12 million Africans suffering in worst drought in 60 years DADAAB, Kenya (CNS) — It took 32 days for Fatima Mohammed to make it from her drought-stricken farm in Somalia to the relative safety of a sprawling refugee settlement in northeastern Kenya. There were days, she recalled, when her children were so thirsty that they could not walk and the men in her family would ferry them ahead, returning to carry two more children in their arms. The Somali woman and her children are among 12.4 million Africans facing acute food shortages. Because of prolonged drought and civil conflict, Somalis are bearing the brunt of what the United Nations Refugee Agency calls one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world today.
(CNS PHOTO/PAUL JEFFREY)
The United Nations declared a famine July 20 for the southern regions of Bakool and Lower Shabelle in Somalia and the refugee agency reported that child deaths are “alarmingly high” as people trek to neighboring countries for food and water. Fatima Mohammed told Catholic News Service that her family had lived through drought before, but that support from aid agencies helped them survive until the rains returned. “This time, al-Shabaab won’t let them in,” she said, referring to the Islamist group that controls portions of Somalia. “So when our animals started dying, our only choice was to stay and die ourselves, or else start walking for Kenya.” They trekked across the desolate stretch of African bush, all 11 members of the FAMINE, page 20
By Paul Jeffrey
A newly arrived Somali woman waits in line July 27 for food to be distributed at the reception center of the Dagahaley refugee camp, part of the Dadaab refugee complex in northeastern Kenya.
‘Operation I Do’: Spirit-moved layman’s push for sacred vows
Catholic san Francisco
By Valerie Schmalz
Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper
Faith journey of Father Pham
By Valerie Schmalz Father Joseph Hung Pham fled in 1979 from the Communist regime in Vietnam, which had decided he was a spy, and he almost died on the open sea after the small fishing craft packed with refugees disintegrated. “I am not a good Father Joseph swimmer,” Father Pham said. A Hung Pham Thai fishing vessel picked up the refugees and Father Pham spent four months in prison in
(PHOTO COURTESY OF THE FAMILY OF FATHER JOSEPH HUNG PHAM)
Retired priest recalls escape, persecution
Thailand before his brother in Brooklyn, N.Y., also a priest, Father Joseph Tan Pham, was able to sponsor him. Father Pham didn’t stay long in Brooklyn, and was incardinated in the Archdiocese of San Francisco in 1984. “I cannot get along with the winter and summer so I moved to California with my sister and my brother and their families,” Father Pham said. Father Pham worked in a series of parishes, and spent about a decade at St. Gregory Parish in San Mateo. He served as a chaplain at the area hospitals, Seton Medical Center and San Mateo General Hospital, as well as visiting nursing homes. In his retirement, Father Pham said he is moving to San Jose to be closer to his brother and sister and their families and will remain active in the Vietnamese language Cursillo and Charismatic movements. Father Pham and his brother were ordained the same day in 1973 in the Diocese of of Xuan Loc. Because Father Pham’s bishop sent him to the Philippines to study and he flew back shortly before FATHER PHAM, page 3
Father Joseph Hung Pham, who has just retired as a priest of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, is pictured celebrating his first Mass. See catholic-sf.org for more photos of Father Pham as a young priest.
St. Thomas More Parish in San Francisco is hosting a wedding for as many as 20 couples — one parish’s response to a decline of almost 50 percent in weddings among Catholics in the past two decades. “We’ll be doing a real shebang. A real wedding,” said Joe Espinueva, a parishioner and organizer of “Operation I Do,” a totally free wedding and reception for couples who were civilly but not sacramentally married or have been in a common law marriage. “There will be cutting of cake. There will be dancing. We will want these people to feel they are getting a real marriage from the church,” said Espinueva. Parishioners are volunteering to cook dishes, bake cakes, and offering to donate bouquets. Many of the marrying couples’ children will serve as flower girls and ring bearers. Marriage preparation according to church norms is under way, said Espinueva. “We are not trying to do a microwave wedding or a shortcut wedding,” said Espinueva, who said he was sacramentally married at St. Thomas More four years ago, years after entering a civil marriage. The parish will engage in follow up with the couples after the wedding to keep them engaged spiritually with the church, Espinueva said. “We started in our church a campaign SACRED VOWS, page 8
INSIDE THIS WEEK’S EDITION Local news . . . . . . . . . . . . 5, 6 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Alzheimer’s care . . . . . . . . . 11 Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Scripture reflection . . . . . . . 16
How will teens take to the new missal? ~ Page 8 ~ August 12, 2011
A-bomb chaplain’s prophetic witness ~ Pages 12-13 ~
Celestial timekeeping and the historic church ~ Page 19 ~
ONE DOLLAR
Father Rolheiser . . . . . . . . . 17 Datebook of events . . . . . . . 21
www.catholic-sf.org VOLUME 13
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No.25
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Catholic San Francisco
August 12, 2011
On The Where You Live By Tom Burke Even in summer, there’s much goin’ on and great people to talk with at our Catholic schools. Thanks to Linda Cuddy, an administrative assistant at Junipero Serra High School, for taking a moment to talk with this scribe. Linda and her husband, Walter, are parishioners of St. Robert Parish in San Bruno and the proud folks of Danny, now studying at University of Nevada/Reno; Jennifer, a student at Sonoma State; Johnny, a student at Chico State; and Ryan, a sophomore at Serra. Linda grew up on San Francisco’s Most Holy Redeemer Parish attending the now-closed and much missed Presentation High School. Walter grew up in Church of the Epiphany Parish. They are married 24 years Nov. 8. Also was glad to chat with Antonia Ehlers, communications manager at Serra and announcing for all to hear the Aug. 20 blessing and dedication of Serra’s Center for the Arts and Sciences by San Francisco Auxiliary Bishop William J. Justice. Bishop Justice is a 1960 graduate of Serra growing up just a few blocks from the San Mateo school. Sounds like fun and quite the afternoon. I’ve heard there will be cake! Visit www.serrahs.com or e-mail
Pictured at ribbon-cutting ceremonies for the Maureen & Craig Sullivan Youth Services facility June 24 are, from left, Catholic Charities CYO Executive Director Jeff Bialik, Archbishop George Niederauer, Craig and Maureen Sullivan, Cecilia Herbert, and Catholic Charities CYO Board President, Deborah Dasovich.
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tstoye@serrahs.com.... Winners in an annual Philips Writing Contest at St. Raphael School included sixth grader Sarah Egas and eighth grader Brenda Arellano. Sarah and Brenda each received cash awards and $400 was awarded to the school. Mairead Anki is sixth grade writing teacher and Karen Hazlehurst teaches Congratulations to Sawson writing in the eighth Jweinat and her husband, g r a d e … . F a m i l y, Robert, on the birth of their friends and the Serra daughter, Layla Suzanne, Club of San Francisco Feb. 9, 2011. The family is gathered to celebrate pictured on their first Father’s the 50th anniversary of Holy Cross Father Day at Blackberry Farm. Joe Peixotto July 10 at Sawson is longtime – and St. Brendan Church. very reliable I might add – Father Joe’s sister, communications associate Carol Kilgariff, is a at Sacred Heart Cathedral longtime Serran. Father Preparatory. Joe, ordained in 1961, has spent 49 years in educational mission work in Bangladesh at his congregation’s Notre Dame College. As a young man, he earned an engineering degree and had offers at a major aeronautical firm as well as the U.S. Air Force. “I wanted to choose a path in life in which I could best serve God and my church,” he said about his entering the seminary and “never turning back.” Father Joe and other Holy Cross jubilarians were recently honored at the community’s University of Notre Dame in Indiana…. Superintendent of Catholic Schools Maureen Huntington leads an “educational accolade" to St. Thomas the Apostle Pre-School and Pre-Kindergarten Learning Center. The San Francisco facility has been named for a “Gold Award” as part of Best of the Best by Bay Area Parents magazine…. Speaking of best of the best, please let me put out the call for volunteers to pitch in with the monthly lunch sponsored by Handicapables at St. Mary’s Cathedral. Help is needed in preparing and serving the meal, said Sally Tooley, who has volunteered with the group for 25 years. Handicapables founder, of course, is Nadine Calligiuri who Sally called “a living saint” and Handicapables chaplain, Father Kirk Ullery says is as “close to Mother Teresa as many of will ever get.” Handicapables is now in its 46th year. If you have some time on your hands and want to give it to a cause most worthy, call Sally at (415) 781-1311. Currently the meal has been “pizza and a salad and the members love it,” Sally said….Yikes!’ I can’t think of a better response to turning 60. It happened in my sleep Aug. 7. I’ve had much opportunity in my six decades to see God in the
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Members of the class of 1946 from Corpus Christi Elementary School held a 65th reunion June 18 in South San Francisco. Hardly looking their age are Tony Marvier, Bob Cauterrucio, Al Nuti, Marge Hoey, Jackie Thomas, Joan Morton, Beverly Birdzell, Mary Ann Stengel, Merci Gallo, Rita Gallo, Barbara Volken, Anne Marie Cosgrove, Claire Larson, Pat Lydon, Ethel Ciappini, Rene Spieth, Jack Curtin.
good times of my life but have only begun to realize that gift in more recent times. Even more recently I’ve been especially blessed to know God is walking me through the bad times, too. 'Yikes!... This is an empty space without ya’! E-mail items and electronic pictures – jpegs at no less than 300 dpi – to burket@sfarchdiocese.org or mail them to Street, One Peter Yorke Way, SF 94109. Include a follow-up phone number. My phone number is (415) 614-5634.
Pictured are Holy Cross Father Joe Peixotto with his sister, Carole Kilgariff and her husband, Martin, at St. Brendan Parish July 10.
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Catholic San Francisco
August 12, 2011
3
San Francisco supervisor targets ‘misleading’ pregnancy center ads to First Resort, whose billboards are posted primarily in the city’s Latino and AfricanA San Francisco supervisor introduced American neighborhoods, said Supervisor legislation Aug. 2 aimed at stopping pro-life Malia Cohen, the bill’s sponsor. First Resort medical clinics from using “misis the only pregnancy resource leading advertising� in billboards center in the city that is also a and in pay-per-click Google ads medical clinic. that implies they offer abortion or However, Chief Deputy City abortion referrals. Attorney Therese Stewart said The legislation is part of a the proposed legislation lists the campaign by NARAL Pro-Choice requirement of what it terms America to require crisis pregnancy a “limited services pregnancy centers to state upfront that they do center� and those are “neutral� not provide abortions. The U.S. and could apply to a Planned Supervisor District Court ruled in January Parenthood clinic which purported that Baltimore’s ordinance violated to offer abortions but did not. Malia Cohen pregnancy centers right to free Also on Aug. 2, City Attorney speech and the city of Baltimore has appealed. Dennis Herrera sent a letter to First Resort askThe San Francisco legislation would apply PREGNANCY CENTER ADS, page 20
By Valerie Schmalz
A young woman holds a flag prior to Pope Benedict XVI’s recitation of the Angelus prayer in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, Aug. 7. Lively groups of young people who will participate in World Youth Day in Madrid, Spain, Aug. 16-21 attended the Angelus. World Youth Day is a chance to reclaim the “fundamental choice of Christian life: Live it every day in relationship with others,� Madrid Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Renzo Fratini said Aug. 9.
Judge orders circumcision ban initiative tossed from San Francisco ballot By Valerie Schmalz A California court ordered an initiative to ban circumcision removed from San Francisco’s November ballot. Superior Court Judge Loretta Giorgi ruled July 28 in San Francisco that circumcision was an area that fell under state law and said California code “speaks directly to the issue of local regulation of medical procedure and leaves no room for localities to regulate in this area.� The lawsuit protesting the ballot measure was filed June 21 by plaintiffs representing community organizations, doctors, and Jewish and Muslim families in San Francisco, including The Jewish Community Relations Council and The Anti-Defamation League.
Father Pham . . . ■Continued from cover the 1975 fall of Vietnam, the Communist regime was convinced he was working for the Central Intelligence Agency, Father Pham said. “They accused me of being CIA. I am not safe in the diocese. I run to the Saigon diocese,� Father Pham said. “They still followed me and called me to the security office many times. Then, they called me to the people’s court. Someone informed me that some day — the next day or the next, I would be arrested. That day, I ran.� That afternoon, the security forces came
Amicus briefs were filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and San Francisco Medical Society. “The evidence presented is overwhelmingly persuasive that circumcision is a widely practiced medical procedure,� Judge Giorgi said in her ruling, noting that the California Business and Professions Code applies to medical services provided by a wide range of health care professionals. San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer opposed the initiative within a week of its qualification for the ballot, writing a letter to the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle in May that described it as “a misguided initiative� and “an unconscionable violation of the sanctuaries of faith and family.�
to the parish but Father Pham said he had left. Only at night in the boat did he realize two of his sisters and their families were on the same boat. “I am lucky. I run in the morning and in the afternoon the security of the government came looking for me,� Father Pham said. Today, all five living siblings — three boys and two girls — and their families are in the United States and a nephew is a priest in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Father Pham said. A brother died in Vietnam in an accident. “In my family, there are many priests,� said Father Pham, who was able to return to Vietnam for a visit in 2002. “Some of my cousins are priests too, but they are in Vietnam, not here.�
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Most of the city’s elected officials opposed the initiative. City Attorney Dennis Herrera raised concerns that the measure violated the First Amendment’s guarantee of free exercise of religion, particularly after an anti-Semitic comic book that vilified Jewish religious practitioners of circumcision, or mohelim, surfaced during the campaign, said Chief Deputy City Attorney Therese Stewart. “The strongly anti-Jewish faith material really gave us cause for concern,� Stewart said. Lloyd Schofield, the main proponent of the measure, did not respond to a request for comment. In an earlier interview, Schofield said, “Parents don’t have a right to harm their child.� He compared the practice of male
circumcision to female circumcision and said, “This is an unnecessary harmful surgery that is being forced on men when they are most vulnerable and defenseless.� The measure would have banned circumcision for any male 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. Abby Michelson Porth, Jewish Community Resources Council associate director, and a leader in the opposition to the measure, said in a July 28 statement that while she was confident the majority of San Franciscans would have voted against the measure, “we believe the right decision was made in the right venue.�
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Catholic San Francisco
NEWS
August 12, 2011
in brief
Cardinal: Celibacy is full response to God’s love VATICAN CITY — While priestly celibacy is increasingly misunderstood and even under attack, the discipline continues to be a call to a wholehearted response to God’s love, said Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops. “The celibacy of priests, as well as of bishops, has been put into question today with growing virulence because of sexual abuse, including of minors, committed by clerics,” the cardinal told the bishops of Brazil. Publicity of the abuse cases has led to “generalized suspicion of the clergy,” he said. “The living and important tradition of celibacy in the church has been belittled and Cardinal Marc even put into question,” he Ouellet of Quebec added. Cardinal Ouellet was in Brazil in May to lead a retreat for the country’s bishops. Over the summer, the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, published the cardinal’s talks, which were focused on the word of God and the identity of bishops. The text of his reflection on celibacy was published Aug. 7. Celibacy is not primarily about “availability and service,” but is part of the “nuptial and sacramental context of the covenant between Christ and his church. With his celibacy, the bishop certifies that God is love and that he expects his creatures to respond with love to love,” Cardinal Ouellet said.
Pope’s urgent appeal to end Syria violence CASTEL GANDALFO, Italy — Pope Benedict XVI urgently appealed for an end to the growing violence in Syria. “I am following with great concern the dramatic and growing violence in Syria, which has caused numerous deaths and severe suffering,” the pope said at the end of the Angelus prayer Aug. 7. “I invite the Catholic faithful to pray that efforts for reconciliation prevail over division and hatred.” The pope also urged Syria’s regime and population to
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pursue peaceful coexistence that respects citizens’ aspirations and dignity. Christians fear that the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad might lead to the rise of a radical Islamic regime that would repress religious freedom, asianews.it reported Aug. 3. Voice of America reported Aug. 8 that Assad defends his violent repression of “outlaw” dissidents and maintains the nation is on a path to reform. The Associated Press reported Aug. 9 that the Syrian army launched new raids and that activists claimed 22 people were killed.
