March 4, 2011

Cardinal: ‘Renewed Pentecost’ of common prayer, sacrifice can unite Christianity

Catholic san Francisco Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper

(CNS PHOTO/PAUL JEFFREY)

Shared prayer and faith in action are crucial to the next phase of the long struggle to bring the world’s Christian churches toward a union of true catholicity, retired Cardinal Walter Kasper said Feb. 21 in a speech in San Francisco on the future of ecumenism.

C a r d i n a l K a s p e r, president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, gave the University of San Francisco’s annual Paul Wattson Lecture at St. Ignatius Church. His topic: “A vision of Christian unity for the next generation.”

Cardinal Kasper said the ecumenical movement has made irreversible Cardinal Walter Kasper progress since his boyhood before and during World War II – “I never dared to enter a Protestant church; I thought this would be a sin I would have to confess” – but acknowledged that the UNITE CHRISTIANITY, page 10

Sister Mariam Almiron, a member of the Sisters of the Incarnate Word from Argentina, spins a small child around following Sunday Mass at the Holy Family Catholic Parish in Gaza Feb. 22. There are only some 3,000 Christians in Gaza, of whom a little more than 200 are Catholic.

(CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING)

By Rick DelVecchio

Lent begins March 9 High school and college students from the archdiocese are invited to St. Peter Parish in Pacifica March 5 to fast and pray in solidarity with the world’s poor (see Page 3); the Catholic Coalition for Climate Change suggests ideas for ecology-minded Lenten sacrifices (Page 12); Archbishop Niederauer previews the Ash Wednesday homily he will deliver March 9 at St. Mary’s Cathedral (Page 14); and Marianist Brother John Samaha shares a traditional Lenten prayer (Page 16).

Irish immigration increasing as island’s woes drive young adults abroad to Ireland to wait for promised visas, he said. “That will increase as you go into the year,” he said. “As Ireland’s young people are once again emigrating jobs begin to start, you’ll find word goes back that and some are landing in the San Francisco Bay Area. there is a possibility of work.”

Some are here legally, others are not.

The Irish economy is in dire straits But most have a relative or friend who after the 2008 banking collapse. As part came to the U.S. in one of the previof a $93 billion international bailout ous waves of Irish immigration, most in November, the Irish government recently in the 1980s and before that promised four years of austerity meain the 1960s. sures including a lower minimum wage, “There’s a definite trend upwards,” reduced public spending and higher said Father Brendan McBride, a native taxes. There is double-digit unemployof Donegal who heads up the Irish ment, houses built during a credit-fueled Immigration Pastoral Center in San construction boom stand empty and Francisco, whose mission is to see to young people graduating from high the spiritual and general welfare of Irish school and from college are looking immigrants. abroad for work.

Father John Ryan In the first two months of the year, Over the weekend, the Fianna Fail Father McBride counted 33 or 34 new Irish immiparty, which held power since 1932, lost control of grants and another handful came in December. They the lower house or Dail. The Fine Gael and Labor found work with technology companies and went back parties were expected to form a governing coalition.

(PHOTOBY JOEL CARRICO)

By Valerie Schmalz

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said this week there is “room to maneuver” to renegotiate the bailout terms with Ireland’s international lenders.

“It is an extremely tough environment there right now for young people,” said Father John Ryan, the pastor of St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Burlingame, a native of Ireland who had a young relative just move to England for work. “Many of them are trying to leave the country.”

For generations beginning with the 19th-century potato famine when more than 1 million Irish left, Ireland’s children grew up expecting that some of the family would emigrate. But beginning in the mid-1990s, Ireland’s economy boomed, becoming a technology center for the European Union because its solid education system and tax breaks attracted European headquarters of companies such as Google.

A credit-fueled boom collapsed in 2008, and the banking crisis plunged Ireland into a recession.

However, because of the tough visa requirements, IRISH IMMIGRATION, page 11

INSIDE THIS WEEK’S EDITION On the Street . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Defense of Marriage Act . . . . 6 Cathedral Memories . . . . . . . 8 George Weigel. . . . . . . . . . . 15 Catholic author’s novel . . . . 20

Battle of Madison: Bishops ask solidarity ~ Page 5 ~ March 4, 2011

When parishioners skip Communion ~ Page 9 ~

New subtitles for Bresson’s ‘Diary of a Country Priest’ ~ Page 18 ~ ONE DOLLAR

Datebook of Events . . . . . . . 21 Service Directory . . . . . . . . 23

www.catholic-sf.org VOLUME 13

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Catholic San Francisco

March 4, 2011

On The

Pictured on a break from pitchin’ in on Katrina cleanup are the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, back from left, Oh-Chang Kwon, SJ, Chuck Black, John Burke, Glen Butterworth, SJ; middle from left, John Michael Reyes, Joe O’Keefe, SJ, Cathy Zeph, Chuc Vu, LHC, Philippe Habada, SJ, Jim Donovan, SJ, Philip Ganir, SJ; front from left, Jun-Seong Park, SJ, Austin Emerson, Evelyn Wong, VDMF, Raul Navarro, SJ, Paddy Gilder, SJ.

Where You Live

By Tom Burke Gotta’ say I’m not too happy with the Rosetta Stone commercial that says they can now teach people to speak Philadelphian. I know we have an accent but come ‘awn.’‌ “Transylvania comes to Sleepy Hollowâ€? seems the perfect herald’s call for the “Rocky Horror Showâ€? coming to San Domenico School in San Anselmo at the end of the month. Many of us are old enough to remember the sing-a-long musical that goes back some 40 years. But even if you don’t it’s a darn good time. The show started much like “The Fantasticksâ€? in a small theater later taking the world by storm. Some of the original script is out but the fun and the familiar characters are still there. “Please join us for this intergalactic send up of fun and learn firsthand why this zany cast of characters has such an international and multi-generational following!â€? the school says. Call (415) 2581989. ‌ Glad to hear Mary J. Wardell from Holy Name and Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep alum, John Michael Reyes, who is now studying at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley and serving as the school’s Liturgy Director. Even though he goes to school “across the bay,â€? John Michael said he still calls St. Agnes and Holy Name parishes home. In January, he spent 2 weeks on an “intercultural pilgrimage to New Orleans - learning how faith affects culture and vice versa.â€?‌ Congrats to Mary J. Wardell, Ph.D., who has been appointed Associate Vice-Provost for Diversity and Community Engagement for the University of San Francisco. Mary will provide support and leadership in USF’s efforts to promote social justice, equity, and diversity in all its forms, while building an inclusive, collaborative community, the school said. Mary graduated in 1989 from University of the Pacific later completing graduate work in CrossCultural Counseling at San Diego State University and a doctorate in Organizational Behavior and Leadership from Pepperdine University. She served as Dean of Student Affairs at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles for eight years before beginning her service at USF as Dean of Students in 2008. Mary has also served at California State University in San Marcos.

Born in Stockton, she now makes her home in San Francisco. The Associate Vice -Provost supports and promotes the diversity initiatives of all USF divisions through programs, dialogue, and serving as resource to students, faculty, staff, administrators, and alumni, USF

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Archdiocesan youth Lenten events include retreat, food fast The Food Fast day includes a number of studentled activities from Food Fast Jeopardy with facts High school and college students from the about hunger and another activity centered on Archdiocese of San Francisco are invited to St. migration to cooking the day’s meal to be served Peter Parish in Pacifica March 5 to fast and pray at day’s end. in solidarity with the poor of the world.

With Ash Wednesday on March 9, the day is It is the first of two events organized by the archtimed for thoughtful reflection about Lent. diocesan youth ministry office and the Department The second event is a two-hour retreat at St. of Catholic Schools to promote prayer and fasting Thomas More gym called “Shadows to Light,” during Lent. The second is a retreat with Bishop with Bishop Justice. The 1-3 p.m. mini-retreat William J. Justice March 27 at St. Thomas More invites youth to reflect on Lenten themes of grace School gym in San Francisco. and forgiveness by youth-led activities that tell the The March 5 “Food Fast for Youth” is organized Gospel stories of the Woman at the Well, the Man by and for parish and high school youth groups, said Born Blind and Lazarus.

Vivian Clausing, archdiocesan associate director of The Woman at the Well meets Jesus and says she youth ministry and catechesis. Registration begins is not married but actually has had many husbands. at 8:30 a.m. and the day concludes at 5:30 with a The Man Born Blind has his sight restored by Jesus meal and Mass. rubbing mud on his eyes, and Lazarus is Jesus’ Participants are pictured at the 2010 archdiocesan Food Fast for high “They fast all day,” said Clausing, noting that friend and the brother of Mary and Martha who last year some of the youth groups began the night school and college students, held at St. Peter Parish in Pacifica. Youth Jesus raises from the dead. The Scripture stories before with a sleepover and fast at their parishes. are invited to attend this year’s Food Fast March 5 at the same location. will be presented in song, acting, reading and video.

An offering of $10 each is requested although no “The theme in all of these is Jesus healing and one will be turned away for lack of funds.

A group of students from Notre Dame de Namur meeting everyone where they are,” Clausing said. “Jesus Catholic Relief Services speaker Scott Campbell will make University in Belmont will make a Catholic Relief Services meets us where we are and heals us no matter who we are.” a presentation about the situation in Haiti. Marianist Father presentation about the witness of faith of Notre Dame misTo participate, contact your parish or school youth minJohn Thompson will celebrate Mass and participate in the sionary Sister Dorothy Stang, who was killed in the Amazon ister or e-mail clausingv@sfarchdiocese.org or suzioj@ events of the day with the high school students, Clausing said. in 2005, Clausing said. sfarchdiocese.org.

By Valerie Schmalz

Chilean miners visit Holy Land to thank for God for being rescued

By Judith Sudilovsky JERUSALEM (CNS) – Despite the overwhelming media attention they received and heated debate over the purpose of their visit, 25 Chilean miners who arrived in Israel in late February said theirs was a visit of thanksgiving.

“We want to thank God for all that he did for us. Our faith and hope were fundamental for our survival,” said Mario Gomez, the oldest of the 33 miners trapped for more than two months underground while dramatic rescue efforts attracted worldwide attention.

“It was a miracle,” Gomez said of his rescue; he was 63 at the time. “There is one being who could achieve that, and that is God. He gave us a second life. When we exited the capsule, we returned to being ourselves.”

The miners said they were eager to see the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Via Dolorosa – the traditional route of Jesus’

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Way of the Cross – and the Western Wall among other religious and historic sites.

Richard Villarroel and his wife, Dana Castro, brought along their 4-month-old-son, Richard, born six days after the rescue.

“We prayed every day. I lost count of the numbers of Hail Marys and Our Fathers we said,” said Villarroel, who carried his son in a baby carrier on his chest. Young Richard was covered with a Jewish prayer shawl to protect him from the sun as they walked on the Via Dolorosa surrounded by cameras.

Since their rescue the miners have been special guests at various sites, including Disney World and England, where they met the Manchester United soccer team.

The miners were given a hero’s welcome by Israel. Other sites

planned for their tour were Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, the Mount of Olives, Galilee, the Dead Sea, Nazareth and Tel Aviv.

The miners received an equally warm welcome from shopkeepers and pedestrians in the West Bank city of Bethlehem Feb. 26, as they walked through the market. A representative of the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism greeted them on their arrival and a Chilean Franciscan monk guided them through the Church of the Nativity.

Despite Israeli claims to the contrary, some Palestinian nongovernmental groups accused Israel of extending the invitation as a public relations stunt at the expense of the miners.

The miners said the trip was purely a pilgrimage of thanksgiving and they did not want to be entangled in politics.

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Catholic San Francisco

NEWS

March 4, 2011

in brief (CNS PHOTO/SIMON BAKER, REUTERS)

Pope: Let go of anxieties VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict said living one’s faith means putting God before material wealth. The pope, speaking at his Sunday blessing to some 30,000 people in St. Peter’s Square Feb. 27, commented on a passage from the Gospel of St. Matthew, in which Jesus tells people not to worry about what they eat or wear, because God will always provide for their needs. The pope said this kind of trust in God is not a form of “fatalism.” He said: “Faith in providence, in fact, does not dispense us from working to have a dignified life, but frees us from worry over material things and from fear about the future.”

Seeking John Paul II stories Do you have a special memory or experience of Pope John Paul II? Catholic San Francisco is collecting local recollections of Pope John Paul II in preparation for his beatification on May 1. If you have an experience whether of his 1987 visit to San Francisco or other experiences or memories, and would like to share them, please contact Assistant Editor Valerie Schmalz at schmalzv@sfarchdiocese.org.

‘Heartbreaking’ plight of refugees in Tripoli crossfire VATICAN CITY – Bishop Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli, apostolic vicar of Tripoli, Libya, said 2,000 Eritreans showed up at a church and church-run facilities Feb. 27 asking for help as rebels battled forces loyal to Col. Moammar Gadhafi.

“My heart is breaking because we can’t do anything for them.

My thoughts go out especially to the women and children, who truly are the ‘least’ the Gospel talks about,” Bishop Martinelli said.

“Violence only leads to a humanitarian catastrophe,” Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican representative to U.N. agencies in Geneva, told the Human Rights Council Feb. 25, “Especially vulnerable in this crisis are asylum seekers, refugees and irregular immigrant workers from sub-Saharan Africa, who risk being made a scapegoat of accumulated frustrations.”

Pope says women often led by others to have abortions VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI said that pregnant women facing difficulties due to their personal circumstances or to health issues of the fetus can be misled by doctors or people close to them into believing that abortion is the best solution.

And those who have undergone abortions often find themselves beset by serious psychological and spiritual problems from the “deep wound” that is the consequence of actions that “betray the innate vocation for human good,” the pope said Feb. 26.

Bishop: Rome is proper home for traditionalist Anglicans PERTH, Australia – Traditionalist Anglicans who remain in the Anglican Church rather than taking up Pope Benedict XVI’s offer of an Anglican ordinariate are clinging to a dangerous illusion, said the Vatican’s delegate for the Australian ordinariate.

Melbourne Auxiliary Bishop Peter Elliott, a former Anglican, urged Anglicans at a Feb. 26 festival in Perth to take up the pope’s offer of “peace.”

“I would caution people who still claim to be Anglo-Catholics and yet are holding back,” he told The Record, Catholic newspaper of the Archdiocese of Perth, Feb. 26. “I’d say ‘When are you going to face realities?’ because there’s no place for a classical Anglo-Catholic in the Anglican Communion anymore.”

