Father Alvin Yu's First Mass at Saints Peter and Paul!

On Saturday, June 10, at St. Mary's Cathedral, Deacon Alvin Antonio Yu was ordained Father Alvin Antonio Yu by Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone. The next day, Father Yu returned to his home parish Saints Peter and Paul, to celebrate his first Mass at 5:00 PM on Sunday, June 11. Praise God! Here is a photo by Saints Peter and Paul parishioner Patrick Gee, and you can see more on his website. That's how you celebrate a Mass!

Over 20 priests, as well as Bishops William Justice, Ignatius Wang, and Thomas Daly of Spokane concelebrated--and there were many of Fr. Alvin's friends from the seminary on the altar as well, including Fr.Michael Liliedahl, who was ordained with Fr. Alvin at the Cathedral.

Fr. Alvin, who attended Saints Peter and Paul Pre-Kindergarten, K-8 school, the Salesian Boys' and Girls' Club, and was baptized, received First Communion and Confirmation, as well as serving Mass at Saints Peter and Paul, has said publicly what a powerful influence our dear departed Fr. John Malloy had been on him, and you just know Fr. Malloy was beaming down from heaven!

On Sunday, July 2, Fr. Alvin will celebrate his first Latin Mass in the Extraordinary Form, also at Saints Peter and Paul. God bless you Fr. Alvin, and all praise to God!

Latin Mass Added to Archbishop Family Support Day!

More Games, Excitement at Family Picnic

On Saturday May 16 Catholics from all over the Archdiocese of San Francisco will gather at the city’s Sue Bierman Park to express support for their fighting Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone. The archbishop has come under fire from politicians, media, LGBT activists, and teachers and students at Catholic Schools for his insistence that the high schools of the Archdiocese of San Francisco be faithful to the entire teaching of the church. The commonsensical insistence ran afoul of LGBT activist in and out of the church, to whom Catholic teaching on marriage, sexuality, and sodomy is unacceptable.

Support for the Archbishop, and the event, has grown beyond the picnic itself. Last week it was announced that the picnic will be preceded by a Latin Mass in the Extraordinary Form at San Francisco’s namesake church, the Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi, at Columbus and Vallejo Street. The Mass will be celebrated at 9:30 AM by Canon Olivier Meney of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest. The Shrine of St. Francis is a 15 minute walk from the picnic site.

As support for the Family Support Picnic has grown, necessitating a move to Sue Bierman Park to accommodate the existing crowds, organizers have increased the attractions—especially for kids. There will be balloons emblazoned with the head of a lion and the Archbishop’s name “Cordileone” which translates as “heart of a lion.” Games for the kids with prizes, include sack races, three-legged races, hula hoops, egg and spoon races, and bean bag tossing. Organizers are also bringing 400 rosaries to be given out, along with instruction books in English and Spanish on how to pray the rosary.

The picnic will begin at 11:00 AM. Attendees must bring their own food, or patronize the food vendors that surround Sue Bierman Park, but non-alcoholic drinks will be provided as supplies last. Entertainment will be provided by a mariachi band.

To learn more, download flyers in English, Spanish, and Chinese, or to sign a petition supporting the Archbishop visit: http://www.sfcatholics.org/

Archbishop Cordileone acts on Catholic Schools: they "exist to affirm and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ as held and taught by the Catholic Church"

Bless his Lionheart! Forgive the long post  title, but this initiative is so important every word is also important. Excerpts from Valerie Schmalz's article on the front page of today's Catholic San Francisco are below.

The Archdiocese has also released a special supplement to this week's Catholic San Francisco which consists of: the Archbishop's letter to school faculty; the documentitself: "Statement of the High Schools of the Archdiocese of San Francisco Regarding the Teachings and Practice of the Catholic Church”; a statement from Maureen Huntington, Superintendent of the S.F. Department of Catholic Schools; and Q and A about the new teachers' union contract. The supplement may be found here (PDF).

Here's a (very) short video of His Excellency outlining the initiative:

Archdiocese: Catholic schools exist to ‘affirm and proclaim’ Gospel of Jesus
February 3rd, 2015
By Valerie Schmalz 

Faculty handbook changes emphasize that teachers, staff must not publicly contradict Catholic teaching

 The Archdiocese of San Francisco is proposing three new clauses to the contracts for the teachers in the archdiocesan Catholic high schools. The purpose is to further clarify that Catholic schools – as the first clause states – “exist to affirm and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ as held and taught by his Catholic Church.”

