December 7, 2017

Mission 200th:

Catherine Center:

Bp. Justice:

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Mission San Rafael marks bicentennial

Co-workers salute ‘Bishop Bill’ on his retirement

‘Unconditional love’ at SVdP ministry

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO Newspaper of the Archdiocese of San Francisco

Serving San Francisco, Marin & San Mateo Counties

www.catholic-sf.org

December 7, 2017

$1.00 | VOL. 19 NO. 25

Archbishop offers solidarity with undocumented detainees Valerie Schmalz Catholic San Francisco

In a Thanksgiving week filled with public actions, Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone wrote an opinion piece in the San Francisco Chronicle and then joined activists to fill a U.S. immigration courtroom in solidarity with Hugo Mejia, who was seeking bond while fighting a deportation order.

Mejia was released on $15,000 bond Nov. 21 to return to his wife and three children. He still must contest a deportation order, and is seeking asylum in the U.S., Archbishop Cordileone said.

“It was amazing, you guys are amazing, you have no idea how much help that was – we are getting my dad back!” his daughter told those gathered on the street outside the 630 Sansome St. federal building.

The following day, Nov. 22, Archbishop Cordileone prayed with activists in front of the same federal building for Floricel Ramos, who was detained in March as she left a restaurant with her three children after a breakfast in Lodi. Her three minor see archbishop, page 20

(CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano via Reuters)

Pope greets youths in Myanmar

Pope Francis greets young people after celebrating Mass with youths Nov. 30 at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Yangon, Myanmar. See Page 21 for more coverage of the pope’s visit to Myanmar.

Living by church’s calendar draws families closer to saints, Mass Maria Wiering Catholic News Service

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Growing up in St. Louis, Susanna Spencer loved her family’s Advent tradition of adorning a Jesse Tree with Old Testament symbols leading up to Christ’s birth.

She continued the tradition while in college at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, where she met her husband, Mark.

“After seeing (Advent traditions) in my childhood, I thought, I want to do this the whole year, not just for the short four weeks before Christmas,” said Spencer, 31.

Even before they were married, Susanna and Mark both felt “drawn to liturgical life” and began incorporating more aspects of the Catholic Church’s calendar into their daily lives, from praying the Liturgy of the Hours to observing saints’ feast days.

Now parents of four, ages 2 to 8, and parishioners of

(CNS photo/Dave Hrbacek, The Catholic Spirit)

Lucy, Gemma and Felicity Spencer place ornaments on their family’s Jesse Tree. Their parents, Susanna and Mark, put the tree on a small prayer table that they use throughout the year to follow the Catholic Church’s liturgical calendar.

St. Agnes in St. Paul, the Spencers are intentional about shaping their home with the rhythm of the church seasons.

“A lot of the things that we’ve done are taking the Advent wreath idea and conforming it to the other liturgical seasons,” Susanna said.

The first Sunday in Advent marks the beginning of a new church year, and for some Catholic families, the liturgical “New Year” is tied to special traditions at home. This year the first Sunday is Dec. 3.

While enhancing a family’s “domestic church” through aspects of the liturgical calendar is nothing new, Catholics who are interested in liturgical home practices can find an increasing wealth of information online, where Catholics share ideas on blogs dedicated to the practice, such as Carrots for Michaelmas, www.carrotsformichaelmas.com, and Catholic All Year, www.catholicallyear.com. see advent, page 20

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Catholic san francisco | December 7, 2017

Need to know CANDLELIGHTING: Longstanding Advent rite of St. Paul High School, Dec. 14, 7 p.m., St. Paul Church, Valley and Church streets, San Francisco. The service was begun more than 60 years ago by the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and continues today under the leadership of St. Paul High School alumnae, who continue the work some 20 years after the school’s closing. (415) 6487538.

MUSICAL ADVENT RETREAT: Noted composer Dan Schutte – “Here I Am Lord” – leads a day of music and prayer, Dec. 16, St. Anselm Church, Ross, 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. $20 donation requested. RSVP by Dec. 7 to Sissy Ratto, (415) 453-2342, ext. 10, St.anselmoffice@att.net.

MEET NEW CEO: J.A Gray introduces new Catholic Charities CEO Jilma Meneses on Mosaic, Jan. 7, 5 a.m., KPIX Channel 5. Episodes of Mosaic are archived on the archdiocesan website, www.sfarch.org/mosaic-tv.

NEW YEAR’S EVE RETREAT: Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose Chapel, Dec, 31, 7-10:30 p.m., 43326 Mission Circle, Fremont.

Hear “The Devine Dance” with Father David Pettingill, reflection-Eucharist-festive dessert.

Freewill offering. RSVP by Dec. 27, http://bit. ly/NYRetreat2017; (510) 933-6360.

Archbishop cordileone’s schedule Dec. 7: Presbyteral Council, Consultors and chancery meetings Dec. 8: Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep/DeMarillac Mass, cathedral, 9:30; Missionaries of Charity Profession of Vows, 6 p.m., St. Anthony of Padua Dec. 9: Guadalupana pilgrimage and Mass, cathedral, 2 p.m.

Dec. 9-11: Our Lady of Angels Parish and school visit Dec. 12: Consecration of Marin Catholic HIgh School to the Immaculate Heart of Mary; dedication of their Marian grotto, Mass, 7:15 a.m.

Dec. 13: Priest Advent Day of recollection, Vallombrosa; Cathedral Choir School Dinner Dec. 14: Chancery and Finance Council meetings Dec. 15-17: St. Catherine of Siena Parish and School visit

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Mission San Rafael as it appears today and in a painting depicting the early Mission era.

(Courtesy photos)

Miwok leaders to join Mission San Rafael bicentennial Christina Gray Catholic San Francisco

When the parish community celebrates the bicentennial of Mission San Rafael Arcangel on Dec. 16, tribal representatives from the Coast Miwok tribe which built the mission and for whom it was built, will be central to the festivities.

Even before the mission bell is rung at 5 p.m.

by Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus William J. Justice, principal celebrant of the anniversary Mass in St. Raphael Church, a tribal elder of Graton Rancheria – a federally recognized tribe of the Marin and Sonoma County Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo Indians – will conduct a “blessing of the land” their ancestors called home.

In December 1817, more than 200 Coast Miwok accompanied by Presidio soldiers and four priests crossed the San Francisco Bay to build an “asistencia,” or hospital, for the native peoples ailing at Mission Dolores in San Francisco.

In “Chief Marin: Leader, Rebel and Legend” (Heydey Books, 2007), Marin County historian and parishioner Betty Goerke writes that “At Mission Dolores, Indians continued to die in horrifying numbers throughout 1817.”

It was believed the warmer, drier climate would be restorative physically and spiritually for the Coast Miwok. The mission outpost was named after Saint Raphael the Arcangel, whose name means “God heals.”

The governor at the time also hoped the new mission would also “put some distance” between the Coast Miwok and the soldiers at the San Francisco Presidio, who some thought were responsible for the spread of disease among the neophytes, Goerke writes.

As the travelers stepped onto dry land, their activities likely attracted not only Coast Miwok converts who had been sent there earlier for their health, but also nonmission Indians and runaways.

“Indians from Coast Miwok Rancherias as far

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away as Tomales Bay had come to San Rafael for the first celebration of Mass,” she said.

Baptismal records show that 26 Coast Miwok children were baptized at the first Mass Dec. 14, 1817.

Mission San Rafael Arcangel was raised to full mission status in 1822 and is the 20th of 21 missions founded by the Spanish in Alta California between 1769 and 1823. All of the original structures are gone. The instantly recognizable pink St. Raphael Church was built in 1920 and a replica of the old Mission built in 1949 is used as a smaller chapel.

It was only a mission for 17 years, but in that time, according to the parish website, Mission San Rafael converted 1,873 “Indians.”

After a 3:30 p.m. procession through San Rafael, the 200th anniversary inaugural ceremony in the mission plaza will offer a historical narrative of the mission and honor the native people who lived, died and were buried there. Native Americans will also present a gift at the Mass.

Ten years ago during the mission’s 190th anniversary Mass, Sacramento Bishop Emeritus Francis A. Quinn made a stunning apology to the Miwok people on behalf of the Catholic Church, bringing many in attendance to tears according to reports.

Bishop Quinn said the missionaries “took the Indian out of the Indian.” He said the Indians had a civilization of their own – one that valued all of nature – long before the Spanish imposed an alien, European-type life upon them. He also conceded that mission soldiers and priests had sexual relations with Indian women and inflicted cruel punishments on those who disobeyed mission laws. After the Mass, Greg Sarris, who heads the Miwok tribal council, spoke at a gathering in the St. Raphael’s school gym. “With the permission of my people,” he said, “I accept your apology.”

Visit saintraphael.com for more information about the bicentennial celebration.

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone Publisher Mike Brown Associate Publisher Rick DelVecchio Editor/General Manager Editorial Valerie Schmalz, assistant editor Tom Burke, senior writer Christina Gray, reporter

schmalzv@sfarchdiocese.org burket@sfarchdiocese.org grayc@sfarchdiocese.org

Advertising Joseph Peña, director Mary Podesta, account representative Chandra Kirtman, advertising & circulation coordinator Production Karessa McCartney-Kavanaugh, manager Joel Carrico, assistant how to reaCh us One Peter Yorke Way San Francisco, CA 94109 Phone: (415) 614-5639 | Fax: (415) 614-5641 Editor: (415) 614-5647 delvecchior@sfarchdiocese.org Advertising: (415) 614-5642 advertising.csf@sfarchdiocese.org Circulation: (415) 614-5639 circulation.csf@sfarchdiocese.org Letters to the editor: letters.csf@sfarchdiocese.org

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Catholic san francisco | December 7, 2017

We invite you to gather with us on Saturday, December 9th at 11:00 a.m.

We invite you to gather with us on Saturday, December 9th at 11:00 a.m. in All Saints Mausoleum Chapel at Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery, Colma in All Saints Mausoleum Chapel at Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery, Colma Msgr.

John Talesfore will facilitate our Christmas Remembrance Service as Msgr. will facilitate Remembrance Service as . you joinJohn with Talesfore others to remember and our shareChristmas grief’s journey and be comforted you join with others to remember and share grief’s journey and be comforted.

During this Christmas service, the names of those you wish to remember and your message of love may be During this Christmas service, thebynames of those you wish to students rememberand andGirlyour message of love may written on ornaments decorated Our Lady of Mercy School Scout Troop #31971.

Yoube written on ornaments

by OuronLady Mercy Trees Schoolduring students Girl Scout #31971. will be invited to placedecorated your ornament our of Memory the and service.

TheseTroop Chistmas TreesYou will be invited to placehope your ornament Memory during the service.

These Trees represent the ongoing of life and on willour remain in AllTrees Saints Mausoleum Chapel fromChistmas December 9th represent the ongoing hope of life and will remain in All Saints Mausoleum Chapel from December 9th until January 9th. until January 9th.

If you are unable to attend the service, please stop by the If you are unable attend theornament service, please stopyour by the Cemetery Office totopick up an and write greetings.

Cemetery Office to pick up an ornament and write your greetings.

We will be happy to hang the ornament for you.

We will be happy to hang the ornament for you.

There is always a staff member available in There is always a staff on member available in All Saints Mausoleum weekends and holidays to All Saints Mausoleum on weekends and holidays to assist you. They will also have memory tree ornaments assist you.forThey also have memory tree ornaments available yourwill messages through December 31st. available for your messages through December 31st.

Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery HolyAve. Cross@ Catholic Santa Cruz Avy Ave.,Cemetery Menlo Park, CA Santa Cruz Ave.650-323-6375 @ Avy Ave., Menlo Park, CA 650-323-6375 Tomales Catholic Cemetery Catholic Cemetery 1400 Tomales Dillon Beach Road, Tomales, CA 1400 Dillon415-479-9021 Beach Road, Tomales, CA 415-479-9021

Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery Holy Mission Cross Catholic Cemetery 1500 Road, Colma, CA 1500 Mission Road, Colma, CA 650-756-2060 650-756-2060 St. Anthony Cemetery St. Anthony CemeteryCA Stage Road, Pescadero, Stage 650-712-1675 Road, Pescadero, CA 650-712-1675

Mt. Olivet Catholic Cemetery Mt.Ranchitos Olivet Catholic 270 Los Road, Cemetery San Rafael, CA 270 Los Ranchitos Road, San Rafael, CA 415-479-9020 415-479-9020 Our Lady of the Pillar Cemetery Our Lady ofSt., theHalf Pillar Cemetery Miramontes Moon Bay, CA Miramontes St., Half Moon 650-712-1679 Bay, CA 650-712-1679

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Catholic san francisco | December 7, 2017

Women at SVdP’s Catherine Center are ‘children of God and loved unconditionally,’ director says

government funding and relies on the generosity of others to meet expenses.

“We are grateful for anything people can contribute to help provide food, clothing and support for our women,” Vivian said.

Monetary donations should be mailed to SVdP’s Catherine Center, 50 North B St., San Mateo 94401.

You can find more about SVdP’s Catherine Center at www.svdpsm.org.

Tom Burke catholic San Francisco

SVdP’s Catherine Center, a resident facility helping women transition from incarceration back into society, was “born of a shared dream” of the St. Vincent de Paul Society of San Mateo County and Vivian Clausing the Sisters of Mercy, program director Vivian Clausing told me. The center opened in 2003. Vivian took the reins about three years ago. While she is an attorney, she is leaving the barrister at home these days. “I am not a lawyer here,” she said. “I am a mom here.”

Catherine Center is “a faith-based program,” Vivian said, “and we support our women’s growth in mind, body and spirit. Rooted in the values of mercy, love and compassion, we accompany our clients on their individual journeys. Each is a child of God, and each is loved unconditionally.”

Catherine Center has welcomed 124 women since it was founded but they and those who follow are not the sole beneficiaries of the center’s efforts.

“Because women are wives, mothers, and grandmothers, the ripple effect touches families, as well as the communities in which they live,” Vivian said.

While at Catherine Center women complete an intensive drug and alcohol treatment program and return to work or school. Today, several are pursuing education in fields such as drug and alcohol counseling, the trades and culinary arts while others may take classes at the community college and university level.

REUNION: Menlo Park’s St. Raymond School Class of 1967 celebrated their 50th reunion Oct. 6, 7. “Spearheaded by Tim Johnston, and attended by 20 classmates, the reunion was a huge success,” the school said. The weekend included stops at the school’s pumpkin festival and a Saturday night barbecue hosted by Tim at his home. “The class had a wonderful time catching up and reminiscing.”

OPERA AND COOKIES: A busy few days brought the San Francisco Opera and fundraising for a very worthy cause to St. Gregory School, San Mateo.

The opera visited Oct. 17 with “Cinderella.” Student participants are coached by the guest professionals and act out scenes with them from the chosen work. The trained singers perform between the dialogue scenes. Pictured are cheerleaders Angelina Paolinelli and Erin Colville who with the almost 20 other members of the cheerleading team held a bake sale to benefit the Mills-Peninsula breast cancer research center.

Students wore pink accessories, helped raise awareness and raised more than $1,000.

The bond with Catherine Center continues, Vivian said. “After they complete the program our women often remain in the area and stop by to visit and support the newer women” and even if they have left the area most stay in touch.

The holidays at the center are “a special time,” Vivian said. “We are blessed with many faithful volunteers who help to make our women feel loved and supported.”

“Come, Lord Jesus Come,” is the center’s Advent/Christmas prayer.

Seasonal opportunities for residents include weekly Scripture and spirituality classes. “There are also wonderful mini-retreats and evenings of reflection during the holiday season that help keep our focus on the meaning of Christ in our midst rather than on consumerism and material goods,” Vivian said.

Catherine Center receives no

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RIGHT CLOSE BY: Jesse Romero a longtime host on Immaculate Heart Radio now Relevant Radio speaks Dec. 16 at St. Bruno Church, 555 W. San Bruno Ave., San Bruno, after the 4:30 p.m. Mass in English, and after the 7 p.m. Mass in Spanish. Romero holds a graduate degree in theology from Franciscan University in Steubenville. Admission is free but freewill offerings will be accepted. www.saintbrunos.org; (650) 588-2121.

A Christmas Turkey Drive takes place Dec. 16, St. Emydius Parish, DeMontfort and Jules avenues, 9 a.m.noon, all donations benefit St. Anthony’s. Pierre Smit, sfpierre@aol.com.

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POKEMONSIGNOR: No it is not a new search game but I hope it got your attention and can help me point you toward the new Archdiocese of San Francisco website: http://sfarchdiocese.org/. It’s the good work of a number of people here including and especially communications leadership Mike Brown, Jan Potts and John Gray. The website is easy to use, has been designed to read well on mobile devices and is even appealing to those of us older folk who are more Facelift than Facebook. In a recent meeting of us chancery grunts, Jesuit Father John Piderit called the site a pivotal link with the faithful here and especially younger people who are incredibly savvy with modern technology. Hats off to all who have played a part in getting the site launched. All offices at the pastoral center can be reached on the website and representatives from each of the ministries were onboard to help in the hammering out of the site.