In November 2009, Pope Benedict announced his decision to erect personal ordinariates for former Anglicans who wanted to enter into full communion with Rome.

Archbishop Gomez succeeds Cardinal Mahony in Los Angeles LOS ANGELES – On the day Cardinal Roger M. Mahony celebrated his 75th birthday – the age at which bishops are required to submit their resignations to the pope – Archbishop Jose H. Gomez was welcomed as the new leader of the church of Los Angeles.

More than 6,000 people assembled for two Masses Feb. 27 at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels to observe the transition of leadership in the Los Angeles archdiocese.

celebrate

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A man carries the casket of 5-monthold Baxtor Gowland, who died in the Feb. 22 earthquake, during a funeral in Christchurch, New Zealand, Feb. 28.

The magnitude 6.3 quake killed at least 155 people, with 240 missing, the New Zealand government reported March 1.

The city’s Catholic cathedral was heavily damaged and 20 people were feared missing in the ruins.

In the March 4 issue of The Tidings, the Los Angeles archdiocesan newspaper, Archbishop Gomez wrote that his five priorities are education in the faith, promoting vocations, celebrating the church’s cultural diversity, proclaiming the sanctity of life and defending marriage and the family.

Central, Eastern Europe collection set for March 9 WASHINGTON – The national collection for the church in Central and Eastern Europe will take place on Ash Wednesday, March 9, in parishes across the country. In dioceses throughout Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union regions of Asia, aging physical structures, insufficient funding and a lack of trained lay persons and religious are common challenges.

An advocate of the Reproductive Health Bill takes part in a protest outside the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines in Manila Feb. 27.

Hundreds of women protesters called on bishops to stop their opposition to the bill, which permits education on contraception.

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(CNS PHOTO/CHERYL RAVELO, REUTERS)

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Come and be with us for a Lenten Discernment Retreat etreat March 25-27 For Information Contact Sister Cindy Kaye aye kayenun@yahoo.com, 650 340-7434 40-7434 Visit us online: www.mercywestmidwest.org .org

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Catholic san Francisco Newspaper of the Archdiocese of San Francisco

Most Reverend George H. Niederauer, publisher Maurice E. Healy, associate publisher & executive editor: healym@sfarchdiocese.org Editorial Staff: Rick DelVecchio, editor: delvecchior@sfarchdiocese.org; Valerie Schmalz, assistant editor: schmalzv@sfarchdiocese.org; George Raine, reporter: raineg@sfarchdiocese.org Tom Burke, “On the Street”/Datebook: burket@sfarchdiocese.org

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March 4, 2011

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Battle of Madison: Bishops appeal to common good in labor clash of workers’ associations that can defend their rights must therefore be honored today even more than in the past, as a Wisconsin’s Catholic bishops, with their state at the cen- prompt and far-sighted response to the urgent need for new ter of a rising national debate over public employee union forms of cooperation at the international level, as well as rights at a time of fiscal crisis for many state governments, the local level.”’ are citing Catholic social teaching in appealing to both sides It does not follow from this that every claim made by to end the divisiveness. workers or their representatives is valid, Archbishop Listecki In a brief reflection Feb. 16, Milwaukee Archbishop said: “Every union, like every other economic actor, is called Jerome E. Listecki took the opportunity to repeat what the to work for the common good, to make sacrifices when church teaches on social justice and to urge that both sides required and to adjust to new economic realities.” work toward the common good.

But he said it is equally a mistake to marginalize or disHis comments, sent to miss unions as impediments state lawmakers under the to economic growth. “As letterhead of the Wisconsin Pope John Paul II wrote in The debates over worker Catholic Conference, came 1981, “(a) union remains a in the middle of a batconstructive factor of social representation are not simply tle between Wisconsin’s order and solidarity, and it Republican governor, Scott is impossible to ignore,” the matters of ideology or power, Walker, and the state’s pubMilwaukee prelate said. lic employee unions. The Archbishop Listecki but involve principles of justice. battle concerns Walker’s concluded: “It is espeproposal to curtail the cially in times of crisis that – Stockton Bishop Stephen Blaire ‘new forms of cooperaunions’ organizing and bargaining rights in order tion’ and open communicato save money on union tion become essential. We contracts and help the state balance its budget. request that lawmakers carefully consider the implications With similar proposals emerging in statehouses in Ohio of this proposal and evaluate it in terms of its impact on the and Indiana, union organizers are preparing for what they common good.” believe will be a national fight to protect bargaining and On Feb. 24, Madison Bishop Robert C. Morlino comorganizing rights won over decades in negotiations with mented on the Wisconsin conflict in a column in the Catholic state governments.

Herald, the newspaper of the Madison diocese. He asked the “The church is well aware that difficult economic times question, “What is fair?” call for hard choices and financial responsibility to further “The question to which the dilemma boils down is rather the common good,” Archbishop Listecki wrote. “Our own simple on its face: Is the sacrifice which union members, dioceses and parishes have not been immune to the effects including school teachers, are called upon to make, proporof the current economic difficulties. But hard times do not tionate to the relative sacrifice called for from all in difficult nullify the moral obligation each of us has to respect the economic times? In other words, is the sacrifice fair in the legitimate rights of workers.” overall context of our present situation?” he asked.

He quoted Pope Benedict XVI’s 2009 encyclical, “Caritas “At a time when all are called to sacrifice, this quesin Veritate.” ‘“Governments, for reasons of economic utility, often West Coast Church Supplies limit the freedom or the negotiating capacity of labor 369 Grand Avenue unions. Hence traditional networks of solidarity have more South San Francisco and more obstacles to overcome. The repeated calls issued within the church’s social doctrine … for the promotion 1-800-767-0660

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By Rick DelVecchio

Mike Rickey, a Wisconsin state prison corrections officer, demonstrates Feb. 18 at the Capitol in Madison.

tion requires a weighing of the relative sacrifice which all are called upon to make, so that a judgment about just proportions can be made by each one of us,” Bishop Morlino continued.

BATTLE OF MADISON, page 7

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Host High Schools Include: Archbishop Riordan High School (San Francisco) Convent of the Sacred Heart (San Francisco) Immaculate Conception Academy (San Francisco) Junípero Serra High School (San Mateo) Marin Catholic High School (Kentfield) Mercy High School (Burlingame) Mercy High School (San Francisco) Notre Dame High School (Belmont) Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory (San Francisco) Sacred Heart Preparatory (Atherton) Saint Ignatius College Preparatory (San Francisco) Stuart Hall High School (San Francisco) Woodside Priory (Portola Valley) Bring copies of your résumé to the Faire.

6

Catholic San Francisco

March 4, 2011

Bishops criticize Obama administration’s decision on marriage law WASHINGTON (CNS) – The U.S. bishops’ Office of Organization for Marriage, which opposes same-sex marGeneral Counsel said the Obama administration’s decision to no riage, called on Congress to “get lawyers in the courtroom longer support the Defense of Marriage Act in legal challenges who actually want to defend the law, and not please their ahead “represents an abdication” of its “constitutional obligation powerful political special interests.” to ensure that laws of the United States are faithfully executed.”

“We have only begun to fight,” said Brian Brown, presi“Marriage has been understood for millennia and across dent of the organization. He also said that with Holder’s cultures as the union of one man and one announcement, Obama “unilaterally” woman,” the office said in a statement issued declared homosexuals “a protected class” Feb. 23 after President Barack Obama instructunder the Constitution and would effeced the Justice Department to stop defending tively make a federal court decision on the the federal law passed by Congress and signed law, “unreviewable by higher courts.” into law in 1996 by President Bill Clinton.

Sen Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said that as a member of the Judiciary Committee she The Defense of Marriage Act says the intends to introduce legislation to repeal the federal government defines marriage as a Defense of Marriage Act. “My own belief union between one man and one woman is that when two people love each other and and that no state must recognize a same-sex enter the contract of marriage, the federal marriage from another state. government should honor that.”

“The principal basis for today’s decision House Judiciary Committee Chairman is that the president considers the law a form Attorney General Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said the Justice of impermissible sexual orientation discrimiEric Holder Department has a responsibility to defend nation,” the Office of General Counsel said.

In a Feb. 23 statement, Attorney General Eric Holder said the laws passed by Congress regardless of the personal politithat although the administration has defended the 1996 law cal views of the president or the attorney general.

Not to defend the Defense of Marriage Act is “irrein some federal courts, it will not continue to do so in cases pending in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Unlike in the sponsible,” he said. “It is a transparent attempt to shirk the previous cases, said Holder, the 2nd Circuit “has no established department’s duty.”

While Obama favors repealing the law, Holder said he or binding standard for how laws concerning sexual orientation has supported defending it as constitutional if a state or local should be treated.”

In response to the announcement, the National law meets the legal standard of having “a rational basis” for

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singling out people for different treatment based on sexual orientation.

But in the pending cases, Holder said, the administration “faces for the first time the question of whether laws regarding sexual orientation are subject to the more permissive standard of review or whether a more rigorous standard, under which laws targeting minority groups with a history of discrimination are viewed with suspicion by the courts, should apply.”

Obama “has concluded that given a number of factors, including a documented history of discrimination, classifications based on sexual orientation should be subject to a more heightened standard of scrutiny,” Holder’s statement said. He added that Obama has concluded that the law “as applied to legally married same-sex couples, fails to meet that standard and is therefore unconstitutional. Given that conclusion, the president has instructed the department not to defend the statute in such cases. I fully concur with the president’s determination.”

Holder went on to say that the legal landscape has changed since the law was passed, including with Supreme Court rulings overturning laws criminalizing homosexual conduct and the repeal by Congress of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

March 5 walk for India’s female infanticide victims Thousands are expected to join “The Global Walk for Indian’s Missing Girls” March 5 in cities around the world from San Francisco to Dubai to Mumbai and Delhi, India, to highlight India’s millions of missing girls – killed by infanticide and by abortion because of a cultural preference for boys.

In San Francisco, the Walk begins at 11 a.m. at City Hall in San Francisco and ends at Union Square.

“Ten million girls have been killed by their parents, either before or immediately after birth in the last two decades” and 50 million have died in the past century, say organizers of The Global Walk for India’s Missing Girls. With the introduction of ultrasound sex determination, sex selection abortions have skyrocketed even though Indian law prohibits it. The average ratio of women to men is 927 to 1,000 based on the last census in 2001, according to organizers. Infanticide also continues to be practiced, according to the U.N. Population Fund.

“We will keep walking until female genocide is eradicated,” said filmmaker Nyna Caputo, a walk organizer born in India who has lived in San Francisco for the past eight years.

Seven cities participated in the first walk in 2010. This year the walk is timed to coincide with International Women’s Day and is planned for 15 cities: Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Agra, Kolkata, Chennai, Jamshedpur, Goa, Sri Ganganagar, Dubai, Toronto, Vancouver, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco.

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Catholic San Francisco

March 4, 2011

Battle of Madison . . .

Hawaii OKs civil unions; Maryland debates marriage

■ Continued from page 5 He said church teaching allows people of goodwill to disagree “as to which horn of this dilemma should be chosen.” He said the problem is that there is no common ground on the meaning of what is fair.

“The problem with responding to that question, of course, is that there appears to be no common ground in terms of what the word ‘fair’ actually means among various individuals,” Bishop Morlino said.

“Some believe that ‘a fair solution’ would require sacrifice from everyone but self,” he said. “The relativism of our culture and society once again does us grave harm, because the cultural response to the question of the meaning of ‘fair’ is, ‘well, what’s fair for you is fair for you and what’s fair for me is fair for me,’ leaving us no common ground for reasonable and civil discourse. We are left with our emotions about the word ‘fair.’

This, then, is a moment in our state and in our nation when the terrible effects of relativism on a culture are being blatantly displayed.”

Bishop Stephen Blaire of Stockton, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, expressed his “support for and solidarity” with the Wisconsin bishops’ statement on the rights of workers.

“You and our brother bishops in Wisconsin

Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki

Stockton Bishop Stephen Blaire

are offering a timely reminder of what the church teaches on the rights and duties of workers, including the right to form and belong to unions and other associations, and the obligation to address difficult problems with respect for the rights and needs of all. As you insist, ‘hard times do not nullify the moral obligation each of us has to respect the legitimate rights of workers,’ Bishop Blaire wrote in a Feb. 23 letter to Archbishop Listecki.

“Catholic teaching and your statement remind us these are not just political conflicts or economic choices; they are moral choices with enormous human dimensions.

The debates over worker representation and collective bargaining are not simply matters of ideology or power, but involve principles of justice, participation and how workers can have a voice in the workplace and economy,” Bishop Blaire wrote.

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HONOLULU (CNS) – Hawaii Democratic Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed same-sex civil unions into law Feb. 23, a week after the bill passed the state Legislature, calling it a “triumph for everyone.”

Civil unions will be legal in the 50th state beginning Jan. 1, 2012. The law extends the same rights, benefits, protections and responsibilities of spouses in marriage to homosexual couples in a civil union.

The Hawaii Catholic Conference said it was disappointed with lawmakers’ support for the measure and the governor’s endorsement.

“Passage of this legislation is just a step toward the legalization of same-sex marriage,” said the conference, the church’s public policy arm, in a Feb. 23 statement.

“Marriage is what it is and always has been, no matter how this Legislature defines it; however, the public understanding of marriage will be negatively affected by passage of a law that ignores the natural fact that sexual complementarity is at the very core of marriage,” it said. “The impact of this legislation on Catholic ministries remains an important and thus far unanswered concern.”

Meanwhile in Maryland, a committee of the House of Delegates opened a hearing about same-sex marriage Feb. 25; a vote by the full House was expected to follow quickly. The state Senate passed the measure Feb. 24, and Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley has promised to sign it into law.

In a homily Feb. 13 at an archdiocesan Mass for World Marriage Day, Baltimore Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien said the recognition of marriage as being between one man and one woman is not arbitrary.

“This recognition, bestowed on marriage by societies throughout human history, originates in a simple biological fact,” he said.

“The union of one man and one woman is the only relationship capable of creating children and nurturing them together as father and mother.”

In late January in Hawaii, Honolulu Bishop Larry Silva wrote to state senators urging them to vote against legalizing civil union, saying passage of the measure would have “detrimental effects.”

The bishop described the legislation as discriminating against non-Western cultures, children and family members.