 The archdiocese is also adding detailed statements of Catholic teaching on sexual morality and religious practice – taken from the Catechism of the Catholic Church – into the faculty and staff handbooks of the four archdiocesan high schools, Archbishop Riordan, Marin Catholic and Junipero Serra high schools and Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory. The handbook additions will take effect in the 2015-16 school year and are not part of the contract.

 While the handbook and contract changes reiterate more strongly the responsibility of teachers and staff not to contradict Catholic teaching in school and in their public lives, they do not contain anything essentially new and are intended to clarify existing expectations that Catholic teachers in their professional and public lives uphold Catholic teaching, archdiocesan Catholic Schools Superintendent Maureen Huntington said.

The intent is not to drive any teacher out of the schools, Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone and Huntington said....

Archbishop’s letter
Archbishop Cordileone specifically addressed concerns about job security in a letter dated February 2015 to teachers. 

“At the outset, I wish to state clearly and emphatically that the intention underlying this document is not to target for dismissal from our schools any teachers, singly or collectively, nor does it introduce anything essentially new into the contract or the faculty handbook,” the archbishop wrote in the letter.

The handbook additions clearly state that the institution believes in the listed items, and does not require each individual staff member or teacher to assent to each stated item of Catholic doctrine. That is because the archdiocese recognizes that some Catholic teachers and other non-Catholic teachers may not agree with all that the Catholic Church teaches, Archbishop Cordileone said. The aim of the handbook additions is to specify for all what the church teaches and require that high school staff and teachers not contradict Catholic teachings in a school environment or in public actions. ...

 Archbishop Cordileone explained the reasoning in his letter to the archdiocesan teachers, saying “I see a need to provide more clarity for our teachers.” “For a Catholic high school to attain excellence, it must be at one and the same time an excellent institution of secondary education and a truly Catholic institution,” he said. “Changes in our secular society over the last few decades have brought new challenges to this endeavor in both senses, as we now face both increased difficulties in educating our students well in an array of academic subjects, and unprecedented challenges in forming our young people with a deep and strong Catholic identity as well as knowledge and practice of the Catholic faith,” the archbishop wrote....

Changes cover ‘hot button’ issues
The additions to the faculty handbooks cover what Archbishop Cordileone termed “hot button” issues and are drawn directly from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. They include statements of Catholic teaching on abortion, same-sex marriage, artificial contraception and artificial means of reproduction such as in-vitro fertilization as well as affirming the authority of the magisterium of the Catholic Church and the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

 “Confusion about the church’s stance is prevalent in areas of sexual morality and religious practice,” Archbishop Cordileone said. “For this reason, the statements for inclusion in the faculty handbook focus on these two areas. This focus does not imply lesser importance to Catholic teachings on social justice, which in fact are widely accepted and well interpreted in Catholic educational institutions.”

 “There is nothing new under the Catholic sun with this approach,” said Jesuit Father John Piderit, moderator of the curia/vicar for administration for the archdiocese. “It is in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It is straightforward.” 

Read the whole thing.

Cardinal Burke / Fr. Fessio Stand up for Marriage! & Family!

The great Cardinal Raymond Burke calls out the anti-family mass media at the Catholic News Agency:

"Next month's Synod on the Family has undergone an attempted hijacking by some media sources, which are fueling expectations that impossible changes will be made to Church doctrine, said the head of the Church's highest court.

'I don’t think you have to be brilliant to see that the media has, for months, been trying to hijack this Synod,' said Cardinal Raymond Burke, prefect for the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura – the office which, among other things, handles annulment cases in the Church.

In particular, he told CNA in a recent interview, the media has been presenting Pope Francis as being in favor of allowing Holy Communion to be distributed to those who are divorced and remarried, and other such propositions, even though this is not the case.

The danger, Cardinal Burke continued, is that 'the media has created a situation in which people expect that there are going to be these major changes which would, in fact, constitute a change in Church teaching, which is impossible."

