NEWS
2002 NEWS STORIES
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ROAMIN' CATHOLIC
Contents © 2002
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
NEWS
JANUARY 2002
RIORDAN TARGETS THE POOR? In his bid for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, former Los Angeles mayor Richard Riordan has called for more taxpayer funding for abortion. In a November 8 interview, Los Angeles Times columnist, George Skelton asked Riordan "whether he had core political beliefs." "My basic conviction," said Riordan, "is what is in the best interest of the poor. We need to have successful businesses so there will be quality jobs.... We should fire bureaucrats in school districts who fail poor children." And, said the Republican contender, "the poor should have the same option on abortion that the rich have. Government should supply the resources so poor people have a choice."
"I just lost the Republican nomination," said Riordan after his revelation, though his stance on abortion is no secret. The official "Riordan for Governor" website quotes the candidate as saying that he is "in favor of the right for women to make their own moral choice. I believe economically disadvantaged women should have access to medical funds, so they have the same right to make the choice as any other woman. You're not really giving the choice to somebody unless they have the wherewithal (to pay for an abortion). I'm against third-trimester -- or late-term -- abortions," Riordan continued. "Underage females should get permission from their parents. I don't like abortion. but a woman has the right to make her own choice."
The California Political Review's November 30 "Capitol Watch Report" related that "some observers" have interpreted Riordan's support for abortion funding for the poor "as an appeal to lingering white GOP racism." Riordan, said the report "has positioned himself as candidate of 'Country Club' Republicans who traditionally oppose expanding the Party through appeals to conservative Democrats." Of course, Riordan would not come out and say, "'I think that babies that aren't white ought to be wiped out," John Kurzweil, editor of California Political Review, told the Mission. "But the appeal of a statement like that for a certain segment of the voting public, primarily in the Republican Party, in the opinion of people I spoke with, is part of what's behind that."
The Mission, via e-mail, asked "Riordan for Governor" to comment on the "Capitol Watch" report. We received no response.
HOW DO THE OTHER G.O.P. GUBERNATORIAL CONTENDERS stand on abortion? Bill Simon, said his press secretary, Bob Taylor, "is pro-life and makes no bones about the fact that he is pro-life. He has been asked that question at a number of venues across the state and he always answers it very crisply and matter-of-factly: I am pro-life and proud of it." Though Simon is pro-life, he does not intend to make the right-to-life "a centerpiece of his campaign," said Taylor, "because he thinks the predominant issues right now are the state's budget crisis and total mismanagement coming out of the governor's office."
What does Simon say about exceptions? "Regarding Roe v. Wade and so forth," said Taylor, Simon "says he intends when he is governor to uphold the law, whatever the law is at the time. His personal view is that he is pro-life." Would he favor, like Riordan, expanding state aid for abortions? "I don't think Bill agrees with that. In fact, he has said that, and I have been with him when he has said that. He doesn't agree that we should expand the opportunity to do that."
According to Taylor, Simon's wife is "pro-choice." Simon "and Dick Riordan are buddies, and friends, in the sense that they both live in the same neighborhood and both go to the same Catholic church [Saint Monica's in Santa Monica]. They indeed have worked on some joint projects in L.A. in the charitable arena, in tandem on a couple of projects."
Investors Business Daily's George Neumayr, who interviewed him, said Simon is "pro-life, but he's not advertising that very loudly. I would say he' s weakly pro-life." Does Simon use the language of exceptions? "He was still sort of making up his mind on that, which I didn't take to be too good a sign," said Neumayr. "I think he's taken the colorless mainstream pro-life Republican position."
Bill Jones' campaign office sent us the following statement by the candidate: "I am personally pro-life with the exception of cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is in danger. I realize there are several different viewpoints on this issue and I respect each and every position. The California Constitution explicitly protects a woman's right to an abortion and as Governor I will not change that -- nor could I."
