NEWS
2003 NEWS STORIES
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ROAMIN' CATHOLIC
Contents © 2003
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
NEWS
JANUARY 2003
HOMOSEXUAL MEN MAY NOT BE ORDAINED. In response to an inquiry from a bishop (said to be American) as to whether homosexual men may be ordained, a Vatican congregation has given a definitive no, said a December 5 Catholic World News report. In a letter dated May 16, 2002, but published in the November-December bulletin of the Congregation for Divine Worship, Cardinal Jorge Medina Estevez wrote, "Ordination to the diaconate or priesthood of persons with homosexual tendencies is absolutely unadvisable and imprudent, and from a pastoral point of view, extremely risky." Cardinal Estevez said, before issuing his letter, he had consulted with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Congregation for the Clergy. He had also, he said, been guided by previous Church discipline and from experience derived from dispensations given for homosexual men in the past.
"HOW COULD A RABIDLY ANTI-CATHOLIC GOVERNOR glide to an easy win among Catholic voters?" was the sub-headline of a November 21 article in the California Political Review. The facts are ugly: Grey Davis won Catholics 53 to 39 percent against Bill Simon, whereas Simon beat Davis among non-Catholic Christians by 55 to 35 percent. The crucial paragraphs: "that Davis won the Catholic vote -- by a 14-point margin, no less -- shows a dereliction of duty by the state's bishops. Far from challenging Davis's anti-Catholicism, many bishops and priests fawned over him like star-struck teenagers. He's frequently seen yukking it up with California's highest-ranking Catholic cleric, Cardinal Roger Mahony, or bear-hugging the pastor of his home parish, Beverly Hills' Good Shepherd Church, after Mass."
FOLLOWING CALIFORNIA'S LEAD, the legislatures of at least three states will next year consider measures that will allow, and encourage, research on stem cells taken from aborted embryos and the cloning of human embryos for such research, said the November 29 Los Angeles Times. This past September, Governor Gray Davis signed into a law a bill allowing embryonic stem cell research. Bills supporting embryonic stem cell research were introduced into the Pennsylvania and New Jersey legislatures in November, and were expected to be introduced into the Massachusetts legislature in early December. Other states may consider similar legislation.
Neither the federal government, nor most state governments, forbid stem cell research and cloning for research as long as they involve only private funding. According to the Times, the new state bills "aim to encourage investors who may have been driven away from stem-cell companies by fears that the federal government will restrict the research." "Our intent is to bring as many research people into the state as we can," Democratic New Jersey Senator Richard Codey told the Times. "If this in fact passes, money will flow into the state and those firms. This sends a message that we want [stem-cell research] to start and continue in our state."
The bio-technology industry has been pushing state legislation in favor of embryonic stem cell and cloning research. According to the Times, a trade group called the Biotechnology Industry Association has sent copies of the California law to its affiliates in 35 states to encourage them to get similar laws through their legislatures.
TEARING A PAGE FROM THE PRO-LIFE BOOK, embryonic stem cell and cloning research advocates have redirected their efforts at state legislatures, noted the November 29 Times article. Pro-life groups have been somewhat successful in the battle against cloning and embryonic research. While three states -- Iowa, Michigan and Virginia -- have laws banning cloning for any purpose, and three other states -- Louisiana, Rhode Island and California -- ban cloning for initiating a pregnancy, other states have laws protecting embryos which could apply to research and cloning. "I think the pro-research side has realized that we have to work a little harder in the states, but it is an uphill battle for us," Sean Tipton, a vice president of the pro-embryonic research Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research, told the Times. "Traditionally, the other side has been much better organized in state capitals, because they are used to fighting the abortion battles on the state level."
