January 21, 2008   •   VOL. 46, NO. 2   •   Oakland, CA
 

Scouts in service
Cadette Girl Scout Troop #43 and Cub Scout Pack #184, both of St. Catherine Parish in Martinez, entertained residents at the Alhambra Convalescent Hospital with Christmas songs and holiday gifts at Christmas. Standing with Dominican Sister Moira Macpherson, a hospital chaplain, are, from left, Selina Haefke, Laura Lejano, Paul Cook, Max Coker and Nick Coker; kneeling, from left, Angela Willis, Eulove Delos Reyes and Rosemary Cook.

Affirming lay ministry Mercy Sister Amy Hoey, a consultant on lay ecclesial ministry and former project director for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops subcommittee on lay ministry, will give the keynote address at the 6th annual Lay Ecclesial Ministry Convocation, Jan. 23 at St. Joan of Arc Parish in San Ramon. The convocation begins at 9 a.m. and concludes at 2:30 p.m.

Honoring our patron

Oakland’s St. Margaret Mary Parish is hosting a special novena in honor of St. Francis de Sales, co-patron of the Oakland Diocese and a Doctor of the Church, whose feast is celebrated on Jan. 24. The previous evening at 6 p.m. Bishop Allen Vigneron will preside at Mass and preach about St. Francis de Sales.

The novena, which began yesterday (Jan. 20) and will conclude on Jan. 29, includes a traditional Latin Mass Monday through Friday at 6 p.m., Saturday at 10 a.m. and Sunday at 12:30 p.m.

Priests scheduled to preach are Father John Direen, parochial vicar at Oakland’s Christ the Light Parish; Dominican Father Richard Schenk, a professor at the Dominican School of Theology and Philosophy at Berkeley; and Father Karl Lenhardt, vice provincial of the Institute of Christ the King in the United States. The church is located at 1219 Excelsior Ave.

African American fest

St. Columba Parish in Oakland launched its annual African American celebration on Jan. 13 with guest speaker Dominican Sister Jamie Phelps, director and professor of systematic theology at the Institute for Black Catholic Studies, at Xavier University in New Orleans.

The following week’s speaker was Deacon Dunn Cumby, president of the National Black Catholic Caucus, and an associate professor at the University of Oklahoma.

Social Service Sister Eva Lumas, assistant professor of religious education and culture at the Franciscan School of Theology in Berkeley, will speak at the 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. liturgies on Jan. 27, and Divine Word Father Ken Hamilton will preach at the 10:30 a.m. liturgy on Feb. 3.

Rawn Harbor, pastoral associate at St. Columba, will conduct the Rawn Harbor Gospel Workshop Choir at the 10:30 a.m. liturgy on Feb. 3.

Around the Parishes

Our Lady, Queen of the World Parish in Bay Point will host Father Leo Patalinghug, author of “Grace Before Meals: Recipe for Family Life” and host “Grace Before Meals” on PBS, on Feb. 2. Father Patalinghug uses his cooking skills to teach families recipes for feast days and encourages them to engage in conversation around the dinner table. He will celebrate Mass at 9:30 a.m., then give a presentation at 10:30 a.m. in Father Palis Hall. All are invited to attend. A good-faith offering is appreciated. For more information, contact Peggy Murray at (925) 778-0734.

Several parishes in Fremont are participating in the seventh Winter Relief Program coordinated by the Tri-City Homeless Coalition. Corpus Christi Parish hosted several homeless families in December and Holy Spirit and Our Lady of Guadalupe parishes will joining forces during February to provide bag lunches for 33 adults/children in the shelter program.

Holy Names Sister Roberta Carson, longtime director of youth faith formation at St. Bonaventure Parish in Concord, has announced that she will be leaving her post in late June.

Cynthia LeBlanc, a member at St. Columba Parish in Oakland, will be honored Jan. 27 at the first Presentation Honors luncheon in San Francisco. LeBlanc, a graduate of Presentation High School in Berkeley, recently retired from a career as an educator.

June Kirk joined the staff at St. Anne Parish in Union City as the community’s new pastoral associate earlier this month.

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Around the Schools

Congratulations to members of the student council at Corpus Christi School in Piedmont who raised $1052 to build two wells in Uganda.