Though his organization makes no endorsements, John Kurzweil, editor of the California Political Review, said he personally favors Simon. "My opinion of my vote is that it is a tool, and I like to use it to move in the right direction," said Kurzweil. "If somebody is not perfect, but they're the best of a bunch of bad choices, I'll go with that. Not only is Simon the best, he is pro-life. He also has a far better chance, I believe, than Jones to beat Riordan and win in the fall. I would support him, even if I didn't like him, if he could just accomplish that."
"THE CITY NEVER RESPONDED to anything at all," said Brother Joseph McLaughlin of the Missionaries of Charity's attempts to contact the city of Los Angeles about the closure of their ministry for homeless men, Nuestro Hogar. As the October Mission reported (see "It Makes No Sense -- They Have Toilets Here"), the Los Angeles City Planning Commission ordered Nuestro Hogar out of Alvarado Terrace in Pico Union because the ministry violated zoning laws. Some Alvarado Terrace residents had claimed that Nuestro Hogar attracted "undesirable" elements to their neighborhood. The Missionaries of Charity Brothers countered that the ministry in no way attracted bad elements to the neighborhood, but, rather, helped young men escape some of the worse elements of street life.
Tony Perez, spokesman for Los Angeles city councilman Ed Reyes, told the Mission in October that, that though Reyes had supported the Alvarado Terrace residents against the brothers, the councilman's office "will be as aggressive as we can to find [the brothers] a different location, somewhere along the corridor nearby." Brother Joseph, however, said in a November 30 telephone conversation that though Reyes "had told us through someone else at the [zoning] hearing that he wanted to help us," his office "never responded to telephone calls or letters or anything else." Not only the brothers, but other Catholic and non-Catholic churches called and sent letters to both the city of Los Angeles and Councilman Reyes' office in behalf of the brothers. Brother Joseph said that when Reyes' office, after promising to return the brothers' call, failed to do so, and after another message to Reyes went unanswered, the brothers decided to take more stringent action.
"We're taking the city of Los Angeles to federal court," said Brother Joseph. "The judge set the case for the January 22. The judge also wanted us to continue looking for other properties, to show some good will on our behalf as well. He ordered the city and us to try to get together to discuss and try to resolve the problem."
Brother Joseph said that a representative of the city attorney's office took the brothers to see an apartment building close to Alvarado Terrace. "We can't do anything with an apartment building for what we do," said Brother Joseph; "it's a home we want to offer as much as possible. We saw another piece of property we're interested in, about a mile from here [Nuestro Hogar]. It's a rougher neighborhood, which is fine by us; we think there will probably be less trouble with the city. The owner's willing to sell it; it's a family inheritance. It will be a larger house than here. But if we did get it, the zoning's wrong, so we'd have to ask again for a variance, and conditional use permit from the city."
Brother Joseph said that he had found out that morning, November 30, that someone from the district attorney's office wanted to meet with the brothers. "We thought it would be a city attorney," said Brother Joseph, "but who they have is Daniel Greene, who is the zoning administrator who denied us [the zoning variance] and then went to the planning commission to give the reasons for denying us as well."
Ed Reyes' spokesman, Tony Perez, did not return our phone calls.
"GAYBRUINS," an e-mail list for homosexuals at UCLA, announced that "actor, producer, director, writer, AIDS activist, community activist Michael Kearns" would hold a "lunch conversation" on November 30 at the University Catholic Center for "World AIDS Day/A Day Without Art." "Michael," said the announcement, "has been a part of the struggle against AIDS for many years, both socially and personally. Sadly, he has had to deal with the loss of two partners to the disease. He will be sharing with us his special memories and experiences, wonderful wit and wisdom, and incredible compassion and conviction."
