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A U.S. soldier guards the checkpoint on the outskirts of the city of Tal Afar, Iraq, north of Baghdad, Sept. 13. Catholic experts say U.S. President George W. Bush and his Democratic rival for the White House, Sen. John F. Kerry, have important differences on questions of war and peace.
Campaign ‘04: Candidates take different approaches to unilateralism By Jerry Filteau Catholic News Service WASHINGTON — The words “unilateralism” and “multilateralism” won’t make it into either presidential campaign’s ads or sound bites, but Catholic peace experts say they represent an important difference between the two main candidates on questions of war and peace. Republican President George W. Bush has a tendency toward unilateralism, while Democratic Sen. John F. Kerry espouses a more multilateral approach, according to the experts. Catholic social teaching on international justice and peace promotes greater use of international law and international institutions as a means of protecting human rights and the common good. The differences between the two candidates on questions of unilateralism and
multilateralism are not black and white, however. “There is a different emphasis, but not much of a fundamental difference,” said Gerard Powers, director of policy studies at the University of Notre Dame’s Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. Jesuit Father Drew Christiansen, associate editor of the national Catholic magazine America, said the issue is important, however. He told Catholic News Service, “I think the Bush administration, as it’s articulated its foreign policy . . . , would be the polar opposite of the Catholic position because it rejects multilateralism for aggressive, muscular unilateralism, even with respect to our closest allies, saying no one else will determine what our interests are or what we will do. And that includes preventive war. “Generally, the church has favored multilateralism, and particularly international law and the U.N. system as a way of doing that, knowing that the U.N. system is far from perfect,” he said. CAMPAIGN ‘04, page 7
INSIDE THIS WEEK’S EDITION Respect Life conference . . . 3 News-in-brief. . . . . . . . . . 4-5 Analyst sees shift . . . . . . . . 9 Commentary and letters. . 12 Columnists . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Scripture & reflection . . . . 14
This Catholic Life ~ Page 6 ~ September 17, 2004
Letter from Africa ~ Pages 10-11 ~ FIFTY CENTS
Movie review ~ Page 17 ~
Classified ads . . . . . . . . . . 19
www.catholic-sf.org VOLUME 6
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Catholic San Francisco
September 17, 2004
On The Where You Live by Tom Burke
Notre Dame High School, Belmont honored faculty and staff with 20 or more years of service at a Mass of the Holy Spirit September 3. San Francisco Auxiliary Bishop John Wester presided. From left, Valerie Collett, Loren Molnar, Margaret Keller, Tom Byrne, Bishop Wester, Joey Peterson, Betty Rupp, and Peggy Brady. Not pictured are Richard Schultz and Michael McKenna. Rita Gleason is principal.
It was water, water everywhere in February for kindergartners at St. Charles Elementary School in San Francisco. The students’ basement classroom fell victimto what the school called “the worst concentrated storm in the City’s history” when “street sewers backed up” and the “kinder classroom” got washed out. Hard work from parents, friends and volunteers restored the waterlogged learning space in less than a week. Sporting their “Veteran of the St. Charles Flood 2004” sweatshirts are kindergarten teacher, Dominican Sister Genevieve Binas, and now-first graders, from left, Myrnsia Carter, Evelyn Castro, Nicole Ramirez, Francisco Cedeno, Allyson Castro and at bottom, Cristian Sario. Welcome aboard at St. Charles to new principal, Dominican Sister Celestine Bancal.
Recently admitted to the rank of Eagle Scout was Danny Wandro of St. Charles Parish, San Carlos and a 2004 grad of Junipero Serra High School. Mighty proud are Danny’s folks Cathy and Bob, as well as, brothers, Patrick, a Serra sophomore and Stephen, a 7th grader at St. Charles. Handling the Scout installation ceremonies were Scoutmaster Tom Miller and assistant Scoutmasters, Ed Slintak and John Wise. Father Kieran McCormick, St. Charles pastor and Bob’s cousin led prayer. Father Kieran also witnessed Bob and Cathy’s marriage, May 30, 1981 in the chapel of the couple’s alma mater, St.
Catholic san Francisco
Mary’s College, Moraga. Danny’s scout-smarts should well equip him for finding his way around the campus of UC Santa Cruz where he is now a freshman…. Congrats to Mark Okashima, new vice-president of Financial and Strategic Planning at Seton Medical Center. Born in San Jose, Mark has been with the Daughters of Charity since 1992 and most recently has served as the hospital’s Chief Financial Officer. He is a member of San Francisco’s Most Holy Redeemer Parish and holds an undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley and an MBA from Santa Clara. “Mark is highly respected by Seton’s physicians, management team and associates,” said Daughter of Charity and Seton executive, Sister William Eileen Eagle Scout Danny Wandro Dunn. “He has a strong commitment to the mission and values of the Daughters of Charity.” …Happy anniversary to Joan and Dave Belli, now of Pleasant Hill, but who took their vows at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church 50 years ago August 29th. Helping them mark the occasion are daughters, Pam Gerchow with husband, Rich, and their children Christine, Michael and Lauren; Michele Meredith with husband Jon, and daughters, Gina and Molly, and son, David, a sports editor with the Contra Costa Times. Thanks to Michele for fillin’ us in and as Aunt Michele asking “prayers please” for Christine, who is
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battling illness….Due a coupla’ welcome aboards are Mario Mihelcic, new development and PR assistant at the St. Vincent de Paul Society of San Mateo County, and Ed Mahoney, new alumni/development director at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Elementary School in Daly City. Mario is a Santa Clara grad and son of Andjelka and Bozidar Mihelcic of St. Timothy Parish, San Mateo. A communications major, Mario said he wanted to “blend my degree with the needs of my community.” He’ll join longtime PR and development director Loretta Pehanich, in getting the word out and the funds in. Don’t want to miss the chance to offer kudos to Loretta a model Vincentian and one of the best at promoting her projects. Ed Mark Okashima is an OLPH, Riordan and USF alum who recently retired after a 38-year career with Safeway. “Our goal is bringing OLPH alumni and friends back together socially and raising money to improve the school,” Ed said. An auction/dinner dance in support of the cause is in the offing…. It only takes a moment to let us know about a birthday, anniversary, special achievement, or special happening in your life. Just jot down the basics and send with a follow-up phone number to On the Street Where You Live, One Peter Yorke Way, SF 94109. You can also fax to (415) 614-5633 or e-mail, do not send attachments, to tburke@catholic-sf.org.
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‘Respect Life’ conference keys on cultural, scientific and personal aspects By Jack Smith A big-screen actress and model; an award winning columnist and bioethics expert; and a scholar of religious anthropology were the featured speakers at the Annual Respect Life Conference September 11 at St. Mary’s Cathedral. Archbishop Levada opened the day with words of encouragement for the pro-life leaders assembled and prayer. He said life issues were of “foundational importance” and thanked those working to find and offer alternatives to abortion. Workers in the pro-life movement can be “subject to discouragement,” he said, but noted the astonishing resiliency of the movement and the many “minds that are touched” by its message. The Archbishop commended the participants to the protection and example of Blessed Mother Teresa and also prayed for the victims of terrorism and the “unborn victims of our abortion culture and for their mothers.” Conference speaker Gil Bailie is the author of “Violence Unveiled: Humanity at the Crossroads.” He is president of The Cornerstone Forum and a popular speaker on violence, religion, and the anthropology of famed Stanford Professor Rene Girard. Bailie said that all cultures at all times have had some form of a “Culture of Death.” The “scapegoating phenomenon” is at the heart of all archaic cultures he said. “Fallen humanity has always sided with death against death . . . In a world without religious transcendence, death becomes (the organizing principle) . . . the final incontrovertible fact.” All archaic cultures form around the sacrifice of a victim, whose death allows order in the rest of society. This death of the victim, who assumes the guilt of society or is seen as the guilty one, has religious significance. Christianity, Bailie said, broke this pattern and turned it on its head “because Christ is the innocent victim . . . At the resurrection and nowhere else the power of death was broken.” Bailie said the current culture of death “is a new strain of the virus,” seemingly immune to old remedies. “What’s so alarming about contemporary culture is that it is a postChristian culture of death,” he said. Bailie spoke of “two modalities of sacrifice” common to most culture. The first is the victim whose sacrifice has real significance at the heart of society. The second is a class whose exclusion defines who is privileged to the benefits and protections of the society. Unlike the sacrificial victim, the excluded class is unimportant in themselves. They have no rights or significance and their death is not a religious sacrifice, but a casting out of a “nobody” or non-person. “Their demise is uninteresting,” he said. Bailie equated this class in the modern world to victims of abortion. The cultural conspiracy or “structural sin” which allows the class to be excluded is based on ignoring
Gil Bailie
Jennifer O’Neill
or hiding the truth of their humanity and fate. It requires, “eyes that cannot see and ears that cannot hear,” he said. Modern society is now at a “critical moment,” he said. The myths which originally obscured the truth about the humanity of the unborn and the reality of abortion are being deconstructed. “The fact that the issues are clearer and clearer” means we face a critical choice, he said. “Are we going to continue even if we see it for what it is or are you going to stop it,” he asked. Bailie said the “madman” philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche saw clearly the choice before post-modern man even as he wrote in the 19th century. “The choice is between Dionysus and Christ,” he said. Whether we see the world as necessity and fate and unflinchingly follow where they may lead (Dionysus) or we see the world made over with the gratuity of Christ’s love, building an ethics based upon that, is the choice for post-moderns, Bailie said. The post-modernist is likely to answer the question wrong because he asks the wrong questions, Bailie said. “The post-modernist asks three questions, ‘Why not? Who says? and So What?’” Bailie said. Instead, the “anthropological question we have to ask every day is, ‘Why are we here?’ . . .Christianity requires that we want to know the answer to that one question,” he said. Wesley J. Smith is the author of ten books including the upcoming “Consumer’s Guide to a Brave New World.” He
Wesley Smith
is an attorney and award-winning opinion writer on bioethics, appearing in, among others, New York Times, Newsweek and San Francisco Chronicle. Smith is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, and is a consultant for the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide and to the Center for Bioethics and Culture. Smith spoke on the “emerging religion of biotech” in America with specific reference to cloning and the claims made for embryonic stem-cell research (see Editorial, page 12). Smith said the most important question regarding bioethical concerns, and one being ignored, is “Does human life have ultimate intrinsic value simply and ultimately because it is human . . . and if not, then what creates value?” Smith explained in detail many of the successes and potential cures proceeding from current research on adult stem cells and lamented that more is not said in public debate about this area, “where there is no moral problem.” Instead, he said, the debate has centered on obscuring the purpose and process of therapeutic cloning and hyping “cures around the corner.” Smith said that therapeutic cloning does not differ in any important way from reproductive cloning; It is only the ends which differ. Therapeutic cloning involves “creating human life explicitly for the purpose of destroying it,” he said. While human cloning research is at an early stage, New Jersey has RESPECT LIFE, page 8
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HELPLINES FOR CLERGY/CHURCH SEXUAL ABUSE VICTIMS 415-614-5506 This number is answered by Barbara Elordi, Archdiocesan Pastoral Outreach Coordinator. This is a secured line and is answered only by Barbara Elordi. 415-614-5503 If you wish to speak to a non-archdiocesan employee please call this nunmber. This is also a secured line and is answered only by a victim survivor.
LifeChain When: Time:
Sunday, October 3, 2004 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. In San Francisco, CA. All over the United States on that day, Christians will stand as we will holding signs protesting abortion.
Join Us.
We start here.
M I S S I O N S T R E E T Directions:
15th Street Stand in a human chain peacefully demostrating that adoption is prefered to abortion, and that women are hurt by abortion. Gather Christians from your churches and count them. Call (415) 864-6954 to order the signs.Your group will be assigned a length of Mission St. on which to stand for that one hour. This is a loving, courageous act which has great impact upon observers. Be part of it.
Ride BART to 16th and Mission St.s or to 24th and Mission Sts. For years we have asked only $1.00 donation for each sign and we ask it again this year
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Catholic San Francisco
NEWS
September 17, 2004 18 of 21 sexual abuse lawsuits under mediation. The settlements totaled $2,036,800. In California, an attorney for the Los Angeles Archdiocese said the archdiocese would appeal a Sept. 8 decision by Superior Court Judge Thomas F. Nuss ordering the archdiocese to turn over 80 pages of personnel files on two priests accused of sexual abuse of minors who are being investigated by a grand jury for possible criminal charges.
in brief
California Catholic charismatic renewal convention draws 12,000 WASHINGTON — At a forum sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus, Bishop Wilton D. Gregory of Belleville, Ill., addressed public policy concerns ranging from poverty to peace, abortion to marriage, racism to immigration, workers’ rights to public aid for private schools. Bishop Gregory, the first African-American bishop to be president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, was one of five religious leaders who spoke at the Sept. 10 forum, “Great Voices of Faith in a Time of Crisis,” held as part of the caucus’ 34th annual legislative conference in Washington. “As a matter of faith,” he said, “the Catholic Church is concerned for the good of every human person and teaches that every person’s dignity is God-given and inalienable. ... Whatever the failings of individual Catholics, Catholic teaching embodies the highest values to which society must aspire if it is to be fully human.” He called it “appalling” that in a nation as rich as America there is a large class of working poor. “The ‘working poor’ want to work and do have work, but are still poor. We must foster the means by which people not only can find work, but work which lifts them and their families out of poverty,” he said.
Identification cards open doors for undocumented Mexicans GALLUP, N.M. — In the basement of St. Francis School in Gallup, a 28-year-old woman waited while her husband completed an application for a Mexican government identification card. Her husband hoped to be among the thousands of undocumented Mexicans in New Mexico allowed to use the identification to obtain a driver’s license. While some observers feel the card program is controversial, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson signed legislation in 2003 to allow it. Since March 2002, Mexican consulates throughout the United States have been aggressively promoting “matriculas consular,” or Mexican identification cards. The cards are considered a valid source of identification that undocumented Mexican immigrants can use to open bank accounts at 160 banks nationwide or to obtain a driver’s license in one of 13 states which recognize the card for that purpose. Some opponents of the cards, however, see their promotion as a surreptitious effort by the Mexican government to circumvent the U.S. naturalization process.
Ignatius Press launches new web site journal SAN FRANCISCO — Ignatius Press has launched a new online journal of culture, theology and news that will allow readers to communicate directly with the publishing house’s authors. IgnatiusInsight.com — edited and produced by author and Catholic apologist Carl E. Olson — is billed by the San Francisco-based
(CNS PHOTO COURTESY NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS)
Bishop Gregory addresses public issues at forum
Russ Hochstein, a 6-foot-4-inch, 300-pound left guard for the New England Patriots, continues to rely on his Catholic faith to help him deal with the instability of professional athletics and the temptations that come with "living the fast life" of money and celebrity status. Hochstein, 26, is entering into his fourth year in the National Football League. He is pictured in an undated file photo.
publisher as a web site “for the thoughtful Catholic reader.” “We want to provide Catholic readers with a Web site where they can read insightful, informative articles, interviews and reviews, knowing that the Ignatius Press authors are orthodox and proud of it,” Olson said. He is the co-author of “The Da Vinci Hoax” and “Will Catholics Be ‘Left Behind’?” The Web site, at www.ignatiusinsight.com, also links to the new Insight Scoop blog, an interactive online web log with daily commentary from Ignatius Press authors and staff about theological issues, movies, music and books, current events in the Catholic Church, and related topics.
