December 17, 2020

ST. CHARLES:

ARCHBISHOP:

2020:

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PAGE 5

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Catholic school soars in distance learning

Integrity and reception of Communion

CSF documented trial and hope during pandemic year

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO Newspaper of the Archdiocese of San Francisco

SERVING SAN FRANCISCO, MARIN & SAN MATEO COUNTIES

www.catholic-sf.org

DECEMBER 17, 2020

$1.00 | VOL. 22 NO. 23

“I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord.” – LK 2:10-11

“Avenue of Flags” A personal way to honor your loved one’s patriotism to our country.

If you have received a flag honoring your loved one's military service and would like to donate it

to theThe cemetery to be as part of an “Avenue Flags" on Memorial 4th of July and25.

Veterans' Day, The Holy Family at the Nativity is depicted in this painting by artist Laura James. feast of theflown Nativity of Christ, a holyofday of obligation, isDay, celebrated Dec.

(CNS/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES)

please contact our office for more details on our Flag Donation Program.

This program is open to everyone. If you do not have a flag to donate, you may make a $125 contribution to the “Avenue of Flags” program to purchase a flag.

For an appointmentHoly - 650.756.2060 | www.holycrosscemteries.com | CA Cross Catholic Cemetery, 1500 Mission Road, Colma, 650-756-2060

A Tradition of Faith Throughout Our Lives.

INDEX National . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Faith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 SF Católico . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

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CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 17, 2020

NEED TO KNOW BISHOPS’ STATEMENT ON VACCINES: On Dec. 3, 2020, the Catholic bishops of California issued a statement saying that the imminent Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines are morally acceptable. The bishops committed the California Catholic Conference to working with Catholic health care ministries and Catholic Charities to promote and encourage COVID-19 vaccinations in collaboration with state and local governments and other entities. Archbishop Cordileone said: “Together, we bishops affirm that the imminent Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines are morally acceptable, and we encourage everyone to receive the vaccine when it becomes available.” The full statement can be found at https://cacatholic.org/covid-vaccines.

HELP SOMEONE ELSE THIS CHRISTMAS: As Catholic organizations try to address this year’s overwhelming need, their own resources strained, some people have indicated they would like to help those who could use a helping hand. Visit https:// catholic-sf.org/news/want-to-help-someone-elsethis-christmas-here-are-somegivingideas for a list to get you started.

CATHOLIC FAITH AND MODERN SCIENCE: Feb. 2, 9, 16, 23 and March 2, 2021, 7-8:30 p.m.: Are faith and science opposed to each other? Do miracles matter? These and other questions will be addressed with Dr. Stephen Barr, a physicist and president of the Society of Catholic Scientists.

Barr will show that the widespread idea that faith and science are opposed to each other is based on misconceptions about the history of science, about Catholic teaching. To register, visit www.sfarch.org/ science.

HUMAN TRAFFICKING SERIES: Jan. 27, 2021, 6:30 p.m. on Zoom and continuing with dates to be named in February and March 2021. January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. All are welcome, and there is no charge. The initial presentation is by national anti-trafficking leader Susan Patterson, who estimates that human trafficking is on course to be larger than drug trafficking in the U.S. within two years. Patterson will speak to what the faith community can do to prevent human trafficking. Sponsored by Office of Human Life and Dignity. Visit https://sfarchdiocese.org/seminars.

CATHEDRAL YOUTUBE CHANNEL: St. Mary’s Cathedral has launched a YouTube Channel that will livestream liturgies and events. Regular streams include daily Mass Monday-Friday at 12:10 p.m.; Sunday liturgies at 11 a.m. (English) and 1 p.m.

(Spanish); and the Sunday Musical Meditation concerts at 4 p.m. Visit www.youtube.com/channel/ UCy-mr3hbtmS85aebzGvGX5g/livestream. Archdiocesan liturgies and events will continue to be livestreamed on the Archdiocese YouTube channel.

Visit www.youtube.com/archdioceseofsanfrancisco.

This will include all Masses with the archbishop, and archdiocesan events such as the Wedding Anniversaries Mass or Simbang Gabi celebration. The icon for this channel is the archdiocesan coat of arms.

(COURTESY PHOTOS)

Volunteers were in abundance to help with St. Charles’ recent origami project including from left: Chris Frankovic, parent and Wellness Committee member; Sarah Kelsey, parent and Wellness Committee member; Kathryn Forrest, a St. Charles alumna and now a freshman at the University of Notre Dame, South Bend; Becca Kizer, parent and Wellness Committee chair; Jorge Calderon, parent and Soaring Together Project chair.

St. Charles School soars in distance learning CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

Students, families, adult volunteers and school faculty and staff were the wind beneath the wings of the “Soaring Together” origami dove project at St. Charles School in San Carlos. The campaign, coordinated by the school’s Character Education department and Wellness Committee, took place when the school was in distance learning mode in the recent months of 2020.

“The ‘Soaring Together’ project provided an opportunity to bridge the distance by working together on something as a school,” Becca Kizer, Wellness Committee chair and whose children attend St. Charles, told Catholic San Francisco. “The project encouraged family discussion of faith and values through written prayers, as well as togetherness with the school community through a shared experience.”

Each school family made four or more white origami doves with inscribed prayers from members of the household, Kizer said. The appeals gave thanks and asked well-being for first responders, animals, gratitude, food, shelter. More than 560 doves from all grades, K-8, were returned.

During the distance learning time, the Wellness Committee and Character Education department had been seeking ways to boost connection with students and families across the virtual environment.

Advancing our Legacy:

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

Italian Community Services

Italian Community Services continues to assist Bay Area Italian-American seniors and their families navigate and manage the resources needed to live healthy, independent and productive lives.

Since Shelter-in-Place began in San Francisco, Italian Community Services has delivered over 240 meals, over 900 care packages and made over 2000 phone wellness checks for our seniors.

If you know of any senior of Italian descent in San Francisco needing assistance, please contact: ItalianCS.org | (415) 362-6423 | info@italiancs.com

CASA FUGAZI

Kizer said school principal Megan Armando and vice principal Colleen Langridge, “always open to new ideas,” were involved throughout the project, especially as COVID-19 required stricter rules for volunteers.

School parent Jorge Calderon worked with Character Education teachers Heidi Dembinski and Kelly Green to develop the directions for the project.

Calderon’s family created 300 detailed packets of supplies for the dove project.

Calderon’s son, Trevor, hosted a Zoom tutorial for students who needed assistance with their origami. During the Thanksgiving holiday, Wellness Committee parent volunteers installed the doves above and throughout the main hallway of St. Charles School.

“Presently, we are grateful to have all grades back on campus,” Kizer said. “So, students, teachers and faculty are able to enjoy the beauty of this collection during an otherwise challenging time. This project was the first of its kind for St. Charles School, and it truly was a collaboration of many hands,” Kizer said.

The school’s Character Education department supplies age-appropriate social and emotional learning concepts that build from year to year, allowing students to develop a greater understanding of who they are.

St. Charles’ Wellness Committee carries a charter of promoting a faith-filled, healthy, and safe learning environment.

HELPLINES FOR CLERGY/CHURCH SEXUAL ABUSE VICTIMS (415) 614-5506 This number is answered by

Rocio Rodriguez, LMFT, Archdiocesan

Pastoral Outreach Coordinator.

This is a secured line and is answered

only by Rocio Rodriguez.

(415) 614-5503 If you wish to speak to a

non-archdiocesan employee please

call this number. This is also a secured

line and is answered only by a victim survivor.

(800) 276-1562 Report sexual abuse by a bishop or

their interference in a sexual abuse

investigation to a confidential third

party. www.reportbishopabuse.org

Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone Publisher Mike Brown Associate Publisher Rick DelVecchio Editor/General Manager EDITORIAL Christina Gray, associate editor Tom Burke, senior writer Nicholas Wolfram Smith, reporter

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ARCHDIOCESE 3

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 17, 2020

Outdoor Mass culminates Guadalupana The 27th annual Guadalupana pilgrimage Mass culminating a day of veneration of Our Lady of Guadalupe was held outdoors on the St. Mary’s Cathedral plaza, Dec. 5, 2020.

The pilgrimage itself, recalling and re-enacting the Blessed Mother’s miraculous appearances to the neophyte St. Juan Diego in 1531 near what is now Mexico City, was celebrated virtually.

Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone thanked the faithful for their witness during a difficult time for the church, as public health orders restrict worship.

“You are here because you have kept your faith alive … But for many others their faith has been weakened, and some have fallen away from the practice of the faith altogether,” he said in his homily.

(PHOTOS BY DENNIS CALLAHAN/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)

A small group of Massgoers gathered Dec. 5, 2020, on the St. Mary’s Cathedral plaza for the annual liturgy culminating the Guadalupana piligrimage venerating Our Lady of Guadalupe. Public health restrictions closed indoor gatherings, and the pilgrimage itself was celebrated virtually.

(COURTESY PHOTO)

Parishioners process with the Blessed Sacrament around parking lot of St. Andrew Church, Daly City, on Nov. 30, 2020, St. Andrew’s feast day. Mass preceded the trek.

St. Andrew Parish honors patron saint

(COURTESY PHOTO)

Drive-in Mass at Our Lady of Angels

Capuchin Father Michael Mahoney welcomes parishioners to Our Lady of Angels’ first drive-in Mass Dec. 13, 2020 in Burlingame. Massgoers remained in their cars during the Mass tuning in the liturgy on 89.9 FM on their car radios. 89.9 FM is a little used frequency available for short and contained broadcasts such as the drive-in Mass. Father Mahoney called up the drive in Mass in response to not being able to have assemblies in church and to provide parishioners shelter from winter weather as they prayed. Communion was distributed to communicants in each vehicle as they exited. The broadcast was set up by a firm called FunFlicks. The parish also livestreams two weekend Masses from the church as well as a daily Mass.

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Daly City’s St. Andrew Parish celebrated the feast day of its patron on Nov. 30, 2020. An outdoor Mass with Father Elpidio Geneta, parochial vicar, as principal celebrant and pastor Father Piers Lahey, accompanying the liturgy on piano opened the rites.

After Mass, the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament with Benediction took place, followed by a procession

of the Blessed Sacrament around the church’s parking lot.

“This year, the feast day celebration was modest due to safety measures in place due to the current pandemic.,” the parish said. “Nevertheless, the parishioners continue this vital tradition by showing their spiritual devotion to their patron saint, St. Andrew.”

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4 ARCHDIOCESE

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 17, 2020

Pastor summons Advent hope amid financial struggle NICHOLAS WOLFRAM SMITH CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

At the end of a devastating year of pandemic and with a new lockdown, the pastor of Old St. Mary’s Cathedral and Chinese Mission shared with parishioners a grim assessment with a call for Advent hope.

“Our beloved church is at the very edge of survival,” Paulist Father John Ardis, pastor of Old St. Mary’s, wrote in his appeal letter asking for supporters to summon “the resiliency and determination needed to help California’s oldest Cathedral survive these trying times.”

The parish has fallen deeply into debt amid the upheaval of 2020, and needs to raise at least $252,000 to cover its insurance payments for both 2020 and 2021.

Just as people came together to rebuild the church more than 100 years ago after its near destruction in the fires following the 1906 earthquake, Father Ardis hopes that people today can unite to keep the parish open.

“It’s amazing, the sacrifices that our ancestors have made to keep the faith alive and my hope is that we can keep the faith alive for those that come long after us,” he said.

The Chinatown parish has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and the following lockdowns.

Until last March, its proximity to downtown made the old cathedral a stop for tourists and for workers in the area; the near total disappearance of both groups since

Paulist Father John Ardis, pastor of Old St. Mary’s Cathedral, is leading the “Light in the City” campaign to raise more than $250,000 to rescue the financially struggling parish. then has badly starved the parish of operating income.

The parish preschool, which had 35 students last March, reopened with only five full time students.

Father Ardis suspended the school after it could no longer cover the salaries of its staff. The parish’s Catholic bookstore and gift shop, one of the few in the city, saw its income dry up like most of the neighboring stores in Chinatown.

Because of the loss of income and the looming insurance payments, the pastor has had to lay off much of the parish staff. Without someone to watch the church during the day, the parish doors have had to stay closed to private prayer.

“Having to let people go in these times, it’s painful for them and very painful for me,” he said.

On a personal level, Father Ardis’s brother-in-law died from coronavirus, as well as two members of his religious order.

