March 9, 2012

Catholic san Francisco

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A statue of Mary lies March 4 in the rubble of a destroyed church in Salyersville, Ky.

Tornadoes level church, spare another to be ‘symbol of hope’ HENRYVILLE, Ind. (CNS) – One Catholic church was flattened and another spared to serve as a refuge as tornadoes nearly wiped out this and other small towns in Southern Indiana and Kentucky March 2.

Parishioners at St. Luke Catholic Church in Salyersville, Ky., were picking up the pieces on the weekend as pastor Father Bob Damron reminded them that the church is a community of people, not a building.

He said St. Luke parishioners will meet for Mass in one another’s homes until a new church is built.

Amazingly, the tabernacle was found with the Eucharist safely enclosed in the ciborium, even though the tabernacle was lying face down with its door open. All the vessels of sacred oils were found upright and unbroken.

St. Francis Xavier Church was one of the few buildings in Henryville to come through the disaster nearly intact. It became a staging area for relief efforts, community organizing and prayer.

At Sunday Mass at St. Francis Xavier March 4, pastor Father Steven Schaftlein said the church was “spared to be a symbol of hope and also to walk the talk.

We’re praying here. That’s our first work.

But underneath is the food, the clothing that will help sustain the community in the months ahead.”

A wave of storms created dozens of tornadoes across 11 states March 2 and 3.

At least 39 people were killed, including one in Clark County, where Henryville and nearby Marysville took direct hits.

In the Diocese of Lexington, Ky.,

Parishioner Tracie D’Angelo and her 4-year-old daughter, Kelsey, listen as Father Steve Schaftlein speaks during a March 4 Mass at St. Francis Xavier Church as parishioners gather for the first time since a tornado ripped through the small community of Henryville, Ind. Prince of Peace Church in hard-hit West Liberty lost the roofs of both the rectory and the church, reported Thomas F. Shaughnessy, diocesan communications director and editor of Crossroads, its newspaper.

Just a few days earlier, another wave of tornadoes left 13 people dead in Illinois, Missouri and Tennessee and a trail of wreckage that appeared to be the most substantial in Branson, Mo., and in

Harrisburg and Ridgway, Ill., where the storm destroyed the entire town, including St. Joseph Church.

Father Steven Beatty said that soon after the volunteers began making their way to the church grounds, they made a circle to pray.

“St. Joseph Parish is still standing all around me,” he said. “The whole community of faith here is the strongest I’ve ever seen. I would have said that a week ago, and we’re stronger than that (now).”

Laity urged to bring faith-based convictions to public square

By Beth Griffin HICKSVILLE, N.Y. (CNS) – Catholics have a duty as American citizens to bring faith-inspired convictions to politics, and they can never allow politics to trump principles articulated by the bishops in their role as official teachers, according to Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York.

Informed political action is a particular charism of the laity, he said in the keynote address March 3 in Hicksville at the annual Public Policy Convention of the Diocese of Rockville Centre.

‘Informed political action is a duty, not some tawdry distraction.’

– Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan

Cardinal Dolan said Catholic involvement in the public square is based on Catholic social teaching, which articulates bedrock principles and the actions that logically follow from them. “We root for the underdog in Catholic social justice,” he said.

The innate dignity of the human person is the central tenet of Catholic social teaching, Cardinal Dolan said. Each person is a reflection of God and a “spark of the divine,” he said, and human life is unquestionably sacred and deserves protection and respect.

In his address, Cardinal Dolan said the centuries-old principle of solidarity

teaches “we’re all in this mess together” and are called to work for the common good. “We are called to construct a society of virtue and responsibility where human dignity is sacred and human life is revered.

Thus, informed political action is a duty.

It is not some tawdry distraction.”

Catholic teaching is based on natural law, “which is hard-wired into us as part of our moral DNA” and provides the basics of right and wrong as elementary, which human beings disregard at their peril, he said. Natural law does not belong to any CONVICTIONS, page 9

INSIDE THIS WEEK’S EDITION News in brief. . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Vatican archives . . . . . . . . . . 6 Local news . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 George Weigel. . . . . . . . . . . 15

Sainthood cause opened for Boys Town founder ~ Page 11 ~ March 9, 2012

‘Great courage and selflessness’ ~ Pages 12-13 ~

Msgr. Ratzinger writes bio of famous brother ~ Page 18 ~

ONE DOLLAR

Question Corner . . . . . . . . . 16 Father Rolheiser . . . . . . . . . 19

www.catholic-sf.org VOLUME 14

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No. 9

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Catholic San Francisco

March 9, 2012

On The Where You Live

By Tom Burke The St. Vincent de Paul Society of San Francisco made it a super-Super Bowl Sunday for its guests and Knights and Dames of Malta who helped serve up the goodies. “San Francisco members of the Order of Malta donated their time and energy, along with decorations and a whole lot of food to throw a party for the second year in a row at the St. Vincent de Paul Society of San Francisco’s MSC-South homeless shelter,” said Shivani Desai, development associate at SVDP. Welcome aboard to Shivani, by the way, who joined the staff at SVDP just a few months ago. “It’s been a wonderful experience so far,” Shivani told me. Shivani grew up in San Jose and holds an undergraduShivani Desai ate degree from UC Berkeley and recently completed graduate work in public administration at Columbia University. “I wanted to come back to the Bay Area and apply what I had learned to help my local community. I’m proud to play a role in helping SVDP enable community members who have fallen on hard times get back on their feet. I’m thrilled to join a team of intelligent, passionate individuals working hard to serve their community in an effective way.” Visit www. svdp-sf.org. To volunteer, contact Tim Szarnicki, at (415) 977-1270, ext. 3010 or tszarnicki@svdp-sf.org.

Sabrina Santander, an eighth grade student at Sts. Peter and Paul School, performed a traditional Filipino folk dance at the “Stop the Separation of our Families” rally on Jan. 28, at St. Mary’s Cathedral.

Second graders at St. Isabella School sponsored the Ash Wednesday Soup Supper at the San Sabrina Rafael parish. “They made placeSantander mats, set tables, served soup, passed rolls, served drinks and cleared tables,” said Judith Walsh Cassidy in a note to this column. “They also joined Father Mark Reburiano, pastor, to lead the opening prayer. It was really great to see the kids get so excited about doing this!” Judith said she read mention of soup suppers in Street and thought she’d follow up with St. Isabella’s good news. Thank you very much! Second grade teacher is Carol Nienaber.

St. Anselm School students prepared brown bag

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St. Cecilia School kindergarten and their eighth grade buddies celebrated 100 days of school by donating a hundred cans of food to the needy. Front, from left, are Jacob Cuevas, Cullen Reilly, Ronin Cook, Anthony Monares, Enzo Arada, Hunter dela Calzada. Back from left are Erin Tsang, Maya Winger, Christopher Jereza, Jackie Foti, Tara Hagan.

Fourth grade students at Our Lady of Mount Carmel School in Redwood City raised more than $300 for the Joanne Pang Foundation, active in cord blood research. Janelle Hernandez is fourth grade teacher.

Presenting the proceeds are, from left, Anthony Huerta, Ben Sacco, Reagan Sammons, Ella Heinzen, Garrett Munsey.

lunches for distribution by the St. Vincent DePaul Society at their San Rafael dining room. Middle school students worked with younger grades on the very worthy project.

The school said it went so well that it will now be an annual Catholic Schools Week outreach.

Msgr. Harry Schlitt presided at a “Fat Tuesday” Mass for Knights of St. Francis of Assisi at a packed

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Porziuncola Nuova chapel in North Beach Feb. 21. “What a gorgeous Mass Msgr. Harry celebrated,” Angela Alioto told me, noting the priest also chanted beautifully.

It’s the wearing of the green March 17, and St. Patrick’s Day Mass with San Francisco Auxiliary Bishop William J. Justice as principal celebrant at St. Patrick Church. See Datebook.

College campus ministry benefits from the HibernianNewman Club holiday lunch March 16 at the Westin San Francisco. Keynote speaker is San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr. Walter Farrell will be honored as Hibernian of the Year. See Datebook.

Thanks to Paulist Father Daniel McCotter, pastor of Old St. Mary Cathedral Parish, for this Lenten lesson and energizer. In a recent bulletin, he said, “The late Cardinal Richard Cushing of Boston wrote: `Liturgy understood as the worship of the church and social action understood as the work of the church, are part, one of the other. Liturgy which does not move its participants to social action is mere ceremonialism; social action which does not find its source in the liturgy is mere humanitarianism.’”

Lenten volunteer opportunities are many at Catholic Charities CYO. The full list is at www.cccyo.org/lent.

Jane Ferguson Flout, is the person in charge. She can be reached at (415) 972-1227 or jfergusonflout@cccyo.org.

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March 9, 2012

Catholic San Francisco

3

More archdiocesan schools offering 2-year kindergarten Two Catholic schools are opening transitional kindergarten programs this fall raising the number of “junior kindergarten” programs to at least five among Archdiocese of San Francisco schools.

Already some have waiting lists as parents respond to the idea of the “gift of time,” several Catholic schools reported.

With transitional kindergarten, younger children enroll for one year and then graduate to another year in kindergarten before progressing to first grade.

Part of the impetus for the new Catholic school programs is a 2010 state law that requires children to be older to start kindergarten and mandates local school districts offer “transitional kindergarten” options to the children affected by the change.

However, there is also widespread recognition among educators and parents that most 4 year-olds and young 5-year-olds need another year before they are ready for an increasingly academic kindergarten curriculum. That belief also underlies passage of the 2010 Kindergarten Readiness Act, sponsored by state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto. Many archdiocesan Catholic schools already require students turn 5 by Sept. 1 of the year they start, but California remained one of a handful of states with a December cutoff date, said Our Lady of Loretto Principal Annette Olinger.

(PHOTO COURTESY ST. HILARY SCHOOL)

By Valerie Schmalz

Student Thomas Niclas is pictured in class in the transitional kindergarten at St. Hilary School in Tiburon.

St. Hilary is one of five archdiocesan K-8 schools that have adopted a two-year kindergarten program.

Under SB 1381, the birth date cutoff will be moved from Dec. 2 to Sept. 1 over a three-year period, beginning in fall 2012. Next fall the date moves from Dec. 2 to Nov. 1. By 2014, the cutoff date will be Sept. 1.

“Transitional kindergarten gives parents a new choice that

is better suited to the academic, emotional, social, and developmental needs of their ‘young 5’ students,” said Olinger. The Novato Catholic elementary school enrolled its first transitional kindergarten students in fall 2011, as did St. Raymond School in Menlo Park.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel School in Redwood City and St. Anthony of Padua-Immaculate Conception School in San Francisco will start the programs in fall 2012. St. Hilary School in Tiburon began its “junior kindergarten” in 2010, although some form of a primary kindergarten has been offered for six or seven years, the school said.

Transitional kindergarten programs are separate from prekindergarten programs because they fall under the state’s school standards while pre-K and “young 5” programs are subject to regulations that apply to preschools and day care centers. The new state law gives Catholic schools the flexibility to start a junior kindergarten program without getting entangled in another set of state regulations.

At Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Principal Teresa Anthony said the school’s longtime standard that children must be 5 by Sept. 1 often sent children to public schools for kindergarten.

“Now we can offer those children the opportunity of a high quality early learning experience in a Catholic setting while KINDERGARTEN, page 7

Effort to replace California’s death penalty with life term advances Opponents of the death penalty in California have filed 800,000 petition signatures to support a statewide vote on replacing the penalty with a term of life in prison with no chance of parole.

The signatures – far more than the 504,000 required to qualify the initiative – were collected by 5,000 volunteers in all 58 California counties, the organizers for the SAFE California Act campaign, said March 1 at simultaneous news conferences in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Diego.

Assuming the signatures are declared sufficient and valid, the question of amending the death penalty law will appear on the ballot Nov. 6.

“California voters are ready to replace the death penalty with life in prison with no chance of parole,” said Jeanne Woodford, a spokeswoman for the effort and a former warden at San Quentin State Prison who oversaw four executions.

Death penalty opponents cite a report in June that the state has spent $4 billion since 1978 to fund the California death

penalty system – almost all of it for appellate court costs. The opponents say that, according to their plan, there would be a savings of nearly $100 million – or $30 million a year, for three years – that could be set aside to finance investigations of open rape and murder cases.

“Replacing the death penalty with a punishment of life in prison without parole will free up funds for critical tools like DNA testing in the shocking 46 percent of murder and 56 percent of reported rape cases that remain unsolved in our state every year,” said Woodford, who now heads a nonprofit, Death Penalty Focus, opposed to the death penalty.

The Catholic Church opposes capital punishment, believing that all life has value. Also on March 1, Auxiliary Bishop Gerald Wilkerson of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and president of the California Catholic Conference of Bishops, in a statement thanked Catholic volunteers who helped with the signaturegathering effort.

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The state’s law was established by voter initiative, in 1978, and can only be amended by initiative. Don Heller, a Sacramento lawyer, wrote the 1978 initiative – it expanded a law the California Legislature had written over then-Gov. Jerry Brown’s veto – and now opposes the death penalty.

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Catholic San Francisco

NEWS

March 9, 2012

in brief

All need help on tough days VATICAN CITY – Just like the disciples, every follower of Jesus needs a “mountain-top” experience of light and of closeness to the Lord to get them through life’s difficult and painful moments, Pope Benedict XVI said.

Celebrating a morning Mass March 4 at the Church of St. John Baptist de la Salle in a Rome suburb and reciting the Angelus at midday with visitors at the Vatican, Pope Benedict commented on the day’s Gospel account of the Transfiguration.

Jesus told his disciples that he would have to suffer and die, but they did not understand him and, in fact, they objected to the idea, the pope told the crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the Angelus.

“For this reason, Jesus took three of them up the mountain and revealed his divine glory, the splendor of truth and love.

Jesus wanted this light to illuminate their hearts when they would pass through the thick darkness of his passion and death, when the scandal of the cross would be insupportable for them,” the pope said.

“All of us need interior light to overcome the trials of life,” he said. “This light comes from God, and it is Christ who gives it to us.”

Anti-Christian attacks tripled VATICAN CITY – Terrorist attacks on Christians in Africa, the Middle East and Asia tripled in a seven-year period, a Vatican official told a U.N. meeting.

Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, the Holy See’s permanent observer to U.N. offices in Geneva, told the U.N. Human Rights Council that while Christians are not the only victims, attacks on them in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia “increased 309 percent between 2003 and 2010.” He did not offer any specific numbers.

“Approximately 70 percent of the world’s population lives in countries with high restrictions on religious beliefs and practices, and religious minorities pay the highest price.

In general, rising restrictions on religion affect more than 2.2 billion people,” the archbishop told the council members March 1.

The archbishop denounced “intolerance that leads to vio-

lence and to the killing of many innocent people each year simply because of their religious convictions.”

In some countries, which the archbishop did not name, religious freedom is threatened by “government-imposed and unjust restrictions.” Yet religious freedom is a fundamental and inalienable right, which can foster a healthy cooperation and spirit of shared responsibility among believers of different religions, he said.

The international community must work, “to sustain mutual tolerance and respect of human rights and a greater equality among citizens of different religions in order to achieve a healthy democracy where the public role of religion and the distinction between religious and temporal spheres are recognized,” Archbishop Tomasi said.

Peruvian prelate threatened LIMA, Peru – Huancayo Archbishop Pedro Barreto Jimeno received a death threat just two days after releasing a statement calling for a controversial smelter to meet environmental requirements before being allowed to resume operations.

Two laypeople on the archdiocesan team managing an environmental project to clean up air and water in the Mantaro River Valley, where the smelter is located in the town of La Oroya, also received death threats made from a public telephone to their mobile phones.

“They want to silence the voice of truth,” Archbishop Barreto said in a statement after the March 2 threats. “We are not going to turn back. We will stand firm in the defense of life.”

The prelate has received death threats in the past related to the smelter. Several years ago, demonstrators in La Oroya displayed a coffin bearing his name.

Emissions from the smelter, owned by Doe Run Peru, a subsidiary of the New York-based Renco Group, have been linked to lead poisoning in La Oroya residents, especially children. The smelter shut down in mid-2009 because of financial problems but is likely to resume operations this year, possibly as early as May.

Rural women deserve respect UNITED NATIONS – Women around the world, particularly rural women who face serious challenges from poverty and hunger, deserve recognition for their contributions and should be allowed to influence decisions that affect the lives of families, a Vatican official told the United Nations.

