Archbishop: Catholic education tunes the ear of the heart to hear the Lord’s call
Catholic quiz: How well do you know the Catholic faith?
Mission advancement: Corporal works of mercy supported parishes in the Archdiocese
Canonization: New center facilitates the making of a saint
Marian devotion: Hail Mary, full of grace – Marian shrines a labor of love for SF parish
New saints: Shrine to St. Carlo Acutis draws local techies (and others)
Triumph and tragedy: The mission and the city, Part 2: Mexican interlude
Human dignity: Hey Mom, I DO have hands! – A moment of grace with a homeless, pregnant mom
Spiritual companions: Angels – The gift of God’s heavenly messengers
A parish treasure: St. Sebastian’s music director celebrates 40th anniversary
news: Legatus marks 10-year milestone in the Archdiocese
events: Save the dates! Come out and join
Michael the Archangel at war with the bad angels scene by Leopold Kupelwieser in the nave of the Altlerchenfelder Church in Vienna. Read about God’s heavenly messengers on page 32.
Fr. Patrick Summerhays Vicar General & Moderator of the Curia
Peter Marlow (415) 614-5636 Communications
Ryan Mayer, Catholic Identity Assessment & Formation
Valerie Schmalz, Human Life & Dignity Rod Linhares, Mission Advancement
Mary Powers (415) 614-5638
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Catholic education tunes the ear of the heart to hear the Lord’s call
ARCHBISHOP
SALVATORE
JOSEPH
CORDILEONE
“Habemus papam!” What a joy it was to see the excitement with which our Catholic schools received the news of the election of Pope Leo XIV! In the days leading up to his election, students had been praying for the cardinals in conclave and found creative ways to celebrate the election of the new successor to St. Peter such as with prayer bouquets, the creation of holy cards and learning about the Peruvian culture where the new pontiff spent nearly 20 years as a missionary and bishop. It was a moment in their Catholic school formation that I know they will remember for the rest of their lives. I was just as surprised as anyone to hear that the first American Pope had been elected, but, as Pope Francis was fond of reminding us, “God is the God who surprises!” (Morning Meditation, May 8, 2017) It was no doubt just as much of a surprise to the first Pope, St. Peter, to be called by Christ from his life as a fisherman to be a fisher of men (Mt 4:18-20) as it was for Cardinal Robert Prevost to be called to fill the “shoes of the fisherman” as Pope Leo XIV.
The modern world is filled with so many voices competing for the minds and hearts of young people. In addition to forming the whole person by imparting knowledge and cultivating virtue, Catholic schools teach students to tune the ear of their hearts to that same voice of Christ calling them to discipleship and vocation. The word “vocation” comes from the Latin “vocare” – to call. Vocation awareness is not something that ›
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone visits students at St. Anselm School in Marin County.
Photo by Mary Powers
happens once a year during Vocations Awareness Week in Catholic schools (Nov. 2-8). Fostering a sense of vocation, that is, developing the habit of listening for God’s voice with the heart, is essential to Catholic education.
Dedicating time for silence and reflection are essential for hearing God speak. Catholic schools provide a sacred space where students can learn to be attentive to the gentle voice of Christ, the Good Shepherd. They do this through prayer, spending time reflecting on Scripture, and especially through the encounter with Christ in the sacred liturgy. Daily prayer and regular Mass allow students to recognize the presence and voice of Christ not as something distant or abstract, but as personal, living and present.
Catholic education also emphasizes the integration of faith and reason, helping students see all truth as God’s truth. In the study of the natural world, they are invited to “discern in the voice of the universe the Creator whom it reveals.” (Congregation for Catholic Education, “The Catholic School,” 46) This holistic vision of the world fosters a sense of wonder and gratitude that tunes the heart to recognize God in creation and in every moment of the day. Through the witness of faithful teachers and peers, as well as the lived example of the saints, students learn what it means to be a disciple who hears and responds to the call of Christ. This lived faith witness nurtures a disposition of attentiveness — of looking and listening for where God might be calling them to serve. Students in Catholic schools are encouraged not only to know about Christ, but to encounter Him in the poor, in one another and in the Eucharist and, like the saints, to be transformed by that encounter.
The election of Pope Leo XIV reminds us of the need to tune the ear of our own hearts to hear the voice of Christ — the same voice of Christ who called St. Peter, a humble fisherman, and who called Pope Leo XIV, a White Sox fan from Chicago, to serve His Church. Catholic education forms students who are still and attentive, who listen for the voice of Christ. It tunes the ear of the heart by shaping young people to be wise rather than merely knowledgeable, holy rather than merely successful in the eyes of the world, and to be ready to respond to Christ’s call. In doing so, it prepares them not just for college or career, but for vocation — for hearing and responding to the call of Christ. May our Catholic schools continue to tune the ear of the hearts of young people to hear His voice and respond! ■
Catholic schools provide a sacred space where students can learn to be attentive to the gentle voice of Christ, the Good Shepherd.”
Students at École Notre Dame des Victoires in San Francisco sing at Mass.
Photo by Francisco Valdez
How well do you know the Catholic faith?
InQUIZition: Q&A for the Curious Catholic and the Catholic Curious
TQ&A excerpted with permission and available for purchase from Holy Heroes, the official online store for Patrick Madrid products: https://holyheroes.com/collections/patrick-madrid
BY PATRICK MADRID
Catholic apologist, author of numerous books on the faith, and host of the daily “Patrick Madrid Show” on Relevant Radio
here are no trick questions, but there are questions that will trip you up if you fail to read carefully. An answer is counted as wrong if any part of it — such as a date or name — is wrong. Your goal is not to find the answer that is least wrong, but the one answer that is wholly correct. On average, most informed Catholics score 50%. How well did you do?
1. The three key elements of determining the morality or immorality of a human act are:
a. Serious matter, sufficient reflection and deliberate consent.
b. The kingdom, the power and the glory.
c. “In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity.” (St. Augustine)
d. The object of the act, the circumstances and the intention.
e. Does it feel good? Is anybody watching? Are you absolutely sure you won’t get caught?
2. In Catholic parlance, what does the Latin word peritus mean?
a. A parrot
b. A little dog, like the one that held a torch for St. Dominic
c. An expert theologian who assists a bishop, for example, at an ecumenical council
d. A blind man (i.e., a blind guide who leads others astray, like in Matthew 15:14)
e. A young patriarch (under 30 years of age)
3. What is the term for something that is made up of both good and evil?
a. Abulia
b. Agathokakological
c. That last one is definitely not a real word
d. Verisimilitude
e. Cringe
4. According to tradition, what was the name of the Roman soldier who pierced the side of Christ on the cross with a spear?
a. Spiro (like Spiro Agnew)
b. Cornelius
c. Lance
d. Septimus
e. Longinus
5. Which is the most theologically accurate answer to the question:
“What does it mean that Jesus Christ is ‘true God and true man’?”
a. He is 100% God but in the form of a perfect man, similar to how angels sometimes appear in human form.
b. He is a highly exalted human person with many important attributes of God and is in-dwelled by God.
c. He is 50% divine and 50% human.
d. He is a 100% divine person and 100% human person with divine and human natures.
e. He is a divine person with a divine nature and a human nature
Answers can be found on page 42.
SCAN THIS QR CODE FOR MORE CATHOLIC QUIZES or visit http:// sfarch.org/catholic-quizes
WALKING WITH YOU throughout the Bay Area
Archdiocesan parishes such as Most Holy Redeemer and St. Peter along with local organizations are
supporting men, women, children and families across the Bay Area by offering care that respects human dignity.
SCAN TO SEE ALL THE SERVICES OFFERED or visit sfarch.org/care.
Corporal works of mercy supported by St. Peter Church in Pacifica
FEED THE HUNGRY
Parishioners of St. Peter Parish support the Pacifica Resource Center with various efforts throughout the year, including food collection to help stock the PRC pantry that serves low-income families in our community. Staff at the resource center provide information about the specific needs of residents, and they invite parishioners to take a written grocery list with them to help fill those needs.
THE GIVING TREE
Each year at Christmas the parish supports various organizations that serve the needs of challenged individuals in the broader community. Necessities are first identified by organizations, and then wish lists are shared with parishioners. The following organizations receive donations through the generosity of our parishioners.
Society of St. Vincent de Paul (San Francisco)www.svdp-sf.org
Society of St. Vincent de Paul (San Mateo)www.svdpsm.org
Most Holy Redeemer Wednesday Suppers
The Most Holy Redeemer Wednesday Suppers, which have been taking place for 24 years, is a charitable outreach program under the leadership of the pastor who is assisted by the Wednesday Suppers Program Advisory Team. The Wednesday Suppers focus on fellowship, not food. Their purpose is to cultivate relationships with our homeless neighbors in the Castro, to affirm community with them and to understand their needs, with a special emphasis on homeless youth.
The Wednesday Suppers volunteers are made up of parishioners, friends, neighbors and people who just want to help in our mission. Volunteers set up tables, make bag lunches, shop for food, cook, serve and clean up. It takes around 25-30 volunteers each Wednesday and we are always looking for new people to volunteer.
SCAN TO ACCESS MORE INFORMATION or visit https://mhr.org
Photo by Dennis Callahan
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Their Next Chapter
Sisters of the Holy Family and Sisters of Holy Names announce that Sister Annamarie Therese Colapietro, SNJM, was installed as the Canonical Trustee for Sisters of the Holy Family on June 29th by Bishop Michael C. Barber, SJ.
782-A Ulloa Street San Francisco, CA 94127 (415) 664-8810 www.mtslaw.info
This was the culmination of a discernment process begun in 2007 by the Holy Family community. Sister Gladys Guenther, retiring President of Sisters of the Holy Family, explained, just as they have always sought the best use of the resources entrusted to their care, they sought to determine the best use of their time and talents as they live out their final years.
Very few communities have Canonical Trustees, none others in Northern California. When Sister Gladys Guenther made a presentation about the concept to the Sisters of the Holy Names she said, “We are coming to completion… and we no longer are able to have a leadership team from among our own members. So, what we need is for somebody with an adventurous spirit to jump off the cliff with us.” Sister Annamarie Therese is excited to have been chosen to be on this adventure with the Holy Family Sisters, a journey to create this next chapter in their lives.
Sisters of the Holy Family, founded in San Francisco in 1872, have been serving families and children, for over 150 years. They were leaders in providing day care, championing for affordable housing, broadening access to healthcare, advocating for social justice. It is their desire to honor their history and continue that work as God guides them to completion with the help of a Canonical Trustee.
