September 5, 2005 VOL. 43, NO. 15Oakland, CA

New leadership team
The Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose have elected their new Council, to be led by Sister Gloria Marie Jones (front) as prioress general. She will leave her post in campus ministry at Stanford University. Other Council members are Sister Cecilia Canales (top), a pastoral care worker at St. Felicitas Parish in San Leandro; and from left, Sisters Luz Maria Quintero-Reyes, Johnellen Turner, Alicia Lucy and Mary Virginia Leach. Sister Quintero-Reyes is a community administrator in Mexico; Sister Turner is directress of schools for the Dominican Sisters and assistant superintendent of diocesan Catholic schools; Sister Lucy is an administrator for St. Martin's Residence in Mission San Jose, and Sister Leach is principal of St. Joseph School in Fremont..

Young adult Catholics (late teens, 20s and 30s) are invited to learn about and celebrate their faith at the 9th Annual Young Adult Conference, Sept. 24, at St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco. The conference, sponsored by the San Francisco Archdiocese, will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. and includes a keynote address by Deacon Nate Bacon, workshops, exhibits, liturgy, dinner and a dance. Advanced registration is $35, $40 on the day of the event. For more information contact Mary Jansen at the archdiocesan Office of Young Adult Ministry at (415) 614-5596 or jansenm@sfarchdiocese.org, or visit the website: www.sfyam.orgwww.sfyam.org.

Around the Parishes

Members at Berkeley’s St. Mary Magdalen Parish will gather Sept. 18 for a farewell and appreciation potluck picnic for their pastor, Dominican Father George Matanic, who is leaving the parish after nine years for a new assignment at the Newman Center at UC Riverside.

Congratulations to members of All Saints Parish in Hayward who earned special distinction for their participation in the annual Shelter Shuffle, a fundraiser for FESCO (Family Emergency Shelter Coalition in Hayward). The parish picked up the award for the most funds raised by a group and for the most walkers – 67.

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Around the Schools

A spirit of celebration is in the air at St. Barnabas School in Alameda where students, teachers and staff will cheer Jennifer Wadsworth who is marking her 25th year as a teacher there. Alumni and friends are invited to join the Sept. 18 festivities that include a 10:30 a.m. Mass followed by a reception. Wadsworth, who has served for the past 18 years as vice principal, teaches in the 6th, 7th and 8th grades.

During a two-week summer school session, new students at Oakland’s St. Martin de Porres School received an introduction to Catholic school culture. Thirty-five students spent their mornings learning the rules and ways of the school including good behavior standards and conflict management techniques. They also studied language arts and math, and heard stories about the school’s saintly patron.

Oakland’s Holy Names High School is marking its 75th anniversary at its home on Harbord Drive by inviting alumni and friends to a gala “Food for Thought” dinner Oct. 6 at Scott’s Seafood Restaurant at Oakland’s Jack London Square. Debbie DeCoudreaux, class of 1969, who recently starred in San Francisco’s production of Teatro Zinzanni, will serve as emcee. Individual tickets are $75. The Holy Names Sisters founded the small Catholic girls school in 1868 – 13 years before the first public high school opened in Oakland – originally on the shores of Lake Merritt (now the site of the Oakland Kaiser Building.) Having outgrown the site, the school moved to Harbord Drive in 1931. More information or tickets: Kathryn Moir, (510) 450-1110, ext. 118 orkmoir@csdo.org.

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Among the Religious

Father Steven Lopes, a Fremont native and graduate of Moreau Catholic High School in Hayward, recently left for Rome to take on a new position as personal assistant to Archbishop William Levada, the newly appointed head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Father Lopes, who once served as sacristan at St. Edward Parish in Newark, had worked as personal assistant for the archbishop during his tenure in San Francisco.

Names, News, Notes

Congratulations to the following couples who celebrated their wedding anniversaries over the summer: Therese and Robert Nowak, members at St. Anne Parish in Walnut Creek, 50 years; Martha and Patrick McGuire, St. Michael Parish in Livermore, 40 years; Victoria and Aris Corpuz, members at St. Raymond Parish in Dublin, 25 years.

Eartha Newsong of Santa Maria Parish in Orinda organized a peaceful demonstration Aug. 24 in front of the office of Ellen Tauscher in Walnut Creek to voice opposition to the 30-foot wall dividing the holy cities and peoples of Israel and Palestine. Tauscher, a member of Congress, had voted that the U.S. should not support the International Court’s decision that the wall is a violation of human rights.

Mercy Retirement and Care Center in Oakland was recently named to the Nursing Home Honor Roll by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for having no violations on the last three annual surveys and no substantiated complaints during the same time span.

Marriage series on EWTN. Upcoming programming on the 24-hour Catholic TV network includes a new series called “Marriage Works In Christ.” A priest and a married couple speak candidly about the status of marriage today and the blessings of Christ-centered marriage. The series airs Sundays at 3:30 p.m., Wednesdays at 8 p.m. and Fridays at 7:30 p.m. Another series, “Crisis in the Holy Land,” focusing on the exodus of Christians from the land where Jesus walked, will air Sept. 15 at 3:30 p.m. EWTN is carried on Comcast Digital channel 229, DISH Satellite channel 261; Direct TV channel 422; in Alameda on Comcast channel 30 and Alameda Power channel 26. Visit website, www.ewtn for a complete listing of September programming.

Parish organizations and ministries are invited to take part in the third “Proud to be Catholic” celebration, Oct. 15, at St. Joseph’s Church, 1621 Center St. in Los Banos. Organized by the Young Men’s Institute of San Francisco, the event begins at 5:30 p.m. with a Mass where the different parish groups will participate in a procession. For more information, contact Christopher Freeberg, chairman, at P.O. Box 591, Hilmar, CA 95324; (209) 667-0996, ext. 144; or cfreeberg@wintonireland.com.

Got news? Be a “parishioner-journalist” and share your news with Around The Diocese. Send your school news, anniversaries, parish activities, individual achievements, photos, and other happenings in the Catholic community to Carrie McClish at The Catholic Voice, c/o Around The Diocese, 3014 Lakeshore Ave., Oakland, Ca 94610; phone: (510) 419-1074; fax (510) 893-4734; e-mail: cmcclish@oakdiocese.org.

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