“Civil unions, while they may not be the exact equivalent of marriage, are so much like marriage that our acceptance of them will ultimately force us into accepting samesex marriage,” he wrote. “We should not be afraid to identify the desire of same-sex couples to enshrine these unions in law as a manufactured civil right and not a true civil right based upon our human dignity.”

Abercrombie’s signing the bill into law coincided with President Barack Obama’s Feb. 23 order for his administration to stop defending a federal law banning same-sex marriages.

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Catholic San Francisco

March 4, 2011

One man’s love for God and for the cathedral he helped sustain buildings in other parishes. He was so much a part of his faith or should I say his faith was so Catholic San Francisco is inviting read- much of who he was. He gave of himself freely ers to contribute their first-person Cathedral without attachment and understood clearly his Memories to celebrate the 40th anniversary of relationship with God. I envy him and this the dedication of the Cathedral of St. Mary of truly loving relationship he had with the church the Assumption. The paper will collect the arti- and God. I struggle today with my own faith, but cles, including the following because of my upbringing and one, in a special anniversary memories of his love of life, issue planned for April. A his faith and his work, I am Mass to celebrate the annistill in the game of life today! versary will be held May 5.

My son Nick graduatI could not let this pass ed from Junipero Serra High without at least noting that I School and the Mass and have special memories about graduation rites took place at St. Mary’s Cathedral. My St. Mary’s. This was special father, Aldo P. Lera was preto me as well and I knew sented with the “Assumpta at that time my father was Award” in 1998 and he was in though I wished he ATHEDRAL watching love with the cathedral. could have been there. I felt His devotion to the church his presence in the cathedral EMORIES was present and demonstrated and all I had to do is visit the all through my life and I have plaque on the wall to know gratitude for this today. My dad has been gone that the building holds his spirit in a blessed for 11 years now but my memories of him special way. include much of what he did with and around St. Mary’s will continue to be a very spehis faith. Somewhere in my storage is his award cial place for me. I have been fortunate to be that was presented to him during a great night touched, blessed and experience God’s will at the cathedral. He worked hard to help rectify through my father’s work with the church, the electrical issues in the cathedral and in many especially at St. Mary’s.

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Catholic San Francisco

9

Pastors take different approaches when parishioners skip Communion ALBANY, N.Y. (CNS) – Father Adam Forno occasionally notices parishioners skipping the Eucharist at St. John the Evangelist and St. Joseph parish in Rensselaer, where he is pastor.

Sometimes, a Massgoer doesn’t receive Communion because he or she has remarried without having a first marriage annulled. Other times, it is because of personal shame. “We’ve got some people who just feel they’re not worthy,� Father Forno explained. “People have a strong sense of not being in right relationship with God, and so they honor that by not going to Communion as they were taught. But my sense is that you need Communion more than ever then.�

A man in one of Father Forno’s former parishes attended daily Mass, but he never received Communion. Father Forno approached him and said: “You come to supper with the Lord, but you don’t eat.� The priest asked if the man needed to reconcile anything with God and offered to help.

Several pastors throughout the Albany Diocese said they have spotted handfuls of Catholics at their parishes abstaining from the Eucharist, occasionally or habitually.

They noted that many parishioners falsely believe being divorced or forgetting to pray are reasons to abstain.

Massgoers who stay seated during Communion present pastors and parish leaders with complex tasks of spiritual guidance. Whenever possible, parish lead-

ers are advised to teach about church rules but help people differentiate between mortal and venial sin. “It calls for such pastoral nuancing,� Father Forno said. “It’s not black and white.�

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, parishioners who are “aware of having committed a mortal sin must not receive holy Communion, even if (they experience) deep contrition, without having first received sacramental absolution, unless (they have) a grave reason for receiving Communion and there is no possibility of going to confession.�

For a sin to be considered mortal, its object must be grave matter and it must be committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent, according to the catechism.

Often, people falsely believe they are in a state of mortal sin because their actions contradict church teaching, said Father Peter Sullivan, assistant judicial Deacon Thomas Rich distributes Communion vicar to Albany Bishop Howard J. Hubbard. during Mass at Our Lady of Hope Church Father Sullivan said pastors in Carle Place, N.Y., in November 2010. and spiritual directors should counsel people based on their individual situations. He offered the their elders to die on the ice to prevent example of 19th-century Eskimos leaving them from experiencing long, excruciating deaths without the aid of morphine: Today, this might be considered murder; back then, it was mercy.

Culture, Father Sullivan said, “programs you – and sometimes programs you poorly.

You just absorb it. You don’t even know how you absorb it.�

In turn, culture can affect a Catholic’s feelings of worthiness before the Eucharist. “I tell people Communion is not a reward for having been good, but the spiritual food necessary to continue the journey,� Father Sullivan said, recalling the Gospel story of the vine and the branches: “(Jesus is) saying, ‘If you do not receive my body and blood, you do not have my life in you.’ “You need to go to Communion, and you can do so very humbly. You’re not doing this with pride; you’re doing this out of a need and out of a command.�

Father Forno recalled the prayer recited

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immediately before receiving Communion: “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed.� “If we say those words and believe it,� he said, “then the Lord should be able to heal (us).�

Further, Father Sullivan said, no one should discourage others from receiving; conscience decisions are private.

Father Anthony Barratt, pastor of Annunciation Parish in Ilion and Our Lady Queen of Apostles Parish in Frankfort, also notices abstainers every now and then.

In his experience, they are usually Catholics who feel they are overdue for confession. “I’m always amazed at people’s love for the Eucharist, their reverence for it,� he told The Evangelist, Albany diocesan newspaper.

Marianne Lee, a parish eucharistic minister, agrees that few “sit out� Communion, but older Catholics might be influenced by the culture of their youth, when people went to confession more frequently. “There are still some people who feel they need to have the sacrament of reconciliation before they receive,� Lee said.

Father Paul Catena, pastor at Sacred Heart Parish in Margaretville, said he often faces the task of making people aware of outstanding sins. But approaching them about the need for confession before receiving Communion is no easy task. “It’s hard to go up to somebody and say they shouldn’t,� Father Catena said. “I think every priest struggles with, ‘What do I say?

When do I say it?’ The best I can do is try to teach over time.�

Christianity, he said, is about continual conversion; followers should always learn and grow in faith.

Church teachings can also confuse Catholics. “They’re not easy to understand,�

Father Catena said. “It takes time and effort to understand the teachings, and it takes a certain openness.�

Along the way, Father Sullivan said, the Eucharist is there to help: “It is the nourishment that is demanded by the Lord in order to walk the way.�

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Catholic San Francisco

March 4, 2011

Unite Christianity . . .

■ Continued from cover first wave of success is now met with much disenchantment at unfulfilled expectations.

“Ecumenical progress has slowed down,” he said, “with churches often seeming to withdraw into old self-sufficient ecumenism.”

Ecumenism itself has become a reason for internal conflicts and separations within churches as questions of identity come to the fore, said the cardinal, a former Bishop of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, Germany. It also has become complicated by the rise of Pentecostal sects.

“I would ask the question whether ecumenism has become a relic of the Second Vatican Council,” he said.

“What can be done next?”

Cardinal Kasper, 78 this month, was frank about what he feels the ecumenical movement does not need more of: conferences, commissions and the like with their “perpetual repetition of the same arguments, concerns, problems and lamentations.”

The ecumenical documents of recent decades weigh in at more than 2,300 pages, not counting regional and local papers, he said. “Who can read this stuff?” he asked. “And indeed, who would want to?”

In an interview taped for the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s “Archbishop’s Hour” radio program, the cardinal added this note: “The Spirit did not come with paper; it came with fire that burns the paper.”

Ecumenism, which concerns the unity of the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church and churches that derive from the Reformation, must be more than an academic affair, the cardinal said in his talk.

“German theologians, in particular,” he said, “are defined by the fact that everyone is so intelligent that he or she will always have an argument against what the other has said. Such purely academic dialogues are an eschatological pursuit. ‘Normal’ faithful cannot participate, and they become alienated and annoyed.”

The cardinal said the way forward is a Christ-centered ecumenism focused on the faithful following Jesus’ prayer “that they all be one.”

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“Ecumenism means to follow and to participate in Jesus’ prayer,” as did Mary and the disciples who assembled before Pentecost to pray for the coming of the Spirit (Acts 1:12-14), Cardinal Kasper said.

On Pentecost, Jesus sent the Spirit. “Today the unity of the church can be accomplished only by a renewed Pentecost; but just like the Pentecost, we too have to come together to pray for the outpouring of the Spirit,” the cardinal said.

Despite fears that the European church is being rolled back by relativism, Cardinal Kasper was optimistic: Secular intellectuals sense ‘something is missing.’

Prayer is the main activity needed for ecumenism to progress, the cardinal said. Such “spiritual ecumenism” means common reading of the Bible. It also means an exchange of spiritual experiences in families, churches, workplaces and leisure time. Finally, it means ecumenical collaboration in serving the poor, the sick, the jobless and the lonely and the suffering of all kinds, he said.

“This kind of ecumenism does not start from above but from below,” Cardinal Kasper said. “This is all the more urgent because, while there is widespread disaffection with institutions, there is in contrast a new desire and a profound longing for spirituality.”

In an interview with Catholic San Francisco, Cardinal Kasper added that he feels that every parish should organize common prayers and charitable and social work.

Cardinal Kasper said that in his native Germany Mass attendance has declined by two-thirds since 1950. “The tradition is no longer there,” he said in the newspaper interview.

“We are standing, in a way, as a new generation of Christians.”

Despite fears that the European church is being rolled back by a tide of relativism, Cardinal Kasper was optimistic. He said Pope Benedict’s apostolic visitation to the

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United Kingdom last September was preceded by “absurd polemics” from church critics but followed by a newfound respect among intellectuals for the pope’s articulation of spirituality’s role.

“There’s a sense among the secular intellectuals that something is missing,” Cardinal Kasper said, adding that a new opening for conversation has emerged.

Asked if the church’s self-inflicted wounds in the clergy abuse crisis have had an impact on relationships with other Christian communions, he answered: “Because the mass media attacked only us, there were some who switched to the Protestant churches.” But loss of trust in the church is a serious concern and restoring trust always takes a great deal of time, he said.

Not only a spiritual unity but also a visible unity is ecumenism’s goal, Cardinal Kasper said in his talk. Between Catholics and Protestants, the key is to have the same faith on the Eucharist and church ministry. Between Catholics and Orthodox, the understanding of apostolic succession from St. Peter is crucial.

Pope Benedict has twice repeated Pope John Paul II’s 1995 invitation for dialogue to exercise Petrine ministry in a way that is more acceptable to non-Catholic Christians, Cardinal Kasper said, who noted that the pope’s first words to him on his election to the papacy were to continue to walk together on the path of unity.

“This is not an easy dialogue and it will take much time and requires much patience and sensitivity on all sides,” he said.

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Irish immigration . . .

(CNS PHOTO/DARREN STAPLES, REUTERS)

tourist visas for 90 days and then stay on to work, she said.

“So many Irish people have relatives, ■ Continued from cover brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts that are livfew of the 100,000 Irish expected to leave ing in America,” said Sean Canniffe, ediIreland each year for the next two years tor and publisher of San Francisco’s The are likely to land in the U.S. After con- Irish Herald. “Even though it’s not an easy sulting with friends and relatives here, thing to be undocumented in America, it is doable. People are most are headcoming. Because ing to Australia there is nothing for or Canada where them at home.” there are more jobs However, and it is easier Canniffe said to arrive without he is also seework and then ing the return of obtain a visa, said Irish with work Myles Geiran, visas or American press officer for citizenship who the Embassy had moved back of Ireland in to Ireland in the Washington, D.C. 1990s to raise their The exception is children when the those who obtain Irish economy a H-1B visa or boomed in what who have a J visa, was dubbed the a one-year visa “Celtic Tiger.” for post-secondary “There is also is school students, a small but signifiGeiran said. The cant number who H-1B program A nun places her ballot into the ballot box are coming back or distributes 65,000 after voting at a polling station in Dublin planning to come visas to immiFeb. 25. The Irish election was dominated back who previgrants worldwide who have obtained by the trauma of economic collapse and the ously lived here,” Canniffe said. guarantees of jobs harsh path back to financial stability.

The Irish in U.S. businessImmigration es in specialized fields such as science, engineering or Pastoral Center provides a “safe haven” for immigrants, said Kennelly, including computer programming.

Other Irish college and secondary preparation for marriage and baptism, but school graduates are moving elsewhere also assistance with housing, jobs and in Europe because there are no work visa family issues.

While Ireland is not as religious as it requirements for nationals whose countries are part of the European Union, said was decades ago, most Irish still hold to Celine Kennelly, executive director of the their faith and find Irish Catholic priests and parishes, as well as the pastoral cenIrish Immigration Pastoral Center.

However, some Irish continue to come ter, Kennelly said. Canniffe, who lives to the U.S., Kennelly said. Many come on in Burlingame with his wife and three

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Catholic San Francisco

11

In post-bubble Ireland, bishops point way beyond ‘insecurity and even despair’ Ireland’s people are suffering badly because of the effects of institutional failure and “reckless gambling” with finance instead of responsible economic practices that nurture the common good, Ireland’s bishops’ conference says in a reflection on the country’s economic and social woes.

The reflection, “From Crisis to Hope: Working to Achieve the Common Good,” by the Council for Justice and Peace of the Irish Episcopal Conference, points to Pope Benedict XVI’s 2009 encyclical, “Caritas in Veritate,” as a way Ireland can find its way back to the path of the common good.

The bishops said “the danger of social unrest” obliged them to state their vision for the country.

“The starting point for this analysis is a recognition of the devastating impact of the financial crisis on individuals and families throughout Ireland and an acknowledgment of the breakdown in trust in core institutions, North and South – including the Catholic Church – that contributed to our current situation,” according to the document, released Feb. 21.

Very few have not suffered financially from the demise of the “Celtic Tiger” – boom-time Ireland of the ‘90s until the crash of 2008, marked by inflated asset values, the document maintains.

“The present crisis has left large numbers of people out of work on both sides of the border, giving rise to insecurity and even despair amongst some,” the document states, noting that unemployment is up almost threefold in the past three years and Northern Ireland suffers the U.K.’s worst economy.

Ireland should embrace a just, fair and compassionate response toward debtors and should take steps to ensure that the mistakes of the past are not repeated, the document states.

