CSF October/November 2023

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023

SAINT CORA? Wife and mother, Mormon convert, mystic & stigmatist

Will Servant of God Cora Evans become California’s first woman saint?

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023

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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023 | CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Archbishop: Centrality of the Eucharist

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Catholic quiz: How well do you know the Catholic faith?

06 08

Mission Advancement: Our faith in action

14 18

Cloud of witnesses: Why Catholics pray for the dead

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34 36-40

Valerie Schmalz Human Life & Dignity

PRODUCTION MANAGER

CSF MAGAZINE EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

Rod Linhares Mission Advancement

PRODUCTION ASSISTANT

Fr. Patrick Summerhays Vicar General & Moderator of the Curia

Mary Powers (415) 614-5638 Communications & Media Relations Editor, San Francisco Católico

BUSINESS MANAGER

Ryan Mayer Catholic Identity Assessment & Formation Peter Marlow (415) 614-5636 Communications & Media Relations

Eucharistic Revival: St. Francis Lover of the Eucharist With paper and charcoal, students learn empathy for Holocaust survivors

Local news, Classifieds and Upcoming Events

Karessa McCartney-Kavanaugh Joel Carrico

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Chandra Kirtman Diana Powell COPY EDITOR

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CIRCULATION

Christina Gray Phillip Monares

“You are a priest forever:” Honoring those who laid down their lives for others

Christian meaning of suffering: The suffering of loneliness

Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone

PUBLISHER

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Black Catholic History Month: Father Paschal Salisbury

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Cora Evans: Sainthood cause of California wife, mother advances to Rome Vocations Awareness: “Have you ever thought of being a priest?”

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Cottage Industries: The many gifts of consecrated life

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ARCHBISHOP

Photo by Francisco Valdez

Mass on Sept. 14 at St. Peter Catholic Church on the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

Centrality of the Eucharist BY ARCHBISHOP SALVATORE JOSEPH CORDILEONE

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od is asking us to stand strong in faith, and that faith must begin and be nourished in our worship, in our proper belief and respect for the Most Holy Eucharist and how we approach it and even organize our lives around it.

And organize our lives around it we must. To know what this looks like, we need to look no further than the patron saint of our own city and Archdiocese: St. Francis of Assisi. St. Francis is well known for his heroic humility and profound love for the poor and downtrodden, but few remember the reason he loved the forgotten and oppressed so much: because he saw in them the image of his Savior, Jesus Christ.

St. Francis loved the poor because he loved Jesus, and he saw in them the very ones to whom God had drawn closest and become most like. And so, for this same reason, St. Francis also loved the liturgy, the Mass and especially the Eucharist, since in the Most Blessed

Sacrament the very one whom he served through the poor was actually present Himself. So great was Francis’ love of the Mass and the Eucharist that he would often reprimand clergy for not treating the King of Kings, present in the Mass and living in the Eucharist, with the utmost care and reverence. Just as he would take up the cause of the dirtiest, lowliest, most vile and repulsive of the poor with the utmost tenderness and care, so he was scandalized by the fact that often the Mass was celebrated with dirty altar linens and smudged cruets, and not with the greatest of dignity.

For the poor man of Assisi, love of lady poverty did not mean cheap quality of furnishings for Mass and disregard of details in rendering worship to the Almighty. Quite the contrary: only the best for God! And he, too, wrote poetically to describe the miracle of the Mass, such as this gem addressed to his disciples: “Let everyone be struck with fear, let the whole world tremble, and let the heavens exult when Christ, the Son of the living God, is present on the altar in the hands of a priest! O wonderful loftiness and stupendous dignity! O sublime humility! O humble sublimity! The Lord of the universe, God and the Son of God, so humbles Himself that for our salvation He hides Himself under an ordinary piece of bread!

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023 | CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

Brothers, look at the humility of God, and pour out your hearts before Him! Humble yourselves that you may be exalted by Him! Hold nothing back of yourselves for yourselves, that He who gives Himself totally to you may receive you totally!”1 We are having a Eucharistic Revival because we need to reignite that true Franciscan spirit of piety, a piety not limited to one dimension or another of our faith, but true Eucharistic faith, a faith that recognizes both the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist and, because of that, His presence in the poor whom He calls us to love with his Eucharistic heart. It is a faith especially exemplified by a contemporary saint, and one also close to our city and Archdiocese: St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta. She understood that if we fail in proper respect for what is most sacred – our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament – we will fail in all other ways.

We will not serve the poor in an altruistic way, a way that truly recognizes their dignity, but rather in a selfserving way. This lack of the sense of the sacred also explains the attacks on the sanctity of human life we are experiencing in our own time in so many different ways. This is why Mother Teresa used to say that of all the sad things she had seen in the world, the worst was the irreverent reception of Holy Communion.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION Like St. Francis, like Mother Teresa, like all great saints, this Eucharistic Revival must begin with ourselves. We must revive our own personal faith – not just with talk – but with doing! It is good for each of us, then, to examine our own attitudes and behavior toward this divine gift. Is our regard for Christ in the Blessed Sacrament indicative of true Catholic faith in the sacrament, in small ways as well as big?

For example, we must recall the importance of silence. Our culture bombards us with stimuli constantly, and people have become uncomfortable with silence. But silence is the only adequate human response to awareness of the presence of the sacred, and it is how God speaks to us most intimately in the depths of our heart. Perhaps now more than ever, it is important for us to create an atmosphere of reverent silence in church and to allow silence to speak eloquently at certain moments during the liturgical celebration, and also to observe prayerful silence before Mass begins and after it ends.

This dire need for true Eucharistic faith in both word and action is what will help us to reclaim our city of St. Francis, who served as a model of true love of God and the poor – a life of reverence for the sacred. ■ 1

(LtrOrd 26-29) friarmusings.com/2013/03/22/francis-of-assisi-the-eucharist/

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CATHOLIC QUIZ

How well do you know the Catholic faith?

The Ultimate Catholic Quiz

by Catholic Answers’ founder, Karl Keating.

Excerpted with permission and available for purchase from https://ignatius.com/the-ultimate-catholic-quiz-ucqp/

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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 right, which may be “none of the above.” On average, most informed Catholics score 50%. How well did you do?

The month of November is dedicated to honoring the saints and praying for departed souls, so we offer the following Catholic Q&A with a related theme.

Which of the following is a defined Catholic dogma? a. limbo b. purgatory c. both limbo and purgatory d. priestly celibacy e. none of the above

Purgatory is:

a. a state of natural happiness where souls of unbaptized infants and morally good nonChristians will wait until they are judged on the last day. b. a state of mild punishment for people who were not bad enough to go to hell and who were not good enough to go to heaven.

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023

c. a state of purification for people who die in the state of grace but without complete love for God. d. a temporary state where sincere people who do not die in the state of grace get a second chance to do good and thus avoid going to hell. e. none of the above.

The human soul:

a. becomes at death an angelic spirit. b. is a simple substance. c. is composed of an infinite number of parts and therefore can extend throughout space. d. is the same as an animal soul except that it is immortal. e. none of the above.

Souls in purgatory:

a. can be assisted by the intercession of Catholics but not of Protestants. b. are unable to intercede for those on earth. c. will remain in purgatory until the last day. d. exist in a state of suspended animation until released to heaven. e. none of the above.

Which saint is properly paired with the group of which he is the patron?

a. Francis de Sales and merchants. b. Jane Frances de Chantal and singers of Gregorian chant. c. Isidore of Seville and barbers and hairdressers. d. Isabella of Castile and makers of soap. e. None of the above.

Answer highlights can be found on page 38.

OPEN THIS QR CODE FOR COMPREHENSIVE ANSWERS or visit https://sfarchdiocese.org/ november-2023-catholic-quiz/

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M ISSION ADVANCE M E NT

Our faith in action

BY ROD LINHARES Director of mission advancement for the Archdiocese of San Francisco

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ne of the great joys of my role as director of mission advancement is the opportunity to witness the diverse and wonderful outreach that takes place throughout our Archdiocese.

By assisting and supporting people in need, we live our faith and the mission of our Church.

Just a few examples of how our parishes support their communities – St. Anthony Dining Room at St. Anthony Padua Parish in Redwood City prepares 700 meals daily, six days a week, year-round; Immaculate Heart of Mary in Belmont reaches out to the homebound and people in care homes; Most Holy Redeemer in San Francisco hosts Wednesday evening suppers for the homeless and near-homeless.

The Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption in San Francisco has a winter shelter for the homeless and a “Strength for the Journey” ministry for people with life-threatening illnesses and St. Peter in Pacifica’s Brown Bag Brigade delivers food to seniors, low-income individuals and people with disabilities.

Virtually all of our parishes engage in vibrant outreach ministries that greatly impact their communities.

And our parishes’ St. Vincent de Paul Societies do the same. I’m sure many of you have been involved in and/or supported these types of ministries in your own parish.

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Photo by Peter Marlow

A record 950 people attended the Restorative Justice Ministry’s annual Reentry Conference, which helps people re-enter society after incarceration through job fairs, educational programs, housing, and spiritual and emotional services.

In addition to this outreach by our parishes, a number of ministries originate from our archdiocesan office. There are ministries for couples who have lost a child, another for adults still feeling the effect of their parents’ divorce when these adults were just children and there is the Bay Area Rosary Rally, the West Coast Walk for Life and many others.

A vivid manifestation of our mission to assist and support was demonstrated in September at the annual Reentry Conference.

Coordinated by the Restorative Justice ministry, the conference’s focus is on helping persons successfully re-enter society after incarceration. Finding a place to call home, a job, education, community and spiritual and emotional landing spots are critical.

A record 950 people attended the conference. This included 288 formerly incarcerated persons, 87 individuals who have a family member incarcerated, 38 family survivors of a homicide and others.

Some speakers relayed their experiences about assimilating into society after being released from prison, while others talked about losing a family member to violence.

Their stories were stirring and powerful.

Seventy-five nonprofit organizations and 50 employers were on hand. More than 50 people were enrolled in job training programs, and it is anticipated that an additional 100 will find work. The Reentry Conference changes lives.

All of the preceding – and there is so much more – should be a great source of inspiration for all of us as Catholics. Like all people, there is not unanimity in thought among everyone in our faith. We may look at things through different lenses, we may approach things from different perspectives, but our fundamental desire to support and help our fellow human beings is rooted in a common place. At our core, we are one, living in the image of Christ and living out the mission of our Church. ■

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023 | CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

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Visit retiredreligious.org/2023photos to meet the religious pictured. ©2023 United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington DC All rights reserved • Photo: Jim Judkis

C OR A

SERVANT OF GOD

N S A V E

Sainthood cause of California wife, mother advances to Rome

BY LIDIA WASOWICZ

Lidia Wasowicz is a former UPI science reporter and long-time freelance writer for Catholic San Francisco.