Abuse settlements reached; court rules on priest files WASHINGTON — Three U.S. dioceses reached a new phase in clergy sexual abuse settlements recently and a fourth said it would appeal a judge’s order to turn over some priest personnel files. In the Cincinnati Archdiocese 134 sexual abuse claimants signed up by the Sept. 1 deadline to seek independently mediated settlement of their claims under a $3 million fund the archdiocese has set aside for that purpose. The Diocese of Springfield, Mass., delivered checks to 46 abuse claimants Aug. 31, completing the main element of a $7 million settlement reached in July. In agreements announced Aug. 25, the St. Louis Archdiocese settled
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Growing in intergenerational appeal, the 33rd annual Southern California Renewal Communities’ Catholic Renewal Convention drew more than 2,000 youths. Approximately 12,000 participants — including children, teens, young adults, families, singles and seniors — attended the Sept. 3-5 event at the Anaheim Convention Center. Opening the assembly was Dominic Berardino, president of the Southern California Renewal Communities, which serves the Catholic charismatic renewal in the Los Angeles Archdiocese. He commented on what he said is the underreported “spiritual vitality” of the church. His remarks — and prayers for victims of the school hostage situation in Beslan, Russia — were followed by a rousing talk from Alex Jones, a former Pentecostal minister who is now a Catholic and works for the Detroit archdiocesan evangelization office. “We are living in one of the greatest periods of church history,” said Jones. “In spite of the (clergy sexual abuse) crisis going on in the church, this is an exciting time to be a part of the church.”
National study assesses gay-lesbian ministries WASHINGTON — Catholics who lead gay and lesbian ministry in their parishes rate days of recollection for gay and lesbian parishioners as one of the most effective programs they offer, said a national study released Sept. 9. Leaders also tended to rank their programs of social services and gay and lesbian support groups as excellent. Some leaders of diocesan or parish gay and lesbian ministry said their very existence as an officially recognized Catholic ministry was a major accomplishment. Among those in parish ministry, most described their pastor as very supportive but many said relationships with the diocese posed a significant challenge. The study was conducted by the National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries with assistance from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, an independent Catholic research agency based at Georgetown University in Washington. CARA wrote the 124-page report on the study and an eight-page summation of its findings.
Grenada bishop says massive rebuilding needed in diocese PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad — The bishop of the Caribbean island of Grenada said the entire diocese will have to be completely rebuilt after being devastated by a powerful hurricane churning its way toward the United States. Bishop Vincent Darius of St. George’s in Grenada said all church structures there had been damaged following the passage of Hurricane Ivan, the most powerful storm to hit the region in a decade. “Like all the other buildings here, our churches, presbyteries, convents and schools have received structural damage,” he said. Ivan, traveling through the A FRANCISCAN
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Saturday October 16, 2004 2 PM At Theatre St Boniface 133 Golden Gate Ave. San Francisco
Produced by: Anita Missin & Doug Marshall Directed By: Paul Seliga & Christine Morrison
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Catholic San Francisco
September 17, 2004 Caribbean and headed for Cuba and the United States, killed at least 47 people, including 19 in Grenada and 19 in Jamaica. Ninety percent of Grenada’s buildings were flattened or badly damaged, and the Red Cross estimated 60,000 of the island’s 90,000 people were left homeless. Speaking to Catholic News Service on a borrowed cell phone Sept. 12, Bishop Darius said the roof of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in St. George’s had caved in.
CAMALDOLI, Italy — Bombs ripped through five Catholic churches in Baghdad and northern Iraq in August and in the six weeks that followed, some 10,000 Iraqi Catholics fled the country, said Jesuit Father Samir Khalil Samir. The events in Iraq offer a compressed illustration of a trend throughout the Arab world, where Christian populations have dwindled in the face of conflict and growing Islamic fundamentalism, Father Samir said. Father Samir, an Egyptian-born expert on Islam who runs the Center for Arab-Christian Documentation and Research in Beirut, Lebanon, spoke Sept. 11 at an interreligious conference at the monastery in Camaldoli. Father Samir said the latest exodus of Iraqi Catholics was not simply a response to the church attacks, but also a reflection that work was disappearing for Christians in the country. Almost all those who left in August were Chaldean Catholics, and many are seeking to emigrate to the United States or Australia, where they have relatives, the priest said.
Vatican criticizes new arrests of underground Catholics in China VATICAN CITY — The Vatican criticized a fresh wave of arrests of Catholic clergy and faithful belonging to the underground church community in
(CNS PHOTO FROM REUTERS)
Islamic fundamentalism behind Christian exodus, Jesuit says
An Orthodox Jewish teenager prays during morning prayers at a synagogue in Jerusalem Sept. 14, one day before the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashana, which marks the start of the Jewish New Year. Observant Jews say special prayers early in the morning asking forgiveness for sins committed in the past year.
China. Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls called the detentions a “serious violation” of the “the fundamental human right of freedom of religion.” He also called for the release of those arrested so that they could return “to their pastoral duties” in their “respective Catholic communities.” Catholics who maintained loyalty to the Vatican were forced underground in the late 1950s, when the Chinese government set up the state-sanctioned Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association. Today, harsh restrictions on religion are still imposed in some parts of the country.
Vatican cardinal says terrorism destroying society, provoking fear CAMALDOLI, Italy — A Vatican cardinal warned that increasing acts of global terrorism are destroying modern society and provoking a widespread state of fear. “It’s painful to say this, but
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terrorism — especially terrorism that seeks an exploitative and inconsistent justification in religion — is beginning to condition our lives and our society. It is destroying the bodies of individuals and the body of society,” Cardinal Achille Silvestrini said Sept. 10. The cardinal, who once served as the Vatican’s top foreign affairs official, spoke at an interreligious conference in the central Italian monastery town of Camaldoli. He was one of several speakers who voiced alarm at the escalating incidence and brutality of terrorism. The whole world seems caught up in “a new, huge wave of hatred,” Cardinal Silvestrini said. “In the face of terror that humiliates human lives, fear dictates new rules of living,” he said.
Pope begins renewed focus on Eucharist VATICAN CITY — After an intense quarter-century of teaching, writing and
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traveling, Pope John Paul II is going back to the basics with a renewed focus on the Eucharist. He has convened a special eucharistic year that begins in October. Last year he wrote an encyclical extolling the Eucharist as the source and culmination of the church’s life. He has convened a Synod of Bishops on the same topic for the fall of 2005. And more frequently he speaks of the importance of the Eucharist in the life of each Catholic. The Eucharist has a “transforming power” that provides the courage to live the faith and to spread the Gospel, the pope said in June before leading a eucharistic procession through downtown Rome. “There’s a very close connection between the Eucharist and announcing Christ,” he said. In fact, said Cardinal Jozef Tomko, who heads the Vatican’s committee for international eucharistic congresses, the pope is convinced that unless Catholics have a firm understanding of the Eucharist the church’s many missionary and social activities lose meaning.
Police say arrested Hindu suspect confesses to stabbing Indian priest COCHIN, India — Police said a Hindu man arrested Sept. 7 for the murder of a Catholic priest in southern India’s Kerala state confessed to the crime. Panthalkoottam Raghukumar reportedly told investigators he stabbed to death Father Job Chittilapilly to protest the priest’s “anti-Hindu activities.” Police sources quoted him as saying the Catholic priest’s charitable activities for Hindu families incited him, reported UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand. Raghukumar, 25, allegedly belongs to the pro-Hindu Indian People’s Party, India’s main opposition party, but local party leaders denied he was a member or worked for them. Father Chittilapilly, 71, was found dead Aug. 28 on a porch at Mother of Grace Parish, 25 miles north of Cochin. His body bore four stab wounds. An autopsy later confirmed the stab wounds caused the death. – Catholic News Service
Catholic San Francisco
September 17, 2004
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Life By Tom Burke Coralis Salvador has chosen to live the familiar Gospel exhortation to come and follow the Lord. The longtime member of San Francisco’s St. Cecilia Parish recently returned from a three-year stay in Africa as a Maryknoll lay missionary and a few days ago went back for more. Kenya has become almost home to Coralis. “God’s presence among the marginalized people I serve in Kenya inspires me to continue working with the HIV/AIDS clients and orphans,” the mother of five adult children said. An average morning for the 57-year old missionary has her visiting clients in one of the six parishes she serves in the Diocese of Mombasa. In the afternoon, clients from other parishes come to visit her. Several times each month she takes pastoral overnights in remote locations. Tending to her personal life must wait until 5:30 p.m. on most days with Mass, daily food shopping, cooking and doing her laundry by hand. Coralis has come to understand that when working with people stricken with virulent disease the loss of lives is imminent. “Death of clients is part of my ministry and each occurrence is personal and different,” Coralis said. “It
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Maryknoll lay missionary helping and learning in Kenya never ceases to be emotionally hurtful especially when it is Coralis has had direct contact with about 500 children during a child. I’ve learned to trust that God is in control and there her first volunteer term but says on a wider scale the Church has is a purpose to it all.” helped 9,000 vulnerable children in the Diocese of Mombasa. “In Kenya, more than 750 people die daily from AIDS,” Her “greatest experience,” she said has been getting to Coralis said. “Malaria is know the “Kenyan spiritual another major killer of chilway of life that focuses on dren. A mother will give the present and that we are birth to as many as eight one.” She said her time with children and half of them the people of the ravaged will not survive.” land has led her to believe Coralis misses her chilthat “what affects them dren but said her time away affects me” and that she has added a new dimension needs to help them have a to their life as family. “I realvoice. “My greatest experiized that through the separaence everyday is the surprise tion my relationship with my of how, what and where children has moved to anothGod’s presence is shown. er level,” Coralis said. “They Mission work helps lead to now seek my advice in varithe discovery of true self.” ous events and take time to Among things she misses share more of their life with are “running fresh hot and cold me as I now do with them. water, San Francisco weather, We value and appreciate Krispy Kreme doughnuts, and each other more.” California merlot.” Activities Coralis said her path to during her recent stateside stay Maryknoll began with a included a visit to her mom Coralis Salvador with four-year-old “spiritual incompleteness” and a high school reunion in Njeri, an orphaned child of Kenya. that manifested in 1987. the Philippines and a trip to “Through Centering Prayer, I was drawn to serve in the Tokyo for the marriage of her son, Pietro Evangelista to Hiromi community,” she said, later volunteering for a suicide hot- Urata. Coralis returned to Kenya Sept. 17. line and in her parish as lector, eucharistic minister, small “You are a child of God,” Coralis said. “Claim this herfaith group leader. “These experiences led me to want to do itage. Doing so you will discover here and now the lavishmore and in July 2000 I joined Maryknoll.” ness of God’s love.”
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Catholic San Francisco
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that, because he’ll be more multilateral, the outcomes will be better, but that’s not true by definition.” Whoever takes office in January will face a situation ■ Continued from cover in Iraq “which is so far deteriorated and is going to be so On preventive war, the Jesuit theologian said, the difficult to restore that the notion of moving now to a Bush administration and the Vatican “couldn’t be in a position consistent with Catholic social teaching on more different position.” peace and war is really beyond the fact,” he said. He added, however, “I’m not sure that the Catholic Addressing the Bush administration’s overall position, in terms of the actual decisions, would be any approach to international laws and accords, Father different when it comes to John Kerry, who said that he Christiansen said, “The Catholic inclination is to supported the war and would still go to war despite what strengthen international organizations and international we know now about the situation.” law and the administration . . . has done everything to Powers and Father Christiansen have extensive kind of defy existing international agreements.” expertise in analyzing questions of U.S. international Lopez criticized Bush’s unilateral abandonment in 2001 policy in terms of Catholic social teaching and a record of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, in force since 1972, by of nonpartisanship in their approach to issues. Both are which the United States and Russia (formerly the Soviet former international justice and peace directors of the Union) mutually agreed not to establish a national missile U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. defense system. Lopez acknowledged Bush’s In “Faithful Citizenship: A Catholic Call to argument that the treaty was outdated but said, Political Responsibility,” a guide for Catholics “Our nation must join with others in “not in a way that would rule out aggressive diaon political responsibility published in advance logue to update it.” of this year’s electoral campaigns, the bishops’ addressing policies and problems that provide At the same time he criticized Kerry for not Administrative Committee repeatedly emphaarticulating a clear position on the U.S. posture sized multilateralism in the conduct of the toward treaties. “Kerry has to make a generic case fertile ground in which terrorism can thrive.” for why treaty behavior is in our national interest, nation’s foreign policy. The bishops warned against going it alone whether it be the chemical weapons convention, or defining security “primarily in military Kyoto (a convention on the environment) or the terms,” even after the events of Sept. 11, 2001. “Our “The main difference between Bush and Kerry on ABM. He’s got to make a claim that makes sense there,” nation must join with others in addressing policies and whether to go to war with Iraq was that Kerry thought Lopez said. problems that provide fertile ground in which terrorism pursuing it through the U.N. Security Council should be Catholic writer George Weigel, in a conference earlier can thrive,” they said. “No injustice legitimizes the hor- done more aggressively or differently,” Powers said. “But this year, touched on the difficulty of reconciling the ror we have experienced. But a more just world will be they both basically supported, ultimately, the right of the actions of sovereign states with participation in internaa more peaceful world.” U.S. to use force pre-emptively, without U.N. support if tional organizations. The document also said the United States must “work necessary.” “The 20th-century popes were strong advocates of interto reverse the spread of nuclear, chemical and biological George A. Lopez, a political science professor at the national organizations, with Pope John XXIII proposing a weapons and to reduce its own reliance on weapons of University of Notre Dame and senior fellow at the Kroc ‘universal public authority’ to handle those global quesmass destruction by pursuing progressive nuclear disar- Institute, told CNS that neither candidate represents “the tions that could only be handled at the global level. At the mament.” kind of seamless garment that many of us would search same time, Blessed John XXIII made clear that he was not Powers said, “The importance of strengthening inter- for in linkages across peace and justice issues.” supporting ‘world government,’ or international structures national law and international institutions is a key eleHe said he thinks Kerry personally comes closer to that would impinge on the legitimate prerogatives of ment of the church’s approach to international affairs, Catholic positions “across the justice macro-lens” but his national governments or local governments.” especially since the Second World War.” Weigel added, “So, from a Catholic point of view, this is positions on other issues “are a bit wanting” from the The U.S. decision to invade Iraq, certainly one of the standpoint of Catholic teaching. a both/and, not either/or, matter. Both the U.N. and soverdefining moments of the Bush administration, was Lopez, who has closely monitored U.S. Iraq policy for eign states are facts of international public life, and marked by a sharp moral divergence between the presi- years, said he regards the current situation in Iraq as a Catholic international relations theory has to take account dent and the leadership of the Catholic Church. morass that is still deteriorating. The failure to achieve of both. As the nation prepared to go to war, the Vatican and the goals of the war and postwar occupation “is a fruit of Catholic San Francisco staff contributed to this story. the U.S. bishops vigorously and publicly opposed enter- the kind of unilateral approach” taken by the administraing into such a war without exhausting the alternatives tion, he said. and without U.N. concurrence. In the final prewar weeks On the other hand, he said, “Kerry has simply told us, Pope John Paul II even sent a personal envoy, Cardinal ‘I’ll do it better,’ but he hasn’t told us (how). He’s told us Pio Laghi, to the White House to try to change Bush’s mind. Bush’s 2002 National Security Strategy spelled out the U.S. policy explicitly: “We will not hesitate to act alone, if necessary, to exercise our right of self-defense by acting pre-emptively against . . . terrorists.” In June 2004, Pope John Paul II talked with President Bush at the Vatican in their first meeting since the start of the Iraq war. The pope told Bush he was deeply concerned about the “grave unrest” in Iraq and called for a speedy restoration of sovereignty in the country. The Kerry campaign has sharply criticized Bush’s unilateralism, promising that Kerry as president would mend fences with the United Nations and rebuild the international alliances that Kerry says have been damaged by the current administration.