May God who called us to a new work, Bless all who have been with us from the beginning, Empower all those who continue with us now, And awaken and send out all who will take up the work of gleaning, Until all have been gathered into the One Kingdom of God.
New center facilitates the making of a saint
BY LIDIA WASOWICZ
Ever been touched by an “angel” whose sainthood you wish to promote but don’t know where to start?
A new option is the Center for Sainthood Studies — the only such resource and training facility outside the Vatican — which opened in June at St. Patrick’s Seminary and University in Menlo Park.
Offering a user-friendly toolbox for navigating the complex, confounding path in advancing candidates for canonization, the laity-driven program aims to ease the way toward official acknowledgement of the saints among us.
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone formalized the groundbreaking initiative in an April 14 decree, which described a key goal as “fostering a deeper understanding of the processes involved in recognizing the holiness of individuals and their potential for sainthood.”
The center will house relics and other archival materials, provide resources, serve as a consultation hub, present networking opportunities and offer a six-day course formulated and led by two esteemed postulators from Rome versed in canon law and proficient in case presentation.
“These experts know firsthand the challenges one might face when starting a cause and how daunting it may seem,” Archbishop Cordileone told Catholic San Francisco. “The certification process is designed to make sainthood causes less intimidating and encourage more people to initiate causes.”
From left, Michael Huston, director of finance, and Mike McDevitt, petitioner of the sainthood cause and custodian for the writings of Servant of God Cora Evans, outside St. Peter’s Basilica.
Award-winning journalist Wasowicz, former West Coast science editor and senior science writer for United Press International, has been writing for Catholic San Francisco since 2011.
Already, U.S. investigators are considering dozens of cases and the Dicastery (Vatican department) for the Causes of Saints is reviewing more than 1,500 cases of candidates from around the world to determine whether any of them should join the more than 10,000 saints recognized by the Catholic Church, he said.
“I believe we, the Catholic Church, need more saints recognized in America. I want their stories told. I want the examples they set and their faith in Christ to be followed,” said Michael McDevitt, who spent decades promoting the cause of Cora Evans, an American housewife and convert from Mormonism whose case has concluded its U.S. inspections, investigations and inquiries and is now in Roman hands. “We created the Center for Sainthood Studies to address this need.”
The “transformative” idea will reap great benefits, including the public’s access to photographs, mementos and writings about and by ordinary people practicing extraordinary virtues that inspire and influence others, McDevitt said.
Anyone involved or interested in a cause qualifies for entry, said Waldery Hilgeman, who holds doctorates in canon and civil law and has served as postulator for Dorothy Day and Cardinal François-Xavier Nguyên Van Thuân, among numerous others.
The easy-to-follow, step-by-step “Handbook of the Causes of Saints: The Diocesan Phase,” which he co-authored with Spedicato, will serve as a text for the class, once it is translated into English.
“I wish we had it for promoting Cora’s cause,” said Travis Degheri, the center’s executive director who holds a doctorate in leadership studies and partnered with McDevitt in pursuing Evans’ sainthood application.
Degheri, McDevitt and fellow Evans promoter Michael Huston, director of finance on the sainthood center’s board of directors, will share their struggles and hard-fought solutions as the California wife and mother was declared a servant of God — a title indicating initial approval of her candidacy — and advanced through the U.S. phase.
I believe we, the Catholic Church, need more saints recognized in America. I want their stories told. I want the examples they set and their faith in Christ to be followed.”
MICHAEL MCDEVITT
Visitors, from theologians and scholars to tourists and schoolchildren, will have the opportunity to pray, meditate, venerate and view physical remnants and personal souvenirs of saints and those on the way to sainthood.
Clergy, religious and laity wanting a closer look can register at sainthoodcenter.com for the inaugural course, which will be held Feb. 15-21, 2026, at the scenic Vallombrosa Retreat Center, within walking distance of St. Patrick’s.
Graduates will earn a certificate of “achievement and readiness,” signed by the archbishop.
“The program, which will be offered annually at this stage, will provide an introduction to the theological and historical aspects of the causes of the saints, primarily focusing on the canonical procedures related to beatification, from its initiation in the diocese to canonization,” said Emanuele Spedicato, who holds a doctorate in canon law and is associate professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University, rooted in the Roman College, founded in 1551 by St. Ignatius of Loyola.
“We will talk about what we found unique and most difficult,” Huston said. Along with the postulators and guest speakers “we will give participants all the knowledge they need to get a cause before the Vatican.”
The curriculum will incorporate historical, theological and canonical contexts and procedural guidelines for petitioners, from the diocesan to the Roman phase, which concludes with verification of miracles and the pope’s final pronouncement.
Course content will also explore the significance of relics and mortal remains, a sample of which will be displayed in a new oratory to be erected in a building behind the seminary as it undergoes a multiyear seismic retrofit and renovation.
The studies will dovetail with a morning Mass option, breakfast, lunch and dinner, along with opportunities for private reflection, social interaction and networking with uniquely qualified teachers and guests on Vallombrosa’s lush, tree-dotted grounds.
The all-inclusive $2,500 fee also applies to six ›
nights of single occupancy accommodations with an en suite restroom at the popular retreat and workshop center.
Organizers have set the maximum attendance at 50 to ensure a more personalized experience, said Cathy Bonnici, secretary on the sainthood center board charged with managing the operations because of her extensive background in banking, marketing and hospitality.
If the initial response is any indication, the slots should fill easily, leading to a more than once-ayear offering in the future, she said.
Within just the first week of going live, the registration site garnered four official signups and 10 serious requests for more information, Degheri said.
Since the prepaid participants come from Florida, Illinois, North Dakota and other parts of the country, they must deem the experience worth not only the fee but also their travel expenses, he added. “The projection looks like we’ll have little trouble reaching capacity.”
While some may simply want to explore the process of elevating a person from holiness to sainthood, others may have a specific individual in mind for the honor, said Bonnici, a retired Bank of America executive who majored in marketing and spent 26 years in her family’s hospitality business.
She pointed to some nuns who ran out of money before their cause could proceed.
“If we can help the diocesan process move along, from writing grants to raising worldwide awareness, we’d have fewer causes going dormant,” Bonnici said.
The sainthood center and its programs do not intend to replace the services of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints in Rome, which oversees the course to canonization, Spedicato said.
“However, outside the Vatican, it is quite unique and will offer concrete support, especially in the initial phase of a process started at the local level,” he said. “That is why we anticipate significant interest in what the center can provide.”
What the center most hopes to provide is a universal call to holiness, Hilgeman said.
It is in the ideal spot to do so, said Father Mark Doherty, seminary president-rector.
“While remaining fundamentally focused on our core mission of forming men for the Catholic priesthood, St. Patrick’s also seeks to incubate and support initiatives that complement our core mission while … meeting a need within the broader ecclesial community,” he said.
St. Patrick’s not only forms the next generation of priests but also chronicles archdiocesan annals
From left, Waldery Hilgeman, postulator for causes for canonization; Travis Degheri, executive director of the Center for Sainthood Studies; and Emanuele Spedicato, associate professor of canon law at Pontifical Gregorian University, meeting at the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.
from the early California missions to the present, Archbishop Cordileone pointed out.
“The seminary location that manages this rich history complements the mission of the nation’s first Center for Sainthood Studies, which will educate, consult, preserve and promote saints and sainthood causes,” he said.
Fifth-year seminarian Kyle Franz Laluces considers placement of the center on campus a “tremendous blessing,” particularly at a time of the making of many modern-day saints.
“Carlo Acutis, who was born in the 1990s like me, was declared a saint earlier in Sept.,” he said. “What this affirms for all the faithful is simply this: holiness is within reach.”
The Center will also attest to the seriousness of such proclamations, he added.
“It will dispel any notion that canonization is arbitrary or that the Church only calls someone a ‘saint’ or a ‘blessed’ capriciously,” Laluces said. “Not a chance! It takes a whole lot of prayer, and a whole lot of work.”
Work on the center began in May 2024, stemming from growing concerns over the preservation of thousands of pages of precious original documents stored by their custodian McDevitt in his garage for 25 years.
Thanks to a partnership with St. Patrick’s and a grant from a nonprofit, these records of the life and times of Cora Evans and other archives will remain safeguarded for posterity in a 300-squarefoot, climate-controlled, specially equipped repository adjacent to the seminary library.
The materials, related to ongoing cases and deemed “private” by the Vatican, will be off-limits to the public.
Canon law prescribes that the documents, while allowed to be digitized, “must remain ‘secret’ for 50 years after the cause has been concluded,” Spedicato said.
Visitors will have earlier access to attend Mass, worship privately, view relics and participate in other spiritually uplifting ways in the additional space that is to hold the oratory.
Organizers must first raise a projected $5.8 million price tag for the building’s governmentmandated upgrades.
When completed, the 50-foot-by-30-foot area with 20-foot ceilings will spotlight slivers of the True Cross, mounted in a mid-sized crucifix that can be carried to parishes and other prayerful venues.
Within the chapel and outside its walls, glass cases will enclose first-class relics — segments of bone, hair or other physical remains — of ›
St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Francis Xavier, St. Claude de la Colombiere, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini and St. Gerard Majella.
The current collection also includes secondclass relics —personal items such as a cassock or notebook — from St. Anthony of Padua, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Teresa of Calcutta and from Evans and other saints-in-the-making. Items associated with Evans include her handkerchiefs stained from the stigmata — the wounds of Christ — she bore in her head, palms, feet and heart, rosaries, rose petals blessed by Our Lord, Mormon marriage certificate, gloves, letters, texts and an altar cloth she designed and made by hand.
If
we strive for sanctity here
on earth, aided by God’s grace, we can be assured of being welcomed into the communion of saints in the life of the world to come, greeted by these very saints who have gone before us and modeled for us how to live a virtuous life.”
SEMINARIAN KYLE FRANZ LALUCHES
Canon law mandates a physical separation between displays of the canonized, who can be publicly venerated, and those of the candidates, who have not yet reached that status, Degheri said.
“The new building will serve like a museum, intended to raise awareness of causes, increase knowledge of saints and inspire the desire to lead holy lives,” he said.
The hoped-for end result will offer convincing evidence that anyone — priest, religious, layperson, young or old, man or woman — can lead a life worthy of sainthood, Spedicato said.
