December 5, 2019

THEATER:

AUTHOR:

ADVENT:

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Corpus Christi parish priest starts youth drama groups

Contemplating Bible stories brings God nearer, writer says

Don’t rush Christmas; make the most of waiting

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO Newspaper of the Archdiocese of San Francisco

SERVING SAN FRANCISCO, MARIN & SAN MATEO COUNTIES

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DECEMBER 5, 2019

$1.00 | VOL. 21 NO. 23

Advent project grows into nonprofit for children of India’s Santal tribe CHRISTINA GRAY CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

Few parishioners of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church knew much if anything about the plight of India’s Santal tribe before Jesuit Father Maria Joseph Savariappan came to visit the Mill Valley parish.

The Indian-born priest completing a doctoral degree in Catholic educational leadership at the time at the University of San Francisco stepped in for a few weeks for the vacationing pastor, Father Pat Michaels, in 2017.

One night at a meeting of a new faith-sharing and service group he told members about the Santals’ long history of prejudice and generational poverty. Now a parish couple has started a nonprofit and raised $150,000 this summer to help tribal children in one small village rise above that fate by expanding the capacity of the school which currently ends at the fourth grade.

“People talk about the ‘untouchables’ and the Santals are part of that bracket or even below it,” parishioner Paul Venables told Catholic San Francisco Nov. 22, a week after returning from a trip to St. Xavier School in Gurap, India, with his wife, Annette, with whom he co-founded Tribe Rising India.

Venables, conceived of and branded

Powerful nations protect all life, pope says in Japan CINDY WOODEN CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

swam across Donner Lake in August to raise money for the school, came with the Venables to India last month.

The Catholic boarding school outside Kolkata is one of seven missions run by the Jesuits of West Bengal

TOKYO – Beauty, creation and each human life are gifts of God to be treasured and shared, not enslaved to current societal ideas of what is valuable, perfect or productive, Pope Francis said at a Mass in the famous Tokyo Dome.

“We are invited as a Christian community to protect all life and testify with wisdom and courage to a way of living marked by gratitude and compassion, generosity and simple listening,” the pope told an estimated 50,000 people gathered in the stadium for Mass Nov. 25.

At the Mass, with young people earlier in the day and later during a meeting with government officials and cultural leaders, Pope Francis shared his concern about the high rates of suicide in Japan and about the enormous pressure the culture places on young people to succeed.

In his homily, the pope said the freedom people should enjoy as children

SEE INDIA, PAGE 25

SEE JAPAN, PAGE 24

(PHOTO COURTESY PAUL VENABLES)

Our Lady of Mount Carmel (Mill Valley) parishioners, from left, Amy Thomas, Annette Venables and Paul Venables attended a cornerstone blessing in November for what will become a new girls dormitory at St. Xavier School in Gurap, India. Jesuit Father Maria Joseph Savariappan, far right, visited the parish in 2017 and now oversees the school’s development. a Catholic apostolate offering equal parts prayer and action called Random Acts of Catholics in 2016. It was a monthly meeting of the group that Father Savariappan attended when the group heard about the Santals and decided to take on their cause.

Amy Thomas, a parishioner who

Dominican: Lay involvement, devotions key to restoring church ‘confidence’ NICHOLAS WOLFRAM SMITH CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

The church today can be compared to two forms of minority, says the newly elected master of the worldwide Dominican Order – one that feels like a “tired, aged” minority in formerly majority-Catholic countries, and the other a “confident and hopeful” minority. “(Their) confidence comes from a conviction that what they are doing is meaningful for them and for the people and for society,” Dominican Father Ge-

seen in countries where Catholics are Timoner, 51, as the next master of the rard F. Timoner III said in an interview the minority requires Catholics in Euorder during their general chapter with Catholic San rope and the U.S. to rethink how they in Bien Hoa, Vietnam. A native of Francisco at St. Alview their situation, Father Timoner the Philippines, Father Timoner is bert’s Priory in Oaksaid. While there are fewer people atthe 88th superior of the 800-year-old land. Father Timoner tending church today, the children of Dominican Order and the first Asian was in the Bay Area lapsed Catholics represent a new area to lead it. He had previously served to visit the Western for missionary work, he said. as the second in command for the Dominican Province’s “It’s true there are a lesser number of order’s Asia-Pacific region and as the local ministries. people who are active in the church, but provincial for the Philippines. Father This past July, even if they came from Catholic famiTimoner was appointed by Pope Franprovincial superiors Father Gerard F. lies, they did not grow up as Catholics,” cis to the International Theological of the Dominican Timoner III, OP A personal way to honor your loved one’s patriotism to our country.

Commission in 2014. order, representing If you have received a flag honoring your loved military service would like to donate SEE it DOMINICAN, PAGE 10 Recapturing theone's confidence nowand often more than 5700 friars, elected Father

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A Tradition of Faith Throughout Our Lives.

INDEX On the Street . . . . . . . . 4 National . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Faith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . 26

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CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 5, 2019

Salesian priest starts theater groups at Corpus Christi

NEED TO KNOW CHRISTMAS CARD DRIVE: Help incarcerated men and women reach to loved ones at Christmas by donating new, blank Christmas cards to the archdiocese’s restorative justice ministry. The annual drive supplies cards to inmates of San Francisco and Marin County jails, as well as juveniles in facilities in San Francisco and San Mateo.

The cards can be commercial products or homemade, in English or Spanish, religious or secular. Mail or deliver by Dec. 12 to Christmas Card Drive, c/o Restorative Justice Ministry, One Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco 94109. (415) 614-5572, or escobarj@sfarch.org.

ADVENT RESOURCES: Visit sfarchdiocese.org/advent and catholic-sf.org for reflections, ideas for activities and other resources.

ADVENT LECTURE SERIES: Wednesdays, Dec. 11 and 18, at St. Mary’s Cathedral, 7-8:30 p.m. in the St. Francis Room with Father Bill Nicholas on “The Year of St. Matthew – What’s It All About?” A great way to prepare for the Christmas season on the upcoming “Year of St. Matthew” in the Sunday Gospels.

ARCHBISHOP CORDILEONE’S SCHEDULE DEC. 7: Archbishop’s Circle Advent retreat; Guadalupana pilgrimage Mass, cathedral 2 p.m.

DEC. 9: Chancery Advent Day of Recollection; Missionaries of Charity profession of vows DEC. 10: Simbang Gabi Commissioning Mass, cathedral 7:30 p.m.

DEC. 11: St. Brigid Choir lunch; chancery meetings DEC. 12: Presbyteral Council and chancery meetings DEC. 13: Independent Review Board DEC. 18-19: Chancery meetings DEC. 20: Chancery Advent party DEC. 21: Deacons Advent party DEC. 22: Priests Advent party DEC. 25: Nativity of the Lord Mass, cathedral, midnight; Christmas Day Mass, cathedral, 11 a.m.

NICHOLAS WOLFRAM SMITH CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

A priest at Corpus Christi Parish has started not one but three new theater groups at his parish to engage parishioners in the dramatic arts.

Father Jesse Montes, a parochial vicar at the San Francisco parish, Salesian Father said the key to startJesse Montes ing up a successful theater group “is stimulating interest and trying to make it fun. And you have to be prepared: If you don’t know your craft, then you can do whatever you want and it’s not going to work out.”

That’s wisdom Father Montes will put into practice as he directs the parish’s new theater groups. The Corpus Christi Theater Company and the Teatro de la Comunidad Corpus Christi are youth and adult theater companies which will perform English and Spanish language plays, respectively. The Don Bosco Young Actors Guild will be for teenagers and children.

Each company has taken a running start by putting on a performance in its first year. The Don Bosco guild performed scenes from “Pinocchio” the weekend of Nov. 24 and Teatro de la Comunidad Corpus Christi will perform scenes from the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe Dec. 1112. In February of 2020, the Corpus Christi Theater Company will perform “Aztec of the City,” a play about Latino superheroes. Father Montes said each theater company will perform one play per year.

Doing theater has been a mainstay of Father Montes’ ministry. He holds a master’s degree in theater production from Central Washington University, taught drama in high schools and founded theater companies when he was assigned to a parish in Watsonville.

For Norma Mata, who will be in “Aztec of the City,” performing in a play has an intrinsic appeal.

(PHOTO BY NICHOLAS WOLFRAM SMITH/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)

Noah Casey, Manuel Sanchez and Mia Taiyab are three actors in Corpus Christi Parish’s Don Bosco Young Actors Guild. Salesian Father Jesse Montes has started three theater companies at the parish that will perform English and Spanish language plays.

“I think everyone in some part of their life would like to sing, act and play music,” she said. “I think everybody has that. I never got to do it as a professional, but if I have the opportunity to enjoy one of these plays it would be a great experience.”

For Mata, the theater companies are also a “nice, healthy way” for young people to get involved in their church.

“I think it’s good to pass faith to young people and kids, but sometimes we have to give them something they already are interested in doing,” she said. “Once they get here then we can work with them to give them values, to increase the good things that happen in their family.”

Father Montes said some of the actors in this year’s plays come from outside the parish. “What’s going to happen, I hope, is that once word gets around people will come from different parishes when its mature,” he said.

Laura Caballero, whose daughter is acting in “Pinocchio,” said being

involved in the theater company is also an opportunity to give back to the parish that had helped her raise her children. “They helped us to raise our kids, to keep them busy with good things in a good way,” she said.

Mata agreed, saying that “every time I work here, I take in somebody else’s kid to help them as much as possible.”

Colleen Casey, whose nephew Noah Casey is playing Candlewick in “Pinocchio,” said she has seen good changes in her nephew.

“I’ve been encouraging him to be more outgoing, he has a lot of personality, and I’m like ‘put it out there, let it shine,’” she said. “I think it’s a good way to get out there and build up confidence.”

Casey added that as an alumna of now-closed Corpus Christi School, it has been “very nostalgic” seeing her nephew at the parish.

“I spent a lot of time in the parish hall,” she said, “so to see him on the same stage that I performed on, I love it.”

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CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 5, 2019

Author invites readers to see their own lives in sacred Scripture CHRISTINA GRAY CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

Catholic author, scholar and playwright Veronica Mary Rolf told Catholic San Francisco over tea at her Berkeley home Nov. 23 that she wrote her latest book, “Suddenly There is God: The Story of Our Lives in Sacred Scripture,”(Cascade Books, 2019) to help readers see the Bible as the story of their own lives.

Rolf, the author of two critically well-received books on the 14th-century English contemplative and anchorite Julian of Norwich, harnessed her background in the dramatic arts for her latest project, a reader-friendly book that finds relevance for today in the narratives of biblical characters from Adam and Eve to Noah to Moses to Christ himself as they find themselves caught up in divine-human dramas.

“Naturally, I take a very dramatic approach to helping people, especially Catholics, dig in, get under and find the heart of sacred Scripture,” Rolf said. “Because for me, these are scripts.”

Rolf, was born and raised Catholic and attended Convent of the Sacred Heart in New York City. She began stage acting as a child on Broadway and literally grew up in professional theater. As a playwright, her works have been produced on New York stages and on national television. For two decades she trained and directed professional actors at the Stella Adler Studio.

Rolf eventually left that world behind to follow her interest in sacred

our rope,” or, at the other end of the spectrum, perceived the presence of God in our joy, Rolf said.

“God breaks into everything and gradually and gently transforms it,” she said. “Maybe we don’t realize it at the time, but looking back we realize, ‘Yeah, that was God.’” “I’d like people to absorb a technique whereby they can relate to these stories and make them more relevant than anything they read in the daily news to their lives.”

Rolf, who said the idea for the book came to her “as a gift” during meditation, concludes by offering contemplation as a practice of what she calls “resurrected living.”

VERONICA MARY ROLF “By fostering a mode of resurrected Author, “Suddenly There is God: living through the practice of conThe Story of Our Lives in Sacred Scripture” (PHOTO BY CHRISTINA GRAY/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO) templative prayer, we become more sensitized to the marvelous ways in highly dramatic approach can make Scripture and Christian mysticism. which the Holy Spirit is transformScripture become spiritually nourishShe lectures and leads contemplative ing our lives and the lives of those ing, empowering, and yes, extremely retreats throughout the San Franaround us,” she writes. relevant, in our lives,” she said. cisco Bay area, where she and her Contemplative prayer prepares By identifying with biblical charachusband moved to be near her son us for our future resurrected life by ters and their conflicts, choices and and two grandchildren. epiphanies, Rolf wants readers to rec- clearing away the obstructions in In “Suddenly There is God,” the our minds and hearts that prevent stories are about life and death issues, ognize how God continually breaks us from being able to “see” or “hear” into our own life stories. about ultimate values, and life’s “big she writes.

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CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 5, 2019

Jesuit recognized for lifetime of ministry to the divorced

HE’S A CORKER: Father Michael Healy, pastor of St. Bartholomew Parish in San Mateo will be honored as “Corkman of the Year” by the United Irish Cultural Center in San Francisco Dec. 7. The Cork city native celebrating his Golden Father Michael Jubilee in 2020 has Healy served at more than a half-dozen parishes. He has been longtime chaplain to the SFPD, and to the Ancient Order of Hibernians. In the 1980s and early 1990s when Irish immigration to the city was at a modern peak, Father Michael was a driving force in what was called the ‘Joseph and Mary’ group which offered support to the new immigrants, later becoming the Irish Immigration Pastoral Center.

CHRISTINA GRAY CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

As a young priest at Holy Family Parish in San Jose during the 1970s, Jesuit Father Albert A. Grosskopf was tasked with forming a singles group. The majority turned out to be divorced or separated.

“From the beginning, a number of divorced and separated people found ready acceptance in the singles group, and through this group, entered into the life of the parish community,” recalled Father Grosskopf, who was presented this fall with what amounts to a lifetime achievement award for ministry to divorced and separated Catholics.

On Sept. 14, Father Grosskopf received the James T. Young Ministry Award at the Catholic Divorce Ministry Conference in St. Louis, Missouri.

The award is named after Father James Young, a Paulist priest who founded the North American Conference of Separated and Divorced Catholics in 1974, the first U.S. Catholic ministry to divorced Catholics.

Father Grosskopf was a close friend of Father Young, who died shortly after he founded NACSDC. He picked up where his friend began, and at 88, has spent almost five decades in divorce ministry.

“I have a strong empathic feeling for people who experience alienation and non-acceptance by others,” Father Grosskopf told Catholic San Francisco Nov. 25, when asked what drew him to divorce ministry. “Divorced people are often alienated and have experienced rejection and loss and an enduring fear of abandonment.”

Father Grosskopf said that divorced Catholics can feel isolation and exclusion as members of the church.

Divorce ministry support groups help them share their painful experiences with each other.

“This is truly a peer ministry,” he said.

As his Holy Family parish singles group developed in 1970s, the divorced and separated became so numerous that the young priest decided he should start a program exclusively for them.

(PHOTO COURTESY CATHOLIC DIVORCE MINISTRY)

Jesuit Father Albert A. Grosskopf received the James J. Young Ministry Award for his longtime ministry to divorced Catholics during the Catholic Divorce Ministry Conference Sept. 14 in St. Louis, Missouri. Board member Ann Moloney presented the award, a carved wooden statue of the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, a biblical figure some consider the patron saint of divorced people.

“Publicizing it in the weekly parish bulletin was the first time public recognition was given to the presence of divorced and separated Catholics in the Holy Family community, and their presence was legitimized,” he said. “They were invited to consider themselves as an integral part of an all-embracing Christian community that binds up wounds and heals.”

Father Grosskopf eventually founded one of the first Catholic divorce support groups in California, New Horizons, based on the model of Father Young. They eventually formed Catholic Divorce Ministry, a ministry of the nonprofit NACSDC. His own awareness of the significant presence of divorced members in his parish grew as he offered prayers for ‘the divorced members of our community’ in the prayers of the faithful at weekend Masses.

“This was noticed by a number of divorced parishioners who had been keeping a low profile, and they individually thanked me for acknowl-

edging their presence and praying for them,” he said.

Father Grosskopf returned to his hometown of San Francisco in the 1980s and worked in campus ministry at the University of San Francisco.

He later served at St. Ignatius Parish and as a pastoral minister at Loyola House in San Francisco, where he continued to facilitate a divorce support group and help with declarations of marriage nullification.

Now in residence at Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos, Father Grosskopf continues his pastoral ministry as a priest consultant to Catholic Divorce Ministry and contributes weekly homilies to “Jacob’s Well,” its member newsletter.

“By the grace of God, we continue to minister to the healing of those who have suffered the pain of divorce and separation, a healing ministry in the tradition of the healing ministry of our Lord and brother, Jesus Christ.”