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Catholic san francisco | December 7, 2017

Auxiliary Bishop William J. Justice retires

(Photos by Dennis Callahan/Catholic San Francisco)

Auxiliary Bishop William J. Justice is pictured with co-workers and with Archbishop Cordileone and vicar for administration Jesuit Father John Piderit at a chancery office reception Nov. 16.

Christina Gray Catholic San Francisco

Auxiliary Bishop William J. Justice has retired from active service after almost a half-century as a priest for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, including nearly the last decade as a bishop.

“It will be nice to know I can sleep in,” Bishop Justice joked to Catholic San Francisco after celebrating early morning Mass at St. Matthew Church in San Mateo.

Bishop Justice said he likely will spend most weekends at the St. Matthew rectory where he lives with Msgr. John Talesfore, pastor and parochial vicar Father Alvin Yu. St. Matthew was Bishop Justice’s family parish when he was growing up and he was ordained to the priesthood there in 1968.

During the week he will be at the home his parents left him in Sonoma, enjoying small-town life and an occasional “good chardonnay.”

Bishop Justice said that because he loves the “fresh enthusiasm” of young people, he will still preside at confirmations, if asked, as well as other special liturgical celebrations.

Bishop Justice’s retirement at the mandatory age of 75 was accepted by Pope Francis and announced in Washington on Nov. 16 by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

That same afternoon Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone saluted Bishop Justice at a retirement party at the archdiocesan pastoral center.

“I want to acknowledge to my colleagues in the priesthood and the diaconate, his friendly, personal and wise counsel during my years as archbishop,” he said in a statement issued to the clergy of the archdiocese that afternoon.

Archbishop Cordileone called Bishop Justice “a popular and successful priest and pastor” who served many parishes in the archdiocese.

Ordained in 1968, Bishop Justice served in a variety of parish and chancery assignments throughout his career, most recently as vicar general and director of the archdiocesan Office of Human Life and Dignity.

He also had a close connection with Hispanic Catholics in the archdiocese.

“The priests who are beginning should take him

Father Pudota installed as St. James pastor

Father Shouraiah Pudota was installed as the new pastor of St. James Church in the Mission District by Auxiliary Bishop William J. Justice at a Mass Oct. 8. Father Pudota was also officially assigned to the Spanish-speaking ministry at St. Paul Church in San Francisco’s Noe Valley.

Ordained in India in 1979, Father Pudota offered 10 years of pastoral service in his native country before Father Pudota traveling to Argentina where he served the church there from 1989 to 2003.

In 2003 he came to the U.S., serving first the Diocese of Salt Lake City, Utah, then moving to the Archdiocese of San Francisco where he was parochial vicar at Church of the Epiphany for four years. Father Pudota was parochial administrator at Our Lady of the Pillar in Half Moon Bay, then served in the same capacity concurrently for both Sacred Heart Church in Olema, and Church of the Assumption in Tomales. Most recently he was parochial vicar at St. Anthony of Padua Church in Menlo Park and St. Matthew Church in San Mateo.

San Francisco Catolico

as an example to follow because he is very gentle, simple and humble,” said Pedro García Méndez, founder and director of the Guadalupana Crusade.

“He has never failed the community.”

Archbishop Cordileone announced that Father Ste-

phen Howell, pastor of St. Philip Parish, San Francisco, will replace Bishop Justice as vicar general.

San Francisco Catolico reporter Araceli Martinez contributed.

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Catholic san francisco | December 7, 2017

Marian events at Marin Catholic culminate in consecration Christina Gray Catholic San Francisco

Just over two months after he consecrated the Archdiocese of San Francisco to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on Oct. 7, Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone will do the same for Marin Catholic High School on Dec. 12, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Marin Catholic president Tim Navone told Catholic San Francisco that the consecration of the Kentfield school to Mary is the result of a “confluence” of Marian events and activities that followed the archdiocesan consecration on Oct. 7. These include a 33-day “personal consecration” journey the school’s leadership team undertook together in early November and the recent completion of an outdoor Marian grotto.

“If there was ever a time to consecrate Marin Catholic to the Immaculate Heart of Mary it is right now,” Navone said.

(Photo by Christina Gray/Catholic San Francisco)

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A Marian grotto in the school courtyard has been a longtime “dream of all dreams” for Navone, who said that a gift from an anonymous “angel benefactor” last year finally made the dream a reality. The donor, “a faithful Marin County Catholic,” told Navone he appreciated the school’s undiluted Catholic identity and vision and paid for artful outdoor installations of the Stations of the Cross and scriptural verse unveiled this year.

On the day of consecration the archbishop will bless the new grotto at 7 a.m. A traditional mariachi band central to many Guadalupe celebrations will then lead the school community to the on-campus chapel for Mass after which they will gather for the prayers of consecration.

About a month after the consecration of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, principal Chris Valdez set off on a walking pilgrimage of Spain’s Camino de Santiago (the Way of St. James). Valdez’s three-month journey inspired the rest of the leadership team to walk in “spiritual unity” with him for part of that time linked by the same small paperback book.

On the recommendation of a Marin Catholic campus minister, Valdez packed “33 Days to Morning Glory; A Do-It-Yourself Retreat in Preparation for Consecration” (Marian Press, 2011), by Father Michael E. Gaitley, MIC. The book prescribes 33 days of spiritual reflection on the Marian devotions of St. Louis de Montfort, St. John Paul, St. Teresa of Kolkata and others and prepares participants for “personal consecration.”

Navone said there was something powerful about the leadership team and their pilgrimage principle “reading and reflecting upon the same things each day.”

The school soon extended the “33 Days” program of personal preparation for consecration to the school community at large; faculty and parents, students and staff.

“The quickest way for graces to be poured onto the world is for more people to dedicate their lives to Mary,” Navone said. “There is nothing more you would want as the head of the school than to see that happen for your community.”

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ARCHDiocesE 7

Catholic san francisco | December 7, 2017

San Francisco OK’s recreational cannabis effective Jan. 5 and minority applicants with previous cannabis convictions.

At the meeting Nov. 28, amendments proposed by District 4 Supervisor Katy Tang that would have maintained the 1,000-foot buffer zone from schools in place under medical marijuana law, and added day care and extended care programs were defeated. Tang represents the outer Sunset District from 19th Avenue to Ocean Beach, south of Golden Gate Park.

“Really, it’s a reflection of what my community has asked for,” Tang said.

Bernal Heights District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronan called California’s legalization of recreational marijuana “an exciting moment in our country’s history – of finally waking up and saying we have been mistaken in how we have handled drugs in this country.”

Bayview District 10 Supervisor Malia Cohen said the 1,000-buffer zone “perpetuates the problem of clustering” putting more cannabis dispensaries into neighborhoods of “poor, working-class communities where people of color are now.”

Pacific Heights and Marina District 2 Supervisor Mark Farrell said he did not accept arguments that storefront cannabis dispensaries would have a negative effect on young children, saying he would have no problem walking by one with his three young children.

Joining in support of the 1,000-foot buffer zone were Excelsior District 11 Supervisor Safaí; Tenderloin District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim; Richmond District

Valerie Schmalz Catholic San Francisco

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 10-1 to enact land use regulations that will allow recreational marijuana stores throughout the city – with reduced 600-foot buffer zones for schools and no protection for day care centers, preschools or after school programs.

The legislation was set to return to the board for a final vote on Dec. 5. That law will open up to cannabis dispensaries portions of the city that were previously restricted.

Excelsior District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safai was the lone no vote.

Under the ordinance approved in San Francisco Nov. 28, all of the 46 existing medical marijuana dispensaries – 30 storefront and 16 delivery services – will be allowed to convert to recreational cannabis dispensaries after complying with some regulations including a temporary permit. So will any medical marijuana dispensaries whose applications are still in the pipeline. That may include a contentious one on Irving Street at 23rd Avenue that was approved by the Planning Commission but is being appealed to the Board of Supervisors Dec. 5. St. Anne of the Sunset pastor Father Dan Nascimento, school principal Tom White and the head of the parent association Bev Perea are working with other neighborhood activists to oppose the dispensary at 2161-2165 Irving.

The next 46 dispensaries would have to be “equity” owners, a category created to prioritize low income

District 1 Supervisor Sandra Fewer; and West Portal area District 7 Supervisor Norman Yee. However, Fewer voted against amendments that would add day care centers and after-school programs to protected

areas either under a 1,000- or 600-foot buffer.

The state law legalizing recreational or adult use marijuana takes effect see cannabis, page 18

Advent Speaker Series December 11 | 6:30-8:00pm (6:30-7:00pm quiet reflection in Church; 7:00-8:00pm Speaker Presentation) December 11: Waiting on the Lord Fr. Charles Talley is a Franciscan priest and friar presently in residence at San Damiano Retreat in Danville, California. Fr. Charles is Director of Communications for the Franciscan friars of the Province of St. Barbara (California).

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8 national

Catholic san francisco | December 7, 2017

Royal engagement announcement brings attention to Catholic school Carol Zimmermann Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON – When the news broke Nov. 27 of Meghan Markle’s engagement to Prince Harry, reporters descended upon the Los Angeles Catholic school Markle attended: Immaculate Heart High School and Middle School.

“They’ve been scaling the walls,” Callie Webb, communication director for the school, said with slight exaggeration, but maybe not too much, of the reporters calling and visiting the 112-year-old school with mission-style terra cotta roofs just a few miles from the landmark Hollywood sign.

For two days, Webb’s phone was ringing off the hook and her email mailbox was flooded with requests from local newspapers and TV stations as well as national media and British tabloids about the school’s famous fiancee – the 1999 graduate who is not Catholic but attended the school from seventh grade (before the sixth grade was added) until graduation.

ABC’s “20/20” spent a day on the campus – with six of their vans parked on the school’s ball field – for an episode airing Dec. 1.

Schoolgirls participate in a May crowning ceremony in 2013 on the grounds of Immaculate Heart High School and Middle School in Los Angeles. Meghan Markle, who recently got engaged to Britain’s Prince Harry, graduated from the all-girls school in 1999.

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WASHINGTON – Saying that any reduction in funding of programs to prevent HIV and AIDS could have “catastrophic life-threatening implications,” Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace, asked the Office of Management and Budget, in a letter, to maintain its full funding.

The letter, signed also by Sean Callahan, president and CEO of Catholic Relief Services, was issued Dec. 1, observed as World AIDS Day. They specifically ask that the government continue to fund the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR, and the Global Fund to at least current levels.

Tests shed light on date of site believed to be Christ’s tomb

.

Reverence

WASHINGTON – Scientists who helped restore a shrine above the site believed to be the place where Christ was buried say testing of samples has dated the tomb to at least the fourth century.

The new information published recently by National Geographic is consistent with historical accounts that say Constantine, the first Roman emperor to stop persecuting Christians and who became one,

The attention, and the news itself, has been exciting for the school’s 674 students, Webb said, pointing out that some of them had never even heard of Markle and others knew every detail about her 15-month romance with Prince Harry, her engagement, her TV career, activism and now discontinued lifestyle blog, The Tig. The school, founded by Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1906, tried to put the engagement news in perspective, at least on social media. Its Nov. 27 tweet said: “Over 10,000 women of great heart and right conscience have graduated from Immaculate Heart, and we are proud to count actress and humanitarian @meghanmarkle among them. Today, we send her our very best wishes as she celebrates her engagement to His Royal Highness Prince Harry.”

It posted a similar message that day on its Facebook account, but added that as a global ambassador for World Vision Canada, Markle campaigned for clean, safe drinking water. And as a UN Women’s Advocate, she has spoken up for women’s rights and gender equality. see engagement, page 24 began protecting the tomb around the year 326. In the fourth century, Constantine is said to have sent a team from Rome to the Holy Land in search of the site, and after the group believed they had located it, they tore down a pagan temple on top of it and protected the tomb. Over the centuries, the structures above the tomb have been the victims of natural and human attacks.

Archbishop: Immigration reform doesn’t mean demonization

WASHINGTON – Miami Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski said laws need to be changed to fix the country’s broken immigration system, but in the process, immigrants should not be demonized.

“Fixing illegal immigration does not require the demonization of the so-called ‘illegals,’” said Archbishop Wenski, addressing an audience at a Nov. 28 event in Miami sponsored by the Immigration Partnership and Coalition Fund. “America has always been a land of promise and opportunity for those willing to work hard. We can provide for our national security and secure borders without making America, a nation of immigrants, less a land of promise or opportunity for immigrants.”

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Catholic san francisco | December 7, 2017

Tis the Season to Be Merry

(CNS photo/Paul Haring)

A man puts a bandanna on Pope Francis as he arrives to eat lunch with the poor in the Paul VI hall after celebrating Mass marking the first World Day of the Poor at the Vatican Nov. 19.

Some 1,500 poor people joined the pope for the meal.

‘Invest in love,’ pope says on first World Day of the Poor Basilica as special guests, the Vatican said. While almost all of them live in Europe, they include migrants and refugees from all over the world.

Among the altar servers were young men who are either poor, migrants or homeless. The first reader at the Mass, Tony Battah, is a refugee from Syria. Those presenting the gifts at the offertory were led by the Zambardi family from Turin, whom the Vatican described as living in a

Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY – People have a basic choice in the way they live: either striving to build up treasures on earth or giving to others in order to gain heaven, Pope Francis said.

“What we invest in love remains, the rest vanishes,” the pope said in his homily Nov. 19, the first World Day of the Poor.

Between 6,000 and 7,000 poor people attended the Mass in St. Peter’s

see pope, page 19

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10 world

Catholic san francisco | December 7, 2017

Bishops from Europe, Africa urge summit to help migrants, young people

OXFORD, England – Catholic bishops from Europe and Africa urged an upcoming intercontinental summit to launch a “human dignity initiative” to help migrants and refugees and shelter young people against “conflict, corruption and climate change.”

In a joint statement issued before the Nov. 29-30 EU-Africa summit in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, the bishops noted that migration “will not go away. ...

It is the responsibility of the political leadership to make sure migrants are treated with dignity and protected against criminal exploitation.”

“Africa and Europe share common roots, which originate in the earliest days of human history – a genuine long-term partnership, which induces the correction of economic and social imbalances,” said the statement from the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community and the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar.

It said the “human dignity initiative” should aim at “promoting the global common good” through education and training, job creation and communication and technology.

Update: Build peace by welcoming migrants, refugees, pope says in message

VATICAN CITY – Exploiting a fear of migrants and refugees for political gain increases the possibility of violence and discrimination and does nothing to build a culture of peace, Pope Francis said in his message for World Peace Day 2018.

“Those who, for what may be political reasons, foment fear of migrants instead of building peace are sowing violence, racial discrimination and xenophobia, which are matters of great concern for all those concerned for the safety of every human being,” the pope said in the message, which was released by the Vatican Nov. 24.

The pope chose “Migrants and refugees: Men and women in search of peace” as the theme for the celebration Jan. 1, 2018. The message is delivered by Vatican nuncios to heads of state and governments around the world.

Presenting the message to the media, Father Bruno Marie Duffe, secretary of the Dicastery for Promot-

More world news on Page 21

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Although the vast majority of people in Myanmar are Buddhist, the country’s religious makeup is varied. Myanmar also has some 135 recognized ethnic groups and in the struggle for recognition and political power, religion often has been used to further the cause or highlight differences.

“Let’s not be afraid of differences,” the pope told the leaders.

To foster vocations, trust young people, pope tells conference

(CNS photo/Tony Gentile, Reuters)

Pope’s Advent greeting

Pope Francis waves during his Angelus in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Dec. 3. Advent is a time to be watchful and alert to the ways one strays from God’s path, but also to signs of his presence in other people and in the beauty of the world, Pope Francis said.

ing Integral Human Development, said, “It is clear peace begins with saving lives and taking care of people who are trying to escape wars, discrimination, persecution, poverty and climate disasters.”

Uniformity is greater threat to culture than differences are, pope says

YANGON, Myanmar – In a small, informal meeting with a variety of religious leaders, Pope Francis went to the heart of his message for Myanmar: unity, not uniformity, is the secret to peace.

Representatives of the Baptist, Anglican, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish and Muslim communities, as well as leaders from ecumenical organizations, briefly told the pope about their communities during the meeting Nov. 28 at the archbishop’s residence in Yangon.

“The moment you spoke, a prayer came to mind.

A prayer that we pray often, taken from the Book of Psalms: ‘How good and how pleasant it is, when brothers dwell together as one,’” he said, quoting Psalm 133.

“United does not mean the same; unity is not uniformity, even within the same confession,” he said. “Each one has it’s values, it riches and also its deficiencies.”

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Pope: Don’t wait to be perfect before answering vocational call

VATICAN CITY – Men and women contemplating a vocation to the priesthood, consecrated life or marriage should not be afraid because God wants only for them to experience the joy that comes from serving others, Pope Francis said.

“Our slowness and our sloth” should not delay a response and Christians need not be “fearful of our limitations and sins, but instead open our hearts to the voice of the Lord,” the pope said in his message for the 2018 World Day of Prayer for Vocations.

