10
September 10, 2013
MARRIAGE/FAMILY LIFE/VOCATIONS
The Valley Catholic
Facebook envy: on the outside looking in
By Bill Dodds point out to your teen (or younger Catholic News Service child) that envy tends to fade once It can be easy to trigger Facebook you consider the whole picture. Not envy. Go online and check the latest everyone has a perfect life. A teen may updates from countless “friends.” have a tougher time, not just realizing Each one is having a great time while that but appreciating it. We need to you stare at that screen, sitting on the teach them to recognize that everyoutside looking in. one has tough times, It can seem like a challenges, hardships never-ending barrage and heartaches. Those Those Facebook of excerpts from cliche Facebook photos, vidphotos, videos family Christmas leteos and messages may ters. If you base realpresent the truth, but and messages ity on Facebook, every it’s not the whole truth. may present the family ha s had the most A stunning photo marvelous year. Their and brief and breathtruth, but it’s not children, while not perless message using a lot the whole truth. fect, are close to it. Yes, of exclamation points it’s good to hear from can lead a viewer to them but, come on! believe that person’s I’ve noticed that one of the advanentire day was outstanding. You know tages of not being young is having a this isn’t true even though you may clearer perspective on life and the lives slide into that misconception from of others. I have no doubt that when time to time. it comes to Facebook, just as when it Ordinary events, daily duties and comes to those family Christmas leteven obligations can take on a certain ters, the view from the outside looking glow when they’re made public in a in is different from the one from the dramatic way. “I had to go buy shoes inside looking out. today” vs. “Look at the new [insert With that in mind, it may help to name brand here] shoes I bought today.” High drama is a Facebook staple. Priest who was driving Even regular obligations can seem extraordinary and interesting. None force behind Worldwide of this is to say Facebook doesn’t have Marriage Encounter dies many advantages when it comes to keeping in touch with family and SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (CNS) — friends. Be mindful that it presents a The leadership of Worldwide Marriage slice of life, but it will never be a subEncounter mourned the death of Jesuit stitute for life beyond the computer Father Chuck Gallagher, considered or phone. the driving force in creating what is the original faith-based marriage enrichment program. Father Gallagher died July 21 in New Jersey after a short illness. He was 85. “It is with profound sadness that we announce Father Chuck’s passing,” said a joint statement from Tony and Cathy Witczak and Father Emile Frische, a Mill Hill Missionary, who make up Worldwide Marriage Encounter’s international leadership team. The movement’s headquarters are in San Bernardino. Father Gallagher attended a Marriage Encounter weekend in 1968 and Sister Jessi Beck (left) is welcomed to the dream of expanding the movement dining room at Presentation Motherworldwide began as a result of his house by Sister Patricia Marie Mulpeters experience. By 1969, he and two other (right) who served as Chancellor of the priests and couples had presented 22 Diocese of San Jose, 1983 to 1999. weekends in the New York area.
Different generation brings different way of parenting
By John Garvey summer, when our parents sent us Catholic News Service outdoors, we played in groups large This month we took a vacation with enough for a baseball game. Maybe all of our children and grandchildren. there aren’t enough children around for We stayed at a cottage my parents us to turn them loose in groups. bought 50 years ago. There were quite The National Center for Health Staa few aunts, uncles and cousins nearby. tistics reported this summer that the My wife and I talked with my brothers fertility rate in the United States is 1.89 and sisters about how unconcerned our children per woman. With their choices parents had seemed during the sumto marry later and hover over their mers we spent there. children, I sometimes The only strict rule was wonder whether young Children are no swimming without adults today aren’t rean adult. acting (perhaps overprobably safer, Our children, like reacting) to the older but there are many in their generageneration’s bad habits. tion, worry about their Even those Gen-Xers drawbacks. children being out of who had happy childsight. Supervision of hoods are reminded children’s play has become an additional often by movies and television and weighty item on the list of parental dupopular literature of the career-driven ties. Why? Is the world more dangerous or sel?sh family neglect in which some than it was two generations ago? Do our baby boomers indulged. children love their children more than It’s good that parents are more our parents loved us? involved in their children’s lives. How do we explain the shift in Children are probably safer, but there parental attitudes and the rise of “heare drawbacks. Overwatched children licopter parents”? Parents today leave may develop an even longer-lasting little to chance. Four-year-olds have play sense of self-importance from being dates arranged, and they are strictly doted on. Overparenting may leave supervised. Children must wear bicycle children less prepared to meet the helmets and (by law) ride in car seats unresponsibilities of adulthood. til grade school. Gone are the informal It’s a tough balance to ?nd: providing pickup games of baseball and soccer. the necessary parental care and giving Children play in organized leagues, children room to breathe and grow. I’m with coaches and uniforms on well-kept not sure our parents had it right. I’m not ?elds with referees. sure our children do either. I’d like to say Perhaps the change is related to that we ourselves did, but I have become decline in family size. I was one of 8 more open-minded with age. children, and many of my childhood • John Garvey is president of The Catholic friends came from big families. In the University of America in Washington, DC.
Getting ready to tour Presentation Motherhouse are (l-r) Sister Ann Jackson, Formation Director and Councilor, Dubuque; Sister Stephanie Still, President, San Francisco; Sister Mary Catherine Redmond, Vocation Director, New Windsor; and Jayne Pickett, candidate, New Windsor.
Struggling with substance use?
The Santa Clara Valley Health and Hospital System, Department of Alcohol and Drug Services, invites persons 13-21 years of age, struggling with substance use, to contact Children and Family Services at Alexian Center, 2101 Alexian Drive, Suite 110, San Jose, CA 95116; phone (408)272-6518; fax 9408)272-6569. www.valleycatholiconline.com
Young Sisters visit Presentation Motherhouse
Just two weeks after the Nuns on the Bus national tour came to the Sisters of the Presentation Motherhouse in San Francisco, another group of Sist ers came for high tea. Presentation Sisters and women in formation shared stories and experiences. They were in the Bay Area for the Giving Voice National Gathering 2013: “Mission and Ministry in the Twenty-?rst Century” in July in Belmont. They also spent several days at Presentation Retreat Center in Los Gatos. Sister Jessi Beck, 32-year-old member of the Presentation Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Dubuque, Iowa, said, “Throughout our history, Sisters have been called to work with people living on the margins of society.” She teaches second grade at an inner city Catholic School in Chicago, Illinois and is a member of the Giving Voice conference planning team. “Today, needs are growing as the gap between rich and poor expands,” she said. “Having the wisdom of my Sisters in community and a support group of peer age Sisters in Giving Voice helps me to respond to the needs of our day.” Giving Voice is a peer-led organization that creates opportunities for younger women Religious to give voice to their hopes, dreams and challenges in Religious Life.