The following comes from an April 9 email from a Bay Area Catholic:
I’m part of a team who is organizing the first ever Bay Area Mass Mob at the Star of the Sea on April 25, 2015 at the 4:30p Vigil to support Father Joseph Illo and Father Patrick Driscoll and their parish.
We’re hoping to mobilize an army of Christians to support Fr. Joseph Illo, Fr. Patrick Driscoll and the Star of the Sea Church in their efforts to renew this parish. As many of you know, many misleading reports have permeated the internet about these faithful, gracious, and compassionate priests who only want to serve God and care for His children. On any given Saturday, this beautiful and very spacious church only gets ~60 parishioners.
Fr. Driscoll once commented that he would love to see 2500 people coming to Mass at this church again, but that it would take a huge miracle. Well…we can do our little part to make this miracle happen by inviting our supportive family and friends to attend the 4:30p Vigil at the Star of the Sea on April 25th! Simply attending this Mass on this day can boost the spirit of the whole parish! Mark your calendars today and share your prayers for the church and the priests at Bay Area Mass Mob.
The following comes from an April 10 email from Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust:
It was good that just today I joined the Campus Outreach Tour at San Diego City College. I got the “we need abortion because of overpopulation” argument more times than any place else that I have recently been with the team! And it made me realize just how important it is that we are at the Earth Fair in San Diego.
If the Earth is in any sense our mother, do we really think she wants us to murder her children, our brothers and sisters? We need to confront the Earth idolatry that, ironically, devalues the Earthlings who it was made for, humanity.
The crowds and crowds of people who come to this event make it even more important that we have enough numbers – this really is a place where every person counts! I can promise you, there won’t be a dull moment!
For more information, click here.
Wish I could attend this Saurday mass, but the drive from LA to SF is too long, although beautiful.
I know Fr. Illo from Ventura and Camarillo. You need not believe this, but Fr. Illo indeed blessed my new car with Holy Water; so far so good.
Hi there! Even if you can’t make it, you can send him a prayer and words of encouragement at http://www.bayareamassmob.com. We are presenting him with a “spiritual bouquet” of prayers after the Vigil on the 25th. Thank you for your support! Rebekah
If I lived near by Star of the Sea, I would love to attend and support its worthy cause. But since I am not, I will keep in my prayers and pray that God gives them the miracle that they are praying for. I trust in Jesus. May it be His holy will! Amen! Thank you CCD for keeping these articles to inform those near by…..may the news travels fast and God bless them!
I will be praying for you from San Diego!! I am guessing that the MNL is involved. God bless Frs. Illo and Driscoll, as well as AbC. San Francisco needs you warriors for Christ!!
Hello there! Can you tell me what MNL stands for? And, if appropriate, who I can connect with there to help us spread the word about this Mass Mob. If you have a direct contact info, I’d love that too! It would be super helpful.
Thank you for your support!
Rebekah
Did you ever find out what MNL was,Rebekah? Sorry no one responded. I like your cheery enthusiasm and I pray your Mass mob is a huge success and show the so-called one percent elite Catholic’s of SF (wouldn’t our Lord be impressed and delighted with such a prideful, disobedient bunch?) that real Catholicism is alive and well there…wish I could be among your number :)
Thanks Dana! No… I never found out who MNL is… but, that is OK. Thank you for your support and all your prayers!
As a 4th generation San Franciscan, I am SO HAPPY to see the ‘real deal’ Catholic Church returning to the City of St. Francis!!!
BLESSINGS AND PRAYERS FOR THE ARCHBISHOP, FATHER ILLO AND FATHER DRISCOLL!!!
A stable increase in Mass attendance in a Parish can only be achieved gradually, organically, patiently, prayerfully. It will mean consistent sacrifices, diligence, inviting homilies (which I am sure Frs. Illo and Driscoll can achieve), outreach to the community, and AVOIDANCE OF BAD PRESS! This means doing God’s work quietly, patiently, unseen. And as mentioned earlier, much sacrifices and penance from the Parish’s priests for the people and for themselves. Think St. John Vianney.