Photo courtesy of Michael McDevitt

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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023 | CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

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magine the world as one where Jesus dwells in every person.

Unlike the vision of global unity in legendary singer John Lennon’s still popular 1971 hit, the dream of a humble Mormon housewife who converted to Catholicism and her promoters for sainthood embraces rather than eschews religion.

Enduring profound physical and psychological pain, Servant of God Cora Louise Evans pushed for the mission commissioned by Christ with whom she reported sharing intimate conversations and precious moments in His earthly life.

Shedding her cradle allegiance to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on her wedding day in the famed Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City, the 19-year-old bride sought spiritual truths for a decade before finding them on her sickbed as she listened to a radio program hosted by a local Catholic pastor.

As a convert, she ignored persecution and inspired hundreds to follow her lead during her lifetime cut short by stomach cancer at age 52 on March 30, 1957, the 22nd anniversary of her reception of the Sacrament of Baptism in the Catholic Church.

Since her passing, the message of the “mystical humanity (indwelling) of Christ” spread by those who have publicized her voluminous writings and taken up her cause has resonated with thousands more.

New developments are bound to augment universal attention.

With the cutting of crimson ribbons on 22 boxes holding 5,702 pages of documentation, a 45-minute ceremony on a bright Italian morning last spring launched the Vatican stage of an odyssey that may culminate in the first canonization of a lay California woman.

Select theologians and historians will scrutinize the words, wisdom and worthiness of the “ordinary” wife and mother with barely a 10th grade education who, according to her detailed descriptions, encountered Jesus, Mary and other saints during trancelike ecstasies observed by dozens of eyewitnesses.

Over an indefinite period and with no guarantees, they will seek evidence of “heroic virtue” to carry the servant of God — a title indicating initial approval of her candidacy — through the next three steps: recognition as “venerable,” then “blessed,” then “saint,” the latter two designations requiring proof of separate miracles attributed to her intercession.

To reach the current crossroad, Evans had to pass local ecclesial examination instigated in 2012 by the Monterey Diocese, where she worshipped at the time of her death.

Satisfied with the findings, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops unanimously voted Nov. 16, 2022, to proceed with the beatification and canonization process for Evans and two other American women.

Michelle Duppong, a North Dakota campus missionary and evangelist, succumbed to cancer at age 31 on Christmas Day in 2015.

Irish native Mother Margaret Mary Healy Murphy assisted the poor, ministered to Latino and African American communities, fought for civil rights and founded a religious order in Texas before her demise in 1907 at age 74.

The three causes are now following separate, independent tracks.

Evans officially completed the U.S. leg of her journey toward

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023

sainthood with closing canonical rites at the diocesan level Jan. 22, 2023, at San Carlos Cathedral in Monterey.

Signed, sealed and secured in a strictly specified manner, the testimonies by and about the 20th-century mystic headed for the transcontinental transfer.

On April 20, 2023, at 9:30 a.m., the carefully orchestrated Roman festivities began with escorted U.S. guests crossing a sun-sprinkled St. Peter’s Square to a large conference room of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, which oversees the course to canonization that has toughened considerably since the early centuries when popular acclaim bestowed sainthood.

I believe that, if it is God’s will, one day Cora will be

recognized as a saint, that her writings will have far-reaching impact on the faithful, that the devotion to Jesus in his mystical humanity will flourish, there will be substantial conversions to the Catholic faith, especially among Mormons, her heritage people.”

MICHAEL MCDEVITT Set on a massive wood table, the boxes holding the American-approved documentation, termed the Acts of the Inquiry, awaited further action.

One by one, each was opened, its contents briefly viewed. When the last was inspected, a canon lawyer pronounced the official start to the Vatican phase of the investigation.

“It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” recalled Michael McDevitt, longtime promoter of the sainthood cause, promulgator of the mission and custodian of the writings of Evans, a family friend during his childhood.

The parishioner at St. Catherine of Siena Church in Burlingame has served as executive director of the Mystical Humanity of Christ, Inc. since its founding in 1999 by his late uncle, Jesuit Father Frank Parrish, Evans’ confessor and spiritual director. ›

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The nonprofit carries on the mission entrusted to Evans and coinciding with the National Eucharistic Revival, a three-year initiative the U.S. bishops launched June 19, 2022, on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ to instruct about, inspire by and unite around Jesus in a world that desperately needs Him. “(As Evans taught), we receive Him in the Eucharist, then we are called to take Him with us wherever we go,” explained McDevitt, who conducted the first of numerous retreats on the topic 30 years ago. “It ties in with the eucharistic revival because it treats the presence of Christ as a way of life.”

The timely connection provides more evidence of divine guidance and secures hopes that have sustained him through the decades, said the former accounting and consulting specialist.

“Over and over again, doors opened, and Jesus breathed life to our motto, ‘led by Our Lord,’” recalled McDevitt, whose physician father doctored Evans until his retirement in 1946 and whose mother observed and wrote about some of her raptures.

“I believe that, if it is God’s will, one day Cora will be recognized as a saint, that her writings will have far-reaching impact on the faithful, that the devotion to Jesus in his mystical humanity will flourish, there will be substantial conversions to the Catholic faith, especially among Mormons, her heritage people,” McDevitt asserted.

“I believe all of this is for the benefit of the universal Church.”

Michael Huston, his cousin and partner since their first retreat and initial petition to the Monterey Diocese to start the proceedings, shares his confidence and commitment.

“Michael and I have done all we can and succeeded in getting her to the Vatican; now it’s out of our hands, and Our Lord will take it from here,” assured Huston, a Mystical Humanity board member who accompanied McDevitt to Rome.

“Our role now is to promulgate Jesus’s mission by publishing her books and telling her story to the world.”

Her story begins in Midvale, Utah, on July 9, 1904, when Laura and Robert Yorgason welcomed their daughter into a family that traced its roots to the early Mormon pioneers who settled the state.

Spirituality, suffering, piety, perseverance, fidelity and fortitude marked her life from early childhood.

At age 3, she had a vision of an unforgettable lady she would come to know years later as the Blessed Mother.

As she grew, health struggles limited her formal education. A weak heart and other lifelong ailments forced her to quit before completing the sophomore year in high school.

Through it all, she remained humbly devout, earning the privilege to marry Maclellan “Mack” Evans, the love of her life, in the world headquarters of the LDS church, which restricts temple entry to faithful members with two recommendations attesting to their worthiness.

Ironically, the June 4, 1924, wedding disappointed her with its secret rituals and what she considered false declarations about God and drove her away from the religion of her birth and toward one she had never previously considered.

The destination “was a surprise to her as she was brought up with great suspicions about Catholics,” said Father Gary Thomas, director of the Propaedeutic Year program at St. Patrick’s Seminary

and University in Menlo Park who joined the Mystical Humanity board 10 years ago at the invitation of McDevitt and Huston, head usher at the parish he pastored.

Evans reached the final stop in December 1934 when, alone and too ill to leave her bed to change the station on a radio across the room, she listened to “The Catholic Hour.”

The broadcast about the Virgin Mary whom she recognized as the lady she met as a tot so intrigued her she started making inquiries at the nearby St. Joseph Catholic Church as soon as she recovered.

The visit influenced others to follow suit.

Father Edward Vaughn, the parish priest, confirmed her evangelization efforts led to hundreds of conversions of Mormons to the Catholic faith.

Her husband and daughters LaVonne and

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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023 | CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

Left, Jesuit Father Frank Parrish, confessor and spiritual director, with Cora Evans.

Below, Cora Evans working on her last manuscript, 1956.

Photos courtesy of Michael McDevitt

Dorothy — son Bobby had died before his first birthday — numbered among them.

They paid a painful price: rejection, ridicule, rancor from colleagues, neighbors, friends, even family.

Evans stood fast against the onslaught with characteristic heart and humility. She treated her tormentors with respect and their beliefs with reverence.

Her outpouring of affection proved to no avail.

On March 17, 1941, out of work and welcome, the family moved to California, spending 15 years in the Los Angeles area before relocating to the small, scenic town of Boulder Creek among the redwoods of the coastal Santa Cruz Mountains.

Her visions intensified, as did her commitment to spend her life serving God made in July 1938 on what she termed her “vow day.”

She received Communion, attended Mass, walked the Stations of the Cross, sometimes in reverse to follow in Mary’s footsteps as she descended Calvary after the crucifixion, and prayed 15 decades of the rosary daily for the last 15 years of her life.

Upon orders from Jesus and instructions from Father Parrish, Evans penned more than 3,000 pages of letters, poems, notes, › CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023

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Photo courtesy of Michael McDevitt

Left to right: Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect, Dicastery for the Causes of Saints; Michael and Pamela McDevitt, Archdiocese of San Francisco parishioners, St. Catherine of Siena; Amy Earley, parishioner, St. Charles, and Emanuele Spedicato, postulator, Rome.

reflections, diaries, meditations, manuscripts and accounts of her supernatural encounters that defy her academic deficiencies.

She would spend hours at her manual typewriter vividly depicting the scenes and stories revealed during her ecstasies.

Her output outpaced that of many of the 10,000 saints, including a dozen Americans, of the past 2,000 years.

Jesus disclosed the primary purpose of these efforts on Christmas Eve 1946: “to promulgate the mystical humanity of Christ (the divine indwelling) within souls as a way of prayer in the United States and throughout the world,” according to materials promoting her cause.

The following year, Evans began bearing painful stigmata — the wounds of Christ — in her head, palms, feet and heart, witnessed, among others,

by Huston’s parents and grandmother, counted among the mystic’s closest friends.

In and of themselves, such gifts and graces do not suffice as grounds for canonization, noted Deacon David Ford, vice chancellor and director of pastoral ministry in the Monterey Diocese.

“The important consideration is heroic charity, faith and martyrdom for justice,” he clarified. “As a married woman, a mother suffering the death of her only son when just a baby, a convert to the faith from Mormonism, a promoter of active lay spirituality, she hits some of the marks.”

Her candidacy answers the call started by the late Pope St. John Paul II for greater inclusion in the ranks of the universally venerated, he added.

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“The Church said, ‘We can’t just canonize monks and nuns and priests and deacons because saints are supposed to be models for everyday baptized Christians,’” the deacon said.

Evans has served as a model for everyday folks like Scott Borba.

Inspired by the evocative portrayals of the life and times of Jesus in her best-known work, “The Refugee from Heaven,” published in 2014, he traded sinful stints as a Hollywood jet-setter for simple service as a St. Patrick’s seminarian.

