PAPAL JOURNEY TO LEBANON: Pope to meet
PASSION FOR THE TRUTH: Museum guide Vincent Medina focuses on natives’ narrative of Mission days
Christians, Muslims on Mideast trip
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YEAR OF FAITH: Questions for catechists, teachers as a special time of evangelization begins
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CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO Newspaper of the Archdiocese of San Francisco
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Rosary rally set Oct. 13
Austrian priest: Dissent aids healthy church
VALERIE SCHMALZ CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO
The Catholic Church in San Francisco is going public – again – to pray the rosary in the city’s center. Thousands are expected to walk from St. Mary’s Cathedral, and to be joined by many more, to pray the rosary literally in the public square – United Nations Plaza across from San Francisco’s City Hall – at noon Oct. 13. The Second Annual Rosary Rally coincides with the opening of the Year of Faith by Pope Benedict XVI two days earlier. Catholic school children, religious education students, and all the parishes are invited, with busloads from Bay Area parishes and schools expected, organizers said. The rally was re-instituted last year on the 50th anniversary of Father Patrick Peyton’s rosary rally which drew a SEE LETTER, PAGE 19
Archbishopdesignate apologizes THE CATHOLIC VOICE
OAKLAND – In a letter to the Diocese of Oakland, Archbishopdesignate Salvatore J. Cordileone, to be installed in October as archbishop of San Francisco, apologized and offered thanks for the support and prayers he has received since being charged with two misdemeanors on suspicion of driving under the influence Aug. 25. “I also want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the outpouring of support and prayers you have extended to me in my time of trial. I could not have asked for more, or SEE RALLY, PAGE 19
SARAH MACDONALD CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
highest obligation of Christian discipleship is the abolition of nuclear war taking the precedence over everything else. And she understood that,” said John Schuchardt, who joined Sister Anne as one of the Plowshares 8 in 1980 at the former General Electric nuclear weapons plant in King of Prussia, Pa., where they hammered on nuclear missile casings. “I’ll never forget Anne reading from the Book of Wisdom and the gentleness and the spirit of wisdom she read,” Schuchardt said. Oblate Father Carl Kabat, another Plowshares 8 participant, told Catholic News Service that Sister Anne held firm to her beliefs about the danger of nuclear war and was prepared to face the consequences of her actions even if it meant she was to be imprisoned.
DUBLIN – The leader of the Austrian Priests’ Initiative said the dissident group’s call to disobedience reflects the lack of accountability among those who exercise power and authority in the Catholic Church. Msgr. Helmut Schuller told Catholic News Service that reform and substantive structural change are “essential for Msgr. Helmut the future of the Schuller church” in Europe and the wider world. The Priests’ Initiative, which now represents 500 clergy in Austria, wants the Vatican to revive the “Lex Ecclesiae Fundamentalis” project initiated by Pope Paul VI following the Second Vatican Council. The project, which sought to establish a common fundamental code or church constitution similar to the U.S. Bill of Rights for church members, was shelved by Pope John Paul II in 1981. “We are talking about providing basic rights for the people of God and a structure of participation in decision-making and feedback between the top, center and base of the church. We also want to establish a system of control for those who hold power and authority in the church,” said Msgr. Schuller, former vicar general of the Archdiocese of Vienna and former director of Caritas Austria. The Priests’ Initiative was founded in 2006 and made international headlines in June 2011 when it issued its “Appeal to Disobedience” over its agenda, which includes making clerical celibacy optional,
SEE PLOWSHARES, PAGE 19
SEE DISSENT, PAGE 19
(CNS PHOTO/COURTESY GROUND ZERO CENTER FOR NONVIOLENT ACTION)
Sister Anne Montgomery, left, who participated in six so-called Plowshares actions to protest nuclear weapons between 1980 and 2009, died Aug. 27 at age 85 at Sacred Heart Sisters’ elder care center in Atherton. She is pictured with Sister Megan Rice in a 2010 photo.
Remembering Sister Anne Montgomery, anti-nuke leader CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON – Nuclear weapons posed such a grave danger to all life on earth in the eyes of Sacred Heart Sister Anne Montgomery that she devoted more than 30 years of her life to protest their stockpiling by the world’s governments. From participating in the first of the so-called Plowshares actions Sept. 9, 1980, until her sixth and last protest Nov. 1, 2009 – for which she served two months in federal prison – Sister Anne epitomized the “heart and soul” of a movement which has spanned the globe, several friends and fellow activists for peace said. Sister Anne died of cancer Aug. 27 at Oakwood, the Society of the Sacred Heart’s elder care center in Atherton. She was 85. “Thomas Merton said it best that the
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