Ad Hoc Committee to Save and Preserve Our Lady of Guadalupe Church

520 South Van Ness Ave. #154, San Francisco, CA 94110 (415) 368-8406
San Francisco California, July 18, 2011 Reverend Archbishop George H. Niederauer San Francisco Archdiocese 9 Peter Yorke Way San Francisco, CA 94109 Most Reverend Archbishop George H. Niederauer We were made aware of your letter dated June 28, 2011, in reply to letter dated June 3, 2011 from F.A.N.S. of Guadalupe and the Latino Heritage and Landmark Preservation Foundation, directed to the attention of To whom it may concern; thank you, it concerns us too and this affords us the opportunity to address you again without the benefit of a direct reply from you to our letter we sent you on June 20, 2011. We are very grateful to Our Lady of Guadalupe, as devotees and admirers of our Lupita, we know Her Love is inspiring and moving us all to open our hearts and minds to use correctness in our words, behavior and actions to each other, we are confident She will continue leading us all toward resolving our differences, so they no longer are a hindrance and a distraction from the important work of serving our sisters and brothers, as Jesus showed us how to do, with his life, and with his death. May He continue helping us to avoid hurting each other. We feel their love working and answering our calls for help, as attested by the San Francisco Archdiocese Corporation Sole, who after many months of ignoring our petitions for answers, decided to honor our queries in regard to its plans for the final disposition of the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe, located at 906, 908 and 910 of Broadway Street in San Francisco California; which you did in this manner: It is now the intent of the Archdiocese of San Francisco to sell the property and use the proceeds to complete the final phase of St. Marys Chinese School [Most Reverend George Niederauer] Thank you for relieving, at least in part, the burden and the pain in our hearts caused by our uncertainty of not knowing, the fear that we could lose our priceless historical, cultural and spiritual treasure, and the hope that Our Lady of Guadalupe would move our current Archbishop, to carefully consider the implications of failing to fully understand the dept of the devotion, adherence and commitment that we Guadalupanos have had for Our Blessed Mother for close to 480 years, since that December 9, 1531 when this genuine and truly American tradition started, and which according to our oral history, spans for many centuries more, to a time before this beautiful land became known as the American Continent, to a time before the genocides brought about by the European Invasion with its criminal ignorance that inflicted unimaginably horrific atrocities and which continues hurting us all the way to the present. Your Excellency, we beg of you, lets heed historys lessons. There is so much to be grateful to Our Lady of Guadalupe for all the good She has brought to our beloved city and its inhabitants, Her compassion moved the Archdiocese to change its plans to sell it and thus place it in imminent danger of demolition. She touched another SF Archbishops heart to accept the results of Her intervention in helping our community members to successfully petition our elected officials to designate Her Sanctuary as San Francisco Historical Landmark # 204, development that compelled us all to consider alternate uses for Her Church, Her guidance took us to a temporary solution, even so it was longer than the initial 5 years proposed (Turned out to be 16 years), it benefited literally thousands of Her children, not the least were the students of the St. Marys Chinese School, who were in dire need of help due to that their schools building had suffered slight damage by the seismic event known as the Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989, and needed to be relocated to a more structurally safe building, Her Sanctuary fit the bill, albeit cramped, it is safe because it just happens to be one of the first San Francisco churches built of reinforced concrete. It boggles our minds just to entertain the thought of quantifying what our Chinese sisters and brothers benefited from the superlative customary education that our Catholic Schools System provided their children with, we cant help ourselves from pondering on the enrichment to our society as a result.

