A day of service
Before school reopened for the fall, these women
from Moreau Catholic High in Hayward joined nearly 100 other faculty
and staff in a day of service at Our Lady of the Rosary School in
Union City. They painted classrooms, washed windows and blinds, cleared
gutters and downspouts, repaired doors and floor tiles, and configured
computers.
MOREAU HIGH PHOTO |
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Awards to seminarians
The Young Men’s Institute (YMI) Seminarian Foundation
recently gave financial awards to four men studying for the priesthood in
the Oakland Diocese. Pictured during ceremonies at San Damiano Retreat Center
are, from left, Michael Pham, Joe Languemi (YMI Council #83), John Musgrove
(YMI Council #83), Bishop Salvatore Cordileone, Derrick Oliveira, Gepaul
Carpio, Gerald Pedrera and Father Larry D’Anjou, diocesan vocations
director.
Fundraising success
Members of the San Lorenzo Ruiz community at St. Catherine
of Siena Parish in Martinez stand with Father Leo Asuncion, parochial administrator,
after giving him a check for $5,482 for church improvements. The money was
raised during a dinner dance in June.
New classrooms added
Bishop Emeritus John Cummins blesses the new junior high/science
building at St. Patrick School in Rodeo, Aug. 23, the first day
of the new school term. Students gathered in the school patio for
the blessing. The school addition is the culmination of eight years
of fundraising.
JOSé AGUIRRE PHOTO |
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Renovated classrooms blessed
Bishop Salvatore Cordileone blesses 10 newly renovated Smart Classrooms
at St. Joseph Notre Dame High in Alameda, Aug. 26, after presiding
at a Mass opening the 2010-2011 school year. The classrooms are
now fully interactive for faculty and students. Several alumnae
and nuns from Notre Dame Academy, one of the two founding schools
of SJND, attended for the dedication of a marker commemorating the
contributions of the Sisters of Notre Dame to the school.
SJND PHOTO |
Celebrating peace
St. Ignatius Parish in Antioch is hosting the
East County International Day of Peace Celebration, Sept. 18-19. Co-sponsored
by the parish, the United Nations, Contra Costa Interfaith Council and
the Interfaith Peace Project, the event, at 3351 Contra Loma Blvd., is
free and open to all.
Observed by the United Nations since 1982, Peace Day is centered around
the idea that if a person, group, community or nation can celebrate peace
for 24 hours then peace can be extended into a life practice.
The celebration, which begins at 6:15 p.m. on Sept. 18, includes a World
Religion Sacred Scripture display, interfaith candle-lighting, interfaith
musical celebration and an all-night prayer/reflection vigil. On Sept.
19 the celebration will resume from 1:15 – 5 p.m. and includes an
interfaith musical celebration and planting of a peace pole with a Native
American Indian ritual.
While the Antioch parish has commemorated the peace celebration for four
years, this marks the first time the event has been expanded to a regional
level with invitations being sent to other churches and the larger community,
said Walter Ruehlig, the parish’s communications director. Organizers
hope the celebration will be embraced by other faith communities in the
years to come with, for example, a new peace pole planted by a different
faith community each year and a portable labyrinth installed at different
sites.
The celebration is bannered on the U.N. International Day of Peace web
site www.internationaldayofpeace.org.
Plans also call for the event to be broadcast and put on YouTube. For
more information contact Ruehlig, (925) 756-7628 or (925) 864-0314.
HNU president leads rite
Bill Hynes, in his first public appearance as
president of Oakland’s Holy Names University, led the incoming
freshman class through the traditional “The Rite of Passage”
ceremony Aug. 21 during which the students climb the 106 stairs at the
center of campus.
Each freshman’s name was inscribed in pastel chalk on the steps
leading up to the top of the campus and as the students journeyed up the
steps, they were welcomed with cheers and applause by parents, family
and friends, and HNU faculty and staff. Hynes told the students that they
are welcomed as family, as brothers and sisters of one another.
Dual transplant for tot
After spending almost a year waiting for a heart and
kidney transplant Aaron Tanner, now five years old, received both
organs during two operations held Aug. 14 and 15 at the UCLA Medical Center.
According to Timothy Lyle, a family friend, Aaron received his heart on
Aug. 14 but the kidney transplant scheduled for the following day was
delayed when the child went into cardiac arrest. Once the new heart was
stabilized, the medical team was able to proceed with the second transplant.
Lyle noted that that surgery took place on the feast of the Assumption
of Mary and was an answer to many prayers.
Aaron was born with a rare congenital heart defect that greatly limited
the ability of his heart to circulate blood throughout his body. The circulation
problems resulted in kidney failure. In addition to the child’s
health problems Aaron’s parents also suffered the heartbreak of
losing their three-year-old son, Ethan, to an unrelated heart problem
shortly after Aaron’s birth. The Tanners, who are members at Holy
Rosary Parish in Antioch, also have two older sons.
Aaron has been released from the hospital and is expected to spend several
months in the Los Angeles area for follow-up care. In the meantime Lyle
and others in Contra Costa County are planning fundraisers to help the
family meet the rising expenses related to the child’s medical treatment.
Visitors to the website, saveabrokenheart.com,
will find information on how to make a donation.
Around
the Parishes
Members of the St. Albert-St. Philip Neri Cluster
Parish in Alameda will gather at Lincoln Park on Sept. 12 for the
annual 9-11 Memorial Mass at 11 a.m. The liturgy will honor local fire
fighters, police, rescue services, airline personnel, doctors and nurses
while remembering those who gave their lives in service on Sept. 11, 2001.