Improving the lives of women will assist families, the communities in which they live and society as a whole, said Dianne Willman, attache at the Holy See’s permanent observer mission to the United Nations. Her comments came as she addressed the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women March 6 on behalf of Archbishop Francis Chullikatt, the Vatican’s U.N. nuncio.

Poverty and hunger are largely caused by unfair social and

political systems that perpetuate inequality and deprive women of legal rights and a voice in decisions that affect them, Willman said. She also cited unhygienic situations, poor nutrition, lack of access to water and inaccessible health care as social conditions that must be overcome for millions of women.

Dismissal denied in priest’s trial PHILADELPHIA – Lawyers for a Philadelphia archdiocesan priest failed Feb. 27 in their bid to have charges of child endangerment and conspiracy dismissed before the priest’s case went to trial.

As a result, arguments are still set to begin March 26 in the trial of Msgr. William J. Lynn, who had been an aide to recently deceased Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, who was Philadelphia’s archbishop from 1988 until his retirement in 2003.

Msgr. Lynn, 61, is accused of having failed to protect children from two priests who were under his direction when he served as secretary of the clergy for the archdiocese from 1992 to 2004. In that role, he was responsible for recommending the assignment of priests in the archdiocese.

He will be tried with Father James Brennan, 48, and 69-year-old Edward Avery, a former priest. Father Brennan is charged with raping and sexually assaulting a boy during the 1990s.

Avery is facing the same charges with another boy in the 1990s.

In a motion filed Feb. 24, Msgr.

Lynn’s attorneys said a newly discovered archdiocesan memo from 1994 indicated Cardinal Bevilacqua ordered the shredding of a list compiled by Msgr. Lynn of 35 priests suspected Msgr. William of sexual misconduct with children.

Lynn The motion contended that the memo proved Msgr. Lynn had been trying to address the problem of clerical sexual abuse while Cardinal Bevilacqua was trying to cover it up. But prosecutors said the document was instead “the equivalent of a smoking gun for the prosecution,” since Msgr. Lynn had made a determination in 1994 that then-Father Avery was “guilty” of abuse yet allegedly enabled the priest to continue in ministry.

Cardinal Bevilacqua died at age 88 Jan. 31, one day after a judge declared him competent to serve as a witness in the trial. The archdiocese said the cardinal had been suffering from dementia, and Msgr. Lynn’s attorneys said the cardinal could no longer recognize his onetime aide.

Jury selection began in late February. Five of 12 jurors had been selected through Feb. 27; 10 alternates also will be chosen. An AP story said the trial is expected to last four months.

A gag order was placed on the case last April. Neither side in the trial is permitted to speak to reporters.

– Catholic News Service

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Catholic San Francisco

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Cardinal dismayed by White House rebuffs on religious liberty WASHINGTON (CNS) – In a strongly worded letter to his fellow bishops, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York charged that White House officials failed to consider the U.S. bishops’ concerns that the federal mandate governing employer coverage of contraception and sterilization under the health care law violated religious freedom principles.

An invitation from the White House to “work out the wrinkles” regarding the mandate either by rescinding it or at least widening the exemptions on religious grounds failed to reach an agreement and the effort “seems to be stalled,” he said in the letter released late March 2.

The letter cited recent comments by a White House official that the mandates are a “fait accompli” and that Congress was notified that the rules have been published in the Federal Register “without change.”

Cardinal Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, also said that during a recent meeting with White House officials, USCCB staff members “asked directly whether the broader concerns of religious freedom ... are all off the table.”

“They (USCCB staff) were informed they are,” he wrote.

“Instead they advised the bishops’ conference that we listen to the ‘enlightened’ voices of accommodation,” pointing to a recent editorial in America magazine, the cardinal said.

The editorial in the magazine’s March 5 issue questioned whether the bishops’ opposition to the revised mandate released by the administration Feb. 10 was an issue of disagreement over government policy as opposed to an infringement of religious liberty.

“The White House seems to think we bishops simply do not know or understand Catholic teaching and so, taking a cue from its own definition of religious freedom, now has nominated its own hand-picked official Catholic teachers,” the letter continued.

Despite the setback, Cardinal Dolan promised that the USCCB would not back down in its drive to overturn the mandates because of its overriding concern for religious freedom.

Obama’s revision said religious employers could decline to cover contraceptives if they were morally opposed to them, but the health insurers that provide their health plans would be required to offer contraceptives free of charge to women who requested such coverage. Questions remain as to how it relates to religious employers who are self-insured.

In his letter, the cardinal reiterated that the bishops’ conference will “continue to accept invitations to meet with and to voice our concerns to anyone of any party, for this is hardly

partisan, who is willing to correct the infringements on religious freedom that we are now under.”

“But as we do so, we cannot rely on off-the-record promises of fixes without deadlines and without assurances of proposals that will concretely address the concerns in a manner that does not conflict with our principles and teaching,” he added.

Cardinal Dolan also expressed hope that Congress may be more willing to address religious freedom concerns legislatively.

“Our commitment to seeking legislative remedies remains strong. And it is about remedies to the assault on religious free- Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan dom. Period,” Cardinal Dolan said.

The letter outlined planned actions to spread the word about the mandates to parishes. It said advocacy and education efforts will expand and that catechetical resources on the significance of religious freedom to the church and the church’s teaching on it from doctrinal and moral perspectives are being developed.

Liturgical aids to encourage prayer on challenges to religious freedom also are on tap, the letter said.

“Given this climate we have to prepare for tough times,” Cardinal Dolan wrote.

“Brothers, we know so very well that religious freedom is our heritage, our legacy and our firm belief, both as loyal Catholics and Americans,” he continued. “There have been many threats to religious freedom over the decades and years, but these often came from without. This one sadly comes from within.

“As our ancestors did with previous threats, we will tirelessly defend the timeless and enduring truth of religious freedom,” he said.

In a March 1 congressional subcommittee hearing, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said she was confident an acceptable compromise could be reached in the health care law to allow self-insured religiously affiliated institutions to provide contraception access without violating their religious beliefs.

“There are a variety of arrangements already in place in

the 28 states that have this law already in place and we intend to be informed by that when we propose the rules,” Sebelius told members of the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee during a hearing about HHS’s 2013 budget proposal.

“Whether it’s through a third-party administrator or a sideby-side plan or many other arrangements, we will offer a variety of strategies to make sure that religious liberties are respected,” she said. Sebelius was responding to a question by Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., who asked about possible penalties for religious employers that fail to comply with the HHS mandate to offer contraceptive drugs that violate their religious principles.

Upton said a Catholic hospital in his state would likely be subject to fines of more than $1 billion.

Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Pa., who chaired the hearing, read a statement from Catholic Charities USA emphasizing that the organization did not endorse the revised HHS mandate and shared the “goal of the U.S. Catholic bishops to uphold religious liberty.”

More than 4,500 women have signed a letter urging Obama, Sebelius and Congress “to allow religious institutions and individuals to continue to witness to their faiths in all their fullness.”

The open letter from women was organized by Helen Alvare, who teaches law at George Mason University School of Law, and Kim Daniels, former counsel to the Thomas More Law Center, under the banner, Women Speak for Themselves (http://womenspeakforthemselves.com).

“No one speaks for all women on these issues,” the letter says. “Those who purport to do so are simply attempting to deflect attention from the serious religious liberty issues currently at stake.”

The Senate voted 51-48 March 1 to table the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act, also called the Blunt amendment for its chief sponsor, Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo. The act would have allowed church-affiliated organizations, including Catholic charities, hospitals, schools and universities, to opt out of mandated contraception coverage and would have extended exemptions to any nonreligious employer with a moral objection to such coverage.

Under the amendment, any employer also would have been allowed to refuse to cover any other preventive health care procedures required under the rule if they held a moral or religious objection.

Editor’s note: The full text of Cardinal Dolan’s letter can be found online at www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/ religious-liberty/upload/Dolan-to-all-bishops-HHS.pdf.

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Catholic San Francisco

March 9, 2012

(CNS PHOTO/VATICAN SECRET ARCHIVES)

Vatican Secret Archives marks 400th anniversary with Rome exhibit

Books are pictured in a cabinet in the Vatican Secret Archives.

The signature of Galileo Galilei from the records of his trial is seen on a document.

A letter to Pope Clement VII pleading for the annulment of the marriage of King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon.

ROME (CNS) – Working with the city of Rome, the Vatican Secret Archives is celebrating its 400th anniversary with an exhibit designed to shed light not only on its holdings, but on some of the myth and mystery surrounding its collection of millions of documents.

“Lux in Arcana: The Vatican Secret Archives Reveals Itself” opened at Rome’s Capitoline Museum Feb. 29 and is scheduled to remain open until Sept. 9.

Vatican archives’ officials and exhibit curators said about a hundred original documents are being displayed outside the Vatican for the first time.

The secret – or, more accurately, “private” – archives were founded by Pope Paul V in 1612. Since 1881, they have been opened to scholars conducting research.

The documents in the exhibit include the “Privilegium Ottonianum,” signed by Pope John XII and Emperor Otto I in 962, establishing the Papal States; the letter that members of the English Parliament wrote to Pope Clement VII in 1530 asking him to annul the marriage of King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon; selections of documents from 1616 to 1633 related to the trial of Galileo Galilei; a letter written on silk in 1650 from Empress Helena Wang of China to Pope Innocent X; and a letter on birch bark from the Ojibwe people of Grassy Lake, Ontario, written to Pope Leo XIII in 1887.

The exhibit also includes some fragments collected behind St. Peter’s Basilica from an Allied bomb that fell nearby in 1943, and the report of a Vatican policeman who was on duty that night.

In the preface to the exhibit catalogue, Cardinal Raffaele Farina, archivist and librarian of the Holy Roman Church, said the exhibit would introduce visitors to the archives’ “service to the church and to culture, carried out over four centuries with a tireless work of safekeeping, cataloging and care” using the most advanced technology available.

Bishop Sergio Pagano, prefect of the archives, told Vatican Radio that the documents in the exhibit were selected to give people an idea of the historical range of the archives’ holdings, the diversity of materials preserved and the global reach of the Vatican’s interests and concerns.

Panel: Bishops, theologians must respect one another but bishops have last word

By Francis X. Rocca VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Theologians and bishops have complementary roles in furthering understanding of the Catholic faith, but the former must ultimately defer to the latter on questions of definitive interpretation, according to a new report from a Vatican panel of theological advisers.

“Theology Today: Perspectives, Principles and Criteria” is the latest report from the International Theological Commission, a group of theologians appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to study themes of current interest and offer

expert advice to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The final text of the 38-page report was approved Nov. 29, 2011, but was scheduled to appear for the first time in English in a forthcoming issue (Vol. 41, No. 40) of Origins, the weekly documentary service of Catholic News Service. It is based on discussions held in Rome over the period 2004-2011.

The report acknowledges an inevitable tension, while emphasizing a need for harmony, between the practice of theology and the exercise by the pope and bishops of the magisterium, the church’s teaching authority in matters of faith and morals.

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“Bishops and theologians have distinct callings and must respect one another’s particular competence, lest the magisterium reduce theology to a mere repetitive science or theologians presume to substitute the teaching office of the church’s pastors,” the theologians write.

“Theology investigates and articulates the faith of the church, and the ecclesiastical magisterium proclaims that faith and authentically interprets it,” the report says.

In their pronouncements, bishops should draw on the work of theologians in order to demonstrate a “capacity for critical evaluation,” among other virtues, the report advises.

“On the other hand, the magisterium is an indispensable help to theology by its authentic transmission of the deposit of faith (‘depositum fidei’), particularly at decisive times of discernment,” the authors add.

The report is unequivocal in stating where final authority lies: “When it comes to the ‘authentic’ interpretation of the faith, the magisterium plays a role that theology simply cannot take to itself. Theology cannot substitute a judgment coming from the scientific theological community for that of the bishops.”

Yet the authors note that “not all magisterial teaching has the same weight,” and that theologians should apply “constructively critical evaluation and comment” to the statements of their bishops.

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March 9, 2012

Kindergarten . . .

obituarIES

Sister Aileen Regan, PBVM; schools leader Sister Aileen Regan, PBVM, formerly Sister Mary Fidelmia, died on Feb. 18, at the Presentation Sisters Motherhouse in San Francisco. Born in San Francisco, she was 89 years old and a Sister of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary for 73 years.

Sister Aileen, who held a graduate degree in education from the University of San Francisco, ministered Sister Aileen in Catholic education Regan, PBVM as elementary school teacher, and high school principal and teacher for 50 years. She served as the principal of the now-closed Presentation High School, San Francisco, and was the founding principal of Presentation High School, San Jose.

Sister Aileen is also remembered for her service as the assistant superintendent of

secondary schools for the Archdiocese of San Francisco from 1976 to 1986.

Subsequent service included time as Congregational Councilor for the Presentation Sisters and supervisor of student teachers at the USF School of Education. Many community programs also had her attention, including as a volunteer in Project READ in Lithuania and locally with Shanti, a support program for those suffering from AIDS. “Sister Aileen moved to the Presentation Motherhouse in 1995 and has most recently been engaged in the ministry of prayer for the needs of the world,” the Presentation Sisters said.

A funeral Mass took place Feb. 24, in the Presentation Motherhouse chapel with interment at Holy Cross Cemetery, Colma.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Sisters of the Presentation Development Office, 281 Masonic Ave., San Francisco 94118.

Sister Carmel Marie Silva, PBVM; teacher Park, first as a music teacher and liturgy coordinator in Nativity School and then as the director of religious education for the parish, according to the Presentation Sisters. She moved to the Presentation Motherhouse in 2011.

A funeral Mass was celebrated Feb. 29, in the Presentation Motherhouse chapel Sister Maria with interment at Holy Silva, PBVM Cross Cemetery, Colma.

Memorial contributions can be sent to Sisters of the Presentation, Development Office, 281 Masonic Ave., San Francisco 94118.

Sister Carmel Marie Silva, PBVM died Feb. 22 at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. Born in San Francisco, she was 94 years old and a Sister of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary for 76 years.

Sister Carmel held an undergraduate degree in education from San Francisco College for Women and taught in Catholic elementary schools for 40 years in locations including San Francisco, San Jose, Berkeley, Menlo Park, San Lorenzo and Albuquerque, N.M. Sister Carmel also published books of spiritual reflections including “Let Go Let God.” In 1981, Sister Carmel began a long relationship with Nativity Parish, Menlo

■ Continued from page 3 building their confidence as they move to the next level of academic success,” Anthony said in a statement.

“Junior kindergarten is more play-based with more emphasis on social-emotional development,” said St. Hilary Principal Charley Hayes. The curriculum is similar to what kindergarten was like 20 or 30 or more years ago, he said. “The schedule is a little more flexible. Lunch could be at 11:30, but if the kids are really hungry, they might eat at 11:15 a.m.,” Hayes said.

St. Raymond already has seen a difference in the students who have the “gift of a year” in the transitional kindergarten program, said Principal Tara Rolle. “Our transitional kindergarten students feel self assured on campus, have

7

Catholic San Francisco

greatly improved classroom decorum skills and academically have made great improvements in gross motor skills, writing, sight words and reading,” the Menlo Park Catholic school principal said.

Rolle said the programs meet the needs of students who were coming in with widely varied preparation and developmental levels.

“The demand for next school year is quite high which we interpret to be not only a commentary on the excellence of the program, but the need for a transitional program for children in our community,” Rolle said.

In a related development, parents who plan to enroll their children in transitional kindergarten in the San Francisco Unified School District have hit a snag. The public school district issued a statement saying it did not plan to start a transitional kindergarten, although it did say if it was required to, it would at two early education schools in the city.

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Catholic San Francisco

March 9, 2012

Students learn colonial history

Mercy SF celebrating 60th

The fifth grade class at St. Philip the Apostle School in Noe Valley in San Francisco, led by teacher Mary McKeever, recently held Colonial Days – an educational immersion in early American history. The students were put into groups and each had a topic to research, parent Kelly Mullins told Catholic San Francisco.

The students learned about food, dress and other aspects of colonial life and presented their knowledge through written reports and presentations that included tools, clothing and prepared food.