“It will not fill our hearts if we keep standing by the window with the excuse of waiting for the right time, without accepting this very day the risk of making a decision,” the pope wrote. “Vocation is today! The Christian mission is now!”

The papal message for the day of prayer, which will be observed April 22, was released Dec. 4 at the Vatican. The 2018 theme is “Listening, discerning and living the Lord’s call.”

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ROME – To foster vocations, the church must trust young people who, “despite belonging to the ‘selfie’ generation, look for full meaning in their lives, even when they do not always look for it where it can be found,” Pope Francis said.

“This is where we, consecrated men and women, have an important role: to remain awake to wake up young people, to be centered on the Lord to help young people center themselves in him,” he said in a message to participants in a two-day conference on vocational ministry and consecrated life.

Pope Francis said those in charge of ministering to youths must know the world and the current generation while looking for ways to announce the good news and proclaim “the gospel of vocation.”

If this does not happen, he added, “we would be giving answers to questions that no one is asking themselves.”

In a message sent Dec. 1, the pope told the conference that helping young men and women discover their vocation should be at the heart of the evangelization and action in the church. He said young people need a clear, dynamic and complete formation on vocational discernment that isn’t “closed in on itself.”

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Catholic san francisco | December 7, 2017

Parolin: Vatican II continues to shape church life, Pope Francis’ papacy Mark Zimmermann Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON – The Second Vatican Council continues to have an enduring impact on the Catholic Church and on the papacy of Pope Francis, according to the Vatican’s top diplomat, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

Cardinal Pietro That gathering of Parolin bishops from around the world presented a new paradigm of a “world church – a church with a global dimension,” said the cardinal, who is the Vatican’s secretary of state.

During a mid-November visit to the United States that included celebrating a Mass in Baltimore to mark the centenary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Cardinal Parolin stopped in Washington to deliver an address at The Catholic University of America.

He spoke on the topic “The Council: A Prophecy That Continues With Pope Francis.” Afterward, he received a received an honorary doctorate in theology from the university.

In his Nov. 14 talk, he said that although Vatican II occurred more than 50 years ago (1962-65), “it certainly retains for the church a prophetic character.”

Cardinal Parolin said the main consequences of the council included the introduction of local languages in the liturgy, and a “new awarev

The cardinal noted that in a 2016 letter, Pope Francis warned that clericalism limits the laity’s ‘necessary boldness to enable the good news to be brought to all areas of the social and above all, the political sphere.’ ness of a church that is historically realized in more diverse cultural contexts.”

Noting themes that have been stressed by Pope Francis, the cardinal said Vatican II sowed seeds of synodality and paved the way for “a church that lives in a conciliar way” with collaborative and consultative efforts underway at every level of the church. “No more parishes or dioceses without pastoral councils, no more countries without episcopal conferences,” he said.

That process, he added, has proven to be irreversible. “In the end, is this not the most beautiful inheritance that the council could have prepared for us?” he asked.

In his remarks, Cardinal Parolin underscored the importance of four key Vatican II documents: “Sacrosanctum Concilium,” the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (1963); “Lumen Gentium,” the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (1964); “Dei Verbum,” the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation (1965); and “Gaudium et Spes,” the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (1965).

The cardinal noted that from the council’s conclusion and then throughout his pontificate, Blessed Paul VI “dedicated himself to focus-

ing on the inheritance of the council, to illustrate the richness of the teachings,” using the “image of a river which flows nourishing itself from its source,” reaching generation to generation, in “new lands and new situations.”

Quoting Pope Francis’ 2013 interview with La Civilta Cattolica, the Jesuit Italian-language magazine, the cardinal pointed out that the pope said: “Vatican II was a rereading of the Gospel in light of contemporary culture. Vatican II produced a renewal movement that simply comes from the same Gospel.

Its fruits are enormous.”

The image of the people of God in “Lumen Gentium,” the cardinal added, shaped the themes that Pope Francis emphasized in his 2013 apostolic exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium” (“The Joy of the Gospel”).

In that document, the pontiff pointed out how the faith unfolds in people’s daily lives around the world

and is shared in their own languages and cultures as they carry out the work of the new evangelization as missionary disciples in today’s world.

Pope Francis, the cardinal added, also has emphasized the dignity of the laity and warned against clericalism, drawing attention to “the process of the transformation of a church that passed from total concentration of every active function in the hands of the clergy, to a recognition of the right and duty of the lay faithful to participate in the life and mission of the church.”

The cardinal noted that in a 2016 letter, Pope Francis warned that clericalism limits the laity’s “necessary boldness to enable the good news to be brought to all areas of the social and above all, the political sphere.”

The pope in that letter also pointed out that committed laypeople are not only those “dedicated to the works of the church and the matters of the parish or the diocese,” but the church also must reflect on “how to accompany baptized people in their public and daily life; (and) on how in their daily activities, with the responsibilities they have, they are committed as Christians in public life.”

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Catholic san francisco | December 7, 2017

Sunday readings

Second Sunday of Advent ISAIAH 40:1-5, 9-11 Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her service is at an end, her guilt is expiated; indeed, she has received from the hand of the Lord double for all her sins.

A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God! Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low; the rugged land shall be made a plain, the rough country, a broad valley. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Go up on to a high mountain, Zion, herald of glad tidings; cry out at the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of good news! Fear not to cry out and say to the cities of Judah: Here is your God! Here comes with power the Lord God, who rules by his strong arm; here is his reward with him, his recompense before him. Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care.

PSALM 85:9-10-11-12, 13-14 Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.

I will hear what God proclaims; the Lord—for he proclaims peace to his people.

Near indeed is his salvation to those who fear him, glory dwelling in our land.

Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.

Kindness and truth shall meet; justice and peace shall kiss. Truth shall spring out of the earth, and justice shall look down from heaven.

Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.

The Lord himself will give his benefits; our land shall yield its increase. Justice shall walk before him, and prepare the way of his steps.

Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.

2 PETER 3:8-14 Do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard “delay,” but he is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a mighty roar and the elements will be dissolved by fire, and the earth and everything done on it will be found out. Since everything is to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be, conducting yourselves in holiness and devotion,

waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved in flames and the elements melted by fire. But according to his promise we await new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you await these things, be eager to be found without spot or blemish before him, at peace.

MARK 1:1-8 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way. A voice of one crying out in the desert: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.” John the Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. People of the whole Judean countryside and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins. John was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He fed on locusts and wild honey. And this is what he proclaimed: “One mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals.

I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Facing up to our sin

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n the first reading, Isaiah tells us that God comes into our lives as comfort for our sorrow, as glory for our wonder, as power for our weakness, and as reward for our faithfulness. In the second reading, Peter admonishes the people and encourages them and us to prepare ourselves for His coming by living without strife and by living in peace. In the Gospel, John the Baptist prepares the way for Jesus’ coming by proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

John the Baptist had one burning mission in life, and that was to prepare the people for the coming of Jesus and the beginning of his public ministry. Part of that preparation demanded that the spotDeacon light of truth be focused on faiva Po’oi the reality of their sins. John’s followers realized and accepted that any real relationship with Jesus would require a cleansing of heart and a change in life. John’s stern

scripture reflection

message proclaimed centuries ago is as valid today as it was then. If Christ is to enter our world and find his rightful place in this generation, then you and I must face up to and deal with the awful fact of our own sinfulness. Sin is a solid reality.

If you have any doubts about this, just read the newspaper. In a single day, a newspaper says more about sin than most priests say in a lifetime.

When John stood on the banks of the River Jordan and called on the people to repent of their sins, he was not dealing with irrelevancies. He was right on target.

Sin is a fact of life and must be faced. Unless we recognize its presence in the world, in our lives, and in our very hearts, we fall more and more deeply into it.

Comparing ourselves to those people about whom we read in the newspapers, many of us might feel rather smug. After all, we have never stolen an automobile, or broken into someone’s shop or store. And hopefully, we do not plan to! We have never committed any of those violent crimes that are reported in the evening news. We might even be somewhat inclined to disassociate ourselves from the sin problem, as though we were spectators looking on from afar.

But when Jesus comes, that kind of attitude will not be enough. Jesus goes behind the actual deed and deals with sin at its source. He takes us on a tour of

Cultural colonization blasphemes God Carol Glatz Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY – Ideological colonization is a form of persecution that seeks to obliterate the past, eradicate what makes people different and impose uniformity, Pope Francis said.

Those who use a strategy of “making everything the same and eradicating what is different commit the terrible sin of blaspheming God the creator” because they want to change the way he made the world, the pope said Nov. 21 in his homily at Mass in the Domus Sanctae Marthae.

The only antidote or “medicine” for fighting this illness is “witness, that is, martyrdom,” he said.

The pope reflected on the day’s first reading (2 Macabees 6:18-31) about Eleazar, an elderly and holy scribe who preferred torture and death for breaking a king’s law rather than breaking one of God’s laws. “I will leave to the young a noble example of how to die willingly and generously for the revered and holy laws,” Eleazar says.

This martyr and hero, the pope said, chose to die and become a new “root” that would give fruit in

the future in response to a “perverse root that produces this ideological and cultural colonization.”

Ideological colonization is a form of persecution, the pope explained; it wants to sweep away all traditions, laws, history, even religion and God, and set up one new uniform culture.

“It makes everything the same, it is unable to tolerate differences,” he said.

“But we don’t have to look very far to see some examples” of this, he said, citing modern-day genocides that sought to purge or kill those “who are not pure blooded.”

While “ideological and cultural colonization only looks at the present, denies the past and does not look to the future,” that does not mean that all change is bad, the pope said.

“Just look at the Gospel, at Jesus,” which will always be new.

It’s necessary to be able to discern those things that are new by asking if it comes from the Holy Spirit, from God or from a “perverse root,” he said.

What comes from God is never the result of a deal or negotiation; it looks to the future and brings life and fruition, he said.

our hearts and minds and shows us the seed beds where sin first takes root. Jesus knew that sin is the result of a deep-seated wrongness in the human heart.

All of us have it. There is something wrong on the inside that makes us hate and hurtful toward other, often choosing to use and abuse each other and our very selves.

This is what the coming of Jesus is all about. We are encouraged to face the reality of our own sinfulness so that, with his help, we may find a cure!

All of us can understand the necessity of making this kind of change! If Christ is to be a real part of our lives, we must make some serious effort to repent and to conform to his standards. If we cannot do this, then our celebration of advent is little more than a sham.

God continues to give us ample opportunities to change our lives and follow the way that Jesus taught us. God is still with us, clearing the path and setting up circumstances so we can come to know him better through the life and teachings of Jesus. God is always with us, constantly leading us and welcoming us to a closer relationship with him.

May the holy Eucharist bring us together as one family united by God’s love.

Deacon Po’oi serves at St. Timothy Parish, San Mateo.

Liturgical calendar, daily Mass readings Monday, December 11: Monday of the Second Week of Advent. Optional Memorial of St. Damasus I, pope. Is 35:1-10. Ps 85:9ab and 10, 11-12, 13-14. Lk 5:17-26.

Tuesday, December 12: Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Zec 2:14-17 or Rv 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab. Judith 13:18bcde, 19. Lk 1:26-38 or Lk 1:39-47.

Wednesday, December 13: Memorial of St. Lucy, virgin and martyr. Is 40:25-31. Ps 103:1-2, 3-4, 8 and 10. Mt 11:28-30.

Thursday, December 14: Memorial of St. John of the Cross, priest and doctor. Is 41:13-20.

Ps 145:1 and 9, 10-11, 12-13ab. See Is 45:8. Mt 11:11-15.

Friday, December 15: Friday of the Second Week of Advent. St. Virginia Centurione Bracelli. Is 48:17-19. Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6. Mt 11:16-19.

Saturday, December 16: Saturday of the Second Week of Advent. Sir 48:1-4, 9-11. Ps 80:2ac and 3b, 15-16, 18-19. Lk 3:4, 6. Mt 17:9a, 10-13.

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Pope: Church must strive to embrace people with disabilities Pope Francis

Here is a Vatican translation of an Oct. 21 speech by Pope Francis during a conference dedicated to sharing best practices in engaging and catechizing people with disabilities. The pope had specifically asked the conference sponsor, the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization, to address the topic.

W

e know the great development that throughout recent decades has taken place in relation to disability. The growth in awareness of the dignity of every person, especially the weakest, has led to courageous positions being taken for the inclusion of those who live with various forms of handicap, so that no one need feel like an outsider in their own home.

However, at the cultural level there persist expressions that harm the dignity of these people through the prevalence of a false concept of life. A vision that is often narcissistic and utilitarian unfortunately leads many to consider people with disabilities as marginal, without recognizing in them their multifaceted human and spiritual wealth. An attitude of denying this condition, as if it prevented happiness and self-realization, is still too strong in the common mentality. This is shown by the eugenic tendency to suppress unborn children when they are shown to have some form of imperfection.

In reality we all know many people who with their fragility, even in serious cases, have found the path of a good life rich in meaning, if with some hardship. Just as, on the other hand, we know people who are apparently perfect and desperate! Besides, it is a

O

dangerous deceit to think we are invulnerable. Just as a girl I met on my recent trip to Colombia said to me, vulnerability is part of the essence of man.

The answer is love: not the false kind, overly sentimental and pietistic, but the true kind, concrete and respectful. To the extent in which we are welcomed and loved, included in the community and accompanied to look to the future with trust, the true path of life is developed and we experience lasting happiness.

This, we know, is valid to all, but the most fragile are the proof.

Faith is a great life companion when it permits us to touch with our hand the presence of a Father who never leaves his creatures alone in any condition of their life. The church cannot be aphonic or tone-deaf in the defense and promotion of people with disability. Her closeness to families helps her overcome the solitude in which they often risk closing themselves up due to a lack of attention and support.

This is even more valid for the responsibility she

possesses in the generation and formation of Christian life. There can be no lack in communities of the words and, above all, the gestures to encounter and welcome people with disabilities. The Sunday liturgy in particular must be able to include them so that the encounter with the risen Lord and with the same community can be a source of hope and courage in the not always easy path of life.

Catechesis in a special way is called to discover and experiment with coherent forms so that every person, with his or her gifts, limits and disabilities, even serious ones, may encounter Jesus on the way and abandon himself to him with faith.

No physical or psychic limit can be an impediment to this encounter, because the face of Christ shines in the intimacy of each person. In addition, let us be careful, especially we ministers of Christ’s grace, not to fall into the neo-Pelagian trap of not recognizing the need for the strength of the grace that comes from the sacraments of Christian initiation.

Let us learn to overcome the discomfort and fear that at times can be felt with regard to people with disabilities. Let us learn to seek and also to “invent” intelligently suitable tools so that no one lacks the support of grace. Let us form – first of all, by example!

– catechists who are increasingly capable of accompanying these people so that they may grow in faith and make their genuine and original contribution to the life of the church. Finally, I hope that in communities, people with disabilities may too be catechists, also by their witness, to transmit faith in a more effective way.

Catholic News Service

The art of giving, the challenge of Advent

prah Winfrey sings and claps when presented with the $69 lunch box that makes her 2017 “Favorite Things” list.

“I looooove!” she belts out in mock falsetto.

She doesn’t need to finish her sentence by naming the object of her love. It is expansive, and today, in a video of the selection process for her biggest gift guide, it covers 102 items, totaling $13,400 in value and ranging from a $2,000 55inch Samsung high-definition TV down to a $10 earbud case.

“People spend the best years of their lives either tryChristina ing to untangle their charger Capecchi cords or track down missing earbuds,” Oprah quips in the December issue of her magazine, O, which pictures all her favorite things.

It includes a $600 espresso maker, a $200 birdhouse, a $200 automated dog bone and a $250 “lip vault” by Ulta containing 25 tubes of “lip mousse.”

Oprah claims to have ordered them “for every woman I know,” and, incidentally, they were sold out before Thanksgiving.

There’s plenty of warm-fuzzy – buffalo plaid on

H

We all know many people who with their fragility, even in serious cases, have found the path of a good life rich in meaning, if with some hardship. Just as, on the other hand, we know people who are apparently perfect and desperate!

slippers, shirts, pajamas, blankets and boots – and frivolous, like $50 blueberries. “My new definition of everyday luxury,” Oprah writes, “a 5-pound box of organic wild blueberries frozen within 24 hours of harvest from Josh Pond Farm in Maine.”

It seems every so-called “influencer” now curates a gift guide if, for nothing else, the kickback from Amazon affiliate links. Online shoppers take the expert’s word, making transactions that require a nanosecond of engagement.

And so goes the drumbeat of commercialism: more, more, more.

All the while we Christians are called to answer Advent’s hushed invitation for less, less, less. To clear out our closets and turn off our phones, to resist the click-and-procure in favor of the wait-and-wonder.

What a challenge it is to make space for the other, for the divine. Filling sets off all our bells and whistles; emptying requires discernment and allows for quiet.

