NEWS
2001 NEWS STORIES
December
November
October
September
July/August
June
May
April
March
February
January
ARTICLES
LETTERS
ROAMIN' CATHOLIC
Contents © 2001
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
NEWS
JULY/AUGUST 2001
"FRANKLY, A LOT OF CATHOLICS are going to say, 'This doesn't look Catholic," Father Richard Vosko told the Los Angeles Times. According to the Tuesday, May 22 article, Vosko, the Los Angeles archdiocese's liturgical design consultant for the cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, further explained that the new cathedral "is of its own time, of its own liturgy, of its own people. So it's not designed to house a liturgy from the Middle Ages."
So, what kind of liturgy is it supposed to house? For one, the cathedral altar will be situated closer to the congregation -- "within 100 feet for regular services," explained the Times. "That configuration suggests a parallel with the way audiences will surround the orchestra at the Frank Gehry-designed Disney Concert Hall, under construction a few blocks away."
The Times noted that the cathedral's "spiritual ambience" will be "nuanced, multi-sensory and pan-cultural." The great bronze doors will represent this "pan-cultural approach." Though the description of the doors on the archdiocese's website merely says the doors will display, along with various images of the Mother of God, "images and symbols of the ethnic and cultural diversity of the Los Angeles Archdiocese," the Times states that they will include "non-Christian icons such as the yin-yang symbol." Hayden Salter, the cathedral architect Rafael Moneo's representative in Los Angeles, told the Times that he thought "there was an understanding that the building could speak a variety of languages." Salter also noted that he thought "the beauty of this project is that a person who likes sitting on a rock in Sedona will also enjoy coming and sitting in this church." Like Moneo, Salter is not a Catholic.
The rock in Sedona may fall under Vosko's category of "things in the universe that create a sense of the sacred naturally." Other things, he said, "become sacred because of the things that people do there. For example, a city street can become sacred when a man and a woman fall in love there." Vosko said he doesn't think humans can make sacred spaces. "I think the best thing a human being can do is create a most worthy architectural form that would house the ritual forms of a particular religion, whether it's Jewish, Catholic, Muslim or whatnot."
The new cathedral, it seems, will be as clear as to the nature of the sacred as the referenced rock in Sedona. "You don't need St. Peter and St. Paul over the entrance," explained Salter. "This church avoids assigning meaning." "Orchestrators," says the Times, explain that the daily rites performed in the cathedral will make it sacred. Monsignor Kevin Kostelnik, the pastor of the new cathedral stated that "what makes a space familiar is not just the objects that are present but the ritualization that takes place in a sacred space."
If all this is unclear, it may be because it is meant to be. The Times notes that the "overall design" of the cathedral "distills rather than replicates traditional Roman Catholic architectural symbolism." The writer perhaps spoke more than he knew when he called Our Lady of the Angels cathedral "the adobe-colored Modernist temple rising rapidly above the Hollywood Freeway."
WHAT MIGHT THIS MEAN FOR LOS ANGELES? The Vatican has ordered a halt to the renovation of St. John's cathedral in Milwaukee, according to May 28 Yahoo News and June 1 Catholic World News reports. Responding to complaints of Milwaukee activists who oppose the renovation, the Congregation for Divine Worship sent a letter to Archbishop Rembert Weakland during the last week of May asking him to suspend work on St. John's. The opponents of the renovation also received a letter from the Vatican: "Having received further information about the project from Archbishop Robert [sic] Weakland which nonetheless left doubts that the project would conform to canonical and liturgical norms, on May 26, 2001, we moved to suspend the work of renovation until these doubts may be clarified.
According to the July/August 2000 Saint Catherine's Review, the renovation of Saint John's includes moving the altar to the center of the congregation, moving the choir loft to the front of the church, and making niches for "ethnic art representing the diversity of the archdiocesan population" {Milwaukee Catholic Herald). As in Los Angeles, Father Richard Vosko serves the cathedral renovation's liturgical design consultant.
