Bain J. Farris has been named president and chief executive officer of the Daughters of Charity Health System (DCHS), effective March 1.

DCHS, formed Jan. 1, 2002, is a regional healthcare system with System Offices located in Los Altos Hills, and seven local health ministries spanning the California coast, including St. Vincent Medical Center, Los Angeles; Robert F. Kennedy Medical Center, Hawthorne; and St. Francis Medical Center, Lynwood.

Farris began his career with the Daughters of Charity at St. Vincent Hospital and Health Care Center in Indianapolis, in 1971. In September 2003, he became interim CEO at St. Vincent Medical Center, Los Angeles.

Robert Issai who has been DCHS interim president and CEO since December, 2003 will continue in his role as executive vice president and chief financial officer.

Lenten Tenebrae celebration
scheduled at Holy Family Church
GLENDALE --- Holy Family Church will observe the beginning of the season of Lent with a Tenebrae celebration on Feb. 29 at 8 p.m. The combined children and adult choirs of Holy Family, together with the Sinfonia Orchestra, under the direction of Dr. Christian Marcoe, will perform Gabriel Faure's "Requiem" with narrations of The Stations of the Cross by Father Joseph Shea, pastor, and parishioner Brad Thomas.

According to Dr. Marcoe, Holy Family music director, "tenebrae" is a Latin word for shadows. "The service is meant to recreate the emotional aspects of the passion story. We use soul-stirring music and narration to provide an opportunity for deep and poignant meditation to begin the Lenten season," he explained.

All are invited to attend the service; a free-will offering will be taken. For more information, contact the parish at (818) 247-2222 ex. 220.

Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley receives
$2 million from Leavey Foundation
BERKELEY --- The Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley was awarded a grant of $2 million from the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Foundation in Los Angeles for Endowed Scholarships to attract students to the school's Master of Divinity program.

The Master of Divinity Degree is the ministerial degree awarded to Jesuits seeking ordination and lay men and women pursuing a career in the Roman Catholic Church.

"The support and commitment of the Leavey Foundation will help further our efforts to provide well trained lay and ordained leaders in the Roman Catholic Church, said Jesuit Father Joseph Daoust, president.

As a Pontifical Faculty of Theology, the Jesuit School of Theology prepares men and women to serve the church as scholars and teachers, fulfilling this mission in the interfaith context of the nine-member Graduate Theological Union and its cooperative doctoral program with the University of California at Berkeley.