Salvador massacre trial: Ex-soldiers surrender SAN SALVADOR — Nine former soldiers in El Salvador’s army have surrendered to authorities, three months after their indictment in Spain for the 1989 killings of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter during the country’s 12-year civil war. The ex-military members turned themselves in at a military base Aug. 8 and were transported to a Salvadoran court, the government said. They were among 20 former soldiers indicted by a Spanish court for their role in the deaths on the campus of the University of Central America in the Salvadoran capital, where the priests taught and lived. Five of the priests were Spanish. Spain’s courts have used the principle of international jurisdiction to prosecute the killings. Gen. Rene Emilio Ponce, the army leader accused of ordering the killings, died in May before the Spanish indictments were handed down. El Salvador’s government said in a statement that the former soldiers surrendered as authorities prepared to arrest them on an international warrant issued by Interpol. It was not clear whether the Salvadoran Supreme Court would permit their extradition to Spain. The Central American country’s civil war ended in 1992 under an agreement mediated by the United Nations between the government and the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front. An estimated 70,000 people died during the conflict.
Global rise in religious restrictions, report finds WASHINGTON — State restrictions on religion rose in eight of the world’s 25 most populous countries and in a third of the nations in the Middle East-North Africa region. Five of the 10 countries in the world that had a substantial increase in social hostilities related to religion were in Europe: Bulgaria, Denmark, Russia, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Those were the findings of an Aug. 9 report by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life on religious freedom around the world from 2006 to 2009. Pew said the findings suggest “that there may be a gradual polarization taking place in which countries that are relatively high in religious restrictions are becoming more restrictive, while those that are relatively low are becoming less restrictive.”
Crash another reminder ‘of terrible tragedy of war’ WASHINGTON — The deaths of 30 U.S. service members and eight Afghanis in the crash of a U.S. military helicopter in Afghanistan are another “reminder of the terrible tragedy of war and its toll on all people,” said the head of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services. “No person of good will is left unmoved by this loss,” Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio said in an Aug. 8 statement. The U.S. service members, who included about 20 Navy SEALs, along with seven Afghan soldiers and an interpreter, were killed as insurgents shot down a NATO Chinook transport helicopter early Aug. 6. It is the single deadliest loss for U.S. troops in the 10-year-old war. “I express my heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of the valiant members of the armed forces and the Afghani citizens who perished in the helicopter crash and the recent fighting in the Tangi province of Afghanistan,” Archbishop Broglio said.
No lack of quality resources to prepare for new missal WASHINGTON — As Catholics look toward Nov. 27, when the new edition of the Roman Missal goes into use in the United States, there is no lack of resources to help them prepare for the new sound and feel of the liturgy. Dozens of books and brochures have been published or are in the works, along with many DVDS and audiotapes aimed at specific audiences — from priests to teens to elementary school students. But how can average Catholics know what the best resources are for their particular circumstances? Father Richard Hilgartner, executive director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat on Divine Worship, advises people to look to their pastors, diocesan worship offices or Catholic bookstores for recommendations. “Anything will ultimately be helpful in some way,” he told Catholic News Service. “But some materials are more targeted at different age groups and audiences.” He does not recommend that Catholics get their information about implementation of the new missal exclusively from the blogosphere, however. Much of the liturgical information on popular Catholic blogs is “not fact but opinion,” he said. “And it is hard to discern what is helpful.” Some of the resources are designed to work best in an adult religious education or small-group faith formation program. Ascension Press, for example, has released “A Biblical Walk Through the Mass,” a five-part DVD series, book and workbook, along with a 20-page “Guide to the New Translation of the Mass,” which includes a pullout reference card detailing the new responses by the people at various parts of the Mass. For more on this story see catholic-sf.org. NEWS IN BRIEF, page 5 Yoursource sourcefor for the the best best Your Catholic books books -– Bibles Bibles Catholic music -– movies movies -–ministry ministry music resources – greeting cards resources - greeting cards rosaries – medals rosaries - medals statues -–gifts gifts for for statues Catholic occasions Catholic occasions Material en Español Material en Español
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News in brief . . .
decision to sponsor legislation legalizing same-sex marriage in Maryland, Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien of Baltimore sent him a private letter urging O’Malley, a Catholic, to refrain from promoting the redefinition of marriage. “I am well aware that the recent events in New York have intensified pressure on you to lend your active support to legislation to redefine marriage,” Archbishop O’Brien wrote, referring to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s signing of gay marriage legislation in the Empire State. “As advocates for the truths we are compelled to uphold,” Archbishop O’Brien said, “we speak with equal intensity and urgency in opposition to your promoting a goal that so deeply conflicts with your faith, not to mention the best interests of our society.” The archbishop said it was “especially hard to fathom your taking such a step, given the fact that our requests last year for you to sponsor legislation to repeal the death penalty and support students in Catholic and other nonpublic schools went unheeded.” “I do not presume, nor would I ever presume as governor, to question or infringe upon your freedom to define, to preach about, and to administer the sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church,” O’Malley said in an Aug. 4 response to Archbishop O’Brien. “But on the public issue of granting equal civil marital rights to same-sex couples, you and I disagree.” He asserted that “when shortcomings in our laws bring about a result that is unjust, I have a public obligation to try to change that injustice.”
■ Continued from page 4
Hatfield had high regard for church PORTLAND, Ore. — When politics got rough for Mark Hatfield, he headed to a Catholic church to pray. The former U.S. senator from Oregon, a prominent advocate of nonviolence, died Aug. 7 at 89. One of the nation’s most influential lawmakers for decades, Hatfield was a Baptist Republican with high regard for Catholic social teaching. He had a habit of walking to St. Joseph Church on Capitol Hill to clear his head. “When you’re praising God, you’re taking your thoughts off yourself,” he once told the Catholic Sentinel, newspaper of the Portland archdiocese. Hatfield, who had been ill for several years, died at a care center in Portland. He was Oregon’s governor for eight years before serving in the Senate from 1966 to 1996. In a 1994 interview with the Catholic Sentinel, Hatfield said he saw himself as a statesman taking Jesus as the ultimate role model. “It was totally revolutionary and is still revolutionary to think that a leader is a servant,” Hatfield said. “I try not to be the manipulative powerful leader on the white charger, but the servant leader.”
Prelate: Catholic governor wrong on marriage law
Crystal Cathedral buy offers pending (CNS PHOTO/OWEN SWEENEY)
BALTIMORE — Two days before Gov. Martin J. O’Malley announced his July 22
Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien of Baltimore and Maryland Gov. Martin J. O’Malley are seen in Annapolis, Md., in a 2009 photo.
Catholic San Francisco
LOCAL NE WS Religious leaders Donation boosts land mourn Norway’s loss mine removal effort Archbishop George Niederauer was among a group of religious leaders who on July 31 delivered a statement of support to the people and the government of Norway from the San Francisco Interfaith Council. On July 22, an antiimmigration zealot killed 77 people in an Oslo bombing and at a nearby youth camp. The statement was read by Rita Semel, executive vice-chair of the council, at the Sunday service of the Norwegian Seamen’s Church in San Francisco. It read: “At this time of national mourning and sorrow in Norway, the San Francisco Bay Area interfaith community sends its sympathy, its support and its affection to the people and government of Norway. We join with you in mourning the loss of so many young people and the gifts they would have brought to a broken world.” Signing the statement with Archbishop Niederauer and Semel were Rabbi Marvin Goodman, executive director of the Board of Rabbis of Northern California; Very Rev. Marc Andrus, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of California; Rev. Mark W. Holmerud, bishop, Sierra Pacific Synod ELCA; Maha ElGenaidi, president of the Islamic Networks Group; Rev. Charles Gibbs, executive director, United Religions Initiative; Rev. Susan Strouse, interim executive director, Interfaith Center at the Presidio; Rev. James DeLange, chair, and Michael Pappas, interfaith council director. — George Raine
ORANGE — In recent U.S. Bankruptcy Court proceedings, Crystal Cathedral Ministries of Garden Grove was given 90 days to raise the reported $50 million it would take to pay off its outstanding debt and continue to operate from the all-glass church founded by television evangelist Robert Schuller. Bids for the property, including a $50 million offer from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange, are still in play pending the outcome of the owners’ efforts and an evaluation of all offers by a creditors committee made up of Crystal Cathedral debtors and debtors representatives, said Orange diocese spokesman Steve Bohannon.
Roots of Peace, the San Rafael-based nonprofit and humanitarian organization that removes land mines and replaces them with crops, thus making the land productive, has met a fundraising goal to begin a campaign removing land mines in the Holy Land. Paul and Shirley Dean, owners of Spiriterra Vineyards in the Napa Valley, made a $100,000 gift to begin the mine removal work in the area of Husan, a Palestinian community near Bethlehem. The region, noted Heidi Kuhn, the founder and CEO of Roots of Peace, also includes Qasr el Yhud, the baptismal site of Jesus on the Jordan River and is important to Christians, Jews and Muslims. Shirley Dean said she and her husband were inspired by Daniel Yuval, an 11-year-old Israeli boy who lost his leg when he stepped on a land mine in the Golan Heights. She said, “We were deeply moved by Daniel’s words, ‘When I woke up and saw that my leg had been amputated, I said to my mother that I didn’t want anyone else to be hurt by land mines, and that I intend to do something about it.’ To hear this passionate vow from a child touched our hearts.” Land mines in the region date to the 1967 war. The Israeli Knesset this year unanimously approved the Roots of Peace proposal to remove them. — George Raine LOCAL NEWS, page 6
LOCAL NEWS, page 16
Rock and Roll for Magglio! A bocce benefit for Magglio Boscarino Saturday, September 10, 2011 9:00am - 5:00pm Leo Ryan Park, Foster City Please join Magglio, his family, and his friends as we honor his strength and spirit and support his fight against Pompe Disease.
Help us raise $10,000 towards a wheelchair accessible vehicle for Magglio! 9am - 1pm - Competitive Bocce Tournament 1 – 4pm – Recreational Bocce (sign up by 1pm) 2 – 4pm – Live Music featuring James Talley and friends 4 – 5pm – Drum circle and special 4:23 magic moment for Magglio
We look forward to a day of fun, food, bocce, music and love! For more details and to sign up to attend or make a donation visit:
Who are we? Since 1883, the Young Men’s Institute (YMI) has operated as a fraternal W ho ar e w e? Catholic order supporting its motto of “Pro Deo, Pro Patria” (For God, For Country). Today, over 2500 members (called brothers) honor this motto by working together on worthwhile programs & activities for our Catholic faith & for our communities. Besides doing good deeds, YMI brothers and their families enjoy a variety of fun social events (e.g., dinners, tournaments, picnics, etc), as well as membership benefits (e.g., scholarships, death benefits).
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Yes, we are looking for new members to join us. If you are a Catholic adult male, simply email us at ymius@aol.com or call us at 1-650-588n I J oi n? 7762 or Ca 1-800-964-9646. You can also visit our website for more info at www.ymiusa.org. We will provide you a brief YMI application form simp ly YMI m a il council. us at Membership to complete and the location of the nearest ym ius@a ol.c om or ca ll us d uring [ Mfees are very affordable (about $4 or$5 per month)F 9 a m to 5 pm] a t 1 -6 5 0- 58 8- 7 76 2 or 1- 8 00 -9 6 4- 96 46 . visit o ur website for mor e info at The YMI . . iusa.or . . Joing. the Brotherhood! www.. ym
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Catholic San Francisco
August 12, 2011
Local news . . .
St. Anthony Foundation hosting faith symposium
â– Continued from page 5
USF buys Folger Building, returning to downtown roots The University of San Francisco is in the process of purchasing the historic Folger Coffee Building at Howard and Spear streets, returning to its downtown roots and also with the aim of keeping the university relevant and its students connected with business, civic organizations, nonprofits and other current and potential partners. Which USF academic programs, courses and administrative functions will occupy space in the approximately 100,000-square-foot building is to be determined, and the university will have a limited presence in the building at 101 Howard St. in the near term because there are tenants. USF has had long relationships with downtown-based businesses and nonprofits that hire its students as interns. The university says the acquisition is intended to add to those associations. “It really does build on Jesuit spirituality, the tradition of engaging the world as opposed to running away from it or simply passing judgment,� said USF President and Jesuit priest Father Stephen Privett. He said the building will accommodate a symbiotic relationship with “business folks, the dot-coms, the financial sector,� with executives invited in to talk with students. “They learn from us, we learn from them and this way we become part of the fabric,� he said. Father Privett added, “The partnership will be to the advantage of both, and most particularly to the city. We want to be the city’s first university, not just in an historical sense but in fact.� USF, a Jesuit institution, was founded in San Francisco, at Fourth and Market streets, in 1855. It is San Francisco’s oldest university. It has long been located atop a hill on Fulton Street, but once again having a downtown presence, said USF, reinforces the university’s existing business and civic ties, “and underscores USF’s commitment to engage the city on a deeper, mutually beneficial level.� The Folger Coffee Building, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was completed in 1905 and survived the great earthquake the following year. After the company was sold the building was ultimately acquired by investors known as Folger Building LLC and Investment Group, which entered into the agreement to sell it to USF for $36.5 million. — George Raine
The St. Anthony Foundation is hosting a symposium on faith traditions reaching out to those in need, Aug. 30 at St. Mary’s Cathedral. The event, from 7 to 9 p.m., is the third and concluding symposium in a series the St. Anthony Foundation is holding as part of its 60th anniversary. The panelists will be James Donahue, professor of ethics at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley; Rita Semel, a founder of the United Religions Initiative and executive vice chair of the San Francisco Interfaith Council, and Ameena Jandali, a founding member of the Islamic Networks Group. The leaders from three religious communities — Christianity, Judaism and Islam — will take up the question, “Can we find in the common call to attend to the poor, shared by many faiths, a place from which to build understanding and unity?� The aim, said Karl Robillard, a spokesman for the St. Anthony Foundation, is to generate ideas about what can be done locally to continue to hold a “religious perspective of the preferential treatment of the poor as one of the most important values in our work.� At the same time, he noted, the competing claims and convictions of religious commitment lead to division, violence and even genocide — the opposite effect of what religion intends. — George Raine
Archdiocese’s Evans wins press award The Catholic Press Association awarded a “best feature article� in a special interest newsletter to the respect life coordinator for the Archdiocese of San Francisco. The first place award to Vicki Evans was made public in June at the national CPA convention. “Commercial Markets Created by Abortion: Profiting from the Fetal Distribution Chain� was published in “Ethics & Medics,� a newsletter of the National Catholic Bioethics center. “This article follows the true call of journalism in that it digs deeper than common societal myths and exposes littleknown but shocking truths about the abortion ‘industry,’� the Catholic Press Association judges’ panel said. — Valerie Schmalz
First U.S. deaf priest visits San Francisco parish
New law gives undocumented students access to private aid By George Raine Gov. Jerry Brown has signed into law legislation giving undocumented immigrant students access to privately funded scholarships, while a far more controversial companion bill making students eligible for publicly funded aid is still pending in the Legislature. Brown, on July 25, signed Assembly Bill 130, one of the two bills that compose the California Dream Act, which benefit undocumented students. The legislation shares a name with the federal Dream Act, but only the measure in Congress offers a path to citizenship for undocumented students. The Catholic Church supports the federal bill, saying it is consistent with Catholic social doctrine that is centered on the dignity of each human being. The California Dream Act legislation is sponsored by Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, whose back Brown used as a table to sign AB 130 in a ceremony in Los Angeles. A relatively small number of students would be beneficiaries of private scholarships under the laws. Of both bills, Brown said, “Today signing this Dream Act is another piece of investment in people, because people are what drives the culture, the economy, the state and our country.� Cedillo said, “This is the first of what will be a full, comprehensive victory in the area of education. Both are important and both are essential to bring educational equity to the students and to improve the prospects for their success and to improve the prospects for California moving forward.� The second Cedillo bill, Assembly Bill 131, would make available public student aid including a Board of Governors Fee Waiver; a student aid program administered by the attending college or university (i.e. State University Grant, UC Grant) and Cal Grants. Many Republicans oppose both the federal and California Dream Act, because the beneficiaries are in the U.S. illegally and because of the expenditure. Of the state bills, the Republican National Conservative Caucus, founded by members of the Republican National Committee to promote conservative beliefs, said, “A huge part of the reason that California has huge budget problems has to do with the billions they spend on those who come here illegally. It’s lunacy – sheer lunacy.�
Father Thomas J. Coughlin, known as the first deaf priest in the U.S., visited the deaf community at St. Benedict Parish in San Francisco July 26. Father Coughlin, who served at St. Benedict in 2007, ministers to the Catholic deaf community in San Antonio, Texas. At right is Father Ghislain Cheret Bazikila, who serves at St. Benedict and at Catholic high schools in San Francisco and is the 10th deaf priest to be ordained in the U.S.
