to call, to shout, to dance, even if we are suffering,” she said.

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Catholic San Francisco

March 18, 2011

Guest Commentary

World Water Day: Urban poor under threat When I first read the theme for World Water Day this year, March 22, 2011, I thought how difficult it is for us in the U.S. to comprehend the critical water problem in our world today. Except for a rare occasion when pipes are being repaired, there is always water. We have water because we live in a part of the world that is water-rich. We have water because we have functioning water delivery systems. We have financial and political resources, and we have the know-how. I remember back in the 1970s California experienced a serious drought. Marin County was more affected than most. So what happened? They built a temporary pipeline across a bridge to bring water to satisfy their needs. They still had to conserve, but to conserve is not the same as to suffer critical lack.

I suppose we could say that intellectually we know that there is a water crisis looming, if not imminent. But water is so available that we don’t have to think about it.

But consider the contrasting example of a nation such as Nicaragua. The Central American country is water-rich with abundant tropical rainfall. Yet water is scarce, as I learned first-hand.

In 2007, I returned to the U.S. after five years in Ciudad Sandino, Nicaragua. Ciudad Sandino is located just 15 minutes from the capital of Managua and has a population of about

120,000. I worked in a school with more than 600 students. On the good days, there was water. But more often than not, and even in the wet season, we were without water for anywhere from part of the day to days in a row. Being without water is no fun.

The problem? Nicaragua, like many places in the world, suffers from a lack of proper water sanitation and delivery.

A year before I left Nicaragua, Ciudad Sandino received money from the European Union to build a sewer system. The grant covered the infrastructure, but each house had to buy materials to connect to the system. It didn’t cost a lot, but some people lacked the money.

Nicaragua lacks the financial resources to build adequate water delivery and sanitation systems But it is better off than many places in the world.

The theme of World Water Day 2011 calls attention to the critical need to provide water and sanitation in cities around the globe. More of the world’s population now lives in cities than in the countryside, for the first time in history. That means that more than 3.3 billion – and the number is growing – need access to clean water for health and survival.

We are falling behind. Nearly 40 percent of urban growth is represented by expanding slums, and city infra-

Catholic san Francisco Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper

Fr. Serra’s life inspires namesake school’s youth I read Tony Morgan’s letter (“Consider the saints for high school reading,” Feb. 25) and have to share the following with your readers.

I know one high school that can proudly say that its graduates are not “completely ignorant of the religious leader their school is named after,” as Mr. Morgan wrote – Serra High School in San Mateo. For five years the Theology Department has had built into the curriculum a unit on the life of Blessed Junipero Serra. It is presented very early in the first semester freshman year and is the cornerstone to introducing our charism. We do more than read about the life of the inspiring Franciscan, but conclude the unit with a day trip to Carmel Mission where the friar is laid to rest. The pilgrimage inspires the young men in so many ways and with God’s grace will call them to work in the vineyard as laymen, priests or religious. The story of the life of the 5-foot2-inch 18th-century Spanish priest continues to heal, strengthen and feed in a special way the young men who attend Serra High School.

Christian Clifford The writer is a theology teacher at Serra High.

Says science and dignity of life can advance as one In your article, “Firm begins first human study using embryonic stem cell therapy,” (Feb. 18) you speak of two companies that are conducting embryonic stem cell trials.

Since you are a religious organization with concerns over research that may involve the

Letters welcome Catholic San Francisco welcomes letters from its readers.

Please send your letters to: Catholic San Francisco One Peter Yorke Way San Francisco, CA 94109 Fax: (415) 614-5641 E-mail: delvecchior@sfarchdiocese.org, include “Letters” in the subject line.

destruction of an embryo, I’d like to point out that Advanced Cell Technology has a patented technology that derives their cells without the destruction of the embryo – called the single cell blastomere technique. It would be nice to see you include that method if you ever choose to do another piece with reference to them.

I am invested in the company, particularly because of the technique utilized by them.

I believe in the advancement of science and also in the dignity of life. This is a paradigm shift in the field of regenerative medicine and should be embraced to help those suffering from incurable disease while preserving the sanctity of life.

Richard Mulero Slatington, Pa.

Embryonic research defense goes too far In his letter of March 4, Alex M. Saunders, M.D., goes too far in his defense of his apparent business in embryonic stem cells, attacking Father Tad Pacholczyk for what he calls “misstatement of scientific fact” and “imprecise language” in stating that stem cells cannot be obtained without killing the embryo.

The doctors tells us, as if totally authoritative, that though the embryo has not died, “the removed cells are valid candidates for embryonic stem cell research” and it’s difficult to use just one or two cells when the “whole 16- or 32-cell embryo seems available.”

So much for the science and rationale of this harvester of human babies who readily tears down any criticism of his business practice, while smugly overlooking the theological absolute truth that every human being is the magnificent gift created by God, for God’s reason alone, and not for selling on the market like packaged vegetable goods.

For a more reputable harvest, and a lesser strain on his conscience, let the doctor grow radishes.

Robert Jimenez Burlingame

Says L. Ron Hubbard citation hit wrong note Re “The last acceptable prejudice” (Guest Commentary, Father Robert Barron, Feb. 18).

I was born and raised a Roman Catholic and well remember a particular period in the late 1970s in an Australian country town,

structures aren’t growing fast enough to keep up. What’s more, water and waste services show significant underinvestment, piped water coverage is declining in many places and the poor get the worst Sister Helen services while paying the most.

Garvey, SNJM How to help? Be informed and let your voices be heard on the local, national or international level. For water projects in poor countries, see Catholic Relief Services at http://crs.org/watersanitation/world-water-day/index.cfm. Pacific Institute does research, policy analysis and proposals for change. Contact them at www.pacinst.org/topics/water_and_sustainability.

Holy Names Sister Helen Garvey lives in San Francisco. She ministered for six years in rural Mexico and eight years in Nicaragua.

when I had to change the route I took to ride between my home and bus stop for school because some older boys would drive by and throw food or whatever at me as they went past (me in my blue Marist Brothers blazer).

Such discrimination is in this and other ways known to me.

Now I live in Sydney and work for the Church of Scientology and I am intimately familiar with the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard.

So in the interests of fairness I would like to mention that the short comment in your article (“... He praised the author for revealing the ridiculous beliefs of Scientology, which are based upon the wild, science fiction-like musings of L. Ron Hubbard”) is disappointing. There is nothing about the teachings and practices of this church that has anything to do with Mr. Hubbard’s former work as an author.

I have found the teachings of Scientology to be quite sensible and well-considered. They have led me to a greater spiritual awareness and brought me up from atheism to Gnosticism and a true awareness of my relationship to God. Glenn Hunter Sydney, Australia

Further word on The Gabriel Project

valuable ministry that works to build the culture of life through the participation of a parish. If people only knew how fulfilling it is to mentor a young mother and possibly change the direction of her life, they would not hesitate to get involved. A mother mentored through The Gabriel Project not only had her baby baptized, her family now attends Mass regularly.

Patsy Gonzalez Redwood City

Says House hearings on Muslims ‘un-American’ The approaching observance of the 10th anniversary of the horrific events of 9/11 provides an opportunity not only to remember those who died and those who rescued the living, but also to bring together people of all faiths – or no faith – to build a more civil and democratic United States.