CARDINAL ROGER MAHONY and other Catholic clergy took few pains to conceal their resentment of Vatican authority when commenting on the May 21-24 extraordinary consistory of cardinals, held in Rome. Boston Globe correspondent Michael Paulson ("Cardinal Gathering Comes to a Close," Santa Barbara News-Press, May 27, 2001) focused heavily on the division of power between the bishops and the pope: "The effort by cardinals to challenge the centralized power structure of the Catholic Church was fueled by actions such as a Vatican ruling earlier this month that overturned the right of American bishops to introduce gender-neutral language into translations of the Mass and scripture."
Paulson quoted Cardinal Mahony as saying,"The bishops. almost unanimously supported that the voice of the diocesan bishops be heard and that the offices of the Holy See are in service to the local churches." According to Paulson, Cardinal Mahony "said that sometimes his authority has been undermined by Vatican bureaucrats who respond to a Southern California Catholic's complaint about a local dispute without consulting the archdiocese. Mahony was one of several cardinals who called for revamping the synod of bishops, periodic month-long gatherings of top church officials, which Mahony called tedious because of all the speechifying that goes on. The cardinals did not agree on a specific course of action but said that they hope the Vatican and bishops can agree on changes before the next synod of bishops in October in Rome."
Paulson asserted that the collegiality issue "is particularly hot right now," and has sparked unusual public debates among cardinals in Catholic journals like the weekly Jesuit magazine America. "Over the last 200 years, there has been an increase in centralization in the Catholic Church, and the question is, 'Is it time to move the other way?'" said Rev. Thomas Reese, editor of America. Reese complained that the Vatican micromanages liturgy and the appointment of bishops. Such centralization of power is an obstacle to Christian unity, according to Reese. "There is no way we are going to have a union with the Orthodox, or with Protestants, if the result would be that the pope would appoint their bishops or micromanage the way they do their liturgy," he said.
In sharp contrast with Reese's view is that of Cardinal Avery Dulles, professor at Fordham University in the Bronx. The June 3-9 National Catholic Register reported that Cardinal Dulles "underscored the importance of papal primacy in relations with other Christians. It is the primacy that preserves unity, he said, noting that history has shown that those Christians without the Petrine primacy have suffered divisions amongst themselves."
NO TO MORE JUVENILE HALLS. Despite protests of community activists, the state board of corrections voted to allocate $131 million Thursday, May 17, to build new juvenile halls and renovate old ones, according to a May 18 Los Angeles Times report. The project includes building a new 200-bed facility north of Victorville in San Bernardino County, and a 240-bed expansion at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey.
The archdiocese of Los Angeles, according the Times, opposes the expansion of the Downey facility. "It is really a shame what we are doing to our children," said Javier Stauring, director of the archdiocesan juvenile detention ministry. "We need to move away from a primitive system that doesn 't work." What does work, say critics of the expansion, are counseling, education and employment programs.
Stauring, who is also the Catholic chaplain at Central Juvenile Hall in East Los Angeles, was quoted in a June 4 Times article as saying the law treats poor youth from single-parent families more severely. If such a youth, he said, goes before a judge for sentencing, he often has no parent who will accompany him. The judge, then, will most likely send him to juvenile hall. "But if a kid comes with both parents and dad's in a three-piece suit and has insurance that can cover [drug] rehabilitation, the judge has a lot of options," noted Stauring.
Thomas McConnell, executive director of the board of corrections, though, told the Times that the state needs more bed space. He said the board of corrections does not disagree with the protestors, but "there has to be a balance between prevention and intervention. But there will always be a base number of kids who have to be kept in juvenile hall.. We want that number to be housed in safe, adequate housing."
CULTURE OF DEATH SIMPLISTIC? Father John A. Coleman, a Jesuit sociologist from Loyola-Marymount University in Los Angeles, called the phrase, "culture of death," used frequently by Pope John Paul II, simplistic and unworthy of Christians, said the June 1 National Catholic Reporter. Coleman addressed the 65th annual meeting of the National Conference of Catechetical Leadership held in Buffalo, New York from April 29 to May 3.
