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Contents © 2000
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
LETTERS
SEPTEMBER 2000
AN INVALUABLE MESSAGE
Thank you for including in the July/August 2000 issue of the Mission a news item about Cardinal Mahony's May 25 address to the National Press Club, an address in which unequivocal opposition to capital punishment was unapologetically articulated and in which the cardinal publicized his request of Gray Davis, governor of California and ostensibly a Roman Catholic, to impose a moratorium on executions. With more than five hundred and sixty men and women residing under sentence of death, California supports the largest death row population in the United States of America. In reference to this population and to the more than three thousand six hundred and fifty condemned inmates nationwide, the Roman Catholic Church has been commendably outspoken.
Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking, and internationally recognized and respected advocate for abolition, will be presenting a moratorium resolution to the United Nations on December 20, 2000. The resolution will be supported by petitions with one million or more signatures. Additional information about this campaign and copies of the petition can be obtained at www.moratorium2000.org, or by telephone, (202) 588-5489. Comprehensive coverage of Roman Catholic activities and declarations can be accessed through Catholics Against Capital Punishment at www.igc.org/cacp, or by telephone at (301) 652-1125. Catholics Against Capital Punishment makes available material about organizing at a parish level.
Inclusion of current developments in publications like yours is both critical and invaluable. I reiterate appreciation.
K. Bandell
Norwalk
OR IS IT JUST STRANGE?
Are the number of abortions down?
I've been going to clinics since about 1980, and I say, yes they are. The clinics I go to have shorter hours, and the percentage of clients who are there for abortion seems significantly less than it used to be.
Why?
It all seems weird. I see two factors. First, there is an attitude among the non-college kids against abortion. I think it comes from the gangs. Gangsters are role models and leaders to lower class and working class kids. Gangsters at clinics (and when I see them when I go door to door) have a stock answer: "we don't do that." I think that attitude, without much in the way of rational thinking involved, has spread to a lot of young people.
Second, the economy is doing well. I see a lot of Latino families. They aren't lamenting that they can't get a job. A good economy takes away the poverty-despair temptation.
All this applies to surgical abortion. Who knows how many budding babies are killed each year by abortifacient birth control? The total number may not be down.
We can never celebrate until America publicly acknowledges that life begins at the beginning and provides equal protection of the law to all persons, no matter how immature they may be.
Joe O'Brien
Panorama City
INDULT NONE TOO GENEROUS
Mr. Thomas D. Hogan [see Letters, July/August, Mission] thinks that Cardinal Mahony is such a great guy for allowing the Indult Mass in his archdiocese. I wish that he would try going to it regularly.
It doesn't matter where you live in the archdiocese, you will drive a lot. From my home in Palmdale it is two hours to the Mission in Ventura, forty five minutes to the Mission San Fernando, one hour and 30 minutes to St. Joseph's Chapel at Santa Teresita Hospital, two hours to the Little Sisters of the Poor in San Pedro, etc. It seems that His Eminence intends to make it as difficult as he can while still getting credit for allowing the Indult Mass.
I will give him credit for one thing -- in some dioceses they make you run the gauntlet of street gangs to hear the Indult Mass. Personally, I'll give Cardinal Mahony credit when the Indult Mass is said on a weekly basis in several locations in the archdiocese. Until then, I see it as just political shenanigans to look good to Rome.
Richard W. Roberts
Palmdale
A CALL FOR INCLUSION
I have assumed that I was put on your mailing list because of my recent participation in the Catholic Press Association Conference, which was held in Baltimore, Maryland. Your July/August 2000 issue is very strong in coverage of issues such as the death penalty, abortion, marriage, and, of course, lay ministry. The article on the world economy with its inclusion of the oppression of workers in Third World countries was interesting reading.
I looked, in vain, to see some coverage of the presence of persons of African descent who were active in the Catholic lay movement in Los Angeles. It is one of our concerns that the inclusion of all people as active members in the life of the Church be important. To evangelize our people requires that we project an inclusive and welcoming faith family. It seems that we do not adequately cover a population among us who should hear the "Good News" of Jesus Christ in an environment that values the contributions and participation of all people in the Catholic Church. One article, one photograph would be a good start to "Opening Wide the Doors to Christ" to all people who are made in His image.
I do acknowledge the one picture of a family of African descent in an ad in which a check is presented in an abortion case. What would be a more positive portrayal of a family would be one which shows a family involved in lay ministry with an accompanying story.
Dr. Hilbert D. Stanley
Executive Director
The National Black Catholic Congress, Inc.
Baltimore, Maryland
THE SCOUTS MISREPRESENTED
In a recent letter from the archdiocesan Office of Ministry with Gay and Lesbian Catholics by Father Peter Liuzzi, excerpts of which were published in the July/August Mission, it was asserted that the Boy Scouts of America discriminates against gay membership. The most recent issue of the Tidings also carried a letter from a reader, which exacerbated Fr. Liuzzi's position.
These assertions are not true. The Boy Scouts do not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation at the membership level. All boys are welcome to join and participate; and their families are encouraged to do so as well.
Leaders, however, are expected to be role models for the boys. In this area of leadership, then, the Scouts -- as a private organization -- are well within their rights (no matter how these are defined) to determine what behaviors they deem to be appropriate to "proper role models," as are all private organizations. Most, if not all, public organizations also have the same right of setting standards for leadership.
I sincerely pray that this type of misrepresentation of an organization, which has served so many millions of boys and their families for so many years, will soon be a thing of the past.
anonymous
received via e-mail
ASK GOD FOR THE TRUTH ABOUT HOMOSEXUALITY
After reading the letter "Don't Be Too Hard on Ziemann" from Kim Johnson in the July/August Mission, and your editorial response to her letter, I was moved to write for two reasons. One of them is to thank Ms. Johnson for pointing out so clearly the responsibility which Bishop Ziemann has taken; the other is to respond to your editor's note following her letter.
God has softened my heart wholly towards those who are suffering from homosexual oppression. He had taught me that He created us in His Image and Likeness: male and female created He us. Homosexuality is not in God's Image and Likeness.
I believe God wants the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy to address homosexuality with Him -- to ask Him why it is at all -- to know from whom or whence it comes -- and with that answer, to heal and set free his children, all of them who suffer so from these chains that bind them and that keep them in bondage.
Are we willing to know God's whole truth concerning this condition, or will knowing His answer make life too difficult when so many of our priests, nuns, brothers, sisters, and lay people step up and say, "I, too, suffer from homosexuality -- I want to be set free and to live as God created me to live -- Please heal me and deliver me"?
It would be a bold step, to be sure, for so far those who suffer from homosexuality have been told, "we are very sorry about your condition and we will pray for you to live a chaste life, but that is all we can offer you. (See the Catechism of the Catholic Church).
I pray this note causes many to stop and to wonder to God, and to ask Him for His truth concerning the cause of homosexuality. I pray we truly ask Him to show us clearly all He would have us do so as to bring about through Christ Jesus Our Lord and Savior all God's deliverance for all our brothers and sisters who are willing to be set free. And I pray that we attach no stigma to those who have suffered so, for we have not walked in their shoes and it could have been us.
Claudia-Marie Person
Sacramento