April 27, 2012

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Catholic san Francisco

(CNS PHOTO/L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO)

Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper

Western US bishops meet with pope Pope Benedict XVI poses for a photo with bishops from California, Nevada, Hawaii and Utah during an April 21 meeting during their “ad limina” visits to the Vatican. From left, Auxiliary Bishop Thomas A. Daly of San Jose; Bishop Patrick J. McGrath of San Jose; Bishop John C. Wester of Salt Lake City; Bishop Joseph A. Pepe of Las Vegas; Bishop Larry Silva of Honolulu; Auxiliary Bishop William J. Justice of San Francisco; Auxiliary Bishop Robert W. McElroy of San Francisco; Pope Benedict; retired Archbishop John R. Quinn of San Francisco; retired Auxiliary Bishop Ignatius C. Wang of San Francisco; Bishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of Oakland; Bishop Randolph R. Calvo of Reno; retired Bishop William K. Weigand of Sacramento; Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento; Bishop Robert F. Vasa of Santa Rosa; and retired Bishop Daniel F. Walsh of Santa Rosa. Story on Page 10.

Citing doctrinal problems, Vatican announces reforms of US nuns group By Francis X. Rocca

In Silver Spring, Md., the presidency of the LCWR issued a statement saying it was “stunned by the conclusions of the doctrinal assessment of LCWR by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Because the

(CNS PHOTO/BOB ROLLER)

(CNS PHOTO/MIKE PENNEY)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Citing “serious doctrinal problems which affect many in consecrated life,” the Vatican announced a major reform of an association of women’s religious congregations in the U.S. to ensure their fidelity to Catholic teaching in areas including abortion, euthanasia, women’s ordination and homosexuality. Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle will provide “review, guidance and approval, where necessary, of the work” of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the Vatican announced April 18. The archbishop will be assisted by Bishop Leonard P. Blair of Toledo, Ohio, and Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Springfield, Ill., and draw on the advice of fellow bishops, women religious and other experts. The LCWR, a Maryland-based umbrella group that claims about 1,500 leaders of U.S. women’s communities as members, represents about 80 percent of the country’s 57,000 women religious.

Left, Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain will provide “review, guidance and approval, where necessary, of the work” of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

leadership of LCWR has the custom of meeting annually with the staff of CDF in Rome and because the conference follows canonically approved statutes, we were taken by surprise.

Right, Sister Janet Mock, a Sister of St. Joseph of Baden, Pa., is executive director of the LCWR. The group’s presidency said it was “stunned” and “taken by surprise by the gravity” of the Vatican’s action.

“This is a moment of great import for religious life and the wider church. We ask your prayers as we meet with the LCWR National Board within the coming LCWR, page 17

INSIDE THIS WEEK’S EDITION On the Street . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 News in brief. . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Father Barron . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Father Rolheiser . . . . . . . . . 18 Datebook of events . . . . . . . 21

Students aid poor in Marin, South Sudan ~ Page 6 ~ April 27, 2012

Constantine’s victory and religious liberty ~ Page 12 ~

Outside Europe, church growing at record rate ~ Page 14 ~

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Book, movie reviews . . . . . . 22 Classified ads . . . . . . . . . . . 23

www.catholic-sf.org VOLUME 14

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No. 14

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Catholic San Francisco

April 27, 2012

On The Where You Live By Tom Burke Congratulations to Taylor Coric of St. Robert School, top seller in the school’s fall gift wrap fundraiser. “This is Taylor’s second year in a row raising the most funds for this particular fundraiser,” said program chairwoman, Helen O’Brien. • Thanks so much to Kaye Taylor Coric and O’Halloran for sending me a copy Margo Wright, St. of The Monitor commemorating the 50th anniversary of St. Mary’s Robert principal Cathedral on Van Ness Avenue, Feb. 22, 1941. Kaye told me she found it in a scrapbook that goes back to the time she was about 10 years old noting it would be OK for me to release her stats. The Our Lady of Angels parishioner is a proud 1938 graduate of St. Charles Borromeo School, San Francisco and is “still happy to support the school” as she is able. Kaye Kaye graduated from the now–closed O’Halloran and much–missed Star of the Sea Academy in 1942. News of the day spoke of the good choice by Archbishop John J. Mitty of Feb. 22 – then celebrated as George Washington’s birthday – as the day to celebrate the cathedral anniversary Mass. “The United States of America has been especially dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God,” the news item said. “It was Washington,” it continued, “who first paid tribute to the patriotism of Catholics in this nation.” Advertisers in the issue included Fishermen’s Grotto at the wharf; College of Notre Dame in Belmont, now Notre Dame de Namur University; Immaculate Conception Academy; Valente, Marini, Perata and Co. mortuary, and Duggans Funeral Service. An editor’s note points out that at the time “over 50 percent of the population of San Francisco is Catholic” and the “far–sighted merchant” advertises in The Monitor. The paper is going directly to Deacon Jeff Burns, archivist for the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Jeff helped me identify the issue as a commemorative and it will be safe in his good hands. The formal dedication of St. Mary’s Cathedral on Van Ness Avenue took place on Jan. 11, 1891 with Archbishop Patrick William Riordan presiding. Assisting in roles including master of ceremonies were priests including Msgr. Edwin J.

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Colin Laffey, Joey Solomon and Jack Murphy, all seniors at St. Ignatius College Preparatory, and Owen Dayton, a senior at Stuart Hall High School, received Eagle Scout badges from Troop 343 March 25. Proud parents are Mary and Noel Laffey; Sylvia and Mark Solomon, Tracy and Mark Murray, and Ann and Francis Dayton. The young men are all graduates of St. Cecilia School. The happy Scouts are, from left, Jack, Joey, Owen and Colin.

Happy 60 years married to Diane and Eugene Simpson April 19. The family gathered March 31 for a blessing of the couple by Father Jose Pelagio A. Padit, at St. John the Evangelist Church where they were married. The assembly included Diane and Eugene’s seven children, 21 grandchildren, and five great–grandchildren. They are now longtime parishioners of Our Lady of Mercy Parish in Daly City.

Kennedy, founding pastor in 1950 of St. Raymond Parish, Menlo Park and who died one day before his 95th birthday, Jan. 27, 2002. • Bible study groups from St. Peter Parish, Pacifica and St. Bartholomew Parish, San Mateo, shared a Passover

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Seder March 29, with Father Mark G. Mazza, St. Peter pastor, presiding. Readings were taken from the Old and New Testaments as well as the early church fathers, said Diane Gallo in a note to this column. Mary Ann Eiler took the lead on the meal and rites drawing on her background as theology teacher. “Mary Ann organized us, gave us copies of Passover recipes and put together a Haggada, a narrative used at Seder meals,” Diane told me. The guide blended the original Jewish readings and prayers showing parallels to the New Testament and our faith, Diane noted. The menu included lamb shank, roasted eggs, soup, salads, and cakes and cookies, all made with matzo in some form. • Spring is here and I’m thinking about taking a trip back to Jersey and Philly. I like going home and getting reacquainted with the boyhood stomping grounds. Now that I’ve reached my 60th year, however, a big change is that the older people I’m running into are no longer my friends’ parents. They’re my friends. Also in line with getting older is a story I heard of a guy with a 30 year fixed mortgage on his vacation home and a reverse mortgage on his primary residence. He said it’s working out fiscally but some days he’s not sure if he’s comin’ or goin’. • Email items and electronic pictures – jpegs at no less than 300 dpi – to burket@sfarchdiocese.org or mail to Street, One Peter Yorke Way, SF 94109. Include a follow–up phone number. Street is toll–free. My phone number is (415) 614–5634.

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April 27, 2012

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Religious liberty issues take center stage at prayer breakfast WASHINGTON (CNS) – Religious liberty was topic A at the eighth annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, held April 19 at a Washington hotel. “Never in the lifetime of anyone present here has the religious liberty of the American people been as threatened as it is today,” warned Carl Anderson, supreme knight of the Knights of Columbus, in remarks to the estimated 800 people in attendance. “We must remind our fellow Americans, and especially those who exercise power, that religious liberty – the freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment – has been essential to the founding, development and improvement of the American republic.” Anderson said, “Today we find a new hostility to the role of religious institutions in American life at a time when government is expanding its reach in extraordinary ways. And it is not only because of the Obama administration’s HHS contraception mandate.” Besides the mandate requiring that most health plans cover the cost of contraception, sterilization and some drugs that can induce abortion, Anderson pointed to the Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC case, a court challenge to a Lutheran school’s firing of a teacher. The attempt to more narrowly define who is a religious employee was unanimously rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court. He also noted the revocation of a refugee resettlement contract with the U.S. bishops’ Department of Migration and Refugee Services because MRS would not offer its clients the “full range of reproductive services,” including abortion. “A government willing to affect the faith and mission of the church is a government willing to change the identity of the church,” Anderson declared. “During his (2008) visit to Washington, Pope Benedict XVI reminded us that ‘Christians are easily tempted to conform themselves to the spirit of this age,’” he said. “The spirit of our age is profoundly secular. And secularism accepts religion – if it accepts it at all – only on its own terms. Under this view, religion is subordinated to the political interests of the secular state. And it is precisely this subordination of religion to the state that the First Amendment seeks to prevent.” Anderson recalled when British Prime Minister Winston Churchill addressed Congress in December 1941, with England being subjected to Nazi bombing runs and the United States having just suffered the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor. “In that worst of times, he scorned the enemies of freedom and defiantly asked, ‘What kind of people do they think we are!’ Today, with the same defiance, we can declare, ‘What kind of Catholics do they think we are!’” Anderson said to applause. “Do they really expect us to go gently into that dark night they are preparing for religious liberty in America?” While Anderson stuck to domestic issues, threats to religious liberty around the world was the subject of the keynote address by Archbishop Francis A. Chullikatt, apostolic nuncio at the Holy See’s Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations. Archbishop Chullikatt noted repeatedly how Catholics and Christians are threatened on a regular basis for professing or exercising their faith. The former papal nuncio to Iraq, he expressed sadness over the Oct. 31, 2010, massacre at a church in Baghdad, where 52 people were murdered, including two priests he knew personally. “Religious liberty is the first of human rights,” Archbishop Chullikatt said. He quoted Pope Benedict XVI, who in his 2011 World Day of Peace message, said, “A freedom that is hostile or indifferent to God is self-negating.” “What is at stake here,” Archbishop Chullikatt said, “is the future of humanity itself.” He added freedom of religion is “not only a moral but also a civil right.”

(CNS PHOTO/NANCY PHELAN WIECHEC)

By Mark Pattison

Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle, R-N.Y., and Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., join in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance during the eighth annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington April 19.

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Catholic San Francisco

NEWS

April 27, 2012

Spelling bee tests Catholic knowledge

in brief

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI named Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington to be a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and gave cardinals created in February their assignments as members of other Vatican congregations and councils. The appointments were announced at the Vatican April 21. U.S. Cardinal Edwin F. O’Brien, grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem, which supports the pastoral and educational work of the church in the Holy Land, was named to the congregations for Eastern Churches and for Catholic Education, as well as to the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, which promotes and coordinates Catholic charitable giving. Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, who was tapped by the pope to lead the College of Cardinals in a daylong discussion of the new evangelization Feb. 17, was named a member of the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization, as well as being named a member of the Congregation for Eastern Churches and of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.

Pray for faith freedom, pope asks US donors VATICAN CITY – Meeting a group of major U.S. donors to Catholic charitable works, Pope Benedict XVI asked them to pray “for the freedom of Christians to proclaim the Gospel and bring its light to the urgent moral issues of our time.” The pope met April 21 with about 80 members of the Papal Foundation, who presented him with an $8.5-million donation that will be used to fund scholarships and 105 Catholic projects in close to 50 countries. The projects include the construction of five schools in Egypt, where Christian leaders and human rights activists have been concerned about ensuring

(CNS PHOTO/PETER LOCKLEY)

Pope assigns cardinals

religious freedom as the country transitions to a democratic government. Pope Benedict also paid tribute to the “historic role played by women in building up the church in America,” as exemplified by Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha and Blessed Marianne Cope, two North Americans who will be canonized in October.

Pope: Prepare for first Communion with zeal VATICAN CITY – Preparing children for their first Communion must be done with both great zeal and moderation, Pope Benedict XVI said. Around the world, many children receive their first Communion during the Easter season, he told pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square April 22 for the recitation of the “Regina Coeli,” a Marian prayer used in place of the Angelus from Easter to Pentecost. The pope urged “priests, parents and catechists to prepare for this feast of faith well, with great fervor but also with sobriety. For many of the faithful, this day continues to be memorable as the moment when, even if in a rudimentary way, they first came to understand the importance of a personal encounter with Jesus,” he said quoting from his 2007 document on the Eucharist, “Sacramentum Caritatis” (“The Sacrament of Charity”). He stressed the importance of first Communion and prayed that Mary would help everyone

Eden Brown answers a question during the inaugural St. John Francis Regis Knights of Columbus Council’s state Catholic Bee April 21 at St. Michael’s Church in Poplar Springs, Md. Peter Davio, Maryland state deputy for the Knights, says that he hopes the bee, a test of the students’ Catholic knowledge, will encourage them to learn more about their faith.

listen to God’s word with greater attention and “take part worthily” in Communion in order to become “witnesses of the new humanity.”

Sex tourism must be stopped, pope says VATICAN CITY – The scourge of sex tourism and the trafficking of human beings for harvesting organs must be urgently addressed, Pope Benedict XVI said. Such crimes are “evils that must be dealt with urgently since they trample on the rights of millions of men and women, especially among the poor, minors and handicapped,” he said. The pope made his comments in a written message to people taking part in the VII World Congress on the Pastoral Care of Tourism being held April 23-27 in Cancun, Mexico. With the theme “tourism that makes a difference,” the congress brought together church leaders, government officials and representatives of international organizations, including the United Nations. The importance of an ethical code or framework for the tourism industry as well as promoting socially responsible tourism were some of the topics being discussed at the congress.

Meeting on China church VATICAN CITY – The Vatican Commission on the Church in China was scheduled to meet in late April to discuss ways to improve the

education of Catholic laity in China during the Year of Faith, which begins in October. “The formation of the lay faithful in the light of the situation of the Catholic community in China and in the framework of the Year of Faith, which will be celebrated in the whole church from Oct. 11, 2012, to Nov. 24, 2013” was to be the focus of the commission’s meeting April 23-25 at the Vatican, said a statement April 21. The commission was formed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007 when he wrote a major letter to Chinese Catholics, calling for full religious freedom, praising their fidelity under hardship and urging cooperation between Catholic communities officially registered with the country’s communist government and those still operating clandestinely. Just before the commission began meeting, the Vatican’s Fides news agency published an article saying 22,104 Chinese were received into the Catholic Church at Easter. The statistics came from the Study Center of Faith in He Bei, which said that while the number is important, it is small given that there are more than 6 million Catholics in China.

