May 27, 2011

Archbishop calls circumcision ban ‘misguided,’ affront to religious freedom

Catholic san Francisco

By Valerie Schmalz

Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper

(CNS PHOTO/MICHAEL MCARDLE, NORTHWEST INDIANA CATHOLIC)

San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer called a proposed ban on circumcision that qualified for the Nov. 8 ballot in San Francisco “a misguided initiative” and “an unconscionable violation of the sanctuaries of faith and family” by the city.

The archbishop made his comments in a letter to the editor of The San Francisco Chronicle sent May 23 in support of an opinion article by Rabbi Gil Leeds published in the newspaper May 20, three days after the San Francisco Department of Elections validated the 7,743 signatures needed to qualify the initiative for the ballot.

The Jewish Community Relations Council, a Bay Area organization, is spearheading opposition and has formed The Committee for Parental Choice and Religious Freedom. An interfaith coalition that includes NAACP San Francisco President Rev. Amos Brown and University of San Francisco President Jesuit Father Stephen Privett also opposes the proposal as an infringement on religious liberty and parental rights.

The initiative would ban circumcision for any male CIRCUMCISION, page 8

Memorial Day liturgies Archbishop George Niederauer will be principal celebrant of the annual Memorial Day Mass at Holy Cross Cemetery, 1500 Mission Road in Colma, on May 30 at 11 a.m. The liturgy takes place in Holy Cross Mausoleum where many of the late archbishops of the archdiocese are interred. A shuttle will travel from the main gate to the Mass site from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Masses will also be celebrated that day at 11 a.m. at Holy Cross Cemetery in Menlo Park, Our Lady of the Pillar Cemetery in Half Moon Bay and Mount Olivet Cemetery in San Rafael. Visit www.holycrosscemeteries.com.

People take pictures of the Our Lady of the New Millennium statue outside St. John the Evangelist Church as storm clouds roll through St. John, Ind., May 22. The 33-foot-tall stainless steel statue of Mary found a permanent home at the church after being carted from parish to parish around the Chicago area for more than a decade.

Opportunism, poor formation, `60s culture fueled abuse, study says Confused sexuality and proximity to male minors were contributing factors, but priests’ sexual orientation, pathoWASHINGTON (CNS) — The clergy sex abuse crisis logical attraction to children and inability to manage the in the U.S. was largely a discipline of celibacy were 20-year historical event that not, acccording to the study spanned the mid-1960s to

by John Jay College of the mid-1980s before sharpCriminal Justice of the City ly dropping off, and several University of New York. commonly held assumptions The study was released May about what caused it turn out 18 at the headquarters of the to be myths, according to a U.S. Conference of Catholic major study of the causes Bishops in Washington. and context of the problem.

“No single psychoThe study also said logical, developmental or church leaders responded behavioral characteristic inconsistently to the harm Researcher Karen Terry in Washington May 18 with differentiated priests who done to victims and noted Spokane Bishop Blase J. Cupich and Diane Knight, abused minors from those that although some were who did not,” the report chairwoman of the National Review Board. innovators, the failure of othsaid. ers was a “significant ethical Most abusers were not lapse” and “egregious in some cases.” driven by deviant psychology, did not “specialize” in abuse

By David Gibson

of particular types of victims and also had sex with adults, the report said.

Less than 5 percent of the priests with allegations of abuse exhibited behavior consistent with a diagnosis of pedophilia — a psychiatric disorder characterized by recurrent fantasies, urges and behaviors about prepubescent children. “Thus, it is inaccurate to refer to abusers as ‘pedophile priests,’” the report found.

Most abusers were “generalists” who victimized multiple minors of different ages based on the opportunities available to them, Karen Terry, dean of research and strategic partnerships at John Jay, said at a press conference on the release of the report.

Most abusers’ victims were young males, not because most priest-abusers were homosexuals but because their work gave them more access to males and more opportunities to abuse them, she said.

“Because of the large number of sexual abuse victims who were male minors,” homosexuality’s role in the abuse “has been a notable question,” the report explained. It OPPORTUNIST, page 16

INSIDE THIS WEEK’S EDITION On the Street . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Young adult ministry . . . . . . 6 Grads’ job outlook . . . . . . . . 7 Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Father Rolheiser . . . . . . . . 15

Rural Church’s motorcycle blessing ~ Page 3 ~ May 27, 2011

Tornado batters Catholic hospital ~ Page 5 ~

Wedding Guide ~ Pages 7-11 ~ ONE DOLLAR

Service directory . . . . . . . . 18 Classified ads . . . . . . . . . . . 19

www.catholic-sf.org VOLUME 13

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No. 20

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Catholic San Francisco

May 27, 2011

On The

Father Stephen Howell, pastor, blesses a new “Goodness Garden� at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish and School in Belmont. Assisting were altar servers, from left, Madison Archer, Jonathan Besona and Niall DeWitt, and seminarian, Tom Martin. Principal, Hannah Everhart, also pictured, attended the rite. Money for the project was raised by students and the larger parish and school community.

Where You Live

By Tom Burke One of the gifts of writing this column continues to be serving as a channel for events in the lives of readers.

Kathleen Kelly, longtime parishioner of Our Lady of Angels Parish in Burlingame, recently entrusted me with the tale of a group of moms – she is one - who met a long time ago at Holy Name of Jesus Parish in San Francisco. “There were 12 of us to begin with,� Kathleen told me, “but two have passed away so we are now 10.� The women all had children in Holy Name School and were active in the Mothers’ Club. They became friends, Kathleen said, and soon realized they had much in common and formed a club. “At first, we met in the evening so the dads could babysit,�

Kathleen said. The dozen put on fashion shows, musicals, raffles and other events to help support the school. They picnicked together as families and also invited the husbands in for evenings out. Their children are now adults but the ladies continue to meet once a month as they have for the last half-century. Meetings are now in the afternoon instead of the evening and Kathleen said the group is trying to decide how to celebrate their 50th anniversary. “We have 10 different ideas,� she said, “but all of us agree that no matter

Students from St. Charles School in San Carlos let their hearts lead the way as volunteers for San Francisco Food Bank before Easter. The happy corps packaged a ton-and-a-half of food for the needy. Pictured on the job appropriately attired are, from left, chaperone Rosie Casarez, a senior at St. Francis High School in Mountain View, and St. Charles students Allison Gonzales, Sophia Kostainsek, Hana Mack, Claire O’Rourke, Eric DeBrine, Nathan Gonzales, Andrew Kostainsek, Danielle DeBrine, and Riley Brownfield.

how we celebrate, we will start out with Mass at Holy Name where it all began.� The women are Kathleen, and Joyce McHugh of OLA, Winifred Downing, Alice Dickson, Sally Harrington, Dolores Kelly, Marguerite Rodigou and Mary Solvin of Holy Name, Rosemary Gleason of St. Mary’s Cathedral, Natalie Lagomarsino of St. Catherine of Siena in Burlingame, and the late Ida May DaSilva and Eileen Kiernan‌.Santiago Calero, Ellen Spiers and Michael Cavan made their first Eucharist May 7 at St. Gabriel Church. Mighty proud parents are Maureen and Adolfo Calero, Maire and Dan Spiers, and Patty and Sean Cavan.

Proud uncles and aunts include San Jose Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Daly, brother of Santiago’s mom, who celebrated the Mass with St. Gabe’s pastor, Father Tom Hamilton, and gave his nephew Communion‌. Happy 60 years married to Elvira and Johnny Anguiano. The couple married at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in San Francisco on May 5, 1951, and have been parishioners of St. Robert’s in San Bruno for the last 50 years. Joining them in the joy are their children Johnny, Irene with her husband, Joseph, and Joey,

First communicants Santiago Calero, Ellen Spiers and Michael Cavan.

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with his wife, Sue. Grandchildren are Monica, Jessica, and Aidan. Twins Joseph and Antonio are great grandchildren.

Thanks to granddaughter, Jessica DeNurra, for the good news‌. Prayers please for Pat Langley, parish coordinator, at St. Anselm Parish in Ross. Pat is recovering from surgery and mending “very wellâ€? said, Tippy Peck, also a St. Anselm staffer. Tippy also asks for prayers for parish cantor, Dolores O’Halloran. A recent fall has left her with a broken shoulder and knee. Dolores and Deacon Bernie O’Halloran are husband and wife‌. Never too late for kudos! Hats off to hardworking students at St. Timothy School in San Mateo, who had fun and finished well in math competitions in February. Addin’ and subtractin’ were Antony Cabuslay, Lea Chandler, Joshua Salvatierra, Matthew Gill, Stephanie Hanna, Grant Holmes, Jacob Hanna, and Daniela Vivanco‌. CSF is now on its summer schedule.

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May 27, 2011

Catholic San Francisco

3

By Dana Perrigan Nearly every Sunday during Mass at Our Lady of Refuge Mission in La Honda on the San Mateo County coast, the quiet sanctity of the liturgy is pierced by a siren’s shrill wail — a serious accident, usually involving a motorcycle, has taken place on one of the winding roads that snake their way through the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Every weekend, the miles of smooth asphalt with twisty turns and scenic backdrops lure hundreds of Bay Area motorcyclists. While some are content with cruising along and enjoying the sights, others are intent on practicing their racing skills on the tight corners.

At the end of the day, not all of them make it home.

“I was hit myself a couple of weeks ago,” says Deacon John McGhee. “A woman was coming around a curve and didn’t make it.

She jumped off and the bike hit my car.”

While neither was injured, the accident served as yet another reminder of something Deacon McGhee — assigned to Our Lady of Refuge since his ordination 16 years ago — and his friend, Deacon Rusty Duffey, had been talking about for years: an annual

Blessing of Motorcycles in La Honda.

Last Saturday, May 21, the years of talk bore fruit. Wearing stoles made for the occasion by a parishioner that bore the image of a motorcycle, the two deacons launched into a special blessing extolling the beauty, as well as the responsibilities, of the sport.

The weather went along for the ride.

The coastal fog that had enveloped the forest-like setting of La Honda the day before cleared into a bright blue spring afternoon. A gentle breeze moved through groves of pine.

While phone calls had been made to some Bay Area motorcycle groups, and flyers announcing the blessing had been placed at popular biker hangouts, the turnout was low. Only four bikes and their riders showed up for the blessing and St. Christopher medals.

Dan Cissell and Sandee Lehner, both from nearby Skyline, rode up on their Harleys. Mark McGhee, Deacon McGhee’s son, arrived from Pescadero on his Kawasaki. Parishioner Joel Mansfield, who rode from his home in San Francisco to take part in the event, showed up on his 1998 Honda Valkyrie.

Parishioners Shella Bordi and Elizabeth

St. Francis Shrine sets June events Below are June events and prayer opportunities at the National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi and La Nuova Porziuncola, Vallejo Street and Columbus Avenue in San Francisco.

June 1: Birthday celebration for Franciscan Father Louis Vitale, peace activist,7:30 p.m.; June 3: Charismatic Renewal, 6:30 p.m., followed by Mass at 7:30 with Msgr. James Tarantino; June 5: Golden Gate Boys Choir and Bell Ringers concert, 2 p.m., followed by a reception; June 11: Russian Vespers by the choir of Our Lady of Fatima Russian Catholic Church with Capuchin Father Eugene Ludwig, pastor, in La Nuova Porziuncola, 3 p.m.; June 13: Novena of Masses in honor of St. Anthony of Padua, 12:15 p.m.; June 18, 19: Annual Blessing of the Animals in conjunction with the North Beach Festival, 2 p.m.

The Porziuncola and Francesco Rocks gift shop, online at knightsofsaintfrancis. com, are open 10-6 daily except Monday. Rosary is prayed daily at 4:30 p.m. in the Porziuncola. The shrine church is open daily 10-5 with 12:15 p.m. Mass Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. Sundays.

Irish Help At Home

(PHOTO COURTESY NANCY PORTEOUS-THOMAS)

Harleys and holy water: Rural church’s Blessing of Motorcycles

Deacon Rusty Duffey distributes St. Christopher medals at the Blessing of Motorcycles May 21 in La Honda.

Hardy didn’t have motorcycles, but they were there to help with the event.

Undaunted by the low turnout, and perhaps mindful of what 12 men had begun a couple of thousand years ago, Deacon McGhee stood before the small group of bikers and parishioners and signaled the beginning of the ritual.

It began with a song, “The Lord is My Shepherd,” performed by Mansfield Family Music, which sang several other tunes during the blessing.

After delivering the blessing and leading the assembly in petitions of prayer, Deacon McGhee walked slowly down the steps of the 125-year-old Our Lady of Refuge church and sprinkled holy water on the four motorcycles, as well as those in attendance.

“We bless the fleet, we bless animals, and we always do car blessings,” says Deacon Duffey, “so we figured — why not motor-

cycles? We put the word out, and we hoped.”

Assigned to St. Robert’s in San Bruno after being ordained in 1990, Deacon Duffey met Deacon McGhee when he was asked to interview him as a possible candidate for the archdiocese’s diaconate program.

“They were going to close the church (Our Lady of Refuge),” says Deacon McGhee, now 86, “and I thought that if I became a deacon maybe they wouldn’t close the church. I became a deacon and they didn’t close the church.”

Before he became a deacon, he was a parishioner who was heavily involved at Our Lady of Refuge — a mission church attached to Our Lady of the Pillar in Half Moon Bay — for 24 years.

“We call it the scrounge church,” says Deacon McGhee, gesturing toward the altar of Our Lady of Refuge, “because just about everything in it was scrounged from somewhere else.”

The cross is from Our Lady of the Pillar.

The pews are from St. Cecilia’s. The altar was a gift from the Dominican Sisters.

Presently, the congregation consists of about 35 parishioners. On holy days, about 100 people attend Mass at the church.

Outside the church, Joel Mansfield turned hot dog links on the barbecue.

A retired police officer with the city of Berkeley, Mansfield met his wife, Angela, while working as a lifeguard at the public swimming pool in La Honda in 1970.

Although they now live in San Francisco, they have remained supportive of Our Lady of Refuge throughout their marriage.

Along with their son, John, a student at UC Berkeley, they formed Mansfield Family Music, a family trio which also performs at Church of the Epiphany in San Francisco.

Sitting on a bench across from where Mansfield cooks hot dogs, Deacon Duffey sips a soft drink.

“Maybe next year I’ll tweet,” he jokes.

“Maybe we’ll have a better turnout.”

Each day should be special.

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Catholic San Francisco

NEWS

May 27, 2011 Internationalis, said that if trains had existed in Jesus’ day the Lord would have told a parable that would have included the line, “I am the locomotive and you are the wagons” in the same way Jesus “used to say the sheep learn the voice of the shepherd and follow him.”