“If we strive for sanctity here on earth, aided by God’s grace, we can be assured of being welcomed into the communion of saints in the life of the world to come, greeted by these very saints who have gone before us and modeled for us how to live a virtuous life,” said seminarian Laluces. “Establishing the center certainly reinforces this sentiment, for it will serve as a significant resource in proving it so.” ■
Supporting Sainthood Causes
It is difficult to ask people for financial support, especially when there is a personal connection to the cause. Awkward is the operative word. For me, it is a barrier to overcome. The thinking of the late Henri Nouwen makes all the difference. Funding is a vital form of participation. Nouwen places fundraising in the context of our Catholic faith: “Fundraising is a very rich and beautiful activity. In fundraising we discover that we are all poor and that we are all rich, and in ministering to each other –each from the riches that he or she possesses – we work together to build the kingdom of God. You’re doing exactly what you’re supposed to do as Christians. Asking people for money … is giving other people the chance of offering their resources for this unique work of God.”
Soon there will be a capital campaign to bring to fruition this transformative idea for the Catholic Church in America.
Travis Degheri,Executive Director
We’ve made it possible for readers to donate.
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Hail Mary, full of grace
Each of the 16 Marian shrines at Star of the Sea Parish in San Francisco features a statue, candles, kneelers and devotional literature.
Photos courtesy of Karolina Zapolska
Marian shrines a labor of love for SF parish
BY CHRISTINA GRAY
Lead writer, Catholic San Francisco grayc@sfarch.org
It’s a Thursday morning in July, and the Daughters of Mary are on a road trip to San Francisco. The parishioners of St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Turlock who make up the parish ministry happily drove more than 120 miles for what awaited them at their destination: a guided tour of shrines to 16 Marian apparitions from around the world spanning more than 700 years.
The Shrine to Our Lady of the Holy Rosary at Star of the Sea Parish is the collective name for the individual shrines that have reshaped the parish into an (as yet) unofficial pilgrimage site for Marian devotion. It was quietly launched by the parish over the past year or so, and has, mostly through word of mouth, attracted a regular stream of visitors.
“I am the Queen of Heaven who prays for the conversion of sinners.”
OUR LADY OF CHAMPION Champion, Wisconsin | October 1859
Our main goal is to help build Marian spirituality.”
MARIELLA
ZEVALLOS
“Our main goal is to help build Marian spirituality,” Mariella Zevallos told Catholic San Francisco. The director of communications and parish life leads tours, helps visitors over the phone who want to make a private pilgrimage to the shrine church and organizes Marian events at the parish.
She speaks with the love of a mother about the shrines, perhaps because in very real ways, she helped bring each of them into being. For the past four years, Zevallos, a fine artist, worked shoulder-to-shoulder with pastor Father Joseph Illo to create the parish’s Shrine to Our Lady of the Holy Rosary. The pair ›
In three separate apparitions, a young woman from a devout farming family in Wisconsin encountered a beautiful lady dressed in a white robe with a crown of stars. In Champion, Belgium, her hometown, a young Adele Brise had promised Our Lady that she would one day become an Ursuline nun. But her family needed her to stay to help on the farm near Green Bay after they emigrated.
“In God’s name, who are you and what do you want of me?” she asked the lady upon the advice of a priest after the second apparition.
“I am the Queen of Heaven who prays for the conversion of sinners, and I wish you to do the same.”
Our Lady urged Adele, 28, to “gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for their salvation,” she said. She spent the rest of her life catechizing families along the Green Bay peninsula, building a Catholic chapel, school and convent on the site of her encounter with Mary.
Our Lady of Champion is the only approved Marian apparition in the U.S.
“Graces will be shed on all who ask for them.”
OUR LADY OF THE MIRACULOUS MEDAL
Paris, France | 1830
A young novice named Catherine Laboure at the Sisters of Charity motherhouse was awakened one night by a young boy calling her name. “Come to chapel, the Blessed Virgin is waiting for you,” he whispered. Catherine heard the rustle of silk and watched as a beautiful lady in a creamcolored dress and blue mantle entered the room. “The times are evil,” said Our Lady, and the “cross will be trampled.”
A week later, riots broke out in Paris and the king was dethroned. Churches were sacked and clergy beaten and killed, including the archbishop of Paris. The Vincentian order and Sisters of Charity were spared.
Four months later, Our Lady appeared to Catherine again to show her the form for what would become the Miraculous Medal. Rays shone down from precious stones on Mary’s fingers. “These rays symbolize the graces I shed upon those who ask for them,” she said. “The jewels which give no rays symbolize the graces that are not given because they are not asked for.”
The Miraculous Medal is credited with many miracles of conversion and healing.
Grouping 16 different apparition shrines together in one place helps pilgrims see the ‘common themes’ in what Our Lady communicated ‘in different ways at different times to different cultures.’”
FATHER JOSEPH ILLO
commissioned artisans in Colombia to make the majority of the custom-made statues and worked painstakingly to adjust prototypes to their exacting specifications based on a combination of historical facts and their own sensibilities. (Two of the 16 apparition shrines are represented by paintings, one by a wood carving).
“We cannot understand and love the Son without understanding and loving the Mother,” Father Illo tells visitors in a video overview of the Shrine to Our Lady of the Rosary on the parish website. He told Catholic San Francisco he was inspired to build a major Marian shrine after visiting the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception
Photos courtesy of Karolina Zapolska
in Washington. The basilica features shrines to the “national Madonna” of more than 30 countries around the world.
“I thought we should have something like that in San Francisco,” he said.
At Star of the Sea, the individual shrines are set into the left and right walls of the church like devotional gemstones. Artful lighting highlights details of each 48-inch statue or image, such as the glistening tears on the face of Our Lady of La Salette or the limpid gaze of Our Lady of Lourdes. The shrines represent approved apparitions in France, Portugal, Vietnam, China, Mexico, England, Ecuador, Philippines, Rwanda, Ireland, Belgium and the United States from the years 1251 to 1981.
Candles and kneelers are available at the foot of each shrine; a free pamphlet details not just the historical facts of the apparition, but its essential message – repentance, reconciliation, conversion, healing and steadfast faith, among them.
Father Illo said grouping 16 different apparition shrines together in one place helps pilgrims see the “common themes” in what Our Lady communicated “in different ways at different times to different cultures.”
“This helps to see a more holistic view of the apparitions,” he said.
RENOVATION AND RENEWAL
Ironically, the cultural indifference to God lamented by Our Lady in many of her appearances on earth seems to also be, in part, what made the Shrine to Our Lady of the Rosary possible. When Father Illo was first assigned to the parish in 2014, he found the 131-yearold church in stark need of renovation and the Masses poorly attended.
“We had a 1,000-seat capacity and at best, we were less than half full,” he said.
As part of a $1 million “top to bottom” restoration of the physical church, Father Illo removed the empty side pews on both sides of the nave to make room for the Marian shrines. His vision for Star of the Sea to be a shrine church, a church of devotions, is well underway.
The pews and kneelers of the once “low-energy” parish now have many more local families and visitors, according to Father Illo. In 2018, the aging St. Joseph Chapel in the church’s west wing was converted into a beautiful chapel of perpetual adoration. Three Masses are offered daily, with the rosary prayed after each one. A shrine to new St. Carlo Acutis went in this summer (see story page 22). ›
“Water the flowers, my child”
OUR LADY OF KIBEHO Kibeho, Rwanda | 1981-1983
Twelve years before Rwanda erupted in a civil war that ultimately took the lives of more than 1 million tribespeople, Our Lady appeared multiple times to three young visionaries to preach repentance.
“My child, I am the Mother of the Word,” Our Lady said in her first appearance to Alphonsine Mumurek, 16, in the school cafeteria. “People have turned from God and the love of my son,” she told Anathalie Mukamazimpaka, 17. MarieClaire Mukangango, 21, was a skeptic who became a believer after she awoke in darkness and beheld visions of violence and death. She followed a light and she found herself in the chapel.
The girls were urged by Our Lady to “water the flowers,” and would do this by sprinkling holy water upon the growing number of pilgrims that came to Kibeho. In 1982, Our Lady appeared to Alphonsine during a massive church picnic. She cried and told her, “I opened the door, but they refused to come in.” Alphonsine saw a series of horrifying visions; rivers of blood, trees exploding in flames and rotting corpses. The visions became a reality in the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Marie-Claire was among the victims.
EMBRACED BY PARISHIONERS AND VISITORS
Zevallos said the parish community has been enthusiastic and supportive of the Shrine to Our Lady of the Rosary. Each shrine was paid for in part by individual parish families who made a $5,000 donation toward its creation. Sponsors are named in plaques at each shrine.
Because the statues and shrines were not completed all at one time, Father Illo and Zevallos placed a sort of “coming soon” poster in its designated home along the walls. The shrines were unveiled one at a time at Sunday Mass as they were completed, with Father Illo building his message or homily around it.
Another partial view of the Shrine to Our Lady of the Rosary at Star of the Sea Parish.
Occasionally, on a Sunday after the 9:30 a.m. Family Mass, children are invited to gather in front of the sanctuary to listen to Father Illo talk about one of the Marian apparitions. Parish staff then offer each child a flower to place at the designated shrine.
“Seeing the children’s eagerness to participate is joyful,” said Zevallos. ■
SCAN TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE SHRINE TO OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY AT STAR OF THE SEA PARISH, or visit starparish.com.
“I will answer those who come here seeking my help, and I will bless them.”
OUR LADY OF LA VANG
La Vang Rainforest, Vietnam | 1798
Catholicism was ruled illegal in Vietnam around 1790. A group of Vietnamese Catholics suffering severe persecution fled to the rainforest of La Vang, named for its large jasmine trees. Life was very difficult as a refugee in the jungle, and there was much sickness. Yet, every evening the people would gather at the foot of a large jasmine tree to pray the rosary.
One evening a woman dressed in a traditional Vietnamese gown appeared at the front of the tree, a child in her arms, angels to her left and right.
“I have received your prayers,” she told them. “From now on I will answer those who come here seeking my help.” She told them to boil the leaves of the jasmine tree, and it would heal their sicknesses. The refugees did, were healed and eventually returned to their homes.
In 1998, St. John Paul II expressed a desire for a large shrine that now stands in La Vang, a national Marian center.
Photos courtesy of Karolina Zapolska
“I am here to tell you important things.”