California voters to decide death penalty SACRAMENTO – An initiative statute that would repeal the death penalty and replace it with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole has qualified for the Nov. 6 ballot, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen said April 23. Supporters of the initiative, which is supported by the Catholic bishops of the state, needed to gather 504,760 valid petition signatures around the state and they submitted some 800,000. The campaign to attract voter support, organized by a group called Safe California, will focus on the cost of the death penalty system, largely covering legal appellate costs, estimated at $4 billion since 1978 when voters approved an expanded death penalty by initiative. Safe California says savings of $100 million over four years will go to local jurisdictions to finance investigations of the 56 percent of rape cases in California that are unsolved and the 46 percent of unsolved homicide cases. – Catholic News Service, Catholic San Francisco

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Letters to Congress: USCCB opposes proposed cuts in services to poor WASHINGTON (CNS) – The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has expressed its concerns over proposed cuts in federal programs serving the country’s poorest and most vulnerable people in a series of letters to congressional leaders since April 4 as debate over the fiscal year 2013 budget begins. The letters from Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton, chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, and Bishop Richard E. Pates of Des Moines, Iowa, chairman of the Committee on International Justice and Peace, urge Congress to draw a “circle of protection” around programs that serve “the least among us.” The letters were sent after the House of Representatives adopted on March 27 a $3.5 trillion budget resolution – with a $600 billion deficit – written by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis. The plan calls for massive spending cuts in nonmilitary programs, turning Medicaid into a block grant program administered by the states, reshaping Medicare over the next decade, and simplifying the tax code by closing loopholes and lowering individual and corporate tax rates. A common message in the letters focuses on the necessity of “shared sacrifice by all, including raising adequate revenues,” the elimination of unnecessary military and other spending and fairly addressing long-term costs associated with health insurance and retirement costs. In a letter to the House Agriculture

Bishop Stephen E. Blaire

Committee, Bishop Blaire said the House-passed budget “fails to meet these moral criteria.” A summary of each letter follows. – April 4 to the House Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies: As one of the largest private providers of housing services for poor and vulnerable people, the Catholic community sees a growing need for assistance from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Cutting funds for housing programs “could cause thousands of individuals and families to lose their housing and worsen the hardship of thousands more in need of affordable housing.” The bishops urge the leaders to protect funding for housing for the elderly, people with disabilities, and people with AIDS; Veterans Affairs-supported housing; McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act programs; Section

8 rental assistance; and other programs that ensure safe and affordable housing for vulnerable Americans. The bishops also repeated their concern about proposals to increase the minimum amount of rent that can be charged to families receiving housing assistance, saying very lowincome families would be harmed, especially at a time when wages are stagnant and food and gas prices are rising. – April 16 to the House Agriculture Committee: A letter signed by Bishop Blaire urged the committee to “resist for moral and human reasons unacceptable cuts to hunger and nutrition programs.” Acknowledging that the committee is under instruction to cut $33.2 billion from agricultural programs, the USCCB urged Congress to “protect essential programs that serve poor and hungry people over subsidies that assist large and relatively well-off agricultural enterprises.” The letter pointed particularly to proposed cuts in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, and how such cuts will harm hungry children, poor families, vulnerable seniors and workers who cannot find work. “These cuts are unjustified and wrong. If cuts are necessary, the committee should first look towards reducing and targeting commodity and subsidy programs that disproportionately

go to large growers and agribusiness,” Bishop Blaire wrote. – April 16 to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies: Support for 10 domestic and international food and nutrition programs that impact the lives of people worldwide was outlined in a two-page letter. “Adequate nutrition is essential to protect human life and dignity. We urge support for just and sufficient funding for agriculture policies that serve hungry, poor and vulnerable people while promoting good stewardship of the land and natural resources,” the bishops said. – April 17 to the House Ways and Means Committee: Bishop Blaire renewed the USCCB’s “strong opposition to unfair proposals that would alter the child tax credit to exclude children of hard-working immigrant families.” The bishops have been longtime supporters of the credit because of its pro-work and pro-family orientation and for being “one of the most effective anti-poverty programs in our nation.” In 2009 2.3 million people, including 1.3 million children, were kept out of poverty by the credit. Denying the credit to children of immigrants, the majority of whom are American citizens, would harm vulnerable children, increase poverty and “would not advance the common good,” the letter said.

Bishops urge Catholics to invite inactive members to practice faith once again WASHINGTON (CNS) – A document on the new evangelization from the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis exhorts Catholics at all levels in the church to step up to invite Catholics who have stopped practicing their faith to do so once again. “Bishops, eparchs, pastors, catechists and indeed all Catholics reaching out to our missing brothers and sisters must touch the lives of others, interact with them, and show them how the faith answers the deepest questions and enriches modern culture,” said the document, titled “Disciples Called to Witness: The New Evangelization.” “The new evangelization is a call to each person to deepen his or her own faith, have confidence in the Gospel, and possess a willingness to share the Gospel,” it said. The document was issued April 16 in an online-only format. It is available on an interactive website – www.usccb.org/beliefs-andteachings/how-we-teach/new-evangelization/ disciples-called-to-witness. The document examines what the new evangelization is, its focus, its importance for the Catholic Church and how dioceses and parishes can promote it. Referring to a study of inactive Catholics prepared by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, “Disciples Called to Witness” said: “It is estimated that only 23 percent of U.S. Catholics attend Mass each week. Those 77 percent absent from the eucharistic feast each week are

not strangers: They are our parents, siblings, spouses, children and friends.” “Most Catholics stop attending Mass because they have busy schedules or a lack of time, have family responsibilities, have health problems or disabilities, have conflicts with work, do not believe missing Mass is a sin or believe that they are not very religious people,” the document said. “Some were never formed in the faith after their childhood. Some have drifted away because of one or another issue. Some feel alienated from the church because of the way they perceive the church or its teaching. Some have left because they were mistreated by church representatives,” it added. “Cultural factors, including the lack of Masses and sacraments celebrated in languages other than English, also contribute to people slowly slipping away from the church.” “Disciples Called to Witness” noted: “There are also Catholics who attend Mass on a regular basis but who feel unconnected to the parish community.” It cited secularism, materialism and individualism in contemporary society as contributing factors for lack of Mass attendance by U.S. Catholics. “The new evangelization is a call to each person to deepen his or her own faith, have confidence in the Gospel, and possess a willingness to share the Gospel,” the document said. “The new evangelization provides the lens through which people experience the church

and world around them,” it added. “The new evangelization invites people to experience God’s love and mercy through the sacraments, especially through the Eucharist and penance and reconciliation.” The 31-page, 11,000-word document said it is likely inactive Catholics will have questions if they are invited to return to the practice of their faith.

“They may wonder and worry about the following: Will the Mass be the same? Will I be judged because I stayed away so long? Maybe I have sinned so greatly that I cannot come back. What if I cannot remember the words to Mass?” By the same token, it added, those who must do the inviting are often afraid of asking family members, friends or co-workers to come with them to Mass.

Thank You RON ISOLA

se Lu Photo by Jo

is Aguirre

FOR 45 YEARS OF EXTRAORDINARY SERVICE TO ARCHBISHOP RIORDAN HIGH SCHOOL FOR YOUR LEGACY OF EXCELLENCE IN THE CLASSROOM, ON THE COURT, AND ON THE FIELD FOR YOUR MENTORSHIP AND INSPIRATION TO SO MANY YOUNG MEN

1906

A celebration of Ron’s retirement will take place on Saturday, May 19th. For tickets, event information or to support the Bachecki-Isola Scholarship Endowment: ronsretirement@riordanhs.org.

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Catholic San Francisco

April 27, 2012

St. Hilary students teach, bake, sew to aid poor in Marin, South Sudan Inspired by a project to seek God in her surroundings during her seventh-grade retreat in Yosemite National Park, Olivia Butze set out to find a way to turn apathy to action and complacency to compassion, especially among youth in affluent Marin County. Three years later, the group she started at St. Hilary School in Tiburon to achieve those ends has tripled in size and broadened in scope, stretching its impact from San Rafael to South Sudan. The three dozen or so members of the Get Some Give Some club, which Butze hopes will expand to other middle schools, provide charitable services that range from tutoring children in the Canal District of San Rafael – many from impoverished, immigrant families with limited English and education – to empowering women and girls in regions where they suffer oppression. Each month, at the Pickleweed Park Community Center, grade-school-age, largely Vietnamese and Hispanic youngsters in Catholic Charities CYO’s Canal Family Support Program eagerly await their slightly older mentors who assist with their reading, writing and arithmetic, bring snacks, play games and organize recreational activities. “These children don’t have parents they can rely on for help with homework so a lot of them are one to two grade levels below their peers,” said Grace Lombardi, 14, of Mill Valley, an eighth grader at St. Hilary who presides over Get Some Give Some. “At first, they were very shy, but they warmed up to us so fast, we were surprised.” In the interaction, the aptly named group gets as much as it gives, said participant Johnie Lee Fain. “I saw God in all of the smiles on those kids’ faces,” he said. “When we were helping with homework or playing freeze tag, I could feel God’s presence.” Such love of giving sows the seeds of the group’s success and secures its future growth, said St. Hilary technology instructor Erin Turner, the club’s adult moderator. “I felt proud hearing our students saying, ‘I like this. When are we coming back?’” she said. In addition to time and talent, Get Some Give Some volunteers have donated 10 laptop

(PHOTOS COURTESY ERIN TURNER)

By Lidia Wasowicz

Natalie Long of St. Hilary School tutors second grader Eli Barajas.

‘These children don’t have parents they can rely on for help with homework so a lot of them are one to two grade levels below their peers.’ – Grace Lombardi, 14, St. Hilary School eighth grader

St. Hilary School student Belén Buckley and Zully Lopez, fourth grade, are pictured in San Rafael in March at a Catholic Charities after-school program.

computers and an online math teaching program, called Mathletics, for grades kindergarten through 12 to enhance their work with the Canal-area children. “These compassionate students engage in a wide variety of projects to make a difference and change lives every day in the local and global community,” said Andrew Zeidler, who manages publicity at St. Hilary.

The club has visited nursing homes, made rosaries, held barbecues, baked treats, strung beads and hosted Lenten soup suppers. In a particularly successful drive, students embroidered heart-shaped pillows with such personalized messages as “Stamped with Faith and Love,” which they sold for $15 apiece. Shrewdly targeting the soft-hearted visitors on the annual Grandparents Day at St. Hilary,

World MissionDinner Wednesday May 2, 2012

The Pierre Hotel New York City

they raised more than $1,000 at that single event for an international charity called Mercy Beyond Borders, which champions women and girls in Africa and Haiti through programs in education, enterprise and maternal and child health. An exclusively male domain in many areas, schooling has remained out of reach of most South Sudanese girls, who, according to a recent UNESCO report, are three times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth than to receive eight years of basic education. By funding classes, often held in makeshift rooms or even under a tree, Mercy Beyond Borders works to change the plight of these girls, who typically are married off as soon as they reach puberty, frequently becoming the third or fourth wife of a man in his 60s or 70s. Hungry for literacy, women given the opportunity go to great lengths to learn their ABCs and numbers to prevent being “cheated at the market,” the organization says on its website. “It is not unusual to see women survivors of polio crawling into the classroom or women suffering from Hansen’s disease (leprosy) delighting in holding a book in their fingerless hands,” the global charity says. “Their determination to learn inspires us all.” Exposure to such struggles through Get Some Give Some has changed her in ways she little expected, said Lombardi, an avid athlete who hesitated before taking on the leadership of an organization unrelated to sports. “I was shocked when I was asked to be president at the end of seventh grade, but saying, ‘Yes,’ was the best decision I ever made,” she said. “Being in this group has made me see how many other people have so little and how extremely spoiled I am and made me truly grateful for all I have: my family, my home, my great education, my wonderful life.” Having taken time off to adjust to high school, Butze, 15, of Mill Valley, a sophomore at The Branson School in Ross, is renewing her participation with a vision of spreading the Get Some Give Some message beyond St. Hilary. “We teens, especially in Marin, don’t truly appreciate how much we have and how lucky we are,” Butze said. “My goal is to give every student the chance to grow in the way Grace and I have from this program and to give back at least a little of the blessings God has so generously given us.”

Oakland bishop: Abortion next mandated health benefit? Oakland’s bishop says the federal government could require faith communities to offer abortion as a health benefit if the contraceptive mandate is not stopped. “If this goes through there is nothing to stop the government requiring faith communities to cover abortion in their insurance packages,” Oakland Bishop Salvatore Cordileone told Vatican Radio April 20 in Rome. “This is, I think, a pivotal moment in the United States and in the life of the Catholic Church in the United States,” Bishop Cordileone said. The remarks were part of a wide-ranging interview on religious liberty in the United States. The concern about abortion as a mandated benefit is shared by the executive director of the California Catholic Conference, Ned Dolejsi, who predicted a push to mandate abortion as a health benefit in California after Children reflect the strains of childhood within and outside of the family

Family Systems Therapy

the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The ruling is expected in June. The health care act requires each individual to purchase health insurance. “If the federal Affordable Act is struck down, we can expect the action to shift to the states,” said Dolejsi. In January the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a regulation that would require all but very narrowly defined organizations to offer free contraception. The U.S. bishops are united in fighting the regulation as an infringement on religious liberty. Part of the compromise that secured March 2010 passage of the contested federal health care overhaul is a requirement that each state offer at least one “abortionfree” health plan. Without that requirement, it is possible California will require all insurance plans to offer abortion as a benefit, Dolejsi said in a March interview with Catholic San Francisco. – Valerie Schmalz

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

A child may be suffering from: The bully at school, adolescent adjustment, A separation /divorce or a new“blended family” They are withdrawn, angry, acting out, Failing in school or just sad or too quiet. Honoring as Pontifical Ambassadors for Mission: His Eminence, Theodore Cardinal McCarrick Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, D.C. Mary Higgins Clark best-selling suspense novelist Lawrence "Larry" Kudlow American economist, and host of CNBC's "The Kudlow Report" The proceeds of the World Mission Dinner will directly benefit the work of priests, religious and lay catechists in 1,150 mission dioceses, as they offer the poorest of the poor an education and health care — and always, the loving heart of the Lord.

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April 27, 2012

Catholic San Francisco

7

Blessed Mother Teresa’s physician offers USF students prescription for happiness Blessed Mother Teresa’s cardiologist advised future nurses and doctors to see Jesus in every patient. Think about what Jesus will say to you at your death every time you approach a patient, Dr. Paul Wright said April 19 in a talk at the University of San Francisco. “He is going to say, ‘I was sick in that hospital bed and you were supposed to draw blood – did you do it with compassion?’” “Don’t be in the assembly line of health care,” said Dr. Wright told about 30 students at an event organized by philosophy Prof. Thomas Cavanaugh. Instead, “Pray the work.” “What you really want in life is to find sustainable peace and happiness,” said Dr. Wright. Dr. Wright sought out Blessed Mother Teresa for her answer to living a peaceful, happy life in 1992, traveling to Tijuana, Mexico, where she was recovering from a heart attack in one of the order’s homeless shelters. Dr. Wright said the enjoyment was draining from his life, even though he had everything he thought he wanted. He had a thriving career as a cardiologist, was head of his hospital’s lucrative cardiology department, was partner in a large practice and married with a daughter. Dr. Wright decided to ask to see Blessed Mother Teresa, knowing she would not turn

(CNS PHOTO/KNA)

By Valerie Schmalz

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta is pictured in a 1979 photo.

away someone who was suffering. Once her Missionary of Charity sisters told him he could see her for five minutes, Dr. Wright jumped on a plane to San Diego, rented a car and drove to Tijuana. “She was sweating, a sign of congestive heart failure,” Dr. Wright said, “I immediately sensed I was putting out this woman who was very sick,” he recalled. He told her he wanted to look into the eyes and feel the touch of a living saint, and he said, he wanted to ask her a question: “What is Jesus Christ going to ask of me at the moment of my death?”