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Catholic San Francisco
September 17, 2004
Respect Life . . . ■ Continued from page 3 already legalized the implantation and gestation of human clones up to the moment of birth. At that point, the human clone must be killed in order for the experiment to remain technically therapeutic cloning and not reproductive cloning. Jennifer O’Neill is a Hollywood actress best known for her starring role in “The Summer of ’42.” She was also Cover Girl cosmetics spokesperson for a record thirty years. She is now national spokesperson for the Silent No More Awareness Campaign which is an effort to make the public aware of the devastation abortion brings to women, men, and their families. O’Neil shared the story of her own abortion and her path toward reconciliation and peace found through her relationship with Jesus Christ. O’Neill said that, like her, 43 percent of women who reach the age of 55 have had an abortion and many suffer from grief and guilt in silence for years. In her own life, despite a public image of great success, she suffered “a hole in (her) heart,” because of an abortion she had at the height of her success. O’Neill said that every story of abortion is unique, but that most involve some amount of coercion and desperation. She said all of the country needs healing from abortion, because the issue affects not only the women who have had abortions, but those who coerced them, those who paid for them and those who would not help in a desperate circumstance. The Annual Respect Life Conference is sponsored by the Archdiocese of San Francisco Office of Public Policy and Social Concerns. Visit their website (sfjustlife.org) for information on upcoming events, life issues, and other issues of concern to Catholics.
EWTN to broadcast TV specials
Iraqi bishop says U.S., allies must save nation’s fledgling democracy By John Thavis Catholic News Service CAMALDOLI, Italy — Having deposed a brutal dictator, the United States and its allies now have a duty to save Iraq’s fledgling democracy from terror and disorder, an Iraqi bishop said. Chaldean Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk said Sept. 10 that the recent crescendo of attacks on civilian targets — including Catholic churches — has raised grave doubts about the future of the country. “I think the United States and its allies have a responsibility to make every effort to put an end to this absurd situation, saving the democratic and representative model that will allow Christians to educate Iraqis in the culture of peace, dialogue and mutual respect,” he said. “If they don’t succeed, I think the Americans and the allies would lose all respect and credibility in the world,” he said. Archbishop Sako made the comments in a letter read at an interreligious conference Sept. 10 at a Benedictine monastery in Camaldoli, Italy. The conference was sponsored by the Italian Catholic magazine Il Regno. Archbishop Sako said that, for a number of reasons, Iraq during and after the war “became fertile terrain for global terrorism.” He said much of the terror campaign has been carried out by non-Iraqis who easily entered the country and took over Iraqi army weapons caches and supplies. “It is difficult to understand why American troops did
Upcoming special programs on EWTN, America’s 24hour Catholic TV network, include a documentary on Padre Pio airing Sept. 23 at 10:00 a.m. and Sept. 25 at 5:00 p.m. Two new series start in September. “Election 2004: The Catholic Vote” airs Fridays at 7:00 p.m. beginning Sept 24. This program is followed by “The Gospel of Life in Health Care” at 7:30 p.m. EWTN is carried on Comcast Digital Channel 229; RCN Channel 80; DISH Satellite Channel 261; and Direct TV Channel 422. In the Half Moon Bay/Coastside area, Comcast transmits EWTN on Channel 54. Comcast viewers in Atherton, Menlo Park, East Palo Alto, Portola Valley and Woodside receive EWTN via Channel 74.
not control the borders and why they allowed the sacking of (army) barracks,” he said. He said the Arab satellite TV broadcasts have a “crucial role in increasing the provocations” in Iraq. “The attacks against churches a few weeks ago have the goal of radicalizing and destabilizing the country. Toward this end, every attack is useful: blowing up a hospital, placing a bomb in a market, or attacking a police checkpoint,” he said. The archbishop said it might have been naive to expect Iraqis to establish a functioning democracy in a brief time. Saddam Hussein’s totalitarian regime left the country without any political culture, and Iraq was weakened by the effects of two wars and a 12-year embargo, he said. The U.S. idea that a liberated Iraq might serve as a model of democracy in the region may have itself prompted militants to mobilize, in order to make sure it does not happen, he said. A “democratic, federal, pluralistic” Iraq would make it “dangerous for many countries, including neighboring ones,” he said. For that reason, Iraq’s current fragility is being exploited and aggravated for political ends, he said. Archbishop Sako said that among Iraq’s enemies are some extremist Muslims who fear Western freedoms and a Western moral code “so distant from Islam and its theocratic system.” He said some Muslims also might be working so that Christians leave Iraq, making it an exclusively Islamic nation, but he said the primary motivation in the wave of Iraqi attacks is political. The archbishop said the Christian minority has an important role in building Iraq’s future.
Catholic Radio Hour Week of September 20 – 24 Weeknights at 7:30 p.m. – KTVO 1400 AM Radio
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Monday: Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary; Lives of the Saints: St. Jerome; Sunday Soundbite: Fr. Greg Friedman, OFM Tuesday: Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary; Devotions; Ask a Franciscan; Minute Meditation. Wednesday: Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary; A Guide to Effective Prayer: Sr. Ann Shields; Fact of Faith: Spiritual Disciplines. Thursday: Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary; Devotions Friday: Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary; Rome Report: John Thavis.
Send a donation to Catholic Radio Hour, One Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco, CA 94109.
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Catholic San Francisco
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Analyst cites abortion stance as some Catholic voters shift to Bush By Patricia Zapor Catholic News Service WASHINGTON — Not only are the candidates for president focusing their attention on a handful of “battleground” states, President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry are targeting specific groups there for attention, particularly Catholics. The strategy may be working for Bush better than it is for Kerry, with Catholics polled by Zogby International in some of those states pulling away from the general public and saying they are more likely to vote for Bush. Although in past decades Catholics were seen as a significant voting bloc, the conventional political wisdom has it that Catholics tend to vote about the same as people in similar demographic groups or economic circumstances. So why did 60 percent of a sampling of Catholics in Minnesota say they were likely to vote for Bush, compared to 44 percent of the overall state voters who said they would re-elect the president? By comparison, 51 percent of all Minnesota voters polled said they plan to vote for Kerry, while 36 percent of Catholics said they would do so. Those results of the phone survey of 725 Minnesota voters conducted between Aug. 28 and Sept. 3, and released Sept. 7, continued a trend that has evolved over the summer among Catholics in the state. About 25 percent of Minnesota residents are Catholic. Zogby senior political writer Fritz Wenzel told Catholic News Service that the answer may lie in the attention brought to Kerry’s abortion positions this summer. In places with strong pro-life networks such as Minnesota, that may be affecting how some Catholics vote, he thinks. “In this political atmosphere, there are two key issues for Catholics,” Wenzel said. “Concern about the legitimacy of the war in Iraq is being overridden by ongoing discomfort with Kerry’s stand on abortion.” Kerry, a Catholic, has a record of voting against bills that would limit abortion and in favor of legislation to keep it less restricted. Bush supports abortion-limiting legisla-
tion and signed a ban on partial-birth abortions. Catholic teaching opposes abortion in all circumstances. Wenzel said Zogby’s bimonthly poll showed Catholic voters in some states began to split toward Bush in midsummer. That was soon after widespread news reports of statements by U.S. bishops over whether Catholic politicians whose actions in office contradict some church teachings should be permitted to receive Communion. A separate August poll by the Pew Research Center and the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found 72 percent of Catholics nationwide think it is inappropriate for bishops to deny Communion to politicians whose public actions on abortion and other life issues go against church teachings. But Wenzel said, although Catholics may disagree with bishops who want to impose such a sanction on politicians, news on the topic brought to the forefront Kerry’s position on life issues. And that is turning some Catholic voters into Bush supporters, he said. “These comments (by bishops) have gotten huge play,” he said. “Denying Communion is a whole different issue than abortion, but it made people aware of (the candidates’) positions,” Wenzel said. “It’s like a potato chip that’s the conveyor for the salt.” Wenzel said he sees stronger support for Bush in states such as Minnesota where Catholics tend to be fairly conservative on moral issues. And the Republican president’s campaign has done an effective job of playing to those interests, he said. On the other hand, when Kerry tried to explain how he sees his beliefs as a Catholic as separate from his obligations as an elected representative, “he tried to nuance his explanation and I don’t think people followed it,” Wenzel said. Iowa, Wisconsin, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania are also Catholic-heavy battleground states where Catholic voters are polling significantly more in favor of Bush than is the general population, according to the Zogby data. Here are the Sept. 7 report’s figures: — Iowa: Overall — Bush voters, 47 percent; Kerry voters, 51 percent. Catholics — Bush voters, 56 percent; Kerry vot-
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ers, 43 percent. About 18 percent of Iowans are Catholic. — Wisconsin: Overall — Bush voters, 48 percent; Kerry voters, 50 percent. Catholics — Bush voters, 56 percent; Kerry voters, 42 percent. About 31 percent of Wisconsin residents are Catholic. — New Hampshire: Overall — Bush voters, 45 percent; Kerry voters, 50 percent. Catholics — Bush voters, 53 percent; Kerry voters, 36 percent. Twenty-seven percent of the state’s residents are Catholic. — Pennsylvania: Overall — Bush voters, 47 percent; Kerry voters, 50 percent. Catholics — Bush voters, 54 percent; Kerry voters, 44 percent. Pennsylvania’s population is about 30 percent Catholic. In most of the other swing states where Zogby polls regularly, Catholic voters support Bush and Kerry by about the same percentages as the rest of those queried. Nevada and New Mexico are the notable exceptions among the battleground states. In both states Catholics are significantly more likely than their counterparts to say they’ll vote for Kerry. — Nevada: Overall — Bush voters, 47 percent; Kerry voters, 47 percent. Catholics — Bush voters, 41 percent; Kerry voters, 56 percent. About 26 percent of the population is Catholic. — New Mexico: Overall — Bush voters, 44 percent; Kerry voters, 54 percent. Catholics — Bush voters, 30 percent; Kerry voters, 69 percent. New Mexico’s population also is about 24 percent Catholic. Wenzel said the candidates’ positions on abortion are unlikely to be as strong a factor for Catholics in the West, partly because in most of the hotly contested Western states Catholics represent a smaller percentage of the population and targeting campaign messages to them is tougher. But in states such as Pennsylvania and Michigan, whose population is 23 percent Catholic, winning over a majority of Catholics could make enough of a difference to put the state in either candidate’s “win” column, Wenzel said. Zogby’s statistical margin of error in its state-by-state battleground polling ranges from a high of plus or minus 4.3 percent in West Virginia, where it queried 532 voters, to a low of plus or minus 2.4 percent in Ohio, where it queried 1,714 voters.
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Catholic San Francisco
September 17, 2004
September 17, 2004
LETTER
FROM
Catholic San Francisco
11
AFRICA
Former child soldier Vicky Adoch, 18, was able to escape her rebel captors in late 2003 after being abducted from her home and forced to fight with the Lord's Resistance Army, or LRA. Adoch lost her right eye in a government ambush while fighting with the LRA. She is pictured in December with former child soldier Robert Ojok, 15, at the Gulu Support the Children Organization in northern Uganda.
THE LORD’S RESISTANCE ARMY The Lord’s Resistance Army is run by Joseph Kony from camps in Southern Sudan. While its attacks on civilian populations in Northern Uganda and Southern Sudan and its abduction of children to replenish its ranks are well known, Kony’s motives are disputed. LRA is an outgrowth of the Holy Spirit Movement founded by a popular Acholi Tribe prophet and healer, Alice Lakwena. The Holy Spirit Movement was an eclectic blend of Christianity and traditional Acholi belief centered on the charism and power believed to reside in Alice. Originally strictly a religious figure, Alice came to lead a Northern Uganda rebel military unit against the southern dominated Uganda Government of Yoweri Museveni in 1986. While Alice inflicted some damage to government and military installations, she also led attacks on her own Acholi people, ostensibly to purify them of witches and other evil-doers. The military arm of the Holy Spirit Movement was eventually vanquished and Alice fled to Kenya. Rebel fighters of her group eventually re-assimilated, but hard-core religious believers gathered around Joseph Kony who is believed to be a relative of Alice and claims to have received Alice’s power. They are situated in camps in Southern Sudan and regularly attack the villages and camps of Black Africans in Southern Sudan and Northern Uganda. Their ranks are made up primarily of abducted and brainwashed children from the villages they attack. While some of his brainwashed abductees may believe they are acting on orders from the Holy Spirit to purge the Acholi and other Black Africans of witches and other wrongdoers, many observers believe Kony is motivated by greed. The LRA is now funded and armed by the Northern Sudanese Arab Muslim government in Khartoum in order to displace and terrorize the largely Black African and mixed religion population of the South. Recent LRA escapees report many of the rituals practiced by Alice Lakwena have now been dropped in favor of Islamic practices such as praying toward Mecca, forbidding keeping pigs, and recognizing Friday as the Holy day. Source: Human Rights Watch and others.
