- lift the clouds off of... - virtual weather, only on kpix and pix+. hello and on behalf of the archdiocese of san francisco . welcome to mosaic. have you heard of the order of preachers? they are also called the dominican order because they were founded by saint dominic. the official name is translated as the order of

preacher. each wears initials after his or her name. membership in the order includes fryers, nuns, active sisters and affiliated lay dominicans. the order is famed for its intellectual prowess and its 800 years of existence has produced many leading theologians and philosophers. current membership worldwide of the order includes about 5800 dominican fryers. including 4300 priests . and the dominican order has an intimate enduring relationship with the archdiocese of san francisco in service and in leadership. the dominicans were here before the archdiocese was. our original archbishop was a dominican priest. our guest today are two dominican pre-serving in the bay area. we will learn about that dominican history , the mission of the dominicans in the west and much much more. after this brief break, we join us to meet the dominicans. ♪

hello and welcome to 'mosaic'. our guest today are two dominican priest. let me introduce you. on the far end a large redheaded man is father mark early. where the pastor of saint dominic's parish in san francisco. good for you. next to him father james moore. and op after each name , let's not

forget that. you all called the vicar for advancement for the western province. >> correct. >> both local guys from coalinga and a farming family . >> a farming family. >> and from -- >> pacifica. >> on the coast. growing up in the bay area you joined the dominicans of the western province. as i mentioned the history of the dominicans is intimately involved with the archdiocese, right. tell me about that? >> when the dominicans came to california, they wanted to come where the action was. the pope sent two dominicans who had known each other from the eastern province and they were working together and he sent one who was the bishop, to start the diocese here but also sent the first dominican and while he created the dice, the archdiocese of san francisco , the other set i want to go to the capitol and go where the action is . at that time in

california what you had is the capitol was in a place called benicia, california , there was the government, it was a capitol of california and was also the portal to the gold rush . in the 1850s. >> 1853. >> lots of gold coming in the carquinez strait is a better natural bay than our own bay here. all the shipping and everything was coming in so the gold miners would go in and you had tons of gold and you also had guns because the armory, which exists today, most of the munitions that were made for the first world war and others were made from the west coast were made there in benicia. the dominicans looked and said you have the government, you got gold, you have guns, let's bring god. the original four me what work. where you have that sense of bringing god to a place where you have this interaction . >> in the seat of the

archdiocese in san francisco. >> it moved from monterey to san francisco in 1853. >> the original dominican he became the archbishop, joseph alemannic, a spanish dominican who had been in the states as a missionary for 10 or 12 years. what we are talking about is mission territory. suddenly, how many, hundreds of thousands of new population in the san francisco bay area. >> the dominicans were founded 800 years ago and we were continuing our mission by coming here. and founded as an order of preachers, to combat error and heresy and to enliven the faith and to bring the 50 people where the gospels were either not preached well or preached at all. >> it is an interesting name, order of preachers . on the website which we will show later there is a red button that says requested preacher. i almost pushed it but i did

not . i was not sure exactly what would happen. i understand that for my experience with dominicans , persuasive apologist for their faith. persuasive convinces about the importance of truth and beauty and god's presence. >> absolutely. one thing saint dominic did when he founded the order he set up that we would have not only we would be at temperatures but also contemplative. we would live in small monasteries and we would pray and together and we would contemplate beauty and truth and give to others the fruits of our contemplation. so desperately needed in these busy and kind of crazy times . >> you have been in the archdiocese for 100 , 50 or 60 years, from the beginning. was one parish of dominicans in the archdiocese, saint dominic's church. and you as a vector

for the western province, how big is it? >> the western dominican province is basically all the west coast of california. and he goes as far east as utah. as far south as tucson and across the border into mexico and as far north as alaska where we serve and we have a new house in alaska in anchorage we serve the cathedral parish in anchorage but also act as missionaries throughout the great state of alaska. >> one of the original party with archbishop alemannic, was a sister. >> wonderful thing about the dominican order is it is not just the priest or the friers preaching, saint dominic new in order to radically change culture or bring god to culture and enliven it, you needed a strong component of women. contemplative nuns. even before , he formally founds the order of preachers, heath founds the nuns first.

>> saint dominic. 800 years ago. i had the privilege of building a monastery and you have contemplative nuns living there and they are from all over the world. for me personally what was attractive to the order is it was not simply a group of guys getting together to preach, it was together, we are the tip of the spear going to preach but behind us and to supporting us is grouped of contemplative nuns of active sisters which, little later and they are known for education. >> definitely. and the contemplative nuns offer prayer and the active sisters offer educational healthcare and helping families in need . there was a lot of diseased orphans in the rough, early days. they answered this call. >> mother mary who came along with father dominic. she was a

founder of the san rafael sisters. and it still exists in san rafael from them. and there are still contemplative nuns and active dominican sisters today. >> monastery of , i am not sure. >> menlo park. >> the interesting fact about father michael, he has one of the most unique combinations in the entire dominican order throughout the world, which is, when the master of the order came to visit, he noticed or he mentioned to me when i mentioned my sister as a contemplative dominican nun in virginia, we were the only brother and sister that were both biologically connected but also connected spiritually through the order. >> nice to know. >> was take a brief break and we will talk about the dominicans and finding out all with the mission and history are.

