NEWS
2002 NEWS STORIES
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ROAMIN' CATHOLIC
Contents © 2002
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
NEWS
MAY 2002
GOVERNOR GRAY DAVIS has ordered hmos to cover morning after abortifacient pills, according to a March 29 Washington Times report. "A woman's right to choose must never be held up by red tape," said Governor Davis on March 28. According to the Washington Times, Davis' order says that an hmo must cover the costs of the morning after pill even in "emergency" situations when the pill is obtained through a pharmacist that is not under contract with the hmo. Davis' ruling makes California the first state to mandate coverage of the morning after pill.
DAVIS TO "DEMONIZE" SIMON AS PRO-LIFE? With the state $17 billion in the red and the specter of last year's energy crisis looming over him, Governor Davis will try to divert attention to Republican challenger Bill Simon's pro-life stance, according to a March 26 Washington Times report. "Bill Simon is an unelectable extremist," said Garry South, Davis' chief campaign strategist. During a panel discussion with Sal Russo, Simon's chief campaign strategist, South said, "I'll give you a piece of advice, Sal: You're making a huge mistake in going out there and saying abortion is not an issue people care about. It is a legitimate issue -- it is the defining issue in this state for Republicans -- and if you don't think so, you're engaging in self-delusion."
Though Simon was helped by pro-life votes in upsetting his pro-abortion opponent, Richard Riordan, in the February Republican primary, the Washington Times notes that the Simon campaign is downplaying the Republican challenger's pro-life stance. According to Sal Russo, "Bill Simon is pro-life, but there is very little a California governor can do about abortion laws. Funding of medical abortions is guaranteed under the California Constitution." According to the Times, the Simon campaign has been silent about whether Simon supports access to "emergency" contraceptives (the abortifacient "morning after pill.") "There are much more important topics," said Simon spokesman Bob Taylor, according to the Times. Under "Issues" on its webpage, the Simon campaign is silent about abortion.
Asked whether the Washington Times accurately reported the position of the Simon campaign on the abortion issue, a Simon spokesman told the Mission, "I think what we like to talk about is that the voters get to decide what the issues are, not the campaign. Right now the voters overwhelmingly say they want us to deal with the economy and the schools; so, taking that under advisement, that's what we've been talking about." Governor Davis, said the spokesman, "really has been trying to politicize the abortion issue. Bill Simon has said that he opposes abortion, but that he does not intend to disturb the law in this area. The governor throws bill after bill at us, saying 'would you sign it?' We have taken the tack that we are not going to play his game. When Bill becomes governor we'll also take seriously the campaign promise about not disturbing the law."
STATIONS OF THE CROSS FOCUS ON PLIGHT OF POOR. The Santa Ana Catholic Worker organized a public Stations of the Cross to call attention to the plight of the homeless, according to a March 30 Los Angeles Times report. On Good Friday, March 29, about 100 people followed the cross through downtown Santa Ana, stopping at 14 stations to pray and sing. Most of the stations were located in front of government agencies which, critics claim, have failed the estimated 20,000 homeless in Santa Ana by failing to provide them adequate housing and medical care. The Times report noted that the Catholic Worker paid many of the homeless $10 for participating in the march, though some did not take any money, saing they marched out of gratitude to Dwight and Leia Smith, who organized the stations.
The Community Outreach Partnership Center, which includes the city of Pomona, Cal Poly Pomona, Mount San Antonio College, Western University of Health Sciences, Pomona public library, the Pomona police department and the Pomona Unified School District, also sponsored a Stations of the Cross procession on Good Friday. The procession took place in the Angela-Chanslor area of Pomona (north of the junction of the 60 and 71 freeways), a crime-ridden neighborhood that is home to mostly Mexican immigrants. The Community Outreach Partnership Center sponsored the Stations in the hope that the procession would help to revitalize the neighborhood where, said Councilwoman Cristina Carrizosa, the residents " have suffered for years from crime, neglect, violence and drug use. I hope this begins a sense of unity, of support, hope and faith." The crowd of about 200 sang traditional Spanish Lenten hymns led by Estudiantina Cascabel, a children's singing group from Sacred Heart Catholic Church. According to the Los Angeles Times, at each station a child read a message warning against violence or about caring for one's family and neighborhood.
With $1.4 million in funds from federal and city governments, the Community Outreach Partnership Center in the future will sponsor other programs, including English instruction, parenting classes, health screenings, theatre, and drug and alcohol programs.
JAIME SOTO, auxiliary bishop of Orange, has called on officials and police in Anaheim to cease their ill treatment of Latinos, according to a March 21 Los Angeles Times report. Latino leaders and immigrant advocates have been criticizing the city of Anaheim and the police department, in particular, for a program that stations federal Immigration and Naturalization Service agents at the city jail. The program, say critics, has resulted in deportations of illegal immigrants jailed for lack of proper identification or for minor crimes and traffic violations.
Bishop Soto said the city's program has eroded the trust his Latino parishioners should have in the police. Many of his parishioners, he said, are afraid to report crimes. Anaheim city spokesman John Nicoletti told the Times that, though the city council supports the program, the presence of immigration officers at city jails is a federal issue. Immigration officers are also stationed at the Costa Mesa, Fullerton and Orange County jails. Nicoletti said, "we don't understand why Auxiliary Bishop Soto has chosen Anaheim. The ins deports people. The city of Anaheim is not in the business of certifying citizenship." Nicoletti, according to the Times, accused Bishop Soto of misleading his people.