As a pastor and priest, Father Ardis has seen that the pain and suffering of the past year are not the full story. During the eight weekends the church was open for Mass this fall, the pastor said it was “very heartening” to see parishioners gather and greet old friends.

Even behind masks, the smiles on many were evident.

“It made you realize how much you had truly missed and how grateful you were to be together as a community again,” he said.

Father Ardis said what has been uppermost on his heart during Advent is hope: for the end of the pandemic, for when the parish can gather as a community once more, for celebrating sacraments without the distance of public safety measures.

“I am hopeful in the midst of it that we are going to see a new day at the end of what seems like a very dark tunnel. I know that the Lord hasn’t abandoned me or (the parish), that the Lord is still there for us,” he said.

“Ultimately I do see that we have been light and there is a light at the end of the tunnel. There are still many good things that our ministry can do for people and continue to bring light in the dark time.”

To donate to the Light in the City campaign, visit https:// oldsaintmarys.givingfuel.com/donate-to-old-saint-marys.

Cancer survivor uses art to give thanks to God NICHOLAS WOLFRAM SMITH CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

An eight-month period of treatment for bone cancer led a young parishioner at St. Augustine Parish, South San Francisco, to use her artistic talents to serve the church by making art for her parish’s livestream Mass.

“I love going to church and I think this new way of showing my talent is really a good way to give back to God after he helped me through my chemotherapy,” 15 year old Jizelle Oliva said.

A member of the children’s choir at St. Augustine for several years, Oliva received a diagnosis of bone cancer last year and began chemotherapy in December of 2019. During her hospitalization, hospital staff encouraged her to pick up a hobby to keep herself busy and she started drawing, discovering a new love for it.

Family and friends praised her work and her pastor at St. Augustine, Father Ray Reyes, asked her first to design art

(COURTESY PHOTO)

Jizelle Oliva, a parishioner at St. Augustine, started making art for her parish’s livestream Mass during chemotherapy treatment for bone cancer. Making art is a way to give thanks to God, she said.

for the spiritual communion prayer displayed during the parish’s livestream Mass and then to make drawings accompanying the responsorial psalms for the livestreamed liturgies.

Since the parish started livestreaming Mass, Oliva said she has worked on drawing art for it nearly every day.

“I’ve always loved art, and I think this livestream Mass helped me expand my platform,” she said. “It helped me make more meaning to my art, so I really like this.”

Oliva said she usually uses her iPad to make digital drawings, but will occasionally hand draw and color them as well. Finding the right ideas and images to connect to the psalm at Mass and express them in art is a unique feeling, Oliva said.

“It combines both my faith and my love for art and I don’t think anything else gives me the opportunity to do that,” she said.

Oliva completed her chemotherapy in July and has been doing physical

CONCERTS

St. Mary’s Cathedral

1111 Gough St. at Geary, San Francisco 415-456-2020, ext. 213

WWW.SMCSF.ORG

SUNDAY AFTERNOON MUSICAL MEDITATIONS: For the time being, all performances are livestreamed on the San Francisco Archdiocesan YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/channel/UCLhEzFXPtxOfQBVjdjixFOA

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therapy to help her recover fully from her eight month ordeal. The Order of Malta has sponsored Oliva to make a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes this summer, if travel conditions permit it.

Oliva’s parents Oscar and Janet have been proud of their daughter’s art. “Her work is being watched by a lot of people on the internet, and people are greeting her, praising her work,” her father Oscar said.

Father Reyes said Oliva’s fight against cancer and the way she has used her art has been “a great inspiration” to the parish and “a source of hope to many, especially in these times we are in.”

Oliva said she plans to continue making artwork for the parish as long as they need it.

“I think it’s a really good way to show my love for God and a good way to thank him too for letting me survive this cancer and for helping me recover. I think it’s the best way I could give back to him and to my community,” she said.

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO Catholic San Francisco (ISSN 15255298) is published 24 times per year by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco, 1500 Mission Rd., P.O. Box 1577, Colma, CA 94014.

Periodical postage paid at South San Francisco, CA. Postmaster:

ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTIONS $24 within California $36 outside California

Kyle Jones, Tenor. Music for Advent and Christmas.

Sunday, Dec. 27, 4pm: Pierre Zevort (France), Organ.

Sunday, Jan. 3. 4pm: Epiphany Lessons and Carols, sung by the St. Brigid School Honor Choir (Cathedral Choir School), directed by Christoph Tietze.

January 10: Christoph Tietze, organ.

January 17: Justan Foster, organ.

January 24: NO RECITAL January 31: Cavatina Music Society, chamber music

ADDRESS CHANGE? Please clip old label and mail with new address to: Circulation Department One Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco, CA 94109 DELIVERY PROBLEMS? Please call us at (415) 614-5639 or email circulation.csf@sfarchdiocese.org

ARCHBISHOP 5

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 17, 2020

Integrity demands worthy reception of Communion The following commentary, titled “Archbishop: Church’s pastors and lay Catholics who are prominent in public life should not support causes that violate the core teachings of the faith,” was posted Dec. 14, 2020: https://catholic-sf. org/news/archbishop-cordileone-onworthy-reception-of-communion.

I

n a recent article published in First Things (www.firstthings.com/webexclusives/2020/12/mr-biden-andthe-matter-of-scandal), Archbishop Charles Chaput, the Archbishop emeritus of Philadelphia, provided valuable clarification on some foundational moral and doctrinal principles that are very much being ARCHBISHOP called into quesSALVATORE J. tion in our own CORDILEONE time, namely, the extremely grave evil of abortion, the consistent teaching of the Catholic Church on worthiness to receive Holy Communion, and the responsibility of Catholics in public life.

In addition to the July 2004 memorandum of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (Worthiness to

Receive Holy Communion: General Principles) and the Catechism of the Catholic Church which he cites in his article, the U.S. bishops themselves reaffirmed these timeless teachings in their own pastoral letter of 2006, “‘Happy Are Those Who Are Called to His Supper’: On Preparing to Receive Christ Worthily in the Eucharist.”

I could not agree with Archbishop Chaput more when he says, “This is not a ‘political’ matter, and those who would describe it as such are either ignorant or willfully confusing the issue. This is a matter of bishops’ unique responsibility before the Lord for the integrity of the sacraments.”

Especially compelling is the situation of Catholics who are prominent in public life, precisely because of the great influence they have on shaping the cultural attitudes and moral values of our society. It is a cause of no little scandal when such people profess to be observant Catholics while championing causes that directly violate the inherent dignity of human life, one of the fundamental natural truths integral to the core teachings of the Catholic faith.

I pray that Archbishop Chaput’s timely and thoughtful article will motivate a more candid and honest discussion and resolution of these issues among the Church’s pastors and lay Catholics who are prominent in public life in our country.

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State should implement Supreme Court ruling The following commentary was posted Dec. 3, 2020: https://catholic-sf.org/ news/archbishop-catholics-need-thebody-and-blood-of-christ-this-christmas.

T

oday in Harvest Rock Church, et al. v Newsom, the Supreme Court remanded a California District Court ruling that had permitted California’s restrictions on worship to continue in order for the court to reconsider its decision in light of the SCOTUS ruling on November 25 in Roman Catholic Diocese of ARCHBISHOP Brooklyn v.

SALVATORE J. Cuomo.

In that CORDILEONE decision, the Supreme Court clearly ruled governments may not favor secular indoor activities, such as indoor retail, over worship. The same restrictions must, at a minimum, be applied to both.

Catholics and other responsible faith communities should not be lumped in with a few irresponsible bad actors. This is not done with

anyone else, and it should not be done with people of faith. And the timing now is critical, lest Christians be deprived of celebrating the Christmas holy days in their churches, even if with limited numbers and other reasonable safety precautions. The time is overdue for our civil officials to work with us and other churches on worshiping safely. Catholics need the Body and Blood of Christ this Christmas, in California as everywhere else.

And they have every right to access it.

Experience shows that when responsible actors are irresponsibly discriminated against, people tend to congregate in less regulated settings, such as private homes.

Worship is not less important than shopping for shoes; it is certainly more important to people’s spiritual and psychological health; it is a natural and Constitutional right, and we Catholics have shown for months that we can worship safely–with masks, social distancing, ventilation, and sanitation.

We prefer not to go to court to win this fight. We prefer, and have been working hard for a long time to achieve, resolving this impasse with mutual understanding and respect.

That would save a lot of valuable time and resources. It would also help to build up good will.

Let my people worship.

6 ARCHDIOCESE

CSF 2020: The year in pictures

Local photos from stories produced by Catholic San Francisco staff tell what words don’t need to about how COVID-19 changed nearly everything about Catholic life as we knew it in the Archdiocese of San Francisco in 2020.

(PHOTO BY CHRISTINA GRAY/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)

MARCH 26: Terminally ill Father Brian Costello, longtime pastor of Our Lady of Loretto Parish in Novato talked with reporter Christina Gray about modeling “a happy death” for his parishioners just six days before the state’s March 17 lockdown. He died less than four months later on July 11.

(PHOTO BY DENNIS CALLAHAN/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)

JUNE 25: Gus Torres sits alone and masked, one of the 50 people able to attend the June 21 Mass at Mission Dolores Basilica. It was the parish’s first Mass after the churches were permitted indoor Masses with limited capacity in a report from reporter Nicholas Wolfram Smith.

(PHOTO BY DENNIS CALLAHAN/SAN FRANCISCO)

OCT. 22: The Carmelite Sisters of Mother of God Monastery in San Rafael announced the March 1, 2021, closure of the monastery built for them by the late San Francisco Archbishop Joseph T. McGucken in 1965. An apparent dwindling of vocation numbers was reported as the cause in a story by Christina Gray.

(PHOTO BY DENNIS CALLAHAN/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)

MARCH 26: Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone is pictured celebrating a Mass via livestream in an empty St. Mary’s Cathedral March 22. Churches were closed to all public Masses and would not open again until summer.

(PHOTO BY CHRISTINA GRAY/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)

AUGUST 2020: Marin County residents wait in a line that stretched around the block at Canal Alliance in San Rafael for free COVID-19 testing on July 31. Christina Gray’s Aug. 20 report showed how COVID-19 disproportionately infects Marin’s Hispanic and Latino residents.

(PHOTO BY ZAC WITTMER, SAN FRANCISCO CATÓLICO )

OCT. 22: San Francisco Católico editor Lorena Rojas reported on the devastating effect of wedding, funeral and other church event cancellations on nurseries and flower farms in Pescadero.

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 17, 2020

(PHOTO BY DENNIS CALLAHAN/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)

JANUARY 25: A scene like this one from our story on the Walk for Life West Coast would be the among the last of its kind before the novel coronavirus created a new concept: “social distancing.”

(PHOTO BY DENNIS CALLAHAN/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)

JUNE 11: Drive-thru confessions became a reality at St. Raphael Parish in San Rafael as Catholics hungered for the sacraments. Olema’s Sacred Heart Parish pastor Erick Arauz, assisting then-pastor Father Andrew Spyrow, is seen through the car window of a penitent in Christina Gray’s story.

(PHOTO BY DENNIS CALLAHAN/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)

SEPT. 24: Catholics protest in San Francisco’s Mission District in a eucharistic procession intended to urge city officials to ease limits on worship attendance in a story by reporter Nicholas Wolfram Smith.

(PHOTO BY CHRISTINA GRAY/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)

NOV. 19: Resident Nadine Calliguiri is pictured inside her room at Nazareth House in San Rafael which announced it will close in 2021after nearly 60 years. The Sisters of Nazareth told reporter Christina Gray that the closure was the result of financial and staffing complications resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.

NATIONAL 7

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 17, 2020

Jupiter, Saturn to put on ‘Christmas Star’ show DENNIS SADOWSKI CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

CLEVELAND – A once-every-twodecade conjunction involving the solar system’s two gas giants will give earthbound observers a look at a so-called “Christmas Star” on the winter solstice.

Come sunset Dec. 21 in any time zone around the world, Jupiter and Saturn seemingly will merge into a single bright point of light low in the western sky.

The Great Conjunction of 2020 will yield an expected spectacular astronomical sight involving the two planets unseen in nearly eight centuries.

The two planets have been approaching conjunction – a point when planets or other bodies as seen from earth are near each other in the night sky – all year. That the conjunction is occurring near Christmas Day has given rise to talk about the Star of Bethlehem that the Gospel of Matthew describes in his telling of the birth of Jesus.