'That’s why it’s very important for those who are in charge to be very clear,' he said."

It's interesting to me that of those Cardinals invested in the relegation of marriage to the dustbin of history most are Europeans, followed by some of their progeny from North and South Americans--places that themselves are on the road to oblivion because of their relegation of marriage to the dustbin of history.

The CNA article went on to mention Ignatius Press' new book, which promises to introduce much-needed clarity:

"Cardinal Burke, along with several other cardinals and scholars, have responded to this call in a book entitled 'Remaining in the Truth of Christ: Marriage and Communion in the Catholic Church.' The book, set to be released in October, is a compilation of essays which provide scholarly answers to the claim that some divorced and remarried persons can be admitted to Holy Communion without having obtained an annulment, or a Church recognition that the marriage had never been valid."

Last week Ignatius Press' editor, Father Joe Fessio, schooled the foolish Cardinal Kaspar for his statements responding to the book's release. It was nice to see:

The Ignatius Press book’s introduction says the essays in “Remaining in the Truth of Christ” are responses to Cardinal Walter Kasper’s 2014 book “The Gospel of the Family,” which includes his advocacy of giving Holy Communion to some Catholics who have divorced and civilly remarried without an annulment.

Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J., founder and editor of Ignatius Press, responded sharply to claims by Cardinal Kasper in an email exchange with CNA. He drew from Cardinal Kasper’s Sept. 18 interview with Italian newspaper La Stampa, responding point-by-point to the cardinal’s statements.

In the interview, Cardinal Kasper complained of learning about the book from journalists who had received advance copies of it. The cardinal said that he had not received an advance copy, adding, “In my entire academic life nothing like this has ever happened to me.”

“You chose to leave academia to enter public life. Get used to it,” Fr. Fessio responded.

The priest also referenced Cardinal Kasper’s statement, “If cardinals who are the closest collaborators of the pope intervene in this organized and public manner, at least in regard to the most recent history of the Church we are facing an unprecedented situation.”

“Well, you did something unprecedented,” Fr. Fession replied. “And it was organized and public. Well, it was supposed to be done in secrecy, but then you published your consistory intervention as a book.”

Furthermore, Fr. Fessio responded to Cardinal Kasper’s statement that his consistory remarks had not offered “a definitive solution” but rather “posed some questions and offered considerations for possible responses.”

“Well, what are you complaining about then?” Fr. Fessio asked. “You got some answers and some responses to your considerations. Or weren’t those the answers you were expecting?”

There's a true son of St. Ignatius!

Mark Steyn: The Popes versus the "Empire of Lies"

On Saturday, in preparation for the canonization of Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II, Mark Steyn published this excerpt from his book Mark Steyn's Passing Parade. The "empire of lies," as Mr. Steyn indicates was not only the Soviet Union, but any totalitarian regime, such as the totalitarian liberalism that now dominates the West.

Truth and Consequences

"How many divisions has the Pope?" sneered Stalin of Pius XII. Uncle Joe's successors lived long enough to find out. John Paul II's divisions were the Poles who filled the streets to cheer him on his return as pontiff to his homeland in the summer of 1979, and the brave men who founded the Solidarity union 18 months later, and began the chain of events that within a decade swept the Communists from power in Central and Eastern Europe and finally Mother Russia itself. One day we will know the precise combination of Bulgarian Secret Service, East German Stasi and Soviet KGB that lay behind the 1981 assassination attempt on the Holy Father. But you can see why they'd be willing to do it. By then the sclerotic Warsaw Pact understood just how many divisions this Pope had.

Twenty-six years ago, one young physics student summed up the hopes he and his compatriots had invested in that Papal visit in this simple declaration: "What I want to do is to live without being a liar." The Soviet Union and its vassals were an empire of lies, and, while you can mitigate (as many Poles and Russians did) the gulf between the official version and grim reality with bleak jokes, living an epic lie day in day out is corrosive of human dignity. That Polish physics student had identified instinctively what would be the great over-arching theme of John Paul II's papacy: to quote the title of his later encyclical, Veritatis Splendor – the splendor of truth.

Too many western politicians of a generation ago – Schmidt, Mitterand, Trudeau – failed to see what John Paul saw so clearly. It requires tremendous will to cling to the splendor of truth when the default mode of the era is to blur and evade.

