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| The Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters will make a public appearance in order to see the Pope. |
Among them will be the Pink Sisters, so-named for the rose-colored habits that they wear. The Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters are a group of cloistered nuns who are cloistered, who will venture into the public to attend the mass, a half-mile from their convent.
“He’s not just somebody. He is the vicar of Christ,” said Sister Maria Clarissa, 55 years old, who once worked for an accounting firm in the Philippines. “Even if we’re cloistered, we’re going, and our bishops are saying, ‘Good for you.’ ”
Fifteen of the 20 secluded sisters are from the Philippines.
To see the Pope, they will take a break from their continuous praying which has been on-going uninterrupted for 100 years. A lone sister will remain behind so the the string of prayers won't be broken.
Across town, historic St. Augustine Church cancelled its Sunday evening Mass so that its parishioners, predominantly Filipino, can attend the Papal Mass. St. Augustine, built right after the Revolutionary War, is now the National Shrine for the Santo Nino, patron saint of the Philippines. Its Filipino dance troupe has been practicing for months to take part in a multicultural performance meant to show the Pope the diversity in America's Catholic parishes.
The church had a declining attendance in the early 1990s. Its traditional German and Irish parishioners had moved to the suburbs. The low point was one Christmas Mass when only nine people attended and one of them was the priest. Rumors of its possible closure began to circulate.
St. Augustine Catholic Church is a story being repeated across America. Even as the Catholic Church is experiencing a loss of parishioners; as its European/Americans move to the suburbs or stop going to church, a new wave of Catholics from Latin America and Asia are reviving church with a new energy as the Catholic Church adapts its services and activities to serve its new laity. The Los Angeles Archdiocese is the largest in the United States and it is 75% Latino.
St. Augustine and churches in the San Francisco Bay Area are dominated by Asian churchgoers, mainly Filipino but healthy numbers of Chinese, Burmese, Korean, Ceylonese and Vietnamese.
The church had a declining attendance in the early 1990s. Its traditional German and Irish parishioners had moved to the suburbs. The low point was one Christmas Mass when only nine people attended and one of them was the priest. Rumors of its possible closure began to circulate.
St. Augustine Catholic Church is a story being repeated across America. Even as the Catholic Church is experiencing a loss of parishioners; as its European/Americans move to the suburbs or stop going to church, a new wave of Catholics from Latin America and Asia are reviving church with a new energy as the Catholic Church adapts its services and activities to serve its new laity. The Los Angeles Archdiocese is the largest in the United States and it is 75% Latino.
St. Augustine and churches in the San Francisco Bay Area are dominated by Asian churchgoers, mainly Filipino but healthy numbers of Chinese, Burmese, Korean, Ceylonese and Vietnamese.
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