The slower pace and freedom of movement on a train promote community, he said in an interview en route: “In the wagons people are talking, leaving behind selfishness and egoism and individualism. Community is beautiful on a train.”

in brief

All aboard: Steam train ride opens Vatican event

Corrections Photos published April 8 incorrectly stated the date of the Feb. 25, 2011 Chinese New Year banquet.

Due to an editing error, an April 22 letter by James J. Watrous of San Mateo commenting on the U.S. bishops’ censure of a book by Sister Elizabeth Johnson appeared without a headline or the writer’s name, and as a result was not separated from a related letter

by Geraldine Walsh of Marin County.

The letters with separate headlines and identifications have been posted on catholic-sf.org.

A May 20 article incorrectly referred to CYO Athletics as Catholic Youth Organization Athletics. The correct name is Catholic Charities CYO or CYO Athletics.

Condom campaigns risky

(CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING)

ABOARD THE CARITAS EXPRESS — Caritas Internationalis opened its 60th anniversary celebrations with a loud whistle and a puff of smoke on a vintage train traveling from the Vatican’s seldom-used train station for a day’s outing. The train, dubbed the Caritas Express for the journey May 21, included the fancy parlor car used by past popes and that will be used when Pope Benedict XVI travels to Assisi in October.

H o n d u r a n The Caritas Express Cardinal Oscar chugging out of R o d r i g u e z Vatican station May Maradiaga of 21 for a trip to the Tegucigalpa, presUmbrian hills. ident of Caritas

VATICAN CITY — An article in the Vatican newspaper said that, on a practical level, condom campaigns increase AIDS risk by promoting a false sense of security. On a moral level, the article said, condom use by married couples goes against the church’s teaching because it “deforms” the conjugal act.

The article was written by Father Juan Perez-Soba, a moral theologian who teaches in Rome at the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family. It appeared in L’Osservatore Romano May 24, three days before the start of a Vatican conference that was expected to clarify church teaching on AIDS. Condom campaigns feed the false belief that there is no danger and have increased the possibility of infection, he said, adding that habitual condom use shows “lack of responsibility in regard to the other person.”

Pope, astronauts chat VATICAN CITY — In a video hookup May 21 between the Vatican and the International Space Station in orbit around the earth, Pope Benedict XVI asked the astronauts how science can help in the pursuit of peace and the need to protect a fragile planet. Seated in front of a video screen, the pope could see the 12 astronauts huddled before the camera and trying not to float away from zero gravity. He praised them for their work and reminded them that they “must eventually come back down to earth like all the rest of us.”

Salesians suspend two ROME — The Salesians of St. John Bosco suspended two European members after it was discovered one belonged to a pro-pedophilia organization and another made remarks defending pedophilia, the congregation said May 23. The Salesian

headquarters said a Dutch priest identified only as Father “B” and the superior of the Salesians in the Netherlands, Father Herman Spronck, were suspended. Father Spronck was dismissed from his position as head of the Salesians in the Netherlands after RTL radio published a transcript of an interview with the priest in which he reportedly condoned sex between adults and children.

Guatemalan massacre FLORES, Guatemala — Two bishops called for prayer and government action after the May 14 machete beheading of 27 workers on a farm owned by an alleged drug kingpin in the country’s northern Peten department. “The Catholic Church cannot remain indifferent or silent in the face of the constant acts of violence that afflict our dear Peten, causing death and pain,” Bishop Mario Fiandri of Peten wrote in a pastoral letter. He called the crime the “ultimate barbaric expression of a generalized situation of violence and insecurity.”

Vocal priest reinstated CHICAGO — Father Michael Pfleger, who was placed on administrative leave April 27 as pastor of an African-American parish on Chicago’s South Side, has been reinstated

by Cardinal Francis E. George and agreed to develop a transition plan for the parish’s future.

The outspoken priest, longtime pastor of St. Sabina Church, was placed on leave after he said in a national radio interview that he would leave the Catholic Church if he were to be reassigned. He apologized for his remarks May 20, saying if they “seemed to be a threat to leave the priesthood, I am sorry.”

“It is clear that with the revolutions in the Middle East and all the social and political changes taking place, the current situation cannot continue,” said Hussam Elias, an Arab Catholic living in Cana, Israel, who directs the Galilee program for the Jerusalem Center for Jewish-Christian Relations.” Israel needs to decide if it wants to be a part of the new Middle East or to be left out alone.”

— Catholic News Service and USCCB

Clinic approved A Planned Parenthood clinic was approved by the Redwood City zoning administrator as pro-life advocates said they will appeal the decision to the City Council.

The zoning administrator approved the use permit for Planned Parenthood Monte Mar on May 20. The clinic site is a former office building at 2890 El Camino Real, just over the boundary with Atherton and directly across the street from a Holiday Inn Express.

The medical clinic was not approved for surgical abortions but will have the option of dispensing chemical abortions, according to the planning department.

About 12 pro-life opponents spoke at the permit hearing Jan. 19, said Jessica Munn, chair of San Mateo Pro-Life. Since then, the group sponsored a vigil that drew hundreds who prayed during Lent. In addition, the group held demonstrations Feb. 4 and Feb. 11 at the site.

— Catholic San Francisco

Clergy Mideast plea WASHINGTON — Leaders of more than 25 Jewish, Christian and Muslim national religious organizations urged strong U.S. leadership for Israeli-Palestinian peace.

In a May 20 letter to President Barack Obama the day after his speech affirming peace is possible and declaring U.S. support for a two-state solution based on 1967 borders with mutually agreed land swaps, the leaders urged the president to visit Jerusalem and the region soon to meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to restart peace talks.

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, archbishop emeritus of Washington, and Bishop Howard J. Hubbard of Albany, N.Y., chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace, were among the signers.

Pastors appointed The Archdiocese of San Francisco on May 19 announced the appointments of three pastors and an administrator, effective July 1.

Father John A. Balleza, of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Redwood City, is to be pastor of St. Raphael Church in San Rafael. Father Thuan V. Hoang, who has been serving at Church of the Visitacion in San Francisco, becomes pastor. Father V. Mark P. Reburiano, of St. Gregory Church in San Mateo, becomes pastor of St. Isabella Church in San Rafael.

Father Jess G. Labor, was named administrator of Church of the Good Shepherd in Pacifica.

The announcement completes a series of personnel changes that was begun in April.

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May 27, 2011

Catholic hospital takes direct hit from Joplin monster tornado

LOVE

serves the city’s two parishes, escaped damage, Eidson said. It was being used as an overflow triage center.

In a message posted on his Facebook page the evening of the storm, Father John Friedel, St. Peter’s pastor, said: “Just got back from closing down the Catholic high school, which was opened as an overflow triage center. Our area of town was untouched, though the neighboring parish (20 blocks away) has probably lost their entire physical plant. ... I know you’ve all seen the footage of St. John’s, our Catholic hospital, which is probably also a total loss!”

Catholic Charities of Southern Missouri was in Joplin and seeking donations to aid tornado victims, Eidson added. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul also was coordinating its own relief efforts in the Joplin area, according to Eidson, who said the Convoy of Hope, which has a large operation in southwestern Missouri, had already established a base in Joplin.

ST. HILARY CHURCH, TIBURON

— Catholic San Francisco contributed to this story.

LOVE

(CNS PHOTO/ED ZURGA, REUTERS)

JOPLIN, Mo. (CNS) – The deadliest tornado in more than 60 years destroyed as many as 30 percent of this city’s buildings on May 22, and severely damaged a Catholic hospital in which five patients who had earlier been admitted in critical condition were killed. A hospital worker was also killed.

In all, the death toll in Joplin stood at 117 early in the week, with hundreds injured, although the toll was expected to climb higher as rescue workers continue their search amid the rubble for survivors and victims of the tornado that ripped through this city of 50,000 people in southwest Missouri.

The nine-story St. John’s Regional Medical Center was directly in the path of the tornado, variously described as being from a half-mile to a mile-and-a-half wide.

While six people died when the twister struck the hospital, some 183 patients were moved to other facilities, a spokeswoman told The New York Times.

The New York Times said the facility was the scene of “stunned chaos” the night the twister struck, reporting that nearly every patient was “splashed or covered with blood from all the glass, and people in the emergency room were sucked out of windows” and landed in a parking lot.

“Please keep the people of Joplin in our prayers, especially those whose lives were taken as well as those who lost loved ones,” said a May 23 statement from Bishop James V. Johnston Jr. of the Diocese of SpringfieldCape Girardeau.

The tornado also destroyed all of the property at St. Mary’s parish in Joplin — church, rectory and school — although no one was injured. The pastor, Father Justin Monaghan, “rode it out in the bathtub. He’s fine,” said Leslie Anne Eidson, editor of The Mirror, the newspaper of the Diocese of SpringfieldCape Girardeau.

At Joplin’s other Catholic church, St. Peter the Apostle, parish administrator Elizabeth Runkle, told Catholic News Service May 23, “St. Peter’s is fine. We’re OK. We didn’t have any damage. Everybody’s fine.” St. Peter has an outreach center that they’re trying to use to speed aid to victims, according to Eidson.

McAuley Catholic High School, which

The scene near St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Mo., May 23.

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Dolan: Poor must remain priority WASHINGTON (CNS) — The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the chief author of the recently passed House budget for 2012 have exchanged letters discussing the moral implications of the federal budget debate.

Archbishop Timothy P. Dolan of New York, USCCB president, said in a May 18 letter to Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., a Catholic who chairs the House Budget committee, that he was pleased to know that consideration was given to the foundational principles of Catholic social teaching in drafting the budget plan.

The archbishop’s correspondence came in response to an April 29 letter from Ryan, who explained that the needs of the poor, the sick and the elderly were not being ignored and that it was a moral imperative to address

the growing federal deficit in the budget as passed in the House. The Senate has yet to take up the budget.

The House budget has been criticized by some Catholics who have said that it deviates from the basic tenets of Catholic social teaching. Specifically, they have raised concerns about how the plan would change Medicaid funding in the future, particularly harming children and women, how it would reshape Medicare and would likely reduce access to health care for the elderly, and how its plan to reduce the tax rate for high income individuals would fuel the federal deficit.

Archbishop Dolan reminded Ryan that any budget must keep the needs of the poor as a priority.

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Catholic San Francisco

May 27, 2011

Young adult ministry reorganizing in Archdiocese of San Francisco

By Valerie Schmalz Young adults often fall through the cracks in the Catholic Church.

Jonathan Lewis is one of a core of people from those just out of high school to those in their early 30s who are determined to transform the Catholic world in the Bay Area to welcome one of the largest groups in the area — but one of the least represented in parish and church life.

The Bay Area, with its Silicon Valley tech culture and social media startups, its restaurants, parks and night life, actually has 560,000 people of all faiths and no faith who fit the demographic designation of “young adult,” Lewis said.

“In most parishes there are not intentional ministries” for those from their late teens into their 30s, Lewis said.

Another difficulty for reaching young adults is that many of those aged 18 to 39 don’t tend to register at a parish unless

they are married with children. And if they do register, they are unlikely to view it as a long-term commitment, said Lewis, director of religious education at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Mill Valley.

Lewis is working with Deacon John Norris, archdiocesan director of pastoral ministry, who is crafting a new constitution and recruiting for an archdiocesan pastoral council of young adults to advise the archbishop and Archdiocese of San Francisco in a new effort to create and support young adult ministries.

About 30 people, including leaders from young adult groups at St. Benedict, St. Thomas More, St. Vincent De Paul and St. Dominic parishes in San Francisco, turned out for meetings May 15 and May 17 on the topic of young adult ministry and where it should go.

Among the young adults Lewis wants to reach are those in the pews, often the back pews and at evening Masses, but also

Serra Club essay contest

the one in 10 or 56,000 in the Bay Area who call themselves former Catholics, Lewis said.

Citing the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ pastoral plan for young adults, “Sons and Daughters of the Light,” Lewis said he hoped to achieve its principles of connecting young adults more fully with Jesus Christ, the church and its mission through a vibrant peer community.

More young adult groups, more catechesis directed to young adults and spiritual opportunities, and perhaps a softball league were among a myriad of ideas brainstormed at the May 17 meeting at St. Thomas More Parish hall, hosted by the church’s St. Benedict Young Adult Group. Attending were young adults from the four San Francisco parishes and from St. Pius, Our Lady of Angels and St. Charles parishes in San Mateo County and St. Patrick and St. Raphael in Marin County.

For more information contact Jonathan Lewis at jonathanlewis86@gmail.com.

Teen event Sept. 24

Bishop-elect Thomas Daly, in one of his final acts as vocations director for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, congratulated winners of the annual San Mateo Serra Club essay contest.

More than 500 students wrote on themes including, “How do I demonstrate my faith at home?” and “What makes me proud to be a Catholic.”

The OnFire NorCal Jam 2011, a day of prayer, inspiration and fun for Catholic teens, will be held Saturday, Sept. 24, at Six Flags in Vallejo.

San Francisco Auxiliary Bishop Robert W. McElroy and Auxiliary Bishop William J. Justice will be among 10 bishops celebrating Mass at the event, which is sponsored by the Archdiocese of San Francisco and the dioceses of Sacramento, Stockton, Oakland, San Jose, Santa Rosa, Monterey, Reno and Fresno.

Tickets are $41 — $35 for friends and family — and include all-day park access and all programs, including lunch and exclusive ride access from 7-9 p.m.

Catholic bands interested in performing may apply at http://norcalcatholicyouth.com. The deadline is Aug.15.

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Catholic San Francisco

7

Graduation gift: An improved job outlook for class of 2011

By Carol Zimmermann WASHINGTON (CNS) — The graduating class of 2011 is armed with something college graduates haven’t seen in the past four years: an improved job outlook.

It sure beats a nice briefcase, luggage or jewelry.

Employers are planning to hire 19.3 percent more new college graduates this year than last year — the highest increase since 2007 — according to a new report released by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

The report, released May 12, shows an even brighter outlook than the 13 percent increase in the number of college graduate hires it predicted last fall.

Starting salaries also are better. In February, the Bethlehem, Pa.-based organization reported that the average starting salary offers for college seniors were up about 3.5 percent from the same time last year — a first since 2008.

These glimmers of good news have not gone unnoticed on college campuses.

Gillian Steele, managing director of the career center at Vincentian-run DePaul University in Chicago, said the market for this year’s 6,924 DePaul graduates looks even better than the National Association of Colleges and Employers’ prediction.

He said the career center had nearly 50 percent more job postings listed this year than the previous year and more job postings in March than they had since January 2008. Of these job postings, 83 percent were for full-time jobs primarily in professional services, technology, finance, accounting, banking and government and nonprofit sectors.

