News - January 2018 RSS Feed

WASHINGTON – As the Catholic Church in the U.S. began observing National Migration Week, a time to reflect on the circumstances confronting migrants, immigrants, refugees, and human trafficking victims, the administration of President Donald Trump announced that it would end an immigration program for thousands of Salvadorans, one of the largest groups of modern-day immigrants in the country and one that includes many Catholics.

DETROIT – So who really is singing “Gather Us In” at Mass?

Students from Connelly School of the Holy Child in Potomac, Md., laugh together during a pro-life youth rally and Mass at Capital One Arena in Washington Jan. 19 before the annual March for Life.

LIMA, Peru – Pope Francis tackled politically charged issues during his weeklong visit to Chile and Peru, decrying human trafficking, environmental destruction, corruption and organized crime in speeches before audiences that included political leaders.

ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT FROM PERU – Pope Francis apologized to victims of clergy sex abuse, saying he unknowingly wounded them by the way he defended a Chilean bishop accused of covering up abuse by his mentor.

St. Anthony’s Dining Room has been at it since 1950 when Franciscan Father Alfred Boeddeker and his friar brothers passed out sandwiches to the Tenderloin hungry outside their Golden Gate Avenue friary.

On Jan. 15 we celebrated the life of a truly great American, Dr. Martin Luther King. Half a century ago, Dr. King passionately, hopefully and eloquently urged us to live up to the ideal of equality professed in our country’s founding documents.

In reading Bishop Barron’s “How Star Wars Lost Its Way,” (Jan. 11), I was first tempted to round-file it after the paragraph which stated “that the overriding preoccupation of the makers of the most recent Star Wars seems to be, not the hero’s spiritual journey but the elevation of the all-conquering female.”

When “Star Wars” came out in 1977 I was 12 years old. I loved the movie and the two others that followed. As a preteen I was happy to see a strong female in Princess Leia but as a teen in the later movies I was disappointed that Luke had the Jedi ability and the training and not his twin sister. What I recall from these movies was Leia had a twin connection to Luke, but not actual Jedi powers.

Bishop Barron complains about an “aggressive feminist ideology” which promotes movies portraying women as strong and competent, sometimes even more so than men. In a world where a man who publicly talks about women, including his wives and daughter, as if they were objects holds the highest office in the land, I actually think that’s a good thing.

The news that Saint Patrick’s Seminary & University sold one acre of its land to the Menlo Park Fire Department was interesting (Jan. 11, p. 16).

It has been 10 months since I began my tenure as Superintendent of the Archdiocese of San Francisco. In that ten months, my love for the Catholic schools of our Archdiocese has only grown as I continue to be amazed by the families, students, educators and administrators that comprise the 22 preschools, 55 elementary schools, and 8 high schools in Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo counties.

In the history of U.S. Catholic higher education since World War II, three seminal moments stand out: Msgr. John Tracy Ellis’ 1955 article, “American Catholics and the Intellectual Life;” the 1967 Land o’ Lakes statement, “The Idea of a Catholic University;” and the day Don J. Briel began the Catholic Studies Program – and the Catholic studies movement – at the University of St. Thomas in the Twin Cities.

In recent years we have witnessed a growing tendency to promote suicide as a way of resolving end-stage suffering. Physician-assisted suicide is now legal in a handful of states and a number of other jurisdictions are considering laws to legalize the practice.

There’s a line in the writings of Julian of Norwich, the famous 14th-century mystic and perhaps the first theologian to write in English, which is endlessly quoted by preachers, poets, and writers: “But all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.” It’s her signature teaching.

Catholic Schools Week provides an annual opportunity to remember and appreciate anew the contribution of Catholic schools in the United States. This remarkable school system stands apart from public and other private school systems, and is a source of great pride for the Church. It is fitting for us to recognize and remember the vision and sacrifice of the countless women and men who helped Catholic schools take root in this country and flourish to this day.

Miguel Maldonado said it was Father Paul Rossi, former pastor of St. Raphael Parish in San Rafael, who encouraged him to enroll his oldest child Miguel in the parish preschool.

The Catholic intellectual tradition is a buzz phrase that Marin Catholic High School is turning into an updated curriculum – beginning with a pilot ninth grade English course this year.

Did you know the bishop’s miter is inspired by the Ten Commandments and a version was worn by the priests of the Old Testament? If you were one of the students who attended Mass with Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone during any of the 44 official school visits during the past five years, you would also know the tall pointed white hat symbolizes the bishop’s role in teaching God’s law.