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(PHOTO COURTESY ST. DOMINIC PARISH)

MESSAGE FROM MEDJUGORJE: Dominican Father Leon Pereira, left, of the order’s English Province, visited St. Dominic Parish Nov. 23 to share his personal witness of Mary’s messages in Medjugorje. Father Periera, pictured with St. Dominic pastor Father Michael Hurley, right, is chaplain to English-speaking pilgrims to the town in the Herzegovina region of Bosnia Herzegovina where Mary is said to have appeared to six Herzegovinian teenagers in 1981.

Though neither the local diocese nor the Catholic Church have recognized the apparitions as supernatural or authentic, Pope Francis declared in 2017 that the original visions are worth studying because people who go there convert, find God and change their lives. The Vatican officially recognized Medjugorje this summer as a place of pilgrimage.

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6 ARCHDIOCESE

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 5, 2019

(PHOTOS BY DENNIS CALLAHAN/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)

Archbishop confirms 45 adults at cathedral

Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone confirmed 45 adults, representing 15 parishes in the archdiocese, at St. Mary’s Cathedral Nov. 23.

“Now that you are confirmed, go forth to proclaiming Christ alone as the king of your life,” the archbishop told Catholic San Francisco in summing up his message to the group. In confirmation, says the U.S. Catechism for Adults, Catholics are deepened in their baptismal life and called to be missionary witnesses of Christ in their families, neighborhoods, society and the world.

The bishop who reaped a hundredfold ED CONDON CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY

An approach to evangelization respecting the dignity of all and with no formal plan for “Christianizing” a tribal people has spurred the growth of the Diocese of Miao, India, from 900 to 90,000 baptized in 40 years, said Bishop George Pallipparambil.

The church led by example and witness, not by insistence, said the bishop, a frequent visitor to the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

“Our primary goal was to help them, whatever was needed – education, medicine, whatever,” said the bishop, who also has opened 40 schools in the region in 30 years.

“These were the works that we did, but they understood. They saw we were there, living with them, staying with them, they saw the witness. Accepting the Gospel was a fruit of our work of love, freely given.”

He called the results “an actual, direct intervention of the Holy Spirit in their lives, it’s not us.”

He said an atmosphere of a tolerance exists in the Miao region, in contrast to religious tensions affecting much of the country.

“The reason for this is that among the tribal communities there is equality,” he said. “The caste system is not there, and for this reason they see the dignity in the Gospel but have rejected Hinduism.”

He said the change has brought advancement and dignity to women in a region where polygamy, child brides and selling daughters into marriage were normal.

“We did not fight that directly, or insist on telling them it is wrong,” the

(PHOTOS COURTESY DENNIS CALLAHAN)

Bishop George Pallipparambil of the Diocese of Miao, India, celebrated 5:30 p.m. Mass at St. Cecilia Church in San Francisco Nov. 12 as a guest of pastor Father Rene Ramoso. After Mass a line of couples stretched from the sanctuary to the entrance, all waiting for a hands-on personal blessing.

bishop said. “Instead, we started educating these younger girls, organizing training courses for them, teaching literacy and trade skills to young women who really blossomed.”

He said priests have to be more flexible in order to reach out to many more in the flock with fewer numbers.

“We grow by interaction,” he said.

“We can all of us spend our lives locked in libraries or on websites reading everything, becoming an expert – a giant – but on our own. Will I not become much more useful to God if I know half of it, but live my whole life sharing it with others?”

This article was first published Nov. 7, 2018.

ARCHDIOCESE 7

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 5, 2019

ST. EMYDIUS TURKEY DRIVE PROVIDES HEALTHY MEALS FOR THE NEEDY

The pre-Christmas phase of the eighth annual SF Turkey Drive at St. Emydius Church in the Ingleside District of San Francisco will be held Dec. 21 from 9 a.m. until noon in the parking lot across from the church at 350 De Montfort Ave. (Jules), a block south of the Target store on Ocean Avenue.

What to bring: Turkeys (frozen preferred), hams and boxes of fresh vegetables. All donations will be brought to the St. Anthony Foundation right after the collection. Online donations may be made at www.SFTurkeyDrive.com.

In the pre-Thanksgiving phase of the effort Nov. 23, a crew of 15 volunteers including parishioners, friends and neighbors netted 454 turkeys, a 39% increase from last year.

The turkey drive is part of an effort by neighborhoods in the southern part of San Francisco to make a difference in fighting hunger among the homeless and poor in the city.

“This neighborhood drive has become important for the food supply of St. Anthony,” said Pierre Smit, who started the effort out of his home in 2012.

“In the past two years alone, we have helped in serving over 45,000 meals.

“The cost of living keeps increasing; housing costs keeps going up; and homelessness is growing by 17% last year alone; over 10% of the our residents are living below the poverty level,” he said. “All these facts mean the need for food at St. Anthony is very

(PHOTO COURTESY DEB GREENBLAT)

St. Emydius parishioners pitched in Nov. 23 for the parish’s eighth annual SF Turkey Drive, a major source for holiday meals served by St. Anthony’s in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District.

important to keep up with feeding older residents, poor families, lonely veterans, down-on-their luck folks, homeless and many others.”

Smit the parish and Father Bill Brady “have been very supportive of this effort, and together we have built a solid movement in the area going from the Sunset to the Excelsior for being the drop-off site for helping those folks who need (St. Anthony’s) for a bowl of soup and a bowl of fresh air from their daily hard life.”

For more information, contact Pierre Smit at sfpierre@aol.com.

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8 ARCHDIOCESE

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 5, 2019

Mary unites the divided into the faithful, Archbishop Cordileone says CHRISTINE ROUSSELLE CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Mary unites all of God’s children, sparking conversions among those of different faiths, Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone said Nov. 16.

The archbishop pointed to Mary as a force for conversion and unity among different peoples at the first-ever Mass of the Americas in the Extraordinary Form, held at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. “This Mass we celebrate today, the ‘Mass of the Americas,’ speaks profoundly to the power of our mother to unite her children,” said Cordileone in his homily. “She stands there in every generation of

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the church, interceding to her son for her children, actively leading them to him, united as one in him.”

The Mass of the Americas is a “twinned tribute” to both Our Lady of Guadalupe and Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. It was commissioned by the Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship, and was first celebrated Dec. 8, 2018, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Since its debut, it has gone on a “Marian unity tour” throughout North America, which included a stop in Washington, D.C. The Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship’s website states that it is an organization dedicated to “open(ing) the door of beauty to God” through providing resources for “more beautiful and reverent liturgies” as well as “energizing a Catholic culture of the arts.”

It was no accident that Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared as a mixed-race woman who could appeal both to native Mexicans and the Spanish settlers,

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and that her image resulted in the conversion of an entire country, explained Archbishop Cordileone.

“She appeared at a time of great conflict, turbulence and bloodshed, to form a new Christian people for her son, not by the sword nor by human sacrifice, but by the love of a mother who identifies herself with her children,” he said.

“After (the apparition) Mexico became Catholic: Our Lady of Guadalupe unites the Old World and the New, and so a new Christian people is formed from the two, a mestizo people; a new Christian civilization is born from the union brought about by her who is venerated as both la Morenita and la Inmaculada,” the archbishop said.

Archbishop Cordileone also spoke about how the church is open to all, regardless of their material worth, and that it is a chance for people to satisfy the innate human hunger for beauty. The archbishop pointed to the Extraordinary Form liturgy, music, and vestments as a form of assisting humanity in their desire for beautiful things.

“Perhaps what the poor most lack in their lives is beauty: being dignified by that beauty which ennobles and elevates the soul, assuring them of their equal dignity as a fellow child of God whom God created in His image and likeness,” said Cordileone.

Poverty, said the archbishop, is not just limited to a lack of material goods. “There is also spiritual poverty, a poverty of the soul. The absence of beauty and prevalence of the ugly eventually corrupts a soul, leading to spiritual misery,” he said.

Evidence of this spiritual poverty is found in increasing rates of depression, “irrational intolerance” of people with differing views, and predation of the less fortunate, he said. Despite living in the United States, “the most affluent society in the history of the world,” America is still overrun with “anger, division, injustice and depression.”

The church’s three transcendentals of beauty, truth and goodness are one way to combat this divide.

“We are happy to come together today to offer something beautiful to God and to express our love for the Mother of His Son: we give our best, because we are motivated by love, which settles for nothing less,” he said.

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ARCHDIOCESE 9

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 5, 2019

St. Francis prayer at interfaith breakfast Father Kenneth Westray, left, pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Parish in San Francisco, read the “Prayer of St. Francis” at the 22nd Annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Prayer Breakfast in San Francisco Nov. 26.

Markensy Jacques, pastoral associate at St. Benedict Parish for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired, signed the prayer. The breakfast marked the 30th anniversary of the San Francisco Interfaith Council’s founding in the aftermath of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

1111 Gough St., San Francisco • Tel: (415) 567-2020 www.smcsf.org (PHOTO COURTESY OFFICE OF HUMAN LIFE & DIGNITY)

Archbishop: Prayer key to restoring homeless dignity NICHOLAS WOLFRAM SMITH CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

The Archdiocese of San Francisco held its second annual Mass for the Homeless Dead on Nov. 23 at Church of the Visitacion in San Francisco.

According to its sponsor, the archdiocesan Office of Human Life & Dignity, the Mass gives Catholics an opportunity “to pray for those who

are often forgotten both in life and in death.”

In 2018, the San Francisco medical examiner recorded the deaths of 135 homeless people. In 2019, San Francisco counted 8,011 homeless individuals on a single evening in shelters and on the streets. A different city database that records access SEE ARCHBISHOP, PAGE 11

CHRISTMAS LITURGIES

CATHEDRAL OF SAINT MARY OF THE ASSUMPTION ADVENT/CHRISTMAS SCHEDULE 2019 Guadalupana Pilgrimage Saturday, December 7, 2019 6:00 AM - Pilgrimage departure from All Souls Church, S.S.F. 2:00 PM - Solemn Mass in the Cathedral Archdiocesan Simbang Gabi Commissioning Mass Tuesday, December 10, 2019 Simbang Gabi is a Filipino tradition marking the start of a novena before Christmas.

The Commissioning is an annual Blessing for the various parish leaders who will coordinate the novena in their parishes.

7:30 PM – Mass Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe Thursday, December 12, 2019 4:00 AM - Mañanitas (Serenading of the Blessed Mother) 6:00 AM - Spanish Mass; Reception to follow 7:30 AM - English Mass, 12:10 PM - English Mass 7:00 PM Spanish Mass; Reception to follow Christmas Cookies and Carols Sunday, December 15, 2019 7:00 PM - Concert and dessert reception $25/person ($15 children and seniors) Tickets: 567-2020 Ex. 213

Messiah! A (mostly) Baroque Christmas Concert, Monday, December 16

7:30 pm, St. Dominic’s Schola Cantorum, soloists & Festival Brass

Advent Reconciliation Services, Tuesday, December 17 With individual confessions available 12:00 noon – 1:00 pm & 7:30 – 8:30 pm

Parish Christmas Party, Thursday, December 19 Doors open after the 5:30 pm daily Mass, Parish Hall

Christmas Eve, Tuesday, December 24

4:00 & 6:00 pm Christmas Vigil Masses 11:15 pm carol service followed a Solemn Mass at Midnight, with St. Dominic's Schola Cantorum & Festival Brass. No confessions today.

Christmas Day, Wednesday, December 25

8:30 am Parish Mass with carols 11:00 am Solemn Mass with choral music, strings and brass No confessions today.

The Solemnity of the Holy Family, Sunday, December 29 5:30 pm Vigil, (Saturday, December 28) 7:30, 9:30, & 11:30 am & 1:30 (in Spanish), 5:30 & 9:00 pm

The Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God Tuesday, December 31 5:30 pm Vigil Mass 10:30 pm New Year’s Eve Prayer Vigil 11:30 pm Vigil Mass

Wednesday, January 1, 2020 9:30 am (One Parish Mass)

The Solemnity of the Epiphany, Sunday, January 5 5:30 pm Vigil (Saturday, January 4) 7:30, 9:30 & 11:30 am, 1:30 (in Spanish), 5:30 & 9:00 pm

Christmas Eve Tuesday, December 24, 2019 Cathedral Closed during the day 5:00 PM Caroling by the St. Mary’s Cathedral Choir School 5:30 PM - Christmas Vigil Mass 11:30 PM Caroling by the Cathedral Choir 12:00 AM - Midnight Mass Christmas Day Wednesday, December 25, 2019 No 7:30 AM Mass today 9:00 AM - Gregorian Chant Mass with Cathedral Schola Cantorum 11:00 AM - Solemn Mass with Cathedral Choir 1:00 PM - Misa en Español con el Coro Hispano The Cathedral will close after the 1:00 PM Mass New Year’s Eve Tuesday, December 31, 2019 Mass Schedule: 8:00 AM The Cathedral will close after the 8:00 AM Mass New Year’s Day Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God Wednesday, January 1, 2020 HOLY DAY OF OBLIGATION Mass Schedule: 8:00 AM and 12:10 PM The Cathedral will close after the 12:10 PM Mass The Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord Sunday, January 5, 2020 Saturday, January 4 - Vigil - 5:30 PM Sunday - 7:30 AM, 9:00 AM, 11:00 AM and 1:00 PM (Español) 4:00 PM - Epiphany Lessons and Carols featuring the St. Brigid School Honor Choir and Golden Gate Boys Choir and Bellringers

10 FROM THE FRONT

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 5, 2019

DOMINICAN: Lay involvement, devotions can restore church ‘confidence’ FROM PAGE 1

he said. Because “many of the young people are part of a generation whose parents decided not to educate them in the faith or bring them to church,” he said, evangelizing them can be an opportunity to renew the faith in a family.

What is most important for Catholics today, he said, is to “become aware of our own conviction.” Where the church is a minority, like Indonesia or Vietnam, that process occurs more naturally because Catholics’ convictions set them apart. Father Timoner added that a minority church also is “more acutely aware that we are truly one body: If you inflict pain on one part, it’s the entire body that feels pain.”

The Catholic Church’s growth in Vietnam, where it makes up 7% of the population, shows the strength of a committed minority, Father Timoner said. Vietnam is among the fastest growing provinces of the Dominican order, with around 400 friars. More

“What the church does in the United States is not just what the bishops and the priests and the sisters and the nuns are doing, it is what many lay people are doing,” he said.

Another important aspect of lay FATHER GERARD F. TIMONER III, DOMINICAN SUPERIOR involvement in the church is through

popular devotions, Father Timoner “Since the majority of Catholics than 117,000 Catholics in the country said, noting that where popular devoare the lay people, the church should are lay Dominicans. tions have dwindled, people’s faith be felt through the lay people,” he On the other hand, being in the relihas also become diminished. Both said. gious majority can lead to taking faith Saturday, November 23, 2019 Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI, Laity are already involved in for granted, he said. “I’m not saying 9am to 3pm at the St. Monica Parish’s Social Hall (Below the Church) he said, have highlighted that popular we need to be a minority to be commit- Christ’s ministry just through th their 470 24 Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94121 devotions are some of the “greatest lives, he said. A doctor “is not just a ted, but when we are a majority, we Light Snacks provided; Parol Making Kit: $8 (12”); $10 (18”) treasures of the church.” Lourdes, doctor but a baptized and committed need to remain committed,” he said.

Christian participating in the healing Fatima, Guadalupe or San Fran“The temptation to take things for Do you need a parol for the Simbang Gabi Commissioning Mass, or need to repair your existing parol? cisco’s St. Jude shrine all show that ministry of the Lord. You don’t have granted is greater because you just asMC Canlas, master parol craftsman from the Bayanihan Community Center will be on hand to teach you. devotions are a place where people to be ordained to do that.” sume that everybody else is like that.” encounter God, he said.

After typhoon Yolanda hit the Father Timoner said that part

“We cannot deny in countries Philippines in 2013, he said, some of building that conviction means where popular devotions are alive, the voices were raised about how the rediscovering “the importance of church should be doing more. Father faith is alive,” he said. “In countries baptism and our baptismal promises and duties.” Initiation into the church Timoner said that for him, the laity where the faith has been reduced to on the front lines of responding to the intellectual musings, the faith has through the sacraments of baptism, become cold, and I think that’s somedisaster “are members of the church Communion and confirmation makes and what they do is what the church thing to think about. So, I’m glad the each Catholic a missionary disciple, Dominicans promote the rosary.” does.” he said.

‘We cannot deny in countries where popular devotions are alive, the faith is alive.’