The national survey shows that hiring by industry has increased nearly across the board, except for government jobs. Recent college graduates are particularly in demand at oil and gas extraction companies, chemical manufacturers and computer and electronics companies. The financial services sector — banks, financial firms, insurance and real estate companies — is also increasing its hiring of new graduates, rebounding after huge layoffs in recent years.

For the past three years, the employment outlook for DePaul’s graduates — and college graduates nationally — has been in flux. During the recession, the job market for new graduates plummeted. Jobless graduates ended up moving home with their parents, looking for part-time work not in their career paths or going to graduate school to delay the job search.

This year, the state of the U.S. job market improved slightly News Service May 20 that she thought the school’s 380 graduwith the addition of 192,000 jobs, according to a report by the ates had a “greater sense of confidence” about job prospects U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Job gains were in fields of than she has seen in the past few years.

For starters, many of the graduates at the Catholic women’s manufacturing, professional and business services and health care. But still, the unemployment rate was at 9 percent in April school — except for the weekend and graduate program — and economists say it could take years for the job market to already have jobs or at least internships, Pauley noted.

“A large majority have had at least one internship or more,” return to its former days.

In this mixed bag of more available jobs in a still troubled she said, giving them work experience, networks and marketeconomy, today’s graduates have their work cut out for them ability to boost their job search.

Most college counselors advise students to at least prepare just to get work.

Louis Lamorte, director of career services at La Salle for the job search well before they get their caps and gowns, University, a Christian Brothers school in Philadelphia, said: encouraging them to get involved in clubs, organizations, “The bad news is competition is still very high, which means volunteer work and internships, anything they can put on graduates need to make connections to have their resume their job applications.

According to the National Association of Colleges and avoid the circular file.”

He advised members of this year’s graduating class to be Employers, 90 percent of employers prefer candidates with persistent with their job search and to use all resources avail- work experience — gained primarily through internships.

As DePaul’s Steele put it: “For the class of 2011, internable especially networks of friends and alumni through online ships are the new entry-level jobs.” networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn. Jason Eckert, director of career services for 2011 HIRING EXPECTATIONS BY MAJOR Marianist-run University of Employers plan to hire more graduates from this year’s class than Dayton, echoed this advice, they did the previous year. Percent looking to hire these majors: saying students should be sure to use Twitjobsearch.

63 ENGINEERING com — a search engine that compiles job openings 61 BUSINESS posted through Twitter — or ACCOUNTING 4 48 Indeed.com which searches the web for job postings.

24 PHYSICAL SCIENCES He said the university’s ECONOMICS 20 graduates have done espe19 COMMUNICATIONS cially well finding jobs in the health care industry and 13 SOCIAL SCIENCES information technology and 9 AGRICULTURE cybersecurity careers.

8 HUMANITIES This year, the university has had an increase in the 3 HEALTH SCIENCES number of job and internship EDUCATION 2 postings as well as employer on-campus recruiting.

29 OTHER MAJORS Ann Pauley, vice president for advancement Employers plan to hire more college graduates from this year’s class than they did at Trinity Washington last year. Engineering and business majors are the most sought-after grads.

University, told Catholic

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Catholic San Francisco

May 27, 2011

‘Huge decline’ in Catholic weddings as archdiocese reviews marriage prep

By Valerie Schmalz Archbishop George Niederauer has formed a task force to study marriage preparation in response to a sharp drop in the number of Catholic weddings in the archdiocese.

The number of Catholic sacramental marriages in the archdiocese dropped 47 percent from 1990 to 2010, with 1,985 marriages in 1990 falling to 1,060 marriages 20 years later.

Over the same period the number of Catholics in the archdiocese grew from 395,000 to 444,008.

Father Raymund Reyes, pastor of St. Anne of the Sunset Parish in San Francisco, said the “huge decline” is something priests are struggling to understand.

The task force will examine marriage education with an eye to revamping it, San Francisco Auxiliary Bishop Robert McElroy said.

Bishop McElroy said the task force is addressing several points raised by a committee of the Council of Priests, an advisory body. The task force will focus on renewing existing marriage preparation programs, making parishes as inviting as possible to engaged couples and making the moment of engagement a substantial time of catechesis for couples.

The task force will address the issues in the context of the diverse cultures of the archdiocese. The group will examine how the growing multiculturalism of the Catholic community plays a role in the trend and how it can be a means for reversing the decline.

The task force chairs are Msgr. Mickey McCormick, a

Circumcision . . .

■ Continued from cover under 18 except in cases of medical necessity. It says that religious belief could not be used as an exception to the law and violators could be fined up to $1,000 and imprisoned for up to one year.

Circumcision is a religious rite in most forms of Judaism and in Islam as well as a choice of other parents for nonreligious reasons including tradition and hygiene. In the United States it is most frequently performed by a doctor in a hospital shortly after birth.

“Parents don’t have a right to harm their child. They can only do what is in the best interest of their child. I can guarantee a child being held down and having their genitals mutilated is not a religiously uplifting experience for the child,” said Lloyd Schofield, the initiative’s primary sponsor and part of a core committee of five working on the campaign.

Schofield, who details arguments for the ban on the website sfmgm.org, said men who want to undergo the procedure

canon lawyer and retired pastor and director of adult and campus ministry, and JoAnne Norris, an auditor in the Metropolitan Tribunal.

“There is a concern across the board from our priests, not just about the number of marriages, but as to the quality of marriage preparation — that has to be revisited,” said Msgr. James Tarantino, vicar for administration and moderator of the curia for the archdiocese.

Marriage preparation should be more welcoming to couples, he said. In addition, the decline in the number of church weddings “points to a deeper issue of people not being as well educated as to what a sacramental marriage means and how that is important in helping a marriage,” he said.

The drop in sacramental marriages in the archdiocese mirrors national trends. About 72 percent of all U.S adults were married in 1960 but by 2008 the figure was down to 52 percent, according to a 2010 Pew Research Institute report, “The Decline of Marriage and Rise of New Families.”

Msgr. Tarantino said a rise in cohabitation and rejection of the idea of traditional church weddings are factors in the drop. “Another factor is the way our system of marriage preparation works or doesn’t work. Sometimes it is not as conducive as it might be in showing hospitality and welcoming people to marry in church,” he said.

Although the total number of sacramental marriages is down, the percentage of sacramental marriages with Catholics marrying Catholics rose from 67 percent in 1982

to 77 percent in 2010, according to P.J. Kenedy & Sons’ The Official Catholic Directory.

Those who are choosing to marry are more likely to marry another Catholic than in earlier years and are now in their early 30s, up from their mid-20s in 1985-95, said Joe D’Aura, who leads marriage preparation classes with his wife Connie in the archdiocese.

to remove the penis’ foreskin may do so after they turn 18.

Neither parental rights nor religious freedom is more important than stopping the practice, said Schofield. He said he was raised Lutheran but practices no religion and has no children.

“This is an unnecessary harmful surgery that is being forced on men when they are most vulnerable and defenseless,” Schofield said. “Less than 3 percent of intact adult men choose to undergo the operation.”

The Rev. James DeLange, a Lutheran pastor and chair of the San Francisco Interfaith Council, said in a statement that the ban “would turn back the clock on a right that is fundamental to the founding of this country – the right to the free exercise of religion.

“People of all religions, ethnicities, and cultural backgrounds have sought a new life in San Francisco to pursue religious liberty,” he said.

Abby Michelson Porth, associate director of the Jewish Community Relations Council and a leader of The Committee for Parental Choice and Religious Freedom, called the initiative an affront to religion and to religious liberty.

“Jews have performed circumcisions for 4,000 years.

It is symbolic of our monotheism and our covenant with God,” she said.

In his letter, Archbishop Niederauer stated: “Although the issue does not concern Christians directly, as a religious leader I can only view with alarm the prospect that this misguided initiative would make it illegal for Jews and Muslims who practice their religion to live in San Francisco – for that is what the passage of such a law would mean.”

Further, the archbishop wrote, “Apart from the religious aspect, the citizens of San Francisco should be outraged at the prospect of city government dictating to parents in such a sensitive matter regarding the health and hygiene of their children.”

USF President Father Privett called the measure a “totally unnecessary and thinly disguised expression of intolerance and discrimination against centuries-old religious traditions.”

The ban would not only violate religious liberty but “we should not waste citizens’ time and money,” the NAACP’s Rev. Brown wrote in a statement.

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Catholic San Francisco

Capturing day’s sacramental beauty critical for wedding photos Renata Grzan is a photographer who specializes in weddings, events, portraits and fine art. She has a master’s degree in theology and Christian ministry, as well as a graduate diploma of education and a bachelor’s degree in fine arts. Born in Melbourne, Australia, she is now based in the Washington, D.C., area, where she owns and operates Renata Photography. Our Sunday Visitor spoke to Grzan about her work and the importance for Catholic couples to find a wedding photographer who understands the sacramental character of marriage.

Our Sunday Visitor: Before you began your business, you were an artist and a catechist. How did this background shape your approach to photography?

Renata Grzan: Images play a very significant role in both art and theology. We’re made in God’s image, and Christ himself is the image of the invisible God, so we know that an image can express something profound and it can last forever. To be able to capture a profound experience in someone’s life and transmit it through images is very exciting to me. Being able to draw on my understanding of the power of images from the history of art and my theological studies helps me to see the deeper realities in a wedding celebration, or any event.

OSV: What difference does being a Catholic make to your work?

Grzan: I know what is unique to a Catholic wedding, and I try to make sure the true sacramental character of a wedding is captured in my photos. I find Catholic couples appreciate this because it’s hard to find in professional photographers. Too often, outside of the exchange of rings, photographers are unaware of the sacredness of what’s going on and even miss the nuptial blessing. I know all the key moments to capture and take it very seriously. The ceremony is but a moment in time, and I want my images to help couples remember the graces they received and the covenant they made.

OSV: What makes for a great photo?

Grzan: Lighting, lighting, and lighting!

It’s so important. When I take pictures during the Mass I don’t use flash, and when

I do, I use off-camera flash or bounce the light to create a natural look. Knowing how to place people in good light to flatter them is also important. Composition is key as well — being able to frame people and objects in a way that makes the image interesting and helps the eye go where it’s supposed to.

There’s also the technical side . . . knowing how to capture natural expressions and create photos where the couple looks natural and not posed. You need to keep all this in mind.

OSV: We are all drawn to beautiful images. Why? Grzan: Beauty lifts the soul to God and inspires the heart and mind. If you can beautifully capture a wedding, or whatever you’re photographing, you’re conveying its essence.

God is perfect beauty, so when we look at something beautiful, it draws us to him. As a photographer, when you can draw beauty out of everyday events, or very significant ones, and create photographic heirlooms, they can be sources of meditation.

OSV: What is your favorite kind of photography to do?

Grzan: I love to look for “hidden” things . . . the gentle smile of a bride as she looks at her husband, or maybe an aspect of her dress . . . the little things that come together and make the day unique. I love taking pictures of quiet details that express deeper things.

I don’t tend to go for big dramatic shots.

Instead, I like to capture the way a bride and groom want to remember the day so they’ll relish seeing the pictures for days to come.

OSV: Why should couples give serious thought to their wedding photography?

Grzan: A lot of reasons. First of all, quite literally, the day after the event there’s only the pictures. . . . The food will be eaten, the decorations gone, the flowers wilted, but the photos will last for generations. You’re not just doing it for yourself, but for your kids and grandkids. Couples need to give serious thought to who they hire. The photographer’s personality will be reflected in your images — it’s an artistic expression after all, so the photographer’s point of view, style, sensitivities, will be infused throughout. Also, the photographer, more than anyone else, will be following you around all day — make sure it’s someone who adds to your day.

the ceremony and the joy of the celebration afterward.

OSV: What are the trends in wedding photography? Do you follow these trends, and what do you think of them?

Grzan: The movement now is toward more natural shots, capturing things as they happen, not just posed pictures at predictable moments. I love this, because it focuses on the uniqueness of each couple and the beauty of how each day unfolds. There are some classic poses that are timeless and clean, so I tend to have a blend.

OSV: Are there aspects to wedding photography that you believe people misunderstand?

Grzan: Couples often assume the photographer knows what they want. And photographers often assume they can do as they please if the couple doesn’t say anything. Communication is important — a photographer needs to have several meetings with a couple and really listen.

I think, too, there’s a general misunderstanding of what wedding photos should be. Some photographers spend a lot of time manufacturing scenes — like going out to a back alley with a trash can or railroad tracks.

There’s a trend to shoot the wedding like a trashy-chic fashion spread, which misses the point. A photographer should be able to unobtrusively capture the sacredness of

Zoe Romanowsky writes from Maryland.

This article appears in the May 29, 2011, issue of the independent Catholic newsweekly Our Sunday Visitor and is reprinted with permission from the publisher.

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(CNS PHOTO/EDUARDO MUNOZ, REUTERS)

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A bridesmaid and a boy who will accompany the bride await her arrival for a wedding ceremony at a partially destroyed Catholic church in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, March 19, 2010.

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Catholic San Francisco

May 27, 2011

Making Sense Out of Bioethics

NFP and the telos of sex Father Tad Pacholczyk Married Catholics today often struggle to understand the moral difference between using contraceptives to avoid a pregnancy and using natural family planning. NFP relies on sexual abstinence during fertile periods in a woman’s cycle, as assessed by various indicators like cervical mucus or changes in body temperature. To many, the church’s prohibition of contraception seems to be at odds with its acceptance of NFP because in both cases, the couple’s intention is to avoid children. That intention, however, is not the problem, as long as there are, in the words of Pope Paul VI, “serious motives to space out births.” Dietrich von Hildebrand puts it this way: “The intention of avoiding conception does not imply irreverence as long as one does not actively interfere in order to cut the link between the conjugal act and a possible conception.”

That link between the conjugal act and a possible conception is a key source of meaning for our human sexuality. Sex, by its very nature, involves the capacity and driving energy to produce offspring. Anyone in a high school biology class already understands this. We are able to recognize the purpose

(or “telos”) of many different processes in the world: the telos of fire is to generate heat and to consume combustibles; the telos of an acorn is to become an oak tree; the telos of human sexuality is to draw man and woman together to procreate and raise children in the family unit. William May observes, “This is the meaning objectively rooted in the marital act itself and intelligibly discernible in it; it is not a meaning arbitrarily imposed upon or given to the act.” Seeing the telos of a process can reveal authentic goods to us which can then guide the moral choices we make.