OUR LADY OF LA SALETTE
La Salette, France | 1846
Our Lady appeared to Melanie Calvat, 14, and Maximin Giraud, 11, on a grassy slope in one of the poor hamlets of La Salette in southeastern France. The children saw a bright light and a beautiful lady with a noblewoman’s headdress. She sat with her face buried in her hands, weeping.
“Come near, my children, be not afraid,” she told them. “I am here to tell you important things.” She said she was powerless to stop the consequences that would soon befall the faithless.
She begged the children to tell the villagers to be reconciled with God and with each other. The faith had grown cold in France since the revolution of 1789. France had become an “enemy of Christ,” and it seemed most people lived as if God did not exist.
“The cart drivers cannot swear without bringing in my son’s name,” she said. “There is yet time to be reconciled to God, but we must be serious about conversion.”
Mary in our Midst
The Shrine honors 16 Marian apparitions spanning more than 700 years.
Mount Carmel (Israel, 1251)
Feast day July 16
Guadalupe (Mexico, 1531)
Feast day Dec. 12
Good Success (Ecuador, 1594)
Feast day Feb. 2
Manaoag (Philippines, 1610)
Month of May
Czestochowa (Poland, 1655)
Feast day Aug. 26
Champion (Wisconsin, 1859)
Feast day Oct. 9
Knock (Ireland, 1879)
Feast day Aug. 21
Miraculous Medal (Paris, 1830)
Feast day Nov. 27
La Salette (France, 1846)
Feast day Sept. 19
Lourdes (France, 1858)
Feast day Feb. 11
Lady of China (China, 1900)
Feast day May 24
La Vang (Vietnam, 1798)
Feast day Nov. 22
Fatima (Portugal, 1917)
Feast day May 13
Banneux (Belgium, 1933)
Feast day May 31
Akita (Japan, 1973)
Feast day June 12
Kibeho (Rwanda, 1981)
Feast day Nov. 28
Shrine to St. Carlo Acutis draws local techies (and others)
BY CHRISTINA GRAY Lead writer, Catholic San Francisco grayc@sfarch.org
At the back of Star of the Sea Church in San Francisco only feet from the urban bustle of Geary Boulevard stands a commissioned statue of St. Carlo Acutis, one of two young saints canonized this month by Pope Leo XIV.
Father Joseph Illo told Catholic San Francisco that the statue and shrine went up this spring in response to a request from parish “techies” drawn to the British-born, Italian computer programmer who had a deep devotion to the Eucharist. He died of leukemia in 2006 at the age of 15 and was beatified in 2020.
St. Carlo Acutis and St. Pier Giorgio Frassati, an Italian engineer and avid sportsman who died at age 24 after contracting polio, were both canonized Sept. 7.
Star of the Sea parishioner Daniel Francis approached Father Illo with a request for a shrine to “God’s Influencer,” a nickname earned by Carlo during his short lifetime. “We techies need a shrine too,” said Francis, CEO of a tech startup called Police Abel. “We often hit brick walls, and we need a place to light a candle and pray.”
Pablo Peniche, another local tech worker, said a shrine to St. Carlo is a “reminder that the path to sainthood is still available to us, even in the age of the Internet.” Francis said he would raise funds for a statue and shrine if the parish could
make room for it. As the pastor of a “shrine church,” Father Illo agreed. The commissioned statue, dressed in the casual clothing style worn by the young student, was delivered to the parish this summer.
“For those Catholics who see the best in technology, Carlo serves as a guiding light, always pointing us to Christ,” said Francis. His startup uses advanced technologies to convert body camera footage of patrol officers into data that reduces the time spent writing reports. Francis did have a request rooted, perhaps, in the fear of lost opportunities for evangelization. “He asked that St. Carlo’s shrine be at the back of the church,” said Father Illo.
People will be walking in to see the figure of the computer programmer who became a saint, Francis reasoned. Some will be Catholic, but many won’t be. Walking up to the front of a large church to visit the St. Carlo shrine could be inhibiting.
“So, we brought St. Jude up front, and put St. Carlo in the back,” said Father Illo with a smile.
“St. Carlo was a young Catholic man, fascinated by the potential of modern technology, and used it to venerate Christ,” said Will O’Brien, CEO of Ulysses Robotics in San Francisco. “This is something I aspire to do too.” ■
SCAN TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE ST. CARLO ACUTIS SHRINE, or visit starparish.com
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The mission and the city, Part 2: Mexican interlude
TBY CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO
he year 1810 saw a major addition to Mission Dolores: two beautifully carved altars arrived by ship from Mexico. They honored St. Joseph and several Franciscan saints whose names are woven into the fabric of California: Buenaventura, Juan Capistrano, Antonio and Francisco Solano. On Sept. 16 of that year, Father Miguel Hidalgo rang the bell of his church in Dolores, Mexico, signaling the beginning of the Mexican War of Independence.
The reverberations of the tocsin rung in Dolores, Mexico, took years to reach our Mission Dolores, but when the revolution finally ended in 1821, life changed drastically in the California missions. During the years of civil unrest, supply ships to Alta California arrived rarely and the military stationed in these remote outposts were no longer supported from Mexico. The military and civic communities outside the missions were reduced to subsistence level. The presidios had carried out an important government function when they served as bulwarks against Russian or British encroachments, but the days when European capitals crossed swords in distant California had come to an end.
The new adversary was not some far-off court, but Mexico’s immediate neighbor to the north, the United States. Whatever the challenges these newly minted republics brought to one other, the settlements of Alta California neither required nor received the attention they had enjoyed in the days of Spanish Empire. In the 1820s—40s, the cultural center for the “Californios” was no longer the presidio or the mission, but the ranchos of the landed gentry who raised horses and cattle. The Mexican government encouraged such settlement by issuing extensive land grants.
This new system was fatal to the California missions. In 1833 the Mexican government “secularized” the missions and their holdings. A secular administrator was installed at each mission whose job it was to dispose of holdings not essential to support the religious functions of the parish church. In effect, mission property was limited to the church, a
The altar on the Gospel side showcases St. Joseph (center) holding the infant Jesus. St. Joseph was considered the patron saint of the California mission system. Flanking St. Joseph is St. John of Capistrano (left) and St. Bonaventure (right).
residence and a few other buildings. In the case of Mission Dolores, the holdings that originally covered much of the northern peninsula of San Francisco shrunk to just over four acres. When the missions were first established, the understanding was that their land and buildings belonged to the Native Americans. Spanish colonial law required this, but here, as elsewhere across America, the laws were ignored. Mission Dolores had never been very robust, due to the cool, wet climate, and throughout the years of revolution the Ohlone population dwindled rapidly. By the mid1840s there were only a handful of Indians remaining in the vicinity. In 1845, the last remaining Franciscan padre moved to Mission Santa Clara. The Mexican government closed Mission Dolores, and its land was deeded to various Californio families.
One noteworthy recipient of a land grant was José de Jesús Noé, who obtained a property known as Rancho San Miguel covering the neighborhoods of present-day Noe Valley, Eureka Valley, Glen Park and Sunnyside. His life encapsulates the dramatic changes that took place in the first half of the 19th century: he was born in 1805, when Mission Dolores was an outpost of New Spain, and he served as alcalde of San Francisco under the Mexican government, 1842–1843 and again in 1846, this time appointed by the American military governor of the occupied territory, ›
The altar on the Epistle side features St. Anthony of Padua (center) along with St. Paschal Baylon (left) and St. Francis of Solano (right).
The mission area was ‘the other side of the tracks.’ The church itself retained its spiritual purpose, but the other buildings became a brewery, a gambling hall, a saloon and a hospital.”
Commodore Robert Stockton. By the time Noé died in 1862, California was America’s 31st state. He was interred in the Noé family grave in the mission church.
During these years, the Mexicans lived around the mission while the Europeans and Americans settled around the harbor, in a village called Yerba Buena. (One of Noé’s final acts as alcalde in 1846 was to change the name to San Francisco.) The mission area was “the other side of the tracks.” The church itself retained its spiritual purpose, but the other buildings became a brewery, a gambling hall, a saloon and a hospital. One imagines the latter was busy on the weekends!
If José de Jesús Noé epitomizes the Spanish/Mexican experience of San Francisco in the years of Mexican rule, another important leader buried in our mission embodies the new arrivals of the 1830s, an international mix of Europeans and Americans. He is William Alexander Leidesdorff Jr., a West Indian immigrant of Afro-Cuban, Danish-Swedish and Jewish ancestry who came here in 1841.
Flags hung at half-mast from all military barracks and vessels in the port when William Alexander Leidesdorff Jr. was laid to rest in the floor of Old Mission Dolores at the age of 38.
Leidesdorff served as U.S. vice consul to Mexico at the Port of San Francisco beginning in 1845, and received a vast land grant south of the American River. Along with his successful business enterprises, Leidesdorff took an active role in civic affairs. He served as one of the six town councilors of San Francisco, a member of the first school board and city treasurer.
Leidesdorff favored the annexation of California to the United States, and before the American flag was raised over San Francisco, he had the U.S. Declaration of Independence read from the veranda of his home. He died in May 1848 and was buried in Mission Dolores. That same year, Mexico formally ceded California to the United States by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. His funeral was a major event for the entire city, and a large part of the population (numbering in total about 800 people) turned out for it. But at this same time, most of the men were suddenly abandoning San Francisco: gold had been discovered — including at Leidesdorff’s rancho on the American River. ■
A reminiscense [sic] of 1842: Bullfight, (after High Mass) at the Mission Dolores. In celebration of the patron saint St. Francis of Assisi.
Photo courtesy of UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library
Buena Vista Manor House
RED MASS
Thursday, October 23, 2025 5:30 p.m.
Let’s support our
PRIESTS! RETIRED
Priests Retirement Fund Special Collection: September 20-21, 2025
Join us for the Priests Retirement Luncheon!
The Fifteenth Annual Luncheon will be held Friday, October 3, 2025 in Patron’s Hall on the lower level of Saint Mary’s Cathedral.
The Luncheon is a unique opportunity for our retired Priests and our community to gather, renew old friendships, and make new ones!
Approximately $3 million has been raised since the first Luncheon in 2011. This support is critical. Our retired Priests – men of great faith, graciousness, and humility – have dedicated their lives to serving others.
They have been there for the most special moments of life –baptism, marriage, illness - and in times of need. It is our turn to care for them as they have cared for us.