“She took my hand, and said ‘whatever you did for the least of mine,’” Dr. Wright said, “Her point was Jesus comes to us every day.” “You’ll be judged by how you love,” Blessed Mother Teresa told him, directing him to the Gospel of Matthew 25:35-46 where Jesus said if we cared for the least of his brethren, “you did it for me.” After his encounter with Blessed Mother Teresa, an “epiphany” which led to five years of involvement with her, including building a health clinic in Mexico shortly after they met, Dr. Wright said his outlook brightened and changed. Instead of building a big house in Ohio, he purchased his parents’ ranch house and built an addition and he and his wife and daughter lived with his parents. He said he was afraid with a big home he would start viewing each patient as a way to pay for his home and he wanted to always be able to take patients without regard to their ability to pay. He became a co-worker of the Missionaries of Charity and from 1994 until her death in 1997, he was Blessed Mother Teresa’s personal cardiologist. Dr. Wright, now retired as a cardiologist but continuing to work with the Missionaries, recounts his experiences in “Blessed Mother Teresa’s Prescription: Finding Happiness and Peace in Service” (Ave Maria Press, 2006). Blessed Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950 in Calcutta, India, to serve the poorest of the poor. The

order is now in more than 100 countries. Blessed Mother Teresa was beatified in 2003. One of the most important lessons he learned from Blessed Mother Teresa was to stop worrying, the Ohio physician said. Pray, “make decisions and leave the consequences to God,” was Blessed Mother Teresa’s advice, he said. “Contentment is a quality tied to the moment. To feel it, one must give up worry about the future and the circumstances we cannot control. ‘Take whatever God gives and surrender whatever he takes with a smile,’ Blessed Mother Teresa said,” Dr. Wright writes in “Blessed Mother Teresa’s Prescription.” To be a Catholic health care professional is difficult because the state of health care is oriented toward a business model, not one of compassion for the individual patient, he said. Each health care professional must resolve to live as Jesus would, he said. “If you’re going to find happiness and enjoyment in health care, you must respect life,” Dr. Wright said. Because American society values four traits: youth, beauty, power and prestige, the most marginalized today are mentally handicapped children and elderly, particularly those with dementia or Alzheimer’s, Dr. Wright said. “Never lose sight of who you are touching,” Dr. Wright told the students. “Your life can be a prayer. Your profession can be a prayer.”

Fullness in life comes from love: Almsgiving to end poverty needed more than ever A future without poverty will be built upon the generosity of neighbors. Voluntarily contributing to the poor – almsgiving – is among the most basic forms of charity to which Christians are called. In the current economic climate, the need for financial contributions to help ease poverty has never been so important. Many poor families have no government assistance, health insurance or income. In San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin counties, 237,000 people live at or below the poverty line. Daily they struggle to overcome their vulnerabilities that are often made more difficult by a combination of traumas such as physical abuse, mental illness, physical disability, substance abuse, or HIV/AIDS. Jesus teaches that giving alms means making the needs of those easily forgotten, the poor of our world, our own. The first Christians knew this: “There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need” (Acts 4:32-35). In this Easter season of reflection and renewal, we are asked to renew our compassion for those who are hungry, suffering or otherwise in need and to give money, goods, and services to help ease their plight. When we give, we receive God’s blessings in

return. In his 2008 Message for Lent, Pope Benedict XVI explained that “every time when, for love of God, we share our goods with our neighbor in need, we discover that the fullness of life comes from love and all is returned to us as a blessing in the form of peace, inner satisfaction, and joy.” Through almsgiving, Catholics can take a stand against poverty and help poor families, the elderly, children and youth, the homeless, refugees, and the mentally ill. Financial support, for example, in any amount, can help isolated seniors make friends and get good, hot, nutritional meals; poor families learn to budget and save money; refugees from war-torn countries start over; homeless people get back into stabilized housing. At many nonprofits, such as Catholic Charities CYO, gifts of specific dollar amounts can provide everything from $10 transportation passes to a $10,000 library for children in low-achieving schools. While almsgiving in the current economic climate may pose a challenge for many families and individuals, the need for charitable giving couldn’t be greater this Easter season, according to Jane FergusonFlout, director of parish partnerships with Catholic Charities CYO. “This is a time for self-sacrifice and to be more aware of the poverty that exists in the world. When so many people are in need, almsgiving is about

Retreats s Conferences s Meetings s Workshops

VALLOMBROSACENTER A Ministry of the Archdiocese of San Francisco

“Mother’s Day Mass and Brunch” May 13, 2012 at 10:30AM Fr. Kevin Gaffey will be our celebrant as members of the Vallombrosa Choir lead us in song in a celebration of ALL MOTHERS. Following mass a delicious Champagne Brunch will be served. See our website for our full brunch menu, details and registration. Space fills quickly. Make your reservation now.

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more than throwing a few extra dollars in the collection plate; it’s about reaching out to others and helping them without question as a way of sharing the experience of God’s unconditional love.” Almsgiving may often seem a challenge, yet as we reflect in this Easter season on all Jesus sacrificed for us, we are reminded that giving within our means is a manageable sacrifice. “I think Lent is a good time in the church year to consider the needs of people that are less fortunate than us,” says Mary Miller, a member of a Daly City parish. “It reminds us that some people don’t have access to everything that our family takes for granted. It reminds us that we are all connected in one

community and that we will be measured by how we treat our weakest members.” Many dioceses hold special appeals for local needs during Easter, and there are countless other ways to offer your support, financial and otherwise, to needy individuals and organizations now and throughout the year. For ideas, contact www.cccyo.org. This story is the third in a series from Catholic Charities CYO’s campaign: “Can you create a future without poverty? This year, Catholic Charities CYO will be visiting parishes on Mother’s Day weekend to talk about the importance of helping neighbors in need. Please consider making a gift to help those in need during Mass on May 12, 13, or visit www. cccyo.org/sunday to make a gift online.

Is God calling you to serve Him by serving your neighbor? The Gabriel Project of the Archdiocese of San Francisco is seeking someone to serve as Coordinator to oversee the administration of the ministry throughout the archdiocese. This is a volunteer position, which reports directly to the Director of the Office of Public Policy and Social Concerns and can be for a longterm period or a minimum of two years. The Gabriel Project is a parish-based ministry helping pregnant mothers in need. Our clients come to us by calling our toll free Helpline expressing a need for assistance. To familiarize yourself with this important ministry, please visit our website at http://sfgabrielproject.wordpress.com. Responsibilities include promoting the ministry, assisting parishes in its implementation, training volunteers, and ensuring that all calls to the Helpline are responded to and processed promptly. Training and ongoing assistance will be available from our current coordinator, Mr. Fredi D’Alessio. In addition to this position, other volunteer roles within the ministry are available at the parish level. All positions are open to Catholic women and men committed to faithfully uphold the teachings of the Church in their service.

www.facebook.com/VallombrosaCenter

250 Oak Grove Avenue, -ENLO 0ARK #! s (650) 325-5614 s www.vallombrosa.org

Please send a statement of your interest in this position via email to sfgabrielproject@gmail.com.

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April 27, 2012

(PHOTO COURTESY GOOD SHEPHERD SISTERS)

Catholic San Francisco

Participants in the April 14 Seder included Adam Eisendrath; Sister Marguerite Bartling, RGS; Sister Danielle Fung, RGS; Sister Nancy Bolton, RGS; Sister Joan Tubbs, RGS; Sister Mercy de Leon, RGS; Sister Barbara Beasley, RGS; Sister Jean Marie Fernandez, RGS.

Good Shepherd Sisters host interfaith Passover celebration On April 14, the last night of Passover, the Jewish holiday celebrating the Exodus from Egypt, the Sisters of the Good Shepherd sat down in the dining room of their convent in the Portola District of San Francisco to a traditional Jewish Seder – a meal celebrating the event. The interfaith event was led by Adam Eisendrath, development director at Good Shepherd Gracenter, and his wife, Faina Eisendrath, a psychiatrist and associate director of clinical services at the Women’s Mood and Hormone Clinic at the University of California at San Francisco. Gracenter is a women’s sober living facility serving low-and extremely lowincome women from around the Bay Area for more than 50 years. Adam Eisendrath

was introduced to the Sisters of the Good Shepherd through Gracenter’s executive director, Sister Marguerite Bartling, RGS. The idea for the Seder came after the holiday in 2011 when the sisters’ community leader, Sister Barbara Beasley, RGS, asked to learn more about this ancient Jewish tradition. After some discussion they came up with the idea of an interfaith Seder to give the sisters the opportunity to learn about this ancient tradition. The Sisters of the Good Shepherd is one of the largest orders of women religious in the world. In addition to taking the standard vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, Good Shepherd sisters also take the vow of zeal, which is at the heart of their vocation.

Birthright convention June 7-10 About 500 delegates from throughout North America and abroad will attend the 41st annual Birthright convention at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport Hotel June 7-10. Speakers, workshops and experiencesharing will provide participants with practical and inspirational techniques they can apply in bringing services to women during their pregnancies. Those interested in attending should contact the nearest local chapter by May 2. Birthright is a non-political, interdenominational, fully volunteer organization founded in Toronto in 1968 to assist women with troubled pregnancies and to

help them bring their babies to term. According to the organization’s website, “Birthright cares for every woman and does not pass judgment on the ‘quality’ of life or circumstances of a pregnancy. It does not dwell on the past. No matter how difficult a situation may seem, Birthright helps each woman plan constructively for her future. Birthright allows each woman to ask questions and to explore her options without pressure and without passing judgment.” Birthright services include free pregnancy tests, guidance, adoption and medical referrals. Visit www.birthright.org, or call (800) 550-4900.

Summer Camps Volunteers raise Gabriel Project sign Pictured from left April 2 are Robert Johnson, Roy Petri and Peter de Rutte, who volunteered to install a Gabriel Project sign at St. Sebastian Church in Greenbrae. The sign was donated by the Knights of Columbus, San Rafael Council No. 1292.

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April 27, 2012

Exhibit honors sacred art of David and Thea Ramsey

Archbishop Niederauer’s jubilee Mass April 30

By Liz Dossa Throughout their long lives together, Peninsula artists and teachers David and Thea Ramsey shared a vision of art as a dynamic expression of the sacred. For the first time, the public will have the chance to view a collection of their work at a retrospective exhibit at the Wiegand Gallery at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont from May 20 to June 6. An opening reception will be held on May 20, 2-4 p.m. David was chairman of the art department of Notre Dame de Namur University from 1971 to his David and Thea retirement in 1995. He had taught at Ramsey Russell College in Burlingame, and Mercy High School Burlingame from 1968-1971. Thea, who died in 2011, taught interior design at Mercy High School, Russell College and Cañada College. “Throughout his career as an artist and art historian David has been deeply dedicated to understanding, creating and promoting Christian art as a painter, publisher and archivist, “ said Leon Kortenkamp, art professor at Notre Dame and director of the permanent diaconate of the Archdiocese of San Francisco. The two studied at the Chicago Art Institute after their marriage in 1947 and three years later went to teach and work in Mexico City. During their 15 years there, the exposure to the Mexican culture profoundly affected them both. “We literally fell in love with the people and the country of Mexico,” said Thea in 1969. The warmth and color of the Mexican culture is reflected especially in Thea’s bright angels and her sunny still lifes. “Art is the oldest theological language,” said David whose work carries the weight of Christ on the cross, Mary and other Biblical figures in spare, contemporary language. They both felt that the art popularly displayed

Archbishop George Niederauer celebrates Mass commemorating his 50th year as a priest April 30 at 10:30 a.m. at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Gough Street at Geary Boulevard, San Francisco. The faithful are invited and encouraged to attend. Cardinal William J. Levada, the prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican – and Archbishop the archbishop of San Francisco George from 1995-2005 – will be the Niederauer homilist. Cardinal Levada and Archbishop Niederauer were friends and classmates in high school and St. John’s Seminary.

“Assumption of Mary with Angels,” by Thea Ramsey

in Catholic churches pre-Vatican II was not worthy of the spiritual tradition of the church. In 1981 David founded the Archives of Modern Christian Art, the only archives in the U.S. to document religious art since 1400. The archives, originally at Notre Dame University, are now housed at the University of San Francisco in St. Ignatius Church. The Ramseys’ art is for sale and can be viewed at http:// davidandthearamsey.com.

Abuse crisis topic of Santa Clara University conference “Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church: A Decade of Crisis, 2002-2012” is the topic of a day-long conference May 11 at the Benson Memorial Center at Santa Clara University. The event will address the question of what has been learned in the last decade “about the abuse, the abusers, the role of the church and the work that remains.” The conference will be hosted by Thomas G. Plante, Ph.D., professor of psychology and director of the Spirituality and Health Institute at Santa Clara University; and Kathleen L. McChesney, Ph.D., CEO of Kinsale Consulting in Los Angeles and former FBI executive and executive director of the Office of Child and Youth

Catholic San Francisco

Protection of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Jesuit Father Thomas J. Reese will give the morning keynote address, titled “The Sexual Abuse Crisis: A Personal Reflection.” In the afternoon keynote, Karen J. Terry will be speak on “Stained Glass: Understanding the Research on the Sexual Abuse Crisis in the Catholic Church.” Panel discussions will cover reflections on the U.S. bishops’ Dallas Charter, on church culture, from victims and clergy, and on clergy screening, formation and treatment. For information and registration, visit www.scu.edu/ clergyconference.

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Catholic San Francisco

April 27, 2012

(CNS PHOTO/L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO)

Migration, religious liberty on Western US bishops’ Vatican agenda By Francis X. Rocca

Pope Benedict XVI poses with bishops from the Archdiocese of San Francisco during an April 21 meeting with bishops from California, Nevada, Hawaii and Utah on their “ad limina� visits to the Vatican. From left, Auxiliary Bishop Robert W. McElroy; Auxiliary Bishop William J. Justice; Pope Benedict; retired Archbishop John R. Quinn; and retired Auxiliary Bishop Ignatius C. Wang.

Among the most pressing areas of concern for church leaders from this region was immigration. Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, retired archbishop of Los Angeles, said he came with a specific request for Pope Benedict: a new version of “Exsul Familia,� Pope Pius XII’s apostolic constitution on migration, published 60 years ago this year. Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles said that although Catholic social doctrine recognizes the right of nation-states to defend their borders, Scripture and Catholic tradition teach that the movement of people is a “part of creation, that God gave the earth to all us.� “The United States is a country of immigrants, and each wave of immigration has been a blessing,� the archbishop said. Noting that his own ancestors came to what is now the state of Texas in the early 19th century, Archbishop Gomez, who was born in Mexico, said that “there has always been a relationship between the two countries, and the contribution of Latinos to ... the culture of the United States is very important and has always been very important.� That legacy gives him hope that government leaders will find the “political will� to solve their current conflicts on the issue, he said. Like their brother bishops who made “ad limina� visits

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Immigration, religious liberty and the new evangelization were among the topics of discussion for bishops from California, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah during their “ad limina� visits to the Vatican, which ended April 21. “We come here with a sense of working together with the Holy Father,� said Bishop John C. Wester of Salt Lake City. “There’s a sense of humility; it’s not like we know everything or we’re going to want it our way.� The process, which can include “fraternal correction� of bishops who have somehow erred in their ministry, “prevents us from becoming insulated,� Bishop Wester said. The visits are formally called “ad limina apostolorum,� which means “to the thresholds of the apostles� Peter and Paul, who were martyred in Rome. As well as concelebrating Masses at Rome’s four major basilicas, visiting bishops meet with Pope Benedict XVI to report on the state of their dioceses, and with Vatican officials to discuss issues of common concern to local churches and the Holy See.

Above left, Auxiliary Bishop Robert W. McElroy of San Francisco, Bishop Robert F. Vasa of Santa Rosa and Auxiliary Bishop Thomas A. Daly of San Jose talk before a meeting at the Vatican April 17.

earlier this year, the Western bishops discussed concerns about religious liberty in light of the Obama administration’s Health and Human Services mandate, which would require the private health insurance plans of most Catholic institutions to cover surgical sterilization procedures and artificial birth control, in violation of the church’s moral teaching. The mandate exemplifies a creeping government intrusion in the life of the church, said Cardinal Mahony, who called unconstitutional the White House’s attempt to define which bodies may enjoy the right of conscience objection. “Rather than exercising our rights and liberties according to the constitution as guarantees, the government is now going to give us those by way of exception,� the cardinal said. The bishops also discussed plans for this fall’s Synod of Bishops on the new evangelization, an initiative that Pope Benedict has made a priority of his pontificate.