“When I read how Granny Mary, Joseph’s mother, would feed the boy Jesus cookies that he loved, all of a sudden I understood He was not a myth but just like us in every way except in His divinity,” Borba related.

“It was so beautifully communicated in her writings, it got someone as closed as me to open up to conversion because once He became real to me in his mystical humanity, I fell in love with Him.” However meaningful or moving, the writings remain private not public revelation — which ended with the completion of the New Testament and the death of the last apostle — and thus need not be taken as gospel, said Father Dennis McManus, professor of theology at St. Patrick’s who read Evans’ every word in preparing the “positio,” a key summary that includes a record of her life, faith and heroic virtue, a standard set by the Holy See. “When the Church is considering a candidate for sainthood, she looks for outstanding virtue that goes a bit beyond what we are all called to practice when, for example, our spouse irritates us or our patience is tried by a demanding family member,” Father McManus explained. “Truly heroic virtue builds on daily virtue.”

Whether or not sainthood awaits her, Evans leaves a rich and relevant legacy.

“Cora’s mission was to help promulgate the revival of the Eucharist 60 years before the Church began its recent revival program,” Huston said. “I believe this will be part of changing the world.”

A world of peace and unity as Lennon desired, though not exactly as he imagined. ■ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023 | CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

Devotion to the mystical humanity of Christ

What if you could come even closer to Jesus?

REFLECTION BY SCOTT BORBA Seminarian of the Diocese of Fresno, studying at St. Patrick’s Seminary and University in Menlo Park, but currently on pastoral year

My spiritual director introduced me to Cora Evans by giving me her book, “The Refugee from Heaven.”

Through a deep desire, the Holy Spirit plunged me into reading it, and as I did, the Lord allowed me to sense episodes from His life on earth just as Cora relayed them: I was able to hear our Lord’s laughter, His tone and inflection in speaking, and to see the froth on the sea.

Cora’s mystical experiences and dialogues with Christ and His saints are a way in which the Lord has spoken particularly to our time, considering its inclination to visuals and direct experience. For my part, Cora’s vivid depictions of our Lord helped me accept my call to the priesthood and changed my life so deeply that all I wanted to do was to be united to Christ. This unity is what Christ wants, too, as He taught Cora by giving her a mission to spread devotion to His mystical humanity.

The Lord wants to live within us fully to do His work within us effectively. One critical aspect of the Son’s indwelling within our humanity is our acceptance of suffering as redemptive. Being able to suffer for Christ is the biggest opportunity and gift you could receive in this life on earth. When growing up, I did not understand the role of suffering and would pray not to suffer. Yet the Lord teaches us through Cora and others devoted to His mystical humanity that we can cooperate powerfully with His salvific work in suffering.

In my home diocese of Fresno, such devotion is spreading like wildfire within the laity and diaconate.

This is especially the case in Visalia, which now houses the largest Catholic parish church in North America. One of my hopes is that parish priests will cultivate this growing desire to cooperate with Christ in our flesh, as all those in the state of grace are Christ’s living tabernacles.

Cora’s life and writing show us, however, not just the value of suffering in union with Jesus but also the joy of knowing Him. In her writings, you see the personality of our God. She reports in one episode how Jesus lays a big plank across His shoulders and places a child on each side, twirling them around as they laugh.

Cora brings Jesus to life, and that’s what the mystical humanity is all about. I challenge everyone to read “The Refugee from Heaven” with openness to being changed by the graces our Lord gave Cora Evans.

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023

Refugeefromheaven.coraevans.com

IwasaPilgriminHistory.coraevans.com

The Refugee from Heaven “When Cora Evans was in ecstasy viewing our Lord, she was with Christ in His life on earth.

She witnessed many, many events in His life that are narrated in The Refugee from Heaven.”

I was a Pilgrim in History “Throughout this writing [written in free verse], Cora becomes an eyewitness of history to “His Story” ( Jesus). What an incredible, awesome experience it must have been for Cora to witness, to relive, and to record all that we find in this, the last of her books!”

Father Frank Parrish, S.J. (1911–2003) Jesuit Spiritual Director for Cora Evans

LetterLessons.CoraEvans.com

Letter Lessons “These days so many cannot find a spiritual director. In the Letter Lessons one who has been searching finally finds a spiritual director, and a Servant of God, whose simple to follow wisdom as a Catholic mystic truly does lead to one living for Jesus.”

Fr. Vito Perrone, COSJ Superior General, Contemplatives of Saint Joseph Pastor, Mater Dolorosa, So. San Francisco

Brother Edward Behan, F.S.C. (1916–1991) Personal friend of Cora Evans Author of An Introduction to the Life and Writings of Cora Evans

About the Author Servant of God Cora Evans (1904–1957) was a wife and mother, a writer, and a convert from Mormonism to the Catholic faith. A stigmatic who suffered for the faith, Cora was entrusted with the two-fold responsibility of promulgating the mystical humanity of Christ, the divine indwelling, throughout the world, and the conversion of Mormons to the Catholic faith.

Purchase books at your Catholic 13 bookstore, CoraEvans.com (Free Shipping), Or visit Amazon

VOCATIONS AWARENESS

“Have you ever thought of being a priest?”

Photo by Dennis Callahan

Father Gary Thomas, left, with Father Kyle Faller, center, ordained in 2019 at St. Mary’s Cathedral. To his right is his brother, Father Cameron Faller.

Encouraging young men to consider the priesthood may be the best defense against a local ‘vocations crisis’

BY CHRISTINA GRAY Lead writer, Catholic San Francisco grayc@sfarch.org

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arish priests and local parish communities can be powerful “influencers” for the priesthood, according to Father Cameron Faller, vocations director for the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

Like other dioceses across the country, the Archdiocese of San Francisco is in a “vocations crisis,” he said ahead of Vocations Awareness Week, Nov. 5-11. An annual campaign of the U.S.

bishops, the week is aimed at promoting vocations to the priesthood, diaconate and consecrated life.

The total number of diocesan priests in the country has fallen by 9% since 2014, according to an annual report by Vocations Ministry, a Catholic nonprofit that promotes vocations with education and training. The total number of new seminarians fell by 22% in the same period, and the rate of seminarians reaching ordination fell 24%.

“The fact is, we don’t have enough young men entering seminary and being ordained to replace the priests that will be retiring in the coming years, if we were going to fully supply the church as it is now,” said Father Faller.

The Archdiocese of San Francisco currently has 12 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023 | CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

seminarians in formation at St. Patrick’s Seminary & University in Menlo Park and one seminarian at Bishop White Seminary in Spokane, Washington. New priestly vocation numbers have been low in the Archdiocese for a few decades. There was a surge of new vocations before the pandemic began in 2020, said Father Faller, and it has been “a struggle ever since.”

The math makes the crisis for the local Catholic Church clear.

“We have about 25 priests who will be of retirement (age) in the next five years but we only project having about six newly ordained priests over this same period,” he said.

INVITATION: A BIBLICAL APPROACH It’s natural for people to ask about what new program or initiative could be the “silver bullet” in attracting new vocations to the priesthood, Father Faller told Catholic San Francisco.

“These are good questions, but if you look at the Bible, people were called to the priesthood based on a personal invitation,” he said. “Jesus, the first and main priest, didn’t have a ‘program’ for ‘applying to the priesthood.’

He showed his apostles a new way of life and invited them to follow Him.” Jesus intentionally invited Christianity’s first priests, and they invited one other. There was “constant invitation,” said Father Faller. “I think it’s something that’s been lost, even though it should be very natural,” he said.

CARA STUDY OF NEW ORDINANDS Data bears this out. Parish communities can be extremely influential in shaping new vocations to the priesthood, according to a survey of 2023 ordinands completed in April by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University in Washington.

The annual study, commissioned by the U.S. bishops’ Secretariat of Clergy, Consecrated Life & Vocations found that 70% of men ordained were encouraged toward their vocation by their parish priest; 50% said they were encouraged by a parishioner; 40% were encouraged by a friend and 28-35% encouraged by their parents.

“We noted that priests and parishioners were more influential than even Mom and Dad,” said Father Faller, who has been sending current seminarians out into parishes in all three counties of the Archdiocese to share their vocations stories and to encourage prayer and support for priestly vocations.

Father Faller said he was at a vocation directors’ national conference when he heard that it takes at least three invitations from three different people for a young man to seriously consider an invitation to the priesthood.

Bishop Thomas Daly of Spokane, Washington, who served as vocations director for the Archdiocese of San Francisco while concurrently serving as president of › CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023

SEMINARIAN SPOTLIGHT David Mees

At an age when some men are retiring after a long career, David Mees is starting a new one.

The 58-year-old Morgan Hill native and seminarian at St. Patrick’s Seminary & University was ordained to the transitional diaconate Sept. 9 and will be ordained to the priesthood in the summer of 2024.

“For me, finding my vocation at a later age,” said Mees, “I had either never heard the call before or I wasn’t listening to it.”

Raised in a Catholic home, he went to Mass every Sunday, but his faith “didn’t really hit me,” he said, until after he graduated from college.

Mees was hired to teach math at De La Salle, a Catholic high school in Concord, California, where he said “my relationship with Jesus Christ and the Church grew and became more committed.”

He left teaching to take a job as a land surveyor for an urban public works department, enjoyed his life and dated.

But he felt “an inner tug” toward something that did not point toward marriage. The thought of the priesthood grew stronger, and he signed up for a discernment retreat. “I didn’t want to live out the rest of my life not knowing whether I was called to be a priest,” he said.

The words of one of the speakers sticks with him to this day.

“He said it is the responsibility of everyone to spend some time discerning what God has called them to do,” he said.

He entered the seminary at age 50.

“It’s not daunting at all,” he said of becoming a later-in-life priest. “I’ve had many years to see what a priest’s life is like.”

Mees will serve as a transitional deacon for a year at St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Burlingame.

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… if you look at the Bible, people were called to the priesthood based on a personal invitation.”

FATHER CAMERON FALLER Marin Catholic High School, told Father Faller that he asked young people at a youth event why priestly vocations were so low in their diocese.

The reason that rose to the top was not about the sex abuse scandals or the vow of celibacy.

“They told him nobody had ever asked them,” said Father Faller.

While countries like South Korea and certain countries in Africa are experiencing vocation booms, the Western world, including Europe, “is struggling” with new priestly vocations, according to Father Faller.

Some dioceses do better than others, he said, but the reasons may be more pastoral than regional.

“For whatever reason, a certain diocese might have more parishes with pastors who are intentional about trying to invite young people to consider the priesthood,” said Father Faller.