CCCYO needs volunteers Catholic Charities CYO offers volunteer opportunities that reflect the traditional Lenten practice of mercy and kindness. “During Lent, we are asked to make an effort to share this world equally – not only through the distribution of money, but through the sharing of our time and talents,” said Jane Ferguson Flout, CCCYO’s parish partnerships director, Last year during Lent, for example, Linda Macapagal and her husband Rino, who are parishioners at St. Dominic Parish, volunteered to serve brunch to families at St. Joseph Family Center in San Francisco. They liked the experience so much, they now have made volunteering at St. Joseph a regular part of their lives once a month on Saturdays when they are off work: “It’s nice to give back,” said Linda. “Giving our time is invaluable because you give up a bit of yourself and are open to fully integrate with the community you are serving.”

This year, CCCYO offers a number of special opportunities, including serving brunch and socializing at Peter Claver Community, hosting bingo at the Edith Witt Senior Community, and reading and tutoring kids at Canal Family Support. A full list is available at www.cccyo.org/lent or by contacting Ferguson-Flout at (415) 972-1227 or jfergusonflout@cccyo.org.

Mercy High School, San Francisco is celebrating its 60th anniversary this month – an important milestone for the allgirls school, said Principal Dottie McCrea.

When McCrea signed on in 1994 “Mercy was navigating the changing landscape of Catholic education in the city of San Francisco,” she said. “Single-gender boys schools had moved to coed models and several schools were closed due to the 1989 earthquake.”

But Mercy kept its course and “continued to educate the young women of San Francisco as a single-gender school” – a policy it is committed to continuing, McCrea said.

More than 9,000 women have graduated from Mercy and “we are proud of each and every one of them,” McCrea said.

“Our strength comes from the conviction that girls schools do make a difference for women in our society and that the charism of the Sisters of Mercy, which emphasizes the education of women, is still a relevant and important issue for our church.”

The anniversary gala is March 24. Visit www.mercyhs.org.

St. Stephen Women’s Guild provides free prom dresses The St. Stephen Parish Women’s Guild helped more than 300 girls feel “pretty, witty, and wise” with prom dresses and accessories they would not have otherwise been able to afford.

The guild chooses charities to support and most recently it was the Princess Project that benefitted. The organization promotes self-confidence and individual beauty by providing free prom dresses and accessories to high school girls who cannot afford to buy them. Women’s guild members were asked to bring either brand new dresses or dresses in excellent condition for use by the young women of the Princess Project.

“One extremely generous mom dazzled everyone with her donation of 280 brand new gowns,” said Katherine Moser, development director at the San Francisco parish. The young women get to keep the dresses, Moser said, adding the mom who made the large donation wanted to do so anonymously.

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Diocese apologizes to student reprimanded for using native language GREEN BAY, Wis. (CNS) – The Diocese of Green Bay has apologized to the family of a Native American Catholic school student who was reprimanded for speaking in her native language during class and to the Menominee Nation, the tribe to which the student’s family belongs.

The Feb. 22 apologies followed an incident Jan. 19 in which 12-year-old Miranda Washinawatok, a seventh-grader at Sacred Heart School in Shawano, was suspended from playing in a basketball game at her school because of the classroom reprimand.

The reprimand and game suspension led to meetings between the Washinawatok family, Menominee tribal leaders and school officials. Later, according to the family, after public

apologies promised by the Sacred Heart principal Dan Minter were not delivered, representatives of the Diocese of Green Bay became involved.

The letters were written by Minter and Joseph Bound, director of the diocesan Department of Education.

“On behalf of the Diocese of Green Bay, I wish to apologize for the events that led up to, and have followed, the benching of Miranda for a basketball game at Sacred Heart School, in part, for her use of the Menominee language in school,” wrote Bound. “We wish we could change how that was handled. The truth is that we cannot undo any damage that was inflicted and we are keenly aware of the emotions that have come to bear as fallout in this incident.”

According to Bound, the situation at Sacred Heart School has revealed the need for cultural diversity training, not only at Sacred Heart School but at all Catholic schools in the Green Bay Diocese. He announced that a partnership with the Menominee Nation will be implemented to begin training at Sacred Heart in the coming months.

“We will then be inviting all interested cultural groups ... to bring ideas and thoughts that can be crafted into an action plan that will bring cultural awareness and sensitivity to all our Catholic schools in the Diocese of Green Bay,” wrote Bound.

He concluded his letter by asking “forgiveness for our actions that have inflicted heartache, pain and anger to all those who have felt these emotions over the past several weeks.”

Oakland bishop to speak at protest against HHS mandate

Honoring the presidents Burlingame’s Our Lady of Angels School fifth graders created their own idea of the Disneyland Hall of Presidents Feb. 14 to commemorate Presidents Day.

Convictions . . .

■ Continued from cover religious group alone, but is “available to everybody by reason and discoverable by reflection and long experience based on common sense,” he said.

“Human laws must always flow from and never contradict natural law. Politics and policy can never trump principles,” Cardinal Dolan said.

Catholic teaching promotes stewardship of people, environment and creation, he said.

Addressing subsidiarity, Cardinal Dolan said the common good is best served by agencies and institutions close to the human person, with the primary ones being “marriage and family,” he said.

Oakland Bishop Salvatore Cordileone, Jesuit Father Joseph Fessio and Walk for Life West Coast co-chair Dolores Meehan are among the scheduled speakers against the U.S. Health and Human Services contraceptive mandate at a noon rally at the Federal Building in San Francisco March 23.

The “Stand Up for Religious Freedom” event at 90 Seventh St. is part of a nationwide rally in more than 60 cities and towns nationwide on the same date, protesting the requirement that health plans offer free contraceptives, including abortion-inducing drugs and sterilization. Catholic hospitals, universities and charities will be required to offer the services through their health plans under the regulations promulgated by the administration of President Barack Obama.

Others speaking at the event include George Wesolek, director of communications and public policy for the

Archdiocese of San Francisco; Reggie Littlejohn of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers; Kevin McGary of the Frederick Douglass Foundation of California; Gary Wagner, pastor of Reformed Heritage Church; Antoine Lamar Miller, pastor of Chosen Vessels Christian Church; Enrique Morales, pastor of San Francisco House of Prayer; and William May, president of Catholics for the Common Good.

The rally will include hymns and Bishop Salvatore Cordileone prayers for the nation, as well as updates from other rally sites across the country, organizers said.

“Jesus always had radar for those at the side of the road,” which is the basis for the preferential option for the poor, he said. “Responsibility trumps rights and we are never free from the duty to serve others, particularly those in need.”

God instilled rights in the human person that must be cherished and guarded by society and government, Cardinal Dolan said. “The highest must be freedom of religion, because all others come from this belief that there is someone outside of us giving us those other rights,” he said.

Catholics have an obligation to bring values into public dialogue, the cardinal said. Politics is a noble call and patriotism is a virtue exhibited not only on the battlefield. “We serve not only our faith but our country when we bring a religiously faith-formed conscience to the public square,” he said.

Cardinal Dolan said it is unwise to yield to the temptation to be frustrated by politics and leave it to others, because that leaves

a vacuum that will be filled by “the religion called secularism.”

Secularism has a creed, dogma, adherents and a strong belief that “our religion should not be involved in the public square,” he said.

“They’ll be happy to take over for us and we can’t let that happen.”

He said the bishops’ role is to preach principles, but the laity’s charism is to bring a religiously informed conscience to the public square. We ought to bring values and convictions to politics. We will not be misled by people who say we shouldn’t be involved,” he said.

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Catholic San Francisco

March 9, 2012

Cemetery Corner

(PHOTO COURTESY PATRICIA ALLEN)

This is the first in an occasional series of historical vignettes about Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Colma, marking the 125th anniversary of the archdiocesan cemetery.

“Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?” The staff of Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma knows the answer to that famous question. Joseph Paul “Joltin’ Joe” DiMaggio was laid to rest in our Catholic cemetery in 1999, following a funeral Mass at Sts. Peter and Paul Church in his old North Beach neighborhood. His tomb, custom designed and facing the “Priest Plot,” is the most visited of the gravesites at Holy Cross.

Visitors leave bats, balls and gloves to honor the memory of one of the greatest baseball players of all time. A lifetime .325 hitter, DiMaggio played in 10 World Series and was honored as the American League MVP in 1939, 1941 and 1947. “The Yankee Clipper” played 13 seasons in the major leagues, all with New York, and was named an all star each year. Widely known for his record setting 56-game hitting streak with the Yankees in 1941, DiMaggio also hit safely in 61 games as a San Francisco Seal in the Pacific Coast League in 1933. When you next visit the cemetery, stop by and tip your cap to the great Hall of Famer.

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California woman’s sainthood cause opened by Monterey diocese

By Valerie Schmalz The Vatican is reviewing documents that would allow the cause of sainthood to go forward for a wife, mother, and possible mystic who was baptized Catholic in 1935 after becoming disillusioned with the Mormon faith.

Cora Evans reported visions of Jesus and the saints and a mission from Jesus to promote the “Mystical Humanity of Christ,” the idea that Christ is always within us and we should behave always as Christ would, said Mike McDevitt, a parishioner at Our Lady of the Pillar in Half Moon Bay, who is the promoter of Evans’ cause of sainthood. The spirituality is also focused on praying the Mass.

Evans’ two children were baptized with her in Ogden, Utah, and her husband, Mack, became Catholic shortly afterward, with many family and friends following her from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints into the Catholic Church, said McDevitt. Born in 1904, she died in Boulder Creek, near Monterey, March 30, 1957. She moved to Southern California in 1941 and to Boulder Creek in 1956.

“Cora loved the Mormons. She considered the Mormons her heritage people,” said McDevitt. “She wanted them to know who Jesus was and she wanted them to have the Eucharist. She prayed for Mormons.”

Evans rejected the Mormon faith in 1924, after experiencing the secret rituals of Mormon marriage in the temple in Salt Lake City, for what she considered to be false teachings about God, and began a 10-year search for the true religion, according to a biography presented to the Vatican in February 2011. Evans became Catholic shortly after listening to the Catholic radio hour on Dec. 9, 1934, when she was too sick to change the station despite a great aversion to Catholicism, McDevitt said. She went to nearby St. Joseph Catholic Church with questions because what she heard was nothing like what she had been taught about Catholicism, he said. She was baptized March 30, 1935.

The promoters of Evans’ cause are waiting for the Vatican to rule if the investigation can go forward by giving a Nihil Obstat, or “no objection.”

Jesus as well as many saints reportedly appeared multiple times to Evans, according to the two-page chronology sent by

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In a reported vision Dec. 24, 1946, Jesus entrusted Evans with the mission “to promulgate the Mystical Humanity of Christ (the Divine Indwelling) within souls – as a way of prayer in the United States and throughout the world. Jesus promises to foster the devotion,” according to the document.

Was this a true vision or a true mission from Jesus? That is what the process is designed to discover, said Father Joseph Grimaldi, a canon lawyer who was appointed by Bishop Garcia as the postulator for the Cora Evans sainthood cause. A postulator guides the process forward. Her numerous writings recording her visions, as yet unpublished, have been reviewed by one theologian and found without fault, said Father Grimaldi, but the priest said more reviews will be necessary.

“The case seems pretty hopeful despite the fact that Cora Evans is relatively unknown,” said Father Grimaldi. Father Grimaldi was involved with verifying the miracle that led to the canonization of St. Damien of Molokai and with the exhumation of the body of one of St. Damien’s helpers, Blessed Marianne Cope, who will be canonized Oct. 21.

For the Catholic Church to declare someone a saint, a miracle must occur and be verified after the cause of sainthood is opened.

That will lead to the person being beatified, or declared Blessed.

After beatification, another miracle must occur and be verified, for canonization.

“She is known particularly for her spirituality. She might be a good example of someone who was married, led a very good, very holy life, doing ordinary things in an extraordinary way,” Father Grimaldi said.

Evans experienced the stigmata, the wounds of Jesus on the cross, according to reports, but that in itself is not a guarantee of canonization, Father Grimaldi said.

One positive indication is that McDevitt’s retreats focused on the mystical humanity of Christ are garnering more attention, Father Grimaldi said. “He’s been giving these retreats on a regular basis and they are well received,” the priest said, noting that about 80 have been presented, many at parishes of the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Still, Father Grimaldi said, “We have a long ways to go.”

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March 9, 2012

Catholic San Francisco

11

Omaha archdiocese opens sainthood cause for Boys Town founder

By Lisa Maxson OMAHA, Neb. (CNS) – It started in 1917 with a rented house, five boys who needed a home in Omaha and a Catholic priest determined to help troubled and abandoned youths throughout the city.

Now, Boys Town helps more than 1.6 million people each year through its main campus of group homes, churches, a grade school and high school, post office and bank, as well as a national research hospital in Omaha, a national hotline, and other services and locations around the country.

And the priest who started it all – Father Edward Flanagan – might someday be named a saint.

The process toward canonization began Feb. 27 with Archbishop George J. Lucas – surrounded by more than 200 people with dozens of cameras flashing – placing a notice on the doors of St. Cecilia Cathedral in Omaha.

The notice, which is a centuries-old church tradition, alerts the public to the opening of Father Flanagan’s sainthood cause.

It also invites people to share their thoughts with a tribunal that is being formed to review the priest’s life and works.

The process toward possible canonization continues with a March 17 Mass at Immaculate Conception Church at Boys Town – where Father Flanagan’s body is laid to rest – with Archbishop Lucas, Father Steven Boes, executive director of Boys Town, and other Catholic officials participating.

Father Flanagan will be named a “servant of God” at the Mass.

In addition, the archbishop will install the religious officials and experts who will form the tribunal investigating Father Flanagan’s work and reputation. Tribunal members will interview people who

come forward as witnesses of Father Flanagan’s virtue.

If there is a declaration of the priest’s heroic virtues, the church will give him the title “venerable.”

The second step is beatification, after which he is called “blessed.” The third step is sainthood. At various steps in the canonization process, evidence of alleged miracles is presented to church authorities. In general, two Father Edward miracles need to be accepted by the Flanagan church as having occurred through the intercession of the prospective saint.

The process could take years to complete – or even decades, said Omar Gutierrez, director of the archdiocesan Office of Missions and Justice and the tribunal notary. In some cases, causes for sainthood are never completed because of a lack of witnesses, funds or volunteers, or major gaps in the historical timeline for the person, he said.

But Gutierrez and others involved in Father Flanagan’s cause said they believe the process could move relatively quickly because officials at Boys Town have organized easily-accessible records on the late priest’s life.

The groundwork for Father Flanagan’s sainthood cause began 13 years ago when several Boys Town alumni formed a group to build devotion to the priest and teach people about his life and mission as a mentor and protector of youth.

The Father Flanagan League Society of Devotion has been holding monthly prayer meetings at Father Flanagan’s tomb,

speaking about him publicly, coordinating prayer groups in Ireland, Father Flanagan’s native land, and leading pilgrimages to Boys Town that reflect on his life and virtue.

“We are humbled and overjoyed by Archbishop Lucas’ acceptance of our petition to examine the heroic virtue and sanctity of Father Flanagan,” said Steven Wolf, league president and a 1980 Boys Town High School graduate.

Father Flanagan’s vision made him a thoroughly modern man, Wolf said, and his example, words and beliefs about educating and raising children are as relevant today as they were in his lifetime.

Sharon Nelsen, the league’s devotion coordinator, said Father Flanagan should be canonized a saint because he is someone to look up to in today’s church.

“He’s very redemptive for our church as a mentor and protector of youth and a diocesan priest with an impeccable record,” she said. “I admired him when I started the effort and now I really reverence him as a visionary, as a holy person, as all inclusive.”

The Irish priest devoted his life to the care of troubled and abandoned boys in Omaha, and he worked to ensure a safe place for those who needed his help.

Despite opposition from some in the community, he took in boys of all races and religions. He believed love, education, training and faith would help each of them become responsible citizens, and his mission took him all over the United States and around the world.

He died of a heart attack in 1948 at age 61, while on a mission in Berlin.

Ten years earlier, Father Flanagan’s work was recognized and made into a 1938 movie, “Boys Town,” which starred Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney and won Tracy an Oscar for best actor.

Irish urged to ring for their faith on St. Pat’s Day DUBLIN (CNS) – Cathedrals and churches across Ireland are being asked to ring their bells for two minutes at noon and 6 p.m. on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, after the traditional Angelus chimes, as a symbol of renewal and a call to gather in preparation for the International Eucharistic Congress June 10-17.

Father Kevin Doran, congress secretary-general, said the Ring

for Renewal initiative invites people to ring a bell on the feast day “and reflect on how they can be renewed as individuals and members of the church.”