Father Coleman said that "no culture is ever fully a culture of life or of death. Those who are serious about discerning culture in the light of the gospel should cease using these gross terms to characterize a whole culture."
Coleman said that "any real Christian critique [of culture and the gospel] is more than some generalized moaning about certain negative elements of culture. even if evil exists in the culture, sulking and sniping are unworthy as Christian responses."
HOME DEPOT, the home "superstore," has bowed to pressure to include "sexual orientation" in its company's discrimination policy, said a June 5 press release from Traditional Values Coalition. According to the Orange County based coalition, the Unitarian Universalist Church, a stockholder in Home Depot, has influenced the company not only to modify its discrimination policy, but to teach its employees that homosexuality is a positive orientation.
Traditional Values Coalition reported that Home Depot was holding a Father's Day promotion for Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays' (PFLAG) "work in building stronger families." In this promotion, said Traditional Values Coalition, if someone donates $100 to PFLAG, Home Depot will give him a $25 gift certificate for Father's Day. PFLAG's website, as of June 5, carried an announcement of the promotion.
PFLAG promotes the notion of the normalcy of homosexuality not only among adults, but among youth. Among PFLAG's publications is a pamphlet, Be Yourself, Questions and Answers for Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Youth. To youth, questioning their sexual orientation, the pamphlet says the following: "Being gay, lesbian, or bisexual is a normal and healthy way to be. It's one more part of who you are -- like being tall or short, or black or white or Asian or Latino."
According to a June 5 Catholic News Service report, while Home Depot admitted to donating $2,500 to the homosexual organization at the time of the Father's Day promotion to help with counseling those who openly admit they are homosexuals, the company has denied participating in the promotion with PFLAG. Suzanne Apple, Home Depot's vice president of community relations, denied that Home Depot gave the gift certificates to PFLAG as part of the grant.
A May 30 PFLAG press release, however, belied Home Depot's claim. The organization, says the press release, "is proud to announce its first ever promotion around Father's Day. Under this promotion, supported in part by The Home Depot, contributors to PFLAG at $100 or more will receive a $25 Home Depot gift certificate. The Home Depot made a $2,500 grant to PFLAG in gift certificates." The press release quotes Apple: "We felt the Father's Day promotion was a great opportunity for The Home Depot to support PFLAG's work in building stronger families, a cornerstone of our community involvement program."
On June 6, Catholic News Service reported that Home Depot had clarified that it had made its $2,500 contribution to PFLAG in the form of gift certificates, to help with fund-raising promotions, but that the company was not sponsoring the homosexual advocacy group's Father's Day promotion. Also on June 6, PFLAG issued a press release, correctly referring to Home Depot's grant, but still claiming that Home Depot was supporting the Father's Day promotion. Later the same day, PFLAG issued another press release giving Home Depot's version of the contribution, but making no mention of the sponsorship.
According to Home Depot company officials, news of the alleged sponsorship did not excite much negative response. According to employees throughout the country, though, customer protest against the sponsorship was strong, some thinking Home Depot had entered into a permanent relationship with PFLAG.
SPITZER TAKES COVER. Doctor Robert Spitzer, a psychiatrist who announced in May at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association that, in some cases, reparative therapy can help homosexuals change their orientation, has come under fire from pro-homosexual groups. According to a LifeSite News report, Spitzer had to cancel a Monday, May 21 press conference with Parents and Friends Ministries, a support group for families with loved ones who struggle with homosexuality, because of the vitriolic tone his critics have assumed.
Anthony Falzarano of Parents and Friends Ministries released some e-mail messages Spitzer had received. One from James Minter, Associate Director of Undergraduate admission at Columbia University in New York (where Spitzer himself teaches), said, "You are an embarrassment to the University and a disgrace to science. Your 'findings' are, in a word, despicable. If you are in need of a gay-related topic on which to do some constructive research, why not address the pathological homophobia of the bigots and reactionaries who will embrace your latest pronouncements?"