But the description of the star “is a very minor part of the infancy narrative,” Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno, director of the Vatican Observatory, told Catholic News Service. “It’s so unimportant that Luke doesn’t talk about it and yet it has captured our imagination.”

It’s what the star represents – the birth of Jesus – that is the real story, Brother Consolmagno said.

Theories abound about the Star of Bethlehem, he explained, citing the millions of hits about the topic on the internet and the 400 book titles referencing it that are available at online stores.

“To me, asking ‘What was the star?’ is a lot of fun, but not particularly significant either astronomically or theologically. Nothing’s really at stake if it turns to be this explanation or that explanation,” Brother Consolmagno said.

Ideas about the Star of Bethlehem range from the natural – a great conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter near the time of Jesus’ birth or a comet – to the supernatural as a sign from God. Or it could have been a metaphor used

by St. Matthew “to show how important Jesus’ birth was to humanity,” said Father James Kurzynski, pastor of St.

(CNS PHOTO/KEVIN SARAGOZZA, COURTESY NASA)

Saturn is seen shining above the Cape Murro di Porco Lighthouse in Syracuse, Sicily, and Jupiter is seen shining to the right, in this photo taken in November 2020.

Olaf Parish in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and an amateur astronomer.

“We need to remember that the Star of Bethlehem could have had different meanings for the people that Matthew was writing to,” Father Kurzynski explained. “Was it a supernatural event?

Was it an event to signal somehow, some way that there was something that was happening in the world that was signaling the birth of a king that was not just a human being, but that there was something different about this king?”

He suggested that Matthew may have even meant that Jesus’ birth was the “great light” bringing people out of the darkness in which they walked, as told in the Book of Isaiah.

Father Kurzynski said the conjunction can be as inspirational as what the Catholic Church calls a sacramental such as a saint’s relic, a blessed medal, or rosary.

“Whether this conjunction is a Star of Bethlehem candidate or not,” the priest told CNS, “that night (Dec. 21) can be a sacramental that people look up to and ask ‘What was it like when Christ was born?’ To me this is an opportunity for people to get out that night and meditate on what it may have been like when Christ was born. What does the birth of Christ mean to me?”

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CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 17, 2020

Post-McCarrick report dialogue zeroes in on ‘hyperclerical culture’ MARK PATTISON CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON – One month to the day that the Vatican released its report on since-laicized cardinal Theodore McCarrick, a panel of academics took a close look at what one called a “hyperclerical culture” that allowed McCarrick’s sexual misconduct to go unchecked.

“Silence is dangerous,” said John Carr, director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University, a co-sponsor of the Dec 10 dialogue, “The McCarrick Report: Findings, Lessons and Directions,” and who himself had been subject to sexual abuse when he was a seminarian.

“Hyperclerical culture can be horrific – and their decisions reflect that.”

“When I read it, I said to myself, no wonder nobody believed me,” said Juan Carlos Cruz, a survivor of clergy sexual abuse in Chile who was later welcomed to the Vatican by Pope Francis to share his experience and recommendations. “The clericalism here, the camaraderie – badly understood camaraderie – the brotherhood of these bishops. It’s appalling, it’s appalling.”

“What makes this crisis different? The answer is in this report. The clerical and hierarchical culture that enabled and covered up this abuse ... the way sexual crimes and sacramentality were intertwined,” said Kathleen Sprows Cummings, director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame.

“I was particularly chilled to read the quote from McCarrick when he was rubbing the shoulders of a victim, ‘Someday I will lay hands on you when I ordain you,’” Cummings said. “This is an insider’s report.

The layers are deep and very damning.”

The report “really pulls back the curtain on the process for selecting bishops in the church,” said David Gibson, director of the Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University in New York City, the other dialogue co-sponsor.

Ask most Catholics how the pope is chosen, and they can give at least an outline of the conclave, Gibson said.

But “ask any Catholic how their own bishop is chosen, nobody can tell you,” he added. “Nobody knows the candidates, nobody knows anything about the

(CNS PHOTO/VINCENZO PINTO, REUTERS)

Then-Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick kisses Pope John Paul II after receiving his biretta, the four-cornered red cardinal’s hat, during a consistory ceremony in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City Feb. 21, 2001. The pope named the now-disgraced former cardinal to head the Washington Archdiocese Nov. 22, 2000.

process. There is a process, but this report shows how the process was corrupted.”

That the report was published may be its greatest strength, said Carr, who gave credit to Pope Francis for authorizing it. “I don’t know whether Georgetown or Fordham would do this,” he added, “except under subpoena.”

Cruz, too, gave credit to Pope Francis. “He’s fallible, he makes mistakes. He said in a letter to the world. He made a mistake and he apologized” about his previous denial of widespread clerical sex abuse in Chile. “I’m not his spokesperson, but I love him dearly. He’s done so much compared to what we’ve seen,” he said.

Carr said a weakness of the report was its “dismissal of money as a part of McCarrick’s rise. It acknowledges he raised a lot of money, gave a lot of money away, but says it didn’t play a decisive role in his rise. It didn’t hurt. ... McCarrick made sure everyone knew he was a good fundraiser.”

Cummings cited the “absence of lay voices” in the report. “We all agree that clerical culture is the main cause of this crisis,” she said.

The issue of St. John Paul II’s role in the crisis arose during the dialogue. Cummings noted it was St. John

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Paul who reduced from 50 years to five the wait time to consider a person for sainthood “to provide more contemporary heroes for the church.” John Paul himself was canonized in 2014, nine years after his death.

“There’s no question of decanonization, that’s not even a thing,” Cummings said. But it is “highly doubtful any cause would be opened on his behalf now, based on what we know now about McCarrick,” she added, and it may be generations before any high church official would be viewed as a sainthood candidate.

Cummings said Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s beatification in late 2019 was postponed over an allegation he had mishandled clergy sex abuse claims while he was bishop of Rochester, New York, from 1966 to 1969.

“There’s so much we don’t know about the layers of complicity in sex abuse,” she said, which is “all the more reason to wait.”

Gibson said clerical culture as revealed in the report is “not just an old-boys network where they cover for each other. It shows how much they hate each other.

So much of what had gone on, how much backstabbing and conniving and jockeying for power and position.

That is so unhelpful for the church.”

He added, “This culture treats the church as a possession as a thing to be dominated, a game to be played, and there’s no mention of the Gospel or the flock. And that’s got to change.”

McCarrick and Cardinal John O’Connor of New York “didn’t like each other,” Carr said. adding that Cardinal O’Connor told St. John Paul “that’s a bad idea” to send McCarrick to Washington.

“McCarrick got wind of this and sent an impassioned letter to the pope’s secretary,” which convinced St. John Paul to go ahead with the appointment. “I don’t know if he should be a saint,” Carr said, “but lots of people were deceived by McCarrick.”

Panelists expressed disdain for Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the former papal nuncio to the United States, who in a 2018 letter pointed fingers of blame at Pope Francis and others over the McCarrick scandal.

Cruz derided Archbishop Vigano “and his QAnon theories.” QAnon is a discredited conspiracy theory that a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles is running a global child sex-trafficking ring and plotting against U.S. President Donald Trump.

Gibson said Archbishop Vigano “transformed himself into the Great Accuser ... operating his own campaign from some undisclosed location.”

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CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 17, 2020

BISHOPS: GETTING COVID VACCINE IS ‘ACT OF CHARITY’

WASHINGTON – The “gravity” of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and “the lack of availability of alternative vaccines,” are “sufficiently serious” reasons to accept the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, the chairmen of the U.S. bishops’ doctrine and pro-life committees said Dec. 14.

“Receiving the COVID-19 vaccine ought to be understood as an act of charity toward the other members of our community,” they said. “In this way, being vaccinated safely against COVID-19 should be considered an act of love of our neighbor and part of our moral responsibility for the common good.”

The bishops addressed the moral concerns raised by the fact the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have some connection to cell lines that originated with tissue taken from abortions.

MASS OFFERED FOR HEALING OF NATIVE AMERICANS’ ‘HISTORICAL TRAUMA’

CLEVELAND – The Catholic Church can offer a message of healing to Native peoples through a new and inculturated evangelization that shares the hope expressed by Jesus in the Gospel, the executive director of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions said at a Mass celebrating the feast of St. Juan Diego.

By embracing such an evangelizing style, the church can help Native Americans heal from the “historical trauma” caused by practices that have demeaned their dignity and led to long-standing social challenges, Father Maurice Henry Sands said in a homily during the Mass Dec. 9 at the St. John Paul II National Shrine in Washington.

The Mass was celebrated in collaboration with the Knights of Columbus, which in 2019 initiated a wider outreach effort to Native Americans and First Nations people in Canada.

Father Sands, a member of the Ojibway, Ottawa and Potawatomi tribes, invited Knight of Columbus councils and parishes “to implore the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe to heal our people.”

“Our nations once again need to hear her message

of love, hope and reconciliation,” he said, noting the impact of government policies of “genocide, annihilation, termination, relocation, assimilation.” He also cited racism, prejudice and discrimination and the forced placement of Native American children in government boarding schools for a century beginning in the 1870s for creating the trauma that has existed for generations and caused severe challenges for Indigenous people.

SHOW ADVENT MERCY TOWARD PRISONERS FACING EXECUTION, BISHOPS’ COMMITTEE CHIEFS URGE

WASHINGTON – U.S. bishops’ committee chairmen called on President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr, who is Catholic, to recall God’s grace during Advent and show mercy toward federal prisoners facing execution.

“What does the birth of our Lord say to this? The Lord comes not to destroy, but to save,” Archbishops Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City and Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, chairmen of the bishops’ domestic policy and pro-life committees, said Dec. 7.

The bishops noted that they have an urged an end to federal executions many times.

“But the executions resumed. Eight since July.

Two more this week (of Dec. 7). Three (planned) in January. A new regulation will permit federal execution by means other than lethal injection, such as the electric chair.”

The federal government carried out its 10th execution of 2020 on Dec. 11 and has scheduled three in January before president-elect Biden takes office, including that of Lisa Montgomery, who would be the first woman prisoner put to death by the U.S. in nearly 70 years.

ing report suggests guidelines for bishops in evaluating hymn lyrics and for selecting hymnals being considered for use in churches.

An accompanying memo said the document is to “assist bishops in their oversight of liturgical celebrations in their dioceses and in the granting of the imprimatur.” It also encouraged bishops to “share this resource with composers and hymn publishers in their dioceses” as well as “diocesan worship officers, pastors and parish musicians.”

It also said that the doctrine committee “is available for any bishop who desires assistance in the evaluation of hymns or hymnals.”

The committee document identified six areas of particular concern, a principal one being the treatment of the Eucharist. It warned that “a steady diet” of doctrinally deficient hymns “would erode Catholic sensibility regarding the fullness of Eucharist teaching, on the Mass as sacrifice and eventually on the church, as formed by that sacrifice.”

The document, titled “Catholic Hymnody at the Service of the Church: An Aid for Evaluating Hymn Lyrics,” was produced by the Committee on Doctrine of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

A blessed Christmas season and New Year to all from the Catholic San Francisco team.

We return next year starting on Jan. 14.

DOCTRINE COMMITTEE SETS STANDARDS FOR EVALUATING, IMPROVING CHURCH HYMNS

WASHINGTON – Expressing concern for the doctrinal soundness of some of the lyrics of Catholic hymns now available for use in Catholic liturgies, the U.S. bishops’ doctrine committee in a forthcom-

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CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 17, 2020

SUNDAY READINGS

Fourth Sunday of Advent 2 SAMUEL 7:1-5, 8B-12, 14A, 16 When King David was settled in his palace, and the Lord had given him rest from his enemies on every side, he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God dwells in a tent!” Nathan answered the king, “Go, do whatever you have in mind, for the Lord is with you.” But that night the Lord spoke to Nathan and said: “Go, tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: Should you build me a house to dwell in?’“ “’It was I who took you from the pasture and from the care of the flock to be commander of my people Israel. I have been with you wherever you went, and I have destroyed all your enemies before you. And I will make you famous like the great ones of the earth. I will fix a place for my people Israel; I will plant them so that they may dwell in their place without further disturbance. Neither shall the wicked continue to afflict them as they did of old, since the time I first appointed judges over my people Israel. I will give you rest from all your enemies. The Lord also reveals to you that he will establish a house for you.