Are we contradicting ourselves when we advocate for love to avoid hurting each other, and yet, speak very discomforting words to others? Not at all, our criticism is offered for consideration only and filed under advisement. We are fully aware that not only it is very difficult and painful to say truths about Our Catholic Church Hierarchy but due to that in religion as with any other human association -- politics and finances are structural parts of it, there is a price that has to be paid for what is said. So be it. We love our church, we love our Archdiocese and we love our priests, our nuns, our lay sisters and brothers, etc., and as Catholics, we choose to use our prerogative to freely dispense what can be termed in reality, as tough love. Without numbers to verify our assertion, but in our humble opinion based on what we have seen, the San Francisco Archdiocese Corporation Sole has greatly benefited too from the Our Lady of Guadalupe Sanctuary matter; the Archdiocese got to keep the church, its conversion into a school was a source of income to the Archdiocese for 16 years of revenue from schools fees, and we can safely assume that your money managers made sure to take advantage of the US Tax Code and gains from interest on the funds, and it is not hard to imagine there were some capital gains -- just to mention some of the monetary aspects of this tenure, in addition, by not selling the church for money, which most likely wouldve gone to pay for a myriad of financial woes -- from financial mismanagement to embezzlement and who knows what else, but in our minds remains the knowledge that many Dioceses had to pay fines and penalties incurred by the egregious misdeeds of priests, and the misguided choices made by prelates who relocated them to other parishes without notifying the parishioners, thus facilitating more sexual abuse to be perpetrated on children, by not selling it, The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Guadalupe remained standing and safe from possible demolition for awhile, AND making it possible for Our Patroness devotees to have at the very least, a procession to Her Sanctuary, sing Her Las Mananitas and worship once a year on December 12, these events were facilitated via a permit from the Archdiocese and the duration of it was entirely at the pleasure of the Archdiocese. Hard as we tried, we have yet to find how the Hispanic / Latino Communities in the San Francisco Bay Area have directly benefited from this 20 years old saga. Until shown otherwise, the record shows that we have borne most of the cost, from helping build it in the 1800s, rebuild it after the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, helped sustain it for over 100 years, saved it from the revenue-strapped San Francisco Archdiocese Corporation Sole in the mid nineties, and now, in the 21st Century, we are told that this Corporation wants to sell our church and use the proceeds to finish paying off its obligations incurred in the construction of the brand new Chinese School? We were not aware that our sisters and brothers in the Chinese Community of San Francisco are in such dire economic needs, but if this is the case, they need only to ask and we will be there to help them, but please, do not sell our church to do it with. Your Excellency, after almost 20 years, with respect and deference to your exalted position, of asking and petitioning -- which is actually begging -- the Archdiocese to return Her Sanctuary to our communities without a concrete answer over the same period, we finally got one with an emphatic no and stating its intent to sell it, with it, we have reached an impasse, we are in opposition to the sale hence, we concluded that our respective positions are clear and well defined, this leads us to the fact that there are choices that have to be made, two readily come to mind, do we choose to dialog and fraternally resolve this matter once and for all time? We are in favor of dialog and negotiation, and we pray that the Archdiocese makes the same choice and join us in the spirit of community service or, the inevitable default process will go into effect, bringing issues in contention that will need to be resolved, the sooner, the better. In our previous letters, we yielded to you to help us choose, we prayed that you would opt for dialog, to reach out to us by scheduling a meeting, where you, or your legal representatives and ours, can start conversations on what we are proposing to preserve Her Sanctuary and make it at least comfortably self-sustainable, while at the same time, filling many spiritual, community, historical and cultural needs of many communities throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond for many generations to come, ALL of that in addition to having a unique Latin American Historical Landmark here in San Francisco that many visitors to our beautiful city by the bay would love to visit. We love and respect our church, our Archdiocese, our priests, nuns and volunteers are always doing a fabulous job and countless good acts, works and deeds, therefore, the available resources to continue their noble ministry must be protected from being foolishly squandered. In this spirit, you need to know that if you insist in selling our church, we hope you are totally candid to any and all prospective buyers on what they will be getting themselves into, they need to know that the choice for the final disposition of The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Guadalupe is being contested and its use is in active dispute, this will be the situation probably for years, because it will not be stopped by the sale, it is in your power to prevent all of that, you will determine

