By Tom Burke

Woodside Priory is honoring several benefactors with St. Benedict Medals, the school community’s highest honor. Wayne and Cindy Davison became active at the Portola Valley school when their daughter, Amanda, who graduated in 2000, became a student there. Their son, Andy, is a sophomore this year.

“Wayne and Cindy have headed or chaired key committees for eleven school auctions and their leadership is evident in the growth of this event as the school changed and increased in size over the past decade,” the school said. “Their vision, creativity, personal support and countless hours of volunteer service have benefited hundreds of students and their families.”

Jack and Joan McGraw were “early supporters of the Priory during its first decades, and have remained constant supporters over the years,” the Priory, which counts the couple among its founders, said. The McGraw’s two sons are Priory alumni, John, class of ‘80, and Michael, class of ‘83. Jane Yates has prayed with the Priory church community for more than four decades, the school said, touching many lives with her interest in and unflagging support of the Benedictine community.

In addition, Jane co-chaired a current campaign that will raise $250,000 for the renovation and expansion of the Priory chapel. … Graduates of Mercy High School, Burlingame, returned to their alma mater January 5th to speak to current juniors and seniors about college life. Thanks to 2004 alumnae, Claire Reitmann-Grout, now at Maryland’s Towson State University; Mary Kate McNamara, now at Sonoma State University; Genevieve Haight, now at Whittier College; Christine Giusti, now at Cal State Hayward and Maureen Cary, now at Regis University….

St. Ignatius College Preparatory’s Sesquicentennial celebration is off and running, said school PR person, Paul Totah. “Banners now decorate Sunset Boulevard and various locations where the school has had campuses over the past 150 years,” Paul, an SI alum, told me “We are having a June 4, 2005, block party called A Day on the Boulevard, open to everyone, to celebrate our anniversary.”…

Following in the footsteps of their fathers at Junipero Serra High School are freshmen, Nick Bertoldi (John, 1981), Andrew Bet (Claudio, 1974), Michael Dekker (George, 1988), Anthony DiSanto (Michael, 1975), Tim Dunleavy (Kevin, 1980), Sean Flynn (Kevin, 1982), Joseph Frank (Glen, 1980), Daniel Kidwell (Andrew, 1982), Elliott Lanam (Joseph, 1973), Thomas Leddy (Sean, 1976), Antonio Lucha (David, 1976), John Minahan (John, 1975), Kiernan Moran (Pat, 1980), Scott Morton (Brian, 1983), James Sheehan (David, 1971), Edward Stocker (E. Martin, 1978), Tyler Turdici (Edward, 1984), Max Vorsatz (Paul, 1967), Patrick Williams (James, 1983) and Rob Natoli.

All hats off for Rob’s dad, Steve Natoli, a 1971 Serra grad who died 10 months ago after a brave fight against cancer. Steve was well known at the school as a dedicated alumnus as well as his efforts on behalf of organizations including the school Fathers’ Club where he served as president in 2002-03. “Steve and his wonderful wife Louise were both truly a blessing to the Serra community, giving both their time and their talents on a regular basis over the years,” said Randy Vogel, Serra admissions director. Another son, Greg is also a Serra alum and currently a freshman at Cal Poly…. It only takes a moment to let us know about a birthday, anniversary, special achievement, or special happening in your life.

Just jot down the basics and send with a follow-up phone number to On the Street Where You Live, One Peter Yorke Way, SF 94109. You can also fax to (415) 614-5633 or e-mail, do not send attachments - except photos and those in jpeg please - to tburke@catholic-sf.org. You can reach Tom Burke at (415) 614-5634.

Thousands join in peaceful, prayerful ‘Walk for Life’ in San Francisco

By Patrick Joyce

More than seven thousand peaceful and prayerful Catholics and people of other faiths joined in the first ever Walk for Life West Coast Jan 22 in San Francisco.

Following a rally at Justin Herman Plaza at the foot of Market St., the large pro-life throng made its way along San Francisco’s Embarcadero to the Marina Green. For a good portion of the two-mile route, the Walk for Life participants faced taunts, insults and some obscenities from about one thousand angry pro-abortionists.