And when your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his kingdom firm. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever.’”

PSALM 89:2-3, 4-5, 27, 29 Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.

The promises of the Lord I will sing forever; through all generations my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness. For you have said, “My kindness is established forever”; in heaven you have confirmed your faithfulness.

Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.

“I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David my servant: Forever will I confirm your posterity and establish your throne for all generations.”

Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.

“He shall say of me, ‘You are my father, my God, the Rock, my savior.’ Forever I will maintain my kindness toward him, and my covenant with him stands firm.”

Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.

ROMANS 16:25-27 Brothers and sisters: To him who can strengthen you, according to my Gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret for long ages but now manifested through the prophetic writings and, according to the command of the eternal God, made known to all nations to bring about the obedience of faith, to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ be glory forever and ever. Amen.

LUKE 1:26-38 The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.” But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” And the angel said to her in reply, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God.” Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.

May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

We are the temple of God’s presence

T

he little Julia and her grandfather were taking a walk in their rural neighborhood, sharing precious moments of conversation about what children tend to ask in their inimitable style of innocence and insight. They happened to pass an open well when the girl says to him: “Grandpa, where does God live?” Holding her arms firmly back, the grandfather asks the girl to look down into the water in the well. He says to her, “Tell me what you see.” The girl says, “I see myself, grandpa.” The man says, “Julia, that is where God lives. God lives in you.“ The story seems almost simplistic, but it underscores the towering truth about God’s intimate presence, his love and grace, and our abiding relationship with him. God lives in each FATHER CHARLES one of us. We are the temple of PUTHOTA God’s presence. We are made in the image and likeness of God. We are almost like God, despite our flaws and frailties, despite our selfishness and sinfulness. If children are like their parents in many ways, we as God’s children are like God in many ways.

We carry the divine DNA in us. We are capable of reflecting God’s image and likeness to one another.

SCRIPTURE REFLECTION

As we go about revealing God to one another, we build up the human family capable of thinking, saying, and doing things that reflect God. In our values and vision, in our approach to God and the world, in all our quests and questions, in our joys and hopes, we keep longing for God’s love and grace. All our statements about ourselves are ultimately about God because we consciously or unconsciously keep reaching out to transcendence. Our inadequacies are implicitly in reference to God’s truth, beauty, and goodness. We are made for God and our hearts are restless, constantly seeking within and beyond us something that will fulfill and complete us. In the human family, highly capable of revealing God’s presence to one another, God lives. God loves. God cherishes. God cares. God comforts. God heals. God gives.

God forgives. God calls. God delights. God fulfills.

The word of God this fourth Sunday of Advent celebrates the truth that God lives in human beings.

The Christmas season that is almost upon us calls us to deepen the mystery of God becoming one with us through his son Jesus Christ.

In the first reading, David in his childlike manner wants to build a house for God. How could he live in a cedar house while God lived in a tent? God must have chuckled. God is not to be confined to a tent or a building or a nation or a race. God is God of all peoples and nations. Beyond the physical structures, God will truly be worshipped in spirit and truth. God promises to raise up an heir to David, who will be God’s son,

whose kingdom will never end. The people will become the house where God will live through his son, a promise that will fuel their longings for the Messiah.

The exquisite beauty of the Annunciation in the Gospel is a theme celebrated by painters and poets in sheer delight of God meeting a young woman at Nazareth, thus fulfilling the Messianic promise and the longings of peoples. This is the “revelation of the mystery kept secret for long ages, but now manifested…and…made known to all nations…” about which Paul speaks in Romans. Mary becomes the house of God’s son when she consents to let him become one with human beings. Jesus takes on the human form and pitches his tent among us. We the people all over the world are the house of God. There shall be no end to God’s kingdom among his people.

As we celebrate God’s dwelling in word and sacrament, in history, mystery and majesty, we are once again thrilled at the mystery of the Incarnation.

The current pandemic has spooked the world in all sorts of tragic and heartbreaking ways, but we have the assurance again this Christmas season that God is dwelling in us, in all our triumphs and troubles, through the holy baby in the manger, who is forever our light and life, shepherding us through the dark times to green pastures, where we shall rest and recuperate, and gain the strength and fullness of life.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26: Feast of St. Stephen, first martyr. ACTS 6:8-10; 7:54-59. PS 31:3CD-4, 6 and 8AB, 16BC AND 17. PS 118:26A, 27A. MT 10:17-22.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 31: The Seventh Day in the Octave of Christmas. Optional Memorial of St. Sylvester I, pope.

FATHER CHARLES PUTHOTA is pastor of St. Elizabeth Parish, San Francisco.

LITURGICAL CALENDAR, DAILY MASS READINGS MONDAY, DECEMBER 21: Monday of the Fourth Week of Advent. Optional Memorial of St. Peter Canisius, priest and doctor. SG 2:8-14 or Zep 3:14-18a.

PS 33:2-3, 11-12, 20-21. LK 1:39-45.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22: Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Advent. 1 SM 1:24-28. 1 SAMUEL 2:1, 4-5, 6-7, 8ABCD. LK 1:46-56.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 23: Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Advent. Optional Memorial of St. John of Kanty, priest. MAL 3:1-4, 23-24. PS 25:4-5AB, 8-9, 10 AND 14. LK 1:57-66.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 27: The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. SIR 3:2-6, 12-14. Gn 15:1-6; 21:13. PS 128:1-2, 3, 4-5. Ps 105:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9. COL 3:12-21 or Col 3:12-17 or Heb 11:8, 11-12, 17-19. COL 3:15A, 16A or Heb 1:1-2. LK 2:22-40 or Lk 2:22, 39-40.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 28: Feast of the Holy Innocents, martyrs. 1 JN 1:5—2:2. PS 124:2-3, 4-5, 7CD-8.

MT 2:13-18.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24: Thursday in the Fourth Week of Advent - Mass in the Morning. 2 SM 7:1-5, 8B-12, 14A, 16. PS 89:2-3, 4-5, 27 AND 29. LK 1:6779.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 29: The Fifth Day in the Octave of Christmas. Optional Memorial of St. Thomas Becket, bishop and martyr. 1 JN 2:3-11. PS 96:1-2A, 2B-3, 5B-6. LK 2:32. LK 2:22-35.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 25: The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas) - Mass During the Day. Is 52:7-10. Ps 98:1, 2-3, 3-4, 5-6. Heb 1:1-6. Jn 1:1-18 or Jn 1:1-5, 9-14.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30: The Sixth Day in the Octave of Christmas. 1 JN 2:12-17. PS 96:7-8A, 8B-9, 10. LK 2:36-40.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 1: Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. NM 6:22-27. Ps 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8. GAL 4:4-7. HEB 1:1-2. LK 2:16-21.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 2: Memorials of St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory Nazianzen, bishops and doctors. 1 Jn 2:22-28. PS 98:1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4. Heb 1:1-2. Jn 1:19-28.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 3: The Epiphany of the Lord. Is 60:1-6. Ps 72:1-2, 7-8, 10-11, 12-13. Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6.

Mt 2:2. Mt 2:1-12.

MONDAY, JANUARY 4: Memorial of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, religious. 1 Jn 3:22–4:6. 2:7bc-8, 10-12a. See Mt 4:23. Mt 4:12-17, 23-25.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 5: Memorial of St. John Neumann, bishop. 1 Jn 4:7-10. PS 72:1-2, 3-4, 7-8. Lk 4:18.

Mk 6:34-44.

OPINION 11

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 17, 2020

Our wounds, our gifts and our power to heal others

N

early 50 years ago Henri Nouwen wrote a book entitled, “The Wounded Healer.” Its reception established his reputation as a unique spiritual mentor, and he went on to become one of the most influential spiritual writers of the past halfcentury. What made his writings so powerful? His brilliance? His gift for expression? He was gifted, yes, but so are many others.

What set him apart was that he was a deeply wounded man and from that disquieted place inside him issued forth words that were a healing balm to millions.

How does this work? How do our wounds help heal others?

FATHER RON They don’t.

ROLHEISER It’s not our wounds that help heal others. Rather our wounds can color our gifts and talents in such a way so that they no longer induce resistance and envy in others but instead become what God meant them to be, gifts to grace others.

Sadly, the opposite is often true. Our gifts and talents often become the reason we’re disliked and perhaps even hated. There’s a curious dynamic here. We don’t automatically, nor easily, let the gifts of others grace us.

More often, we’re reluctant to admit their beauty and power and we resist and envy those who possess them and sometimes even hate them for their gifts. That’s one of the reasons we find it hard to simply admire someone.

But this reluctance in us doesn’t just say something about us. Often it says something too about the persons

who possess those gifts. Talent is an ambiguous thing, it can be used to assert ourselves, to separate ourselves from others, to stand out and to stand above, rather than as a gift to help others. Our talents can be used simply to point to how bright, talented, good-looking, and successful we are. Then they simply become a strength meant to dwarf others and set ourselves apart.

How can we make our talents a gift for others? How can we be loved for our talents rather than hated for them? Here’s the difference: We will be loved and admired for our gifts when our gifts are colored by our wounds so that others do not see them as a threat or as something that sets us apart but rather as something that gifts them in their own shortcomings. When shared in a certain way, our gifts can become gifts for everyone else.

Here’s how that algebra works: Our gifts are given us not for ourselves but for others. But to be that, they need to be colored by compassion. We come to compassion by letting our wounds befriend our gifts. Here are two examples.

When Princess Diana died in 1997 there was a massive outpouring of love for her. Both by temperament and as a Catholic priest, I’m normally not given to grieving over celebrities, yet I felt a deep sorrow and love for this woman. Why? Because she was beautiful and famous?

Not that. Many women who are beautiful and famous and are hated for it. Princess Diana was loved by so many because she was a wounded person, someone whose wounds colored her beauty and fame in a way that induced love, not envy.

Henri Nouwen, who popularized the phrase, “the wounded healer” shared a similar trait. He was a bril-

liant man, the author of more than 40 books, one of the most popular religious speakers of his generation, tenured at both Harvard and Yale, a person with friends all over the world; but also a deeply wounded man who, by his own repeated admission, suffered restlessness, anxiety, jealousies and obsessions that occasionally landed him in a clinic. As well, by his own repeated admission, amidst this success and popularity, for most of his adult life he struggled to simply accept love. His wounds forever got in the way. And this, his wounded self, colors basically every page of every book he wrote. His brilliance was forever colored by his wounds and that’s why it was never self-assertive but always compassionate. No one envied Nouwen’s brilliance; he was too wounded to be envied. Instead, his brilliance always touched us in a healing way. He was a wounded healer.

Those words, wounded and healer, ordain each other.

I’m convinced that God calls each of us to a vocation and to a special work here on earth more on the basis of our wounds than on the basis of our gifts. Our gifts are real and important; but they only grace others when they are shaped into a special kind of compassion by the uniqueness of our own wounds. Our unique, special wounds can help make each of us a unique, special healer.

Our world is full of brilliant, talented, highly successful, and beautiful people. Those gifts are real, come from God, and should never be denigrated in God’s name.

However, our gifts don’t automatically help others; but they can if they are colored by our wounds so that they flow out as compassion and not as pride.

OBLATE FATHER RON ROLHEISER is president of the Oblate School of Theology, San Antonio, Texas.

LETTERS Consistency lacking on racial, religious topics

Dear Nicholas Wolfram Smith, There is an admirable amount of concern and research given in the articles championing the cause of religious liberty and discrimination against organized religion under the COVID-19 restrictions; but that same level of passion and detail should also be given to the analysis and reporting of racial discrimination and the related protests.

When Pope John Paul II apologized to Africans for slavery and discrimination, the church was officially acknowledging the importance of discrimination.

While the inability to congregate impacts all people of faith, racial discrimination in the United States impacts certain groups more than others.

I suggest a level of consistency when it comes to discussing discrimination of religious freedom and racial discrimination. In an article concerning Mass restrictions, it reads, “Our people are hurting because they cannot come to church ... they cannot exercise their natural right.” The language utilized here differs notably from the language used in articles referencing racial disparities, in that the injustices there are not revealed. In the discussion of racial justice, the adversity of marginalized communities is not mentioned but shifted toward its relationship with God: “We have a sickness, we have an injustice, and Christ is here to heal us.” As it only addresses the topic broadly, there is a lack of consistency between the subjects of religious and racial discrimination. Your work represents a significant effort to explore such topics and I encourage you to keep doing so.

