November 19, 2007   •   VOL. 45, NO. 20   •   Oakland, CA
 

Leading in cross country
Leaders pull away in the 3rd- to 6th-grade girls race in the Oakland Diocese CYO Cross Country Meet held on Oct. 22 at Joaquin Miller Park in Oakland. Over 500 runners participated in the meet.

A winning team
Nhu Nguyen, a senior at Salesian High in Richmond (left), Richard Bonds, the school’s biology teacher (center), and senior Vincent Parker conduct an experiment in the school’s lab after finishing as one of the top six finalists at a conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The three were part of a collaborative program with UC Berkeley that developed synthetic blood from e-coli bacteria. The Salesian-UC Berkeley team presented its research data and findings at MIT earlier this month and placed in the top six among 54 competing groups.

Construction to begin at St. Theresa’s Bishop Allen Vigneron blesses the site of the new $5.8 million parish center at St. Theresa Church in Oakland, the first major construction there since the elementary school was built in 1958. The Nov. 4 ceremony marked the formal start of the project that includes a large meeting space, library, media center, kindergarten and small meeting rooms..

Music by a saint

For the first time ever, original music by St. Alphonsus Liguori was released in a two-CD set earlier this month by the Redemptorists of the Denver Province.

Titled “Praying the Rosary with St. Alphonsus Liguori,” the CD consists of music composed by St. Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787), founder of the Redemptorist Order, The music is played during the recitation of the Rosary and the reading of 20 meditations, also by St. Alphonsus. A majority of the meditations are taken from the saint’s “The Glories of Mary.”

The hymns are sung by members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Master Chorale and the Padre Serra Children’s Choir. Redemptorist Father Peter Schavitz leads the listeners in the Rosary.

The CD set retails for $17.95 (plus shipping and handling) through Little Lamb Music. To order, visit the website at www.littlelambmusic.com or call 1-800-231-1207 or 1-805-492-5302.

Around the Parishes

Up to 200 members of the Oakland Community Organizations (OCO) joined other school and community leaders at Oakland’s St. Louis Bertrand Church, Nov. 12, to discuss with Oakland Police Chief Wayne Tucker and local elected officials strategies for reducing homicides in east Oakland, especially among young people.

A team of parishioners from St. Ignatius Parish in Antioch recently traveled to Mexico where they built a home for a poor family. Each year members of the parish buy and transport building materials and construct a home with monies gleaned from various fundraisers.

St. Anne’s Society at St. Anne Parish in Walnut Creek recently donated $700 to the Contra Costa Interfaith Housing, which provides support services and permanent housing for formerly homeless children and their parents, and $700 to St. Joseph’s Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing which provides religious education and church services for the Catholic deaf community in the Oakland Diocese.

The Knights of Columbus at St. Raymond Parish in Dublin will donate $20,000 to 10 Bay Area charities. Recipients of $2,000 gifts are: Birthright of Livermore, Columbian Charities run by the California State Knights of Columbus, George Mark Children’s Hospice of San Leandro, Hope Hospice of Dublin, Kaleidoscope Center in Dublin, Mary’s House in San Pablo, Shepherd’s Gate in Livermore, St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry at St. Raymond Parish, St. Vincent de Paul Dining Room in Oakland, and the Wheel Chair Foundation of Danville.

Speaking of the Dublin Knights … a walk-in Red Cross blood drive will be held at St. Raymond Church, 11555 Shannon Ave. in Dublin, on Dec. 15 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. It is not necessary to make an appointment. Donors should limit caffeine intake and avoid eating fatty food on the day of donation. For more information, visit www.givelife.org. For directions to St. Raymond, visit www.st-raymond-dublin.org.

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Around the Schools

Bishop Allen Vigneron and Father Jay Matthews, pastor at St. Benedict Parish in Oakland, were co-celebrants at the All Saints liturgy at Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland on Nov. 1.

Students at Hayward’s St. Clement School are learning to be good stewards by collecting food items or making monetary donations to the parish’s St. Vincent de Paul group. The donations will be used to create Thanksgiving baskets for 40 families in need.

St. Mary’s High School in Berkeley observed Breast Cancer Awareness Month by promoting online donations to the “St. Mary’s Team” on the Susan G. Komen Foundation web site. Through these efforts over $2,000 was raised.

Members of the National Honor Society at St. Joseph Notre Dame High School in Alameda raised $1,100 for Smile Train, the organization that provides cleft lip and cleft palate operations for children around the world whose families cannot afford the surgeries. “I am so proud that we are able to help,” said Chris Micheli, NHS moderator. “Once students saw the before and after pictures of these children, they were eager to raise money for the operations.”

As fall sports move into its final stages, the Mustangs of St. Elizabeth High School in Oakland head into playoff territory with high hopes. The soccer team and women’s volleyball team are solidly entrenched in the North Coast Section playoffs, while the football team, with a 4-3 record and only one game remaining, is almost guaranteed a spot in the North Coast Section Class B playoffs.

Meanwhile Mike Czyz, who plays for Concord’s De La Salle High School football team, recently set the school’s single-season record for touchdown receptions in a season with 14 catches.

Madison Logan V. Phan, a fourth grader at St. John the Baptist School in El Cerrito, plays the role of Sala in the Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s production of “After the Quake” by Haruki Murakami. She alternates the role with another young actress. The production continues through Dec. 2.

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Names, News, Notes

VOLUNTEER ALERT!: Concord’s Bay Area Crisis Nursery is seeking “gift wrapping elves” who can help wrap toys and clothing that will be donated for Christmas gifts. Gift wrapping sessions will be held three times daily Dec. 8 – 22 from 9 a.m. – noon, 1 – 4 p.m. (2 – 5 p.m. for youth groups) and 6 – 9 p.m. There will be a maximum of 12 people per session. Gifts, scissors and pre-printed gift tags will be provided. If you can provide wrapping paper, gift bags, boxes, tissue, ribbons, bows and tape, it will be appreciated. Call Lisa H. at (925) 685-6633 or visit www.bacn.info to schedule a session.

What’s on EWTN? Pope Benedict XVI will elevate 23 prelates from around the world to the level of cardinals during a public consistory in St. Peter’s Square that will be broadcast on EWTN, Nov. 24 at 1:30 a.m. (live) and 11 a.m. Also on EWTN, Dec. 12 at 7 p.m., will be “Our Lady of Guadalupe and Miraculous Mexico,” which follows Bishop Roman Danyluk and pilgrims as they journey through Mexico to the shrines of St. Michael of the Miracle, Our Lady of Ocatlan, and the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. EWTN is carried 24 hours a day on Comcast channel 229; DISH Satellite channel 261; and DirecTV channel 370; in Alameda on Comcast 30 and Alameda Power channel 26. Visit www.ewtn.com for more program information.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS! The English Speaking Cursillo Movement of the Oakland Diocese will host a Grand Ultreya and annual meeting Jan. 27, 2008, at Holy Redeemer Center, 8945 Golf Links Road in Oakland, from 12:30 – 4 p.m. Contact David Grubbs at (925) 484-0862 or drgrubbs@pacbell.net for more information.

“Reaching for the Dream,” an annual conference of the abolition movement sponsored by The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, will be held Jan. 17 – 20 at the San Jose Holiday Inn. Information/online registration: www.ncadp.org or (202) 331-4090.

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