2010 articles
Archaeologist invites believers to Jordan
BETHANY BEYOND THE JORDAN, Jordan – The dignitaries drove through the underbrush in a caravan of 13 golf carts. In the third vehicle was Pope Benedict XVI. He was taking the path of countless pilgrims before him in coming [ more... ]San Francisco resolution is unconstitutional
A San Francisco Board of Supervisors resolution attacking the Catholic Church over adoption was illegal state interference in a religious matter, a Catholic advocacy group told a federal appeals court. The 2006 resolution was [ more... ]Women religious honored for ministry
Women Religious of San Mateo County’s Deanery 10 were honored at St. Matthew Parish in San Mateo Dec. 13, a date coinciding with the annual second collection for retired religious taken at most parishes across the nation. [ more... ]U.S. Franciscan detained on Cairo street
Franciscan Father Louis Vitale’s recent travel to the West Bank and Cairo was not a journey for the fainthearted. He was tear gassed outside a Palestinian olive grove and detained on the streets of Cairo, Egypt, by a [ more... ]Ministering to deaf Catholics
Father Paul Zirimenya is chaplain to the Deaf Community in the Archdiocese of San Francisco. The community consists of more than 3,000 families. Father Zirimenya describes his ministry, and the needs and concerns of Deaf [ more... ]Walk for Life expects 35,000 people
Walk for Life West Coast organizers expect 35,000 people from the San Francisco Bay Area and elsewhere in northern California and beyond to participate in the annual rally and walk set for Jan. 23. San Francisco Archbishop [ more... ]Born in tragedy
At the end of Mass on a Sunday last October in Haiti, something took place that I had never seen before on an altar. A few of the worshipers gathered for the 7 a.m. service at Notre Dame Cathedral in Cap-Hatien, Haiti’s [ more... ]Parents’ deportations divide parish family
Gilbert Mejia and his sister Helen thought the end of the world had arrived when they said goodbye to their parents and Dulce, their four-year-old sister, at San Francisco International Airport in November. The two [ more... ]New Sisters’ Council appointed
Archbishop George Niederauer recently approved appointments to the new Sisters’ Council headed by Presentation Sister Rosina Conrotto, director of the Archdiocesan Office for Women Religious. “The council will be a [ more... ]Walk for Life affirms dignity of life
Thousands of people gathered in San Francisco Jan. 23 for the 6th annual Walk for Life West Coast, a pro-life rally and walk that took place this year beneath grey clouds and intermittent rain. The cold and damp weather [ more... ]The Memory Project
Art students at Mercy High School, Burlingame, have joined the Memory Project, a nationwide initiative in which advanced high school art students create original portraits for children living in orphanages around the world. [ more... ]Inside the epic prep sports rivalry
When 4,500 screaming basketball fans instantly cut the cheers and the chatter as someone starts the traditional prayer of the Christian Brothers: “Let us remember we are in the holy presence of God,” it’s clear [ more... ]Archbishop's Radio Hour
Immaculate Heart Radio and the Archdiocese of San Francisco have unveiled a new Immaculate Heart Radio program called the "Archbishop's Hour" on KSFB -1260 AM radio.The program features Archbishop Niederauer, [ more... ]Testimony ends in same-sex marriage trial
The “rule of opposites” has been a virtually unwavering principle of marriage throughout human history, an expert witness defending California’s ban on same-sex marriage testified in federal court in San [ more... ]Volunteer shop with a big heart closes
The Primrose House of Values in Burlingame will be closing its doors Feb. 15, after a long run of 40 years. The facility has been a work of the Catholic Social Service Auxiliary of San Mateo County, now Catholic Charities [ more... ]Educators’ conference tackles teaching
An Archdiocesan Educators Conference, sponsored annually by the Department of Catholic Schools of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, was held at San Mateo’s Junipero Serra High School Feb. 5, with national speakers [ more... ]Baseball prospect trades in uniform
When top Oakland A’s baseball prospect Grant Desme capped off a stellar minor league season by announcing his January retirement to join the priesthood, head-scratching reporters across the country clamored to ask him why. [ more... ]Lent 2010
Following are guidelines for Lenten abstinence and fasting which began on Ash Wednesday. Everyone fourteen years of age and older is bound to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and the Fridays of Lent including Good Friday. [ more... ]Is repression on the rise in Vietnam?
Last May, parishioners at rural Dong Chiem Parish in Vietnam raised a tall, concrete cross on a nearby hilltop long revered as a cemetery. The local civil authorities weren’t pleased. On Jan. 6, at three in the [ more... ]Spirituality for Life
The philosopher, David Hume, once made a distinction between something he called as genuine virtues and something he termed monkish virtues. Genuine virtues, he said, were those qualities inside us that are useful to others and [ more... ]Parishes adopt Operation Rice Bowl
Spurred by Lent and daily cries of hunger from the poor in countries around the world, more than two dozen parishes, schools and religious education programs in the Archdiocese of San Francisco have signed on to participate in [ more... ]Construction begins for school and center
Construction of the new St. Mary Chinese School in San Francisco began to take solid form in February with the arrival of a large steel shipment and the raising of columns and beams. St. Mary’s Chinese School and Center [ more... ]
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