Any time a married couple engages in sexual activity that has been intentionally rendered infertile by contraception, they are powerfully acting against the telos of the sexual act they share. Elizabeth Anscombe notes how their act is no longer “the kind of act by which life is transmitted, but is purposely rendered infertile, and so changed to another sort of act altogether.” Contraception strikes at the heart of the marital act. When a couple impedes the inherent procreative powers of that act through the use of a condom, a pill or other means, they are engaging in disruptive and contradictory behavior by seeking to perform the act on the

Pro-life seminar as church battles Aquino

(CNS PHOTO/ROMEO RANOCO, REUTERS)

Mae Belgica explains to school teachers the developmental stages of an unborn baby during a pro-life seminar in Manila, Philippines, May 20. The Pro-Life Philippines Foundation was holding the threeday seminar to answer questions teachers may have about love, sexuality and pregnancy.

Philippine politicians began debate on a family planning bill that is increasingly seen as a test of the political will of President Benigno Aquino, a champion of the measure, and the Catholic Church, which fiercely opposes it.

one hand, while simultaneously blocking it on the other.

In natural family planning, on the other hand, they are not directing any countermeasures toward the fertility of a specific conjugal act; the natural order and telos of the act is respected. As Janet Smith and Christopher Kaczor observe, “Contracepting couples make themselves infertile; NFP couples work with an infertility that is natural.”

Consider an analogy: A woman who is blind wants to talk to her husband each evening and tell him about the events of her day. He, meanwhile, wants to relax in the evenings by listening to baseball on the radio. He decides that while listening to his wife talk, he will at the same time plug in headphones and follow the game, so his attention will be divided between his wife and the game. He will occasionally says things like “yes, dear” and “uh huh” to give the impression that he is listening with full attention.

A woman on the pill similarly gives the impression that she is receiving her husband fully in the marital embrace, while, in fact, she is shutting down her own fertility in order to ward off his fruitfulness. On a deep level, she is rejecting his life-giving masculinity and speaking a false language to him with her body, much as the sports-minded husband is speaking a contradictory language with his headphones and “yes, dear” responses. If a man uses a condom with his wife, or even if both spouses agree to use contraception, they still speak a false and inauthentic language to one another right at the core of their intimacy.

Suppose that on alternating days of the week, the sportsminded husband agrees to stop listening to the radio and instead visits with his wife in a direct and focused manner.

Both spouses agree to delay their gratification (he practices “sports abstinence”; she practices “verbal abstinence”), on alternating days, rather than acting against the good of their personal communication by employing countermeasures like headphones. This is similar to the case of a couple using NFP. On some days, they fully share with each other in the conjugal act; on other days, they delay sexual gratification and freely choose abstinence, so as to avoid speaking inauthentically to each other through contraceptive sex.

In sum, contraceptive intercourse always represents a radically different kind of act than intercourse during a known infertile period.

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.

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Marriage: What Catholics believe Catholics believe that marriage comes as a gift from the hand of God. The Catholic vision of marriage is rooted in Scripture and is expressed in the teachings and practices of the church. It has these main elements: â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Marriage unites a couple in faithful and mutual love. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Marriage opens a couple to giving life. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Marriage is a way to respond to Megan Ward and Bryce Godâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s call to holiHorsley lighting the unity ness. candle during their â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Marriage calls the couple to be wedding at Sts. Philip and a sign of Christâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s James Church in St. James, love in the world.

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Catholic San Francisco

May 27, 2011

Guest Commentary

The Catholic voice in the torture debate Father John A. Coleman, SJ The killing of Osama bin Laden unleashed a new round in the torture debate. Some Bush administration figures argue that what they call “enhanced interrogation techniques” (read waterboarding, or torture, for this euphemism) led to essential information which pointed to bin Laden’s hideout in Pakistan. To his credit, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who had been a prisoner of war in Vietnam, strongly countered that argument. He claimed that torture often leads to lies, misleading information and that the essential information about bin Laden’s courier was received through ordinary interrogation efforts. McCain also considers waterboarding a form of torture, as the U.S. had during World War II when it charged Japanese military figures with war crimes precisely for their use of the method.

At their May 5 debate in South Carolina, a majority of thendeclared candidates for the Republican presidential nomination raised their hands to acquiesce when asked whether they supported waterboarding. One of those candidates, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, a devout Catholic and staunch pro-life politician, also raised his hand in support of the technique. There is evidence that some senators have resolved to interrogate CIA Director-designate Gen. David Petraeus and Secretary of Defense-designate Leon Panetta, a Catholic, on this issue of torture and waterboarding when their respective nominations come up for confirmation.

There is ample evidence that Americans are, alas, divided on this use of torture. One Pew Research Center poll found that half of the respondents said torture was justified “often” or at least “sometimes.” The surveys show

that more than half of American Catholics support the use of torture against terrorists. It seems timely to recall not a Catholic voice but the Catholic voice in the torture debate.

Most arguments in favor of the resort to torture are utilitarian, based on an argument from consequences. There are, to be sure, consequential arguments against torture as well: its role in recruiting new terrorists; the danger that our use of torture will encourage foreign entities to employ it on U.S. military personnel; the greater likelihood that torture yields lies, false and misleading information; the danger to the reputation of the U.S. when it flouts international law; what torture does to the torturer’s dignity.

But the Catholic voice on this renewed torture debate never relies on mere utilitarian arguments which can sacrifice the life or dignity of a human being to achieve some greater good.

Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical, “Veritatis Splendor,” included “physical and mental torture” in his long list of social evils which are not only shameful but also “intrinsically evil.” In their 2007 document, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops argued: “A prime example (of intrinsically evil actions) is the intentional taking of innocent human life, as in abortion and euthanasia. Direct threats to the sanctity and dignity of human life, such as human cloning and destructive research on human embryos are also intrinsically evil. Other direct assaults on innocent human life and violations of human dignity, such as genocide, torture, racism and the targeting of noncombatants in acts of terror war, can never be justified.”

“The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the

Church” asserts that the “prohibition against torture” is a principle that “cannot be contravened under any circumstances” (No. 404). It quotes Pope John Paul II as saying: “Christ’s disciple refuses every recourse to such methods, which nothing can justify.” Pope Benedict XVI, in a 2007 talk to Catholic prison ministers, directly quoted the “Compendium.” He asserted: “Means of punishment or correction that either undermine or debase the dignity of prisoners” must be avoided.

The U.S. bishops commissioned, in 2008, a pastorally helpful document, “Torture is a Moral Issue: A Catholic Study Guide,” which insists that human dignity can never — even in an enemy — be violated by torture. They warn against allowing the end to justify the means or resorting to desperate measures in desperate times. They urge us to listen to the voices of survivors of torture. They counsel against allowing euphemisms such as “enhanced interrogation methods” to paper over the resort to torture.

As the torture debate continues, we need to hear this Catholic voice loud and clear. We should call Catholic politicians to heed not only the church’s position that abortion is an intrinsically evil act but that, as a severe violation of human dignity, so too is torture intrinsically evil. As Jesuit Father Thomas Reese once put it: “It would be ironic and perverse for Christians who worship a man who was tortured and killed, to use torture themselves.”

The writer is parochial vicar of St. Ignatius Church in San Francisco. He was the Charles Casassa Professor of Social Values at Loyola Marymount University In Los Angeles from 1997-2009.

Guest Commentary

Reflections of faith and reason on three wars

By Tony Magliano A couple of weeks ago, while waiting to change planes at Midway International Airport in Chicago, I saw a man walking along the concourse, waving the American flag and shouting, “These are troops returning from Afghanistan!”

The smiling young men and women walking behind him were obviously glad to be home, and we fellow travelers were glad of their safe return.

But as soon as the troops paraded by and the brief clapping stopped, people went back to eating, drinking, reading and checking flight monitors. It powerfully struck me as a microcosm of American society’s attitude toward the three wars that the nation’s military is fighting. Young men and women are spilling blood -- their own and others’ -- while for mostly everyone else, life goes on as normal.

A real disconnect from the hell of war, I’d say.

War has always been hell. That’s because it originates in hell! It is an invention of Satan.

But today, the hell of war is distant and does not affect American society at large. And since nearly all of war’s hell is being experienced somewhere else, going to war and staying in war is all the easier for the vast majority of Americans.

The time surrounding Memorial Day is an appropriate time to seriously question why the United States is waging the hell of three wars.

Why are so many young men and women being sent by the American government to kill and be killed?

Is there even one honest, morally sound, overriding reason why the United States insists on adding more people to be sadly remembered each Memorial Day? Beware of misleading sound bite responses, such as: We’re fighting to “protect our national interests” or to “protect innocent civilians.”

Our real national interests, such as ending poverty, cleaning up the environment, healthy job creation and universal health care -- are not addressed by the death, destruction and astronomical monetary costs of war.

Furthermore, innocent civilians are not protected by waging war. Quite the contrary, modern warfare kills far more innocent civilians than combatants.

In his farewell address to the nation on Jan. 17, 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned: “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous

L E T T E R S Says Weigel needs to read Leo XIII, JP2 Re: George Weigel’s (“The church and the unions,” April 15) column on the recent union clashes with, as he says, “governors and legislators determined to prevent their states from going over the fiscal cliff.”

This is both a false and misleading statement. I offer the case of the most notorious attempt by the governor in Wisconsin to give corporations a $160 million break one week and an attempt to extract the same amount from unionized working people the next by stripping them of collective bargaining rights under the guise of a self-created fiscal “crisis.”

Weigel then goes on to cite “the impending crisis of federal entitlements like Social Security”— again a false claim. We should all know that Social

Security is not in crisis and in fact has a large surplus well into the future. This is just right-wing fear talk designed to frighten the citizens and undercut their faith in democratic institutions and a false excuse to force draconian cuts to the least of those among us. These are the kinds of people and situations that Pope Leo XIII and Pope John Paul II had in mind when they wrote their encyclicals. Mr. Weigel ought to reread these letters from the popes with an open and catholic mind free of current economic self-interest and political cant. It’s about the dignity of working people and their families.

It’s about treating the most vulnerable as Christ would have us do. As a public spokesman on ethics and policy, Mr. Weigel’s responsibility is to first do his homework and then think about what he is saying in public and its implications.

Mike Burns Tiburon

rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”

Unfortunately, the United States never heeded the warning of its five-star army general. Instead, the militaryindustrial complex of weapons-producing corporations shrewdly guarantees its “unwarranted influence” and “disastrous rise of misplaced power” by contributing funds to many incumbent members of Congress and by operating arms factories in many states that employ countless Americans.

Additionally, with the presence of military installations throughout the United States, communities have grown economically dependent on war and war preparation.

Jesus is calling believers to convert our permanent war machine into an economy dedicated to peaceful development. Popes have been preaching this for the past 50 years!

For example, in 1987, Blessed Pope John Paul II wrote: “If ‘development is the new name for peace,’ war and military preparations are the major enemy of the integral development of peoples.”

Is anyone listening?

Tony Magliano writes a column for Catholic News Service.

Says church needs women in priesthood I rise in support of letter writer Judy Liteky (May 6), who advocates for the ordination of women.

I have yet to hear or see any theological excuse of excluding women from the priesthood. “Jesus did not have any female apostles,” has been advanced as a reason. Jesus didn’t have electric lights, either. Nor cathedrals. In the 13th century there were married priests. The practice was abandoned because of fights over the inheritance of “church” property upon the death of the priest.

The notion that women are not equal before God is total nonsense. We need women priests.

Jerome F. Downs San Francisco

Fatima children note I got my Catholic San Francisco May 13, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, and started going through it that night. An article by Brother John Samaha, SM, about

Fatima caught my eye. I started to read it and discovered that little Jacinta, the sister of Francisco, had become Jacinto, the brother of Francisco, according to Brother John Samaha! I think that he needs to go back and read the history of Fatima. Also, maybe he should look at a picture of the trio of children. There is at least one picture of them together, showing two girls and one boy.

Charlene Schmitz Burlingame

Questions for Aquino Re: “Aquino’s approval drops,” news story, May 13).

Mr. Aquino (Philippines President Benigno), do you really believe that the cycle of poverty continues as unplanned births spiral? Would you ponder this?

Why not treat the poor as people with potential rather than as problems to be solved? (George Weigel column, “Catholic social thought and 2012,” May 13.)

Would you be a Catholic leader for LETTERS, page 13

May 27, 2011

Catholic San Francisco

13

For the Journey

Republic of plutocracy?

I’m going to confess to a guilty pleasure.

Amid all of the serious stuff I really do read, I love to pick up a copy of Vanity Fair magazine. I especially savor this thick, glossy rag sheet on long airline flights.

Its blend of over-the-top advertising, gossip and highlights from the latest celebrity tell-alls keeps me distracted from the big guy spilling over into my seat and incessantly blowing his nose.

Once I subscribed to Vanity Fair, but I was offended when one of its regular pundits made a snarky, inappropriate comment about Pope Benedict XVI.”Would his editor let him say that about the Dalai Lama?” I asked myself, and promptly canceled my subscription.

Still, the pages of Vanity Fair, with their intriguing mix of gravitas and glamour, glitter and grit, seduce me from the airport newsstand. An excerpt from Paul Allen’s book about his partnership with Bill Gates mixes in with the latest from the royal wedding, while Christopher Hitchens (who claims he’s an atheist, but I have my doubts) gives an interesting history of the King James Bible.

Then, in the May 2011 issue, a little article by Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz more than paid the price of admission: “Of the 1 percent, by the 1 percent, for the 1 percent.”

Briefly put, Stiglitz reveals that the richest 1 percent of Americans now take in nearly a quarter of the nation’s

income every year, and control an astonishing 40 percent of America’s wealth. By comparison, claims Stiglitz, 25 years ago, the richest 1 percent took in 12 percent of the income and controlled 33 percent of the wealth.

Stiglitz presents his own sensible, secular reasons why this is wrong and just can’t work forever. Just look at the Middle East, he says, where the main cause of turmoil is that wealth — and following right with it, power — have been consolidated in the hands of a very few.

Stiglitz points out that one in seven Americans receives food stamps.

I had my own encounter with this fact at my parish, one I think of as being affluent. We launched a “Food Stamp Challenge” so that parishioners could voluntarily live on a food stamp budget for the week to more closely identify with the poor. The youth minister pulled me aside: “Just be careful how you present this to the kids, he said.

I have several who are on food stamps.”

Who knew?

The reasons for our current economic climate being wrong transcend Stiglitz’s sensible and secular ones. They go to the heart of the Catholic view that a country and an economy should be based on the common good.

Popes from Leo XIII in the 19th century to Benedict XVI have urged us to consider that workers should receive salaries that enable them to support their families.