April 27, 2012

Catholic San Francisco

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PEORIA, Ill. (CNS) – An Illinois bishop’s mention of Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin in an April 14 homily calling Catholics to “heroic Catholicism, not casual Catholicism� in the face of current threats to religious liberty in the United States has stirred widespread controversy. After listing several governments throughout history that “have tried to force Christians to huddle and hide only within the confines of their churches,� Peoria Bishop Daniel R. Jenky said President Barack Obama “now seems intent on following a similar path.� He warned that Catholic schools, hospitals and Newman Centers “could easily be shut down� rather than comply with the government’s mandate that most health plans cover the cost of contraception, sterilization and some drugs that can induce abortion. In the ensuing days, many have strongly objected to Bishop Jenky’s linking of Obama’s political actions to those of figures with genocidal policies such as Hitler and Stalin. By April 23, more than 90 faculty members at the University of Notre Dame had signed a letter calling for Bishop Jenky to “renounce loudly and publicly this destructive analogy� or resign from the university’s board of fellows. Bishop Jenky served at Notre Dame for more than two decades before becoming a bishop. Lonnie Nasatir, the regional director of Chicago’s AntiDefamation League, also demanded an apology from Bishop Jenky, calling his remarks “outrageous, offensive and completely over the top.� Statements the Diocese of Peoria has issued since the homily was delivered said Bishop Jenky’s comments were being “taken out of context.� “Bishop Jenky expressed concern that our country is starting down a dangerous path that we have seen before in history,� Patricia Gibson, diocesan chancellor, said an April 19 statement. “Bishop Jenky gave several examples of times in history in which religious groups were persecuted because of what they believed. We certainly have not reached the same level of persecution. However, history teaches us to be cautious once we start down the path of limiting religious liberty.� The bishop’s remarks prompted Americans United for Separation of Church and State to file a formal complaint with the Internal Revenue Service asking the agency to investigate the Peoria Diocese “for illegal electioneering,� claiming the comment “amounts to an order to vote against Obama.� Bishop Jenky’s homily was addressed to more than 500

(CNS PHOTO/GREGORY A. SHEMITZ)

Peoria bishop’s Hitler, Stalin references in homily stir controversy

Bishop Daniel R. Jenky of Peoria, Ill., in urging Catholics to fight current government threats to religious liberty, made a reference to Hitler and Stalin and their genocidal policies.

Catholic men who had marched through the city’s downtown in a steady rain April 14 as part of the annual event “A Call to Catholic Men of Faith.� Focusing mainly on the power of Jesus’ resurrection to embolden today’s believers as it had the early disciples, Bishop Jenky used the occasion to call Catholics to more strongly defend their faith as well as religious liberty. “As Christians, we must love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, but as Christians we must also stand up for what we believe and always be ready to fight for the faith,� he said. “The days in which we live now require heroic Catholicism, not casual Catholicism. We can no longer be Catholics by accident, but instead be Catholics by conviction.� After joining the men on a silent, mile-long walk from the Peoria riverfront to St. Mary’s Cathedral, Bishop Jenky used some of the strongest language yet by a church official in protesting the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ contraceptive mandate. Many of the church’s public ministries, he said, could be shut down by the fall of 2013 “because no Catholic institution,

Correction In an April 20 article about the “Discarded to Divine� fundraiser for the St. Vincent de Paul Society of San Francisco, Sally Rosen was incorrectly called a volunteer when she was employed as the society’s Help Desk at the time the gala began. Auction items are at least 50 percent recycled with some using 100 percent discarded items.

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under any circumstance, can ever cooperate with the intrinsic evil of killing innocent human life in the womb.� The Obama administration’s contraceptive mandate includes a religious exemption, but leaders of various Catholic and other faith-based organizations say it is too narrow and they will still be forced to provide coverage they oppose. The administration has defended the mandate as “preventative care,� but religious groups that oppose it say it infringes on their religious liberty. A new federal proposal issued March 21 suggested thirdparty administrators pay the costs of contraceptives for religious employers who object, but the U.S. bishops said even with that, the mandate remained flawed. “Hitler and Stalin, at their better moments, would just barely tolerate some churches remaining open, but would not tolerate any competition with the state in education, social services, and health care,� said Bishop Jenky. “In clear violation of our First Amendment rights, Barack Obama – with his radical pro-abortion and extreme secularist agenda – now seems intent on following a similar path.� To sustained applause, Bishop Jenky said no matter what happens in “this passing moment,� “Christ wins� and the church will survive current threats, including “the hatred of Hollywood, the malice of the media, and the mendacious wickedness of the abortion industry.� “The church will survive the entrenched corruption and sheer incompetence of our Illinois state government,� he continued, “and even the calculated disdain of the president of the United States, his appointed bureaucrats in HHS, and of current majority in the federal Senate.� Last year, legislation on civil unions and subsequent court rulings forced Catholic Charities agencies throughout Illinois out of adoption and foster care. Bishop Jenky said “this is not a war where any believing Catholic may remain neutral.� “No Catholic ministry – and yes, Mr. President, for Catholics our schools and hospitals are ministries – can remain faithful to the lordship of the risen Christ and to his glorious Gospel of Life if they are forced to pay for abortions,� said Bishop Jenky. He said every practicing Catholic “must vote, and must vote their Catholic consciences� in the fall elections. Editor’s note: The full text of Bishop Jenky’s homily at “A Call to Catholic Men of Faith� can be found online at www. thecatholicpost.com/post/PostArticle.aspx?ID=2440.

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Catholic San Francisco

April 27, 2012

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Catholic San Francisco

April 27, 2012

(CNS PHOTO/TYRONE TURNER COURTESY OF RELIGION NEWS SERVICE)

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY Why a battle 1,700 years ago is relevant today

(CNS PHOTO/MICHAEL ALEXANDER, GEORGIA BULLETIN)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – For Vatican historians, the roots of a Christian idea of religious liberty go way back: in fact, back 1,700 years to the Emperor Constantine’s victory on Rome’s Milvian Bridge and to his conversion. At a Vatican conference in late April marking the anniversary, the head of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences said Constantine’s victory in 312 under the sign of the cross was “the foundation of a new world” marked by religious freedom for Christians and separation between church and state. However, Norbertine Father Bernard Ardura, committee president, also admitted that “many centuries would be needed” before there was a widespread recognition of full religious freedom for everyone in a pluralistic society and before a respectful church-state separation was achieved. In fact, said Cardinal Agostino Vallini, papal vicar for Rome, it wasn’t until the Second Vatican Council that the Catholic Church fully, formally recognized everyone’s right to religious freedom. The council’s document on religious freedom said: “The human person has a right to religious freedom. This freedom means that all men are to be immune from coercion on the part of individuals or of social groups and of any human power, in such wise that no one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his own beliefs, whether privately or publicly, whether alone or in association with others, within due limits.” Even as the international group of historians gathered at the Vatican to discuss the latest scholarship about Constantine’s conversion, it was his connection to the modern idea of religious liberty that was seen as most relevant both for the world at large as well as for the Catholic Church. For example, the U.S. bishops have said the Obama administration is threatening religious freedom by attempting to force Catholic institu-

Sandra Goetz Sellers, a parishioner at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Basilica in Atlanta, stands with an American flag and rosary as she attends the “Stand Up for Religious Freedom” rally on the steps of the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta March 23.

tions to include contraception – which the church teaches is immoral – in health care plans. And the Second Vatican Council’s recognition of religious freedom is one of the sticking points in the ongoing discussions between the Vatican and the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X. In fact, the U.S. district of the society explained its position April 13 in an article that described as “problematic” a recent statement by the U.S. bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty. The SSPX statement said, “As for man’s ‘liberty,’ mankind has been endowed with free will, but only to use for good – that which corresponds with truth (i.e., Christ and his church) – but not to do evil.... Error never has any rights. However, the secularistic and anti-Catholic principle of religious liberty denies this reality and instead, makes error equal to truth.” While the council affirmed traditional church teaching that people have an obligation to seek the truth, and that the fullness of truth is found in the Catholic Church, it insisted that no one could be forced to accept truth. Opinions about Constantine’s legacy – and even his conversion – differ, even among Catholic scholars. Contrasting points of view on the sincerity of Constantine’s faith and his impact on the faith of others in the Roman Empire came to the fore quickly during the Vatican conference April 18-20. While preserving academic decorum at a small Vatican news conference announcing the Constantine confab, two historians agreed that the 4th-century emperor played an important role in the development of the idea of church-state separation, but they did not agree on how he actually did that. Claire Sotinel, a professor of Roman history at the University of Paris-Est Creteil and one of the organizers of the conference, said, “Constantine’s conversion marked a new way of thinking about religion and power. It was a complete break. When Constantine became Christian, it was the first time the ruler (of the Roman Empire) was not also the religious leader.” But Giovanni Maria Vian, a historian better known as the editor of L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, said that while Constantine identified himself as a Christian after the battle on the bridge in 312, “he never gave up the (then pagan Roman) title ‘Pontifex Maximus,’ he continued to preside over pagan rituals and was baptized only on his deathbed.” Still, Vian said, by identifying himself as a Christian and solidifying the rights of Christians to practice their faith, “Constantine made Christianity available to the poor – the masses – and not just the elite. He made it possible for the church to be what it is today.” Vian also said the so-called “Constantinian revolution” wasn’t all it is popularly cracked up to be. The systematic persecution of Christians in the West ended before his reign and Christianity was not proclaimed the official religion of the empire until some 47 years after his death, he said. Both he and Sotinel dismissed the claims of some historians that far from promoting religious freedom, Constantine’s embrace of Christianity, or at least the favors he granted the church, actually gave birth to centuries of Christian teaching and violence against the Jews. Sotinel said there is no historical evidence, including in Jewish sources, of anti-Jewish activity on the part of Christians in the empire before the fifth century. The topic of Constantine and religious liberty will be given even greater attention by historians and church leaders in 2013 when they mark the 1,700th anniversary of the Edict of Milan – a proclamation of tolerance of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire signed by Constantine and the Emperor Licinius, who ruled the eastern part of the empire.

Alberto Valdez from Del Rio, Texas, joins others March 24 for the Reason Rally, a gathering of atheists and nonbelievers held on the National Mall in Washington. Research shows a growing number of young adults who say they are atheists, agnostics or have no religion.

Secularism in America: Growing trend concerns Catholic leaders worldwide By Chaz Muth

(CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING)

By Cindy Wooden

Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s statue of the Roman Emperor Constantine is seen in the portico of St. Peter’s Basilica as clergy process during the closing Mass of the Synod of Bishops for Africa at the Vatican in this Oct. 25, 2009, file photo. The statue shows Constantine looking at the appearance of a cross in the sky in Rome in 312, an event that led to his conversion and the legalization of Christianity.

WASHINGTON (CNS) – Arianne Gasser of Canton, Ohio, is proud to call herself a graduate student at a prestigious Catholic university, and she also is proud to call herself an atheist. The pride she has in her atheist status is part of what inspired her to travel from the Philadelphia area, where she is enrolled at Villanova University, to Washington in March to join thousands of other atheists, agnostics and other nonbelievers for the “Reason Rally,” an event that was billed as an assembly to unify secular people nationwide. Carrying a sign that reads, “This is what an atheist looks like,” Gasser is part of a growing segment of Americans under the age of 30 who identify themselves as atheists or agnostics. It’s a movement that concerns Catholic leaders worldwide, including Pope Benedict XVI. “We have morals and we have beliefs and we have these values,” said Gasser, as she walked along the National Mall and marveled at how many people turned out for the rally. “People just think that we’re evil, God-hating. We’re just people. We just don’t believe that something happens to us after we die.” A survey released in 2009 by the Pew Research Center found that a quarter of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 surveyed said they were atheists, agnostics or had no religion. “Radical secularism” threatens the core values of American culture, the pope warned a group of U.S. bishops visiting the Vatican in January. He called on the church in the U.S., as well as politicians and other laypeople, to render “public moral witness” on crucial social issues. “The larger concern with secularism is that it damages people, and that it actually keeps people from being reasonable with one another,” said Chad C. Pecknold, assistant professor of systematic theology in the School of Theology and Religious Studies at The Catholic University of America in Washington. “It creates a great level of intolerance for people of faith. I think secularism for Pope Benedict is a feature of this growing bifurcation between faith and reason,” he told Catholic News Service. Pecknold, who also is the author of the 2010 book “Christianity and Politics: A Brief Guide to the History,” said secularism is a greater threat to humanity than to the Catholic Church because it could lead to great social unrest and fragmentation. Vilification of Muslims in the United States following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania can be viewed as an example of secularists’ intolerance. Richard Dawkins, vice president of the British Humanist Association and author of the 2006 book “The God Delusion,” was quoted as saying religion is dangerous “because it gives people unshakeable confidence in their own righteousness. Dangerous because it gives them false courage to kill themselves, which automatically removes normal barriers to killing others.” His remarks are an illustration of hostilities toward people of faith, Pecknold said. “These are all examples of an attempt to cause civil unrest, which I don’t think are sustainable,” he said. “It could actually lead to greater and greater

social unrest, and could potentially give so much power to culture wars that we become an increasingly fragmented society.” The greatest threat to civil society comes from militant atheists, Pecknold told CNS. Gasser and many of the atheists and agnostics who gathered at the “Reason Rally” said they don’t see the secular movement as a threat to society. They just want people to respect their right to shun organized religion and to have their voices heard by politicians and policymakers. They carried signs that read “Good without a God,” “Proud to be an atheist,” and “It’s OK to be an atheist.” Others carried signs or wore shirts that had more provocative messages, such as “If you really believe prayer worked, you’d stop voting,” “Freedom is the distance between church and state,” and “No God, No Devil, Just Us.” Gasser said she just wants her voice to be heard with the same volume as Christians, Muslims and Jews. “I’m not really into politics, but I do think that secular beliefs need to be treated equally with people who are believers,” she told CNS. “I don’t think we’re recognized in the government policies and the way people cover campaigns. It’s just all appealing to religious people, but there are so many of us who want to have a say in how our country is run.” The poll numbers revealing growing atheist numbers and events like the “Reason Rally” have theology scholars focusing on what they believe is driving the secularism movement. “The cultural conditions have become more conducive to atheism. We can see that in economic ways in that we are encouraged to think of ourselves as economic individuals,” Pecknold said. “We see that in the Tea Party, a libertarian approach to economic good in which economics is something that is merely representing my own self-interests,” he said. “That kind of radical individualism in economic terms or philosophical terms is itself kind of a practical atheism, in which you detach yourself from any sort of transcendent notion of the good, any sort of sense of a common good that you would participate in. “A kind of view in which I can participate in something bigger than myself is kind of eroded from our economic practice as human beings.” THE PERCENTAGE OF ATHEISTS, AGNOSTICS AND NONBELIEVERS decreases with age. 25%

18% 13%

7%

age 18-29 Source: Pew Research Center

30-49

50-64

65+ ©2012 CNS

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Catholic San Francisco

April 27, 2012

South Korea illustrates fast-growing church outside Europe ROME – The seven years of the pontificate that Benedict XVI marked last week are associated, in common opinion, with the general decline of the church. But this opinion is nurtured by a view restricted to the Christianity of the Old Continent: to a Europe that in effect has suffered the blows of a growing secularization. If one simply widens the perspective, in fact, the reality appears different. In the past century the Catholic Church has experienced the most extraordinary phase of missionary expansion in its history. At the beginning of the 20th century, in sub-Saharan Africa there were fewer than 2 million Catholics. A hundred years later, there were 130 million. And also on a worldwide scale, the 20th century was for the church a century of numeric explosion. From 266 million at the beginning of the 1900’s, Catholics reached 1.1 billion 100 years later. An increase of a factor of four, more than the parallel increase of the planet’s population. It is an expansion that shows no sign of stopping, and began in the 1800s, precisely when the Catholic Church in Europe was undergoing the attacks of a culture and of powers strongly hostile to Christianity. Today the context is analogous. For the Catholic Church in Europe, these are lean years. But in other regions of the world it is the opposite. South Korea, for example, is a country in which Catholicism is growing at a dizzying pace. And precisely among the most active and “modern” strata of the population. The report that follows – published on Easter by the newspaper of the Italian episcopal conference, Avvenire – was written by one of the leading experts on Catholic missions in the world. A missionary himself, Father Piero Gheddo is today the director, in Rome, of the historical office of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions. He is the author of numerous volumes and collaborated in the drafting of the 1990 encyclical “Redemptoris Missio” by Blessed John Paul II. Seoul: An Easter for the record books By Father Piero Gheddo There may be no other country in the world that over the past half century has seen growth as sustained as that of South Korea, including conversions to Christ.