Keilani Villanueva Brisbane

Felony charges justified

From the tenor of the letters in the last two issues of CSF, I get the impression that most readers have ambivalent or downright negative feelings about the archdiocese’s push for felony vandalism charges against those who wrecked St. Junipero Serra’s statue.

Not me. I was happy that the archdiocese was willing to fight for “home and family,” and rather wish the Marin prosecutor had also filed hate crime charges. I’m not a heartless guy.

Frankly, I wonder if many readers haven’t been somewhat “infected” by the I-deeply-apologize-formy-Catholicism “virus” making the rounds in church circles. Forgiveness? St. John Paul II publicly forgave his would-be assassin – after about a year had elapsed.

But he never ever campaigned for Mehmet Ali Agca’s early release from prison. To forgive is not the same as to forget. Brushing a matter under the rug is only to aid in the construction of a lie.

Michael Biehl San Francisco

Hypocrisy, or what do you call it?

I am not a member of any political party so I have no political bias. I believe in facts, so I’m wondering why millions of people, especially evangelicals and Catholics, have sided with Mr. Trump because they thought he was a supporter of the “right to life.”

Here’s a question that should be considered: What is the right to life? Is it just abortion or is it the opportunity to maintain a person’s existence? If you believe that it is just abortion, ask yourself why you aren’t including other causes of death such as contagion supportive misbehavior during a pandemic, environmental destruction that can/does shorten human and all other life, murder, etc. Let’s look at the pandemic. The fact is that Mr. Trump, as the leader of our nation, has intentionally sacrificed perhaps hundreds of thousands of lives because of his intentional actions that fly in the face of proper health care and right to life.

Leon Huntting Sausalito

Disheartening stance

I am writing to respond to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to develop a working group to deal with conflicts between Biden policies and church teaching.

It is disheartening that the bishops should take an antagonistic stance toward the election of Presidentelect Biden, the second Catholic to be president. No such working group was established on the election of President Trump, who was congratulated by the USCCB on Election Day 2016. During his tenure, Trump promoted racism and xenophobia, separated immigrant families, exacerbated division in our country and advocated policies that imperil our environment.

It seems a double standard that Biden is being held to a standard that Trump was not. During the Republican Convention, speakers questioned the authenticity of Biden’s Catholic faith. No bishop spoke up to state that no one has a right to judge another person’s faith.

In this imperfect world, there are no candidates whose positions align totally with the Gospel. The tradition of the church teaches the primacy of conscience and how we are bound to follow it. Given that, the best prayerful decision must be made in a list of imperfect options that best promotes the dignity of the human person and the common good. And while the bishops advanced abortion

the “pre-eminent” political issue in 2020, Catholic voters “should not use a candidate’s opposition to an intrinsic evil to justify indifference or inattentiveness to other important moral issues involving human life and dignity” (“Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.”)

It would behoove the bishops to work with Biden on common goals such as the marginalized and the poor, addressing climate change and welcoming immigrants and refugees. In this climate of division, where 52% of white Catholics voted for Trump and 67% of Latinx Catholics voted for Biden (Pew), it would serve us well to promote healing.

Hector Lee San Francisco

Safe, short, frequent Masses can be done

Can’t the archdiocese negotiate specific Mass practices with the health authorities, and go from there?

Some examples. Aside from wearing masks and adequate distancing, no singing, but musical instruments OK? Single singer? Recorded music? Cut down Mass time 15 minutes with bare essentials of offertory, consecration, Communion? Additional shortened Masses with smaller alternating audiences (e.g., two 15-minute Masses every hour to give time for church to empty and filled with next group)? Just have Communion, but also require TV or virtual Mass attendance? No sharing wine-cup drinking.

Temporarily, tons of workable stuff can be done. Use the brains God has given us!

John Lum San Francisco

Selective view of right to life

Re “US bishops urge Trump, Barr to stop upcoming federal executions,” Dec. 3, 2020: Trump garnered many Catholic votes because of his stance on abortion. However, in 2020, he has supported the execution of 10 inmates in federal prisons, with at least four more scheduled, before he leaves office. One woman is included in the latter number. No female has been executed since 1953, and no federal executions have been conducted since 2003. It appears that Trump’s view of “the right to life” is selective. Equality and justice are definitely not served.

Jean Ramirez San Francisco

LETTERS POLICY EMAIL letters.csf@sfarchdiocese.org WRITE Letters to the Editor, Catholic San Francisco, One Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco, CA 94109

NAME, address and daytime phone number for verification required.

SHORT letters preferred: 250 words or fewer

12 WORLD

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 17, 2020

Frankincense’s future: Ancient gift endangered, risks depletion CAROL GLATZ CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

VATICAN CITY – The Gospel of Matthew never details how many Magi came from “the East,” but it makes it clear they traveled to pay homage to “the newborn king of the Jews” and “offered him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.”

Beyond their great monetary value, scholars say, the gifts had deep symbolic significance: gold for the Christ child’s nobility as king of the Jews; frankincense, which was burned in religious ceremonies, for his divinity; and myrrh, which was used on cuts or wounds and in the anointing of corpses, to prefigure his role as healer and foretell of his death.

Both myrrh and frankincense have exceptional medicinal qualities, which would have made them a very useful and thoughtful gift for the Holy Family, said Anjanette DeCarlo, chief sustainability scientist for the U.S.-based Aromatic Plant Research Center.

“At that time, infant mortality was high,” and frankincense and myrrh were “two of the most potent antimicrobial substances in the ancient medicine cabinet,” DeCarlo told Catholic News Service in a video call from Vermont, where she teaches at St. Michael’s College in Colchester.

“From a Christian perspective, he’s the most important baby ever born and, of course, wouldn’t you bring that baby something to ensure” he could stay healthy, she said.

What is not healthy, however, is the future of frankincense.

Highly sought after for its religious,

Guy Erlich, an Israeli entrepreneur, checks a frankincense tree at a plantation in Kibbutz Almog in the West Bank Nov. 30, 2017.

Conflict, climate change and poverty are driving the demise of the tree that produces frankincense resin.

(CNS PHOTO/RONEN ZVULUN, REUTERS)

medicinal and household purposes, it is one of the oldest traded commodities in the world, spanning at least 5,000 years.

An aromatic resin, frankincense is harvested from the “tears” that seep from cuts made to a variety of boswellia tree species, which grow in the harsh, dry climates of Yemen and Oman in the Arabian Peninsula, of Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan in East Africa, and in northwestern India.

These trees are in severe decline and one species in particular – the boswellia papyrifera, which grows in conflictrife regions of Ethiopia and Sudan – risks going extinct in the next 50 years,

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The Story Of Christmas: Counting Our Blessings

By Paul Larson MILLBRAE – Below is an article I wrote recently that appeared in the “I.C.F. Bollettino” (Italian Catholic Federation Newsletter). Since this is the time of year for giving, whichever way you celebrate the season, I have the following for you to ponder: Yuletide greetings to our ICF Branch 403 officers, members and friends.

As the Andy Williams song goes: "It's the most wonderful time of the year"! We each anticipate and look forward to this season filled with blessings, giving, love and cheer! " 'Tis the season to be jolly". "Joy to the world"!

Thinking back, though, to where it all started, the birth of our lord was roughly (give or take) two thousand twenty years ago. For centuries the birth of Jesus has been celebrated across this planet as the most significant of occasions. But, we all know the story of Joseph, Mary and the manger...how simple and humble that marker-in-time was known to be...and how extravagant it would become.

This Christmas let's remember the down-to-earth beginnings. Put yourself in the place of Joseph and Mary.

Ponder on how difficult it was to be

rejected over and over until finally being allowed to rest in a place meant to hold barnyard animals (not considered by today's standards the most hygienic location to give birth).

But, Mary and Joseph didn't complain and felt blessed to have this space.

During this Holy Season, let's each remember how lucky we are and count our blessings. Even though there are a good number of us who might find it hard to celebrate, due to hardships, hard times or loss of a loved one, there are always those in our community who have it much harder...and some of them still are very grateful for what blessings they do have. Mary and Joseph didn't complain and counted their blessings.

Let's follow their example and remember our blessings too.

However you are blessed, no matter how small or big, I am sending my best seasonal wishes to you and your family for love, peace, health and happiness!

Buone feste e tanti auguri.

Ti auguro Buon Natale e un felicissimo Anno Nuovo!

From Paul Larson, your friend and ICF Branch 403 President.

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said DeCarlo, who also heads the Save Frankincense project. A study published last year in the journal, Nature Sustainability, predicted frankincense resin production will be halved in the next 20 years.

The Catholic Church is a major consumer of frankincense since incense has an important place in its liturgies.

Dried gum grains are burned over hot coals in a censer or thurible to incense the altar, the book of Gospels, offertory gifts, sacred images and the people participating in the Mass, with the smoke symbolizing sanctification, purification and the prayers of the faithful rising up toward God. Billowing upward, the smoke draws people’s gaze with it to remind them of heaven, and the incense aroma is a reminder of the transcendence of the Mass.

Burning frankincense also activates different channels in the brain to alleviate anxiety or depression, according to researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

“It promotes a feeling of connection and spiritual enlightenment,” which is why burning frankincense has been an integral part of many different religious rites and rituals for millennia, said Stephen Johnson, an organismal biologist and frankincense researcher.

“Religions have a very important role to play” in helping not just to preserve, but to regenerate frankincense sources and support harvesters, he told CNS in a video call from Seattle.

“It is absolutely possible for us to take care of trees, take care of harvesters, take care of their communities and take care of ourselves,” he said. “Everybody involved in the supply chain should benefit.”

After years of working in Somalia and developing ethical and sustainable harvesting standards, Johnson said he decided to establish his own business and projects that show what regenerative supply chains look like.

Regeneration tries to leave ecosystems, communities and plants better off by using profits to support research, conservation and community development and by making sure harvesting communities have access to fair prices and greater opportunities, he said.

This new way of doing business has to happen now, DeCarlo said. “Ten years from now will be too late.”

Most existing trees are “the last of their generation,” with no young trees taking their place, she said, and over-tapping trees hurts their ability to regenerate, stay healthy and survive.

Conflicts and climate change worsen already harsh conditions, and local communities are under great pressure to clear the land to grow crops for survival, she added. Also, grazing cattle love to chew on the tender baby leaves of new growth.

Johnson and DeCarlo both insisted that frankincense buyers, including Catholic churches and the essential oil industry, must demand transparency and traceability in the source of the resins and accountability in making sure harvesters are paid fairly.

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WORLD 13

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 17, 2020

Pope prays to St. Juan Diego JUNNO AROCHO ESTEVES CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis sought the intercession of the first Indigenous saint of the Americas as COVID-19 continued to devastate many Latin American countries.

While greeting Spanish-speaking faithful during his weekly general audience Dec. 9, the pope marked the feast day of St. Juan Diego, “whom Our Lady of Guadalupe chose as her envoy.”

The Marian apparitions took place in 1531 on Tepeyac hill in Mexico, now the site of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe which houses St. Juan Diego’s tilma, the mantle that bears the miraculous image of Mary. Prior to the pandemic, an estimated 12 million people visited each year, making it Catholicism’s most popular Marian shrine.

Pope Francis prayed, “Through his intercession, may he present to Our Lady the countries of Latin America, affected by the pandemic and natural disasters, so that she, as a mother, may go out to meet her children and cover them with her mantle.”

According to a Dec. 8 report by Bloomberg News, Latin America accounts for 30% of the deaths related to COVID-19.

In July, the Pan American Health Organization stated that the pandemic posed a particularly great risk for Indigenous communities, especially those “living in remote settlements or isolated areas where access to health services is a challenge.”

“Among Indigenous populations, either living in remote settlements or isolated in urban areas, some of the risk factors that may be associated with higher COVID-19 mortality rates include malnutrition, insufficient access or complete lack of access to health systems as well as to potable water and basic sanitation, in addition to the existing high burden of parasitic diseases,” the organization said.

(CNS PHOTO/COURTESY ARCHDIOCESE OF LOS ANGELES)

A painting by Rick Ortega in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Juan Diego is pictured Nov. 20, 2019, at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles. Pope Francis has invoked the intercession of St. Juan Diego, the first Indigenous saint of the Americas, as COVID-19 continues to devastate many Latin American countries.