Parol Making Workshop

CHRISTMAS LITURGIES

The Filipino Ministry Consultative Board of the Archdiocese of San Francisco invites you to its 4th Annual

Santo Niño Fiesta & Dance Festival

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church and School

A Filipino Devotion Honoring the Holy Child Jesus (Santo Niño) Saturday, January 11, 2020 11am at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption 1111 Gough St, San Francisco, CA 94109 Reception & Fellowship immediately after the Mass

60 Wellington Avenue, Daly City, CA 94014

UPCOMING PARISH CELEBRATIONS & SERVICES UPCOMING PARISH CELEBRATIONS & SERVICES SIMGANG GABI – NOVENA AND MASSES SIMBANG GABI – NOVENA AND MASSES From Wednesday December 16 to Wednesday, December @ 5:30 From Monday December 16 to Tuesday, December 24 @24 5:30 a.m.a.m.

SCHEDULE OF CHRISTMAS MASSES SCHEDULE OF CHRISTMAS MASSES December 24 – Christmas TuesdayThursday December 24 – Christmas EveEve p.m.: Children’s Mass | 11:00 – 11:45 p.m.: Christmas Carols 5:30 p.m.:5:30 Children’s Mass | 11:00 – 11:45 p.m.: Christmas Carols 12:00 a.m.: Midnight Mass 12:00 a.m.: Midnight Mass Thursday December 25 – Christmas Day

Wednesday December 25 – Christmas Day 8:30, 10:00, 11:30 a.m. (English) | 1:00 p.m. (Spanish) 8:30, 10:00, 11:30 a.m. (English) | 1:00 p.m. (Spanish)

St. Patrick Church, San Francisco Christmas Schedule Saturday, December 14, 2019 9:30 a.m. – 12 noon Advent Recollection

Saturdays, December 14 and 21, 2019 4:00-5:00 p.m. Advent Confessions (four priests)

December 16 - 24, 2019 6:00 a.m. Misa de Gallo, followed by hot breakfast in Bitanga Hall

Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Christmas At Saint Brendan 2019 Schedule Of Services

Advent Reconciliation Service - Wednesday, December 18 7:00 p.m.

Christmas Eve Tuesday, December 24 3:00 p.m. (Early Mass with Children's Choir) 5:00 p.m. (Vigil Mass with Christmas Pageant) 10:00 p.m. (Contemporary Christmas Experience. Pastor’s recipe eggnog, mulled wine, and rum balls served afterward in the Church Hall. Attendees will also receive a special gift while supplies last.)

Nativity of the Lord Wednesday, December 25 7:30 a.m.

10:30 a.m.

Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God Wednesday, January 1, 2020 10:00 a.m.

6:00 a.m. Misa de Gallo, followed by hot breakfast in Bitanga Hall 7:30 a.m. Mass No Mass at 5:15 p.m.

12:10 p.m. Mass 7:00 p.m. Christmas Carols “Jesus…

8:00 p.m. Traditional “Mass at Midnight”

Wednesday, December 25, 2019 Christmas Day * Holy Day of Obligation *

7:30 a.m., 9:30 a.m. and 12 noon No Mass at 5:15 p.m.

Tuesday, December 31, 2019 7:30 a.m., 12:10 p.m. and 5:15 p.m.

Wednesday, January 1, 2020 New Year’s Day * Holy Day of Obligation *

7:30 a.m., 12:10 p.m. and 5:15 p.m.

He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High” Luke 1:32

FROM THE FRONT 11

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 5, 2019

ARCHBISHOP: Prayer key to restoring homeless dignity FROM PAGE 9

to health care and other city services counted 17,595 homeless people in 2019.

Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone celebrated the Mass at 11 a.m. In his homily, the archbishop said praying for the dead was a “spiritual work of mercy,” especially when praying for strangers.

Poverty and homelessness are so widespread that people die on the streets in the city, the archbishop said. Worse than the material poverty, though, is “the loss of the sacred, the loss of human dignity,” treating the homeless “as if they didn’t exist,” he said.

In contrast to the inattention given to the homeless, God renews those who hope in him, the archbishop said.

“We see this fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ, in his public ministry, him offering his life for us,” he said. Jesus raising the dead son of a widow in the Gospel of Luke shows he is “not oblivious to the suffering of the poor and destitute.” Jesus notices the funeral procession and understands that the woman would be left impoverished and unprotected by her son’s death and intervenes unprompted.

Saints Peter and Paul Church Dec. 16-18, 20, 23 5PM Christmas Novena Svc. Dec. 16 7PM Advent Penance Service

Christmas Eve

4:00 PM 5:00 PM 11:15 PM 12:00 AM

Confessions Vigil Mass Christmas Carols Midnight Mass

Christmas Day Masses 7:30 AM 8:45 AM 10:15 AM 11:45 AM 1:00 PM

In In In In In

English English Cantonese/English Italian English

No 5:00 PM Mass on Christmas Day

660 Filbert Street San Francisco 415.421.0809

SAINT VERONICA CHURCH 434 Alida Way South San Francisco, CA 94080

CHRISTMAS LITURGY SCHEDULE 2019 December 15-23, 2019 SIMBANG GABI ADVENT MASSES

Weekday Masses at 6:30 p.m.

Saturday Mass (Dec. 21) at 5:00 p.m.

Sunday Masses (Dec. 15 & 22) at 4:00 p.m.

December 23 Celebrant Bishop William Justice *****

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2019 CHRISTMAS EVE VIGIL MASSES

4:00 p.m. (Children’s Mass) & 9:00 p.m.

8:15 p.m. - Adult Choir Cantata Performance *****

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2019 CHRISTMAS DAY 7:00, 8:30, 10:00, & 11:30 a.m.

1:30 p.m. (Spanish) *****

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2019 8:30 a.m. *****

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 1, 2020 (A Holy Day of Obligation) 6:30 a.m., 8:30 a.m. & 6:30 p.m.

(PHOTO BY DEBRA GREENBLAT/OFFICE OF HUMAN LIFE & DIGNITY)

Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone is pictured at the second annual Mass for the Homeless Dead, Nov. 23 at Church of the Visitacion in San Francisco.

Because of Christ’s own death and resurrection, the archbishop continued, Christians should understand their “true and lasting home” is with God, not on earth.

“For the true believer, this world is a foreign land. The true believer is homeless here,” he said.

The archbishop emphasized that focusing on God does not mean escaping from the pressing problems of earthly existence but allows Christians to enter more deeply into them.

Archbishop Cordileone said only by paying attention to God can all people see how human dignity is shared. “When we focus on God, then we will notice our brothers and sisters whom others neglect. If we pay attention to God, if we notice him, then we will notice those who suffer, those whose soul is deprived of peace and have forgotten what happiness is,” he said.

“Then and only then, if we notice God, will we also notice him in them.”

CHRISTMAS LITURGIES St. Bruno’s Church

Mater Dolorosa

(650) 588-2121

307 Willow Avenue, South San Francisco, CA 94080

555 W. San Bruno Avenue, San Bruno, CA

Parish Advent Reconciliation

2019 CHRISTMAS SCHEDULE December 13: 7 PM Christmas Tree Lighting (courtyard) December 15-23: Posadas. Please check the church bulletin for locations and times.

December 10th at 7:00 p.m.

Simbang Gabi Masses

December 15th through December 23rd at 7:00 p.m.

(Pot Luck Dinner follows December 23rd Mass

CHRISTMAS MASSES Holy Day of Obligation Christmas Eve Masses

December 15-17: 6 PM Candlelight Masses December 18-23: 5 AM Misa de Gallo December 24, Tuesday: 7 PM Spanish Mass 9 PM Christmas Carols by Tongan children 10 PM Midnight Mass

December 24th

5:00 p.m. Vigil Mass with Children’s Pageant 9:30 p.m. Christmas Caroling 10:00 p.m. (Midnight Mass)

Christmas Day Masses: December 25th - 8:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m., & 12:00 p.m.

Latin Mass 5:00pm

December 25, Christmas Day Masses: 8 AM English 10 AM Spanish 12 NN English There is No 6 PM mass on Christmas Day

Solemnity of Mary

Holy Day of Obligation January, 1, 2020 8:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m. &12:00 p.m

January 1, New Year’s Day (Holy Day of Obligation): Same as Christmas Day schedule MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR

STAR of the Sea

Catholic Stewardship Parish

Chapel of St. Joseph, Perpetual Adoration 24/7 4420 Geary Blvd. @ 8th Ave, San Francisco, CA 94118 | www.starparish.com | (415)751-0450

Christmas and New Year’s Liturgies December 24, Christmas Eve

4:30pm Mass with Christmas Carols 10:00pm Christmas Caroling followed by Mass (full choir) 12:00am Midnight Mass (Sung High Mass in Latin, full choir)

December 25, Christmas Day

8:00am Mass with Christmas Carols 9:30am Full Choir Mass 11:30am Full Choir Latin Mass No 7:30pm Mass

December 31, New Year’s Eve

11:30pm - 12:30am, Holy Hour with Benediction

January 1, Solemnity of the Mother of God (Holy Day of Obligation)

8:00am Mass 9:30am Full Choir Mass 11:30am Full Choir Latin Mass No 7:30pm Mass

Confessions

15 minutes before every Mass

BLESSED CHRISTMAS!

12 NATIONAL

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 5, 2019

Advent: Making the most of a season of hope, joy, reflection, healing MARK PATTISON CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON – Compared to Christmas, Easter and Lent, Advent is the Maytag repairman of liturgical seasons. Hardly anybody calls on it.

To many, Advent may seem like four weeks of the priest wearing purple vestments at Mass, while people are otherwise hurtling about trying to get ready for Christmas. The sentiment is understandable, since Walmart posted Christmas displays in stores even before Halloween was over, and some radio station in virtually every city of any size has been playing nothing but Christmas songs since before Veterans Day. But if Catholics do take time for Advent, which began Dec. 1 this year, they can find it to be a meaningful season.

“I love Advent!” said Kim Smolik, CEO of the Leadership Roundtable. “I love that Advent is a

CHRISTMAS LITURGIES St. Bartholomew

Parish Community Corner of Alameda & Crystal Springs Rd. San Mateo, CA 94402 (650) 347-0701 stbarts@barts.org CHRISTMAS LITURGIES

Christmas Eve, December 24th 4:00 pm and 6:00 pm Midnight Mass 12:00am Christmas Day, December 25th 8:00, 9:30 & 11:15 am. No evening Mass.

December 28th 5:00 pm December 29th 8:00 am, 9:30 am, 11:15 am and 5:30 pm December 31st 8:00 am and 5:30 pm New Year's Day, January 1st 10:00 am

ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI CHURCH 1425 Bay Road, East Palo Alto

650/322-2152

(CNS PHOTO/ANN M. AUGHERTON, ARLINGTON HERALD)

The sequence of lighting the candles on an Advent wreath is to light the first purple candle on the first Sunday of Advent, which was Dec. 1 this year.

Then move clockwise and light a second purple candle for the second Sunday of Advent, Dec. 8. On the third Sunday of Advent, Dec. 15, also known as Gaudete Sunday, the pink candle is lit.

The last purple candle is lit on the fourth Sunday of Advent, Dec. 22.

Confessions Tuesday, December 24, 2019 10:30 am to12:00 pm and 3:30 pm to 6:00 pm

Christmas’ Eve & Day Masses Tuesday, December 24, 2019 6:00 pm Bi-lingual Children’s Mass Followed by Pastorela Midnight Bi-lingual Mass

Wednesday, December 25, 2019 7:30 am English 9:30 am Spanish 11:30 am English 1:30 pm Spanish

New Year’s Eve and Day Masses Midnight Bi-lingual Mass Wednesday, January 1, 2020 7:30 am English 9:30 am Spanish 11:30 am English 1:30 pm Spanish

SEE ADVENT, PAGE 19

Christmas TV Mass Special with Monsignor Harry Schlitt Will be aired on Christmas morning KTSF - CH26

9:30 - 10:00 am

KOFY-TV 20

8:00 - 8:30 am

FOX 40

7:30 - 8:00 am Your donations make the TV Mass possible Please join us Christmas morning and every Sunday

Have a Blessed Holiday season.

You are always in my Prayers Msgr. Harry Schlitt

SAINT MONICA - SAINT THOMAS THE APOSTLE PARISH

CHRISTMAS SCHEDULE 2019

SAINT MONICA

SAINT THOMAS THE APOSTLE

ADVENT: 4TH WEEK SATURDAY, DECEMBER 21ST Confessions: 4:00 pm, Mass 5:00 pm

ADVENT: 4th WEEK SATURDAY, DECEMBER 21ST Confessions: 3:00 pm, Mass 4:00 pm

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 22ND Mass: 8:00 am, 9:00 am Cantonese, 11:00 am

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 22ND Mass: 9:30 am, 6:00 pm Vietnamese

CHRISTMAS EVE TUESDAY, DECEMBER 24TH 5:00 pm Family Mass featuring the St. Monica Honors Choir & Nativity Play 8:00 pm Vietnamese Mass 11:45 pm Christmas Choir Music &12:00 am Solemn Midnight Mass

CHRISTMAS EVE TUESDAY, DECEMBER 24TH 4:00 pm Children’s Mass, 8:30 pm Christmas Carols with the STA Adult Choir, 9:00 pm Christmas Mass

Geary Boulevard at 23rd Avenue, San Francisco

Mass Schedule For Christmas and New Year

time that we have an opportunity to reflect on the many blessings in our life and to show our gratitude.”

“I know we get pulled in other directions,” Smolik added, but Advent is for her “a time to slow down and to be with people. That’s what I think the season is about.”

“And hope. Hope. It’s a season of hope.”

Given the scandals that have scarred U.S. Catholicism over the past year and a half, Smolik said, Advent can be the time for Catholics to ask themselves, “How can I contribute to the healing in our church? What new life can I bring to the church and how can I bring that forward in the next year?”

Smolik said one help for her is a Nativity scene. “I

3835 Balboa Street, San Francisco

CHRISTMAS DAY WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 25TH 9:30 am Christmas Mass

CHRISTMAS DAY WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 25TH 8:00 am & 11:00 am Christmas Mass

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 28TH Confessions: 3:00 pm, Mass 4:00 pm

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 28TH Confessions: 4:00 pm, Mass: 5:00 pm

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 29TH Mass: 9:30 am, 6:00 pm Vietnamese

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 29TH Mass: 8:00 am, 9:00 am Cantonese, 11:00 am

NEW YEAR’S DAY WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 1ST, 2020 Mass: 9:30 am

NEW YEAR’S DAY WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 1ST, 2020 10:00 am

Fr. John Sakowski, Fr. Kevin Kennedy and Sr. Noreen O’Connor

NATIONAL 13

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 5, 2019

Minnesota high school prepares for martyred teacher’s sainthood will be beatified on Dec. 7 in Guatemala, a ceremony that four members of Cretin-Derham Hall will attend, including president Frank Miley.

Reminders of the late teacher pop up throughout the school. The chapel is being renamed in honor of “Blessed Brother James”; staff is working with the archdiocese to make the rededication official. The school commissioned a bronze statue of him that was recently installed in the courtyard, which is also being renamed after him.

Meanwhile, the original icon of Brother Miller painted by Nick Markell is displayed in the school’s History Walk alongside other noteworthy memorabilia. A reproduction hangs in the classroom where he taught.

The students’ education on Brother Miller is enhanced spiritually. Mul-

CHRISTINA CAPECCHI CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

ST. PAUL, Minn. – A man who scrubbed toilets and shoveled sidewalks at Cretin-Derham Hall High School is on his way to becoming a saint, and the school is celebrating his beatification by elevating his presence on campus and connecting students to his legacy.

Christian Brother James Miller taught at then-Cretin High School in St. Paul from 1966 to 1971 and again from 1979 to 1980, teaching Spanish, founding the soccer team and serving as maintenance supervisor.

Brother Miller was martyred in 1982 – at age 37 – during the Guatemalan Civil War. Three hooded men found him on a ladder repairing a wall and shot him. Many assume he was killed because he fought to keep his students from being forced into the military.

Pope Francis officially recognized Brother James as a martyr last year, clearing the way for beatification. He

(CNS PHOTO/DAVE HRBACEK, CATHOLIC SPIRT)

Frank Miley, president of Cretin-Derham Hall High School in St. Paul, Minnesota, stands next to a bronze bust of Brother James Miller that sits in the courtyard of the school. Brother Miller, will be beatified Dec. 7 in Guatemala.