(CNS PHOTO/LEE JAE-WON, REUTERS)

By Sandro Magister

20,000 South Korean Catholics celebrated a Mass for peace and reunification of the Korean peninsula, June 17, 2011.

From 1960 to 2010, the number of inhabitants went from 23 to 48 million; per capita income from 1,300 to 19,500 dollars; Christians from 2 to 30 percent, of which about 10-11 percent, 5.5 million, are Catholic; there were 250 Korean priests, today there are 5,000. I first went to South Korea in 1986 with Father Pino Cazzaniga, a missionary of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions in Japan, who speaks Korean. Even back then it was a Church with many conversions, and it is still so today. Every parish has from 200 to 400 baptisms of converts from Buddhism each year. Most of the converts are city dwellers. Each year there are 130-150 new priests, one for every 1,110 baptized. In 2008, the proportion of Catholics exceeded 10 percent of South Koreans, and grows by about 3 percent each year. In 2009, the number of baptized reached 157,000, and 149 priests were ordained, 21 more than in 2008. More than two thirds of the priests are under the age of 40. “Over the past ten years, the Catholic Church in Korea has gone from 3 to 5 million faithful; in Seoul we are 14 percent,” Cardinal Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk, archbishop of Seoul, has said in an interview Equality of all human beings The Catholic Church in South Korea is the one that is growing most vigorously in Asia. There is full religious freedom in South Korea, and the secretary of the Korean episcopal conference, Bishop Simon E. Chen, told me that Koreans demonstrate a strong propensity for Christianity, because it introduces the idea

Catholic san Francisco Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper

Church-state complexity “Catholics urged to resist unjust laws, join in ‘fortnight for freedom’” (April 20) extols the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty release on April 12 of a statement titled “Our First Most Cherished Liberty,” calling on Catholics and others to resist what the bishops characterize as unprecedented threats to religious freedom. In this statement they were and are absolutely right in declaring that the defense of religious freedom should not become a partisan issue. If it does become a partisan issue or, worse, an electoral ploy, it will result in enormous cynicism in an electorate in which a significant majority of voters already think religion is too politicized. Unfortunately, the bishops’ state-

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.

ment and proposal for public action are likely to increase that possibility. This initiative is being launched during an election year in which one party has assumed the mantle of faith and charges the other with attacking religion. The bishops need to do much more to prevent their national campaign from becoming a not-very-covert rallying point for the Republican Party and its candidates. If that happens, it is the church and the cause of religious freedom that will suffer. For their effort to be effective, the bishops’ campaign must be seen to be nonsectarian and independent of electoral politics. Adding antiIslamic prejudice to their list of concerns would help in that regard. The “grand campaign” should also begin and end with a frank admission about the complexity of church-state relations. No government can accommodate every conceivable religious practice or belief, nor does the Catholic Church have a strong record of supporting accommodation of other religious communities. In their simplistic rhetoric, the bishops sound more like politicians than pastors. If religious freedom becomes a partisan issue, its future is sure to grow dimmer. Jim McCrea Piedmont

of the equality of all human beings created by the one God. Moreover, both Catholics and Protestants participated in the popular movement against the military dictatorship, between 1961 and 1987, while Confucianism and Buddhism promote obedience to the established authority. Also, Christianity is the religion of a personal God made man to save us, while shamanism, Buddhism, and Confucianism are not even religions, but systems of human wisdom and of life. Finally, after the war between North and South Korea (1950-53), South Korea, thanks to American aid, saw extremely rapid economic, social, and civil development, becoming in every way an advanced and even rich country, in which the ancient religions do not provide answers to the problems of modern life. One characteristic of the Korean church is the excellent collaboration of the laity in evangelization. The church was born in Korea from a few Korean philosophers and diplomats who emigrated, converted to Christianity in Beijing, and then, after returning home, propagated the faith and baptized. From 1779 to 1836, when the first French missionaries arrived, Christians spread and then the persecutions came, but the habit of collaborating with the church has remained. Today in Korea, someone who converts knows that he must join one of the groups, associations, or movements of the parish. The “passive” Catholic is not recognized. In Seoul, where there are more than 200 parishes, I was in the parish of the Salesians of Kuro 3-Dong, in a working class area on the

Blessings of confession, Communion Recently a question arose in a study session: “Why have a (Catholic) church?” as opposed to an evangelical, Pentecostal, etc., church, or no church at all? Clearly not for knowledge of the Incarnation, as that can be found online or in most libraries, and not for agape, as that is frequently found in the family and other social situations. But there are two outstanding reasons to have a (Catholic) church and to be a faithful Catholic to the last moment of life. Briefly, those two reasons are: confession and Communion. Why? For one thing, we cannot enter heaven with unforgiven sins. In confession (the sacrament of reconciliation) when we repent, make a good confession and receive absolution from the priest, we are guaranteed forgiveness, because Jesus gave that authority to the church when he said “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven ...”(John 20:22). And in confession it is assumed that the confessing Catholic not only believes but tries to abide by the teachings of the church. (Sadly, currently there are numerous public figures who proclaim that they are (devout!) Catholics, while publicly opposing the teachings of the church; such people are clearly in error). Secondly, when we worthily receive holy Communion, we are guaranteed to go to heaven because Jesus said: “He who eats my flesh

outskirts of the city. The Catholics, already in 1986, were 9,537 out of about 150,000 inhabitants, and there were almost 600 baptisms of adult converts each year. The pastor, Father Paul Kim Bo Rok, told me: “In the parish we are two priests and four sisters, but the real work of mission and religious instruction is done by the laity, both in the eight courses of catechesis, taught at different times and by different people, and in the very active ecclesial movements, especially the Legion of Mary. Each year, we celebrate two or three rites of collective baptism of adults: each time the baptized are 200, 300 or even more, after about a year of catechumenate: That’s not much, but we can’t allow any more time because of the many requests for religious instruction. Deeper formation in the faith is given after baptism, and is the task of the ecclesial movements. Becoming Christian means entering into a group that draws you in deeply, gives you norms of behavior and effort, gives you prayers to say every day. When one enters the church one accepts everything.” Serious and demanding Father Paul continues: “In Korea, religion is something serious and demanding. It is true that there is the danger of formalism, but it is the entire culture of the people that is set up this way. Moreover, Christianity is the primary force that emphasizes the personal conscience and the freedom of the person. What are coming, instead, are threats opposite to formalism: secularism and practical materialism, which draw people away from the religious spirit. South Korea is seeing prodigious economic development, the poverty of 30 years ago has disappeared: today for us there is the passage to abundance and even to wealth. We must react with a deeper and more personal Christian formation. We are overwhelmed by the wave of conversions, and we are asking the Christian world at least for the aid of prayer.” At Easter of this year, on Sunday, April 8, in Korea and in the world of the missions, tens of thousands of catechumens again entered the church. Never be pessimistic about the future of Christianity and of the Catholic Church. We of the Old Continent are going through a crisis in our faith, but in the young churches the action of the Holy Spirit is giving us an injection of hope and of paschal joy. Rome-based journalist Sandro Magister is the creator of the website http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it, where this article first appeared. and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:54). Only the church was given the authority by Jesus to bestow on the priest the power to consecrate bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus. But to worthily receive Communion requires that we be in a state of grace (which means that we have confessed all our mortal sins with as many venial sins as we can recall and received absolution) and that we truly believe that the holy Eucharist is actually the body and blood of Jesus Christ and not just a symbol. Such belief would be reflected in our behavior inside the house of God (the church) by modest dress, reverent silence, attention at Mass and devout reception at holy Communion. It would also be reflected in our behavior outside the church by virtuous living and upholding the teachings of the church. Lastly, many people do not know the actual teachings of the Catholic Church, which makes it difficult for them to be able to answer the question above. Fortunately, though, we have a great blessing in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is a “sure guide to the Catholic faith” (John Paul II). Every serious Catholic should own and study the catechism. It is a bulwark against the attempts of misguided people who keep trying to “improve” the church by changing the teachings of the church, and those who ask seemingly perplexing questions. Jessica Munn Foster City

L E T T E R S

April 27, 2012

Catholic San Francisco

15

Twenty Something

A place of ‘delight and rest’ By Christina Capecchi Brother Mickey O’Neill McGrath can’t help but grin when he talks about his art studio. It’s been a long time coming for the 55-year-old Oblate of St. Frances de Sales who grew up drawing but wasn’t able to commit to a full-time art career until 1994. When the award-winning painter first visited the row house beside Sacred Heart Church in South Camden, N.J., three years ago, it was gutted. But Brother Mickey had a vision for what it could become, and so did the pastor of Sacred Heart, and soon lumber was arriving and electricians were wiring. “From day one,” Brother Mickey said, “it felt like home.” Now the first level is his gallery and the second level, his beloved studio. The tiled floor is checkered, black and white, and the walls are stacked with baskets of acrylic paint and buckets of paintbrushes. His desk is arranged around the window, where northern sunlight streams in, illuminating his canvas. He paints in the morning, standing up, working in silence or to the hum of NPR. From his perch he can see Sacred Heart – watch the comings and goings of parish life, admire the bronze Our Lady of Camden statue and the wide-eyed bloom of hyacinth. “It’s my perfect little place,” Brother Mickey told me. “This is like a little piece of heaven on earth for me. It’s a studio, it’s a sanctuary.”

Part of the perfection comes from the absence of Internet. “A lot of people are afraid of silence,” Brother Mickey said. “We can’t hear the voice of God unless we’re silent. With all our texting and email and blah blah blah, we’re constantly doing and fussing. I find it’s such a blessing anymore if I leave my house and realize I’ve forgotten my cell phone. It’s, ‘Thank you, Jesus!’” The images that flow from Brother Mickey’s paintbrush are full of whimsy and joy: mysteries of the rosary, scenes with saints, dark-skinned Marys. “All the big saints prayed before black Madonnas,” he explained to me, “including St. Francis de Sales. They’ve always been associated with healing and new life … the blackness of conception, creativity, fertile soil, seeds growing underground.” For centuries, he said, images of black Madonnas have offered special solace to those struggling to conceive and to those in need of a fresh start. Brother Mickey’s first black Madonna remains his favorite: a rendition of the Visitation, the second joyful mystery of the rosary, whose feast we mark on May 31. In it we see young, pregnant Mary embrace her pregnant older cousin Elizabeth, arms intertwined, bellies touching. To their left Brother Mickey painted a quote from St. Jane de Chantal, who co-founded the Visitation order of nuns with St. Francis de Sales: “This is the place of our delight and rest.” The painting, titled “The Windsock Visitation,” hangs

“The Windsock Visitation” by Brother Michael O’Neill McGrath, www.beestill.org

above the mantel in a North Minneapolis home occupied by Visitation sisters. They hang a windsock on their front porch to invite neighborhood kids over, a refuge in an impoverished area uprooted by a tornado last May. What is your “perfect little place,” your go-to getaway? A screened-in porch? An open balcony? The corner of a coffee shop? One of the gifts of my 20s has been an appreciation for solitude and the spaces that nurture it. Each of us needs a place to pray and play, to design and dream. A place to recite ancient prayers or utter something spontaneous. A place to think deeply or let your mind go blank. Delight and rest. Christina Capecchi is a freelance writer from Inver Grove Heights, Minn. www.ReadChristina.com.

Guest Commentary

Why do Catholics leave? By Father Robert Barron I saw an advance copy of a survey by Jesuit Father William J. Byron and Charles Zech, which will appear in the April 30 edition of America magazine. It was conducted at the request of Bishop David O’Connell of Trenton, and its focus was simple: To discover why Catholics have left the church. No one denies that a substantive number of Catholics have left during the past 20 years, and Father Byron and Zech wanted to find out why. They did so in the most direct way possible and asked those who had quit. The answers they got were, in many ways, predictable. Lots of people cited the church’s teachings on divorce and re-marriage, gay marriage, contraception and the ordination of women. These matters, of course, have been exhaustively discussed in the years following Vatican II, and I’d be willing to bet that anyone, even those vaguely connected to the church, could rehearse the arguments on both sides. But there just isn’t a lot that the church can do about them. No bishop or pastor could make a policy adjustment and announce that divorced and re-married people can receive Communion or that a gay couple can come to the altar to be married or a woman present herself for ordination. What struck me about the survey, however, was that many of the issues that led people to leave the church are indeed matters that can be addressed. Many of the respondents commented that they left because of “bad customer relations.” One woman said that she felt “undervalued by the church” and found “no mentors.” Many more said that their pastors were “arrogant, distant, aloof, and insensitive,” and still others said that their experiences over the phone with parish staffers were distinctly negative. I fully understand that parish priests and lay ministers are on the front lines and hence are the ones who often have to say

“no” when a parishioner asks for something that just can’t be granted. Sometimes the recipient of that “no” can all too facilely accuse the one who says it as arrogant or indifferent. Nevertheless, the survey can and should be a wake-up call to church leaders – both clerical and non-clerical – that simple kindness, compassion, and attention go a rather long way. I distinctly remember the advice that my first pastor – a wonderful and pastorally skillful priest – gave to the parish secretary: “For many people, you are the first contact they have with the Catholic Church; you exercise, therefore, an indispensable ministry.” One respondent to the survey observed that whenever he asked a priest about a controversial issue, he “got rules, and not an invitation to sit down and talk.” Unfair? Perhaps. But every priest, even when ultimately he has to say “no,” can do so in the context of a relationship predicated upon love and respect. A second major concern that can and should be addressed is that of bad preaching. Again and again, people said that they left the church because homilies were “boring, irrelevant, poorly prepared,” or “delivered in an impenetrable accent.” Again, speaking as someone who is called upon to give sermons all the time, I realize how terribly difficult it is to preach, how it involves skill in public speaking, attention to the culture, expertise in biblical interpretation, and sensitivity to the needs and interests of an incredibly diverse audience. That said, homilists can make a great leap forward by being attentive to one fact: Sermons become boring in the measure that they don’t propose something like answers to real questions. All of the biblical exegesis and oratorical skill in the world will be met with a massive “so what?” if the preacher has not endeavored to correlate the “answers” he provides with the “questions” that beguile the hearts of the people to whom he speaks. Practically every Gospel involves an

encounter between Jesus and a person – Peter, Mary Magdalene, Nicodemus, Zacchaeus, etc. – who is questioning, wondering, suffering or seeking. An interesting homily identifies that longing and demonstrates, concretely, how Jesus fulfills it. When the homily both reminds people how thirsty they are and provides water to quench the thirst, people will listen. A third eminently correctable problem is one that I will admit I had never thought about before reading this survey. Many of the respondents commented that, after they left the church, no one from the parish contacted them or reached out to them in any way. Now again, I can anticipate and fully understand the objections from pastoral people: many Catholic parishes are huge – upwards of three or four thousand families – and staffs are small. Yet, just as major corporations, serving millions of people, attend carefully to lost customers, so Catholic parishes should prioritize an outreach to those who have drifted (or stormed) away. A phone call, a note, an email, a pastoral visit – anything that would say, “We’ve noticed you’re not coming to Mass anymore. Can we help? Can you tell us what, if anything, we’ve done wrong? We’d love to see you back with us.” The problem of Catholics leaving the church is, obviously, serious and complex, and anyone who would suggest an easy solution is naive. However, having listened to a representative sample of those who have left, parishes, priests and church administrators might take some relatively simple and direct steps that would go a long way toward ameliorating the situation. Father Robert Barron is the founder of the global ministry Word on Fire and the Francis Cardinal George Professor of Faith and Culture at University of St. Mary of the Lake, Mundelein, Ill.