the moment when our church is returned to our communities, then it will end. If you go ahead and sell it, the new owners will have to make the determination of when to do the right thing, we hope they are more understanding of the situation that you would have been, and for the sake of our Archdioceses resources, we hope they are also benevolent upon learning of what they were not told prior to the transactions. Your Most Exalted Reverend, they need to know, and if they are not fully informed before making the transactions, any legal or monetary consequences the new owner, or owners, will incur as the result of the Archdiocese being less than completely candid, will be borne by Our Archdiocese. The reason we are putting all this on you, is because we know what this Corporation is, YOU ARE The San Francisco Archdiocese Corporation Sole de facto Persona Ficta. You are The Corporation, and The Corporation is You A Single Entity. You have the power to resolve this issue with the stroke of a pen. Just us reference, many of the Guadalupanos, friends and allies who successfully saved our church in the mid 90s, albeit temporarily, are no longer with us, sadly too is that some of their children have departed as well, but more than a few remain, some in their eighties and not surprisingly, they have been holding their ground on the frontline as guardians at the gate, some for almost twenty years, they have been showing us how it is done, with endurance, determination and fully committed to our objective, but there is more, their grandchildren have grown up and have joined our ranks in this struggle, in keeping with our long history of struggles and centuries old traditions, they have claimed their positions at the forefront to preserve their ancestors legacy for their descendants and their descendants to inherit. The Archdioceses next course of action is an enigma to us, but in all fairness, we are self obligated to inform you of what ours is and in the unlikely event that you may not already know: Who we are and where we can be found. In general, we are devotees, followers, friends and admirers of Our Lady of Guadalupe, we exist in every stratum of society, including the Catholic Churchs personnel, clergy and higher hierarchy throughout the world. Within this worldwide humanity, you can find us Guadalupanos and our allies. At the local level, we are among the ones who oppose the sale of our church and who are committed to this cause, furthermore, we are fully prepared and ready to engage peacefully in a long protracted struggle of attrition with letters, faxes, call, emails, demonstrations of opposition to the sale and any other peaceful and legal methods and / or means, within our reach and available to us. This effort shall continue until a successful completion of this matter in favor of Our Most Holy Lady of Guadalupe is achieved. Each day, more and more of us will answer Our Patroness call to save Her Sanctuary and join in the struggle that our sisters and brothers have been waging for 20 years, how many more years will we be there it is up to you. And now, painful as it is to do so, we need to do some house cleaning by clearing up a very serious matter. In the bottom paragraph on the first page of your letter dated June 28, 2011, you leveled an accusation against an unnamed member or members of F.A.N.S de Guadalupe and the Latino Heritage and Landmark Preservation Foundation, of making a false accusation against the Archdiocese of San Francisco, and that is you, in their June 3, 2011 letter: Now I will address the false accusation that the Archdiocese neglects ministry to Latinos: This is a very serious charge of a very grievous infraction of one of the Ten Commandments, number 9 to be exact You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor, a capital sin. After careful examination of the June 3, 2011 letter, we failed to find corroboration to your claim of a specific accusation, what we did find is this phrase where the word neglected appears in the text of the letter that you cited: We feel humiliated, disappointed and defrauded by several of the Archdioceses Administrators who have neglected the Latinos in many ways and for years; We ask you to also do a close examination of the content and the context of the text in this letter, we did, and the language in support of your accusation eluded our scrutiny, hence, there is an imperative need of your help in pointing out exactly what you are referring to, and to expediently make that information known to us at the earliest, this matter needs to be cleared up immediately, even, or specially, if it is due to an misinterpretation or a misunderstanding, but the fact remains that a charge has been emphatically made and that indeed, it appears that somebody is bearing false witness here, unless proven otherwise, it is not members of F.A.N.S. de Guadalupe or the Latino Heritage and Landmark Preservation Foundation, but whichever the case may be, somebody will need to offer a profoundly felt and very visible public apology.

Albeit the letter has your letterhead and your signature is affixed to it, we find it almost impossible to believe that a Roman Catholic Prelate of your stature and educational background, could make such an accusation even if it were to be true, other language could have sufficed to make your point, but it falls upon you to come forward to correct or affirm the record at the very earliest, or be publicly compelled to do so in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Before closing, we need to respond in relation to the two activities that you, as our Shepherd, in your June 28, 2011 letter urge us to do: 1. To become involved in this fine and effective ministerial outreach; With all due respect to you, Most Reverend Father, you dont know if we are involved or not -- while it is true that some of us may no be as involved as we could be, many more of us are very involved. 