“Thank you very much for your support, both through your prayers and/or your gift to the Priests Retirement Fund. You have a great impact on my life and the lives of my fellow retired priests.”
FR. ULYSSES D’AQUILA | Retired Priest, Archdiocese of San Francisco
Hey Mom, I DO have hands!
A moment of grace with a homeless, pregnant mom
BY VALERIE SCHMALZ Director of the Archdiocesan Office of Human Life & Dignity.
The pregnant, homeless mom had been told her baby had no hands, among other abnormalities, and numerous doctors and medical professionals had advised her to abort.
Desperate, depressed and worried, she reached out to San Francisco’s Bella Primary Care clinic this spring. Nurse practitioner Tammy Mahaney described what happened next.
“Her fetal anatomy scan stated that her baby would have multiple deformities including no hands. She was encouraged by her [previous] doctor to abort her baby girl because she was ‘not compatible with life,’” said Mahaney, a former Army nurse and mother of six children.
Then, during the ultrasound, something wonderful was revealed.
“Tears fell from her cheeks when we saw her baby’s fingers dance across the screen for the first time,” Mahaney said. “She said, ‘Oh my gosh they said they couldn’t find the hands. They said there were no hands.’ This was a very big moment, it was huge.”
“Listening to her baby’s heartbeat and watching her baby move across the ultrasound screen was a sacred moment, truly a holy moment to be treasured,” said Mahaney.
A Christian and a believer, the mother had
been told “it was best to abort,” said Mahaney, who said the mom also has a toddler. “She was very life-minded and did not want to. She just needed medical professionals to encourage her.”
For Mahaney, the moments she spent with the homeless pregnant mom who wanted life for her baby is one of the blessings of the path she has chosen. She works at Bella Primary Care and for Real Options, helping pregnant women. She was a second lieutenant in the Army as a nurse, and for the past decade has been going on medical missions around the world.
“I know that is where God has called me,” she said.
“I know the greatest spiritual warfare is abortion and it is after the souls of innocent babies. It is just hurting women. I have literally sat across from thousands and thousands of women and wiped their tears. The root cause is fear. The antidote is love,” added Mahaney. She quoted the First Letter of St. John: “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear.” (1 Jn 4:18)
THE PLACE TO BE MORE YOU.
Listening to her baby’s heartbeat and watching her baby move across the ultrasound screen was a sacred moment, truly a holy moment to be treasured.”
TAMMY MAHANEY
San Francisco’s Bella Primary Care clinic nurse practitioner
Mahaney said she told the pregnant mom: “I believe in a God who does miracles. Even so, I can’t promise the outcome, but I know it’s going to be OK.”
The mother has found a provider for high-risk pregnancies and Mahaney told her to come any time she wants to connect with her baby, and she will give her an ultrasound free of charge.
“In those moments together, we experienced so much,” said Mahaney. “And most importantly we prayed. The most powerful thing is prayer. She was very sweet. She is so thankful. It was a very quiet visit.” ■
For more information about Bella Primary Care visit https://bellaprimarycare.org/
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ANGELS
The gift of God’s heavenly messengers
BY MARY POWERS
Assistant director of communications and media relations. Office of Communications, Archdiocese of San Francisco
We often go through life unaware of the invisible movements and work of our closest collaborators in our daily trials and work in building the kingdom of heaven. The angels — both our guardian angels as well as other angels — are constantly watching over us, interceding for us and guiding us on our journey to heaven.
“Whenever I begin a talk about angels, I’ll say, ‘How many people are in this room?’” said Dominican Father Michael Hurley, pastor of St. Dominic’s Catholic Church in San Francisco. “And then everyone says, ‘Oh, there’s, I don’t know, 30, 40 people.’ Then I say, ‘Now, at least, double it.’”
In honor of the feast of the Archangels on Sept. 29 and Guardian Angels on Oct. 2, I spoke with Father Michael, who has written about angels, to learn more about our spiritual friends and allies.
ANGELS 101
Angels are spiritual beings with intellects and wills. They were created with the ability to know and the ability to love. Referring to St. Augustine’s reading of Scripture, Father Michael said the angels were created at the moment when God said, “Let there be light” (Gn 1:3).
The name “angel” refers to their office, not their nature. With their whole beings, the angels are servants
St. Pius Church’s new St. Michael statue blessed by Archbishop Cordileone in March.
and messengers of God. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 329)
“So, it’s like the mailman, right?” said Father Michael. “The mailman is Bob. Bob is who he is; dropping off packages is what he does. When we talk about angels or choirs of angels, we’re referring to their Godgiven job of messaging. They are spiritual creatures who ‘angel.’”
The angels are placed within a hierarchy traditionally referred to as the “choirs of angels” whose names come from Scripture. Traditionally, the hierarchy of angels includes nine choirs: seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominions, virtues, powers, principalities, archangels and angels.
Does an angel of a higher choir such as the thrones mean they are more important? Not necessarily. According to Father Michael, the higher an angel is, the greater capacity the angel has to know and to love God, just like any other created being.
“Are they higher than others? Yes. Does that mean they’re morally better? Not necessarily. St. Thomas Aquinas argues that Lucifer was one of the cherubim and Lucifer fell,” said Father Michael.
SAINTS AND THE ANGELS
Many saints are said to have interacted with the angels. St. Francis of Assisi received the stigmata through a seraphic angel. St. Padre Pio received prayer intentions from the angels, and it is believed that St. John Bosco’s guardian angel appeared as a dog to protect him as walked the streets of Turin, Italy. Bernini’s famous statue of St. Teresa of Avila in Ecstasy depicts a scene from her life when an angel appeared to her and pierced her heart, leaving her on fire with love for God.
St. Thomas Aquinas is known as the “Angelic Doctor” of the Church because of his writings on angels and because of a key encounter he had with them. St.
Thomas’ family did not want him to join the Dominicans, so they locked him in a tower. One night, his brothers tempted him to break his vow of chastity by bringing a prostitute to his room. Chasing her out, St. Thomas closed the door and branded it with a cross. He then fell into a mystical sleep while praying and had a vision of two angels tying a cord around his waist to protect his purity and chastity for life.
DAILY LIFE WITH THE ANGELS
When thinking about angels and our guardian angels, Father Michael has a simple formula to interact with them — the triple A’s: to be aware, ask and appreciate.
“The Three Archangels with Tobias,” is a painting by Francesco Botticini created around 1470. The artwork depicts the biblical story of Tobias and the Archangel Raphael, with Michael and Gabriel also present.
First, we should be aware of the spiritual realm and most especially the angels.
“St. Paul said very clearly that it’s not just flesh and blood that’s part of daily struggle,” said Father Michael. “There are principalities and powers at work that seek to both support and undermine our spiritual journey to God. It’s not supercilious or too dramatic to say that we really need to be attentive and aware of the spiritual world on a daily basis.”
Next, we need to ask for their help and protection. And most importantly, we have to appreciate them.
“I think our guardian angels like to be thanked,” said Father Michael. “So, ask yourself the question, when’s the last time you thanked your guardian angel?” ›
There are principalities and powers at work that seek to both support and undermine our spiritual journey to God...we need to be attentive and aware of the spiritual world on a daily basis.”
Bernini’s “Ecstacy of St. Teresa” located in the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome depicts St. Teresa of Avila’s vision of an angel piercing her heart with an arrow of love, leaving her on fire with love for God.
PRAYERS AND DEVOTIONS TO THE ANGELS
Prayer to your guardian angel
The famous prayer to our guardian angels appeals to them to “light and guard, to rule and guide.” Angels can enlighten us to see or bring clarity to God’s will in our lives. The guardian angels protect us both physically and spiritually and guide us in our life as we make decisions.
Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel
St. Michael is the “prince of the heavenly hosts” and a powerful defender of the Church.
“I will absolutely say the No. 1 prayer you can pray for bedevilment, no matter what you’re struggling with, especially for addictions and habitual sin, you have got to be praying to St. Michael,” said Father Michael.
The prayer to St. Michael the Archangel was written by Pope Leo XIII in 1898 after he had a vision during Mass of a demonic attack on the Church. He asked that the prayer be prayed after low Masses.
Chaplet of St. Michael the Archangel Servant of God Antonia d’Astonaco, a Portuguese Carmelite nun who lived in the 18th century, received a vision and private revelation from St. Michael requesting that he be honored through nine special invocations, leading to the chaplet of St. Michael. Prayed on a similar set of beads to the rosary, the reflections on virtues and the choirs of angels are followed by an Our Father and three Hail Marys, ending with four Our Fathers for the archangels and our guardian angel and a concluding prayer.
Angelic Warfare Confraternity
An apostolate of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) is the Angelic Warfare Confraternity, a spiritual community dedicated to the pursuit and promotion of the virtue of chastity. Men and women are enrolled to receive assistance from God in living a chaste life under the patronage of St. Thomas Aquinas and Our Lady. Imitating St. Thomas’ story, each member wears either a blessed cord or the medal of St. Thomas and says daily prayers to receive the special graces that the Lord pours out through the confraternity. ■
SCAN FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ANGELS or visit sfarch.org/angels.
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St. Sebastian’s music director celebrates 40th anniversary
TBY LIDIA WASOWICZ
he halls of St. Sebastian Church in Greenbrae are alive with the sound of music thanks to Eric Maddox, maverick choir director who got the job 40 years ago in response to one of 100 resumes he sent out upon arriving in San Francisco.
Over the decades, the prodigy from Detroit — described by some as a softie, by some as a prankster and by all as a man with a heart of gold and a talent rarer than platinum — took his singers in new directions and to new locations.
From expanding the repertoire across an array of genres to traveling to France with his troupe as guests of a famed boys choral group, the master musician has left an indelible mark in and out of church.
Equally adept at performing and directing, the selfdescribed “pianist who plays the organ” initiated music programs in schools, introduced troubled youth to instrumentation, shared the stage with thespians, conducted elite conservatory students and provided custom-made accompaniment at birthday parties and other special events.
At 73, he continues to teach privately and entertain at an offshoot of the exclusive, all-male Bohemian Club called The Family, in addition to transforming the worship of God into a symphony of prayer and praise each Sunday.
Award-winning journalist Wasowicz, former West Coast science editor and senior science writer for United Press International, has been writing for Catholic San Francisco since 2011.
master musician Eric Maddox loves to attend St. Sebastian parish celebrations where he lives
of humor.
