archbishop cordileone support day picnic:
ordinations:
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Deacons Faller, Summerhays to be ordained June 6
Hundreds attend gathering in San Francisco
CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO Newspaper of the Archdiocese of San Francisco
www.catholic-sf.org
Serving San Francisco, Marin & San Mateo Counties
May 22, 2015
$1.00 | VOL. 17 NO. 15
Be joyful shepherds, trust your laity, pope tells bishops Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service
(Photo by Debra Greenblat/Catholic San Francisco)
Marian devotion in full bloom Christina Gray Catholic San Francisco
Ask past generations of Catholic school children to name their earliest or fondest “Catholic” memory and you may hear, “the May crowning of Mary, Queen of the May,” (and perhaps a few verses of “Hail, Holy Queen”). The traditional May crowning of the Blessed Mother with a wreath of flowers to honor her as queen of heaven and earth and as the source of new life for the faithful was a popular Marian devotion prior to Vatican II. The practice seemed to fall out of favor in subsequent decades, but in the schools and parishes of all three counties of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, the tradition appears to be in full bloom. St. Mary Church in Nicasio, St. Hilary in Tiburon, Mission Dolores Academy and Ecole Notre Dame des Victoires in San Francisco and Our Lady of Angels School in Burlingame were among the many parishes who held traditional Marian devotions, some simple, some traditional, complete with white dresses and veils, processions, special readings and traditional hymns.
(Courtesy photo)
Top, a poster by first graders at Ecole Notre Dame des Victoires. Bottom, Mission Dolores Academy eighth graders crowned Mary. At St. Hilary, parish schoolchildren brought flowers from home to lay at the feet of a statue of the Blessed Virgin during the 9 a.m. Sunday Family Mass. Father William Brown led
the young processors down the main aisle while the children’s choir sang “Immaculate Mary, your praises we sing. Who reigns now in splendor with Jesus our King.” “Our May Crowning honors Mary for her example of maternal, nurturing love,” said St. Hilary director of religious education Lisa Veto. “By having our children participate in the May Crowning we can help to strengthen the Catholic faith within each of them and give them an opportunity to express their gratitude to Mary for giving us her son.” The Christian custom of dedicating the month of May to the Blessed Virgin reputedly arose at the end of the 13th century when the church was able to Christianize the secular or pagan feasts that took place in the springtime. Devotions to Mary in May were common among the Jesuits in Rome in the 18th century and spread to the whole church after that. By the time of Pope Pius IX’s declaration of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854, it became universal. In 1965, Pope Paul VI’s encyclical, “Mense Maio” (The Month of May), detailed in part, the church’s special devotion to Mary.
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VATICAN CITY – Bishops must have “ecclesial sensitivity,” being bold in denouncing cultural trends that offend human dignity, but also trusting their lay faithful to fulfill their vocations in the world, Pope Francis said. “Ecclesial sensitivPope Francis ity” involves taking on “Christ’s attitudes of humility, compassion, mercy, concreteness and wisdom,” the pope, who is bishop of Rome, told the other bishops of Italy May 18, opening their annual general assembly at the Vatican. Part of “ecclesial sensitivity” is “reinforcing the indispensable role of the laity willing to take on the responsibilities that belong to them,” he said. “In reality, laypeople who have an authentic Christian formation do not need a ‘bishoppilot’ or a ‘monsignor-pilot’ or clerical input to assume their responsibilities at every level from the political to the social, from the economic to the legislative. Instead, they need a ‘bishop-pastor.’” During their meeting May 18-21, the bishops were to discuss how their faithful have received Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation, “The Joy of the Gospel,” and look at ways to implement its teaching. Pope Francis told them, “At this moment of history when we often are surrounded by discouraging news, by local and international situations that make us experience affliction and tribulation – in this framework that truly is not comforting – our vocation as Christians and as bishops is to go against the tide.” Bishops, and all Catholics with them, are called “to be joyful witnesses of the risen Christ in order to transmit joy and hope to others.” see pope, page 18
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