A stable increase in Mass attendance is NOT achieved through these Mob Masses. This is a flash in the pan. By all means attend this as a sign of support.
jon. advertising is always good. It lets people know you are there.
I checked their school web site, and the real issue is that slightly more than 50% of the students are NOT Catholic.
These non-Catholic parents will just have to learn that when you choose to send your children to a Catholic School (or any other religious school) you will have to adhere to their religious mission.
It shows ignorance to behave otherwise. – And they always have the option of public schools if they don’t like the religious mission. There is the door.
It is better for a school to be smaller or to close rather than cow tow to mortal sins and secular relativism.
MAC, bad PR is NOT good. Not all “advertising” therefore is good. This silly gaffe with the wrong examination of conscience being given to children does not put the Parish’s clergy in good light.
Are you saying St. John Vianney is a quiet wallflower? Think again Sandra.
jon, think the best of the best – Jesus Christ ! – who was no quiet wallflower.
Jesus certainly did not do His work quietly and unseen.
Also Sandra, putting out write-ups like this in websites like this is NOT necessarily effective in drawing a consistent and stable number of Parishioners! NO! The people in the SF Richmond District, which is where the Parish is, might not even read Cal Cath Daily! And the Catholic people in the Richmond District is the people they want in the pews! They are the parishioners!
They need to go to the people in the Parish community itself : they need to hit the pavement, get involved in the neighborhood, knock on doors, visit businesses in the area. Not this “advertisement” in Cal Cath Daily!
Going out into the community is QUIET, PATIENT, HUMBLING work if they want the Catholic souls in their neighborhood to come to Church.
And by the way, Jesus hit the pavement. He did quiet work first before getting the attention of the authorities.
Dear Jon, one of the first things Jesus did was to get baptized by John the Baptist in front of a crowd of people where God spoke clearly to identify Christ as His Son who He loves, with whom He is pleased. I’m not sure this would be considered quiet.
Let me put it to you more bluntly, Anonymous, because you and some folks here do not seem to comprehend what I mean by “quiet.” In the case of the clergy of Star of the Sea it means being extra diligent so that the next time they distribute examinations of conscience to children, it will be age-appropriate, thereby not attracting the attention of those who are against the good work of the clergy there and not attracting the attention of the mainstream SF media. Ok? Diligence here is INDEED the QUIET, yet IMPORTANT work that is necessary.
It also means hitting the pavement, going out into the neighborhood. THIS IS QUIET WORK.
Dear Jon, one of the first things Jesus did was to get baptized by John the Baptist in front of a crowd of people where God spoke clearly to identify Christ as His Son who He loves, with whom He is pleased. I’m not sure this would be considered quiet.
Rebekah, you do not understand. The quiet work that is needed in the case of Star of the Sea is diligence, among other things. NOT this media-generated, flash-in-the pan advertising courtesy of this mob Mass for instance. What is that mob Mass for anyway? SO the Mass is just any other event worthy of a sudden influx of a mob of people?? This is just another counter publicity hoping to counter an earlier bad press.
The quiet work needed in this case is diligence: such as making sure that the examination of conscience they provide to kids is appropriate. They will not get the attention of the hostile media by being diligent, I can tell you. But that diligence is QUIET WORK!
Quiet work also means hitting the pavement, visiting the Catholic homes, knocking on doors. They will not get the attention of the mainstream media for going door-to-door, I can tell you. Yet those visits are the needed QUIET WORK!
They may not be getting any press for being diligent and for hitting the pavement, but it will gradually generate a stable number of Catholics going back to Church!
This mob Mass is just that: a flash-in-the-pan, media generated LOUD advertisement that may not generate a stable Mass attendance.
Dear Jon, what you consider BAD PRESS is what got my attention. Sometimes the lesson is not for the people that God is using, but it’s for people like me who is witnessing God’s work. Thank God there is always an upside to a downside! :)
Good luck with this great idea. Fr. Illo, you and Fr. Driscoll are doing critical work in trying to reintroduce Catholicism into an area of Satan certainty and self-love. Yes, the Catholic Church has been an institution in name only in San Francisco for quite a long time, until Archbishop Cordileone came along. He has assisted you and will likely continue to do so; stand tall and preach a wonderful sermon at this Mass.