Spirituality for Today

Who will be able to get into heaven? By Father John Catoir It might surprise you to know that you don’t have to be a Catholic to get into heaven. For that matter, you don’t even have to be a Christian, but you do have to detest evil. All salvation will come through the redemptive power of Jesus Christ. Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical “Redemptoris Missio,” wrote: “The universality of salvation means that it is granted not only to those who explicitly believe in Christ and have entered the church. Since salvation is offered to all, it must be made concretely available to all. But it is clear that today, as in the past, many people do not have an opportunity to come to know or accept the Gospel revelation or to enter the church. ... For such people salvation in Christ is accessible by virtue of a grace. ... This grace comes from Christ; it is the result of his sacrifice.” Does this idea cause you to wonder who can get into heaven? A lot of people are like the Pharisees, who condemned Jesus for

allowing a common prostitute to bathe his feet with her tears. No one but God can judge someone else’s level of holiness. Remember the words of Jesus: “The last will be first, and the first will be last.” Caryll Houselander wrote a beautiful book entitled, “The Reed of God.” In the book he writes: “How is it that people who do not believe in any creed, who have no moral standards and who do not recognize charity as a thing necessary for salvation are often conspicuously kind, warmhearted, and tolerant; whereas professing Christians are often notoriously hard, censorious, and exacting? How is it that a person known to be ‘religious’ is often the very

last person to whom we would go with a burden of shame?” Given these thoughts, here are some things to ponder: 1. Heaven is a place. There has to be “locus” because we are human beings; we are not pure spirits like the angels. Our bodies require a place to live and walk and be. 2. Heaven is also a state. It is a state of bliss, which comes from living intimately with God. 3. Heaven is a kingdom of justice. Like the angels and archangels, there may be different levels of holiness among heaven’s citizens. The difference may be monumental in some cases, such as between Mother Teresa and the last wicked sinner, who managed to repent in time to be saved. As Luke reminds us: “There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance.” Father John Catoir writes a column for Catholic News Service.

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Catholic San Francisco

A READING FROM THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES ACTS 4:8-12 Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said: “Leaders of the people and elders: If we are being examined today about a good deed done to a cripple, namely, by what means he was saved, then all of you and all the people of Israel should know that it was in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead; in his name this man stands before you healed. He is the stone rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved.” RESPONSORIAL PSALM PS 118:1, 8-9, 21-23, 26, 28, 29 The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes. In the ancient world, mythology was more than simply tall tales and legends. They were stories told about people and events that helped to deepen one’s understanding of the world around them and one’s place in it. This does not mean that all such people or events are fictitious. “Myth” is defined as “a traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief or natural phenomenon” or “a popular belief or tradition that has grown up around something or someone” (Miriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition). The Scriptures are full of images that serve to help us understand more deeply the mysteries of the faith we profess. For example, the church is described as a bride (Ephesians 5:2533; Revelation 19:7-8), adorned in a garment of white, that symbolizes the good deeds of God’s holy people. While in reality we know that the church is genderless, the image of the bride helps to deepen our understanding and awe of the church as the bride of Christ, the people of God sharing a covenant relationship with our savior The image of Peter as fisherman, despite the fact that he abandoned that life to follow Christ, is nonetheless maintained to describe his role as the great fisherman, a fisher of souls. Indeed one of the earliest symbols of Christianity was not the cross, but the fish.

April 27, 2012

Fourth Sunday of Easter Acts 4:8-12; Psalm 118:1, 8-9, 21-23, 26, 28, 29; I John 3:1-2; John 10:11-18 The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone. I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me and have been my savior. The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. By the Lord has this been done; it is wonderful in our eyes. The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; we bless you from the house of the Lord. I will give thanks to you, for you have

answered me and have been my savior. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his kindness endures forever. The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone. A READING FROM THE FIRST LETTER OF JOHN 1 JN3:1-2 Beloved: See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

Scripture reflection FATHER WILLIAM NICHOLAS

The ‘mythology’ of the Good Shepherd Such images are “mythological” to our faith as Christians. This does not mean they are “false” or “untrue.” Rather, the image lifts our understanding of a person or an event beyond the merely historical. In describing something “mythologically,” we can more deeply understand its significance theologically. For example, we see our Blessed Mother as more than simply a young mother from Nazareth. As mother and disciple she we hail her as the first and perfect follower of

her son, Jesus Christ. She is the model for all Christians because of her complete adherence to the will of God. Therefore, Mary has been “mythologized” to be the very symbol of all followers of Christ, and therefore, a symbol of holy mother church herself. Because of this, when we celebrate Mary, we celebrate discipleship, the perfection of which she intercedes for us to continually grow. Another image we celebrate in our Catholic tradition is Jesus Christ as the good

Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. A READING FROM THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN JN 10:11-18 Jesus said: “I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them. This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father.” shepherd. Even Jesus makes use of this image to describe himself in relation to his followers. We are not distracted by the fact that, historically, Jesus was not a shepherd by profession. Jesus was a carpenter. However, we do not have very many parishes and Catholic institutions named for the good carpenter (maybe a construction company or two). Rather, we understand Jesus as good shepherd in the “mythological” sense, which helps us to comprehend the theological understanding of Jesus’ role in leading and guiding His followers, with all the attributes and accoutrements that accompany being a shepherd. As our savior and Lord, Jesus, the carpenter from Nazareth, is the fulfillment of the words of Ezekiel, through whom God declared, “I myself will look after and tend my sheep. As a shepherd tends his flock … so will I tend my sheep” (Ezekiel 34:11-12). Jesus is the fulfillment of the psalm that declares, “The Lord is my shepherd …” (Psalm 23:1). Through the eyes of faith, the words of Jesus and the tradition of the church, we have “mythologized” the carpenter from Nazareth, and more deeply and profoundly understand his role in God’s plan of salvation as our true and good shepherd. Father William Nicholas is parochial vicar at Mission Dolores Basilica, San Francisco. www.frwnicholas.com.

Question Corner

Extraordinary ministers; complaints about priests Question: Recently, I have noticed some people, after they receive holy Communion, take a second host. They seem to receive it in a small container and then place it in their pocket or pocketbook. I assume that they are bringing the host home for a family member who is ill or incapacitated and unable to get to Mass. So my question is: Can anyone do that? I thought that only a priest, deacon or officially designated eucharistic minister could distribute holy Communion. (Central Wisconsin) Answer: You may be observing officially designated extraordinary ministers of holy Communion, a practice allowed in appropriate circumstances by the church’s Code of Canon Law. “Redemptionis Sacramentum,” an instruction issued in 2004 by the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, speaks of such enabling circumstances. Paragraph No. 158 explains the most common, which is “when the number of faithful coming to Communion is so great that the very celebration of the Mass would be unduly prolonged.” Frequently, extraordinary ministers also are recruited by a parish to take Communion to the homebound or to those in nursing homes. They carry Communion in a small goldcolored metal container called a “pyx,” supplied by the parish. Extraordinary ministers should be qualified by proven virtue, appropriately trained and commissioned by their pastor in an appropriate ceremony (the church’s Book of Blessings provides one). Their names are submitted to the office of the diocesan bishop. Many parishes hold a commissioning ceremony annually

on the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ (formerly called Corpus Christi). In addition to those formally commissioned, “Redemptionis Sacramentum” says that “in cases of an unforeseen nature, permission can be given for a single occasion by the priest who presides at the celebration of the Eucharist” (No. 155). That may happen, for example, when an extraordinary minister assigned to a Mass fails to appear or when the crowd of worshippers is unexpectedly large. Logically, this would seem also to cover the circumstance when someone is at home recovering from surgery and the spouse asks the priest for permission, that day, to bring holy Communion home. The priest can give that person a pyx and, without a formal ceremony of commissioning, allow him or her to take a second host when Communion is distributed at that day’s Eucharist. If the situation is going to continue on a regular basis, that person should be formally commissioned when a parish ceremony is next held. Question: Whom do parishioners contact to make a complaint about their pastor? (A small city in southeastern Indiana) Answer: It depends on the nature of the complaint. It cannot be excluded that the complaint might be of a criminal nature. In such a situation, it is best to bring your concern directly to the attention of civil authorities, who have the staff and the background to investigate most effectively. Thankfully, most complaints about priests are of a much more pedestrian nature. “His homilies are boring and too long” is probably the one most frequently voiced. Certain complaints may have increased in frequency with

the shortage of priests: “He didn’t visit my mother when she was in the hospital”; “He hardly spends any time in the school or with the youth group”; “Father always seems tired and out of sorts.” Father In such situations, a parishioner has several Kenneth Doyle options. One is to write to, or seek an appointment with, the bishop or the diocesan director of priests’ personnel. Your concerns may mirror those expressed by others. The priest will be called in to the chancery to discuss the opinions voiced. Another possibility is to contact a member of your parish council and report your concern. The most upfront and productive thing, in my opinion, would be to speak with the priest directly. Hopefully, most priests would admire your courage, view your visit as a helpful fraternal correction and consider whether any change in behavior might be warranted. Father Doyle’s column is carried by Catholic News Service. Send questions to Father Kenneth Doyle at askfatherdoyle@gmail.com and 40 Hopewell St., Albany, NY 12208.

Catholic San Francisco

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(CNS PHOTO/NANCY PHELAN WIECHEC)

April 27, 2012

Women religious and others attend a 40th anniversary event for Network, the national Catholic social justice lobby, April 14 at Trinity University in Washington. The lobby, which calls itself a “progressive voice,” began with a group of women religious in 1972 and continues to advocate for the poor, the marginalized and for peace. The Vatican’s doctrinal congregation has called into question the relationship between the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and Network.

LCWR . . . ■ Continued from cover month to review the mandate and prepare a response,” the statement said. A spokeswoman for the LCWR said its leadership would not be granting interviews until after a wider consultation with its members in May. The announcement from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith came in an eight-page “doctrinal assessment,” based on an investigation that Bishop Blair began on behalf of the Vatican in April 2008. That investigation led the doctrinal congregation to conclude, in January 2011, that “the current doctrinal and pastoral situation of LCWR is grave and a matter of serious concern, also given the influence the LCWR exercises on religious congregations in other parts of the world.” Among the areas of concern were some of the most controversial issues of medical and sexual ethics in America today. “While there has been a great deal of work on the part of LCWR promoting issues of social justice in harmony with the church’s social doctrine, it is silent on the right to life from conception to natural death, a question that is part of the lively public debate about abortion and euthanasia in the United States,” the doctrinal congregation said. “Further, issues of crucial importance in the life of the church and society, such as the church’s biblical view of family life and human sexuality, are not part of the LCWR agenda in a way that promotes church teaching.” The Vatican also found that “public state-

ments by the LCWR that disagree with or challenge positions taken by the bishops, who are the church’s authentic teachers of faith and morals, are not compatible with its purpose.” According to the Vatican, such deviations from Catholic teaching have provoked a crisis “characterized by a diminution of the fundamental Christological center and focus of religious consecration.” But the congregation’s document also praised the “great contributions of women religious to the church in the United States as seen particularly in the many schools, hospitals, and institutions of support for the poor, which have been founded and staffed by religious over the years,” and insisted that the Vatican “does not intend to offer judgment on the faith and life of women religious” in the LCWR’s member congregations. During his tenure as the Holy See’s delegate, which is to last “up to five years, as deemed necessary,” Archbishop Sartain’s tasks will include overseeing revision of the LCWR’s statutes, review of its liturgical practices, and the creation of formation programs for the conference’s member congregations. The archbishop will also investigate the LCWR’s links to two outside groups: Network, a Catholic social justice lobby; and the Resource Center for Religious Institutes, which offers legal and financial expertise to religious orders. The doctrinal assessment was separate from the Vatican’s “Apostolic Visitation of Religious Communities of Women in the United States,” a study of the “quality of life” in some 400 congregations, which began in December 2008. The visitation’s final report was submitted in December 2011 but has not yet been published.

Doctrinal assessment: Key points Here are highlights of the Vatican’s doctrinal assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. The eight-page document, along with a statement by Cardinal William J. Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, can be downloaded at www.usccb.org/ news/2012/12-062e.cfm. – “The assessment reveals serious doctrinal problems which affect many in consecrated life.” – “This crisis is characterized by a diminution of the fundamental Christological center and focus of religious consecration which leads, in turn, to a loss of a ‘constant and lively sense of the church’ among some religious.” – Questionable theological and doctrinal positions “routinely go unchallenged.” – Leaders of various congregations “place themselves outside church teaching” on sexuality by protesting the Vatican’s actions on women’s ordination and ministry to homosexual persons. – “Certain radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith” have prevailed in some of the programs and presentations sponsored by the LCWR. – “Some speakers claim that dis-

sent from the doctrine of the church is justified as an exercise of the prophetic office. But this is based upon a mistaken understanding of the dynamic of prophecy in the church: It justifies dissent by positing the possibility of divergence between the church’s magisterium and a ‘legitimate’ theological intuition of some of the faithful.” – “The doctrinal confusion which has undermined solid catechesis over the years demonstrates the need for sound doctrinal formation – both initial and ongoing – for women religious and novices just as it does for priests and seminarians, and for laity in ministry and apostolic life. In this way, we can hope that the secularized contemporary culture, with its negative impact on the very identity of religious as Christians and members of the church, on their religious practice and common life, and on their authentic Christian spirituality, moral life, and liturgical practice, can be more readily overcome.” – “The Holy See acknowledges with gratitude the great contribution of women religious to the church in the United States as seen particularly in the many schools, hospitals, and institutions of support for the poor which have been founded and staffed by religious over the years.”

Reform of nuns group an opportunity for dialogue, archbishop says VATICAN CITY (CNS) – A newly announced reform of an association of women’s religious congregations in the U.S. offers the sisters and their bishops an opportunity to communicate and work together more closely, said the archbishop named by the Vatican to oversee the reform process. Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle spoke to Catholic News Service in Rome April 22. The Vatican announced April 18 that Archbishop Sartain will provide “review, guidance and approval, where necessary, of the work” of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious for a period of up to five years. His tasks will include overseeing revision of the

LCWR’s statutes, review of its liturgical practices, and the creation of formation programs for the conference’s member congregations. In an eight-page, “doctrinal assessment” based on an investigation that began in April 2008, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith reported that the “current doctrinal and pastoral situation of LCWR is grave and a matter of serious concern.” The assessment cited deviations from Catholic teaching in areas including abortion, euthanasia, women’s ordination and homosexuality. Archbishop Sartain said that his main role in the reform process would be to “facilitate relationships and understanding.”

Saying that he hoped he could “help the sisters and the LCWR recognize that we are all in this together,” the archbishop called the reform a “great opportunity” for women religious, U.S. bishops and the Vatican to “strengthen and improve all of our relationships on every level.” Noting his extensive experience with religious communities in the four dioceses where he has served as a priest or bishop, the archbishop expressed his “personal appreciation for the role of religious women in the United States” and “all the extraordinary things that they’ve done.” Archbishop Sartain said he expected to meet with the LCWR “very soon,” and declined in the

meantime to discuss the reform process in any detail. But he said that he and his two assistants, Bishop Leonard P. Blair of Toledo, Ohio, and Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Springfield, Ill., would be assembling an advisory committee to include women religious with expertise in theology and canon law, among other fields. The archbishop dismissed press reports suggesting that the doctrinal congregation’s action was a response to widespread support by women religious of the Obama administration’s health care reform law, which the U.S. bishops have argued does not adequately protect rights to conscientious objection or guarantee against federal funding of abortion.

