ORDINATION:
COOKBOOK:
Deacon Andrew W. Ginter to enter priesthood June 4
RECOVERING MARY:
Swiss Guards bring the Vatican to your kitchen
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Christian life without her ‘inconceivable’
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CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO Newspaper of the Archdiocese of San Francisco
www.catholic-sf.org
SERVING SAN FRANCISCO, MARIN & SAN MATEO COUNTIES
MAY 12, 2016
$1.00 | VOL. 18 NO. 12
An ocean of tears calls for mercy, compassion, pope says CINDY WOODEN CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
VATICAN CITY – The tears shed by men, women and children around the world each day cry out for mercy, compassion and consolation, Pope Francis said during a special Year of Mercy prayer service for those who weep. “How many tears are shed every second in our world; each is different but together they form, as it were, an ocean of desolation that cries out for mercy, compassion and consolation,” the pope said May 5 as he led the prayer service in St. Peter’s Basilica. Before the pope spoke, he and the congregation listened to three testimonies. Giovanna Astarita and Domenico Pellegrino and their son Raffaele spoke about the suicide of Antonio, the couple’s first son. He was only 15. “Antonio dragged my life, my soul and my mind into that tomb, too,” his mother said. Faith in God and an experience of God drying her tears was and is the only thing “that prevents me from going crazy,” she said. Maurizio Fratamico spoke about how he worked, traveled, made a lot of money, “used and threw away” a lot of young women, but felt empty and alone. His twin brother had a conversion experience and shared it. Thanks to the tears of his parents and his own tears of remorse, Fratamico said he has set out on a
Without Holy Spirit, people risk being ‘armchair’ Christians, pope says CAROL GLATZ CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
him to flee and to try to start life over in Italy. “To know persecution and the fear of death is a terrible experience, especially when I think of my children,” he said.
VATICAN CITY – Without letting the Holy Spirit lead his or her life, a person risks being just an “armchair Christian” who recites “a cold morality” without actually living out the Gospel, Pope Francis said at his morning Mass. Do not keep the Holy Spirit a prisoner, locked inside your heart; rather let him “push” and “move” you to boldly bring Jesus to others and to be able to be patient under pressure, the pope said May 9 during the Mass in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae. The pope’s homily looked at the day’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles (19:1-8), in which St. Paul meets a group of disciples who were baptized by St. John the Baptist and had never heard of the Holy Sprit. After Paul baptizes them in Jesus’ name and lays his hands on them, they are filled with the Holy Spirit and receive his gifts. There are still many Christians today who are unaware of how the Holy Spirit “moves the church,” the pope said.
SEE TEARS, PAGE 13
SEE POPE, PAGE 13
(CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING)
Members of the Pellegrino family walk forward to present a candle during a prayer vigil led by Pope Francis “to dry the tears” of the suffering in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican May 5. The family lost a son and brother. Pictured are siblings Chiara and Raffaele, and parents Domenico Pellegrino and Giovanna Astarita. journey of faith and has found “the joy I was always seeking.” Qaiser Felix, a Catholic journalist from Pakistan, spoke about how his reporting on anti-Christian discrimination led to threats against him and against his family, eventually forcing
Retired nurse, priest team up for health care in Nigerian village CHRISTINA GRAY CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO
(COURTESY PHOTO)
Retired nurse Angela Testani accepts a gift of coconuts after providing health care to patients in the Diocese of Abakaliki, Nigeria.
A retired Catholic nurse and a Nigerian pastor are teaming up to improve basic health care services in the priest’s rural diocese where people suffer because of a lack of quality, accessible care and basic health education. Angela Testani of Holy Name of Jesus Parish in San Francisco returned from an April trip to the Diocese of Abakaliki, Nigeria, to visit Father Edward Inyanwachi, pastor of St. Patrick Parish. Father Inyanwachi is well-known
in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, having served at a number of local parishes for more than a decade while he pursued his doctorate in Catholic educational leadership at the University of San Francisco. He returned to his native diocese in 2013 to take leadership of a newly formed parish. “Father Ed,” as Testani calls him, is now the pastor of a largely rural parish in Ebonyi state in southeast Nigeria that includes St. Patrick Parish and two mission churches. Parish families, most of whom farm yams and other sustaining crops, walk miles on dirt roads carrying
their own chairs to arrive for a dawn Mass before they set out for the fields. Testani described witnessing a “humbling” liturgy that combined Catholic and native traditions and “lasted no less than two-and-a-half hours.” In what Testani called a pastoralmercy partnership, she and Father Inyanwachi are working together to raise the money to ship a container of refurbished medical equipment to the local Catholic hospital later this year. The pair will seek to raise the $25,000
Irish Help At Home QUALITY HOME CARE SERVING THE BAY AREA SINCE 1996 San Francisco 415 759 0520 • Marin 415.721.7380 • San Mateo 650.347.6903
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SEE HEALTH, PAGE 8
INDEX On the Street . . . . . . . . 4 National . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Faith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . 27