August 8, 2019

NOVENA:

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Archbishop urges faithful to pray against SB 24

Student’s project exposes plight of Rohingya Muslims

On the street and finding comfort in faith and friends

CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO Newspaper of the Archdiocese of San Francisco

SERVING SAN FRANCISCO, MARIN & SAN MATEO COUNTIES

www.catholic-sf.org

AUGUST 8, 2019

$1.00  |  VOL. 21 NO. 15

El Paso bishop: Lack of compassion is ‘the great sickness of our time’ CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO

A woman reacts after a mass shooting at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, Aug. 3, 2019. The Catholic dioceses of El Paso, and neighboring Las Cruces, New Mexico, have joined in prayer after the shooting left more than 20 dead and many injured.

Saying his “heart was breaking,” El Paso, Texas, Bishop Mark J. Seitz joined mourners at an interfaith prayer service for the victims of the Aug. 3 Walmart massacre and decried lack of compassion, generosity and humanity as “the great sickness of our time.” “As a minister I am called to be present to those who suffered this attack and to their families. I need to do so with a sense of composure,” Bishop Seitz said in a statement posted on the diocesan website. “But as I visited with victims and those they love my heart was breaking within me,” he said. “Their questions are mine as well. Why the innocent children? Why the mothers with babes in their arms? Why should any human being ever be subjected to such violence? “Once again in our nation,” the bishop added, “we see the face of evil. We see the effects of a mind possessed by hatred. We see the effects of the sinful and insipid conviction that some of us are better than others of us because of race, religion, language or nationality. ‘He waited for judgment, but see, bloodshed! For justice, but hark, the outcry!’ (Isaiah.5:7). “In the last several months,” Bishop Seitz said, “the borderlands have shown the world that generosity, compassion and human dignity are more powerful than the forces of division. The great sickness of our SEE EL PASO BISHOP, PAGE 13 (CNS PHOTO/CARLOS SANCHEZ, REUTERS)

NJ suicide law called ‘utter failure’ of government, society CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

METUCHEN, N.J. – New Jersey’s new law allowing assisted suicide, effective Aug. 1, “points to an “utter failure” on the part of government and indeed all society, said Bishop James F. Checchio of Metuchen. It is the failure “to care truly, authentically and humanely for the suffering and vulnerable in our midst especially those living with an incurable disease as well as the frail elderly, the infirm and those living with disabilities,” he wrote in a July 29 letter to the 650,000 Catholics in his four-county diocese. “Assisted suicide is a grievous affront to the dignity of human life and can never be morally justi-

Ill Act – the elderly “could feel undue pressure to view this as an option to prevent being a burden to others and young people will begin to think that people can and should be disposable.” “Indeed,” he added, “with this law there will be a further desensitization of the value of human life.” Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, a Catholic, signed the assisted suicide bill into law April 12. It passed the Assembly 41-33 and the Senate 21-16 March 25. As the measure awaited Murphy’s sigNEWARK CARDINAL JOSEPH W. TOBIN nature, pro-life groups and other opponents urged state residents to contact the governor and ask him fied,” he said. “The legal permission now granted to A personal way to honor your loved one’s patriotism to our country. not to sign the bill into law. this practice does not change the moral law.” If you have received a flagunder honoring your loved one's Bishop Checchio said that the new law – military service and would like to donate it the Medical cemetery toAid be flown as part for of anthe “Avenue of Flags" on Memorial Day, 4th of July and Veterans' Day, calledtothe in Dying Terminally SEE UTTER, PAGE 7

“What legislatures now refer to as ‘death with dignity’ is legal permission for one to end their own life with a lethal overdose of prescription drugs.”

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