There’s something wrong with a society where one in seven must beg for food and many others are experiencing food insecurity.

I’m all in favor of well-regulated capitalEffie Caldarola ism, where people have the chance to get ahead and prosper. But increasingly in America, that’s tougher to do.

Stiglitz points out that nearly all of the U.S. senators are members of the 1 percent, and most members of the House of Representatives are as well.

Can we trust this group to ensure the common good?

Wouldn’t it be nice if a few members of the other 99 percent could evaluate our tax structure on a national level?

As long as Congress and our leaders are basically bought and paid for by Wall Street, the tax structure won’t reflect the common good, and Vanity Fair’s glossy ad products will be affordable to only the elite 1 percent.

Effie Caldarola writes a column for Catholic News Service.

Guest Commentary

A bishop who finally had to go Peter Rosengren The removal by Pope Benedict XVI of Bishop William Morris from the diocese that had been placed into his care for the Catholic faith in 1993 has been major news throughout the Catholic world over the last two weeks.

While the removal was almost unprecedented in Australia, it not-so-surprisingly illuminated fault lines within the church, which all reasonably well-informed observers have known about for decades. To use somewhat technical language, the fault line is sometimes described as the one which runs between the hermeneutic of continuity on the one hand and a mentality that can be described, on the other, as a hermeneutic of discontinuity. At the end of the day, however, the issue under debate was the simple fact that in the Catholic Church every bishop, a successor to the apostles, is obliged by sacred oath to teach what the Catholic Church teaches — period.

The hermeneutic of continuity is an outlook that sees the history of the church from Christ up until now as an organic and constantly developing unity, which takes into account the person and teachings of Christ, Scripture, two millennia of Catholic faith and practice and the defined body of teaching called the magisterium. It accepts as a matter of faith that some things can’t change, no matter what the popular view such as, for example, the belief in Christ’s divinity. Such things are, in effect, the constellations in the night sky by which the ordinary Catholic man or woman can safely navigate because they do not change position.

The hermeneutic of discontinuity, conversely, is more a mentality that tends to regard much of the church prior to the Second Vatican Council as somehow deficient and which seeks to obscure, change or reverse some or much church teaching, not excluding the dogmatically defined magisterium, usually in matters to do with the sanctity of human life and gender, but also extending to issues such as ecclesiology, liturgy and, in specific instances, such as the ordination of women. It usually seeks to do so in accord with moral relativism and the values predominantly to be found in popular culture. It often confuses the individual sinfulness or failings of members of the church throughout history with the actual faith of the church.

Letters . . .

■ Continued from page 13 politicians and businessmen to share wealth and power with, and for the poor, to enter the kingdom of God instead of risking the loss of your faith and life, and ultimately your soul?

Rose M. Jardin San Bruno E-mail letters to delvecchior@sfarchdiocese.org.

One mentality is informed by two millennia of constant belief and practice, often heroically witnessed to by martyrdom, the other by the mass media and the fashionable theories that abound in our culture. On the side of the essential unity of church belief and teaching from Christ up until the present is Pope Benedict; on the side of changing church teaching and practice to suit some values of majority opinion, sadly, was Bishop Morris.

The arguments surrounding the dismissal of Bishop Morris are therefore also about ecclesiology, which is to say they are about the church: among these being questions such as what is the church, who constitutes it, who has authority to define what are the essential beliefs which distinguish Christianity, especially Catholicism, from other beliefs and philosophies and who, if anyone, has the power to change church teaching? This is why the arguments surrounding the dismissal of Bishop Morris are fundamental in nature; they are neither irrelevant nor obscure. They also have direct consequences for Catholic youth, for Catholic marriages, and for Catholic family life.

Although he is undoubtedly a good man and shares much in common with fellow members of the church, Bishop Morris’ first problem was that he didn’t understand that.

The problem for Bishop Morris, in the end, was that, given the two positions, he had to make a choice — his way or the Catholic Church way. The problem for the church was how to handle a bishop well down the road in effectively promoting what might now reasonably be called heresy in his diocese. As Christopher Pearson, a columnist in the national newspaper The Australian (and also a convert to Catholicism) wrote shortly after the story broke, Bishop Morris had already sown consternation in his diocese with his 2006 pastoral letter. Seeking comment on how to respond to a shortage of priestly vocations in the Diocese of Toowoomba, the bishop canvassed possibilities, including the ordination of women priests and recognizing the validity of Anglican, Lutheran and Uniting Church orders. He did this although he should have known that the church had already definitively ruled these out.

In 1994, Pope John Paul II declared authoritatively as the vicar of Christ in “Ordinatio Sacerdotalis” that the church had no power to ordain women priests. A year later, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, under the future

Pope Benedict XVI, clarified John Paul II’s teaching as “to be held definitively as belonging to the deposit of faith.”

Official church teachings and various statements on the validity or otherwise of the orders of other Christian denominations are numerous, date back centuries and were, in some instances, reaffirmed by the CDF (under the future Pope Benedict) as recently as 1998 as definitive. To suppose that such teachings could be dropped or changed by the church was never anything more than mere fantasy.

And whether critics were in a majority or a minority in the Diocese of Toowoomba is immaterial. The truth of the Gospel never depends on numbers.

Bishop Morris has been portrayed (not surprisingly) by organizations such as the National Council of Priests of Australia as the innocent and unjustly treated victim of a dogmatic, pharisaical mindset under Pope Benedict and Rome (the usual conspiracy theory in the NCPA world of billabong theology where no fresh water appears to have flowed in since 1968).

Bishop Morris was actually treated with the utmost delicacy, discretion and respect by two popes and three Vatican dicasteries. He was given more than 10 years to resolve the issues and, remaining immovable, still stubbornly resisted repeated requests for his resignation.

One other problem seems to have eluded Bishop Morris. Catholic spouses and families everywhere face an unprecedented onslaught against their faith, their values and their children from a modern anti-culture predicated on the idea that there are really no more moral rules and no real consequences: One should do whatever one wants. As the simple people of faith do their best to lead the at-times difficult Christian life of fidelity to Jesus and everything he taught, they do not need bishops who will obscure the way or who become obstacles to the heroic vocation of Christian marriage and family. In fact, they are, sadly, better off without them. One might say that they need a bishop who can be a rock. One of the two bishops at the heart of this controversy is undoubtedly that.

Says writer should consult catechism

church, the one that published the rule book of our faith, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, in the 1990s. Mr. Quinn should read and reread Sections 2271, 2274, 2270 and 2272, on abortion. I believe in our catechism and I also believe in what Mother Teresa said: “If we allow a mother to kill even her own human child in the womb, then we cannot tell anyone else not to kill each other.”

I also thoroughly believe in the promises of Christ, especially in his complete response to the rich man in the synoptic Gospels.

Roy Petri San Anselmo

A rebuttal to Patrick J. Quinn’s letter (“Bishops and politicians,” May 6), that Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput is in a minority if he believes “you can’t be Catholic and be pro-choice: I think Mr. Quinn does not comprehend the Nicene Creed. When I make the profession of faith at Sunday Mass I do not believe in two holy Catholic and apostolic churches. There are not voting booths in the vestibules of our churches. There is only one holy and apostolic

The writer is editor of The Record, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Perth, Australia, where this editorial appeared May 18. It was distributed to Catholic News Service subscribers.

14

Catholic San Francisco

A READING FROM THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES ACTS 8:5-8, 14-17 Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed the Christ to them. With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing. For unclean spirits, crying out in a loud voice, came out of many possessed people, and many paralyzed or crippled people were cured. There was great joy in that city.

Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who went down and prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for it had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.

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Shout joyfully to God, all the earth, sing praise to the glory of his name; proclaim his glorious praise.

Say to God, “How tremendous are your deeds!”

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” — John 14:15 Since the late 1960s, the subject of love, a very prominent theme that crosses cultural and religious boundaries throughout human history, underwent yet another shift in understanding as the baby boomers came of age. Nowadays, the subject of love is usually associated with an intense emotional state of happiness connected with a person, (“I love him/her”) or thing (“I just love that doggy in the window”). In other contexts, the subject of love cannot be discussed separate for a kind of banal eroticism in which the portrayal of love, particularly on television and the movies, cannot be clearly conveyed to a seemingly intelligent audience, without the person or persons involved in that love, expressing it in some sexual manner.

It is God who has set the standard for love by sacrificing his only son.

For others, however, love is often evoked as a great legitimizer of any number of outlooks and behaviors, which, prior to the moral upheaval of the `60s, would be seen as scandalous, or, at the very least,

May 27, 2011

Sixth Sunday of Easter Acts 8:5-8, 14-17; Psalm 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16-20, 1 Peter 3:15-18; John 14:15-21

R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.

“Let all on earth worship and sing praise to you, sing praise to your name!”

Come and see the works of God, his tremendous deeds among the children of Adam.

R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.

He has changed the sea into dry land; through the river they passed on foot; therefore let us rejoice in him.

He rules by his might forever.

R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.

Hear now, all you who fear God, while I declare what he has done for me.

Blessed be God who refused me not my prayer or his kindness!

R.Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.

A READING FROM THE FIRST LETTER OF PETER

1 PT 3:15-18

Beloved: Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who defame your good conduct in Christ may themselves be put

Scripture reflection FATHER WILLIAM NICHOLAS

Love as God intended questionable; so that if something is done out of love, in the name of love, or because of love, it is somehow to be considered socially and morally acceptable. Where St. Paul wrote: “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7), the modern understanding of “love” is that it allows all things, tolerates all things, accepts all things, permits all things. In short, “all you need is love.”

In John’s Gospel, however, Jesus gives a revolutionary approach to the social and moral attitudes of the modern world; an idea of love as God intended. Jesus gives us his great commandment: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in

my love” (John 15:9), and, “Love one another as I love you” (John 15:12). He even goes on to state “there is no greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). In all three of these instances, however, Jesus classifies the love of which he speaks with a detail that might be considered a bit unnerving to our cultural sensitivities — “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15), “You will remain in my love, if you keep my commandments,” (John 15:10), and finally, “You are my friends if you do what I command you” (John 15:14).

Clearly Jesus is directing us to the kind of love we, as Christians, are to practice.

to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that be the will of God, than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, that he might lead you to God. Put to death in the flesh, he was brought to life in the Spirit.

A READING FROM THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN JN 14:15-21 Jesus said to his disciples: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows him. But you know him, because he remains with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live.

On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me.

And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”

Before all other considerations, beyond any eroticism or base emotionalism, before any justification or legitimization of sociocultural attitudes and considerations toward various actions and lifestyles, love, first and foremost, consists of obedience to God’s commands. Without that, call it what we may, it is not love.

When all is said and done, it is God who has set the standard for love by sacrificing his only son (1 John 4:9-10) Jesus, in turn, further expanded the standard of love by living and acting, first and foremost, in total obedience to the father.

Finally, Jesus imposed this standard onto his followers when he commands us to “live on in (his) love.”

In short, we are to love, not by the modern ideology of popular culture, articulated in droning cliches. Rather, Jesus declares, we are to “love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12); a love lived in total obedience to the commands of God, who is the very embodiment of true and authentic love. In the end, this is the final test of the authenticity of any love we might claim to embody in our feelings, our values, our attitudes, our actions or our lifestyles — “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

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

A God of failure and suffering

By Therese J. Borchard This year, I was asked to give the commencement address at my alma mater, Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Ind. As I searched for the right words to say to these young women at such an important crossroad in their lives, I tried to recall the people, places and things in my life that were the best teachers of wisdom.

I appreciated the motivational speech — the call for women’s empowerment — that I heard on my commencement day in the early ‘90s. It was given by thenSurgeon General Antonia Novello, the first woman and first Hispanic to assume that role. However, her words did not come to mind when I hit my rock bottom and needed some instructions on how to get up.

So I decided to go with the theme of failure and all of the benefits that failure offers us. I have learned far more from those moments on my knees, begging God for a resolution or explanation than I have during the times that I’ve been praised for my work or landed a great job.

In his new book “Burst: A Story of God’s Grace When Life Falls Apart,” former sports reporter Kevin Wells conveys a similar message. After surviving a very close call with death and a painful recovery, Wells experiences greater intimacy with God and a better

understanding of the cross. He writes: “I believe much of the acute, lasting pain I’ve accumulated throughout my life has arrived as a sort of message from God, kind of like a postcard dropped from heaven that’s as heavy as an anvil.”

Wells maintains that God’s desire for loving union

With suffering — with pain that you didn’t think you could survive — comes surprising blessings and useful wisdom. with us is unrelenting and can come across as fierce, that God can love with boxing gloves, but “his punches are loaded with hard shots of salvific grace” that rouse us from our slumber and escort us back to unity with him.

Call me crazy, but nothing everlasting has arrived in my life with success. However, with suffering — with pain that you didn’t think you could survive — comes surprising blessings and useful wisdom.

Franciscan priest and bestselling author Richard Rohr suggests we look to the Gospels for the meaning of pain and suffering. In his newest book, “Falling Upward,” he writes: “The genius of the Gospel was that it included the problem inside the solution. The falling became the standing. The stumbling became the finding. The dying became the rising. The raft became the shore.”

Wells includes between his covers the lives of the great sufferers of our faith. Among them: Sts. Paul, Rose of Lima, Therese of Lisieux, Faustina Kowalska, Blessed Teresa of Kolkata and St. Teresa of Avila. Even Blessed Pope John Paul II gave us instructions for suffering, explains Wells, in his apostolic letter “Salvific Doloris”: “Suffering must serve for conversion, that is, for the rebuilding of goodness in the subject.”

I know that the topic of suffering and failure might seem a tad bleak for college graduates, but my hope is that, when tragedy, death or illness strike in their young lives, they might look back and remember a line or two from their commencement day, and know that great things can happen in pain — if they are able to involve God in the tears.

Therese Borchard writes a column for Catholic News Service.

May 27, 2011

Catholic San Francisco

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God and violence

By Father Ronald Rolheiser God is nonviolent. God does not prescribe violence.

Violence should never be rationalized in God’s name. That is clear in Christian revelation.

But that immediately poses the question: What about the violence in Scripture that is attributed to God or to God’s direct orders?