He admits some priests are just better at expressing zeal for the priesthood than others, but paraphrased the words of Cardinal Robert Sarah, former prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

“If we are not joyful about our priestly ministry, we are not going to attract anybody,” he said.

THE BAY AREA’S UNIQUE CHALLENGE The Archdiocese of San Francisco has a unique contributing issue, according to Father Faller: the scarcity of young families in parishes due to the high cost of living here. San Francisco is the sixth most expensive city in the U.S. to reside, according to U.S. World & News Report.

“Most young families, if they are going to have multiple kids, start considering moving out of the area,” said Father Faller, who grew up in Marin County, one of four boys. Most of the young adults who were raised here can’t afford to live here, so many go elsewhere to raise a family.

“My two older brothers each have four kids,” he said.

“There is no way they can afford to live here.”

Priests coming from other dioceses would be shocked by how few families we have in our parishes, he said.

Fewer families in our pews means fewer young men and women going to Mass and participating in the liturgy and parish life.

“We just don’t have as much of a pool to draw from for new vocations,” said Father Faller.

THE HIGH PRICE OF A PRIEST SHORTAGE In a poster for Vocations Awareness Week, Pope Francis’ words in the headline trumpet the essential value of the priesthood: There Can Be No Eucharist Without the Priesthood.

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The priest shortage can negatively impact parish life, and the pastor himself, in multiple other ways, said Father Faller.

“What has become more common is that priests have to take on more than one parish, or more than one role,” said Father Faller, who was ordained in 2015. Case in point, he said, are his separate roles as vocation director, director of seminarians and chaplain of Junipero Serra High School.

All of those roles require something different, he said.

“My ability to fulfill all those roles is somewhat limited from what it could be because of the lack of enough priests.”

For two or more parishes sharing one pastor, it means people might not always have a priest immediately available when they need one. It can also become painful for the priest, Father Faller said.

“He can start to have a divided heart, knowing he’s got to serve people in both parishes,” he said. “He’s able to say yes to fewer things.”

THE DISCRETIONARY INVITATION Father Faller said that while it’s not necessary to overthink reaching out to a priestly prospect, an invitation can fall flat if not thoughtfully made.

“Some people, priests and laity alike, might feel any young woman coming to Mass should be invited to be a religious sister,” he said. “Or, if it’s a young man at Mass, he should be a priest. A cattle-call approach can diminish the power of invitation, making it seem less special or credible.”

Observe the single men in your parish who not only come to Mass regularly, but who take the liturgy and parish life seriously, advised Father Faller. Wait for the right moment to have a conversation about the priesthood. And don’t overlook more mature men, he said. Seminarians are accepted from age 18 up until the age of 50.

An older person might need the invitation even more because they might think it’s not a possibility anymore, he said. They might think it’s too late, that the ship has sailed.

Father Faller said all priests of the Archdiocese of San Francisco have been offered a slim booklet called “Lend Your Voice To Christ,” subtitled “a helpful guide for priests to call forth men to the priesthood.”

“It is meant to encourage priests to kind of take ownership of, for a lack of better words, finding their replacement in the future,” he said. ■ SCAN TO LEARN MORE ABOUT JOINING THE PRIESTHOOD or visit sfpriest.org

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PHOTO: DENNIS CALLAHAN PHOTO: DENNIS CALLAHAN

I cannot fail to mention the need for fostering vocations to the priesthood, I cannot fail to mention the need for fostering vocations to the priesthood, for Paul IIII said, said, for as as Saint Saint John John Paul

THERE EUCHARIST THERE CAN BE NO EUCHARIST WITHOUT PRIESTHOOD WITHOUT THE PRIESTHOOD ~Pope ~Pope Francis Francis

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Archbishop Fr. Cameron Faller Archbishop Faller Vocation Director Salvatore Cordileone Fr. Cameron Vocation Director Salvatore Cordileone

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Leandro David Mees LeandroCalingasan Calingasan Emmanuel EmmanuelGutierrez Gutierrez Deacon Deacon David Mees

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M E M E NTO MORI

CLOUD OF WITNESSES Why Catholics pray for the dead

BY AARON LAMBERT Writer from Denver

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L

ife is filled with uncertainties, but it brings with it one certainty that’s inescapable: death. The old saying “memento mori” – “remember you will die” – seems a somber principle of the spiritual life, but at the same time it brings a certain hope for those with the right disposition of heart. For as people of faith, we know that while our earthly bodies will die and wither away, death no longer has any sting for those who profess the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who conquered death once and for all.

Despite this reality, losing a loved one is not easy. While our faith reassures us that we will be reunited in heaven, we still mourn for those we’ve lost and cherish the memories that remain in our hearts. More than that, however, as Catholics, we also pray for the souls of those who have died. The Church recognizes the month of November as a time to remember departed souls in our prayer intentions and pray for those who, as the priest prays during the Liturgy of the Eucharist, “have gone before us with the sign of faith.”

When Catholics talk about praying for the dead, fellow Christians will often scratch their heads at the notion, and some may raise accusations that such a practice is akin to the practice of conjuring and communicating with dead spirits that’s associated with pagans and

occultists. This is not what the Church means when she calls upon the faithful to pray for the dead.

The Church’s tradition of praying for the dead is inextricably linked to her teaching on purgatory. The concept of purgatory is quite misunderstood by Catholics and nonCatholics alike, and rightly so. It can be a bit confusing at first glance. At best it’s described as a celestial train station where souls wait to go to heaven, and at worst it’s seen as a spiritual halfway house. In truth, it’s neither of these. The catechism describes it as such: “All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.

The Church gives the name purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1030-1031).

To use an earthly image, think of how when camping in the woods, it is best to boil the river water before drinking it so as to purify or cleanse it, as it were, of any harmful bacteria.

Purgatory is best thought of as a “purifying fire” (CCC 1031) where souls go to become pure enough to then enter the perfect and untainted splendor that is heaven. In many ways, it is an extension of God’s grace even into the finality of death.

As the souls in purgatory undergo this purification, the prayers of the faithful can help to expedite the process and deliver them from their sins. This is the chief reason why Catholics pray for the dead. It is an act of charity and mercy, not only for our loved ones who have OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023 | CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

The beauty of the Church is that even after death, we remain in communion with the souls of those who professed Christ as Lord during their time on earth.” died but for all those departed souls who have no one else to pray for them. It’s important to note that this tradition finds its basis in sacred Scripture, as it further explains in the catechism: “This teaching is also based on the practice of prayer for the dead, already mentioned in sacred Scripture: ‘Therefore Judas Maccabeus made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin.’ From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God” (CCC 1032).

In addition to praying for the souls in purgatory, that they might be purified to enter the presence of God, we also ask those who have died to intercede for us. Again, this is not an attempt to communicate with dead spirits; rather, as St. Paul alludes to in Hebrews 12, this “cloud of witnesses” spurs us on in our own race here on earth through their prayers to the Father. Just as we do with the saints, asking for intercessory prayer is also a beautiful way to remember and remain connected to those we have lost.

All of this finds its culmination in the holy sacrifice of the Mass, where heaven and earth collide. We offer Masses for the dead because it is in the Eucharist that our sacrifice is united to that of Christ and all those who have died. We also remember the dead in a special way during the Mass because each time a Mass is celebrated, the merits of the sacrifice of Christ’s cross are applied to those souls who have gone before us.

The beauty of the Church is that even after death, we remain in communion with the souls of those who professed Christ as Lord during their time on earth. It is Christ who binds all Christians together, and our prayers to him and for those who have died transcend time and space. Therefore, we can be confident that our prayers for the dead are not without merit, nor do they fall upon deaf ears. The Lord hears them and grants his everlasting grace to those who have died. ■ CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023

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COTTAGE I N DUSTRI ES

The many gifts of consecrated life

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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023 | CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

Selling their own olive oil, honey, cheeses, jams, soaps, dolls, even puppies, helps these Catholic sisters and nuns sustain their life of prayer and service

BY CHRISTINA GRAY Lead writer, Catholic San Francisco grayc@sfarch.org

R

eligious orders and communities, particularly those blessed with acres of productive land, have long relied on small cottage industries to support their charisms. A notable few in California have cultivated a solid income stream with handmade gift items that are especially popular for Christmas giving.

“We brought in about $200,000 last year,” said Dominican Sister Jane Rudolph, coordinator of the community’s annual Christmas boutique held on the grounds of the Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose motherhouse.

The Dominican Sisters’ own organic, extra-virgin olive oil, organic “Holy Honey,” honey lavender soaps, Sister Donna Marie’s fruitcakes and Sister Lynn Marie’s bourbon balls are the community’s signature offerings.

Located in the rolling hills of Fremont, the Dominican motherhouse is home to Sisters actively engaged in the apostolate as well as those requiring assisted living or skilled nursing care near the end of their lives of consecrated service to God. Proceeds from the boutique support

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023

elderly or infirm Sisters. A portion is available for discretionary humanitarian aid.

“We donate 10% of our earnings from the boutique to help communities rebuild after natural disasters and pandemics,” she said.

The one-day event will be held this year on Saturday, Nov. 18, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It will include the Sisters’ signature items, plus other items handmade by the Sisters or local artisans, including baby onesies and bibs, baby blankets, summer hats, pet blankets, aprons, holiday decor and more.

Those unable to make it to the one-day boutique can make online purchases of the signature items from Oct. 9 to 29.

MISSION-ERA OLIVE TREES AND “HOLY HONEY” When the Dominican Sisters arrived at Mission San Jose in 1891, the land included 334 olive trees. Historic photos show Sisters in full habit harvesting olives from trees planted by the Ohlone people. In 1894, the Sisters began processing the olives for their rich oil. The oil was sold to Catholic parishes throughout the Bay Area for a time, and across the United States, then ceased for a spell. Today the Sisters continue to cultivate 200 olive trees, the largest remaining grove of Mission-era olive trees in California.

Sister Rudolph said the Sisters have only seen ›

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Photos courtesy of the Norbertine Sisters and the Domincan Sisters of Mission San Jose

a portion of the proceeds from the boutique after expenses and are turning to community volunteers and small business partnership to reduce costs.

For many years, the Sisters picked their own olives and even pressed the oil themselves (the old press is now on display with other historical artifacts in the motherhouse reception area).

Today, while the Sisters still do their own olive harvesting with the help of local pickers, a partnership with a Catholic farming family in Modesto, the Sciabica family, has lightened their load and expanded their production. Since 2000, the Sciabicas, who produce their own olive oil, vinegars and food products, do the pressing, storing, bottling, labeling and delivery of the Dominican Sisters’ olive oil.

Every year, the Sisters share the blessings produced by the Mission-era olive trees with a tradition for many local families and other supporters. The public is invited into the olive groves to help harvest the ripe fruit for the Sisters.