CALLING AMERICA'S DISPOSITION toward war "harmful," the director of Vatican Radio has criticized President George W. Bush's policy toward Iraq, said a December 3 Catholic World News report. In a December 3 broadcast, Jesuit Father Pasquale Borgomeo called "ridiculous" President Bush's characterization that Iraq's firing on U.S. and British planes in no-fly zones was a "counteroffensive" against the allies. Iraq's actions are justified, said Borgomeo, by the "principal of sovereignty." (U.S. and British patrols over the no-fly zones in Iraq have never been authorized by the United Nations.) Borgomeo said that the fact that U.S. and British warplanes have concentrated bombing on an Iraqi petroleum center was "revealing," suggesting that the firing of Iraqi anti-aircraft guns was more symbolic than threatening to allied planes.
NOISE AND BLIGHT, NOT ABORTION. After losing a first round in court, the city of Huntington Beach has rescinded an ordinance that prohibited sign-dragging aircraft from flying over the city. On September 16, the city of Huntington Beach enacted the ordinance in response to the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform's aerial banner campaign this past summer. By hiring a towing plane, which carried a picture of an aborted baby, the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform was able to reach thousands of beach goers during the height of the beach season in Southern California.
The Huntington Beach city council passed the ban, citing concerns over the noise and disruption generated by the aircraft. The Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Thomas More Law Center promptly filed suit in federal court on behalf of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, and asked the court for temporary and permanent injunctive relief which would stay the ordinance. On October 16, the day that the ordinance would have taken effect, Judge Alicemarie Stotler granted the Center's request for a temporary ban on the ordinance.
At a November 1 injunctive relief hearing, Judge Stotler extended the ban on the ordinance to December 6. Rather than facing a losing court battle, the city of Huntington Beach held an emergency city council session and rescinded the ordinance. Thomas More Law Center attorney Robert Muise said that he was happy with the city's reversal. "We are pleased that the city acted quickly to repeal its ordinance. However, they didn't have much of a choice -- if they didn't do it, we are confident that the judge would have. It's unfortunate that the city had to spend taxpayer's money in this litigation. This law should have never been passed in the first place."
Richard Barnard of the city's communications department initially said that the lawsuit "did play a role" in the city's rescinding the ordinance. Later in the interview, Barnard said that the city had rescinded the ordinance "because the FAA changed their rules and reasserted its jurisdiction over this airspace." Barnard said that the city council did not pass the ordinance because of the abortion issue, but because "of the noise and visual blight."
THE U.S. BISHOPS at their November meeting discussed the possibility of a future plenary council for the Catholic Church in the United States but decided that they would discuss the matter during their meetings in June 2003 and the summer of 2004, said a November 16 Los Angeles Times report. A plenary council is the most solemn and authoritative way the bishops of a region can discuss problems in their churches and issue decrees governing them. The last plenary council in the United States was held in 1884.
Archbishop Daniel Buechlein, who chairs the ad hoc committee studying the matter, said, that if the bishops approve the plenary council, it would not be held until 2005 or 2006. The American bishops, said Buechlein, are "all over the lot" on fundamental ecclesiastical issues, but thought it would be valuable if they "look at the identity and role of bishops and priests."
In July, eight American bishops issued a letter suggesting that the subject of a plenary council be discussed by the bishops at their November meeting. The bishops requesting the synod represented a wide spectrum of opinion in the American Church.
BAIRD MAY NOT DEFEND HIMSELF. The San Francisco Superior Court on November 27 jettisoned a slander suit brought by Orange diocese spokesman, Monsignor Lawrence Baird, against Lori Capobianco Haigh. Last spring, Haigh won a $1.2 million settlement against the diocese of Orange after she accused Father John Lenihan, formerly pastor of St. Edward's in Dana Point, of abusing her when she was a teenager. In an April press conference, Haigh accused Monsignor Baird of having, over 20 years ago, hugged, kissed and rubbed himself against her when she confessed a relationship she had had with another priest. Baird, who denied Haigh's allegations, brought a slander suit against her.