Those responsible must be held accountable, according to the bishops, but “we will never even begin to be able to address the root causes of the crisis and chart a way forward unless we acknowledge the truth that we are not just simply victims but have made some contribution to the culture which has generated this crisis.”

– Catholic San Francisco

small children, attends Mass weekly at St. Catherine with a number of Irish-born Catholics and lives in an area that he says is at least a quarter Irish.

“We tend to move with our priests.

Particularly for the young immigrants who are not settled in parishes,” said Kennelly.

Kennelly is a fierce advocate for changing a system that she says makes it nearly impossible for her fellow countrymen to come here and work legally. The system is one that many, including the U.S. bishops, say requires reform and has led to an estimated 10 million undocumented immigrants here, most from Latin America.

“I don’t know of any immigrant who is here with or without papers who isn’t

L e g a l

working. Everybody is working. There is work to be had. There is work available,” Kennelly said. “Unfortunately the immigration system as it currently operates means there are just no visa options. Any visa options that are there are phenomenally limited.”

She estimates that about 5,000 of the 50,000 undocumented Irish in the U.S. are in the San Francisco Bay Area.

“Just weekly, it’s mostly stories of local businesses closing down, factories closing down, factories moving to other countries,” said Kennelly, who keeps in close touch with her family in Ireland.

“The problem with Ireland is there is nothing at home. There are no employment options.”

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Catholic San Francisco

March 4, 2011

Local parish’s Knights of Peter Claver group sees membership growth all men and women to take their rightful place and time which was, and sometimes is, not always welcoming.”

It became clear on the 100th anniver“I think they decided to take the high sary of the Knights of Peter Claver that road,” Bradley, the grand lady of Court there wouldn’t be another 100 years for 155, said of the founders, rather than the largest historically African-American succumb to bitterness that follows rejecCatholic lay organization without an infution. “They were helping the church, sion of members, ideally young and eager. and that’s what we are about – help the Membership was stagnant in 2009, the parish, in parish activities, raising money membership is aging, there was a turnover and along with that helping the people in leadership in 2010, and the message of the parish,” she said. is clear for the group’s 18,000 memBradley and her auxiliary colleague, bers, 11,000 of whom are in the Ladies Hanks, are sisters. Their mother passed Auxiliary: reinvigorate or you’ll fade away. away after serving as a Peter Claver That said, it is no surprise to people Ladies Auxiliary member for 27 years. who know of the spirit of volunteerism Now, Bradley’s daughter, Kacey Bradley, and helping others that permeates St. 29, a Stanford University graduate like Francis of Assisi Church in East Palo that her mother, and a manager at Gap Inc., its unit of the Knights of Peter Claver & has been named one of the Peter Claver Ladies Auxiliary bucks the trend. It’s addFather Lawrence Goode, center, pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in East Palo Alto, “Emerging Leaders.” The category is an ing to the rolls, playing an integral parish and Msgr. John Coleman are pictured with members of the Knights of Peter Claver & outreach for young adults who represent role in feeding the poor and needy every Ladies Auxiliary, the African-American Catholic lay organization, at the parish. the fraternity’s future.

Monday night with the St. Vincent de Paul The St. Francis of Assisi unit has deep Society, raising funds for the church and encouraging young people to jump in, among other goals.

The fraternity is named for St. Peter Claver, a Jesuit roots. The knights formed in 1967, the ladies auxiliary “It’s all about service,” said Martha Hanks, the counselor who for 44 years in the first half of the 1600s ministered formed in 1981 and were followed by the junior division to the Peter Claver girls’ section, the Junior Daughters, at to African slaves as they arrived at the port of Cartagena, for kids 7 to 18. The knights and ladies in the early years St. Francis of Assisi.

Colombia, the slave mart of the New World. Over those operated separately, even when doing fundraising, and “It’s all about helping people in need,” said Orian Julian, years he baptized 300,000 slaves, and was canonized in that was a mistake, said Deacon Louis Dixon, the Junior Knight commander. the grand knight of the St. Francis of Assisi unit, No. 155. 1888.

“We said, ‘Wait a minute, we are all family, let’s work “It’s in our mindset – reinforcing that we are here to do In 1909, a group of African-American Catholic men God’s work,” said Nell Bradley, the grand lady of Court 155. at Most Pure Heart of Mary parish in Mobile, Ala., made together,’” said Dixon, a Catholic chaplain at Veterans Five women and one junior daughter were initiated last inquiries about joining two lay Catholic fraternities, the Administration hospitals in Menlo Park and Palo Alto. year at St. Francis of Assisi, in large part due to the efforts of Knights of Columbus and the Knights of Saint John, “Now, we work cohesively as one big family.”

Nationally, F. DeKarlos Blackmon, the supreme knight Hanks. St. Francis of Assisi’s two priests, Father Lawrence and got no response. Their pastor was a Josephite priest, Goode, the pastor, and Monsignor John Coleman, have formally the Society of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart. and chief executive officer of Knights of Peter Claver, Inc., become knights, as did former Archbishop of San Francisco The order’s sole mission then and now is to minister to said he aims to have the organization focus on two prioriand now-Cardinal William Levada before his departure from African-Americans in the U.S. So, four Josephite priests ties – the development of youth and the promotion and the Archdiocese of San Francisco for Rome, and the chap- and three laymen from the parish decided to form their fostering of vocations to the religious and consecrated life.

Blackmon, of Huntsville, Ala., told Catholic San ter has expanded to include two Tongans and two Latinos, own fraternity – the Knights of Peter Claver, which is reflecting the parish’s multiculturalism. modeled closely after that of the Knights of Columbus, Francisco, “We need to clearly develop our youth and The Knights of Peter Claver once a month dress in including offering burial insurance which the black men we need a new emphasis on evangelism: to know Christ better and to make him better known. I hope to reenergize their full regalia, including headgear inspired by the fez of then could not otherwise get.

Shriners and the garb of other associations, and that pulled “One hundred years later, the importance of the Knights efforts of the Knights to work as mentors and tutors to Father Goode into the fold. “I like that look,” he said. “They of Peter Claver has changed but not diminished,” said inner-city youth. We are losing our inner-city schools all are very attractive, and so I became a member.” In fact, he Josephite Father Donald Fest, the director of communica- across the country, and if the school goes, the community keeps the headgear handy, under his chair in the confes- tions for the Josephites, based in Baltimore, Md. “It remains goes down. We need to grow in faith and get out there to sional at the parish. a significant sign in the church today of the determination of help somebody.”

(PHOTO COURTESY NELL BRADLEY)

By George Raine

Dominican sister reflects on black Catholic experience in U.S. Dominican Sister Jamie Phelps marked Black History Month in February as a celebration of “the gift of blackness.”

Sister Jamie, Katharine Drexel Professor of Systematic Theology at Xavier University of Louisiana, spoke to Vatican Radio Feb. 25 in Rome, where she was invited by the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See to talk about the experience of being black and Catholic in America.

“Black people are deeply religious because we are truly an African people,” Sister Jamie said, explaining

that African people do not separate the sacred and the secular. Rather, she said, the sacred is the “depth dimension” of the secular.

“We are spiritual beings,” she said. “There’s no such thing as a secular human being.”

Many descendants of African-Americans were baptized Catholic when they arrived as slaves, Sister Jamie said, adding that she is bothered that many people assume that black Catholics must be converts.

“Black Catholics share with all black Americans the

racial identity and the ‘caste-ing’ that goes on relative to blacks in the United States,” she said. “We identify with our brothers and sisters who are not Catholic but who are black, because when we’re walking down the street nobody asks us whether we’re Catholic, Protestant or Muslim. They just see us as black.”

Sister Jamie said Black History Month is an important time of the year but added: “I jokingly say I’m black and Catholic 12 months out of the year.”

– Catholic San Francisco

Lenten sacrifice: Time to give up plastic bags, paper cups or incandescent bulbs?

By Nancy Frazier O’Brien WASHINGTON (CNS) – As Lent begins Ash Wednesday March 9, Dan Misleh wants to remind Catholics one more time that it is not just about giving up chocolate or ice cream for 40 days.

Instead, the executive director of the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change would like to see Catholic families and individuals make some permanent sacrificial changes that will also contribute to a more sustainable and just world.

“The whole issue of climate change is about consumption and lifestyle,” said Misleh of the changes the Washingtonbased coalition would like to see implemented far beyond the Lenten period.

“Lent is the perfect time to examine our lifestyles,” he added. Even giving up a food item like chocolate or ice cream “reminds us that we do need to live more within our means, more in touch with people who don’t have any of these things,” Misleh said.

The coalition – which includes Catholic organizations representing the U.S. bishops, health care providers, teachers, men and women religious and a wide range of others – is promoting the St. Francis Pledge to Care for Creation and the Poor, through which individuals, families and institutions promise to pray and learn about environmental issues, assess their own contributions to climate change, act to change their choices and advocate Catholic principles and priorities on climate change.

Pope Benedict XVI – dubbed the “green pope” for his support of environmental initiatives at the Vatican – has been critical of what he sees as a lack of worldwide commitment to mitigating climate change.

In a January 2010 address, he told diplomats that he shared “the growing concern caused by economic and political resistance to combating the degradation of the environment.”

But he also said that the devastation of the world’s forests, the spread of its deserts and the pollution of its water cannot be reversed without moral education and changed lifestyles.

As a next step in that educational process, 24 newly trained “Catholic climate ambassadors” will begin making presentations to parishes or schools this spring, especially about “the need for solidarity with the poor, who are the ones most impacted by climate change,” Misleh said.

Among the other resources available to raise awareness about the need for global solidarity are the Lent 4.5 faith-formation program developed by the Passionist Earth & Spirit Center in Louisville, Ky., and Catholic Relief Services’ Operation Rice Bowl.

Lent 4.5, a seven-week program, gets its name from the fact that if the world were divided equally among all its residents, each would receive 4.5 acres of land from which to derive all of his or her food, energy, clothing, housing and “gadgets.”

“But it takes 22.3 acres to maintain the average American

lifestyle,” the program’s website notes. “There is a new way of observing Lent that helps us care for God’s creation by taking steps toward using only our fair share of its resources.

Moving in the direction of 4.5 is essential for anyone walking in the footsteps of Jesus today.”

The program’s first week focuses on “Christian simplicity” and offers these tips as a starting point: Use cloth shopping bags instead of paper or plastic; replace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs; give up disposable paper products; use a refillable mug instead of disposable cups.

“Develop a sense of moderation and sharing,” the Lent 4.5 website advises. “Discover the joy that comes from contentment, sensing that you have enough. And hold in your heart those people who don’t have enough – enough food, enough water, enough of basic life necessities.”

Operation Rice Bowl, now in its 36th year, allows even the youngest family member to feel a certain solidarity with the hungry of the world. The program encourages families or parish groups to plan at least one simple, meatless meal each week and donate the money saved to CRS, the U.S. bishops’ overseas relief and development agency based in Baltimore.

Editor’s note: For more information about the resources mentioned in this article, contact the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change at http://catholicclimatecovenant.org; Catholic Relief Services’ Operation Rice Bowl at http:// orb.crs.org; or the Lent 4.5 program at www.lent45.org.

March 4, 2011

Catholic San Francisco

13

Catholic ministries offer post-abortion healing for both women and men

By Jennifer Brinker ST. LOUIS (CNS) – Maria Thompson was a teenager when she became pregnant. The 18-year-old was living in Mexico City. The father, 11 years older than her, didn’t want anything to do with the baby.

Her parents, as she recalled, “would not tolerate any deviation.” So when they found out she was pregnant, “I had no place to go.”

The year was 1973. Abortion was illegal in Mexico, and the father of her child sent her to have an abortion. At that time, abortions were performed in the home of the doctor, Thompson recalled.

For the first several months after the abortion, Thompson said it was “very difficult for me to see a baby.” She supported a woman’s choice to have an abortion, noting “it was the thing to do.”

It wasn’t until later that she realized “it was nothing but to cover the pain and anguish” of her own abortion. She also considered suicide.

Years later, Thompson married and had a child. She later became pregnant again, but lost that child through a miscarriage, an experience she said was sent to her by God. “The child I lost in a miscarriage was the same age of the aborted child,” she recalled in an interview with The Review, newspaper of the St. Louis Archdiocese. “That’s when life really became worse for me. I realized what had been bothering me.”

Thompson, who had strayed from her Catholic upbringing, returned to the church. She sought forgiveness through the sacrament of reconciliation and attended a retreat through Project Rachel, a Catholic ministry to those who have experienced an abortion.

The Catholic Church has seen firsthand the grief that women can face after they have had an abortion. More than two decades ago, Project Rachel, through founder Victoria Thorn of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, was established as a way to reach out to those who have been through an abortion experience.

While the ministry is open to anyone, it is set within a framework that relies on the teachings of the church.

Marisol Pfaff, who helped get the ministry off the ground in the Archdiocese of St. Louis and helps coordinate the current efforts, said at the time that “each person, no matter what they have done, is to be cherished and loved as a unique reflection of God’s love.”

Pfaff, who had two abortions in the late 1970s, explained: “Our main goal is to bring post-abortive women to the full acknowledgement of Christ’s love for (them), regardless of what (their) sins are. Christ died for us because of that love he had for each and every one of us, regardless of what our sins are.”

She stressed that women who attend the support group, as well as the retreats, are assured confidentiality.

“Even though some of the women are speaking out about their abortions, some of them are still within their own private healing,” she said.

Earlier this year, the archdiocese introduced a post-abortion outreach for men. Called Project Joseph, the ministry, similar to Project Rachel, offers free, confidential counseling, spiritual direction and a retreat component for men.

Beth Lauver, director of the archdiocese’s Respect Life Apostolate, said the purpose of having a separate post-abortion ministry for men is to show the reality that men, too, can feel grief after someone significant in their lives has been through an abortion.

“It’s certainly a very different kind of grief from what

Men affected by abortion are featured for the first time in an informational ad for Project Rachel in the District of Columbia and surrounding Maryland and Virginia counties.

mothers experience,” Lauver said, “simply because it doesn’t involve the physical procedure. The loss is still just as deep and painful, though.”

House debates impact of funding cutoff for Planned Parenthood

By Rick DelVecchio After a lengthy and emotional debate Feb. 18, the House of Representatives voted 240-185 to cut off federal familyplanning funds for Planned Parenthood.