The San Francisco Interfaith Council – the congregation-based interfaith organization that most widely represents the religious people of our city – stands with religious traditions that have been unjustly singled out because of the actions of individuals within that tradition. Today, we stand with our sisters and brothers of the Muslim faith and challenge the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rep. Peter King’s initiative to hold hearings on “The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and that Community’s Response.”

By its very name, this hearing seeks to isolate a particular faith community and stigmatize all Muslims as potential “homegrown” terrorists. In the past, the United States has singled out other religious and ethnic communities only to apologize years later. This present iteration is eerily reminiscent of discrimination against African-Americans and Jews throughout American history, Catholics and Mormons in the 19th century, the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and the McCarthy hearings in the 1950s directed toward those who held political beliefs that some U.S. senators and representatives deemed “un-American.”

Thanks to the wisdom of the founders of this country who gave us the First Amendment, we enjoy freedom of religion, assembly and the press, however it might be expressed or by whom. It is time once again, especially for us in the religious community, to speak out against those in government who would cast suspicion on our Muslim brothers and sisters and ask them to stop these unAmerican hearings.

Rita Semel San Francisco The writer is executive vice chair of the San Francisco Interfaith Council.

L E T T E R S

Thank you so much for including an article about The Gabriel Project in the March 11 issue. In response to remarks by (The Gabriel Project national Director Dr. Marcella Colbert), I’d like to provide some clarification about the ministry as it is implemented in our archdiocese.

In addition to carrying the blessing of new life, many pregnant mothers carry the burden of poverty. The Gabriel Project provides volunteers an opportunity to manifest authentic Christian discipleship while simultaneously exercising both lungs of Catholic teachings – the social justice and pro-life aspects of the church.

This ministry is open to Catholics who commit to faithfully uphold the teachings of the church in serving our clients. The work is not reserved for women. Men are also welcome to fully participate in the ministry. So too are members of non-participating parishes.

They are needed and I encourage them to volunteer as Auxiliary Angels. Information about this marvelous ministry can be found on our website: http://sfgabrielproject.wordpress.com.

Fredi D’Alessio Sausalito The writer is program coordinator of The Gabriel Project in the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

Praises Gabriel Project I am a volunteer angel for Church of the Nativity. I thank you for featuring an article (“The Gabriel Project help for pregnant moms now in 12 parishes,” March 11) on this most

March 18, 2011

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Guest Commentary

Catholic laity and church reform As a virtue, patience has much to commend itself. On the other hand, an inordinate amount of patience in a dysfunctional situation perpetuates the dysfunctionality. Caught in such a dilemma, one might even begin to experience the troubled situation as “normal” as time goes on. Then perhaps something happens that jolts the person into a new perspective on the situation. “No. This is not how things should be. Enough!” There may follow a sudden awakening. A dramatic breakthrough. Or a more gradual, slow but steady, dawning. For many Catholics, the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) was the dawning of a new era in the church. Pope John XXIII walked into the room, turned on the lights and opened the windows. It was a new day.

Indeed, it was a very new day for Catholic laity because one of the most important outcomes of the council was a renewed emphasis on the sacrament of baptism as the foundation and font of the Christian vocation of all members of the body of Christ — clerical, religious, and lay people alike. In their book, “The Emerging Laity,” (1986) James and Evelyn Whitehead describe what happened: “Lay Catholics were being drawn beyond a too well learned passivity toward greater responsibility for their own religious lives. Communities were experiencing anew the ancient riches of religious maturity — the adult strengths of conscience and charism.”

As the council directives were implemented, this faithful revolution produced a great flourishing of dedicated lay life and a general maturing of faith communities as notions of authority and power were realigned to incorporate lay people into various dimensions of church life — its intellectual, institutional and liturgical/spiritual life. In the process, individuals emerged who were exceptional exemplars of what the Second Vatican Council had in mind about the lay state. One such person was Monika

K. Hellwig (1929-2005), lay theologian, professor, author/poet, colleague, mentor, single mother, friend, administrator and parishioner. And Catholic to the core. She has been called “the people’s theologian” because of her intentional commitment to her vocation as a lay woman. Her work as a theologian is a valuable resource for lay people struggling with the current situation of the Catholic Church. Forty-five years after the conclusion of the council and the beginning of the reforms, the church is going through a rough patch. The church continues to be engulfed in the sex abuse scandal. And now another troubling trend is emerging: Catholics are leaving the church in significantly high numbers. In 2008, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life’s U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, based on interviews with a representative sample of 35,000 adult Americans, reported that one out of every three adult Americans who were raised Catholic has left the church.

While few question the symptoms, the remedies proposed are divergent. Some believe the church will flourish only if it returns to the practices of an earlier era while others point to the slow pace of change as the root of the problem. Meanwhile, intelligent and faithful Catholic women are becoming increasingly less patient with limitations embedded in the institutional structures of the church. Women “hold up half the sky” in the church as well as in other domains. Would not the horizon of the church be expanded if women and men (who hold up the other half) had serious, honest, and practical discussions not only about what to do in the ultimate, but also what to do next in the current ecclesial climate?

Peter Steinfels addresses directly this question of “what to do next,” as he itemizes the key issues that need immediate attention.

We need, he says, “a quantum leap in the quality of Sunday liturgies, including preaching; a massive, all-out mobilization of talent

and treasure to catechize the young, bring adolescents into church life, and engage young adults in ongoing faith formation; and regular, systematic assessments of all these activities — as well as theologically more Sister Kathleen complex and controversial matters like expanding the Dolphin pool of those eligible for ordination and revisiting some aspects of the church’s teaching on sexuality.”

One could imagine concerned Catholics “on both sides of the main aisle,” so to speak, finding ways to address these issues together. The future of the institutional church depends on the Spirit-guided efforts of the laity to do so. The church, as a community of disciples of Christ, would do well to tap into the enormous amount of faith-filled energy and competence of women, both lay and religious, in a more strategic way than ever before. Women such as Monika Hellwig have paved the way.

Renewing the church is our task now. It’s time. If not now, when?

Sister Kathleen Dolphin, PBVM, Ph.D., a sister of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, directs the Center for Spirituality at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Ind. Article reprinted with permission from the March 2011 Woodstock Report (archived at http://woodstock.georgetown.edu). Copyright 2011 Kathleen Dolphin, PBVM. All rights reserved.

Guest Commentary

Outlawing the death penalty in Illinois I congratulate the Illinois Legislature and Gov. Patrick Quinn for their passage of a bill outlawing the death penalty in the state. Sadly, the church and the civil government are so often on different sides of the “social” issues, from abortion to gay marriage; thus it is refreshing to see that, here at least, the two have come together. I would be remiss if I did not draw attention to the significant contribution that former Gov. George Ryan made when, in 1999, he placed a moratorium on carrying out the death penalty in Illinois. The definitive ending of this barbaric practice in the land of Lincoln is a great moral and political achievement.

I was struck by the remarks that Gov. Quinn made in announcing the bill’s passage. He communicated a real passion and earnestness, commenting with complete believability that this was the most anguished decision of his tenure in office. He acknowledged that there are many who disagree with this move, and he reached out to the families still victimized by the terrible crimes of those on death row. A Catholic, Gov. Quinn admitted that he consulted the Bible in his ruminations and that the teaching of the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin played an important role in his decision. He quoted Cardinal Bernardin to this effect: “In a complex, sophisticated democracy like ours, means other than the death penalty are available and can be used to protect society.”