This year’s family harvest day will be Dec. 9 from 9 a.m.to noon.

Honey production began with Sister Evangelista Grisez, who began keeping bees in the early 1930s.

Sister Balbina Schallwig followed her, tending 30

motherhouse hives which produced 80 gallons of “Holy Honey” per year. Today Sister Barbara Hagel tends new hives that pollinate motherhouse plants and trees and produce delicious raw honey.

NORBERTINE CHEESES, DOLLS AND … PUPPIES “Our main mission is prayer, prayer, prayer,” said Sister Mary Norbert, canoness of the Bethlehem Priory of St. Joseph. The community of 45 cloistered nuns live just outside the tiny mountain town of Tehachapi, California, and are the first community of Norbertine canonesses in the United States.

“All Norbertine communities strive to be selfsufficient,” said Sister Mary Norbert, who joined the order in 2005. “We had to determine what kind of things we could do to support ourselves, keeping in mind that we are cloistered.”

The monastery sits on 470 acres and has seen vocations multiply in recent years. The Tehachapi community was established in 1997 by the Norbertine pirests from St. Michael’s Abbey in Orange County (Calif.).

“It’s a good problem to have,” she said.

The Norbertine Sisters have earned a reputation for making fine cheeses after getting licensed for cheesemaking 10 years ago.

SHOP WITH (AND FOR) THE SISTERS DOMINICAN SISTERS OF MISSION SAN JOSE, FREMONT, CALIF. Annual Christmas Boutique Sat., Nov. 18, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Shop early online, Oct. 9-29 msjdominicans.org/motherhouse

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NORBERTINE CANONNESSES, TEHACHAPI, CALIF.

Shop online at shop.norbertinesisters.org OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023 | CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

Left: The Norbertine Canonesses of the Bethlehem Priory of St. Joseph, pictured in 2023 at their rural California monastery in Tehachapi.

RIght top and bottom: Sisters and volunteers are pictured at the Dominican Sisters of MIssion San Jose annual Christmas boutique.

“One of the local wineries even sells our cheese,” said Sister Mary Norbert.

“Because our life is six to seven hours of prayer a day, we had to find the right ‘cottage industries,’” she said. “We have about four hours a day for work, so our time is limited.”

Sister Mary Norbert spoke with particular pride about a book the order produced on the life of St. Norbert, a German bishop and founder of the Premonstratensian order of canons regular. The book was published with great help from San Francisco’s Ignatius Press, she said. It is available online, along with Catholic statuary, worship music, handmade rosaries, leather Bible covers, prayer cards and a unique “prayer pillowcase.”

Without a doubt, one of the most unusual, popular and lucrative “products” to be offered by the Norbertine Sisters are purebred puppies.

Each year a limited number of champion-sired American Kennel Club (AKC) Labrador Retrievers, Anatolian Shepherds and McNab Shepherd puppies are lovingly raised by the nuns for temperament, trainability and health. Puppies can go for $2,500 and “sell themselves,” according to Sister Mary Norbert.

Then there is the popular 18-inch Norbertine Canoness doll with a habit hand-stitched by the nuns.

“You just have to smile when you see her,” she said. ■ CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023

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BL ACK CATHOLIC HISTORY MONTH

FATHER PASCHAL SALISBURY June 6, 1928 – Aug. 18, 2023

November is Black Catholic History Month, a time to remember and celebrate the long history and proud heritage of Black Catholics. This is an updated version of an article originally published in the March 27, 2015, edition of The Catholic Missourian, newspaper of the Diocese of Jefferson City, Missouri.

Father Salisbury died Aug. 18 at the age of 95.

O

nce while he was chaplain of the old St. Mary’s Health Center in Jefferson City, Dominican Father Donald H. Salisbury headed northeast to offer Mass in a town that shares his name.

Father (later Msgr.) Donald W. Lammers, who was pastor of St. Joseph parish in Salisbury, and his parishioners gave Father Salisbury a hometowner’s welcome.

“It was like I’d been away and was coming back to celebrate,” recalled Father Salisbury. “They had Mass and refreshments, and a deacon gave me a copy of the abstract for the property that had belonged to my grandfather.”

That grandfather, George Salisbury, had been enslaved in Chariton County.

The Louis Salisbury family granted George his freedom on Jan. 1, 1865 — a few months before the end of the Civil War. His emancipation document reads: “All men in the County of Chariton and the State of Missouri, I do hereby forever relieve George Salisbury from service with pay from this day, January 1st A.D. 1865.”

Father Salisbury has a copy of the page from a family Bible that lists the names and birthdates of many of his ancestors.

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One of the priest’s cousins, now deceased, believed that George Salisbury was actually a son of Louis Salisbury.

George married the former Mary Ford of Keytesville.

They eventually moved to Lawrence, Kansas.

The couple had 14 children, including a son named Louis, and Father Salisbury’s father, Adam.

TWO GENERATIONS FROM SLAVERY Father Salisbury was born on June 6, 1928, in Lawrence.

He grew up in an era of segregation and limited opportunities for Blacks.

He was not raised Catholic but enjoyed listening to Bishop Fulton Sheen’s uplifting Catholic radio programs.

“I sent away for a rosary and when I got it, I didn’t know how to pray it,” he recalled.

He spent two years in the U.S. Army, which was segregated at that time.

Six months after the future priest’s tour of duty ended, President Harry S. Truman integrated the U.S. armed forces.

“I saw that as an opportunity, so I signed up for the Air Force,” Father Salisbury recalled.

A gifted musician who had studied piano and organ, he accompanied services in the Protestant chapel on the base where he was stationed.

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023 | CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

He wished he could practice late at night, but the chapel closed early.

“I told that to a Catholic friend, and he said I could practice the organ in the Catholic chapel,” which stayed open later, Father Salisbury recalled.

He wound up befriending the priest and several Catholic congregants on the base. Before long, he decided to receive instructions and become Catholic.

He was initiated into the Church at age 21 in 1948.

After re-entering civilian life, he began thinking about the priesthood.

He contacted representatives of several Catholic orders and was advised each time to become a brother or not to pursue religious life at all.

But he believed God was calling him to be a priest.

He moved to San Francisco and joined St. Dominic parish, which was staffed by the Order of Preachers (Dominican Order).

While studying business at the University of San Francisco, he sang in the parish choir and became active in the Holy Name Society.

After graduating second in his class at the university, he asked the Dominicans to help him answer his priestly calling.

I sent away for a rosary and when I got it, I didn’t know how to pray it.”

FATHER SALISBURY, prior to becoming a Catholic “They knew me, and one of the brothers said he’d vouch for me,” Father Salisbury recalled.

In August 1961, he entered formation for the Dominicans in Oakland, California.

He was given the religious name Paschal.

On June 16, 1967, in the Cathedral of St. Francis de Sales in Oakland, Bishop Floyd L. Begin ordained him to the priesthood.

He was the Dominicans’ first African American priest in the United States.

“NO, THANK YOU. I’M CATHOLIC” Hoping to serve as a chaplain, Father Salisbury undertook a year’s training in pastoral ministry at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, followed by additional training at hospitals in California and New York.

His provincial appointed him associate director of the All Saints Catholic Student Center at Arizona State University in Tempe.

In 1979, he sought permission to look for a ministry closer to his sister in eastern Kansas, who had developed health problems.

That’s what brought him to Jefferson City.

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023

Here, he found a welcome reprieve from most of the implicit and explicit prejudice he had encountered during much of his discernment and early years of priesthood.

He was Jefferson City’s first African American priest.

At St. Mary’s, dressed in his white Dominican habit, he knocked on a patient’s door and offered her Holy Communion.

She said, “No, thank you. I’m Catholic.”

“I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry,” Father Salisbury later told a fellow priest.

But people did get to know their chaplain as he continued comforting the suffering, hearing confessions, distributing Holy Communion, anointing the sick, consoling the bereaved, offering Mass and serving as a living reminder of God’s love and friendship.

LIFE IN THE CAPITAL CITY While assigned to St. Mary’s, Father Salisbury lived in the Immaculate Conception rectory and thrived on the camaraderie with his fellow priests. He enjoyed ministering to the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus who were serving at what was then known as St. Joseph Home for the Aged in Jefferson City.

“He’s very witty and insightful, and very talented,” Immaculate Conception associate pastor Father Ignazio Medina noted.

As much as parishioners enjoyed having him around, Father Salisbury’s spiritual gifts found their purest expression at the hospital.

“The people there loved him because of his gentleness,” said Msgr. Michael T. Flanagan forner Immaculate Conception pastor. “He was very kind with his patients and had this great laugh that he’d bring with him.”

Msgr. Gerold J. Kaiser was vicar general while Father Salisbury was in the diocese.

“He was a good supporter of mine,” Father Salisbury recalled. “He said I could have probably been a bishop because people liked me.”

The Dominican priest still uses the chalice Msgr. Kaiser gave him.

TWO MORE DECADES In 1984, Father Salisbury started the next phase of his hospital ministry, at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

After a few years, his provincial summoned him to work in the office at the Shrine of St. Jude Thaddeus in San Francisco.

From there, he went to Holy Cross Hospital in Fresno, California, to be a chaplain.

He later served in San Francisco, then in Los Angeles.

In 1992, he became a Catholic chaplain at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Southern Oregon Rehabilitation Center and Clinics in White City.

Retiring in 2005, he resided in Dominican communities in San Francisco and Portland, Oregon. ■

25

SOLIDARIT Y

Photo by Dennis Callahan

Archbishop Cordileone gathers with his brother priests at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma praying for the repose of the souls of deceased priests of the Archdiocese.

“You are a priest forever.”

Honoring those who laid down their lives for others

BY MARY POWERS Assistant director of communications and media relations. Office of Communications, Archdiocese of San Francisco

26

P

riests play a pivotal role in the life of the Church. Upon them the sacred power for service of the faithful is conferred in the Sacrament of Holy Orders—exercising that service by teaching, divine worship, and pastoral governance.1 Priests journey with us through triumphs and sorrows, caring for Christ’s flock and leading them to their eternal home.

In the month of November, as we remember those who have gone before us, we also hold deceased priests in our prayers—those who have impacted our lives over the years and those we may not have known in this life. In

November, the Archdiocese of San Francisco particularly honors the many deceased priests who have served the faithful, most of whom are buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma.

“This is one of my favorite Masses that we have throughout the year,” said Monica Williams, director of cemeteries for the Archdiocese of San Francisco. “It is a very intimate day with just the priests gathering to remember their brothers.”

Nine years ago, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone established the Memorial Mass for Deceased Priests of the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Held at All Saints Mausoleum OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023 | CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

It is so touching to see them walk through the Priest Plot sharing stories and memories of their brother priests.