Pro-homosexual groups have called Spitzer's studies unscientific. "Mental health professionals will be able to see right through this flawed study," said the executive director of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, Kirsten Kingdon. "Spitzer used participants that were hand-picked by anti-gay groups and who were already inclined to support conversion therapy programs. It's disappointing that Spitzer, having advocated for the removal of homosexuality as an illness, has now become a leading voice of homophobia."
According to a press release from the National Association for the Reparative Therapy of Homosexuals, the American Psychiatric Association had canceled a convention debate, moderated by Spitzer, between proponents and critics of reparative therapy. The American Psychiatric Association was unwilling to conduct the debate (addressing the questions, "Is reorientation therapy ethical?" "Can it be effective?") because, they said, they could not find two psychologists in opposition to reparative therapy to debate the two in favor of it.
The anti-reparative therapy side "backed down," said NARTH president Joseph Nicolosi, "because they were intimidated by the evidence and by an increasingly vocal group of ex-gay strugglers who have become disgusted with gay activism's stranglehold on the discussion within both the psychiatric and psychological associations."
Spitzer, who was the leading figure in the 1973 decision of the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality from the official diagnostic manual of mental disorders, decided to study the effectiveness of reparative therapy after listening to the testimony of demonstrators at the 1998 American Psychiatric Association convention. The demonstrators, ex-homosexuals associated with Transformation Ministries, were calling for the right for sexual-reorientation therapy.
FORMER LOS ANGELES MAYORAL CANDIDATE, Antonio Villaraigosa, calls himself a Catholic though, he admits he goes to Mass only about a dozen times a year and prefers his opinions to Church teaching when the two conflict.
Villaraigosa doesn't like to talk about his faith, though he agreed to an interview with the Los Angeles Times (May 27) on the subject of religion. "My religion is more about my spirituality and faith than adherence to rigid theological concepts," said Villaraigosa. Indeed, he noted: "I'm strongly, strongly pro-choice;" and noted that he is troubled by "some of the church's teachings on sexuality with respect to gays and lesbians." Villaraigosa said his "religion is more about my spirituality and faith than adherence to rigid theological concepts."
When they do go to Mass, Villaraigosa and his wife attend Holy Family church in Pasadena. Monsignor Clement Connolly, the pastor of Holy Family, told the Times that the Villaraigosas are "spiritual people, good people."
THE CONTROVERSY OVER Los Angeles artist Alma Lopez's depiction of Our Lady of Guadalupe as a naked young woman with only roses to cover her private parts continues. (For previous coverage, see the May 2001 Mission.) The center of the controversy, the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico, decided on Tuesday, May 22, to allow Lopez's "Our Lady" to remain on display, though it announced that the exhibition in which the image is featured would end in October 2001 instead of February 2002, as had been originally planned.
This partial concession to their demands has not silenced protestors. Other episcopal critics have joined Archbishop Michael Sheehan of Santa Fe. Auxiliary Bishop Jaime Soto of Orange, for instance, according the Los Angeles Times, encouraged Catholics to "engage this art seriously, and the issues it raises." Soto said he is "concerned" that what Lopez has done "denigrates women. Rather than promoting something new and ennobling, I think she perpetuates an almost pinup-like image, not only of la Virgen, but of women in general."
Lopez continues to defend her Guadalupe as a portrayal of a strong woman; she does not see anything sexual about it at all. Lopez told the Times that Raquel Salinas, the model for "Our Lady," had given her inspiration for the piece. Salinas, who teaches drama for Proyecto Pastoral, a Catholic Church-sponsored program for at-risk youth, performs in a one-woman play, "Heat Your Own." In this play Salinas portrays the Virgin of Guadalupe who, when surrounded by three young men all kneeling and praying for an obedient, chaste, and sexy housewife, strips to reveal what is "under the veil."
