Search:


Campus Ministry


 

 

 

Mission Statement :: Prayer Requests :: Charitable Programs :: Pregnant and Need Help? :: Respect Life

News & Information  :: Catholic Internet Resources

 

Mission Statement

Campus Ministry and Outreach
 

The St. Mary's Campus Ministry Team's mission is to reach out and assist those looking to deepen their relationship with the Lord. They also reach out to those in the surrounding community who have been instrumental in the development of St. Mary's and its programs.

 

Each year the team holds several events that encourage self- examination and promote activity in the community. Each team member is actively involved in the community.

 

Mrs. Yeager is the Campus Minister.

 

Prayer Requests

 

For those in the St. Mary's High School community that are ill or injured

  

Richard Van Over class of 1996, a Stockton Police Officer, seriously injured in a collision while responding to a call. (8/08)

 

For Those Serving in the Military

 

Ryan Mallory class of 2004 a Navy Corpsman serving as a medic with the Marines in Iraq. (3/08)

 

Ted Driscoll class of 2000, a lieutenant in the United States Marine, who is serving in Iraq. (6/08)

 

Adam Night class of 2002 is a private in the Unites States Army and is serving in Iraq as a combat engineer until February 2009. (11/07)

 

For all SM alumni and family serving in the military. Pray that they be respected and protected, that their patron saint St. George watch over them and pray to God for their safety, wisdom in their decision making, fortitude and compassion. 

 

In Thanksgiving for Those Serving in the Military That Have Brought Safely Home

 

Pedro Y. Hernandez class of 2005, who has safely returned from his third deployment in Iraq as part of the Army’s elite Ranger Regiment. (7/08)

 

Brian Jones class of 1996  a Navy Reserve Petty Officer 3rd Class and a member of the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command, Navy Customs Battalion. Brian has returned after a nine month deployment to Iraq. (7/08)

 

For the Repose of the Soul SM Alumni and Friends

 

Memorial Page Link

 

For the Holy Father, Bishops, Priests and Religious

 

In particular for the members of the order of St. Francis de Sales, the Dominicans and Franciscans, all orders and Diocesan priests that are or have served St. Mary's High School since its beginnings in 1876.

 

For the unborn and born victims of abortion

 

For the innocent victims of abortion, for those who are suffering the personal devastation of abortion's aftermath, and that the hearts of those who promote the killing of the unborn be changed to affirm life.

 

Please remember the poor souls in Purgatory

 

For Victims of Terrorism, Crime and Abuse

 

Red Rhino Orphanage Project

 

August 17, 2008

 

Please Nominate RROP at Members Projects to Help Us Receive $2.5 Million in Grants.  Every Vote Counts!

 

Right now you have the power to directly change the lives of orphaned children in Africa. Our mission is to house and educate some of the most desperate children in Kenya: enabling them to become the leaders of the next generation.

 

Our goal to become self-sustaining within three years. To do so, half of our eco-friendly 8 acre site has been set aside for high-yield, perma-culture agriculture. RROP will also be a center of prosperity for the surrounding communities.

 

RROP is a focused effort that has already made real progress, but we need your help to move forward. Please join us in saving the lives of these poor orphans.


David


 

Charitable Programs
 

Red Rhino Orphanage Project Helps Children in Nairobi, Kenya

There are currently thousands of children who live in Nairobi, Kenya, not in houses but entirely on the streets. The best estimates are between fifty and sixty thousand street children. They are resourceful and smart, yet continually exploited and almost always doomed.

 

Greg Traverso, class of 1979, and his wife Susan purchased five acres of land about forty-five minutes outside of Nairobi, for the purpose of establishing the Red Rhino Orphanage Project (RROP). It will be home to some of the street kids of Nairobi, and other orphaned children in similar circumstances.