Americans prefer the former. We have so much self-storage space, the industry once pointed out, it is physically possible that every American could stand at the same time under the canopy of selfstorage roofing.

I’ve been reflecting on the art of gift giving – what it can do for us, at its best, and what it neglects to do at its hastiest. The more you put in, the more you get out.

My neighbor recently showed me her favor-

ite Christmas picture book, Holly Hobbie’s 2007 charmer “Toot & Puddle: Let It Snow,” in which a pair of best friends – who happen to be pigs – struggle to determine the perfect gifts for each other. Puddle labors in his attic, painting an image of the twosome in the woods. Toot, meanwhile, spends “every spare minute in his workshop in the basement” building a sled on wheels – one that will work with or without snow.

“He knew that the best present was usually something you made yourself, a one-of-a-kind thingamajig, not just a whatsit anyone could buy in a store,” Hobbie writes.

Indeed, the sweetest gifts require a commodity more precious than treasure: time. That’s the gift my mom extends to me every day with her availability and assistance, delighting in the giving, expecting nothing in return. Time is the resource we try to circumvent with apps and outsourcing, but it can never be replicated.

If you want Advent to remake your heart – to stretch it out like pizza dough and squish it back into something soft and supple – you must make the time for real giving, for glitter and glue and hours and minutes. Leave the lip vault to Oprah.

Christina Capecchi is a freelance writer from Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota.

A meditation on ‘Maranatha’

appy (real) new year: the beginning of a new year of grace, which began December 3 with the First Sunday of Advent.

“The holidays” so overwhelm our senses each December that it’s hard to remember that Advent, the season of preparation for Christmas, has a “thy-kingdom-come” dimension as well as a Nativity dimension.

For the first two weeks of Advent, the church ardently and insistently prays the ancient Aramaic “Maranatha”: “Come, Lord Jesus!” And that petition is prayed, not in george weigel a spirit of disgust or resignation – “C’mon, Lord, let’s get this over with ....” – but in the sure confidence that the Lord’s return in glory means the fulfillment of history: both the history of humanity and our personal histories. For in the second coming, history will be finally revealed as his-story, God’s story,

in which we have been privileged to participate by grace.

The “Maranatha” also prompts the question, what did the first Christians mean by calling Jesus “Lord”?

As Dr. Rowan Williams puts it, they meant that Jesus is “the supreme authority.” No other authority trumped the authority of Jesus: not the law, the Sabbath, or the Temple, for Jewish paleoChristians; not Caesar or the gods of Greece and Rome, for the first Gentiles to meet Christ. And why was Jesus the supreme authority? Because Jesus displayed “exactly the same liberty to love indiscriminately as does God himself.” And God himself ratified Jesus’ claim to be the embodiment of that indiscriminate, boundless love by raising Jesus from the dead, which “... made him both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2.36).

The church of the New Testament and the church of the Fathers worked out in creed and doctrine what that first confession of faith – “Jesus is Lord” – meant and implied. It meant that the God of Israel intended his salvation to reach all peoples.

It meant that Jesus was fully participant in the life of God himself (“consubstantial with the Father,” as the Nicene Creed puts it). It meant that God was thus a Trinity of persons, united in one godhead by the mutual gift and reception of love.

And that meant that the child born in Bethlehem is, to return to Williams, “the earthly face on an eternal love (among) Father, Son, and Spirit.”

Which was, in turn, a statement about us as well as about the triune God. For if we are given a share in that divine life through baptism, then “being in the body of Christ, the community of baptized believers, gives us the freedom to love God the Father as Jesus loves him, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, and so too to love the world with the unquestioning generosity of God, never restricting ourselves to those who are familiar to us and are like us.”

To say “Jesus is Lord” is to see the world aright and to behave differently. To say “Jesus is Lord” is to see children of God where before we saw only difference, and to treat others with the respect that befits see weigel, page 19

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Catholic san francisco | December 7, 2017

Playing loose with the truth

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t can be quite disheartening to watch the news these days. Our world is full of hatred, bigotry, racism and over-stimulated greed and ego. The gap between the rich and poor is widening and random, senseless violence is an everyday occurrence. One lives with hope, but without much optimism.

Among all of this, perhaps the most distressing thing of all is the erosion of our capacity to recognize and acknowledge the truth. From the highest government offices, to the major media outlets, to our local newspapers, to FATHER ron the thousands of bloggers, rolheiser down to our dinner tables, we are becoming irresponsible, manipulative, and outright dishonest with the truth, denying it where it’s inconvenient, bending it to suit our own purposes, or labeling it as “fake news,” “an alternative fact,” “misinformation,” “a truth that’s no longer operative,” or as “political correctness” with no truth value.

Studies from major scientific institutes are dismissed as just another opinion with the result that we are creating an entire society within which it’s becoming more and more difficult for any of us to trust what’s a fact and what isn’t. That’s dangerous territory, not just politically but especially spiritually.

Scripture tells us that Satan is the prince of lies and Jesus makes it clear that, among all sins, failure to acknowledge the truth is far and away the most dangerous. We see this motif particularly in the

text that warns us that we can commit a sin that’s unforgiveable because it’s a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. .

What’s this sin? Why is it unforgiveable? And what has it got to do with telling lies?

The unforgiveable sin is precisely the sin of lying which can become unforgiveable because of what lying can do to us. Here’s how the biblical text unfolds: Jesus has just cast out a demon. Part of the Jewish faith at that time was the belief that only someone who came from God had power to cast out a demon.

Jesus had done that, but the scribes and Pharisees who have just witnessed this found it to be an inconvenient truth since they denied Jesus’ goodness. So in the face of truth they had to either acknowledge something that they did not want to or they had to manipulate the truth to give it a different meaning. They chose the latter and, clearly aware that they were manipulating the truth, accused Jesus of performing the miracle through the power of Satan.

They knew better, knew they were lying, but the actual truth was too difficult to accept.

Jesus initially tries to argue with them, pointing out that there’s no logic in suggesting that Satan is casting out demons. They persist, and it’s then Jesus utters his warning: “In truth I tell you, all human sins will be forgiven, and all the blasphemies ever uttered, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, but is guilty of an eternal sin.” (Mark 3, 28-29; parallel text in Matthew 12, 31-32). What exactly is this warning?

Jesus is saying this: Be careful about what you are doing just now, putting a false spin on something because it is too awkward to accept as true. The danger is that if you continue doing this you may eventually

come to believe your own lie. That will be unforgiveable, given that you will no longer want to be forgiven because you will see truth as a lie and a lie as the truth. The sin cannot be forgiven, not because God doesn’t want to forgive it but because we no longer want to be forgiven.

Dictionaries tell us that blasphemy is the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God. We don’t blaspheme when we use foul language when we’re frustrated; nor do we blaspheme when we shake our fists at God in anger or turn away from him in bitterness. God can handle that. The one thing God cannot handle is lying, where we lie to the point of believing our own lies (the real danger in lying) because that eventually warps our consciences so that we can no longer tell truth from falsehood or falsehood from truth.

Theology teaches us that God is One, this means that God’s inner integrity assures that all of reality also has an inner integrity, an intelligibility, meaning that something cannot be and not be at the same time; meaning that two plus two cannot equal anything but four; meaning that a tree is always a tree no matter what you say it is; and meaning that black can never be white. God’s Oneness allows us to both trust reality and trust our normal perception of it.

That’s what’s under attack today, most everywhere. It’s the ultimate moral danger: God is One and so two plus two can never be five – and if it is then we are no longer in touch with God or with reality, are warped in conscience, and are blaspheming the Holy Spirit.

Perhaps we are all in agreement that it is difficult to follow Jesus.

Instead of forcing absolute alignment between theory and practice or between plan and reality, the challenge may be to live in the tension that connects the perfect and the effort. A teacher, I know the limits of theory only too well, and over the years have learned the importance of acknowledging the reality of the individual if teaching is to happen. A parent, I know the struggle involved in loving across all kinds of theories and compromises. A Catholic, I experience the daily tension between what may be called – for the purposes of this letter – the church of Father Thomas Weinandy and the church of Father John Catoir, both contributors to this edition of Catholic San Francisco.

It is wrenching to constantly be faced with the implication that the hard line with clear definition is somehow stronger than the gentle admission of not having all the answers, of not quite knowing the mind of God, of trusting in His infinite mercy for all of us.

My inclination, scared as I am of letting go of the security of the defined, is to listen to our Holy Father and see a God greater than my need to define him.

The lack of unity among church leaders reminds me of St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 1: 10-17, New American Standard Bible.

Maureen O’Riordan Lundy San Francisco

and gratified. It is not a stretch to also suggest I’m hardly alone in my relief and gratitude.

Perhaps “confusion” is code, a derogatory term advanced by devotees of John Paul II and Benedict XVI to describe thoughts and actions they don’t like, in a new world where they don’t get to tell the rest of us what to do; where it is assumed we all get to behave like adults, until proven otherwise. Losing one’s inquisitorial purpose in life is confusing indeed.

More confusing is the statement by Cardinal DiNardo, then USCCB president, following upon Father Weinandy’s resignation as bishops’ doctrinal consultant, faintly praising the longstanding tradition of dialogue within Catholic theological circles. Dialogue? Really? Tell that to Sister Elizabeth Johnson.

Zealots like Father Weinandy remain trapped in a world they don’t understand, won’t understand, and – scandalously! – can’t influence. The old habits of 35 years’ dictating terms of behavior die hard.

They seem to be counting the days to (what they hope will be) a pontificate more to their ideological liking, when the unbending rules, and the fear, and the judgment, will return like the incoming tide.

Good luck with that. We know the Gospels. And the toothpaste is already out of the tube.

Robert Boguski Sausalito The writer is a member of St. Agnes Parish, San Francisco.

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

Letters Bravo to liturgy ‘brilliant every time’

Maybe you have special appreciation for certain articles that appear in your paper. I found one yesterday. On Page 2 (Nov. 19), the title was “Faith formation speaker: Make Mass something children love.”

Wow, what a thought. As Father McGuire says, “it should be brilliant every time.” He goes on to say “it should be brilliant every single time ... there should be music, there should be preaching as if tomorrow is the last day ... What makes great liturgy? Great hymns, great homilies, great hospitality.”

It seems so obvious to me. Why should this be news?

But great liturgy is not what we usually get. Very often when I go to other parishes, what I often find is a kind of cocktail lounge music. Not the words, of course, but the melody and atmosphere of it. Very often the homilies are nothing but clichés, the kind of wording we have heard for years. The volunteers who assist on the altar seem to have no training and bumble through, which makes the liturgy seem like playing around rather than feeling sacred. While I am against going back in time like those who want to return to pre-Vatican II and restore Latin and the priest with his back to the congregation, they at least prepare, train and display a sense of the “divine” liturgy.

But enough complaining. The article was great and I’m so happy you printed it. These are the kinds of news stories we need to uplift us.

Charles Leyes San Francisco

Parish cannabis protest

Re “St. Anne Parish, school organize against proposed marijuana store,” Nov. 19: One wonders if these groups against marijuana stores are also ready to protest/organize against alcohol or cigarette stores in their neighborhoods also. I assume their siren songs are just as strong and of concern.

By simply substituting the words “cannabis” or “marijuana” with alcohol or tobacco, the article almost seems absurd.

Based on the documented danger and harm that can be caused by alcohol, I assume that St. Anne’s does not have alcohol at their festivals or other functions.

Mike Gunn San Francisco

A God greater than our need to define him

Re “Priest [Capuchin Father Thomas Weinandy] resigns as consultant on doctrine after letter to pope,” and “Private conscience and the church,” Father John Catoir, Nov. 9:

Confusion? What confusion?

Capuchin Father Thomas Weinandy, in his valedictory letter to Pope Francis, claims “a chronic confusion” characterizes the present pontificate (Nov. 9). Are you confused by the work product of two synods’ collaboration on the state of the modern family; i.e. “Amoris Laetitia”? Are you confused that some of our bishops – Cardinal Cupich of Chicago, to name one prominent example – at last recognize the spiritual and theological adulthood of the laity for what it is and long has been, long before Francis, rather than the infantilized version preferred and encouraged under the prior two papacies?

Speak for yourself, father. I, for one, am relieved,

School’s ‘desacralization’

Re “San Domenico ‘will no longer be Catholic,’ sisters announce,” Nov. 19: This is the desacralization of a formerly Catholic school, the opposite of any ministry of any Catholic, let alone a religious order. All in the name of political correctness so as not to offend anyone.

There are many non-Catholics who attend and teach at Catholic schools – a retired non-Catholic teacher lives across the street from me – and I even remember a Muslim girl who attended St. Raphael’s when I went there. No wonder there is a dearth of vocations to religious orders like the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael that have stripped their identity because of actions like this.

Kevin Cushing Novato

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Catholic san francisco | December 7, 2017

Join the Advent’s call to wait in joyful hope revolution of tenderness T Tony Rossi

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ED is a media organization that posts online talks under the slogan “ideas worth spreading.” Earlier this year Pope Francis surprised the world by digitally giving his own TED Talk at the organization’s annual conference in Vancouver.

In his nearly 20 minute talk, our Sister Holy Father constance challenged veit, lsp his listeners to ignite a much-needed revolution of tenderness in our world.

Tenderness, the Holy Father suggested, “is the love that comes close and becomes real. It is a movement that starts from our heart and reaches the eyes, the ears and the hands. Tenderness means to use our eyes to see the other, our ears to hear the other, to listen to the children, the poor, those who are afraid of the future. To listen also to the silent cry of our common home, of our sick and polluted earth. Tenderness means to use our hands and our heart to comfort the other, to take care of those in need.”

What better time could there be to launch a revolution of tenderness than during the Advent and Christmas season? After all, the heart of Christmas is the story of God’s coming among us as a see veit, page 19

he holiday season is upon us once again! That means we’ll soon be buying gifts, decorating the tree, and maybe attending a Christmas party or two. But as great as those things are, we don’t want them to distract us from the Christ-centered nature of the season. That’s why it’s so important to make time in our schedules to prayerfully observe Advent.

I recently interviewed two authors whose books of daily reflections, prayers, and meditations are specifically designed to help you do just that. Mary DeTurris Poust, communications director for the diocese of Albany, penned “Waiting in Joyful Hope,” while Sister Kathryn Hermes, along with several of her fellow Pauline sisters, authored “Advent Christmas Grace.”

For DeTurris Poust, Advent doesn’t come easy. It requires slowing down, she said, “and I’m not a very patient person. I talk fast, I walk fast, I like everything to happen now. Learning (to slow down) has been important for me, and I’m still working on it.”

Both authors note the importance of lectio divina (divine reading) on the way they put together their books. It’s not a passive experience, but rather a deliberate effort to enter the Scriptures and see how God is trying to communicate with us today. That can be especially important for people enduring pain and struggles during the holiday season. Sister Kathryn advised, “I often suggest walking into the stable with your pain, kind of like the little drummer boy ...Walk into the Scriptures with your pain, and imagine picking up the Christ child or sitting next to Mary or Joseph and allowing the presence of Jesus to touch you. The words that are in these books are powerful, and they can give us new thoughts and new direction. The Holy Spirit can speak

through them and open up a new door into our hearts, especially for people who are carrying the pain of loss, depression or failure. You’ve got to bring your own reality into these books and allow Jesus to meet you where you are.”

DeTurris Poust knows that we can miss the relevance of the Christmas story to our modern lives because we’ve heard it so many times. Entering the story ourselves can make a difference in how we respond.

She says, “We ought to think about Mary hearing this message (from the angel Gabriel). She was greatly troubled. She had to contemplate that. Then moving forward with Joseph, everything that transpired were difficult human things they had to face. We can forget, when we’re caught in our own trouble, that Mary and Joseph faced real challenges, not knowing everything that was coming. (But) they trusted, and we can do the same. We can look to them and find peace and trust in that place with them.”

Ultimately, Advent is meant to bring us closer to Jesus. Sister Kathryn says, “More than making a friend of Jesus is realizing that he has befriended us. Just the awe and the humbling reality that God – the divinity, my Creator – wanted to be my friend!. If Pope Francis came and said, ‘Sister Kathryn, I want to be your friend,’ I’d be like, ‘Wow, that is really cool!’”

DeTurris Poust concludes, “I think children and adults need to be reminded that (friendship) exists. It’s not something we have to earn (or) seek in a special way. We just have to turn ourselves toward Jesus and put ourselves in God’s presence. Again, it comes back to that daily time spent in prayer.”

Tony Rossi is director of communications for The Christophers. For free copies of the Christopher News Note “Embracing the Spirit of Christmas,” write: The Christophers, 5 Hanover Square, New York, New York 10004; or e-mail: mail@ christophers.org.

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16 opinion

Catholic san francisco | December 7, 2017

Celebrating World Fisheries Day Pietro Parravano

I

t seems like yesterday that World Fisheries day was established in New Delhi, India. It seems like yesterday that I shared the excitement with fishermen from around the world in forming our organization – The World Forum of Fish Workers and Fish Harvesters. It seems like yesterday that the world started an annual event that celebrated the profession of commercial fishing.