SUDAN FACTS 2.5 million square kilometers 39,148,162 17.9 years 58.13 years 61.1 percent Sunni Muslim 70 percent (in north), indigenous beliefs 25 percent, Christian 5 percent (in south) black 52 percent, Arab 39 percent, Beja 6 percent, other 3 percent. $1,900 (purchasing power equity method, U.S. = $37,800) Based on English Common Law and Islamic Law. All residents in northern states, regardless of religion are subject to Islamic law. GOVERNMENT: Government is run by an alliance of the military and the National Congress Party, formerly the National Islamic Front. CONFLICTS: There has been longstanding conflict and civil war between the Muslim north and the Christian/indigenous religion south. The government in Khartoum accuses Uganda of supporting the Southern People’s Liberation Movement and the Khartoum government supports the Lord’s Resistance Army which terrorizes Southern Sudan and Northern Uganda. The Arab Muslim Khartoum government also supports and/or refuses to curtail the activities of Arab Muslim militiamen (Janjaweed) who terrorize the Black African Muslims of Darfur region in Western Sudan.
AREA: POPULATION: MEDIAN AGE: LIFE EXPECTANCY: LITERACY: RELIGION: ETHNIC GROUPS: GDP – PER CAPITA: LEGAL SYSTEM:
Source: CIA Factbook and others.
(CNS PHOTO FROM REUTERS)
slaves were once auctioned and loaded onto boats on the banks of the Nile Dear Faithful of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, the symbolic significance still relevant today. Two years ago, a Church of the Visitacion parishWe went to the town of Nimule near the Nile River and the many surioner, Silvestro Bahkiet, approached me after Mass and rounding Displacement Camps where many refugees have fled from war and told me about his the work of helping Sudanese bombings at the hands of the government over the years to relative safety, Refugees in the Bay Area and in refugee camps in borthough some of these areas at times are still attacked by militias. There is much der areas around southern Sudan. I had been reading hunger, no electricity, lack of wells and safe drinking water – the water from about the atrocities in Sudan since the civil war took a the river may have cholera or parasites, lack of schools and medical clinics. turn for the worse in 1992. We did some fundraisers at On Aug 21, I went with a seminarian, Peter Ben, a very courageous, the parish, including one in which our youth group bright and service oriented young man (who by providence was on break fasted for 32 hours and got sponsors to give about from his seminary), who accompanied me to pass through a dangerous $1,500 to these refugee programs. area to reach Magwi, Sudan, which is 60 miles northeast of the Nile River Last summer I traveled with an Archdiocesan delborder town of Nimule. The road was awful. Many potholes and mudpits. egation, led by George Wesolek, to meet refugees living These are the spots that the LRA militias like to attack when a vehicle is in camps in Uganda, and to videotape their testimonies stalled. It took us six hours to travel just 60 miles. of the human rights abuses they had endured. Based on A survivor of an attack by Lord’s Resistance this visit, reports were sent to the U.S. Department of Army rebels in Lira, Uganda, rests in a hospital State and Congressional Representatives. Fr. John Jimenez, bed Feb. 23. More than 300 rebel members I also accompanied Silvestro Bahkiet and Bishop Mother General shot and burned civilians at a displaced persons’ Paride Taban, retired bishop of Torit in Sudan, to Jacinta of the camp, killing 173 people. The Lord's Resistance Washington D. C. last November to meet with Sisters of St. Congressional staff and State Department officials to Army has randomly attacked communities Teresa of the Little focus attention on the continued attacks on refugees in in northern Uganda for more than 17 years. their camps and villages. These conditions seem to Flower, and George When we got to Ikotos, we met northern Sudanese government soldiers, captured arise from a policy of the government of Sudan to sup- Wesolek during a Aug. 13 near Kyalia, 10 kilometers north of Ikotos. In this same area on July 25, vilply the marauding militias with weapons for attackers 2003 trip to Africa. lagers were attacked by LRA militias, resulting in five people killed, seven disappeared, from their positions in Juba and Torit. and crops and livestock taken, leaving villagers to go hungry. This is why the young When I heard the testimonies of refugees and what they went through — without man made the treacherous journey. any outside help — attacked and defenseless, I felt called to come and help. I thought We can now document that the government of Sudan is supplying these militias with maybe a priest from the United States being present might at least give them moral supweapons from government held Torit, 40 kilometers northwest of Ikotos and also from port in knowing they are not alone, and perhaps bring media attention to the problem, government held Juba. The government’s strategy is to negotiate peace with one hand, and pressure on the government of Sudan to change. but with another hidden hand wage a campaign of terror to force southern civilians to I left San Francisco on Aug. 11 and arrived in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, flee, take control of the land and resources, and force Islam on the rest of the people. on Aug 13. The next day, we took an eight-hour bus ride to Adjumani, Uganda, near In Ikotos I met John Ohisa, a catechist and member of the Legion of Mary, who the border of Sudan, where we visited refugees. walked 40 kilometers from Torit to Ikotos in two days in order to ask for catechism books We crossed the Nile River four days later, having left the refugee camp at Adjumani and prayer books. He passed through the very area we had just visited the day before, and passed from northern Uganda to southern Sudan. Even northern Uganda, like where LRA militias had just attacked innocent people. Such is his courage and faith. southern Sudan, can be unsafe because of the militias, bandits really, at the service of the My hope is to start some schools in Magwi and northern government of Sudan. They attack villages, kidnap children to be brainwashed Ikotos, both interior areas devastated by war. Just $5,000 and drugged to become vicious marauders who kill and maim innocent people and take is enough for materials and a teacher at each school for their crops with the strategy of terrorizing southern civilians and forcing them to flee. six months. I hope to name one school Legion of Mary It was at Atiok, Uganda, 20 miles south of the Sudan border that 600 school children Academy and another Peacemakers Academy. Any addiwere burned alive in their classrooms or shot if they tried to escape. This incident happened tional money we receive will be used for medical clinics, nearly three years ago, but it is not widely known among the international media. This is where $1,000 can supply a clinic serving 500 people with just one of the many atrocities that have occurred here, especially in the past 10 years. medicine for typical ailments for six months. Also, of The landscape can present a mood in contrast to the human violence. The Nile River immediate need is to get food to Magwi using a truck, is beautiful and we traveled about 20 kilometers by motorboat. We saw elephants drinking with the same difficulties as was done in Ikotos. by the riverside among the green reeds, the reeds in which the baby Moses was hidden to With the permission of Bishop Johnson Akio, we can avoid the massacre of an oppressive power — Moses whose name means “out of the water.” It was in Magwi, on the feast of the Queenship of Mary that we solicit donations and funnel supplies through the local I watched the peacefulness of men fishing, gliding on the smooth surface of the interviewed children abducted from northern Uganda near Gulu, far in minor seminary, which for logistical reasons (roads and water in their dugout canoes, with bright red birds chirping and whizzing by among the interior of Uganda. Kidnapping children is a common practice of communication) is the best place to get supplies into the the green reeds and clear, blue sky. Then we passed a big, decrepit structure where the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) to terrorize villages and force people western part of the Diocese of Torit. The church is the only to fight in their militias. real foundation here in Southern Sudan of social cohesion The boys were kidnapped one year ago, kept tied up much of the and mutual support, yet it too is crumbling. If you can help, time and forced to follow along with the militia. Eventually, when big please send donations for and addressed to St. Mary’s enough, they would have been forced to train as fighters through beatAdam Isaac Djongor, who Seminary, P.O. Box 154, Adjumani, Uganda, Africa. ings, hunger and drugging. They escaped recently near Magwi and Peace and Prayers to all in the fled from Sudan to the made their way to town. We found them to be traumatized, skinny, and San Francisco Archdiocese, Kounoungo camp in Chad, barely able to speak. Father John Jimenez displays his scar from a In Magwi we also met many villagers from Palotaka, about 15 P.S. Please write letters to the U.S State Department noting miles away, who are attacked on a routine basis. Last June a catechist gunshot wound. An Arab this documented evidence that the Government of Sudan was killed while riding his bike to church. Another was shot in the leg militiaman shot Djongor, still is sponsoring human rights abuses of innocent civilians earlier this year, and a blind elder had been attacked and robbed a week in Southern Sudan as well as what is known about Darfur, then beat him with a ago. I heard many more brutal stories. and the government of Sudan should be held accountable in club when he saw that We moved on to Ikotos, 100 kilometers north of the Uganda border, the peace negotiations which the United States is assisting. he was not dead. More passing more pot-holed and muddy roads. One courageous young man than 30,000 non-Arab drove a truck full of food from Kitgum at the Uganda border, north to Letters may be addressed to: black Africans have been Ikotos to a small village nearby, Kyalia, where there is much hunger. He William J. Brencick did it because an aid agency was afraid of road conditions and the pos- killed by Arab militias and Sudan Programs Coordinator sibility of attacks. This young man and his crew spent four days travelU.S. State Dept. Fr. John Jimenez at a camp for Sudanese government ling 100 kilometers. They faced many breakdowns and delays in dig1990 K Street, NW suite -410C AIDS orphans he visited in 2003. forces in Sudan. ging out from the mud while the threat of attack by the militias loomed. Washington, D.C. 20006 (CNS PHOTO BY STEPHEN STEELE)
(CNS PHOTO BY DECLAN WALSH)
Father John Jimenez was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of San Francisco in 1998 and has served at Church of the Visitacion Parish in San Francisco and St. Pius Parish in Redwood City. With permission of Archbishop Levada, Father Jimenez traveled to the troubled country of Sudan last month and forwarded this dispatch.
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Catholic San Francisco
September 17, 2004
Catholic san Francisco Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper
Guest commentary Follow the money By Wesley J. Smith New Jersey Democratic senator Jon Corzine just tried to boost California’s biotech sector by personally donating $100,000 to help pass Proposition 71, an initiative on the November ballot that would force Californians to borrow $3 billion over 10 years to pay biotech companies and their university business partners to conduct mass experiments in human cloning and embryonic stem cell research. Proposition 71’s supporters claim that since only in-state companies will be eligible to pick fruit off the public money tree, passing the proposed constitutional amendment will make California a biotech industry magnet. Indeed, according to the hype, so many biotech companies will move here that increased state business tax collections will all but pay for Proposition 71’s total $6 billion (including interest) cost. Corzine’s donation conflicts directly with the business-attracting strategy of his own state. New Jersey and California are engaged in an intense competition to be seen as the most biotech friendly. In the belief that an anything goes legal climate would help New Jersey gain the upper hand, soon-to-be ex-governor James E. McGreevey signed a prohuman cloning law last January that is so radical it explicitly allows the creation of cloned human embryos, permits them to be implanted and gestated through the ninth month, and only requires their destruction a moment prior to the completion of the birth process. As a further inducement for biotech companies to settle in New Jersey, McGreevey prodded the legislature to throw in a few million dollars in public funding to finance cloning and embryonic stem cell research. But if Proposition 71 passes, biotech industry magnates will see this as chump change, potentially setting off a relocation stampede to California in the hope of striking it rich on the California taxpayers’ tab. At the very least, it would require New Jersey to radically up its own financial inducements to the industry, pushing the Garden State to mimic the financially ruined Golden State’s folly of sacrificing money needed for today’s essential state services on the altar of tomorrow’s biotechnological breakthroughs. This intensifying drive to publicly fund cloning and embryonic stem cell research came about because of the widespread refusal by the private sector to invest bounteously in companies conducting such experiments. Indeed, according to several recent articles published in the business press, venture capitalists apparently do not believe that these technologies will become financially viable any time soon, and so, even though they support the research politically, they are closing their own wallets. Which may explain the behavior of Bill Gates. Gates, who has more money than many countries, is apparently a big fan of biotechnological research. But, it seems, not a big enough fan to invest real money (for him) into the industry. Indeed, despite the fact that without borrowing, Gates could better afford to pay $3 billion over 10 years for embryonic stem cell and human cloning research than can the State of California, he has instead contributed a paltry (for him) $400,000 to the Yes on Proposition 71 campaign. In other words, he (and other rich contributors to Prop. 71) want taxpayers to rush in where industrialists fear to tread. This raises an intriguing question: If this research is going to be as successful and remunerative as its boosters claim, why don’t the hyper rich simply shoulder the easy burden (for them) and invest a billion or two into private cloning companies and then sit back and wait for their vast fortunes to increase or donate their humungous profits to a foundation to pay for health care needs of the poor— which to his credit, is a major philanthropic cause for Gates. Why instead fund a proposition that would constitutionally require Californians to borrow billions at the very time when our poor children, seniors, and developmentally disabled citizens are having their benefits slashed because the state is drowning in red ink? All of this political maneuvering demonstrates how Establishment Big Biotech has become. It is now so politically connected that we can expect the industry to attempt to raid state and federal treasuries as often in coming years as the Vikings pillaged Medieval Ireland. Not only that, but it is so locked into the elite governing establishment that the infamous revolving door has begun spinning like a top, rewarding legislators who loyally carry the industry’s water with plum executive positions when they leave government service. Governor McGreevey may benefit from this pattern when he leaves office in November, at least according to a prominent supporter who opined that the governor could well end up in the private sector boosting stem cell research. Meanwhile, Representative James C. Greenwood (R-Penn.), who twice fought to thwart the House of Representatives from passing legislation to ban all human cloning, just accepted a salary of $600,000+ per year to be president of the industry’s powerful lobbying arm, the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO). As president of BIO, Greenwood will oversee an annual $40 million budget to further the biotech industry’s financial and political interests. Where might all of this lead? At present, there are no federal proposals to fund human cloning research—although Ron Reagan touted the idea in his demagogic speech at the Democrat National Convention. But this respite is unlikely to last long. No doubt, especially if John Kerry is elected, Greenwood will soon start hitting up his former Hill colleagues to pay for human cloning research on the federal dime, proving, if nothing else, that try as we might to take the money out of politics, we will never take the politics out of money.
Wesley J. Smith is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute and a special consultant to the Center for Bioethics and Culture. This commentary is reprinted from The Weekly Standard.
Faithful seminarians Thank you Catholic San Francisco for the very uplifting article Sept. 3 titled, “Seminarians voice support for mandatory celibacy.” What a breath of fresh air to read about these 566 plus men who believe in the value of celibacy in the priesthood and aspire to follow the Church’s practice. I was just thinking what a wonderful response it would be to be able to reply to them with four times as many signatures to show our support and offer our prayers in honor of their pledge of commitment to celibacy. I have magnetized part of the article to my fridge as a reminder to pray for these seminarians daily that they may continue in their path of courage, obedience, dedication and loyalty to Our Holy Father’s teachings and that they may be an inspiration to others by their great example. Finola Glassmoyer Redwood City
Marin pre-schools
Right wing rag Frankly, like Mr. Werdel, Jr. (Letters, Sept. 10), I am shocked that a right wing Republican newspaper like Catholic San Francisco would publish an article by a pinko priest like Fr. Weare. Have we forgotten that the Gospels teach us that God sent his son into this world to insure “free economic activity” and to save us from “ bloated international government bureaucracies” that might stifle free enterprise.