And in that respect, across a turbulent half-century, there's more continuity between John Paul II and John XXIII than you might expect, and, indeed, with the intervening papacy of Paul VI. Shortly after John XXIII's death, Pope Paul's Humanae Vitae predicted that artificial birth control would lead to "conjugal infidelity and the general lowering of morality," the objectification of women, and governments "imposing upon their peoples" state-approved methods of contraception. You might conceivably claim that the collective damage they have done does not outweigh the individual benefits they have brought to many, but you can't argue that Pope Paul's summation wasn't right on the money - or that either his "liberal" predecessor or his "conservative" successor (after John Paul I's interlude) would have disagreed with him. It fell to John Paul II to defend veritatis splendor not only, politically, in the eastern bloc, but, culturally, in the western world, where it proved a tougher sell:

As The New York Times reported upon his death:

Among liberal Catholics, he was criticized for his strong opposition to abortion, homosexuality and contraception…

Shocking: a Pope who's opposed to abortion, homosexuality and contraception; what's the world coming to? The Guardian's assertion that Karol Wojtyla was "a doctrinaire, authoritarian pontiff" at least suggests the inflexible authoritarian derived his inflexibility from some ancient operating manual – he was doctrinaire about his doctrine, dogmatic about his dogma – unlike the Times and The Washington Post, which came close to implying that John Paul II had taken against abortion and gay marriage off the top of his head, principally to irk "liberal Catholics". But, either way, the assumption is always that there's some middle ground a less "doctrinaire" pope might have staked out: he might have supported abortion in the first trimester, say, or reciprocal partner benefits for gays in committed relationships.

The root of the Pope's thinking – that there are eternal truths no-one can change even if he wanted to – is completely incomprehensible to the progressivist mindset. There are no absolute truths, everything's in play, and by "consensus" all we're really arguing is the rate of concession to the inevitable: abortion's here to stay, gay marriage will be here any day now – it's all gonna happen anyway, man, so why be the last squaresville daddy-o on the block?

When Governor Jim McGreevey announced he was stepping down, he told the people of New Jersey: "My truth is that I am a gay American." That's a very contemporary formulation: "my" truth. To John Paul II, there was only "the" truth. To the moral relativists, everyone's entitled to his own – or, as the Governor continued, "one has to look deeply into the mirror of one's soul and decide one's unique truth in the world." Among liberal "Catholics" in Manhattan and Boston, the pontiff may be a reactionary misogynist homophobe condom-banner but, beyond those stunted horizons, he was a man fully engaged with the modern world and shrewder at reconciling it with the splendor of the eternal truth than most politicians. Western liberals claim the Pope's condom hang-ups have had tragic consequences in Aids-riddled Africa. The Dark Continent gets darker every year: millions are dying, male life expectancy is collapsing, and such civil infrastructure as there is seems likely to follow. But the most effective weapon against the disease has not been the Aids lobby's 20-year promotion of condom culture in Africa but Uganda's campaign to change behaviour and to emphasise abstinence and fidelity – ie, the Pope's position. You don't have to be a Catholic or a "homophobe" to think that the spread of Aids is telling us something basic – that nature is not sympathetic to sexual promiscuity. If it weren't Aids, it would be something else, as it has been for most of human history. What should be the Christian response? To accept that we're merely the captives of our appetites, like a dog in heat? Or to ask us to rise to the rank God gave us – "a little lower than the angels" but above "the beasts of the field"? In The Gospel Of Life, the Pope wrote:

Sexuality too is depersonalized and exploited: …it increasingly becomes the occasion and instrument for self-assertion and the selfish satisfaction of personal desires and instincts. Thus the original import of human sexuality is distorted and falsified, and the two meanings, unitive and procreative, inherent in the very nature of the conjugal act, are artificially separated…

Had the Pope signed on to condom distribution in Africa, he would have done nothing to reduce the spread of Aids, but he would have done a lot to advance the further artificial separation of sex, in Africa and beyond. Indeed, if you look at The New York Times' list of complaints against the Pope they all boil down to what he called sex as self-assertion.

