Sept. 6: (Morning) Bishop's Administrative Council, chancery

         (Afternoon) Pastoral Leadership Placement Board

         (Evening) Mass and Investiture, Knights of Malta

Sept. 7: Chancery meetings, San Francisco

Sept. 8: CEDDO Mass, cathedral

Sept. 9: 10 a.m. Stational Mass, cathedral

         (Afternoon) Golden Jubilee Symposium, Cathedral Center

Sept. 10: (Afternoon) USCCB Committee meeting on Laity, Marriage,
Family Life and Youth

Sept. 12: (Morning) Diocesan Review Board, chancery

         (Afternoon) Lunch with priests, Concord

Sept. 13: (Morning) Bishop's Administrative Council, chancery

         (Afternoon) Chancery birthday celebration

         (Afternoon) Quarterly Catholic Charities meeting

         (Evening) Good Samaritan dinner, San Francisco

Sept. 15: (Afternoon) Catechetical Sunday Mass, cathedral

         (Evening) St. Patrick Seminary dinner, Menlo Park

Sept. 16: 10 a.m. Stational Mass, cathedral

Sept. 20: (Morning) Bishop's Administrative Council, chancery

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New clergy assignments

Most Rev. Salvatore J. Cordileone, apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Oakland, has announced several clergy assignments, all effective Sept. 1:

Rev. Peter Son Vo as parochial vicar of All Saints parish in Hayward.

Rev. Peter Ngo Duc Dung as parochial vicar of St. Anthony parish in Oakland.

Rev. Mark Hoc as parochial vicar of Our Lady, Queen of the World parish in Bay Point.

Rev. Dante Tamayo as parochial vicar of St. Leander parish in San Leandro.

Rev. Gerald Pedrera as school chaplain for Bishop O'Dowd High School in Oakland.

Rev. Fernando Cortez as temporary administrator of St. Jerome parish in El Cerrito.

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Celebratory Mass

The Cathedral Parish of Christ the Light, 2121 Harrison St., Oakland, will host a celebratory Mass at 10 a.m. Sept. 30, as an opportunity to offer congratulations and appreciation to the Most Rev. Salvatore J. Cordileone, archbishop-designate of San Francisco. The parish and the Diocese of Oakland will host a reception on the Cathedral Plaza immediately after the liturgy. Parishioners from throughout the diocese are invited to attend and extend their best wishes to the archbishop-designate.

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Candle at tomb An image of Blessed Teresa of Kolkata (Calcutta) is seen on a candle on her tomb marking her 102nd birth anniversary in Kolkata, India, Aug. 26. Mother Teresa, a Nobel Peace laureate who died in 1997, was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2003 at the Vatican. Rupak De Chowdhuri/cns

Fading faith practice

VATICAN CITY — The percentage of Catholics practicing their faith is declining almost everywhere around the globe. Almost all bishops report it, but it's difficult to prove statistically. Each year, the Vatican's own statisticians compile mountains of data about the number of Catholics, baptisms, priests and religious, weddings and annulments in each diocese and country. The numbers illustrate trends over time, but many factors lead to the variations, said Enrico Nenna, the chief statistician in the Vatican's Central Office for Church Statistics.

"It's very difficult to quantify Catholic practice, although many have tried with many different formulas," he said. "The only way to get an accurate picture of religious practice would be to carefully choose a cross section of the population, do a census, and then conduct interviews repeated over time."

He said in his parish "over the last five years there has been an amazing increased heterogeneity" with young and old, married and single, Italian and immigrant worshippers. However, one cannot say his parish is the average Rome parish any more than the parish in the historic center of the city where, he said, "the 5 p.m. Mass is known as the 'widows' Mass.' In that neighborhood, the population is elderly, and women live longer than men."

The number of baptisms and Catholic weddings reported around the world also are influenced by too many factors to be unquestionable indications of Catholic practice, Nenna said.

Prayers for unborn

CZESTOCHOWA, Poland — Pope Benedict XVI encouraged prayers for the lives of the unborn and asked Polish Catholics to ensure their love for life translates into concrete support for those finding it difficult to welcome a pregnancy. The papal message marked the 25th anniversary of Poland's "Spiritual Adoption of the Unborn," a project whose participants promise to pray for an unborn baby each day for nine months. The project began in 1987 as part of the Polish national pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Jasna Gora in Czestochowa.

Mary is with God

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy — Assumed into heaven, Mary is with God and is ready to listen and respond to cries for help, Pope Benedict XVI said. Joining God in heaven, Mary "does not draw away from us, does not go to an unknown galaxy," but becomes "even closer to each one of us," the pope said Aug. 15 during his homily at Mass for the feast of the Assumption. With his 88-year-old brother, Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, seated in the front pew, the pope celebrated an early morning Mass in the Church of St. Thomas.

— Catholic News Service

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