CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO Newspaper of the Archdiocese of San Francisco
SERVING SAN FRANCISCO, MARIN & SAN MATEO COUNTIES
www.catholic-sf.org
APRIL 7, 2016
$1.00 | VOL. 18 NO. 8
Pope asks for new Catholic institutions of mercy, charity CINDY WOODEN CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
The project has a double purpose according to Julio Escobar, coordinator for the archdiocese’s restorative justice program, which is organizing the program and serves as a liaison between schools and parishes and local prisons. Both students and prisoners are anonymous to each other, but continued correspondence will be possible through the archdiocese. “We are trying to accomplish two things at the same time, said Escobar. “Reaching out to the imprison,” as a corporal act of mercy, and helping young Catholics embrace the concept of restorative justice early in their lives.” Restorative justice is based on an old and communal understanding of wrongdoing and is the way many of our ancestors understood wrongdoing, Escobar said. The basic concerns of restorative justice
VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis asked Catholic dioceses around the world to set up a permanent memorial of the Year of Mercy by establishing a hospital, home for the aged or school in an under-served area. Celebrating Divine Mercy Sunday with an evening prayer vigil April 2 and a morning Mass April 3, the pope said the idea Pope Francis came to him during a meeting with a charitable organization and he decided to mention it at the vigil with participants of the European gathering of the World Apostolic Congress of Mercy and followers of the Divine Mercy devotion. “As a reminder, a ‘monument’ let’s say, to this Year of Mercy, how beautiful it would be if in every diocese there were a structural work of mercy: a hospital, a home for the aged or abandoned children, a school where there isn’t one, a home for recovering drug addicts – so many things could be done,” the pope said. “Let’s think about it and speak with the bishops,” the pope told thousands of people gathered in St. Peter’s Square to pray the Divine Mercy chaplet of St. Faustina Kowalska, and also to remember St. John Paul II, who promoted the devotion and died April 2, 2005. Reciting the “Regina Coeli” prayer at the end of Mass the next day, Pope Francis said the Divine Mercy Sunday celebration was “like the heart of the Year of Mercy,” and he announced that Catholic parishes throughout Europe would be asked to take up a special collection April 24 as a sign of closeness and solidarity with people suffering because of the war in Eastern Ukraine. The war has caused thousands of deaths and forced more than 1 million people to flee their homes, he said. Pope Francis prayed that the collection, a sign of solidarity and closeness, “could help, without further delay, promote peace and respect for the law in that harshly tried land.” The more one receives mercy, Pope Francis said at the vigil April 2, “the more we are called
SEE PRISON PEN PAL, PAGE 14
SEE POPE, PAGE 10
(PHOTO BY CHRISTINA GRAY/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)
Inmates at San Quentin State Prison and the San Francisco County Jail will receive cards handmade by students of archdiocesan Catholic schools and religious education programs participating in a Pen Pal Jr. service project for the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy.
Prison pen pals offer youth a lesson in mercy and restorative justice CHRISTINA GRAY CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO
Hundreds of locally incarcerated men and women will receive a handmade card and message of hope this Mother’s Day and Father’s Day from young Catholics participating this year in a Year of Mercy project coordinated by the archdiocese. “I know it seems impossible to think about being forgiven but it is not,” wrote an unnamed eighth grade student who made his card during Lent. “Leave all the bad things behind and begin a new page, strive for greatness and God will be there too.” The Pen Pal Jr. program launched earlier this year will connect adolescent Catholic school and religious education students to approximately 1,150 prisoners in San Francisco County Jail and 600 prisoners at San Quentin State Prison in an artful religious education project.
St. Paul School celebrates centennial: 12,000 students educated since 1916 TOM BURKE CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO
San Francisco’s St. Paul School celebrates its 100th anniversary April 30 and May 1. The elementary school has served approximately 12,000 students during the last century. “Records show the school opened in July 31, 1916, with 529 students. It grew to, at one time, over 1,000 students, and was the largest parochial school west of
the Mississippi,” said Gina Fazio-Siu, school finance and marketing manager. “We are celebrating St. Paul’s School having educated the children of Noe Valley for 100 years, with the emphasis on teaching Catholic tradition, academic excellence, diversity and community.” Father Mario Farana has been pastor of St. Paul Parish since 1993. “After 100 years, the spirit of our school remains, the same spirit of vision and purpose that was given by the school’s founding pastor, Msgr.
Michael Connolly and principal, Sister Conradine Davies, BVM,” Father Farana told Catholic San Francisco. “Despite many changes over the years, structurally and educationally, our parish school lives on in order to feed the minds and nourish the hearts of the young, and in the end, to enable them to live with the values of the Gospel.” Notre Dame Sister Kathryn Camacho is principal
Duggan’s Serra Catholic Family Mortuaries Duggan’s Serra Mortuary Driscoll’s Valencia Street Serra Mortuary Sullivan’s Funeral Home & Cremation
SEE ST. PAUL SCHOOL, PAGE 2
INDEX On the Street . . . . . . . . 4
650/756-4500
Faith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
415/970-8801
Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
415/621-4567
Community . . . . . . . . . 15
www.duggansserra.com
Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . 19