More Walk for Life photos

A calm demeanor characterized the long line of pro-life walkers as they sang, prayed or walked quietly, many carrying signs proclaiming, “Women deserve better than abortion.” Several hundred San Francisco Police Officers marched in single-file between the Walk for Life participants and pro-abortion protestors, who lined part of the route from Market St. to Fisherman’s Wharf.

“They said it couldn’t be done but you are all here to show that it can be done,” Dolores Meehan told a cheering crowd that filled Justin Herman Plaza for the first large-scale Roe vs. Wade anniversary demonstration in San Francisco, a city officially hostile to their message. Meehan and Eva Muntean, both of San Francisco, were the primary organizers of the event.

“We are here to celebrate life, to speak out against abortion. However, there’s a lot of people in San Francisco who have come here who feel threatened by our message,” Meehan told the crowd. “We are not here to force or impose our beliefs on other people. We are here to stand witness to our beliefs, that belief being the culture of life.”

A rally of abortion supporters earlier in the morning at Powell and Market drew an estimated 3,000 people. This pro-abortion rally was organized specifically to protest the Walk for Life West Coast. Some of the pro-abortion marchers dispersed after a march down Market St., but about one-third to one-half of the group took up positions along the planned Walk for Life route. At noon, Walk for Life participants prepared to make their way down the Embarcadero where they encountered about one thousand protestors lining the sidewalk, jeering and frequently shouting. “Go home . . . this is a pro-choice town . . . Right-wing bigots, go away.” Some carried “Stand Up For Choice” signs. Some held up crudely written obscene signs and shouted obscenities.

Few marchers responded. Instead they followed Meehan’s advice at the rally: “So as we meet the protesters . . . It is imperative that we return any agitation with a smile or by just looking forward . . . We are a peaceful group because you cannot stand for life if you do not also stand for the life of the person who is not being all that nice to you.”

Participants in the Walk for Life West Coast came from near and far. Dolores Meehan said about a quarter of the pro-life people were from San Francisco, while other contingents came from San Mateo County and Marin County as well as other dioceses in northern California. The diverse crowd of old and young people, including many families walked beneath a sea of signs that reflected a frequently-heard refrain at the walk: “Women Deserve Better than Abortion.”

Some prayed the rosary, others sang hymns in Spanish and English and as the walk neared its end, they simply chanted “Ave Maria, Ave Maria.” Oblivious of the heavy Catholic participation in the walk, sidewalk hecklers jeered about “Fundamentalists” as people carrying a banner of Our Lady of Guadalupe passed by.

Using hit and run tactics, abortion activists were able to block the march near Fisherman’s Wharf, causing the Walk for Life marchers to take a prearranged detour. Police arrested two pro-abortion activists.

The protesters were reflecting the sentiments of Supervisor Bevan Dufty and other city politicians who opposed the Walk for Life. “These outsiders who oppose women’s right to participate fully in our society are not welcome in San Francisco,” said Dufty, a native of New York who settled in San Francisco 12 years ago. Meehan, a fourth generation San Franciscan, took the irony in stride. Carol Crossed, president of Democrats for Life, told the rally she found those views puzzling in light of her earlier experiences in San Francisco. “This great international city welcomed me to exercise my right to speech and my right to assembly for myself and fellow antiwar activists from all over the country but yet this city fails to welcome its own citizens to exercise their rights today,” Crossed said.

Meehan praised the San Francisco Police for their “professionalism and heroism” in protecting the pro-lifers and the marchers themselves for their “integrity and dignity” and their calm amid the storm of protest.

“We ran a gauntlet of hate for two hours. It was diabolical at some places, people running next to you and screaming in your ears,” she said. “The crazy faces were on,” Meehan thought as she looked at the jeering, noisy pro-abortion protesters on the sidewalk.

The anti-life demonstrators were most aggressive on Jefferson Street where they sat down on the pavement and blocked the walk route. A dozen police officers confronted the protesters, while several others arrested two others a block away. Meanwhile, the pro-lifers took a pre-arranged alternate route while chanting “Ave Maria, Ave Maria” and then singing “We Shall Overcome” as they reached the end of the walk in Marina Green.