Spirituality for Life Doesn’t God, in anger, wipe out the entire human race, save for Noah and his family? Doesn’t God ask Abraham to kill Isaac on an altar of sacrifice? Doesn’t Moses have to talk God out of destroying Israel because God is angry? Didn’t God give an order to Israel to kill everybody and everything (men, women, children, and even the animals) as she entered the Promised Land? Didn’t the Mosaic Law, attributed to God, prescribe stoning women to death for adultery? Didn’t Jesus kick over the tables of the money-changers in anger? And what about all the wars and capital punishment that have been done in God’s name through the centuries? What about extremist Islam today, killing thousands of people in God’s name? God, it seems, has prescribed and sanctioned a lot of violence and killing from ancient time right down until today. How do we explain all the violence attributed to God? Two things need to be kept in mind: First: Whenever Scripture speaks about God as being offended, as getting angry, as wanting to wreak vengeance on his enemies, or as demanding that we kill somebody in his name, it is speaking anthropomorphically, that is, it is tak-

ing our own thoughts, feelings, and reactions and projecting them into God. We get angry, God doesn’t. Our hearts crave vengeance, God’s heart doesn’t. We demand that murderers be executed, God doesn’t. Scripture contains a lot of anthropomorphisms that make for a bad and a dangerous theology if read and understood literally. To read parts of Scripture literally is to turn God into a tribal God in competition with other gods.

When Scripture says that we experience God’s wrath when we sin, it doesn’t want us to believe that God actually gets angry and punishes us. There’s no need. The punishment is innate, inherent in the sin itself. When we sin it is our own actions that punish us (the way excessive use of alcohol dehydrates the brain and the dehydration causes a headache). We may feel that the punishment as coming from God, from God’s anger, from God’s wrath, but it is nature’s wrath and our own that we are feeling. God has no need to extrinsically punish sin because sin already punishes itself. Nature is so constructed.

There is a law of karma. Sin is its own punishment.

But at the level of feeling, this is felt as if God is punishing us. However, as Jesus shows in forgiving his own killers and forgiving everyone who betrayed him, God forgives sin.

God has no need for vengeance or for a justice that extracts a pound of flesh for a pound of sin. Nature already does that.

Indeed, given a proper understanding of God’s nature and transcendence, it is presumptuous on our part to even believe that we can “offend” God. More important still, the biblical texts that attribute violence to God are also archetypal. Namely, they are texts that teach us things about the deep rhythms of the human heart but are not meant to be taken literally. Taken literally, they are often the very antithesis of the revelation of God.

But still what do we do with the biblical texts that prescribe violence to God? For instance, how can we interpret God’s ordering Israel to kill all the Canaanites as she entered the Promised Land?

In archetypal stories, killing is metaphorical not literal. It’s about a death inside the heart. God’s command to kill all the inhabitants of Canaan is simply a hard metaphor for what Jesus refers to when he says that you have to put new wine into new wineskins so that the new wine will not burst the old skins.

Anyone who has gone through a 12-step addiction program knows what it means to have to kill all the Canaanites. To move into the promised land of sobriety and remain there, something hard and cruel needs to happen that can’t happen through half-measures: To move into the promised land of sobriety, you have to clean out (“kill”) your entire liquor cabinet, all the “Canaanites”: All the beer, scotch, bourbon, rum, vodka, wine, cognac, and brandy, every ounce of alcohol has to go.

If you allow yourself even one drink you will eventually lose your sobriety.

Virtually every text in the Bible which ascribes violence to God or puts into his mouth a command to do violence needs to be read in that same way. The violence and killing are metaphorical, even as the text is asking the heart to do something which cannot be a half-measure.

Walter Brueggemann once commented that “God is in recovery from all the violence that has been attributed to him and done in his name.” It’s time that the churches entered the same recovery process.

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

Weighing the moral authority of bishops

By Peter Steinfels When a national conference of Catholic bishops habitually speaks with a common voice, does that undermine the leadership of individual bishops? The question has been raised ever since the Second Vatican Council gave those conferences official status and important although limited authority. It was raised in particular by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Benedict XVI, who worried not only that such conferences could become a vehicle for nationalism but that their consensus statements might quell the uncompromising views of courageous bishops. He was thinking, of course, of the experience of Nazi Germany.

Guest Commentary To my knowledge, neither the present pope nor any historian has yet offered evidence that a weaker conference of German bishops would have resulted in a stronger Catholic witness against the Nazi regime. But the question about the relationship between the collective and individual voice of bishops is a wider one. It has certainly been raised regarding the United States.

By most accounts, during the 1970s and 1980s the National Conference of Catholic Bishops here became a much more effective and influential presence in Catholic life and American society. Not everyone was pleased with this development, most visibly conservative Catholics unhappy with the major pastoral letters that the bishops’ conference issued on the morality of nuclear defense in 1983 and on American economic justice in 1986. One unhappy conservative at the time was George Weigel, who has recently claimed, “As the conference’s voice increased, that of individual bishops tended to decrease.”

Mr. Weigel, the quasi-official biographer of Pope John Paul II and a prominent commentator in both Catholic and secular media on things Catholic, made that claim last February in an article in First Things announcing that the nation’s bishops were at long last emerging from the grip of a “Bernardin Machine.” From 1968 to 1972, then-Bishop Joseph Bernardin served as general secretary of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops; as archbishop of Cincinnati he was president of the conference from 1974 to 1977; and as cardinal archbishop of Chicago he completed work on the conference’s nuclear defense pastoral and later articulated the “consistent ethic of life.” Mr. Weigel argued that the “Bernardin Machine” had condemned the church to a weak-kneed accommodation to the culture. His article, in my view, is a gross distortion of the past and a wrongheaded prescription for the future. I criticized its claims and not-so-covert political agenda in the May 20 issue of Commonweal.

Consider again that sentence, “As the conference’s voice increased, that of individual bishops tended to decrease.” The formula is catchy, but is it true? George Weigel provides no evidence — evidence that the voice of individual bishops actually decreased during Cardinal Bernardin’s heyday; evidence that, if it did decrease, the cause was the strengthening of the national conference. The claim, like others in his article, is pure speculation.

But the question he raises, even if polemically, is a good one. Is there an inverse relationship between the effective leadership of the bishops’ conference and that of individual

bishops? Is this a zero-sum game, with only so much “voice” to go around? Or, on the contrary, is it possible that the stronger the voice of the bishops collectively, the stronger the voice of most bishops individually and locally?

What exactly is meant by voice, anyway? Credibility, moral authority, effective leadership? And how does one gauge whether it increases or decreases — not just for a few prominent bishops but for the great majority of the several hundred bishops, especially the heads of the nearly 200 dioceses and archdioceses in the United States? Measurement is not going to be easy.

Undoubtedly, the emergence after the council of a working bishops’ conference with its own elected officers diminished the special status of the nation’s handful of cardinals. And there is no question that various Vatican officials have lamented this fact. From their point of view, it is naturally appealing for the intermediaries between Rome and the American bishops to be individuals whom Rome had elevated rather than ones the bishops elected. Sometimes Vatican officials have also set themselves up as defenders of the individual bishop’s rights and responsibilities against the workings of the conference, and no doubt their theological concern was sincere. It is also possible to see in this defense something akin to a chief executive officer’s preference for bargaining with an individual worker rather than a union. Mr. Weigel’s formula seems to echo these views.

In “A People Adrift: The Crisis of the Roman Catholic Church in America” (2003), I argued that during the period toward the end of the council and immediately afterward, the “voice” of the church was largely sounded not by bishops but by outspoken individuals, usually members of the clergy, who gained media attention for their highly visible roles in civil rights or antiwar protests, in opposing the reformed liturgy or in criticizing teachings on sexuality. The roster of these clergymen could include such different individuals as Hans Küng, Charles Curran, James Groppi, Daniel and Philip Berrigan, Gommar de Pauw, William DuBay or even, in a far more establishment mode, Theodore Hesburgh.

During the 1970s and 1980s, however, as the bishops’ conference got its sea legs as an organization, it again placed the hierarchy at the helm of American Catholicism, opposing abortion, conducting nationwide hearings for the bicentennial year of 1976 and stirring national debates with those pastoral letters on nuclear armaments and economic justice.

It was my impression that these developments, certainly in comparison with the preceding years, strengthened rather than diminished the “voice” of the vast majority of bishops locally as well as nationally.

Maybe I was wrong. Consider some preliminary work that one church historian has done on the impact on American Catholicism of controversial medical ethics cases during those crucial decades. James McCartin, a Seton Hall professor and author of Prayers of the Faithful: The Shifting Spiritual Life of American Catholics (Harvard, 2010), has been looking at cases involving decisions about end-of-life care, such as that of Karen Ann Quinlan in the mid-1970s and of Claire Conroy and Nancy Cruzan in the 1980s. Although local bishops offered measured “complex moral formulations” in such cases, those statements were drowned out by a pro-life movement roused by the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade (1973) and viewing abortion and euthanasia as twin evils threaten-

ing American society. “A growing news media would make pro-life activists the predominant Catholic voice in public debates about terminal illness and dying,” Mr. McCartin said in a paper given recently; and eventually “as Catholic moral theology became swept up in the emerging culture wars of the 1970s, the authority of local bishops to pronounce on matters of crucial moral significance within their dioceses was significantly diminished.” Local bishops “would be made to cede public attention and authority to national organizations which frequently articulated moral positions lacking the characteristic nuance of Catholic moral reflection, positions that could be easily articulated to advance a point in the culture war.”

That, of course, is a very different narrative from Mr. Weigel’s; but it may not be the full story either. Bishops might have simultaneously lost “voice” in some areas but gained it in others. And how does one factor in developments like new attitudes and appointments from Rome under John Paul II or the mounting disaffection of much of the theological guild or the growth of aggressive and often well-funded organizations on both the left and the right that systematically denounced the bishops on questions of social policy, peacemaking, sexuality, abortion, ordination of women and married men, liturgical language, catechetics and so on?

I doubt that anyone would dispute that the sexual abuse scandal has done drastic damage to the voice of bishops over the last two decades. Before the scandal it would have been scarcely imaginable that a conservative Catholic state legislator in a highly Catholic state would defend budget cuts against a bishop’s complaint that they hurt the vulnerable by calling the bishop a “pedophile pimp.” Yet of the many causes of the sexual abuse scandal, one of them was certainly not that the bishops’ conference was too strong. Just the opposite. Efforts by the conference to address sexual abuse by clergy were consistently undermined by both the limits of the conference’s structure and authority and by the impediments raised by individual prelates.

A more muscular conference two decades ago would probably have led to greater moral authority for bishops today.

The U. S. bishops’ conference appears weaker now than in the 1980s or even the 1990s. Its budget, staff, energy and confidence have been significantly reduced. This has indeed increased the visibility and influence of both the leading cardinals and of a few bishops who garner media attention by taking confrontational stances. But the idea that the voice of the episcopacy as a whole, whether collectively or individually, has been thereby strengthened is certainly questionable.

So what does reinforce or erode their ability to gain a hearing among Catholics or the general public? I assume that the bishops are as interested in that puzzle as anyone else is.

I hope they will make that a topic of serious study and not polemical opinion.

The writer is co-director of the Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University in New York.

This article appears on America magazine’s website, americamagazine.org, and is dated May 30. Reprinted with permission of America Press Inc, 2011. All rights reserved. For subscription information, call (800) 727-9533 or visit 222. americamagazine.org.

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Catholic San Francisco

Opportunism. . .

■ Continued from cover considered it “important to note that sexual behavior does not necessarily correspond to a particular sexual identity.”

The study showed that “the only significant risk factor related to sexual identity and behavior was a ‘confused’ sexual identity, and this condition was most commonly found in abusers who were ordained prior to the 1960s.”

Celibacy was not a factor, nor was the church’s male priesthood, the report said.

“Features and characteristics of the Catholic Church, such as an exclusively male priesthood and the commitment to celibate chastity, were invariant during the increase, peak and decrease in abuse incidents, and thus are not causes of the ‘crisis,’” it said.

The development of a curriculum of “human formation” as part of seminary education follows the recognition of the problem

Abusers ‘should have known’ The “Causes and Context” report on clergy abuse is “a comprehensive and unbiased look at the most serious problem in the Catholic Church today,” Kathleen McChesney, a former executive director of the U.S. bishops’ Office for Child and Youth Protection, wrote in an America magazine article dated June 6. She noted seven key findings from the report, including the following.

The finding that the increase in abuse incidence during 1960s and 1970s was consistent with “the rise of other types of ‘deviant’ behavior such as drug use, crime and changes in social behavior such as the increase in premarital sexual behavior and divorce, may be dangerously misinterpreted by some as a “cause” of the abuse. While the sexual activities of clergy members with consenting adults during this time may reflect a sexually liberated society, at no time was the sexual abuse of minors legal, moral or justified.

Notwithstanding breaking their vows of celibacy, as adult followers of the Catholic faith these offenders knew, or should have known, that their behaviors violated and injured the young.

May 27, 2011 of sexual abuse by priests, the report said.

“Participation in human formation during seminary distinguishes priests with later abusive behavior from those who did not abuse,” it said. “The priests with abusive behavior were statistically less likely to have participated in human formation training than those who did not have allegations of abuse.”

All bishops knew about the issue by the mid-1980s but the response was inconsistent and focused on priests rather than victims, the report said.

“Although this lack of understanding was consistent with the overall lack of understanding of victimization at the time, the absence of acknowledgment of harm was a significant ethical lapse on the part of leadership in some dioceses,” the report said. “‘Insiders’ were engaged, but ‘outsiders’ were rebuffed; information about sexual abuse within the Catholic Church was tightly controlled,” the report said. “This pattern led individuals and groups outside the church, including victim advocates, to call for a greater response and more transparency about the response to abuse claims.”

The report said “the failure of some diocesan leaders to take responsibility for the harms of the abuse by priests was egregious in some cases.”

It said “it is the voices and narratives of victims that have confronted priests, enabled dioceses to act responsibly, and brought diocesan leaders to an understanding of the harm of abuse.”

Spokane Bishop Blase J. Cupich, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People, when asked at the news conference why bishops sometimes returned abusive priests to ministry with children after treatment, said those decisions were based on “the science of the day,” which indicated that a person could be “cured” of abusive behavior.

“That was a bad mistake, shared by people across the board,” he said. “We know better now.”

But the John Jay report said child abuse is a widespread societal problem of which the church is only a part. The sexual abuse of minors “is not a phenomenon unique to the Catholic Church,” the report said. It referred to abuse of this kind as a “pervasive and persistent” problem often found in organizations where “mentoring and nurturing relationships develop between adults and young people.”

The total number of priests with allegations from 1950 through 2002 was 4,392 out of a total of 109,694 priests who served in ministry at some point during that time, the report said.

San Francisco archdiocese responds year. In 2010, 34,182 children (all ages) were trained to be aware of and avoid possibilities of sexual abuse. Also, our seminary formation program provides rigorous screening, and more intensive and comprehensive human and emotional development, which better prepares our future priests to live out their commitment to serving God and his church. The sexual abuse of minors is a tragedy that affects every family, religion, school, organization, institution and profession in our society.