Catholic San Francisco welcomes letters from its readers. Please:
➣ Include your name, address and daytime phone number. ➣ Sign your letter. ➣ Limit submissions to 250 words. ➣ Note that the newspaper reserves the right to edit for clarity and length. Send your letters to: Catholic San Francisco One Peter Yorke Way San Francisco, CA 94109 Fax: (415) 614-5641 E-mail: mhealy@catholic-sf.org
Marxist cliches The title chosen for Dr. Kenneth Weare’s guest commentary, “A Catholic Perspective on Free Trade” (CSF, Sept. 3), rather begs the question. What he has done is to conflate bits and pieces of comment from Catholic sources with a heavy dose of radical Socialist economic analysis. Both the Clinton and the Bush administrations supported NAFTA (North America Free Trade Agreement). In 2002, Congress passed the Trade Act of 2002, which gives the President “fast track” negotiating power in dealing with FTAA agreements. The Free Trade Area of the Americas, consonant with NAFTA and the object of Dr. Weare’s criticism, by its implementation date of January 2005, will have the support of 34 nations in the Western Hemisphere. Only Cuba, unless there is an unexpected development, will remain outside the promising free trade agreement. In support of his position, Weare comments favorably on the January 26-29, 2004 meeting held in Havana, Cuba, to oppose the FTAA. Some of the comment coming out of Havana included the following: 1. “The only alternative to this exploitation and oppression (the FTAA) is the road taken by workers and farmers in Cuba, who 45 years ago broke the hold of imperialist domination in their country by making a socialist revolution. (The Militant, February 16, 2004). 2. Cindy Domingo of Seattle, Washington, insisted that “the traditional debate among the left about the lesser evil pales” beside the need to oppose the reelection of Bush. She and a number of other speakers—from the United States, Brazil, Argentina, and other countries—characterized Bush as a new Adolf Hitler. (Ibid.) 3. Cuban president Fidel Castro addressed the closing session. “When [Castro] entered the great hall …to close the Meeting, he was greeted with an affectionate and extended ovation that expressed with deep emotion not only solidarity with the Cuban Revolution but also respect and admiration for its leader who symbolizes the Revolution’s 45-year-long heroic resistance to imperialist encirclement.” (Reported by Jorge Figueiredo The Third Havana Assembly against FTAA). U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and his many foreign counterparts, who are crafting the FTAA agreements, promise the peoples of the United States, Latin America, and the Hemisphere freer trade, improved economies, particularly in agriculture, and a strengthening of the developing democratic Latin American governments. Dr. Weare’s Commentary betrays a writer’s point of view that is hostile to free enterprise. He demonizes “neo-liberalism,” which is the radical left’s term for their opponents in the developing Latin American democracies. He appears always to favor statist solutions to economic problems. His article is sprinkled with the tired clichés of the Socialist and Marxist left. A Catholic commentary on free trade it is not. Gordon M. Seely Belmont
L E T T E R S
Your edition of September 3, 2004 highlights the opening of a preschool at St. Raphael’s Parish in San Rafael. The caption indicates that this is “Marin county’s first Catholic preschool.” This is somewhat misleading. Although the pre-school at St. Raphael’s might be the first to be parish based, it is hardly the first Catholic pre-school in Marin County. That honor goes to the Garden School, which had been in existence for 57 years until it was closed at the end of May 2004. Begun by Sr. M. Patricia Lyons O.P. and operating under the aegis of the then Dominican College, the Garden School provided a truly Catholic pre-school education to multiple generations of Marin County children. It was a genuine Catholic presence on the Dominican campus. However, according to a University spokesman, the school no longer “fit with the mission of the university”. The Garden School had provided a natural setting for the training of future teachers and of student nurses in the education and care of the young child. The closing of this school was a loss to many: the campus community, the parents, and most especially the children who are being deprived of a unique educational experience—one that lasts for many years, as my own children can attest. Mary Ann Haeuser San Rafael
Letters welcome
Let us be mindful that Jesus, before he ascended, commissioned his disciples to go forth and negotiate treaties to protect the profits of American corporations and their shareholders and, of course, establish the Church, which today is so zealously defended by his vicar on earth, Mr. George Weigel. Kevin Garvin San Francisco
Another Catholic perspective Father Kenneth Weare’s Guest Commentary, “A Catholic Perspective on Free Trade” (CSF, Sept. 3) begs the quesLETTERS, page 18
September 17, 2004
Catholic San Francisco
13
The Catholic Difference I’ve only met Father Frank Brennan, a prominent Australian Jesuit, once. But I was glad of his company that day. It was May 1991, and both Father Brennan and I had been invited to an academic conference in Rome, sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace to mark the centenary of Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum, which launched the modern papal tradition of Catholic social teaching. It was a rather trying experience, as various left-leaning Catholic academics tried to pretend that Centesimus Annus, Pope John Paul II’s landmark social encyclical (which had been issued a few weeks before) didn’t exist. I well remember a heated exchange with one Colombian Jesuit who told me that the free economy praised by the Pope in Centesimus Annus, “doesn’t exist.” Beyond murmuring that this would doubtless come as news to the Supreme Pontiff, I didn’t know what else to say. And so it went. The conference concluded in time for all of us to participate in the solemn centenary commemoration of Rerum Novarum, held in the Synod aula atop the Paul VI Audience Hall: a perfect echo chamber, soon rendered painful by the exertions of the Sistine Choir (known to some in Rome, not uncharitably, as the “Sistine Screamers”). Father Brennan, sitting beside me in the nosebleed seats reserved for such small fry as we, seemed fraternally uncomfortable with the choir’s baroque warblings; and he, too, fidgeted during the hurricane of Italianate ecclesiastical rhetoric that followed. In the interstices, we had a nice talk about his work on aboriginal rights in Australia, and continued an interesting conversa-
tion at the reception that followed. So I was, as I say, grateful for his presence and his cordiality. Thus it came as an unpleasant shock when I read in The Australian that Father Brennan had recently said something quite remarkably silly. “All of us need to accept,” he opined, “that the revolution in sexuality has left many people, especially young people, completely uninterested in the views of an all-male, unmarried clergy.” The Australian went on to note that Father Brennan had charged that (as the paper put it) “young people are being turned off to the priesthood by an increasingly autocratic and doctrinaire Catholic Church that is out of touch with the 21st century.” Let me suggest to Father Brennan that he spend a week at World Youth Day 2005, scheduled for next August in Cologne. There, I think he’ll find that the Gospel without compromise – the Gospel preached by John Paul II to millions of young people who have voluntarily come to hear just that – is immensely attractive to teenagers and young adults who find today’s sexual free-fire zone far more a trial than Father Brennan seems to imagine. Then I’d suggest that Father Brennan come down to Rome and visit the Pontifical North American College, where he’ll find a hundred and fifty or so young men, very much the products of their time, who are preparing to stake their lives on the truths – not the “views” – being proposed by “an all-male, unmarried clergy,” whose numbers include a distinguished teacher of the beauty of sexual love and the value of celibacy who is not only male and
unmarried, but (gasp!) old and (further gasp!) Polish. The Church is dying in places where the Gospel is preached as a lifestyle option in a global supermarket of spiritualities. The Church is George Weigel thriving, or being reborn with the vigor anticipated by Vatican II, where the full Gospel is preached: in charity, but in its full integrity. That’s a matter of empirical fact, confirmed time and again in Europe, North America, and Australia. Catholic Lite leads to Catholic Dead. The adventure of orthodoxy is what attracts young people today. In a world that constantly panders to the young, a Church of challenge, which combines the truth with love and pastoral care, is a very attractive proposition indeed. That’s what I find on campuses, in seminaries, in parishes, and at World Youth Days. I hope Father Brennan, and those who share his views, take the opportunity to discover the truth about the John Paul II Generation. They’re the future, and they’re refreshingly unimpressed by shibboleths from the Sixties. George Weigel is a senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.
Family Life
I can’t believe he’s in high school It’s easy to spot the freshmen. They’re the ones walking aimlessly with the heavy backpacks and dazed expressions. And it’s easy to spot their moms. We’re the ones with the anxious faces, scanning the crowd of students emerging from the school or gleaning information from the parents around us. It seemed like just yesterday that I was taking Lucas to kindergarten. Now I was standing outside the high school waiting for him to come out. “How’s your week been?” asked a mother next to me. “So far, so good. He likes his teachers.” “Do you think there’s too much homework?” “It’s been OK.” “My daughter’s had a lot of math.” “Really? Lucas hasn’t had any. Or at least that’s what he said.” Besides getting used to high school, Lucas was adjusting to his first Catholic school, with its stricter discipline, higher academic standards, and emphasis on faith and character. But the rules seemed reasonable, the dress code permitted his favorite jeans and T-shirts, and the homework assignments felt familiar: a brochure about Paraguay for Spanish class, a poster introducing a classmate for Theology, an oral report on a short story for English. At last Lucas came out. “How was your day?” I asked him. “OK.”
“Anything interesting happen?” “Not much.” We headed toward the parking lot. “What did you do while I was gone?” he asked. “Well, I worked on a newsletter for the farm. Went to the post office. Interviewed a couple people for an article. Nothing that exciting. You know it’s always boring when you’re gone.” We got into the car. “Look at this,” I said, pulling one of my favorite photos out of my wallet. It showed the boys in a rare Seattle snowstorm. Lucas grinned a toothless, second-grade smile. Beside him stood little Gabe, his cherubic, preschool face glowing. Lucas looked at it with bemused amazement. “How did we get so little?” he asked. “The question is, how did you get so big?” That night, I searched the photo boxes for a baby picture of Gabe for a back-to-school assignment. Since I’ve never gotten around to organizing our photos, I got a random tour of the last 14 years. There was Lucas on the train when he was 2. The boys and their dad dressed up for Halloween. An Easter egg hunt at church. Vacations in Arizona and the Oregon coast. Lucas as a shepherd and Gabe as an angel in the Christmas pageant. Cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles. Thanksgiving dinners. Hikes to the ice caves and the sand dunes. School plays, birthday parties, baseball games, miniature golf. Reading on the couch and making snowmen on the deck.
The memories piled up on the table in front of me. I knew we were closing a chapter of Lucas’ life. But we were opening another. God only knew what adventures and challenges lay ahead of us, but God, I knew, Christine Dubois would carry us through. Seeing Lucas grow from a baby to a teen has been the most amazing experience of my life. As mothers, we know that our teens will carry with them the joys and lessons of their childhood. Sure, they’re bigger now and more independent, but underneath it all, they’re the same kids we’ve always loved and who have always loved us. Lucas is—and will always be—the same beautiful light God blessed us with 14 years ago. Even if they’re not our children anymore, they’ll always be our kids. Christine Dubois is a widely published freelance writer who lives with her family near Seattle. Contact her at: chris@chriscolumn.com.
Spirituality
‘The Da Vinci Code’ Most of us, I suspect, are familiar with Dan Brown’s runaway bestseller, “The Da Vinci Code.” Here’s the storyline: Looking at Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper, Brown proposes that the figure on Jesus’ right, the “beloved disciple,” is Mary Magdala, who married Jesus, bore him a child, and was Jesus’ real choice to succeed him as leader. Moreover, what she represents (the goddess, the eternal feminine, sexuality) is the “Holy Grail,” the real quest of every heart. But the official church, from its beginning to this very day, has suppressed this, often violently, burning to death more than five million women in the process. Indeed, it’s almost as if the real reason the institutional church exists at all is to suppress this truth. Fortunately, a few great men (da Vinci, Galileo, curators at the Louvre, Walt Disney, and a Harvard professor) have, through secret codes, preserved the real truth. The Last Supper painting by da Vinci is such a code, as is Disney’s Daffy Duck (a symbol of Mary Magdala). All of this, of course, would just make for a good story if the book hadn’t caught such a fertile, if not exactly deep, vein within the popular imagination. Millions of people are taking its storyline as a truth claim, and numerous groups and societies are springing up around it, presumably to continue to crack and preserve “the code.”
What’s to be said about this? On the positive side, I give Dan Brown full marks for telling a good story and for being clever — clever enough to know what sells today. What does? The elements of this book: Gnosticism (There are hidden secrets you need to know); antiCatholicism (Rome is founded on a lie and protects itself by a lie); the importance of a return to the sacred feminine (Patriarchy has thoroughly distorted both history and consciousness); sex (It’s the ultimate liberating force, if the church would but step aside); and fiction as history (Truth is less important than perception). Brown reads the market well. Less to his credit, his book is full of historical misinformation and flat-out error. Just a couple of examples: Brown claims that the church has always belittled Mary Magdala as a prostitute to hide her true relationship with Jesus. So much for the tributes of countless church writers, including popes, who spoke of her as “the apostle of apostles” and “the new Eve announcing not death but life,” and so much for the fact that she’s celebrated as a saint by the official church. As well, the claim that Constantine shifted the Christian day of worship to Sunday is simply false, as are his claims that virtually all the elements for Christian worship were taken directly from pagan mystery religions
(bypassing their Jewish origins), as is his claim that the sacred name, YHWH, was drawn from the idea of an androgynous physical union between the masculine JAB and the preHebraic name for Eve, Father HAVAH. Ron Rolheiser Of course, Brown can claim that he is, after all, writing fiction, not history. True enough, except that millions of people are taking it as history. Is this Brown’s fault? Not entirely, but largely. His historical disclaimer at the beginning of the book is far from honest. Had he said what every fiction writer should say, that this is simply a work of his imagination, nothing more, a lot of the nonsense around the book would not exist. But that’s not what he did and his disclaimer is, to my mind, deliberately ambiguous and selfserving for his thesis (that we’ve all been naively swallowing a Vatican-enforced conspiracy for centuries). Brown plays to the gnostic in us (“You’ve been had, but ROLHEISER, page 15
JOHN EARLE PHOTO
Catholic lite leads to Catholic dead
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Catholic San Francisco
September 17, 2004
TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Scripture MARK SHEA
Amos 8:4-7; Psalm 113:1-2. 4-6, 7-8; 1 Timothy 2:1-8; Luke 16:1-13 or 16:10-13.
A READING FROM THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET AMOS (AM 8:4-7) Hear this, you who trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land! “When will the new moon be over,” you ask, “that we may sell our grain, and the sabbath, that we may display the wheat? We will diminish the ephah, add to the shekel, and fix our scales for cheating! We will buy the lowly for silver, and the poor for a pair of sandals; even the refuse of the wheat we will sell!” The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Never will I forget a thing they have done! RESPONSORIAL PSALM (PS 113:1-2, 4-6, 7-8) R. Praise the Lord who lifts up the poor. or: R. Alleluia. Praise, you servants of the LORD, praise the name of the LORD. Blessed be the name of the LORD both now and forever. R. Praise the Lord who lifts up the poor. High above all nations is the LORD; above the heavens is his glory. Who is like the LORD, our God, who is enthroned on high and looks upon the heavens and the earth below? R. Praise the Lord who lifts up the poor. He raises up the lowly from the dust; from the dunghill he lifts up the poor to seat them with princes, with the princes of his own people. R. Praise the Lord who lifts up the poor. A READING FROM THE FIRST LETTER OF SAINT PAUL TO TIMOTHY (1 TM 2:1-8) Beloved: First of all, I ask that supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone, for kings and for all in authority, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity. This is good and pleasing to God our savior, who wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth. For there is one God. There is also one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as ransom for all.