He radiates joy through his music, either on the piano or the organ. He is such an integral part of the lives of the parishioners of St. Sebastian’s.”
MARIANNE KAMBUR, St. Sebastian parish manager
“The liturgy is the word of God, and music is the voice of God,” said Maddox, an Episcopalian who attends Grace Cathedral in San Francisco but recognizes the pontiff, having fallen in “love” with the late Pope Francis, and reveres the Blessed Mother, always parking his car by her statue outside St. Sebastian’s side entrance. “Music raises your level of involvement, heightens the spirit and is the way I communicate with God.”
Likewise, it provides an “integral aspect” of every Mass and devotion for retired professor and attorney Francisco Wong-Diaz, who met the maestro as a lector at St. Sebastian’s, which he attended from 1973 to 2002, when he moved to Menlo Park.
He remembers Maddox as a “pillar of our parish community,” remarkable for his “development, training and successful organization of our choir.”
Encouraged by an enthusiastic contingent of three dozen or so and an ample repertoire developed under his predecessors, Maddox started shuffling smaller voices into larger roles, rotating the cantor and making other modifications to “strengthen the choir (and) do beautiful liturgies.”
Parish council member and former cantor and children’s choir director Celeste Chapman lauded him for venturing beyond classical and into contemporary, gospel, chant and other styles, “exposing people to compositions and composers who are significant throughout history and in our own time.”
The longest-serving choir member, Donna Boyd, exposed to opera, concerts and dance since early childhood, considers Maddox’s contributions indispensable.
“I grew up with music all around me and can’t imagine not having it in church,” said Boyd, who joined the choir in 1980 and befriended Maddox at his debut five years later when her mother invited the lifelong bachelor to dinner.
“Right away we loved his music, and Mother, a great hostess, asked him and all the choir members to our house,” Boyd reminisced.
The familial friendship flourished, with Maddox visiting often, sharing common interests, playing her mother’s favorite tunes at her 85th birthday bash and, 12 years later, at her funeral.
Described as approachable, accomplished, amenable, charming, cheerful and charitable, Maddox heard a chorus of instant approval from the vocalists he was coaching.
Among them, Janet McGarry, now 95 and retired from the troupe after 25 years, recalled wistfully how “everybody loved the choir, and we had many performances, and it was always a big deal.”
On the heels of a round of musical chairs filled by
three directors, none of whom lasted more than a year, Maddox’s entrance came “at the right time, when we needed him,” Boyd recalled.
“When he showed up, everything blossomed: he increased our repertoire, put on shows, went to retirement communities, even put on nightclub and talent shows for the parishioners,” she added.
The award-winning musician devoted many extra hours to planning and preparing for each production.
Offering gospel, classical, 20th-century and 21st-century selections, Maddox “is so gifted, he can play virtually any kind of music, and do it well,” said Chapman, who had filled in until the new director made his appearance.
“Eric’s musical experience is broad, and he’s constantly working on new programs,” Boyd said. “He doesn’t care if someone fails or forgets, never says anything unkind. He loves the musician in all of us.”
Such admirable standards have earned him high marks with the pastor and staff as well.
“I think very highly of Eric,” said Father Bill Thornton. “He is a world-class musician.”
“He radiates joy through his music, either on the piano or the organ,” added parish manager Marianne Kambur. “He is such an integral part of the lives of the parishioners of St. Sebastian’s.”
He cultivated that relationship from the start with such special treats as the 1985 and 1987 visits of the internationally acclaimed Les Petits Chanteurs (little singers) of Aix-en-Provence, France.
“I had just arrived and thought it would be a great idea to have them stay with our families and give concerts with a sacred portion and a popular portion,” Maddox recalled. “They appeared in their 16th-century robes, gave a marvelous rendition of religious music and then, in the second half, they learned ‘America the Beautiful’ for us.”
The renowned choir of boys ages 9 to 15, established in 1907 in Paris, wowed the parishioners as performers and won them over completely as houseguests.
Boyd kept in touch with the two boys who stayed with her, then ages 12 and 14, until they wed.
“When the two boys we had in our house first came, they spoke very little English, but by the time they left some days later, they spoke plenty!” said McGarry in recalling the field trips, swim parties and ball games arranged for the visitors.
“We enjoyed it so much that a couple of years later, we decided to go to Provence to see them,” she added, noting that the 1988 excursion was her first trip to France.
Maddox, who had honed his keyboard skills in Paris, served as tour guide around the countryside between ›
group sing-alongs, lunches and dinners with the boys and their families.
Maddox’s influence and impact have similarly touched the largely artistic membership of The Family — formed in 1901 by newspapermen protesting the Bohemian’s Club’s censorship — which engaged him at the same time and in similar fashion as St. Sebastian’s.
“Of all the very competent musicians we have, Eric is considered as one of the best pianists, and of all our members, he’s the most beloved,” said Richard Johns, noting that the club boasts both its own symphony orchestra and chorus.
Since landing the gig 40 years ago, in response to one of the 100 letters he had mailed, Maddox has played parts at the keyboard and on the stage in hundreds of the 50 often elaborate performances the San Francisco social club produces annually at its scenic redwood retreat in Portola Valley.
Among the standouts: the night The Family’s Songbirds chorus, which he headed for a decade, outperformed the rival Bohemian Club at a festival hosted by the bigger, older group; the day he received the coveted Ring of Appreciation for outstanding contributions; the evening he took on the role of Snow White before a crowd of 200.
“He was absolutely hilarious,” Johns said. “It was a huge hit, and he loved it.”
To help make troubled youth a success, Maddox would take a bus from his home in San Francisco, transfer in Marin, then walk a mile along the highway to reach the St. Vincent’s School for Boys property in San Rafael, recalled Boyd, a former volunteer with the Godmothers, who raise funds in support of the struggling youngsters.
The Timothy Murphy School — named after the Irish pioneer who on his deathbed in 1853 bequeathed 314 acres that developed into the St. Vincent’s campus — closed in 2019 when its lease expired.
Offered a position with the San Francisco Conservatory, Maddox had left the previous year after devoting five years to the students, many of whom lived at St. Vincent’s, a residential treatment home for “traumatized” boys ages 7 to 18.
“Often coming from abusive, broken, drug-addicted families, those boys loved Eric and the stability and discipline he provided,” Boyd said. “And he loved introducing them to piano and string instruments, taking them to rest homes to perform and seeing them blossom.”
Maddox’s own blossoms began to bud at his birth in Detroit as the first of seven children of parents with big hearts and dreams.
“I had a delightful childhood,” Maddox said. “The most important thing was that every morning Mom came into the room with a smile so we’d all smile.”
Thelma Maddox’s eternal optimism belied the adversity she had faced growing up in the South in the 1920s and 1930s.
Maddox enjoying one of many Christmas celebrations at St. Sebastian with parishioners.
“We didn’t learn about the racism my mother experienced until we were adults when our father told us,” said Winnie Maddox, the oldest of four sisters. “I have no idea how she could have been so positive with everything she experienced as a child.”
Always helping others, never gossiping, advocating in school, working at the polls and caring for ailing neighbors, her mother, who died at age 67, “was not just a housewife,” Maddox said. “I think she knew she was blessed with a good husband and family.”
Introduced to her future groom by her sister when she was 14, Thelma married Joe Maddox, a World War II veteran who loved jazz and appreciated classical music, in Detroit when they both turned 21 in 1946. Five years later, the couple welcomed Eric into their world of church and community.
The family worshipped at the Saunders Memorial AME (African Methodist Episcopal) Church, where Eric, at age 12, began directing the girls choir of some 15 teenagers — and attracting boys to the piano, to their parents’ delight. He remained there until his graduation from Cass Tech High School, at the time Detroit’s only magnet school, designed to attract diversity.
As brothers and sisters came along, the Maddoxes hosted
neighborhood Memorial Day parties and invited area youngsters to pick apples and cherries off their trees.
Active and aware, Thelma brought Rosa Parks — long before the civil rights icon’s international celebrity — to Pingree Elementary School, attended by all her children.
The Maddoxes also made sports and music a priority, with every sibling playing an instrument and, for a while, traveling as a family band. (Brother Paul continues as a noted jazz drummer and percussionist, touring the world under the stage name Pheeroan akLaff.)
“Eric’s had quite a life, starting to play piano at 4 and taking private lessons at 9,” said Winnie Maddox, who resided in the San Francisco Bay Area for 27 years before moving to Atlanta. “He was always very respected, liked and talented.”
Well versed in Motown, jazz and dance, he also excelled in track and swimming, shocking Winnie with a dive off a high cliff at the legendary Pools of Oheo during a family vacation to Hawaii in the 1990s.
“As a brother, Eric was always fun, kind and a prankster at times,” she said.
One hot, humid summer night, for example, when she was about 10 and he nearly 16, he advised her to smother her arms and legs in Vaseline to fend off hungry mosquitoes. When she complied, her mother was the only one not to laugh out loud.
On a more serious occasion, his father, a materials supervisor for Chrysler Corp. for 30 years who died in 2018 at age 93, took him to work.
“‘This is the only time you will come to a factory; we want something better for you,’ he told me,” Maddox recalled. “He knew what high school I should go to and talked about the University of Michigan, having no idea I’d go there!”
Maddox left for Ann Arbor with a music scholarship that helped carry him through a piano performance major and French minor. As a bonus, he got his first taste of Europe, touring 13 countries with the glee club.
A mentor, impressed with his skills, arranged for him to refine them in Paris.
Upon matriculating, he followed a buddy to Southern California, where he played the organ at a Catholic church, taught grades 1 through 8 at a school run by the Sisters of Mercy and introduced a variety of music programs to both venues.
Three years later, he found his heart, hearth and home in San Francisco.
“Eric has been here for 40 years to watch families grow, to share the happiness of the sacraments and the sorrow of funerals through the beautiful music he plays,” said St. Sebastian’s Kambur. “He is truly a treasure for our parish.”
For Maddox, the treasure is music, the universal unifier.
“If we have a way to learn to listen to one another as we do to a beautiful composition, we’ll be kinder and better to each other,” he said. “That’s why I have to be there to provide it.” ■
PROUD TO ANNOUNCE THIS YEAR’S SILVER CHALICE HONOREE
ARCHBISHOP
SALVATORE J. CORDILEONE
CHAMPIONS GALA
September 23, 2025
San Francisco
September 20, 2025 Ticket and table sales available at https:/stpsu.edu/ gala-2025 or via this QRcode.