 

Who We Will Serve

 

In addition to serving the children from Springs of Hope, we will dedicate ourselves to housing and educating the following:

 

Rescued Children

 

There are a number of children in and around the Nairobi/Machakos area who, for a variety of reasons: abandonment at birth or thereafter, severe physical and/or sexual abuse, or abject neglect are taken to rescue centers, where they are nourished, physically and emotionally. When these children reach school age (at about age five), we can give them a home and education.

 

Children at Risk

 

There is a critical period in the life of many children when they are at most risk of being thrown out onto the streets. The death of parent, physical abuse at home, parental drug abuse, or a downturn in the family’s financial situation could all lead to a child being abandoned.

 

Once these at-risk children land on the street and begin to experience its ravages, sexual exploitation, addiction to glue and other drugs, extreme nutritional deficiencies, and other innumerable health and personal safety issues, the road back becomes very steep and difficult. That is why it is so crucial to be able to identify children on the brink and intervene.

 

Local Orphans

 

Every aspect of the project is focused on local action and involvement. Our vision puts the children’s home at the center of local life. As such, we feel a special responsibility to provide a home and education for the orphans in our own area.

 

 

The property on which the home will be built contains both room and provision for the children to grow physically, emotionally and spiritually. The property is adjacent to a Catholic Church. The children will grow a good deal of their own food and reestablish a personal connection with their land. David Saunders, class of 1968, an English teacher at Saint Mary’s from 1988 to 2001, is currently living in Africa close to the site. David is working there as the Project Director in collaboration with Greg Traverso, our Dean of Students and Moderator of the International Outreach Club, to oversee the construction and staffing of the children’s home. Members of the SM International Outreach Club are actively involved in the design and other elements of the project. To take a closer look at the project, go to the web site found below and click on David’s Journal link for a firsthand account of David’s humorous and at times heartbreaking experiences. If you would like to contact David personally, please feel free. Charbel Semaan, class of 2000, is the web site designer and provides technical support for the project. St. Mary's has a Red Rhino Project Club on campus. Please see Mr. Traverso for more information.

 

 

Red Rhino Project Web Site

 

 

 
Pregnant and Need Help?
 

The St. Mary's community and the Diocese of Stockton are committed to offering help to our students in a compassionate and caring manner. Consistent with our concern for our students, our commitment to the sanctity of life and our Catholic faith, we encourage those that may find themselves, or a child, unexpectedly pregnant to avail themselves, in addition to the support we will try to offer, of the services of the diocesan Community of Caring, an outreach to pregnant and parenting teens and to those suffering because of an abortion.

 

Community of Caring (begun in 1984 and co-founded by Margo Kozina (a religion teacher and Cheer coach at St. Mary's) and Nancy Bonnet,  is a loving outreach

program for pregnant and parenting adolescents. Fathers and extended family are welcome and encouraged to participate.  All services are free, confidential and open to anyone in need.  Services include:

  • Parenting Classes—Classes cover prepared childbirth information, nutrition & fitness during pregnancy; the care of the newborn baby, parenting skills, information on getting and keeping a job, creating a safe and nurturing environment for the baby and decisions regarding love, marriage and planning for the future.

  • Support Meetings—for teen parents and grandparents (parents of pregnant/parenting teens.

  • Material Help—baby clothes and supplies

  • Referrals & Information—We can help find other agencies and people in the community who want to help.

  • Post Abortion counseling through Project Rachel a network of professional counselors and priests, all trained to provide one-on-one spiritual and psychological care for those who are suffering because of an abortion.

Community of Caring needs your prayers, financial support and volunteer support. Please call  the Respect Life Office at (209) 465-5433 or toll-free from the Stockton diocesan area (800) 396-8777. You may also assist the pro-life effort by joining the St. Mary's Right To Life Club.