To the pro-lifers, it was a fitting end to a walk that began with a rally at which they cheered enthusiastically for the Rev. Clenard Childress, a Baptist minister from New Jersey. The Rev. Childress praised pro-lifers as “righteous men and women who are willing to stand up in the public square for those who cannot stand for themselves.”

In the battle for the rights of the unborn, “You have held the line. We’re now catching up with you. I think God has a sense of humor. In the early 60s the civil rights movement was basically black and Baptist. Now it’s white and Catholic,” he said to cheers and laughter.

After the walk, Meehan said, “First, I am thankful to God and to the people who were praying for us. I was especially heartened by the bravery of the old people and the small children, the most vulnerable of us. We would try to get the children into the middle but they would take their signs and turn them to the protesters.”

Meehan and Eva Muntean chose San Francisco as the site of the Walk for Life for several reasons. The City has one of the highest abortion rates in the country, she said, and “If you’re trying to reach out to women and to change their hearts, you reach out to them where they are.”

“We also knew it would be a lightning rod for the media” – a pro-life march in a city whose political leaders describe it as “pro-choice.” And, Meehan says with a laugh, “We chose San Francisco because it’s where I’m from. It’s a fiefdom of radicalism. We were tired of the intolerance of this radical abortion agenda.”

Women speakers at Walk for Life rally say ‘Women deserve better’

By Patrick Joyce

In protesting against abortion, “We walk in the shoes of our feminist foremothers, women like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton who refused to choose between women and their children,” Sally Winn told the Walk for Life Rally.

“Abortion is a betrayal of feminism,” Winn, national vice president of Feminists for Life, said. “Abortion discriminates. Abortion underestimates women. Abortion is violence against women. As Elizabeth Cady Stanton said, ‘Abortion is the ultimate degradation of women.’”

Winn traced this betrayal to the two men who founded the National Alliance to Repeal Abortion Laws. “These two guys essentially said if you want equal pay, equal promotion, equal education you can have it,” she said. “All you have to do is control your bodies. . . . If you want to be educated, paid and promoted like a man, then you better act like men. . .. If it’s your body and it’s your problem.”

“How is this pro-woman?” she asked. “Is this the best we can do for women? Don’t women deserve better than this?”

A study by Planned Parenthood’s research arm shows that abortion “is not about controlling our bodies.” Winn said. It shows that women are having abortions for two primary reasons: “lack of emotional and lack of financial resources.”

“It’s time for friends, families, employers and universities to wake up and smell the coffee,” Winn said. “We’re women. We’re not men. We have children – so get over it. Accommodate us for who we are instead of making us fit into a male model. Why should we have to sacrifice our children and violate our bodies in order to achieve our academic and career goals?”

Pro-abortion attorney Sarah Weddington told the Supreme Court in Roe vs. Wade “that a woman couldn’t complete her college education if she became pregnant,” Winn said. “Sorry, Sarah, I did.”

“Abortion has been a 32-year experiment on women, and it has failed,” Winn said. “When they ask us today as we walk, ‘What about the woman?’ We will not answer, ‘What about the baby?’ We will tell them that we refuse to choose between women and their children. Women deserve better than abortion.”

Speaking from hard-learned experience, Georgette Forney agreed with Winn. Forney, a founder of the National Silent No More Awareness Campaign, spoke to the rally from the experience of an abortion “consumer.”

“I’m here today because as a woman who has had abortion, I know abortion is not a good choice,” Forney said. “It is time to hear from the consumers who have made the choice. If there’s a problem with any other product, you listen to the consumer but for some reason people don’t want to listen to women who have had abortions and we are the consumer of the product.

Forney had an abortion in 1976 when she was 16 years old and 12 weeks pregnant. “I didn’t want people to know I was sexually active. Nobody knew except the boy. It was just a matter of driving to the clinic and getting the abortion.”

For the next 19 years, she was “what some would call pro-choice. . . I really tried not to think about the issue a whole lot.” Then, as she was “asking God to give me some guidance on other issues before I knew it I was facing the truth of what the abortion had done in taking the life of my child. . . I lost a child. . . . a precious child God created.”