In a Nov. 19 video message to participants at a virtual seminar about the coronavirus pandemic in Latin America, Pope Francis called on government leaders and authorities to not exploit the COVID-19 pandemic as a means to discredit political rivals but instead set aside differences to find “viable solutions for our people.”

“Discrediting the other only succeeds in destroying the possibility of finding agreements that help alleviate the effects of the pandemic in our communities, especially on the most excluded,” the pope said.

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POPE TO CELEBRATE EARLY MASS DEC. 24

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis will celebrate the Vatican’s traditional Christmas “Mass during the Night” Dec. 24, but will begin the liturgy at 7:30 p.m. local time so that the few people invited to attend can get home in time to observe Italy’s 10 p.m. curfew.

While the nighttime Mass often is referred to as “Midnight Mass,” it has not been celebrated at midnight at the Vatican since 2009 when Pope Benedict XVI moved it to 10 p.m. Pope Francis moved it to 9:30 p.m. in 2013, his first Christmas as pope.

The pope’s Christmas blessing “urbi et orbi” (to the city and the world) will be given, as usual, at noon Christmas Day from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica.

Other liturgies announced by the Vatican Dec. 10 include: – Dec. 31, 5 p.m., evening prayer and the singing of the “Te Deum” in St. Peter’s Basilica to thank God for the past year.

– Jan. 1, 10 a.m., Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica for the feast of Mary, Mother of God, and World Peace Day. – Jan. 6, 10 a.m., Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica for the feast of the Epiphany.

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14 WORLD

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 17, 2020

Pope proclaims year dedicated to St. Joseph JUNNO AROCHO ESTEVES CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

VATICAN CITY – Marking the 150th anniversary of St. Joseph being declared patron of the universal church, Pope Francis proclaimed a yearlong celebration dedicated to the foster father of Jesus.

In a Dec. 8 apostolic letter, “Patris Corde” (“With a father’s heart”), the pope said Christians can discover in St. Joseph, who often goes unnoticed, “an intercessor, a support and a guide in times of trouble.”

“St. Joseph reminds us that those who appear hidden or in the shadows can play an incomparable role in the history of salvation. A word of recognition and of gratitude is due to them all,” he said.

As Mary’s husband and guardian of the son of God, St. Joseph turned “his human vocation to domestic love into a superhuman oblation of himself, his heart and all his abilities, a love placed at the service of the Messiah who was growing to maturity in his home.”

Despite being troubled at first by Mary’s pregnancy, he added, St. Joseph was obedient to God’s will “regardless of the hardship involved.”

“In every situation, Joseph declared his own ‘fiat,’ like those of Mary at the Annunciation and Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane,” the pope said. “All this makes it clear that St. Joseph was called by God to serve the person and mission of

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St. Joseph and the Christ Child are depicted in a stained-glass window at Immaculate Conception Church in Westhampton Beach, New York In a Dec. 8 apostolic letter, Pope Francis proclaimed a yearlong celebration dedicated to St. Joseph, foster father of Jesus.

Jesus directly through the exercise of his fatherhood and that, in this way, he cooperated in the fullness of time in the great mystery of salvation and is truly a minister of salvation.”

St. Joseph’s unconditional acceptance of Mary and his decision to protect her “good name, her dignity and her life” also serves as an example for men today, the pope added.

“Today, in our world where psychological, verbal and physical violence toward women is so evident, Joseph appears as the figure of a respectful and sensitive man,” he wrote.

Pope Francis also highlighted St. Joseph’s “creative courage,” not only in finding a stable and making it a “welcoming home for the son of God (who came) into the world,” but also in protecting Christ from the threat posed by King Herod.

“The Holy Family had to face concrete problems like every other family, like so many of our migrant brothers and sisters who, today, too, risk their lives to escape misfortune and hunger. In this regard, I consider St. Joseph the special patron of all those forced to leave their native lands because of war, hatred, persecution and poverty,” the pope said.

As a carpenter who earned “an honest living to

provide for his family,” Christ’s earthly guardian is also an example for both workers and those seeking employment and the right to a life of dignity for themselves and their families.

“In our own day, when employment has once more become a burning social issue, and unemployment at times reaches record levels even in nations that for decades have enjoyed a certain degree of prosperity, there is a renewed need to appreciate the importance of dignified work, of which St. Joseph is an exemplary patron,” he said.

The Apostolic Penitentiary, a Vatican tribunal that deals with matters of conscience, also issued a decree Dec. 8 stating that plenary indulgences will be granted to Catholics not only through prayer and penance, but also through acts of justice, charity and piety dedicated to the foster father of Jesus.

Among the conditions for receiving an indulgence are a spirit detached from sin, receiving sacramental confession as soon as possible, receiving Communion as soon as possible and praying for the Holy Father’s intentions.

However, the decree also highlighted several ways to obtain the indulgence throughout the year, including to those who “meditate on the prayer of the ‘Our Father’ for at least 30 minutes or take part in a spiritual retreat of at least one day that includes a meditation on St. Joseph.”

As a “just man,” the document continued, who guarded “the intimate secret that lies at the bottom of the heart and soul,” St. Joseph practiced the virtue of justice in “full adherence to the divine law, which is the law of mercy.”

“Therefore, those who, following the example of St. Joseph, will perform a corporal or spiritual work of mercy, will also be able to obtain the gift of the plenary indulgence,” it said.

Indulgences will also be granted to families and engaged couples who recite the rosary together and thus imitate the “same climate of communion, love and prayer lived in the Holy Family. “ Other acts of devotion include entrusting one’s daily activities and prayers for dignified employment to St. Joseph, reciting the litany or any “legitimately approved” prayer to St. Joseph.

During this time of pandemic, the Apostolic Penitentiary also decreed that special indulgences will be granted to the elderly, the sick and all those who “for legitimate reasons are prevented from leaving their home” by “reciting an act of piety in honor of St. Joseph and committed to fulfilling the conditions as soon as possible.”

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Unfortunately due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we are unable to have a large public gathering.

Please know that it has been our sincerest honor to have served you and your family in your time of need and loss. Let us always cherish the memories we have and let us share these memories with family and friends. Grounded in God’s compassionate love, embrace the healing and the hope of eternal life.

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WORLD 15

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 17, 2020

Some Australians oppose conversion therapy ban MARILYN RODRIGUES CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

SYDNEY – A proposed law to ban so-called conversion therapy in the state of Victoria is the most egregious attack on religious freedom the country has ever seen, said faith leaders and legal experts.

If passed, the bill introduced in Parliament in late November would criminalize any practices that seek to change or suppress a person’s sexual orientation or gender idenArchbishop Peter tity. However, the bill is so broad in A. Comensoli its definitions that it could crush any Christian expression of human sexuality, capturing homilists, Scripture teachers and parents with penalties reaching more than US$148,600 or up to 10 years in jail for individuals.

Any religious practice, including praying for a person at their request in relation to issues concerning their sexual orientation or gender, is mentioned in the draft bill as a criminal offense. Activities relating to gender transitioning from a person’s biological sex to a new gender identity are exempt.

If passed, the law would empower Victoria’s Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission to respond to reports of change or suppression practices from any person, not only those directly involved, as well as launch its own investigations.

Melbourne Archbishop Peter Comensoli said any coercive practice “is an affront to human dignity.” He said he firmly rejects such harmful acts but added that “nobody is protected when governments seek to determine what prayers are OK to say, or what faith reasonably proposes.”

“Who I pray to, how I pray, what I pray for, and most particularly, who I pray with is not of concern

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

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CALL (415) 614-5644 | EMAIL podestam@sfarch.org VISIT www.catholic-sf.org

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CONTROLLER

Reports to the Chief Financial Officer Primary Objective of this Position: Manage the financial activities of the Central Administrative Finance Office with respect to: accounting functions, cash management and services provided to four Archdiocesan high schools and Seminary.

Primary Attributes of the Successful Candidate: Strong mentor and Manager who is detail oriented. Must be comfortable with all types of systems; Excel, PowerPoint and GL packages. Strong understanding of Non-Profit, Fund Accounting and GAAP. Effective presenter and communicator.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES Financial Accounting and Reporting: • Responsible for the maintenance, completeness and accuracy of the financials of the Chancery.

Cash Management: • Manage cash flow of all operations, driving predictability and cash forecasting activities Annual Budget Process and Preparation/Expense Management Archdiocesan High Schools and Seminary; development and deployment of Accounting policies

novena Prayer to the Holy Spirit Holy Spirit, you who make me see everything and who shows me the way to reach my ideal.

You who give me the divine gift to forgive and forget the wrong that is done to me. I, in this short dialogue, want to thank you for everything and confirm once more that I never want to be separated from you no matter how great the material desires may be. I want to be with you and my loved ones in your perpetual glory. Amen. You may publish this as soon as your favor is granted.

S.C.J.C.

to any government,” Archbishop Comensoli told the media. “Most mainstream Christian churches reject coercive practices or activities that do harm to LGBT people, and we’re ready to work with government to find ways of ensuring that people are protected. But the bill goes well and truly beyond that.”

John Steenhoff, managing director of the Human Rights Law Alliance, said the bill is “a direct attack on religion beliefs, and in particular Christianity, and will target those who hold to traditional convictions on sexual orientation and gender identity issues.”

“It is far too broad and will legislate extreme ideology, particularly around gender ideology,” he said.

He called it “thinly veiled ideological compulsion.”

Professor Michael Quinlan, dean of the School of Law, Sydney, at the University of Notre Dame, said Victoria was taking a “very draconian and authoritarian approach which no government should take.”

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help wanted Catholic Elementary Principals Sought for Archdiocesan Schools The Department of Catholic Schools of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, is seeking elementary principal candidates for the 2021-2022 school year. Candidates must be a practicing Roman Catholic in good standing with the Church, possess a Valid California Standard Teaching Credential or the equivalent from another State, a Master’s Degree in an educational field and/or California administrative credential or the Certificate in Catholic School Administration from Loyola Marymount University *, be certified as a catechist at the basic level** and have five years of experience in teaching and/or in administration with Catholic school experience. *Principals who are not in possession of both educational qualifications, must complete the requirement within a three year period of time from date of hire. ** Principals who are not in possession of basic certification in religion at the time of hire, must complete the process before they start their position.

Ensure adequate Controls and Policies are developed and maintained

Application materials may be downloaded from the official DCS website by clicking on the following link: www.sfarchdiocese.org/employment.

Drive Efficiency, Automation and enhanced Chancery services to other functions

The requested material plus a letter of interest should be submitted before February 15 to:

Management and Mentoring through goal setting ensuring customer commitments are achieved Other; Support Finance Council and Sub-committee reporting Basic Skills, Knowledge and/or Abilities • B.S. Degree in Accounting or Finance • Ability to perform complex financial analyses and project planning • Experience and aptitude in the area of IT/IS applications.

Please submit resume and cover letter to: Archdiocese of San Francisco Office of Human Resources, c/o Christine Escobar One Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco, Ca 94109 Statement of Non-Discrimination

“Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer.”

Christine Escobar Human Resources Manager Department of Catholic Schools One Peter Yorke Way San Francisco, CA 94109-6602 Salary will be determined according to Archdiocesan guidelines based upon experience as a teacher or administrator and graduate education. Medical, dental, and retirement benefits are included.

ARCHDIOCESAN STATEMENT OF NON-DISCRIMINATION

The Archdiocese of San Francisco adheres to the following policy: “All school staff of Catholic schools of the Archdiocese of San Francisco shall be employed without regard to race, color, sex, ethnic or national origin and will consider for employment, qualified applicants with criminal histories.” (Administrative Handbook #4111.4)

16 WORLD

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 17, 2020

BE GUARDIANS OF BEAUTY IN THE WORLD, POPE TELLS CHRISTMAS CONCERT ARTISTS

in view of other, apparently more important priorities,” said the document, “The Bishop and Christian Unity: An Ecumenical Vademecum.”

Prepared by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, the 52-page document was released Dec. 4 after its publication was approved by Pope Francis.

The text reminds each Catholic bishop of his personal responsibility as a minister of unity, not only among the Catholics of his diocese, but also with other Christians.

VATICAN CITY – Artistic creation can bring the light of Christmas to a world that has been enveloped in the darkness of pain and sorrow, Pope Francis told a group of performers.

Meeting Dec. 12 with singers, songwriters, musicians and conductors performing at the Vatican’s annual Christmas concert, the pope said that “amid the anxiety provoked by the pandemic, your creativity can be a source of light.”