More than 1 million people have rung the eucharistic congress bell. The chiming of the congress bell is available to download as a mobile phone ringtone on www.iec2012.ie/ringforrenewal.

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Catholic San Francisco

March 9, 2012

‘I beg you, I order you, in the name of God, stop the repression!’

March 9, 2012

13

Archbishop Romero was martyred for the truth. Why his story resonates.

El Salvador’s civil war was bookended by two events. At the end, in 1989, there was the murder of six Jesuits, an act that forced the international community to step in to end the violence and was termed by the Commission on the Truth for El Salvador as the “final outburst of the delirium that had infected the armed forces and the innermost recesses of certain government circles.” At the beginning, in 1980, there was the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero.

Here is what the truth commission found after investigating the killing.

On Feb. 17, 1980, Archbishop Romero expressed opposition to United States military aid to El Salvador.

“Political power is in the hands of the armed forces which are unscrupulous in their use of this power,” he said.

On Feb. 23, lawyer Mario Zamora Rivas, a leader of the Christian Democratic Party and chief state counsel of the Republic, was murdered at his home by security forces.

On March 10, the day after Archbishop Romero celebrated a Captain Avila Mass for the murdered lawyer, an attache case said that was found behind the pulpit. It contained a this would bomb that had failed to go off. be a good On March 23, the archbishop appealed opportunity from the pulpit to Salvadoran soldiers: ‘... I beseech you, I beg to assassinate you, I order you, in the of God, to stop the archbishop. name the repression!’”

On March 24: D’Aubuisson Former Major Roberto D ’ A u bu i s s o n , f o rordered that mer Captain Alvaro Saravia and Fernando this be done Sagrera were present at the home of and put Saravia Alejandro Caceres in San Salvador. Captain in charge of the Eduardo Avila arrived and told them that Archbishop Romero operation. would be celebrating a Mass that day. Captain Avila said that this would be a good opportunity to assassinate the archbishop.

D’Aubuisson ordered that this be done and put Saravia in charge of the operation. When it was pointed out that a sniper would be needed, Captain Avila said he would contact one through Mario Molina.

Amado Garay was assigned to drive the assassin to the chapel.

The parking lot of the Camino Real Hotel was the assembly point before proceeding to the chapel. There, the bearded gunman, carrying the murder weapon, got into a red, four-door Volkswagen driven by Garay.

At least two vehicles drove from the Camino Real Hotel to the scene of the crime. Outside the main entrance to the chapel, the assassin fired a single bullet from the vehicle, killing Archbishop Romero.

D’Aubuisson ordered that 1,000 colones be handed over to Walter Antonio “Musa” Alvarez, who received the payment in question, as did the bearded assassin.

Alvarez was abducted in September 1981 and was found dead not long afterward.

By George Raine The first shots were fired and the panic set in at the funeral Mass for slain Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador just as the cardinal from Mexico City, in his homily, was quoting what Romero had so often said: “We cannot love by hating. We cannot defend life by killing.”

There were many thousands of people in the plaza in front of the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Holy Savior in San Salvador that hot, steamy day, 32 years ago, March 30, 1980, when the sharpshooters on the surrounding rooftops opened fire and tossed bombs. Among them was Archbishop Emeritus John R. Quinn of San Francisco, who, as then-president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, was concelebrating the Mass for the archbishop murdered when he was saying Mass a few days earlier, March 24. Archbishop Quinn became not only a witness to chaos but a champion of the poor and vulnerable Salvadorans Archbishop Romero so dearly loved.

Here’s why, said Archbishop Quinn, the Romero story still resonates: “Because it is a story of great courage and great selflessness.”

Archbishop Romero will be honored March 24 at a Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral celebrated by Auxiliary Bishop William J. Justice, a part of a restorative justice conference sponsored by the Archdiocese of San Francisco and Comunidad San Dimas.

It will recall the humble priest who the Salvadoran oligarchy – some 14 families that controlled much of the land in El Salvador – early on thought was one of them, a traditionalist, someone the aristocracy would be comfortable with.

However, when the Revolutionary Government Junta came to power in 1979, launching a wave of violence and human rights abuses, Archbishop Romero comforted the oppressed, particularly the poor – to the dismay of the right-wing ruling class oligarchy and paramilitary groups. Archbishop Romero, in fact, had a conversion.

A Salvadoran priest Archbishop Quinn has known more than 60 years, Father Ricardo Urioste, has said that Archbishop Romero had never read the left-leaning liberation theologians, but that his fire in pursuing the rights of the poor came out of his faithful meditation on the Gospel.

Archbishop Quinn said, “It was the circumstance of the oligarchy and the injustices that he witnessed after he became archbishop – the murders – that deepened his understanding of the Gospel and imparted to him this fortitude and courage that developed as

Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero poses with women and children in an undated photo.

Below left, a parishioner touches an image of the archbishop in El Salvador in 2009 on the 29th anniversary of his death. Below right, the archbishop records a radio message in 1979 in a recording studio in the chancery in San Salvador.

the time passed. So, he was a changed man. The sight of terrible injustice changed him.”

That was the man who was honored at the funeral Mass that terrible day, Palm Sunday, in San Salvador, when Cardinal Ernesto Corripio y Ahumada, representing the pope, was speaking to the masses when the shooting began. Most of the dead that Archbishop Quinn saw were trampled or died of asphyxiation. Death toll estimates that day ranged from 30 to 50.

Many people fled from the plaza when the gunfire erupted, but a large group rushed into the cathedral and Archbishop Quinn moved with their force. The vast cathedral has no pews and can accommodate 3,000 people, not the 6,000, who rushed in. Archbishop Quinn compared the scene to an old movie portraying people pressed against each other aboard a slave ship.

There were no windows, except those very high in the cathedral, so it was impossible to know what was going on outside. But the shooting continued. The group remained there for some four hours, fearing they would be killed.

At one point Archbishop Quinn gave general absolution to people in the cathedral. He asked a Maryknoll priest, Father Tom Spain, to give him absolution.

Archbishop Quinn revisited the country in later years and was struck by the faith and hope of the people, he said. “The people have not lost hope and they do not seem despondent,” he wrote in an article in America magazine in 1986. How was that possible?

“I think they had a deeper level of assimilating the Gospel, with great simplicity but a certain depth to it,” said Archbishop Quinn, “so that they believed the risen Lord was with them and that they were not alone, and that enabled them to endure these tragedies.”

Archbishop Quinn went on to be critical of U.S. foreign policy in El Salvador, as the nation supported the Salvadoran government as a means to halt the march of communism, even amid reports of human rights abuses. That criticism, as well as taking a position on nuclear arms issues, along with other U.S. bishops, made Archbishop Quinn persona non grata in President Ronald Reagan’s administration.

Meantime, his appreciation of Archbishop Romero grew. “He would not allow anyone to drive with him in his last year or so, because he knew that they would probably assassinate him and he didn’t want anybody else to be hurt,” said Archbishop Quinn.

“He expected it every day.”

He added, “He knew what was going to happen to him, but he followed the course which he believed to be the example and the teaching of Our Lord.”

‘I don’t even know how we kept our sanity’

(CNS PHOTOS BY OCTAVIO DURAN)

75,000 22,000 Number of civilians who died at the hands of government forces during the El Salvador civil war

Catholic San Francisco

‘GREAT COURAGE AND SELFLESSNESS’

(CNS PHOTO/LUIS GALDAMEZ, REUTERS)

12

Complaints to the Commission on Truth for El Salvador of serious acts of violence from 1980-91

1,000 Number of people – half of them minors – killed in a December 1981 series of massacres at El Mozote and nearby hamlets

‘The ultimate sin’ On Jan. 12, 2012, El Salvador President Mauricio Funes made an emotional apology for the El Mozote massacre of December 1981, perpetrated by the army against peasants suspected of left-wing leanings. The state, he said, committed “the ultimate sin” and must seek forgiveness.

Reina Parada’s brother was only 21 when he was kidnapped by a death squad in El Salvador, on Oct. 9, 1976. His name was Jorge Luis Zelayandia, a third-year engineering student at the University of El Salvador, whose crime was to help organize peasants in the central part of the country. His body was never found.

Her uncle, Jose Fausto Cisneros, a physician and a former mayor of San Miguel, was murdered March 27, 1980. That was three days after the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador.

Parada had attended her uncle’s funeral and had driven to San Salvador on March 30, when the archbishop’s outdoor funeral Mass was celebrated in the plaza in front of the cathedral, but she didn’t attend. She had what she called a “sixth sense” there would be trouble.

“You could cut it in the air with a knife,” said Parada, an auditor and notary for the Metropolitan Tribunal at the Archdiocese of San Francisco. “But more than anything my brother was missing, my uncle had been killed, they were killing all these people and there was persecution,” and she didn’t have it in her to attend another funeral.

That was the climate of terror that hung in the air in El Salvador, said Parada, whose mother, Alicia, was targeted, too. The family did manage to get out of El Salvador, at staggered times, regrouping in San Francisco.

Parada’s parents, from San Miguel, were longtime school teachers well known in the country. Alicia was one of the organizers of the union of teachers, which began asking for increased benefits and

opposed the employers’ demand they work until they reach age 75.

Labor union people were being murdered and tortured, and a pall came over the country the day Archbishop Romero was killed, Parada said.

“It was a Monday. You couldn’t even hear dogs barking. It was like everybody was in shock. Unbelievable. Because, we wondered what else is yet to come for us?” she said. “I don’t even know how we kept our sanity.”

Alicia left first, in 1980, followed by Reina’s father, Gregorio Zelayandia, and one of her two younger brothers. She was the last to get out.

She said of her mother, who died last year, “She came here at 59 with a broken heart, because the family was dispersed. She did not feel sorry for herself, however,” learning English and tackling several jobs, including caring for the elderly.

Parada said that at the site where the archbishop was murdered, nuns created a display of his diplomas and recognitions. Included was a photo of her uncle, the former mayor, giving the archbishop a certificate. “When I saw it, I felt that it was eerie that both of them were murdered, one after another,” she said.

“More than anything he was pastoral,” Parada said of Archbishop Romero. “People still venerate Monsenor Romero because it is the only voice we had. The media, the newspapers, besides the one from the government – they distorted the news. He was like a little window of hope.”

– George Raine

March 24 healing Mass for offenders and victims A Mass March 24 at St. Mary’s Cathedral commemorating the 32nd anniversary of the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero is part of a program called “Healing the Wounded Heart.” It is intended to be the first annual restorative justice event to be held on the assassination anniversary. “He was a victim of crime (referring to Archbishop Romero) and the goal here is to try to heal both offenders and victims and their families,” said Julio Escobar, restorative justice director for the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Some 700 people may attend, he said, including families of recently murdered Oakland boys who had not reached their fifth birthday.

Catholic San Francisco

March 9, 2012 (CNS PHOTO/MOULHEM AL-JUNDI, SYRIAN NATIONAL COUNCIL VIA REUTERS)

14

Guest Commentary

Protect Syria’s Christians Responding to editors’ requests for a regular sampling of current commentary from around the Catholic press, Catholic News Service redistributed this unsigned editorial titled “Protect Syria’s Christians” from the Feb. 28 issue of The Catholic Register, the Toronto-based national Catholic Canadian newspaper.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is a despot whose shooting and shelling of his own people cannot be defended, yet he may be the last line of defense for Syria’s Catholics.

For that reason, Syrian church leaders are taking a cautious approach to the nearly yearlong rebellion to topple Assad. They have been pleading for calm, for dialogue and for Western assistance to find a peaceful

Syria at a glance Ethnic groups: Arab, 90.3 percent; Kurds, Armenians and other, 9.7 percent Religions: Sunni Muslim, 74 percent; other Muslim, 16 percent; Christian, 10 percent; Jewish, tiny communities in Damascus, Al Qamishli and Aleppo Population: 22,530,746 (July 2012 est.)

– CIA World Factbook

solution to Syria’s popular uprising as the nation moves ever closer to all-out civil war.

So far, the dispute is political, but churchmen fear the fighting may quickly turn religious.

“Forcing the departure of the Syrian president will be a step (closer) for a civil war based on confessionalism,” Syriac Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Younan has warned.

By “confessionalism” the patriarch means religious conflict between the ruling minority Shiite Muslims and the majority Sunnis that would inevitably engulf the nation’s Catholics.

Syria (pop. 20 million) has about 400,000 Catholics who are members of various Latin and Eastern rites that have Syrian roots dating to Aramaic-speaking Christians of the first century. Protected under Assad, Catholics now fear persecution and exile from their homeland should the president be toppled.

Don’t change the regime but help the regime change, they plead. And who can blame them?

Starting with the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and on through the Arab Spring uprisings, the movement toward Middle East democracy has not been accompanied by protection for religious minorities.

In Iraq, Hussein’s overthrow led to untold numbers of assaults and murders of Christians and more than 250,000 Christians fleeing to foreign refugee camps. In Egypt, Christians marched with Muslims a year ago to overthrow Hosni Mubarak. Today, radical Muslim groups routinely persecute Copt

A boy holds the remains of a mortar in this handout picture taken Feb. 23 by a member of the Syrian National Council in a neighborhood in Homs.

Catholic san Francisco Inmate’s joyful tears Peace and all good. Well, it looks like my stop here at the Hall of Justice in San Francisco is almost at an end. I took what the court system calls “a deal” and will go to prison for about four years. I’ll be glad to move on after 32 months incarceration here: The only human touch I know is either having handcuffs put on me or the nurse drawing blood for lab work. I have heart disease.

But there is one thing here I will truly miss, and that is the smiles of the sisters from the Missionaries of Charity. They come here on Saturdays like clockwork, rain or shine.

No matter what type of bad mood I might be in as soon as I see the sisters my frown turns upside down. This past Saturday, the sisters had an exercise for the inmates at the service to participate in while guitar strings resonated like strings on a harp, and the singing voices sounded like a choir of angels.

As we approached the sisters individually at the back of the service, we saw the sisters with a wooden box. On top it read “Open this box to see what is most precious to God.” I opened the box, looked inside and saw my reflection in a mirror. I can’t remember the last time I smiled as wide as I did when I saw my reflection in that box.

As I returned to my chair and bowed my head, the tears started to roll. But these were not tears of sorrow. These were tears of joy. I don’t remember ever having tears of joy. It felt great listening to the sisters finish their song and prayer with my tears splashing at my feet while

Letters welcome Catholic San Francisco One Peter Yorke Way San Francisco, CA 94109 Fax: (415) 614-5641 delvecchior@sfarchdiocese.org, include “Letters” in the subject line.

my head was bowed in prayer. And I was not alone. I could hear some sniffing coming from other inmates as they returned to their chairs.

I know it was because we felt the love of God surrounding us, in us, becoming part of us. I will forever remember this day.

If it took this incarceration to bring me closer to God and truly understand his love for me through the sisters’ Saturday services, then I must say “Amen!” As I bring this letter to a close, signed, sealed, I know I’m not forgotten. In Isaiah I read the words of God stating, “See. I will not forget you. I have carved you on the palm of my hand.

I have called you by name. You are mine. You are precious to me. I love you.”

James M. Flanagan No. 2426556 Hall of Justice San Francisco

It’s a big church: Economic reality check It appears that your newspaper has a very liberal policy on who can slap the Catholic label on a submitted political screed (Tony Magliano, “Catholic State of the Union,” Feb. 24) or even a more nuanced “economic analysis” (Father Kenneth Weare, “Toward a Catholic economy founded on equality, justice,” Feb. 17). I applaud the passion of Mr. Magliano in his work for social justice and Father Weare’s call to live our faith through our communities, our workplaces and political institutions. But I fail to understand how continuing to follow a failed model of giving even more billions of

(ARTWORK BY JAMES M. FLANAGAN)

Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper

Christians and tens of thousands have fled the country rather than live in fear or as secondclass citizens.

Assad has used guns and artillery for the past year to keep his hold on power. A month ago, the U.N. estimated 5,400 people had been killed and, with battles continuing, the death toll has probably passed 6,000.

There is no justification for the organized, brutal killing of Assad’s own citizens. At the same time, however, there is little doubt that Syria’s Catholics will suffer if Assad, among the most secular leaders in the Middle East, is toppled and the vacuum is filled by religious intolerance.

That’s why church leaders are not calling for his overthrow and why Syrian

Catholics, by and large, are not standing with the revolutionaries. Throughout the Middle East, the dream of democracy has instead brought the reality of religious persecution.