The cardinal’s way of approaching the question is in line with the classical Catholic tradition of moral reflection, the foundation of which is a profound respect for the dignity of the individual made in the image of God and destined for eternal

life. Catholic teaching holds that life, when threatened, can be protected, and this is the foundation for the legitimacy of selfdefense at the personal level and for police action and just war at the societal level. But in this self-defense, given the preciousness of human life, the “least possible means” should always be employed. If someone is threatening my person, I am justified in stopping him, but I must do so in such a way as to cause him the least damage possible. For example, I may shoot him, but I should endeavor as far as I can to shoot to wound and not to kill.

Even in police work or in military action, a defender is obliged to follow the same principle. And what one may certainly never do is to injure an opponent preemptively and outside of the context of a direct threat. This is why, on the Catholic reading, the World War II firebombings of Dresden and Tokyo and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were unjustifiable.

Moral theologians and philosophers have long recognized that a civil society has the right to protect itself against those who threaten it. In the most extreme instance, a civil society is threatened by someone who would kill without justification. The common good cannot be achieved if such persons were allowed to operate with impunity, and this is why most Catholic thinkers for centuries justified capital punishment in certain cases. Things get a little more complicated when our principle of least possible means is invoked. Couldn’t a society adequately defend itself, even against a vicious murderer, simply by locking him away in prison for life? Yes, unless a society had a primitive legal

system, an unreliable police force and prisons from which it was relatively easy to escape – conditions that obtained in many if not most premodern and even early modern communities. This is why it was taken for Father granted up until very recent times that putting a desperRobert Barron ate murderer to death was the least possible means of protecting the society from the danger that he posed.

However – and here we come back to Cardinal Bernardin – in the developed countries of the West we have the wherewithal to stop a criminal through our courts and prisons. Therefore, to quote the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “the cases in which the execution of an offender is an absolute necessity are very rare, if not practically non-existent.” This was the distinctively Catholic line of reasoning that influenced Gov. Quinn in his historic decision.

Father Robert Barron is the founder of the global ministry Word on Fire and the Francis Cardinal George Professor of Faith and Culture at University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, Ill.

Making a Difference

The sins of the federal budget Lent is an ideal time to examine one’s conscience. What evil have I done? What good have I failed to do? Honestly answering these two questions is essential if we wish to distance ourselves from sin and advance in the moral life.

And the same holds true for the U.S. government.

What evil has the federal government done? And what good has it failed to do? In all honesty, it would take volumes to answer these questions.

But a look at the proposed federal budget gives us a good place to start.

The recent budget-related deal between President Barack Obama and Congress continues the outrageously high tax cuts for the wealthy and throws crumbs to the poor.

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts gave the poorest fifth of Americans an average of $45 per person, while everyone in the richest fifth got $7,820.

And the richest 1 percent of Americans got a whopping $178,832.

The Catholic social teaching principle known as the “universal destination of goods” insists on a fair sharing of the earth’s resources. However, there is nothing fair about the tremendous disparity of wealth between rich and poor.

With tea-party affiliated members of Congress leading the way, the U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a 2011 budget resolution that takes from the poor and gives to the military and the rich.

A recent letter to U.S. senators co-signed by numerous anti-poverty religious organizations, including the Catholic Medical Mission Board, laments the House’s drastic domestic cuts of $2.3 billion from affordable housing, $1.75 billion from job training, $1 billion from community health centers and $390 million from low-income heating assistance.

The letter continues with a sampling of the extreme harm that will be done to the poorest of the world’s poor if the U.S. Senate passes and the president signs the House’s

budget resolution, slashing aid to the poor by some $2 billion.

The former federal War on Poverty has turned into a war on the poor. But Catholic social teaching insists that impoverished Tony Magliano human beings must be given preferential concern and care. Tough times call for more assistance to the poor, not less.

Budget sins are not limited to the House. Consider President Obama’s proposed 2012 budget. It reportedly requests $553 billion for core Department of Defense spending, including $203.8 billion for weapons buying and MAKING A DIFFERENCE, page 16

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A READING FROM THE BOOK OF GENESIS GN 12:1-4A The Lord said to Abram: “Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you.

“I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you.” Abram went as the Lord directed him.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM PS 33:4-5, 18-19, 20, 22 R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.

Upright is the word of the Lord, and all his works are trustworthy.

He loves justice and right; of the kindness of the Lord the earth is full.

R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.

See, the eyes of the Lord are upon those who fear him,

Second Sunday of Lent Genesis 12:1-4a; Psalm 33:4-5, 18-19, 20, 22; 2 Timothy 1:8b-10; Matthew 17:1-9 upon those who hope for his kindness, To deliver them from death and preserve them in spite of famine.

R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.

Our soul waits for the Lord, who is our help and our shield.

May your kindness, O Lord, be upon us who have put our hope in you.

R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.

A READING FROM THE SECOND LETTER OF PAUL TO TIMOTHY 2 TM 1:8B-10 Beloved: Bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God. He saved us and called us to a holy life, not according to our works but according to his own design and the grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus before time began, but now made manifest through the appearance of our savior Christ Jesus, who destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

T

here is perhaps no greater story of faith than that of Abraham, rightly honored as our father in faith. So single minded was he in his trust in God that everyone who associated with him became caught up in either the journey (his wife and servants), or in the faith itself (Lot, Melchizedek).

However, as people who, even in a small way, share the faith of which he was the great pioneer, we may have lost sight of just how revolutionary it was for a man of his time to have faith at all.

Ur of the Chaldeans, the ancestral home from which Abraham emerged, was located in southern Mesopotamia, in the southern portion of the Fertile Crescent, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers; the cradle of Western civilization. The culture into which Abraham was born was pagan, where the human understanding of divinity was caught up in their understanding of the cosmos, the cycles of the stars, seasons and the moon. To understand the cosmos, and therefore the divine, one had to know the cycle. This understanding also involved, in some cases, attempting to predict the patterns, to manipulate these cycles through cult sacrifices and rituals in order to appease, and thereby influence the cosmic forces that brought about fertility, victory, peace and prosperity.

Then Abraham (initially known as

Scripture reflection FATHER WILLIAM NICHOLAS

The faith of Abraham Abram) experienced something new; a call from a God whose manifestation he could not see; a call to uproot himself from all that had been familiar to him and move to a new land. This strange, mysterious God did not tell Abraham where he was going, how long it would take to get there nor what he would find when he arrived.

Rather, Abraham was simply told to “Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father’s house to a land I will show you,” – go forth from the familiar to something totally new.

In his obedience to this mysterious

God, Abraham broke a cultural pattern.

He did not passively engage in a manipulation of familiar cosmic cycles, seek answers based on patterns of repetition nor attempt to predict what was in store for him and his people. This was not a God who could be fully known, but one that was mysterious. This was not a God that could be predicted from the cycles of the cosmos, nor one that could be manipulated or controlled. Rather, this God would be gradually revealed in a manner based solely on the initiative of God himself.

Abraham entered into a relationship with

A READING FROM THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW MT 17:1-9 Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud cast a shadow over them, then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” When the disciples heard this, they fell prostrate and were very much afraid.