This day really defines what a cemetery is - a place to gather to pray and remember and console one another.”

MONICA WILLIAMS, director of cemeteries for the Archdiocese of San Francisco Chapel at Holy Cross, the Archbishop celebrates Mass with priests serving in the Archdiocese, where the names of the priests who have died during the year are remembered by name. Then, the Archbishop and priests process to the Priest Plot at Holy Cross for final prayers and singing the Salve Regina.

“It is so touching to see them walk through the Priest Plot sharing stories and memories of their brother priests,” says Williams. “This day really defines what a cemetery is - a place to gather to pray and remember and console one another.”

Buried in All Saints Chapel are each of the former archbishops of San Francisco, including Archbishop Joseph Alemany, the first Archbishop of San Francisco. The Priest Plot at Holy Cross is a circle in the middle of the central road. Buried there are priests who served the Archdiocese from the very beginning, including several who were transferred from Calvary Cemetery in San Francisco when Holy Cross was founded in 1887. Each priest is buried facing a memorial etching of the Last Supper that reads, “You are a priest forever.”

Williams recounts that visitors to Holy Cross will walk through the Priest Plot and Chapel and recount stories of priests and bishops they knew as their pastors and friends. Some they served as altar servers, others baptized them, others were bishops who confirmed them.

Walking through Holy Cross and praying for the souls of those who laid down their lives to serve the Church is an important tradition, connecting to the roots of our personal faith and the history of faith in the Archdiocese of San Francisco. ■ 1

Catholic Church. (2000). Catechism of the Catholic

Church (2nd ed.). Libreria Editrice Vaticana. #1592

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023

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EUCHARISTIC REVIVAL

St. Francis: Lover of the Eucharist

T

he Eucharist, for St. Francis of Assisi, was the foundation on which his faith life was built. Consider the following quotes from this humble saint.

In his “Letter to All Clerics,” St. Francis wrote that, “in this world there is nothing of the Most High Himself that we can possess and contemplate with our eyes, except His body and blood.”

For the poor man of Assisi, the Eucharist was both his compass and his journey’s end.

“All those who refuse to do penance and receive the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ are blind, because they cannot see the true light, our Lord Jesus Christ.” – Letter to All the Faithful.

Humility is the heart of Franciscan spirituality.

St. Francis showed, by word and by action, that only a humble and penitent spirit could be truly readied for a gift as important as the body and blood of Christ. St. Francis’ message here may seem severe, especially from a saint so fundamentally tied to simplicity and peace, but the directness of his message only illustrates his primal need for union with the divine.

“In his love, God gives Himself into our hands; we touch Him and receive Him daily into our mouths.” – Letter to All Clerics.

St. Francis takes a noticeably softer tone in this letter to clerics, but the heartbeat of his message is no less serious: When we receive the Eucharist – either by hand or by mouth – we are taking in essential food for the journey.

The Eucharist, to St. Francis, offered the promise of everlasting life and guided him into a realm of greater compassion for his fellow man.

“We should visit churches often and show great reverence for the clergy, not just for them personally, for they may be sinners, but because of their high office, for it is they who administer the most holy body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.” – Letter to All the Faithful.

It might be difficult for 21st-century Catholics to mirror so pure a temperament toward the clergy as St. Francis did in his day. But look closer.

He is acknowledging the importance of their station while recognizing clergy as sinners – just as we are. St. Francis saw all of life as threads in God’s vast tapestry, truly one unified body

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023

of Christ. And we cannot receive the Eucharist without dedicated clergy who serve as conduits for such a moment of grace.

“In all your sermons you shall tell the people of the need to do penance, impressing on them that no one can be saved unless he receives the body and blood of our Lord.” – Letter to Superiors of the Order.

It might surprise some to know that St. Francis was never ordained a priest. Historians opine that he didn’t think himself worthy and thus never progressed beyond the diaconate – which certainly falls in line with his humble character. But he nonetheless had stern words for priests in his order to guide their flock to Eucharist. It is within that sacrament, St. Francis understood, that we can find oneness with the Creator.

“O sublime humility! O humble sublimity! That the Lord of the whole universe, God and the Son of God, should humble Himself like this and hide under the form of a little bread, for our salvation.” – Letter to the General Chapter.

The life of St. Francis was plagued by trial, illness and great physical pain. One adjective seldom associated with the saint is joyful – but joy was a hallmark of his life and his life’s work. (Read his “Canticle of the Sun” for further proof.) What makes his message here so extraordinary is, first, a mastery of poetic language. He is, after all, considered one of the first Italian poets by scholars. But it is the joy and vigor behind his words that leave a mark.

When we partake in the Eucharist, it is a solemn moment but also one of celebration and joy.

HEARTS AFIRE Thomas of Celano, an early friar and author of three hagiographies of St. Francis, wrote that the saint “burned with a love that came from his whole being for the sacrament of the Lord’s body.” And St. Francis sought to spread that fire to his brothers, to the lepers he embraced outside the walled city of Assisi, indeed to all those who longed for a closer relationship with God. It was the summit of his faith – and he wanted everybody at the table.

Francis of Assisi’s adoration of the Eucharist lit a fire in the hearts of those who have followed in his footsteps as daughters and sons of God. After 800 years, it burns there still. ■ Excerpted with permission from the Franciscan Spirit Blog by Christopher Heffron, Nov. 5, 2019.

SCAN HERE TO READ MORE SPIRITUAL REFLECTIONS BY FRANCISCANMEDIA.ORG or visit https://tinyurl.com/stfranciseucharist.

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STUDE NT CORN E R

With paper and charcoal, local students learn empathy for Holocaust survivors

BY LESLIE KATZ Former culture editor at CNET and a former J. staff writer

S

tick of charcoal in hand, an eighth grader at San Francisco Catholic school École Notre Dame des Victoires sketches the thick mustache of the man in a photo sitting on her desk. Next to her, a classmate draws the arch of the eyebrow, then softens its contours by smudging it with her pinkie.

The students, 36 in all, are drawing portraits of 90-year-old Holocaust survivor Paul Schwarzbart of San Rafael. Earlier in the day, they watched a recording of Schwarzbart sharing his story of survival, his voice halting with emotion as he recalled the last time he saw his beloved father, Fritz, who was murdered at Buchenwald.

Now, the kids are sketching Schwarzbart’s image as a means to connect more intimately to him and all he went through, including escaping Nazi-occupied Austria for Belgium with his family and spending two years hidden in plain sight in a Belgian Catholic boarding school. There, he constantly feared a slip of the tongue would reveal his Jewish identity, leading to arrest and deportation.

The drawings are part of the Survivor Studio Project, which offers middle and high school students a creative, experiential way to learn about the Holocaust. The Farkas Center, a Bay Area nonprofit that brings Holocaust education into Catholic schools, initiated the program in 2020 to keep students engaged when schools were closed during the early months of COVID-19. As the pandemic wanes, the project continues to serve as an agile tool for disseminating the testimony of increasingly frail survivors. The Farkas Center believes it holds lessons about empathy and respecting cultural differences.

“This experience in no way identifies your art abilities,” Sandy Cohen-Wynn, the artist who leads the drawing exercise, tells the students at École Notre Dame des Victoires. “You’re creating the drawing to honor Paul’s life and remember his story.”

Still, powerful and sophisticated creations emerge from the sessions, which so far have taken place in

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023

Students are instructed to write down resonant words or phrases as they listen to survivor Paul Schwarzbart’s testimony. Later, they include these in their drawings.

about 15 schools and reached more than 700 students and educators. Drawings of Schwarzbart, dapper in his herringbone jacket, are all rendered in a somber black, white and gray palette, but each has its own distinct feel.

One evokes a cubist painting by Pablo Picasso. A few have a surrealist quality. In some, the corners of Schwarzbart’s eyes turn up in a smile. In others, his eyes are partly closed, as if he’s lost in memory.

“It’s astonishing that they’ve been able to capture his essence,” says Farkas Center director Adrian Schrek, who knows Schwarzbart well. “They say it helps them dwell with him a little bit longer.”

Cohen-Wynn gives each student a black-and-white photograph of Schwarzbart, then instructs them to turn it upside down. This art technique encourages them to see exactly what’s in front of them — the shadows and light, lines and shapes — before their ›

31

Your hands get dirty … The paper will have your handprints on it.

You really become part of the drawing itself.”

brains fill in with notions of what a particular feature, like a mouth, should look like.

“Everything you need to know is in this photograph, but you have to observe,” Cohen-Wynn tells the students. “Your fingers are your most important tool.”

Before Schwarzbart begins his testimony, delivered in French for bilingual École Notre Dame des Victoires students, teacher Carrie Schroeder tells them to listen for resonant words or phrases to incorporate into their artwork. Words like sorrow, hardships, liberty and miracle appear on the pages.

“Partir,” to leave. “Rendre,” to give back.

“I feel like the words I chose told his story,” says 14-year-old Mario Beard, who like many of his peers had some prior knowledge of the Holocaust through school, feature films and documentaries. Drawing him “almost felt like getting to know him better.”

That doesn’t surprise Cohen-Wynn, formerly the Judaic arts director at San Francisco’s Congregation Emanu-El. “Paul’s story is so accessible to the kids, because Paul is very accessible as a person,” she says about Schwarzbart, a former high school French teacher. “The kids want to get it right.”

For his part, Schwarzbart says he enjoys working with young people.

“They are the future,” he says. “With all the antisemitism in the world, our only chance is for kids to learn about what happened and get a good grasp on it, as good as possible.”

Longtime Holocaust educator Jim McGarry

32

founded the Farkas Center in 2007 in honor of Bay Area Holocaust survivors Joe and Helen Farkas.

Helen Farkas frequently shared her life story in schools before she died in 2018. Though the Farkas Center primarily focuses on Catholic schools, Schrek says the Survivor Studio Project is available to any school that wants it. “We say no to no one,” she says.

“It is a privilege to be associated with the Farkas Center and to bring high-quality Holocaust education programming into Catholic schools,” said Carrie Schroeder, director of faith formation at École Notre Dame des Victoires, whose students participated in the project.

As a Farkas Center board member and a longtime Holocaust educator, Schroeder recognizes the transformative effects that Holocaust education can have on a young person.

“Many times, Holocaust education focuses on the sheer scope and magnitude of the Holocaust, such as the 11 million victims murdered by the Nazis, 6 million of whom were Jews,” she said. “We can’t possibly wrap our heads around such numbers, but what we can do is learn one person’s story, and that is what the Survivor Studio Project does. Students ‘meet’ Paul Schwartzbart virtually and then connect with him in a way that is simultaneously both tangible and spiritual. In physically drawing him, they somehow internalize the reality of his suffering and the lessons of his story.”