“Remember Iraq,” the patriarch has warned, “where Christians were abused, killed in their churches and their houses, and forced into exile.”

Syrians do indeed remember – and worry about their own fate.

dollars to the corrupt dictators of impoverished nations and their cronies or a massive federal public works project to plant forests is somehow “Catholic.”

Both articles betray a fundamental misunderstanding of the difference between how wealth is created and how wealth can, and should, then be used reflecting our Catholic values.

“Solidarity and responsibility” are worthy social values reflective of our Catholic faith. They are not economic principles.

The study of economics tells us how to achieve the greatest, most efficient, and successful creation of wealth and incomes through the free flow of capital and labor toward the production of goods and services.

Having generated prosperity, wealthy societies then have the ability, freedom and opportunity of deciding, either privately as individuals, charities or community organizations, or collectively through the political process, what to do with that wealth, reflective of moral and other social values. Stated another way, economics is the study of the difference between what every society must do to produce wealth (well-being) and what a society gets to do once it has produced that wealth.

This is fundamentally different from Father Weare’s “social market economy,” which necessarily requires a strong active role of the state in primary economic decisions. World leaders, such as Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, just to name two, fail to understand the difference, and their countries predictably continue to languish in spite of their “best intentions.”

One would think we would have learned from past societies, since collapsed, where “solidarity and responsibility” were declared economic principles, and which, ironically, banned and persecuted religions, enslaved and impoverished their citizens. Or maybe we should be taking the correct lessons from the current struggles of many “social market” economic models in Europe, with lavish pensions and bloated social welfare systems, completely disconnected from economic productivity, well intended but burdensome mandates and crippling bureaucracies that stifle job and income generating economic growth. The state indeed does play very important roles in free civilized societies, especially by providing a social

safety net and setting rules to require improving environmental quality. Running the economy, however, is not one of them.

A clearer articulation of what constitutes “Catholic” in the political/economic arena is Archbishop George Niederauer’s strong argument presented in the San Francisco Chronicle (“Contraceptive mandate diminishes liberty,” Feb. 27). The archbishop shines a bright light on the line between church and state and where Catholic teachings collide with secular, though popular, social policy.

Let’s not confuse our call to live a life in Christ in community with people of all faiths, and no faith, with the rainbow of diverse opinions on politics and economics. It’s a big church.

Patrick Mason, Ph.D. San Francisco The writer is president and CEO of the California Foundation for the Environment and the Economy.

The views presented in this or any guest editorial are those of the individual publication and do not necessarily represent the views of CNS or of the U.S. bishops’ conference.

L E T T E R S

Appreciates coverage As one who has read the weekly San Francisco Catholic publications since the mid-1950s, and who wrote sports and political articles for the Monitor in the early ‘60s, I have to rate the Feb. 24, 2012, Catholic San Francisco issue as one of the best ever.

The comprehensive treatment of the many aspects of the issues surrounding the continuing faith versus public policy is priceless. The extended coverage of the values assigned to Catholic marriage, and coverage of the ongoing massacre in the Sudanese nations truly reinforces one’s appreciation for what we call the scope of our Catholic faith.

An added bonus was finding Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan’s “Catechetical illiteracy helps fuel secularism’s spread.” It included many of the points your regular columnist, Father Ronald Rolheiser, made in his book “Secularity and the Gospel.” To the extent that we take both writers seriously in reducing Catholic illiteracy, and addressing the general widespread secular culture we live in today, the church will have to ratchet up its evangelization efforts across a wide spectrum.

Pat Cannon Marina, Calif.

LETTERS, page 15

March 9, 2012

Catholic San Francisco

15

The Catholic Difference

Tragedy of liberal Catholicism In a Feb. 14 note to his people, Cardinal Francis George, the archbishop of Chicago, commented on the question of “who speaks for the Catholic Church,” which had become a subject of public controversy thanks to the Obama administration’s “contraceptive mandate” – which is, of course, an abortifacient and sterilization mandate as well. The cardinal noted the administration’s crude attempt to play divide-and-conquer with the U.S. Catholic Church, a ploy in which some nominally Catholic groups quickly acquiesced. Yet something important in all of this was being missed, the cardinal suggested: “… the bishops of the church make no attempt to speak for all Catholics; they never have. The bishops speak for the Catholic and apostolic faith, and those that hold that faith gather around them. Others disperse.”

The diaspora, in this case, was entirely predictable.

Columnists and politicians who had questioned the administration’s mandate, and organizations and associations that had raised serious questions about it when it was first announced, quickly fell back into line when the administration announced Feb 10 an “accommodation” that was an obvious shell game, a ruse that didn’t change the moral issue involved one whit.

Others, however, continued to gather around the bishops, who rejected the “accommodation.” And they will prevail.

The administration is on the shakiest of legal ground in attempting to impose contraception, sterilization and abortifacients as “preventive services” that must be provided, on demand and with no co-pay, in all health insur-

ance programs. As my friends Edward Whelan and David Rivkin pointed out in The Wall Street Journal Feb. 15, there is every reason to think that the administration’s mandate, even as tweaked by the false-flag “accommodation,” will fail two legal tests: the test of the First Amendment’s protection of the free exercise of religion (recently upheld in a robust way by the Supreme Court in a 9-0 decision against the Obama administration), and the test of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. As this battle unfolds, there is every reason for the bishops and those gathered around them to be confident of success.

But what about the diaspora? What about those Catholic individuals and organizations that re-embraced the administration as soon as Caesar announced his “accommodation” (or, in the case of Sister Carol Keehan and the Catholic Health Association, helped Caesar trot out his ruse)? These individuals and associations typically think of themselves as “liberal Catholics,” a self-description proudly trumpeted by one of their spokesmen, Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. Therein, I suggest, lies a great reversal, and an even greater tragedy.

The most significant contribution to the universal church of preconciliar liberal Catholicism in America was the development of a Catholic theory of religious freedom – which led, in due course, to Vatican II’s epic Declaration on Religious Freedom, to the postconciliar church’s history-changing defense of human rights, and to the church’s crucial role in democratic transitions around the world. This achievement, in which the debates on religious freedom at Vatican II were pivotal, unfolded in close col-

laboration with the U.S. bishops. It was Cardinal Francis Spellman of New York, for instance, who brought Jesuit Father John Courtney Murray to the council, where Murray became one of George Weigel the intellectual architects of the Declaration on Religious Freedom. And it was Murray (now falsely enlisted post-mortem into the pro-Obama camp of the Catholic diaspora) who, with the U.S. bishops and others, worked the council process so that it became clear to a critical mass of the world’s bishops that religious freedom was indeed congruent with what Cardinal George called “the Catholic and apostolic faith.”

That liberal Catholics of the 2012 diaspora refuse to concede the grave threat to religious freedom posed by the administration’s mandate, and that they have given political cover to a gross infringement on religious freedom by a federal government that looks ever more like Hobbes’ “Leviathan,” is a grave breach of ecclesial communion in itself. It also represents a tragic betrayal of the best in the liberal Catholic heritage in the United States, even as it illustrates the utter incoherence into which postconciliar liberal Catholicism in America has tragically fallen.

George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.

Looking Around

Teaching magnanimity Father William J. Byron, SJ On March 22, 1959, when the oldest of the baby boomers were in their early teen years, poet Robert Frost appeared on the Sunday morning television news show, “Meet the Press.”

The interviewer was Lawrence Spivak, who preceded Tim Russert and David Gregory as host of that longrunning – since 1947 – Sunday morning TV show.

Mr. Spivak asked Mr. Frost, “Do you think American civilization has improved or deteriorated during your lifetime?”

The poet replied, “I think it has made its way forward ... (But) we are so rich that we are like rich parents who wish they knew how to give their children the hardships that made them so rich.”

The interviewer asked about the young people of 1959.

Looking for reassurance, he asked, “Do you think they are more promising? Are they harder, more alert than those of a generation or two ago? Do you think they are better than their fathers or grandfathers?”

Frost said, “The fear is they won’t be if they are made too comfortable and have their life too easy. We are like a rich father who wishes he knew how to give his son the hardships that made the father such a man. We are in that

Letters . . .

■ Continued from page 14

Serving humble pie to ‘social justice types’ “You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me” (John 12:8).

I am sure that the social justice department of Catholic News Service is aware of Christ’s own words, oft repeated, even in other passages of the Bible. Therefore, assuredly, we should focus every measure and rationale to lift the poor among us and lend helping hands. America has proven it does this best.

But we cannot skew our “Catholic State of the Union Address” (Tony Magliano column, Feb. 24) with inaccuracies, fabrication and election/political speak.

Firstly, our nuclear capability, never to be used willy-nilly as by rogue nations, has kept us safe and spread Pax Americana around the world. When will CNS malign improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and beheadings as they do our defense status – as “deadly”?

Moreover, health care, not a right but a necessity, as are food, a roof over the head and a job, can best be covered by mandates to protect the poor but not by broadly forcing 300 million non-needy citizens to become charges of the government.

sort of position. We can’t. There seems to be no answer to that.”

Trying to cut under that reply to get at what Frost might see as value deficits in the young, Spivak asked: “What has been the most important thing, do you think, to you in your life? Love, justice, learning, truth, faith, work; or has it been courage?”

Frost said, “That is hard to answer. I suppose that the greatest thing of all would be magnanimity.”

Magnanimity. Now, six decades later, it might be time to take another look at the relevance of this concept to America’s future.

An 80-year-old grandfather I know, who is still active in a successful business career, told me recently: “We have deprived our kids of deprivation.”

He was thinking of his own children and grandchildren, but he had in mind a certain drift and purposelessness he sees in young Americans today. Not all, of course, but enough to raise a warning flag about the future.

Magnanimity is a good Ignatian word.

St. Ignatius of Loyola advises those who would undertake the retreat experience known as the Spiritual Exercises to enter into them with a spirit of “magnanimity and generosity” and to expect to emerge from the retreat experience with even more magnanimity of heart.

This, Ignatius believed, would be good for the soul.

Frost thought it would be good for the country.

Where is the magnanimity in American life today?

How might the young catch the large-hearted and highhearted love of others that Frost viewed as important for the future of this nation?

Lent provides an opportunity to invite the young to consider magnanimity.

Magnanimity is a nice summary of all the demands that the Christian Gospel makes of a man or woman of faith.

It is quintessentially Christian. It is something that has appeal to the young once they see it in the Gospels and try to translate it into action in Christian service.

Frost told Spivak that “there seems to be no answer” to the problem of a rich father wondering how he might give his son or daughter the “hardships that made the father such a man.”

Perhaps the observance of Lent, in some form of service to others, can provide a workable answer.

As to the “religion” of climate change, we await scientists to explain the swing in temperatures long before fossil fuels were uncovered (1750 and earlier). Anyone notice sun flares?

National Geographic does.

The overplayed mantra of “taxing the rich,” also known as “the Buffett rule,” unfortunately does not play out well.

Note that Mr. Buffett, who takes a $68 million salary, donated $34 million of that amount to charity (a deduction to lower his taxes – surprise!). Surely, he says “tax me more,” but he won’t tell you what becomes of the charitable payout. As with all overtaxed millionaires, charities plummet or are out the window. Please, somebody, defog the glasses of the president’s henchmen.

Simplistically put, look at an eight-piece income tax pie.

The top 10 percent already provide six pieces of that pie for the IRS. Astounding. The General Accounting Office expects an extra $40 billion from “tax the rich” – against a $5 trillion debt in this administration alone. That would provide only one piece of a 100-piece debt pie. Do the math. Obviously, it’s a campaign ploy to satisfy and fool the 99 percent.

Those of us from an imperfect union, but with open eyes, say about the social justice types – “let them eat humble pie.”

Carolyn Carr San Francisco

Another perspective on ‘rendering unto Caesar’

Jesuit Father William J. Byron is university professor of business and society at St. Joseph’s University, Philadelphia. His column is carried by Catholic News Service.

I was left with a few questions after reading John Garvey’s column “The HHS rule and ‘cooperation with evil,’” Feb. 24.

Does it really matter whether the employer satisfies the mandate by paying the health care provider or by paying a government fine? In either case this seems like an aspect of “rendering unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.” As taxpayers we are required to support a variety of government activities that are morally questionable including the funding of wars and the enforcement of the death penalty. In this context, Garvey appears to have a very selective concern for “cooperation with evil.” Is there some moral distinction between funding an activity from general government funds versus a specific fee?

Finally, Garvey uses the image of Pontius Pilate to remind us that indifference to the real effects of our decisions does not exempt us from moral responsibility. True enough.

However, restricting access to birth control will predictably lead to a greater number of unwanted pregnancies and related abortions. Where is the Christian responsibility for those tragic effects?

Robert E. Scheid San Francisco

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Catholic San Francisco

A READING FROM THE BOOK OF EXODUS EX 20:1-17 In those days, God delivered all these commandments: “I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. You shall not have other gods besides me. You shall not carve idols for yourselves in the shape of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; you shall not bow down before them or worship them.

For I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishment for their fathers’ wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation; but bestowing mercy down to the thousandth generation on the children of those who love me and keep my commandments.

“You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain. For the Lord will not leave unpunished the one who takes his name in vain. “Remember to keep holy the sabbath day. Six days you may labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord, your God. No work may be done then either by you, or your son or daughter, or your male or female slave, or your beast, or by the alien who lives with you. In six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord has blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.

“Honor your father and your mother, that you may have a long life in the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you.

You shall not kill.

In speaking to Catholics with children or grandchildren in Catholic schools or religious education, I have noticed a common standard used to examine the quality of religious education: Are the children learning the Ten Commandments? I have also noticed a similar standard for examining the moral life: Are we living the Ten Commandments?

The Ten Commandments are a watershed in the historical development of law. They have stood the test of time, ranking alongside other law codes, such as that of Hammurabi, as legal icons from which other codes have developed, and placing Moses as one of the great lawgivers of history. The fact that these commandments are inspired by God makes them all the more important to people of faith; defining the very will of God concerning how we are to live our lives and relate both to the divine and to one another.

In recent years the impact of the Ten Commandments has been acknowledged, sometimes negatively, by those who see them merely as religious precepts. Because of their connection to Judeo-Christianity, some make a concerted effort to expel them from the public realm. Recent court cases have sought to ban them from public display under the auspices of separation of church and state, conveniently ignoring their historic value to the development of law. Still others wish to do away with them

March 9, 2012

Third Sunday of Lent Exodus 20:1-17; Psalm 19:8, 9, 10, 11; 1 Corinthians 1:22-25; John 2:13-25 You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not steal.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house.

You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male or female slave, nor his ox or ass, nor anything else that belongs to him.”

RESPONSORIAL PSALM PS 19: 8, 9, 10, 11 Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.

The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul; the decree of the Lord is trustworthy, giving wisdom to the simple.

Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.

The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the command of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eye.

Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.

The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever; the ordinances of the Lord are true, all of them just.

Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.

They are more precious than gold, than a heap of purest gold; sweeter also than syrup or honey from the comb.

Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.

A READING FROM THE FIRST LETTER OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 1 COR 1:22-25 Brothers and sisters: Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

Scripture reflection FATHER WILLIAM NICHOLAS

Written on our hearts as old-fashioned products of ancient societies, not conducive to modern enlightened thinking.

These attempts to eliminate the Ten Commandments from public displays have attracted much publicity as people of faith endeavor to keep them prominent in the mindset of modern society. Nonetheless, these commandments have been downplayed, excluded and otherwise pushed out of the mainstream in numerous ways. While we surely hope that they remain a part of our sociopolitical and religious culture as church and as a nation, we cannot for-

get that they are given more or less prominence by the way we integrate them into our lives.

A frequent guide given by many priests and spiritual directors for an effective examination of conscience prior to going to confession is to reflect on how well we live the Ten Commandments. As we continue this season of Lent, a season in which we “turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel”; a season of rising above our sinfulness, recognizing our shortcomings and growing in the manner in which we embrace and live the Gospel given to

A READING FROM THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN JN 2:13-25 Since the Passover of the Jews was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, as well as the money changers seated there. He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables, and to those who sold doves he said, “Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.” His disciples recalled the words of Scripture, Zeal for your house will consume me. At this the Jews answered and said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?”

Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.”

The Jews said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body.

Therefore, when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they came to believe the Scripture and the word Jesus had spoken.

While he was in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, many began to believe in his name when they saw the signs he was doing. But Jesus would not trust himself to them because he knew them all, and did not need anyone to testify about human nature. He himself understood it well. us by Christ; the Ten Commandments serve as a fitting examination of conscience.