But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and do not be afraid.” And when the disciples raised their eyes, they saw no one else but Jesus alone. As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, “Do not tell the vision to anyone until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

this new divinity; a relationship based not on answers, not on familiarity and predictability, but on active trust in something unknown.

Even when Abraham asked God, “Lord … how am I to know that I shall possess (this land)?” (Genesis 15:8), God’s answer, following an elaborate sacrificial ritual, did nothing more than repeat the promise (Genesis 15:18-21). In the end, Abraham’s covenant was based solely on the fact that God is God, and had said it would be so.

In short, Abraham entered into a covenant based on faith in a God that would not give answers but would nonetheless fulfill promises.

So Abraham went forth to settle in a new land, not knowing, but rather trusting, in the promises God had made – “I will give you this land,” “I will make your descendents as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the shore of the sea.”

Abraham would not “know.” Rather, Abraham “believed”, trusted and is rightly honored as the father, and originator, of a simple but revolutionary virtue, called faith.

Father William Nicholas is parochial vicar at Our Lady of Loretto Parish in Novato. Visit his website at www.frwcnicholas.com.

Annunciation feast Guest Commentary celebrated March 25 Lent is about baptism March 25 is the Feast of the Annunciation, when the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and told her she would be the mother of the Messiah, the Son of God. “We come now to a great and decisive moment in the whole of human history. The eternal destiny of all mankind hangs in the balance. All the world is waiting, breathless, at the feet of a Jewish girl who holds its fate in her hands. Either she will say ‘yes’ to God or she won’t; “The Annunciation,” either she will give Fra Angelico (1438-1450) her consent to the Incarnation of God in her own body or she won’t; either our immortal souls will be saved or they won’t,” wrote Abbot Joseph Homick , superior of the Byzantine Catholic Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Redwood Valley, in “A Place Prepared by God: Through the Virgin Mary, the New Eve, Paradise Will Not Fail Twice,” (Patsons Press, 2010). “Of course, we’re not still waiting. The Virgin Mary did say ‘yes.’ … But I wonder if we reflect sufficiently on the drama of that moment, on the pivotal role played by Mary of Nazareth in the salvation of the world – a role she did not choose for herself, but one that was planned by God from all eternity.”

By Brother John Samaha For those of a certain age Lent raises memories of giving up something we enjoyed – candy, movies and other things we liked especially. The old sense of Lent saw this time as one of self-imposed penance and spiritual discipline. The religious expression of the season took the form of the Stations of the Cross, daily Mass and other devotional practices. The general feeling that prevailed was that Lent was to be endured.

A sense of prayer, sacrifice, and charity toward others are authentic hallmarks of the Lenten season. We sense a genuine need to identify again with the suffering of Jesus.

The new challenge is to see all these practices and prayers in the light of the church’s annual retreat in preparation for the Easter triduum. During those three days new Christians will be born from the font of baptism, and all Christians will welcome them with an enthusiasm rekindled anew through reliving our own rebirth in Christ.

Above all Lent is about baptism. Baptism is about going down into death with Christ and being raised up with him to glory. This death and rising can be celebrated only after it has been experienced and lived in the daily fabric of human life. Lent is about dying to self for the life of others.

Lent is about dying to all human supports which blind us from seeing that true life is in God alone. Lent is as serious as coming to know that the deepest meanings of human life are seen in Jesus, who fights every temptation to take the world by power, force or the razzle-dazzle of miracles.

When Lent begins on Ash Wednesday we are signed with ashes in the form of a cross because we live under and in that sign. The sense of Lent as preparation for Christian initiation and its renewal is clearly proclaimed in the Sunday readings.

Our practices of prayer and charity lead us to the renewal of our baptismal promises in solidarity with the catechumens who will unite themselves with the church through baptism at the Easter Vigil. This is our special time of opportunity to enter more deeply the mystery of our faith, the paschal mystery. Holy Thursday is the last day of Lent. With the celebration of the evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper, Lent ends and the Christian community enters into the annual celebration of the Passover of the Lord and unbounded joy.

Lent launches the neophyte on the journey to our eternal destiny and recommissions the initiated. Lent commissions us and energizes us.

“Look upon us as we enter these Forty Days bearing the mark of the ashes, and bless our journey through the desert of Lent to the font of rebirth.

May our fasting be hunger for justice; our alms, a making of peace; our prayer, a chant of humble and grateful hearts.

All that we do and pray is in the name of Jesus.

For in his cross you proclaim your love forever and ever.”

Marianist Brother John Samaha resides at the Marianist Care Center in Cupertino and has been a religious for more than 60 years.

March 18, 2011

Catholic San Francisco

15

Spirituality for Life

The true meaning of cursed There’s a Buddhist parable that runs something like this: One day as the Buddha was sitting under a tree, a young, trim soldier walked by, looked at the Buddha, noticed his weight and his fat, and said: “You look like a pig!” The Buddha looked up calmly at the soldier and said: “And you look like God!” Taken aback by the comment, the soldier asked the Buddha: “Why do you say that I look like God?” The Buddha replied: “Well, we don’t really see what’s outside of ourselves, we see what’s inside of us and project it out. I sit under this tree all day and I think about God, so that when I look out, that’s what I see. And you, you must be thinking about other things!”

There’s an axiom in philosophy that asserts that the way we perceive and judge is deeply influenced and colored by our own interiority. That’s why it’s never possible to be fully objective and that’s why five people can witness the same event, see the same thing, and have five very different versions of what happened.

Thomas Aquinas expressed this in a famous axiom: Whatever is received is received according to the mode of its receiver.

If this is true, and it is, then, as the Buddhist parable suggests, how we perceive others speaks volumes about what’s going on inside of us. Among other things, it indicates whether we are operating out of a blessed or a cursed consciousness.

Let’s begin with the positive, a blessed consciousness: We see this in Jesus, in how he perceived and in how he judged. His was a blessed consciousness. As the Gospels describe it, at his baptism, the heavens opened and God’s voice was heard to say: “This is my blessed one, in whom I take delight.” And, it seems, for the rest

of his life Jesus was always in some way conscious of his Father saying that to him: “You are my blessed one!”

As a consequence, he was able to look out at the world and say: “Blessed are you when you are poor, or when you are persecuted, or suffering in any way. You are always blessed, no matter your circumstance in life.”

He knew his own blessedness, felt it, and, because of that, could operate out of a blessed consciousness, a consciousness that could look out and see others and the world as blessed.

Sadly, for many of us, the opposite is true: We perceive others and the world not through a blessed consciousness but through a cursed consciousness. We have been cursed and because of that, in whatever subtle ways, we curse others.

What’s a curse? A curse is not the colorful language that comes out of our mouths when we get stuck in traffic or when we slice our golf ball. What we say then may be in bad taste and highly profane, but it’s not a curse.

A curse is more pernicious.

Cursing is what we do when we look at someone whom we don’t like and think or say: “I wish you weren’t here! I hate your presence! I wish you’d go away!”

Cursing is what we do when we are affronted by the joyous screams of a child and we say: “Shut up! Don’t irritate me!” Cursing is what we do when we look at someone and think or say: “What an idiot! What a jerk!”

Cursing is what we do whenever we look at another person judgmentally and think or say: “Who do you think you are! You think you’re an artist! You think you’ve got talent! You don’t, you’re full of yourself!” Notice in each of these examples that what is being said is the antithesis of what the Father said to Jesus’ at his baptism: “You are

my blessed one, in you I take delight!”