Schroeder said that in a time of deep polarization in both our Church and our country, lessons of compassion, respect for difference, joy in the simple gifts of everyday life, courage and faith are particularly needed.

After a session of the Survivor Studio Project, students fill out an online evaluation. According to surveys from 2022 and 2023, 95% of respondents said the program gave them a deeper grasp of the Holocaust. ■ AUG. 4, 2023, article excerpted with permission from Leslie Katz, former staff writer at The Jewish News of Northern California.

SCAN TO READ A REFLECTION

BY HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR PAUL SCHWARZBART or visit https://tinyurl.com/89oldsurvivor OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023 | CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

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CH RISTIAN M EAN I NG OF SUFFE RI NG

The suffering of loneliness

BY SIMONE RIZKALLAH Director of program growth at Endow Groups

This is the sixth in a series of seven meditations examining the Christian meaning of suffering according to the thought of Pope St. John Paul II in his 1984 apostolic letter “Salvifici Doloris.”

J

ohn Paul II writes that “sacred Scripture is a great book about suffering” (“Salvifici Doloris,” Par. 6).

He goes on to list examples of the ways in which we suffer from the Old Testament: • Danger of death.

• The death of one’s own children.

• Infertility.

• Exile.

• Persecution and discrimination.

• Loneliness and abandonment.

Among other various circumstances, the Holy Father mentions the suffering experienced in grappling with the mystery of seeing bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. Our Lord taught: for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust (Mt 5:45).

Among all these signs of suffering, right now, the United States and the West in general are suffering from an epidemic of loneliness. St. Teresa of Calcutta, in the 1970s, said this: “I have been to many countries and seen much poverty and suffering. Everywhere I go people tell me of their hardships and struggles, and ask for help, and I give what I can. But of all the countries I have been to, the poorest one I have been to is America. Because America suffers most from the poverty of loneliness.”

The suffering of loneliness in the United States has only gotten worse. Earlier this year, the Surgeon General’s report noted that this massive social disconnect causes health risks comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. The Church has always taught the human person is a body and soul composite. Nothing like having scientific data such as this to support a solid Christian anthropology. What happens (or in this case, doesn’t happen) in our souls literally affects the body, increasing the risk of premature death by 26%

34

as well as the likelihood of heart disease, stroke, anxiety, depression and dementia.

Jesus understood and experienced human feelings of loneliness and abandonment since He was fully man as well as fully God (Catechism of the Catholic Church, Par. 466).

At the height of his Passion, he cried out from the cross: “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” (Mt 27:46).

John Paul II explains it like this in paragraph 18 of his letter: “Together with this horrible weight, encompassing the ‘entire’ evil of the turning away from God which is contained in sin, Christ, through the divine depth of His filial union with the Father, perceives in a humanly inexpressible way this suffering which is the separation, the rejection by the Father, the estrangement from God. But precisely through this suffering, He accomplishes the redemption, and can say as He breathes His last: ‘It is finished’ (50).”

It is a consolation that the God of the universe can truly claim to relate to the worst of our loneliness. And it is precisely by entering into the experience of “estrangement” that our Lord made it possible for us to enter into eternal life, which is exactly the opposite of existential orphanhood.

The less our world knows Jesus, the lonelier it will become.

Who can we introduce to our Lord in this next season? Who can we invite to Mass with us? It has never been lonelier and, therefore, it has never been easier in a certain sense to evangelize the true remedy to our loneliness. ■ Simone Rizkallah is the director of program growth at Endow Groups, a Catholic women’s apostolate that calls women together to study important documents of the Catholic Church.

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LOCAL NEWS

Photo by Dennis Callahan

Cruzada Guadalupana pilgrims make their way to the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption from South San Francisco.

Cruzada Guadalupana to celebrate 30 years

BY MARY POWERS Assistant director of communications and media relations. Office of Communications, Archdiocese of San Francisco

T

hirty years ago, Pedro and Martha Garcia gathered with friends to plan a pilgrimage from South San Francisco to the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption for the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

“We wanted to let her know…that we love her and to really express [this love to her] by doing this pilgrimage,” said Pedro Garcia.

The first year, 80 people gathered at All Souls Catholic Church in South San Francisco to begin the journey, and as they walked to the cathedral, many others met them along the way. The pilgrimage has grown exponentially over the years, reaching more than 39,000 faithful in recent years.

When the Garcias approached then-Archbishop John R. Quinn, he was quick to give his consent telling them that he too was a Guadalupano. He was devoted to Our Lady of Guadalupe and even asked Rome to set the date of his episcopal consecration on Dec. 12 in honor of her.

Beginning at All Souls Catholic Church early in the

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morning, the pilgrimage travels to Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma for a quick stop and then continues to the cathedral. The pilgrimage is followed by devotions to Our Lady and Mass with the Archbishop. The many pilgrims who travel through the city carry intentions with them for friends and family who need prayers or in gratitude for prayers answered.

Last year, Archbishop Cordileone, in his Cruzada Guadalupana homily, delivered to more than 3,000 people at the cathedral, told those present: “Of course, she always comes to walk with us. The reason we ask her to do so is not to get her to pay attention to us so that she will come and walk with us, but rather to open our hearts in welcome, so that we might be ready to receive her when she comes and we might walk by her side that we might be ready to welcome her Son with open arms and open hearts, He who comes to meet us, to save us and to take us to the house of His Father.”

This year, the Cruzada Guadalupana will take place on December 9, and will follow the same pilgrimage path— from All Souls to the cathedral, stopping briefly at Holy Cross Cemetery. Archbishop Cordileone will celebrate Mass at 2 p.m. at the cathedral, followed by a reception to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the pilgrimage. ■ OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023 | CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

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ACROSS 11 Superior of convent 3 Assist at Mass 13 St. ___ de Marillac 6 John XXIII’s surname 15 Commander of the army who 8 “O, ___ of wonder…” was made king over Israel in 1 KIngs CATHOLIC SAN 2023 9 Female members ofFRANCISCO religious | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER orders (abbr.)

17 Pharaoh refused to give this

to the Hebrews 20 Peter (with “The”) 21 What you do not use in unleavened bread 23 Chi follower 24 Dismas, the Good ___ 26 “…thy kingdom ___” 27 State in which the Diocese of Dallas is found 30 “Likewise, you shall not pick your vineyard ____...these things you dhall leave for the poor and the alien” (Lev 19:10) 32 Blend of oil and balsam 34 Jesus, on the third day 37 He gave Hannah words of comfort 38 Father of Cain 39 Arrival of the Magi 40 Character in one of Jesus’ parables DOWN 1 It was empty Easter morning 2 “___ homo” 3 Martha, to Mary 4 He gave up his birthright to his brother 5 “Light from light, ___ God from…”

7 Commits a capital sin 10 “…___ to anger, abounding in mercy” (Ps 103:8) 11 ___ in the Garden 12 OT book 14 First word in the name of a Parisian basilica 16 “…an assembly of nations, will stem from you, and kings will ___ from your loins.” (Gen 35:11) 18 Number of Persons in God 19 Diocese of Honolulu greeting 20 She saved Joshua’s spies 22 He walked with God 25 Judas’ blood money bought it 27 “…and a ___ for every affair under the heavens” (Eccl 3:1) 28 Patron of Australia, St. Francis ___ 29 Wife of Abram 31 Jesus entered Jerusalem this type of animal 32 Adam was made from this 33 Doctrines 35 OT historical book 36 Volcano in the Italian 37 of Ecclesiastical Province Catania

CATHOLIC QUIZ ANSWERS

UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP MANAGEMENT, AND CIRCULATION

QUIZ: How well do you know the Catholic faith?

For comprehensive answers visit https://sfarchdiocese. org/november-2023-catholic-quiz/ Which of the following is a defined Catholic dogma? b. Yes, purgatory is an official dogma of the Church. Even though it is not much talked about today, Catholics still must believe in it. It is not an optional belief.

Purgatory is: c. Correct, because purgatory is a state in which the last vestiges of self-love are removed, so we might enter heaven according to Revelation 21:27, which says that “nothing unclean shall enter it.”

The human soul: b. This is the right answer. When we say the human soul is a simple substance, we don’t mean that understanding it is simple, nor do we mean that the human soul is a material substance. We are using a philosophic term that means that the human soul is not made of parts. This is true of every spirit, and this simplicity is why spirits can’t die. Our bodies, in contrast, are made of parts, countless numbers of them, right down to the subatomic level. When we die, our bodies fall apart; they cease to be unities. This can’t happen to spirits.

Souls in purgatory: e. This is the correct answer because each of the others is wrong.

Which saint is properly paired with the group of which he is the patron? e. Correct, because all the other possible answers are wrong.

Jesuit Institute for Family Life

Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation (Requester Publications Only) 1. Publication Title

2. Publication Number

Catholic San Francisco

1 7 9 3

4. Issue Frequency

5. Number of Issues Published Annually

Monthly except March, May, July, August, November

7

_

3. Filing Date

4

09/08/2023 6. Annual Subscription Price (if any)

24 in CA, $36 outside CA

$

Contact Person

7. Complete Mailing Address of Known Office of Publication (Not printer) (Street, city, county, state, and ZIP+4 ®)

1500 Mission Road, P.O. 157 Chandra C. Kirtman Telephone (Include area code) Colma, CA 94104 (415) 614-5639

8. Complete Mailing Address of Headquarters or General Business Office of Publisher (Not printer)

One Peter Yorke Way San Francisco, CA 94106 9. Full Names and Complete Mailing Addresses of Publisher, Editor, and Managing Editor (Do not leave blank) Publisher (Name and complete mailing address)

Most Rev. Salvatore J. Cordileone One Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco, CA 94106 Editor (Name and complete mailing address)

Peter Marlow One Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco, CA 94106 Managing Editor (Name and complete mailing address)

Peter Marlow One Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco, CA 94106 10. Owner (Do not leave blank. If the publication is owned by a corporation, give the name and address of the corporation immediately followed by the names and addresses of all stockholders owning or holding 1 percent or more of the total amount of stock. If not owned by a corporation, give the names and addresses of the individual owners. If owned by a partnership or other unincorporated firm, give its name and address as well as those of each individual owner. If the publication is published by a nonprofit organization, give its name and address.)

Complete Mailing Address Full Name

The Roman Catholic Archbishop or San Francisco, CA

One Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco, CA 94106

A Corporation Sole

11. Known Bondholders, Mortgagees, and Other Security Holders Owning or Holding 1 Percent or More of Total Amount of Bonds, Mortgages, or Other Securities. If none, check box.