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Spirituality for Life

The 10 major faith struggles of our age Sometimes the simple act of naming something can be immensely helpful. Before we can put a name on something we stand more helpless before its effects, not really knowing what’s happening to us. Many of us, for example, are familiar with the book, “The Future Church: How Ten Trends are Revolutionizing the Catholic Church,” by John Allen. The things he names in this book, even when they don’t affect us directly, still help shape us for the better. As journalist who travels the world as the Vatican analyst for both CNN television and the National Catholic Reporter, Allen is able to provide us with a wider, global perspective on church issues than is generally afforded to those of us whose vision is more emotionally mired in our own local and national issues. Heartaches at home can make us blind to the wider concerns of the planet; just as seeing the concerns and pains of others first-hand can put our own concerns and pain into a healthier perspective. Allen’s global frame of reference, as outlined in the mega-trends he names in his book, helps us keep our own ecclesial concerns in a healthier perspective. Several years ago in an interview, Allen asked me to draw up a list of what I considered to be the 10 major faith and church struggles of our time. Here is my attempt to name the key faith and ecclesial struggles we deal with today. 1. The struggle with the atheism of our everyday consciousness, that is, the struggle to have a vital sense of God within a secular culture which, for good and for bad, is the most powerful narcotic ever perpetrated on this planet ... the struggle to be conscious of God outside of church and explicit religious activity.

2. The struggle to live in torn, divided and highly polarized communities, as wounded persons ourselves, and carry that tension without resentment and without giving it back in kind ... the struggle inside of our own wounded selves to be healers and peacemakers rather than ourselves contributing to the tension. 3. The struggle to live, love, and forgive beyond the infectious ideologies that we daily inhale: That is, the struggle for true sincerity, to genuinely know and follow our own hearts and minds beyond what is prescribed to us by the right and the left ... the struggle to be neither liberal or conservative but rather men and women of true compassion. 4. The struggle to carry our sexuality without undue frigidity and without irresponsibility, the struggle for a healthy sexuality that can both properly revere and properly delight in this great power ... the struggle to carry our sexuality in such a way so as to radiate both chastity and passion. 5. The struggle for interiority and prayer inside of a culture that in its thirst for information and distraction constitutes a virtual conspiracy against depth and solitude, the eclipse of silence in our world ... the struggle to move our eyes beyond our digital screens towards a deeper horizon. 6. The struggle to deal healthily with “the dragon” of personal grandiosity, ambition and pathological restlessness, inside of a culture that daily overstimulates them, the struggle to healthily cope with both affirmation and rejection ... the struggle inside of a restless and overstimulated environment to habitually find the delicate balance between depression and inflation. 7. The struggle to not be motivated by paranoia, fear, nar-

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

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April 27, 2012

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Gender equality brings economic empowerment to all, CRS adviser says By Nancy Frazier O’Brien VILLANOVA, Pa. (CNS) – Empowering women and girls makes good economic sense. That’s the message Carrie Miller, senior technical adviser for health and HIV with Catholic Relief Services, brought to a roomful of Villanova University students April 18. Miller, who has worked in 10 countries since joining the overseas aid and development agency for the U.S. Catholic community in 2000, told the story of Abushu Gudeta, an Ethiopian man with 16 children – 11 of them daughters – whose Oromo traditions called for each daughter to be promised in marriage at birth, with her future husband’s family paying to raise her. If the girl did not marry at around age 13, the father would have to repay the family for the money they had spent. But if she did marry at that young age, her education would end and she would be expected to

become pregnant soon after, perpetuating “a cycle of poverty, risk to her health and inequality,” Miller said. A CRS project in Ethiopia called Empowering Adolescent Girls has helped to break that cycle for some young girls in that country, she said. The project, from 2006 to 2009, targeted 5,500 rural girls with the goal of giving them greater access to education and economic opportunity. Elements of the project included education about agricultural production, more efficient cook stoves to free up the girls from household chores, access to lowcost irrigation, financial literacy training and access to financial services so that they could save and get small loans. It is important, however, that the project worked not only with the girls themselves but at what Miller called “multiple levels of influence” – the girls’ family and male peers, their communities and at the institutional and cultural level.

Maltese prelate celebrating Mass May 6; archbishop’s first Bay Area pastoral visit Msgr. Paul Cremona, archbishop of the Diocese of Malta, will celebrate Mass May 6 at St. Mary’s Cathedral, San Francisco. All Maltese-American communities, families, friends and the general public are invited to attend and encouraged to

Gov. Edmund G. Brown’s grave site

footsteps. After Gov. Brown’s death at age 90, then San Francisco Archbishop William J. Levada presided over the funeral Mass at St. Cecilia Church on Feb. 21, 1996. Gov. Brown was laid to rest in Holy Cross, just across the way from California’s seventh governor, John G. Downey. Come visit the cemetery and honor the legacy of this great native son. – Monica Williams

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Cemetery Corner This is part an occasional series of historical vignettes about Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Colma, marking the 125th anniversary of the archdiocesan cemetery. The “Master Builder” of California has a simple, elegant headstone that looks out over Central Avenue. A native San Franciscan, Gov. Edmund G. “Pat” Brown started his political career in 1944 as San Francisco district attorney. Brown went on to serve two terms as California’s attorney general and was elected the Golden State’s 32nd governor in 1958. A determined leader with a concern for people, Gov. Brown championed higher education, water resources and transportation projects during his two terms as governor. Two of his four children, current California Gov. Jerry Brown, and former State Treasurer Kathleen Brown, eventually followed in his political

CRS also has created separate “gender clubs” for both boys and girls that have turned boys from being abusive themselves to being more protective of their female peers, she said. At the community level, local leaders have been meeting to determine among themselves which cultural practices are harmful to women and which are not, Miller said. Violators are sanctioned by being excluded from local burial contracts, “which is a very big deal,” she added. Citing a variety of global studies, Miller said steps toward gender equality in a country have been shown to improve economic competitiveness by enhancing productivity, improving health outcomes for the next

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April 27, 2012

Fordham symposium explores use of language in new Roman Missal BRONX, N.Y. (CNS) – The language used in the new translation of the Mass has evoked a variety of responses, from highly enthusiastic to deeply distressed, and can be seen as both a gift and a challenge, according to speakers at a symposium April 16 at Jesuit-run Fordham University. The program, “Letting Us Pray: A Symposium on Language in Liturgy,” explored the intricacies of the new English translation of the third edition of the Roman Missal, in use in parishes since last November. A thorough appreciation of the new translation requires a firm grounding “both in the Gospel and in the history and tradition of Catholic worship, not some nostalgic, colorized version of the past” according to keynote speaker Mercy Sister Julia Upton, provost and professor of theology at St. John’s University. Sister Julia said the new language could jolt people into a “second naivete,” where old sacred symbols become newly accessible, without sacrificing either the symbol’s integrity or the believer’s modernity. “What has been called the ‘new’ Roman Missal is not new! It is the same Mass, but it sounds different,” Sister Julia said. “This third edition of the Roman Missal was published in Latin in 2002 and took almost 10 years to translate.” Announced by Pope John Paul II in 2000, the missal is the book of prayers used in the worship in the Latin-rite church. The English translation was a lengthy and rigorous that took place through the International Commission on English in the Liturgy. It was approved in sections by the various bishops’ conferences. It received final approval from the U.S. bishops in November 2009.

(CNS PHOTO/NANCY PHELAN WIECHEC)

By Beth Griffin

A theology professor says the new language could jolt people into a “second naivete,” where old sacred symbols become newly accessible, without sacrificing either the symbol’s integrity or the believer’s modernity.

The tension associated with the implementation of the revised translation can lead to new thinking and dialogue if worshippers remain open and hopeful, Sister Julia said. “There is a lot for all of us to learn in this process.” She said the new language is more poetic, closer to the original Latin and includes more biblical allusions that “people will understand now in a way they never would have before the (Second Vatican) Council opened up the sacred Scriptures for us.” Joel Hoffman, a translator and liturgical language consultant, distinguished between scientific and liturgical translations. Scientific translations are more accurate, but

liturgical translations better serve the needs of the worshippers, he said. He characterized the new missal as a mediocre translation, “not written in the vernacular, despite what people think. People working deeply in this field tend to speak their own internal language,” he said. Hoffman said liturgical translations are used because people are familiar with the language, even if it is not in common use, such as “Hosanna in the Highest.” Sometimes translation reflects “a preference for what we’d like it to say,” such as the Fifth Commandment forbidding either killing or murder. He said liturgical translation sometimes equates to “a blank slate of incoherence,” where the words may not make literal sense to the worshipper, particularly if they are prayed in a different language, but the tone and cadence suggest that the supplicant’s prayer is being heard. Father Matthew Ernest, a member of the Roman Missal Committee of the Archdiocese of New York, said the goal of the new translation is “to encourage full, active participation in the liturgy.” He said it uses “sacral vernacular,” which is clear, dignified and doctrinally precise. Jesuit Father Thomas Scirghi, associate professor of theology at Fordham University, said he is trying to be patient with the new missal. He acknowledged that the previous translation was a rushed version that posed problems and needed revision, but asked, “Is the current translation the improvement we need at this time?” Father Scirghi said, “Liturgy is a school for the emotions. The language of liturgy is less about words than about shaping people as a community.”

Cardinal: Catholic media must ensure work is free from theological, doctrinal error ROME (CNS) – Church communicators have an important and serious duty to obey church teaching and defend the church’s mission of saving souls and safeguarding truth, said the head of the Vatican’s highest court. Caution as well as control over content and where it’s distributed are needed because while the field of communications “has great potential for good,” it “also can be turned to the harm of the faithful,” U.S. Cardinal Raymond L. Burke,

prefect of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature, told a seminar for church communicators. Communicators should be guided and directed by pastors to make sure their content is free from doctrinal and theological error, and Catholics should avoid outlets that openly attack Christian morality, he added. The church “has a solemn obligation to use whatever instruments of communication are most fitting and effective,”

said the cardinal, who is a canon lawyer. Church communicators, in fact, are taking part in the “priestly office of teaching” and must, like priests, ground themselves in an ever greater obedience to the truth of Christ, he said. Canon 823 states pastors have the right and duty “to be watchful so that no harm is done to the faith or morals of the Christian faithful through writings or the use of instruments of social communication.”

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SUNDAY, APRIL 29 REUNION: St. John Ursuline High School alumnae association luncheon at Irish Cultural Center, following Mass at 9:30 a.m. at St. John the Evangelist Church. Golden diplomas will be distributed to the class of 1962. Contact Diane Gragnani at (415) 564-2077. HIGH TEA: Time for Tea with St. Robert Parish, San Bruno, 1-4 p.m. It is an afternoon of fun and friendship, a chance to visit with old friends and to meet new ones. Tickets are $23/adults/$11 children under 10. A special menu will be available for children. For tickets or more information, call (650) 589-2800 or email PPCC5@SaintRoberts.org. 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. Proceeds from the walk will help fight homelessness in San Francisco. Visit www.cropwalksf.org. SPRING FLING: Italian Catholic Federation Branch173 meatballs and pasta dinner at Our Lady of Angels Parish gym, 1721 Hillside Drive, Burlingame. No host bar at 4 p.m. and dinner at 5 p.m. Raffle and silent auction features sports memorabilia. Tickets are $15 adults and $5 children. Call Bea at (650) 344-5276.

GOLDEN JUBILEE MASS: Archbishop George Niederauer celebrates Mass commemorating his 50th year as a priest at 10:30 a.m. at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Gough Street at Geary Boulevard, San Francisco.

THURSDAY, MAY 3 MADONNA COLLECTION: “The Madonna Collection” on exhibit at San Francisco’s Porziuncola Nuova through Oct. 31 depicts the Virgin Mary through the centuries. The Porziuncola and Francesco Rocks Gift Shop, Vallejo at Columbus in North Beach, are open every day but Monday 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Visit www.knightsofstfrancis.com. Call (415) 434-8700. Pictured are Knights of St. Francis of Assisi moving the exhibit’s Madonnina della Porziuncola into the display space.

TUESDAY, MAY 1 MASS OF ST. PEREGRINE: St. Gregory Parish, 28th Avenue at Hacienda Street, San Mateo invites family, friends, caregivers and those afflicted with illnesses to pray for one another at a Mass on the feast of St. Peregrine at 7 p.m. St. Peregrine is patron of those suffering from cancer, AIDS and other illnesses. The sacrament of the anointing of the sick will be part of the liturgy. Contact the parish office at (650) 345-8506. AGING ADVICE: “Medi-Cal, Long-Term Care and Estate Asset Protection,” with attorney, Paul Hunt speaking on Medi-Cal, tips, traps, solutions, St. Mary’s Medical Center, Morrissey Hall, 2250 Hayes St., 2-3:30 p.m. How to find the best nursing homes, use the Medi-Cal system properly, best methods for allocating income, spending down assets, and transferring property, and how to protect your home against Medi-Cal reimbursement claims. Call (415) 750-5790 or email stmarysfoundation@ dignityHealth.org.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 2 MAY CROWNING: “May Crowning and Living Rosary” at All Hallows Chapel, Newhall and Palou, San Francisco at 7:30 p.m. Sponsored by All Hallows #182 Young Ladies Institute. Call Sue Elvander at (415) 467-8872.

SUNDAY, MAY 6 VISITING ARCHBISHOP: Archbishop Paul Cremona of Malta celebrates Mass at 11 a.m. at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Gough Street and Geary Boulevard, San Francisco. Maltese-American organizations, families and friends as well as all the faithful are invited. Lunch is being served after Mass in the cathedral’s Patrons Hall. Contact Ninfa Pace at (650) 697-1079. GRADS’ MOMS: Riordan High School Alumni Moms Brunch, “Hats Off To Moms,” at the Lake Merced Golf Club. All alumni moms and their guests are welcome. Contact Sharon Ghilardi-Udovich, director of special events at (415) 586-8200 ext.*217 or email sudovich@riordanhs.org. CONCERT: St. Elizabeth Church, 459 Somerset St. at Wayland, San Francisco concert celebrating 25th anniversary of the church’s Schoenstein Pipe Organ at 3 p.m. David Schofield will play. St. Elizabeth Parish, Light of God Fil-Am and Knights of Columbus choirs will lead the singing of several hymns. 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.

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MONDAY, MAY 7 SALESIAN OLD TIMERS: Evening honors founders and hard workers of Salesian Boys and Girls Club, at Salesian Auditorium, 650 Filbert St., San Francisco. Founders Day Mass is at 5:45 p.m. in Sts. Peter and Paul Church with cocktails at 6:30 p.m. and dinner at 7:15 p.m. Tickets are $40 per person. Contact Russ Gumina at (415) 397-3068. PERSPECTIVES: The Social Justice Committee of St.Matthias Parish, 1685 Cordilleras Road, Redwood City hosts the League of Women Voters with information on upcoming ballot propositions at 7:30 p.m. Contact Evie Dwyer at (650) 368-9372. GOLF: 53rd Annual Catholic Charities CYO Golf Day benefiting Catholic Charities CYO’s Summer Youth Programs - CYO Camp and CYO Athletics summer programs. Former 49er Ronnie Lott, and Jim McCabe head up the Golf Day Committee, we look forward to another successful day of golf, friendship, and fundraising. This year’s tournament will be held at Sharon Heights Golf and Country Club and Stanford University Golf Course. Complete information is available at www. cyogolfday.org.

TUESDAY, MAY 8 BREAKFAST TALK: Joseph Russoniello is guest speaker for Catholics at Work at Crow Canyon Country Club, 711 Silver Lake Drive, Danville. Russoniello is a former U.S. attorney and is also known for his experience in defense of the Catholic Church. Talk begins at 8:15 a.m. A full buffet breakfast is served starting at 7 a.m. Mass is celebrated at 6:30 a.m. at the same location. Tickets are $20 for members and $25 for non-members. Visit www. catholicsatwork.org.

THURSDAY, MAY 10 DON BOSCO: Don Bosco Study Group meets at 7 p.m. in Sts. Peter and Paul parish center. The study group uses Salesian Father Arthur Lenti’s “Don Bosco: History and Spirit” as the primary source for study and discussion. All are invited, regardless of level of interest or commitment. Rediscover his life, teachings, spirituality, and the continued relevance within our own lives of the Salesian charism. Contact Frank Lavin (415) 310-8551or email frankalvin@ comcast.net.