In looking at ourselves, do we make these Ten Commandments a continuing presence in our world by the way we follow them? Or do we push them aside, knowingly or unknowingly, by the manner in which we make exceptions to where and how they apply in our lives, our outlook, and our attitudes toward our faith, our God, the positions and responsibilities we may have, and especially, how we relate to one another?

When all is said and done, the Ten Commandments continue to remain with us.

They are the laws written on our universal consciousness by the inspiration of God who calls us to live by his standards, whereby we enter more deeply into the vibrant and life-giving relationship with our God who commands us – a relationship that will inevitably be reflected in the manner in which we live and love. As we progress through Lent, let us be renewed in this basic code of law, which is simple and uncomplicated in its presentation, audacious in its straightforwardness, dynamic in its scope and revolutionary in its call to “turn away from sin, and be faithful to the Gospel.”

Father William Nicholas is parochial vicar at Mission Dolores Basilica in San Francisco. www.frwcnicholas.com.

Question Corner

Back to sacraments after second divorce Question: What can I tell a woman who has decided that she is going to hell? She was married in the Catholic Church and raised two children. Her husband decided that the grass was greener elsewhere, left his wife and married another woman.

My friend married again in a non-Catholic ceremony (with no annulment or permission from the Catholic Church).

They later divorced, and that second husband has since died.

My friend no longer goes to church because she is under the impression – due to the divorce and remarriage – that she has separated herself from the Catholic Church and is going to hell.

What does she have to do to come back to the sacraments?

Is confession sufficient or would she have to get an annulment, even though her second husband has died? (Leominster, Mass.)

Answer: The sacrament of penance would be sufficient, since she no longer is living in a marriage considered invalid by the church. The key element is not that the second husband has died but that her relationship with him had already ended.

The fact that your friend was divorced from her first husband did not by itself affect her status within the church.

The problem came when she remarried without a church

annulment. Once that second marriage ended, she was free to confess to a priest and return to the sacraments.

What she probably should do now is make an appointment with an understanding priest – to have the chance to explain in an unhurried way her marital history, make a confession of sins, receive absolution and be assured that she certainly is welcome to return to the Eucharist.

Question: At our church in northeastern Wisconsin, my mother received the host in her hand, then moved over to the chalice and began to lower the host into the cup. The deacon who was the minister of the chalice stopped her and told her that was “unacceptable.” Who is right, and what are the rules?

(Armstrong Creek, Wis.) Answer: The deacon is right. “Redemptionis Sacramentum,” the instruction issued in 2004 by the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, clarifies that holy Communion by intinction is permissible only if the minister of the Eucharist dips the host into the consecrated wine and then places it on the tongue of the communicant.

As the instruction notes in Section 104, “The com-

municant must not be permitted to intinct the host in the chalice nor to receive the intincted host in the hand.”

The key value underlying the rule is reverence for Jesus present in the conseFather crated species. Even Kenneth Doyle when it is the minister who distributes Communion in this way, there is the possibility of dripping the precious blood of Christ – so as a precaution, a server would place a Communion paten under the chin of the recipient to guide the transfer.

Send questions to Father Kenneth Doyle at askfatherdoyle@gmail.com and 40 Hopewell St., Albany, NY 12208.

March 9, 2012

Catholic San Francisco

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(PHOTOS BY JOSE LUIS AGUIRRE/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)

FULL PEWS, LIGHTED CANDLES

S

unday Mass at St. Anthony of Padua Church in Menlo Park is always full, with more than 600 people in the pews. Photographer Jose Luis Aguirre visited the church Feb. 26 and after Mass, above, met parish members who stayed to offer special prayers.

Left, Griselda Garcia and her husband, Jesus Garcia, pray for their son, who is in jail. “We are praying to get consolation and peace for the family at this hard time,” she said.

Lower left, Jazmin Rodriguez, 5, brings flowers to the Virgin Mary at an altar outside the church.

Below, Adela de la Cruz helps her daughter Guadalupe Luna, 5, light a candle. She wants to teach the faith to her.

Catholic San Francisco

March 9, 2012

‘My Brother, the Pope’ VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Here is an exclusive excerpt from the English translation of “My Brother, the Pope” by Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, which was released March 1 by Ignatius Press.

The book, originally published in German, takes the form of an interview, along with editorial commentary, by co-author Michael Hesemann.

Q. How do you address him?

A. I call him Joseph, of course; anything else would be abnormal!

Q. Does he suffer intensely from the many attacks from the media?

A. He is personally very sensitive, but he also knows from which corner these attacks come and the reason for them, what is usually behind them. That way he overcomes it more easily, he rises above it more simply. It is nevertheless true, too, that he most often meets with a lot of sympathy, again and again and wherever he goes.

Q. Can you reveal to us his greatest wish?

A. Well, I really cannot mention one single specific wish.

He simply hopes that he succeeds in completing his task as well as possible, that from the human side he can contribute his part to what the Holy Spirit is working from above.

Q. In your view, what are the focal points of his pontificate?

A. The focal points result from particular situations to which he reacts, and therefore they are more reactive than active. But he is, of course, very concerned that the liturgy should be celebrated worthily and that it be celebrated correctly. Indeed, that is a genuine problem. Our diocesan music director recently said that it is by no means easy nowadays to find a church where the pastor celebrates his Mass according to the regulations of the church. There are so many priests who think they have to add something here and change something there. So my brother wants an orderly, good liturgy that moves people interiorly and is understood as a call from God. Q. Do you see continuity between the pontificates of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, or is your brother focusing on different matters?

A. You cannot say that, because to a great extent pontificates are not defined by the will of the pope but, rather, are reactions and responses to the events of their time. Of course, the events of our time manifest a certain degree of continuity; there are no major leaps or breaks but, rather, problems that develop continuously over the decades.

No doubt, John Paul II took his inspiration from my brother in many areas and, of course, was in ongoing contact with him; he set great store by his judgment. In that regard, then, there is a certain similarity, and the two pontificates do not differ in essential points.

Q. What does the pope’s normal daily routine look like?

A. Now, I do not know what all is supposed to be confidential, but I think I can speak about this. Early in the morning around 7, he celebrates holy Mass in his private chapel, and afterward he makes a short meditation and, finally, prays

The pope loves good liturgy, watches the news at 8 and ‘concentrates phenomenally’ during the day but never works at night, writes Msgr. Georg Ratzinger in a new biography.

(CNS PHOTO/COURTESY OF MICHAEL HESEMANN)

18

Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, the brother of Pope Benedict XVI, is pictured at his home in Regensburg, Germany, last year.

the breviary until breakfast at around 8. Until then, we are together, when I happen to be visiting him; then we say goodbye at that point in time, and each goes to his apartment.

Then he prepares for the events of the day, for instance, for the visitors he will receive in a personal audience: Who are they and what is their concern or the request they come to make? That, of course, requires a thorough preparation and an equally careful follow-up.

On Tuesdays, there is also the preparation for the large audience on Wednesday morning. For example, he has to practice the pronunciation of the foreign languages in which he will greet the pilgrims and the pilgrimage groups – of course, he does not speak them all fluently. For this purpose, he listens to the correct pronunciation on a tape and then practices it, so as to avoid making big mistakes and to be understood correctly.

At 1:15 p.m. on weekdays, the midday meal is served – on Sunday, earlier at 1 – and afterward, he takes a short walk through the garden on the roof of the Apostolic Palace, because “Post coenam stabis vel passus mille meabis” (After eating you should rest, or else walk a thousand steps). Then comes the siesta, but he does not use the whole siesta time to rest; instead, he also writes letters and postcards and reads all sorts of things. I get the impression, in any case, that he works for part of the siesta time. In the summer, we always prayed the breviary at around 4 in the afternoon, while at 5 he takes a walk either in the Vatican Gardens or the garden of Castel Gandolfo, during which he prays the rosary together with his secretary, Msgr. Georg Ganswein. In the winter, on the other hand, when it gets dark early, this walk takes place at 4. Toward 6, the regularly scheduled audiences are held.

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In the morning, there are the private audiences, in which he receives most importantly the bishops who come from abroad and heads of state, and so on, while the afternoon is reserved for the regularly scheduled audiences in which the heads of the various curia offices give their reports and offer suggestions in matters in which the pope must make a decision.

The evening meal is at 7:30; at 8 he watches the news. At around 8:30, he takes another short walk on the roof or, in the winter, in the corridors of the house. Afterward, compline, the night prayer of the church, is prayed, and with that his work day actually ends. Usually we sit down in the living room and talk for a while.

Q. Do you also watch television together? Does the Holy Father have a favorite program?

A. Well, before the news, there used to be a television series “Inspector Rex.” We always used to watch it, because we like dogs, too. We are well acquainted with Herr Helmut Brossmann, the owner of the German shepherd “Rex” who plays the title role. He lives in the vicinity of Regensburg; he is also the manager of the Kastelruther Spatzen or the Augsburg Puppenkiste. He has even organized a few events for the Domspatzen. He is originally from the Sudetenland and converted to the Catholic faith a few years ago. A canon from the “Old Chapel” instructed him, and I was his confirmation sponsor. He is a great animal lover, and besides breeding German shepherds, including both of the dogs who portrayed “Rex,” he has a whole zoo; furthermore, he is co-owner of the famous kennel that breeds Saint Bernards at the Great Saint Bernard Pass in the Alps. Other than that, my brother rarely watches television, at most a video film once in awhile that is related in some way to the Vatican or to a forthcoming canonization or beatification.

Q. It is said that he reads aloud to you from the breviary since your vision is no longer very good, while you play music for him ...

A. That is right; he prays the breviary aloud: after Mass in the morning, vespers in the afternoon, and compline in the evening, because I can no longer pray them alone. In the evening, before we go to sleep, he sometimes asks me to play a song for him. Then I play for him on the piano a hymn or a folk song, for instance, “Im schonsten Wiesengrund,” or night songs like “Der Mond ist aufgegangen” or “Adieu zur guten Nacht,” just very simple things. In Advent or the Christmas season, of course, I play Christmas carols instead, whatever suits the occasion.

Q. Does he go to bed rather early?

A. Yes, actually after the evening meal he does not work anymore; that was always the case. He can concentrate phenomenally throughout the day and works very quickly and efficiently. But he is not at all someone who works at night.

Q. What does it mean for you to be “the pope’s brother?”

A. Ah, personally, little has changed; more externally than interiorly. It is true, of course, that I am suddenly interesting to many people for whom I was previously nobody important.

So I get many phone calls, from the press and other media, too; people often visit me, and I have been able to establish contacts that I did not have before. At first this led to a certain unrest in my life but, fortunately, that has gradually ebbed away.

Otherwise, I must admit, not much has actually changed in my relationship with my brother, either. Only in prayer, then you present entirely different concerns to the dear Lord now.

But still, the personal relationship has remained the same.

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March 9, 2012

19

Spirituality for Life

‘Why me?’ Don’t ask We can lose our freedom for different reasons and, sometimes, for the best of reasons.

Imagine this scenario: You are on your way to a restaurant to meet a friend for dinner, a perfectly legitimate agenda, but en route you witness a car accident. Some of the people in the accident are seriously hurt and you are the first to arrive at the scene. At that moment your own agenda, dinner with a friend, is put on hold. You’ve lost your freedom and are, by circumstance and need, conscripted to remain there and help. You phone for an ambulance, call the police and wait with the injured until help arrives.

During that whole time your freedom is suspended. You are still radically free of course. You could leave the injured to fend for themselves and head off to meet your friend, but you would be abdicating part of your humanity by doing that. Circumstance and need have taken away your existential and moral freedom.

They have consecrated you and set you apart just as surely as a bishop’s blessing sets apart a building to be a church. The building didn’t ask to be a church, but it’s now consecrated and no longer free for other usage. So too with us, circumstance can consecrate us and take away our freedom.

In the ordinary mindset, consecration is a word that connotes things to do with church and religion. We understand certain things as consecrated, taken out of the profane world and set aside for sacred, holy service: for example, buildings (churches); persons (priests, deacons, monks, nuns); tables (altars); cups (chalices); clothing (vestments and religious habits). There is some merit in that, but the danger is that we

tend to see consecration as a cultic and metaphysical separation rather than as a setting apart for service. Setting aside your freedom in order to help at a traffic accident doesn’t alter your humanity; it just suspends your ordinary activity. It calls you to service because you happen to be there, not because you are more special or holier than anyone else.

That was the case with Moses: When God calls him to go to Pharaoh and ask him to set the Israelites free, Moses objects: Why not my brother? He has better leadership skills. I don’t want to do this! Why me? And God answers those objections with the words: Because you have seen their suffering!

It’s that simple: God tells Moses that he may not walk away because he has seen the peoples’ suffering. For that reason, he is the consecrated one, the one who is not free to walk away.

Circumstance and need have consecrated him.

Our very notion of church draws on this concept. The word ecclesia comes from two Greek words: “ek kaleo.” “Ek” is a preposition meaning “out of,” and “kaleo” is a verb meaning “to be called.” To be a member of the church is to be “called out of.” And what we are “called out of” is what our normal agenda would be if we weren’t conscripted by our baptism and by the innate demands of consequent discipleship. Baptism and church membership consecrate us. They call us out and set us apart in the same way that Moses’ having seen the suffering of the Israelites took away his freedom to pursue an ordinary life and in the same way as witnessing a traffic accident on the way to meeting a friend sets aside our dinner plans for that night.

Edward Schillebeeckx once examined various theories and

possible motives to explain why Jesus never married.

His conclusion: Jesus never married because “it was existentially impossible” for him to marry. In essence, Schillebeeckx says that Jesus never married because the universal embrace of his Father Ron love and magnitude of the Rolheiser world’s wounds and needs never left him that freedom.

Like Moses, he was conscripted by a moral imperative. He was celibate not by emotional preference or by spiritual superiority, but by moral conscription.

Today, the word consecration has lost much of its rich meaning. We have relegated the word to the sacristy and overloaded it with connotations of purity and cult. That’s unfortunate because both what’s best in our humanity and our faith are forever trying to consecrate us. The needs and wounds of our world are constantly asking us to suspend our radical freedom, to set aside our own agendas, in order to serve.

And, like Moses, we have all seen enough suffering in this world that we should no longer be asking the question: “Why me?”

Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser is president of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas.

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Catholic San Francisco

March 9, 2012

(CNS PHOTOS/MARCIN MAZUR)

Headed to the Olympics? Check out London’s Catholic history

Above, St. Etheldreda’s Church in the Holborn area of central London is the oldest Catholic church in the city. Built in 1290, it was formerly the chapel of the London palace of the bishop of Ely and was lost to the Catholic Church at the Reformation before being bought by the Rosminians in 1874. Left, the tomb of St. Thomas More is seen in the crypt of the St. Peter ad Vincula chapel in the Tower of London. Sts. Thomas More and John Fisher were imprisoned in the tower in 1535 and executed on nearby Tower Hill. The crypt contains their headless bodies, along with those of two other Catholic martyrs.

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By Simon Caldwell LONDON (CNS) – Visitors to the 2012 Olympic Games might be surprised to discover the extent to which London has been marked by the Catholic faith over the centuries.

Underground stations such as Temple and Blackfriars, and above ground spots such as Ave Maria Lane and Paternoster Square all denote a rich Catholic heritage that precedes the Reformation.

Catholics never left London, and during the 16th and 17th centuries they soaked the city with their blood, with 105 beatified and canonized martyrs dying on the Tyburn gallows, while many others were executed in other parts of the capital.

However, the hope and confidence ushered in with the “second spring� of the 19th century means that, today, stunning Catholic cathedrals and churches again adorn the city landscape.

Here are a number of sites well worth a visit.

1. Tyburn Convent. This is the motherhouse of the Adorers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Montmartre, an order of cloistered Benedictine nuns, and it stands just yards from the site of the infamous “Tyburn Tree� on which more than 100 Catholics died for their faith during the Reformation. It houses the Martyrs’ Crypt, which contains bones, hair, scraps of bloodied shirts, fragments of rope and other such relics salvaged secretly by Catholics and preserved for generations.

2. The Church of the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street. Because of its proximity to the U.S. Embassy, the mother church of the English Jesuit province is sometimes considered the “American church.� It is worth a visit because it is the finest Catholic example of the Victorian Gothic Revival in London and one of the most beautiful churches in the city, the grandeur of its architecture exuding the joyful hope of English Catholics as they emerged from a long period of suffering.