Republicans cast all but seven of the yes votes and Democrats accounted for all but 10 of the noes.

“I believe ending an innocent human life is morally wrong but I rise tonight because I also think it is morally wrong to take the taxpayer dollars of millions of pro-life Americans and use them to fund organizations that provide abortion,” said Indiana Republican Rep. Mike Pence, who sponsored the measure in the form of a budget amendment.

Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind. He said Planned Parenthood, in its latest annual report, noted receiving $363 million in public funds “while boasting of having performed an unprecedented 324,008 abortions during the same period.”

Pence said he was alarmed by recent undercover videos by the pro-life group Live Action that he said revealed questionable decisions by employees at some Planned Parenthood clinics.

“There are not words strong enough to portray my contempt for this pattern of fraud and abuse against young women,” Pence said.

Pence said some consider his proposal “to be something of a war on Planned Parenthood.” But he added, “This is not about Planned Parenthood’s right to be in the abortion business; this is about who pays for it.”

Ohio Republican Rep. Jean Schmidt charged that Planned Parenthood “holds itself above the law, ignoring mandatory reporting requirements and aiding and abetting sex trafficking.”

She added: “Planned Parenthood will tell you they’re trying to prevent abortions but last year alone they said one in 10 clients received an abortion.”

Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Joseph Pitts called Planned Parenthood “an extreme organization with unethical practices.”

Illinois Republican Rep. Robert Dold voted no. He said the ban would cut off Title X family-planning funds serving 5 million low-income Americans every year. He also said that because money spent on family planning translates into lower Medicaid costs, punishing Planned Parenthood, the main provider of Title X services, would end up costing the government as well as harming women’s health.

Title X, designed to benefit low-income and uninsured people, provides access to contraceptive services and counseling and related preventive health services.

Other opponents questioned why the ban was needed when the Hyde Amendment prevents federal funds from being used for abortions.

“This is not about abortion,” Democratic Rep. Peter Welch

of Vermont said. “What this is about is whether primary and preventive care is going to be extended to people. Is this Congress big enough, generous enough, that it can allow those with different points of views on this question of choice to coexist as long as we have this Hyde Amendment?”

The ban would “pull the plug” on access to the health care for thousands of people, he said. “The real world impact of this legislation will be to say no, you can’t have access to cervical screening.”

Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut called the proposal part of “an extreme and divisive social agenda.”

She said 3 million people use Planned Parenthood’s services every year and Title X funds are the only way they can afford care. “A lot of them consider it their main source of preventive care,” she said.

Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts said that even though he is a pro-life advocate whose faith informs his position on the issue, he could not support the proposal.

“The best way to reduce abortion is to prevent unwanted pregnancies,” he said. “We used to agree on that. This bill will increase the number of unwanted abortions in this country.

The heart of what Planned Parenthood does is screening. If we take the funding away from them we’re going to have an

In next week’s issue of Catholic San Francisco, Vicki Evans, Respect Life Coordinator for the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s Office of Public Policy and Social Concerns, looks into the “information and misinformation swirling around” the move to defund Planned Parenthood. increase in the number of abortions in this country. That’s the natural consequence of what’s in this amendment.

“I am disheartened by this amendment,” Lynch said. “I don’t have many friends in the Planned Parenthood community, but I respect the good work that they do.”

Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, called the legislation “extreme and dangerous” and urged the Senate to oppose it.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List, said the measure is “non-negotiable.”

“Pro-life America demands that our leaders in the Senate step up and take on this fight and that the House leadership holds its ground,” she said. “Americans have spoken and the time to defund Planned Parenthood, a habitual and unapologetic ally of those who deal in the exploitation of minors, is now.”

Live Action’s investigative stings: Fair or foul?

The pro-life group Live Action’s undercover stings at Planned Parenthood clinics have prompted praise from some and condemnation from others. They have become part of the political debate about Planned Parenthood, with proponents of a ban on cutting off family-planning funds to the organization and its affiliates highlighting the group’s investigations in a debate on the floor of the House of Representatives Feb. 18.

Catholic ethicist and philosopher Christopher Tollefsen, a professor of philosophy at the University of South Carolina and a senior fellow of the Witherspoon Institute, said the revelations have exposed “corruption in Planned Parenthood’s rank and file” and reflect “the profound moral error at the core of an organization that must deny truth and love so as to destroy life.”

But Tollefsen, in a Feb. 9 article on the Witherspoon Institute’s Public Discourse: Ethics, Law, and the Common Good website, was critical of Live Action’s methods, wondering whether the group sacrifices love and integrity in its pursuit of truth.

“While the increased scrutiny of Planned Parenthood is a good thing, and will conceivably lead to the even greater good of a general defunding of this morally bankrupt organization, I can take no joy in Live Action’s approach,” he wrote. “They seem to have ‘fought fire with fire,’ combating deceit and lack of charity with more of the same. The pro-life movement must be better than that, always, and it must be willing to engage in self-criticism when it fails to meet its own exacting standards.”

Andrew Haines, president of the Center for Morality in Public Life and a doctoral student in philosophy at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., answered Tollefesen in a Feb. 17 article for Catholic News Agency.

“So how do we square saving life with lying to do so?” he asked. “This is one of the age-old questions of moral philosophy – and it’s caricatured mostly in a Nazis-at-the-door sort of way: ‘If Nazis came to your door and asked, ‘Are there any Jews here,’ and there were, could you say no?’

Great minds have wrestled with this question for centuries.

Both Augustine and Aquinas weighed in on the matter – both coming down (in some way) on the side of even the most ‘pious’ lies being sinful.

“But something about Live Action’s efforts just feels so right.”

Haines said the pro-life movement has reached a crossroads. “We, as a movement, have started to slip off the gloves and put some nasty weight behind our punches. And the crowd – our fellow Americans, and even the world – is becoming transfixed. More important, there’s real progress at stake.”

There is no consensus on the question of whether “lying for life is permissible,” he said.

“It’s a tricky business,” he said. “But nonetheless we’re called to engage in it, and to reason through it ourselves. Nothing less than the future of unborn human life depends on it.”

– Catholic San Francisco

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Catholic San Francisco

March 4, 2011

Archbishop’s Journal

The season of renewal Archbishop George Niederauer will deliver this homily at Ash Wednesday Mass, March 9, at St. Mary’s Cathedral.

“Is there a difference between a crime and a sin?” A pollster who asked people that question would hear lots of “yeses” and lots of “noes.” When people in the public eye are accused of wrongdoing, they often say, “Everything I did was perfectly legal.”

But there is a big difference between a crime and a sin. People who believe in God and people who do not can agree that robbery and murder are crimes. But only people who believe in God believe in sin, because “sin” means an offense against God. For instance, Pope John Paul II taught us the priceless value of human life as a gift from God. Contrast that with the civil government’s “legalizing” of abortion, euthanasia and capital punishment. For believers these actions are still sinful, whether or not they are legal.

Sin, then, has to do with our relationship with God and so does Ash Wednesday. A good way to begin to understand your relationship with God is to think about your other human relationships. You cannot be unfaithful to a stranger in the same way you can be unfaithful to someone you know and love – and who knows and loves you: a friend, a husband, a wife, or a parent or sister or brother or child. We Christians believe our profoundest relationship is with God in Jesus His Son, because God has created us and given us all those other relationships.

We believe that God our Father created us out of love, gave us our loved ones and all our gifts, and sent His Son, Jesus, to give us a share in his life, and to call us to live with him forever in eternal life.

Because we are imperfect and weak, we commit sin; that is, we act selfishly against our love for God against our love for our neighbors, our sisters and brothers in Christ.

Lent is a season devoted to renewing our relationships with

God, individually and together as a Catholic family of faith.

On Ash Wednesday the church reminds us of our need to be renewed, to let Jesus renew us. We need to experience conversion, which means to turn back again more completely in the direction of God’s love for us. In the first reading today, the prophet Joel speaks for God to the people: “Even now return to me with your whole heart.” Why? The prophet continues, “For God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, rich in kindness and relenting in punishment.”

You and I don’t earn salvation or reconciliation; it is a gift given us by God through Christ.

In our second reading today St. Paul writes to his friends at Corinth, to remind them that God has reconciled them to himself in Jesus, his Son, their Brother. God has turned these people back toward himself through their relationship with Jesus Christ. You and I don’t earn salvation or reconciliation; it is a gift given us by God through Christ. We don’t earn it, but we must accept it and respond to it and use it. So St. Paul says, “Do not receive the grace of God in vain.” St. Augustine explained it another way: “God who created you without you will not save you without you.”

When should all this happen? NOW! Listen to St. Paul again: “Now is the acceptable time! Now is the day of salvation!” The most dangerous word in the Christian life is “tomorrow.” (That’s true for dieting, too, of course.)

For instance, “I’ll start praying tomorrow, or next month.”

We get so wrapped up in our efforts to stay alive physically

Catholic san Francisco Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper

Avoid ‘money bomb’ in trying to aid poor The article “Holding Penalty on the NFL” (Feb. 18) suggested that for the workers of an undeveloped country merely to dip their fingers in the “bowl” of money would relieve the persistent poverty of the less developed country. Redistribution is a false remedy for poverty. It will relieve single individuals, the leader for life and cronies. Distribution by some disinterested authority does not correct the underlying problem of lack of leadership, education and cultural structure.

Welfare destroys the spontaneous order of society and leads to the unintended consequence of disorder. Redistribution requires an imposed order that affects the basic social unit: the family. Leadership of the undeveloped country, whether by coup or faux election, results in the cream skimmed by the prevailing elite.

A money bomb is the easy way out but results in no lasting good. The way to assist a nation to develop the structure of a free and productive society is to have the natural law – a part of our nature as extolled over centuries by our Catholic philosophers and

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.

theologians. Once the rule of law is understood and accepted progress will follow.

Ron Gillis Larkspur

Questions research on column critical of NFL The article presented on behalf of Mr. Tony Magliano, “Holding Penalty on the NFL,” Feb. 18, appears largely without support for the position that the National Football League is culpable for the despicable working conditions at the Ocean Sky ‘sweatshop’ in El Salvador. Seeking compassion and pity for the workers is admirable and certainly congruent with the Word of the Lord. Yet, such lofty goals are better supported by means of a complete background to attain reader influence; quite difficult to accomplish in brief articles. Nonetheless, while the dreadful conditions for workers described at Ocean Sky and other such ‘sweatshops’ certainly merit considerable improvement, the attribution and conclusion of responsibility to the NFL remains surreptitiously held by Mr. Magliano alone in his expressed position. If the author and publisher hope to widely affect readers to support their position and make a difference, wider context should be included to achieve the influence desired.

Tom Maloney Redwood City Tony Magliano responds: It is inaccurate to say that my charge of the NFL’s culpability here is without support. Quite the contrary. I refer in the column to a personal interview I conducted with Charles Kernaghan, director of the highly reputable National Labor Committee (Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights – the NLC’s new name). I quoted Kernaghan as he challenged the NFL to raise workers’ pay from eight cents to just 16 cents per shirt.

and academically and socially, that we forget the most important kind of “staying alive” – spiritually – staying alive in God, in Christ’s Church. We need to stay alive in Christ all our lives long.

Archbishop That’s one reason the Church puts George ashes on our foreheads Niederauer today: “Remember you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.”

The Church is not being morbid, merely realistic and truthful. Our lives will end; diamonds may be forever, but you and I are not. So the church challenges us to center our lives in Christ rather than in ourselves. Why? Because being self-centered is a dead end – literally (think “ashes”).

Being Christ-centered has a great future, here and forever.

The ashes are meant to make us truthful, humble, and hopeful about ourselves and Jesus – not to make us feel spiritually superior to all those mere mortals around us who don’t have ashes on their foreheads today.

The church recommends three practices for us during Lent: prayer (listening to God’s word and responding from the heart); fasting or sacrifice (saying “no” to ourselves in some way that frees us for a “yes” to Christ in others); almsgiving (giving and sharing what God has given us).

We do these Lenten actions NOT for their own sake, to make ourselves look good – Jesus is clear about that in today’s Gospel reading.

So, let’s live a good Lent: Let’s center on Christ, not on ourselves; let’s try to do that each day, and not save it for some tomorrow that never comes.

If Mr. Maloney would have just gone to the NLC’s website – which I provided in my piece – he would have been able to read the full report by simply clicking the NFL/Ocean Sky “Report” on its home page.

Government-run health reform is wrong way to go There is no doubt that we do need health care reform, but having the federal government manage it? Mr. Mandell (Letters, Feb. 18), can you name one federal agency that isn’t broke, mismanaged or full of waste fraud and abuse? Social Security – broke. Medicare, Medicaid – broke: Do we want more Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac? We complain about the decline of our schools, and has anyone put together that the decline of public education and the Department of Education came about at the same time? The Department of Agriculture manages our ethanol from corn production. Not only does it take more energy to produce a gallon of ethanol that we get back in energy, but the price of food derived from corn skyrockets. The poor throughout the world could not afford food before, and now government intervention makes it worse.

While visiting Mexico, and standing in line waiting for re-entry into the U.S., I talked to Canadians who were in Mexico getting health care. Why was that? Why did Danny Williams, the premiere of Newfoundland, decide to have his heart surgery in the U.S.?

I and small-government conservatives do not want the feds managing my health care, and little else for that matter.

Philip Feiner San Carlos

tales”) disappoints on that score. Indeed, all three articles in the Feb 18 issue suffer from one misstatement of scientific fact. Father Tad states in his first paragraph, “Adult stem cells can be obtained without crossing moral boundaries, whereas embryonic stem cells cannot.”

Imprecise language is at fault. Father Tad states that embryonic stem cells cannot be obtained without killing the embryo. Had he said that they are not, in general, obtained without killing the embryo, it would be a regrettably true statement. In fact, scientists do remove cells from embryos and subsequently implant the embryo, which grows to a normal human person when so nurtured.

The removed cells are valid candidates for embryonic stem cell research. (It is difficult to use just one or two cells when the whole, 16- or 32-cell embryo seems available to scientists.)

Three issues need separation.

Important to the Catholic community, with our influence, we should more correctly focus on the survival of all embryos from which stem cells are taken for research or for therapy.

This focus should start with research to improve the efficiency of culturing minimum number of cells. The remainder of embryonic stem cell research will proceed without crossing moral boundaries.