The viability of Monsignor Baird's suit rested on whether the courts considered him a private individual or a public figure. The courts hold public figures to a higher threshold of evidence in slander suits -- they must prove that the alleged slander was intended or proceeded from a reckless disregard for truth. San Francisco superior court justice A. James Robertson ruled that, since Baird had called a press conference to deny Haigh's allegations, he was thus a public figure. "I don't think that if he hadn't made the press conference that I would be finding this," said Robertson. The judge ruled that, since Baird could not possibly prove that Haigh slandered him under the higher standards set for public figures, he could not pursue the slander suit. By California law, Baird must also pay Haigh's legal costs.
SOME IN THE ORANGE DIOCESE have thought Haigh's accusations against Baird preposterous. One Orange diocesan priest told the Mission last May that he was "outraged" when he heard the accusations against Monsignor Baird. "I absolutely don't believe any of it," said the priest. "He is not a 'touchy-feely' kind of guy and he's very solid, doctrinally. He is not a swinger; he just isn't that kind of guy. I find it impossible to believe these allegations." But, it seems, whether Baird is guilty or not, victims' rights groups welcome the superior court's ruling. According to the November 28 Los Angeles Times, David Clohessy, executive director of the Chicago-based Survivors Network for Those Abused by Priests, welcomed the news with a "hallelujah." Clohessy said he thinks "there's nothing more despicable or hurtful than church leaders who sue victims. People like Lori deserve and need to be praised by church leaders, not sued."
The ruling against Monsignor Baird, said Father Robert Silva of the National Federation of Priests Councils, is a blow to all accused priests, whether they be guilty or not, since "it will discourage them" from filing lawsuits. "Priests across the board," said Father Silva, "are feeling very, very vulnerable right now, and no one has come to their defense. They've become the bad guys in society."
PROSECUTORS IN FRESNO AND KERN counties say they will not press charges against a priest accused of sexually molesting a former altar boy, said a November 13 Fresno Bee report. Army Special Forces sergeant, Juan Rocha, 27, accused Father Eric Swearingen, pastor of Holy Spirit church in Fresno, of abusing him from 1985 to 1989 while Swearingen was at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Bakersfield and St. Alphonsus church in Fresno. The Fresno County district attorney's office, however, said it has found no evidence to support Rocha's allegations. Rocha's attorney, however, said that the district attorney's opinion will not affect Rocha's civil case against the priest.
The October 4 Fresno Bee reported that Bishop John Steinbock of Fresno had said the allegations against Father Swearingen were "not credible." Though Steinbock had reported the allegations against the priest to the authorities, he said he would not suspend Swearingen unless he received evidence of his wrongdoing.
THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY District Attorney's office on November 25 charged two former priests of sexually assaulting minors in Los Angeles, said the November 26 Los Angeles Times. One former priest, John Anthony Salazar, was convicted of molesting children in 1988 and served three years of a six-year sentence. While on parole, he went to the diocese of Amarillo, Texas, where he worked for eleven years. The Los Angeles County district attorney has charged Salazar with additional counts of molesting a male youth at St. Bernard High School and an altar boy at Santa Teresita church in Los Angeles in the 1980s. Salazar is believed to be at large in Canada. The district attorney's office has charged former Carmelite priest, Matthew Michael Sprouffske, 75, of having molested a female relative in the mid 1950s when he was at Mt. Carmel High School in Los Angeles. "What this priest did warrants prosecution. This is not the oldest case we are prosecuting," Deputy District Attorney William Hodgman told the Times. The Carmelite order removed Sprouffske from active ministry last April. Sprouffske was arrested at his home in Darien, Illinois on November 25.
Salazar and Sprouffske join three other Los Angeles area clerics whom the district attorney's office have also charged with molestation: Michael Stephen Baker, 54, of Long Beach, charged with repeated molestation of a boy from 1976 to 1981; Carlos Rodriguez, 37, of Commerce, charged with molesting an altar boy in the mid-1980s; and G. Neville Rucker, 82, accused of molesting 10 girls over a nearly 30-year period stretching from 1946. Baker, Rodriguez and Rucker have pleaded not guilty. Police agencies in Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties are currently investigating 70 cases involving current and former priests. Charges against at least ten more priests may soon be filed by Los Angeles prosecutors.
