February 27, 2020

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HOPE:

‘LIGHT IS ON’:

MEMOIR:

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Charities continues Handicapables’ half-century legacy

40-plus parishes expand hours for Lenten confessions

Korean-born priest recounts lifetime of ministry, travel

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO Newspaper of the Archdiocese of San Francisco

SERVING SAN FRANCISCO, MARIN & SAN MATEO COUNTIES

www.catholic-sf.org

FEBRUARY 27, 2020

$1.00  |  VOL. 22 NO. 4

Reconciling with God leads to healing, pope says in Lenten message CAROL GLATZ CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

(CNS PHOTO/IMELDA MEDINA, REUTERS)

Protesters, Mexico’s bishops decry gender violence

Women raise their hands as they protest against gender violence and femicide in Puebla, Mexico, Feb. 22, 2020. Femicide has occurred with impunity in Mexico for decades, but came to the forefront again with brutal murder Feb. 9 of a Mexico City woman, Ingrid Escamilla, by her husband and the killing of a 7-year-old girl named Fatima, who was taken Feb. 11 from outside her school by a stranger and found abused and murdered. In a Feb. 23 statement, Mexico’s bishops said the crimes “for their brutality have left us perplexed and filled us with pain and sadness. ... We wish to place ourselves, from a place of faith, to offer our presence in words, dialogue and meetings to open ourselves to compassion.”

VATICAN CITY – Lent is a time for deeper dialogue with God through prayer, for renewed gratitude for God’s mercy and for increased compassion for people whose lives are under attack, Pope Francis said. Also, people must not only show generosity through charitable giving, but they should also work for a real structural change to today’s “economic life,” the pope said in his annual message for Lent, which begins Feb. 26 for Latin-rite Catholics. The text of the pope’s message was released by the Vatican Feb. 24. SEE POPE, PAGE 22

Sisters shine a light on human trafficking NICHOLAS WOLFRAM SMITH CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

After California passed a law several years ago requiring some industries to display human trafficking awareness posters, anti-trafficking activists like Sister Marilyn Wilson visited businesses to verify that they were following the law. Talking to owners at strip clubs and bars in Sunnyvale showed her over and over how much work there was to do. “We learned there was no education, no accountability and no enforcement” on existing state antitrafficking legislation, she said, even for something as simple as putting up a poster. “We have to do a lot to support the laws that are already there.” The St. Vincent de Paul Society chapter at St. Matthias Parish in Redwood City hosted Sister Marilyn and Sister Elizabeth Avalos, members of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, for a presentation on human trafficking Feb. 11. In front of about 50 people, the two discussed what human trafficking is, how and where it happens and what people can do to have an effect on it.

from human trafficking place it at about $150 billion per year, Sister Marilyn said. “You can sell a person over and over again, so it’s extremely profitable.” The Walk Free Initiative estimates that more than 400,000 trafficking victims live in the U.S. In California, 1,656 trafficking cases were reported in 2018, the majority of them involving commercial sexual exploitation. Sister Elizabeth said nearly 100,000 children are trafficked per year in the U.S. “The thing is, if you’re vulnerable that is when you’re most likely to be trafficked, or if your home is not what you’d like it to be SISTER MARILYN WILSON, Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and you’re recruited online,” she said. Even after federal law enforcement put an end to the Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavdemise of infamous adult classifieds website backery in which people are coerced into providing lapage.com, internet trafficking has thrived, Sister Maribor, services or commercial sexual acts. Victims of lyn said. Traffickers have turned to using social media trafficking can be found in domestic service, forced to lure women and teens into trafficking situations. prostitution, factory work, agriculture, forced mar“Traffickers are very, very smart at grooming and riage, begging and the hospitality industry. getting people to get into this.” she said. According to anti-trafficking nonprofits, between A personal way to honor your loved one’s patriotism to our country. But the biggest challenge is getting people to realize 24 million and 40 million people worldwide live in If you have received flag honoring your loved one's military service and would like to donate it modern slavery, with the amajority experiencing some to the cemetery to be flown asestimates part of an “Avenue Flags" on Memorial Day, 4th of July and Day, PAGE 9 form of forced labor. Global of theofprofit SEEVeterans' TRAFFICKING,

‘For so long, it was considered something over there, or out there, but California is the biggest state for human trafficking.’

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A Tradition of Faith Throughout Our Lives.

INDEX On the Street . . . . . . . . 4 National . . . . . . . . . . . .10 Faith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . 26


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