Nov. 24: 10 a.m. Thanksgiving Day Stational Mass, Cathedral

Nov. 27: 10 a.m. Stational Mass, Cathedral

Nov. 28: (Evening) Radio interview: “From the Front Lines of the Culture War” (AM 1000 KCEO, San Diego; www.catholicradioofsandiego.com)

Dec. 1: (Morning) Bishop’s Administrative Council, Chancery

      (Afternoon) Presbyteral Council Executive Committee

      (Evening) Donor’s dinner, Cathedral Center

Dec. 2: (Morning) Operation Rice Bowl grants breakfast, Cathedral Center

Dec. 3: (Morning) Our Lady of Guadalupe Pilgrimage

      1 p.m. Mass, Cathedral

Dec. 7: Catholic Conference Religious Liberty Committee, Sacramento

      (Evening) Meeting with permanent deacon candidates

Dec. 8: (Morning) Bishop’s Administrative Council, Chancery

      (Afternoon) Presbyteral Council and Diocesan Consultors, Chancery

      (Evening) Deacon Board Meeting

Dec. 9: (Evening) Crèche Festival, Cathedral Center

Dec 12-13: Catholic University of America Board Meeting, Washington, D.C.

home

Heads up: We’re golden

The Diocese of Oakland was established Jan. 13, 1962 and the Office of Worship asks each parish to anticipate the Golden Jubilee on Epiphany Sunday, Jan. 8.
Tentative plans include:

• By the Epiphany, holy cards will be available in English, Vietnamese and Spanish for use throughout the year.

• A rite of blessing to accompany the Eucharist will be provided as an option for parishes, in English, Vietnamese and Spanish.

• On Aug. 22, 2012, the Memorial for the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a diocesanwide celebration will be held at the Cathedral. Bishop Cordileone will be principal celebrant and Bishop Cummins and Archbishop Vigneron will be principal concelebrants.

Watch The Voice for more information.

Bishop’s Appeal update

The 2011 Appeal is now pushing $1.97 million in pledges and gifts from 12,300 donors. We have reached 94 percent of goal and expect to hit the overall $2.1 million by the end of the year.

Thirty-six parishes are now over goal. Special congratulations to two new parishes over goal: Our Lady of Guadalupe, Fremont, and St. Cornelius, Richmond.

It’s not too late to give: contact the Development Office at 510-496-7254.

Martyrs Celebration

The Vietnamese community of the diocese celebrates Vietnamese Martyrs at 3 p.m. Nov. 20 at St. Felicitas Church, 1662 Manor Blvd., San Leandro. Bishop Emeritus John S. Cummins will preside. The Eucharistic liturgy will begin with a procession. For more information, contact Sister Rosaline L. Nguyen at 510-628-2153 or Rnguyen@oakdiocese.org.

home

Choir festival Catholic choirs from throughout northern California participated in a day long workshop — the Northern California American Federation Pueri Cantores Choral Festival — at the Cathedral of Christ the Light on Nov. 12. Participants included the Catholic Community of Pleasanton Choir, Golden Gate Boys Choir and Bellringers, Hayward; Holy Cross Junior Choir, Santa Cruz; St. Joseph Children’s Choir, Brentwood; St. Patrick School Choir, Rodeo. The special guest conductor was Axel Theimer, director of choral studies at St. John’s University/College of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota, and Rudy de Vos, director of music for the Cathedral was the organist. José Luis Aguirre photo

Holiday concerts

Several holiday-themed concerts are scheduled at the Cathedral of Christ the Light, 2121 Harrison St., Oakland.

• The San Francisco Girls Chorus, Brass and Organ will open the 2011 Crèche Festival with a concert at 8 p.m. Dec. 9. Sing along and experience exhilarating holiday music under the direction of Susan McMane of the Brass Ensemble and Cathedral Organist Rudy de Vos. Donation is $20 in advance; $25 at the door, kids under 12, free. Tickets and information: www.sfgirlschorus.org.

Cathedral tours are available prior to all concerts at 7 p.m. for $5 per person.