If any of us could play back our lives as a video we would see the countless times, especially when we were young, when we were Father Ronald subtly cursed, when we heard or intuited the Rolheiser words: Shut up! Who do you think you are! Go away! You aren’t wanted here! You’re not that important! You’re stupid! You’re full of yourself! All of these were times when our energy and enthusiasm were perceived as a threat and we were, in effect, shut down.

And the residual result in us is shame, depression and a cursed consciousness. Unlike Jesus we don’t see others and the world as blessed. Instead, like the young soldier looking at an overweight Buddha under a tree, our spontaneous judgments are swift and lethal: “You look like a pig!”

Whatever is received is received according to the mode of its receiver. Our harsh judgments of others say less about them than they say about us. Our negativity about others and the world speaks mostly of how bruised and wounded, ashamed and depressed, we are – and how little we ourselves have ever heard anyone say to us: “In you I take delight!

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

Guest Commentary

Junipero Serra High School seniors John Vincent, left, and Austin March are pictured at Ash Wednesday services at the school.

Archbishop George Niederauer administers ashes at St. Mary’s Cathedral.

By Father Jose Lucero As we receive the ashes on our foreheads, let’s remember the purpose of Lent: an exercise in holy desire by the penitential practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving.

We begin this holy season by receiving ashes on our foreheads in the sign of a cross. The season of Lent lasts 40 days in imitation of the time Jesus spent in the desert before inaugurating his public ministry. What is the purpose of Lent? Of course, Lent prepares us for the great celebration of Holy Week that begins with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem where he celebrated his Last Supper before his passion, death and resurrection.

But what do we do during these 40 days? What is the purpose of imitating Jesus’ time in the desert? St. Augustine summarized it powerfully.

“The entire life of a good Christian,” he said, “is in fact an exercise of holy desire. You do not see what you long for, but the very act of desiring prepares you, so that when he comes you may see and be utterly satisfied.”

What St. Augustine is telling us is not that we have to annihilate our desires. On the contrary, our desires are too small. We look for fulfillment in things this world offers, but God wants us to have so much more – his very self.

During Lent we undertake practices that intensify our longing for God: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. They are sometimes called the penitential practices.

Of these practices, prayer has first place. Quoting

St. Alphonsus, the Catechism states: “Those who pray are certainly saved; those who do not pray are certainly damned.” Salvation is an eternal relationship with the triune God in the communion of saints. That relationship begins in this life – or it does not begin at all. To use a human comparison: If you desire friendship – that is, a relationship with another human being – you have to do things together, be in each other’s presence, talk ... and listen. The same applies in our friendship with God. It will not happen automatically. The most important is participating in the Mass. It is the greatest prayer because it renews the sacrifice which opens heaven to us. Flowing from the Mass are other ways of praying: Eucharistic adoration, spiritual reading (the Bible or writings of ancient authors like Augustine or modern authors like Peter Kreeft and C.S. Lewis), the rosary – or even turning off the car radio and thanking God for his gifts. Prayer is the foundation of the Christian; it opens the way to eternal life.

After prayer comes fasting. This is tricky for us today.

Our culture has so much guilt around food that I am afraid of adding to that guilt, making you feel bad about eating a Big Mac or a plate of linguini. We should certainly enjoy food and the conviviality that often accompanies a good meal. Nevertheless, we also must find a place for fasting.

Until about 1960, every generation of Christians fasted.

It’s time to return to the practice. I cannot say I am a great example, but I can help you make a start. Give up for Lent some food you particularly enjoy. Cut out eating between meals or – I am speaking to myself now – that snack before

(PHOTO COURTESY OUR LADY OF LORETTO SCHOOL)

´

(PHOTO BY JOSE LUIS AGUIRRE/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)

Lent: ‘An exercise of holy desire’

Our Lady of Loretto Parish Pastor Father William McCain places ashes on the forehead of sixth grader Andrew Reeder.

bedtime. When I do it, a voice inside of me says, “Oh no, don’t go to bed hungry.” But the times I have done it, I survived fine. At a very minimum we must follow the rules of no meat on Ash Wednesday, the Fridays of Lent and Good Friday. The goal of fasting is not to have a sleek body one can be proud of. Some saints were quite corpulent, others were virtual skeletons, but they had this in common: They practiced the voluntary self-denial of fasting.

Finally, we come to almsgiving. This practice, while simple in itself, has some complications today. I honestly do not give to every person who shows up or to the people with cardboard signs at stoplights. It is not so much stinginess as a desire to be a good steward, to use resources in the best possible way to help others. For me this means supporting the parish and the archdiocese - and helping the needy in Peru. St. John Chrysostom said that after we have satisfied our own basic needs and of those we are directly responsible for, all the rest belongs to the poor: “Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours, but theirs.”

Lent is a time to look at the things I spend my money on. Do I really need that new book or could I go to the library? How about what I spend on other things? Lent is also a great time – and I am really speaking personally here – Lent is a good time get rid of some of the clutter in one’s room and one’s life. With a bit more organization, I could better serve the needy. We do this not so that people HOLY DESIRE, page 16

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Catholic San Francisco

March 18, 2011

Holy desire . . .

foreheads, let’s remember the purpose of Lent: An exercise in holy desire by the penitential practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Amen.

■Continued from page 15 will consider us generous. Someone who gives one dollar might in reality be more generous than any of us. We have to give not by human standards, but according to God’s generosity. If we did, our world would not have children living in dire want.

Welcome to Lent, brothers and sisters. As we receive the ashes on our

Salesian Father Jose Lucero is coordinator of youth ministry and parochial vicar of Corpus Christi Parish in San Francisco. This article was condensed from Father Lucero’s Ash Wednesday homily

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Lenten Opportunities March 22, 6:15 p.m.: “Soup Supper and Talk” at St. Rita Church, 100 Marinda Drive in Fairfax. Jesuit Father Stephen Privett, president of the University of San Francisco is guest speaker on a topic of “Catholic Higher Education: Issues and Challenges.”

Call (415) 456-4876.

March 25 - 27: The Divine Mercy Eucharistic Society’s Annual Regional American Divine Mercy Congress at the San Ramon Marriott. Program includes adult conference and a youth conference.

Guest speakers include Father Matthew Mauriello, the North American representative on the Executive International Committee for the World Apostolic Congress on Mercy, as well as Father Christopher Crotty and Christine Watkins. Tickets for the three days are $50 for adults and $20 for youth. E-mail DivineMercyJesus@comcast.net or visit www.

DivineMercyWestCoast.org.

April 1, 7 p.m.: “Dramatic Presentation of the Gospel of John.” See and hear a spectacular Gospel presentation by Michael Reardon and Patrick Lane at St. Matthias Church in Redwood City, (650) 366-9544. Program includes music, lighting and costumes. Michael and Patrick – who have committed their lives to proclaiming the gospel – have given over 1000 performances throughout the world.

Audiences have described it as “Powerful and Prayerful!” A reception to meet the artists will follow the performance. Donations are welcome.