The Catholic Church in the U.S. has been noted as the first group anywhere to contract a professional agency — in this case, John Jay College – to examine the “causes and contexts” of this scourge.

This is an excerpt from a statement released by the Archdiocese of San Francisco in response to the John Jay College study on clergy abuse in the U.S. Here in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, as elsewhere in the church, many steps have been taken to combat this evil. As the study points out, providing safe environments for our young people is perhaps the most important way to prevent sexual abuse. In the archdiocese, we have checked the backgrounds of 15,376 adults. We also have trained 7,749 employees, 14,915 volunteers, 360 temps, and 2,699 parent-volunteers. In addition, we train every child in our schools and in our religious education programs every

“how much bishops knew about the causes or treatment of pedophilia is irrelevant. For decades, every one of them knew it was illegal.

And nearly every one of them endangered kids by refusing to call the police or tell the truth.”

Bishop Cupich, in an America magazine article dated May 30 and titled “The bishops’ priorities,” listed 10 areas where the church can move forward from the report. He included requiring ongoing professional education of priests, continued rigorous screening of seminary candidates, educating parishioners, monitoring one another’s behavior, listening intently and forthrightly and correcting “distorted attitudes about the priesthood.”

The number of accused priests is equivalent to 4 percent of priests in ministry.

It often is thought that the sexual abuse crisis in the church continues unabated today, the report observed. But it said “the peak of the crisis has passed.” It said the church “responded,” abuse cases decreased substantially and clergy sexual abuse of minors “continues to remain low.”

Diane Knight, a retired Milwaukee social worker who chairs the all-lay National Review Board, said the report’s findings that the church’s actions since 2002 have been “effective in preventing further acts of abuse” should in no way “lull us as a church into complacency.”

Knight, who has served on the National Review Board since 2007 and chaired it since 2009, said nothing in the John Jay report “should be interpreted as making excuses for the terrible acts of abuse that occurred. There are no excuses.

“There is much that the church has to learn from this report, and much of it is difficult,” she added. “The bottom line is that the church was wrong not to put children first for all of those years, all of those decades.”

Knight said the sexual abuse crisis had caused a “shattering of trust in God’s very representatives.”

The findings that the most abuse occurred in the past do not minimize the damage to victims, said New York Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. He apologized “to anyone who may have been harmed by a priest or any other person acting in the name of the church, however long ago.”

Joelle Casteix of Newport Beach, Western regional director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said

— Catholic San Francisco contributed to this story.

The cover of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice report on clergy abuse in the U.S.

SCRIPTURE SEARCH Gospel for May 29, 2011 John 14:15-21 Following is a word search based on the Gospel reading for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, Cycle A: the promise of the Holy Spirit. The words can be found in all directions in the puzzle.

YOU LOVE ME GIVE YOU TRUTH SEES LEAVE YOU SEE ME KEEPS

COMMANDMENTS ANOTHER THE WORLD KNOWS HIM COME TO YOU I LIVE

FATHER SPIRIT CANNOT BE IN YOU LITTLE WHILE THAT DAY LOVES ME

LAKE TAHOE RENTAL

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© 2011 Tri-C-A Publications www.tri-c-a-publications.com

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June 17, 18 at 8 p.m.: “Music from the Basilica of St. Clotilde” by the Choirs of Notre Dame des Victoires directed by Steven Olbash with organist, David Schofield. Suggested donation is $10 per person in advance and $15 per person at the door. Church is located at 566 Bush St. at Grant in San Francisco. Call (415) 397-0113.

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

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

National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi LA PORZIUNCOLA NUOVA Columbus at Vallejo in San Francisco’s North Beach The Porziuncola and “Francesco Rocks Gift Shop” are open every day but Monday from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Rosary is prayed daily in Porziuncola at 4:30 p.m. Visit www.knightsofsaintfrancis.com The Shrine church is open every day 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. with Mass Monday through Saturday at 12:15 p.m. and Sundays at 10 a.m. Call (415) 986-4557 or visit www.shrinesf.org or e-mail info@shrinesf. org or herbertj@shrinesf.org.

Social Justice/Lectures/ Respect Life

The Golden Belles, Class of 1961, and more than 200 additional alumnae, came out for the 108th Gathering of Notre Dame de Namur High School, San Francisco in April.

Retired Oakland Bishop John S. Cummins presided at an opening Mass. “Alumnae help support the retirement fund of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur and also provide a scholarship to a deserving student at Mission Dolores School,” information about the event said. Pictured, front from left, are Soledad Alegria Gensel, Notre Dame Sister Bernadette Garcia, Bishop Cummins, Mary Ann Baca O’Leary, Linda Pointon Frederiksen, Linda Gorrebeck LaRossa; middle from left, Donna Serna, Julie Fontana Collins, Carol Cunningham, Diane Wiley Moran, Pamela Leeson Sroka, Patricia Hassman; and, back from left, Katherine Malabanan Sanchez, Cecilia Carlin, Lynne McKenzie Judson, Susan Green, Notre Dame Sister Margaret Lederer and Mary Jane Raggio.

June 11, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.: “Classic Car Show” at Holy Angels School in Colma. See many oldies but goodies plus refreshments and a raffle. Day is sponsored by Holy Angels alumni association.

Proceeds benefit Holy Angels School.

Reunions

June 8, 5:30 p.m.: “Exorcism: The Ministry of Deliverance” is topic at meeting of the Catholic Professional Business Club at Caesar’s Restaurant, Powell Street at Bay in San Francisco. Guest speaker is retired San Francisco Auxiliary Bishop Ignatius Wang who asks and answers: “What does the church recommend to safeguard against evils that exist?” Tickets are $20 for members and $30 for nonmembers. Tickets include array of appetizers. Beverages are available for purchase. Visit www.cpbc-sf.org.

Saturdays: San Mateo Pro-Life prays the rosary at 2890 El Camino Real in Redwood City, corner Renato Court. at 8 a.m. and invites others to join them at the site. The prayer continues as a peaceful vigil until 1 p.m. The group is also open to new membership. Meetings are held the second Thursday of the month except August and December at St. Gregory Parish’s Worner Center, 138 28th Ave. in San Mateo at 7:30 p.m. For more information, call Jessica at (650) 572-1468 or visit www.sanmateoprolife.com.

Saturdays, 9 a.m. – 10 a.m.: Rosary for Life at Planned Parenthood, 1650 Valencia St. near St. Luke’s Hospital in San Francisco..

Food and Fun June 3, 4, 5: “St. Pius Parish Festival” on campus at 1100 Woodside Road in Redwood City. Friday, 6–10 p.m.; Saturday, 1–10 p.m.; Sunday, 1-8 p.m.

Event marks St. Pius 60th anniversary with a peace and love theme and something “groovy” for everyone. Visit http://stpiusfestival.blogspot.com.

October 15: Family Rosary Crusade. The San Francisco Legion of Mary invites all Catholics to join them for the San Francisco Family Rosary Crusade 2011. The Family Rosary Crusade will be held on October 15, 2011, at 12 noon, in San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza. “Join us as we pray the Rosary, adore the Blessed Sacrament, listen to inspirational speakers, and ask the blessings of God for ourselves and our community,” organizers said. For more information, visit www.familyrosarycrusade2011.com.

P UT YOUR

July 9, 11:30 a.m. : St. Emydius School, class of 1956, at Sinbad’s Restaurant, 141 The Embarcadero in San Francisco. Family and friends are welcome.

Contact Jack Sutcliffe at (408) 257-4671 or e-mail jaksut@aol.com or Joy Boito Walsh at (408) 9963162 or e-mail joy.walsh@sbcglobal.net.

July 16, 11:30 a.m.: St. Agnes Elementary School, class of ’51, Diamond Anniversary lunch at the Irish Cultural Center, 45th Avenue at Sloat Boulevard in San Francisco. Contact Charles F. Norton at (209) 835—2073 or e-mail cfn@pacbell.net or W. Urie Walsh at (415_ 668-6501 or e-mail wuwkmw@aol. com.

July 27, 11:30 a.m.: St. Joseph College/School of Nursing reunion luncheon at the Irish Cultural Center, 45th Avenue at Sloat Boulevard in San Francisco.

Reservations are required by July 1. Tickets are $35.00. Contact Betty Jerabek at (650) 589-6233 or Anne Politeo at (415) 221-8382 or e-mail tajsf@ att.net.

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.

Oct. 22: Presentation High School, San Francisco class of ’66. Contact Martha Kunz Willis at (650) 763-1202 or e-mail mwwmtw@comcast.net or Marilyn Mathers at (51) 232-4848 or mmathers@ deloitte.com.

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

Would you like support while you travel the road through separation and divorce? The Archdiocese of San Francisco offers support for the journey.

The Separated and Divorced Catholics of the Archdiocese of San Francisco (SDCASF) offer two ongoing support groups at St. Bartholomew Parish, 600 Columbia Drive, San Mateo, on the first and third Tuesdays, at 7 p.m. in the spirituality center, and in O’Reilly hall of St. Stephen Parish near Stonestown, San Francisco, on the first and third Wednesdays, at 7:30 p.m. Call Gail (650) 591-8452, or Joanne (650) 347-0701 for more information.

Volunteer

Mass in Latin

Catholic Charities CYO is an independent nonprofit organization operating as the social services arm of the Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Contact Liz Rodriguez at erodriguez@cccyo.org or (415) 972-1297 to fill out a volunteer application. A list of current open volunteer positions is available online at www. cccyo.org/volunteer.

St. Vincent de Paul Society of San Francisco – SVdP - works to provide direct person to person service to San Francisco’s poor, homeless, and victims of domestic violence. Serving more than 1,000 children, women and men every day, volunteers play a critical difference in the community.

For more information contact Tim Szarnicki at tszarnicki@svdp-sf.org or (415) 977-1270 x3010.

St. Anthony Foundation serves thousands of poor and homeless individuals and families through its food program, drug and alcohol recovery, free medical clinic, clothing program and other programs. For more information, visit www.stanthonysf.org and fill out a volunteer opportunity request form or contact Marie O’Connor at (415) 592-2726.

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul of San Mateo County is the safety net every year for over 40,000 San Mateo County residents in need, including more than 17,000 children. Call Atrecia at (650) 373-0623 or e-mail svdpinfo@yahoo.com.

Handicapables continues its 40-year tradition of prayer and fellowship each month at St. Mary’s Cathedral. Volunteers are always welcome. Call Jane at (415) 585-9085.

La Porziuncola Nuova at National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi invites you to volunteer. Contact Jim Brunsmann at jimbrunsmann@comcast.net or go to www.knightsofsaintfrancis.com and follow the Volunteer Application link at the bottom of the home page.

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.

Prayer/Special Liturgies May 29, 12:15 p.m.: St. Paul’s Church celebrates the 100th anniversary of its beautiful church building. Archbishop George Niederauer is principal

Holy Cross Cemetery 1500 Old Mission Rd. in Colma, (650) 756-2060 May 30, 11 a.m.: Memorial Day Mass in Holy Cross Mausoleum. Archbishop George Niederauer is principal celebrant.

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.

B USINE SS CARD IN THE HANDS

OF

Attach Card Here Deadline for June 10th Issue is May 30th Deadline for July 15th Issue is July 1st Please do not write on your card.

C A THOLI C S A N F RA NCI S CO

ONLY $112.00 P E R M ONTH IN OUR B USINE SS CARD SE CTION NOW AP P E ARING THE FIRST FRIDAY OF E ACH M ONTH.THIS NE W SE CTION IS CE RTAINLY LE SS E XP E NSIVE THAN THE $65,000 IT WOULD COST TO P RINT AND M AIL YOUR B USINE SS CARDS TO ALL OUR RE ADE RS . ONLY $96.00 P E R M ONTH ON A *12-M ONTH CONTRACT. LISTING IN OUR BUSINESS

May 28, 29: “Santo Cristo Anniversary” is celebrated by the Portuguese Catholic community in South San Francisco with a “Queen’s Ball” dance and other ceremonies Saturday beginning at 6:30 p.m. at Santo Cristo Hall at Oak Avenue and Mission a few blocks off Chestnut in South San Francisco, and a parade Sunday followed by Mass in Portuguese at Mater Dolorosa Church in South San Francisco. Parade begins at 8:45 a.m. at Santo Cristo Hall at Oak Avenue and Mission a few blocks off Chestnut in South San Francisco. Lunch follows Mass at Santo Cristo Hall. “Come for a day of fun and religion,” organizers said. Call (650) 678-9292 or (650) 345-4324. .

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

FOR

*FREE

17

celebrant. Father Mario Farana, pastor, is among the concelebrants. A reception and memorabilia display will be held immediately following Mass in the Parish Center at Church and Valley Streets in San Francisco. Call (415) 648-7538.

Sundays, 1:30 – 2:30 p.m.: Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament with Benediction at Notre Dame des Victoires Church, 566 Bush St. between Stockton and Grant in San Francisco. Convenient parking is available across Bush St. in StocktonSutter garage. Call (415) 397-0113.

Taize Sung Prayer: First Fridays, 8 p.m.: Mercy Center, 2300 Adeline Drive, Burlingame with Mercy Sister Suzanne Toolan. Call (650) 340-7452; young adults are invited each first Friday of the month to attend a social at 6 p.m. prior to Taize at 8 p.m. Tuesdays, 6 p.m.: Notre Dame Des Victoires Church, 566 Bush at Stockton, San Francisco with Rob Grant. Call (415) 397-0113. Third Fridays, 8 p.m.: Dominican Sisters of MSJ Motherhouse Chapel, 43326 Mission Boulevard, entrance is on Mission Tierra Place, between Ohlone College and the Old Mission San Jose in Fremont. Call (510) 449-7554. Third Wednesdays at 8 p.m. at the Dominican Sisters of MSJ motherhouse chapel, 43326 Mission Boulevard, entrance is on Mission Tierra Place, in Fremont. Call (510) 449-7554.

210,000 R E ADE RS

Catholic San Francisco

DIRECTORY ON OUR WEB SITE *

AD HE ADING NAM E ADDRE SS CITY ZIP

STATE PHONE

MAIL TO: CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO, BUSINE SS CARD ONE PE TE R YORKE WAY, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109

18

Catholic San Francisco

Construction

Cahalan Const.