According to a review of his 1995 book, T-Cells and Sympathy: Monologues in the Age of AIDS, "Michael Kearns 'is an openly gay, publicly HIV-positive actor/playwright who has artistically dealt with issues surrounding AIDS for more than a decade.'" The review appears on the "AIDS Book Review Journal" on the internet. The journal is sponsored by the University of Illinois and AEGIS (AIDS Education Global Information Network). According to a disclaimer, "all materials appearing on AEGIS. are the property of AEGIS and the Sisters of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, or the party credited as the provider of the content." An interviewer on the internet site "POZ" asked Kearns to tell about his "4-year-old adopted daughter, Tia." "She's wonderful. She's willful, funny, bright, curious and incredibly tough -- she'll have to be," says Kearns. "Her father may be the only openly gay, openly HIV positive, over-40, single, white man in the country who has successfully adopted an African-American child. Her adoption was a major ordeal: It took two and a half years. I'm writing a book about it called A Daddy of a Different Color. It's about sexism, homophobia, racism, classism, ageism -- all the isms that came into play during Tia's adoption."
Since the GayBruins annoucement said that "for a li'l' more information, feel free to give a ring to. Cindy Yoshitomi of the University Catholic Center," we called Yoshitomi. To the observation that it seems odd that a Catholic center would host a openly practicing homosexual, Yoshitomi replied, "Does it? Oh."
It is odd, we said, "given the Church's teaching on homosexuality."
"Yeah, gee, I don't know," said Yoshitomi. "I really don't know he's a practicing homosexual, and I don't know if you do, right? Do you know that? He didn't say that to us. It was all the facts and figures of what was going on with AIDS throughout the world."
The lunch conversation with Kearns "was a great turnout, and it was a great talk, and I think our students learned a lot from it," said Yoshitomi. "You might want to write that."
What was the turnout? "About 50," said Yoshitomi.
LIKE THAT OF "NOTRE DAME on the Seine," was how architect Rafael Moneo described the site of Los Angeles' new Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, rising as it does above the Hollywood Freeway. Moneo, Cardinal Roger Mahony and Brooke Hodge, curator for the Museum of Contemporary Art, held a "spirited conversation" on the new cathedral, said the Los Angeles Times, in conjunction with the museum's exhibit, "What's Shakin': New Architecture in L.A." The exhibit, which ran through December 30 at the museum's Pacific Design Center, features large-scale models of the cathedral.
According to the Times, Moneo seemed somewhat uncomfortable when the "lanky, can-do cardinal. completely at ease before an audience, legs outstretched." used religious terminology. The chin of the "habitually intense" Moneo, said the Times, "tends to sink more deeply into his hands whenever his client uses the words 'providence' or 'providential.'" When an audience member asked if "divine" inspiration helped Moneo in his design, the architect's "head sank, again. 'There have not been many good examples of religious architecture in the last 100 years,'" he said. He later spoke of "fate" having put "this difficult project" into his hands. Nevertheless, Mahony said he had chosen Moneo because he "could best capture the sense of sacred -- not public space. He understood that this wasn't just another downtown building."
Mahony (without whose approval, said Moneo, his architectural team "didn't move a finger") said he wanted a cathedral different from St. Patrick's in New York or the European cathedrals. "We knew," said Mahony, "that we wanted to separate public worship from private devotion," lest visitors to Our Lady Queen of Angels feel the same confusion they feel upon visiting St. Patrick' s or Europe's great cathedrals.
Moneo, though, was somewhat critical of Mahony's choice of art to adorn the cathedral. "The art could have been more daring than it is," said the architect, "but the cardinal has insisted on art that is understandable to his people."
The cathedral, according to the Times, has become "the focus of international attention, for its location, scale and cost. The last has risen dramatically over the years, from about $50 million (for the original St Vibiana's site), to about $163 million. Said the Times, the current cost stands at "nearly $200 million."
THEY MAY NOT ONLY "DO LUNCH" at the onsite café, but visitors to the completed Our Lady of the Angels cathedral in Los Angeles will also be able to shop for wine at the cathedral's gift shop. According to a November 10 Los Angeles Times report, San Antonio Vineyards, which produces the altar wine "Angelica," has been given the "honor of being the first to produce fine wine" for the new cathedral. When the cathedral's gift shop opens next year, said the Times, it will sell a "Cathedral Cabernet" (at $32 a pop) as well as other San Antonio Winery varietals. Said Steve Riboli, co-owner of San Antonio Winery, "In addition to taking home photos and crucifixes, you can bring home something to share with your family."