SATURDAY, MAY 12 FESTIVAL: St. Anselm School Festival of Fun, 10 a.m.-9 p.m., St. Anselm School campus, 40 Belle Ave., San Anselmo. Carnival rides, midway games, live music, delicious barbecue cafe. No admission charge, Discount ride tickets available. Call (415) 454-8667. 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. REUNION: St. Cecilia School, class of ‘55 reunion, at noon at Whitehall Lane Winery, St. Helena. Contact Andi Thuesen Ibarra at andi49ers@yahoo. com or call (415) 665-0959.

THURSDAY, MAY 17 ASSUMPTA AWARDS: The 2012 Assumpta Award Dinner in St. Mary’s Cathedral Event Center honoring Joanne and Martin Murphy, Patricia Coleman, Dominican Father Xavier Lavagetto, and Social Service Sister Celeste Arbuckle. Visit www.stmarycathedralsf.org.

FRIDAY, MAY 18 TALKING ABOUT IT: “Sanctuary and Social Justice: A Conversation with Martin Sheen,” a fundraiser benefiting The Gubbio Project at St. Anthony’s, 150 Golden Gate Ave., San Francisco. Wine and appetizers at 6:15 p.m. and program starts at 7 p.m. Franciscan Father Louis Vitale, Gubbio Project founder and at whose invitation the actor committed to the appearance, will introduce the evening and its participants. The Gubbio Project is daytime outreach to the homeless offering rest in the pews of St. Boniface Church and referral to applicable services. Tickets are $75 per person. Visit www.thegubbioproject.org or call (415) 861-5848. VOCATIONS: “Weekend Religious Life Discernment Retreat” for single Catholic women 18-40, May 18, 19, 20. Is God calling you to consider consecrated life as a Dominican Sister? Discover your place in the mission of Christ with the MSJ Dominicans. RSVP by May 14 to vocations@msjdominicans.org. WIDOWED, DIVORCED WEEKEND: Beginning Experience weekend at the Jesuit Retreat Center, Los Altos. Contact John Ferreira at ferreirajohn@ msn.com or (650) 692-4337. Visit www.beginningexperience.org.

SATURDAY, MAY 19 NEW PRIESTS: Rev. Mr. Armando J. Gutierrez, Rev. Mr. Felix B. Lim, Rev. Mr. Jerome M. Murphy are ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of San Francisco at 10 a.m. at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Gough Street at Geary Boulevard, San Francisco. REUNION: Class of ’51 from Our Lady of Perpetual Help School, Daly City at the 16 Mile House in Millbrae. Search for classmates continues. Call Janet Cirimele at (650) 490-0731.

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SATURDAY, MAY 26 ROSARY CRUSADE: “Public Square Rosary Crusade,” at San Francisco’ U.N. Plaza, Eighth Street and Market Street at noon led by Father John Jimenez. “Don’t let God be pushed from the public square,” organizers said. Call Juanita Agcaoili at (415) 647-7229 or Helen Rosenthal at (415) 661-1991.

SATURDAY, JUNE 2 WHALE OF A SALE: St. Sebastian Church parking lot, Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and Bon Air Road, Greenbrae, setup 7:30 a.m. and shopping from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Spaces available for vendors at $35 each before May 25/$50 each after May 25. Spaces are one full parking space. Call (415) 461-0704 or email sebastian94904@yahoo.com.

SATURDAY, JUNE 9 BOCCE BALL: Riordan Bocce Ball Tournament at Orange Park, South San Francisco. Contact Sharon Ghilardi-Udovich, director of special events at (415) 586-8200 ext.*217 or email sudovich@riordanhs.org. ALUMNAE DAY: “Notre Dame High School Legacy Luncheon” at Notre Dame High School, 1540 Ralston Ave., Belmont. 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, JUNE 24 NEW DEACONS: Archbishop George Niederauer will ordain candidates to the permanent diaconate at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Gough Street at Geary Boulevard, San Francisco at 3:30 p.m.

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

SATURDAY, OCT. 6 REUNION: Marin Catholic High School, class of ’62 at Jason’s Restaurant, Greenbrae. Visit www. marincatholic62.com or call Jeannie at (415) 4793838 or Mergie, at (415) 453-7714.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14 REUNION: Presentation High School, San Francisco, class of 1982, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., at Elks Lodge, 920 Stonegate Drive, South San Francisco. Tickets at $40 per person include delicious brunch. Email Kathy Cooney Eagles at kathycooney@hotmail.com or call (650) 892-7310.

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 for 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.

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noon-4 p.m., at Notre Dame de Namur University’s Wiegand Gallery, 1500 Ralston Ave., Belmont. Artists and teachers David and Thea Ramsey created art imbued with the sense of the sacred. The two taught at schools including Notre Dame de Namur University, Mercy High School, Burlingame and Canada College. Special reception opens the exhibit May 20, 2-4 p.m. Visit www.ndnu.edu/alumni/ upcoming-events.aspx.

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Catholic San Francisco

April 27, 2012

‘Bully’: Poignant documentary on quiet tragedy of teen peer abuse Review by John Mulderig

(CNS PHOTO/UNIVERSAL)

NEW YORK (CNS) – With the poignant documentary “Bully” (Weinstein) filmmaker Lee Hirsch sheds light on a widespread and tenacious social problem and provides a valuable – though not unproblematic – starting point for important family discussions. Hirsch reveals the victimization of a trio of teens from different parts of the country who have endured verbal and physical abuse from their peers at school. He also recounts, primarily through interviews with their grieving parents, the stories of two other students whose sufferings apparently led them to commit suicide. Perhaps the most effective part of the movie is that which concerns a Sioux City, Iowa seventh-grader named Alex Wisely and effectively, Hirsch and his team simply trail Alex through his various experiences. Thus we can hear him almost hyperventilating with dread as he prepares for the first day of a new school year. We later witness Alex’s fears being cruelly fulfilled as some of the other riders on his crowded school bus hit him, strangle him, stab him with a pencil and slam his head into the high backrest of the seat ahead of him. Awkward in manner, and stonily uncommunicative with his parents, Alex unwisely jokes with the boy sitting next to him, at one point, that they are “buddies.” He’s met with a sadly predictable torrent of foul-mouthed abuse. That doomed social gambit grows out of Alex’s determined conviction that his tormentors are actually his pals. Accepting the truth, of course, would mean acknowledging that he is, in fact, friendless. That’s a reality of which we catch a heartrending glimpse as we

Alex Hopkins of Sioux City, Iowa, is seen in the documentary “Bully.”

see Alex engaged in one of his after-school pastimes of choice: standing alone in a vacant lot watching freight trains pull into and out of the local train yard. Adult administrators who appear on screen seem either indifferent or impotent. Kirk Smalley, the father of an 11-year-old boy who took his own life, by contrast, has become engaged in an energetic initiative: Together with his wife Laura, he has established a consciousness-raising movement called Stand for the Silent. Considerable debate has been provoked by the Motion Picture Association of America’s original R rating for “Bully.” While their detractors – online and elsewhere – have argued that this classification bars precisely those who would most benefit from seeing the film, the

MPAA presumably applied it based on the same objective criteria they use in evaluating every other picture, regardless of its social and aesthetic worth or lack thereof. The distributors, who originally spurned the R in favor of releasing the film as unrated, have now made the edits necessary to earn their project a PG-13, though whether some of the vocabulary still spouted by the schoolyard barbarians would be allowed to pass in other films with that rating remains open to question. The new classification stands, in a sense, as an invitation to youthful audiences. Before allowing their teens to accept it, parents should be aware that, in addition to the small-scale brutality on display, the narrative also focuses on the fact that one of those being profiled – a 16-year-old girl named Kelby – is enduring

persecution in her small Oklahoma hometown for being an avowed lesbian. We see Kelby embracing the schoolmate she identifies as her girlfriend. But we also learn that she has been expelled from her church, made the target of a slow-speed hit-andrun incident and prevented from participating in the team sports she loves – and which, she feels sure, would have earned her a college scholarship. Accordingly, younger viewers will need sufficient maturity – or guidance – to distinguish between the individual rights of the homosexually oriented and a broader social agenda out of keeping with Scripture and sacred tradition. Such a distinction is called for by the church’s teaching as stated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which calls homosexual acts “intrinsically disordered,” but adds that those with deep-seated homosexual tendencies “must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity” and that “every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.” Still, after careful parental consideration, “Bully” may possibly be found, on balance, acceptable for older adolescents. The film contains scenes of cruelty and petty violence, adult themes, including suicide and homosexuality, at least one use of the F-word and numerous crude and crass insults. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III – adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 – parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. Mulderig is on the staff of Catholic News Service.

‘Hunger Games’: Warning for our culture, opportunity for Christians Reviewed by Therese Aaker “I just want them to know that they don’t own me. If I’m going to die, I want to still be me.” – Peeta Mellark, “The Hunger Games” Those are chilling words for readers of young-adult fiction. The whole premise of young people forced to kill each other for sport is disturbing. It echoes the days of the Roman Empire, which pitted gladiators and wild animals against Christians in the Colosseum for citizens’ entertainment. The “Hunger Games,” both the books and movie, is an eerie reminder of where we’ve been – and that we are capable of going there again. In his YouTube commentary on the film, Father Robert Barron calls it a “dangerously prophetic story.” I agree: It is what our culture could become if we don’t change it. It shows what would happen if we completely erase God from our culture.

SCRIPTURE SEARCH Gospel for April 29, 2012 John 10:11-18 Following is a word search based on the Gospel reading for Fourth Sunday, Cycle B: the teaching of the Good Shepherd. The words can be found in all directions in the puzzle. GOOD SHEPHERD SHEEP LEAVES I KNOW THIS FOLD TAKE IT UP FROM ME

LAYS DOWN HIRED RUNS AWAY KNOW ME MY VOICE AGAIN POWER

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

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Our society has tried wiping God from the public sphere for years. The name of God is erased from public schools and even our Pledge of Allegiance. We are obsessed with reality TV and entertainment. Just take a look at how much money the box office makes. The dignity of human life is constantly under attack with issues like abortion and euthanasia. These issues are almost so “normal” we don’t really think about them anymore, and, if we do, we are often too afraid to actually make a change. This relevance to contemporary issues is what makes “The Hunger Games” so successful. It is also why many young people like me resonate with it so much. Our culture is saturated in technology and entertainment, and young people face attacks on the worth of the human person unlike any other time in history. Many are concerned about the violence in “The Hunger Games” and whether or not people – particularly young people – should be exposed to it. Violence is messy, and it’s an ugly reality of the world we live in. Father Barron contends the film didn’t show enough violence, as if it watered down the messy realities we face. Yet it is understandable for us to be wary – for more than 2,000 years, the church has promoted peace in the face of an increasingly permissive culture. However, if we view “The Hunger Games” with a missionary mentality, we can discover that it includes meaningful content that can motivate Catholics to keep up the good fight and provide opportunities for discussions with non-Catholics. We should welcome these opportunities. “So though I was not a slave to any human being,

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I put myself in slavery to all people, to win as many as I could. … I accommodated myself to people in all kinds of different situations, so that by all possible means I might bring some to salvation,” says St. Paul in his First Letter to the Corinthians. We can use “The Hunger Games” to discuss how its issues are similar to our own and how Katniss Everdeen, the main character, provides a good example for how we are to respond to these issues. Consider the following: First, the dark, violent atmosphere of the story itself serves a purpose. Immediately, we understand that we are not going to view some pretty, ribbon-tied piece of entertainment. We are shown a world that is an ugly mess – one in need of drastic change, like our own. Through the story’s God-less culture and through the horrendous attacks on human life, we are confronted with the reality that the world is unjust. “The Hunger Games” prompts the question, “How can we explain the lack of justice in our own world?” Catholics can provide an answer. Second, the film treats violence in a way that emphasizes the sacredness of human life. The violence against human beings in the books and the movie is not glorified. Many of the characters who engage in violence are portrayed as victims who choose to be violent only because they must survive or resist the injustice they face. The signature injustice of the violent government in “The Hunger Games” is its disregard for all human life. As one character says, “(The government) sends out a very clear message: ‘Mess with us, and we’ll do something worse than kill you. We’ll kill your children.’” Katniss experiences firsthand the injustice promoted by her government, even upon young people, as her younger sister is chosen – against her will – to participate in a fight to the death. Citing the film, the books or both, Catholics can show how an oppressive government and a culture of death arise from a disregard for human life. We can try to show how our nation’s current trends are setting the stage for a government and culture depicted on screen. Third, “The Hunger Games” portrays the beauty of selfsacrifice. Katniss and her friend Peeta Mellark, who is in the games with her, refuse to play the game the way their government wants and won’t kill each other; rather, they team up and sacrifice themselves for one another. When Peeta is badly wounded, Katniss decides to get him medicine, exposing herself to the other players. It’s basically suicide. Peeta protests, saying, “Katniss, you’re not going to risk your life for me. I won’t let you.” Katniss responds, “You would do it for me, wouldn’t you?” The characters make the right choices – even if it means losing their lives. Catholics can use these characteristics of Katniss’ personality to show that society needs people who battle a selfish culture of death with self-sacrificial choices and actions. Therese Aaker is a sophomore at Benedictine College, Atchison, Kan. Reprinted with permission of the author and National Catholic Register.

April 27, 2012

Novenas Prayer to the Holy Spirit

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

Prayer to the Blessed Virgin never known to fail. Most beautiful flower of Mt. Carmel Blessed Mother of the Son of God, assistme 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. ALVY

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Call: 415.290.6504

Required Skills: The successful candidate will be a self-starter who possesses excellent organizational skills, is attentive to detail, and has the ability to handle multiple priorities and deadlines in an efficient manner. Candidates must have strong interpersonal skills and the ability to work both independently and as a member of a team. A professional demeanor and the ability to handle confidential information are essential. Must be able to type 45 words per minute, be technologically proficient in Excel and Word and have the ability to learn additional software as needed.

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Experience: High School Diploma or equivalent required, Bachelors degree preferred. Previous experience in responsible office positions is required. Previous experience in working with and motivating volunteers and previous experience with graphic or publishing software preferred. Previous light book keeping experience is desirable For more details about this position and specifics on the application process, please visit: www.olaparish.org/JobPosition.aspx

PRINCIPAL POSITION AVAILABLE 2012-2013 SCHOOL YEAR ST. TIMOTHY CATHOLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, SAN MATEO Saint Timothy School is a Catholic elementary school in San Mateo, Grades K to 8, serving an ethnically diverse population. It has instructional aides, teachers for Spanish language instruction, computer science, general and instrumental music, and P. E. It offers a full-day Kindergarten, a special needs program, an art program, extended care before and after school, an athletic program, a departmentalized junior high, a rigorous comprehensive curriculum, and a secure environment. QUALIFICATIONS FOR A PRINCIPAL: • A practicing Roman Catholic in good standing with the Church • A valid teaching credential • Five years successful teaching experience at the K-8 level (at least three in Catholic schools) • A Master’s degree in educational leadership and an administrative credential(preferred) • Five years successful administrative experience at the K-8 level (at least three in Catholic schools) APPLICATION AND INTERVIEW: Applicants must complete an application and establish a personnel file with the Department of Catholic Schools. Materials may also be downloaded from the Department of Catholic Schools website, www.sfcatholicschools.org. The requested material plus a letter of interest should be returned to: Mr. Bret E. Allen Associate Superintendent for Educational and Professional Leadership Department of Catholic Schools One Peter Yorke Way San Francisco, CA 94109-6602 Applicants with personnel files already established with the Department of Catholic Schools should send a letter indicating an interest in applying for the position and contact Bret Allen by phoning (415) 614-5665 or by e-mailing at allenb@sfarchdiocese.org to update files. SALARY: Salary for the position will be determined according to Archdiocesan guidelines based upon experience as a teacher or administrator and graduate education. Medical, dental and retirement benefits are included.

24

Catholic San Francisco

April 27, 2012

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