- [narrator] at kpix, we're taking weather to the next level. - we can show not just what's happening at ground level, but we can show what's happening in the upper levels of the atmosphere. let's lift the clouds off of ground level and talk... - it really spotlights how unique the geography is here. - it's dynamic. it's different. as i lift this, you can actually see it in real-time. this is shaking it up for me as an meteorologist. - [narrator] the bay area's only virtual weather studio. next level weather. only on kpix and pix+.

welcome back to our discussion of the dominican history mission and projects in san francisco. my guess, father james moore, victor for advancement for the western province and father michael holley, pastor of saint dominic's church. i want to get to this point, the dominicans are emission order, teaching and persuading and teaching the gospel. i grew up in the east bay at the tail end of the missionary error of the irish priests and nuns who came over and christianized us. seems to me , we are living in a post-christian society . post-christian world. are we in a new mission territory and is this what you are addressing in your work? >> absolutely. when you look at our culture lots of things that the culture proposes as a way for happiness. happiness ,

in possession so what we can get. real estate in san francisco is outrageous. >> families cannot live here. children are not born here. >> you have this good or sense of pleasure or sense of power in silicon valley and all this kind of technology. we are living in times which technologically and perhaps in terms of business and economic is booming and yet, there is this deep spiritual lack or absence. the culture does not have a real response. the response to how is it as saint augustine says famously our hearts are restless. we address that as preachers, preaching the truth and contemplating and giving the fruits of the contemplation we feel like we have been given a great gift of the gospel truth and we want to share with others to fill god's love , the absence we are all searching for. >> the challenge that i think we face, we have been priests, almost 12 years now and me

almost 11 years and 10 years ago i said the big challenge, especially with young ones, i am spiritual but not religious. 10 years later we are finding the generation after the millennials, genz, they say more, i am neither spiritual nor religious. there is a great angst. philosophically , there is this huge hole, saying maybe god exists but he deftly has no relevance on my day to day life. it is a problem to have and we need to know this is the territory we are going into. >> interesting. has there been an error like this before when god and spiritual things did not matter to the prevailing culture? >> yes . i think if you're a student of history these things happen in cycles . in terms of losing it and cultures tend to diminish when they are cut off from their spiritual roots, so to speak. saint dominic, i

think his age and our age has several parallel connections in that you have people who would say that they have spiritual tendencies or they want to be good people or can recognize virtue. and yet they would reject the institutional church and see the church as being somehow a barrier to god. as dominicans, we see that god's love and the gospel is always , if you will, incarnational. god created everything and creates not just kind of a spiritual relationship that works through the body. god came as men and not only to come as men he sets up a church, he sets up disciples and followers. we see ourselves very much continuing that apostolic command to go and preach the gospel. the last thing jesus said, go preach . and we take that very seriously. if that is your last will and testament, we take that to heart and we are the only religious group that

is named, not provided us, we are not osd, order of saint dominic. the only order name for what we do, op. order of preachers. that you said in the beginning. you know your latin. >> i tried to say it. it seems to me the culture we are living in today has weakened families, we can do community, the most network culture and yet everyone is alone with his own preferences with his ipad. i am not dissing technology, but where do we find community? >> you cannot have a real relationship with an instagram account. it cannot love you back. right. >> have you tried? >> we have been friends too long. >> you mentioned with young people, you don't run schools for the most part. preachers and brothers. you do do college . >> a lot of what we do, we set

up school centers next to secular universities for two years and was the chaplain at the university of arizona in tucson. it is a state school but we run the newman center and we have a number of these throughout the west coast. we have one in stanford, unlv, university of utah, university of oregon, university of washington. we do a lot of this working with college aged students and i have been blessed for most of my priesthood to work with younger people. >> my wife is a college teacher and it is kept her very young. she deals with 18-year-old in 19-year-old minds. she regaled me with stories at times. how are the kids doing? >> at saint dominic's one of our wonderful ministries is that we have a young adult, a very strong young adult presence. >> i heard this. >> our mailing list is hundreds , if not thousands every weekend we gather once a week. so the consistency of young adults who are catholic to know that you are not alone.