CHRISTMAS LITURGIES

SEE SAINT, PAGE 18

Our Lady of Loretto Church 1806 Novato Boulevard, Novato, CA 94947

Saint Robert’s Church

OLL Choir Christmas Concert

MERRY CHRISTMAS CONFESSIONS Saturday, December 21st 3:00 - 4:15 pm

CAROLS: 4:30 pm - 5:00 pm 5pm (Children's Mass) & 7pm in English and 9pm in Spanish

Sunday, December 22nd 4:00 pm

1380 Crystal Springs Road, San Bruno, CA 94066 (650) 589-2800

Christmas Eve Masses

Christmas Day Masses

8am & 10am in English and 12:00 in Spanish

CHRISTMAS MASSES OF JESUS PARISH HOLY NAME N Y ’ Christmas Eve EW

EAR S DAY

January 1, 2020 Tuesday, December 24th 1555 39th Ave. San Francisco,Wednesday, California 94122 9:30 am

Mission Dolores Basilica Mission Dolores Basilica Advent Christmas Schedule / 2018 7:30December am, 9:3016-24, am & 2019 11:30atam – Navideña 5:30 AM in the FlanaganHorario Center de la Temporada CAdviento hristmas No Evening Mass Schedule 2019 CHRISTMAS SCHEDULE MissionDolores DoloresBasilica Basilica Mission Christmas Eve Masses 2019 Advent – Christmas Schedule Advent – Christmas Schedule

4:30 pm, 8:00 (415) pm and Midnight 664-8590 www.holynamesf.org

FEAST OF THE EPIPHANY Christmas Day, Saturday, January 4th – Wednesday, December 25th (DAWN MASSES) 4:30Advent pm MISA DE GALLO

Sunday, January 5th 7:30 am, 9:30 am, 11:30 am, 5:00 pm Saturday/Sabado 1 Dec 2018

Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Retíro de Adviento [Español] 12 p.m. - 5 p.m. - Auditorio

2019 2019 Horario de la Horario de Temporada Horario de la Temporada Advent Lessons &la Carols (English) Temporada Adviento - Navideña Adviento –Holy Navideña Adviento – Navideña JOINING Most Redeemer Parish, 6 Dec 2018

HOLY NAME OF JESUS PARISH 4:00 PM (Family/Children’s Mass) Thursday/Jueves 1555 39th Ave. San Francisco, California 94122 11:30 PM Christmas Carols (415) 664-8590 www.holynamesf.org

Name Choral Ministry) MISA(Holy DE GALLO (DAWN MASSES) December 16-24, 2019 5:30 AM in the Flanagan CenterSaturday/Sabado 12:00atMidnight Mass 8 Dec 2018 Christmas Day Masses Christmas Eve Masses - Tuesday, December 24, 2019 4:00 PM (Family/Children’s Mass) Wednesday, December 25, 2019 Wednesday/Miercoles 11:30 PM Christmas (Holyand Name Choral 7:30 AM,Carols 9:30 AM 11:30 AM Ministry) 12 Dec 2018 12:00Year’s Midnight Mass New Day Mass Christmas Day Masses Wednesday, 2019 The Solemnity of Mary, the HolyDecember Mother of 25, God Wednesday/Miercoles 7:30 AM, 9:30 AM and 11:30 AM Wednesday, January 1, 2020 19 Dec 2018 New Year’s Day Mass -9:00 Wednesday, January 1, 2020 AM Saturdays/Sabados The Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God – 9:00 AM

8, 15 & 22 Dec 2018 Sunday / Domingo 16 Dec 2018

Sunday / Domingo 16 Dec - 23 Dec 2018 Monday/Lunes 24 Dec 2018

Tuesday/Martes 25 Dec 2018 Tuesday/Martes

18th &Saturday/Sabado Diamond St. SF Retreat - 7:00 p.m.

Advent Retreat [English] Advent [English] Saturday/Sabado

10 a.m.

- 3 p.m.

- Auditorium - 3 p.m.

- Auditorium 7 Dec 201910 a.m.

7 Dec 2019

Feast of the Immaculate Conception Lady of Guadalupe OurOur Lady of Guadalupe Thursday/Jueves Thursday/Jueves Fiesta 12 deDec la Dec Inmaculada Fiesta de Nuestra deConcepción Nuestra 12 2019Fiesta 2019 Señora de Guadalupe Señora de Guadalupe Mass: 9 a.m.

Mañanitas y Misa Solemne 5:005:00 a.m.a.m.

Mañanitas y Misa Solemne

FeastTuesday/Martes ofTuesday/Martes Our LadyAdvent ofAdvent Guadalupe Confessions/Confesiónes Confessions/Confesiónes 10 Dec 20196Señora 10 Dec 2019 6 p.m.

- de 8 p.m.

- OLD MISSION p.m.

- 8 p.m.

- Guadalupe OLD MISSION Fiesta de Nuestra 5:00 a.m.

Mañanitas y Misa Solemne Confessions / Confesiónes Saturdays/SabadosConfessions / Confesiónes Saturdays/Sabados - 4:30 - Basilica 7,&1421&Dec 21 Dec 20193:303:30 - 4:30 - Basilica 7, 14 2019

415-621-8203 415-621-8203 missiondolores.org missiondolores.org

Communal Penance (English) Basilica Choir Annual Candlelight Christmas Concert Sunday/DomingoBasilica Choir 28th28th Annual Candlelight Christmas Concert Sunday/Domingo JOINING Most Holy Redeemer Parish -Coro 7:00 p.m.

Concierto Navideño deBasilica la Basilica 15 Dec 2019 Concierto Navideño del del Coro de la 15 Dec 2019 5:005:00 p.m.p.m.

Confessions / Confesiónes Posadas Monday/LunesLas Las Posadas Monday/Lunes 3:30 Basilica *NOTE: (Sun., - 1 p.m.)

16 -Dec 23- Dec 20197:007:00 p.m.p.m.*NOTE: (Sun., Dec.Dec. 22 -22 1 p.m.)

16 Dec -4:30 23-Dec 2019 Christmas Eve / Víspera de Navidad Tuesday/MartesChristmas Eve / Víspera de Navidad Tuesday/Martes Basilica Choir Centennial Christmas Concert Family Christmas Mass - Children’s Choir 24 Dec 20195:005:00 p.m.p.m.

Family Christmas Mass - Children’s Choir 24 Dec 2019 Concierto Navideño del la Christmas Basilica 11:30 p.m. deChristmas Carol - Basilica Choirs 11:30 p.m.Coro Carol SingSing - Basilica Choirs 12:00 Midnight Midnight Solemn Mass / Misa Solemne (bilingüe) 12:00 Solemn Mass / Misa Solemne (bilingüe) 5:00 p.m.

Wednesday/Miercoles Christmas / Día de Navidad Christmas DayDay / Día de Navidad LasWednesday/Miercoles Posadas 25 Dec 201910:00 25 Dec 2019 10:00 Mass in English a.m.a.m.

Mass in English 7:00 p.m. *NOTE: (Sun., Dec.16 & 23 - 1 p.m.)

12:00 noon en Español 12:00 noon MisaMisa en Español Wednesday/Miercoles Wednesday/Miercoles Year’s Day: Feast of Mary, Mother of God NewNew Year’s Feast of Mary, the the Mother of God Christmas Eve / Víspera deDay: Navidad 1 Jan 2020MisaMisa 1 Jan 2020 Nuevo: Fiesta deMadre la Madre de Dios del del AñoAño Nuevo: Fiesta de la de Dios 5:00 p.m.

Family Christmas Mass Children’s Choir Mass (bi-lingual) 9:009:00 a.m.a.m.

Mass (bi-lingual)

11:30 p.m. Christmas Carol Sing - Basilica Choirs Sunday / Domingo Sunday / Domingo Epiphany / Día de Reyes los Reyes Solemne (bilingüe) Epiphany / Día de los 12:00 Midnight Solemn Mass / Misa 5 Jan 20205:005:00 5 Jan 2020 pm.pm. & 10:00 8:008:00 a.m.a.m. & 10:00 a.m.a.m.

Christmas Day / Día de Navidad 12:00 12:00

10:00 a.m. Mass in English 12:00 noon Misa en Español

Mass 4 Jan.) VigilVigil Mass (Sat.(Sat. 4 Jan.) Mass in English Mass in English en Español MisaMisa en Español

New Year’s Day: Feast of Mary, the Mother of God

14 FAITH

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 5, 2019

SUNDAY READINGS

Second Sunday of Advent ISAIAH 11:1-10 On that day, a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom. The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD, and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD. Not by appearance shall he judge, nor by hearsay shall he decide, but he shall judge the poor with justice, and decide aright for the land’s afflicted. He shall strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. Justice shall be the band around his waist, and faithfulness a belt upon his hips. Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them. The cow and the bear shall be neighbors, together their young shall rest; the lion shall eat hay like the ox. The baby shall play by the cobra’s den, and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair.

There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD, as water covers the sea. On that day, the root of Jesse, set up as a signal for the nations, the Gentiles shall seek out, for his dwelling shall be glorious.

PSALM 72:1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17 Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.

O God, with your judgment endow the king, and with your justice, the king’s son; he shall govern your people with justice and your afflicted ones with judgment.

R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.

Justice shall flower in his days, and profound peace, till the moon be no more. May he rule from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.

R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.

For he shall rescue the poor when he cries out, and the afflicted when he has no one to help him.

He shall have pity for the lowly and the poor; the lives of the poor he shall save.

R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.

May his name be blessed forever; as long as the sun his name shall remain. In him shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed; all the nations shall proclaim his happiness.

R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.

ROMANS 15:4-9 Brothers and sisters: Whatever was written previously was written for our instruction, that by endurance and by the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to think in harmony with one another, in keeping with Christ Jesus, that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Welcome one another, then, as Christ welcomed you, for the glory of God. For I say that Christ became a minister of the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, to confirm the promises to the patriarchs, but so that the Gen-

tiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written: Therefore, I will praise you among the Gentiles and sing praises to your name.

MATTHEW 3:1-12 John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” It was of him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said: A voice of one crying out in the desert, Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. John wore clothing made of camel’s hair and had a leather belt around his waist.

His food was locusts and wild honey. At that time Jerusalem, all Judea, and the whole region around the Jordan were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.

When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones.

Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I.I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand. He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

Preparation by way of confession

I

n the days following the Thanksgiving Day weekend, our society, for the most part, is immersed up to its neck in what many consider to be rampant mass consumption as shoppers flock the stores and markets, looking for that perfect bargain, engaged in the rampant frenzy of a season when people are driven by a spirit of generosity, hoping to move their friends and loved ones with the perfect gift. It is a time of rapid shifting from a banquet of thanks, to the preparation for however they celebrate the Christmas holiday.

In the midst of it all, as almost a counter, if not parallel observance, we as a Catholic Church enter into the solemn observations of the holy season of Advent; observaFATHER WILLIAM tions that can, at times, find NICHOLAS themselves drowned out by the hustle and bustle of the shopping, decorating and overall preparation for Christmas. In it, we enter into a season in which, instead of jumping right into the Christmas spirit, rather pace ourselves in a steady progression,

SCRIPTURE REFLECTION

leading up to the solemnity of the Incarnation of Christ.

We remember, first of all, the newness of the new liturgical year, in which we, as church, get a six-week head start on the next year (the rest of the world will catch up on Jan. 1). We eventually turn our focus on the celebration of the Incarnation, with the beginning of the octave before Christmas, which starts on Dec. 17, bringing us to the very threshold of the Christmas solemnity itself.

We observe the early days of Advent, however, not focusing on the Incarnation, the first coming of Christ, which we celebrate at Advent’s conclusion. Instead, we remember our true Advent as followers of Christ. We await, not the first, but the second coming. The readings of Mass, both daily and on Sunday, carry with it the theme, not of the Incarnation, but of the Eschaton; the final return of Jesus in glory and the grand finale of God’s overarching plan of salvation.

Part of these early stages of Advent is hearing, as we do every year, the Gospel story, not of Jesus, but of John the Baptist; the “voice of one crying out in the desert” to “prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.” In the spirit of John and of his call, which echoes down to us through the centuries, we too are called to prepare for that day of the Lord’s return.

In addition to the distinctive appearance, so vividly described in the Gospel stories of his appearance in

the desert, the means whereby we “make straight” the paths that “prepare the way” are likewise clearly described.

It is through repentance of our sins, and obtaining forgiveness by means of confession that we most effectively “prepare the way of the Lord.” Just as we see in the Gospel accounts of Holy Scripture, the followers of John came from throughout the entire region to be baptized in the Jordan “as they acknowledged their sins.” We, the baptized, are also called to repeatedly return to the great sacrament given to us by Christ to participate in the ongoing preparation by first and foremost acknowledging, repenting and confessing our sins.

So, let us resolve, in these early days of this new liturgical year to “prepare the way of the Lord” by our own acknowledgement and repentance of our sins.

Let us hear the voice of John the Baptist, “voice crying out in the wilderness,” continuing to call us to “make straight” the way of the Lord. Let us who are baptized, follow up on the commitment of our faith, to engage in ongoing conversion of our lives as we come before the Lord in the sacrament of confession to receive the forgiveness of our sins, as we observe our continual Advent, as we await the return of Christ in glory.

FATHER WILLIAM NICHOLAS is administrator of St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco.

LITURGICAL CALENDAR, DAILY MASS READINGS MONDAY, DECEMBER 9: Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. GN 3:915, 20. PS 98:1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4. EPH 1:3-6, 11-12. SEE LK 1:28. LK 1:26-38.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10: Tuesday of the Second Week of Advent. Optional Memorial of Our Lady of Loreto. IS 40:1-11. PS 96:1-2, 3 and 10ac, 11-12, 13.

MT 18:12-14.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11: Wednesday of the Second Week of Advent. Optional Memorial of St. Damasus I, pope. IS 40:25-31. PS 103:1-2, 3-4, 8 and 10. MT 11:28-30.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 12: Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. ZEC 2:14-17 or RV 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab.

JUDITH 13:18bcde, 19. LK 1:26-38 or LK 1:39-47.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13: Memorial of St. Lucy, virgin and martyr. IS 48:17-19. PS 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6.

MT 11:16-19.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14: Memorial of St. John of the Cross, priest and doctor. SIR 48:1-4, 9-11. PS 80:2ac and 3b, 15-16, 18-19. LK 3:4, 6. MT 17:9a, 10-13.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 15: Third Sunday of Advent.

IS 35:1-6a, 10. PS 146:6-7, 8-9, 9-10. JAS 5:7-10. IS 61:1 (cited in LK 4:18). MT 11:2-11.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 16: Monday of the Third Week of Advent. NM 24:2-7, 15-17a. PS 25:4-5ab, 6 and 7bc, 8-9. PS 85:8. MT 21:23-27.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 17: Tuesday of the Third

Week of Advent. St. Jose Manyanet, priest. GN 49:2, 8-10. PS 72:1-2, 3-4ab, 7-8, 17. MT 1:1-17.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18: Wednesday of the Third Week of Advent. JER 23:5-8. PS 72:1-2, 12-13, 18-19. MT 1:18-25.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19: Thursday of the Third Week of Advent. JGS 13:2-7, 24-25a. PS 71:3-4a, 5-6ab, 16-17. LK 1:5-25.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20: Friday of the Third Week of Advent. IS 7:10-14. PS 24:1-2, 3-4ab, 5-6. LK 1:26-38.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 21: Saturday of the Third Week of Advent. Optional Memorial of St. Peter Canisius, priest and doctor. SG 2:8-14 or ZEP 3:1418a. PS 33:2-3, 11-12, 20-21. LK 1:39-45.

OPINION 15

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 5, 2019

Saints for a new situation

E

verywhere in church circles today you hear a lament: Our churches are emptying. We’ve lost our youth. This generation no longer knows or understands the classical theological language.

We need to announce Jesus again, as if for the first time, but how? The church is becoming ever more marginalized.

That’s the situation pretty much everywhere within the secularized world today.

Why is this happening?

Faith as a spent project?

Secularity’s adolescent grandiosity before the parFATHER RON ent who gave it birth, JudeoROLHEISER Christianity? The “buffered self” that Charles Taylor describes? Affluence? Or is the problem mainly with the churches themselves? Sexual abuse? Cover-up? Poor liturgies?

Poor preaching? Churches too liberal? Churches too conservative?

I suspect it’s some combination of all of these, but single out one issue here to highlight, affluence. Jesus told us that it’s difficult (impossible, he says) for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. No doubt, that’s a huge part of our present struggle. We’re good at being Christians when we’re poor, less-educated, and on the margins of mainstream society. We’ve had centuries of practice at this. What we haven’t had any practice at, and aren’t any good at, is how to be Christians when we’re affluent, sophisticated, and constitute the cultural mainstream.

So, I’m suggesting that what we need today is not so much a new pastoral approach as a new kind of saint, an individual man or woman who

can model for us practically what it means to live out the Gospel in a context of affluence and secularity. Why this?