SEPT. 9-11
RECOVERY RETREAT Fr. Tom Weston, SJ
SEPT. 16-18 SPIRITUALITY OF AGING Br. Don Bisson, FMS SEPT. 30OCT. 2
FRANCISCAN SPIRITUALITY Fr. Michael Crosby, OFM, Cap.
OCT. 28-30 MARRIED COUPLES RETREAT Fr. Evan Howard, OFM Chuck and Gloria Blay OCT. 28-30 THE FOUR GOSPEL JOURNEY Alexander Shaia, Ph.D. 2011 THEME:
Jubilee Joy Celebrating our 50th Anniversary
Marriage Prep Seasonal Liturgies Workshops
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Our Catholic Church in the World Speaker Series resumes with a very special discussion on American Novelist, Flannery O’Connor led by
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AUGUST 18-21
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Awaken to God’s Presence in the seasons of our lives through the lens of photography and prayer. Cost is $40 per person and includes lunch.
Widows and Widowers “Navigating the World Aloneâ€? 3EPT s AMn PM This one-day retreat will look at the transition a person makes after the death of a spouse. The day will include presentations, with an emphasis on practical strategies, small group discussions, and times for quiet reection. The cost is $50 per person.
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August 12, 2011
Catholic San Francisco
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Catholic San Francisco
August 12, 2011
By Carol Zimmermann WASHINGTON (CNS) — Although the phrase “consubstantial with the Father” might not roll off the tongues of Catholic youths, church officials and catechists hope its meaning will sink in when it is said in the Nicene Creed later this year. Consubstantial, which means of the same essence, is closer to the creed’s original Latin and Greek text and basically holds more theological punch than “one in being with the Father,” the phrase it replaces. It is one of several changes in Mass responses that are part of the revised edition of the Roman Missal to be implemented in Catholic churches Nov. 27. One pastor explained this specific change in a July 31 Sunday bulletin noting that “consubstantial” reflects the “language of theology, the language the ancient church fathers carefully constructed to take a stab at the mystery of Christ’s divinity.’One in being’ uses slightly more Anglo-Saxon words. It demystifies the theological language.”
Sacred vows. . . ■ Continued from cover to say for those married civilly — let us help you to marry in the church,” said pastor Msgr. Labib Kobti. “All that I want to do is to bring you back to the church and make from your wedding a sacrament. This we called ‘Operation I Do.’” The parish expects numerous priests concelebrating and at least 500 wedding guests. It will host the reception at the large church hall on St. Thomas More school grounds, said Espinueva. “Msgr. Labib said we will be putting tents outside if that’s not enough space.” Among those who will wed are couples who have been married civilly for 28, 17, 11 years, Msgr. Kobti said.
(CNS PHOTO/KAREN CALLAWAY)
Teens will adapt quickly to new missal, say catechists “Part of the intent behind the new translation is to re-mystify — in the best sense of the word,” wrote Father John Terry, pastor of Our Lady of Hope Parish in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. That sense of mystery and transcendence of God — or recognizing that God is beyond human perception — is something children and teens should pick up from the revised missal said Maureen Kelly, author of “What’s New About the Mass,” aimed specifically at third- to seventh-graders, and “What’s New About the Mass for Teens.” Both are published by Liturgy Training Publications in Chicago. Kelly said the wording in the new missal “brings in more of a sense of transcendence, which young people haven’t experienced.” She said children and teenagers already get the sense that God is close to them and a part of their personal lives, which catechists describe as God’s immanence. “The challenge is to achieve the balance of immanence and transcendence,” she said. The biggest challenge for all ages, she
said, is to “understand a little more fully the meaning and mystery of Eucharist.” She said the new responses are easy enough to learn but the reasoning behind these changes might be easier for older adults — who have been through the Mass change from Latin to English — to grasp. Father Richard Hilgartner, executive director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat on Divine Worship, is convinced the new words won’t be a problem for teenagers and suspects they will catch on faster than the rest of the Catholic population. He frequently tells parish leaders that young people “hold one of the keys to helping implement this. For one thing, they are not as wedded to tradition. In today’s culture everything is always changing. New is not something they’re afraid of.” But just picking up new expressions is one thing; getting the new rhythm of the Mass responses is another challenge and a particular one for young people, he said,
Espinueva said the Holy Spirit inspired the idea after he saw an article May 27 in Catholic San Francisco describing an archdiocesan decline in Catholic weddings that mirrors national trends. In the Archdiocese of San Francisco, marriage declined 47 percent from 1990 to 2010 while during the same period the number of Catholics in the archdiocese grew from 395,000 to 444,008. Archbishop George Niederauer has formed a task force to study the issue. “There are so many couples in our local church who could benefit from this kind of outreach,” said Msgr. James Tarantino, archdiocesan vicar for administration and moderator of the curia. Three St. Thomas More parishioners who are in their third year of training for the diaconate have been interviewing
couples and helping them fill out paper- time and have not received the sacrament work to marry. The men are Romeo Cruz, of matrimony,” he said. Arthur Sanchez, and Marcos Cobillas. An actual wedding date is not yet set Those couples who may need help with a as the parish races to complete all the previous marriage and a divorce are getting paperwork, Espinueva said. Espinueva is a assistance in working with the archdioc- co-chairman of Catholics for the Common esan marriage tribunal, Espinueva said. Good which is battling efforts to legalize The owner of a music store in same-sex marriage as well as promoting Serramonte Mall, Espinueva said he has sacramental marriage in the church. “I would like to put it in the context been asking his customers if they know any Catholics married civilly but not in of this saint who was killed by protectthe church. He is also handing out fli- ing marriage, St. Thomas More,” Msgr. ers. That effort, as well as couples who Kobti said. “Henry VIII wanted to get want to become involved with Couples married and he wanted to divorce his for Christ or the Filipino-couples group wife and this, our saint, said, no, you cannot divorce.” St. Thomas “Opening your heart to the More was beheaded July 6, Lord” or Bukas Loob Sa 1535, and King Henry VIII Diyes, have been the source defied the pope leading to the of most of the couples who formation of the Church of will marry, he said. Both England. “He died protecting groups required couples to marriage.” have been sacramentally marReferring to the years ried to participate. when he could not receive The effort to help couples holy Communion because he marry in the church is also was not in a blessed marriage, an initiative of the Family Joe Espinueva Espinueva said, “The feeling Ministry in the Latino complans “a real sheof being able to receive the munity of the archdiocese, bang” – a sacraholy Eucharist without any said Father Francisco Gamez. Twenty-five couples will wed mental wedding and conscience is so beautiful. at St. Mary’s Cathedral in a full-blown reception Most of these people are not receiving holy Communion ceremony presided over by for couples wed Bishop William Justice on outside the church. because they know they cannot and they are so eager to Saturday Aug 13. be married so they eventually Several other parishes have similar events, archdiocesan officials said. can receive Jesus Christ.” “This is not my project, this is the Holy Couples have not married in the church for many reasons, Espinueva Spirit’s project,” said Espinueva. “I think said. Obtaining baptismal certificates, or the Holy Spirit planned everything. We divorce certifications from other countries just opened all our hearts. We are doing or jurisdictions is difficult. The marriage all this out of love. It’s just a four-letter preparation process is unwieldy for some. word, but it takes a lot of time to practice.” For more information, contact Joe “Another reason they have been telling me, they are embarrassed because they Espinueva at operationido@yahoo.com have been living together for quite some or at (650) 892-7184.
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Young people attend a youth rally and Mass at Our Lady of the Snows Parish in Chicago in early March.
because it doesn’t flow with their natural way of communicating. Teenagers are accustomed to everything in shorthand, like abbreviated text messages and 140-character tweets, he said, which is completely different from the communication and language of prayer. “Prayer is about creating a relationship,” he said. And the liturgy itself has its own language: “one where catechesis helps people understand” what is happening.
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Catholic San Francisco
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Preventing caregiver isolation: To remain effective, stay connected By Lisa M. Petsche Jim was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease three years ago. His wife, Anne, is finding it increasingly difficult to care for him due to his declining memory and judgment. He has slipped out of the house on two occasions and gotten lost; Anne had to call the police to help find him. She can no longer leave Jim alone for even a short time. It’s easy for caregivers like Anne to become isolated as a result of their relative’s need for continual care, whether it’s practical help or supervision. For instance, they may have to give up a career or volunteer work in order to provide full-time care. Over time they also may lose touch with friends because the heavy demands of caregiving limit their time and energy for nurturing relationships and their ability to get out of the house. All too easily, they become disengaged from supportive social networks — such as clubs, groups and perhaps a faith community — and stress-relieving leisure activities. Unfortunately, family support is often minimal or absent, due to societal trends that include delayed marriage, decreased family size, increased mobility and a decline in multigenerational households. Even if adult children live nearby, they’re likely raising a family and holding down a job, and therefore have limited time to help mom and dad. Separation from others fosters loneliness and may precipitate depression, a common affliction among caregivers. While sustaining all relationships may be impossible, close relationships — a vital source of pleasure, validation and practical support — need to be nurtured. The following are some ways to prevent or overcome isolation, in order to avoid burnout. Take the initiative and invite friends over. Don’t wait for them to call or drop in. Accept offers of help and ask other family members to share the load. Don’t try to shield them from the reality of your situation. Give them the opportunity to pitch in, and be specific about what you need.
Keep in touch with out-of-area loved ones through phone calls (find a good long-distance savings plan), letters or e-mail. Get a portable phone so you don’t miss calls and can multitask while conversing. Or get an answering machine so friends can leave messages when you’re not available. Join a community support group (some offer concurrent care) to connect with other caregivers. Information on caregiver groups can be obtained from your local hospital, community social workers and your local office on aging. Online caregiver message boards and chat rooms, and electronic mailing lists or discussion forums are some at-home alternatives. At the very least, subscribe to a caregiving magazine that offers practical advice and the assurance that you’re not alone in the challenges you face. Consider in-home respite provided by a health care aide employed by a government agency or hired directly through a home health care agency; an individual with or without formal training, hired under a private arrange-
ment; or a trained volunteer (for example, from the Alzheimer’s Association). Investigate adult day care programs as well as residential care homes that have a short-stay program (so you can attend out-of-town events or take a vacation). To locate them, contact your local office on aging or the non-profit organization associated with your loved one’s disease. If mobility issues prevent your loved one from accessing day care or accompanying you out into the community, rent or buy a walker or wheelchair if necessary. Get an adapted van that will accommodate a wheelchair, or register with the local accessible transportation service. If your loved one can safely be left alone but either of you is anxious about the prospect, supply him or her with a portable phone and get yourself a cell phone so you can stay in touch. An emergency response system may also help put your mind at ease. Lisa M. Petsche is a social worker and a freelance writer specializing in family life and elder care.
A place of caring and faith. “Residents are the heart of our community.”
CCCYO caregiver workshops Few of us are prepared for the challenges of caring for an older spouse or parent, especially when memory loss and confusion are part of the picture. Catholic Charities CYO’s aging services in the Archdiocese of San Francisco support older adults to maintain a life of dignity and independence while providing respite and supportive services for caregivers. Each senior is different and specialized care is important to the health and well-being of both the senior and the caregiver. Through caregiver workshops, one can learn basics of dementia, effective communication, personal care, challenging behaviors, managing and reducing caregiver stress, and where to find extra information and assistance. Please visit Catholic Charities CYO’s website for more information and local resources for caregivers at www.cccyo.org/caregivers.
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Catholic San Francisco
August 12, 2011
obituaries
Sister Mary Carmela Cesari, RSM Mercy Sister Mary Carmela Cesari died in Oakland July 1 at the age of 88. Born in San Francisco, Sister Mary Carmela grew up in St. Peter Parish, attending both the parish elementary school and the parish high school. She entered the Sisters of Mercy in Burlingame in 1943 and professed vows in 1946. Sister Mary Carmela spent the next 55 years teaching at schools including Holy Name of Jesus, St. Gabriel and St. Stephen, where she also served as principal, in San Francisco. Sister Mary Carmela “Sister Mary Carmela was a master teacher, and assisted Cesari, RSM many young sister teachers in their first years of junior high teaching,” the Mercy Sisters said in an announcement of her death. “She had great rapport with her students, especially the boys who could never put anything over on her.” “She was always there for you,” remembered her former student and friend Mercy Sister Marian Rose Power. Sister Mary Carmela is survived by her nephews and a niece. Interment was at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma. Contributions in her memory may be made to the Sisters of Mercy, 2300 Adeline Drive, Burlingame 94010.
Sister Louise Lundergan, RSCJ Sacred Heart Sister Louise Lundergan died July 20 at Teresian House in Albany, N.Y. “Sister Lundergan, who celebrated her 100th birthday May 4, was an educator, a missionary and a fearless, feisty, no-nonsense force for good,” her congregation said in an announcement of her death. A funeral Mass was celebrated July 25 in the Teresian House Chapel with interment in Kenwood Cemetery. Sister Lundergan entered the Religious of the Sacred Heart in 1932 and made her final profession in 1940 in Albany. Her teaching ministry began in 1935 with service at Sacred Heart Schools in Chicago, Omaha, and St. Joseph, Mo. Sister Lundergan also taught at a Sacred Heart school in one of the poorest areas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Sister Lundergan served as a social worker for the St. Vincent de Paul Society in Sister Louise San Francisco and ministered to Lundergan, RSCJ survivors of domestic abuse at the Marian Residence of the St. Anthony Foundation in San Francisco. She also volunteered at Laguna Honda Hospital. Sister Lundergan held a graduate degree in philosophy from Loyola University, Chicago, as well as a certificate in alcoholic studies from UC Berkeley. Memorial contributions may be made to the Society of the Sacred Heart, 4120 Forest Park Ave., St. Louis, MO 63108.
Father Zachary Shore Father Zachary Shore died July 23, 2011. His death follows several years in which the priest’s health had declined dramatically, improved, and then declined again. “During these difficult swings in his condition, he remained steadfast in his faith, and expressed his deepest appreciation for the support and prayers offered by his brother priests, family and friends; and for the compassionate care he received from the staff
at St. Mary’s Medical Center and Kentfield Rehabilitation Center,” Auxiliary Bishop William J. Justice, vicar for clergy, said. Born March 21, 1937, in San Francisco, Father Shore attended St. Paul School in San Francisco, later graduating from the Christian Brothers’ Mont La Salle High School Father Zachary Shore in Napa, and Saint Mary’s College in Moraga. Father Shore entered the Christian Brothers and ministered with them for several decades including serving on the faculty of Sacred Heart High School, now Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory, in San Francisco. In the late 1970s, he entered St. Patrick’s Seminary & University in Menlo Park, where, according to Bishop Justice, “he brought both maturity and a deep spiritual background to his studies for the priesthood.” Father Shore was ordained for the Archdiocese of San Francisco by Archbishop John R. Quinn on November 28, 1981. Initially assigned as parochial vicar to Our Lady of Mercy Church in Daly City, he served there until July, 1986, when he was appointed to St. Cecilia Parish in San Francisco. He served as pastor of Most Holy Redeemer Parish in San Francisco from 1990-2002 and from 1990 through 1993 as Director of Cemeteries for the archdiocese. In 2002, Father Shore was appointed pastor of Church of the Visitacion in San Francisco, where he had responsibility for the parish for several years before diabetes, congestive heart failure and sleep apnea began limiting his ability to continue in active ministry. He retired on July 1, 2006, and despite a weak heart, lived very happily at Alma Via of San Francisco, where his warmth, faith, good humor and kindness were deeply appreciated by the staff and his fellow residents, and by many members of the St. Thomas More Parish community, Bishop Justice said. A funeral Mass was celebrated July 29 at St. Thomas More Church. Remembrances may be made to the Priests’ Retirement Fund, One Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco 94109.