This was the testimony at the proper time. For this I was appointed preacher and apostle — I am speaking the truth, I am not lying — , teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. It is my wish, then, that in every place the men should pray, lifting up holy hands, without anger or argument. A READING FROM THE HOLY GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE (LK 16:1-13 OR 16:10-13) Jesus said to his disciples, “A rich man had a steward who was reported to him for squandering his property. He summoned him and said, ‘What is this I hear about you? Prepare a full account of your stewardship, because you can no longer be my steward.’ The steward said to himself, ‘What shall I do, now that my master is taking the position of steward away from me? I am not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg. I know what I shall do so that, when I am removed from the stewardship, they may welcome me into their homes.’ He called in his master’s debtors one by one. To the first he said, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He replied, ‘One hundred measures of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note. Sit down and quickly write one for fifty.’ Then to another the steward said, ‘And you, how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘One hundred kors of wheat.’ The steward said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note; write one for eighty.’ And the master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently. “For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones. If, therefore, you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth, who will trust you with true wealth? If you are not trustworthy with what belongs to another, who will give you what is yours? No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon.”
The parable of the dishonest steward Scripture includes some of the clearest and most impenetrably obscure texts in the world. At the “clear” end of the spectrum, Amos rages in prophetic fury against “you who trample the needy and destroy the poor of the land” and against those who “buy the lowly man for silver, and the poor man for a pair of sandals.” With an outrage animating every social reformer and radical from Charles Dickens to Dorothy Day, Amos assures the arrogant who think their power is a shield against consequences that “The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Never will I forget a thing they have done.” It is not hard to see in this the seeds of what would come much later when Karl Marx cribbed from the Judeo-Christian tradition this outrage over the evils of the wealthy and this passionate exaltation of the Little Guy to create the great and deadly heresy of Communism. All great heresies are founded on great truths, Communism among them. But Communism, like all great heresies, takes those few truths and uses them as a weapon to attack the rest of the Catholic faith. In this case, what Communism did was exalt the Little Guy while insisting the Little Guy was simply a cog in the great economic machine of History (since there is no God to give him dignity). It likewise taught that the Rich were intrinsically the enemy and that the engine of human existence was not love but class conflict. Given this, there was no way that Communism could get past Amos’ rage to Amos’ hope. It became mired in the alltoo-earthly sins of envy and anger which produced the most murderous dehumanizing system in history. In “defending the oppressed”, Communists became the new Oppressors. The passion for justice among young Marxists a century ago
Lutheran pastor’s question on salvation for non-Christians Q. A member of our Lutheran congregation, of which I am pastor, asked me to read one of your columns in the local Catholic newspaper dealing with the possibility of salvation for those who sincerely follow the tenets of their non-Christian religion. If I understand correctly, you say those who never have a chance to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ can be saved if they are faithful to what they believe is right and would not be condemned. Why then does the Christian Church send missionaries to preach the Gospel? Wouldn’t we put people in spiritual danger by risking rejection of the good news about Jesus? (Illinois) A. Your interpretation of what I said is a good brief summary of the teaching of the Catholic Church on salvation outside Christianity, which has been repeated often in Catholic documents, including Vatican Council II and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. If salvation may be achieved in other religious traditions, why bother to evangelize those in the world who do not know God as we believe in him or Jesus Christ? We Christians firmly believe that all salvation, for all people of all time, comes only through the saving merits of Jesus Christ. I think there are many reasons for
missionary efforts, however, even if those saving merits can be attained in other than Christian “institutional” ways. Jesus often makes clear in the Gospels that his mission was to bring people to love the Father as he did, to come to a relationship with his Father patterned on his own. “You will realize,” he said, “that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you.” “If you keep my commandments you will remain in my love just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and live in his love” (Jn 14:20; 15:10). We were to pray to “Our Father.” The simplest way to put it, I believe, is that we cannot love someone or have faith and trust in someone unless we know that person exists, that the person is good, beautiful and lovable. This understanding of “mission work” takes it out of the “functional” purpose of getting someone baptized and willing to accept Christ, and places it in the framework of love, caring and faithful presence between the lover and the beloved — in other words, to imitate what the Gospels tell us was our Lord’s way of changing hearts. From his own words, then, spoken in many ways, to reveal the Father’s goodness and love, revealed in his
became the cynical, murderous and ultimately hopeless Machiavellian hell of aging Soviet bureaucrats who oversaw the purges, gulags, and engineered famines of Stalin and his legacy. They ended as the “Dead Souls” of Gogol’s novel. They could only see this world, not the next one. They lacked spiritual farsightedness. It is to this farsightedness that Jesus calls us in today’s mysterious gospel. Like jaded Communist bureaucrats in the politburo who had once been men with souls, the cynical, dishonest manager has few noble aspirations. He doesn’t want to lose his job. So he cooks the books and saves his bacon. Jesus does not commend him for cooking the books any more than he commends Communists for atheism, but he does commend him for not just sitting there while his life burned down around him. He also, in a curious backhanded and rabbinic way, commends him for his instincts, if not his methods. Something like Oskar Schindler, the Nazi arms merchant who improbably saved thousands of Jews during the Holocaust while remaining the less-than-savory character he always was, the dishonest manager is a scoundrel who has the good sense to know that God loves those who love the poor. So he does the right thing. Jesus’ point is not “Be a cynical weasel and save your skin” but that “‘The otherworldly’ should be at least as proactive about saving their souls as this worldly guy was about saving his skin.” It’s an odd lesson, yet one which is true to life. In every scoundrel there is often hidden something very right, while in every saint, there is always hidden the possibility of a carelessness about God that could cost him heaven. Mark Shea is an award-winning columnist, author, and senior content editor for www.catholicexchange.com. He lives with his family near Seattle.
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QUESTION CORNER Dietzen Father John
own life and person, was what Jesus saw as his assignment from the Father. As Jesus told Philip when the apostle asked to see the Father, “You still do not know me Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.... Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?” (Jn 14:9-10) If this was Jesus’ mission, it is also the core of our mission. This is the good news that Jesus tells his disciples to go out and preach, with baptism as the sealing of that enlightened knowledge. Other aspects of the Christian message and practice also would be significant, for example the immensely valuable support of community and sacraments and prayer in living a life of intimacy with God. But I think we must say that bringing people to a conscious awareness of the graciousness of the Creator’s mercy and compassion toward us, and the opportunity to respond to that love, is particularly what makes Christian evangelization so rewarding and so necessary.
September 17, 2004
Catholic San Francisco
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Pride is always brooding By Frederica Mathewes-Green Here’s why we hate those family newsletters we get during the holidays: “It’s been a great year for the Lamplighters! Greg had been hoping for a promotion, but what a surprise when the CEO came to his desk and begged him to take over the company. The whole office chipped in and gave the family a week in Paris to celebrate. Wasn’t that nice? “Of course Jeanne has been busy as well. You probably saw that news item about how she rescued a school bus full of children from a kidnapper, armed only with a plastic comb. Nice to think, too, that the poem she wrote for last year’s holiday letter will be chiseled into the wall of the Library of Congress. The twins did so well at the state tapdance championship that Spielberg is crafting a movie around them, while Greg Jr.’s science fair project was the topic of much excitement in the New England Journal of Medicine.” Pride: we hate it. When we look at the Lamplighters, we sympathize with the ancients who called Pride the chief Deadly Sin. But here’s a modern complication: Isn’t pride a good thing when we’re proud of our country or football team? Don’t we want our kids to be proud of themselves? Isn’t it lack of pride, low self-esteem, which causes people to make self-destructive choices in life? The confusion stems from trying to stretch the little word “pride” over two far-flung meanings. What we dislike in the Lamplighters is narcissism—self-promotion, showing off, vanity. Let’s call that Pride One. What we want for our kids is more akin to confidence. We want them to have a healthy, balanced sense of self that won’t be tipped over by setbacks or peer pressure—Pride Two. This is a quiet,
Rolheiser . . . ■ Continued from page 13 I can tell you the real secret!”). But which is the greater naivete, believing in the truth claims of Christianity, or believing that a few intellectuals have access to spiritual secrets denied to the rest of us because they who know the truth have been too intimidated for 2000 years (by the Vatican!) to ever reveal it? Who exactly is being taken for a ride here?
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A Tradition of Faith Throughout Our Lives.
centered pride that is compatible with modesty because it doesn’t have a fretful need to show off. The difference between Pride One and Pride Two is that the first kind is obsessed with comparisons. Pride One is always asking anxiously, Am I smarter than they are? Richer? Better-looking? This isn’t really pride at all, but a fragile shell laid over a pit of self-doubt. The reverse can also be true: a person who appears to have no pride, to be filled with self-loathing, may actually be so convinced of his superiority that he finds his normal human failures devastating. It’s a shadow form of Pride One. Pride Two, on the other hand, is content to refrain from comparative judgments, knowing how meaningless they are. Pride Two’s strength comes not from measuring yourself against others, but against your own inner standards. These standards can’t be based on arbitrary personal preference; many a bloody tyrant has slept with a tranquil conscience, because his homemade moral standards signed off on his behavior. Pride Two is never so complacent. It has a “workout” quality, as we honor the values of our faith community—honesty, generosity, courage—and keep pushing to meet them. Failures are taken in stride, because we didn’t have an exaggerated idea of our abilities in the first place. We learn from mistakes, get up and try again, like a runner always trying to beat his best time. Pride Two means self-respect, not rootless self-esteem. What’s the difference? Self-esteem is like a happy-face sticker; self-respect is like a genuine smile. It can’t be acquired by repeating over and over what a swell person you are. You earn it by seeing yourself, day after day, year after year, trying to behave like you believe a swell person should. Pride Two people are not just admirable, but likeable. They are confident enough to care about others and strong enough to give themselves freely. Because they are familiar with their
own shortcomings they don’t draw attention to others’ faults. They’re both strong and kind. When we think about our kids, this is what we want for them—the gentleness that springs from self-assurance, and blooms into compassion. The funny thing is, when you meet a person like this, you wouldn’t think, “My, she certainly is proud!” Pride Two isn’t really the right name for this; it doesn’t seem like Pride of any sort. It’s more like Humility. Which brings us back to the Lamplighters. If you look at their holiday letter again, you’ll notice that it isn’t really showing off. They describe events straightforwardly, without embellishment or boasting. They’re telling you these things because they thought you were their friend. If you are, you’re happy for them and rejoice with them. Their joys do not detract from your own. Their success does not make you a failure. It turns out the Lamplighters weren’t exhibiting Pride One—we were. They simply recounted what happened to them, but we immediately began comparing ourselves with them and feeling angry and put down. A dark, snake-headed bitterness reared up the instant we started reading. We wished that somehow we could prove ourselves better and more important than they are, and see them reduced and humiliated. We judged them, hated them, wanted them hurt. This is why we need a Savior. We look so nice on the outside, but in the caverns of the heart vicious Pride is always brooding, ready to spring. Humility smashes our defenses, enables us to admit these dark emotions that frighten us, and admit we need help to be the people we long to be. No wonder Pride has long been called the great foe of spiritual health. No wonder they call it “Deadly.”
In his memoirs, Nikos Kazantzakis shares why he wrote, “Zorba the Greek.” He believed that Christianity was ultimately founded on a lie, a loving lie, but a lie nonetheless. When Jesus died, Kazantzakis suggests, Mary Magdala loved him so much that she simply couldn’t accept his death and so she resurrected him in her heart and began to spread the news that he had risen. Her story took hold and a great religion was born. Kazantzakis had similar feelings about Zorba and tried to do for him what Mary Magdala did for Jesus. Well, that
made for a good book and an excellent movie, but hardly for a great religion. Christianity is a great religion with a billion adherents and the world measures time by its inception, and that’s hardly because a few self-serving church officials have been able to hide the real truth from everyone (except “the wise and the clever”) for a couple of thousand years.
This article first appeared in Christianity Today. Reprinted with permission.
Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser is a theologian, teacher and award-winning author.
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Catholic San Francisco
Food & Fun Sept. 25, 26: St. Philip Parish Annual Festival. A Noe Valley tradition for almost 70 years. Children’s and teen games, homemade foods, arts and crafts, wheels of chance, live entertainment. Open 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. both days. Call (415) 282-0141. Oct. 16: Late Night Catechism! Nonie NewtonBreen, alum of Chicago’s famed Second City comedy troupe, is Sister! Settle in for this rollicking entertainment at St. Stephen Parish, 601 Eucalyptus next to Stonestown Mall, at 7p.m. Tickets are $35 per person. Enjoy a front row seat and a “meeting with Sister” for $10 more. Group discounts are available. Call (415) 6812444, ext. 26. Sept. 30: St. Francis of Assisi Awards will be presented by Archbishop William J. Levada to well known San Franciscan Angela Alioto and Conventual Franciscan Brother George Cherrie. Ceremonies are part of annual fundraiser for National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi, Vallejo at Columbus in North Beach. Streets surrounding the shrine are roped off each year for this special and formal event. Evening features concert by shrine’s Schola Cantorum. Tickets $95 per person. Call (415) 983-0405. Oct. 2, 3: St. Matthew Parish Carnival, 9th Ave. at El Camino Real, San Mateo. Old Country Fair theme with games entertainment, raffle, silent auction and “good ole fashion” food including chicken and tri-tip dinners. Sat. 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. and Sun. 9 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. Call (650) 344-7622. Oct. 2: Mercy High School, San Francisco, celebrates 150 years of the Mercy Sisters in California with an Auction/Dinner Dance beginning at 6p.m. with cocktails and silent auction and continuing through dinner, a live auction and dancing to Butch Whacks and the Glass Packs. Mercy Sisters who have attended the school are guests of honor. Tickets $125 per person. Call (415) 334-0525, ext. 235. Also marking the Sisters sesquicentennial are alumnae of the now-closed Mission District’s St. Peter high school. Oct. 3 celebration begins with Mass at 11 a.m. followed by lunch at Mercy Center, 2300 Adeline Dr., Burlingame. Lunch tickets are $30 per person. Call (415) 647-8662. Oct. 2: St. Mary’s Cathedral announces two special events – Blessing of the Animals at 10 a.m. and its Jazz/Gospel Mass at 5:30 p.m. “The festive blessing will be held in front of the Cathedral on the Geary Blvd, Plaza,” said Father John Talesfore, Cathedral administrator. “Bring pets on a leash or pictures of pets and don’t forget your pooper-scooper.” The Jazz Mass is a “prayerful and spirited experience” and all are invited, he added. Call (415) 567-2020. Oct. 3: Harvest Fest, an Arts and Crafts fair benefiting St. Matthias Preschool, Redwood City from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. Local vendors – 20 – offer wonderful and creative items. Also a Bake Booth, Food Booth, Silent Auction and Raffle. Children’s area too. Call (650) 367-1320. Sundays: Concerts at 4 p. m. at National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi, Vallejo and Columbus, SF. Call (415) 983-0405 or www.shrinesf.org. Open to the public. Admission free. Sundays: Concerts at St. Mary Cathedral at 3:30 p.m. Gough and Geary Blvd., SF. Call (415) 567-2020 ext. 213. Concerts are open to the public. Admission free. Sept. 19: Angela Kraft Cross, organist. Sept. 26: Raymond Garner, organist and music director, St. Sebastian Church, Greenbrae. 3rd Wed.: All you can eat Spaghetti Luncheon at Chapel of the Immaculate Conception, 3255 Folsom up the hill from Cesar Chavez, SF. $7 per person. Now celebrating its 49th year. Reservations not required. Call (415) 824-1762. 3rd Sat.: Handicapables gather for Mass and lunch at St. Mary Cathedral, Gough and Geary St., SF, at noon. Volunteer drivers always needed. Call (415) 584-5823. 4th Sat.: Handicapables of Marin meet at noon in the recreation room of the Maria B. Freitas Senior Community adjacent to St. Isabella Church, Terra Linda, for Mass, lunch and entertainment. Call (415) 457-7859.