Unfortunately, the fertility industry usually harvests more embryos than are used. Remaining embryos are used in current embryonic stem cell research. Scientists could take just one or two cells and leave the remaining embryo without permanent harm until it may be nurtured to become a human person. This, too, would be a small change from present medical practice that Catholics could effectively accomplish.

The final issue is disposition of unused embryos. Theologians should accept responsibility for clarifying this issue because doubt about the present position seems valid. As a scientist I plead that the experts in theology and science jointly bring about a conclusion that satisfies both fields.

Alex M. Saunders, MD San Carlos

L E T T E R S

Embryonic research: A morally licit path?

Reading a column by one as well qualified as Father Tad Pacholczyk one expects disclosure of the complete truth. His Feb. 18 article (“Spinning stem cell fairy

March 4, 2011

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The Catholic Difference

Clarifying ‘double effect’ The recent controversy over the termination of a pregnancy at Phoenix’s St. Joseph’s Hospital, which Phoenix Bishop Thomas Olmsted determined to have been a direct abortion and thus a grave moral evil, has generated a secondary controversy over the meaning of the Church’s traditional moral principle of “double effect.” Some have argued – mistakenly, in my view – that what was done in Phoenix satisfied the classic double effect criteria of Catholic moral theology.

The National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia, an indispensable source of Catholic information and analysis on bioethical and medical ethical issues, recently issued a statement on the Phoenix case. The statement clarified the double-effect issue in language that people without any special training in moral theology or moral philosophy can understand, and is worth quoting at length: “The principle of double effect in the Church’s moral tradition teaches that one may perform a good action even if it is foreseen that a bad effect will arise only if four conditions are met: 1) The act itself must be good. 2) The only thing that one can intend is the good act, not the foreseen but unintended bad effect. 3) The good effect cannot arise from the bad effect; otherwise, one would do evil to achieve good. 4) The unintended but foreseen bad effect cannot be disproportionate to the good being performed.

“This principle has been applied to many cases in health

care, always respecting the most fundamental moral principle of medical ethics, primum non nocere, “first, do no harm.”

“The classic case of a difficult pregnancy to which this principle can be applied is the pregnant woman who has advanced uterine cancer. The removal of the cancerous uterus will result in the death of the baby but it would be permissible under the principle of double effect.

“One can see how the conditions would be satisfied in this case: 1) The act itself is good; it is the removal of a diseased organ. 2) All that one intends is the removal of the diseased organ. One does not want the death of the baby, either as a means or an end. Nonetheless, one sees that the unborn child will die as a result of the removal of the diseased organ. 3) The good action, the healing of the woman, arises from the removal of the diseased uterus, not from the regrettable death of the baby which is foreseen and unintended. 4) The unintended and indirect death of the child is not disproportionate to the good which is done, which is saving the mother’s life.”

In the wake of the Phoenix case, other Catholic hospitals have been asked what they would do in the rare and wrenching circumstance where continuing a pregnancy would put the lives of both mother and child at risk. The first answer usually given is the correct one: “We would try to save both lives.”

But some have gone on to give a further answer: “But if that were impossible, we would save the life we could save” – by means, one assumes, of terminating the pregnancy.

This is not right. It violates the bedrock principle of “first, do no harm.” There is no moral casuistry that can justify doing the “harm” that is the intentional taking of an innocent human life – period. Attempts to justify George Weigel termination in such circumstances by redefining the act of termination border on the Orwellian, further confusing the public discussion. (Recent horror stories from the Philadelphia abortuary should have taught us where the language of euphemism leads.) Furthermore, “we’ll save the life we can save” does not meet the standards of the principle of double effect, as outlined above.

The Catholic Church is one of the last major institutions defending the Hippocratic principle that the true physician’s first responsibility is to “do no harm.” Attempts to chip away at that Catholic commitment – by public authorities untutored in the meaning of religious freedom, or by theologians and philosophers advancing speculative views detached from clinical reality – damage the common good and impede the building of a culture of life.

George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.

Making Sense Out of Bioethics

Working through a hard death Caregivers and health care professionals can and often do greatly assist those who are suffering and dying. Even with careful pain management and comfort measures, however, the dying process can still be agonizing and difficult. Each death has a unique and particular trajectory, but even the most difficult and unpleasant deaths often have powerful graces and remarkable opportunities for growth mysteriously interwoven into them.

Some time ago, I corresponded with a registered nurse about her mother’s final battle with lung cancer. She described the unexpected shifts in her mother’s condition that had taken place over a period of eight days: “… passing through a day of Cheyne-Stokes respirations (a pattern of deep breathing, followed by stoppage of breathing, followed by repetition of the cycle), days of such shallow breathing that death seemed literally one breath away, days of calm coma, two days where the smell of imminent death was detectable, signs of diminished extremity perfusions coming and then going, coming and then going, day after day, no urine output, then urine output, then no urine, then urine again, emerge from this state and embark upon three hours of increasingly severe respiratory distress culminating in a violent respiratory arrest.”

No stranger to death and dying, this nurse had assisted countless other patients with pain, air and hunger management.

During her mom’s final hours, she had significantly increased morphine doses per hospice protocols, but with little or no apparent relief. Her mother’s death ended up being very hard.

Reflecting on it afterwards, she realized that if she had not been both a healthcare professional and a person who trusted deeply in God, she would have been, to use her own words, “out of my mind with horror.”

Why certain deaths are so much harder than others is no easier to explain than why certain lives are so much harder than others. It gives us pause, though, to ask whether suffering doesn’t have some hidden but important meaning, however it enters our lives. As we seek to use the tools of medicine to alleviate the suffering of those who are dying, we realize how delicate a balancing act it can be, fraught with difficult decisions about dosages and interventions, and not always guaranteed to work. When pain and suffering cannot be alleviated, patients ought to be helped to appreciate the Christian understanding of redemptive suffering.

The nurse described how she and her mother had experienced this Christian understanding themselves: “My Mom and I prayed hard and much over this past year. She was expected to die a year ago. As we began to understand that she was actually improving and that she (and I) had been given this gift of time, we became increasingly devoted to the Divine Mercy of Jesus.

I am of the opinion that God gave Mom an opportunity to be on the cross with Him.” Real suffering engages a lot of complex emotions. We may worry that our crosses will be more than we can bear. We may not see how our sufferings could really have any value or meaning. In the end, suffering can make us bitter or it can make us better, depending upon how we respond to it and use it to enter into deeper union with the Lord who suffered and died a hard death for us.

I’m reminded of a story I once heard about a priest in Poland who taught at the seminary. Each year, there had been fewer candidates entering the seminary, rarely more than eight or nine, and it was becoming a serious concern for the seminary

and the diocese. One day, this priest learned he had a terminal illness, with only a few months to live. Shortly afterwards, he turned to God and said: “Lord Jesus, I will do my best to offer up the sufferings that lie Father Tad ahead of me, whatever they may be, but I would ask Pacholczyk that you send us 18 new candidates for next year’s incoming class.” The good priest faced an excruciating death, but a few months later when the candidates started showing up at the seminary, there were exactly 18 new students in the class.

His story speaks of how suffering has meaning whenever we unite it to the redemptive sufferings of Christ. Our sufferings and struggles are an important, albeit temporary, part of our journey.

They are a harbinger of a greater destiny and a promise of our transformation. Pope John Paul II once described it this way: “The cross of Christ throws salvific light, in a most penetrating way, on man’s life ... the cross reaches man together with the resurrection.”

Our experience of suffering and death, even a very hard death, offers us mysterious and dramatic graces, with the reassurance that God himself is ever near to those who carry their cross.

Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D., a priest of the diocese of Fall River, Mass., is director of education at The National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia.

Making a Difference

Egypt’s ‘Dignity Revolution’ Against all odds they did it.

The Egyptian people – students, doctors, educators, parents, unemployed, Muslims, Christians, poor and oppressed – fully aware of the dangers facing them, stood up, held their ground and peacefully demanded their God-given human rights.

And despite brutal attacks by members of former President Hosni Mubarak’s security forces, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators – almost to the person – maintained their dignified, courageous and nonviolent insistence that Mubarak’s iron-fisted dictatorship come to an end.

And it did.

It was a deeply inspiring example of common citizens “speaking truth to power.”

As it is being hailed, it is truly the “Dignity Revolution.”

Inspired by the Arab world’s first courageous, nonviolent revolution in Tunisia, Egypt’s “Dignity Revolution” – while overcoming its largest hurdle – still has a long road ahead.

The oppressed Egyptians know they must remain vigilant

less the army-controlled government pick up where Mubarak left off. But as long as they maintain the moral high ground of nonviolence, they will succeed.

The Egyptians have the example of many oppressed peoples throughout the world who have successfully conquered violence, and the denial of their human rights, through nonviolent resistance.

The Ukraine’s Orange Revolution, Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution, the Philippine’s People Power Revolution – strongly backed by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines – and Poland’s Solidarity movement – boldly supported by Pope John Paul II – are but a few of the many successful nonviolent movements throughout history.

Pacifism is not passive. Nonviolent resistance is the morally superior alternative to the violence of war.

The great nonviolent Indian leader Mohandas Gandhi said “Nonviolence, when it becomes active, travels with extraordinary velocity, and then it becomes a miracle.”

But sadly, the U.S. government has rarely been genuinely

interested in supporting the miracle of nonviolence.

Instead, the U.S. has a long history of backing violent dictators around the world – Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, General Augusto Pinochet of Chile, Tony Magliano Saddam Hussein of Iraq, and Francois Duvalier of Haiti to name just a few.

And for the last 30 years, successive American administrations and Congresses have given the oppressive Mubarak regime approximately $60 billion; while long knowing – according to sensitive diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks – that his security forces were torturing people.

As reported by the Asian Tribune, when U.S. Defense MAKING A DIFFERENCE, page 19

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March 4, 2011

A READING FROM THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY DT 11:18, 26-28, 32 Moses told the people, “Take these words of mine into your heart and soul. Bind them at your wrist as a sign, and let them be a pendant on your forehead. “I set before you here, this day, a blessing and a curse: a blessing for obeying the commandments of the Lord, your God, which I enjoin on you today; a curse if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord, your God, but turn aside from the way I ordain for you today, to follow other gods, whom you have not known.”

RESPONSORIAL PSALM PS 31:2-3, 3-4, 17, 25 R. Lord, be my rock of safety.

In you, O Lord, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame.

In your justice rescue me, incline your ear to me, make haste to deliver me!

R. Lord, be my rock of safety.

Be my rock of refuge, a stronghold to give me safety.

You are my rock and my fortress;

Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time Deuteronomy 11:18, 26-28, 32; Psalm 31:2-3, 3-4, 17, 25; Romans 3:21-25, 28; Matthew 7:21-27 for your name’s sake you will lead and guide me.

R. Lord, be my rock of safety.

Let your face shine upon your servant; save me in your kindness.

Take courage and be stouthearted, all you who hope in the Lord.

R. Lord, be my rock of safety.

A READING FROM THE LETTER OF PAUL TO THE ROMANS ROM 3:21-25, 28 Brothers and sisters, Now the righ-

teousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, though testified to by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction; all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God. They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as an expiation, through faith, by his blood. For we consider that a person is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

B

ack when I was a kid, I always feared disaster was lurking right around the corner. Sure, I grew up on the Peninsula in a loving family and had an idyllic “Leave It to Beaver” childhood, but my universe could be a very scary place. On the surface, everything might have appeared tranquil and calm, but underneath it all, I believed catastrophe and misfortune were just waiting to pounce. But before one chalks this up to my youthful, overactive imagination, let me explain. The reason I was certain the world was so extraordinarily hazardous was because all the adults around me kept telling me so.

I mean, think about it for a moment. As kids, we were told that any number of decisions we might make during the course of a day could have all sorts of serious consequences. If we went out in the rain without our coat, we might catch our death of a cold.

If we went swimming without waiting for an hour after eating, we might get a cramp and drown. If we sat too close to the TV, we might go blind (that was my mom’s favorite). Or the all-time classic, if we ran with something sharp in our hands, someone was going to get an eye poked out. Obviously, the potential for doom and death were all around us. It’s a wonder we didn’t have nightmares.

As an adult myself now, I’ve come to understand what was going on. I don’t tell my son that if he makes an ugly face it will stay stuck like that because I want to psychologically scar him for life. I do it because I think it is a powerful means of making a point that will ultimately make his life better. I’m sure my parents had similar motivation. There are times when reasoned discussion will do the

Scripture reflection DEACON MIKE MURPHY

How God grabs our attention trick. There are times when a well-directed or humorous comment will be effective. But there are also times when a bit of doom and gloom are needed to get the job done just right.

I think we see evidence of this in our readings this week. On the surface, they seem very dark, very negative in tone.

Deuteronomy speaks of curses that will befall people who fail to follow the commandments. The Gospel uses the metaphor of a house built on sand collapsing in a strong wind to show what will happen to those who don’t heed God’s word. One could very easily react with panic and dread, living in fear of a God who is just waiting to punish us whenever we step out of line.

Yet I’m confident that such an understanding would be far from the truth. When dealing with the Israelites in the desert, when dealing

with the apostles, when dealing with us, God is often dealing with some pretty thick-headed people. He can be laying it out there pretty clearly, but we’re so caught up in our own little worlds that we often miss the point. So this week, God wants to be sure he has our attention.

He knows if we’re headstrong and stubbornly do our own thing, there’s a good chance we might encounter tough times in our lives. Yet it won’t be because God is arbitrarily punishing us for breaking his “rules.” Instead, he realizes we’ll end up hurting ourselves. When we choose to be self-centered, angry and unforgiving we can bring into our lives those curses that Moses speaks of in the first reading. When we look only to the world and turn away from God, from love, we can find ourselves lonely and bitter. But it’s because of choices that we

A READING FROM THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW MT 7:21-27 Jesus said to his disciples: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’

Then I will declare to them solemnly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’ “Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock. And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined.” ourselves have made. God desperately wants us to understand this without first having to experience all that pain, so he speaks to us this week in a way he hopes will get through to us.

Of course, when we ignore God and disaster follows, he doesn’t say I told you so. He tries to show us the way, sometimes with some very stern warnings. But when we stray or fall, as we inevitably do, God is there to pick us up like a wise and loving parent, dusting us off and sending us out to try again.

At the end of the day, no matter what we’ve done, he still loves us and will never leave us.

So we shouldn’t get the wrong impression.