Remodeles, Additions, Kitchens, Baths, Dryrot, Stucco

415.279.1266 Lic. #582766 415.566.8646 mikecahalan@gmail.com

Painting Irish Painting Eoin Lehane

415.368.8589

May 27, 2011

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

Handy Man

www.Irishpainting-sf.com

S.O.S. PAINTING CO. Interior-Exterior wallpaper hanging & removal

Senior Care

Breens’ Mobile Notary Services

Certified Signing Agent

Timothy P. Breen Notary Public

Lic # 526818 Senior Discount

PHONE: 415-846-1922 www.breensnotary.com

* Member National Notary Association *

415-269-0446 650-738-9295

www.sospainting.net FREE ESTIMATES

HOUSECLEANING Reasonable rates

Free Estimates Licensed, Bonded & Insured

Christopher’s House Cleaning

Electrical DEWITT ELECTRIC YOUR # 1 CHOICE FOR Recessed Lights – Outdoor Lighting Outlets – Dimmers – Service Upgrades • Trouble Shooting!

Ph. 415.515.2043 Ph. 650.508.1348

Lic. 631209) 9)

Painting BILL HEFFERON

SUPPLE SENIOR CARE “The most compassionate care in town”

1655 Old Mission Road #3 Colma, SSF, CA 94080 415-573-5141 or 650-993-8036

415.370.4341

10% Discount: Seniors, Parishioners

www.christophershousecleaning.com

Call BILL 415.731.8065 • Cell: 415.710.0584 bheffpainting@sbcglobal.net Member of Better Business Bureau

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

Visit us at www.catholic-sf.org For your local and international Catholic news, On the Street, Datebook, advertising information, Digital Paper, & more!

Painting & Fences & Decks Healthcare Agency Remodeling • • • •

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

Electrical ALL ELECTRIC SERVICE 650.322.9288

Lic. #742961

(650) 355-4926

Retaining Walls Stairs • Gates Dry Rot Senior & Parishioner Discounts

650. 291.4303

Construction

DA LY

CONSTRUCTION

Affordable Decks • Additions • General Remodel • Carports

415.383.6122

Lic.# 593788

➤ Hauling ➤ Job Site Clean-Up ➤ Demolition ➤ Yard Service ➤ Garbage Runs ➤ Saturday & Sunday

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PAUL (415) 282-2023 YOELSHAULING@YAHOO.COM

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Exterior / Interior Additions ➮ Baths Foundations, Stairs, Dry Rot Replacement Windows ➮ Kitchen Remodeling Architect Available ➮ Senior Discount

The Irish Rose

Home Healthcare Agency Specializing in home health aides, attendants and companions.

Serving San Francisco, Marin & the Peninsula.

Contact: 415.447.8463

PLUMBING

S anti

Plumbing and Heating 415-661-3707 Michael T. Santi

Since 1972 Ca License # 663641 24 Hour Emergency Service

TO

NOT A LICENSED CONTRACTOR

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

Counseling 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?

Unhealed wounds can hold you back - even if they are not the “logical” cause of your problems today. You can be the person God intended.

Inner Child Healing Offers a deep spiritual and psychological approach to counseling: ❖ 30 years experience with individuals, couples and groups ❖ Directed, effective and results-oriented ❖ Compassionate and Intuitive ❖ Supports 12-step ❖ Enneagram Personality Transformation ❖ Free Counseling for Iraqi/Afghanistani Vets

Lila Caffery, MA, CCHT San Francisco: 415.337.9474 Complimentary phone consultation www.InnerChildHealing.com

When Life Hurts It Helps To Talk • Family • Work • Relationships • Depression • Anxiety • Addictions

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

Dr. Daniel J. Kugler Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Over 30 years experience • Reasonable Fees

Confidential • Compassionate • Practical (415) 921-1619 • Insurance Accepted 1537 Franklin Street • San Francisco, CA 94109

BONDED & INSURED

415-205-1235

BEST PLUMBING, INC. Your Payless Plumbing

Home Care

Lic. # 872560

➤ Drain-Sewer Cleaning Service ➤ Water Heaters ➤ Gas Pipes ➤ Toilets ➤ Faucets ➤ Garbage Disposals ➤ Copper Repiping ➤ Sewer Replacement ➤ Video Camera & Line locate PROMPT AND UNPARALLELED SERVICE

Call: 415.533.2265 (650) 557-1263 Lic. 407271

NOTICE

Cell (415) 517-5977 (650) 757-1946

*Serving from San Francisco to North San Mateo

Bonded, Insured – LIC. #819191

John Spillane

All Purpose

415-661-2060

INTERIOR, EXTERIOR All Jobs Large and Small

John Holtz Ca. Lic 391053 General Contractor Since 1980

Expert interior and exterior painting, carpentry, demolition, fence (repair, build), decks, remodeling, roof repair, gutter (clean/repair), landscaping, gardening, hauling, moving, welding.

*Irish owned & operated

www.farmersagent.com/smurphy1

PAINTING

(415) 786-0121 • (415) 586-6748 Lic. # 907564

Lic.#942181

Notary

Roofing

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

READERS

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

For more info, contact: Contractors State License Board 800-321-2752

Irish Help At Home QUALITY HOME CARE SERVING THE BAY AREA SINCE 1996 * Attendants * Companions • Insured • Bonded www.irishhelpathome.com

San Francisco 415 759 0520

Marin 415.721.7380

May 27, 2011

Medicare Supplement Are you Paying Too Much For Your Medicare Supplement Plan F, J, G or N?

Catholic San Francisco

19

Catholic San Francisco

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

Free Quote (800) 790-6409 ST. BRIGID SCHOOL

Ken Stark

YARD SALE

CA Lic 0E66061 SE02

Saturday May 21 9AM to 4PM â&#x20AC;˘ Sunday, May 22 10AM to 3PM

Rooms for rent For rent - 2 Furnished Rooms For Women Only $600 a month N/S, No pets. Shared Kitchen

Located at 2250 Franklin Street at Franklin and Broadway Event to be held in the school courtyard Donations of all kinds for sale from St. Brigid families and friends This is a fundraiser to help support St. Brigid School. All are welcome

Call 650-488-0428, 650-982-9065 or 650-892-4459

To make donations or if you have questions, email St.Brigid_YardSale@yahoo.com

Chimney Cleaning

Caregivers

PUBLISH A NOVENA

ACACIA HOME CAREGIVERS Living at home is the best way for seniors to maintain their lifestyle, not just life.

Summ e Speciar/Fall ls

Nancy A. Concon, (Filipino-owned)

(415) 505-7830

Help

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Faith Formation Faith Formation Conference 2011 Date: November 18-19, 2011 Hosted by: Diocese of San Jose, Archdiocese of San Francisco, Dioceses of Monterey, Oakland, and Stockton Location: Santa Clara Convention Center Audience: 2500+ attendees from Northern California Communities / Language supported: English, Spanish, and Vietnamese Theme: Go! Glorify the Lord by your Life!

Why: The Faith Formation Conference offers an opportunity to nourish your mind, heart, and soul.

What: Receive Catholic formation, education, and training in catechesis, liturgy, social justice, youth and young adult, family life and ethnic ministry Who: 500+ catholic teachers from the Diocese of San Jose will join the conference on Friday, November 18.

Did you know? â&#x2014;? The Faith Formation Conference workshops and exhibits appeal to parish ministers, teachers, parents, parishioners, pastors, pastoral associates, principals, and a wide variety of audiences â&#x2014;? The conference empowers people for ministry â&#x2014;? The conference appeals to parents â&#x20AC;&#x201D; pass on the faith to their children, to be a creative catechist and teacher â&#x2014;? The conference allows people to deepen their faith and have a greater desire to proclaim the Word of God â&#x2014;? The conference allows people to learn about how the different images of Jesus have appealed to different groups of Christians â&#x2014;? The conference allows people to learn a new approach to reading the gospels How: Registration brochures delivered to parishes and delivered to the homes of past attendees. â&#x2014;? Online registration â&#x2014;? For more information on speakers, workshops, visit website: www.faithformationconference.com

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

Wanted

RECEPTIONIST WITH CLERICAL SKILLS We are looking for a friendly, compassionate and caring person to work in a family business. Kindness, a warm heart and excellent phone skills required. Must be dependable, able to multi-task, good speller, accuracy required, with some light bookkeeping.

Must be willing to work some weekends and holidays. Part-time to full-time position. No phone calls.

Name Adress Phone MC/VISA # Exp. Select One Prayer: â?&#x2018; St. Jude Novena to SH â?&#x2018; Prayer to St. Jude

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

heaven canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t wait Serra for Priestly Vocations

Please fax your resume to:

Please call Archdiocese of San Francisco

650-755-4455

Fr. Tom Daly (415) 614-5683

Dugganâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Serra Mortuary, Daly City

â?&#x2018; Prayer to the Blessed Virgin â?&#x2018; Prayer to the Holy Spirit

Elderly Care Personal companion, medications, grooming, appointments, shopping, driving, & Alzheimerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s care over 20 years experience, honest and reliable, outstanding references, bonded.

Call (415) 713-1366

Automotive

Hilltop Buick Pontiac GMC Truck I P L B A ! â&#x20AC;˘ Extensive inventory means selection â&#x20AC;˘ Competitive pricing â&#x20AC;˘ Give us your bid â&#x20AC;˘ We can offer YOU SAVINGS! â&#x20AC;˘ Exceptional customer service â&#x20AC;˘ Easy access off I-80 at Hilltop Richmond

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.

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Visit us at catholic-sf.org

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Catholic San Francisco

May 27, 2011

In Remembrance of the Faithful Departed Interred In Our Catholic Cemeteries During the Month of April HOLY CROSS COLMA Judge Robert Patrick Ahern Nancy Aiwaz Mario A. Ansaldi Margaret Mary Avila Richard L. Baptista Mary E. Barrett-Wells Bruno Bassi Lorraine M. Bertram-Minten Marian Elizabeth Biondi Mary Evelyn Ruane Bisazza Tina Bruno Dorothy Buchanan Joseph J. Bunk Beverly Catherine Butcher Joselito Puller Cabarle Andre Calhoun Diana Ann Caramazza Bob D. Carlascio Cristina M. Carnero Christopher E. Chastain Mary Chetcuti Tanina Clementi Michael Coffey Wallace Coleman Michael Compton Michael R. Coyne Lloyd Peter Dallara Mary C. Daura Cony de Contreras Martin D. Del Bonta Elza B. DeMarchi Catherine Rose DeMartini William D. DeMattei Anne E. Doherty Ramona S. Doyle Caryle T. Dubose Gloria J. Dubose Harry F. Duff Angiola Duri Manuel J. Estrella Jr. Patricia M. Ferrera Gustavo Flores Romeo L. Fontelera Trinidad B. Frias Yoshio Fuse Evelyn A. Galea Trino Gonzalez Manuel (Yayay) A. Gotera Sr. Marijo Biondi Grady

Pedro Hernandez Rosanna Hollander Louis O’Brien Hutson Mary Pui Gun Ip Peter James Donald Edwin Kelley Louis (Steve) King Albert C. Kolar Barbara Rovai Kostoff Rosa G. Kwan Louis Lagger Maurice P. Lazzari Chung Yi Liu Adriano C. Llantino Virginia R. Luna Philip M. Maguire May G. Manahan Robert E. McCaffery Ruth Louise McGuire Lucille Arbasetti McIrvin Ann Merrill Louis M. Militti Isabelle Margaret Monte Edward Moore Madeleine June Morco Nameh Mugatash Fe N. Mulata Rita Narcisse Alice A. Nuanes Robert C. O’Connor Edward R. O’Donnell Francis J. O’Donnell Noreen J. O’Sullivan James Ocampo John F. Olcese Alison E. Palu Mary E. Peasley Glen Kal Pecson Roger C. Pendenza Cecelia M. Petriat Rita Petrini Maxima B. Pineda Josephine Putthoff Consuelo “Connie” Pye Mary C. Pye Cynthia Casis Quevedo Antero S. Ramos Elfrida I. Remedios Hilarda S. Reyes Mark D. Rivero Catherine F. Rodondi Parina E. Rodondi

Marilyn F. Rovai Sandra Rovetti Katherine Ruiz Edward Sabini Dorothy M. Schneider Adeline Bargioni Serrano Constance L. Shanabarger Richard Shankel Frank Simonetti Marcella Smith Martin Stimmel Walter J. Tenerowicz Elizabeth Termine Virginia C. Thomason Richard H. (Dick) Trueb Maria Rosa Turco de Alanya Mary H. (DeMatei) Valconesi John A. Vasil Alicia Vasquez Eula Vennarucci Javier Villagomez Santiago Villanueva Marilyn A. Villarreal Eva R. Viotti Marjane Waal Julieta Estacio Zapanta Adela R. Zuniga

HOLY CROSS MENLO PARK Hector Alcantar Jr. Margot A. Holmes Elizabeth Johnson Juan Miguel Morelos Jr. Franklin C. Smith Patricia Ann Tobin John A. Zafferano

MT. OLIVET SAN RAFAEL Richard (Dick) Alves Rose H. Estes Dalmacio Buenaflor Gomez June E Grimm Virginia S. Kinsella Antonio Silveira Vargas

MEMORAL DAY MASS HOLY CROSS CATHOLIC CEMETERY, COLMA Monday – May 30,2011 Holy Cross Mausoleum – 11:00 am Archbishop George Niederauer, Celebrant

HOLY CROSS CATHOLIC CEMETERY, MENLO PARK

MT. OLIVET CATHOLIC CEMETERY, SAN RAFAEL

Memorial Day Mass – Outdoors – 11:00 am Rev. William Myers, Celebrant

Memorial Day Mass – Outdoors – 11:00 am Rev. Paul E. Perry, Celebrant

OUR LADY OF THE PILLAR CEMETERY, HALF MOON BAY

FIRST SATURDAY MASS HOLY CROSS CATHOLIC CEMETERY, COLMA

Memorial Day Mass – Outdoors – 9:30 am Rev. Gabriel Flores, Celebrant

Saturday, June 4, 2011 All Saints Mausoleum Chapel – 11:00 am Rev. Brian Costello, Celebrant

The Catholic Cemeteries Archdiocese of San Francisco www.holycrosscemeteries.com HOLY CROSS CATHOLIC CEMETERY 1500 Mission Road, Colma, CA 650-756-2060 PILARCITOS CEMETERY Hwy. 92 @ Main, Half Moon Bay, CA 650-712-1676

HOLY CROSS CATHOLIC CEMETERY Intersection of Santa Cruz Avenue, Menlo Park, CA 650-323-6375 ST. ANTHONY CEMETERY Stage Road, Pescadero, CA 650-712-1679

MT. OLIVET CATHOLIC CEMETERY 270 Los Ranchitos Road, San Rafael, CA 415-479-9020 OUR LADY OF THE PILLAR CEMETERY Miramontes St., Half Moon Bay, CA 650-712-1679

A Tradition of Faith Throughout Our Lives.