Social Justice/Respect Life Sept. 21: How to be a Christian Peacemaker, an evening with Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton at 7 p.m. at St. Thomas More Church, 1300 Junipero Serra Blvd. at Brotherhood Way, SF. Call Ken Preston-Pile at (510) 535-2143. Sponsored by Pax Christi. Oct. 3: 2004 LifeChain, a peaceful pro-life demonstration along Mission St. in San Francisco from 2 – 3 p.m. Call (415) 864-6954 for details on how you can take part. “Be a part of this important event and be filled with joy,” said Judith Lagowski, a LifeChain leader and member of St. Bruno Parish in San Bruno. Supported by the Office of Public Policy and Social Concerns/Respect Life of the Archdiocese.
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September 17, 2004 Ministry for parents who have lost a child is available from Our Lady of Angels Parish, Burlingame. Call Ina Potter at (650) 347-6971 or Barbara Arena at (650) 344-3579. Young Widow/Widower group meets at St. Gregory, San Mateo. Call Barbara Elordi at (415) 564-7882. Information about children’s and teen groups is available from Barbara Elordi at (415) 5647882.
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Returning Catholics Programs for Catholics interested in returning to the Church, have been established at the following parishes: Marin County: St. Hilary, Tiburon, Mary Musalo, (415) 435-2775; St. Anselm, Ross, call (415) 453-2342; St. Sebastian, Greenbrae, Jean Mariani at (415) 461-7060; Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Mill Valley, Rick Dullea or Diane Claire at (415) 388-4190; St. Mary Star of the Sea, Sausalito, Lloyd Dulbecco at (415) 331-7949. San Francisco: Old St. Mary’s Cathedral, SF, Michael Adams at (415) 695-2707; St. Philip the Apostle, 725 Diamond St. at Elizabeth/24th, SF. Call (415) 282-0141; St. Dominic, SF, Lee Gallery at (415) 221-1288; Holy Name of Jesus, SF, (415) 664-8590. San Mateo County: St. Bartholomew, San Mateo, Dan Stensen at (650) 344-5665; St. Catherine of Siena, Burlingame, Silvia Chiesa at (650) 685-8336; Our Lady of Angels, Burlingame, Dorothy Heinrichs or Maria Cianci at (650) 347-7768; St. Dunstan, Millbrae, Dianne Johnston at (650) 697-0952; Our Lady of the Pillar, Half Moon Bay, Meghan at (650) 7264337; St. Peter, Pacifica, Chris Booker at (650) 738-1398.
Barely able to control his new acquisition or his excitement is Steve Massocca, one of many people who enjoyed last year’s Vincenzo Wine and Food Festival, a gala outdoor event benefiting and held at St. Vincent’s School for Boys in San Rafael. Steve’s opportunity to bid on the ample and prized vintage came courtesy of vintners and event co-chairs Ann and Dick Grace whose Grace Family Vineyards specially bottled, labeled and donated the wine. This year’s festival is October 3rd from 3 – 7 p.m. and features an Italian Marketplace theme with premier wineries and restaurants offering what they’re best known for. Live and silent auction, too. Narsai David from KCBS radio is master of ceremonies. Tickets are $95 per person. Call Catholic Charities CYO at its new number, (415) 972-1200.
TV/Radio Mon – Fri., KVTO 1400 AM, 7:30 p.m.: Catholic Radio Hour features rosary, music and commentary with Father Tom Daly. Sunday 6 a.m., WB Channel 20/Cable 13 and KTSF Channel 26/Cable 8: TV Mass with Msgr. Harry Schlitt presiding. 1st Sun, 5 a.m., CBS Channel 5: Mosaic, featuring conversations on current Catholic issues. 3rd Sun, 5:30 a.m., KRON Channel 4: For Heaven’s Sake, featuring conversations about Catholic spirituality.
Reunions Oct. 6: 58th anniversary reunion Academy of the Presentation, class of ’46 with no-host cocktails at 11: 30 am. and lunch at 12:30 p.m. at Basque Cultural Center, 599 Railroad Ave., South San Francisco. Call (415) 583-8091. Oct. 16: Reunion for all alumnae of the revered and much missed St. Brigid High School, San Francisco beginning at 11 a.m. at St. Brigid Elementary School at Van Ness and Broadway. Contact Pat Sabatini at (650) 6855666. Nov. 5, 6, 7: Reunion Weekend Celebration for Notre Dame High School, Belmont honoring graduates from classes of ’54, ’59, ’64,’ 69, ’74, ’79, ’84, ’89, ’94, ‘ 99. Weekend features are Nov. 6 luncheon at 11:30 a.m. and all alumnae are invited to Nov. 5 lunch as well as Mass and Brunch on Nov. 7. Call the Development Office at (650) 595-1913, ext. 351.
Prayer Opportunities/Lectures Oct. 1 – 3: Return to Me, a Holy Spirit Conference at St. Mary’s Cathedral Conference Center, Gough and Geary Blvd., SF. Opens Oct. 1 with Mass at 7 p.m. with San Francisco Auxiliary Bishop Ignatius Wang presiding. Continues through Sunday, Oct. 3 with prayer and presentations for all ages. Additional Masses Sat. at 5 p.m. and Sunday at 4:30 p.m. Speakers include Father Joe Landi, Archbishop’s liaison to Charismatic Renewal. Fees are $20 per day or $30 for both days. Call Ernie Von Emster (650) 594-1131. Oct. 2, 9: The Office of Worship announces training days for lectors, Oct. 2, and extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, Oct. 9, at Our Lady of Mercy Church, One Elmwood Dr.,
Taize Prayer
Daly City, from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. Expert instruction offered in basic liturgical theology, spirituality and practice. $10 registration. Call Pat Vallez-Kelly at (415) 614-5585 or vallezkellyp@sfarchdiocese.org.
Single, Divorced, Separated Sundays, Oct. 10 through Nov. 21: Divorce Recovery Course offered by Separated and Divorced Catholics of the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Sessions provide chance to explore issues arising from end of marriage and rebuilding one’s life. Designed to help participants heal and grow spiritually gaining strength from their faith and one another. Takes place at St. Stephen’s O’Reilly Parish Center, 451 Eucalyptus Dr., SF, 7 – 9 p.m. $45 fee includes book and materials. Pre-registration required. Call Vonnie at (650) 873-4236 or Jerry at (415) 810-1603. Separated and Divorced support groups meet 3rd Sat. at 6:30 p.m. at St. Mary’s Cathedral, call Pat at (415) 492-3331; and 1st and 3rd Wed. at 7:30 p.m. at St. Stephen Parish Center, SF, call Gail at (650) 591-8452. Catholic Adult Singles Assoc. of Marin meets for support and activities. Call Bob at (415) 8970639 for information.
Consolation Ministry Groups meet at the following parishes. Please call numbers shown for more information. San Mateo County: St. Catherine of Siena, Burlingame. Call (650) 344-6884; Our Lady of Angels, Burlingame. Call Louise Nelson at (650) 343-8457 or Barbara Arena at (650) 344-3579. Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Redwood City. Call (650) 366-3802; Good Shepherd, Pacifica. Call Sister Carol Fleitz at (650) 355-2593; St. Robert, San Bruno. Call (650) 589-2800. Immaculate Heart of Mary, Belmont. Call Ann Ponty at (650) 598-0658 or Mary Wagner at (650) 591-3850. Marin County: St. Isabella, San Rafael. Call Pat Sack at (415) 472-5732. Our Lady of Loretto, Novato. Call Sister Jeanette at (415) 897-2171. San Francisco: St. Gabriel. Call Barbara Elordi at (415) 564-7882. St. Finn Barr in English and Spanish. Call Carmen Solis at (415) 584-0823; St. Cecilia. Call Peggy Abdo at (415) 564-7882 ext. 3; Epiphany in Spanish. Call Kathryn Keenan at (415) 564-7882.
West Coast Church Supplies 369 Grand Avenue South San Francisco
1-800-767-0660 Easy access: 3 blocks west of 101 Bibles, Books, Rosaries,Statues, Jewelry, Medals, Crucifixes, Baptism and Christening Gifts
Mon – Fri 9:30 to 5:30 Sat 9:30 – 5
3rd Wed. at 7:30 p.m. with the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in their Province Center Chapel, 1520 Ralston Ave., Belmont across from Ralston Hall on the campus of their Notre Dame de Namur University. Call (650) 593-2045, ext. 350 or www.SistersofNotreDameCa.org. 1st Fri. at 8 p.m. at Mercy Center, 2300 Adeline Dr., Burlingame with Mercy Sister Suzanne Toolan. Call (650) 340-7452; Church of the Nativity, 210 Oak Grove Ave., Menlo Park at 7:30 p.m. Call Deacon Dominic Peloso at (650) 3223013. 2nd Fri. at 7:30 p.m. at St. Peter Church, 700 Oddstad Blvd., Pacifica. Call Deacon Peter Solan at (650) 359-6313. 3rd Fri. at 8 p.m. at Woodside Priory Chapel, 302 Portola Rd., Portola Valley. Call Dean Miller at (650) 631-2882 1st Sat. at 8:30 p.m. at SF Presidio Main Post Chapel, 130 Fisher Loop. Call Catherine Rondainaro at (415) 713-0225
Volunteer Opportunities St. Vincent de Paul Society of San Francisco needs your help at its Help Desk. Service includes sorting donations and helping clients. If anyone would like to volunteer - also small groups of volunteers one Saturday a month they should call (415) 202-9955.” St. Vincent de Paul of San Mateo County needs Spanish/English-speaking volunteers to answer phones in 2 – 3 hour shifts between 9:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. at their offices, 50 No. B St., San Mateo. Volunteers do intake of clients’ requests, log the call and enter into Access-based computer data system. Call (650) 373-0620. Most Holy Redeemer AIDS Support Group needs volunteers to provide practical and emotional support to individuals with HIV-AIDS and/or assist with various program events and activities. Call (415) 863-1581 or www.mhrasg.com. Maryknoll Affiliates: Bay Area chapter meets 4th Sat. for two hours at St. Ignatius Church, corner of Fulton and Parker, SF, to share community, prayer, and action on social justice and global concerns. Members occasionally do short periods of mission service around the world at Maryknoll locations. Call Marie Wren at (415) 331-9139 or mwren48026@aol.com.
Datebook is a free listing for parishes, schools and non-profit groups. Please include event name, time, date, place, address and an information phone number. Listing must reach Catholic San Francisco at least two weeks before the Friday publication date desired. Mail your notice to: Datebook, Catholic San Francisco, One Peter Yorke Way, S.F. 94109, or fax it to (415) 614-5633.
Visit www.BayAreaCatholicSisters.org ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖
for prayers links calendar of events news about Sisters
Look for us! We’re here!
September 17, 2004
Music TV
Catholic San Francisco
Books RADIO Film
17
Stage
Bright Young Things By Harry Forbes Catholic News Service NEW YORK — Actor-writer Stephen Fry (“Wilde,” “Gosford Park”) makes a mostly successful directorial debut with “Bright Young Things” (ThinkFilm), his own adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s famous novel, “Vile Bodies,” an alternately funny and serious look at the upper-crust 1920s’ Jazz Age sensation-seekers who partied till they dropped, obsessed with drink and drugs on the road to self-destruction. Overly fond of long, fast pan shots and annoying quick cutting (much like “Chicago”) utilized to show the fast-paced lives these self-absorbed characters lead, the film barely slows down until the end, when the story takes a somber turn. At the center is writer Adam Symes (Stephen Campbell Moore), whose memoirs are seized by narrow-minded customs agents as he returns to England from Paris. This is particularly unfortunate, as he needs an advance of 1,000 British pounds from publishing magnate Lord Monomark (Dan Aykroyd) to be able to wed his fiancee, Nina (Emily Mortimer). At his boarding house, he wins an equivalent amount at cards, but then gambles the money on a horse called Indian Runner when a drunken major (Jim Broadbent) assures him the horse is a shoo-in. The major disappears, leading him to think he’ll never see the money again. Lo and behold, the horse wins, and throughout the film Adam keeps running into the major, but for complicated reasons never seems to get his hands on the money he’s owed. In desperation, he summons up the courage to ask Nina’s loony father (Peter O’Toole) for the money. Surprisingly, the father agrees, but in his carelessness signs the check “Charlie Chaplin,” rendering the check worthless. Since it appears Adam will never get the money, the pragmatic Nina decides to marry the wealthy Ginger (David Tennant), though she still loves Adam. Adam is eventually hired to be a gossip columnist — “Mr. Chatterbox” — after Simon Balcairn (James McAvoy), who had the job, writes an outrageous column filled with libelous fabrications of high-placed people, and then commits suicide. (At one point, Adam fleetingly considers suicide, too.) For a while, Adam fills his shoes admirably, until an unfortunate mishap.