Forney has been married more than 20 years and has a 15 year old daughter who “struggles to understand how a mother could take the life of her child.”

“I don’t think women need abortions,” she said. “They need real support. It’s to get past the rhetoric of a woman’s right and look at what’s right for women’s health.”

Carol Crossed, president of Democrats for Life, spoke to the rally about the politics of abortion. Eight Democrat members of the House of Representatives and one U.S. Senator are on the federal advisory board of her organization.

“We represent the 47 percent of Democrats who want the party to move away from its extremist absolutist position and take greater measures to protect mothers and their unborn children. . . .” she said. “While the majority of Democrats are conflicted about Roe vs. Wade, the majority of Democrats are not conflicted about the need to regulate and restrict abortion – measures that would protect women.”

“Why does our party that defends the rights of women to be fully informed about breast cancer treatment, about consumer products – why then do they not also support her right to be informed about the alternatives to abortion?”

The message to the Democratic Party of last year’s election is: “Give pro-life Democrats a home . . . support the values of inclusiveness and tolerance that once defined our party.”

Archbishop gives invocation, joins in Walk for Life

In his invocation for the pre-march rally of Walk for Life West Coast, San Francisco Archbishop William J. Levada recalled the words of Psalm 139 and said for three thousand years we have prayed to God: “Truly you have formed my inmost being. You knit me in my mother’s womb. I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works.’

“Like the psalmist, we too give you thanks today, O Lord, for the precious gift of human life from the first moment of conception to natural death,” Archbishop Levada prayed. “May the way we live our lives prepare us to receive from you the gift of eternal life.

“We pray for a renewal of a culture of life within our communities that we do not separate our creed from its ethical requirements concerning life. We pray for a transformation of our culture so that it supports life and overcomes all discrimination, violence and exploitation against women, that we understand that we are called to bear witness to the meaning of genuine love.”

“We ask your blessing on the many who have gathered here to witness to the cause of justice in our country, the right of unborn children to life.”

Earlier that morning, Archbishop Levada concelebrated the 8 a.m. Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral with Santa Rosa Bishop Daniel Walsh, Oakland Bishop Allen Vigneron, and San Francisco Auxiliary Bishops Ignatius Wang and John Wester. More than 1,500 people attended the Mass, At the Walk for Life rally, Dolores Meehan introduced Archbishop Levada as a spiritual leader of Catholics and “a man who has made very courageous stands for life and for family in this city where it is so difficult sometimes to defend those values.”

Archbishop discusses possible abuse case settlements with pastoral council

By Maurice Healy

San Francisco Archbishop William J. Levada spoke to members of the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council Jan. 19 about the possibility of settlements in civil lawsuits filed against the Archdiocese by alleged victims of sexual abuse by clergy and other church employees.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Ronald Sabraw is coordinating approximately 150 lawsuits against a half-dozen northern California dioceses. The lawsuits arise from a state law which set aside the statute of limitations for claims against employers of alleged perpetrators for one year. All of the lawsuits were filed in 2003, the one year allowed for such claims.

Under the law, written by a trial attorney who represents plaintiffs in two-thirds of the lawsuits, claims could be brought by adults seeking damages against employers. Many of the lawsuits involve claims of abuse many decades old. Earlier this month, Judge Sabraw ordered a mediation process to begin with the hope of having the parties reach settlement of the claims.

In speaking to the members of the Pastoral Council, composed largely of lay people from parishes within the Archdiocese of San Francisco, Archbishop Levada said the mediation process locally and the recent settlement of abuse claims in the Diocese of Orange are important to the local Church.

He said the Archdiocese is involved in about 75 of the lawsuits, either alone or with another diocese, noting that the dioceses of Oakland, Santa Rosa and Stockton were part of the Archdiocese until 1962, and the Diocese of San Jose was established in 1981. He said some cases are likely to be dismissed because there are no grounds for the claim that the Archdiocese had knowledge of the abuse.

Archbishop Levada said the Diocese of Orange, under a mediation order, recently settled some 90 cases for $100 million, or an average of $1.1 million per claim. He said the settlement in California is about 10 times higher than other states, some of which have limits for claims against non-profit organizations.