He’s not a judgmental God, threatening and condemning us. Instead, as we see in the responsorial psalm, he is our rock of safety, our rock of refuge. He saves us in his kindness, leading us and guiding us. He counsels us in a language we understand, the language of action and consequence. Yet it’s always done with love and concern for his sometimes thick-headed children.

Since I didn’t drown, go blind, or poke anyone’s eye out with a pencil, I’m glad I listened to my parents all those years ago.

They wanted to keep me happy and safe, and they succeeded. This week, God tries to do the same for us, speaking to us in a way we can all understand. Life can be hard, and like any loving parent, our Lord wants only to protect us, to help us be a joyful and holy people who will always walk in his light.

Mike Murphy is a permanent deacon serving at St. Charles Parish in San Carlos. He teaches religion at Sacred Heart Schools, Atherton.

An ideal Lenten prayer

By Brother John Samaha

“The Three O’Clock Prayer” Lord Jesus, we gather in spirit at the foot of the Cross with your Mother and the disciple whom you loved We ask your pardon for our sins which are the cause of your death.

We thank you for remembering us in that hour of salvation and for having given us Mary as our Mother.

Holy Virgin, take us under your protection and open us to the action of the Holy Spirit.

Saint John, obtain for us the grace of taking Mary into our lives, as you did, and of assisting her in her mission. Amen.

May the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit be glorified in all places through the Immaculate Virgin Mary.

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

(CNS PHOTO/OWEN SWEENEY III, CATHOLIC REVIEW)

“The Three O’Clock Prayer” has been popularized by Blessed William Joseph Chaminade and Marianist religious, laity and schools since the early 19th century. The prayer has been slightly revised over the years, and the original author is unknown. While intended for daily use, it is especially appropriate for Lent.

March 4, 2011

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Spirituality for Life

Building an ark “If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you.”

You will recognize these words as the opening lines of Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem, “If.” They, as much as any scriptural commentary, provide the key to understand the story of Noah and the ark.

What is the meaning of this story? Are we really to believe that at a certain time in history the whole earth was flooded and that one man, Noah, had the foresight to build a boat on which he had placed a male and female of every living species on earth so as to save them from extinction? Clearly the story is not to be taken literally as a concrete event in the history of this planet. Like a number of other biblical stories of the origins of history, it is not an historical videotape but is rather a story of the human heart, a story that is truer than true in that it happens again and again inside of our lives. And how does it happen? What is the meaning of the story of Noah and the ark?

The story might be recast this way: Every so often there comes a time in history when there is so little vision, faith, idealism, decency and charity left on this planet that there is a real danger that the world itself will sink, will drown, and revert to a chaos that will kill everything that’s precious. But one person, despite all that is going on around him or her, will keep his or her eyes on what’s higher, keep faith intact, protect life and refuse to compromise charity and decency. Eventually the earth will drown in chaos, but because of this one person’s vision, idealism, faith, decency and charity, a pocket of life containing all that is precious will be preserved and given a new chance to grow.

Noah’s ark is a boat of faith, vision, idealism, decency and charity. These virtues give us the capacity to float above the chaos that drowns things. Moreover, our decency, charity, faith and vision contain within themselves all

that’s precious and that needs to be protected and given a continued chance for life.

And there are different ways to build this ark. Here’s one: Daniel Berrigan is fond of issuing this warning: Beware, beware, or the culture will swallow you whole!

It’s easy to be swallowed whole and drowned by our culture. It is that kind of a narcotic. Recognizing this, at a point in his life, Daniel Berrigan chose to work full-time in a hospice for the dying. His motives were mixed: On the one hand, he sincerely wanted to help dying patients in any way he could, physically and spiritually. On the other hand, he wanted to work with the dying because he

Daniel Berrigan is fond of issuing this warning: Beware, beware, or the culture will swallow you whole! recognized that they, the dying, precisely because they no longer have a meaningful place inside the culture and the future, could give him a privileged perspective on our culture and on our world. Simply put: When you see your culture and your world through the eyes of someone who is dying, things take on a very different perspective and a lot of what fires ordinary life (tiring our bodies, minds, and heart in its pursuit) is now exposed as secondary and as not worthy of all the attention and energy it is given.

For Daniel Berrigan, building an ark meant attending to the dying so as to be given the faith and perspective to

not drown in our culture.

And so we might paraphrase Kipling this way: If you can keep your faith when all about you are losing theirs, but are comfortable in the feeling Father that there is strength in numbers, that everyone Ron Rolheiser else is following suit, that so many million people can’t be wrong; If you can keep giving others respect when all about you this is seen as weakness, and disrespect is held as strength and passion for truth; If you can remain courteous and retain your manners when all about you courtesy is seen as quaint, and crassness and crudity are paraded as sophistication; If you can live in tension when all about you there is compromise because it is judged that it is better to let the devil take tomorrow than to live in tension today; If you can refuse to settle for second-best when all about you it is accepted that this is all that life will offer; If you can combine chastity and passion when all about you this is judged as naïve and impossible; If you can make room for Sabbath amidst the pressures of life when all about you those pressures have begun to dictate all of life; And, if you can bear down even more in charity and forgiveness, loving and forgiving those who hate you, when all about you they are advocating hate for hate; Then, just as surely as Noah, you will have built an ark!

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

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Catholic San Francisco

March 4, 2011

New subtitles for ‘Diary of a Country Priest’ leave artistry intact NEW YORK (CNS) – Director Robert Bresson’s “Diary of a Country Priest,� from the 1936 Georges Bernanos novel, qualifies as a masterpiece by any measure. It received numerous awards upon its 1951 release and has exerted tremendous influence over filmmakers and movie lovers ever since.

Because Bresson’s artistic sensibility so beautifully conveys the theological depth of the narrative about a young cleric’s physical and spiritual anguish, “Diary� also ranks among the best religious films ever made. And its place in the pantheon of Catholic cinema is equally secure, though not because it offers a tranquil portrait of the priesthood.

Unlike the devoutly Catholic Bernanos (1888-1948), Bresson (1901-1999) was an agnostic; and in the central figure of Bernanos’ tale – a sickly curate who, straight from the seminary, clashes with his parishioners in a French village near Calais – he found a strikingly contemporary case study for the idea that crippling doubt and empowering belief can go hand-in-hand.

On Feb. 25, Rialto Pictures releases a new version of “Diary� with freshly translated English subtitles. Its premiere at Manhattan’s Film Forum will be followed by a run at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. During the coming months, it will also unreel in Chicago, Boston, Washington and other major markets.

The new subtitles – intended to render Bresson’s script more precisely – have been resynced to the original soundtrack, which features extensive voice-over narration by Claude Laydu, the 23-year-old lead actor whom Bresson cast in part because he was a practicing Catholic. The project succeeds, although the changes are often quite subtle. (For example, the townspeople are now called “mean-spirited� instead of “malicious.�)

Any measured attempt to make this profound movie more accessible should be applauded, yet it’s too bad a visual restoration wasn’t undertaken at the same time. Still, first-timers shouldn’t be deterred by the gloomy print, and aficionados have another reason to marvel at Bresson’s distinctive storytelling techniques.

The diary format allows the filmmaker to depict events and their corresponding states of mind in multiple ways.

Throughout, the protagonist is shown writing in his journal, reading the relevant passages in voice-over, and acting out the scene described, not always in that order.

(CNS PHOTO/COURTESY OF RIALTO PICTURES)

By John P. McCarthy

Claude Laydu stars in a scene from Robert Bresson’s 1951 film “Diary of a Country Priest.�

Bresson’s propensity for having sound propel the action is also brilliantly demonstrated, as is his knack for compressing the passage of time on screen. L.H. Burel’s black-andwhite cinematography and the sparingly deployed music

by Jean-Jacques Grunewald, serve Bresson’s goals, which, admittedly, require patience to fully appreciate.

Gradually, the film’s short vignettes begin to flow and cohere, evoking strong emotions in the viewer. Bresson’s habit of casting inexperienced or nonprofessional actors, whose performances tend toward the robotic, contributes to this delayed response. Eventually, however, it’s obvious that Bresson’s minimalist approach has found a liturgical rhythm that perfectly expresses the ebb and flow of religious faith.

The work’s austere form mirrors the priest’s asceticism.

Bresson also frequently shoots the curate through the iron bars of gates or behind glass to underscore his isolation.

Varied eucharistic metaphors offset the bleakness of his situation, most notably the stale bread soaked in wine that constitutes the only meal he can digest. Other symbols representing Christ’s blood include ink, coffee, mud, blackberries and the priest’s own blood.

Death looms for other characters as well, giving the

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suffering clergyman a redemptive purpose. Sad-eyed and shabbily attired, he’s obviously in torment, yet the villagers offer scant comfort; even the schoolgirl who excels in catechism class treats him with a cool wariness bordering on derision.

Still, he is shown to possess the gift of fortitude as well as holy simplicity. Much of the action concerns the priest’s traffic with the local aristocrat, a count whose affair with his daughter’s governess poisons his household. The countess – in mourning since the death of their toddler son years ago – tolerates her husband’s infidelity; their teenage daughter is bitterly angry. “Diary’s� central scene – among the most famous in 20thcentury French cinema – is a Miltonic dialogue between the countess and the clergyman during which she spurns God. Can he help save her soul? And what might an attempt to do so mean for his own?

After “Diary,� Bresson went on to make 1959’s “The Pickpocket,� arguably a secular companion piece, plus other estimable films, some with religious themes or characters such as 1962’s “The Trial of Joan of Arc.�

One quality that distinguishes “Diary� is how it transcends time and place while being plausibly grounded in history and in the material world. The film’s troubled hero calls this bridge between the temporal and the eternal “grace�-a word that’s virtually the same in French or English.

McCarthy is a guest reviewer for Catholic News Service. More reviews are available online at www.usccb.org/movies.

In the Footsteps of Jesus & the Apostles

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March 4, 2011

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T R A V E L D I R E C T O R Y Marin Catholic spring musical 2011 HOLY LAND PILGRIMAGES May 28-June 8 & September 17-28 (PHOTO COURTESY MARIN CATHOLIC).

Join Franciscan Fr. Mario DiCicco President and Rector Franciscan School of Theology, Berkeley Fr. Mario has a PhD in New Testament, has lived in the Holy Land and has 34 years experience in leading pilgrimages to the Holy Land

Write, call or e-mail for free brochure Fr. Mario DiCicco, O.F.M. 1712 Euclid Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94709 (510) 280-4327 e-mail: mdicicco@fst.edu

Marin Catholic High School presents “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee� March 10-13 at 7 p.m. at the Showcase Theatre at the Marin Center, with 1 p.m. matinee performances March 12-13. The one-act comedy centers on a spelling bee, with quirky actors, improv and audience surprises. The 2005 Broadway production won two Tony awards. Tickets: adults, $12; children, students and seniors, $10. Tickets are available from the Marin Catholic bookstore or the Marin Center box office at (415) 499-6800. Tickets may also be purchased at the door.

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Secretary Robert Gates, following his meeting with Mubarak in May of 2009, was asked in Cairo whether American aid to Egypt was linked to human rights, Gates said “the position of the (Obama) administration is that as an example the foreign military financing that’s in the (U.S.) budget should be without conditions.

And that is our sustained position.�

This all serves to illustrate how America’s largely violent global strategy is morally bank-

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â– Continued from page 15

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rupt and counterproductive to achieving peace with justice.

Pope John Paul II clearly recognized violence for what it really is, and proclaimed “that violence is evil, that violence is unacceptable as a solution to problems, that violence is unworthy of man. Violence is a lie, for it goes against the truth of our faith, the truth of our humanity.

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Catholic San Francisco

March 4, 2011

Catholic novelist’s concern is golden boy’s fall and redemption “CLIFF FALLS” by C.B. Shiepe. Cliff Falls Media (Los Angeles, 2010). 246 pages, $14.99.

By Lance Johnson We’ve all been there before. Everything is going well, and then disaster strikes. Perhaps it’s the loss of a job, the death of a loved one or the end of a friendship. Whatever the case, we’re taken by surprise, and it can feel as if we’ve fallen no short distance. It is experiences just such as these that San Marino-based Catholic novelist C.B. Shiepe calls “going over the falls.”

In 1996, Shiepe “went over the falls” when he found himself confined to a bed for an extended period due to health challenges. With experience in both the entertainment industry and faith-based ministries, Shiepe decided to channel his energies into telling a story.

“Cliff Falls” tells the story of Clay Grant, an exploited child television star who disappears on the night of his 18th birthday following a mysterious fire that destroys the set of his show, “Little Guy Mike,” on the back lot of a Hollywood studio. For the next 15 years, Clay keeps his identity a secret by moving from place to place and avoiding meaningful relationships.

Eventually he can no longer avoid his past when a figure from his childhood discovers Clay’s whereabouts and shows up to capture tabloid portraits of the former star. An altercation lands Clay in jail, and the spotlight seems unavoidable as he faces charges of both assault and tax evasion.

While Clay is incarcerated, Reagan Mitchell, a motivational pastor from an evangelical church nestled in the Santa Cruz Mountains, arrives to offer a deal. In exchange

for partial payment of his back taxes, Clay is secretly released into the care of the pastor and makes his way to Cliff Falls, California, where he is to take up work at Mitchell’s High Hope Community Church.

Trouble nonetheless follows Clay, who soon finds himself the source of a disispute between the pastor and his son, Ted ed Mitchell, and contemplates returning to a life on the run.

Though not Catholic, Clay feelss called to attend Mass at the local par-ish. There, he meets an elderly womann who lights a votive candle for him and recommends that he go to confession with Father Sam. Contemplating the woman’s love, yet despairing in his lost childhood, Clay’s eyes come to rest upon the crucifix above the altar, and he recognizes the hope offered by Christ’s sacrifice.

Swallowing his pride, Clay enters the confessional where he admits to starting the fire that destroyed the “Little Guy Mike” set. Prompted by Father Sam to look deeper into his heart, Clay comes to a profound realization. ation “I’m sorry I’m me,” Clay confesses, “I think I always have been. It’s hard, holding yourself together, when so many of those pieces are ... flawed.”

Moved with compassion, Father Sam reminds Clay of

415-614-5506 This number is answered by Barbara Elordi, Archdiocesan Pastoral Outreach Coordinator.