 

 
Respect Life

 

Selected Quotes from Church Documents: On Legalized Abortion (Source: USCCB)

 

Papal Teaching


But responsibility likewise falls on the legislators who have promoted and approved abortion laws, and, to the extent that they have a say in the matter, on the administrators of the health-care centers where abortions are performed. … In this sense abortion goes beyond the responsibility of individuals and beyond the harm done to them, and takes on a distinctly social dimension. It is a most serious wound inflicted on society and its culture by the very people who ought to be society’s promoters and defenders.

Pope John Paul II, Evangelium vitae (1995), no. 59.

When a parliamentary or social majority decrees that it is legal, at least under certain conditions, to kill unborn human life, is it not really making a ‘tyrannical’ decision with regard to the weakest and most defenseless of human beings?....While public authority can sometimes choose not to put a stop to something which – were it prohibited – would cause more serious harm, it can never presume to legitimize as a right of individuals – even if they are the majority of the members of society – an offense against other persons caused by the disregard of so fundamental a right as the right to life.

Id., nos. 70, 71.

Laws which legitimize the direct killing of innocent human beings through abortion or euthanasia are in complete opposition to the inviolable right to life proper to every individual; they thus deny the equality of everyone before the law.

Id., no. 72.

Utilitarianism is a civilization of production and of use, a civilization of "things" and not of "persons", a civilization in which persons are used in the same way as things are used. In the context of a civilization of use, woman can become an object for man, children a hindrance to parents, the family an institution obstructing the freedom of its members. To be convinced that this is the case, one need only look at certain sexual education programmes introduced into the schools, often notwithstanding the disagreement and even the protests of many parents; or pro-abortion tendencies which vainly try to hide behind the so-called "right to choose" ("pro-choice") on the part of both spouses, and in particular on the part of the woman.

Pope John Paul II, Letter to Families, February 2, 1994, no. 13

On “social sin”:

Also social is every sin against the rights of the human person, beginning with the right to life and including the life of the unborn or against a person's physical integrity…The term social can be applied to sins of commission or omission-on the part of political, economic or trade union leaders, who though in a position to do so, do not work diligently and wisely for the improvement and transformation of society according to the requirements and potential of the given historic moment…Whenever the church speaks of situations of sin or when the condemns as social sins certain situations or the collective behavior of certain social groups, big or small, or even of whole nations and blocs of nations, she knows and she proclaims that such cases of social sin are the result of the accumulation and concentration of many personal sins. It is a case of the very personal sins of those who cause or support evil or who exploit it; of those who are in a position to avoid, eliminate or at least limit certain social evils but who fail to do so out of laziness, fear or the conspiracy of silence, through secret complicity or indifference; of those who take refuge in the supposed impossibility of changing the world and also of those who sidestep the effort and sacrifice required, producing specious reasons of a higher order. The real responsibility, then, lies with individuals.

Pope John Paul II, Reconciliation and Penance (1984), no. 16
 

Vatican Documents

It is true that it is not the task of the law to choose between points of view or to impose one rather than another. But the life of the child takes precedence over all opinions. One cannot invoke freedom of thought to destroy this life…

The role of law is not to record what is done, but to help in promoting improvement. It is at all times the task of the State to preserve each person's rights and to protect the weakest. In order to do so the State will have to right many wrongs. The law is not obliged to sanction everything, but it cannot act contrary to a law which is deeper and more majestic than any human law: the natural law engraved in men's hearts by the Creator as a norm which reason clarifies and strives to formulate properly, and which one must always struggle to understand better, but which it is always wrong to contradict. Human law can abstain from punishment, but it cannot declare to be right what would be opposed to the natural law, for this opposition suffices to give the assurance that a law is not a law at all…

It must in any case be clearly understood that whatever may be laid down by civil law in this matter, man can never obey a law which is in itself immoral, and such is the case of a law which would admit in principle the liceity of abortion. Nor can he take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law, or vote for it. Moreover, he may not collaborate in its application.