The Archbishop said he was providing the council with information and asking for a discussion. He asked “If we have an experience like that of the Diocese of Orange, how are we going to deal with it?” He said in the Diocese of Orange, insurance companies provided about half of the settlement amount.

Archbishop Levada said, “We do have some properties and it has been suggested that the sale of these church properties might be used to pay for settlements.”

He said one such property is St. Brigid Church, an unreinforced masonry building closed in mid-1994. According to city ordinance, the building would require expensive seismic retrofitting, while a pastoral commission in 1993 recommended the parish be closed. Archbishop Levada said there are three other Catholic churches within a mile’s distance, and retrofitting an unneeded church at a current cost of $5 to $7 million would not be good stewardship. Doris Munstermann, a long-time member of the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council, said she had strong family ties to St. Brigid Church and was saddened by this news. Archbishop Levada said he was sympathetic to those who hold close ties to the church and he said he would be glad to meet with the group of former parishioners.

Archbishop Levada said, “We are in a time of limited priest resources and we simply have more church capacity than we need.” He said he did not think it would be a responsible decision to re-open St. Brigid. He added, “If the St. Brigid property is sold, a portion of the proceeds would be used for a matching grant fund to help St. Brigid School build a gymnasium.”

Archbishop Levada said difficult decisions must be made in the current environment. “At a different time, I had hoped funds from these properties could be used to help support the Catholic school education of inner-city children and other aspects of the Church’s mission. However, the possible precedent set by the Orange Diocese settlement has changed our plans.”

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Visit your mother church

On behalf of Archbishop Levada, the Board of Regents, staff and parishioners of Saint Mary’s Cathedral, I want to thank you for Jack Smith’s extensive article on the Cathedral and its ministries, along with an open invitation to everyone in the Archdiocese to visit their mother church.

I hope readers will mark their calendars with two upcoming Archdiocesan Cathedral events that they will not want to miss - the annual Chrism Mass on Tuesday of Holy Week, March 22, 2005 at 5:30 p.m. and the Ordination of Priests on Saturday, June 25, 2005 at 10:00 a.m.

I’d also like to take advantage of this opportunity to ask for donations toward a modest re-landscaping project that was overlooked in the CSF article. While I’m sure that such a plea for donations will seem shameless in the midst of a thank you note, but when it comes to the Cathedral I have no shame. I only have pride in it and hope that every Catholic in the Archdiocese will take pride in their Cathedral too.

Fr. John Talesfore
Administrator pro tempore- St. Mary’s Cathedral

Beautiful bronze and soul

Thanks to Jack Smith and to Fr. John Talesfore for the striking, well written and interesting centerfold about St. Mary’s Cathedral in this week’s Catholic San Francisco.

Permit me to correct one statement concerning the six great bronze panels illustrating, in chronological order (Visitation, Flight into Egypt, Wedding Feast at Cana, Mary at the Foot of the Cross, Mary and the Apostles at Pentecost, and Mary’s Assumption) six moments in the life of Mary: only the classical first two and last two are by Enrico Manfrini himself. The Wedding Feast and the Crucifixion, in more baroque style, are by his studio partner and fellow artist at Villa Clerici in Milan, Maestro Mario Rudelli. You may perhaps recall the “Works of Man” by Rudelli, which were beautifully reproduced in a famous 1966 Vatican philatelic emission of 12 postage stamps, three by Manfrini and 9 by Rudelli.

I had the honor and privilege of speaking at the dedication of our Cathedral bronze doors in the presence of Professor Manfrini in 1975, and of concelebrating at Villa Clerici with Archbishop Pasquale Macchi, Pope Paul VI legal executor, on May 19, 2004, Enrico Manfrini’s funeral Mass (he died on May 15).

May his beautiful soul rest in peace! Fr. Larry N. Lorenzoni, S.D.B.
San Francisco

Reading King

I want to commend your choice of printing “Letter from Birmingham Jail” for the celebration of Martin Luther King’s birthday. The letter is so often overlooked and is so thought-provoking. Thank you for provoking our thoughts - and actions!

