NEWS
2000 NEWS STORIES
November
October
September
July/August
June
May
April
March
February
January
ARTICLES
LETTERS
ROAMIN' CATHOLIC
Contents © 2000
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
NEWS
JUNE 2000
TIDINGS TAKES ORANGE. According to the diocese of Orange, its diocesan newspaper, the Bulletin, was scheduled to merge on May 15 with the Los Angeles' archdiocesan paper, the Tidings. This revelation came on the heels of an attempt by the Los Angeles archdiocese to increase the Tidings' circulation. In a letter dated November 9, 1999 a steering committee formed by Cardinal Mahony in 1997 made its recommendations as to how the cardinal could possibly increase the Tidings circulation. Some of the proposals included creating a three-year program which would ask "parishes to underwrite the cost of sending the paper to parishioners with the goal of reaching at least 100,000 English reading homes in the archdiocese at the end of three years." The letter admitted that, "despite your own strong support and that of so many others, including our auxiliary bishops and the paper's staff, the circulation numbers have increased minimally. As the committee responsible for the outreach efforts of the paper, it is evident to us that the voluntary circulation program we recommended in 1997 is not working."
The steering committee (whose membership includes Monsignor Lloyd Torgerson, Father William Edens, Father Perry Leiker, Monsignor James Loughnane, Father William Bonner, Monsignor John Kane, Monsignor Padraic Loftus and Father Kevin Nolan) pointed out to Cardinal Mahony in their letter how important the newspaper is in the life of Catholics in Los Angeles. "Without the paper, usually there is no Catholic reading going into the home," the committee wrote. "The paper is a regular reminder of the Church, the love of Jesus Christ, the joy of the Gospel message ... it is adult education at home!"
The steering committee pointed out that the Los Angeles archdiocese needs to have a "paradigm shift relative to the Tidings and the leadership has to come from you [Cardinal Mahony] and the priests of the Archdiocese ... the Tidings has to be acknowledged as the primary outreach to the English-reading Catholic community. It has to be recognized as a cost effective and practical way to reach the largest number of people. At the parish level another program or investing in another staff person cannot accomplish the outreach and maintain the regular contact with parishioners that the Tidings provides".
The steering committee concluded the letter with some proposals for the cardinal's consideration: parishes will establish a minimum number of copies of the Tidings that will be sent to their parishioners; the recommended number of households to receive the paper would be 30% of the parish, with the cost of the subscription to be $10; a portion of the Together in Mission collection be used to underwrite the sending of the Tidings to parishes that receive an archdiocesan subsidy; a request that the archdiocese allot 1 million dollars annually to both the Tidings and La Vida Nueva (the diocese's Spanish language paper); and that July 1, 2000 be set as the target date for this new program.
THE BISHOPS' COMMITTEE ON THE LITURGY at their March 13 meeting, according to the May 2000 Adoremus Bulletin, discussed weekday Mass celebrations in the absence of a priest. In response to a resolution passed by the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions, the committee, deeming it premature to issue national guidelines on priestless Mass celebrations, issued, instead, public reflections on the matter. Dioceses, thus, would be responsible to issue their own guidelines on such Masses. Included in the reflections was the observation that, rather than attending weekday Word and Communion services, bishops should encourage parishioners to attend Mass at a neighboring parish. Word and Communion services, said the bishops' committee, "should never be scheduled for the purpose of 'providing a role' for the deacons and lay ministers."
NO APOLOGY FOR THE PAST. On the 20th anniversary of Archbishop Oscar Romero's assassination, John T. Steinbock, bishop of Fresno, on March 23 issued an apology for the "sins of the present." In the apology, published in the April 23 issue of the diocesan paper, Central California Catholic Life, Bishop Steinbock cited Archbishop Romero's words: "we have never preached violence, except the violence of love, which left Christ nailed to a cross, the violence that we must each do to ourselves to overcome our selfishness and such cruel inequalities among us." In light of this and other quotes, Bishop Steinbock asked "pardon now for the sins of the present, right here amongst our own people here in our own valley, calling everyone to conversion, to God's will and to God's love."
