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FEBRUARY 7, 2014
$1.00 | VOL. 16 NO. 4
Celebrating lives devoted to God Hundreds of religious gather at cathedral for day honoring consecrated life VALERIE SCHMALZ CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO
(PHOTO BY VALERIE SCHMALZ/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)
Religious from the archdiocese gathered at St. Mary’s Cathedral Feb. 2 for a day celebrating consecrated life. First row: Sister Dorothea Quinn, CSJ; Father Ronald Clemo, SJ; Sister Noreen O’Connor, CSJ; Sister Paula Tak, SNDdeN; Sister Edith Hurley, RSM; Sister Irene Prieto, RCM; Sister Cindy Kaye, RSM; Sister Jean Evans, RSM; Sister Kathleen O’Hanlon, RSM; Second row: Sister Nancy Usselmann, FSP; Sister Kathleen Kearney, RSM; Sister Patrick Mary Kearney, OP/MSJ; Sister Lorraine Mullins, RSM; Sister Marianne Smith, SHF; Sister Corinne Avila, PBVM; Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone; Sister Rose Chen, RSCJ; Sister Kathleen Dolan, RSCJ; Sister Sally Brady, OP/SR. Third row: Sister Celeste Nuttman, RSM; Sister Ann McGowan, RSCJ. Not pictured: Sister Patricia Desmond, RSCJ; Sister Maire Sullivan, PBVM; Sister Marion Donohue, CSJ.
Dominican Sister Sally Brady was rattling along on the N Judah streetcar, coming home from St. Rose Academy in the early 1950s – when she suddenly realized what she was going to do with her life. “We went by St. Anne’s in the Sunset,” the 79-year-old Dominican of San Rafael recalled after the Feb. 2 Consecrated Life Sunday Mass celebrated by San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone at St. Mary’s Cathedral. “I looked over at the church and when I looked back, I said to myself ‘I’m going to enter.’ I can’t tell you a big story because there isn’t,” said Sister Sally, who after 32 years as an elementary school teacher now volunteers as a chaplain at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital and with hospice in Petaluma. “It was a grace.” A vocation to consecrated life is very special, Archbishop Cordileone said in his homily: “No matter where they are or who they are with, their heart is always with their Lord.” “Thank you for your consecration, thank you for your witness. Thank you for the reminder you are for all we are called to be,” Archbishop Cordileone said. “Thank you not only for SEE CONSECRATED, PAGE 19
Priest: Pope’s focus on poor brings church tradition to forefront PATRICIA ZAPOR CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON - The focus thus far by Pope Francis on the church’s responsibilities to the poor are certainly not new, and there will continue to be new challenges as his attention encompasses other aspects of Catholic social teaching, suggested Father J. Bryan Hehir in an address to people who work in social ministries. Neither the much-heralded first 100 days of President Franklin Roosevelt’s administration or the renowned 1,000 days of the John F. Kennedy presidency “had the global impact that Pope Francis has had” in the first months of his papacy, said Father Hehir, speaking Feb. 3 at the
Catholic Social Ministries Gathering. Father Hehir is secretary for health care and social services for the Archdiocese of Boston and a professor in religion and public life at Harvard University. The priest told the annual gathering that the focus on the poor and society’s inequities that Pope Francis has made a centerpiece are part of a Catholic tradition that goes back centuries, although the formal Catholic social teaching has a more recent history, only 135 years or so. The pope’s November apostolic exhortation, “Evangelii Gaudium” (“The Joy of the Gospel”) carried many echoes of a previous major church document on social teachings, “Gaudium et Spes,” the Second Vati-
can Council’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, he said. “Gaudium et Spes,” the last document of Vatican II, made it clear that the church has a responsibility to be involved in the world’s social actions, he said. Before that, while there was a clear tradition of such responsibility, “there was a question whether it was a required part of the course or extra credit,” for Catholics, Father Hehir said. Social justice responsibilities were important themes for other popes, too, he observed, but Pope Francis has come at them in new ways, which SEE FOCUS ON POOR, PAGE 19
(CNS PHOTO/BOB ROLLER)
Father J. Bryan Hehir, secretary for health care and social services in the Archdiocese of Boston, gestures during a talk Feb. 3 at the annual Catholic Social Ministry Gathering in Washington.
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INDEX On the Street . . . . . . . . .4 National . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 Opinion. . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Faith. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Calendar. . . . . . . . . . . .22