On Nov. 21, 1997, fishermen from 18 countries left their boats and traveled to New Delhi, Strangers, bonded by the oceans, met to establish a new organization. The forum was founded on the common principles of sustaining the fisheries; sustaining the fishing communities; advocating for social justice and preserving the cultural history of fish harvesters and fish workers. Fishing representatives from 18 countries signed a declaration advocating for a global mandate of sustainable fishing practices and policies. The representatives from the United States that participated in this milestone were Angela Sanfilippo from Gloucester, Massachusetts; Barbara Stickel from Morro Bay; and myself.

“Yesterday” was 20 years ago. Each one of us can reflect on what the last 20 years have meant for us in our professional and personal lives. There have been lots of ups and downs, lots of happiness and sadness, and lots of successes and failures. As fishermen, we look back with a perspective based on economic, ecological and social values. We measure our profession with unique indicators and principles. Our workplace is the oceans and lakes which cover about 75 percent of Earth. This workplace has many challenges which are based on natural systems. Skills and knowledge are needed to harvest food that is constantly changing location and abundance. Equally important is the vulnerability to changing conditions.

Fishing has been around for a very long time – thousands of years. So, 20 years is a small amount of time relative to the chronicles of fishing in world history. We know that the Bible has several refer-

(Courtesy photo)

The author, Pietro Parravano, is pictured at far right in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, last October during the World Congress of the Apostleship of the Sea. Also pictured, from left: Sebastian Matthew, International Collective in Support of Fishworkers, India; Albert Napier, Apostleship of the Sea, Seychelles; Alain LeSann, Apostleship of the Sea, France.

ences to Gospels which describe the importance of fish and fishermen. Nowadays, fishing is the focal point of many policies, regulations and nutritional interest. Many times we take for granted that food will be always available and plentiful. Many times we do not understand the source of food and how food travels through a supply chain. Commercial fishermen bring you a variety of seafood which is unique to the region. They do this with pride using skills that they have learned working on the back deck of fishing boats. Often catching fish is a spiritual way of life and serves as a symbol of culture and heritage.

World Fisheries Day illustrates the importance of fish as food and the role of the fishermen in providing us with this nourishment. This pride continues today.

Unfortunately, 20 years has brought us calamities and losses. Many fishermen have died working or pursuing their quest of teaching others the economic, ecological and social importance of sustaining the

fisheries. Disasters – natural and man-made – have taken a severe toll on the fisheries and fishermen.

The inhumane treatment of fishermen held captive on boats has become prevalent in the last 20 years.

Fortunately, the past 20 years have brought much more awareness of fishermen, fisheries and coastal communities. On Oct. 1-7, the Vatican, through its maritime ministry the Apostleship of the Sea, organized a World Congress in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The conference, “Caught In The Net,” gave an overview of abuse onboard fishing vessels. Many organizations gave presentations on how they are addressing the human rights violations. I am very grateful that Pope Francis is addressing these human rights issues on fishing boats. It is in alignment with his goal of equality and reinforces the meaning of World Fisheries Day to advocate for social justice and fair labor conditions in fishing. Ocean health and fishing comes with a price which is recognized on World Fisheries Day. This day helps us understand the vulnerability of the fisheries to disasters and water quality.

World Fisheries Day welcomes us into the livelihood and experiences of fishermen, a union held together by the circle created by the oceans. It gives us an insight into their culture, their lives and their knowledge. Twenty years ago in New Delhi, this bond established solidarity. Solidarity between fishermen replaces hopelessness and loneliness. It overcomes despair and fear.

Each year on Nov. 21 we return to where it all started 20 years ago. Our path, 20 years in the making, has brought us closer to the bounty of the oceans.

Looking forward, this path will bring a heightened awareness to the plight of the oceans’ resources and of those who spend their lives bringing us seafood.

Pietro Parravano is chair of the Fishing Committee of the Apostleship of the Sea. He lives in Half Moon Bay.

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Warm Seasonal Wishes For You And Your Family

By Paul Larson MILLBRAE – To start off I want to wish you, your family and loved ones great health, delight, tranquility, affection, and much prosperity now and into the New Year, along with improved fortune in the years ahead. At this special moment most everyone hopes for qualities like warmth, peace, love, joy, happiness and all the feelings that go along with the Yuletide season. Many of us are very blessed to be in the position we are in.

Though, keep in mind that not everyone is fortunate enough to have all of the above gifts.

Luckily there are those in the community who make it their mission to help. Local Churches, Charities and also Service Organizations, such as the Lions Club, give back to the community and raise funds to contribute to those who can’t always help themselves. Private individuals also make much needed generous donations to these organizations.

It is often mentioned that this time of year can bring about stress. Every year we all are reminded about those who have forgotten the meaning of Christmas, along with the “commercialization” of the season, and about family troubles, personal demons, illnesses or deaths that some have to deal with. There are those who have no family or love at all. Still, there is much beauty to see if we look for it. Right now there are a good number of people who have embraced a festive attitude, and are open to acts of kindness more than they normally would be.

Discovering the joy of giving to others is a way to bring about self happiness and

relieve the stressful realities of day to day life. The feeling of accomplishment when giving to others, or donating time to help others, or extending forgiveness to those who have been unkind, can be psychologically empowering and a freeing experience. Many of those who don’t have much to give also make an extra effort to put themselves into this giving frame of mind.

It would be rewarding for humanity if everyone had this sprit all year long.

Even though our species may not yet be evolved enough to achieve this, it would be a wonderful world if we had the ability to remove the mental blinders that block us from “seeing” that giving to and accepting others can be therapeutic. Learning that that there is satisfaction in giving of ourselves to others, forgiving those around us, and understanding those different than ourselves can be liberating, gratifying, healing, invigorating and some ways naturally intoxicating.

To establish this spirit of giving, the following “quotes” can be helpful in finetuning our consciousness to the appropriate Yuletide frequency: “You can give without loving, but you can never love without giving.” – Robert Louis Stevenson; “It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.” ― Mother Teresa; “Happiness doesn't result from what we get, but from what we give.” ― Ben Carson; and the all time favorite “It is more blessed to give than to receive” – Jesus.

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opinion 17

Catholic san francisco | December 7, 2017

Handling the holidays when you’re hurting Lisa M. Petsche

Many people are filled with joyful anticipation and festive good cheer at this time of the year. But some are filled with anxiety and dread, and wish to get the holidays over with as quickly as possible.

They may have lost a loved one or experienced some other upheaval, such as illness, unemployment or financial problems, relocation or the breakdown of an important relationship.

Their emotions put them out of step with those around them, further intensifying their sense of grief and isolation.

More than any other time of the year, the holiday season embodies family togetherness and is steeped in ritual and tradition. It’s a time of reaching out to others in a spirit of caring and generosity. But how can you embrace this spirit when you are hurting or feel empty inside?

Coping skills: The following is some advice.

I

Acknowledge that this year is different; don’t try to act as if nothing has changed. Be prepared to lower your expectations.

Accept your feelings, including ups and downs from one moment to the next. Face your heartache and allow the tears to come, knowing they’re a necessary part of healing.

Resist the urge to isolate yourself.

It’s important to stay connected to people who care. But do let loved ones know your limitations.

Evaluate the meaning of the season in your life. Decide what is most important to you, focus on it and forget the rest this year.

Keep in mind that traditions are especially important to children during times of upset, providing them with much needed comfort and security.

So although certain practices might now be a source of discomfort or hold little meaning for some of the adults in your family, they may still be worth continuing, perhaps with modifications.

Plan ahead to help reduce anxiety

and stay focused. Whatever holidayrelated tasks you decide to take on, ask for help and delegate responsibilities. Make lists to keep organized.

Grief saps energy and affects concentration, and you don’t want to create more stress for yourself.

Set aside quiet time each day. Nurturing your spirituality in this way will help keep you grounded.

One day at a time:

If you accept an invitation, do so on the condition that you may back out at the last minute if you don’t feel up to the occasion. Since it’s impossible to predict how much energy you will have, be flexible and give yourself an out. Take things one day at a time.

Guard your health. Overindulging in food or alcohol or getting insufficient sleep will only make you feel worse.

Express your emotions. Find someone who will listen and empathize, or write down your thoughts and feelings in a journal.

Turn to your religious faith for

comfort, whether it’s through prayer, reading, listening to music, attending Mass or talking with your pastor.

Try to focus on the spiritual aspects of the season rather than those you find stressful or can’t relate to.

Consider doing something nice for someone. Many people find it helps take their mind off their own situation.

Take responsibility for your wellbeing by doing something nice for yourself.

Look for moments of joy and laughter, and relish them. Don’t allow feelings of self-pity, bitterness or guilt to get the upper hand and rob you of the ability to feel pleasure.

If you take time now to anticipate events and your reaction to them, and plan some coping strategies, you will make it through the holiday season – perhaps even better than you expected. Just remember that there is no right or wrong way to do things.

Lisa M. Petsche is a social worker and a freelance writer specializing in health and family life.

Destroying my freedom – in the name of freedom?

n an August 2015 column in The Washington Post, George F. Will argued in favor of physician-assisted suicide, summing up his perspective this way: “There is nobility in … affirming at the end the distinctive human dignity of autonomous choice.”

His conclusion, however, raises several important questions: Shouldn’t death-dealing actions directed against father tadeusz ourselves be pacholczyk seen as a deep repudiation of our autonomy, insofar as suicide

making sense out of bioethics

eliminates our personal freedom once and for all? If our ability to freely make choices is among the highest of our human faculties, isn’t it a radical contradiction to mount an attack on that autonomy through suicidal acts? Isn’t there a certain absurdity to marshaling our freedom to obliterate our freedom?

Autonomy is often described as being able to do what we want, being “self-governing” and “self-directing.”

Authentic freedom, though, doesn’t actually mean the ability to do whatever we want; it means the ability to do what we ought, in accord with who we are. To grow in freedom and autonomy means acting in such a way that we attend to, and respect the designs written into our nature. Otherwise, autonomy collapses into a caricature of its real meaning, or worse, into raw violence and forcefulness against ourselves or others.

We can consider a simple example: Exercising autonomy with respect to

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our car doesn’t mean doing whatever we want with it, like pouring milk in the gas tank, and orange juice in the oil reservoir. If we intentionally sideswipe other vehicles as we drive along, and strike pedestrians on the sidewalk, these would be acts of violence, not acts of “autonomy” or “free choice.”

Authentic freedom with an automobile

implies using it in an ordered way to get from A to B, driving safely and legally, and even doing the right maintenance and upkeep on it, maintaining respect for the way the vehicle was designed and intended to be used.

Freedom and autonomy regarding see pacholczyk, page 19

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18 opinion

Catholic san francisco | December 7, 2017

T (Photo by Valerie Schmalz/Catholic San Francisco)

Sal Alioto, a member of Holy Name of Jesus Parish and retired owner of Sal’s Pizza, was among the neighbors rallying against a cannabis dispensary approved for Irving Street at 23rd Avenue in San Francisco. Most of the neighborhood businesses shut down for an hour Dec. 1 to protest the Barbary Coast cannabis dispensary, approved by the city Planning Commission. The neighborhood appeal was scheduled to be heard by the Board of Supervisors Dec. 5.

cannabis: SF OK’s recreational cannabis effective FROM PAGE 7

Jan. 1. Each local jurisdiction must enact land use regulations for sale and growth and manufacture of cannabis and many, such as East Palo Alto and Millbrae, have voted to completely ban cannabis sales. In Marin County, only one medical marijuana outlet in Fairfax is permitted.

Under federal law, marijuana remains a Class I prohibited substance, defined as a substance with a high potential for abuse. While the federal government has largely taken a hands-off approach toward legalized marijuana at the state level, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Nov. 29 said marijuana was “detrimental” to the country sparking speculation that the federal government may begin cracking down on marijuana operations.

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A Feast Created Before Your Eyes

Paul VI, prophet

his coming July, we will mark the 50th anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s deeply controversial encyclical letter “Humanae Vitae.” I won’t bore you with the details of the innumerable battles, disagreements, and ecclesial crises that followed upon this text. Suffice it to say that this short, pithily argued letter became a watershed in the post-conciliar Catholic Church and one of the most significant points of contention between liberals and conservatives. Its fundamental contention is that the moral integrity of BISHOP Robert the sexual act is a function Barron of the coming together of its “procreative and unitive” dimensions. That is to say, sexual intercourse is ethically upright only in the measure that it is expressive of love between married partners and remains open to the conception of a child. When, through a conscious choice, the partners introduce an artificial block to procreation – when, in a word, they separate the unitive and procreative finalities of the sexual act – they do something which is contrary to God’s will.

Again, within the context of this brief article I won’t detail the arguments for and against this position. But I would like to draw particular attention to a remarkable passage in “Humanae Vitae,” namely section 17, in which Paul VI plays the prophet and lays out, clearly and succinctly, what he foresees as consequences of turning away from the church’s classic teaching on sex. Though he is convinced that artificial contraception is morally bad in itself, he’s also persuaded that it would, in the long run, adversely affect general societal attitudes regarding sex. Here is a first observation: “Let them consider how easily this course of action could open wide the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral standards. Not much experience is needed to be fully aware of human weakness and to understand that human beings – and especially the young, who are so exposed to temptation – need incentives to keep the moral law, and it is an evil thing to make it easy for them to break that law.” Does anyone doubt that, in the last 50 years, we have seen a profound attenuation of marital fidelity? Could anyone possibly contest that the last half century has witnessed a significant breakdown of the institution of marriage? Is anyone so blind as not to see that during the last five decades “a lowering of moral standards” has taken place? To be sure, there are multiple causes of these declines, and certainly not all the blame can be ascribed to artificial contraception. However, Paul VI was intuiting something of great moment, namely, that once we commenced to redefine the nature of the sexual act, we placed ourselves on a very steep and slippery slope toward a complete voluntarism, whereby we utterly determine the meaning of sexuality, of marriage, and

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even of gender. And the rapid rise in pornography use, the sexual exploitation of children, and human trafficking are functions of this same arbitrariness.

What was only vaguely envisioned and feared 50 years ago is now accepted more or less as a matter of course.

In that same section, Paul VI continues to prophesy: “Another effect that gives cause for alarm is that a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection.” In the post-Weinstein era, we hear practically every day of another celebrity who has treated women with disrespect, turning them indeed into objects for his own use and manipulation. The entire society is rightly outraged at this behavior, but precious few cultural commentators have noted the link between this kind of objectification and the conscious disassociation of the twin ends of the sexual act. When we are permitted casually to separate love from procreation – or as one analyst had it, to sever the link between sex and diapers – we place ourselves on a short road to reducing sexual intercourse to a form of self-indulgent recreation.

Section 17 of “Humanae Vitae” concludes with a startling act of prescience regarding the political implications of countenancing artificial contraception: “Finally, careful consideration should be given to the danger of this power passing into the hands of those public authorities who care little for the precepts of the moral law. Who will blame a government which in its attempt to resolve the problems affecting an entire country resorts to the same measures as are regarded as lawful by married people in the solution of a particular family difficulty?

Who will prevent public authorities from favoring those contraceptive methods which they consider more effective? Should they regard this as necessary, they may even impose their use on everyone.”

What might have seemed exaggerated, perhaps even slightly paranoid, in 1968 is now a commonplace. The HHS mandate, which would require even Catholic institutions to provide insurance coverage for contraception and abortifacients, has been so aggressively pursued that even the Little Sisters of the Poor found themselves battling for their rights in court. Pope Francis, an ardent admirer of Paul VI, has picked up on this theme, bemoaning the “ideological colonization” that takes place when the Western powers attempt, through threat of economic sanctions, to impose their sexual program on the underdeveloped world.

This coming 50th anniversary year would be a good time to take another look at “Humanae Vitae.”

I might suggest we commence with section 17.

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Catholic san francisco | December 7, 2017

Pope: ‘Invest in love,’ Francis says on first World Day of the Poor FROM PAGE 9

“precarious condition” and whose 1-year-old daughter has cystic fibrosis.

In addition to the bread and wine that were consecrated at the Mass, the offertory included a large basket of bread and rolls that were blessed to be shared at the lunch the pope was offering after Mass. Some 1,200 poor people joined the pope in the Vatican’s audience hall for the meal, while the other special guests were served at the Pontifical North American College – the U.S. seminary in Rome – and other seminaries and Catholic-run soup kitchens nearby.

Preaching about the Gospel “parable of the talents” (Matthew 25:14-30), Pope Francis said the servant in the story who buried his master’s money was rebuked not because he did something wrong, but because he failed to do something good with what he was given.

“All too often, we have the idea that we haven’t done anything wrong, and so we rest content, presuming that we are good and just,” the pope said. “But to do no wrong is not enough. God is not an inspector looking for unstamped tickets; he is a Father looking for children to whom he can entrust his property and his plans.”

If in the eyes of the world, the poor they have little

value, he said, “they are the ones who open to us the way to heaven; they are our ‘passport to paradise.’