Eventually war comes, bringing the wanton frivolity of these bright young things to an end. Fry has seen in Waugh’s story a searing indictment of a celebrity culture filled with gossip columnists and paparazzi, long before our present-day obsession with such gossip-generating engines as the National Enquirer and the E! channel. The film is peopled with various colorful characters, including Adam’s kindly, eccentric landlady (a delightful turn by British musical star Julia MacKenzie), who’s extraordinarily magnanimous about Adam’s rent; a wild sophisticate named Agatha Runcible (Fenella Woolgar) who, in a pivotal scene, wreaks havoc as she tears off into the countryside in a racing car; and an effeminate fop named Miles (Michael Sheen) whose infatuation with another man leads him into serious trouble with the police. The film is extravagantly cast with some terrific English actors in roles large and small. Besides those mentioned, there are Sir John Mills, Richard E. Grant, Simon Callow, Margaret Tyzack and Jim Carter. Americans Aykroyd and Stockard Channing (as an evangelist traveling with a choir of attractive young ladies) hold their own. There’s much decadent posing and snorting of cocaine and such in the party scenes, but, as in the book — a classic of social criticism — it’s all for a moral purpose. “Oh, Nina, what a lot of parties,” Adam sighs wearily at one point, voicing Waugh’s sentiments. The central characters ultimately come to a realization of the more important things of life. Waugh himself was Catholic, and his Catholicism reached its popular apotheosis with the 1982 miniseries, “Brideshead Revisited.” Fry has fiddled a bit with the time frame of the book so that the story now reaches its climax during World War II, and ties things up in a more neatly sentimental fashion than Waugh did. (The novel was published in 1928.) Otherwise, if the story isn’t completely faithful in detail, it certainly is in spirit. The production is handsomely designed (by Michael Howells). The music score encompasses mostly period recordings, everything from “Sing, Sing, Sing” to Noel Coward ditties. Because of recreational drug and alcohol use, implied promiscuity, generalized decadence, amoral behavior and a suicide, the USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is L — limited adult audience.The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R — restricted.
Travel Directory LAKE TAHOE RENTAL Vacation Rental Condo in South Lake Tahoe. Sleeps 8, near Heavenly Valley and Casinos.
Call 925-933-1095 See it at RentMyCondo.com#657
Catholic San Francisco invites you
to join in the following pilgrimages LOURDES and the GREAT SAINTS of EUROPE October 5, 2004 Departs San Francisco 10-Day Pilgrimage
only
$
2,199
Fr. Michael Lacy Spiritual Director St. Bernadette
Visit: Paris, Lisieux, Normandy, Versailles, Nevers, Paray-LeMonial, Ars, Lyon, Toulouse, Lourdes
PILGRIMAGE TO IRELAND October 7, 2004 Departs San Francisco 10-Day Pilgrimage
only
$
2,299
Fr. Gino Donatelli Spiritual Director
Knock
Visit: Dublin,Clonmacnois,Galway, Knock, Croagh Patrick,Kylemore Abbey, Connemara, Cliffs of Moher, Adare, Tralee, Slea Head, Gallarus Oratory, Dingle, Killarney, Blarney Castle, Rock of Cashel & More.
ITALY January 11, 2005 Departs San Francisco 11-Day Pilgrimage
only
$
1,999
with Fr. Chris Crotty and Fr. Louis Caporicci With excellent foods, varied lodgings, beautiful location and welcoming atmosphere, the Bug makes a great place to plan for great things together.
celebrations study groups workshops children couples alumni families teams/clubs singles groups
www.yosemitebug.com Talk with Caroline about packages at 209.966.6666
Visit: Rome, Orvieto, Assisi, Loreto, Lanciano, Mt. St. Angelo, San Giovanni, Foggia, Pompeii, (Papal audience if Holy Father is home)
St. Paul Outside the Wall
For a FREE brochure on these pilgrimages contact: Virginia Marshall – Catholic San Francisco
(415) 614-5640 Please leave your name, mailing address and your phone number California Registered Seller of Travel Registration Number CST-2037190-40 (Registration as a Seller of Travel does not constitute approval by the State of California)
18
Catholic San Francisco
September 17, 2004
Letters . . .
2004 Police and Fire Memorial Mass
■ Continued from page 12
(PHOTO BY MARTA REBAGLIATI)
tion, “which Catholic perspective?” Fr. Weare sums up his thinking on free trade by stating, “…while free trade may be good for profits, it is bad for workers.” I do not believe this perspective can be considered entirely “Catholic.” I do believe, as Pope John XXIII has said that, “the dignity of the human person…is the criterion against which all aspects of economic life must be measured.” I also believe that the Church must aggressively promote the dignity of the human person in all spheres of life. There are some aspects of Church teaching regarding human dignity however which are fundamental, and which must be accepted without question, as in the case of abortion, euthanasia and the other “life” issues. Other areas, like economics, involve subjects about which even “good Catholics” may disagree. Therefore, some Catholics (and many Economists) legitimately believe that free trade, or a variation thereof, is ultimately a better way to promote the dignity of workers and families than is protectionism and regulation. With that in mind, I submit that a more accurate title for Fr. Weare’s commentary would be “A Catholic Perspective on Social Policy – A Personal Perspective on Free Trade.” Robert Johnson Fairfax
Members of the San Francisco Police and Fire Departments and their chaplains pose in front of St. Monica’s Church at the Annual Police and Fire Memorial Mass September 11. The Mass honors recently deceased members of the Police and Fire Departments as well as those who gave their lives in service following terrorist attacks September 11, 2001.
S E R V I C E
Morals are legislated Mr. Bouyssounouse’s letter (Sept. 3) demonstrates exactly what is wrong with the Catholic Church. While its teaching maintains that, “Human life must be
respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception,” the letter writer believes that the real question is, when does God grant a soul to the unborn? The Church, which teaches infallibly in the area of faith and morals has answered this question. It is given a soul at the moment of conception. We should not have to “scientifically” prove this in order to justify protection of the unborn. Doesn’t common sense say that we must err on the side of caution? It is lamentable that so many Catholics reject the teaching of the one Church which traces it’s roots and therefore its teaching and authority to Jesus Christ himself. There are over 20,000 Protestant Churches available to choose from if you want to define your own doctrine. Why stay in a Church that you don’t believe in? When I converted in 1984, Church teaching was not presented as optional. If I hadn’t agreed with its teaching I wouldn’t have been Confirmed. I could have chosen any number of churches if I wanted to use contraception or have an abortion. It is futile to try to get the Catholic Church to change; It alone has the protection of the Holy Spirit when it teaches faith and morals. Mr. Bouyssounouse says that “we have a right to choose and we can’t deny others the same right” He is wrong; we can’t take illegal drugs, kill each other, or even let kids ride a bike without a helmet. Our right to choose is not absolute. Laws necessarily impose morality; the question is whose? It is tragic that not all Catholics agree it should be the morality that says an unborn baby is just as precious as the letter writer. Cheryl Amalu Belmont
D I R E C T O R Y
For Advertising Information Call 415-614-5642 • E-mail: jpena@catholic-sf.org
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PAULA B. HOLT, LCSW, ACSW Adult, Family, Couple Psychotherapy, LCS 18043 Divorce resolution, Grief resolution, Supportive consultation. Substance abuse counseling, Post trauma resolution, Family Consultation.
Support and help a phone call away! 4000 Geary Blvd., Suite 201, San Francisco, CA 94118 415-289-6990
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Lila Caffery, MA, CCHT Christian Family Counselo r
100 North Hill Drive, Unit 18 • Brisbane, CA 94005
INSURANCE Al Zeidler Insurance Agency 35 Mitchell Blvd. Suite 9-B, San Rafael, CA 94903
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The Peninsula Men’s Group, now in it’s 7th year, is a support group which provides affordable counseling in a safe and nurturing setting. Interested candidates may call for a free brochure.
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GARAGE DOOR REPAIR
Barbara Elordi, MFT Licensed Marriage, Family and Child Therapist. Offers individual, couple + family and group counseling.
• Family • Work • Depression • Anxiety
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COUNSELING
When Life Hurts It Helps To Talk
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SPIRITUAL DIRECTION
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CONSTRUCTION REPAIRS & PRESSURE WASHING Leaks, Dryrot, Decks Mike: (650) 355-8858 Lic #: 778332
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PLUMBING HOLLAND
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415-239-8491 not a licensed contractor
Catholic San Francisco
September 17, 2004
Catholic San Francisco
Work At Home
Community Classifieds
Are you being paid what you’re worth? Catholic/professional husband & wife are seeking people who want to transition into being their own boss by partnering with a sussessful INC 500 wellness co. Low Investment-Tax Deductible-Money Back Guarantee-Unlimited Income. NO MLM. NO Inventory. NO Order Taking. NO delivering. FREE training. Famed Rich Dad author, Robert Kiyosaki, calls us the “perfect business”. This business is lots of fun & is based on teaching people & enhancing lives! Read about us at: www.milestoneopportunity.com or call: 415-614-1908 for more info.
For Information
Call: Fax:
415-614-5642 415-614-5641
Email: jpena@catholic-sf.org
Loan Wanted
$360,000 WANTED A loan in this amount is wanted for a maximum of five years, secured by a first deed on four very nice condos in Los Altos. Loan will be interest only at 8% fixed rate. You will get a $2,400 interest check every month. Borrower has excellent credit and has owned this property for over 30 years. No banks please. (650) 854-6428
Room Wanted A 55 year old former Catholic Monk wants to rent an inexpensive room in San Francisco. It must be near public transportation. I am quiet, clean and respectful. I do not smoke and have no pets. Please call David (650) 839-0428
Serra for Priestly Vocations Please Call Archdiocese of San Francisco Fr. Tom Daly 415-614-5683
Apartments, home, businesses. Reliable and courteous. Quality service.
FREE ESTIMATES. Call Phil (415) 668-8310
Prayer to the Holy Spirit
Pre-payment required Mastercard or Visa accepted
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. E.L.L.E.
Cost $25
If you wish to publish a Novena in the Catholic San Francisco You may use the form below or call 415-614-5640 Your prayer will be published in our newspaper
St. Jude Novena
\
Name Adress Phone MC/VISA # Exp. ❑ Prayer to the Blessed Virgin ❑ Prayer to the Holy Spirit
Select One Prayer: ❑ St. Jude Novena to SH ❑ Prayer to St. Jude
Please return form with check or money order for $25 Payable to: Catholic San Francisco Advertising Dept., Catholic San Francisco 1 Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco, CA 94109
May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be adored, glorified, loved & preserved throughout the world now & forever. Sacred Heart of Jesus pray for us. St. Jude helper of the hopeless pray for us. Say prayer 9 times a day for 9 days. Thank You St. Jude. Never known to fail. You may publish.
R.G.
(415) 929-4690
Diocese of Yakima, WA has an opening for Diocesan Director of Social Justice and Respect Life. 41 parishes; many rural. 70 percent Catholic population Hispanic. Bilingual ability, with English/Spanish biliteracy desirable. Position description will be sent to applicant. Please send resume by September 27 to:
Contact: Chair, Search Committee for Campus Minister, Schools of the Sacred Heart, 2222 Broadway, San Francisco, CA 94115. Fax: (415) 563-3005. E-mail: heart@sacredsf.org For a complete description see “careers” at www.sacredsf.org.
Chancellor 5301-A Tieton Drive Yakima, WA 98908 or Fax to 509-966-8334 or Email to rmetha@yakimadiocese.org
Special Needs Companion Services We are looking for you.
• Honest • Generous • Compassionate • Make a Difference • Respectful
Work Full or Part-time in San Francisco – Marin County • Provide non medical elder care in the home • Generous benefit package
NOVENAS PUBLISH A NOVENA
Yard Supervisor St. Mary’s Chinese Day School in San Francisco has 2 positions for Yard Supervisors. Experience working with children preferred. 9:30 a.m. or 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Mon – Fri. Minimum wage offered.
Serve as full-time Campus ministry coordinator in a K-12 Catholic, independent school with 1,100 students. Previous experience needed. Master’s Degree in related fields preferred.
SOCIAL JUSTICE/RESPECT LIFE MINISTRY
Organist WINDOW CLEANING.
CAMPUS MINISTER
EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES heaven can’t wait
19
Fax your resume to: Jeannie McCullough Stiles, RN 415-435-0421 St. Jude Novena
Send your resume: Jeannie McCullough Stiles, RN Special Needs Nursing, Inc. 98 Main Street, #427 Tiburon, Ca 94920
\
May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be adored, glorified, loved & preserved throughout the world now & forever. Sacred Heart of Jesus pray for us. St. Jude helper of the hopeless pray for us. Say prayer 9 times a day for 9 days. Thank You St. Jude. Never known to fail. You may publish.
Special Needs Nursing, Inc. RNs or LVNs We are looking for you.
J.C.T.
Work FULL or PART time while your children are in school.
Prayer For Motherhood
Nurses are needed to provide specialized nursing care for children in the San Francisco Public School setting.
O good St. Gerard, powerful intercessor before God and Wonder-worker of our day, I call upon thee and seek thy aid. Thou who on earth didst always fulfill God’s design help me do the Holy Will of God. Beseech the Master of Life, from Whom all paternity proceedeth to render me fruitful in offspring, that I may raise up children to God in this life and heirs to the Kingdom of His glory in the world to come. Amen. T.D.
Generous benefit packages for generous nurses. Fax your resume to: Jeannie McCullough Stiles, RN 415-435-0421 Send your resume: Jeannie McCullough Stiles, RN Special Needs Nursing, Inc. 98 Main Street, #427 Tiburon, Ca 94920
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Catholic San Francisco
September 17, 2004
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Extension 878
C O R P
Some annuities historically have returned (7% to 9%)* Tax Deferred ● With NO RISK To Principal And Gains.** Inheritants pay little or
The Symbol of Very High Customer Satisfaction
NO TAXATION.*** IRA’s qualify, too! CA insurance license # 0820443
We offer
• “NO COST” Home Loans • FREE Pre-Approval • 100% Financing • No Documentation Loans • 100% Equity Lines Serving the Peninsula Since 1986 E-Mail Address kfiore@gmwest.com Web Site: www.GMMortgage.com
Call for your FREE educational booklet on
Real Estate Broker, Calif. Dept. of Real Estate (tel. 915-227-0931). License #00930036
THE “ANNUITY RESCUE PROGRAM” A booklet designed to help resolve the financial concerns facing seniors today. FOR YOUR FREE COPY CALL TOLL FREE
1-800-742-1085
(24 Hours)
* Past performance is not indicative of future results or any particular insurance company * Advantage Compendium. ** Surrender charge may apply. *** Tax Rider Option.
We made
1652500
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Tell our advertisers you saw their ad in Catholic San Francisco
Your Real Estate Bank
our wills for three
STOP BY OR CALL US
good reasons
5498 Geary at 19th Ave. 415-379-6990
Money Market Accounts
825 Irving at 9th Ave. 415-682-2250 2045 Van Ness St. 415-674-0200 2122 Market at Church 415-437-3860 600 Montgomery, 40th Floor 415-658-2888
Our family, ourselves, and our Church.
Call us for your Free Estate Planning Kit Or, if you would like an electronic version of the Planning Kit, please e-mail us at:
olearym@sfarchdiocese.org
Office of Development Archdiocese of San Francisco One Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco, CA 94109 (415) 614-5580
1.75%
APY*
Isn’t it Time to Give Your MONEY a WORKOUT? For Mortgage and Home Equity Solutions Annual percentage yield (APY) effective as of 8/30/04 and subject to change without notice. $2,500 minimum balance required on money market accounts. Statement fees may reduce earnings if minimum balance not maintained. Sterling Bank & Trust, FSB, San Francisco, CA.
415-437-3860 For Commercial/Construction Lending
415-658-2888
Burlingame–1210 Broadway 650-685-6430