March 25, 7 – 9 p.m.; March 26, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.: “Revisioning Society,” a workshop teaching fundamentals in Catholic Social Teaching as methods to address issues that face society today. Sessions are facilitated by Dominican Father Michael Sweeney of the Dominican School of Theology and Philosophy in Berkeley. How do these teachings apply to political, economic and social issues? Come for an interactive exploration of what the nation’s Catholic bishops call a “… rich treasure of wisdom about building a just society and living lives of holiness amidst the challenges of modern society.” Takes place at and sponsored by St. Hilary Parish, 761 Hilary Drive in Tiburon. To register or get more information, call (415) 435-1122 or e-mail vbornstein@yahoo.com.

Freewill donations accepted.

March 25 – 27: “Come and See Retreat for Women” at Mercy Convent in Burlingame. How do you know God is calling you? Are you longing for something more? Experience life in a convent, meet with Sisters of Mercy and hear presentations to answer your questions. No charge for the retreat. Contact Mercy Sister Cindy Kaye by e-mail at kayenun@yahoo.com or call (650) 340-7434

by March 11.

March 26, 9:30 a.m. – noon: “The Sacrament of Reconciliation,” a Lenten evening sponsored by parishes of Deanery Two with presentation by Father David Pettingill, former pastor, St. Gabriel Parish and professor at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park.

Father Pettingill will focus on Vatican II’s perspective on reconciliation. Reconciliation will be available from 11 a.m. The morning session takes place at St. Emydius Church, Ashton at DeMontfort in San Francisco. Call (415) 587-7066.

March 27, 1 p.m. – 3 p.m.: “Shadows to Light” with Bishop William J. Justice at St. Thomas More Parish in San Francisco. This mini-retreat invites youth to reflect on Lenten themes of grace and forgiveness through youth led proclamation of the stories of the Woman at the Well, the Man Born Blind and Lazarus. This retreat is offered at no cost by the campus ministers and the parish youth ministers of the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Questions, call Vivian Clausing at (415) 614-5654 or Janet Suzio at (415) 614-5663.

April 1, 8 p.m.: “The Way of the Cross” The Mystery Players of Salesian High School will present “The Way of the Cross” a dramatic presentation of the Passion and Death of the Lord. Through the use of special lighting and sound, this moving dramatic meditation promises to be a high point in the Parish Lenten journey. No charge, a free will offering encouraged. A unique and prayerful presentation at Sts. Peter and Paul Church, 666 Filbert St. in San Francisco. Free parking available. Call (415) 421-0809.

Fridays through April 22, 6:00 p.m.: Soup Suppers followed by Stations of the Cross in Mater Dolorosa Church, 307 Willow Ave. South San Francisco. Call (650)-583-4131 or visit www. mdssf.org.

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Msgr. Harry Schlitt celebrates the TV Mass on Easter, April 24, and all Sundays of the year! Now produced by the retired priest’s God Squad Productions, the TV Mass is broadcast throughout Northern California and is distributed to hospitals, retirement communities, assisted living and senior centers, and San Quentin State Prison. The Mass is for anyone who cannot get to church on Sunday.

The TV Mass, taped at the Porziuncola Nuova in North Beach, can be seen on KTXL FOX-40 Sacramento (Comcast CH 8), Sundays at 5:30 a.m.; KTSF- CH 26 San Francisco (Comcast CH 8), Sundays at 6 a.m.; KOFY – CH 20 San Francisco (Comcast CH 13), Sundays at 6 a.m.

Contact, TV Mass, One Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco 94109 or call (415) 614-5643. God Squad Productions holds its annual Bocce Tournament and Picnic April 16 from 8:30 a.m.

– 4:30 p.m. at Marin Federation Bocce Courts in San Rafael. Day includes tournament, barbecue lunch, plus beverages and snacks all day. For ticket information, contact Jan Schachern at janschachern@aol.com.

Arts and Entertainment April 8 and 15 at 7:30 p.m. and April 9, 10, 16, 17 at 3 p.m.: The 16th Street Players are currently presenting four contemporary comedies by American playwrights in the wheelchair-accessible Community Room on the second floor of Notre Dame Senior Plaza at 347 Dolores Street, between 16th and 17th, in San Francisco. Everyone is welcome. Limited parking is available at NDSP and at Mission Dolores. MUNI: J-Church; BART: 16th and Mission Streets. Information: (415) 8644467 or (650) 952-3021.

Good Health March 28, 11 a.m.: Free Diabetes Awareness Fair at St. Mary’s Medical Center, 450 Stanyan St. (Level B – cafeteria). Events will include: free blood glucose testing, foot screenings by a podiatrist and diabetes educators will be on hand to give advice on general diabetes and nutrition and exercise. Questions, call Diabetes Services at (415) 750-5513.

Mondays, 4 p.m.: Join us on level C of St. Mary’s Medical Center in the Cardiology Conference Room. This series of eight classes covers everything related to diabetes. It is a great way to learn more about diabetes in a relaxed and friendly environment. Specialized diabetes educators lead the sessions. No previous registration is necessary.

Take advantage of this education opportunity. If you have any questions or would want more information please call Diabetes Services at St. Mary’s (415) 750-5513.

Food and Fun April 1, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. and April 2, 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.: Church of the Visitacion “Annual Rummage Sale” in the parish hall, 701 Sunnydale at Rutland in San Francisco. Purchase items from among clothes, furniture, books, jewelry and a “new items booth.”

Call (415) 494-5517. Muni buses 8, 9, 56, and the T Line will get you there.

April 2, 6:30 p.m.: Fourth Annual Catholic Charities CYO Athletics Hall of Fame Dinner. The 2011 inductees, Roger Bross, Randy DeMartini, and Jenifer Spinale, will be honored for their extraordinary impact on the CYO Athletics community at St. Emydius Gym in San Francisco. For more

information about the CYO Athletics Hall of Fame Dinner, tickets or sponsorship opportunities, visit http://athletics.cccyo.org/hof/ or call Mary Beth Johnson, (415) 972-1252.

April 29 - May 1: Our Lady of Mount Carmel School Redwood City Annual Spring Festival.

It’s three days of safe family fun including carnival rides, games, great food and live local entertainment.

Buy carnival ride tickets in advance and save big by contacting the school at (650) 366-8817 or visiting www.mountcarmel.org.

May 2: 52nd Annual Catholic Charities CYO Golf Day at Sharon Heights Golf & Country Club. As the longest-running charitable golf tournament in the Bay Area, CCCYO Golf Day provides scholarship opportunities for summer programming at CYO Camp and CYO Athletics Summer Camps.

Presented by Tournament Chairman Jim McCabe, and his CCCYO Golf Day Committee, the day includes lunch, a lively afternoon of golf followed by dinner, a live auction and raffle. For tickets and information about sponsorships, contact Ana Ayala at (415) 972.1213 or aayala@cccyo.org or visit www.cyogolfday.org.

Reunions March 20, 2 – 4 p.m.: The Sisters of the Presentation invite all South Bay Alumnae and Friends to a special afternoon reception benefiting their Retirement Fundat Saint Christopher Parish in San Jose. Visit www.PresentationSistersSF.org.

The Sisters of the Presentation have been educating Bay Area children and young women since 1854, Show your appreciation.

May 1: “Archbishop Riordan High School Alumni Mothers’ Mass & Breakfast” on the school campus.

Contact Sharon Ghilardi-Udovich, special events director at (415) 586-8200, ext 217.