Valerie Voorhies- San Francisco

Right order

In the Saint for Today feature from Catholic News Service (CSF – Jan. 14), the statement is made that Margaret of Hungary was given to the Benedictines. Margaret became a Dominican Sister not Benedictine. The Dominicans have been proud to have her as a patron for centuries and have celebrated her feast as one of their own.

Thank you for giving us an opportunity to correct this error.

Sr. Anna Louise, OP- San Rafael

Appeal monies

In regard to the Jan. 14 supplement on the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal, I have a question that I imagine many in the Archdiocese may also wish to ask.

The supplement indicated a budget need of $6,399,300, yet you are asking us all to contribute $5,237,100, which, together with your other stated sources of income, comes to $9,560,686, an amount in excess of your stated budget needs of $3,161,386. Would you please explain why there is a need for $3,161,386 more than your budget needs.

Patricia Miller
San Mateo

Ed. note - The total budget for the Archdiocese of San Francisco for July 2004 through June of 2005 is $9,560,686. The agencies that are designated to receive support from the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal represent $6,399,000 of that amount. The remaining agencies and ministries are funded by income on investments, rentals and fees, and restricted gifts. Since the Annual Appeal will produce $5,237,100, the agencies designated to receive AAA funds must also receive funds from those other sources. AAA funds raised and earmarked for the work of specific agencies become restricted funds and may not be used in any way associated with settlement of sexual abuse claims.

Deacon John Norris
Director of Development - Archdiocese of San Francisco

Delightful reading

I was delighted to find some columns worth reading in the January 14 Catholic San Francisco.

In addition for Fr. Ron Rolheiser’s about respecting differing Catholic points of view, Antoinette Bosco’s article on the Earth Charter was excellent and informative. It helps us realize that we, as Catholics, have a responsibility to one another and to the entire human family.

The Earth Charter, based on the U.N. General Assembly Declaration of Human Rights, spells out how to work for a just, sustainable and peaceful global society.

Too bad church leaders are not providing the dialogue to involve us in this work and to help us deal with the real issues facing our youth and our families in terms of an unjust war and lawless government.

Arthur Duffy
San Rafael

EDITORIAL

Shame of San Francisco

By Maurice Healy

Thanks to the repugnant rhetoric of city officials and the boorish behavior of several hundred pro-abortion activists, San Francisco went a long way on Jan. 22 to solidify its reputation as one of the most intolerant cities in the nation.

When two San Francisco Catholic women, Dolores Meehan and Eve Muntean, voiced their plan to have a “Walk for Life – West Coast” to mark the 32nd anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, San Francisco’s pro-abortion establishment reacted with fear and loathing.

Planned Parenthood, National Abortion Rights Action League and others in the abortion industry went to work with local politicians. On Jan 11, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution declaring the city to be a “pro-choice” zone – effectively disenfranchising those citizens of San Francisco who are opposed to abortion on demand.

In declaring “Stand Up for Choice Day” — in reaction to plans for Walk for Life West Coast — San Francisco Supervisors sent a bellicose message to pro-choice activists and a call for aggressive action. Local Supervisors, who like to think of themselves as liberal and progressive, called for a reactionary and intolerant response. In the process, San Francisco’s elected officials raised their voices against freedom of speech and right of assembly.

Despite the Supervisors’ innate message of “Don’t come, don’t speak, don’t march,” a peaceful Walk for Life – West Coast rally at Justin Herman Plaza featured noted women and movements calling for better treatment for women. At noon, the pro-life throng of 7,000 people – young, old, and many families with children —began a procession along the Embarcadero to Marina Green. As the praying, singing and smiling pro-life people began their route, they were met with loud insults and vile invective thrown at them by pro-abortion zealots. Many insults were specifically anti-Catholic.

What was the object of their hatred? The Walk for Life participants who quietly and purposefully walked behind a banner that simply said, “Abortion hurts Women.” The pro-choice activists were enraged to see thousands of people proceeding under a sea of posters with the simple message, “Women deserve better than abortion.” More information is available at www.walkforlifewc.com.

