church art & environment:
Advent, Thanksgiving:
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PAGEs 3, 7 & 8
Why go to Mass?
Hispanic Day: Mercy was theme
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Help and be helped
CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO Newspaper of the Archdiocese of San Francisco
Serving San Francisco, Marin & San Mateo Counties
www.catholic-sf.org
November 17, 2016
$1.00 | VOL. 18 NO. 25
Keep calm and follow Jesus, US bishops say after the election Matt Hadro Catholic News Agency
(Photo by Valerie Schmalz/Catholic San Francisco)
Archbishop Cordileone visits St. Brendan
Tony Eiras instructs the kindergarten in music during Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone’s visit to St. Brendan School. More on parish visits to St. Brendan, page 21, Good Shepherd, page 2.
BALTIMORE – As the country recovers from a divisive election and many in the U.S. are living in uncertainty, the Catholic Church must offer everyone hope, the outgoing president of the U.S. bishops’ conference said at the start of the national bishops conference. “The church at her best has always been a beacon of hope,” Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville stated Nov. 14 at a press conference during the bishops’ fall general assembly in Baltimore. He added that the church “advocates for people who feel that they’re disenfranchised or are filled with fear,” and pointed to statements he made earlier in the morning to migrants and refugees, who might be fearful after the recent presidential election. Just as Christ said in the Gospels “I am with you,” he exhorted his fellow bishops to repeat to these persons who have fled violence and persecution: “We are with you.” see election, page 15
Hundreds mourn beloved homeless man at Star of the Sea parish Christina Gray Catholic San Francisco
Thomas Myron Hooker lived the last 20 years of his life without a roof over his head, but his death Oct. 26 proved he was hardly without a home. Hundreds of people – church families, neighbors, shopkeepers and perhaps even strangers touched by the cheerful kindness and generosity of the man who for years had made camp under a tarp at Funston and Clement streets in San Francisco’s Richmond District – streamed into Star of the Sea Church on Geary Boulevard Nov. 7 to express their respect and affection. Hooker had endeared himself to the parish and surrounding community with his gentle spirit. He spent a part of each day praying in the back pews, said Star of the Sea pastor Father Joseph Illo, who eulogized him as “a kind of patron saint of the homeless.”
“The meaning of being homeless beyond shelter is when you lack a home, lack a family who understands you. You are homeless when you don’t feel you belong anywhere,” said Father Illo. “Many of us who live in more comfort are more homeless than Thomas was. He had a home with us.” Thomas had “overcome his homelessness,” said Father Illo, who claimed Hooker’s body and planned the funeral Mass and reception that followed. McAvoy O’Hara Co., the Evergreen Mortuary, donated a casket and prepared the body for burial. A special collection was taken during the Mass so that Hooker might be laid to rest with dignity and a headstone at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma. According to a Richmond District blog, Hooker was originally from Trinidad and had spent time in Chicago before coming to San Francisco. “This was a man who never asked for anything,” said see mourn, page 22
Duggan’s Serra Catholic Family Mortuaries Duggan’s Serra Mortuary Driscoll’s Valencia Street Serra Mortuary Sullivan’s Funeral Home & Cremation
(Photo by christina gray/Catholic San Francisco)
A mourner touches the casket of Thomas Myron Hooker, a homeless man who endeared himself to the Star of Sea Parish community in the Richmond District of San Francisco during his funeral Mass on Nov. 7.
650/756-4500 415/970-8801 415/621-4567
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Index On the Street . . . . . . . . 4 National . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Faith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . 27