Thoughtful atheists ought to be able to recognize that, whatever one's tastes in these areas, the Pope is on to something – that abortion et al, in separating the "two meanings" of sex and leaving us free to indulge in one while ignoring the other, have severed us almost entirely and possibly irreparably from traditional impulses, like societal survival. Given what Aids has done to African mortality rates and what abortion has done to European demographics, John Paul II's eternal truths look a lot more rational than those of the hyperrationalists at The New York Times. John Paul II championed the "splendor of truth" not because he was rigid and inflexible, but because he understood the alternative was a dead end in every sense. To Karol Wojtyla, truth was not just splendid but immutable: he proved his point in the struggle against Communism; one day the west will recognize that he got it right closer to home, too.

Archbishop Cordileone and Metropolitan Gerasimos Lead Prayer Service

Our good shepherd, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, met with His Eminence, Metropolitan Gerasimos, at the Greek Orthodox Church of the Holy Cross in veneration of the relic of the Holy Cross of our Lord, April 8th, 2014. 

His Excellency sent out an email describing the meeting (which linked to an MP3 recording of his speech--I hope this link works. If it does not, the text may be found here). 

From the Archbishop:

"The Churches of the East and the West came together yesterday for prayer, and veneration of the instrument of our salvation, the Holy Cross of our Lord.

We recalled John Chapter 17 when Jesus expressed His desire for unity among believers, that we would all be one. There will be no unity without a healthy spirit of penance, and the cross.

How appropriate that our meeting was to take place during lent, a time of penance, in a year where we will sharing together the Pascal Mystery with coinciding calendars.

Also, within weeks a great historic meeting of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and His Holiness Pope Francis will take place in Jerusalem.

I am sure that these steps to bring our two churches together are pleasing to our Lord. Please continue to pray with us for unity among Christians."

Amen!

His Excellency's entire speech was learned and moving. I repost the excerpt below, because it speaks to one of my (many) failings:

"How much poverty, how much violence, how much oppression is caused, at its root, by an incorrect understanding of the human person? If I see my neighbor as a means to achieve an end that I desire – even if that end is to assuage my conscience by giving from my surplus to respond to my neighbor’s need, and then I can then be rid of him or her – have I not undermined my neighbor’s God-given dignity? But when we understand and live by the sacramental principle that God created man and woman in His own image and likeness, then I see God revealed in my neighbor; I come to my neighbor’s assistance not to give something in response to need, but to make a gift of my very self. When I approach my neighbor not motivated by giving in response to need, but by love in response to love, then the encounter becomes act of true charity in which the true face of Christ is revealed."

John XXIII & John Paul II to be Canonized on Divine Mercy Sunday!

Wonderful news!

Blessed John XXXIII and John Paul II, pray for us!

Nicely said. AB Broglio's Statement: "Reiterates Church teaching on homosexuality"

On September 17, His Excellency Archbishop Timothy Broglio, our good Archbishop for the Military Services, issued the following clarification for Catholics and especially Catholic Chaplains, when they "encounter ministry situations involving Catholic or non-Catholic parties in same gender “marital” relationships."

The press release was headlined "Statement reiterates Church teaching on homosexuality"and provides clarity and the proper Catholic responses to concrete situations. God bless him!

Renewed Fidelity in favor of Evangelization

As members of the Church founded by Jesus Christ to meet the needs of the baptized and to proclaim that good news about the salvation given by Him, we are also aware of His clear teaching about the danger of scandal (Mt. 18:6). This world is a pilgrimage to life without end. At the conclusion of our walk through life we must stand before the Throne of Grace to give an accounting of our fidelity.

St. Paul reminds priests to be all things to all people (1Cor. 9:22). A clear disservice is rendered if the truth of the Gospel is confused by the actions of those ordained to disseminate that truth. The current situation makes it necessary to reiterate with clarity the teaching of the Catholic Church regarding homosexuality. However, it must never be forgotten that the human condition occasions many failings. St. Paul continually reminds us of that fact in his letters to the communities of believers.

Priests ordained to minister Word and Sacrament and endorsed to serve Catholics in the Armed Forces, the Veterans Administration Medical Centers, and those who serve the US Federal Government outside the borders of the United States of America know that theirs is a twenty-four-seven vocation. By speech, action, and example they witness to the truth revealed by the Lord in all that they do (see Eph. 4:14).