Fremont’s St. Joseph Parish is looking for a few children who
love to sing — or want to learn to sing — for their new children’s
choirs. Practice for middle school singers (6th – 8th graders) will
be on Thursdays from 3:15 – 4:30 p.m. Practice for the children’s
choir (3rd – 5th graders) will be Fridays from 4 – 5:30 p.m.
So-called Cherub singers (K – 2nd graders) will also rehearse on
Fridays. All of the choirs will sing at scheduled parish events.
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Around
the Schools
Trinity Wilson, a junior and rising track star
at Berkeley’s St. Mary’s High School, won her heat
in the girls 100-meter hurdles trials at the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore
last month. Her wind-legal time of 13.88 seconds was the sixth-fastest
time in the heats. In June Wilson finished second in the 100 hurdles at
the California Interscholastic Federation track and field championships.
As The Voice went to press, St. Mary’s College in Moraga
was scheduled to play host to the first U.S. Senatorial debate between
incumbent Sen. Barbara Boxer and her Republican challenger, Carly
Fiorina, on Sept. 1. Christian Brother Ronald Gallagher, SMC
president, said the college welcomed the opportunity to “provide
these thoughtful candidates with a venue to discuss matters of extreme
importance to our students, California and the nation.”
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Among the Religious
Holy Names Sister Marcia Frideger, associate
professor of business and chairperson of the Department of Business at
Oakland’s Holy Names University, has been selected to be
part of a five-person Provincial Leadership Team for the U.S.-Ontario
Province of the Holy Names Sisters for a five-year term. The Province
includes 575 Sisters living in Washington, Oregon, California, Mississippi,
New York, Maryland, and Florida as well as Ontario, Canada. In addition
to Holy Names University, the Province sponsors six high schools, as well
as retreat houses, art and music centers, and a large variety of educational,
spiritual and social outreach ministries.
Social Service Sister Eva Marie Lumas, an assistant professor of faith
and culture and director of field education at the Franciscan School
of Theology in Berkeley, was a keynote speaker at the Third National
Gathering for Black Catholic Women in Charlotte, N.C. Aug. 13 –
15. The gathering was sponsored by National Black Sisters’ Conference
(NBSC).
These priests were recently assigned as parochial vicars: Society of
Divine Word Father Emilio Reyes to St. Bernard Parish in Oakland,
effective Aug. 1; Salesian Father Joseph Fernandez to St. Mary
Parish in Walnut Creek, effective Sept. 1 – May 2011; Salesian
Father Jesse Montes to St. Ambrose Parish in Berkeley, effective
Sept. 1; Father Jayson Landeza to St. Felicitas in San Leandro,
effective Sept. 1; Father Joseph Nguyen to Cathedral of Christ
the Light in Oakland, effective Sept. 15; Father Jun Manalo
to St. Joseph Parish in Fremont, effective Sept. 15. It was also
announced that Salesian Father Juan Francisco Munoz was assigned
as pastor at St. Ambrose in Berkeley, effective Sept. 1.
Deacon Dick Folger of Our Lady of the Rosary Parish in Union City,
author of “The Gospel Stories of Jesus,” is expanding his
ministry. He is available to make power point presentations on such topics
as Baptism and the Eucharist to participants in RCIA programs. Contact
him at: dickfolger@aol.com or
phone: (510) 887-5656.
On Aug. 23 in Lithuania, the documentary film, “Red Terror on the
Amber Coast,” written and produced by Dominican Father David
O’Rourke, parochial administrator at Our Lady of Mercy Parish
in Point Richmond, was the centerpiece of the national televised commemoration
of the Hitler/Stalin Pact that handed the Baltic nation to the Soviet
Union on Aug. 23, 1939. The hour-long documentary tells the story of the
50 years of Soviet terror waged on Lithuania.
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Names, News, Notes
The Companions in Ignatian Service and Spirituality,
a program of prayer and Ignatian spiritual reflection coupled with community
service for persons 50 and older, is still accepting applications for
its 2010-2011 program at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley.
A typical group of 8-10 people meets monthly for prayer and community.
Contact: Kay Mascoli, (408) 666-7506 or kmascoli@scu.edu
Congratulations to James and Amy Webb on the occasion of their
58th wedding anniversary on Aug. 16, to Bob and Dorothy Tarte who
celebrated their 57th wedding anniversary on Aug. 16, and to Lionel
and Bonnie Avila, who marked their 50th wedding anniversary on Aug.
27. All are members at St. Michael Parish in Livermore.
The diocesan Lay Ecclesial Ministers Council recently selected
the following people to be their representatives: Annette Roux
and Liz Rogers, Region 1; Lisa Promani and TreEssa Palmieri,
Region 2; Anne Marie Fourre and Suzy Silva, Region 3; and
Gloria Espinoza and Marilyn Marchi, Special Works. These
representatives join Robyn Lang and Michele Walsh from Region
4 and Laureen Aguayo and Frances Rojek from Region 5.
MARK YOUR CALENDARS! Chautauqua 16: A Gathering of People, a celebration
of diversity in the diocese, will be held Oct. 2, 10 a.m. – 4:30
p.m., at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St., Berkeley.
It will begin with a Marian procession honoring Our Lady of Aparecida
(Patroness of Brazil), followed by a multicultural, multilingual Mass
with Bishop Emeritus John Cummins as celebrant and Father George
Mockel as homilist. Ethnic foods and cultural entertainment throughout
the day.
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