JOE BACA, the Democratic United States representative from Rialto, has said he will introduce legislation in Congress to restrict the sale and rental of video games that contain images of drug use, sex and violence, according to a March 27 Los Angeles Times report. Baca has the support of Father Patricio Guillen, a priest who runs the Libreria del Pueblo in San Bernardino. Said Father Guillen: "We need to help [the young] see there's a path of violence and death and a path of virtue and life."
As an example of the games he wants banned, Baca cited the video game "Grand Theft Auto 3," in which the player works his way up in a crime syndicate by stealing cars. The player can kill police officers, have sex with a prostitute, and then beat her to death to take back the money he has paid her.
IS THE "POPULATION EXPLOSION" OVER? During the week of March 15, the United Nations convened a meeting of demographers to discuss the declining fertility rates in developing countries like India and Brazil, according to a Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (www.c-fam.org) report. The Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations concluded that the population of much of the world could well fall below replacement level (2.1 children per woman.) before 2050. The Population Division projects that 80 per cent of the world will have below-replacement fertility levels.
Though the causes for the population decline in developing countries are unclear, the Population Division thinks that modern phenomena, including "individualism, feminism, consumerism, secularization," may contribute to it. "One clear implication of the theories of fertility decline," said the Population Division, "is that the availability of effective contraceptive methods is an important condition facilitating the maintenance of very low fertility levels." The division did not state whether or not such declines in population should be encouraged or not.
MORE AND MORE ACCUSATIONS. The clergy sexual abuse hotline set up by the Los Angeles police department has been receiving "a steady influx of calls" reporting alleged abuse by Catholic priests, according to a March 29 United Press International report. While some of these calls report current cases, "the majority of the calls are from adults who were victimized as children," said police Commander Gary Brennan. "The Los Angeles Police Department takes very seriously any and all allegations of crimes against children," said a statement issued March 29 by police spokesman Sergeant John Pasquariello.
A CARMELITE PRIEST, Father Dominic Savino, has been dismissed as president of Crespi Carmelite High School for sexual abuse of minors. In mid March, a woman whose two sons Savino had molested on a school field trip in 1979, contacted the Los Angeles archdiocese's abuse hotline to report the incident. Savino underwent therapy for this and other incidents of sexual molestation that occurred in the 1970s.
Since the archdiocese has no jurisdiction over the Carmelite school, the hotline report was turned over to the Carmelite order. The order removed Savino as president of the school and from active ministry. He will be placed under therapy and will be continually supervised by another priest. Since police authorities in Los Angeles want to investigate Savino further, he will remain in Los Angeles. Savino served as Crespi's school psychotherapist.
THE ORANGE DIOCESE has agreed to settle a lawsuit with Lori Capobianco Haigh who accused Father John Lenihan, formerly pastor of St. Edward's in Dana Point, of abusing her over several years when she was a teenager. The abuse, Haigh claims, began when she was 14. She claims that Lenihan got her pregnant, and then paid for her to have an abortion. "When I told him about the pregnancy, he told me that I had to get an abortion,'' Haigh, 37, told the Washington Times. "Father John drove me to his bank, withdrew the money and gave it to me to pay for the abortion. Father John did not go with me to Planned Parenthood. I remember how alone and scared I felt." Lenihan, who has confessed other sexual improprieties, has agreed to laicization.
Haigh has also accused Monsignor Lawrence Baird, media relations director for the Orange diocese, of having hugged, kissed, and rubbed himself against her when she confessed to having a relationship with another priest. She has accused, as well, Monsignor John Urell, vicar general for the diocese, of calling her a liar and dismissing her from the church when she confessed her relationship with Lenihan. Both Urell and Baird deny Haigh's accusations.
Haigh took a lie detector test, and scored a "plus-15," which means, said Dr. Edward I. Gelb, who administered the test, that "she is telling the truth" about Urell and Baird. Still, sources in the diocese of Orange, who know Monsignor Baird, doubt Haigh's story. One Orange diocesan priest said 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."
THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT ruled Wednesday, March 27 that illegal immigrants wrongly fired for union organizing are not entitled to back pay from their former employers. In a 5-4 ruling, the court said that Hoffman Plastic Compounds company in Paramount, California, had not violated the nation's employment laws when it fired one Jose Castro and three other workers for passing out union cards. Castro, a Mexican national, had presented a false Texas birth certificate to the company in 1988. The fact of Castro's birth came out in 1993 after a Paramount administrative judge ruled that Hoffman had illegally fired Castro. During a hearing that same year, a judge ruled that Castro, as an illegal alien, was entitled to no back pay, though at the time of the firing Hoffman did not know that Castro was illegal. The National Labor Relations Board disagreed, saying Castro was owed $67,000 for three years of lost work. The United States Court of Appeals in Washington concurred with the Labor Relations Board.
The Supreme Court overruled the appeals court decision. Chief Justice William Rehnquist wrote that awarding Castro back pay would "trivialize the immigration laws." Granting illegal employees money awards, said Rehnquist, would "also condone and encourage future violations" of immigration laws.
Justice Stephen Breyer disagreed with the majority opinion. Such a ruling, he said, undermines labor laws and encourages the hiring of illegals, since employers will suffer no penalties for firing them. Arturo Rodriguez, president of the United Farm Workers in Keene, California, said the Supreme Court has sent the message that illegal immigrants "are not entitled to any rights. We're going to find very soon that employers are going to create a second class of workers. It just escalates the exploitation."