Mission San Rafael:
Advent:
reunions:
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Celebrating bicentennial
Holy Name School inaugurates Advent curriculum
Alumni gatherings at archdiocesan schools
CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO Newspaper of the Archdiocese of San Francisco
Serving San Francisco, Marin & San Mateo Counties
www.catholic-sf.org
December 1, 2016
$1.00 | VOL. 18 NO. 26
Pope: Year of Mercy initiatives must continue Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service
(CNS photo/Paul Haring)
Pope Francis presents his apostolic letter, “Misericordia et Misera,” (Mercy and Misery) to a woman in a wheelchair at the conclusion of the closing Mass of the jubilee Year of Mercy in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Nov. 20. In the letter the pope called for several special initiatives begun during the Year of Mercy to continue on a permanent basis.
Prison pen pal program goes beyond Year of Mercy Christina Gray Catholic San Francisco
Locally incarcerated men and women will continue to receive handmade cards with messages of hope this Christmas and next year from young Catholic students and others as a prison pen pal program launched by the archdiocese earlier this year is extended into 2017. The Pen Pal Jr. program introduced by the archdiocese’s office of restorative justice for the Year of Mercy connects adolescent Catholic school and religious education students to prisoners in San Francisco County Jail and San Quentin State Prison. The program is active at Holy Angels School in Colma, Sacred Heart School in Atherton and St. Finn Barr and St. Stephen’s parishes in San Francisco. Julio Escobar, who organized the program and serves as a liaison between schools and parishes and local prisons, said the program helps young people embrace the concept of restorative justice
VATICAN CITY – Acknowledging and sharing God’s mercy is a permanent part of the Christian life, so initiatives undertaken during the special Year of Mercy must continue, Pope Francis said. “Mercy cannot become a mere parenthesis in the life of the church,” the pope wrote in an apostolic letter, “Misericordia et Misera,” (“Mercy and Misery”), which he signed Nov. 20 at the end of the Year of Mercy. The Vatican released the text the next day. The Catholic Church’s focus on God’s mercy must continue with individual acts of kindness, assistance to the poor and, particularly, with encouraging Catholics to participate in the sacrament of reconciliation and making it easier for them to do so, the pope wrote. In his letter, Pope Francis said he formally was giving all priests permanent permission to grant absolution to those who confess to having procured an abortion. While many bishops around the world, and almost all bishops in the United States, routinely grant that faculty to all their priests, Pope Francis had made it universal during the Holy Year. According to canon law, procuring an abortion brings automatic excommunication to those who know of the penalty, but procure the abortion anyway. Without formal permission, priests had been required to refer the case to their bishops before the excommunication could be lifted and sacramental absolution could be granted to a woman who had an abortion or those directly involved in the procedure. “I wish to restate as firmly as I can that abortion is see pope, page 16
US bishops address post-election animus
early in their lives while participating in a corporal work of mercy. Visiting the imprisoned is one the seven corporal acts of mercy. Students create handmade cards from colored construction paper, addressing the inmate as “Dear Friend” or “Dear Brother or Sister in Christ” and close the greeting with something like, “A friend in faith” and without using their own names. The cards are sent to Escobar, who brings them to the prisoners. Mary Molly Mullaney, director of religious education for St. Stephen Parish in San Francisco told Catholic San Francisco that her students have been working on Christmas cards for prisoners due to Escobar by Dec. 15. “We’ve been talking about the Year of Mercy and how it was about to end,” she said. “But it never ends – we have to continue to go out and use what we’ve learned.”
BALTIMORE – Like many others, the U.S. Catholic bishops are trying to figure out how to deal with a president-elect who’s different from anyone they’ve dealt with in the past and one involved in one of the most rancorous elections in modern times. As a candidate, Republican Donald Trump, said some things that proved hurtful and worrisome to groups of Latino and black Catholics, but also gave hope to Catholics concerned about religious freedom and abortion. At the fall general assembly of the U.S.
see mercy, page 6
see election, page 15
Rhina Guidos Catholic News Service
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