The bishop began by asking God's pardon for those "who promote the violence of abortion, the taking of human life in its most defenseless form." He next asked pardon for those "who promote the violence of capital punishment, seeking revenge rather than forgiveness." Steinbock touched on euthanasia, asking pardon for those "who would promote death amongst the elderly, the seriously sick and the handicapped."
In a region where a majority of voters supported Proposition 21, the "Juvenile Crime Initiative," Bishop Steinbock asked pardon "for those who simply want to put criminals in jail, even the youth, and throw away the key." The bishop's apology touched, as well, on issues intimate to the largely agricultural San Joaquin Valley, asking pardon for those who "condemn" illegal immigrants, and who "look down" on immigrants and others "because they dress different, speak another language, or have differently colored skin." Pardon was sought, too, for those "who are utterly unconcerned and do nothing to better the condition of those working in dangerous conditions, working for excessively low wages, working with no benefits for themselves or their families."
Finally, Steinbock asked pardon for those "indifferent to the thousands in our valley, including thousands of children who live in poverty, and go to bed hungry every night." Such sins, said the bishop, "are just as real as the sins of adultery, of lust, of theft, of lying and cheating, of calumny and hatred."
THE DIOCESE OF SANTA ROSA has reached a settlement with Father Jorge Hume Salas who claimed that former Santa Rosa bishop, Patrick Ziemann, demanded sexual favors from him in return for covering up Father Salas' embezzlement of funds from his Ukiah parish. According the Associated Press, diocesan officials agreed, April 24, to pay Father Salas a sum of $535,000; in return, Father Salas agreed to resign from the Santa Rosa diocese. According to his lawyer, Salas, a native of Costa Rica, will not remain in the United States.
TIM AND COLETTE WILSON have decided to negotiate a settlement with Family Planning Associates, according to Colette Wilson. As reported in the February 2000 Mission, Family Planning Associates, in May 1999, had filed a lawsuit against the Wilsons because of Tim's search of unlocked dumpsters, outside Family Planning Associate's abortion clinics, where he had uncovered unshredded patient information from which the Wilsons built a database of 10,000 patient names and addresses and sent letters to all 10,000 of those patients from their Inglewood apartment. Family Planning Associates filed suit to obtain the patient information found by Wilson. Responding to about 400 patients who wrote him back for further information, Tim suggested that they contact medical malpractice attorney Jack Schuler. (One of the patients, Rhonda Witherspoon, filed a class action lawsuit against Family Planning Associates on June 4, 1999.) Wilson had also sent letters to non-physician employees of Family Planning Associates, and, later to their neighbors. The letters sent to neighbors informed them that Family Planning Associates personnel lived on their block, noting that Family Planning Associates is the largest provider of abortion in California. (Please see "News," September 1999 Mission.)
According to Colette, the judge in the case against them, Ronald Sohigian, turned out "to be blatantly biased" in favor of Family Planning Associates. Nevertheless, at first it appeared to her, in the eventuality of a negative decision against them from Sohigian, the Wilsons could appeal the case. When the Wilsons found information about Sohigian which would indicate an "appearance of bias," Colette wrote a "statement of disqualification of judge," and filed it, along with 15 exhibits. Though the law states that a judge other than Sohigian needed to rule whether there was bias, Colette noted that Sohigian himself ruled on it. When the Wilsons appealed the last decision to the court of appeals, the court turned them down. Colette said that she and Tim took this decision as a sign that the court of appeals would not rule in their favor if they appealed Sohigian's eventual decision in the Family Planning Associates versus Wilson case.