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40 Days for Life is a focused pro-life campaign that has already mobilized over 400,000 people worldwide, saved more than 3,500 lives from abortion, led to the conversion of 43 abortion workers, and seen nine abortion facilities close. 40 Days for Life is made up of three components:

415-614-5503 If you wish to speak to a non-archdiocesan employee please call this nunmber. This is also a secured line and is answered only by a victim survivor.

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Lance Johnson is a parishioner at St. Dominic Parish in San Francisco and teaches the parish’s youth confirmation class.

THIS SPRING, from March 9 to April 17, our community is uniting with hundreds of other cities around the world for the largest and longest coordinated pro-life mobilization in history: the 40 Days for Life campaign. Recognizing that “with God all things are possible,” people of faith are praying that this effort will help bring an end to the tragedy of abortion.

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the words of God the Father, “You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” and assures Clay that these words are meant for him, too. “God knows his children get scared,” Father Sam explains, “sin is sin, but it’s okay to be human.”

Inspired by the realization that he is loved, even when it may not seem so, Clay commits to stop running, to accept himself as a beloved son of the Father and to embrace the humanity with which he has been entrusted.

While the majority of characters aare not Catholic, the message is uunmistakably rooted in the tradition of the church. We have all “gone over the falls” at some point in our lives. th Sometimes our “falls” may have been So smaller, sometimes larger. Regardless, sm we always need to pick ourselves back up, embrace our humanity and find the hope and redemption that Christ has hop made available to us by his cross. mad C. B. Shiepe will discuss and sign his C novel at Books Inc. in Palo Alto’s Town nove Country Center on March 5 at 3 p.m. and C

Prayer and Fasting: believers throughout San Mateo County are invited to join together for 40 days of fervent prayer and fasting for an end to abortion

•

Peaceful Vigil: stand for life during a 40-day peaceful public witness outside Golden Gate Community Health at 2211 Palm Ave, San Mateo (formerly Planned Parenthood)

•

Community Outreach: help take a positive, upbeat pro-life message to every corner of our city through media efforts, advocacy, and public visibility

Learn how you can speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves here in San Mateo by contacting Jessica at 650572-1468 or by visiting: www.40daysforlife.com/sanmateo

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Gospel for March 6, 2011 Matthew 7:21-27 Following is a word search based on the Gospel reading for the Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A: a lesson about how it will be at the end of time.

The words can be found in all directions in the puzzle.

SAYS TO ME MANY YOUR NAME NEVER KNEW ACTS HOUSE FLOODS

HEAVEN DID WE NOT DEMONS EVILDOERS WISE MAN ON ROCK WINDS

THE WILL PROPHESY DEEDS THESE WORDS WHO BUILT RAIN FELL SAND

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March 4, 2011

St. Patrick’s Day Events Events commemorating the holiday begin Feb. 27 and continue through April 17. Also visit United Irish Societies website at www. uissf.org.

March 12, 9 a.m.: “St. Patrick’s Day Mass” at St. Patrick’s Church, 756 Mission St. in San Francisco with Auxiliary Bishop William J. Justice presiding.

March 12, 11:30 a.m.: “St. Patrick’s Day Parade” beginning at 2nd and Market Street in San Francisco and continuing to Civic Center.

March 12, 6 p.m.: St. Isabella’s Parish Annual St. Patrick’s Day Dinner Dance. No host cocktails at 6 p.m. with traditional corned beef dinner at 7 p.m. Evening includes Irish music, Irish dancers and a DJ plus an Irish soda bread contest. Tickets are $20 per person. Call (415) 479-1560 March 17: “Hibernian Newman Club St. Patrick’s Day Luncheon” at the St. Francis Hotel, 335 Powell St. in San Francisco. Kathleen Ryan will be honored as Hibernian of the Year.

Entertainer and youth counselor, Michael Pritchard, is featured speaker. A no-host reception begins at 11 a.m. with a corned beef and cabbage lunch at noon. Celebration includes traditional Irish music and entertainment. Tickets are $85 per person. Call (415) 386-3434.

Lenten Opportunities ASH WEDNESDAY IS MARCH 9 March 8, 6 p.m.: “Kickoff” of “40 Days for Life” campaign in St. Mary’s Cathedral Conference Center Room C, Gough Street at Geary Boulevard in San Francisco. Mass is at 6:30 p.m. Following Mass a procession to Golden Gate Community Health (formerly Planned Parenthood) at for a brief service and then back to the cathedral for fellowship and potluck snacks. Call (415) 668-9800 or visit www.40daysforlife.com/sanfrancisco.

Daily March 9 – April 17, 8 a.m. – 8 p.m.: “40 Days for Life” Campaign of fasting and of prayer for an end to abortion at Golden Gate Community Health (formerly Planned Parenthood) at 815 Eddy St. between Van Ness and Franklin in San Francisco. Call (415) 668-9800 or visit www.40daysforlife.com/sanfrancisco.

Wednesdays, March 9 – April 20, 7:30 p.m.: The Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose offer a “Lenten Journey” to reexamine minds and hearts to enter deeply into the Paschal Mystery during Holy Week. Series includes faith sharing with a Scriptural base, time to share and explore what the scripture has to share. Takes place at Dominican Sisters of MSJ motherhouse, main parlor, 43326 Mission Blvd., entrance on Mission Tierra Place, in Fremont. E-mail blessings@msjdominicans.org or call Sister Beth Quire, OP at (510) 449-7554.

March 9: Contemplative Day of Prayer, “Living in the Creative Fire-a Lenten Journey”, with Marietta Fahey, SHF, at Santa Sabina Center, 25 Magnolia Ave, San Rafael from 9:30 a.m.-2 p.m.

Suggested offering is $20. Call (415) 457-7727 or e-mail info@santasabinacenter.org.

Fridays March 11 to April 22, 6 p.m.: Soup

March 12, 5:15 p.m.: The Serra and Men’s Clubs of Saint Raymond Parish in Menlo Park will be sponsoring and hosting a Military Religious Vocations Mass and barbecue for discernment participants from the Military Archdiocese of the United States. Discernment candidates are all active duty military personnel from all branches of the armed forces, travelling in from all around the nation and overseas. Military veterans are especially welcome. Following mass, a dinner will be hosted at the Ed Kennedy Center on the St. Raymond campus. Dinner Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for children. The public, especially families, are invited to sponsor a soldier for dinner and also help with driving them to mass. For more information contact the St. Raymond Parish office at (650) 323-1755 or go to www. straymondsparish.org for directions.

P UT YOUR

Datebook March 11, 7 p.m.: Father John Moulder, an accomplished jazz guitarist, and his quartet will perform “Trinity,” a sacred concert, at St. Mary’s Cathedral, the first Friday of Lent. The suggested free-will offering is $15, and the proceeds benefit the cathedral.

“This is a great way to have this Lent’s spiritual journey start on a new note,” organizers said. Father John is a guitarist and composer who has played nationally and internationally at numerous festivals, clubs and concert halls and has performed with artists such as Eddie Harris, Bob Mintzer, Kurt Elling, Paul Wertico, Gary Burton and Terry Callier. He received his master’s degree in music from Northwestern University and is currently a faculty member at Benedictine Father John Moulder University and Northwestern University.

He has lectured, taught master classes and conducted clinics at universities, high schools, music institutes and other settings. Visit www.johnmoulder.com or call the cathedral at (415) 567-2020.

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 March 11, 6 p.m. – March 12, 6 p.m.: “Young Adult Lenten Retreat: How to Walk the Healing Journey” with Dominican Sister Rebecca Shinas at Dominican Sisters of MSJ motherhouse, 43326 Mission Boulevard in Fremont, entrance on Mission Tierra Place.

Learn the eight steps of forgiveness, hear remarkable testimonies of conversion, healing, and repentance; receive sacrament of reconciliation plus great food, great company, great talks and time for prayer, reflection, sharing. Special appearance by Christine Watkins, author of “Full of Grace: Miraculous Stories of Healing and Conversion through Mary’s Intercession.”

E-mail blessings@msjdominicans.org or call (510) 933-6335.

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 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) 3407434 by March 11.

March 26, 9:30 a.m. – noon: “The Sacrament of Reconciliation,” a Lenten evening sponsored

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.

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 Chair, 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.

Reunion 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.

The traditional Latin Mass celebrated according to texts and rubrics of the Missal of Blessed 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) 479-1560; 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 St at Hearst in San Francisco.

Call (415) 333-3627; third Sundays at Holy Name of Jesus Church 39th Avenue at Lawton in San Francisco. Call (415) 664-8590 for time.

Food and Fun

March 10, noon: Serra Club of San Francisco St. Patrick luncheon at Italian American Social Club, 25 Russia Ave., off Mission Street in San Francisco. Diarmuid Philpott, president of the United Irish Societies will talk about the streets in San Francisco with Irish names and how they got that way. Tickets are $20 per person. Contact Paul Crudo at (415) 566-8224 or e-mail pecrudoddss@aol.com.

March 12: “Fog City Lounge,” St. Monica School Annual Auction Fundraiser Dinner. Come and enjoy an evening of fun, food, and friends in the Parish Hall on 23rd Avenue and Geary Boulevard, San Francisco. This adults only event starts at 6 p.m. with a silent auction, continues with a delicious crab and chicken dinner, and a cash raffle. Tickets are $50 per person and include hors d’oeuvres, dinner, dessert and beverages.

For tickets, contact fundraising@stmonicasf.org or call (415) 751-9564.

March 16, noon: The popular third Wednesday Italian lunch at the Immaculate Conception Church in the Church Hall at 3255 Folsom St., up the hill from Cesar Chavez and Precita Avenue. Come on up to Bernal Heights for the city’s best pasta and meatballs! $8 per person, family style, includes salad. Beverages will be available for purchase.

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

Vocations/Serra Clubs

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

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

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March 13, noon – 4 p.m.: 55th Annual St. Patrick’s Day Barbecue Fundraiser at Point Reyes Station benefiting Sacred Heart Parish of Olema and St. Mary Magdelene Mission of Bolinas. Menu includes fabulous chicken, pasta with homemade sauce, salad and rolls and mlk, tea or coffee. Tickets are $18 for adults and $7 for children.

Beverages, Drakes Bay oysters, and desserts will be available for purchase. Raffle tickets are available, too. Come to the Dance Palace, 5th and B Street in Point Reyes. Call (415) 663-1139. “It is a multigenerational, cross-cultural, fun for all event,” said organizer, Loretta Murphy.

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.

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Catholic San Francisco

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March 4, 2011

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

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Industrial Supply Electrical Falcon Industrial Supply 7381 Mission Street Daly City, CA 94014 T: (650)992-3149 • (650)992-4015 F: (650)992-3129 CLEANING SUPPLIES FLOOR/CARPET CLEANING SKIN CARE/PERSONAL HYGIENE JANITORIAL PRODUCTS STORAGE/MATERIAL HANDLING WASTE/TRASH RECEPTACLES FACILITY MAINTENANCE/SAFETY TRASH BAG & CAN LINERS VACUUM/FLOOR EQUIPMENTS FOOD SERVICE ITEMS

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

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The Irish Rose

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PLUMBING

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EMAIL: bestplumbinginc@comcast.net Member: Better Business Bureau

HOLLAND Plumbing Works San Francisco ALL PLUMBING WORK PAT HOLLAND CA LIC #817607

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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 statelicensed. Advertisments appearing in this newspaper without a license number indicate that the contractor is not licensed. For more information, contact:

Contractors State License Board 800-321-2752

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Insurance Farmers Insurance Steve Murphy Home • Life • Auto • Renters • Apartments Involved in your community as a CYO coach, referee and parishioner

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Clinical Gerontologist Senior Care Care Management for the Older Adult Family Consultation –Bereavement Support

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March 4, 2011

Catholic San Francisco

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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

Caregiver ACACIA HOME CAREGIVERS

Compassionate, quality home care for seniors Living at home is the best way for seniors to maintain their lifestyle, not just life.

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

Cost $26

If you wish to publish a Novena in the Catholic San Francisco You may use the form below or call 415-614-5640 Your prayer will be published in our newspaper

Name Adress Phone MC/VISA # Exp. Select One Prayer: â?‘ St. Jude Novena to SH â?‘ Prayer to St. Jude

â?‘ Prayer to the Blessed Virgin â?‘ Prayer to the Holy Spirit

Please return form with check or money order for $26 Payable to: Catholic San Francisco Advertising Dept., Catholic San Francisco 1 Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco, CA 94109

Island Home San Juans Islands Home A master suite with a jetted tub, its own deck, a sitting room and 210-degree view of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Cattle Pass are features of this 3-bedroom, 2 bath unique home on 2.1 acres on Lopez Island.

Very private, yet close to island airport and golf course.

Two-car garage. Stone fireplace.

Walk to beach. $399,000 – $115,000 under county assessed value.

E-mail Dan at cnsuncle01@yahoo.com for more info and/or photos.

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Elderly Care

Help Wanted Bishop Gorman High School Principal Position Posting

Experienced Private Caregiver available. Responsible for safeguarding client, scheduling appointments, monitoring medications, household shopping, meal preparation, light housework.

415-386-0207 Adult companion seeks employment with elderly woman. Personal care, doctor’s appts., driving, shopping, live-in or hourly.

Call Annabelle at 415-314-9676

Visit us at

www.catholic-sf.org For your local, national and international Catholic news, Datebook, On the Street, website listings, advertising information, “Place Classified Ad�

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Lake Tahoe Rental LAKE TAHOE RENTAL Vacation Rental Condo in South Lake Tahoe.

Sleeps 8, near Heavenly Valley and Casinos.

heaven can’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 school’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.

San Francisco Archdiocesan Secondary

Teacher Job Faire Saturday, March 19, 2011 10 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory Sr. Theresa Piro Student Life Center 1055 Ellis Street, San Francisco, CA 94109

Host High Schools Include: Archbishop Riordan High School (San Francisco) Convent of the Sacred Heart (San Francisco) Immaculate Conception Academy (San Francisco) JunĂ­pero Serra High School (San Mateo) Marin Catholic High School (KentďŹ eld) Mercy High School (Burlingame) Mercy High School (San Francisco) Notre Dame High School (Belmont) Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory (San Francisco) Sacred Heart Preparatory (Atherton) Saint Ignatius College Preparatory (San Francisco) Stuart Hall High School (San Francisco) Woodside Priory (Portola Valley) Bring copies of your rĂŠsumĂŠ to the Faire.

Call 925-933-1095 See it at RentMyCondo.com#657

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Catholic San Francisco

March 4, 2011