Building a Mercy Cross, feeding and clothing the poor, making a pilgrimage, setting up a 24-hour confessional and organizing a Marian feast.

 These are just some of the activities expected in the Diocese of San Bernardino during the Year of Mercy, which begins on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8. The Diocese will begin the Jubilee with an Opening Mass celebrated by Bishop Gerald Barnes at Our Lady of the Rosary Cathedral in San Bernardino on that day. 

SAN BERNARDINO—In the wake of California Governor Jerry Brown’s October 5 signing of a controversial bill that legalized physician assisted suicide, the Diocese of San Bernardino is part of a statewide effort to repeal the law through a voter referendum targeted for the November 2016 ballot.

 October saw the celebration of the annual Diocesan Red, Blue and White Masses to honor those in the legal, public safety and health care professions, respectively.

 The Masses are held to give Catholics in the Diocese an opportunity to show appreciation for and to pray for these three vocations of service to the public. They also serve as occasions for those in those professions to gather together in solidarity in a Catholic setting.

By Sister Jeremy Gallet, S.P.

SAN BERNARDINO—This year the Diocese of San Bernardino will be making some major changes to the way the Rite of Election is celebrated. Both the Call to Continuing Conversion – the rite for baptized non-Catholic Christians – and the Rite of Election for children will be celebrated in the local parishes rather than on the Diocesan level. There are reasons for these changes which are both practical and pastoral.

SAN BERNARDINO—Many of the poor in downtown San Bernardino have begun to look forward to the last Thursday of the month with mouth-watering anticipation.

 That’s because it is the day that Henry Gonzalez caters a hot midday meal at St. Bernardine Parish. A line begins to form outside the parish hall in the ten o’clock hour, and then just before 11 a.m., Gonzalez pulls up in a truck bearing the name of his restaurant, Spaggi’s, and he and his crew methodically unload the food and set up the serving area.

MECCA—Farmworkers and their families in the Eastern Coachella Valley now have a place to take refuge from the heat and toil of their work, thanks to a pair of Catholic laywomen who have served in the area for decades.

 On October 11, Bishop Gerald Barnes blessed the Mecca Comfort Station, the latest addition to the Galilee Center located there. The station features showers, restrooms, a laundry room and a community room.