Said Colette, "Tim and I reluctantly decided to call it quits and just give FPA what they want." Meeting with Family Planning Associates on Tuesday, April 20, the Wilsons negotiated a settlement in which they agreed never to write or picket Family Planning Associates' non-physician employees or to use any information gleaned from the abortion provider's dumpsters. On their part, Family Planning Associates agreed that the Wilsons could picket abortionists' homes. Family Planning Associates also agreed to preserve what the Wilsons gleaned from the trash in the condition and order the abortion provider received it from the Wilsons and make it available in the class action suit brought against Family Planning Associates by Rhonda Witherspoon and other former patients. Colette told the Mission that Family Planning Associates agreed that, prior to their signing the settlement agreement, she and Tim may examine the boxes of trash to see if they are in the same condition as when the Wilsons delivered them to the abortion provider.
However, the Wilsons' legal woes have not ended. "Tim and I are not completely free of all litigation yet," said Colette, "because FPA cross-complained against us in the patients' class-action lawsuit. They hope to shift all blame onto us and thus owe the women [patients] nothing."
PRESIDENT CLINTON BACKS HOME SCHOOLING? Towards the end of his two day "school reform tour," May 4 and 5, President Bill Clinton observed, "I think that states should explicitly acknowledge the option of home schooling, because it's going to be done anyway." According to a May 5 World Net Daily report, Clinton acknowledged that home schooling "is done in every state of the country," and so, he concluded, "the best thing to do is to get the home schoolers organized."
"We should say," said Clinton, in reference to home schooling, "'look, there's a good way to do this and a not-so-good way to do this,'" and so set standards for home schooled students. "But if you're going to do this," the president continued, "your children have to prove that they're learning on a regular basis, and if they don't prove that they're learning, then they have to go into a school -- either into a parochial or private school or a public school."
HOW CAN GEORGE W. BUSH WIN CALIFORNIA? In part, according to the May 7 "Orange County Voices" column in the Los Angeles Times, by attracting the Latino vote. Though, noted the column, a majority of Latinos went Democrat in 1996-97, Bush can draw them into the Republican fold by appealing to their "cultural conservatism:" Bush, according to the column, should "take stands on social issues that clearly differentiate Republicans from Democrats.... Democrats know their party's values put them at a disadvantage among Latino voters. Hence [Orange County assemblyman Lou] Correa's anguished defection from the Assembly Democrat caucus line to oppose a gay rights bill. Thus [Orange County congresswoman Loretta] Sanchez's cynical exploitation of the Bob Jones controversy by positioning herself as a Latino Catholic spokeswoman by condemning Bush's visit. She has no problem voting against Roman Catholic teaching on partial birth abortion."
Too, Bush, said the column, should "attack Democrat hypocrisy. Last year, Tom Daly, Anaheim's Democrat mayor, led the effort that evicted scores of poor Latino families from their apartments in the Jeffrey-Lynne neighborhood, as part of his gentrification of the Disneyland resort area. Republican elected officials should have denounced this Democratic attack on the Latino working families loudly and put the heat on Sanchez to stand up for her constituents against Daly, her political mentor."
THE DEMOCRAT DOMINATED SENATE Health and Human Services committee effectively killed a bill which would have outlawed partial birth abortion in California. On a 4 to 3 vote, with Martha Escutia (D-Montebello), Liz Figueroa (D-Fremont), Hilda Solis (D-El Monte) and John Vasconcellos (D-San Jose) all voting against it, the bill died in committee. Two of the committee members did not vote: Teresa Hughes (D-Inglewood) and Richard Polanco (D- Los Angeles). Joseph Wright, a legislative aide to the bill's author, Senator Ray Haynes (R-Riverside), said that the only Democrat who called about the bill was Senator Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles). "They wanted to know if the Senator had ever taken a position on the bill before," said Wright.
A legislative report issued by Life Priority Network noted that the three Republicans on the committee, Ray Haynes (R-Riverside), Dick Montjoy (R-Arcadia) and Bill Morrow (R-Oceanside), all voted to approve the bill.
Life Priority Network said that they had learned that committee chairman Martha Escutia's district had reported that they had received a barage of phone calls, often numbering 50 calls per day.