For us it is an evangelical duty to care for them, as our real riches, and to do so not only by giving them bread, but also by breaking with them the bread of God’s word, which is addressed first to them.”

Where the poor are concerned, the pope said, too many people are often guilty of a sin of omission or indifference.

Thinking it is “society’s problem” to solve, looking the other way when passing a beggar or changing the channel when the news shows something disturbing are not Christian responses, he said.

“God will not ask us if we felt righteous indignation,” he said, “but whether we did some good.”

People please God in a similar way to how they please anyone they love. They learn what that person likes and gives that to him or her, the pope said.

In the Gospels, he said, Jesus says that he wants to be loved in “the least of our brethren,” including the hungry, the sick, the poor, the stranger and the prisoner.

“In the poor, Jesus knocks on the doors of our heart, thirsting for our love,” he said. True goodness and strength are shown “not in closed fists and crossed arms, but in ready hands outstretched to the poor, to the wounded flesh of the Lord.”

Before joining his guests for lunch, Pope Francis recited the Angelus prayer with thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square.

The previous day in Detroit, he told the people, Capuchin Father Solanus Casey was beatified. “A humble and faithful disciple of Christ, he was known for his untiring service to the poor. May his witness help priests, religious and laypeople live with joy the bond between the proclamation of the Gospel and love for the poor.”

Pope Francis told the crowd that he hoped “the poor would be at the center of our communities not only at times like this, but always, because they are at the heart of the Gospel. In them, we encounter Jesus who speaks to us and calls us through their suffering and their needs.”

Offering special prayers for people living in poverty because of war and conflict, the pope asked the international community to make special efforts to bring peace to those areas, especially the Middle East.

Pope Francis made a specific plea for stability in Lebanon, which is in the middle of a political crisis after its prime minister announced his resignation. He prayed the country would “continue to be a ‘message’ of respect and coexistence throughout the region and for the whole world.”

Weigel: A meditation on ‘Maranatha’ FROM PAGE 13

those whom God has loved so much as to offer them the possibility of friendship with his incarnate Son. Indeed, to say “Jesus is Lord” impels us – or should impel us – to offer others the gift of friendship with the Son that we have been given, not by our own merits, but by sheer grace. That is what it means to be a missionary disciple in a church permanently in mis-

sion: It means to deal with the world as generously as God has dealt with us, in order to convert the world.

What, then, does it mean to pray in the “Maranatha” that the Lord will come again? It means to understand that the end of the story has already been revealed in the Incarnation and above all in the Resurrection. God is going to win, in the end, whatever the travails that beset his people between now and then. That conviction is not an invitation to in-

difference; it is a counsel against despair, about both the life of the church, when that becomes roiled, and the life of the world, when that turns sour.

So, yes, come, Lord Jesus: and give us the strength and wisdom to prepare a fitting place for your return.

George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow and William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Washington, D.C.

veit: Join the Holy Father in the revolution of tenderness FROM PAGE 15

helpless baby – this is the epitome of tenderness. As Pope Francis shared, “God himself descended into Jesus to be on our level. This is the path that Jesus himself took. He lowered himself, he lived his entire human existence practicing the real, concrete language of love. Tenderness is the path of solidarity, the path of humility.”

Imagine what Christmas would be like if we opted out of the commercialism of the season in favor of tenderness! If we didn’t have to be on the lookout for the next sale or the latest decorating ideas, we could better use our eyes to see the lonely and the misfit.

If we chose silence over the 24-hour Christmas carol station once in a while, we would grow more attuned to the cry of the poor and the deepest hopes and fears of our children. And if our arms weren’t so full of packages, we could more easily reach out to others with the caress of God himself.

But we can choose tenderness over materialism

and consumerism this Christmas! It’s a matter of slowing down, putting Christ at the center and prioritizing people over things. Reaching out to serve those on the peripheries and cherishing those who are close to us will bring us deeper fulfillment and more precious memories than all those material gifts we don’t really need. Tenderness is its own reward!

Meeting with a group of young people last Advent, Pope Francis invited them to welcome the joy of the season as a gift and to witness to it in their families, schools and parishes. He specifically encouraged them to share it with their grandparents by talking to them, asking them questions and learning from their memories and experiences. He also told grandparents that they should make an effort to understand their grandchildren, and to listen to their aspirations and hopes.

As a Little Sister of the Poor, I can think of no better way to launch the revolution of tenderness than for families to strengthen intergenerational bonds this Christmas. If you are young, reach out to your

grandparents or elder aunts and uncles. And if you are older, shower the kids in your extended family with the unconditional love and attention that only elders know how to give.

I have one last suggestion this Christmas – and it springs directly from our Holy Father’s TED Talk.

“Quite a few years of life have strengthened my conviction that each and everyone’s existence is deeply tied to that of others,” Francis told his audience.

And then, incredibly, he asked for a little tenderness for himself: “We all need each other. And so, please, think of me as well with tenderness, so that I can fulfill the task I have been given for the good of the other, of each and every one, of all of you, of all of us.”

So, as you help ignite the revolution of tenderness this Christmas, don’t forget to say a little prayer for the man who inspired it!

Sister Constance Veit is director of communications for the Little Sisters of the Poor.

Pacholczyk: Destroying freedom in the name of freedom FROM PAGE 17

what we eat and drink, to consider another example, doesn’t mean we can consume anything at all. We can legitimately choose between apples and oranges, but not between milk and drain cleaner. If, in the name of autonomy, we were to declare that we’re free to do whatever we want with our bodies, and we ingested drain cleaner on purpose to make ourselves ill, we would actually undermine and surrender our personal autonomy. We would no longer be able to do what we might wish to do, as our body rebelled and constrained us to a stretcher on our way to the emergency room or poison control center.

Looking at a misguided choice of this kind reminds us how our autonomy is never absolute. This kind of choice would also raise doubts in the minds of those who cared about us regarding our mental and moral sanity. To deem self-inflicted sickness to

be desirable would itself be a sickness, a kind of lie, spoken in the name of a perverted sense of being free to do whatever I want, even to the point of selfharm or self-annihilation.

The decision to intentionally end our own life by an act of suicide (whether alone or with the assistance of others) pivots our uniquely human power to make sound choices into a seditious power directed against our own good. To self-inflict death in collusion with a physician would constitute a profoundly disordered decision, and a radically corrosive attack on our autonomy. Rather than something dignified, this abuse of freedom is ethically indefensible.

If sane people can recognize that drinking poison to get ourselves sick is wrong, how can we feign that ingesting drugs or using other means to kill ourselves is somehow right and noble? Abusing our own freedom or autonomy isn’t free or autonomous; in-

stead, it enslaves and diminishes us. When medical professionals pivot in their role of healing and curing, and instead become accomplices in terminating the sick and vulnerable, they, too, undermine their own autonomy and corrupt their own professional freedom to genuinely care and “first do no harm.”

True autonomy is not limitless or absolute, but is necessarily conditioned by the truth of who we are and the way we function. Properly exercised, our personal freedom manifests a genuine nobility, and a real dignity. We should never will that our final “autonomous choice” be directed against that noble dignity. Rather, we must flee the tyranny of false autonomy if our lives are to be authentically marked by human freedom in its full splendor.

Father Tad Pacholczyk is a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts, and serves as director of education at The National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia.

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Catholic san francisco | December 7, 2017

(Photos by Valerie Schmalz/Catholic San Francisco)

Left, Archbishop Cordileone prays in front of the federal building at 630 Sansome St. in San Francisco with a group supporting Floricel Ramos, an undocumented woman recently detained by immigration authorities and fighting in court to remain in the U.S. Above, the archbishop greets Adriana Guzman, a parishioner at St. Peter Parish in the Mission District and leader in Faith in Action Bay Area.

Archbishop: Offers personal solidarity with undocumented detainees FROM PAGE 1

children, U.S. citizens, are on their own, with her 17-year-old caring for the 11- and 13-year-olds with the help of a friend. Ramos’ case was heard Nov. 29, with the judge promising a written decision by early the next week.

Auxiliary Bishop William J. Justice, less than a week after his official retirement, joined those in the courtroom in support of Ramos on Nov. 29.

“Thanks, Archbishop Cordileone, for your courage and commitment to share the journey with the less protected and most vulnerable people, the immigrants and refugees who are running from violence and or poverty,” said Adriana Guzman, a St. Peter parishioner and leader in Faith in Action Bay Area.

In his essay in the Chronicle, Archbishop Cordileone asked the United States to take its temperature as a society. “How should our society treat Mejia, and millions of other sisters and brothers like him?

How would you want to be treated if you were in their situation?

“In a virtuous society – that is, one whose political, social and economic institutions allow all of its members to flourish – the answer to both questions is the same. Will we be such a virtuous society?

“The decision is now before us. The character of our country will be defined by our answer,” Archbishop Cordileone wrote.

Praying Nov. 22 on Sansome for Floricel Ramos and her family, Archbishop Cordileone said, “Lord God help us do everything possible to reunite families.”

In May, Hugo Mejia, 37, and a co-worker were handcuffed by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement immigration officials when they reported for work at a construction site at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield. The co-worker, Rodrigo Nunez, was deported in August. Mejia, who has been in the country for 16 years, did not have a valid ID, said Guzman.

Ramos had pled guilty to two separate DUI’s in 2015 and 2016, and told the judge Nov. 29, she had started drinking for the first time at age 35 overwhelmed by the stress of working 17 hours a day at low-wage jobs, taking care of her children without her husband who was deported in 2012. Ramos, 38, entered the U.S. at age 18. Ramos said she has found success with alcohol counseling and asked to be returned to care for her children who are staying with a friend.

During the recent U.S. bishops meeting in Baltimore, Archbishop Cordileone said the Catholic Church’s position is clearly laid out in the joint pastoral letter issued in 2003 by the bishops of Mexico and the U.S. In 2003, the bishops of the United States and Mexico issued a joint pastoral letter, “Strangers No Longer: Together on the Journey of Hope.”

CNS publishes pamphlet on welcoming refugees, migrants

Catholic News Service has published a new pamphlet titled “Our Faith Teaches: Welcoming the Refugee and Migrant.”

Published also in Spanish (“Nuestra Fe Ensena: Acoger al Refugiado y al Migrante”), this pamphlet is meant to be an accessible, easy to read explanation of what the Catholic Church teaches regarding hospitality to the stranger.

The pamphlet also offers a call to action with several suggestions that every parish and every Catholic family can consider doing as a corporal work of mercy.

As Pope Francis launches his international campaign to “Share the Journey,” this pamphlet is designed to help Catholics understand the church’s teaching and therefore better understand when their leaders and their Catholic publications speak out on immigration and refugee issues.

For more information or to purchase copies of the pamphlet, go to http://store.usccb.org/Welcoming-the-Refugee-and-Migrant-p/7-579.htm.

advent: Living by church’s calendar draws families closer to saints, Mass FROM PAGE 1

Spencer noted that Sts. Louis and Zelie Martin, the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux, used a set of 15 books dedicated to the annual cycle of feasts and fasts in their 19th-century French home; Spencer has an edition on a shelf in her own living room.

In the Spencer’s West St. Paul home, the church’s season is regularly reflected in two spots: the dining room table centerpiece and the family’s small prayer table. The latter contains candles and a few icons, statues and artworks of saints and devotions, some of which change to reflect certain feasts or seasons.

The family prays there together daily, often noting that day’s saint or memorial. Sometimes, they mark a saint’s feast by attending daily Mass, where the saint is commemorated in the liturgy.

The Spencers’ centerpieces range from an Advent wreath, to a crown of thorns during Lent, to fresh flowers during ordinary time. Susanna anticipates feast days while meal planning, serving spaghetti on an Italian saint’s memorial or a blueberry dessert on days honoring Mary, which the church traditionally symbolizes with blue.

“One of the ways that you can learn about holiness is living with the saints,” she told The Catholic Spirit, newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. “If we never think of them, we … can’t benefit from their intercession.”

She realizes that observing the Catholic Church’s calendar can feel like another task on the to-do list, and therefore potentially overwhelming or discouraging. She encourages Catholics who want to try it to keep it simple.

That’s also the advice shared by Beth Morgan, who was inspired to incorporate the church year into her home after becoming a mother. Now with two girls under age 4 and a baby due in January, she said the practice helps her teach her children the faith.

“It’s hard to engage (children) in Mass if you don’t make it tangible, and I think having (aspects of the liturgical year) at home makes it tangible,” said Morgan, 28, a parishioner of Transfiguration in Oakdale.

Like the Spencers, the Morgans try to reflect the church season with their dining table centerpiece, because it’s a daily focal point in their home. The Advent centerpiece includes a purple cloth to help her daughters connect their home to what they see at Mass, she said.

“The church has a beautiful tradition, and everything we do in our life goes to that same cadence,” she said. “We want to instill that Jesus and God are part of everything we do.”

Morgan also rotates some of her daughters’ bedtime books to correspond with Christmas, Lent and Easter; celebrates the feast days of the saints for whom her daughters were named; and changes the family’s prayer routine to reflect the season or devotional month, such as adding Hail Marys to their evening prayers in May, the month the church especially honors the mother of God. The Morgans’ Advent will include a Jesse Tree and special daily prayers paired with their meal prayer. On Christmas Day, Morgan will swap her Advent wreath’s purple and pink candles for white, and she’ll place the Nativity scene’s Baby Jesus in

the center to await the arrival of the Magi – whose figurines Morgan plans to move closer to Jesus each day until Epiphany.

Near St. Joseph in West St. Paul, Heidi Flanagan’s family has developed an Advent tradition that has connected its members more intimately to the communion of saints.

On the first Sunday of Advent, Heidi; her husband, John; and their six children – ages 2 to 12 – select a slip of paper from a shoebox. On that paper is the name of a saint who becomes their patron for the liturgical year.

Heidi, 43, received the box – and the idea – about eight years ago from a friend who does something similar in her home. St. Joseph parishioners, the Flanagans say a small litany of the saints daily, asking each member’s patron saint for that year to pray for them. They also celebrate their feast days throughout the year.

“I feel like it’s given them this buddy in heaven – this sense of security – that we’re not alone, that they have these superheroes rooting for them and praying for them in heaven,” Flanagan said of her children.

“They develop friendships with these saints.”

The tradition has provided an opportunity to learn more about the saints’ lives, and the saints have helped all of the Flanagans grow in their spiritual lives. Before they select their saints, the Flanagans also pray that the saints selected would also “choose” them.

“It’ s been so cool how often we look back at the year and say, ‘Oh, I can totally see how this saint chose me,’” because different challenges or opportunities seemed suited to that saint’s intercession.

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Catholic san francisco | December 7, 2017

Fear and loathing: Rohingya crisis shows danger of identity politics Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

DHAKA, Bangladesh – The themes chosen by the local bishops for Pope Francis’ visits to Myanmar and Bangladesh – “Love and peace” and “Harmony and peace” – sounded naive or just too “nicey-nice” to some people.

But when love, peace and harmony are missing, the situation is pretty much hell on earth. The Rohingya refugees from Myanmar now living in teeming camps in Bangladesh could testify to that.

Pope Francis, on the other hand, wanted to testify to the Gospel. And that meant emphasizing love, peace and harmony.

The situation of the Rohingya is an extreme example of what happens when one’s ethnic or religious identity incites such strong fear or pride or that it creates ironclad categories of “us and them.”

And when the lines are drawn that clearly, the migration of the minority group is a natural result.

Holy Cross Father Daniel Groody, an associate professor of theology and global affairs at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, told Catholic News Service he had been in Myanmar a year and a half ago studying the situation of the Rohingya, as they identify themselves, or the undocumented Muslims from Rakhine state, as the government refers to them.

“They are the most stateless people I have ever encountered,” Father Groody said. In Myanmar, “they are not only undocumented, they are so totally defined as ‘other’ that they are considered nonpersons.”

Some media and human rights groups criticized Pope Francis for accepting the advice of local Catholic leaders and not referring to the Rohingya by name.

(CNS photo/Abir Abdullah, EPA)

A Rohingya family sits outside their tent Nov. 20 at a refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.

The wisdom of that decision will probably be debated for some time.

“But I think his very presence says everything,” Father Groody said.

Pope Francis has not publicly berated any government official of any country during a visit. He treats them with respect, listens and – drawing on the values they profess – he tries to show them what the next step toward the common good should be.

“It requires real care,” Father Groody said. “You wouldn’t want to see him do this gangbuster prophecy thing and ride into the sunset, thinking he’d done the heroic thing. I think he’s not just trying to be heroic; he’s trying to be a bridge-builder.”

“There’s real heroism and courage in just being able to build bridges,” the priest said. “In the long run, that may be more effective, and in the end, that’s what matters.”

Indian Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai, a member of the pope’s in-

ternational Council of Cardinals, was in both Myanmar and Bangladesh for Pope Francis’ visit.

In his own country, the cardinal has seen how the identity question and ethnicity and religious belonging can become points of social tension. But it wasn’t always that way, he told CNS. Growing up, he said, the neighbors in his apartment building in Mumbai were Hindu, Muslim and Christian.