Applause also goes to students at Christ the King School in Pleasant Hill and their families who continued a longtime outreach to St. Boniface Parish in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district. Nearly 300 presents were donated through its Giving Tree program. Students and their families also donated $3,400 and 36 dinner boxes to the parish chapter of St. Vincent de Paul for distribution to needy families.

Eighth-grade students at St. Theresa School in Oakland have joined a learning and giving project called Free Rice, Students go online to http://freerice.com, view challenging vocabulary words, indicate their choice for a synonym and immediately see if their choice was right or wrong. Correct answers earn 20 grains of rice for a UN food program. The rice is paid for by the advertisers whose names appear at the bottom of the vocabulary screen. Students can see a daily total of all donations, in addition to their own.

Father Paulson Mundanmani, pastor at St. Mary Parish in Walnut Creek, joined several families of the parish school’s scout Troop 529 for a hike up the west side of Mt. Diablo last month. During the 4.2-mile hike, the group climbed through Dan Cook Canyon to the Live Oak Campground and explored Rock City’s hidden caves and large sandstone formations. A highlight of the trek was reaching the peak of Sentinel Rock, approximately 1600 foot elevation, where the group relaxed and enjoyed the view.

Students at Moreau Catholic High School in Hayward gathered Jan. 16 to celebrate the life and ministry of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., during the campus’ annual Celebration of Peace service. The event was organized by students from the school’s campus ministry team, African American Alliance (AAA Club), and Step Club.

The Parent Teacher Group at St. Joseph Elementary School in Alameda will celebrate the golden anniversary of its Round the Town fundraising event next month. Families and friends of the school prepare and serve lunches or dinners in their homes to paying guests. This year’s event will be held Feb. 22 (lunch) and Feb. 23 (dinner). Proceeds will help pay for equipment and supplies for the school.

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Among the Religious

Father Van Dinh, who joined Concord’s St. Bonaventure Parish as parochial vicar about a year ago, left the parish earlier this month to begin a two-month training program in Alabama before being deployed as a military chaplain in the Middle East.

We Remember: Father Joseph O’Reilly, a longtime priest of the San Francisco Archdiocese, died Jan. 7. Ordained in 1939, he spent much of his long career in pastoral ministry at parishes in San Francisco and Menlo Park with the exception of an assignment at St. Margaret Mary Parish in Oakland. He also served as assistant director of cemeteries for the archdiocese for 14 years.

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Names, News, Notes

Congratulations to Lois and Gene Re, members at St. Leander Parish in San Leandro who recently celebrated 56 years of marriage, and to Margarita and Tony Mariscal, members at St. Michael Parish in Livermore, on their 55th wedding anniversary.

Two couples at St. Ignatius Parish in Antioch celebrated milestone wedding anniversaries last month: Gloria and Amante Asuncion reached their 40th year of marriage, and Zoila and Oscar Jovel marked the 25th year of their marital union. Both couples renewed their vows with family and friends in attendance.

“Boys Can Sing,” a workshop for any boy who likes to sing, will be offered at All Saints School, 22824 Second St. in Hayward, on Feb. 22 from 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. The workshop is offered by the Golden Gate Boys Choir and Bellringers, an independent, non-profit organization committed to the tradition of boy choir singing. The organization provides extensive instruction in musical skills and choral performance for boys and young men in the San Francisco Bay Area. Rehearsals, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., are held at St. Philip Neri Church in Alameda on Tuesdays; at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Oakland on Wednesdays; and at All Saints School in Hayward on Thursdays. For information, call (510) 887-4311 or (415) 431-1137.

VOLUNTEER ALERT!: Birthright in Concord, a non-profit pregnancy support agency, is seeking volunteers to work in its counseling center three to four hours per week. Training sessions will be offered Feb. 8-9 and 15-16 at the Birthright office, 3043 Clayton Road in Concord from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Follow-up sessions will be provided as needed. For additional information, call (925)798-7227.

VOLUNTEER ALERT 2!: The Apostleship of the Sea, a ministry that offers pastoral care to seamen on ships that visit the Port of Oakland, is seeking volunteers to manage the ministry’s office at 4001 Seventh St., Berth 40, in Oakland. For more information, contact Teresa Pena at (510) 267-8317.

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