November 1, 2013

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SENIOR STORIES: Education is every woman’s right

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WELCOMING:

‘INTERIOR FIRE’:

Seminarian goes door-to-door in search of lost sheep

What Catholics believe: 10 truths about purgatory

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CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO Newspaper of the Archdiocese of San Francisco

SERVING SAN FRANCISCO, MARIN & SAN MATEO COUNTIES

www.catholic-sf.org

$1.00 | VOL. 15 NO. 31

NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Critics, including church, question use of isolation in California prisons CHRISTINA M. GRAY CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

Once a month after a full workweek, Dolores Canales gets into her car to make the 1,500-mile round trip between her home in Orange County and Pelican Bay State Prison near the Oregon border. That’s where her 37-year-old son John, a convicted murderer, is serving out a life sentence in the Security Housing Unit – broadly described by critics as “solitary confinement.” For 12 years, John’s human contact has been more or less limited to the monthly appearance of his mother’s face through thick panes of institutional glass and the prison staff who bring meals to the windowless, cement cell where he spends 23 hours out of each day, says Canales. He does get one hour outside his cell each day – for exercise – but that is also spent alone in another concrete, windowless structure. SEE ISOLATION, PAGE 21

(PHOTO BY CHRISTINA M. GRAY/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)

Praying all day, every day Carmelite Sisters Maria Fideles, Teresah Joseph, Mother Dolores, prioress Mother Anna Marie, Sister Immaculate and Sister Teresa Francis gather in the garden of the Carmel of the Mother of God Monastery in suburban Marin County on Oct. 1 for Mother Dolores’ 91st birthday. Read more about their life of prayer, community and joy on Page 14.

All Souls School is ‘huge turnaround’ story for Catholic education VALERIE SCHMALZ CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

All Souls School in South Francisco has emerged as one of the archdiocese’s Catholic education success stories, in a financial and enrollment turnaround that began seven years ago when pastor Father Agnel De Heredia hired Australian educator Vince Riener as principal. Riener recalled that the K-8 school was running a deficit when he arrived in 2007. Enrollment was 248. What’s more, some of those working a block away on Grand Avenue had no idea All Souls School existed. And the school had a poor reputation for teaching math, he said. Today, All Souls has 298 students plus 33 in its new preschool, which opened a year ago. Math scores are up. The school is a leader in the use and instruction of technology, with a school information system, Smart Boards in every class-

(PHOTO BY VALERIE SCHMALZ/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)

room, Kindle Fire tablets in the lower grades and Google Chromebooks in the upper grades. All Souls has a computer lab and a working cafeteria. Parents are involved, and the pastor and parochial vicar are hands-on at the school. Riener has done “a great job,” said archdiocesan schools Superintendent Maureen Huntington. “There’s been a huge turnaround in the last 10 years in enrollment, and the academic performance of the school.” She said the school has a lot of Genentech parents who would not be there “if it wasn’t an academically excellent education.” “It’s an amazing school,” said May Gutierrez, who has a son in first grade and a daughter in fifth grade. “I highly recommend it to anyone, friends, family – I always recommend All Souls.” Riener said technology is one of the school’s big attractions. He was hired partly because of his

Vice principal Karen Johanson and longtime cafeteria manager Cathy Barri are pictured at All Souls School last month.

SEE ALL SOULS, PAGE 21

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INDEX On the Street . . . . . . . . .4 National . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Opinion. . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Faith. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Calendar. . . . . . . . . . . .26


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