Catholic san Francisco
( P H OT O © 2 0 0 7 A R N E F O L K E DA L @ G M A I L . C O M )
Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper
Ana Lirio Malfabon, a member of the dance ministry troupe based at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish in Redwood City, praises with raised arms during the Sept. 28-30 Holy Spirit Conference held at the James Lindland Theater at Archbishop Riordan High School in San Francisco. The multi-lingual charismatic gathering drew more than 500 participants from throughout the Archdiocese. Read full coverage in next week’s Catholic San Francisco and see additional material on the newspaper Web site: www.catholic-sf.org.
Pope Benedict: overhaul social structures to tackle poverty By Carol Glatz VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Handouts to the poor are not enough; poverty must be tackled by overhauling social structures that deny people basic human rights, Pope Benedict XVI said at his weekly general audience. “It is not enough to give alms and help the poor on a case-by-case basis,” he said, citing the teachings of St. John Chrysostom. The saint saw that a new structure, based on the Christian vision of the human family, is needed, the pope said. Pope Benedict returned briefly to the Vatican from his papal summer villa south of Rome for his Sept. 26 audience in St. Peter’s Square. The pope continued a catechesis he began Sept. 19 that focused on the life and writings of St. John Chrysostom, the fourth-century doctor of the Church and archbishop of Constantinople, now Istanbul, Turkey. Pope Benedict said St. John Chrysostom was one of the great forefathers of the Church’s social doctrine, and with St. Paul the Apostle he fostered the idea of a city built upon the primacy of the person.
St. John Chrysostom “corrected the traditional Greek vision of the polis, the city, in which large segments of the population were excluded from the rights of citizenship” and were trapped in poverty and slavery, the pope said. “In Pope Benedict XVI’s homily on the work of St. John Chrysostom he rightly emphasizes that we, as Catholic
said, adding, “We want to do more than to just give the poor food for a day, a week or even a year, as important as that is. We want to get at helping the poor of the world to help themselves, to be able to grow their own food, be educated with their own leaders and health care workers, so that they can have the dignity that the pope is talking about.”
‘It is not enough to give alms and help the poor on a case-by-case basis’ – Pope Benedict XVI Christians, must go beyond charity in the way we meet the poor of the world. We must do justice and change structures of society that deny people basic human rights and keep them in poverty,” said George Wesolek, director of the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s Office of Public Policy and Social Concerns. That message will be at the core of the Oct. 27 Pont7Now! conference at St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco, he
According to Pope Benedict, St. John Chrysostom proposed a new kind of city inspired by Christian values, a city that had “a Christian soul and face” and in which “all people are brothers and sisters with equal rights.” An expert on globalization, Father Ken Weare agrees. “During his 25-year papacy, Pope John Paul II, on numerous occasions, aggressively criticized the negative effects of globalization and the neo-lib-
eral economic system. And, a few times he even questioned capitalism itself. In the short time Benedict VI has been pope, he too has on occasion criticized the negative impact of neo-liberal globalization. But now for the very first time, he has dared to question the economic infrastructure itself.” The pastor of Fairfax’s St. Rita Parish, Father Weare called the papal exhortation “perhaps the most far-reaching and dramatic challenge so for in his papacy.” “While it inevitably will be dismissed from Wall Street to Main Street, it is a new seed planted in the hearts and minds of good people everywhere, eagerly struggling to take root in a world of rocks and weeds,” he said. Pope Benedict told some 20,000 pilgrims gathered in the square how St. John Chrysostom showed that God gave people four steps to get to know God, whom the saint called “a tender father, doctor of souls, mother and affectionate friend.” People can first find God in his creation of nature, he said. In contemplating the beauty of creation, “creation almost becomes like a ladder for climbing up toward God, for getting to know God,” the pope said. The pope said that, according to St. TACKLE POVERTY, page 22
INSIDE THIS WEEK’S EDITION Father James Atkins, 88, taken by death Sept. 25 Cautious good news for St. Vincent’s Home
~ Page 5 ~
~ Page 3 ~ October 5, 2007
Teen brain explained . . . . 10
Rwandan genocide survivor moves students with her story
Street fair stirs furor. . . . . 11 Respect Life! . . . . . . . . 12-17 Travel directory . . . . . . . . 23 Datebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
~ Page 20 ~ Classified ads . . . . . . . 26-27
www.catholic-sf.org SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS
VOLUME 9
•
No. 29