JUBILARIANS:
San Francisco Presentation Sisters celebrate milestones
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PLANNED PARENTHOOD:
EVANGELIZER:
Undercover video disclosures called ‘horrifying, heartbreaking’
Media-savvy priest named Los Angeles auxiliary
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PORNOGRAPHY: ‘Public
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health crisis of the digital age’
CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO Newspaper of the Archdiocese of San Francisco
SERVING SAN FRANCISCO, MARIN & SAN MATEO COUNTIES
www.catholic-sf.org
JULY 24, 2015
$1.00 | VOL. 17 NO. 19
‘Culture of life’ demands death penalty’s end, say USCCB chairmen CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
(PHOTO BY CHRISTINA GRAY/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)
Turning crime survivors into advocates
From her front door, Paulette Brown of San Francisco can see the spot where her 17-year-old son was gunned down nine years ago in broad daylight. She was among 50 people, many of them family members of homicide victims, who participated in a crime survivors assistance and support retreat July 15-17 organized by the archdiocesan restorative justice ministry. See story on Page 5.
WASHINGTON – The Catholic faith tradition “offers a unique perspective on crime and punishment, one grounded in mercy and healing, not punishment for its own sake,” two bishops said in a statement renewing the U.S. Catholic Church’s push to end the death penalty. “No matter how heinous the crime, if society can protect itself without ending a human life, it should do so. Today, we have this capability,” wrote Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston and Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami. The two prelates are the chairmen, respectively, of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities and the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development. The message, dated July 16, commemorated the 10th anniversary of the bishops’ Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty and their message SEE DEATH, PAGE 18
‘See the Lord’: Chinese American Catholic young adults help needy people see VALERIE SCHMALZ
‘Love big’ is 30-year-old optometrist founder’s goal
CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO
Kelly Kao is no longer making a top salary as a Silicon Valley optometrist and researcher for Google Glass. Instead Kao and her friends, motivated by their Catholic faith, are using their talents to help poor people see in Taiwan, the Philippines and even California’s San Joaquin Valley. In the past three years the Catholic nonprofit See the Lord has brought eyeglasses, and vision health care to thousands of poor people in rural areas of Taiwan, the Philippines and Sanger, California. “I walked away knowing that God had a different path for me, knowing I was called to do missionary work at that point in my life,” said Kao, now 30. Kao decided the day her mother died in February 2011 after a nine-year battle with cancer that she had to “love big” with her life. “There were a lot of people trying to talk me out of it.” When she quit all her jobs at age 28 in 2012, Kao was in fulltime private practice, teaching at UC
(COURTESY PHOTO)
Special needs children are in desperate need of care because helping them is so time-consuming that it is not profitable for doctors, Dr. Kelly Kao said. Kao and Judy Chang engage a young patient at Qishan Child Early Intervention and Development Center in Kaohsiung City in Taiwan.
Berkeley School of Optometry, and doing research for Google. See the Lord is staffed almost entirely by volunteers, young professionals who became friends through their faith and involvement in the San Jose Chinese Catholic Mission in Santa Clara. Kao, the only one who works fulltime for the organization, receives a small stipend as chief executive officer. “Every single person who needs prescription glasses we provide them with brand new lenses and frames. Prescription glasses, sun glasses, reading glasses – free of charge,” said Kao. Mission trip volunteers help pay for the eyeglasses handed out during their trip, said Henry Shu, chief financial
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SEE ‘SEE THE LORD’, PAGE 17
INDEX On the Street . . . . . . . . 4 National . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Faith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . 22