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration on Procured Abortion, November 18, 1974, nos. 19-22

John Paul II, continuing the constant teaching of the Church, has reiterated many times that those who are directly involved in lawmaking bodies have a «grave and clear obligation to oppose» any law that attacks human life. For them, as for every Catholic, it is impossible to promote such laws or to vote for them.

 

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Doctrinal Note on Some Questions Regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life 2002), no. 4

 

The social doctrine of the Church is not an intrusion into the government of individual countries.It is a question of the lay Catholic’s duty to be morally coherent, found within one’s conscience, which is one and indivisible. «There cannot be two parallel lives in their existence: on the one hand, the so-called ‘spiritual life’, with its values and demands; and on the other, the so-called ‘secular’ life, that is, life in a family, at work, in social responsibilities, in the responsibilities of public life and in culture.

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Doctrinal Note on Some Questions Regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life 2002), no. 6

When political activity comes up against moral principles that do not admit of exception, compromise or derogation, the Catholic commitment becomes more evident and laden with responsibility. In the face of fundamental and inalienable ethical demands, Christians must recognize that what is at stake is the essence of the moral law, which concerns the integral good of the human person. This is the case with laws concerning abortion and euthanasia (not to be confused with the decision to forgo extraordinary treatments, which is morally legitimate). Such laws must defend the basic right to life from conception to natural death.

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Doctrinal Note on Some Questions Regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life 2002), no. 4
 

U.S. Bishops’ Documents

 

No Catholic can responsibly take a "pro-choice" stand when the "choice" in question involves the taking of innocent human life.

Resolution on Abortion (1989)

We urge those Catholic officials who choose to depart from Church teaching on the inviolability of human life in their public life to consider the consequences for their own spiritual well being, as well as the scandal they risk by leading others into serious sin. We call on them to reflect on the grave contradiction of assuming public roles and presenting themselves as credible Catholics when their actions on fundamental issues of human life are not in agreement with Church teaching. No public official, especially one claiming to be a faithful and serious Catholic, can responsibly advocate for or actively support direct attacks on innocent human life. [N]o appeal to policy, procedure, majority will or pluralism ever excuses a public official from defending life to the greatest extent possible. As is true of leaders in all walks of life, no political leader can evade accountability for his or her exercise of power (Evangelium Vitae, 73-4). Those who justify their inaction on the grounds that abortion is the law of the land need to recognize that there is a higher law, the law of God. No human law can validly contradict the Commandment: "Thou shalt not kill."

Living the Gospel of Life: A Challenge to American Catholics (1998), no. 32

The law is not the only means of protecting life, but it plays a key and often decisive role in affecting both human behavior and thinking. Those called to civil leadership, as Pope John Paul II reminds us, "have a duty to make courageous choices in support of life, especially through legislative measures." This is a responsibility that cannot be put aside, "especially when he or she has a legislative or decision-making mandate, which calls that person to answer to God, to his or her own conscience and to the whole of society for choices which may be contrary to the common good" (The Gospel of Life, no. 90).

Public officials are privileged in a special way to apply their moral convictions to the policy arena. We hold in high esteem those who, through such positions and authority, promote respect for all human life. Catholic civil leaders who reject or ignore the Church's teaching on the sanctity of human life do so at risk to their own spiritual well-being.

 

News and Information

 

 

 

Catholic Internet Resources

 

 

 

The Vatican

USConference of Catholic Bishops 

US. Dioceses

Mass Times

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Catholic Encyclopedia On-line

Catholic Information Network

Catholic Internet Yellow Pages

 

 

Catholic.net

Catholic-Pages.com

Catholic Web Resources

Esglesia.org

Ethics in Internet

EWTN Documents Library

The Church and Internet 

VaticanII.org Power Search

 

 

Mission Statement :: Prayer Requests :: Pregnant and Need Help? :: Respect Life

News & Information :: Catholic Internet Resources

 

 


 

St. Mary's High School
5648 N. El Dorado St.
Stockton, CA 95207