i think most folks were catholic in the city feel like they are cut off, not just from others from others who really believe. that ministry is really gathering together and allowing people who are young to say , to give permission to each other, i can live my faith boldly in a time where politically and religiously it has so many ways of dividing us together together. they pray together and say the rosary together and in a sense gather to have fun together and they played together . but also to be formed together. we have lots of talks. this particular past things they have done is host this place we had for the parish. they seek to bring the parish together as well. they are eager to live their faith but they almost need permission to have solidarity. >> there has to be social life. >> this goes back to, people feeling disconnected. you

cannot have a relationship with an instagram account and people, they are lonely and new to the city and it is a transient population, they are in tech , they may know they are catholic and sometimes more robust or less but they know there are group of people at saint dominic's and they show up. and all the sudden, they are formed together. it is pretty incredible. >> let's take a brief break and we will come back and talk more with our dominican fathers.

welcome back. we are talking about the dominican order and their local activities. i want to run two slides and if i can let them linger on the screen. the first slide, this is the website of the western dominican province. this is the province for which father james is the victor for advancement. if you take a look at this you will see every kind of resource for finding out about the dominicans and what they do. the little picture of gentleman that look like our guests today. a wonderful website and easy to find. op west .org. and the second five is on the church in san francisco that is the parish of which father michael is the pastor. and it looks like the guys from abbey road are crossing. there are some dominicans down there. this is the most beautiful catholic website you will ever see. it is the most beautiful church in san francisco, i would say. take a look at it. thank you

for the slides. this talk about this. i think any catholic who lives around here has an impression vague or not that saint dominic's is doing really well and you hear about the newsletter from dominicans that we have 20 new locations this year and thinking, the dominican seem to be doing something. tell me what is going on. >> there is the success in our ministry sites and we are flourishing in places that conventional wisdom says maybe we should not. san francisco is a pretty secular city and we have this fantastic church. same thing is in portland and seattle. same thing in anchorage and los angeles. and again at our university centers next to the secular universities, our ministries are flourishing. it is also reflected in the fact that men are showing up and we are growing. which is incredible. you think these days we talk about the priesthood shortage and all the bad news in the

catholic church surrounding priesthood but there is a lot of good news, especially vocation numbers being up in a lot of young men joining. doubling up and going this way. >> it is a long course of discernment for vocation training. and they are staying. you are gaining men. >> our retention rate is much higher than it has been in i think since we -- even before since 1989 i think our rates are the highest now that i have been. thanks be to god. not only are men joining but they are staying. >> i have this impression, part of your procedure is to live in community. so it is not a parish priest on his and managing six parishes but you have a community of men and you have a support system. i think that is attractive . >> father michael and i are from strong families and for me one of the big reasons i wanted to join in order that had community was because i want to the family. that is worked well with us . father michael and i

have been buddies for a while. >> like brothers. >> exactly. >> you are running a big city parish and it seems -- i am saying there is no children and the younger generation cannot afford to live here. and you say we have a thriving youth population and young adults group. >> we do. part of it comes from the pillars of the dominican order and there are four . first as we pray together. right now county notices, we have eight, there are almost 20 men at living together doing various ministries. but living at that priory in san francisco and that is open to the public. you can pray very early in the morning for morning prayers and in the evening. people when they see the group gathered in prayer they say prayer is happening and how do i be part of that ? something is happening and i want to connect . we study together. there is

a sense weather was one person who will preach on a weekend but all the preachers gather together and we talk about the gospel and we reflect on the gospel and we do this ancient practice which is called black sea divina. one of us preaches the gospel but it is as if the whole community has not reflected and now we are preaching together. we live together so we prepare meals together and we eat together and i would say one of the most attractive aspects to our parish not simply that there are sacraments going on but the quality of the sacraments, the availability of the sacraments , and if you will, the joy of the sacraments radiates from that living dominican community , that is in san francisco. what a pleasure to be there and have a parish connected. >> there is beautiful music. the best in san francisco. and your communications, which is an important part of your modern preaching is wonderful, seems to me. we have about a minute and a half left. take some time each of you. what

message do you want to leave the catholic viewers with or non-catholic viewers? >> live your faith boldly but with joy. we need to be bold about our faith but also people should see we are different and we are happy because we have the gospel. >> indeed. jesus says one of his mission statements, i have come that my joy might be in you and that your joy might be complete , might be full. of vision at saint dominic's is to radiate the joy of the gospel and in san francisco, in the heart of the city. will we are joyful . saint dominic, his nickname was a joyful fire. it is infectious and contagious . a light and fired spreads without being diminished. so we make the boldest witness we can will we are simply joyful and living as catholics. >> if a catholic was to have a intellectual experience at his parents church he will seek out a dominican church. the preaching will be good and something happens in the church basement with a brilliant author. there will

be good art and music. all that stuff. the question people are making a really great impression. by the way, saint dominic is famous for the rosary. >> we where the rosary. we pray it every day. >> the blessings of the virgin mary. >> thank you very much for being here. thank you for telling us all about the dominicans and the archdiocese of san francisco. we will see you next time. - lift the clouds off of... - virtual weather, only on kpix and pix+.

from cbs news bay area this is the morning edition. the california primer happens on tuesday and voters will settle questions including which two candidates should advance of the race to become california's next u.s. senator. it does not help .