2. to conclude your efforts to re-open a church that has been closed for twenty years and is located in a neighborhood where virtually no Hispanics live and worship; For the past 20 years, we have been asking, explaining, telling and even begging your four predecessors, and now you, to please try to understand what this Sanctuary means to us, it is clear now that to no effect, willfully or not, for years we have endured your predecessors, yours, and some of your Administrators insulting ignorance or contempt of our culture, practices and traditions, even after so many years of explaining and sharing our concerns and the why of them, we are just about ready to stop trying, due to that we have run out of new ways to say it and we just keep repeating ourselves to you, but we will try it once more by telling you what Our Lady of Guadalupe Sanctuary it is not to us: It is not just a property, the word you used in your June 28, 2011 letter, it is not just a building or just another church, as the Administrative Vicar for Spanish Speaking, Father Moises Agudo, told the committee as they were walking out the door after the March 11, 2011 meeting was abruptly truncated without having received an answer on what were the Archdioceses plans for the Sanctuary forget about that church, it will never be opened again, it is just another church, he then urged them to attend some other churches. It is very hard for us to understand, how is it possible that it was OK to house a school for 16 years, but our Latino / Hispanic community is not even entitled to a meeting (June 3, 2011 letter) to present our proposals that we know will benefit all of our communities in San Francisco and throughout the bay area in many ways, not the least is to get to know more about our Latin American culture, our traditions, our heritage, our history, and that when finally a meeting was convened, it only lasted 60 minutes due to that Reverend Monsignor James T. Tarantino, Vicar for Administration / Moderator of the Curia abruptly ended it. Regrettably we have to say that we can not honor your urging, because Her Sanctuary and Its symbolism are deeply rooted in our spiritual, cultural and social heritage, it fills many of these needs and that of our children. She also gives sanctuary, refuge and comfort to the littlest of her children, the most vulnerable, the voiceless, we cant ignore Her Call to preserve it for them and for us all. Most Reverend Archbishop George Hugh Niederauer, your urging us to conclude our efforts to re-open the Sanctuary of Our Most Holy Lady of Guadalupe in San Francisco, translates into a very powerful spiritual command for us to meekly follow, in earthly terms, it is wise, and if we may say so, smart advice as well, we owe reverence, respect and humble obedience to our Spiritual Shepherds on earth and under normal circumstances, we could unquestionably follow, but on the other hand, in these times we are not living under normal circumstances, the most vulnerable of her children are being persecuted. demonized, incarcerated, beaten and even killed, children are being separated from their parents and parents are taken away from their children. From the distant past of the early morning on the feast of the Immaculate Conception of December 9, 1531, Her Voice reaches across the centuries to the deepest recesses of our spirits to, as our beloved and revered Juan Dieguito did, go tell the Archbishop to heed Her Call and honor Her Wishes by putting these ahead of any earthly consideration, as we have done for centuries, as we are doing now on this matter and that we will be doing for the rest of our lives if necessary, or until the Archbishop complies with Her Wishes, whichever comes first. Your Most Reverend Excellency, in the name of Our Most Beloved, Revered and Most Holy Lady of Guadalupe we say unto you: Cease and desist in your intentions to sell Her Sanctuary, place your trust in God and not in riches, for these are the lures leading to the worship of Mammon, instead, put your monetary concerns aside and put your trust in The Kingdom of God and His Justice where your earthly needs will be met. Follow in the

footsteps of Jesus of Nazareth to minister, care for and defend the oppressed and abused as we, faithful followers of our Dearest Lupita and our Beloved Jesus of Nazareth, have been doing for ages and who now are asking you to join and be one with us in loving service to our sisters and brothers in need. Fraternally yours in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, InLakesh Aurora Grajeda Administration, communications and outreach volunteer Ad Hoc Committee to Save and Preserve Our Lady of Guadalupe Church

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Cc: Reverend Moises Agudo, Administrative Vicar for Spanish Speaking. 713 South Van Ness Ave. San Francisco, CA 94110 Cc: Members of our Communities, Media, General Public. Reverend Monsignor James T. Tarantino Vicar for Administration / Moderator of the Curia San Francisco Archdiocese One Peter Yorke Way San Francisco, CA 94109 Miss Clementina Garcia Landgrave F.A.N.S de Guadalupe P.O. Box 470815 San Francisco, CA 94147 Miss Gloria Diana Ramos Latino Heritage and Historical Landmark Preservation Foundation 151 Ripley St. San Francisco, CA 94110 Sr. Lic. Carlos Felix Corona Cnsul General de Mxico en San Francisco Consulado Mexicano 532 Folsom St San Francisco Ca 94105 Miss Celina Rodrguez, Rodrguez Media Productions celirodriguez@aol.com Lourdes Rodrguez Entre Mujeres, KIQI 1010AM entremujeresradio@yahoo.com Carlos DeMarti / Jorge Brignole El Show de Carlos DeMarti KIQI 1010AM http://www.carlosdemarty.com/contact H. Supervisor Mr. John Avalos - District 11 San Francisco Board of Supervisors 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 244 San Francisco, Ca 94102-4689 H. Supervisor Mr. David Campos - District 9 San Francisco Board of Supervisors 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 244 San Francisco, Ca 94102-4689 FILE: Ms. Angela Calvillo Clerk of the Board of Supervisors 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 244 San Francisco, Ca 94102-4689 Mr. Roberto Hernndez Ser Diferente, KIQI 1010AM robertoalmediodia@yahoo.com Marcos Gutirrez Hecho En California, KIQI 1010AM marcosg106@aol.com Lupita Peimbert (Figuereido) Lupita News Capacity Media & Communications Lupitanews@gmail.com H. Supervisor Mr. David Chiu - District 3 President San Francisco Board of Supervisors 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 244 San Francisco, Ca 94102-4689