April 23, 2020

Page 1

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO Newspaper of the Archdiocese of San Francisco

SERVING SAN FRANCISCO, MARIN & SAN MATEO COUNTIES

www.catholic-sf.org

APRIL 23, 2020

$1.00  |  VOL. 22 NO. 9

Pope: Build new world without inequality, injustice CAROL GLATZ CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

ROME – As the world slowly recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a risk it will be struck by an even worse virus – that of selfish indifference, Pope Francis said. This dangerous virus is “spread by the thought that life is better if it is better for me and that everything will be fine if it is fine for me. It begins there and ends up selecting one person over another, discarding the poor and sacrificing those left behind on the altar of progress,” he said in his homily at a Mass on Divine Mercy Sunday, April 19. The current pandemic instead must compel people to prepare for a “collective future” that sees the whole human family as one and holds all of the earth’s gifts in common in order to be shared justly with those in need, he said. “This is not some ideology: it is Christianity,” and it mirrors the way the early Christian community SEE POPE, PAGE 16

(CNS PHOTO/JENNIFER LORENZINI, REUTERS)

Fisherman donates full catch to the poor

A volunteer waves after delivering freshly caught fish to a needy family in Castiglione della Pescaia, Italy, April 7, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The fish were caught by Giuseppe Temperani, who has been donating his entire catch to the poor since the crisis began.

Job and income loss shifts local food banks into overdrive CHRISTINA GRAY CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

(COURTESY PHOTO)

More than 170 families received food at a food bank in Pescadero run by the St. Vincent de Paul Society of San Mateo County. Food banks across the archdiocese and across the nation reported a jump in demand as millions suffered pandemicrelated job losses.

Hunger or the fear of it is real and spreading quickly in the Bay Area as it is throughout the rest of the country. Social service agency directors, parish ministry volunteers and food bank staff told Catholic San Francisco that displaced workers awaiting unemployment or stimulus checks, and many who don’t qualify for either, are lining up with the homeless and poor for food assistance. “We’re doing twice as many meals,” said Marc Bruno, a leader of the Sts. Peter and Paul Parish conference of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. Some of those who line up for the hot meals outside the church and daily to-go food bags are homeless, but some are friends of housebound seniors, he said. “What I’ve been hearing is that people are jeopardizing their status with landlords because the money they would use to pay rent they need for food,” said Deacon Gene Smith, who oversees a food pantry run by the St. Raphael Parish conference of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. The pantry, run out of the parish rectory Monday

through Friday by a small corps of under-60 volunteers, has seen a threefold increase in demand. Pastor Father Andrew Spyrow has supported the ministry by asking parishioners to be extra generous with donations of food and money. Families and individuals who can show they live in San Rafael line up six feet apart outside the front door to receive bags filled with groceries and Safeway gift cards. “So many of our parishioners are immigrants who are out of work, so many of them rely on this effort now,” Deacon Smith said. In rural Marin County, 150 cars snaked through the San Geronimo Valley Community Center’s popup food pantry April 9, with drivers popping their trunks for volunteers who placed a food bag inside after a brief, masked greeting. Bags were also delivered to the doors of seniors who could not make it to the drive-by event. Through a partnership with the San FranciscoMarin Food Bank, the center served more than 500 people that day according to a post on its website. Zack Edison of San Rafael, who runs a normally busy, in-home computer training and troubleshooting

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SEE FOOD BANKS, PAGE 4

INDEX National . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 Faith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 SF Católico . . . . . . . . . 18 Community . . . . . . . . . 23


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April 23, 2020 by Catholic San Francisco - Issuu