One of the lessons of history is that often genuine religious renewal, the type that actually reshapes the religious imagination, does not come from think-tanks, conferences, and church synods, but from graced individuals – saints, wild men and women who, like St. Augustine, St. Francis, St. Clare, St. Dominic, St. Ignatius, or other such religious figures can reshape our religious imagination. They show us that the new lies elsewhere, that what needs fixing in the church will not be mended simply by patching the old. What’s needed is a new religious and ecclesial imagination. Charles Taylor, in his highly respected idea of secularity, suggests that what we’re undergoing today is not so much a crisis of faith as a crisis of imagination. No Christians before us have ever lived within this kind of world.

What will this new kind of saint, this new St. Francis, look like? I honestly don’t know. Neither, it seems, does anyone else. We have no answer yet, at least not one that’s been able to bear much fruit in the mainstream culture. That’s not surprising.

The type of imagination that reshapes history isn’t easily found. In the meantime we’ve come about as far as we can along the road that used to take us there, but which for many of our children no longer does.

Here’s our quandary: We’re better at knowing what to do once we get people into a church than we are at knowing how to get them there. Why? Our weakness, I believe, lies not in our theological imagination where we have rich theological and biblical insights aplenty. What we lack are saints on the ground, men and women who, in a passion and fidelity that’s at once radically faithful to God and fiercely empathic to our secular

world, can incarnate their faith into a way of living that can show us, practically, how we can be poor and humble disciples of Jesus even as we walk in an affluent and highly secularized world.

And such new persons will appear. We’ve been at this spot before in history and have always found our way forward. Every time the world believes it has buried Christ, the stone rolls back from the tomb; every time the cultural ethos declares that the churches are on an irrevocable downward slide, the Spirit intervenes and there’s soon an about face; every time we despair, thinking that our age can now longer produce saints and prophets, some Augustine or Francis comes along and shows that our age, like times of old, can too produce its saints; and every time our imaginations run dry, as they have now, we find that our scriptures are still full of fresh insight.

We may lack imagination, but we don’t lack hope.

Christ promised we will not be orphaned, and that promise is sure. God is still with us and our age will produce its own prophets and saints.

What’s asked of us in the moment is biblical patience, to wait on God. Christianity may look tired, tried, and spent to a culture within which affluence and sophistication are its current gods, but hope is already beginning to show its face: As secularization, with its affluence and sophistication, marches unswervingly forward we’re already beginning to see a number of men and women who have found ways to become postaffluent and post-sophisticated. These will be the new religious leaders who will teach us, and our children, how to live as Christians in this new situation.

be part of “natural law” as defined by St. Thomas Aquinas.

Many of St. Thomas’ writings were considered heretical in his day, until they were carefully studied.

The beginning of the Christian era was a time when many of the Old Testament teachings were challenged. “Contradiction” is not the right word for the adjustment. Some rules were just ignored.

Others, like circumcision, were replaced with some internal debate. Some, like condoning slavery, took a long time to change and even longer to implement socially.

Our present Pope Francis believes we are now in a similar period, as seen in the following quote; “… It is not useful to search for solutions in conservatism or fundamentalism,” the pope said.

“We are not living an era of change, but a change of era.”

Christian doctrine, he added, “is not a closed system incapable of generating questions, doubts, queries, but it’s alive, and able to unsettle, animate.” Doctrine, Francis said, “has a face that isn’t rigid, a body that moves and develops, it has tender flesh: that of Jesus Christ” (Crux, Nov. 10, 2015).

Alex M. Saunders, M.D. San Carlos

enous theology of creation that is compatible with the Christian faith, a theology that was misinterpreted by the early missionaries in the New World to express itself in the practice idolatry.

Granted that the indigenous people are animists, and in some cases polytheists, they believe material objects have spirits. They revere such objects, honor their images, perform rituals to gain favor with these spirits, invoke their intercession and offer sacrifices. Thus, we can correctly claim that their belief system is incompatible with the Catholic faith.

Pachamama is such a spirit, and is referred to as a fertility goddess in South America. Even if the wooden figure is not to be identified as Pachamama the spirit or goddess itself, any image or material object representing it in which worship or devotion is addressed, in an idol, and such ritual or admiration is rightly called idol worship.

This would include both the Pachamama idol as well as the black bowl with plant that appeared during Mass on the altar of St. Peter’s Basilica the day of the synod.

To sum up, the problem with this article’s argument is that it grants the indigenous mindset an ability to make distinctions it culturally cannot make. This mindset has no clear distinction to make between God and nature or the sacred and profane.

What we have here is an attempt to exploit a simple indigenous people by deliberately misrepresenting their religion belief in order to deceive the reader and manipulate his thought so that a synod of the Catholic Church might not be accused of sanctioning pagan idolatry.

Lance Ravella, Vallejo Confraternity of Christ Brother Paul J. McCarthy, Napa

OBLATE FATHER RON ROLHEISER is president of the Oblate School of Theology, San Antonio, Texas.

LETTERS Secularism’s record

Re “’Moral chaos’ not secularism’s fault,” Letters, Nov. 7: I think the author of this letter is not giving credit to secularism where it is due. Secularism can largely be thanked for the 60 million dead children through the legalization of abortion on demand.

The good news is those dead children can’t contribute to the carbon footprint so maybe there is a fair trade-off, although those children just might differ, but since they don’t vote or contribute to political campaigns, no one is listening to them.

Also, the secularists can claim credit for the acceptance of infanticide that is now being promoted by the secular left wing of the Democratic Party as exemplified by Gov. Northam of Virginia and several state legislatures that have approved of legalizing infanticide in their states.

The secularists can further take credit for the enforcement from the top down of homosexual and transgender agendas in schools as far down as kindergarten.

I just want to see credit where credit is due.

Stephen Firenze San Mateo

Doctrine through history

Regarding Stephen Firenze’s letter of Nov. 7, “Contradicting doctrine is unacceptable,” it must be difficult to live in a time when what we were taught is being questioned. Historically, very few changes in past have avoided conflict and resistance. It is right for the church to be conservative in declaring new doctrine or changes from an older position.

We all, however, live in a world that is forever changing, with new discoveries and development of new cultural attitudes. Frequently the church is put in a position to accept such changes and to develop adjustments to previous teaching.

Sometimes new knowledge gives insight that the church can use to advantage. For example, invention of the microscope permitted observation of uniting a sperm cell with an egg cell. “Beginning of life” could not have been defined before that invention in 1577. Doctrine changed very slowly to include that knowledge. But now it is claimed to

Indigenous spirituality, Christianity incompatible

Re “Synod looks at indigenous ‘theology of creation,”’ Catholic News Service, Oct. 24: The author presents the viewpoint of experts who would have us believe that the ceremonies that occurred at the Vatican Gardens, St. Peter’s Basilica and other churches around Rome were misunderstood by critics of the Amazon Synod.

Thus, according to these experts, what many regard to be pagan rituals actually express an indig-

LETTERS POLICY EMAIL letters.csf@sfarchdiocese.org WRITE Letters to the Editor, Catholic San Francisco, One Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco, CA 94109

NAME, address and daytime phone number for verification required.

SHORT letters preferred: 250 words or fewer

16 OPINION

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 5, 2019

Domestic peace at the holidays

A

s family members gather for the upcoming holidays, there might be more than sugarplums dancing in their heads. Some, perhaps many, might be inwardly anxious about the potential for hurtful arguments that can erupt among multigenerational clans.

Of course, Christmas and the other fall/winter holidays are not supposed to be times of anger or argument, especially not within our families, which are centers of love.

But with public discourse becoming increasingly fracMAUREEN PRATT tious and families straddling ever-widening gaps of age, experiences and opinion, fear about holidays-gone-contentious probably have more than a little merit.

Manners and manners of speaking that aren’t critical or dismissive are becoming rarer. The intensity of technology use among some generations can create wide deficits in the ability to converse in a meaningful way. People who have not seen one another in months or years might have changed in

St. Dunstan Church 1133 Broadway Millbrae, CA 94030 (650) 697-4730

ways that can be difficult for some to understand.

I remember my grandmother remarking on my brother’s growth spurt after not having seen him for several months. She said, “My, how you’ve grown!” He replied, “What did you expect, that I’d stay the same forever?” (Fortunately, my brother was still in his “cute” phase.)

The holiday season itself can heighten negative emotions along with extra stresses on budgets, time and energy. Pervasive advertisements and superficial “trappings” all around might raise expectations about gifts, what others are supposed to do or say (“We always have Christmas Eve at ...”), or not do or say (“She/He told me there’d be no arguments this year ...”).

Disappointment when reality falls short of those expectations might spill over in expressed anger, shattering peace.

Many online resources provided by psychologists and others offer good suggestions on ways to defuse or avoid fractious family situations at the holiday season.

These include limiting alcohol available at gatherings (substance abuse can bring on familial problems that reverberate for a long time after sobriety sets in), setting boundaries about what you will and will not discuss (and abiding by them), not taking others’ comments, ill-meaning or otherwise, personally (which, fortunately, my grandmother in the above scenario with my brother did not), and communicating about concerns (budgets, family obligations, “who should visit who when”) before the holidays, so a happy compromise can be reached.

One of the pleasures of the Christmas Season is the opportunity to send our thoughts and prayers to those whose friendship and goodwill we value so highly.

Understanding the relationship between expectations and reality can help temper temper.

There are additional suggestions that I have found helpful, too.

Stay true to the meaning of the holidays ahead.

Be grateful in Thanksgiving, full of wonder at Christmas and eager to start afresh in a New Year (with our own resolutions or in light of a resentment that might still linger toward a family member).

Pray for peace and courage to embrace family members whose ideas or attitudes might not be our favorite things; we do not have to bend our values or abandon our beliefs, but simply, kindly, love.

Engage in the exchange of ideas and opinions respectfully; a family gathering is not a debate stage, but much more meaningful – and fleeting. We never know what the year between this and next holiday season will bring, nor who will be with us and who will not.

Although I have experienced a few unfortunate holiday gatherings, they pale against the warm memories of others where faith (Mass, prayer, sharing faith experiences), festive food prepared with care and the blessing of time helped me appreciate other members of my family, close and extended.

Against the backdrop of today’s world, these good memories and yours, too, help urge us onward into this season and the next, bringing peace, shining light, making it home.

MAUREEN PRATT writes for the Catholic News Service column “Living Well.”

CHRISTMAS LITURGIES

The priests and staff of St. Dunstan Parish join in wishing you a very blessed Christmas. May the gift of faith, the blessing of hope, and the peace of God’s love be with you and yours throughout the New Year.

The Parish of St. Catherine of Siena 1310 Bayswater Ave. Burlingame CA 94010

Christmas Celebrations at St. Dunstan 2019

Christmas Masses:

CHRISTMAS EVE MASSES 4:30 pm Children’s Mass with Pageant 11:00 pm Christmas Carols 11:30 pm Christmas Mass

Christmas Eve (Tuesday, December 24) 4:00 p.m.

Christmas Vigil Mass 6:00 p.m.

Christmas Family Mass 12 Midnight Christmas Midnight Mass 11:30 p.m. - Christmas Concert

CHRISTMAS DAY MASSES 7:00 am, 8:30 am, 10:00 am, and 11:30 am

NO 5:00 pm Mass on Christmas Day

Christmas Day (Wednesday, December 25) Masses: 8 a.m., 10:30 a.m., and 12 noon

Simbang Gabi and Christmas Mass Schedules for 2019 Our Lady of Mercy Parish 5 Elmwood Drive, Daly City

Our Lady of Angels Catholic Church

Between South Mayfair and Southgate Avenues with plenty of free parking! ¶ Sunday, Dec. 15, to Monday, Dec. 23: ¶Sunday, Sunday, Dec. 15,15, to Monday, Dec. 23 : Saturday, 2:30 pm) 6:30 p.m.

Rosary and Confession (except ¶ Dec. to Monday, Dec. 23: 2:30 pm) 6:30 p.m.

Rosary and Masses Confession Saturday, ¶ Sunday, Dec. 15, to Monday, Dec. 23(except : Saturday, 7:00 p.m.

Simbang Gabi (except 5:30 pm),

1721 Hillside Drive, Burlingame Capuchin Franciscans 650-347-7768

6:30 p.m.

Rosary and Confession (except Saturday, 2:30 pm) 7:00 p.m.

Gabi Masses (except Saturday, 5:30 pm), 6:30 p.m.

Rosary and Confession (except 2:30 pm) followed by aSimbang Reception downstairs in our Saturday, Church Hall.

7:00 Gabi Masses Saturday, 5:30 pm), 7:00 p.m.p.m.

Simbang Gabi Masses (except 5:30 pm), followed bySimbang a Reception downstairs inSaturday, our(except Church Hall. ¶ Tuesday, December followed by a by Reception downstairs in our Church followed a24: Reception downstairs inHall. our Church Hall. ¶ Tuesday, December 24:a.m.

7:00 a.m.; 9:00 ¶ Tuesday, December 24: 9:00 a.m.

Christmas Eve, Tuesday December 24th 4:007:00 p.m.a.m.; Christmas Eve Mass ¶ Tuesday,6:00 December 24:Eve 7:00 a.m.; 9:00 a.m.

4:00 p.m.

Christmas EveMass.

Mass p.m.

Christmas 4:00 pm p.m.

Christmas Eve Mass 7:00 a.m.; 9:00 a.m.

6:00 p.m.

Christmas Eve Mass.

11:30pm4:00 Sing-along Christmas Carols with our Parish Choir p.m.

Christmas Eve Mass.

11:30pm Sing-along Carols with our Parish Choir 6:00 pm Children’s Mass 4:00 p.m.Christmas Christmas Eve Mass 12:006:00 a.m.

Midnight Mass with our Choir.

11:30pm Sing-along ChristmasMass Carols withour ourChoir.

Parish Choir 12:00 a.m.

Midnight with ¶ Wednesday, December 25:Christmas Christmas Day Masses at 6:00 p.m.

Eve Mass.

10:00 pm Candlelight Mass 12:00 7:30 a.m.

Midnight 25: Mass with ourDay Choir. ¶ Wednesday, December Christmas Masses at our Parish Choir a.m.

11:30pm Sing-along Christmas Carols with (No Mass at Midnight) ¶ Wednesday,9:00 December 25: Christmas Day Masses at 7:30 a.m. a.m.

12:00 a.m.

7:30 a.m.

9:00 a.m. Midnight Mass with our Choir.

10:30 a.m.

Christmas Day, Wednesday, December 25th 9:00 a.m.

12:00 p.m. with our Parish 10:30 a.m.

Wednesday, December 25:Choir.

Christmas Day Masses at 10:30 a.m.

12:00 p.m. with our Parish Choir.

8:00 am, 10:00 am, and 12 Noon a.m.our Parish Choir. ¶Tuesday, December 12:007:30 p.m.31 with 7:00 9:00 a.m. a.m. ¶Tuesday, December 31 New Year’s Day Masses ¶Tuesday, December 31 9:00 a.m.

7:00 a.m.

10:30 a.m.

7:00 a.m.

Vigil Mass on Tuesday, December 31st at 5:30 pm . Vigil Mass for New Year 6:00 p.ma.m.

9:00 Choir.

12:00 with our Parish 9:00 a.m. p.m.

Solemnity Mary, Mother of God Mass for New Year 6:00 p.m.ofVigil Wednesday, January 1, 2020 6:00 p.m. Vigil Mass for New Year Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God ¶Wednesday, January 1,of2020 Mary, Mother of God ¶Tuesday, December 31- Solemnity Solemnity Mary, Mother ofofGod 8:00 am, 11:00 am, & 7:30 pm a.m.a.m. ¶Wednesday, 7:00 January 1, 2020 - Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God 7:00 11:30 am at Marian Oaks Convent ¶Wednesday, January 1, 2020 - Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God 9:00 a.m.

7:00 a.m.

9:00 a.m.

7:00 a.m.

6:00 p.m.

9:00 a.m.

9:00 a.m.p.m. Vigil Mass for New Year 6:00 The Capuchin Franciscans & Parish Staff 6:00 p.m.

6:00 p.m.

2019 Christmas Schedule

¶

Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God

wish our Parishioners and Friends Peace, Love and Hope for Christmas and the New Year.

¶Wednesday , January 1, 2020 - Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God

7:00 a.m.

9:00 a.m.

6:00 p.m.

NATIONAL 17

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 5, 2019

CHICAGO AUXILIARY NAMED SAN BERNARDINO COADJUTOR

WASHINGTON – Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Alberto Rojas, who has been an auxiliary bishop of the Chicago archdiocese since 2011, as coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of San Bernardino, California.

The appointment was announced in Washington Dec. 2 by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Bishop Gerald R. Barnes, 74, Bishop Alberto heads the San Bernardino diocese.