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August 12, 2011
Catholic San Francisco
11
CCCYO: City restores planned budget cuts
(CNS PHOTO/RICHARD CARSON, REUTERS)
By Valerie Schmalz
Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks during “The Response: A Call To Prayer for a Nation in Crisis” event at Reliant Stadium Aug. 6 in Houston. The seven-hour program of prayer and fasting, which was initiated by Perry, drew nearly 30,000 people.
Cuts to Catholic Charities CYO services in San Francisco were restored during the city’s budget process but state budget cuts will hit other programs with service reductions and fee increases, Executive Director Jeff Bialik said. However, no program will shut down, because the organization plans a combination of fee increases, service reductions and additional fund raising to keep all of them open, Bialik said. Bialik said he was happy to report that cuts to CCCYO funding in the City and County of San Francisco proposed budget were restored in the budget signed July 26 by Mayor Ed Lee. Funding cuts were restored to CCCYO services for families, the elderly, people living with disabling HIV/AIDS and youth in the juvenile justice system, Bialik said. Bailik lauded “an inclusive process where Mayor Lee and Budget Committee Chair Carmen Chu listened to our concerns and together we worked collaboratively to set priorities for serving the most vulnerable in our community.” The San Carlos Adult Day Care program will increase fees and add more participants to balance its budget, Bialik said. The state cut the Multipurpose Senior Services Program 25 percent this year, and a year earlier cut nutrition funding, and two years ago reduced transportation funding, Bialik said. “This year, we also received a 17.5 percent cut in our general fund support from the County of San Mateo,” Bialik said. At the Treasure Island Child Development Center, CCCYO capped the number of children enrolled because the state reduced its funding for child care, and that primarily hurts poor
working mothers, Bialik said. “The lack of child care means that parents, often single mothers, cannot work full time or at all, extending the cycle of poverty,” Bialik said. The center now takes care of 43 children and is licensed to take 60 but will not add any more children because there is no funding. Enrollment at St. Vincent’s School for Boys is down, because of a reduction in the number of boys referred to the program by local counties, Bialik said. CCCYO consolidated from five to four houses of up to 12 boys each. Counties are also pushing for shorter stays, and Bialik said that “is in part a reaction by counties to budget pressure.” St. Vincent’s is a licensed, residential treatment home for boys ages 7 to17, many of whom suffer with emotional disturbances resulting from severe parental abuse and neglect. Bialik said he does not know how Catholic Charities CYO will be affected by a 4 percent nationwide reduction in funding allocated under the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program. Catholic Charities CYO’s programs provide housing and health supports to about 1,500 people. But, he noted, “Catholic Charities CYO is one of the largest providers of housing related services for people with disabling HIV/AIDS in the Western U.S.” “Any cut in income is significant to the stability of anyone living with chronic illness. For example, many of our clients live on less that $900 per month therefore making a potential 10 percent across the board budget cut in aid extremely devastating,” said CYO Catholic Charities spokeswoman Gabrielle Slanina Gallagher.
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August 12, 2011
August 12, 2011
A-bomb chaplain regrets ‘utter moral corruption’ of civilian mass killing The use of nuclear weapons against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, “remains a defeat for humanity” and civilians still suffer the effects, Pax Christi International said this month in a statement marking Hiroshima Day and Nagasaki Day, Aug. 6 and 9. In this issue Catholic San Francisco reprints Sojourners magazine’s August 1980 interview with a Catholic priest struggling to come to terms with his role in those events and with church teaching on the morality of war. By Charles C. McCarthy n August 1945, Father George Zabelka, a Catholic chaplain with the U.S. Army air force, was stationed on Tinian Island in the South Pacific. He served as priest and pastor for the airmen who dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He was discharged in l946. During the next 20 years he gradually began to realize that what he had done and believed during the war was wrong, and that the only way he could be a Christian was to be a pacifist. He was deeply influenced in this process by the civil rights movement and the works of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi. In 1972 he met Charles C. McCarthy, a theologian, lawyer and father of 10. McCarthy, who founded the Center for the Study of Nonviolence at the University of Notre Dame, was leading a workshop on nonviolence at Zabelka’s church. The two men fell into the first of several conversations about the issues raised by the workshop. Some time later, Zabelka reached the conclusion that the use of violence under any circumstances was incompatible with his understanding of the Gospel of Christ. When this article appeared, Father Zabelka was retired, gave workshops on nonviolence and assisted in diocesan work in Lansing, Mich. The following is a 1980 interview with Zabelka, conducted by McCarthy. — The Editors
I
Hiroshima blast zone
A single atomic bomb, the first weapon of its type ever used against a target, exploded over the city of Hiroshima at 0815 on the morning of 6 August 1945. Most of the industrial workers had already reported to work, but many workers were enroute and nearly all the school children and some industrial employees were at work in the open on the program of building removal to provide firebreaks and disperse valuables to the country. The attack came 45 minutes after the “all clear” had been sounded from a previous alert. Because of the lack of warning and the populace’s indifference to small groups of planes, the explosion came as an almost complete surprise, and the people had not taken shelter. Many were caught in the open, and most of the t rest in flimsily constructed homes or commercial establishments.
Casualties were undoubtedly high: 600 out 850 medical students at the Nagasaki Medical College were killed and most of the others injured; and of the 20 faculty members 12 were killed and four others injured.
Hiroshima aftermath
13
‘I was told it was necessary’
August 1945
Nagasaki blast cloud
Catholic San Francisco
Charles McCarthy: Father Zabelka, what is your relationship to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945? Father Zabelka: During the summer of 1945, July, August and September, I was assigned as Catholic chaplain to the 509th Composite Group on Tinian Island. The 509th was the atomic bomb group. McCarthy: What were your duties in relationship to these men?
There is reason to believe that if the effects of blast and fire had been entirely absent from the bombing, the number of deaths among people within a radius of one-half mile from ground zero would have been almost as great as the actual figures and the deaths among those within 1 mile would have been only slightly less. The principal difference would have been in the time of the deaths. Instead of being killed outright as were most of these victims, they would have survived for a few days or even 3 or 4 weeks, only to die eventually of radiation disease.
Zabelka: The usual. I said Mass on Sunday and during the week. Heard confessions. Talked with the boys, etc. Nothing significantly different from what any other chaplain did during the war. McCarthy: Did you know that the 509th was preparing to drop an atomic bomb? Zabelka: No. We knew that they were preparing to drop a bomb substantially different from and more powerful than even the “blockbusters” used over Europe, but we never called it an atomic bomb and never really knew what it was before Aug. 6, 1945. Before that time we just referred to it as the “gimmick” bomb. McCarthy: So since you did not know that an atomic bomb was going to be dropped you had no reason to counsel the men in private or preach in public about the morality of such a bombing? Zabelka: Well, that is true enough; I never did speak against it, nor could I have spoken against it since I, like practically everyone else on Tinian, was ignorant of what was being prepared. And I guess I will go to my God with that as my defense. But on Judgment Day I think I am going to need to seek more mercy than justice in this matter. McCarthy: Why? God certainly could not have expected you to act on ideas that had never entered your mind. Zabelka: As a Catholic priest my task was to keep my people, wherever they were, close to the mind and heart of Christ. As a military chaplain I was to try to see that the boys conducted themselves according to the teachings of the Catholic Church and Christ on war. When I look back I am not sure I did either of these things very well. McCarthy: Why do you think that? Zabelka: What I do not mean to say is that I feel myself to have been remiss in any duties that were expected of me as a chaplain. I saw that the Mass and the sacraments were available as best I could. I even went out and earned paratroop wings in order to do my job better. Nor did I fail to teach and preach what the church expected me to teach and preach—and I don’t mean by this that I just talked to the boys about their sexual lives. I and most chaplains were quite clear and outspoken on such matters as not killing and torturing prisoners. But there were other areas where things were not said quite so clearly. McCarthy: For example? Zabelka: The destruction of civilians in war was always forbidden by
the church, and if a soldier came to me and asked if he could put a bullet through a child’s head, I would have told him absolutely not. That would be mortally sinful. But in 1945 Tinian Island was the largest airfield in the world. Three planes a minute could take off from it around the clock. Many of these planes went to Japan with the express purpose of killing not one child or one civilian but of slaughtering hundreds and thousands and tens of thousands of children and civilians -- and I said nothing. McCarthy: Why not? You certainly knew civilians were being destroyed by the thousands in these raids, didn’t you? Zabelka: Oh, indeed I did know, and I knew with a clarity that few others could have had. McCarthy: What do you mean? Zabelka: As a chaplain I often had to enter the world of the boys who were losing their minds because of something they did in war. I remember one young man who was engaged in the bombings of the cities of Japan. He was in the hospital on Tinian Island on the verge of a complete mental collapse. He told me that he had been on a low-level bombing mission, flying right down one of the main streets of the city, when straight ahead of him appeared a little boy, in the middle of the street, looking up at the plane in childlike wonder. The man knew that in a few seconds this child would be burned to death by napalm which had already been released. Yes, I knew civilians were being destroyed and knew it perhaps in a way others didn’t. Yet I never preached a single sermon against killing civilians to the men who were doing it. McCarthy: Again, why not? Zabelka: Because I was “brainwashed!” It never entered my mind to publicly protest the consequences of these massive air raids. I was told it was necessary; told openly by the military and told implicitly by my church’s leadership. To the best of my knowledge no American cardinals or bishops were opposing these mass air raids. Silence in such matters, especially by a public body like the American bishops, is a stamp of approval. The whole structure of the secular, religious, and military society told me clearly that it was all right to “let the Japs have it.” God was on the side of my country. The Japanese were the enemy, and I was absolutely certain of my country’s and church’s teaching about
enemies; no erudite theological text was necessary to tell me. The dayin-day-out operation of the state and the church between 1940 and 1945 spoke more clearly about Christian attitudes toward enemies and war than St. Augustine or St. Thomas Aquinas ever could. I was certain that this mass destruction was right, certain to the point that the question of its morality never seriously entered my mind. I was “brainwashed” not by force or torture but by my Church’s silence and wholehearted cooperation in thousands of little ways with the country’s war machine. Why, after I finished chaplaincy school at Harvard I had my military chalice officially blessed by the then Bishop Cushing of Boston. How much more clearly could the message be given? Indeed, I was “brainwashed!” McCarthy: So you feel that because you did not protest the morality of the bombing of other cities with their civilian populations, that somehow you are morally responsible for the dropping of the atomic bomb? Zabelka: The facts are that 75,000 people were burned to death in one evening of fire bombing over Tokyo. Hundreds of thousands were destroyed in Dresden, Hamburg and Coventry by aerial bombing. The fact that 45,000 human beings were killed by one bomb over Nagasaki was new only to the extent that it was one bomb that did it. To fail to speak to the utter moral corruption of the mass destruction of civilians was to fail as a Christian and a priest as I see it. Hiroshima and Nagasaki happened in and to a world and a Christian church that had asked for it--that had prepared the moral consciousness of humanity to do and to justify the unthinkable. I am sure there are church documents around someplace bemoaning civilian deaths in modern war, and I am sure those in power in the church will drag them out to show that it was giving moral leadership during World War II to its membership. Well, I was there, and I’ll tell you that the operational moral atmosphere in the church in relation to mass bombing of enemy civilians was totally indifferent, silent, and corrupt at best -- at worst it was religiously supportive of these activities by blessing those who did them. I say all this not to pass judgment on others, for I do not know their souls then or now. I say all this as one who was part of the so-called Christian leadership of the time. So you see, that is why I am not going to the day of judgment looking for justice in this matter. Mercy is my salvation. McCarthy: You said the atomic bombing of Nagasaki happened to a church that “had asked for it.”
What do you mean by that? Zabelka: For the first three centuries, the three centuries closest to Christ, the church was a pacifist church. With Constantine the church accepted the pagan Roman ethic of a just war and slowly began to involve its membership in mass slaughter, first for the state and later for the faith. Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants, whatever other differences they may have had on theological esoterica, all agreed that Jesus’ clear and unambiguous teaching on the rejection of violence and on love of enemies was not to be taken seriously. And so each of the major branches of Christianity by different theological methods modified our Lord’s teaching in these matters until all three were able to do what Jesus rejected, that is, take an eye for an eye, slaughter, maim, torture. It seems a “sign” to me that 1,700 years of Christian terror and slaughter should arrive at Aug. 9, 1945, when Catholics dropped the A-bomb on top of the largest and first Catholic city in Japan. One would have thought that I, as a Catholic priest, would have spoken out against the atomic bombing of nuns. (Three orders of Catholic sisters were destroyed in Nagasaki that day.) One would have thought that I would have suggested that as a minimal standard of Catholic morality, Catholics shouldn’t bomb Catholic children. I didn’t. I, like the Catholic pilot of the Nagasaki plane, “The Great Artiste,” was heir to a Christianity that had for 1,700 years engaged in revenge, murder, torture, the pursuit of power, and prerogative violence, all in the name of Our Lord. I walked through the ruins of Nagasaki right after the war and visited the place where once stood the Urakami Cathedral. I picked up a piece of a censer from the rubble. When I look at it today I pray God forgives us for how we have distorted Christ’s teaching and destroyed his world by the distortion of that teaching. I was the Catholic chaplain who was there when this grotesque process that began with Constantine reached its lowest point — so far. McCarthy: What do you mean by “so far?” Zabelka: Briefly, what I mean is that I do not see that the moral climate in relation to war inside or outside the church has dramatically changed much since 1945. The mainline Christian churches still teach something that Christ never taught or even hinted at, namely the just war theory, a theory that to me
Other reactions were found. In view of their experiences, it is not remarkable that some of the survivors (nearly one-fifth) hated the Americans for using the bomb or expressed their anger in such terms as “cruel”, “inhuman”, and “barbarous”. “.. they really despise the Americans for it, the people all say that if there are such things as ghosts, why don’t they haunt the Americans?” “When I saw the injured and killed, I felt bitter against the enemy.” “After the atomic bomb exploded, I felt that now I must go to work in a munitions plant... My sons told me that they wouldn’t forget the atomic bomb even when they grow up.”
A Hiroshima victim’s watch, stuck at blast time.