“We were very good friends. We never saw a different religion or culture as the basis for any division.”

“Now, all of a sudden, I must say that it has changed, and I blame politicians for this,” he said. “Politicians used and are still using religion to get votes.”

And in neighborhoods where people just accepted that they each had their own faith and culture, the cardinal said, now people are starting to think, “Oh, he is different from me.”

Playing up differences has had deadly results in Myanmar and India

and in many other places around the world. And the fear caused by those acts of violence and terrorism have fed isolationism and an exaggerated “usfirst” attitude.

In response, Cardinal Gracias said, “the whole Christian Gospel value of love seems a cliche – but it is a commitment, love is a decision to imitate Jesus” and rescue those in danger and help those in need, including migrants and refugees.

Obviously, he said, reasonable measures must be taken to ensure people allowed into a country are not coming to do harm.

“There’s a real point there, but on the other hand, when you see the tremendous amount of suffering people have undergone, when they are fleeing persecution, economic injustice and violence and they are looking for a better life and to contribute to society, you have to act,” he said.

Or, as Father Groody said, “A sovereign state’s right to protect its borders is a recognized right,” including in Catholic social teaching, “but it is never seen as an absolute right and never as reason for violating human rights. Sovereign rights must be evaluated in view of human rights and the universal destination of goods, which means that every human being should have at least the minimum necessary for a dignified life.”

As for the identity question, the Holy Cross priest said that while religion and ethnicity are often important factors in a person’s self-description, for Catholics people have an identity that goes even deeper: They are children of God. Pope Francis flew halfway around the world to let all the people of Myanmar and Bangladesh know that’s how he sees them. But he went especially to let the Rohingya know.

Update: Buddhists, Christians must reclaim values that lead to peace, pope says Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

YANGON, Myanmar – Christians and Buddhists are called by faith to overcome evil with goodness and violence with peace, Pope Francis said during a meeting with leaders of Myanmar’s Buddhist community.

Quoting St. Francis of Assisi and Buddha, the pope insisted that in a land where the powerfully bonded pairing of religion and ethnicity have been used to prolong conflict, it was time for religious leaders to reclaim the greatest values and virtues of their faith traditions.

Pope Francis met Nov. 29 with members of the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee, a government-appointed group of senior Buddhist monks who oversee some 500,000 monks and novices in Myanmar, where close to 90 percent of the population follows Buddhism.

One of the strongest anti-Muslim and anti-Rohingya currents of Myanmar society is led by Buddhist nationalists.

The meeting was hosted by the Buddhists at the Kaba Aye Pagoda and Center.

As is customary, Pope Francis took off his shoes before entering the hall and walked in his black socks to his place. The Buddhist committee members sat directly opposite Pope Francis and members of his entourage across a plush, bright blue rug.

The challenge of the Buddhist monks and of the Catholic clergy, the pope said, is to help their people see that patience, tolerance and respect for life are values essential to every relationship, whether with people of the same family or ethnic group or with fellow residents of a nation.

The approach, he said, is common to both faiths.

(CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Pope Francis arrives with Bhaddanta Kumarabhivasma, chairman of the supreme council of Buddhist monks, for a meeting with monks of the council at the Kaba Aye pagoda in Yangon, Myanmar, Nov. 29.

Pope Francis quoted Buddha: “Overcome the angry by non-anger; overcome the wicked by goodness; overcome the miser by generosity; overcome the liar by truth.”

And then he pointed out how the “Prayer of St. Francis” has a similar teaching: “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, let me bring pardon. ... Where there is darkness, let me bring light, and where there is sadness, joy.”

“May that wisdom continue to inspire every effort to foster patience and understanding and to heal the wounds of conflict that, through the years, have divided people of different cultures, ethnicities and religious convictions,” he said.

The pope did not use the word “Rohingya,” whom the Myanmar government does not recognize as a separate ethnic group, but he insisted the meeting was an occasion “to affirm a commitment to peace, respect for human dignity and justice for every man and woman.”

Faith, he said, not only should lead adherents to an experience of “the transcendent,” but also should help them see “their interconnectedness with all people.”

Bhaddanta Kumarabhivamsa, president of the committee, told the pope Buddhists believe all religions can, “in some way,” bring peace and prosperity, otherwise they would cease to exist.

Religious leaders, he said, “must denounce any kind of expression that incites (people) to hatred, false propaganda, conflict and war with religious pretexts and condemn strongly those who support such activity.”

Pope Francis ended his day with the Catholic bishops of Myanmar, urging them to “foster unity, charity and healing in the life of this nation.”

As he had earlier in the trip, the pope again defined as an example of “ideological colonization” the idea that differences are a threat to peaceful coexistence.

“The unity we share and celebrate is born of diversity,” he said. Unity in the church and in a nation “values people’s differences as a source of mutual enrichment and growth. It invites people to come together in a culture of encounter and solidarity.”

As Myanmar continues its transition to democratic rule and tries to deal with the challenges of development and full equality for all its ethnic groups, Pope Francis told the bishops to make sure their voices are heard, “particularly by insisting on respect for the dignity and rights of all, especially the poorest and most vulnerable.”

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Around the archdiocese 1

MISSION DOLORES ACADEMY, SAN FRANCISCO: Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone, pictured here with some of the student body, visited the school Nov. 20. The archbishop celebrated a school Mass, visited classrooms and learned about the school’s recent Thanksgiving food drive, later enjoying lunch with school leadership.

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IMMACULATE CONCEPTION ACADEMY, SAN FRANCISCO: Women of Immaculate Conception Academy’s Class of 1967 held their reunion Oct.7. “Under clear skies with the Blue Angels roaring overhead, 35 classmates came from as far away as Ireland, Germany, and Argentina, New York, Nebraska, Texas, and Oregon, and many cities in California,” organizers said.

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MISSION DOLORES BASILICA, SAN FRANCISCO: The Basilica choir presents its 26th Candlelight Christmas Concert Dec. 17, 5 p.m. in the Basilica Church, 16th Street and Dolores, San Francisco under the direction of Jerome Lenk. Featured musicians include harpist, Dan Levitan, and organist, David Hatt. Tickets $25 for reserved seating, and $20, general admission.

Brown Paper Tickets: tinyurl.com/MDChristmasConcert; call (415) 621-8203; visit www.missiondolores.org.

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STS. PETER AND PAUL SCHOOL, SAN FRANCISCO: The North Beach school’s student council raised $2,400 from a spaghetti dinner

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fundraiser to benefit North Bay fire victims.

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St. Anne of the Sunset School, San Francisco: The school’s newly retrofitted building was blessed by retired Santa Rosa Bishop Daniel Walsh Nov. 20, in a ceremony that included prayers by various members of the school community. Shown here cutting the ribbon are Bishop Walsh, who attended the school and is now living in retirement in the parish; pastor Father Dan Nascimento; archdiocesan schools superintendent Pamela Lyons; alumnae and Presentation Sister Patricia Anne Cloherty; principal Thomas White. The children were taught in portables for the fall semester while the $4.8 million seismic upgrade was completed.

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MATER DOLOROSA PARISH, SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO: In honor of Veterans Day, Nov. 11, the Knights of Columbus Mater Dolorosa Council 14818, the San Pedro Calungsod Assembly and Mater Dolorosa Parish and clergy organized a vestibule display honoring parishioners, clergy and family members of KOC members who have served in the military.

The display featured a white cross, a combat helmet from a local Knight who served in Iraq, flags and a handmade military rosary. Tags with the name and photo of those who served our country were hung from the branches of a nearby olive tree. One tag honored

(Photo by Valerie Schmalz/Catholic San Francisco)

Deacon Romeo Cruz in the U.S. Navy.

From left, parishioner Mario Avendano; his wife Lilia; Father Roland de la Rosa, pastor; former Grand Knights of Mater Dolorosa Council 14818 Jim Gacula and John Dooley.

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IMMACULATE HEARt OF MARY PARISH, BELMONT: More than 400 parishioners gathered around pancakes and sausage to assess and hear about a survey eliciting parishioners’ needs and wants on Nov. 12. Students from the parish school, pictured here, served the flapjacks, and Knights of Columbus with other volunteers, prepared the plates. Presenters at the event included pastor, Father Lawrence Vadakkan, and Parish Pastoral Council president Loren Mahon. “One of the main things we learned from the survey is the readiness and willingness of so many to want to help nurture and grow our beautiful community,” Mahon said in her talk. Youth ministry, service opportunities, and discussion groups and Bible study were among the “hundreds of ideas shared on the surveys,” Mahon said.

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OUR LADY OF MERCY SCHOOL, DALY CITY: The school’s “Art in Action” lets students have fun “while working on their masterpieces,” the school said. “AIA continues to produce excellent artwork from our joyful young artists. The pictures speak a million words!” This is the program’s second year at OLM and an exhibit of students’ work takes place in March.

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St. Anthony-Immaculate Conception School, San Francisco: The First Tech Lego robotics tournament Nov. 18 was a big success for the Mission District school.

Archdiocesan school teams competing included St. James, SAIC and St. Peter and St. Thomas the Apostle. SAIC principal Barbara Moodie and parent volunteers helped make the event a success.

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ST. MATTHEW SCHOOL, SAN MATEO: Fifth grade Cub Scouts recently visited with California State Sen. Jerry Hill. “They had a great discussion on the legislative process and how Sen. Hill is our advocate for our community,” the school said.

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Catholic san francisco | December 7, 2017

Must-read book details ongoing genocide in birthplace of Christianity

“The Persecution and Genocide of Christians in the Middle East: Prevention, Prohibition & Prosecution,” edited by Ronald J. Rychlak and Jane F. Adolphe. Angelico Press (Kettering, Ohio, 2017). 393 pp., $21.95.

Eugene J. Fisher Catholic News Service”

This remarkable book should be read by all Catholics, indeed all Christians who care about the fate of Christianity in the lands of its origin, the Middle East and North Africa.

Christianity predates Islam in these places by some seven centuries and the Bible, the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament form the basis of Islam’s most holy book, the Quran.

Yet the followers of the Islamic State group, and related groups such as al-Qaida, also want to destroy all Jews and the state of Israel, about half of the population of which are refugees or descendants of refugees from Muslim lands. In this, IS, which this book carefully distinguishes from Islam as it is understood and practiced by the vast majority of Muslims

in the world, is seeking to destroy the very roots and basis of Islam itself. It wants, in effect, to destroy any other understanding of Islam than its own.

This book goes into the history and theology of Muslim-Christian relations over the centuries. It looks at the various resources that are available under international law and how the Vatican has appealed to both the legal structures of international law and to the natural law of reason and our common humanity to help people understand what is happening and how this ongoing persecution and genocide of Christians may be addressed and stopped.

It describes well what Muslim Shariah law is and how it could be used to oppose the violence of the IS group that perverts and misinterprets the traditions of Shariah.

An essay by Jane Adolphe, the

book’s co-editor, describes in horrifying detail how sexual violence against women and children is used by IS and al-Qaida as a tactic of terror to intimidate husbands and fathers and force them to submit to the tyranny they wish to establish.

Photos taken from 2015 through the spring of 2017 show the desecration of Christian communities, churches and sacred art by IS and its followers throughout the Middle East and North Africa. The cover illustration shows a defaced cross with an Arabic text written over it that reads: “Let the cross fall and break.”

Helpfully, the book describes the origin of the word “genocide,” which was coined in 1944 by a Jewish lawyer to describe the Holocaust of the Jews by the Nazis in World War II and used as a precise legal concept in the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals by the victorious Allies after the war.

Pope Francis, the book notes, has denounced the large-scale violence against Christians as “genocide,” so its use has both legal and moral justification.

The book contains the papers presented as a conference held at the Ave Maria University School of Law and concludes with an essay summarizing the results of a similar conference, “Under Caesar’s Sword,” sponsored by the University of Notre Dame and Georgetown University. Christians of all traditions need to work together now.

Also of interest: “The Last Christians: Stories of Persecution, Flight and Resilience in the Middle East” by Andreas Knapp. Plough Publishing (Walden, New York, 2017). 251 pp., $17.75.

Fisher is a professor of theology at St. Leo University in Florida.

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24 from the front

Catholic san francisco | December 7, 2017

obituaries Sister Helen Kerrigan, BVM

Sister Helen Kerrigan (Paulita), 96, died Nov. 16, at Marian Hall in Dubuque, Iowa.

Sister Helen was a Sister of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary for 77 years.

Sister Helen was an art teacher at St. Paul High School, San Francisco in the mid-50s and also taught in New York, Illinois and Iowa including terms at Mundelein College and Clarke UniverSister Helen sity.

Kerrigan, BVM A funeral Mass was celebrated Nov. 21 in the sisters’ Marian Hall Chapel with interment in Mount Carmel Cemetery.

Remembrances may be made to the Sisters of Charity, BVM Support Fund, 1100 Carmel Drive, Dubuque, Iowa 52003.

Sister Dolorice Ramirez, OP

Dominican Sister Dolorice Ramirez died Nov. 8 at the Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose motherhouse in Fremont. She was 89 years old and a religious for 60 years. Her service for many years was in domestic work and child care, and for more than two decades as an elementary school teacher. She took up residence at the motherhouse in 2016.

A funeral Mass was celebrated Sister Dolorice Nov. 14 at the motherhouse with Ramirez, OP interment in God’s Acre, the sisters’ cemetery there.

Remembrances may be made to Vision of Hope, the Dominican Sisters’ Foundation for the support of inner city schools, at 1555 34th Ave., Oakland 94601.

Sister Christine Ostrowski, OP

Sister Christine Ostrowski, formerly known as Sister Ann Leonard Ostrowski, died Nov. 23 at the Dominican Life Center in Adrian, Michigan. She was 73 and in the 54th year of her religious profession in the Adrian Dominican Congregation.

Sister Christine ministered for 53½ years in elementary education in her native Detroit and Ruth, Michigan; Sister Christine Toledo, Ohio; and San Francisco Ostrowski, OP and Burlingame. This includes her service as a teacher for 36 years at St. Brendan School in San Francisco, and for 11 years at Our Lady of the Angels School in Burlingame.

Memorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, Michigan, 49221.

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philanthropy and altruism and giving back,” the school’s student body president Mia Speier told KABC, the Los Angeles ABC affiliate.

Webb said Speier’s reaction, that she has now often repeated, about the school’s connection to the royal engagement is: “She is a sister who walked our hallways and was already inspiring.”

And that’s pretty much how the school sees it.

“We’ve been proud of Meghan for a long time,” said Webb of Markle’s advocacy for gender equality and clean drinking water and her work with the United Nations as a women’s advocate for political participation and leadership.

“That’s very much in keeping with the goal of all our students,” she told Catholic News Service Nov. 28, adding that it reflects the school’s mission, which “encourages students to become women of great heart and right conscience through leadership, service and a lifelong commitment to Christian values.”

Webb also noted that Markle, 36, was exposed at an early age to helping others, something that was reinforced at school with community service projects. “Her upbringing meshed with the school’s mission and philosophy,” as she put it.

Markle was chosen as a Kairos retreat leader during her senior year and she took part in the school’s theater productions – long before her

role as Rachel Zane in the television drama “Suits.”

“She’s gone from one stage to a bigger stage,” Webb added, noting that in “whatever small way” the school contributed to her current achievements, it is proud.

Immaculate Heart makes no mention of the royal engagement on its website. Instead, the school news is about sports wins, charity drives, upcoming events and a 2007 graduate who is featured in 2018 edition of Forbes “30 Under 30” – the magazine’s list of 600 visionaries in 20 different industries.

Webb pointed out the school has plenty on tap right now with its Dec. 2 open house and ongoing visits from prospective freshmen during the school’s “shadow” days, where they shadow current students on a school day. She knows the media focus on the school is likely to wane, for now, although it’s been great publicity.

She also continually hopes to reinforce the message that Immaculate Heart is thrilled for Markle but not just for the wedding at England’s Windsor Castle when the former student, described as a “classy girl” in the school’s yearbook, will take on the title Duchess of Sussex.

“We always tell our students to dream big,” she said, “but not necessarily about marrying a prince!”

Come and join St. Augustine Church JOURNEY TO

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Oct. 8-19, 2018

invites you to join Giant’s Causeway, Visit: Dublin, Downpatrick, Belfast, Saint Meinrad Graduate Theology Programs Derry, Knock, Westport, Kylemore, Connemara, Croagh and Sr. Jeana Visel, OSB Patrick, Galway, Limerick, Rock of Cashel & others on a 12-day pilgrimage to The Emerald Isle

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South San Francisco, CA 94080 Phone: (650) 873-2282 & (650) 452-9272 Space is limited, book early Tour Operator

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25

Catholic san francisco | December 7, 2017

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December 13, 9:30 a.m. - 2:15 p.m. ~ Contemplative Day of Prayer led by Joe Nassal, cpps. In a Dark Time … Eyes Begin to See The season of Advent affirms that God is not finished with us yet. As we prepare for the celebration of the Incarnation, we are invited to reflect on how God continues to hope in us even though the signs of the times too often point to discouragement and despair. Presentation, personal reflection, sharing, concluding with Eucharist. No reservations required. Suggested offering, $20.