Legatus marks 10-year milestone in the Archdiocese of San Francisco
BY MARY POWERS Assistant director of communications and media relations. Office of Communications, Archdiocese of San Francisco
“Here is a true Israelite. There is no duplicity in him” (Jn 1:47). When Jesus met the future apostle Nathanael in the Gospel of John, he recognized that his whole being was centered on God. There were no outside influences or idols distracting him or pulling him away from what was most important.
This Scripture passage has helped guide Legatus members, including the San Francisco chapter, since its founding. Reminding Catholic business leaders of the call to live with integrity, the goal of Legatus is to help encourage and strengthen members to be the same people in the boardroom as they are at church on Sunday. Putting God at the center of a leader’s life transforms their families
Dan and Ayde Vogl (center), pictured with Archbishop Cordileone and Tom Monaghan, founder of Legatus, after the chartering celebration Mass in 2018.
Sacred Liturgy Summit
The sold-out Fons et Culmen Sacred Liturgy Summit was held on July 1-4 at St. Patrick’s Seminary & University in Menlo Park. At the heart of the summit was the solemn pontifical celebration of the sacred liturgy, including beautiful sacred music rendered from the Church’s treasury throughout the ages by a professional choir.
The summit’s agenda included lectures from prominent prelates, clergy and laity from around the world on the nature of the sacred liturgy, its ars celebrandi, liturgical formation, the sacred liturgical arts (music, art and architecture), and the role of the sacred liturgy in the lives of the Church’s clergy and faithful.
SCAN TO READ A PERSONAL REFLECTION FROM ANGELA JOHNSON, ASSOCIATE SUPERINTENDENT FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS, who attended the Fons et Culmen Sacred Liturgy Summit, or visit https://sfarch.org/sacred-silence-summit-salvation/
and businesses and influences the world at large.
“Every Catholic is called to evangelize, ‘to go into the vineyard’ and show forth the life, the hope and the peace of Christ,” said Father Anthony Giampietro, vice president for advancement and associate professor of philosophy at St. Patrick’s Seminary & University and chaplain of the San Francisco Legatus chapter.
“Our Legatus chapter, one of more than 80 in the United States, exists to encourage and empower executives and their spouses to live their Catholic faith fully in their families and in their places of work.”
SCAN TO READ MORE ABOUT THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF LEGATUS or visit https:// sfarch.org/legatus-marks10-year-milestone-in-thearchdiocese-of-san-francisco/
The summit included a solemn pontifical Mass celebrated by Cardinal Sean O’Malley. Also present were Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone, Cardinal Robert Sarah and Bishop Earl K. Fernandes.
Photo by Francisco Valdez
SCAN
1. The three key elements of determining the morality or immorality of a human act are:
d. In layman’s terms, ask yourself: What are you doing? What’s the context in which you’re doing it? And why are you doing it?
2. In Catholic parlance, what does the Latin word peritus mean?
c. Literally one “skilled” in theology, scripture, the Church Fathers, morals, etc. A notable example of a peritus at Vatican II was Father Joseph Ratzinger, who was elected Pope Benedict XVI.
3. What is the term for something that is made up of both good and evil?
b. Seriously. That’s a real word. You’ll likely never hear me use it on the show though.
4. According to tradition, what was the name of the Roman soldier who pierced the side of Christ on the Cross with a spear?
e. The Catholic Encyclopedia (Robert Appleton Company, 1910, vol. 8, p. 773) says that a “famous Syriac manuscript of the Laurentian Library at Florence, illuminated by one Rabulas in the year 586” includes the name in Greek as a speculated denotation of the soldier as he pierces the side of Jesus. In that same sixth-century tradition, Longinus was both healed and converted from a drop of the precious blood.
5. Which is the most theologically accurate answer to the question: “What does it mean that Jesus Christ is ‘true God and true man’?”
e. The first two of the first four incorrect choices are versions of early Christological heresies (a) Monophysitism and (b) Nestorianism. The Orthodox Catholic teaching is: “The unique and altogether singular event of the Incarnation of the Son of God does not mean that Jesus Christ is part God and part man, nor does it imply that He is the result of a confused mixture of the divine and the human. He became truly man while remaining truly God. Jesus Christ is true God and true man. During the first centuries, the Church had to defend and clarify this truth of faith against the heresies that falsified it” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 464).
VALLOMBROSA RETREAT CENTER
We are open for your spiritual renewal
In a beautiful and peaceful park setting that includes many prayer and meditations spots*, we will host your group’s retreat or conference. You may also sign up for a private retreat. We especially invite you to attend one of our five-day silent retreats which are very powerful and reasonably priced.
For group reservations or a private retreat: call 650-325-5614 Or email jaynie@vallombrosa.org. For our five-day retreat, call Deacon Dominick Peloso, (650) 269-6279
*The meditation spots available include: Lourdes, Fatima, St. Joseph, St. Mother Theresa, St. Francis, Spiritual Works, Corporal Works, Adoration Chapel, and (coming fall of 2024), a large (50’ x 12’) crucifixion scene by Timothy Schmaiz.
SCAN TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE CSF WEEKLY E-NEWSLETTER
to stay up to date on Catholic news and commentary or visit sfarch.org/signup.
Elizabeth M. Button, Trust & Estate Attorney
Probates * Wills * Trusts
Sensitive to those Struggling with Loss. Serving the Entire Bay Area Woman Owned & Operated
Free Initial Phone Consultation 1052 Filbert Street San Francisco, CA 94133 Call Today: (415) 874-9361 www.buttonlawsf.com
(415) 614-5506 This number is answered by Rocio Rodriguez, LMFT, Archdiocesan Pastoral Outreach Coordinator. This is a secured line and is answered only by Rocio Rodriguez.
(415) 614-5503 If you wish to speak to a non-archdiocesan employee please call this number. This is also a secured line and is answered only by a victim survivor.
(800) 276-1562 Report sexual abuse by a bishop or a bishop’s interference in a sexual abuse investigation to a confidential third party. www.reportbishopabuse.org
Button Law Inc.
SAVE THE DATES!
Come out and join us
Sept. 19
“Made for Mission” Alpha Catholic Conference
All are invited to attend “Made for Mission,” an event sponsored by Alpha Catholic and the Archdiocese of San Francisco on Sept. 19 at St. Anne of the Sunset Catholic Church from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The conference is focused on parish renewal and evangelization. Oakland Bishop Michael C. Barber, S.J., will celebrate Mass for the conference. Learn more: https://sfarch.org/ event/made-for-mission.
Sept. 26
Archdiocesan Reentry Conference and Expo
The 13th annual Reentry Conference and Expo will take place on Sept. 26 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption’s Event Center. The conference is a oneday event that honors resilience, amplifies voices and builds bridges across communities committed to healing, restoration and second chances. Learn more: https://sfarch.org/reentryconference/.
Sept. 27
Together in Holiness Marriage Conference
The ninth annual Together in Holiness marriage conference will take place on Sept. 27 from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Belmont. The conference will culminate with a Mass and marriage blessing with Archbishop Cordileone. Register at: https://forlifeandfamily.org/ events/th25-sfca/.
Respect Life Conference
The Archdiocesan Office of Human Life & Dignity will host a daylong Respect Life Conference from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 27 at Star of the Sea Parish in San Francisco on the dangers, remedies and legal challenges around the abortion pill. Chemical abortion is now the most common method of abortion in the United States, often carried out with little or no medical oversight or patient care. Speakers include Dr. George Delgado, founder of the Abortion Pill Reversal Program and medical director for COLFS Medical Clinic; Tammy Mahaney, a family nurse practitioner for Real Options; and Peter Breen, executive vice president and head of litigation for the Thomas More Society. Register at: https:// sfarch.org/event/sf-respect-lifeconference/.
Oct. 3
Priests Retirement Luncheon
The 15th annual Priests
Retirement Luncheon will take place on Oct. 3 at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption’s Event Center. The Priests
Retirement Luncheon is one of the highlights of the year and is integral to the Archdiocese’s ability to care for our retired priests. Register or donate toward the luncheon: https:// sfarchdiocese.org/prflunch/.
White Mass for Medical Professionals
Doctors, nurses and health care
professionals are invited to the Archdiocesan White Mass for medical professionals on October 3, 6 p.m. at St. Dunstan Catholic Church in Millbrae. The White Mass is a way to honor and pray with and for all those who serve in medical professions. All are welcome to participate. More information: https://sfarch.org/ event/2025-white-mass/.
Oct. 4
Bay Area Rosary Rally
The 2025 Bay Area Rosary Rally will be held on the solemnity of St. Francis of Assisi in the Jubilee Year of Hope. This year’s Rosary Rally will include a jubilee pilgrimage walk from St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in San Francisco to the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption. More information: https://sfarch.org/ event/rosary-rally/.
Oct. 23
Red Mass
Join the San Francisco chapter of the St. Thomas More Society for their Red Mass on Oct. 23, at St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in San Francisco. Dinner will follow. More information: https:// www.stthomasmore-sf.org/thered-mass-2-2//.
IMPORTANT HIGH SCHOOL DATES
PHILOSOPHY
Check school websites for details and updates.
Archbishop Riordan
Application Deadline: Dec. 1
Open House: Feb. 5, 2026
Chesterton Academy
Fall Info Night: Oct. 30, 6-8 p.m.
Early/Priority Application Deadline: Dec. 12
Convent & Stuart Hall
Fall Open House: Sept. 27, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
Performing & Visual Arts and Athletics Showcase: Saturday, Oct. 18, noon-4 p.m.
Nativity
Open House: Oct. 5, 9 a.m.-noon
Dromedary Day (Student Shadow Day): Nov. 7
Notre Dame Belmont
Open House: Oct. 19
Application Deadline: Jan. 9, 2026
Convent & Stuart Hall is an independent K–12 preparatory school in San Francisco rooted in the Sacred Heart tradition of Catholic education within a uniquely single-sex and coeducational environment. To learn more about the school, including our International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, please visit sacredsf.org.
ICA Cristo Rey Academy
Open House: Oct. 18
Students and their families choose SHC for the strength of our academics, our diverse array of cocurricular opportunities and for the warmth of our inclusive and nurturing community. For more than 160 years, we have been committed to serving San Francisco’s diverse youth and providing an academically rigorous, Catholic education in the center of San Francisco.