(CNS PHOTO/KIM KYUNG-HOON, REUTERS)
12
A woman prays after releasing a paper lantern on a river facing the gutted Atomic Bomb Dome Aug. 6, the 66th anniversary of the world’s first atomic bombing. Hiroshima and Nagasaki have become shrines to the ideal of world peace, with commemorations yearly on the anniversaries of the bombings that killed 200,000 people, mostly civilians, in the two cities. “This is the paradox of Nagasaki and Hiroshima: People have turned the agonizing pain of the events of 1945 into a vibrant mission for peace,” Stephen M. Colecchi, director of the Office of International Justice and Peace of the U.S. Conference of Catholic bishops, wrote in a Aug. 1, 2011, article in America magazine. has been completely discredited theologically, historically, and psychologically. So as I see it, until the various churches within Christianity repent and begin to proclaim by word and deed what Jesus proclaimed in relation to violence and enemies, there is no hope for anything other than ever-escalating violence and destruction. Until membership in the church means that a Christian chooses not to engage in violence for any reason and instead chooses to love, pray for, help, and forgive all enemies; until membership in the church means that Christians may not be members of any military — American, Polish, Russian, English, Irish, et al; until membership in the church means that the Christian cannot pay taxes for others to kill others; and until the church says these things in a fashion which the simplest soul could understand—until that time humanity can only look forward to more dark nights of slaughter on a scale unknown in history. Unless the church unswervingly and unambiguously teaches what Jesus teaches on this matter it will not be the divine leaven in the human dough that it was meant to be. “The choice is between nonviolence or nonexistence,” as Martin Luther King, Jr. said, and he was not, and I am not, speaking figuratively. It is about time for the church and its leadership in
Excerpts from the “U. S. Strategic Bombing Survey: The Effects of the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” June 19, 1946. President’s Secretary’s File, Truman Papers. www.trumanlibrary.org.
all denominations to get down on its knees and repent of this misrepresentation of Christ’s words. Communion with Christ cannot be established on disobedience to his clearest teachings. Jesus authorized none of his followers to substitute violence for love; not me, not you, not Jimmy Carter, not the pope, not a Vatican council, nor even an ecumenical council. McCarthy: Father Zabelka, what kinds of immediate steps do you think the church should take in order to become the “divine leaven in the human dough?” Zabelka: Step one should be that Christians the world over should be taught that Christ’s teaching to love their enemies is not optional. I’ve been in many parishes in my life, and I have found none where the congregation explicitly is called upon regularly to pray for its enemies. I think this is essential. I offer you step two at the risk of being considered hopelessly out of touch with reality. I would like to suggest that there is an immediate need to call an ecumenical council for the specific purpose of clearly declaring that war is totally incompatible with Jesus’ teaching and that Christians cannot and will not engage in or pay for it from this point in history on. This would have the effect of putting all nations on this planet on notice that from now on they are going to have to conduct their mutual slaughter without Christian support— physical, financial, or spiritual. I am sure there are other issues which Catholics or Orthodox or Protestants would like to confront in an ecumenical council instead of the facing up to the hard teachings of Christ in relationship to violence and enemies. But it seems to me that
issues like the meaning of the primacy of Peter are nowhere near as pressing or as destructive of church credibility and God’s world as is the problem of continued Christian participation in and justification of violence and slaughter. I think the church’s continued failure to speak clearly Jesus’ teachings is daily undermining its credibility and authority in all other areas. McCarthy: Do you think there is the slightest chance that the various branches of Christianity would come together in an ecumenical council for the purpose of declaring war and violence totally unacceptable activities for Christians under all circumstances? Zabelka: Remember, I prefaced my suggestion of an ecumenical council by saying that I risked being considered hopelessly out of touch with reality. On the other hand, what is impossible for men and women is quite possible for God if people will only use their freedom to cooperate a little. Who knows what could happen if the pope, the patriarch of Constantinople, and the president of the World Council of Churches called with one voice for such a council? One thing I am sure of is that Our Lord would be very happy if his church were again unequivocally teaching what he unequivocally taught on the subject of violence. Reprinted with permission from Sojourners, (800) 714-7474, www.sojo.net Editor’s note: “Blessing the Bombs,” a speech Father Zabelka gave on the 40th anniversary of the atomic bombings, can be viewed at http://www.lewrockwell.com/ orig6/zabelka1.html. Father Zabelka died in 1992.
14
Catholic San Francisco
August 12, 2011
The new ‘Americanism’ In “Testem Benevolentiae,” an apostolic letter sent to Baltimore’s Cardinal James Gibbons in 1899, Pope Leo XIII worried over some liberal tendencies of the Catholic Church in the United States that he called “the errors of Americanism.” One wonders these days if a modern, conservative variant of Americanism is infecting the church. Rep. Paul Ryan’s recent take on Catholic social teaching seems to endorse the tradition but then deploys it as cover for a budget-balancing act that threatens to harm the nation’s most vulnerable. A number of Catholics, Mr. Ryan among them, find much to admire about the objectivism peddled by the late Ayn Rand, whose “rational egoism” liberates the individual from obligations to others. Worst of all has been a noticeable coarsening of attitudes among some Catholics toward those who have come to rely on government aid to sustain themselves in these difficult times. This emerging resentment forgets that the nation’s modest social services are directed primarily at supporting children, the elderly, the disabled and those hurt by the recent recession. It is not surprising that the most powerful currents of a cultural mainstream should influence the course of its tributaries. In 1997 then Archbishop Francis George remarked that Guest Editorial U.S. citizens “are culturally Calvinist, even those who profess the Catholic faith.” Over time many U.S. Catholics have internalized some unacceptable American conceits, like the primacy of the individual and the free market and the inherent inefficiency of government. They have come to view with suspicion mediating structures, like unions and advocacy groups, that challenge America’s understanding of itself or its role in the world.
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Some Catholics make an idol out of ideology or a fierce faith out of nationalism, elevating personal responsibility while diminishing communal obligations. Their “Americanism” pretends that personal charity can adequately replace the need for social justice and distorts the meaning of subsidiarity into nearly unrecognizable form. Unlike his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI has not directly addressed this modern mutation of Americanism, but he has called for better education among laypeople about church social doctrine and reminded them that it is their responsibility to bring the church’s social justice concerns into civic discourse. Counter to mainstream American culture, the church teaches that a society should be judged by how well it addresses the needs of its poor and vulnerable members. It demands a preferential option for the poor, not the Pentagon, when moral documents like the federal budget are prepared, a point frequently noted by the U.S. bishops. The church does not accept the peculiar American premise that the poor are generally better off left to their own devices, lest their dignity be degraded by paternalism — a high-sounding slogan that can be used to abdicate collective responsibility. When Rep. Ryan began a well-publicized correspondence with Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York, the two men lightly sparred over the modern role of Catholic social teaching. Mr. Ryan equated the Catholic concept of subsidiarity with the American tradition of federalism and used it to add a gloss of Catholic authenticity to his budget plan; Archbishop Dolan gently reminded him that solidarity remains another significant component of the Catholic tradition. It is one that persists regardless of the vicissitudes of the annual federal deficit or newfound political urgency to address the national debt.
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Here is where Catholics can make their contribution to the current dialogue. Congressman Ryan’s concerns about a smothering national debt and an intrusive government are legitimate, but they cannot be allowed to produce near-term outcomes that in practice mean the abandonment of the vulnerable through deep cuts in food aid, health care and support for the unemployed. As the nation attempts to balance the immediate needs of the least among us against the long-term demands of debt reduction, Catholics can bring their unique perspective to the table. Perhaps instead of surrendering to the new Americanism, they might “Americanize” the Catholic concept of the common good, helping to define how a just society with limited resources best sets spending priorities and seeks equitable sources of revenue. Certainly then the legitimate needs of the most vulnerable would not be sacrificed to protect the structural privileges of those who have enjoyed the greatest economic rewards in recent years. Certainly war-making would not be privileged over the basic needs of a sustainable civil society. Catholics in America should value their faith’s contribution to the larger culture, not surrender its uniqueness as an impediment to a deeper and more personally fruitful assimilation. Unlike Ms. Rand, American Catholics cannot make a virtue of selfishness. Our path proceeds not from the gospel of prosperity, but the Gospel of Matthew. This editorial by the editors of America magazine appeared in the publication’s Aug. 1, 2011, issue. Reprinted with permission of America Press, Inc., 2011. All rights reserved. For subscription information, call (800) 627-9533 or visit www. americamagazine.org.
St. Rita Guatemala project models Christian witness Thank you for George Raine’s article (July 15) about St. Rita Parish’s Guatemala mission project. The article accurately stated the many activities involved in the project. The photographs within the article truly reflect the faces of the happy children who are fortunate enough to attend the project’s elementary and high schools in El Sitio. I have been a parishioner of St. Rita for 46 years. I have long been engaged in all of this parish’s social outreach programs: the Guatemala mission project, our St. Vincent de Paul program, Helping Hands, and the Winter Shelter Program for homeless women. I am genuinely honored to be a part of St. Rita’s outreach to the poor. We, at St. Rita, are truly fortunate to have the quality and quantity of leadership in our parish, especially that of our gifted pastor, Father Ken Weare, and our generous parishioner Bill Cuneo who started the Guatemala mission project more than 10 years ago. It really is amazing that our Guatemala mission has been sustained for 10 years. It is not inexpensive to ship our containers a couple times a year with goods and materials. While the goods and supplies are mostly donated, the shipping is costly. I traveled to Guatemala with St. Rita’s annual delegation a few years ago. I was not prepared for all I witnessed. My visit occurred shortly after the village near Santiago Atitlan was destroyed by mudslides resulting from heavy rains after Hurricane Stan + Hundreds were caught up in that major disaster and perished. Viewing the area where those who perished were buried and imagining the horror they faced was almost too much for me. Thereafter we visited an area where the survivors were living. It was makeshift “housing” at its very worst. Those poor folks used whatever they could salvage for shelter — plastic sheeting, corrugated tin, fabric, etc. They had very little food and inadequate utensils or fuel for cooking. The children were so pathetic — begging, and, with no shoes or adequate clothing. I actually saw an adult wearing just one shoe. Of course, the bright spot was visiting the elementary school and seeing the healthy looking children who were smiling and so engaging. Additionally, seeing for myself the other successful projects of the mission coming to fruition — the school, church, convent and carpentry shop, were eye-openers. There are other missions in Guatemala that also are doing good work, but St. Rita’s Guatemala mission project is the one I know and support. Again, thank you for printing George Raine’s fine article; and, thank you Father Ken Weare and Mr. Bill Cuneo, and all of St. Rita’s parishioners who help fund and support this necessary work for those who are in dire circumstances. Dolores Stoll Fairfax
The San Francisco Bay Area has a truly fantastic and unique Catholic church community and we should all continue to be stronger and help even more of those in need as well as help keep their spirits high as we all try to continue to struggle through these tough financial and economic problems. May God bless you for all your wonderful help. Francisco Anton Redwood City
Vaccination policy intrudes on family Re: Human papillomavirus inoculations for male and female children proposed by government (“Bishops urge faithful to oppose bill blocking parental rights on vaccine,” July 15). One can only wonder about the underlying agenda of government considering what appears to be a progressive destruction of moral behavior and interference in family matters. For example, the emphasis on very early sex education in schools. During my adolescence, this information was not given until 12th grade. We benefitted by receiving this instruction at a time when we could fully understand the ramifications of sexual activity. Additionally, a pregnant teen has the right to an abortion without parental consent without consideration of the fact that this pregnant child hasn’t the maturity to make such a major, life-altering decision. Now we have the proposed inoculation again HPV. To what end? There is no long-term significance of the virus as it goes away usually within a year’s time. The medical field knows that it would take 15 to 20 years of continual infection to create a cancerous condition. What no one has asked is whether this inoculation will cause sterilization in the long run. Perhaps we are coming to the crossroad of what Jesus said to the weeping women at Calvary: “Weep for yourselves for your wombs will be barren.” Julia Abenilla San Carlos
L E T T E R S
Help the poor survive in these troubled times One thing that I have learned as a longtime member of the Catholic Church is that we help anyone and everyone when needed, there is no better proof than seeing many disadvantaged people getting the help and aid they need to just survive in these troubled times. As we as a community and as a state in severe economic trouble or crisis, I for one am very happy and glad to see that the entire Catholic community and the many churchgoing members going out of their way to help their fellow neighbor with food, clothing, shelter, and any other services that many poor and struggling people just cannot afford. Many wonderful groups and organizations like St. Vincent de Paul and the St. Francis Center help people with both food and clothing especially for women and children. If not for these kinds of organizations and the members that really care, there would be many people starving, unclothed and possibly homeless.
Reads paper cover-to-cover I really enjoy reading Catholic San Francisco when it arrives. Cover to cover, it’s top-notch. This newspaper connects me to my entire North and South Bay Catholic community. I especially appreciate the prison ministry article on Deacon Larry Chatmon from St. Paul of the Shipwreck Parish (Feb. 23, 2011). That parish and that community are full of the Holy Spirit, friendly and welcoming and a pleasure to enjoy at all of their functions. The gospel Mass is joyful. The scholarly articles and “On the Street” are great. Keep up the good word and the good work. Jeanne Munich San Bruno
A reader proposes changes Could Catholic San Francisco have a separate classified ads page? It does not look good with Father Ron Rolheiser’s “Spirituality for Life” on July 15. Never mind the critics, Mr. George Weigel: CSF is honored to have your regular column. You have a keen perception of a true Catholic and you would be the great historian of the rise and fall of American democracy. Could you have a column for Billy Graham? I purposely send this letter with a forwarded message prayer. It could be parallel with George Weigel’s column. Rose M. Jardin San Bruno Editor’s note: The paper regularly features a classifieds page, which ran on Page 23 of the July 15 issue. Father Rolheiser’s column is regularly placed along the top of a separate page of display ads – the first available space following the opinion pages. LETTERS, page 15
Postcard from Pech River Valley
The city of San Mateo’s Adopted Sons of Alpha Company, 1/327 Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, recently returned from a 12-month tour of duty in Afghanistan, San Mateo City Clerk Norma Gomez said in an email to Catholic San Francisco. The city’s appeal for messages and care packages for the deployed troops was featured in the paper Nov. 13, 2010 (“Christmas in Afghanistan”).“I am attaching a photo of our unit and a letter from the company commander expressing appreciation for the support received,” Gomez said. “I know your article was read by so many throughout the Bay Area and resulted in an overwhelming show of support from many.” Unit commander Capt. John B. Walsh said in his May 21 letter that the troops “were always deeply touched that a group of people who they never met would reach out and provide such far-reaching support. The letters, supplies and treats (especially the Gimbal’s jelly beans) showed the men that while we were on a small, isolated outpost in the Pech River Valley, we weren’t alone.”
August 12, 2011
Catholic San Francisco
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Guest Commentary
Food is a fundamental right A political cartoon on the op-ed page of the San Francisco Chronicle for July 8, 2011, shows an agribusiness executive in front of a graph depicting a steep rise in the price of grain in the last few years. The executive is putting his spin on it: “We can put the grain in smaller packages, mix in other additives and still make a hefty profit!” At a table nearby a starkly skinny young man is gazing dejectedly at an empty bowl. The cartoon caused me to reflect on Pope Benedict XVI’s incisive remarks July 1, 2011, at the session of the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization. He said: “How can we be silent about the fact that even food has become an object of speculation or is linked to changes in the financial market that, deprived of certain laws and poor in moral principles, seems anchored only in the goal of profit?” In Catholic Social Teaching, food (minimal nutrition, as well as food security) is a fundamental right, tied to human dignity. The pope had articulated as much in his groundbreaking 2009 social encyclical, “Caritas in Veritate” (Charity in Truth), which dealt with the principles of a holistic economic development. Benedict reiterated this point to those at the United Nations: “Food is a condition that concerns the fundamental right to life. To guarantee it means also to act directly and without delay on the factors that, in the agricultural sector, weigh negatively on the capacity to produce, the mechanisms of distribution and the international market. And this, when global food production — according to FAO and authoritative experts — is capable of feeding the world population.” Food security involves allowing all people, at all times, to have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs for an active and healthy life. Around the world 852 million people are chronically
hungry. Two billion people lack food security intermittently. Six million children die of hunger every year. In the last few years, export restrictions and panic buying; U.S. dollar depreciation; increased farming for use in biofuels; world oil prices at more than $100 a barrel; global population growth; climate change (with droughts), loss of agricultural land to residential and industrial development and growing consumer demand in China and India have dramatically pushed up the price of grain. It has become more and more difficult to maintain food security in a world beset by a concatenation of ‘peak’ phenomena: peak oil, peak water, peak fish. Chronic nutritional deficiencies lead to bodily stunting, higher infant and child mortality, defects in child cognitive development. Approximately 40 percent of the world’s agricultural land has been seriously degraded. One study suggests that, if current trends in soil degradation continue, Africa might be able to feed just 25 percent of its population by 2025. Water deficits are spurring heavy grain imports in many smaller countries. Water tables are falling in Northern China, India and parts of the U.S. because of widespread overpumping. Water scarcity likely will lead to cutbacks in grain harvests. In his address to the FAO, the pope urged that “initiatives must be made to rediscover the value of the rural family enterprise and to support its central function to attain stable food security.” Demographic studies show that three-quarters of the world’s poor live in rural areas and make their living from agriculture. Thus, improvements in agricultural productivity aimed at small scale farmers will benefit the rural poor first. In “Caritas in Veritate,” Benedict closely linked human ecology to the natural environment. He picked up that theme in his address to the FAO: “The objective of food security is a
genuinely human need. To guarantee it to the present generations and to those that follow also means to preserve natural resources from frenetic exploitation because the race of consumption and waste seems Father John A. to ignore all consideration of the genetic patrimony Coleman, SJ and of biological diversities, so important for agricultural activities.” Again, scientific data backs the pope’s assertion. The variety of types of corn, rice, and wheat are considerably less than 100 years ago. This makes grain subject to stem rot or other blights. The pope also noted that “assistance and concrete aid is often limited to emergencies.” Yet even some of the humanitarian food aid from the U.S. is now in jeopardy due to current attempts to slash U.S. foreign aid to balance the budget. President Bill Clinton, at a U.N. gathering in 2008, noted that the global food crisis shows “we all blew it, including me” by treating food crops “like color TVs” instead of as a vital commodity for the world’s poor. “Food,” he said, as Benedict does, “is not a commodity like others. We should go back to a policy of maximum food sufficiency. It is crazy to think we can develop countries without increasing their ability to feed themselves.” The writer is associate pastor 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.