The stage for aggressive behavior by those protesting the Walk for Life was set at a pro-abortion rally of about 3,000 people held earlier that morning at Market and Powell. San Francisco elected officials came close to inciting mayhem in their harsh rhetoric condemning the Walk for Life participants.

About 1,000 pro-abortion zealots, the most angry and hostile remnant of the earlier rally, took up positions along the Embarcadero and waited for the Walk for Life marchers. The worst of these actors shouted obscenities and vile insults, some with the aid of loud speakers. While many pro-choice demonstrators lining the route were content to shout derisive opposition, their muted behavior, by comparison, was overwhelmed by the hate-filled antagonism of several hundred rabid activists.

San Francisco officials had tried to villainize the pro-life group as “outsiders.” This is an epithet that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. easily would have recognized. When King participated in marches for civil rights in various U.S. cities, he often experienced the same kind of insults that were thrown at the participants in the Walk for Life. Worse still, the angry shouts of pro-abortion activists, telling the marchers to “Go back to the Central Valley,” were thinly veiled racist attacks on Hispanic Americans.

Hundreds of San Francisco Police Officers provided a cordon between the Walk for Life march and pro-abortion protestors positioned on the side of the roadway. Yet, pro-abortion activists defied police and several times tried to block the route of the Walk for Life procession. Near Pier 39, the long line of pro-life marchers was delayed. At Fisherman’s Wharf, the protestors blocked the route, but a pre-arranged detour allowed the Walk for Life procession to continue to Marina Green. There, the peaceful participants in the first ever Walk for Life West Coast joined in a humble prayer of thanksgiving.

MEH

SCRIPTURE COMMENTARY

The Beatitudes’ Promises

Who are the happy, fortunate, blessed people? What is the source of human happiness?

One of the most important and paradoxical sections in all Scripture is the vision of happiness Jesus gives in his Sermon on the Mount. In the Gospels of Matthew (5:3-10) and Luke (6:20-26), Jesus proclaims what blessedness is and makes promises to those who follow his proclamation. The blessed, the happy, the fortunate, he tells us, are the poor in spirit, those who mourn and are merciful, those who seek righteousness and peace, the ones pure in heart, the persecuted. The promise that awaits them is God’s kingdom!

The Greek word makarios means “blessed” or “happy,” which implies a certain freedom from anxieties and worries. In Matthew’s Gospel the notion of beatitudes conveys deep joy flowing from the grace of salvation and the promise of God’s kingdom. The blessed and “successful” people are those who put on Jesus’ mind and heart. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” In our more honest moments, we recognize our profound neediness, our intellectual limitations, our spiritual inadequacy, our moral failures. In our helplessness, we turn to God. Our response of gratitude and trust, itself a grace, means that the kingdom of heaven is ours.

“Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.” The journey of life involves having our heart broken time and time again. Sometimes this is due to our own sin, sometimes because of the cruelty of others. Jesus reminds us that the truth does set us free. Those who are honest about their sorrows and sins will gain the consolation of the Lord. They will be comforted and will be given the gift of courage.

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.” God seems to be vulnerable to those who are humble and lowly. These meek individuals place themselves under the Lordship of Jesus, striving to emulate him in obedience and submission to whatever is sent their way. But the meek know that God is ultimately in control, and they are about doing the divine will. The great inheritance that will be given is peace. This is not an earthly inheritance but one that is everlasting.

“Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.” We all have longings: for meaning, for intimacy, for depth. But one of the deepest is for justice—where relationships and life are properly ordered. Only when rights are protected and promoted, only when we fulfill our obligations to God and to one another will we have this hunger and thirst satisfied.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” If we give mercy, we shall get mercy. God has been merciful to us, and we are to pass the gift on to others. A merciless Christian is a contradiction in terms. Mercy is love in the face of sin and injury. Mercy is the presence of Jesus in a wounded and fractured world.

“Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.” The pure of heart are those who are not defiled and polluted by values and attitudes that take us away from God. We know that our seeing is dependent upon the condition of our hearts. If pure, we shall see the glory of God and our own as well as others’ dignity.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” God’s peace is the rightness of relationships. Peace embraces four satellites: truth, charity, freedom and justice. Peacemakers are instruments of all four of these graces. When that work is done well, they know themselves to be blessed because they are truly sons and daughters of God.

“Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” This Beatitude shows how radical the message of Jesus is: that persecution and happiness go together. The true Christian longs to share fully in the life of Jesus: his life, suffering, death and resurrection. This is the gateway into the kingdom of heaven. The mission of Jesus was to take people from the mysteries of sin and death into the happiness of heaven. The Beatitudes describe his vision and chart the paths to make that journey. In the end, it is all the work of the Holy Spirit.

Robert F. Morneau is auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Green Bay, Wisconsin. He is the author of numerous books, including Paths to Prayer (St. Anthony Messenger Press) and two children’s books, The Gift and A Tale from Paleface Creek (Paulist Press).

Year of the Eucharist

To pray as Jesus did

Jesus did not start a brand new religion. He and His disciples were all Jews, and Jewish patterns of prayer became the basis for worship even when the Gospel had spread beyond Judea and the majority of believers were of Gentile origin. Our celebration of the Eucharist is shaped by the patterns of Jesus’ prayer.

At the time of Jesus, the Jewish people had three places for prayer: the Temple, the synagogue, and the family table. It is hard for us to appreciate the significance of the Temple, because we have no equivalent Christian site. There was only one Temple, and devout Jews journeyed there for the principal feasts of the year: Passover, Pentecost and Booths. We know from the Gospels that Jesus went to the Temple for these feasts. Jews who lived at a great distance from Judea would try to come for Passover at least once in their lives. (This explains the numbers of people speaking different languages who were present in Jerusalem at Pentecost.)

Along with annual major feasts, there were daily sacrifices offered in the Temple by the priests. The Temple was destroyed by the Romans in the year 70, and has never been rebuilt. The followers of Jesus interpreted this as a sign that the sacrifice offered by Jesus on the cross was the one perfect sacrifice, and so the worship offered in the Temple was no longer needed; the Letter to the Hebrews bears witness to this conviction. Christ’s sacrificial self-offering fulfilled the liturgical rites of the Temple, and His sacrifice is offered up now, not in one place, but wherever Christians celebrate the Eucharist.

The second locus for Jewish worship is one with which we are still familiar: the synagogue. Even before the destruction of the Temple, this was the primary religious meeting place for Jews living outside Judea, and since the destruction of the Temple it has been the main communal center of worship for all Jews.

The service in the synagogue consists of psalms, readings from Scripture, a homily and intercessory prayers. We know that Jesus regularly attended the synagogue, and Luke’s Gospel relates a homily given by Jesus in His home town of Nazareth (Lk 4:16-30). When Paul visited different communities to preach the Gospel, he always went first to the synagogue.

The first part of our Mass, the Liturgy of the Word, follows the structure of the Jewish synagogue service. We praise God with psalms, listen to His word and reflect on its meaning in our lives, and offer prayers of intercession for our needs and the needs of the whole world.

The final center of Jewish worship, and in some ways the most important, is the family dinner table. In many ways the Jewish faith is a family religion, and it is this aspect which has helped it survive the destruction of the Temple and the persecutions they have experienced – often at the hands of Christians, to our shame – over the past two thousand years. Even without Temple or synagogue, the Jews have been able to pass on their faith through the weekly Sabbath meal and the annual Passover feast in the home.

We have a reminder of the Sabbath meal in the Mass: the prayers said by the priest when the bread and wine are placed on the altar are taken from the blessings offered in the Jewish home. On the Passover, the meal takes on a much more solemn religious character, as symbolic foods are eaten and the story of the Exodus is retold. Those participating in the Passover Meal do not simply remember the Exodus, they take part in it.

Our Liturgy of the Eucharist is shaped by this Passover celebration. For us, it is not the story of the Exodus which is told, but the “Passover” of Jesus from death to life, our deliverance from the slavery of sin and death into the Promised Land of eternal life. The altar is the family table of the Christian faithful. In the Eucharist we are privileged to pray in the same way Jesus did: singing the psalms He sang, hearing the Scriptures as He did, sharing in the Passover Feast He celebrated with His first followers.

Part of a series presented by the Liturgical Commission of the Archdiocese of San Francisco.