Recent changes in interpretations of the laws of the Federal Government oblige me to recall what is clearly held by the Catholic Church. At the same time I am grateful to the Congress of the United States for its passage of renewed conscience-protection language, specifically for chaplains in the Armed Forces.

Ministry

No Catholic priest or deacon may be forced by any authority to witness or bless the union of couples of the same gender. No Catholic priest or deacon can be obliged to assist at a “Strong Bonds” or other “Marriage Retreat”, if that gathering is also open to couples of the same gender. A priest who is asked to counsel non-Catholic parties in a same-gendered relationship will direct them to a chaplain who is able to assist. Catholic parties will, of course, be encouraged by the priest to strive to live by the teaching of the Gospel.

Participation in retirements, changes of command, and promotion ceremonies is possible, as long as the priest is not required to acknowledge or approve of a “spouse” of the same gender.

While the tradition of the Catholic Church always tries to find reasons to bury the dead, a priest may not be placed in a situation where his assistance at a funeral for a Catholic would give the impression that the Church approves of same sex “marital” relationships (see CIC, c. 1184, §1,3º). In the case of doubt, the Archbishop for the Military Services, USA must be consulted (see CIC, c. 1184, §2).

 
Lay Ministries

Obviously, anyone who is known to be in a sinful relationship is excluded from ministries in the Catholic community. While this list is not intended to cover every situation, lectors, extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, altar servers, catechists, and members of the Catholic Council immediately come to mind.

Participation

We are also mindful of the Lord’s words, “Let the one among you who is guiltless be the first to throw a stone…” (Jn. 8:7b). The Church must minister to all regardless of their sexual inclination. While the invitation to conversion cannot be diluted, the door to the mercy of Christ, obtained through His Cross, must be kept open. Priests and deacons will be guided by the principles of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (cf. nos. 2358-2359) and never forget that it is the sin that is hated and never the sinner.

In the quest for continued fidelity to the truth of the Gospel, it must not be forgotten that estimates indicate that same-gender couples represent less than half of one percent of those in the Armed Forces. While every individual is important, such a small group cannot be allowed to mandate policy for all.

Guidance for Catholics in Command Positions

I am not unaware that the faithful entrusted to my pastoral care also include those Catholics who exercise command positions. They can be faced with additional questions as they fulfill their responsibilities to those above and below them in the chain of command. Consequently in response to a doubt raised by the AMS regarding the question of a person’s possible cooperation with evil, the National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) stated:

“Commanders of United States military installations/veterans’ facilities (hereafter, ‘commanders’) would not be engaging in morally illicit cooperation, but rather tolerable remote mediate material cooperation with evil by implementing federal employee benefits accruing pursuant to same-sex marriage, as required by United States v. Windsor. Our determination is contingent on the situations in which commanders are unable to avoid such cooperation without jeopardizing their own just right to their employment security for themselves and/or their families. This is also contingent on the commander making known his/her objection to being required to so participate, as well as on attempting through legal channels to continue to accomplish changes in policy consistent with the historic understanding of marriage and family as based on natural moral law. Also, if without incurring a demotion of loss or downgrade of position/rank/grade or other serious harm, there is a mechanism to have others more senior in the chain of command to carry out the implementation of such policy, this should be pursued.”

Most Reverend Timothy P. Broglio
Archbishop for the Military Services

Holy Father Calls us to Prayer & Fasting for Peace THIS SATURDAY!

From Pope Francis Angelus message of September 2:

"I make a forceful and urgent call to the entire Catholic Church, and also to every Christian of other confessions, as well as to followers of every religion and to those brothers and sisters who do not believe: peace is a good which overcomes every barrier, because it belongs all of humanity!

I repeat forcefully: it is neither a culture of confrontation nor a culture of conflict which builds harmony within and between peoples, but rather a culture of encounter and a culture of dialogue; this is the only way to peace.

May the plea for peace rise up and touch the heart of everyone so that they may lay down their weapons and be let themselves be led by the desire for peace.