3. Westminster Cathedral. A Byzantine-style structure designed by John Francis Bentley and opened in 1903, this is the mother church of the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

It is not yet completed, and mosaics are being added all the time.

4. Westminster Abbey. This former Benedictine monastery founded by St. Edward the Confessor is the place where English monarchs are crowned, sometimes married and often buried. St. Edward’s tomb survived the frenzied

destruction of shrines during the Reformation, partly because it was a royal tomb.

5. Westminster Hall. This is where St. Thomas More, St. Edmund Campion and many other Catholic martyrs were tried and sentenced to death, commemorated by a plaque in the center of the hall. It was the venue in which Pope Benedict XVI addressed British members of Parliament during his 2010 visit. A worthy place of pilgrimage but book in advance.

6. St. George’s Cathedral, Southwark.

Cardinal Nicholas Wiseman was installed as the first archbishop of Westminster here when the hierarchy of the Catholic Church of England and Wales was restored in 1850, making it the first Catholic cathedral in England since the Reformation.

7. Temple Church. This historic gem is tucked away in the back lanes and courtyards off Fleet Street. A church of the Knights Templar, it was consecrated in 1185 by the patriarch of Jerusalem. It reflects a fashion in the Crusades era for circular naves in imitation of the Church of Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.

8. St. Etheldreda’s Church, Holborn. This is the oldest Catholic church in London, predating the Reformation. Built in 1290, it was formerly the chapel of the London palace of the bishop of Ely and was lost to the Catholic Church at the Reformation before being bought by the Rosminians in 1874. Its stained glass windows are among the most beautiful in the city, and it has a collection of life-size statues of the many Catholic martyrs who once lived in the vicinity.

9. St. Bartholomew the Great, West Smithfield. This former Augustinian priory, built in the 12th century, survived the Great Fire of London and the World War II London Blitz; it is now an Anglican church. Its age and the solemnity of its Norman architecture make it one of the most atmospheric churches in London, and it is often sought as a location for filmmakers – “Four Weddings and a Funeral� was shot there, for example.

10. The Tower of London. There is so much Catholic history associated with this one site that it is advisable to turn up early and spend the whole day there. Graffiti by such martyrs as Sts. Philip Howard and Henry Walpole is etched into the walls of the Beauchamp and Salt towers respectively and is so well-preserved that it looks recent. Sts. Thomas More and John Fisher were imprisoned there in 1535 before their executions on nearby Tower Hill.

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SATURDAY, MARCH 10 LIFE: A pro-life rosary is prayed at 9 a.m. on the sidewalk in front of Planned Parenthood, 35 Baywood Ave., San Mateo, every first Saturday of the month. Event is sponsored by San Mateo Prolife. Visit smprolife@yahoo.com.

Datebook

THURSDAY, APRIL 26 SEW: St. Vincent de Paul Society-San Francisco’s Seventh Discarded to Divine with unique fashions and home décor from recycled clothes, benefitting homelessness and domestic violence programs.

Gala reception, live show, auctions from 6-10 p.m., San Francisco Design Center Galleria. Tickets are VIP $195 and general admission $95 ($75 if purchased by March 31). Visit www.discardedtodivine.org/.

SISTER, SISTER: “Women and Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America” is on display through June 3 at The California Museum, 1020 O St., Sacramento. Visit www. womenandspirit.org. Pictured, from left, are Mercy Sister Mary Katherine Doyle, Sister Helen Maher Garvey, a Sister of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and Assemblyman Jim Beall Jr., of San Jose, who honored the contribution of women religious to the development and history of California in Sacramento Jan. 23.

SATURDAY, APRIL 28 REUNION: Immaculate Conception Academy, class of 1972 in San Francisco.

Contact Michele Clark at (916) 607-5691or mclark2514@comcast.net.

SUNDAY, APRIL 29

FRIDAY, MARCH 16 ST. PATTY’S DAY: Hibernian-Newman Club holiday lunch at the Westin San Francisco, 50 Third St. at Mission Street. No-host reception is at 11 a.m. with traditional Irish music with Irish lunch at noon.

Tickets are $85 per person. Proceeds benefit Catholic campus ministries. Keynote speaker is San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr. Walter Farrell will be honored as Hibernian of the Year. Call (415) 386-3434.

SATURDAY, MARCH 17 ST. PATTY’S DAY: St. Patrick’s Day Mass with San Francisco Auxiliary Bishop William J. Justice as principal celebrant at St. Patrick Church, 756 Mission St., San Francisco at 9 a.m. in anticipation of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade at 11:30 a.m. A daylong Irish Festival at Civic Center begins at 11 a.m. The United Irish Societies sponsor these and other events. For a full schedule, visit www.uissf.org.

ST. PATTY’S DAY: Corned beef and cabbage dinner sponsored by Knights of Columbus in new hall of Our Lady of the Pillar, Half Moon Bay. No-host cocktails at 6 p.m. and dinner at 7 p.m. Tickets are $25/ children under 12 $12. Live music from Scottish fiddlers plus raffle. Call Brian at (650) 799-001; Bob at (650) 464-0164 or email knightscouncil7534@yahoo.com.

SUNDAY, MARCH 18 PRIEST REMEMBERED: A memorial Mass for the late Father Peter Sammon will be celebrated at 5:30 p.m. at St. Teresa Church, 1490 19th St. at Connecticut, San Francisco. Father Sammon, who died in 2002, was pastor of St. Teresa for 32 years.

He is remembered for his heroic social justice efforts including the San Francisco sanctuary movement. At the time of his death, he was called “an exceptional priest” and a “courageous defender of workers.” Call Debra Ballinger Bernstein at (415) 561-2300, ext. 31.

MONDAY, MARCH 19 GOOD HEALTH: St Mary’s Diabetes Health Fair, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. One in every three people living with diabetes will have a cardiovascular event during their lifetime. These events, including heart attacks and strokes, are preventable with a managed diabetes plan. Free blood glucose testing; foot screenings by a podiatrist; tips on daily diabetes care.

St. Mary’s Medical Center, 450 Stanyan St., hospital cafeteria, Level B. Call (415) 750-5513.

CATHEDRAL: Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption, Gough Street at Geary Boulevard, San Francisco. When available, docents are on duty in the cathedral Monday through Friday from 10 a.m.-noon, Saturday from 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. and Sunday after Masses. The Docent program also offers special tours and a school program. Schedule a tour by calling (415) 567-2020 ext. 207. Visit www.stmarycathedralsf.org.

PUT

TUESDAY, MARCH 20 LENTEN MISSION: If you’d like some inspiration halfway through Lent, come to St. Robert Parish, 1380 Crystal Springs Road, San Bruno. John Angotti leads this parish mission March 20 and March 21.

John has given retreats and concerts all over the world and participated in World Youth Day in Madrid.

The mission theme is “Extraordinary Love.” Sessions Tuesday and Wednesday from 9:10-10 a.m. and 7-8:15 p.m. On Tuesday from 10:15-11:15 a.m. and 3:30-4 p.m. St. Robert School and religious education students will have sessions with John. Everyone is most welcome to attend any sessions that fit their schedule. Free will offerings gladly accepted. Call (650) 589-2800.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21 THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT: Epiphany Center’s Benefit Party and Show, 6:30 p.m.; cocktail buffet with show at 8 p.m. at Great American Music Hall, 859 O’Farrell St., San Francisco. Tickets $175 per person.

Sponsorships are also available. Call (415) 351-4055 or visit www.msjse.org. Proceeds from this traditional night of live musical comedy benefit the most vulnerable women, children and families in San Francisco at Epiphany Center Mount St. Joseph-St. Elizabeth: Serving San Francisco’s at-risk families since 1852.

PASTA: Spaghetti and meatballs at Immaculate Conception Church, 3255 Folsom St., just up the hill from Cesar Chavez. Delicious noon meal is served family style. Tickets $8 per person with beverages available for purchase. The Bernal Heights tradition is now in its plus-50th year.

SATURDAY, MARCH 24 MILESTONE ANNIVERSARY: Mercy High School, San Francisco celebrates the legacy of women’s education in San Francisco as the school marks its 60th year. In honoring the mission of Catherine McAuley, the foundress of the Sisters of Mercy, Mercy High School, San Francisco has been dedicated to the education of young women with nearly 10,000 alumnae. The celebratory event will be an unforgettable evening of dinner and dancing in the Catherine McAuley Pavilion on the school campus. Visit www.mercyhs.org.

SUNDAY, MARCH 25 MUSIC AND PRAYER: The Vallombrosa Choir sings at Vallombrosa Center, 250 Oak Grove Ave., Menlo Park at 2 p.m. Bring along nonperishable food item for the poor. Free will collection benefits nearby St. Anthony de Padua Dining Room.

TUESDAY, MARCH 27 NEW ROOF FUNDRAISER: St. Peter Church, Pacifica’s Raise a New Roof Dinner at Luigi’s Italian Restaurant. Dinner is $50 per person and starts at 6 p.m. Contact Vivian Queirolo at vn_queirolo@yahoo. com or call (650) 359-6313 for reservations.

LEARN MORE: Did you know that students who attend Catholic elementary schools go on to attend the city’s top high schools? Are you interested in finding out about what a Catholic education could do for your child?

Come and meet representatives from San Francisco Catholic schools. Learn about the application process, tuition assistance and more at the Catholic Middle School Fair, 4:30-7 p.m. at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Gough Street at Geary Boulevard, San Francisco. Visit www. sfdcs.org/dcs/mythbusting or www.sfdcs.org/dcs/.

SATURDAY, MARCH 31 AUCTION: St. Philip School Spring Auction 2012, 5:30 p.m.-midnight at the Great Hall, San Francisco. Enjoy silent and live auction, buffet dinner, full bar. Dance to the Martin Lacey Band. Tickets are $75 per person/$60 seniors. Mail check with contact details to St. Philip School, 665 Elizabeth St., San Francisco 94114, attention auction chairs or email kavanaghssf@gmail.com.

CANTONESE SPEAKERS: “Catholic Marriage – Biblical, Historical and Moral Perspectives,” in Cantonese, at St. Mary’s Cathedral Event Center from 2-5 p.m. Jesuit Father Lucas Chan, visiting professor at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley facilitates the session. Event is sponsored by the Chinese ministry of the Archdiocese of San Francisco. For more information, call Sister Maria Hsu at (415) 614-5574.

RELIGIOUS LIFE TODAY AND TOMORROW: Sharing the New Wine: Vowed Religious in a Postmodern Age, a day of communal reflection and dialogue on the present reality and future of religious life, at Santa Clara University, Locatelli Hall, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, 8:30 a.m.-5:15 p.m. Visit www.sharingthenewwine.blogspot.com and www.scu.edu/jst/ religiouslife. Day is sponsored by California Province of the Society of Jesus, Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, Verbum Dei Missionary Fraternity, and others.

THURSDAY, APRIL 19 VATICAN II: Father David Pettingill speaks April 19, 26, May 3, 10 at St. Emydius Church, 286 Ashton Ave. off Ocean, San Francisco. Father Dave’s topic is Vatican II 50 years later. Father Dave is a former seminary professor and pastor and a nationally known authority on the church council of the 1960s.

Talks are from 7-8:30 p.m. Donation of $20 requested for entire series. Call (415) 587-7066.

SATURDAY, APRIL 28 SISTERS OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD: Mass of Thanksgiving marking 80th anniversary of the Good Shepherd Sisters’ work in the Bay Area. Mass is at 10:30 a.m. at St. Elizabeth Church, Wayland and Somerset streets, San Francisco, followed by a reception in St. Elizabeth Church Hall. For more information, email Sister Barbara at b.beasley@earthlink.net.

FRIDAY, APRIL 13 SEW: St. Vincent de Paul Society-San Francisco’s Seventh Discarded to Divine with unique fashions

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WALK: San Francisco Interfaith Council’s Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty Walk around Lake Merced, 1:30 p.m. registration and 2 p.m. start time at parking circle at Sunset and Lake Merced Boulevard. One aspect of extreme poverty identified by the U.N. that is both treatable and preventable is malaria. More than 1,800 deaths occur every day from malaria and 86 percent of those deaths are children under 5. Proceeds from the walk will help fight malaria, and homelessness in San Francisco. Visit www.cropwalksf.org.

SUNDAY, MAY 6 CONCERT: St. Elizabeth Church, 459 Somerset St. at Wayland, San Francisco. Concert celebrating 25th annniversary of the church’s Schoenstein Pipe Organ at 3 p.m. David Schofield will play. Choirs will sing including the parish choir and Light of God Fil-Am Choir. Admission is free. Donations accepted.

Reception follows. Free street and lot parking is available. Visit www.stelizabethsf.org or call Karen Haslag, music director at (707) 996-9113.

SATURDAY, MAY 12 REUNION: Mercy High School, San Francisco, class of ’67 at the school. Contact Stephanie Mischak Lyons at (415) 242-9818 or smlyons@ earthlink.net or on Facebook at Mercy SF ‘67.

SATURDAY, JUNE 9 ALUMNAE DAY: “Notre Dame High School Legacy Luncheon” at Notre Dame High School, 1540 Ralston Ave., Belmont. Invitations will be mailed in late April. Contact Denise Severi at Dseveri@ ndhsb.org. Reunions for class of ’87, Aug. 5, contact Heather Oda at moda@co.sanmateo.ca.us; class of ’67 Oct. 27, contact Susan Angle at susanangle@ comcast.net or (925) 680-4917.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 REUNION: Class of 1972, Notre Dame High School, Belmont. Save the date. Contact Notre Dame alumnae office at (650) 595 1913 ext. 446 or email dseveri@ ndhsb.org or eileen_browning@yahoo.com.

SATURDAY, OCT. 20 REUNION: St. Paul High School class of 1972 at the Irish Cultural Center in San Francisco. Email sphs1972reunion@gmail.com by April 30 for catering head count. Include your contact information with your maiden name, so we can send you the details.

Spread the word to our fellow graduates!

CONTACT US: Datebook is a free service for parishes, agencies and institutions to publicize events. Copy deadline is noon Friday before requested issue date. Send item including who, what, where, when, cost and contact information to burket@sfarchdiocese. org or Datebook, One Peter Yorke Way, SF 94109.

Attach Card Here Deadline for April 6th Issue is March 23rd Deadline for May 4th Issue is April 23rd Please do not write on your card.

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

THE FIRST FRIDAY OF EACH MONTH.

21

and home décor from recycled clothes, benefitting homelessness and domestic violence programs.

Complimentary public preview 6-8 p.m., de Young Museum. Visit www.discardedtodivine.org/.

SUNDAY, MARCH 11 BARBECUE: Point Reyes St. Patrick’s Day fun, noon-4 p.m., sponsored by Sacred Heart Church, Olema/St. Mary Magdalene Mission Church, Bolinas at Dance Palace, Fifth and B Streets, Point Reyes Station. Menu includes charcoal barbecued chicken, hot pasta, salad, milk, tea, coffee. Tickets are $14 per person/$8 children. Available for purchase are Drakes Bay barbecued oysters, desserts, Irish coffee, beer, wine. Auction and raffle, too. Call (415) 663-1139 or visit www.sacredheartmarin.org.

CATHOLIC SCHOOLERS: The Catholic Alumni Club of the Bay Area meets for ice cream and coffee, 2-4 p.m., at the Palo Alto Creamery, 566 Emerson St., at the corner of Emerson Street and University Avenue. CAC is for single Catholic men and women to meet and share their faith at a variety of enjoyable, interesting and fulfilling activities. Contact Greg Rose (408) 242-3603 or email RoseGreg7A@hotmail.com.

Catholic San Francisco

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22

Catholic San Francisco

March 9, 2012

Book details nuns’ work as nurses on both sides of Civil War “BATTLEFIELD ANGELS: THE DAUGHTERS OF CHARITY WORK AS CIVIL WAR NURSES” by James Rada Jr. Legacy Publishing (Gettysburg, PA, 2011). 230 pp., $19.95.

Reviewed by Sarah Mulhall Adelman (CNS) In “Battlefield Angels: The Daughters of Charity Work as Civil War Nurses,” James Rada Jr., known for his many historical novels, tells the story of one order of Catholic women religious who served as nurses during the Civil War. Catholic sisters fulfilled an essential role in the medical, psychological, and spiritual care of both Union and Confederate soldiers. Rada describes women religious who selflessly performed life-saving work in often miserable conditions and thereby gained the admiration and respect of countless contemporaries.