Aug. 13 or Nov. 26: All alumni of St. Anne of the Sunset School, class of 1981 are invited to a reunion. Location/date are undecided. E-mail George Rehmet at georgerehmet@yahoo.com or call (650) 438-9589.

Mass in Latin The traditional Latin Mass celebrated according to texts and rubrics of the Missal of Blessed

OF

Single, Divorced, Separated Information about Bay Area single, divorced and separated programs is available from Jesuit Father Al Grosskopf at grosskopf@usfca.edu (415) 422-6698.

Would you like support while you travel the road through separation and divorce? The Archdiocese of San Francisco offers support for the journey. The Separated and Divorced Catholics of the Archdiocese of San Francisco (SDCASF) offer two ongoing support groups at St. Bartholomew Parish, 600 Columbia Drive, San Mateo, on the first and third Tuesdays, at 7 p.m. in the spirituality center, and in O’Reilly hall of St. Stephen Parish near Stonestown, San Francisco, on the first and third Wednesdays, at 7:30 p.m.

Call Gail (650) 591-8452, or Joanne (650) 347-0701 for more information.

Catholic Adult Singles Association of Marin County: We are Catholics, single or single again, who are interested in making new friends, taking part in social activities, sharing opportunities for spiritual growth, and becoming involved in volunteer activities that will benefit parishes, community, and one another. We welcome those who would share in this with us. For information, call Bob at (415) 897-0639.

Consolation Ministry Grief support groups meet at the following parishes: San Mateo County: Good Shepherd, Pacifica; call Sister Carol Fleitz at (650) 355-2593. Our Lady of Mercy, Daly City; call parish at (650) 755-2727.

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Redwood City; call parish at (650) 366-3802. St. Bartholomew, San Mateo; call Barbara Syme (650) 343-6156. St. Peter, Pacifica; call parish at (650) 359-6313. St. Pius, Redwood City; call parish at (650) 361-0655. St. Robert, San Bruno; call Sister Patricia O’Sullivan at (650) 589-0104.

Marin County: St. Anselm, San Anselmo; call Brenda MacLean at (415) 454-7650. St. Anthony, Novato; call parish (415) 883-2177. St. Hilary, Tiburon; call Helen Kelly at (415) 388-9651. Our Lady of Loretto, Novato; call Sister Jeanette at (415) 897-2171.

San Francisco County: St. Gabriel; call Monica Williams at (650) 756-2060. St. Mary’s Cathedral; call Sister Esther McEgan at (415) 567-2020 ext. 218.

Alma Via; contact Mercy Feeney at (650) 756-4500.

Young Widow/Widower Group: St. Gregory, San Mateo; call Barbara Elordi at (415) 614-5506.

Ministry to Grieving Parents: Our Lady of Angels, Burlingame; call Ina Potter at (650) 3476971 or Barbara Arena at (650) 344-3579.

Datebook is a free listing for parishes, schools and non-profit groups. Please include event name, time, date, place, address and an information phone number.

Listing must reach Catholic San Francisco at least two weeks before the Friday publication date desired. Mail your notice to: Datebook, Catholic San Francisco, One Peter Yorke Way, S.F. 94109, or fax it to (415) 614-5633, e-mail burket@sfarchdiocese.org, or visit www.catholic-sf.org, Contact Us.

Deadline for May 16th Issue is April 22nd Please do not write on your card.

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John XXIII of 1962 is celebrated at these locations: Sunday, 12:15 p.m.: Holy Rosary Chapel at St. Vincent School for Boys in San Rafael. For more information, call St. Isabella Parish at (415) 4791560; first Fridays, 7 p.m. at St. Francis of Assisi Church, 1425 Bay Road. at Glen Way in East Palo Alto. For more information, call (650) 322-2152.

Father Lawrence Goode, pastor, is celebrant; first Sundays, 5:30 p.m. at Mater Dolorosa Church, 307 Willow Ave., South San Francisco. For more information call (650) 583-4131; second Sundays, 5:30 p.m. at St. Finn Barr Church, Edna Street at Hearst in San Francisco. Call (415) 3333627; third Sundays at Holy Name of Jesus Church 39th Avenue at Lawton in San Francisco. Call (415) 664-8590 for time.

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Catholic San Francisco

March 18, 2011

Romance and comedy the theme of most spring high school musicals Spring drama schedule “Beauty and the Beast” Mercy High School San Francisco, 3250 19th Ave.; April 2, 8, 9, 7:30 p.m.; Red Carpet April 1; $10 adults, $8 students/seniors, $12 Red Carpet; (415) 334-7941, events@mercyhs.org.

St. Ignatius College Preparatory presents “My Fair Lady”

Tri-School Productions presents “Into the Woods”

“Bye, Bye Birdie” Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory, Sister Caroline Collins Theatre, 1100 Ellis St., San Francisco; March 24, 25, 7:30 p.m.; March 28, 29, 10 a.m.; $7 students, $12 adults.

“Cabaret” Convent and Stuart Hall high schools, Syufy Theatre 2222 Broadway, San Francisco; March 17, 18, 7 p.m.; March 19, 2 p.m.; $5.

SHCP THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS

“Into the Woods” Tri-School Productions (Mercy Burlingame, Notre Dame Belmont, Junipero Serra high schools); The Hillbarn Theatre, 1285 E. Hillsdale Blvd., Foster City; March 31; April 1, 2, 7, 8, 9; 7:30 p.m.; April 3, 10, 2 p.m.; $18 adults, $15 students, seniors; (650) 345-8207 ext.

560, or www.trischoolproductions.com.

Convent and Stuart Hall high schools present “Cabaret.”

By Valerie Schmalz

Mercy High School San Francisco’s presents “Beauty and the Beast”

Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep presents “Bye Bye, Birdie”

Ritchey.” Among the show’s musical offerings are “I Could Have Danced All Night” and “The Rain in Spain.”

Junipero Serra High School, Mercy High School Burlingame and Notre Dame Belmont team up for the fractured fairy tale, “Into the Woods,” said Tom Sullivan, production manager. The show includes “an ambivalent Cinderella, a blood-thirsty Red Riding Hood, and Prince Charming with a roving eye,” he said. The production is off campus at the Hillbarn Theatre in Foster City due to construction at Serra, so seating is limited.

San Domenico School promises audience interaction with “Rocky Horror Picture Show.” There will be “many scripted opportunities for audience participation. Don’t worry – we’ll guide you through the journey, so no stage fright is necessary,” said Anyra Papsys, school spokeswoman.

“Beauty and the Beast” is a classic

Light-hearted music is the norm in most of this year’s high school musical offerings.

Romantic comedies on the stage throughout the Archdiocese of San Francisco include “Bye Bye Birdie” at Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory, “Beauty and the Beast” at Mercy San Francisco and “My Fair Lady” at St. Ignatius College Preparatory.

Then there are the comedic farces of “Into the Woods,” a send-up of traditional fairy tales that Tri-School Productions is staging and “Rocky Horror Picture Show” – a spoofy homage to science fiction movies with a decades-long cult following – at San Domenico School.