And, continue with your Catholic Reformation actions. Many will scream and demand that these “new” things be thrown out. But, with patience, instruct them that Cathoilcism has always contained these truths. Compare what you are doing to the very sad news out of Holland.
There, Cardinal Eijk recently said that he is closing many parishes in Holland. A very recent “Vortex” reported that only about 2% of the Dutch regularly attend Mass. Tragic, tragic, but this is what is coming to America, and is already here in San Francisco. Catholicism — Reat and True Catholicism — is not practiced at St. Stephens and all those other parishes that really believe in, and practice, Protestantism. Support Fr. Illo, one of the very few actual and faithful Catholic priests in the San Francisco Archdiocese.
Pray that this Holy Mass not become a venue for political or activist conflict.
I’ll be there!
we’re going!
I am a Star of the Sea parishioner, and love the Tridentine Mass they now have there! I only hope that big groups of worshippers would please dress appropriately, respectfully, for church– NOT for the beach or backyard! Modest dresses/skirts for ladies, and nice suit and tie, for men! I always wear lovely mantillas (almost fifty years old, from high school/college days!) for the Tridentine Mass! I still have a collection of them, at home! I have also worn my mantillas, for years, for Tridentine Masess, at other churches! (You can buy a mantilla at a Catholic gift shop, or order one online, I bet!)
I think church hats are more dignifying for women to wear to mass than mantillas. I understand they are hard to find, though. I always try to make it a point to compliment a woman who wears a church hat (outside of the church building, of course), but I always forget to ask them where they bought theirs from. But at least mantillas are better than those pre-Vatican II “doilies”
J.C. Pennys and Macys carry suitable hats for church, and Kohl’s might also. Mantillas can be gotten on line by just googling for them, and some Catholic book stores do carry them. Also, most department stores and even greeting card shops carry inexpensive long scarves or pashimas that can be thrown over ones head with the two long parts draping down or thrown back over the shoulders. Summer cowls and scarves of lightweight fabric can be attractively thrown over ones head. J.C. Pennys carries all theses. Just use your creatively.
Sherlock, many women prefer mantillas, scarves and cowls because they are lighter weight, do not mess up the hair as much, and hats can be troublesome in the modern cars if they have a broad brim, A lightweight scarf can be thrown over the head and tied underneath the hair and scarf in back or on the sides with part tucked in, if it is long enough, for a change. Many women who have lost their hair from cancer treatment have made such styles popular. Ladies can take their pick, and they are not going to throw a lady out if she is bareheaded, although a head covering is traditional in the Traditional Mass (Extraordinary form.)
Linda Maria, you are a lovely and faithful Catholic woman. I am flying up from LA for this mass and hope to recognize you by your mantilla. Unlike some who troll on this site, I am a real person! See you in San Francisco!
Although I said a cowl can be “attractively” thrown over the head, it was written in reply to Sherlock. The idea, though, of a mantilla or any head covering for a woman is to make it easier for us to concentrate on prayer and not cause any distractions, so we certainly should avoid anything extreme.
A nice ladies’ hat and gloves, once was the norm, to wear to church, or even to go out shopping, in a nice dress and heels, too! Wearing pants was not popular for women, until the 1970’s. Dress codes were everywhere! The Vatican had a good dress code, and everyone observed it!! The Church, and society– were much nicer! Everyone also behaved much better, with far more respect! Social graces were taught to all, and courtesy and good manners were a requirement! I recall when we noticed department stores started to display racks of pants to sell– instead of the usual ladies’ dresses. How very sad! Then, ugly farm-style blue-jeans for girls began to be sold, too! What a loss to the world!! Then, to finally see the SHOCK of ignorant college girls, with no head coverings, wearing their UGLY blue-jeans to church, with ugly t-shirts– a TOTAL DISASTER!! What was worse?? That, or the 1960’s miniskirts?? The boys always winced in pain, watching the girls try to genuflect in church, while wearing miniskirts! Not mature nor feminine, womanly clothing, any longer– and no respect, for God!