THE CALIFORNIA BISHOPS issued letter in December to the Catholic faithful to warn them that the new year will likely bring new molestation lawsuits against the Church. The letter, read in the churches on December 8 (the second Sunday in Advent, but, usually, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception) referred to the "unprecedented step," taken by the California legislature last June, of "changing the statute of limitations applicable to claims for sexual abuse. For the duration of year 2003," said the bishops' letter, "this law allows people to file lawsuits against dioceses and California employers based upon claims that arose many decades ago.
"Some of the lawsuits," continued the letter, "may involve the revival of already settled cases and some may involve alleged perpetrators and witnesses long since dead. Under those circumstances, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain the truth." The letter said that the bishops expect "new lawsuits, some involving very old allegations, will be filed against dioceses in California."
Though "the vast majority of Catholic assets belong to the people of our parishes, schools, charities, and other institutions," and "are not devoted to the accumulation of wealth but to education, worship, and sacraments: to the poor and other works of charity," the Catholic Church "has been falsely portrayed as a large corporation with 'deep pockets,'" said the letter.
UNDER THE NEW STATE LAW passed in June, which gives a one-year window (for the duration of 2003) for the filing of sexual abuse cases, however old they may be, against churches and corporations, the Catholic Church in California may be inundated with lawsuits. According to a December 3 Los Angeles Times report, lawyers throughout the state have already prepared lawsuits which they will file against the Church in January. Los Angeles attorney, Raymond Boucher, said he has 100 clients in Los Angeles and Orange counties who plan to sue under the new law. Another attorney, John Manly of Costa Mesa, said he has 15 cases ready to file in January. Another Orange County attorney, Katherine Freeberg, said she has 76 cases to file, while Stockton attorney Larry Drivon has 175 to 200 lawsuits on the docket. Drivon helped craft the new legislation.
The Los Angeles archdiocese announced December 2 that it would challenge the new law on constitutional grounds in court. "We believe that the legislation is massively unfair, and it's targeted specifically at the Catholic Church," archdiocesan spokesman Tod Tamberg told the Times.
A STATE APPELATE COURT on December 2 rejected a move by three priests to keep Los Angeles County prosecutors from subpoenaing their church personnel files. Donald Steier, attorney for retired priests, Stephen Baker and Michael Wempe, and for Father David Granadino, all accused of molestation, appealed the ruling of superior court judge Dan Oki that the grand jury and the prosecutors office could view the clerics' personnel files. Steier argued that the personnel files were protected by privacy rights. Steier told the Los Angeles Times (December 3) that he was not surprised by the ruling. "Had we prevailed, it would mean the grand jury had been acting without authority for the past 60 years," he said. "We understood that the Court of Appeals would not be inclined to reach that conclusion." Steier said he was not sure whether he would appeal the appeals court ruling.
OUT TO GET THE CHURCH. Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, prefect for the Holy See's Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, in a December 3 interview with Zenit news, said that he thought the media in the United States are spearheading a campaign against the Catholic Church. Ratzinger said that he is "personally convinced that the constant presence in the press of the sins of Catholic priests, especially in the United States, is a planned campaign, as the percentage of these offenses among priests is not higher than in other categories, and perhaps it is even lower.
"In the United States, there is constant news on this topic, but less than one percent of priests are guilty of acts of this type," continued the cardinal. "The constant presence of these news items does not correspond to the objectivity of the information nor to the statistical objectivity of the facts. Therefore, one comes to the conclusion that it is intentional, manipulated, that there is a desire to discredit the Church. It is a logical and well-founded conclusion."