Most San Antonio wines, said the Times, sell for $10 to $19 a bottle. Their Riboli Cabernet sells for about $39. The altar wine, "Angelica," at wholesale, goes for about $4 a bottle.
"Although it might seem a bit commercial," continued the article, "archdiocese spokesman Tod Tamberg said that given California's history of wine-making by Franciscan missionaries, church officials felt it was a fitting souvenir for visitors to take home."
DESPITE SOME OF THE UNSAVORY allegations leveled against him, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca has proven a friend to religion -- any religion -- according to the November 17 Los Angeles Times. Seeing religion as a key to rehabilitation of inmates, Baca has increased the number the number of houses of worship in prisons "five-fold," to over 100. He wants to increase that number to about 1,000.
Baca has formed liaisons and friendships with the Jewish center in Sherman Oaks, with Tibetan Buddhists (who want to introduce sand mandalas at a state prison), and even with the Nation of Islam. He has allowed black inmates at the Twin Towers Jail to attend supervised Sunday services at the First AME Church.
Though he is Catholic, Baca, said the Times, "almost every Sunday. attends services at a different church, synagogue, Buddhist temple or mosque." He did not object when his first wife became Mormon and wanted to raise their children in that religion. In 1999 he married his second wife, Carol Chiang, a Buddhist. "People are more important than their religion to me," said Baca. "I try to reach them for who they are. Religion happens to be a byproduct of who you are."
THOUGH PROPOSITION 22, passed by California voters, declared that the state shall define marriage as a union between "one man and one woman," some state legislatures are attempting to circumvent the law. A bill up before the state assembly, the "California Family Protection Act of 2001," would grant "civil unions" the same rights as marriages. The bill, authored by Assemblyman Paul Koretz (D-West Hollywood), defines "civil union" as "the legal relationship that is formed between two persons under this chapter." The two persons may be of the opposite or the same sex.
That the bill is specifically intended to grant same-sex couples the same rights and privileges as married people is clear from the bill's text. "The purpose of this act," reads the bill, "is to help California move closer to fulfilling the promises of inalienable rights, liberty, and equality contained in. the California Constitution by providing all eligible couples, regardless of their gender or sexual orientation, the opportunity to obtain comparable rights, protections, benefits and responsibilities afforded different-sex couples by California's marriage laws." In so doing, though, the bill does not require any religious leader to officiate at ceremonies solemnizing a civil union, nor does it require "any religious body to accord any religious significance to a civil union."
The bill's language makes no distinction, except in name, between a civil union and a civil marriage. "A spouse in a civil union shall have all the same rights, protections, benefits, and responsibilities under law, whether they derive from statutes, administrative or court rule, policy, common law, or any other provision or source of law, that are granted a spouse in a civil marriage," says the bill. "A spouse in a civil union shall be included in any definition or use of the terms 'spouse,' 'husband,' 'wife,' 'married person,' 'family,' 'family member,' 'immediate family,' 'dependent,' 'next of kin,' or any other term that denotes or includes a spousal relationship under state law."
According to the website for the California Alliance for Pride and Equality, "The Golden State's Lesbian, Gay Bisexual and Transgender Lobby," the California Family Protection Act "does not violate Proposition 22. This bill does not pertain to or affect marriage in any way or the parties who may legally marry under California law. Proponents of the initiative were very clear that Prop. 22 DID NOT intend to authorize any form of discrimination or restrict laws that protect same-sex couples. They even acknowledged that gay and lesbian couples should be given the benefits and protection of law." According to a May 3, 2001 Capitol Resource Institute Report, Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg (D-Los Angeles) told the Sacramento Bee that "there are a lot of people in committed, same-sex relationships who don't care one whit if they can get married or not -- they just want their rights."
Assemblyman Koretz withdrew the bill last May, but will reportedly reintroduce it in January 2002. In their "2001 Final Legislative Report," the California Catholic Conference has gone on record opposing the Koretz bill.