Rojas He turns 75 next June, the age at which canon law requires bishops to turn their resignation into the pope. As coadjutor, the 54-yearold Bishop Rojas automatically becomes head of the diocese upon Bishop Barnes’ retirement or death.

Born Jan. 5, 1965, in Aguascalientes, Mexico, Alberto Rojas studied for the priesthood at St. Maria de Guadalupe Seminary in Aguascalientes and at the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary in the Archdiocese of Chicago. He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1997.

WEST VIRGINIA BISHOP ASKS PREDECESSOR TO REPAY $792,000 TO DIOCESE

WASHINGTON – Bishop Mark E. Brennan of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, has asked the former bishop of the diocese to pay back more than $792,000 to cover the “inappropriate expenditure of diocesan funds to support a luxurious lifestyle.”

Bishop Brennan outlined a series of other actions he has proposed that retired Bishop Michael J. Bransfield take including issuing apologies to the people he is alleged to have sexually abused, to the faithful of the diocese for “the grievous harm he caused,” and to diocesan employees “who suffered from a culture of intimidation and retribution which the former bishop created.”

A nine-point “plan of amends” developed by Bishop Brennan was announced in a Nov. 26 letter he sent to the faithful of the diocese. The plan covers several measures including a reduction in his diocesan pension, the loss of certain aspects of health care coverage, the return or purchase of the car Bishop Bransfield was provided at retirement and denial of burial in the diocese.

Bishop Bransfield, 76, left his position in Septem-

CHRISTMAS LITURGIES Saint Emydius Church 286 Ashton Avenue San Francisco, CA 94112

(415) 587-7066 Fax (415) 587-6690

Advent / Christmas / Epiphany Celebrations

“JESUS CHRIST IS GOD’S ACTION THROUGH, WITH AND IN US. HOW DO WE PARTICIPATE?” ADVENT Sunday, December 15 Third Sunday of Advent • Regular Schedule Sunday, December 22 Fourth Sunday of Advent • Regular Schedule

CHRISTMAS

Tuesday, December 24 Christmas Vigil Mass 4:00 p.m.

Wednesday, December 25 Christmas Masses: 12:00 Midnight, 10:00 a.m.

Sunday, December 29 Feast of the Holy Family • Regular Schedule Wednesday, January 01 Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God (Holy Day) Octave of the Nativity 10:00 a.m.

EPIPHANY

Saturday, January 04 Anointing of the Sick Mass 10:00 a.m. (no 8:00 a.m. Mass) Monday, January 06 Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord Regular Schedule Sunday, January 12 Feast of the Baptism of the Lord Regular Schedule Tuesday, January 13 Ordinary Time begins Regular Schedule means: 4:00 p.m. Vigil Mass on Saturday, 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Masses on Sunday

ber 2018 after 13 years in the diocese under a cloud of allegations of sexual and financial misconduct.

Pope Francis accepted Bishop Bransfield’s resignation Sept. 13, 2018.

NEW ASYLUM RULES IGNORE PLIGHT OF CENTRAL AMERICANS, CATHOLIC LEADERS SAY

WASHINGTON – Two Catholic leaders expressed concern with the federal government’s plan to send Central Americans who want asylum in the U.S. to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador where they would have apply for U.S. asylum while in one of those countries.

Auxiliary Bishop Mario E. Dorsonville of Washington and Sean Callahan, president and CEO of Catholic Relief Services, said in a Nov. 25 statement the plan “undermines U.S. moral leadership in protecting vulnerable populations and risks further destabilizing the region.” They called on the government to “preserve and uphold the sacredness and dignity of all human life” by not turning away from people who are facing a variety of threats in the region and are “in desperate need of help.”

Their reaction comes to two notices published in the Federal Register Nov. 18 announcing the govern-

ment’s intention to implement asylum cooperative agreements reached with the three Central American nations earlier this year. The agreements require migrants traveling to the U.S. to apply for protections in one of the three countries they pass through first.

POLL: MOST AMERICANS NOW FAVOR LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE OVER DEATH PENALTY

WASHINGTON, D.C. – For the first time in more than three decades, a majority of Americans favor life imprisonment without parole over the death penalty as a punishment for murder.

A Gallup poll released this week found that 60% of survey respondents said life without parole is the preferable sentence for a person convicted of murder, while 36% said the death penalty is preferable.

This is the first time in Gallup’s 34 years of tracking that respondents have favored life imprisonment over the death penalty. In the 1980s and ‘90s, Americans showed a clear preference for the death penalty for convicted murderers.

The latest survey was conducted in October, and polled 1,500 adults living throughout the United States.

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE, CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY

The Filipino Ministry of the Archdiocese of San Francisco invites you to its 12th Annual

Simbang Gabi Commissioning Mass Tuesday, December 10, 2019 7:30pm at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption 1111 Gough St, San Francisco, CA 94109 Reception & Fellowship immediately after the Mass Come join us as the Archdiocese sends us forth on a mission to be the light of Christ.

The Archdiocese’s Simbang Gabi Commissioning Mass heralds the beginning of Simbang Gabi Masses celebrated in its various parishes in the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Below are the 2019 schedules of masses submitted to the Filipino Ministry. Please double check the times of the mass, or contact your local church if it is not listed below: SAN FRANCISCO COUNTY: Church of the Epiphany Church of the Visitation Corpus Christi Holy Name of Jesus St. Anne of the Sunset St. Boniface St. Elizabeth St. John the Evangelist St. Peter St. Patrick St. Paul of the Shipwreck St. Stephen(1) St. Thomas More Cathedral Deanery: • Most Holy Redeemer • Most Holy Redeemer • St. Ignatius • St. Monica/St. Thomas(2) • Cathedral of St. Mary • Star of the Sea • St. Dominic • St. Vincent de Paul • Star of the Sea

SAN MATEO COUNTY:

All Souls

Holy Angels Mater Dolorosa Our Lady of Mercy

Dec 15-23 Dec 16-24 Dec 15, 21-22 Dec 16-20, 23 Dec 16-24 Dec 15, 21-22 Dec 16-20, 23 Dec 15-23 Dec 15-23 Dec 22 Dec 16-21, 23-24 Dec 16-24 Dec 16-24 Dec 21, 22, 23 Dec 16-24 Dec 15, 22 Dec 16-21, 23

7:00pm 6:00am 5:00pm 7:00pm 5:30am 5:00pm 7:00pm 5:30pm 7:00pm 9:30am 9:00am 5:30am 6:00am 6:00pm 6:00am 8:00pm 7:00pm

Dec 15 Dec 16 Dec 17 Dec 18 Dec 19 Dec 20 Dec 21 Dec 22 Dec 23

6:30pm 8:00am 5:00pm 7:00pm 7:30am 6:30pm 5:30pm 5:15pm 6:30pm

Dec 16-20 Dec 15, 21-22 Dec 15-23 Dec 15-23 Dec 15-23

6:00pm 5:15pm 7:00pm 7:00pm 7:00pm

Our Lady of Perpetual Help St. Andrew St. Augustine St. Bruno (call 650-588-2121) St. Robert St. Timothy St. Veronica Central San Mateo Deanery: • St. Luke • St. Mark • St. Gregory • St. Catherine of Siena • St. Matthew • St. Bartholomew • Immaculate Heart of Mary • Our Lady of Angels • St. Luke South San Mateo Deanery: • St. Pius • Nativity • St. Matthias • Vallombrosa Retreat Ctr • TBD (call 650-323-7914) • St. Raymond • Our Lady of Mount Carmel • St. Charles • St. Denis

MARIN COUNTY: St. Isabella

Dec 16-24 Dec 15, 22 Dec 16-21, 23 Dec 15-23 TBD Dec 15-23 Dec 15, 22 Dec 16-20, 23 Dec 15, 22 Dec 21 Dec 16-20

5:30am 4:45pm 7:00pm 7:00pm TBD 7:00pm 7:30am 6:00am 4:00pm 5:00pm 6:30pm

Dec 15 Dec 16 Dec 17 Dec 18 Dec 19 Dec 20 Dec 21 Dec 22 Dec 23

7:00pm 7:00pm 7:00pm 7:00pm 7:00pm 7:00pm 5:00pm 7:30pm 7:00pm

Dec 15 Dec 16 Dec 17 Dec 18 Dec 19 Dec 20 Dec 21 Dec 22 Dec 23

5:00pm 7:00pm 7:00pm 7:00pm TBD 5:00pm 5:00pm 5:00pm 7:00pm

Dec 16-20

7:00pm

TBD – Indicates location, and/or date, and/or time has not yet been determined as of the date of this writing. Check with the respective parish or deanery to determine their schedule for this year.

(1) Joint celebration with St. Brendan, St. Cecilia, St. Finn Barr, and St. Gabriel (2) Celebrated at St. Monica

18 FROM THE FRONT

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 5, 2019

SAINT: High school prepares for martyred teacher’s sainthood FROM PAGE 13

tiple times a day they participate in a call-andresponse invocation that now includes, “Blessed Brother James Miller,” “pray for us.”

“He has a big footprint here,” Miley said, “and the beatification is making that footprint even bigger.”

The administrator said he could not hope for a more inspiring example to lift up to the students.

“One of the things we’re in dire need of is heroes, especially heroes who point us to helping each other, loving each other and directing each other toward God,” Miley said.

Brother Miller’s courage in the face of danger is particularly appealing to young men, who are more likely to engage in service opportunities that are challenging or feel risky, Miley said. “For young men, that sense of adventure is another element that Brother James embodies.”

Brother Miller was a farm boy from Stevens Point, Wisconsin, whose work ethic prodded him to quietly help across campus: mopping floors, cleaning furnaces and plumbing.

Students watched him lumber down the halls in his long black robe, tools strapped to his belt, and took to calling him “Brother Fixit.” No work was beneath him.

He lived simply, wearing the same overalls every week. He coached soccer and taught Spanish. He

‘One of the things we’re in dire need of is heroes, especially heroes who point us to helping each other, loving each other and directing each other toward God.’ FRANK MILEY

President, Cretin-Derham Hall High related to his students, maintaining high standards that were softened by his ready humor and belly laugh.

But the plight of Third World countries was no laughing matter. Brother Miller seized every opportunity to educate his students. They collected money for their mission schools, and Brother Miller spoke passionately about his dream of becoming a missionary.

He never took for granted the luxury of being an American and had no patience for what today are dubbed “first-world problems,” said Donny Geng, who taught at the school during the same time and is now retired. “He was tired of the American cavalierness about education. It’s an entitlement.”

Brother Miller’s knowledge of Central America expanded the teens’ horizons.

“It was clear from the beginning that he was a

CHRISTMAS LITURGIES

GET HOME BEFORE DARK! 4 p.m. Saturday Vigil Mass in San Francisco!

ST. TERESA OF AVILA CATHOLIC CHURCH

St. Emydius Catholic Church

SERVED BY THE CARMELITES

th

19

286 Ashton Avenue, San Francisco (one block from Ocean Ave.)

Street at Connecticut PLEASE JOIN US FOR OUR CHRISTMAS MASSES

Serving the Ingleside community of San Francisco, since 1913, St. Emydius is a multi-cultural, multi-racial, all inclusive faith-sharing community.

Vigil, December 24th: 4:15 Children’s Mass 9:00 pm Choir Mass December 25th: 8:30 & 10:00 am New Year’s Day: 9:00am

Daily Mass At 8:00 am 4:00 pm Saturday Vigil Mass 8:30 am Sunday Mass 10:30 am Sunday Mass To reach us from 19th Ave., take Holloway Ave., (near S.F. State, heading East), to Ashton Ave., left on Ashton to De Montfort Ave. To reach us from 280 S. (at City College) exit Ocean Ave. going West, turn left on Ashton to De Montfort Ave., (1/2 block up).

YOU ARE ALWAYS WELCOME TO JOIN US!

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Unto Us A Child Is Born

St. Gabriel Church CHRISTMAS MASS SCHEDULE Christmas Eve, Tuesday, December 24, 2019

11:30 PM 12:00 AM

Christmas Vigil Mass, Family Mass Music: St. Gabriel Crooners Christmas Vigil Mass Music: Guitar Christmas Carols with Choir Midnight Mass. Music: Choir

Christmas Day, Wednesday, December 25, 2019 8:00 AM ~ 10:00 AM 12:00 PM Music: Choir and Brass Ensemble

NEW YEAR’S EVE AND NEW YEAR’S DAY Tuesday, December 31, 2019 8:30 AM

Wednesday, January 1, 2020 Solemnity of Mary, The Mother of God Holy Day of Obligation 10:00 AM

ic Church ol

There will be no evening Mass on Christmas Day.

4:15 pm 8:30 & 10:00 am

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Tuesday Friday

8:30 am 8:30 am

For more information: Call: 415-285-5272 · E-mail: info@stteresasf.org · www.stteresasf.org

eemer CAth ed

ost Holy R M

6:00 PM

Saturday Vigil Sunday

Merry Christmas

2559 40th Avenue San Francisco, CA 94116 415.731.6161

4:00 PM

champion of the poor and wanted desperately to serve down there,” said Christian Brother Pat Conway, a humanities professor at St. Mary’s University in Winona, who was a student when Brother Miller began teaching.

Brother Miller was alternately firm and flexible.

Once, Brother Conway was given a detention for missing school. As punishment, he had to take down hockey boards after school. Brother Miller knew the boy had been hospitalized at the time and discretely informed the dean. A few minutes later, the dean called out: “Conway, go home.”

“It was that human side,” Brother Conway said.

“He was very quiet about it.”

He likewise remained relatively quiet about the danger of his mission work but confided in close friends. Once, a round of machine gun fire had sent him for cover, Geng recalled. “He said, ‘I never knew I could pray so fervently as when under my bed.’”

To teach at a Christian Brother school in Guatemala was the fulfillment of a dream. He felt purposeful and needed.

Three days after his death, a crowd gathered at the Cathedral of St. Paul for his funeral Mass celebrated by then-Archbishop John Roach. “The beauty of the life of James Miller, and those who serve God’s poorest in that part of the world, is that they serve with faith and an absolute commitment to the belief that that’s where the Lord wants them,” the archbishop said.

Sa n F est. 1900 ca rancisco,

God’s inclusive love proclaimed here!

Mass Schedules:

December 24th(Monday) (Tuesday) December 24th Christmas Mass Christmas Eve Eve Mass 9:30 PMCarols Carols | 10:00pm 10:00 PM 9:30pm

100 Diamond St. @ 18th, San Francisco, CA 94114 (415) 863-6259 | mhr.org

December December25th 25th(Wednesday) (Tuesday) Christmas Mass ChristmasDay Day Mass 8:00 AM | 10:0010:00am AM 8:00am Carols

FROM THE FRONT 19

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 5, 2019

ADVENT: Making the most of a season of hope, joy, reflection, healing FROM PAGE 12

think that is putting our focus on Jesus, on healing, on light, on hope,” she added. “I think we can use that Nativity scene in our home. We can sit and be present at a place of meditation and prayer.”

Joe Boland, vice president of mission for Chicago-based Catholic Extension, also finds great comfort in the creche.

Catholic Extension, which provides material and spiritual assistance to mission territories in the U.S. church, promotes a concept called “Meet Your Creche,” catholicextension.org/nativity. “The way that I’m going to meet my creche through the lens of Catholic Extension and as a Catholic is really through an encounter with the poor,” Boland told Catholic News Service.

“Pope Francis keeps calling us to this idea of encounter. For me, for us, the creche and the Nativity scene is a moment of encounter. It’s Christ encountering the world in a very unique and special way now,” he said.

“It’s going be my moment with my own kids – they’re 10, 8 and 6. They know their dad goes out around the country and meets a lot of kids. We have to pay attention to one really important event to think about the creche. Jesus is born into poverty, and from poverty, we learn a lot.”

He spoke of the hope people in Puerto Rico have despite the devastation they have suffered. Catholic Extension has ministered in Puerto Rico for a century, yet many are “recovering from the still-devas-

(CNS PHOTO/GREGORY A. SHEMITZ, LONG ISLAND CATHOLIC)

Mary Gibbons and her granddaughter Meghan, 5, assemble an Advent wreath on the first Sunday of Advent, Dec. 1, 2019, at Our Lady of Grace Church in West Babylon, New York. More than 50 families gathered at the church to construct wreaths for their personal use during Advent.

tating effects of hurricane Maria. Two years later and still absolutely no rebuilding yet,” Boland said.

“But people still talk about their hope and God’s solidarity with them as a people,” he said, and “a sense of joy that God has given them life and they’re going to use the best of their ability to help them and their neighbor.”

The destruction there includes hurricane damage to 20 churches, yet people are “going out and still meeting their neighbors.”

