Tag: faith

“Who is going to replace Sister Noreen?” The answer is – no one!

SAN FRANCISCO – SAINT MONICA’S PARISH HALL – OUTER RICHMOND DISTRICT

6.1.2025 Liz Heidhues

“Who is going to replace Sister Noreen?”

Father Ben asked the approximately one hundred folks at St. Monica’s Parish Hall gathered together to say goodbye to the 90-year-old nun and to thank her for her years of duty and devotion to us – the parishioners of St. Monica-St. Thomas the Apostle Parish, and beyond, the families, the friends, the residents of the Outer Richmond District which the two Catholic churches serve.

Sister Noreen practices her ministry comforting her parishioners.

The answer is – no one! No one will replace Sister Noreen.

She is one-of-a-kind, a feisty Irish nun, who entered the convent as a teen-ager and spent the past 70 years of her life performing small acts of love every day for people of all ages, from all walks of life, caring for them, praying for them, and simply lending them a friendly ear when they needed someone to listen and comfort them.

A family Sister Noreen has taught gather around their teacher.

Sister Noreen helped build up the parish school at St. Thomas the Apostle Church and, when the Archdiocese ordered the two churches near each other to merge due to a shortage of priests and amid dwindling church-goers, she took on the task of the religious education of St. Monica’s Catholic School students as well as of those at St. Thomas, which eventually shuttered its Catholic school.

A ubiquitous cold, foggy and windy backdrop for St. Monica’s Church in the outer Richmond District.

Sister Noreen was there for me when I needed her most.

She helped me defeat an egregious harm, a miscarriage of justice, testifying on my behalf as to my good character and good standing in our Catholic church. Her letter of faith in me countered the harmful lies about me that had portrayed me as a malevolent villainess to a court of law. I placed her letter first in the pile of letters I had to present to the court to fight for the truth to prevail and the law to be upheld. I will be forever indebted to Sister Noreen for doing this good work on my behalf.

Sister Noreen beams before cutting the cake celebrating her 70 plus years as a leader in the Church.

Sister Noreen deserves her retirement.

Her empty pew at St. Thomas the Apostle Church this morning reminded me that nuns get to retire like everyone else, even though nuns continue to work well past the retirement age, entering their religious life as teen-agers and leading long and arduous careers as women devoting themselves fully to spiritual and intellectual pursuits.

Sister Noreen teaches the children about the Christ child.

Sister Noreen told us as we celebrated her retirement potluck luncheon today:

Sister Noreen’s legion of long time parishioners dig into the Pot Luck celebration.

“Thank you very much for being here. We are family and we are community. And that says a lot.”

“The many beautiful days cannot be lived again. But they are compounded in my spirit and flesh and I will take them with me for whatever lies ahead.”

Liz, Sister Noreen and Lee. A stabilizing influence in our lives through both good and difficult times.

Sister Noreen will be moving away to a senior living facility in Daly City. Her convent is now empty, as well as her pew at church. All of the senior citizen nuns living in the convent near us will be going to live in the same community with Sister Noreen. She described her new home as a community moved by a spirit of peacefulness, gentleness, and joy.

A parishioner shows off the beautiful bouquets which adorned the tables at St. Monica’s Church.

Sister Noreen deserves her retirement. But no one can, nor will they ever, replace her friendly ear, her ability to teach children and adults how to love one another, and her vision of a better world that she vibrantly embodies.

Our congratulatory card in which was pasted a photo of Liz in front of Sister Noreen’s Uncle Jack’s house which we have owned and cared for the past 41 years. Sister Noreen told us when she was growing up in San Francisco she spent time in the house.
Sister Noreen will be dancing down the Pacific Coast from San Francisco to Daly City

Editorial assistance from Lee Heidhues

Photos by Liz and Lee

Bishop Budde eyebrow-raising sermon infuriates felon Trump

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 1.23.2025

CORONATION OF THE AMERICAN NAZI REGIME – JANUARY 20, 2025

An ongoing series to expose The Felon Trump assault on all institutions.

Today it’s the Episcopal Church. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Episcopal_Church_(United_States)

Excerpted from La Croix International 1.23.2025

“Mean,” “so-called bishop,” “radical left hardline Trump hater.” Such vehemence is not unusual in President Donald Trump’s rhetoric, but he usually reserves his attacks for the political world. However, his attacks were for Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, D.C., whom the new U.S. president harshly criticized January 22, the day after the National Prayer Service held as part of his inauguration.

Bishop Mariann Budd – Episcopal Bishop Washington, DC

Trump’s outrage

Mariann Budde, 65, drew the president’s anger after a sermon in which she encouraged Donald Trump, “in the name of our God,” to show “mercy” toward “the millions of people who are afraid.” “There are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and independent families, some who fear for their lives,” she pleaded before the president and his wife Melania, seated in the front row alongside Vice President J.D. Vance and his wife.

And just as Trump had declared a state of emergency along the Mexican border, Budde also urged the president to be compassionate toward immigrants, of whom, she said, “the vast majority (…) are not criminals.”

Bishop Budde speaks at White House protest for Peace in Gaza – December 2023

Further reading: Trump lashes out at Episcopal bishop who called for ‘mercy’

Visibly annoyed by these remarks, Trump harshly criticized her on his Truth Social platform. “The so-called Bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a Radical Left hard-line Trump hater (…),” he wrote, accusing the bishop of dragging “her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way. She was nasty in tone and not compelling or smart… She and her church owe the public an apology!”

Mariann Edgar Budde, born in 1959 and ordained a priest before being elected bishop of Washington in 2011, is the ninth bishop of the Episcopal diocese of the U.S. capital and the first woman to hold the position in this church, a member of the Anglican Communion. The Anglican Church belongs to the “historical” Protestant tradition, in contrast to evangelical Protestantism.

Established after the American Revolution during the separation from the Church of England, the Episcopal Church stands out for its inclusivity. It was among the first to bless same-sex unions and strongly advocates for LGBT equality.

Previous statements

This is not the first time the Episcopal bishop of Washington has addressed Trump, directly or indirectly. In 2020, after Black Lives Matter protesters were forcefully dispersed by police on the steps of St. John’s Episcopal Church—known as the “Church of the Presidents” in the federal capital—the billionaire posed hours later in front of the building, Bible in hand, drawing the ire of most American religious leaders. Budde said she was “outraged” and “horrified” by this publicity stunt.

Felon US President Donald Trump holds up a Bible outside of St John’s Episcopal church across Lafayette Park in Washington, DC on June 1, 2020. – Felon Trump was due to make a televised address to the nation on Monday after days of anti-racism protests against police brutality that have erupted into violence.
(Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

https://international.la-croix.com/world/who-is-mariann-budde-the-episcopal-bishop-who-drew-trumps-ire