"REDUCING STAFFING would be the very last resort for us," said MaryRose Wallace, chief financial officer for the diocese of San Bernardino, according to a November 27 Inland Valley Voice report. Though San Bernardino diocesan investments have fared better than those of Orange diocese and the archdiocese of Los Angeles, the diocese of San Bernardino did take a hit in the stock market in 2001-02 and was forced to pay out $1.1 million from its reserves to parishes. Yet, despite the losses, the diocese will not make significant cuts in the coming years, but will pare back unnecessary expenses. Diocesan offices, though, could not increase their budgets above three percent, and wage increases, which were normally seven percent annually, were also held to the three percent limit. Though Catholic schools in the diocese receive some funding from the diocesan investment pool, they receive most of their funding from tuition and fund raising. Diocesan spokesman Father Howard Lincoln said that even if the stock market continues to fall, the diocese will try hard not to raise school tuitions.
On November 26, Father Lincoln released figures that show that, over the last 24 years, the San Bernardino diocese has paid out $658,250 in five child abuse settlements involving priests and two laymen. The diocese itself has paid out $6,776 for counseling over that period.
The diocese of San Bernardino is rated one of the poorest in the country.
WORLD AIDS DAY on Sunday, December 1, was commemorated by over 40 predominately black churches throughout Los Angeles County, said a December 2 Los Angeles Times report. Among these churches was St. Brigid's Catholic Church in South-Central Los Angeles, which offered free HIV testing. But while other black churches spoke of "safe sex" as a measure to protect against the disease that is spread through sexual intercourse, St. Brigid's Father John Harfmann spoke about abstinence. "I have anointed people, some priests, some lay people, who have died of this disease," said Father Harfmann. "It's not a pretty thing to see." Then, referring to the red ribbons that were handed out to the congregation, he said, "when we wear this, it's not just a symbol. It means be aware." St. Brigid's has an HIV/AIDS ministry, which delivers food and supplies to AIDS victims and provides them companionship.
The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services says that blacks account for 20 percent of AIDS cases and 34 percent of pediatric HIV cases, though they comprise only 9.5 percent of the county population.
PUBLIC PENANCE. According to the November 30 Los Angeles Times, two Orange diocesan priests, Father John McAndrew and Father Bill Barman, decided that, in the wake of the clerical sex scandals, they wanted to show their "openness to conversion" and their "solidarity" with and "empathy" for victims; so they decided to hold a public penance on December 18 at the Catholic Worker in Santa Ana. The form of penance which they and eight other priests would undertake were to be suggested by the public, and included, said the Times, anything from eating at a soup kitchen to listening to molestation victims. The penance, said McAndrew, "is to humble ourselves and show people that we get it."
Bishop Tod Brown told the Times, that though the priests had not told him about their planned public act of contrition, he approved of it. "I admire their initiative to do something on the local level to demonstrate to the public and especially to the victims the gravity of the abuse suffered by young people and children by members of the clergy," said Bishop Brown.
MEMBERS OF THE JUANEÑO Indian tribe are split over the fate of a 29-acre parcel between Interstate 5 and Camino Capistrano in San Juan Capistrano, said a November 18 Los Angeles Times report. Archaeologists agree that the parcel holds an Indian burial ground but disagree over the number of possible graves. One archaeologist at Cal State Los Angeles, Pat Martz, says the parcel, which might hold as many as 175 graves, is the site of a 15th century Indian village called Putiidhem. Cypress College professor, Henry Koerper, who has studied the site for twenty years, places the number of burial plots at only seven.
Whatever its historical significance, however, the 29-acre parcel seems destined to become the athletic complex for Junipero Serra High School, a Catholic school which will open next year. While one faction of the Juaneño tribe is willing to go along with the high school -- as long the it preserves burial sites and erects monuments to tribal and religious leaders -- another two factions oppose the high school project. One of these latter factions wants the site to remain as it is, while the other wants an interpretative center and model Indian village built on the site (one may see their plans at http://putiidhem.org/plans.htm.) Since, in late November, the San Juan Capistrano city council approved Junipero Serra's use of the parcel, the two Juaneño groups opposed to development have held protests outside the property. But, short of legal action, the Junipero Serra sports complex will probably be built, as planned.