Lopez has another Guadalupe image, "Lupe and Sirena," in which she depicts the Virgin of Guadalupe with a mermaid in which the latter caresses Guadalupe with one hand while cupping her own bare breast with the other. Lopez says this piece represents the union of the sacred and secular and the Virgin embracing the "gay and lesbian community." Lopez proclaims herself a lesbian.
From her statement on her web page, it is clear that Lopez cannot fathom that the protest against her work could stem from religious motives. "This controversy must be about more than a small digital print," she writes. "Among other issues, perhaps it's about local politics? Gentrification? Lack of opportunities for local artists? Fear of Latina women's liberation? Fear of change?"
Lopez says that "even if I look really hard at 'Our Lady' and the works of many Chicana artists, I don't see what is so offensive. I see beautiful bodies that are gifts from our creator. Maybe because my mother breast-fed me as a baby, I see breasts as nurturing. Maybe because I love women, I see beauty and strength. I also see the true representation of Mary. Mary was an awesome woman and mother with a difficult task. She had a child that was not her husband's, she kept her son safe from a murderous king, she suffered her son's struggles and death, and most of all she raised her son to have love a nd compassion for everyone, including female prostitutes. I think Mary was a lot like some of our mothers."
"A TENET OF FEMINISM is that we should listen to the voices of women," said Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, in a May 29 press release. Priests for Life and the Elliot Institute have recently joined forces to take feminists at their word. Fr. Pavone asked, "If abortion supporters believe abortion is a woman's issue, shouldn't they listen to the voices of women who have had abortions?" Over the years both organizations have collected numerous testimonies by, and case studies of, women who have had abortions. An expanded number of such testimonies are now available through the Internet at the Priests for Life and Elliot Institute web sites, www.priestsforlife.org and www.afterabortion.org.
"The debate over abortion is generally focused on whether women have a right to abortion rather than on whether abortion actually benefits women," observed Dr. David Reardon, director of the Elliot Institute, an education and research group specializing in post-abortion reactions. "All too often, it is just assumed that women's lives stay the same or are improved after an abortion In fact, many if not most women's lives are damaged, if not shattered, but most suffer in silence because of their shame and grief. These women have shared details of their actual experience and innermost feelings with us hoping that we will help to make their voices heard. Nearly all of them have only a single motivation, to help other women facing the same hard choice to know the truth before they make a tragic choice which they will regret."
To contact Priests for Life, write to P.O. Box 141172, Staten Island, NY 10314, or call (718) 980-4400; web site www.priestsforlife.org. To contact the Elliot Institute, write to P.O. Box 7348, Springfield, IL 62791-7348, or call (217) 525-8202; web site: www.afterabortion.org.
STOPP (Stop Planned Parenthood) International's May 2001 Ryan Report reported that Wal-Mart's Walton Family Foundation continues to support Planned Parenthood. Among the several Planned Parenthood chapters benefiting from Wal-Mart's largesse, Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside Counties received the largest sum by far. Although not mentioned by STOPP, a visit to the foundation's web site (www.wffhome.com) reveals that, in 2000, Walton Family Foundation grants were also given to two organizations that promote population control. The May Ryan Report states that the foundation also supported Planned Parenthood in 1999 and that "although the foundation is technically a separate entity from the Wal-Mart Corporation, Walton family members started both, and the Waltons still take an active part in running Wal-Mart. S. Robson Walton is Wal-Mart's chairman of the board."
Under the category of "health," the Walton Family Foundation awarded the following grants in 2000: Planned Parenthood of Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma, $23,750; Planned Parenthood of Arkansas, Inc., $2,250; Planned Parenthood of Central & Northern Arizona, $5,000; Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside Counties, $62,000; Population Action International, $5,000; and Population Services International, $2,000. Population Action International (www.populationaction.org) is strongly pro-abortion, and Population Services International (www.psi.org) peddles contraceptives and condoms in Third World countries. STOPP urges pro-lifers to express their displeasure concerning these grants by contacting the Walton Family Foundation, P.O. Box 2030, Bentonville, AR 72712; phone (501) 464-1570; fax (501) 464-1580.