Making Sense Out of Bioethics
‘Gay genes,’ sex and the call to chastity People often surmise that same-sex attraction is inborn, and that homosexuals are “naturally gay” or “born that way.” They suppose that if God made them that way then it must not be a sin to act on their sexual desires. The possibility of a “gay gene” is sometimes offered as a further defense, suggesting that the condition, and its associated behavior, are inevitable and inescapable. One commentator summarized it this way: “Asking someone to stop being homosexual would therefore be equivalent to asking an Asian person to stop being Asian or a left-handed person to stop being left-handed.” Even if a hypothetical “gay gene” were ever found, all it would likely determine, similar to most genes governing behavior, would be a genetic predisposition toward a particular sexual preference. This would be something very different from the genetic determinism or “hard-wiring” of, say, eye color or blood type. Multiple twin studies have already demonstrated that only about a third of the identical twins of those with same-sex attractions also experience same-sex attractions; whereas if sexual attractions were determined strictly by genes, those with identical genes would be expected to have identical attractions. Even if we have genes that predispose us toward certain behaviors, we still have a space of freedom within ourselves, and do not have to engage in those behaviors. Our genes may impel us strongly in certain behavioral directions, but they can’t compel us. This reminds us of one of the fundamental truths about our human nature - namely, that we are not creatures of sexual necessity. We are not compelled to act on our inclinations and urges, but are always free to act otherwise, even directly against the grain of those inclinations. In fact, to be truly free as a human means to have the strength to act against ourselves, so that we do not live in bondage to our own inner impulses and drives, a
key consideration that distinguishes us from the animals. Human freedom involves the mastery of those drives by redirecting them and ordering them to higher goals. So while we cannot in any way be held responsible for inborn inclinations, we certainly can be held responsible for how we choose to act in the face of those inclinations. Sherif Gergis summarizes this idea in a recent article: “We do not pretend to know the genesis of same sex attraction, but we consider it ultimately irrelevant to this debate. On this point, we agree with same-sex marriage advocate Professor John Corvino: ‘The fact is that there are plenty of genetically influenced traits that are nevertheless undesirable. Alcoholism may have a genetic basis, but it doesn’t follow that alcoholics ought to drink excessively. Some people may have a genetic predisposition to violence, but they have no more right to attack their neighbors than anyone else. Persons with such tendencies cannot say ‘God made me this way’ as an excuse for acting on their dispositions.’” Even though God did make each of us in a certain way, it is clear there are other factors that have influence over our personal constitution and inclinations as well, including actual sin and original sin. It is not difficult for us to see, through the turmoil of our own disordered inclinations, how our human condition, our general biology, our psychological depths, and even our DNA, seem to be subject to a fundamental fallenness. It would not be unexpected or surprising, then, if we eventually discovered predisposing factors (genes, hormones, developmental cues, etc.) that give rise to heterosexual or homosexual inclinations. What is of real moral relevance to the discussion, however, is the universal call to chastity, irrespective of genes and hormones. Chastity refers to the successful integration of sexuality
within the person, and all men and women are called to live chastely in keeping with their particular states of life. Some will do so by professing a life of consecrated virginity or conseFather Tad crated celibacy. Married people will Pacholczyk do so by living conjugal chastity, in the exclusive and lifelong gift of husband and wife to each other, avoiding the unchastity of contraceptive sex, and sharing the marital embrace in openness to new life. Professor Robert George speaks of “marriage as a union that takes its distinctive character from being founded, unlike other friendships, on bodily unity of the kind that sometimes generates new life.” Those who are single will practice chastity in continence, steering away from fornication, masturbation and pornographic pursuits. Those who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex are similarly called to chastity in continence. By refraining from sexual activity with members of the same sex, and engaging in an apprenticeship of self-mastery, they come to acquire, like all who pursue lives of chastity, an abiding inner freedom and peace.
letters . .
service, the military, business, industry, health, or other areas of achievement? How so if the achiever has passed into history with little record of sexual or other identify? It’s said local school boards must sort out the answers. Good luck. Curious also is why the law categorizes LGBTs and the disabled as cultural groups. Culture is acquired. Sexuality is not. Disabilities may be congenital or from later occurrence. For me, it’s hard to think of Stephen Hawking and Itzhak Perlman as sharing cultural identity. James W. Kelly San Bruno
obey their parents, attend school and participate within the norms of American society. As they graduate high school they are more citizens of America than of their country of origin. They are our children’s or grandchildren’s school mates and quite possibly sitting in the pew near us at Mass on Sunday. It is unconscionable that we would allow these young people to feel they belong, only to marginalize them once they graduate high school. The political origins of the DREAM Act were strictly bipartisan, as they should have been and as should all policies be that pertain to the fundamental dignity of the human person. We have so many things to disagree about, this should be one area where right and left and north and south converge into that place we call common ground. I for one hope and pray that the DREAM Act will soon become law. Jeff Bialik Executive Director Catholic Charities CYO San Francisco
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History teaching recast So, our public schools, when teaching history, now must incorporate “the important contributions of Americans from all backgrounds and walks of life,” as Gov. Jerry Brown said in signing new legislation into law (“History texts must show gays’ role, new California law mandates,” July 29). “All,” the law specifies, includes lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and disabled Americans along with those of other ethnic and cultural groups. As for practical examples of what ought to be taught, I find media reports — CSF’s among them — oddly minus specifics. Will the law be fulfilled if history texts and teaching embrace the leaders and events involved in the emergence and acceptance of LGBTs and the disabled as contributors to the American weal? Or does it mean specifying the sexual orientation and/or disability (if any) of those who leave lasting marks in science, the arts, public
DREAM Act needed Thank you for George Raine’s excellent article, “Congress takes up DREAM Act yet again as opponents fear ‘another mass amnesty’” (July 29). I agree wholeheartedly with the quote by George Wesolek that these young people have done all the right things. They came to this country as children and have done nothing other than to
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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Catholic San Francisco
A READING FROM THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH IS 56:1, 6-7 Thus says the Lord: Observe what is right, do what is just; for my salvation is about to come, my justice, about to be revealed. The foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, ministering to him, loving the name of the Lord, and becoming his servants — all who keep the sabbath free from profanation and hold to my covenant, them I will bring to my holy mountain and make joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. RESPONSORIAL PSALM PS 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8 R. O God, let all the nations praise you! May God have pity on us and bless us; may he let his face shine upon us. So may your way be known upon earth; among all nations, your salvation. R. O God, let all the nations praise you! May the nations be glad and exult
If you were to ask any child well-versed in Harry Potter lore about the different types of people in the Harry Potter novels, few would disappoint you. Everyone familiar with the tales of the boy wizard knows the distinctions that are made between Wizards (people with magical ability) and Muggles (non-magic folk). A few may even tell you about Squibs (non-magic people of wizard parents) and Mudbloods (wizards with one or both parents who are Muggles). One of the great distinctions between good and evil wizards is their attitude toward those who are different from them. Harry and his friends show great compassion for non-magical people; no doubt based upon their upbringing. Indeed, Hogwarts School, under the headmastership of Professor Albus Dumbledore encourages this compassion, reflected in both the students who attend Hogwarts, as well as the faculty and staff employed. Dark wizards, however, show a great contempt for Muggles and a particular disdain for Mudbloods. Throughout the Holy Scriptures distinctions, run wide and attitudes strong between Jews and gentiles, those within the community/nation of God’s chosen people and those on the outside. Emotions are particularly strong toward Samaritans, and in several passages, toward Canaanites. Both Jesus and the apostles were not averse to playing upon these strong sentiments in order to challenge those who harbored them. St. Paul, in his Letter to the Romans, appears to relish his role as apostle to the gentiles because, if for no other reason, he hopes to incite jealousy in his own people, the Jews, hoping to goad even a few of them
August 12, 2011
Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time Isaiah 56:1, 6-7 Psalm 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8; Romans 11:13-15, 29-32; Matthew 15:21-28 because you rule the peoples in equity; the nations on the earth you guide. R. O God, let all the nations praise you! May the peoples praise you, O God; may all the peoples praise you! May God bless us, and may all the ends of the earth fear him! R. O God, let all the nations praise you! A READING FROM THE LETTER OF PAUL TO THE ROMANS ROM 11:13-15, 29-32
Brothers and sisters: I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I glory in my ministry in order to make my race jealous and thus save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable. Just as you once disobeyed God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now disobeyed in order that, by virtue of the mercy shown to you, they too may
Scripture reflection FATHER WILLIAM NICHOLAS
Muggles and gentiles into embracing the Good News of Jesus. As the Jews had an enduring tradition of being God’s Chosen People, Paul’s ploy would be rather daring, turning his back on his own people to preach to the gentiles, bringing the gentiles to faith, and engaging in reverse psychology in order to draw in the Jews as well. In this way, they will become united to those gentiles who believe, and therefore engage in a reconciliation in which there are no distinctions. In one incident, Jesus, himself, appears to possess the common Jewish prejudices toward non-Jewish people: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. … It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” In the end, however, what would appear to be a rather shocking comment from the Son of God, develops into a compliment in which the Gentile woman his esteemed for her faith.
Time and time again Jesus plays upon the perceived superiority of his own people, only to lift of those who would otherwise be looked down upon: The Canaanite Woman, the Centurion, Samaritans and sinners. Even many of his parables, particularly in Matthew speak of the latecomers receiving the same wage, or the vineyard being taken away from those originally entrusted with it and given to those who will bear fruit. In addition to asserting that even gentiles are called to the salvation of the kingdom, one can imagine the reaction among Jews was indignation to varying degrees at Jesus uplifting inclusiveness of those “other” people who were not of the Jewish heritage. Like Paul, his goal may have been, in part, to evoke jealousy in those with an elite sense of superiority in order to draw at least some of them to greater compassion, inclusivity and a greater embracing of the Gospel that calls all to conversion and salvation.
now receive mercy. For God delivered all to disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all. A READING FROM THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW MT 15:21-28 At that time, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out, “Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is tormented by a demon.” But Jesus did not say a word in answer to her. Jesus’ disciples came and asked him, “Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us.” He said in reply, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But the woman came and did Jesus homage, saying, “Lord, help me.” He said in reply, “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.” Then Jesus said to her in reply, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And the woman’s daughter was healed from that hour.
Jesus continues to play upon our own sense of elitism, exclusivity or entitlement. How often in our community of faith, particularly our parishes, do we see similar, and equally snobbish, distinctions between peoples, insinuating a superiority of one over another? Distinctions range from this group toward that group, elderly toward youth, clergy toward laity, long-time parishioners toward newcomers, wealthy toward other social classes, “traditional” toward “liberal,” vice versa to all of the above, and others besides. How might Jesus and St. Paul surprise all of us by how he responds to those we might otherwise consider “lesser” parishioners, “lesser” Christians, or even “lesser” people? How might he make us jealous of his love and compassion toward people, over and above our own sense of entitlement? How does Jesus call all of us to a state of mind in which there is no contempt, but rather greater compassion toward those otherwise considered “outsiders?” Let us recognize where the Good News of Jesus may make us jealous, and even a bit resentful, and then rejoice in the grace of God that draws all of us toward a deeper conversion of life, and toward an outlook that more and more reflects the kingdom, proclaimed by Christ and preached by St. Paul, in which there are no distinctions of better or worse, entitled or deprived, greater or lesser between the people within it, but rather a compassionate invitation to rejoice in it for all people of faith. Father William Nicholas is parochial vicar of Mission Dolores Parish in San Francisco. Visit his website at www.frwcnicholas.com.
Guest Commentary
Entertaining angels In looking through my Bible, I was particularly struck by the passage that reminds us, “And hospitality do not forget; for by this some being not aware of it, have entertained angels.” The passage reminded me of my arrival at a recent dinner party given by my friend, Grace, who flung her door wide and said, “Welcome to my home!” The warmth and care in her words of greeting seemed to sing, and throughout the evening the melody lingered on. In the warm aura of welcoming acceptance emanating from the hostess to her guests, I was not the only one who basked in the grandeur of being treated like someone sincerely valued. I don’t know if there were any angels in our midst, but she made us feel heavenly all the same. Be they kings or peasants, I have discovered that this gracious friend extends the same courtesy to any and all with whom she comes in contact. Thanks to her example, and the words of St. Paul, I have learned that hospitality is not merely opening your door to friends, but more importantly opening your heart to strangers as well. And in some respects, strangers can certainly be angels. Ordinarily, we reserve our giving of self to those we
know, respect and love. Sharing with them the warmth and comfort of our home is, indeed, hospitality in its most basic and agreeable form. Still, there are many others in need of more than our good food and camaraderie. They are usually the strangers we encounter during our journey through life; those nameless multitudes who wait on us in stores, serve us in restaurants, sit beside us in church and deliver the mail. Like everyone, the weight of the personal crosses of both friends and strangers is sometimes visible on their faces, or in their demeanor. Often as not, their gloom can be lightened considerably by an appreciative word or friendly smile; in some instances a wordless hug. This is the spiritual hospitality to which Christ referred, when he said: “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” For us, this hospitality is home baked, like bread on the table and wine for our guests. It is the handshake and the kiss, and the vocal, “welcome to my home,” or the silent, “welcome to my heart.” Still, our hospitality is so much more. As Henri Nouwen wrote in “Reaching Out,” “... after all, what is
hospitality if not but a friendly emptiness where strangers can enter and discover themselves as created free; free to sing their own song, speak their own By Jane Sears languages, dance their own dances; free also to leave and follow their own vocations. Hospitality is not a subtle invitation to adopt the lifestyle of the host, but the gift of a chance for the guest to find his own.” Taking those words to heart, we can rejoice in the extension of ourselves to others, sharing the Christlike gift of giving that has the twofold benefit of returning to reward us when Our Lord, in his majesty on that final day, will extend his appreciation to us. He will then fling the doors wide to let us enter into the hospitality of his heaven. Jane Sears is a member of Our Lady of Angels Parish in Burlingame.
August 12, 2011
Catholic San Francisco
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Spirituality for Life
Struggling to understand suicide Recently a friend attended the funeral of a man who had taken his own life. At the end of the service the deceased man’s brother spoke to the congregation. After highlighting his brother’s generosity and sensitivity and sharing some anecdotes that helped celebrate his life he went on to say something about the manner of his death. Here, in effect, are his words. When someone is stricken with cancer, one of three things can happen: Sometimes doctors can treat the disease and, in essence, cure it. Sometimes the medical professionals cannot cure the disease but can control it enough so that the person suffering from cancer can live with the disease for the rest of his or her life. Sometimes, however, the cancer is of a kind that cannot be treated. All the medicine and treatments in the world are powerless and the person dies. Certain kinds of emotional depression work the same way: Sometimes they can be treated so that, in effect, the person is cured. Sometimes they cannot ever really be cured, but they can be treated in such a way that the person can live with the disease for his or her whole life. And sometimes, just as with certain kinds of cancer, the disease is untreatable, unstoppable, no intervention by anyone or anything can halt its advance. Eventually it kills the person and there is nothing anyone can do. My brother’s depression was of that kind, the terminal kind. This can be helpful, I believe, for any of us who have suffered the loss of a loved one to suicide. All death unsettles us, but suicide leaves us with a very particular series of emotional, moral and religious scars. It brings with it an ache, a chaos, a darkness and a stigma that has to be experienced to be believed.