To this end, brothers and sisters, I have decided to proclaim for the whole Church on 7 September next, the vigil of the birth of Mary, Queen of Peace, a day of fasting and prayer for peace in Syria, the Middle East, and throughout the world, and I also invite each person, including our fellow Christians, followers of other religions and all men of good will, to participate, in whatever way they can, in this initiative.

On 7 September, in Saint Peter’s Square, here, from 19:00 until 24:00, we will gather in prayer and in a spirit of penance, invoking God’s great gift of peace upon the beloved nation of Syria and upon each situation of conflict and violence around the world. Humanity needs to see these gestures of peace and to hear words of hope and peace! I ask all the local churches, in addition to fasting, that they gather to pray for this intention."

Let us respond to our Holy Father's call!

Alas, poorly catechized as I am,  I'm not sure what the Holy Father, bless him, means by "fasting." No food at all, bread only, no water, two small meals? Since there were no concrete instructions provided, and I for one do not know what he means, I'll follow these rules for Ash Wednesday and Good Friday fasting, taken from Catholic Culture:

Fasting means having only one full meal to maintain one's strength. Two smaller, meatless and penitential meals are permitted according to one's needs, but they should not together equal the one full meal. Eating solid foods between meals is not permitted.

Catholics from age 18 through age 59 are bound to fast. Invalids, pregnant and nursing mothers are exempt.

SF Archdiocesan Respect Life Conference to Address End-of-Life Issues

Conference Highlights Dangers of Some Advanced Healthcare Directives

On September 10, 2011, the Archdiocese of San Francisco will host its annual Archdiocesan Respect Life Conference & Public Policy Breakfast in St. Francis Hall at St. Mary’s Cathedral. Speakers will include well-known pro-life advocates such as Dr. Wesley Smith, who will tell attendees “What’s New in the World of Euthanasia?” Msgr. James Tarantino, vicar for administration for the Archdiocese of San Francisco will open the conference in prayer.

In addition to Dr. Smith, Canonist, nurse and scholar Marie Hilliard of the National Catholic Bioethics Center will speak on “Today’s End of Life Issues: Choices and Dangers.” Finally, Ms. Dana Cody, an attorney with the Life Legal Defense Foundation and Ms. Vicki Evans, Respect Life coordinator for the Archdiocese of San Francisco will facilitate a workshop titled “Are All Medical Directives Created Equal?” Ms. Evans (pictured above at the 2011 "Walk for Life West Coast") spoke with "A Shepherd's Voice" about the conference:

“The conference will address the decisions that individuals and families have to make when faced with end-of-life issues. These come up when a person or family member is elderly, and is reaching the end of his or her natural life, but they can also come up, tragically, when an accident or some other unforeseen event occurs. I get a good number of calls from Catholics who are unsure as to what Catholic teaching on end-of- life issues really is. People want to know what the Church teaches about assisted nutrition and hydration, about the use of ventilators, and about ‘do not resuscitate’ orders. Most are not clear about what Catholic teaching about aid in dying really is, what compassion toward the dying really is, and how it differs from widespread secular ideas on the subject.”

“Wesley Smith will be our keynote speaker. He will speak during breakfast. He’s so entertaining and yet so wise and conversant with end-of life issues. He will appropriately scare us with the latest developments around this subject.”

“The heart of the conference will be the address by Dr. Marie Hilliard: ‘Today’s End of Life Issues: Choices and Dangers.’ Dr. Hilliard holds graduate degrees in Maternal-Child Health Nursing, Religious Studies, Canon Law and Professional Higher Education Administration. She also has years of practical experience as registered nurse.”

“We will end with an important session on the uses and dangers of advanced directives: ‘Are All Medical Directives Created Equal?,’ led by attorney Dana Cody and me. It is very important that people know how to properly fill them out and also what the dangers are. There is an excellent Advance Healthcare Directive that has been prepared by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. It incorporates Catholic teaching, and I highly recommend it. It can be downloaded from our website.”

“A very real danger today these days is the POLST document. That’s an acronym for ‘Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment.’ That’s a very dangerous document because it is binding on both the patient and the physician. Once executed, it becomes a permanent part of the patient’s electronic medical record. It is definitely something to avoid.”

The conference begins at 9AM on Saturday, September 10.