“In a special way, you are guardians of beauty in our world,” he said. “I thank you for your spirit of solidarity, which is all the more evident in these days.”

The 2020 Christmas concert was recorded at a large music hall down the street from the Vatican and will be broadcast in Italy on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

CATHOLIC DOCS, BISHOP WELCOME UK RULING AGAINST PUBERTY BLOCKERS

PREACH THE PROMISE OF ETERNAL LIFE, CARDINAL SAYS

VATICAN CITY – Anyone who thinks eternal life will be boring should ask a couple in love whether they want that love to endure forever, said the preacher of the papal household.

Human beings are “finite beings capable of the infinite, mortal beings with an innate yearning for immortality,” said Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, offering an Advent meditation to Pope Francis, leaders of the Roman Curia and Vatican employees.

In his reflection Dec. 11, the cardinal said Jesus’ birth was the moment “eternity burst into time” and his death and resurrection opened eternity to all who believe.

Preaching about eternity is an essential aspect of evangelization, he said, because it responds to that human desire for meaning and for unending love. But also, he said, it is a reminder to Christians that the focus of their lives should be striv-

(CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING)

Pope: Nativity brings light and hope

The principal characters in the Nativity scene are pictured in St. Peter’s Square during a Christmas tree lighting ceremony at the Vatican Dec. 11, 2020. The statues in St. Peter’s Square are only a few pieces of a 54-statue collection created by students and teachers of Castelli’s “F.A. Grue” Art Institute between 1965 and 1975. The image of baby Jesus nestled in the manger is a much-needed reminder during the pandemic that God gives the world the gift of hope in troubled times, Pope Francis said.

ing for holiness on earth so that they can enjoy eternal life with God in heaven.

“Imagine this situation: A person receives an eviction notice and must move soon. Fortunately, he immediately is given the possibility of a new home,” the cardinal said. “But what does he do? He spends all his money to modernize and decorate the house he must leave rather than furnishing the one he’s going to. Wouldn’t that be foolish?”

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VATICAN CITY – The ministry of a Catholic bishop must reflect the Catholic Church’s commitment to Christian unity and must give ecumenical engagement the same kind of attention as work for justice and peace, said a new Vatican document.

“The bishop cannot consider the promotion of the ecumenical cause as one more task in his varied ministry, one that could and should be deferred

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MANCHESTER, England – A U.K. court has ruled children are unable to consent to taking drugs to change gender, in a landmark case welcomed by Catholic doctors and a bishop.

Three judges at the High Court in London ruled Dec. 1 that drugs known as puberty blockers must not be given to children under 16 without permission from a court to confirm that such therapies were in the child’s “best interests.”

They said that a court judgment should also be sought if there was any doubt that patients up to the age of 17 years were not fully aware of the consequences.

The 19-page ruling makes doctors who act without such judgments legally liable for expensive clinical negligence claims from former patients.

Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth described the judgment as “a ray of common sense.”

“As Christians, we believe that God creates people as male and female,” he said in a Dec. 4 statement sent by email to Catholic News Service. “This is why gender dysphoria is a condition that needs to be addressed first and foremost by spiritual and psychological therapies, with real love and emotional support for the individual concerned, rather than leaping to surgical and hormonal interventions.”

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CALENDAR 17

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 17, 2020

CHRISTMAS LITURGIES

RETREATS & REFLECTION

At the time of this printing, some or all of the three counties of the Archdiocese of San Francisco may be under state lockdown orders based on rising rates of COVID-19 and local hospital capacities. The order may affect the format, capacities and schedule of Christmas liturgies.

Please visit the following websites in making plans for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services:

TUESDAY, JAN. 19, 2021: Free Zoom film discussion on the PBS documentary, ‘ReconstructionAmerica After the Civil War’: Linda Carter Pete provides a study guide to all registrants in order to facilitate study, reflection, and conversation. 7:15-8 p.m. Hosted by the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael. Visit sanrafaelop.org.

• your parish website for Mass format and schedules.

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 27, 2021: Human Trafficking Talk Series: The Office of Human Life & Dignity is offering a series of free Zoom talks and prayer on human trafficking beginning in January, National Slavery & Human Trafficking Prevention Month. National antitrafficking leader Susan Patterson will speak to what the faith community can do to prevent human trafficking.

6:30 p.m. Visit sfarchdiocese.org/seminars.

• sfarch.org/livestreams for links to local online liturgies.

• covid19.ca.gov for local COVID-19 information.

MUSIC & ART SUNDAY, DEC. 20: St. Ignatius Virtual Virtuoso Concert Series: ‘Beethoven’s 250th Worldwide Birthday Celebration,’ with Kevin Navarro on piano. 7:30 p.m.

YouTube.com/c/stignatiusparishsf.

SUNDAY, DEC. 20 & 27: St. Mary’s Cathedral Musical Meditations: Afternoon concert live streamed at 4 p.m. from the cathedral. Dec. 20: Jin Kyung Lim, organ and piano; Kyle Jones, tenor, music for Advent and Christmas. Dec. 27: Pierre Zevort, organ. Visit smcsf. org/events for more information and to make a freewill donation.

MONDAY, DEC. 21: Christmas Readings and Carols: St. Dominic Parish Schola Cantorum and parish lectors will present a livestreamed service at 7:30 p.m. Visit stdominics.org.

TUESDAY, DEC. 22: La Nativite du Seigneur - Olivier Messiaen: Internationally acclaimed organist Jonathan Dimmock in a livestreamed performance of the nine meditations inspired by the birth of Jesus. St. Dominic Parish, 5:45 p.m. Visit stdominics.org.

FORMATION MONDAY, JAN. 4, 2021: Meetings for men discerning priesthood: First Monday of each month, 6:15-8:30 p.m. Currently on Zoom led by Father Thomas Martin.

Register at sfpriest.org/events.

MONDAY, JAN.18, 2021: Meetings for men discerning priesthood: Third Monday of each month, currently on Zoom led by Father Cameron Faller. Register at sfpriest.org/events.

(BENEDICTINSTITUTE.ORG)

Winter at the Convent is a painting by Margaret Loxton featured on the website for the Benedict XVI Institute, sponsors of the Advent Retreat for Artists and Art-Lovers.

SATURDAY, DEC. 19: Advent Retreat for Artists and Art-Lovers: A Zoom retreat featuring a novelist, a poet, a composer and Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone at 2 p.m. A time for spiritual reflection on your creative calling as we await the Christ Child’s birth together. Offered by the Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship. Register at benedictinstitute.org/featured-events.

THURSDAY-SATURDAY, JAN. 15-17, 2021: Virtual ‘Come and See Day’ with the Dominican Nuns of Corpus Christi Monastery: It may be a new year like no others, but God is still calling perhaps more than ever. For Catholic women ages 18-38. Information and registration at opnunsmenlo.org/come-and-see-virtualretreat.

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BEGINNING IN FEBRUARY 2021: Zoom Grief Support Group: St. Dominic Parish’s long-running 12-week grief support group will begin again on Zoom in early February. Led by Deacon Chuck McNeil and Sister Maggie Glynn FSP. Set up a pre-group conversation before the group begins by contacting Deacon Chuck at (415) 567-7824 or deaconchuck@stdominics.org.

SATURDAY, DEC. 19, SUNDAY, DEC. 27: A Contemplative Christmas Oasis: Two free Zoom retreats for men and women offered by the Jesuit Retreat Center of Los Altos. Join Jesuit Father John Auther for prayer and reflection using three Christmas poems and quiet time to meditate and contemplate this joyful gift of the Christ Child. Register by noon Dec. 18. Visit jrclosaltos.org.

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WEEKLY, 2021: C. S. Lewis Society Book and Film Club of the Bay Area: Meetings are held bi-weekly at 7:30 p.m. to read and discuss books by scholar and Christian writer, C. S. Lewis. Visit lewissociety.org/bookfilm-club.

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If you receive the print paper or if you don’t, we invite you to connect in any these ways.

EMAIL: A newsletter with staff picks of the latest news, comment and inspiration, delivered weekly to your inbox. To sign up, visit catholic-sf.org/free-email-newsletter.

FACEBOOK: Join our growing community of 3,800 followers. Our news feed is updated regularly with news and photos and

is becoming a showcase for the work of CSF photographers. We highlight the archdiocese but include our picks of significant national and world news and comment as it happens. You’ll find us at www.facebook.com/CatholicSF/.

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

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18 SAN FRANCISCO CATÓLICO

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 17, 2020

(FOTOS ZAC WITTMER/ SAN FRANCISCO CATÓLICO).

(FOTO DENNIS CALLAHAN/ARQUIDIÓCESIS DE SAN FRANCISCO)

El arzobispo Cordileone se ve en un altar temporal, frente a la catedral Santa María de la Asunción, celebrando la misa en honor a la Virgen de Guadalupe, el día de la Cruzada Guadalupana 2020 virtual, el 5 de diciembre.

Izquierda, Francisco Hernández, se ve en la plaza de la catedral antes de la misa en honor a la Virgen de Guadalupe el día de la Cruzada Guadalupana virtual, el 5 de diciembre. Hernández peregrinó 12 millas ese día pidiéndole a la Virgen de Guadalupe que interceda ante Dios para que termine la pandemia, también pidió por su salud, el padece cáncer en la próstata y los huesos. Derecha, Gloria López sostiene una estatua de la Virgen de Guadalupe, al final de su peregrinación de cuatro millas desde la Misión hasta la Catedral Santa María, el 5 de diciembre. Ella caminó sola para pedir por el fin de la pandemia y por la salud de su hermana.

Guadalupanos de San Francisco en busca de un milagro contra la pandemia LORENA ROJAS SAN FRANCISCO CATÓLICO

Los miles de guadalupanos que caminan cada diciembre desde South San Francisco hasta la Catedral Santa María de la Asunción para celebrar la fiesta a la Virgen de Guadalupe, tuvieron que quedarse en casa este año debido al COVID-19. Sin embargo, algunos devotos peregrinaron solos representando a los ausentes, para pedirle a la virgen que interceda para

que Dios haga el milagro de acabar con la pandemia, también pidieron por necesidades personales.

Ese fue el caso de Francisco Hernández, un parroquiano de 55 años, quien padece cáncer en la próstata y en los huesos. Él caminó las 12 millas de la ruta que cada año recorre la Cruzada Guadalupana de San Francisco. Él le ofreció ese sacrificio a la Virgen para pedirle que interceda por el fin de la pandemia, también le rogó por su salud, y para que le dé sabiduría para

ACADEMIA PADRE SAUER Localizada en la Escuela Secundaria Preparatoria San Ignacio

PERSISTENCIA • AMOR • LIDERAZGO • UNIDAD • SERVICIO • BÚSQUEDA

Provee Educación Católica Jesuita que ayuda a los alumnos a crecer en el amor y el aprendizaje al mismo tiempo que promueve el servicio. ¿QUIÉNES DEBERÍAN APLICAR? • Familias que califican y reciben asistencia financiera federal, tales como: Headstart, Programas de Asistencia suplemental de nutrición, Programa Nacional de Almuerzo escolar.

• Estudiantes que estén dispuestos a trabajar arduamente y muestren una presencia positiva en la escuela.

• Estudiantes que planeen asistir a la Universidad y quieran asistir a una escuela media y secundaria preparatoria, y que NO estén inscritos en una escuela privada actualmente.

• Estudiantes y padres que deseen formar parte de la comunidad de San Ignacio y la Academia Padre Sauer desde los grados 6 - 12.

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• Familias que se comprometan a apoyar a su hijo (a) académicamente y en su crecimiento personal.

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Aplicaciones disponibles en nuestro sitio web (www.siprep.org/academy) o bien puede recogerla en la oficina de la Academia Padre Sauer.

seguir promoviendo la devoción del rezo del rosario.

Hernández, quien ha caminado la Cruzada Guadalupana de San Francisco 20 años de los 27 años que llevan celebrando el evento, vivió una experiencia completamente diferente este año al caminar solo. Salió a las 10 a.m. de la iglesia All Souls en South San Francisco y llegó a la 1:30 p.m. a la Catedral Santa María de la Asunción con una expresión de gozo por haber cumplido su promesa a la Virgen.

“Me dio una gran alegría caminar, tanto así que no me di ni cuenta del tiempo… Yo venía rezando el rosario y otras oraciones, escuchado himnos y cantándole a la Virgen”, narró.