Suicide not only takes our loved ones away from us, it also takes away our true memory of them. The gift that they brought into our lives is now no longer celebrated. We never again speak with pride about their lives. Their pictures come off the wall, photos of them get buried deep inside drawers that we never open again, their names are less and less mentioned in conversation, and of the manner of their death we rarely speak. And there is no easy answer for how to reverse that, though a better understanding of suicide can be a start. Not all suicides are of the same kind. Some suicides come about because the person is too arrogant and too hard-of-heart to want to live in this world. But that, I submit, is the exception not the norm. Most suicides, certainly all the cases that I have known, come about for the opposite reason, namely, the person is too bruised and oversensitive to have the resiliency needed to continue to cope with life. In these cases, and that is the vast majority of suicides, the cause of death can pretty accurately be termed as cancer, emotional cancer. Just as with physical cancer, the person dying of suicide is taken out of this life against his or her will. Death by suicide is the emotional equivalent of cancer, a stroke or a heart attack. Thus, its patterns are the same as those of cancer, strokes, and heart attacks. Death can happen suddenly or it can be the end product of a long struggle that slowly wears a person down. Either way, it’s involuntary. As human beings we are neither pure angels nor pure animals, but are always both body and soul, one psychosomatic whole. And either part can break down. This can be helpful in understanding suicide, though a
better understanding will not necessarily mean that the darkness and stigma that surround it will simply go away. We will still feel many of the same things we felt before in the face of suicide: We will still feel Father Ron awful. We will still feel conflicted and be given over Rolheiser to guilt feelings and secondguessing. We will still feel uneasy about how this person died and will still feel a certain unease in talking about the manner of his or her death. We will still feel a certain hesitancy in celebrating that person’s life in the manner we would have had the death been by natural causes. We will still go to our own graves with a black hole in our hearts. The pain of a suicide leaves its own indelible mark on the soul. But at a different level of understanding something else will break through that will help us better deal with all those conflicted feelings, namely, empathy for and understanding of someone whose emotional immune system has broken down. And that understanding will also bring with it the concomitant consolation that God’s empathy and understanding far exceeds our own. Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser, theologian, teacher, and award-winning author, is president of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas.
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High noon: How the sun and moon guided prayer times and liturgy VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Hidden among the paving stones of St. Peter’s Square there is a simple clock and calendar. All you need is a sunny day. The 83-foot stone obelisk in the middle of the square acts as a sundial that can accurately indicate midday and the two solstices thanks to a granite meridian and marble markers embedded in the square. Pope Benedict XVI proudly pointed out the hidden timepiece during an Angelus address he gave on the winter solstice a few years ago. “The great obelisk casts its shadow in a line that runs along the paving stones toward the fountain beneath this window and in these days, the shadow is at its longest of the year,” he told pilgrims from the window of his library. In fact, at noon on Dec. 21, the obelisk’s shadow falls on the marble disk furthest from the obelisk’s base, while at noon on June 21 — the summer solstice — the tip of the shadow will fall just a few yards from the obelisk. In between are five other disks marking when the sun enters into which sign of the zodiac. A long, thin granite strip running from the obelisk toward the pope’s window and through one of the fountains acts as the meridian: a line that indicates when the sun has reached true or solar noon and is at its highest point in the sky. The pope, in his solstice soliloquy, reminded people that the church has always been keenly interested in astronomy to help guide and establish fundamental liturgical days and the times of prayer such as the Angelus, which is recited in the morning, at noon and in the evening. While sunrise and sunset are easy to figure out, sundials could accurately tell midday, he said. Even when early mechanical clocks were introduced, they were a luxury item for a few and not always accurate, so using the sun to mark true noon was an important backup. In the 18th century, Pope Clement XI decided to create an official reference point for telling time in Rome. He commissioned astronomer Francesco Bianchini to build a meridian inside Michelangelo’s Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels and Martyrs. The basilica’s elaborate meridian was meant to do much more than mark midday; it was built to make highly accurate celestial observations and solve complex astronomical problems, said a U.S. historian of science.
(CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING)
By Carol Glatz
Solar noon is marked as a shaft of light crosses the meridian at the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels and Martyrs near the Termini railway station in Rome Aug. 5. The meridian, commissioned by 18th-century Pope Clement XI, was built to make highly accurate celestial observations.
John Heilbron, emeritus professor of history at the University of California, Berkeley, told Catholic News Service that St. Mary of the Angels “could do things you couldn’t do with telescopes at the time” like find out precise information about the inclination of the Earth’s axis. Heilbron, who wrote “The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar Observatories,” said the basilica’s meridian was also used “to establish a very good value for the length of the year.” Pope Clement wanted to verify the accuracy of the Gregorian reform of the calendar and its calculation of Easter, which had still not been widely accepted among the Protestant churches at the time. The real problem for the church was “how to compute the moons which are essential for the determination of Easter,” said Jesuit Father Juan Casanovas, a solar astronomer and historian of astronomy. The Council of Nicea tackled the problem in 325 and interpreted the Mosaic rule by defining Easter to be observed on the Sunday that followed the first full moon after the vernal equinox on March 21.
However, there were still complicated tables involved in calculating Easter because the Julian calendar used at the time was no longer in sync with the seasons. The Gregorian reform got rid of 10 days to bring the vernal equinox back to the traditional date of March 21, Father Casanovas told CNS. However, the Orthodox Church did not accept the pope’s authority nor his calendar. Still today the Orthodox Church uses the Julian calendar for religious functions, resulting in the Eastern date for Easter usually falling later than the Western date though occasionally the dates coincide. While Pope Gregory XIII’s reform of the calendar in 1582 was not perfect, it is still easy, practical and almost universally accepted in civil society today, Father Casanovas said. Calendars will never be perfect because “a calendar deals with whole days, not fragments of hours, seconds and thousandths of a second so you have to be ready to add one day or remove a day from the calendar now and then,” he said. Having a leap year has been successful but “it’s not enough. There is still a little error and after centuries it accumulates,” he said. The calendar is expected to gain a day by the year 4500. There have been many proposals to get the world synced to one perpetual calendar, but perfection and accuracy would come at a price. For example, a seven-day week doesn’t work well mathematically, the astronomer said, because “if you divide the number of days in a year by seven, there is one day left and with a leap year there are two days left.” But no one wants to meddle with the seven-day week, he said. The Hebrew, Muslim and Gregorian calendars — even though they are radically different — are all based on a sevenday week as reflected in Genesis’ account of the number of days of creation. “It’s a sacred number,” he said. Heilbron said attempts to further reform the calendar by making it more rational are not only unsuccessful, some proposals have been downright “nuts.” The most extreme being the French revolutionary calendar, which had three 10-day weeks in a month, 100 minutes in an hour and 10 hours in a day, he said. “In calendrics, precision and perfection should not trump practicality,” he said. The imperfect marking of time “is just too deeply engrained in our social life,” he said.
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Famine. . . family, often walking with other families in large groups to dissuade attacks from wild animals and bandits. They arrived in Dadaab at the end of May. In addition to those fleeing to Kenya, an estimated 100,000 Somalis have fled to the Somali capital of Mogadishu over the past two months alone in search of food, water, shelter and other assistance, the U.N. Refugee Agency said Aug. 8. There were already over 370,000 internally displaced people in Mogadishu before this current wave of displacement, the agency said. As the world has watched, in recent weeks the three camps that make up the Dadaab refugee complex have swollen to barely manageable proportions. Originally designed for 90,000 refugees when it opened two decades ago, the complex today hosts upward of 390,000 refugees, plus at least 60,000 people who have fled Somalia but are not yet officially registered with camp managers. U.N. officials say 1,300 newcomers arrive every day. The rapid growth — and the dramatic media attention — has brought an influx of new agencies looking for ways to augment the work of the almost two dozen nongovernmental organizations already here. Among the newcomers is Catholic Relief Services, which sent an assessment team to Dadaab in July. CRS sponsors programs in other parts of Kenya but it doesn’t work in Dadaab. The agency’s executive vice president for overseas operations, Sean Callahan, said that while CRS is looking at ways to support the work of others, it’s unlikely to get directly involved. “We want to come here and assist, but we also recognize this is one of those intractable situations,” Callahan said. “If you get into the camps, you may never get out. Our priority is helping people become self-sustainable, and this doesn’t look like one of those situations. So we’re listening and trying to figure out how best we can contribute.” The need for assistance is clear, however. “Most people here seem to have no strategy to go back, so the Kenyan government is in tight bind. The international community has to step up and help them,” Callahan said. According to the camp manager, Anne Wangari, Dadaab’s
Africa relief: CRS help guide — Donate to by phone: Call 1 (800) 736-3467 from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern Time. — Donate by mail: Send check or money order to: Catholic Relief Services, Memo: East Africa Emergency Fund, P.O. Box 17090, Baltimore, MD 21203-7090 — Donate online: http://crs.org/kenya/droughtendangers-millions-in-east-africa/
(CNS PHOTO/PAUL JEFFREY)
■ Continued from cover
Roney Mohammed Ali, 24, a newly arrived Somali refugee, ties her baby on her back in the Dadaab refugee camp in northeastern Kenya July 21. She is one of tens of thousands of newly arrived Somalis who have swelled the population of what was already the world’s largest refugee camp.
long-term residents have helped fill the gaps that emerged with the new influx, despite cultural differences. “Refugees have been coming here since time immemorial, but the new refugees are different than the old refugees, who have been living under Kenyan law for 20 years. They know the usefulness of queuing and a bit of patience. But queuing and courtesy are foreign to the new arrivals, who want to go to the food distributions with a weapon,” said Wangari, a former Sister of Loretto who now works for the ACT Alliance, a network of Protestant aid agencies. “When the newcomers arrive hungry, the refugee community has gone out of its way to receive them and give them supplies, food and clothes,” she explained. “This has happened in all the camps. When the United Nations stopped giving biscuits, the old refugees went to the shops and bought biscuits. They let the new arrivals settle on their small plots. The sense of sharing among the Somalis, and among the Muslims, is great.” Callahan said he would prefer to respond at the source of the refugee flow, within Somalia, but security concerns make that impossible. “We’ve been in and out of Somalia over the years. We consult with Bishop (Giorgio) Bertin (apostolic administrator
of Mogadishu) on how we should act and what we should do, and through him we are funding some projects addressing hunger there. He has advised us to be very cautious about going into Somalia, and currently, given the U.S. position on it, we can’t,” he said. The U.S. government designates the Islamist group alShabaab, which controls a large portion of Somalia, to be a terrorist group, and thus prohibits U.S. organizations from working in areas it controls. CRS’ Callahan admitted that the idea of intervening in Somalia is “huge and complicated,” but must be addressed. “If people are ready to risk their lives and cross the border, at times with a dead baby on their back, we’re doing something wrong as an international community. We have to step up and start evaluating where we intervene as an international community in order to protect people’s rights to life and dignity,” he said. Working with church partners through the region’s bishop, CRS has been able to get some aid into the stricken areas of Somalia. For families unable to access aid in Somalia, survival means walking across a harsh desert to camps like the one in Dadaab, in a region of Kenya that is also suffering under drought conditions.
Pregnancy center ads. . .
islation and Herrera’s letter to First Resort, NARAL Pro-Choice California endorsed the legislation and noted that “NARAL ProChoice America has been supportive of similar local legislation in New York, Texas and Maryland cities.” First Resort was not provided a copy of Herrera’s letter or Cohen’s proposed legislation, First Resort said in a statement. “First Resort rejects in the strongest possible terms any representation that our advertising misleads women,” First Resort said. “We treat women with dignity and respect and respect their right to choose.” First Resort does not refer for abortion, First Resort Director of Communications Maria M. Martinez-Mont told Catholic San Francisco in an email. “We look forward to a robust discussion about the appropriateness of this legislation and urge them not to test the constitutional boundaries of free speech,” the First Resort statement said. First Resort invited Herrera and Cohen to tour the facility. Herrera said First Resort has paid for per-click Google ads that place First Resort as a top choice for searches such as “abortion provider.” First Resort’s website also includes a testimonial from a client who chose to terminate her pregnancy, Herrera said in his letter. In addition, First Resort “implies on its ‘Abortion Procedures’ page that First Resort performs pregnancy tests and ultrasounds as a prelude to offering abortion as an outpatient procedure, or referring clients to a provider who performs abortion,” according to Herrera’s letter. Herrera said the San Francisco legislation circumvents the constitutional issues of the Baltimore law, which required pregnancy centers to post signs in their waiting rooms stating they did not refer for abortion. “This is quite different. It does not dictate to anyone the type of warning or disclosure they have to put out in their waiting room. What this says is that it tries to prevent misleading advertising from being put out” with a complaint of misleading advertising to be decided by a judge, Herrera said. “No one should be deceived. Women deserve all the facts about abortion regardless of whether they come from pro-life pregnancy centers or pro-abortion facilities,” said Archdiocese of San Francisco Respect Life Coordinator Vicki Evans. But, she said, abortion providers have a profit motive when it comes to counseling pregnant clients and pregnancy resource centers offer their services for free. “Why do abortion clinics fight so hard against laws mandating public health regulation, parental notification, viewing ultrasounds, disclosures on fetal pain, and informed consent visà-vis health risks and the aftermath of abortion?” Evans asked. “Could it be they might be trying to deceive women just a little?”
■ Continued from page 3 Bilingual Staff Information and Referrals ● Care Coordination
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ing it to correct advertising and website language that he said implies it refers for abortion, and requested a reply by Aug. 31. At a City Hall news conference, he said his next step would be to file for an injunction. “The legislation we introduce today seeks to regulate and prevent crisis pregnancy centers from disseminating false and misleading advertising regarding the type and nature of service they are providing,” Cohen said. In a press release distributed along with copies of Cohen’s leg-
Gospel for August 14, 2011 Matthew 15:21-28 Following is a word search based on the Gospel th reading for the 20 Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A: the story of the persistent Canaanite mother. The words can be found in all directions in the puzzle. TYRE WOMAN BY A DEMON AFTER US HOUSE HELP ME THAT FALL
SIDON LORD ANSWER I WAS SENT ISRAEL FOOD TABLE
CANAANITE MY DAUGHTER SEND HER AWAY LOST SHEEP SAYING THE DOGS AS YOU WISH
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The BASIC Fund is a privately funded program dedicated to broadening the educational opportunities for children by helping low-income families afford the cost of tuition at private schools. SCHOLARSHIPS ARE FOR A MAXIMUM OF $1,600 ANNUALLY PER CHILD. For information and Application Please Call Bay Area Scholarships for Innercity Children 268 Bush Street, No. 2717 / San Francisco, CA 94104 Phone: 415-986-5650 / Fax: 415-986-5358 www.basicfund.org
August 12, 2011
Vallombrosa Center 250 Oak Grove Ave. in Menlo Park. Visit www. vallombrosa.org. Call (650) 325-5614 Sept. 25, 2 – 4 p.m.: “The Catholic Church in the World: Faith in the Arts” with San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer. Archbishop Niederauer will lead a discussion on Flannery O’Connor, contemporary American novelist and short story writer who died in 1964. Archbishop Niederauer said in a lecture at the University of San Francisco in 2007 that O’Connor “valued the church highly and observed it acutely, warts and all.” He noted that the writer died during the Second Vatican Council “while the bishops were writing anew what she had always known: that the church is the body of Christ, the people of God; that laypeople are its flesh and blood; and that the clergy and religious orders are its servant-leaders.” Suggested donation is $20 per person.
Retired Priests Oct. 21, 11:30 a.m.: “First Annual St. John Vianney Luncheon” honoring retired priests of the Archdiocese of San Francisco at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Gough Street and Geary Boulevard in San Francisco. Proceeds benefit Priests Retirement Fund. For information, call (415) 614-5580 or e-mail development@sfarchdiocese.org.