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Praying the Rosary The rosary is prayed at the following locations on days and times specified.

is seeking a Campaign Consultant for the San Francisco area.

Please visit: www.osvjobs.com for a position description and details regarding how to apply.

St. Cecilia Church, 17th Avenue and Vicente, San Francisco, Monday through Friday, 8:35 a.m.

Star of the Sea Church, Eighth Avenue at Geary Boulevard, San Francisco, Saturday 3:20 p.m.; second Sundays 3:15 p.m. for priests and vocations; Holy Rosary Society third Sundays 1 p.m., St. Joseph Perpetual Adoration Chapel; 2,000 Hail Mary Devotion, second Saturday after 8:30 a.m. Mass; Tuesdays 7:30 p.m. before the Blessed Sacrament in the church.

(415) 751-0450; www.starparish.com admin@starparish.com Facebook: starparishsf.

St. Gabriel Church, 40th Avenue at Ulloa, San Francisco, Monday through Friday after the 8:30 a.m. Mass.

Sts. Peter & Paul Church, 666 Filbert St. across from Washington Square, San Francisco, second Sunday of the month in Cantonese, parish pastoral center, 11:30 a.m., Kelly Kong (510) 794-6117; Wednesday, 7 p.m., English, http://salesiansspp.org/.

Church of the Nativity, 210 Oak Grove Ave., Menlo Park, Monday through Friday following 8 a.m.

Mass, Saturday following 8:30 a.m. Mass; Sunday 7 p.m.

St. Veronica Church, 434 Alida Way, South San Francisco. Monday through Saturday 7:50 a.m.

St. Francis of Assisi Church, 1425 Bay Road, East Palo Alto, rosary in Spanish Sundays before 9:30 a.m. Spanish Mass; (650) 322-2152.

Holy Angels Church, 107 San Pedro Road, Colma, Monday through Saturday approximately 8 a.m. following 7:30 a.m. Mass, (650) 755-0478.

St. Dunstan Church, 1133 Broadway, Millbrae, Monday through Saturday, 7:40 a.m. before 8 a.m. Mass.

St. Pius Church, 1100 Woodside Road, Redwood City, Monday through Saturday 7:30 a.m., Monday and Wednesday 4:40 p.m.; mary246barry@sbcglobal.net.

St. Luke Church, 1111 Beach Park Blvd., Foster City, Monday through Saturday following the 8:30 a.m. Mass.

Is your parish praying the rosary?

Catholic San Francisco would like to let its readers know.

If your parish has a regular praying of the rosary to which all are invited, just send the day, time, location and contact information to Tom Burke, burket@sfarch.org.

The information should come from a person in authority in the parish who can be emailed for follow up and who would be responsible for contacting CSF with changes to the parish rosary schedule.

Questions? Contact Tom Burke, burket@sfarch.org.

Director, Children’s Faith Formation and Ignatian Spiritual Life Center St. Agnes Parish is seeking applications for the dual position of Children’s Faith formation & Ignatian Spiritual Life Center Director. In this full-time position there will be a division of responsibilities, twenty hours per week in the Spirituality Center and 17.5 hours as coordinator of the Religious Education Program.

The CFF position is for Children in grades 1-8, including Sacramental Preparation program for First Reconciliation, First Eucharist and Teen Confirmation.

The Director is also responsible for recruiting, screening, and supporting volunteer teachers, educating and ministering to parents and the coordination of Children’s Liturgy of the Word. As Director of the ISLC, you will be developing and implementing programs for the parish community and the public with a central emphasis on Ignatian Spirituality. Experience/familiarity in Ignatian Spirituality preferred. The work includes days/nights, weekends and major holidays.

Please send a cover letter and resume to Fr. Ray Allender at: Ray@SaintAgnesSF.com.

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26 arts & life

Catholic san francisco | December 7, 2017

Children’s books show Christmas’ true joy with beautiful stories, art Eric Puybaret. Magnificat (New York, 2017) 47 pp., $15.99.

Beginning with Jacob’s ladder and ending with the angel appearing at Jesus’ tomb, author Charlotte Grossetete adapts biblical passages of God’s celestial messengers into children’s short stories. Children will enjoy the illustrations of the five stories, created by three artists with varying styles, and the narratives of God intervening in human lives with his angels out of love and care. Particularly appropriate for Christmas, “Angels Stories from the Bible” includes St. Gabriel the Archangel visiting Mary to announce Jesus’ impending arrival. Ages 5 and up.

Regina Lordan Catholic News Service

The following books are suitable for Christmas giving: “The Watcher” by Nikki Grimes, illustrated by Bryan Collier. Eerdmans Books for Young Readers (Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2017).

42 pp., $17.

“The Watcher” is a rare treasure in the world of children’s books: The verse is poetic, the illustrations are a compelling blend of photographs and drawings, and the story is a gripping tale of bully and victim ... or is it? The narration unfolds and reveals that the instigator is really just a lonely child desperate for a friend. Influenced by Psalm 121, which attributes all help to God’s loving protection and care, it is written in “golden shovel” form, in which the last word of each verse is a word from the psalm. “The Watcher” is a story that holds onto you as it slowly reveals understanding, compassion and innocent faith in God’s love and protection. After it is read, its lyrical tale will not be soon forgotten. Ages 6-10.

“Be Yourself: A Journal for Catholic Girls” by Amy Brooks. Gracewatch Media (Winona, Minnesota, 2017) 100 pp., $20.

“Be Yourself” is a place for Catholic girls and young women to indeed learn how to be themselves, just the way God intended them to be. Colorful, interactive and brimming with saint spotlights, prayers and biblical quotes, “Be Yourself” will encourage Catholic girls to, as author Amy Brooks writes, nourish their relationship with God to better know his will for them and to use the journal to “navigate that relationship – on good days and bad days.” Ages 9 and up.

“Look! A Child’s Guide to Advent and Christmas” by Laura Alary, illustrated

by Ann Boyajian. Paraclete Press (Brewster, Massachusetts, 2017) 32 pp., $16.99.

Advent is a time of anticipation and waiting, but it can also be a time for reflection and mindfulness of today … if we take the time to look. Author Laura Alary welcomes children to be aware, appreciate and change during Advent within a biblical and present-day context. She tells the story of Jesus’ birth within the framework of children’s daily lives, and she encourages children to anticipate Christ-

mas by preparing to say “yes” to God with simple, practical activities and works of service. Ages 5-10.

“Anointed: Gifts of the Holy Spirit” by Pope Francis. Pauline Books and Media (Boston, 2017) 120 pp., $18.95.

Intended for young men and women preparing to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of confirmation, but appropriate for all teens, “Anointed” is a compilation of the teachings of Pope Francis brightly illustrated with graphics and photos, Bible verses and prayers. “Anointed” makes the pope’s teachings accessible and engaging, and invites readers to openly receive the gifts that God has given us. Ages 12-18.

“That Baby in the Manger” by Anne E. Neuberger, illustrated by Chloe E. Pitkoff. Paraclete Press (Brewster, Massachusetts, 2017) 31 pp., $15.99.

Father Prak was puzzled: A group of curious children, beautiful in their multicultural diversity, were preparing for Christmas Mass when they started asking questions about the statue of the baby Jesus. Why didn’t he look like many of them, and why didn’t he look like Jesus most likely did, with dark skin, hair and eyes? The priest turned to God for help while an innocent parishioner in the church overheard the discussion. Answering Father Prak’s prayers through the eavesdropper’s clever idea, the children discovered that through the gift of Christmas, Jesus has come to save each and every one of them, no matter what they look like. A perfect Christmas gift for children, this book celebrates the truth of Christmas while highlighting the mystery of God’s interactions with us through prayer and each other. Ages 4-10.

“Angel Stories from the Bible” by Charlotte Grossetete, illustrated by Madeleine Brunelet, Sibylle Delacroix and

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“The Secret of the Santa Box” by Christopher Fenoglio, illustrated by Elena K. Makansi. Treehouse Publishing Group (St. Louis, 2017). 32 pp., $16.95.

There comes a time in every parent’s life when a child anxiously asks them, “Is Santa real?” Many parents struggle with this answer, knowing that with the loss of belief in the jolly old man comes the loss of a part of childhood. But fear not, the Catholic faith shows us that the real joy of Christmas is Jesus’ birth itself and the joy of the mystery of Christmas comes not from Santa but from everyone but Jesus himself. “The Secret of the Santa Box” is a needed book for curious children ready to move past the secular stories of Christmas and into a deeper relationship with the true meaning of Christmas. It gently explains the sometimes sensitive topic in cheerful and thoughtful rhymes and illustrations. Ages 7-10.

“Contemplating Scripture in Color”

by Sybil MacBeth. Paraclete Press (Brewster, Mass., 2017) 64 pp., $11.99 Ever find yourself at a loss of words when trying to pray? Sometimes the actual effort to find the right thing to say is so distracting that prayer is lost in frustration. Author Sybil MacBeth found her words trivial and trite compared to the magnitude of her prayer intentions, so she created a doodle book to encourage focus, creativity and a space to pray. Guided by a relaxed formula, older children can practice this version of “lectio divina.” “Pray for Others in Color” and “Count Your Blessings in Color,” also by Sybil MacBeth, offer similar avenues for intercessory prayers and prayers of gratitude. Ages 12-18.

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calendar 27

Catholic san francisco | December 7, 2017

SATURDAY, DEC. 9

TUESDAY, DEC. 12

HANDICAPABLES MASS: Mass at noon, Marin Catholic High School, JP II facility, Sir. Francis Drake Boulevard at Bon Air Road, Kentfield then lunch in school cafeteria. All disabled people, caregivers invited. Volunteers welcome. Cheryl Giurlani, (415) 308-4608; www.Handicapables.com.

NOON MUSIC: Free classical concert 12:30 p.m., Old St. Mary’s Cathedral, 660 California St. at Grant, www. noontimeconcerts.org, (415) 777-3211.

Freewill donations accepted.

OL GUADALUPE: Hear Luis Fernando Castañeda, an expert on the Guadalupe story, 7:30 p.m., St. Dominic Church, 2390 Bush St. at Steiner, San Francisco. No charge, reception following.

HANDICAPABLES MASS: Mass at noon then lunch in lower halls, St. Mary’s Cathedral, Gough Street at Geary Boulevard, San Francisco, Gough Street entrance. All disabled people, caregivers invited. Volunteers welcome. Joanne Borodin, (415) 2394865; www.Handicapables.com.

THURSDAY, DEC. 14 CANDLELIGHTING: Longstanding Advent rite of St. Paul High School, 7 p.m., St. Paul Church, Valley and Church streets, San Francisco. The service was begun more than 60 years ago by the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and continues today under the leadership of St. Paul High School alumnae who continue their good work some 20 years after the school’s closing. “It invites people to prepare for Christ’s coming,” organizers said. “Prepare your hearts for the Christmas season with this celebration of music and light.” (415) 648-7538.

GUADALUPE feast: Mass commemorating the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Thomas the Apostle Church, 40th Avenue at Balboa, San Francisco, 4 p.m., with reception following in church’s downstairs rooms with free meal and mariachi band.

VIGIL: “Vigil for Victims of Gun Violence,” 2 p.m., St. Dominic Church, 2390 Bush St. at Steiner, San Francisco. An interfaith gathering remembering Americans who have lost their lives to gun violence.

SUNDAY, DEC. 10

FRIDAY, DEC. 15

OL GUADALUPE: Mass and tamale dinner, St. Mary Star of the Sea, Sausalito, 5 p.m., mariachi music by Trio Sol de Mexico, $20 adults, $5 children under 12. RSVP by Dec. 6. office@ starofthesea.us; (415) 332-1765.

CONCERT: St. Mary’s Nicasio Christmas Concert, 2 p.m., at the church with reception after at Druid’s Hall.

Tickets $50 adults and $10 children under 13. Event features Christmas and other pieces by a variety of artists.

Reservations can be made by mailing a check, payable to St. Mary’s, to Dan and Sue Curran, 345 Ironstone Court, San Rafael 94903. Those needing more information can call (415) 491-4420.

BRUNCH AND BOUTIQUE: St. Anthony-Immaculate Conception School Christmas Boutique, Mass at 11 a.m., brunch and boutique noon-2 p.m., no admission fee, prices of items for sale vary. Barbara Moodie, principal, (415) 648-2008; bmoodie@saicsf.org.

P

GRIEF SUPPORT: Monthly Grief Support Program, St. Mary’s Cathedral, Gough Street at Geary Boulevard, San Francisco, 10:30 a.m.-noon, Msgr.

Bowe room. Sessions provide information on the grief process, and tips on coping with the loss of a loved one. No charge. Facilitator: Deacon Christoph Sandoval. For further details, please call Sister Elaine at (415) 567-2020, ext. 218.

SATURDAY, DEC. 16

SATURDAY, DEC. 16 RELEVANT RADIO SPEAKER: Jesse Romero a longtime host on Immaculate Heart Radio now Relevant Radio speaks on “Battling the Culture of Death” at St. Jesse Romero Bruno Church, 555 W. San Bruno Ave., San Bruno, after the 4:30 p.m.

Mass in English, and after the 7 p.m. Mass in Spanish.

Romero holds a graduate degree in theology from Franciscan University in Steubenville.

Admission is free but freewill offerings will be accepted. www.saintbrunos.org; (650) 588-2121

MONDAY, DEC. 18 MEMORIAL MASS: Archbishop Riordan High School invites friends of Father Thomas Seagrave to a Mass of remembrance on the second anniversary Father Seagrave of his death at the school, 175 Phelan Ave., San Francisco at 5 p.m. followed by a reception.

Father John Jimenez, Riordan chaplain will be principal celebrant. RSVP by Dec. 14 at www.riordanhs.org/seagravemass or email info@riordanhs. org with the number in your party.

MUSICAL ADVENT RETREAT: Noted composer Dan Schutte – “Here I TURKEY DRIVE: Thanksgiving Turkey Am Lord” – leads an uplifting day of U and B prayer, L Dec. I 16,C A T Drive, I O N Parish, S St. Emydius DeMontfort music St. Anand Jules avenues, 9 a.m.-noon, all selm Church, Ross, 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. donations benefit St. Anthony Dining $20 donation requested, bring lunch, Room to feed the hungry. Donate onbeverages provided. RSVP by Dec. 7 line, www.SFTurkeyDrive.com. Pierre to Sissy Ratto, (415) 453-2342, ext. 10, Smit, sfpierre@aol.com.

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SUNDAY, JAN. 7 MEET NEW CEO: J.A Gray introduces new Catholic Charities CEO Jilma Meneses on Mosaic, 5 a.m., KPIX Channel 5. Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Francisco has well over a century of addressing critical needs of families and individuals, of old and young alike, giving Catholics many ways to assist neighbors in need. Catholic Charities is committed to strengthening families, reducing poverty, helping the young to develop, helping the old to age with dignity. The new CEO will discuss where the community is hurting, and how to help in its healing. Episodes of Mosaic are archived on the archdiocesan website, www. sfarch.org/mosaic-tv.

SATURDAY, JAN. 20 VOCATIONS: Single, Catholic women between the ages of 18 and 38 are invited to experience a taste of the life of a cloistered Dominican nun. Contact Dominican Sister Joseph Marie, vocation directress, vocations@nunsmenlo. org, visit http://nunsmenlo.org/discernment-days/, to learn more and to register for this upcoming “Come and See Day,” Corpus Christi Monastery, 215 Oak Grove Ave., Menlo Park, event is free and all meals will be provided

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NEW YEAR’S EVE RETREAT: Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose Chapel, 7-10:30 p.m., 43326 Mission Circle, Fremont, 7-10:30 p.m. Hear “The Devine Dance” with Father David Pettingill, reflection, Eucharist, festive dessert. Freewill offering. RSVP by Dec. 27, http://bit.ly/NYRetreat2017; (510) 933-6360.

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28

Catholic san francisco | December 7, 2017

James 2:15-16

DA Y

TO GI VE

The number one holiday gift this year is the one that makes a difference.

If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?

GIVE TODAY CatholicCharitiesSF.org Please donate online or by using the envelope in this issue

• Homelessness and Housing Services • Refugee and Immigrant Services • Children and Youth Services • Aging Support Services • Behavioral Health Services

Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery 1500 Mission Road, Colma | 650-756-2060 Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery Santa Cruz Ave. @ Avy Ave., Menlo Park | 650-323-6375 Tomales Catholic Cemetery 1400 Dillon Beach Road, Tomales | 415-479-9021 St. Anthony Cemetery Stage Road, Pescadero | 650-752-1679 Mt. Olivet Catholic Cemetery 270 Los Ranchitos Road, San Rafael | 415-479-9020 Our Lady of the Pillar Cemetery Miramontes St., Half Moon Bay | 650-712-1679 St Mary Magdalene Cemetery 16 Horseshoe Hill Road, Bolinas | 415-479-9021