Hernández se considera a sí mismo un hombre de fe en Dios y en la Virgen, de quienes ha recibido favores muy grandes. Por ejemplo la recuperación después de un accidente laboral en el cual se rompió el cráneo y estuvo grave. Él recomienda que confíen en la Virgen. “A todos quiero decirles que la Virgen intercede por nosotros. Igual que una madre, ella nunca olvida a sus hijos”, dijo.

De la misma manera que Hernández, también Gloria López cumplió su promesa a la Virgen de peregrinar aunque fuera sola. Caminó cuatro millas llevando abrazada una estatua de la Virgen de Guadalupe.

López, mientras caminaba hacia la catedral, también le pidió a la Virgen de Guadalupe que interceda por el fin de la pandemia, por la salud de su hermana enferma, y por la paz del mundo.

Esta salvadoreña, parroquiana de la iglesia San Juan Evangelista en San Francisco llegó a la catedral alrededor de la 1 p.m., pero no pudo quedarse para la misa en honor a la Virgen de Guadalupe que tuvo lugar en la plaza de la catedral a las 2 p.m. Ella dijo que vería la transmisión de la misa desde su casa.

López comenzó a caminar con la Cruzada Guadalupana hace cinco años cuando le pidió a la Virgen que le ayudara a conseguir un lugar donde vivir con su hijo, y como resultado de sus súplicas encontró, no uno sino dos apartamentos para elegir, dijo.

Arzobispo animó a guadalupanos que asistieron a misa afuera de la catedral

Durante la homilía de la misa en honor a la Virgen de Guadalupe, el arzobispo Salvatore J. Cordileone

comparó las circunstancias en que estaban los fieles durante la misa al aire libre esa tarde fría y ventosa en la plaza de la catedral y las circunstancias en las cuales se encontraba san Juan Diego en el momento de la aparición de la Virgen.

“Quizá sea apropiado que celebremos esta misa al aire libre ya que pensamos en ese día histórico cuando la Virgen se apareció a san Juan Diego, porque él también estaba soportando el frío del invierno al aire libre, cuando ella ( la Virgen) lo visitó. Era mucho peor de cómo estamos hoy”, dijo.

Agregó que la celebración de la misa en honor a la Virgen de Guadalupe, al aire libre “nos da aún más oportunidad de demostrar nuestro amor y devoción a nuestra Santísima Madre”.

El arzobispo ofreció a los fieles un mensaje de esperanza, recordándoles que la Virgen siempre acompaña a sus hijos.

“La Virgen visitó a san Juan Diego.

Parece que a la Virgen le encanta visitar a su gente. Escuchamos en el Evangelio de hoy sobre la visita a su prima Isabel.

Nuestra Señora sabe cuándo sus seres queridos necesitan que ella los visite.

Isabel era anciana y llevaba en su vientre a Juan Bautista, el precursor del Hijo de María”.

La visita de la Virgen a su prima Isabel, como la aparición de la Virgen en el Tepeyac a san Juan Diego están relacionadas.

Los dos acontecimientos sucedieron, “en preparación para la gran Visitación de Nuestro Señor a su pueblo. Es por eso que la Virgen visitó a san Juan Diego en el Tepeyac ese día predestinado, lo hizo para preparar el camino para la Visitación de su hijo a un nuevo pueblo… (Así) comenzó el proyecto de construir una nueva civilización cristiana. La Virgen estuvo siempre ahí para protegerlos, para acogerlos, para reconciliar enemigos y llevarlos al corazón de su hijo”, predicó el arzobispo Cordileone.

El arzobispo también dijo “da tristeza no poder celebrar este año como habitualmente se ha hecho con la peregrinación y otras celebraciones”, pero agradeció a Dios por poder celebrar la misa en honor a la Virgen de Guadalupe aunque fuera al aire libre.

Al final de la misa, Pedro García, el fundador de la Cruzada Guadalupana de San Francisco anunció que la peregrinación del 2021 será el 4 de diciembre, y confía que haya terminado la pandemia para volver a caminar por las calles con miles de devotos.

SAN FRANCISCO CATÓLICO 19

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 17, 2020

Católicos necesitan el cuerpo y la sangre de Cristo esta Navidad El arzobispo Cordileone pide al Estado de California que implemente el fallo de la Corte Suprema y promueva el culto público seguro.

En el caso de la iglesia de Harvest Rock, et al. contra Newsom, la Corte Suprema rechaza un fallo del Tribunal de Distrito de California que permitía que en California continuaran las restricciones a las congregaciones religiosas. El tribunal reconsidera su decisión a la luz del fallo de SCOTUS de la Diócesis de Brooklyn contra Cuomo, el 25 de noviembre.

En esa decisión, la Corte Suprema dictaminó claramente que los gobiernos no pueden favorecer las actividades seculares en interiores, como el comercio minorista en interiores, sobre actos de culto. Las mismas restricciones deben aplicarse para ambos.

Los católicos y otras comunidades de fe responsables no deben ser agrupados con otros pocos irresponsables. Esto no se hace con nadie y no se debe hacer con las personas de fe. El momento ahora es crítico para que los cristianos no se vean privados de celebrar los días santos de Navidad en sus iglesias, aunque sea con un número limitado y otras precauciones de seguridad razonables. Ha llegado el momento de que nuestros funcionarios civiles

(FOTO DENNIS CALLAHAN/SAN FRANCISCO CATÓLICO)

El arzobispo Cordileone le da la comunión a una parroquiana en la Catedral Santa María.

Capilla de velación El Jardín Servimos a todas las familias con respeto y dignidad

650.583.2510 • chapel885@sbcglobal.net

Dueños Veteranos FD #805

885 El Camino Real, South San Francisco, CA 94080 WWW.GARDENCHAPEL885.COM

NÚMEROS DE AYUDA PARA VÍCTIMAS DE ABUSO SEXUAL DE PARTE DEL CLERO 0 MIEMBROS DE LA IGLESIA Este número 415-614-5506 es confidencial y Ie atiende Rocio Rodríguez, LMFT, Coordinadora de la oficina arquidiocesana de ayuda a las víctimas de abuso sexual.

Si usted prefiere hablar con una persona que no está empleada por la arquidiócesis por favor marque este número: 415-614-5503; es también confidencial y usted será atendido solamente por una persona que ha superado la experiencia traumática del abuso sexual.

Reporte el abuso sexual de un obispo o su interferencia en una investigación de abuso sexual a un tercero confidencial: 800-276-1562. www.reportbishopabuse.org

sfc

MANTÉNGASE CONECTADO A SAN FRANCISCO CATÓLICO Visítenos en sfcatolico.org Denos like en facebook @noticiascatolicas

1400 Dillon Beach Rd., Tomales, CA

trabajen con nosotros y con otras iglesias en los servicios religiosos seguros. Los católicos necesitan el Cuerpo y la Sangre de Cristo esta Navidad en California, como en cualquier otro lugar. Y tienen todo el derecho a acceder a él.

La experiencia muestra que cuando los actores responsables son discriminados de manera irresponsable, las personas tienden a congregarse en entornos privados menos regulados como los hogares.

El acto al culto y adoración no es menos importante que comprar zapatos. Es más importante para la salud espiritual y psicológica de las personas, es un derecho natural y constitucional y los católicos hemos demostrado durante meses que podemos adorar con seguridad, con mascarillas, distanciamiento social, ventilación e higiene.

Preferimos no ir a los tribunales para ganar esta pelea. Preferimos y hemos estado trabajando duro durante mucho tiempo para lograr resolver este impasse con entendimiento y respeto mutuo.

Eso ahorraría mucho tiempo y recursos valiosos.

También ayudaría a fomentar la buena voluntad.

Deje que mi pueblo adore.

20

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 17, 2020

In Remembrance of the Faithful Departed Interred In Our Catholic Cemeteries During the Month of November HOLY CROSS, COLMA

Peter Hennessey Cesar Hernandez Carlos J. Hurtado Lena (Lee) Imperiale-Luckett Cesar P. Abella Margarita Jacinto Evelyn Achiro Ceferina Jarabelo Irma Guidos Amador Jerrett Johnson Dr. Amanda Patricia Angel Rita Denise Jones Estrella Mondares Arenas Thomas Richard Jones Katherine Harrington Ashley Nina Juni Genevieve M. Berry Juana D. Kavanaugh Segundina Lopez Bocalbos Sister Maureen Kelley Marie Florence Brady David Yiu Kong Salud D. Buizon Amani Luna Talia Motley Lee Barbara Therese Burke Rita P. Lillis Dorothy T. Busalacchi Jerry Alan Lucas John Busterna Mary Grace Lyons Elizabeth “Betty” Cano Ramona Alcala Maciel Michael John Carey Luis Mancilla Lawrence Joseph Cavallero Antonio Gari Maracha Darlin Cortez Jesus Ibesate Marte Guadalupe Negrete Cuellar Margaret A. McFarland Marwan Dahdal Paul B. Meagher Virginia Del Carlo Marianito Villanueva Del Rosario Robert L. Mellberg Jean G. Mellberg Richard Devincenzi Virginia Molina Donald Diluzio Mary D. Moore Filomena DiStefano Sr. Barbara Moran Frances Dowd Jay Michael Moylett Therese M. Eldredge Ueta Savelio Mu’asika, Jr. Amelia R. Enriquez Tomasita Murillo Hermogena D. Enriquez Victoria “Vicky” Noceti Albert J. Ertassi Sr. Margaret A. Offley Yolanda Esquivel Robert Harry Okada Catherine Fenech Sharon Delaney Okada Dean Leland Ferraris Barbara E. Olivier Dorothy Ann Flanagan Edward Ottoboni Sr. Geraldine A. Garbarino Eleanor R. Paccioretti Anis Yacoub Ghishan Maurice F. Pellissier, Sr. Galen G. Giambruno Suzanne Perasso Leon Louis Girard Jesusa Petersen D’Alyeece M. Graham Elisa S. Prado Suzanne Marie Griffin Baby Angel Puzon Judy Ann Grosetti Alma Grace Ramirez Barbara Guinasso Harry F. Redlick Maxine C. Gutierrez Jose C. Rodriguez Basilisa L. Halog Juan Rodriguez Helen Hazard Haug Marguerite J. Rodriguez Edith (Dedee) Hennessey

Alex Roque Robert James Rossi David Saadeh Ernest A. Salomone Linda Velasquez Scafidi Vincent Michael Scully Alfred J. Sekara Helen Sheridan Thomas Sheridan James Silacci Silvio Anthony Silva-Re Henry Sinigiani, Jr. Salvador Solano Rita Geraldine Tamayo Margaret Tonna Cecilia W. L. Tsu Pepe M. Tuimavave Mary C. Valencia Morris Villamor Varian Olga Vasquez James L. Welsh Sr. Carolyn J. Whited Steven Wong Mae Elizabeth Woo Robert E. Xavier Donald James Xepoleas Rose A. Zaniroli Carol A. Zayas

John D. De Angelis Marie M. De Angelis Fangapulotu Eteaki Joseph N. La Bianca Juvenal Maldonado Enriqueta Robles Benjamin J. Vaissade

MT. OLIVET, SAN RAFAEL

Grace Cervantes Borello Laurence F. Gaskin Dave S. Mariani Toni Lee Melendrez Katherine E. Ravina Jack Stewart

TOMALES Earlene Patricia “Pattie” Grey Scott F. O’Reilly

Roberto G. Becerra Judith A. Booker

HOLY CROSS, MENLO PARK Cecilia M. Cody Eusebio Cortez

While we will not be having a First Saturday Mass in January, we encourage you to remember in prayer all our beloved dead at rest in our Catholic Cemeteries.

Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery 1500 Mission Road, Colma CA | 650-756-2060 Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery 1975 Santa Cruz Ave. @Avy Ave., Menlo Park, CA | 650-323-6375 Tomales Catholic Cemetery 1400 Dillon Beach Road, Tomales, CA | 415-479-9021 St. Anthony Cemetery Stage Road, Pescadero, CA | 650-712-1675 Mt. Olivet Catholic Cemetery 270 Los Ranchitos Road, San Rafael, CA | 415-479-9020 Our Lady of the Pillar Cemetery 926 Miramontes St., Half Moon Bay, CA | 650-712-1679 St. Mary Magdalene Cemetery 16 Horseshoe Hill Road, Bolinas, CA | 415-479-9021

A Tradition of Faith Throughout Our Lives.