Our Lady of the Pillar Academy Visit https://olp.academy for more information
Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep
For the most up-to-date information about tours and open houses this fall, please visit our Virtual Tours page. We look forward to seeing you on campus when we reopen!
Winter Open House: Jan. 21, 2026
Junipero Serra
Open House: Nov. 2, noon-4 p.m.
Open House: Oct. 25, 9 a.m.
Application Priority: Nov. 20, noon
For more information, contact: Bobby Ramos, Director of Enrollment Management & Financial Assistance bobby.ramos@sacredsf.org
Freshman Application Deadline: Nov. 21
Marin Catholic
Open House: Oct. 12
Application Deadline: Dec. 5
Mercy Burlingame
Open House: Oct. 26
Application Deadline: Jan. 9, 2026
Sacred Heart Prep Atherton
Prep Preview Day: Nov. 16
Application Deadline: Jan. 8, 2026
Convent & Stuart Hall is an independent K–12 preparatory school in San Francisco rooted in the Sacred Heart tradition of Catholic education within a uniquely single-sex and coeducational environment. To learn more about the including our International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, please visit sacredsf.org.
For the most up-to-date information about tours and houses this fall, please visit our Virtual Tours page. We forward to seeing you on campus when it reopens!
$4.2 million awarded for the 2016-17 school year. FOR MORE INFORMATION
For more information, contact: Lizzie Schneiberg and Greg Lobe Associate Directors of Admissions hs_admissions@sacredsf.org
Mr. Timothy Burke ’70 Director of Admissions 415.775.6626 admissions@shcp.edu
As part of the Sacred Heart Network with over 150 schools worldwide, our students and educators embrace the philosophies of our founders who first arrived in North America in 1818. Spiritually inclusive and with international roots, we are committed to providing excellence in education and to sustaining the mission of Sacred Heart education to develop a fair and just society.
St. Ignatius College Preparatory
Application Deadline: Nov. 14
Open House: Jan. 25, 2026
Woodside Priory
Open House: Oct. 4
Open House: Dec. 6
As part of the Sacred Heart Network with over 150 schools who first arrived in North America in 1818. Spiritually inclusive education and to sustaining the mission
Academy helps prepare new Catholic school principals
School leaders should ‘enable and ennoble the faculty’
BY CHRISTINA GRAY Lead writer, Catholic San Francisco grayc@sfarch.org
Five new Catholic school principals are off to a focused start to the first school year after a fourday Catholic school leadership retreat led by the Department of Catholic Schools.
The New School Leader Academy held July 1-3 included incoming principals of Stella Maris Academy, Our Lady of Perpetual Help School and Notre Dame des Victoires School in San Francisco, Nativity School in Menlo Park and St. Patrick School in Larkspur.
Discussions included theoretical, liturgical and practical aspects of Catholic school leadership. A fourth and final day was held Aug. 5.
“Our principals will be superb, faithful leaders, excellent instructional coaches, and understand how to market and advance their schools,” Carol Grewal, associate superintendent of governance and operational vitality, told Catholic San Francisco.
The Department of Catholic Schools led by superintendent Chris Fisher designed the program, which began on the first day of the Fons et Culmen Sacred Liturgy Summit at St. Patrick Seminary & University, July 1-4.
Principals began their day in a morning session ›
New Catholic school principals participated in the opening Mass and vespers of the four-day Fons et Culmen Sacred Liturgy Summit at St. Patrick’s Seminary & University in July.
Photo by Karolina Zapolska
In the words of our new Catholic principals ...
“I look forward to the new school year with the support from the Archdiocese. Guided by the Holy Spirit, I know that we will bring joy and spread the good news to our respective school communities and parishes.”
ANGELO MARQUEZ
Our Lady of Perpetual Help School, San Francisco
“The retreat was a wonderful opportunity to focus on how to better integrate a Catholic worldview into our schools and support the faith lives of our students, family, teachers and staff.”
AMELIA STONE
Nativity School, Menlo Park
“As Catholic school leaders, we were invited to create spaces where students can truly encounter Christ both in the Eucharist and in one another, and to help them develop the courage to live out their faith with conviction and joy.”
ADRIAN PETERSON
Notre Dame des Victoires School, San Francisco
“The retreat contextualized our professional work in light of the Catholic mission. It took place synchronously with the Fons et Culmen Sacred Liturgy conference, which reminded us that we are first and foremost to be men and women of liturgical prayer.”
JOHN MONACO
Stella Maris Academy, San Francisco
“We were asked how our love for Christ and his Church is actually embedded into our school. To answer this question, we looked at our schools’ mission statements, how our classrooms are set up and where Christ is present during the school day.”
MICHAEL WATERS
St. Patrick School, Larkspur
A principal’s main job is to lead school culture. The culture should reflect the universal mission of Catholic education. School culture is formed first and foremost through the formation of faculty.”
CHRIS FISHER Superintendent of Catholic Schools
separate from the summit schedule. Ryan Mayer, director of the office of Catholic identity assessment & formation, highlighted a paragraph from a document issued by the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education for discussion.
“Often, what is perhaps fundamentally lacking among Catholics who work in a school is a clear realization of the identity of a Catholic school and the courage to follow all the consequences of its uniqueness” (“The Catholic School,” 66).
School leaders joined other summit participants in the afternoon for Mass and vespers, a plenary session and fellowship.
The following day when the retreat decamped to the chancery offices in San Francisco, Fisher spoke to the new principals about the mission of Catholic schools,
Without a focus on the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, Catholic schools run the risk of losing what makes them distinctive, according to retreat presenter Ryan Mayer, director of the office of Catholic identity assessment and formation.
building school culture and the importance of hiring faculty formed to that mission.
“A principal’s main job is to lead school culture,” he said. The culture should reflect the universal mission of Catholic education. School culture is formed “first and foremost” through the formation of faculty.
Fisher invoked St. Augustine in offering the premise that a teacher’s influence extends far beyond curriculum or specialized knowledge. “The first subject students learn is the teacher,” Augustine wrote. “Teachers offer themselves for imitation. This is the essence of what people call teaching.”
Hire mission-aligned faculty, articulate a shared vision (often), be the “head teacher,” own the logistics of the school and provide strong leadership that serves the faculty, he advised.
It is vital to “enable and ennoble” the teachers in your school, he said.
“Enable them to do the work of teaching and accomplish the goals of your school,” he said. “Ennoble them in that pursuit to make them know that they are contributing something important to the life of their students, to the life of your community and culture, but ultimately, to the life of the Church.” ■
Photo by Francisco Valdez
JUNIPERO SERRA HIGH SCHOOL
TAUGHT, MODELED AND LIVED, THE SERRA BROTHERHOOD IS A BOND SHARED AMONG PADRES PAST AND PRESENT. SERRA PROVIDES A TRANSFORMATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL EXPERIENCE THAT OFFERS BOYS A VISION OF FAITH, HOPE, LOVE, MERCY AND JUSTICE.
At Serra, we know that high school doesn’t just happen in the classroom. It happens in the gym, at dances, in the halls—and it’s an exceptionally important journey. At Serra, we get boys. It’s that simple.
Serra prides itself on character formation—raising young men of integrity, empathy and compassion. Our environment fosters an authentic sense of respect and camaraderie, so that students can be themselves. Our Padres ask questions, express their ideas and explore their interests. They are encouraged to exercise their minds, develop their passions and strengthen their spiritual journeys.
Serra Padres become confident, caring young men who are prepared for college and beyond. They are independent thinkers and responsible leaders who are ready to make their mark on the world.
EXPLORE
QUICK FACTS
Enrollment: 892
Average Class Size: 23
Student-Teacher Ratio: 14:1
Honors and AP Courses: 40
Faculty w/Advanced Degrees: 86%
Clubs and Activities: 40+
Sports: 14 sports, 35 teams
Tuition: $29,600
Financial Aid: $4.6M awarded to Serra students in 2025-26 College Enrollment: 98% of Serra graduates go to college College Scholarships: $36M awarded to the Class of 2025 Community Service: 31K+ hours served during 2024-25 school year Tri-School Program: A formal partnership with sister schools Mercy and Notre Dame, includes 30 classes plus social events, clubs, and performing arts.
PADRE EXPERIENCE EVENTS
PADRE FOR A DAY September–January
Interact with current Padres, tour campus, and drop in on classes.
PADRE PREVIEWS
Students, parents and teachers speak about Serra’s rigorous academic program, dynamic extracurricular activities and the legendary Serra brotherhood. Parents and their sons will see firsthand what makes Serra an extraordinary college preparatory high school for young men.
St. Ignatius challenges its students to lead lives of faith, integrity, and compassion. With a commitment to intellectual excellence, leadership, service, and justice, we strive to be men and women with and for others, responding courageously to the opportunities and challenges of our time. This is Jesuit. This is SI.
Educate. Inspire. Launch.
facebook.com/St.IgnatiusCollegePreparatory
x.com/stignatius
@LifeatSI
vimeo.com/stignatius
https://www.youtube.com/sisportsnetwork
@LifeatSI
Convent & Stuart Hall is an independent K–12 preparatory school in San Francisco rooted in the Sacred Heart tradition of Catholic education within a uniquely single-sex and coeducational environment. To learn more about the school, including our International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, please visit sacredsf.org.
For information about upcoming tours, open houses and other admissions events, please visit our High School Admissions page at sacredsf.org/admissions/high-school. We look forward to seeing you this fall!
For more information, please contact: Cesar Guerrero
Director of Admissions & Academic Guidance cesar.guerrero@sacredsf.org
As part of the Sacred Heart Network with over 150 schools worldwide, our students and educators embrace the philosophy of our founders who first arrived in North America in 1818. Spiritually inclusive and with international roots, we are committed to providing excellence in education and preparing graduates to be active and informed members of a global society.
shschools.org
Founded by the Society of the Sacred Heart, SHS is a Catholic, independent, coed day school for students in preschool through Grade 12. We invite you to discover love, confidence and purpose. Laying the foundation for a meaningful life does not happen overnight. We give students the love, tools and wise freedom to grow into their highest selves. As a result, Gators become compassionate thinkers who are curious about the world they live in and eager to make it better for others.
To learn about the values that set us apart, please visit shschools.org. You can experience Sacred Heart through in-person and virtual events, and view important dates and deadlines in our Virtual Admission Portal.
For more information, please contact: Wendy Quattlebaum Director of Admission & Tuition Assistance admission@shschools.org