CHRISTMAS LITURGIES

He recounted the tale of a Puerto Rican boy whose father has to work far away from home to earn money for the family. When the subject of Christmas came up, the lad’s idea, according to Boland was: “We can put our gift in the front, and Dad will come home.”

De La Salle Christian Brother Javier Hansen, a religion teacher at Cathedral High School in El Paso, Texas, sets out to instill habits his students may not have in cultivating Advent customs.

“A lot of our students cross the border (with Mexico) every day. I envy them in some sense because they go home and pray the rosary together,” said Brother Hansen, adding that earlier in November, he “went over with them.”

He noted that various institutions have their own calendar – the school year, the monthly calendar and “the church also has a liturgical year that begins in Advent.”

A big fan of Advent music, Brother Hansen said he’ll sit with his students and sing Advent songs with them.

“Advent tells a real story of our faith,” he added.

“Part of my job is to write reflections to the parents and the larger school community on virtues such a patience. That’s a big virtue that’s associated with the season.”

Students, he said, “need a small reminder at times that secular society’s not helping us all the time when they’re putting Christmas ornaments in stores and everything, and (make it seem) that Advent doesn’t exist. That’s not their main intention, but that’s kind of what it’s doing to us.”

NATIONAL SHRINE OF SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI Please come to enjoy the Shrine’s public Nativity Display at the front entry to the historic church from the afternoon of Sunday, December 8 through Sunday, January 5, 2020.

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CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 5, 2019

Pope: Nativity scenes a ‘wonderful sign’ of God’s love COURTNEY MARES CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY

GRECCIO, Italy – Pope Francis issued an apostolic letter Dec. 1 on the meaning and importance of Nativity scenes, calling for this “wonderful sign” to be more widely displayed in family homes and public places throughout the world.

“The enchanting image of the Christmas crèche, so dear to the Christian people, never ceases to arouse amazement and wonder. The depiction of Jesus’ birth is itself a simple and joyful proclamation of the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God,” Pope Francis wrote in “Admirabile signum,” meaning “A wonderful sign” in Latin.

“With this letter, I wish to encourage the beautiful family tradition of preparing the Nativity scene in the days before Christmas, but also the custom of setting it up in the workplace, in schools, hospitals, prisons and town squares,” he said.

Pope Francis traveled to the Italian town of Greccio – where St. Francis of Assisi created the first Nativity scene in 1223 – where the pope signed the letter on the first day of Advent.

“In front of the crib we discover how important it is for our life, so often frenetic, to find moments of silence and prayer. The silence to behold the beauty of the face of the baby Jesus, the Son of God, born in a lowly stable,” Pope Francis said in Greccio Dec. 1.

The letter details the story behind St. Francis’ first Nativity scene, or crèche.

(CNS PHOTO/VATICAN MEDIA)

Pope Francis prays during a visit to the Nativity scene of Greccio, Italy, Dec. 1, 2019. The first Nativity scene was assembled in Greccio by St. Francis of Assisi in 1223.

The saint asked a friend 15 days before Christmas to help him prepare “to bring to life” the memory of Christ’s birth in Bethlehem.

“When St. Francis arrived, he found a manger full of hay, an ox and a donkey,” the letter explains. “All those present experienced a new and indescribable joy in the presence of the Christmas scene. The priest then solemnly celebrated the Eucharist over the manger, showing the bond between the Incarnation of the Son of God and the Eucharist. At Greccio there were no statues; the Nativity scene was en-

Merry Christmas

acted and experienced by all who were present.”

The first biographer of St. Francis, Thomas of Celano, wrote that someone present at the Mass had a vision of the baby Jesus himself lying in the manger.

“In a particular way, from the time of its Franciscan origins, the Nativity scene has invited us to ‘feel’ and ‘touch’ the poverty that God’s Son took upon himself in the Incarnation. Implicitly, it summons us to follow him along the path of humility, poverty and selfdenial that leads from the manger of Bethlehem to the cross,” Pope Francis wrote.

The apostolic letter contains a meditation on the meaning and symbolism of different elements found in a Nativity scene, including St. Augustine’s reflection on the significance of Jesus, the bread of life, being laid in a manger where animals feed: “Laid in a manger, he became our food.”

“Setting up the Christmas crèche in our homes helps us to relive the history of what took place in Bethlehem,” Pope Francis wrote.

“When, at Christmas, we place the statue of the Infant Jesus in the manger, the Nativity scene suddenly comes alive.

God appears as a child, for us to take into our arms. Beneath weakness and frailty, he conceals his power that creates and transforms all things,” he said.

Pope Francis encouraged parents to share this Nativity tradition with their children, and said that one’s childhood memories of the joy and wonder of the Nativity help one to recall the “precious gift” of faith passed down within families.

The pope also gave his approval for children and adults who love to add to the Nativity scene other figures that have no apparent connection with the Gospel accounts.

“From the shepherd to the blacksmith, from the baker to the musicians, from the women carrying jugs of water to the children at play,” the pope said.

All this speaks of the everyday holiness, the joy of doing ordinary things in an extraordinary way, born whenever Jesus shares his divine life with us,” he said.

CHRISTMAS LITURGIES

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WORLD 21

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 5, 2019

Francis: Witnesses better than initiatives in parish-based evangelization HANNAH BROCKHAUS CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY

VATICAN CITY – Having a lot of parish initiatives is not the best way to reach people on a deeper level, Pope Francis said Monday, adding that evangelization is about giving a witness to personal encounter with Christ.

“Our parishes are invaded by many initiatives, where often, however, it does not affect the lives of people in depth,” he said Nov. 18 in the Vatican’s Pope Paul VI hall.

Speaking to Catholics who take part in “parish cells,” small, neighborhood-based prayer and study groups in Italy, he said, “you too are entrusted with the task of reviving, especially in this period, the life of our parish communities.”

“This will be possible insofar as [parishes] become, above all, a place to listen to the Word of God and celebrate the mystery of his death and resurrection,” he explained. “Only from here can we think that the work of evangelization becomes effective and fruitful, capable of bearing fruit.”

Though it is human to want to see positive He noted that many people, for different reaoutcomes and results, he reminded Catholics that sons, are no longer attending their parish, arguthere is no promise from the Lord they will see ing that “it is therefore urgent that we recover them. the need for the encounter to reach people where “Jesus did not tell the disciples that they would they live and work.” see the fruits of their work. He only assured that “If we have encountered Christ in our lives, the fruits would endure. This promise also apthen we cannot just keep it for ourselves. It is plies to us,” he stated. crucial that we share this experience also with “Do not hold back any fear of the new, and do others; this is the main road to evangelization,” not slow down your steps [among] the difficulties he said. “When the encounter is the fruit of Christian love, it changes lives because it reaches that are inevitable in the way of evangelization,” he added. the hearts of people and touches them in depth.”

“When one is a missionary disciple, then enthuParish cells are a ministry begun by Msgr. siasm can never fail!”

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CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 5, 2019

Dispute ideas, pope tells theologians, but don’t confuse the faithful CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

VATICAN CITY – Theologians must explore and debate disputed questions, at times even taking “risks” with what they propose, but those discussions should take place within the academy so as not to confuse the faithful, Pope Francis said.

“Theology must move forward,” the pope told members of the International Theological CommisPope Francis sion. “It must face things that are not clear and take risks in discussion. However, this is among theologians.

“You must give the solid food of faith to the people of God, not feed the people of God disputed questions,” because that could confuse them and cause them to lose their faith, the pope told the group Nov. 29 during a meeting celebrating the commission’s 50th anniversary.

BRITISH BISHOPS URGE VOTERS TO QUESTION CANDIDATES ON LIFE ISSUES

St. Paul VI established the commission to continue the collaboration between theologians and the teaching authority of the church experienced at the Second Vatican Council, the pope said. And he wanted to ensure that the doctrinal congregation would benefit from the contributions of theologians reflecting on questions of faith in different parts of the world and in different cultural contexts.

“In fact,” the pope told them, “you listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches in different cultures today in order to shed light on ever-new aspects of the inexhaustible mystery of Christ.”

By “translating” the faith for people of different cultures, he said, theologians help people feel “closer to and embraced by the church, taken by the hand where they are and accompanied to taste the sweetness of the ‘kerygma’ (proclamation of Christ) and its timeless newness.”

“Good theology” is research that is born of a

theologian’s own active spiritual life, he said.

“Theology is born and grows on one’s knees!”

And, Pope Francis added, theology develops within and contributes to the life of the church.

“One does not do theology as an individual, but in community, at the service of all, to spread the good news of the Gospel to brothers and sisters of their time, always with sweetness and respect.”

Pope Francis thanked the commission members especially for their 2018 document, “Synodality in the Life and Mission of the Church.”

“You demonstrated how the practice of synodality, which is traditional but always needing renewal, is, in the history of the pilgrim people of God, the realization of the church as a mystery of communion in the image of the Trinitarian communion,” the pope said.

“As you know, this theme is very close to my heart,” he told the theologians.

“Synodality is a style, it is walking together and it is what the Lord wants from the church of the third millennium,” he said.

available on demand and up to the point of birth, a policy pro-life groups say would create one of the most extreme abortion regimes in the world.

The Liberal Democrats have said they would decriminalize abortion within the first 24 weeks of pregnancy and enforce exclusion zones around every abortion clinic to stop pro-life counseling and prayer vigils.

The ruling Conservative Party was silent about abortion in its election manifesto.

In their statement, the English and Welsh bishops asked Catholics to quiz candidates on how they would uphold “the innate dignity of every human being, defending both the child in the womb, the good of the mother and an understanding of the immeasurable good of a child not yet born.”

uprising in Lebanon and continued suffering in Syria, Catholic leaders of the Middle East called upon officials of their homelands to “ensure safety, peace and tranquility and stability for their citizens.”

Meeting in Cairo Nov. 25-29, the Council of Catholic Patriarchs of the East addressed political, economic and social difficulties that many countries are suffering as a result of unrest, violence, extremism and terrorism.

Massive demonstrations against the political ruling class have plagued Iraq since Oct. 1 and Lebanon since Oct. 17. About 400 people have died and thousands have been wounded in protests in Iraq.

The patriarchs called on Iraqi authorities “to take courageous action to get the country out of this great crisis so that the bloodshed will stop and life will return to normal by building a strong state on sound foundations, in which true democracy, justice and human dignity prevails, combating corruption.”

MANCHESTER, England – British bishops have made the right to life a priority for Catholics ahead of a general election in which two major political parties have promised to liberalize abortion laws.

A statement from the bishops of England and Wales, released Nov. 29, put the right to life at the top of a list of key issues they want Catholic voters to raise with parliamentary candidates ahead of the Dec. 12 election.

The bishops of Scotland also made abortion and euthanasia their primary concerns in a letter issued to voters Nov. 19.

Their statements came as the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats, in their pre-election manifestoes, promised to reform abortion laws.

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MANILA, Philippines – Christians who suffer from persecution across the world were honored during the observance of “Red Wednesday,” a global campaign to encourage people to stand up for religious freedom.

In the Philippines, red lights illuminated at least 2,000 prominent landmarks and churches across the country to highlight global religious persecution.

In his message during a Mass to mark the occasion on Nov. 27, Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan reminded Filipinos that “martyrdom ... is about living for the faith.”

The prelate, who has been charged by authorities with sedition and other criminal offenses for his criticism of government policies, urged Christians to forgive their persecutors.

“It is not the business of God to condemn but to save,” he said.

Red Wednesday is a campaign promoted by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) and the group Christian Solidarity Worldwide. A study on religious freedom estimated that about 300 million Christians around the world live in an environment of violent persecution and discrimination and are prevented from practicing their faith.

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CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 5, 2019

Australia’s bishops protest move to force priests to reveal confessions CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY

CANBERRA, Australia – Australia’s Catholic bishops said they support “nationally consistent” reporting standards for the abuse of minors but cannot support new national legal standards that would force priests to report real or suspected child abuse learned under the strict confidence of sacramental confessions.

“The removal of protections at law would be ineffective, counterproductive and unjust: ineffective because abusers do not seek out confession and certainly would not seek it out if they knew that their offences would

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be reported,” Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, said in a statement to Reuters.

“Counterproductive because the rare opportunity a priest may have to counsel abusers to turn themselves in and amend their life would be lost; and unjust because it would establish as a matter of law a situation where a priest would not be able to defend himself against an accusation made against him,” he added.

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24 WORLD

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 5, 2019

JAPAN: Powerful nations protect all life, pope says FROM PAGE 1

of God “can be repressed and weakened if we are enclosed in a vicious circle of anxiety and competition” or if people are convinced that what they produce or consume determines their worth.

When Jesus tells his followers not to be anxious, Pope Francis said, he’s not saying basic necessities like food and shelter are unimportant, but he is telling them that a single-minded focus on success and individual happiness “in reality leaves us profoundly unhappy and enslaved, and hinders the authentic development of a truly harmonious and humane society.”

Catholics need to embrace and teach others to embrace “things that are not perfect,” particularly by demonstrating that all human beings are deserving of love, he said. “Is a disabled or frail person not worthy of love? Someone who happens to be a foreigner, someone who made a mistake, someone ill or in prison: Is that person not worthy of love?

We know what Jesus did: He embraced the leper, the blind man, the paralytic, the Pharisee and the sinner.”

In a long and lively dialogue with young people that morning in St. Mary’s Cathedral, Pope Fran-

cis talked about how many people in Japan and in other countries are materially rich “but live as slaves to unparalleled loneliness.”

Excessive wealth, he said, can numb young people. “Everything bores them; they no longer dream, laugh or play. They have no sense of wonder or surprise. They are like zombies,” he said.

The pope said “zombis” in Spanish; when he strayed from his prepared text, which he did often, he would nod to Jesuit Father Renzo De Luca, his former student and current provincial of the Jesuits in Japan. Father De Luca was his official translator during the trip.

Before meeting the young people, Pope Francis had a 20-minute private meeting with Japan’s Emperor Naruhito at the Imperial Palace. Afterward, a palace spokesman said the pope told the emperor that he remembers as an almost 9-year-old seeing his parents crying after they heard about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

His parents’ crying, he said, left a big impression on him.

After the Mass, the pope met with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and then both of them spoke to government officials, civic leaders and members of the diplomatic corps.

Abe thanked the pope particularly for his long attention to the evils of the nuclear arms race.

“I am at a loss for words at the weight of the sorrow and pain wrought by the atomic bomb, and also at the profundity of the prayers offered by Pope Francis, who shows his compassionate consideration of this and whose heart goes out in such great sympathy for it,” the prime minister said.

Pope Francis told the prime minister and his guests that one reason he came to Japan was “to implore God and to invite all persons of good will to encourage and promote every necessary means of dissuasion so that the destruction generated by the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki will never take place again in human history.”

But the pope also spoke about the people of Japan, especially those who feel excluded from the country’s economic and technological advancement.

“I think particularly of the young, who so often feel overwhelmed in facing the challenges of growing up, the elderly and the lonely who suffer from isolation,” he said. “We know that, in the end, the civility of every nation or people is measured not by its economic strength, but by the attention it devotes to those in need and its capacity to be fruitful and promote life.”

Honor martyrs, work for Christ’s kingdom of peace, pope says in Nagasaki CINDY WOODEN CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

NAGASAKI, Japan – While the world knows Nagasaki as the site of a U.S. atomic bomb blast, for the Catholic Church it is also the site of one of the fiercest campaigns of anti-Christian persecution.

Visiting the city Nov. 24, Pope Francis paused for prayer on the hill where St. Paul Miki and 25 others were crucified in 1597; hundreds more were killed in the decades that followed. For more than 200 years there was not a single Catholic priest in Japan, but small communities of “hidden Christians” kept Catholicism alive by secretly baptizing their children and teaching them the faith.

When priests finally were allowed to return to Japan, not all the “hidden Christians” joined the parishes they established, preferring to preserve the family-focused faith they had learned from their ancestors. Small groups of them still exist today.

On a cold, rainy morning at the martyrs’ memorial, Pope Francis said the place is not so much a reminder of death as of the promise of eternal life in Jesus.

including members of the U.S. military stationed in Japan and Catholics from China and Korea.

In his homily, the pope made reference both to the unwavering faith of the Japanese martyrs and the horrendous suffering of the people after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki in 1945.

“This land has experienced, as few countries have, the destructive power of which we humans are capable,” the pope said in his homily. “Nagasaki bears in its soul a wound difficult to heal, a scar born of the incomprehensible suffering endured by so many innocent victims of wars past and those of the present, when a third world war is being waged piecemeal.”

Pope Francis asked the region’s Catholics to pray for those in other parts of the world who are suffering the effects of war today and to bear witness to Jesus’ kingdom, which is one of “truth and justice, of holiness and grace, of love and peace.”