To learn more, to register or to download the Advance Healthcare Directive recommended by Ms. Evans, go to http://www.sflifeandjustice.org/end_of_life_issues

Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney

Nice: Subsidiarity in Action

A very nice post from one of the young writers over at CatholicVote.org about Americans pulling together and taking care of one another in their time of need:

Why have FEMA? Alabama citizens show us spontaneous charity in action
by Joshua Mercer

Natural disasters can literally destroy communities. We’ve seen this from Hurricane Katrina, the earthquake in Japan, the recent tornadoes in the South, and the current flooding of the Mississippi in Memphis. (Pray for my relatives in North Dakota; sandbags are keeping water from flooding their house on all four sides. They have to travel by boat instead of car because of the flooding of the Red River of the North.)

Because there is so much need of shelter, clothing and water for so many displaced families, it is thought that only the federal government can effectively rise to the occasion and meet these needs of all these people.

But Katrina changed all that. It opened our eyes to the incompetence of bureaucracy from the federal level (“Brownie”) down to the municipal level (remember all the school buses that went unused?).

In contrast, Walmart and Home Depot mobilized immediately and performed some amazing acts of corporate citizenship, while FEMA was spinning their wheels:

“Between August 29 [when Katrina made landfall] and September 16,” [Economist Steve Horwitz] reports, “Wal-Mart shipped almost 2,500 truckloads of merchandise to the affected areas and had drivers and trucks in place to ship relief supplies to community members and organizations wishing to help....

Mr. Mercer then switches over to the disastrous tornadoes that afflicetd the south last week:

And it’s not just corporations who have responded to the call.

When tornadoes recently ravaged the city of Tuscaloosa (home of the University of Alabama), they found help from an unlikely source. Their chief rival: fans of Auburn University."

Bless them!

Archbishop Dolan to Celebrate Dr. Nathanson's Funeral Mass

Tom Peters reports that Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York will celebrate a funeral Mass for pro-life hero Dr. Bernard Nathanson.

Most people know the story of Dr. Nathanson, a one-time abortionist and one of the founders of NARAL Pro-Choice America. By his own count Dr. Nathanson partcipated in the deaths of 75,000 unborn babies. But, after witnessing a sonogram, the Doctor had a change of heart, a conversion, and became one of the most important voices for life in the United States. Think how hard it is to admit we are wrong, even in small things, and then reflect on what moral courage Dr. Nathanson's acceptance and conversion must have required! And his example must surely have encouraged others like Norma McCorvey (Jane Roe) and Abby Johnson, not to mention many whose names we will never know. Tom writes:

"Today it was made known that Archbishop Timothy Dolan will celebrate Dr. Nathanson’s funeral Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.

Imagine, someone who brought about the deaths of 75,000 human beings and who was instrumental in ushering in the era of legalized abortion being granted a Catholic burial.

But thus is the infinite mercy of Christ.

Tom then quotes his father, canon lawyer Dr. Ed Peters:

My father writes movingly about this:

'Nathanson’s baptism at the hands of Cdl. John O’Connor in 1996 completely forgave him all his sins up to that point (all of his 75,000 supervised or directly-performed abortions, including one of his own children, his multiple divorces, and God knows what else) and totally paid all of the punishments due for such sins. CCC 1263. Everything, everything, Nathanson did up to the day of his baptism is buried forever in Christ.'

Tom continues:

This is an extraordinary point to reflect upon.

After all, the Church, in the debate over abortion, is often portrayed as unfeeling, harsh, unforgiving. I think critics of the Church who say such things should take note of Dr. Nathanson’s Catholic burial.

In truth, nothing is more forgiving than the Church because the Church forgives through the power of Christ – He who IS forgiveness for sin. The Church can be no less forgiving of sin as He is, and the same is true for us. If Dr. Nathanson can be saved, we all can. And we can pray for everyone including the Dr. Nathansons of this world to experience conversion.

The example of Dr. Nathanson, his baptism and funeral brings this one thing to mind: conversion.

As we pray for the repose of Dr. Nathanson’s soul – and petition God to show all His mercy to him – we should also pray for the conversion of those who continue to believe in the lie of abortion.

Lord, harden not their hearts. Lord, show them your mercy!"

Mary Help of Christians, pray for us!