• The Grammy-award-winning group Chanticleer returns for its annual Christmas Concert at 8 p.m. Dec. 10. The San Francisco group is known around the world as “an orchestra of voices” for the seamless blend of its 12 male voices and its original interpretations of vocal literature. For tickets and other information: www.chanticleer.org.

• As the weekend’s Cathedral Crèche Festival comes to a close, spend Sunday listening to free Christmas Jazz from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Dec. 11 in the Event Center.

• The San Francisco Boys Chorus, a Grammy Award-winning choir and choir-in-residence of the Cathedral, will perform its annual Christmas concert at 8 p.m. Dec. 17. Tickets are $20 each; available online via www.ctlcathedral.org.

Simbang Gabi celebrations

The Cathedral of Christ the Light will kick off an inaugural Mass titled, “Let There Be Light,” at 7 p.m. Dec. 14 to begin the annual Simbang Gabi diocesan celebrations. After Mass, attendees are invited to the Cathedral Event Center for a reception, complete with traditional Filipino food and music. Simbang Gabi is a Filipino holiday tradition that begins nine days before Christmas.

home

Oakland Bishop Salvatore J. Cordileone, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, applauds a talk Nov. 14 during the annual fall meeting of the U.S. bishops’ conference. CNS photo/Nancy Phelan Wiechec

Bishops discuss religious liberty,
marriage, finances at annual meeting

BALTIMORE — The U.S. bishops met for their annual three-day fall assembly in Baltimore, where they were urged to restore the luster, credibility and beauty of the Catholic Church in the hearts of its members.

Plans for upcoming year
The U.S. bishops overwhelmingly approved priorities and plans for 2012 for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ committees and departments voting 219-6 with three abstentions.

Bishop George V. Murry of Youngstown, Ohio, chair of the USCCB’s Committee on Priorities and Plans, said the committee considered five criteria when determining whether a planned activity or program of committees and staff offices fell within the mission of the U.S. bishops.

First among them was the acronym SMART. The ‘S’ stands for “specific and motivating,” followed by “measurable,” “attainable,” “relevant” and “trackable.”

The committee also considered whether the planned activity or program in accord with the mandate of the USCCB committee or workgroup to which it is assigned.

Reclaim truth about Jesus
Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York called on his fellow bishops Nov. 14 to communicate to the world that the sinfulness of the church’s members is not “a reason to dismiss the church or her eternal truths, but to embrace her all the more.” Describing the church as a spiritual family that “to use the talk show vocabulary . . . has some ‘dysfunction,’” he said the bishops’ “most pressing pastoral challenge today is to reclaim that truth, to restore the luster, the credibility, the beauty of the church.” But he cited “chilling statistics we cannot ignore” that “fewer and fewer of our beloved people — to say nothing about those outside the household of the faith — are convinced that Jesus and his church are one. So they drift from her, get mad at the church, grow lax, join another or just give it all up,” Archbishop Dolan said. “If this does not cause us pastors to shudder, I do not know what will.”

New nuncio introduced
Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the new apostolic nuncio to the United States, said he was pleased to be with the bishops for the first time and also expressed personal greetings from Pope Benedict XVI. He told the bishops the pope puts great hope in this country for the future of the universal church. The nuncio also praised the United States for being filled with vitality and always looking for a better tomorrow.

Reporting extension OK
The U.S. bishops overwhelmingly approved a five-year extension of the resolution that calls bishops to adhere to sound financial reporting within their dioceses. The vote was 230-2 with one abstention. A simple majority of the bishops present and voting was needed for approval.

Confidence in diocesan finances is “essential to the health of the church,” said Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Springfield, Ill., chairman of the Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance.

Alternate memorials approved
The U.S. bishops voted Nov. 14 to add Oct. 22 as an optional memorial for Blessed John Paul II in the proper of saints calendar for the United States. On Nov. 15, the bishops voted to add an optional memorial for Blessed Marianne Cope, who ministered in Hawaii to people with Hansen’s disease.

3% assessment increase
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Nov. 14 approved a budget of $217.4 million for 2012 and a 3 percent increase in diocesan assessments for 2013. The vote was 223-6, with one abstention, on the budget, which represents just a 3.1 percent increase over the 2011 budget.

home

There were no Vatican items in this edition.

home