In so doing, Rada offers an appealing narrative and an entry point into the wealth of sources kept by the sisters. However, by not situating these sources or the events they describe within the broader literature on the period and Catholic women religious, he misses the opportunity to fully explore potential nuances and their significance.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Catholic sisters represented a unique and valuable resource to national, state and local governments on both sides of the conflict. Their experience running hospitals and caring for the sick in cities throughout the country equipped them with crucial skills and medical insights. Their religious status also gave them unique privileges of mobility. As sisters they could do work that exceeded the

bounds of respectable womanhood and as members of a religious order they had more freedom to cross military lines than most civilians.

As Rada points out, the sisters agreed to the numerous pleas for help they received, serving the soldiers of both Confederate and Union armies. Frequently performing their work with minimal supplies and in makeshift hospitals, the sisters adapted to conditions and saved lives. With considerable risk to their own health and safety, they prevented the deaths of many soldiers and soothed others in their final days.

Rada writes poignantly of the initial distrust accorded to the sisters by a population imbued with anti-Catholic sentiments and the eventual respect that they won from both citizens and soldiers for their work. He attributes this transformation in attitudes, as well as what he suggests were frequent conversions to Catholicism, to the selfless acts of the sisters.

This is one place where situating the story Rada tells within a broader historical context would have been helpful. For example, the sources he quotes employ the standard tropes of the 19th-century conversion narrative, a common feature of publications of Christian organizations throughout the cen-

tury. Additionally, as historian Drew Gilpin Faust has argued, Civil War soldiers who were ill, injured or dying frequently conformed to this cultural script in an attempt to align their experiences with the narrative of “The Good Death.”

Similarly, much of the recent scholarship on Catholic women religious has recognized the religious life as a potential venue of empowerment for women, a rare space within 19th-century society in which women could exert influence, work in public, live independently and even exercise political functions. In doing so, historians have argued that taking vows did not elevate women above the rest of humanity, but instead provided a unique environment in which they could exercise their gifts. Rada departs from this growing literature, instead endorsing a perspective of these women as “angels” who did not hesitate in the face of difficult decisions and were immune from national or regional loyalties and the explosive issues of their time.

In summary, Rada’s “Battlefield Angels” is an interesting narrative and a worthwhile read for those interested in the work of Catholic sisters, but will leave those seeking an academic treatment of women religious unfulfilled. Situating the rich sources Rada has uncovered more clearly within the expanding body of scholarly work on Catholic women religious, as well as Civil War medicine, gender norms, religion and death would have produced a more complete and nuanced portrait of the women’s dramatic contributions to Civil War nursing.

Adelman received her doctorate in history from Johns Hopkins University in 2010.

Turning off TV for a week: It’s not just for the boob tube anymore

By Mark Pattison WASHINGTON (CNS) – Remember TV-Turnoff Week? It is no more.

It is now called Screen-Free Week.

Organizers of the annual weeklong voluntary blackout of TV recognize that TV isn’t the only screen where children – and adults – go for mindless entertainment. In fact, when Billy Crystal can joke during the Oscars about people watching movies on their cellphones, you know the phenomenon is no

longer a phenomenon and has instead entered the mainstream.

How many kinds of screens do we have?

Let’s do a rough tally: televisions, computers, tablets, like the iPad, E-readers, like the Kindle, smartphones. Also the software that drives them: video games. game systems, DVDs, websites. mobile apps.

As the types of screens have increased, so too has our time in front of those screens.

According to one of Screen-Free Week’s principal sponsors, the Campaign for a Commercial-

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Kaufer’s Religious Supplies Religious gifts and church supplies for every occassion

1455 Custer Avenue ● San Francisco, CA 94214 (415) 333-4494 ● Fax (415) 333-0402 1-800-874-6987 ● Email sales@kaufers.com ● Web Site: www.kaufers.com

FIRST HOLY COMMUNION HEADQUARTERS Lace Edged Veil

Invitations, Jewelery & Gifts ● Missals and books ● Ties ● Veils and Dresses ● Rosary Kits ● Communion Plaque and Picture Frame ● Missal Sets plus more…

Pattison is media editor for CNS.

SCRIPTURE SEARCH

kfiore@gmwest.com

●

opted for the “gold” level, which means no TV on school nights. As educational as it is, “Martha Speaks” would just have to wait for a Monday when no school is in session.

Screen-Free Week organizers have assembled a resource kit to help adults deal with situations like this, and to head them off at the pass. Go to www.commercialfreechildhood.org/ screenfreeweek to sign up for the kit.

The number of organizations that have endorsed Screen-Free Week includes the Center on Media and Child Health.

“Since external entertainment sources like television demand that our brains perform only in certain ways, we need to create downtime away from screens,” said a statement from Dr. Michael Rich, the center’s director.

“Only when children have the potential of being bored will their brains jump in and begin to invent and create,” he said. “So do yourself and your children a favor and turn off the screens this week, if only to see what happens when the prepackaged entertainment stops and your brains can wander wherever they may.”

Free Childhood, pre-school children now spend 32 hours a week in front of screens. That’s nearly one-fifth of the entire week, and that percentage looks much worse once you subtract all the overnight sleep and nap time little kids need. Older children spend even more time in front of screens.

This year’s Screen-Free Week is April 30-May 6. If a child has to be at a computer to do homework, that’s one thing. But with spring in the air, there’s simply no need to depend on TV, computer or phones for entertainment.

It wasn’t that long ago when my daughter had a great time at a school friend’s birthday party – so much so that three other party invitees came over to our house for an impromptu postparty play date. But after just an hour, they ran out of ways to amuse themselves and defaulted to a DVD from the 1980s cable series “Faerie Tale Theatre.” I found that a bit discouraging.

The next day, a Sunday, my daughter asked after dinner if she could please (and for emphasis, you can italicize and underline “please”) watch TV. Sorry, I told her, but no; she had joined her school’s TV-VG Turnoff Club (the “VG” stands for “video game”), and she had

Communion Missal Sets

Order your free gift & Communion Catalog or shop on line at

WWW.KAUFERS.COM

Following is a word search based on the Gospel reading for the Third Sunday of Lent, Cycle B: the purification of the Temple by Jesus. The words can be found in all directions in the puzzle.

JESUS HE FOUND (HE) MADE MONEY OUT OF HERE ZEAL RAISE IT

WENT UP SHEEP DROVE OVERTURNED HOUSE CONSUME ME THREE DAYS

JERUSALEM DOVES TEMPLE WHO SOLD MARKET DESTROY HIS BODY

FORESHADOW

Keepsake Communion Bear

Deluxe Rosary Kit

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Gospel for March 11, 2012 John 2:13-25

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© 2012 Tri-C-A Publications www.tri-c-a-publications.com

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Sponsored by Duggan’s Serra Mortuary 500 Westlake Avenue, Daly City 650-756-4500 ● www.duggansserra.com

Pettingell Book Bindery Klaus-Ullrich S. Rötzscher Bibles, Theses, Gold Stamping.

Quality Binding with Cloth, Leather or Paper.

Single & Editions.

Custom Box Making

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Visit us at

catholic-sf.org

March 9, 2012

PUBLISH A NOVENA Pre-payment required Mastercard or Visa accepted

Catholic San Francisco

23

Catholic San Francisco

classifieds

Cost $26

If you wish to publish a Novena in the Catholic San Francisco You may use the form below or call 415-614-5640

FOR ADVERTISING INFORMATION Call: 415-614-5642 Fax: 415-614-5641 Email: penaj@sfarchdiocese.org

Your prayer will be published in our newspaper

Name Adress Phone MC/VISA # Exp.

Room For Rent

❑ Prayer to the Blessed Virgin ❑ Prayer to the Holy Spirit

Select One Prayer: ❑ St. Jude Novena to SH ❑ Prayer to St. Jude

$

600/mo.

Furnished

Please return form with check or money order for $26 Payable to: Catholic San Francisco Advertising Dept., Catholic San Francisco 1 Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco, CA 94109

Prayer to St. Jude

Thank you St.Jude for granting our wish J.M.S

Oh, Holy St. Jude, Apostle and Martyr, great in virtue and rich in miracles, near Kinsman of Jesus Christ, faithful intercessor of all who invoke your special patronage in time of need, to you I have recourse from the depth of my heart and humbly beg to whom God has given such great power to come to my assistance.

Help me in my present and urgent petition. In return I promise to make you be invoked. Say three our Fathers, three Hail Marys and Glorias. St. Jude pray for us all who invoke your aid. Amen.

This Novena has never been known to fail. This Novena must be said 9 consecutive days. Thanks.

E.K.S.

Prayer to the Blessed Virgin never known to fail.

Prayer to the Blessed Virgin never known to fail.

Most beautiful flower of Mt. Carmel Blessed Mother of the Son of God, assist me in my need. Help me and show me you are my mother.

Oh Holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and earth. I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to help me in this need.

Oh Mary, conceived without sin. Pray for us (3X).

Holy Mary, I place this cause in your hands (3X).

Say prayers 3 days.

A.C.R

Most beautiful flower of Mt. Carmel Blessed Mother of the Son of God, assist me in my need. Help me and show me you are my mother.

Oh Holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and earth. I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to help me in this need.

Oh Mary, conceived without sin. Pray for us (3X).

Holy Mary, I place this cause in your hands (3X).

Say prayers 3 days. M.A.B

Prefer mature business woman.

Outer Mission.

Incl: utilities, laundry room, kitchen, bath Lv. Msg: 415.587.0134

Tahoe Rental

LAKE TAHOE RENTAL Vacation Rental Condo in South Lake Tahoe.

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Scripture Reading Your source for the best Catholic books – Bibles music – movies – ministry resources – greeting card rosaries – medals statues – gifts for Catholic occasions

Pauline Books & Media, your Catholic source for Christmas gift items, Bibles, books, music, audio CD’s DVDs and inspirational religious art.

Lenten Lectio Divina

Hosted by the Daughters of St Paul, this prayer experience using the Gospel reading of the Liturgy for the day and the ancient form of Lectio Divina, the “divine reading of Scripture”, will enhance your Lenten journey and bring you into contact with the Living Word of God. We will be using the book, Lenten Grace as our guide. Bring your own Bible. Obtain a copy of Lenten Grace at the Pauline Book center.

When?

Every Tuesday during Lent, (beginning February 28th) at 6:30pm

Where? Pauline Books & Media 935 Brewster Ave., Redwood City, CA 94063

paulineredwood.blogspot.com Call (650) 369-4230 for more information

Visit us at

catholic-sf.org

For your local & international Catholic news, website listings, advertising information and “Place Classified Ad” Form

caregiver Personal companion, medications, grooming, appointments, shopping, driving, & Alzheimer’s care over 20 years experience, honest and reliable, outstanding references, bonded.

Call (415) 713-1366 10 years experience, EMT 5 years urgent care and 5 years home care

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Extrodinary Mass EXTRAORDINARY THANK YOU Archdiocese of San Francisco for the Extraordinary mass in San Francisco’s Immaculate Conception Chapel at 3255 Folsom Street San Francisco, CA 94110 (near Cesar Chavez Street)

PLEASE RECYCLE THIS PAPER!

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

Sundays at 5 p.m. with Gregorian Chant Choir

Traditional Latin Tridentine Mass Rides for the Elderly 415-626-5362

Help Wanted Victim Assistance Coordinator Needed Archdiocese of San Francisco The Archdiocese is seeking a qualified candidate to work directly with the Archbishop, Auxiliary Bishops and the Office of Child and Youth Protection in the role of Victim Assistance Coordinator.

Responsibilities include: • On-going help for survivors • Process any new allegations • Communicate with the Independent Review Board • Assist with education programs to prevent child abuse This important position is an exempt position with excellent benefits.

Requirements: Position description available on our Web site at: www.sfarchdiocese.org • MFT or Psychology Degree and work experience • Practicing Catholic Please submit resume and cover letter to: Patrick Schmidt Associate Director of Office of Human Resources, Archdiocese of San Francisco One Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco 94109 Fax: (415) 614-5536 E-mail: schmidtp@sfarchdiocese.org

24

Catholic San Francisco

March 9, 2012

SERVICE DIRECTORY For information about advertising in Catholic San Francisco's Service Directory, visit www.catholic-sf.org, Call (415) 614-5642, Fax: (415) 614-5641 or E-mail: penaj@sfarchdiocese.org

Painting

Tax Service

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Jon the tax man

415.368.8589 Lic.#942181

Jonathan Sweeney, EA

Children reflect the strains of childhood within and outside of the family

Family Systems Therapy Murray Bowen, M.D. Founder, Georgetown Family Center

Call: 650.580.2375

A child may be suffering from:

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Home Health Care Irish Help At Home

Interior-Exterior wallpaper hanging & removal Lic # 526818 Senior Discount

415-269-0446 650-738-9295

QUALITY HOME CARE SERVING THE BAY AREA SINCE 1996

www.sospainting.net

Painting & Remodeling John Holtz

Ca. Lic 391053 General Contractor Since 1980

(650) 355-4926

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Family Systems Therapy has guided families for nearly 50 years.

If you would like to talk over your family issues call for a free phone consultation.

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Construction

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PAINTING INTERIOR, EXTERIOR All Jobs Large and Small

10% Discount: Seniors, Parishioners

Call BILL 415.731.8065 â&#x20AC;˘ Cell: 415.710.0584 bheffpainting@sbcglobal.net Member of Better Business Bureau Bonded, Insured â&#x20AC;&#x201C; LIC. #819191

Roofing

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PAUL (415) 282-2023 YOELSHAULING@YAHOO.COM

Service Changes Solar Installation Lighting/Power Fire Alarm/Data Green Energy Fully Licensed â&#x20AC;˘ State Certified â&#x20AC;˘ Locally Trained â&#x20AC;˘ Experienced â&#x20AC;˘ On Call 24/7

CONSTRUCTION

(415) 786-0121 â&#x20AC;˘ (650) 871-9227

Lic.# 593788

Cell (415) 517-5977 (650) 757-1946 NOT A LICENSED CONTRACTOR

Plumbing HOLLAND Plumbing Works San Francisco ALL PLUMBING WORK PAT HOLLAND CA LIC #817607

BONDED & INSURED

415-205-1235

Garage Door

Same price 7 days Lic. # 376353

Affordable Decks â&#x20AC;˘ Additions â&#x20AC;˘ General Remodel â&#x20AC;˘ Carports

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DA LY

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For more information, contact: Contractors State License Board 800-321-2752

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NOTICE TO READERS

VISIT US AT CATHOLIC-SF.ORG

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Visit us at

ALL ELECTRIC SERVICE 650.322.9288

â&#x20AC;&#x201C;

Licensed contractors are required by law to list their license numbers in advertisments. The law also state that contractors performing work totaling $500 or more must be state-licensed. Advertisments appearing in this newspaper without a license number indicate that the contractor is not licensed.

Confidential â&#x20AC;˘ Compassionate â&#x20AC;˘ Practical (415) 921-1619 â&#x20AC;˘ Insurance Accepted

),1( :25. $7 5($621$%/( 35,&(6

VONNEGUT THOREAU construction

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6WDWH /LFHQVH ( V W

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Specializing in home health aides, attendants and companions.

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Lic. 631209) 9)

0F*XLUH 6RQV 0F*XLUH 6RQV

Home Healthcare Agency

www.christianscounseling2.com

Electrical

Contractor

The Irish Rose

(415) 242-3355

* Member National Notary Association *

415.279.1266

*Irish owned & operated

David Nellis M.A. M.F.T.

Timothy P. Breen Notary Public

Remodels, Additions, Paint,Windows, Dryrot, Stucco

1655 Old Mission Road #3 Colma, SSF, CA 94080 415-573-5141 or 650-993-8036 *Serving from San Francisco to North San Mateo

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We Provide reliable & experienced caregivers to help seniors in their own home. *Companionship, Bathing, Alzheimer, Dementia & more.

The family gathers together to understand, support and heal.

Single parents and couples have their issues. Depression, infidelity, gambling, substance abuse , often unspoken in the family, take their toll.

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BETTER HEALTH CARE

FOR SENIORS WITH SPECIAL NEED OF CARE

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Discount to CSF Readers

Eoin Lehane

(since 1983)

Counseling Healthcare Agency

(415) 931-1540 24 hrs.

Lic. # 907564

Lifetime Warranty on All Doors + Motors