But that is not to say all of the musicals are airy and light. “Cabaret,” the feature production of Convent of the Sacred Heart and Stuart High School, definitely has some downer moments in a story that revolves around the relationship between an English cabaret performer Gospel for March 20, 2011 and a young American at Matthew 17:1-9 a seedy Berlin night club Following is a word search based on the Gospel as the Nazis are rising reading for the Second Sunday of Lent, Cycle A: the to power. The passion, Transfiguration with Moses and Elijah. The words death and resurrection of can be found in all directions in the puzzle.

Jesus are the heart of the PETER JOHN LED THEM UP controversial rock opera MOUNTAIN HIS FACE SHONE “Jesus Christ Superstar.”

THE SUN WHITE MOSES Archbishop Riordan junior ELIJAH IT IS GOOD THREE Alex Ruiz plays Jesus. “It’s SPEAKING BRIGHT CLOUD A VOICE BELOVED PLEASED HEARD going to be a challenge on AFRAID NO ONE THE DEAD my part to do the part justice,” Ruiz said.

BRIGHT VISION For St. Ignatius drama director Ted Curry, the D O O G S I T I N A N A choice of “My Fair Lady,” P U J O S P E A K I N G the story of a street urchin L K O B B E L O V E D X transformed into a lady, E L A L H J I B V E F N and the love story that A V O I C E J D T N N P ensues, was a good musical to pair with the fall’s S M O U N T A I N O U K “The Importance of Being E O E L L E H R H H S P Ernest.” This year Curry D S E J D W H G D S E N said he wanted a musical R E R E N H O J I T H O with a large ensemble and O S H I S F A C E R T O “wanted the students to L T T Y D I A R F A B N experience a traditional L E D T H E M U P G H E musical.” The stage props © 2011 Tri-C-A Publications www.tri-c-a-publications.com “will be more representational than practical,” Curry Sponsored by Duggan’s Serra Mortuary said, “Much of the look of 500 Westlake Avenue, Daly City the show will ride on the 650-756-4500 ● www.duggansserra.com beautiful costumes by Sarah

SCRIPTURE SEARCH

San Domenico School presents “Rocky Horror Show

happily-ever-after tale that comes to life with songs such as “Belle” and “No Matter What.” Other familiar numbers include the Beast’s “If I Can’t Love Her” and “Be Our Guest” performed by all the transformed servants in the Beast’s castle.

“Just One Kiss” was sung in the movie version of the musical “Bye Bye Birdie”

by Elvis Presley, as Conrad Birdie, as he goes off ever so reluctantly to the Army.

In SHCP’s version, the teen idol is played

by Tyler Mahoney. Birdie’s agent Albert Peterson is played by Oliver Reyes and loveinterest Rosie Alvarez is portrayed by junior Danielle Briseno. Other memorable songs in this classic musical comedy are “Put on a Happy Face” and “Honestly Sincere.”

“Jesus Christ Superstar” Archbishop Riordan High School, Lindland Theater, 175 Phelan Ave., San Francisco; April 1, 2, 8, 9, 8 p.m.; April 10, 2 p.m.; $10 adults, $7 students/ seniors, $4 children 12 and under (sold at the door or at riordanhs.org); (415) 587-5866 or voriordan@riordanhs.org.

“My Fair Lady” St. Ignatius College Preparatory, The Bannan Theatre, St. Ignatius, 2001 37th Ave., San Francisco; April 5, 6, 8, 9, 12, 13, 15, 16, 7 p.m.; $10 purchased at SI, $11.50 online at siprep.org.

“Rocky Horror Picture Show” San Domenico School, Dominican Hall, 1500 Butterfield Road, San Anselmo; March 24, 25, 26, 7:30 p.m.; $10 adults, $5 students/seniors; (415) 258-1989.

The Dilemma of Choice

The polarizing controversy that abortion causes generally removes the focus from the most critical place – the mind and heart of the woman making the choice. What do women considering abortion deserve? And is there just one choice involved here, or two?

Shari Plunkett has served as President and CEO of First Resort since its beginning in 1984. First Resort’s pregnancy counseling medical clinics focus on abortion-minded women and serve as the most practical, compassionate, and proven approach to reaching, serving and restoring hope for women in unplanned pregnancies.

WHEN: Wednesday, April 13, 7am to 8:30am (Mass at 7am) WHERE: Palio D'Asti Restaurant, 640 Sacramento at Montgomery, SF COST: $20 per members, $30 for non-members (become a member for $45) Includes a delicious breakfast, coffee, and juice RESERVATIONS STRONGLY ENCOURAGED! RESERVATIONS: Mail your contact information & a check payable to “CPBC-ADSF” to: CPBC, Attn: John Norris, 1 Peter Yorke Way, SF, CA 94109 or pay at the door.

www.cpbc-sf.org

March 18, 2011

Catholic San Francisco

19

Catholic San Francisco

classifieds FOR ADVERTISING INFORMATION visit us at www.catholic-sf.org or Call: 415-614-5642 Fax: 415-614-5641 Email: penaj@sfarchdiocese.org

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Help Wanted Bishop Gorman High School Principal Position Posting

heaven canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t wait Serra for Priestly Vocations Please call Archdiocese of San Francisco Fr. Tom Daly (415) 614-5683

Bishop Gorman High School is seeking qualified applicants for the position of Principal beginning in June 2011. Ideal candidates will be committed to Catholic education, have recent significant experience as a teacher and educational administrator and a graduate degree in related fields, as well as exhibit excellent oral and written communications skills. Salary will be commensurate with experience and credentials.

Please visit the schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s website at www.bishopgorman.org for a detailed job description. From the website, click on the About Us tab at the top, then click Employment Opportunities from the drop-down menu. Send cover letter and resume to principalsearch@bishopgorman.org.

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Whether youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re buying a new home or selling your current one, you have to trust your agent. Sue is committed to culSue Schultes, tivating that trust by serving all of her clientsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; real estate needs: personal, professional, and financial. Sue loves what Realtor she does, and part of her passion comes from the belief in working for the greater good. Active in her parish at St. Agnes, on the Board of Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly she creates the possibility of a positive future for all of us. Contact her today.

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For your local and international Catholic news, Datebook,On the Street, website listings, advertising information, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Place Classified Adâ&#x20AC;?

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Catholic San Francisco

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SERVICE DIRECTORY For information about advertising in the Service Directory, visit www.catholic-sf.org Call 415-614-5642 Fax: 415-614-5641 E-mail: penaj@sfarchdiocese.org

Electrical Electrical Painting ALL ELECTRIC SERVICE 650.322.9288

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Clinical Gerontologist Care Management for the Older Adult Family Consultation –Bereavement Support Kathy Faenzi, MA, Clinical Gerontologist Office: 650.401.6350 Web: www.faenziassociates.com Striving to Achieve Optimum Health & Wellbeing

Service Changes Solar Installation Lighting/Power Fire Alarm/Data Green Energy Fully Licensed • State Certified • Locally Trained • Experienced • On Call 24/7

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Insurance Farmers Insurance Steve Murphy

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Counseling Do you want to be more fulfilled in love and work – but find things keep getting in the way?

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Licensed contractors are required by law to list their license numbers in advertisments. The law also state that contractors performing work totaling $500 or more must be state-licensed. Advertisments appearing in this newspaper without a license number indicate that the contractor is not licensed.

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FOR PEOPLE WHO NEED HELP Marriage, Family, and Individual Counseling David Nellis M.A. M.F.T. (415) 242-3355 www.christiancounseling2.com