None Full Name

Complete Mailing Address

Marriage Counseling Family Counseling Individual Counseling Is your marriage what you want it to be? Are you struggling to express your need for your spouse? Are your children suffering from lack of communication with your partner? Has your spouse left you emotionally? Have you tried to solve problems like these and found you could not do it alone? This need has given rise to the Jesuit Institute for Family Life; a staff of competently prepared and professionally skilled marriage counselors who are Catholic in religious orientation perceiving marriage as a sacrament and whose training and interest is in dealing with the above questions and areas of growth in family living.

The Jesuit Institute for Family Life provides marriage counseling, individual and couples, family counseling, and group counseling for married couples as a means to meet the need within families to value the presence of individual family members and to improve the quality of intra-family relationships. To want to value one’s spouse and family members is often quite different from actually performing in a way that effectually expresses such value. We find that new skills are often needed and old obstacles to growth must be understood and worked through before effective human relating can be realized. When we do this we relate to Christ as He said, “In you give to these brothers and sisters of mine you give to Me.” (Matthew 25:40) STAFF: Robert Fabing, S.J., D. Mn., M.F.T., Director Michael Neri, Ph.D., M.F.T. Ann Rooney, S.M., M.A., M.F.T. Marilyn Neri, M.A., M.F.T. FOR AN APPOINTMENT Phone 650/948-4854 Jesuit Institute for Family Life Jesuit Retreat Center 300 Manresa Way, Los Altos, California 94022 www.jiflinet.com

12. Tax Status (For completion by nonprofit organizations authorized to mail at nonprofit rates) (Check one) The purpose, function, and nonprofit status of this organization and the exempt status for federal income tax purposes: Has Not Changed During Preceding 12 Months Has Changed During Preceding 12 Months (Publisher must submit explanation of change with this statement.)

PS 3526-RTitle , July 2014 [Page 1 of 4 (See instructions page 4)] PSN: 7530-09-000-8855 13.Form Publication

PRIVACY NOTICE: ourforprivacy policyData on www.usps.com.

14. IssueSee Date Circulation Below

Catholic San Francisco

September 2023

15. Extent and Nature of Circulation

Average No. Copies No. Copies of Single Each Issue During Issue Published Preceding 12 Months Nearest to Filing Date

Religius, Non Profit a. Total Number of Copies (Net press run) Outside County Paid/Requested Mail Subscriptions stated on PS Form 3541.

(Include direct written request from recipient, telemarketing, and Internet (1) requests from recipient, paid subscriptions including nominal rate subscriptions, employer requests, advertiser’s proof copies, and exchange copies.) b. Legitimate Paid and/or In-County Paid/Requested Mail Subscriptions stated on PS Form 3541.

Requested (Include direct written request from recipient, telemarketing, and Internet Distribution (2) requests from recipient, paid subscriptions including nominal rate subscriptions, (By mail employer requests, advertiser’s proof copies, and exchange copies.) and outside Sales Through Dealers and Carriers, Street Vendors, Counter the mail) (3) Sales, and Other Paid or Requested Distribution Outside USPS® (4)

Requested Copies Distributed by Other Mail Classes Through the USPS (e.g., First-Class Mail®)

c. Total Paid and/or Requested Circulation (Sum of 15b (1), (2), (3), and (4))

(1)

d. Nonrequested (2) Distribution (By mail and outside the mail) (3)

(4)

49,335

48,580

23,535

23,256

25,800

25,324

50

50

49,385

48,630

450

450

Outside County Nonrequested Copies Stated on PS Form 3541 (include sample copies, requests over 3 years old, requests induced by a premium, bulk sales and requests including association requests, names obtained from business directories, lists, and other sources) In-County Nonrequested Copies Stated on PS Form 3541 (include sample copies, requests over 3 years old, requests induced by a premium, bulk sales and requests including association requests, names obtained from business directories, lists, and other sources) Nonrequested Copies Distributed Through the USPS by Other Classes of Mail (e.g., First-Class Mail, nonrequestor copies mailed in excess of 10% limit mailed at Standard Mail ® or Package Services rates) Nonrequested Copies Distributed Outside the Mail (Include pickup stands, trade shows, showrooms, and other sources)

e.

Total Nonrequested Distribution [Sum of 15d (1), (2), (3) and (4)]

f.

Total Distribution (Sum of 15c and e)

g.

Copies not Distributed (See Instructions to Publishers #4, (page #3))

h.

Total (Sum of 15f and g)

i.

Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation (15c divided by 15f times 100)

450

450

49,835

49,080

50

50

49,885

49,130

Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation 99 Publications99Only) (Requester

* If you are claiming electronic copies, go to line 16 on page 3. If you are not claiming electronic copies, skip to line 17 on page 3.

16. Electronic Copy Circulation Average No. Copies Each Issue During Previous 12 Months

N/A

No. Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date

a. Requested and Paid Electronic Copies b. Total Requested and Paid Print Copies (Line 15c) + Requested/Paid Electronic Copies (Line 16a) c. Total Requested Copy Distribution (Line 15f) + Requested/Paid Electronic Copies (Line 16a) d. Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation (Both Print & Electronic Copies) (16b divided by 16c Í 100) I certify that 50% of all my distributed copies (electronic and print) are legitimate requests or paid copies.

PS Form 3526-R, July 2014 (Page 2 of 4) 17. Publication of Statement of Ownership for a Requester Publication is required and will be printed in the issue of this publication.

18. Signature and Title of Editor, Publisher, Business Manager, or Owner

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Chandra C. Kirtman, Business Manager

October 2023 Date

09/08/2023

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER FRANCISCO I certify that all information furnished2023 on this form is|trueCATHOLIC and complete. I understandSAN that anyone who furnishes false or misleading information on this form or who omits material or information requested on the form may be subject to criminal sanctions (including fines and imprisonment) and/or civil sanctions (including civil penalties).

EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS |

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REAL ESTATE APPRAISER

Appraisals for estate planning, gifting, tax appeals, private lending, arbitration.

Serving Bay Area Markets for over 36 years.

MICHAEL TOGNOTTI, Principal Appraiser 650-572-8258

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CROSSWORD ANSWERS T E S E R V E T R O N C A L L I S T A R M C U S R S A U T L O U I S E A B B E S S A T E O A G O M R I S T R A W R O C K N S H L A R Y E A S T R H O T H I E F N U E H A I C O M E T E X A S B A R E C I A A S L V R A I S E D C H R I S M L S E L I A C T A D A M E P I P H A N Y S O W E R R A Y www.wordgamesforcatholics.com

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SAN MATEO, MARIN & SAN FRANCISCO COUNTIES

HELPLINES FOR CLERGY/CHURCH SEXUAL ABUSE VICTIMS (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

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023

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U PCOMING EVE NTS

Come out and

JOIN US! SCAN TO SEE THE COMPREHENSIVE CALENDAR OF EVENTS or visit sfarch.org/events

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Oct. 26: Red Mass Sponsored by the Thomas More Society The annual Red Mass sponsored by the St. Thomas More Society will take place on Oct. 26 at Sts. Peter and Paul Church at 5:30 p.m. The homilist for the Mass is Bishop Kurt Burnette. A dinner will follow Mass at the Italian Athletic Club. Tickets to the dinner are available online.

Oct. 28: United for Life 50th Anniversary Banquet Join United for Life of Northern California for their 50th anniversary banquet. Mass will be held at Star of the Sea in San Francisco at 4:30 p.m., followed by dinner in the Star of the Sea gym. Keynote speaker and honoree is Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone. Master of ceremonies is Tony Hall. Tickets are $50 for adults; children under 12 free.

Nov. 1: All Saints Day (holy day of obligation) Nov. 4: Office of Faith Formation Conference Join the Office of Faith Formation for their annual conference at St. Matthew Catholic Church. Join catechists, parish catechetical leaders, volunteers and other Catholics celebrating Eucharistic Revival.

The conference theme is “Talitha Koum” – Mark 5:41 (“Little Girl Arise”).

Nov. 17: Memorial Mass and Healing Service for Infant Loss and Miscarriage Join the Office of Human Life and Dignity for the annual Mass and healing service for those who have experienced the loss of an infant whether by miscarriage, stillbirth or early infant death. Mass

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will be offered at St. Dominic Catholic Church in San Francisco at 10 a.m. and will be celebrated by Father Vito Perrone of the Contemplatives of St. Joseph.

Dec. 1: Catholic Institute of Sacred Music Advent and Christmas Concert St. Patrick’s Seminary Schola Cantorum, directed by Dr. Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka, will hold an Advent and Christmas concert at St. Patrick’s Seminary & University on Friday, Dec. 1, at 7 p.m. A reception will follow. $50 admission.

Dec. 8: Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception (holy day of obligation) Dec. 9: 30th Anniversary of Guadalupana The Cruzada Guadalupana will celebrate their 30th anniversary on Dec. 9. The procession will begin at 5 a.m. in South San Francisco and end at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption with a 2 p.m. Mass with Archbishop Cordileone and a reception in the event center.

Dec. 15-17: Women’s Retreat for Healing after Abortion If you have been carrying a burden from an abortion, you are invited to the next healing retreat for women.

Father Vito Perrone of the Contemplatives of St. Joseph and Divine Word Father James Liebner will lead this three-day retreat, which will include Mass, the sacrament of reconciliation, counseling and sharing as much as each woman is comfortable doing in this warm and healing environment. It will be held at a confidential location.

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023 | CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

Serving Everyone ONE PERSON, ONE FAMILY, ONE COMMUNIT Y AT A TIME

S O LV I NG H OM KEEP ING E FA M LE S ILI SN ES ES HO S A US ND ED

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individuals with HIV/AIDS

individuals safely housed

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with disabilities received help to live independently

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CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023

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Data from July 1, 2021 to June 20, 2022

| see map on back

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SF Eucharistic Revival

JESUS CHRIST IS THE EUCHARIST The Medicine of Immortality I Am the Way and the Truth and the Life (Jn 14:6)

We are engaged in an epic spiritual battle over truth, human dignity, and our purpose in life.

In the fullness of time, the Holy Spirit has given us 21st century Eucharistic miracles and the Shroud of Turin that unveil the unchangeable truths and reality of our Catholic faith.

Come & See (Jn 1:46)

Come join us in a year-long journey as the Magis Center’s Dr. Scott French and Fr. Robert Spitzer dramatically unveil the truth that “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.” (Jn 6:54)

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Scan here to bring SF Eucharistic Revival to your school or parish or contact Nicolle Dougherty at (415) 717-7789 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023 | CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO or nicolle@sfeucharistrevival.com • sfarch.org/miracles