The charred, eyeless head of a Marian statue that survived the destruction of Nagasaki’s cathedral in 1945 stood near the altar. The pope venerated it with incense as the Mass began.

The martyrs’ witness, he said, “confirms us in faith and helps us to renew our dedication and commitment to that missionary discipleship which strives to create a culture capable of protecting and defending all life through the daily ‘martyrdom’ of silent service toward all, especially those in greatest need.”

Pope Francis, who as a young Jesuit in Argentina longed to serve as a missionary in Japan, told the small crowd at the memorial that he “found powerful inspiration in the story of the early missionaries and the Japanese martyrs.”

Standing before a monument featuring bas relief sculptures of the 26 martyrs on the horizontal beam of a cross, the pope urged prayers for all those who endure persecution because of their faith today.

“Let us speak out and insist that religious freedom be guaranteed for everyone in every part of our world,” he said, and “let us also condemn the manipulation of religions” by those seeking power or hoping to sow violence and chaos.

After a brief rest in the Nagasaki archbishop’s residence, Pope Francis celebrated Mass in the city’s baseball stadium with about 35,000 people,

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FROM THE FRONT 25

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 5, 2019

INDIA: Advent project grows into nonprofit for impoverished tribe FROM PAGE 1

dedicated to the education of Santal children who are unwelcome in public schools, and/or do poorly because of deeply entrenched caste prejudice and teachers who do not speak Santali, the tribal language.

Father Savariappan is now back in his native land, is an official at the school and is overseeing the growth Tribe Rising India is helping to make possible. He invited the trio to participate in the ceremonial blessing of the first brick laid for a new girls dormitory.

It was one of the first steps toward a goal of adding one new grade a year to accommodate more Santal students.

Already a playground has been leveled and fenced, a computer lab and sound system installed, a washing machine purchased and 200 coconut trees planted to mark the expanding property. The trees will eventually supply shade, food and drink to local families.

Tribal Rising India plans to raise $2 million more in time to build a high school.

“This will be the first high school dedicated to the education of the Santal children, as far as we know,” said Venables, who traveled with extra suitcases packed tight with shrink-wrapped school uniforms and

(PHOTO COURTESY PAUL VENABLES)

Santal children of St. Xavier School in Gurap, India, carry coconut trees to be planted around the perimeter of the expanding school property. The 200 trees purchased by Tribe Rising India will provide shade, food, drink and a source of income for local Santal families. sports jerseys donated from St. Hilary School in Tiburon.

A short video he took in November shows a sea of small smiling faces shouting repeatedly for the camera, “We are rising! We are rising! We are rising!”

“These kids live in dirt and they are full of joy,” said Venables, the owner of a successful San Francisco advertising agency whose clients include luxury brands. “We don’t get it.”

He said the Santals have little materially, but they have what many in the West lack: solidarity.

“It’s not about the individual there,”

he said. “It’s about the community, and joy comes from that.”

Although Tribe Rising India is not a ministry of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish, it is intrinsically tied to the parish Advent project it sprang from.

Father Michaels was initially resistant when Annette Venables approached him not long after Father Savariappan’s visit with the idea of inviting parish families to “sponsor” the annual education costs of Santal students as an Advent activity.

“She had formidable hurdles to get over in me,” said Father Michaels. “But

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her heartfelt desire to help the Jesuits and her persistent “whatever it takes attitude” won out.”

Exactly 103 stars were hung on the Mill Valley parish’s Christmas tree that year, each representing a Santal student in Gurap and the $420 annual cost of tuition, room and board. All 103 stars were claimed – a total of close to $50,000.

“The first year blew me away,” said Father Michaels. “The spectrum of parishioners wanting to be involved, some even presenting the support of a child as a Christmas gift to family and friends.

“It has become our reach beyond ourselves as a parish, breaking down our parochialism and giving us a sense of what it means to belong to the body of Christ.”

The Advent project was repeated last year with equal success.

The Venables soon saw that sponsorships were critical but so much more was needed to provide real opportunity to these beautiful children and their families and launched Tribe Rising India.

In a blog post on the organization’s website, Thomas, who swam across Donner Lake near Truckee in August to raise money for the Santal children in Gurap, wrote about “small causes that can have large effects.”

“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other,” she wrote.

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26 CALENDAR

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 5, 2019

THURSDAY-SATURDAY, DEC. 5-7 MINISTRY CONFERENCE: The California Catholic Ministry Conference gathers catechists, liturgists, lay ministers, religious education directors and other interested Catholics statewide. San Jose Convention Center, 408 Almaden Blvd., San Jose. Register at cacmc.net.

THURSDAY, DEC. 5 PRIESTLY DISCERNMENT: Join a gathering for men discerning a priestly vocation, 5:45-8:30 p.m., Star of the Sea Church, 4420 Geary Blvd., San Francisco. Father Cameron Faller, faller.cameron@sfarch.org.

SATURDAY, DEC. 7

FRIDAY, DEC. 6

CHRISTMAS FAIRE: The St. Dominic Parish Friends in Christ ministry is hosting a Christmas Faire with gift items being sold to benefit a variety of parish ministries 6:30-7:30 p.m. in the Siena Room, 2390 Bush St., San Francisco. (415) 567-7824.

CRUZADA GUADALUPANA: The 26th annual procession in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a 12-mile pilgrimage of devotion that begins at 5 a.m., All Souls Church, 315 Walnut Ave., South San Francisco, and ends with a 2 p.m. cathedral Mass. cruzadaguadalupana. org, or Pedro Garcia, (415) 3334868, pedro@losninosinc.org.

BVM MASS: First Saturday Extraordinary Form Mass in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary with Father Vito Perrone from the Contemplatives of St. Joseph, 2-3:30 p.m., Perpetual Adoration Monastery Chapel, 771 Ashbury St., San Francisco. Mother Rosalba, (415) 566-2743, or mpador@ aol.com.

PEACE MASS: First Saturday Mass for reparation and for peace in the world at 9 a.m., Mission Dolores Chapel, 3321 16th St., San Francisco. Father Francis Garbo, pastor and celebrant.

FRIDAY, DEC. 6 CHARISMATIC RENEWAL: First Friday evening Mass at Corpus Christi Parish, 62 Santa Rosa Ave., San Francisco. Celebrants include Father Raymund Reyes, Father Thomas Thodukulam, Father Jesse Montes and Father Andrew Igegbulem. Sfspirit.com or John Murphy, (650) 261-0825.

ILLNESS SUPPORT GROUP: Free spiritual support group for people with life-threatening illnesses. Guidance on Catholic teaching and the preparation of Health Care Directives.

First Fridays, 1-3 p.m., Msgr. Bowe room, St. Mary’s Cathedral, 1111 Gough St., San Francisco. (415) 5672020 ext. 218 or estahl@stmarycathedralsf.org.

‘O ANTIPHONS’: Archbishop Cordileone leads a St. Nicholas Day prayer service featuring the Benedict XVI Choir, 6 p.m., St. Patrick’s Seminary chapel, 320 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park. “O Antiphons” are ancient prayers sung at vespers during the last week of Advent. Free, but registration required. Eventbrite.com.

ASSYRIAN WOMEN: Assyrian

ST. FRANCIS SHRINE: First Saturdays in the historic church, 610 Vallejo St., San Francisco, with St. Padre Pio prayer group, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.; exposition and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, 10:50 a.m.-noon. (415) 986-4557, info@shrinesf.org.

In 1531, an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to a Mexican peasant named Juan Diego at Tepeyac hill outside Mexico City. Our Lady of Guadalupe holds a special place in the religious life of Mexico and is one of the most popular religious devotions. St. John Paul II declared Our Lady of Guadalupe the patroness of the Americas in 1999.

SUNDAY, DEC. 8 BOYS CHOIR: The Golden Gate Boys Choir, a Bay Area Catholic choir consisting of boys ages 7-18, will perform a Christmas concert at 2:30 p.m. at Cristo Rey Monastery, 721 Parker Ave., San Francisco. (510) 887-4311 or ggbc.org.

TUESDAY, DEC. 10 Women, a classically trained Assyrian female chorus ensemble presents “The Joy of Christmas” with an Assyrian flair, 7 p.m. at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph in San Jose.

Tickets at assyrianwomen12619.bpt. me/ or through Margaret Petros at (650) 248-9529.

SIMBANG GABI: The archdiocesan Filipino ministry hosts the annual Simbang Gabi Commissioning Mass, 7:30 p.m., cathedral. The Mass heralds the beginning of parish Simbang Gabi novenas throughout the archdiocese.

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THURSDAY, DEC. 12 MAÑANITAS: Singing to the Virgin Mary, Sacred Heart Church, 10189 State Route 1, Olema, starting at 5 a.m. Mass at 6 with traditional hot drinks, food afterward. (415) 663-1139.

GUADALUPE: Celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe’s feast, Corpus Christi Church, 62 Santa Rosa Ave., San Francisco. Music with Trio Plata, midnight-3 a.m.; eucharistic adoration, 3-4 a.m.; mañanitas, 4-5 a.m; Mass at 5 a.m. with breakfast after.

FRIDAY, DEC. 13 FESTA DI SANTA LUCIA: Christmas caroling from 6-8 p.m., Fishermen’s & Seamen’s Memorial Chapel, Pier 45-B, Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco. Bertina Cannizzaro, (415) 596-0594.

SATURDAY, DEC. 14 PRAYING IN ADVENT: The Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose host a daylong exploration of Advent themes.

Facilitated by Dominican Sister Ingrid Clemmensen, 9 a.m.-3 p.m., Dominican Center, 43326 Mission Circle, Fremont. $40 includes lunch. Register by Dec. 10, http://bit.ly/2019PrayAdvent, or (510) 933-6360.

SUNDAY, DEC. 15 CATHEDRAL RECITAL: Free, 4 p.m. recital concert, cathedral. Yvtenis Vasyliunas (Germany), organ. Percy Whitlock, sonata. Freewill offering. smcsf.org.

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MARIACHI MUSIC: Mariachi Reyes from Mexico plays at Corpus Christi Church, 62 Santa Rosa Ave., San Francisco, 10-11 p.m. with Mass at 11.

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CALENDAR 27

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 5, 2019

BOYS CHOIR: The Golden Gate Boys Choir, a Catholic choir consisting of boys ages 7-18, will perform a Christmas concert at 2:30 p.m. at the National Shrine of St. Francis, 610 Vallejo St., San Francisco. (510) 887-4311 or ggbc.org.

MISSION CHRISTMAS CONCERT: Mission Dolores Basilica Choir’s annual Candlelight Christmas Concert, 5 p.m., 3321 16th St., San Francisco.

Featuring “Mass of the Shepherds”

by Brazilian classical composer José Mauricio Nuñes Garcia. Concludes with audience sing-along. Tickets at cityboxoffice.com/MDB, or missiondolores.org.

COOKIES AND CAROLS: Traditional carols and music by St. Mary’s Cathedral Choir and the St. Brigid School Honor Choir, with cookies and desserts. 7:30-9 p.m., cathedral, St. Francis Hall. $25 adults, $15 students and seniors; children under 5 free. Reserve at (415) 567-2020 ext.

213; tickets also sold at door. smcsf. org.

LESSONS AND CAROLS: Join the St. Cecilia community in the celebration of Advent as we prepare for the birth of our Savior with readings and inspired song led by the St. Cecilia adult choir.

4 p.m. at St. Cecilia Church, 2555 17th Ave., San Francisco. Free event. (415) 664-8481.

LAS POSADAS: St. Dominic Church’s annual Las Posadas, 3:15-3:45 p.m. in the church nave, 2390 Bush St., San Francisco. Family-friendly event featuring parish children. stdominics.org.

FAMILY FIESTA: Celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Sacred Heart Church, 10189 State Route 1, Olema, after the 10:30 a.m. bilingual Mass.

Mariachi de San Francisco and Azteca Danza will perform. Homemade food, drinks, raffle. www.marinsacredheart. com, (415) 663-1139.

FRIDAY, DEC. 20 GRIEF SUPPORT GROUP: Free spiritual support group for people who have experienced a loss. Third Friday of every month, 10:30-noon, Msgr.

Bowe room, cathedral. Facilitated by Deacon Chris Sandoval. (415) 5672020, ext. 218.

SF BOYS CHORUS CONCERT: The San Francisco Boys Chorus winter concert, “A Ceremony of Carols,” 7 p.m., St. Ignatius Church, 650 Parker Ave., San Francisco. Concert sells out early. Reserve at Eventbrite.com or contact stignatiussf.org.

SATURDAY, DEC. 21 TURKEY DRIVE: The annual St. Emydius turkey drive benefits St. Anthony Foundation in the Tenderloin.

Bring frozen turkeys and boxes of fresh vegetables to the parking lot across from the church between 9 a.m. and noon. Online donations can be made at SFTurkeyDrive.com, or contact Pierre Smith, sfpierre@aol.com.

SUNDAY, DEC. 22 CELTIC CHRISTMAS: Our Lady of Loretto adult, youth and children’s choirs perform “Have You Heard,” 4 p.m. in the church sanctuary, 1806 Novato Blvd., Novato.

ADVENT MUSIC: Angela Kraft Cross performs a free Advent and Christmas concert for organ, St. Mary’s Cathedral, 4 p.m.

TUESDAY, DEC. 24 INCARCERATED YOUTH HOLIDAY: The archdiocesan restorative justice ministry is hosting a holiday lunch with Christmas carols and sweet treats for incarcerated juveniles and their fami-

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PEACE MASS: First Saturday Mass for reparation and peace in the world, noon, Corpus Christi Parish, 62 Santa Rosa Ave., San Francisco. Father Thomas Tudukula, pastor and celebrant. corpuschristisf.org.

‘COME AND SEE DAY’: The Dominican nuns of Corpus Christi Monastery are hosting a free “Come and See Day” for single Catholic women ages 18-38 at their monastery at 215 Oak Grove Ave. in Menlo Park.

Begins with 8 a.m. Mass and includes all meals. Information and registration: opnunsmenlo. org/upcoming-events/.

MONDAY, JANUARY 6, 2020 PRIESTLY DISCERNMENT: Join this gathering for men discerning a priestly vocation from 6:15-8:30 p.m. at St. Pius Church, 1100 Woodside Road, Redwood City. Contact Father Tom Martin, martin.thomas@sfarch.org.

Sister Mary Francis of the Holy Cross professed her first vows as a Dominican nun at Corpus Christi Monastery in Menlo Sister Mary Park earlier Francis this year after coming to one of its discernment days three years ago. In the May 2 issue of Catholic San Francisco she said her vocation is, “Not my ‘Plan B’ – this is what I want.”

THURSDAY, JAN. 9. 2020 PRIESTLY DISCERNMENT: Join a gathering for men discerning a priestly vocation from 5:45-8:30 p.m. at Star of the Sea Church, 4420 Geary Blvd., San Francisco. Contact Father Cameron Faller, faller.cameron@sfarch.org.

lies, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., Juvenile Justice Center, 375 Woodside Ave., San Francisco. (415)614-5572, or escobarj@ sfarch.org.

TUESDAY, DEC. 31 NEW YEAR RETREAT: Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose New Year’s Eve retreat with Dominican Father Bartholomew Hutcherson, 7-10:30 p.m., Dominican Center, 43326 Mission Circle, Fremont.

Freewill offering. Register by Dec. 28, http://bit.ly/2019NewYrRtrt, or (510) 933-6360.

DON’T SEE YOUR PARISH OR COMMUNITY EVENT? Catholic San Francisco’s calendar pages are a reader-driven benefit of your archdiocesan paper. We provide free event listings to Catholic parishes and organizations, and for related non-commercial events.

We count on you to let us know at least one month in advance of events you’d like to see listed in our print and online calendars. Send a listing of no more than 50 words to csf@sfarch.org that includes the name and purpose of the event, date, time, full address and contact information, including website, email and/or phone numbers.

TO ADVERTISE IN CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO VISIT www.catholic-sf.org | CALL (415) 614-5644 EMAIL podestam@sfarchdiocese.org

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CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO | DECEMBER 5, 2019

MAKING A DIFFERENCE ONE GIFT AT A TIME Use the envelope included in this issue of Catholic San Francisco or visit CatholicCharitiesSF.org/donate to make your gift.

Questions? Contact Pat Gallagher at PGallagher@CatholicCharitiesSF.org or 415 972 1231.

ONE PERSON. ONE FAMILY.

ONE COMMUNITY AT A TIME. SUZANNA, MOM TO ANNA AND CATHOLIC CHARITIES CLIENT

“

My daughter went from being a reluctant to enthusiastic reader through the help she received. Her reading skills have improved and she looks forward to going to school now. Thank you, Catholic Charities!

”