Respect Life Sept. 10, 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.: Archdiocesan Respect Life Conference & Public Policy Breakfast in St. Francis Hall at St. Mary’s Cathedral Event Center, Gough Street and Geary Boulevard in San Francisco. Msgr. James Tarantino, vicar for administration for the Archdiocese of San Francisco will lead an opening prayer. Attorney Wesley J. Smith is the keynote speaker offering thoughts on “What’s New in the World of Euthanasia?” Canonist, nurse and scholar Marie Hilliard of the National Catholic Bioethics Center speaks on “Today’s End of Life Issues: Choices and Dangers.” Attorney Dana Cody and Vicki Evans, respect life coordinator for ADSF, will facilitate a workshop addressing “Are All Medical Directives Created Equal?” Cost is $40 per person and includes breakfast. Contact Vicki Evans at evansv@sfarchdiocese.org or call (415) 614-5533. Saturdays, 9 a.m. – 10 a.m.: Rosary for Life at Planned Parenthood, 1650 Valencia St. near St. Luke’s Hospital in San Francisco.
Arts and Entertainment Aug. 14, 12:30 p.m.: “Organ Concert” by Father Paul Perry at St. Sebastian Church, Sir Francis Drake Boulevard at Bon Air Road in Greenbrae. Program includes music of Brahms, Bach and other composers. All are invited. Admission is free.
2011 Faith Formation Conference Nov. 18, 19: “Go! Glorify the Lord with your life!” Be among the more than 2,500 religious education professionals and Catholics looking to deepen their faith meeting for the annual “Faith Formation Conference” sponsored by the Archdiocese of San Francisco with the dioceses of San Jose, Oakland, Monterey and Stockton at Santa Clara Convention Center. Local experts and nationally known speakers will facilitate 84 workshops. More than 70 exhibits relevant to the day will be on display. Visit www.faithformationconference.com.
Catholic Charities CYO The social services arm of the Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Information: (415) 972-1200, www.cccyo.org, moreinfo@cccyo.org. August 22, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.: “Una Vía,” an evening to benefit refugees and immigrants and Catholic Charities CYO’s inaugural fundraising event for Refugee and Immigrants Services at the Cliff House, 1090 Point Lobos Ave. in San Francisco. The cocktail party will be highlighted by an exhibit of Jose Luis Aguirre’s photography titled “Faces of Latino Immigrants.” The
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exhibit shares the accomplishments of many local Latino immigrants, their stories and their visions for the future. Guests will also hear from keynote speaker, San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón, who will share his own immigrant journey. Proceeds from the event will fund free or low-cost quality legal immigration services through Catholic Charities CYO. General ticket prices start at $100, sponsorship opportunities are available. For more information or to respond by August 18, contact Ana Ayala (415) 972-1213 or aayala@cccyo.org. www.cccyo.org/unavia. September 16, 17, 18: “CYO Camp Alumni Weekend” - All generations of CYO Campers are invited to connect at this special alumni weekend. There will be opportunities to see the camp and experience camp activities such as swimming, archery, canoeing. There will also be opportunities for volunteer work projects throughout the weekend to improve camp facilities and to hear about how to get involved in various alumni efforts, such as membership, marketing and fundraising. Alumni and their families welcome. CYO Camp is a program of Catholic Charities CYO. Details and costs are listed at http://camp. cccyo.org/alumni.
Rosary Rallies October 15, noon: Family Rosary Crusade. The San Francisco Legion of Mary invites all Catholics to join us for the San Francisco Family Rosary Crusade 2011. The Family Rosary Crusade will be held 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. For more information, visit www. familyrosarycrusade2011.com.
The National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi and La Nuova Porziuncola Vallejo and Columbus in North Beach: The Porziuncola and “Francesco Rocks” Gift Shop – online at www.knightsofsaintfrancis. com - are open every day but Monday from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. The shrine church – online at www.shrinesf.org - 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. Rosary is prayed daily in Porziuncola at 4:30 p.m. Call (415) 986-4557.
Single, Divorced, Separated
Social Justice/Lectures Oct. 22, 9 a.m. – noon: “An Interrupted Life,” with Paulist Father Terry Ryan. Etty Hillesum and all of her family but brother, Jaab, were murdered at Auschwitz within months of each other in 1943 and 1944. Jabb also died in that timeframe but from illness and as a free man. Etty’s diaries, published in 1983 and again in a closer light just recently, have inspired many readers. Jesuit Father John Dear said the writings taught him, “not just how to cope, but how to grow, deepen, love and serve.” Father Terry Ryan says about Etty, “In silence and solitude she experienced self-forgetfulness, called `Spiritual Hygiene’ that makes space for God and love. Etty believed that a person could experience God in a direct and immediate fashion. She realized that she must love herself, with faults, before she can love others.” Talks take place at Old St. Mary’s Paulist Center, 660 California St. in San Francisco. Coffee and treats start the day. Workshop is free, but free will offerings are welcome. Call (415) 288-3845.
Reunion Mater Dolorosa Parish in South San Francisco celebrates its 50th year with events August 21, September 18, and October 1. Call (650) 583-4131. November 5: Holy Name School class of ‘64 will meet in the Flanagan Center. Contact Andi Laber Heintz at AHeintz@redpoint.com. Sept. 10: Immaculate Conception Academy, class of ’46, at Joe’s of Westlake. Call Bernice Johnston at (650) 574-8365. Sept. 14, noon: Class of ‘48/49 from St. Anthony Elementary School in San Francisco at Basque Cultural Center, 599 Railroad Ave. in South San Francisco. Contact Jean Ferlick Kniffin at (650) 3410282 or Elizabeth Caltani Cesca at (650) 588-5798. Sept. 17: Presentation High School, San Francisco class of 1951. Contact Audrey Sylvester Trees at (650) 592-0273 or e-mail audreytrees@sbcglobal.net. Sept. 24, 25: St. Timothy School Alumni Weekend Mass and Reception on the St. Timothy Parish campus, 1515 Dolan Ave., San Mateo. Visit www.sttimothyschool.org or call the school office at (650) 342-6567. Sept. 24: Mercy High School, San Francisco “Pioneer Class of 1956” celebrates. Contact Pat Hanley Davey at (650) 593-8768 or e-mail 3marypat@comcast.net.
210,000 FOR
ONLY
$112.00
OF
BUSINESS CARD SECTION NOW APPEARING
THIS NEW
SECTION IS CERTAINLY LESS EXPENSIVE THAN THE
$65,000
IT WOULD COST TO PRINT
AND MAIL YOUR BUSINESS CARDS TO ALL OUR READERS.
ONLY $96.00 *12-MONTH CONTRACT.
PER MONTH ON A
*FREE LISTING IN OUR BUSINESS DIRECTORY ON OUR WEBSITE*
AD HEADING NAME ADDRESS CITY ZIP
Consolation Ministry Grief support groups meet at the following parishes: San Mateo County: Good Shepherd, Pacifica; call Sister Carol Fleitz at (650) 355-2593. Our Lady of Mercy, Daly City; call parish at (650) 755-2727. Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Redwood City; call parish at (650) 366-3802. St. Bartholomew, San Mateo; call Barbara Syme (650) 343-6156. St. Peter, Pacifica; call parish at (650) 359-6313. St. Pius, Redwood City; call parish at (650) 361-0655. St. Robert, San Bruno; call Sister Patricia O’Sullivan at (650) 589-0104. Marin County: St. Anselm, San Anselmo; call Brenda MacLean at (415) 454-7650. St. Anthony, Novato; call parish (415) 883-2177. St. Hilary, Tiburon; call Helen Kelly at (415) 388-9651. Our Lady of Loretto, Novato; call Sister Jeanette at (415) 897-2171. San Francisco County: St. Gabriel; call Monica Williams at (650) 756-2060. St. Mary’s Cathedral; call Sister Esther McEgan at (415) 567-2020 ext. 218. Alma Via; contact Mercy Feeney at (650) 756-4500. Young Widow/Widower Group: St. Gregory, San Mateo; call Barbara Elordi at (415) 614-5506. Ministry to Grieving Parents: Our Lady of Angels, Burlingame; call Ina Potter at (650) 3476971 or Barbara Arena at (650) 344-3579.
Datebook is a free listing for parishes, schools and non-profit groups. Please include event name, time, date, place, address and an information phone number. Listing must reach Catholic San Francisco at least two weeks before the Friday publication date desired. Mail your notice to: Datebook, Catholic San Francisco, One Peter Yorke Way, S.F. 94109, or fax it to (415) 614-5633, e-mail burket@sfarchdiocese.org, or visit www.catholic-sf.org, Contact Us.
Attach Card Here Deadline for Sept. 9th Issue is Aug. 26th Deadline for Oct. 7th Issue is Sept. 26th Please do not write on your card.
C ATHOLIC SAN F RANCISCO
PER MONTH IN OUR
THE FIRST FRIDAY OF EACH MONTH.
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 Joanne (650) 347-0701 for more information. Catholic Adult Singles Association of Marin County: We are Catholics, single or single again, who are interested in making new friends, taking part in social activities, sharing opportunities for spiritual growth, and becoming involved in volunteer activities that will benefit parishes, community, and one another. We welcome those who would share in this with us. For information, call Bob at (415) 897-0639.
Maestro Nicola Luisotti
YOUR BUSINESS CARD IN THE HANDS OF
R EADERS
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Oct. 16: Class of 1951 from Lone Mountain College in San Francisco/SF College for Women. Contact Anstell Ricossa at (415) 921-8846 or Toni Buckley at (415) 681-5789. 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. 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.
Datebook Sept. 11, 2 p.m.: Concert commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks at the annual Opera in the Park in Sharon Meadows of Golden Gate Park. Music Director Nicola Luisotti will conduct the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, chorus and acclaimed soloists in a concert featuring Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s masterpiece, the Requiem in D minor, and inspirational works by American composers Harold Arlen, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland and John Williams. During the Mozart Requiem, meditational texts will be read by representatives of various religious traditions that make up the San Francisco Interfaith Council. Opera General Director David Gockley will serve as master of ceremonies joined on stage by a roster of distinguished political, interfaith and civic dignitaries. Admission is free.
Catholic San Francisco
STATE PHONE
MAIL TO: CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO, BUSINESS CARD ONE PETER YORKE WAY, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109
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Catholic San Francisco
Remodeling Argos Construction Residential Commercial
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Construction
Cahalan Const. Remodeles, Additions, Kitchens, Baths, Dryrot, Stucco
August 12, 2011
SERVICE DIRECTORY For information about advertising in the Service Directory, Call (415) 614-5642 • Fax: (415) 614-5641
E-mail: penaj@sfarchdiocese.org or visit www.catholic-sf.org
415.279.1266
Painting & Remodeling John Holtz Ca. Lic 391053 General Contractor Since 1980
Counseling Handy Man When Life Hurts It Helps To Talk • Family • Work • Relationships • Depression • Anxiety • Addictions
Dr. Daniel J. Kugler Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Over 30 years experience • Reasonable Fees
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Painting & Remodeling •Interiors •Exteriors •Kitchens •Baths Contractor inspection reports and pre-purchase consulting
Electrical ALL ELECTRIC SERVICE 650.322.9288
FOR PEOPLE WHO NEED HELP Marriage, Family, and Individual Counseling David Nellis M.A. M.F.T. (415) 242-3355 www.christiancounseling2.com
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
Healthcare Agency
Fully Licensed • State Certified • Locally Trained • Experienced • On Call 24/7
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Painting S.O.S. PAINTING CO.
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The Irish Rose
Home Healthcare Agency Specializing in home health aides, attendants and companions. Serving San Francisco, Marin & the Peninsula.
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Discount to CSF Readers
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NOT A LICENSED CONTRACTOR
Family Consultation –Bereavement Support Kathy Faenzi, MA, Clinical Gerontologist Office: 650.401.6350 Web: www.faenziassociates.com Striving to Achieve Optimum Health & Wellbeing
BILL HEFFERON INTERIOR, EXTERIOR All Jobs Large and Small
10% Discount: Seniors, Parishioners
Call BILL 415.731.8065 • Cell: 415.710.0584 bheffpainting@sbcglobal.net Member of Better Business Bureau Bonded, Insured – LIC. #819191
Retaining Walls Stairs • Gates Dry Rot Senior & Parishioner Discounts
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Electrical YOUR # 1 CHOICE FOR Recessed Lights – Outdoor Lighting Outlets – Dimmers – Service Upgrades • Trouble Shooting!
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Lic. 631209) 9)
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PAUL (415) 282-2023
LAST-MINUTE SERVICE AVAILABLE
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Roofing DEWITT ELECTRIC
Care Management for the Older Adult
PAINTING
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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.
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All Purpose
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Service Changes Solar Installation Lighting/Power Fire Alarm/Data Green Energy
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Notary
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NOTICE TO 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
August 12, 2011
PUBLISH A NOVENA Pre-payment required Mastercard or Visa accepted
Cost $26
If you wish to publish a Novena in the Catholic San Francisco You may use the form below or call 415-614-5640 Your prayer will be published in our newspaper
Name Adress Phone MC/VISA # Exp.
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
â?‘ Prayer to the Blessed Virgin â?‘ Prayer to the Holy Spirit
Please return form with check or money order for $26 Payable to: Catholic San Francisco Advertising Dept., Catholic San Francisco 1 Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco, CA 94109
Prayer to the Blessed Virgin never known to fail. Most beautiful flower of Mt. Carmel Blessed Mother of the Son of God, assist me in my need. Help me and show me you are my mother. Oh Holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and earth. I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to help me in this need. Oh Mary, conceived without sin. Pray for us (3X). Holy Mary, I place this cause in your hands (3X). Say prayers 3 days. L.C.
St. Jude Novena May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be adored, glorified, loved & preserved throughout the world now & forever. Sacred Heart of Jesus pray for us. St. Jude helper of the hopeless pray for us. Say prayer 9 times a day for 9 days. Thank You St. Jude. Never known to fail. You may publish.
M.M.
A master suite with a jetted tub, its own deck, a sitting room and 210-degree view of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Cattle Pass are features of this 3-bedroom, 2 bath unique home on 2.1 acres on Lopez Island. Very private, yet close to island airport and golf course. Two-car garage. Stone fireplace. Walk to beach. $449,000 – $65,000 under county assessed value.
Looking to rent Home/Apartment. 2 adults, 4 children.
ACACIA HOME CAREGIVERS Living at home is the best way for seniors to maintain their lifestyle, not just life.
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23
Tahoe Rental
LAKE TAHOE RENTAL Vacation Rental Condo in South Lake Tahoe. Sleeps 8, near Heavenly Valley and Casinos.
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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
• We can offer YOU SAVINGS! • Exceptional customer service • Easy access off I-80 at Hilltop Richmond
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Whether you’re buying a new home or selling your current one, you have to trust your agent. Sue is committed to culSue Schultes, tivating that trust by serving all of her clients’ real estate needs: personal, professional, and financial. Sue loves what Realtor she does, and part of her passion comes from the belief in working for the greater good. Active in her parish at St. Agnes, on the Board of Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly she creates the possibility of a positive future for all of us. Contact her today.
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Need Rental Home
Mirian 415-577-8127 House Rental or karmenyta@gmail.com Caregivers San Juans
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Select One Prayer: â?‘ St. Jude Novena to SH â?‘ Prayer to St. Jude
Catholic San Francisco
SSchultes@Paragon-re.com www.doorsofyourlife.com
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? � The Faith Formation Conference workshops and exhibits appeal to parish ministers, teachers, parents, parishioners, pastors, pastoral associates, principals, and a wide variety of audiences � The conference empowers people for ministry � The conference appeals to parents — pass on the faith to their children, to be a creative catechist and teacher � The conference allows people to deepen their faith and have a greater desire to proclaim the Word of God � The conference allows people to learn about how the different images of Jesus have appealed to different groups of Christians � 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. � Online registration � For more information on speakers, workshops, visit website: www.faithformationconference.com
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Catholic San Francisco
August 12, 2011
grand opening celebration 6DWXUGD\ $XJXVW open to the public
junipero serra high school’s center for the arts and sciences and aquatics center
For more information, visit us online at:
www.serrahs.com 451 West 20th Avenue San Mateo, CA 94403 Š 650.345.8207
Serra Blue is GOLD