NEWS
1997 NEWS STORIES
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ROAMIN' CATHOLIC
Contents © 1997
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
NEWS
JULY/AUGUST 1997
THE APRIL 24 EDITION OF Vida Nueva, the Archdiocese's Spanish-language weekly, featured an interview with Loretta Sanchez, who narrowly beat Orange County congressman Bob Dornan in last year's congressional elections. In the interview, Sanchez talked about her political career, her family, and the importance of education. Although Cardinal Mahony was an outspoken opponent of partial birth abortion, the archdiocesan Spanish paper did not mention that Sanchez voted in favor of the late abortion procedure. nor did the interviewer mention Sanchez's support of radical feminism, homosexuality and America's coercive abortion/contraception programs in other countries, especially in Latin America. Sanchez stressed in the interview that Hispanics must vote for herself, for Javier Becerra (another abortion promoter) and other Latino representatives, whom she says have a better understanding of the Latino community's problems and needs.
THE JUNE 5 ISSUE of Vida Nueva included a response to the Sanchez promo story by Respect Life Office director Licia Nicassio. Nicassio's piece criticized Sanchez for her radical pro-abortion position, including her votes in favor of partial-birth abortion and U.S.-funded birth control and abortion campaigns in Latin America and other areas. Nicassio noted that Sanchez used Our Lady of Guadalupe banners as a symbol for her campaign, in spite of the fact that she opposes the pope and the bishops on the issue of abortion. Noting Sanchez' recent award from Planned Parenthood (the primary recipient of the international "family planning" money Sanchez voted to keep), Nicassio noted, "She was held up as the perfect model for young Hispanic women. Is this the example we want our daughters to follow?"
MORTON BARKE LOST HIS medical license in 1988 after killing eight of his abortion clients at Inglewood Women's Hospital (and after the bodies of 17,000 fetuses were found in a cargo container on his property). Abortion mill magnate Edward Allred took over Barke's business and opened one of his Family Planning Associates offices at the same location. When a "for lease" sign went up on the property on May 2, pro-lifers began investigating the reason for Allred's apparent impending move.
They discovered that Allred never purchased the property, but that Barke gave him a lease to the property. Barke sold the property to an Eli Abrams, who sold it to Arpel Corporation three months later. A few days later, Arpel sold it to the Eleanor E. Binkert Trust. Binkert was apparently unhappy with the extremely favorable terms of Allred's lease (which included no termination date, but was good as long as Allred operates "a medical practice specializing in the termination of unwanted pregnancies" at the site) and sued to have it declared invalid. Allred won the case, with the judge ruling that, since no term was given, the lease would be assumed as 99 years.
Now, apparently, the Binkert real estate investment company has found a way to get rid of Allred. Pro-lifers who called the leasing agent were told that, if a tenant can be found to rent the entire space, the clinic can be out in four months.
The pro-lifers are trying to convince nearby Daniel Freeman Hospital, with its booming maternity department, to lease the building.
ALTHOUGH SHE'S A PROTESTANT, sidewalk counselor Colette Wilson has begun making and giving out rosaries to women going to Allred's Inglewood Family Planning Associates office. Wilson stands in front of the 99th Street abortion mill, offering literature to clients about the health risks of abortion and about alternatives. She covers the clinic Tuesdays and Thursdays; the third abortion day, Saturday, is handled by a large group of pro-lifers. She notes that she gives out about 20 rosaries each day, and that most of the women are happy to receive them. She includes a copy of a "Holy Wounds Chaplet" for the women to use with the rosaries, as well as a Gospel tract.
In the May 20 issue of her newsletter, Inglewood Women's Outreach, Wilson notes, "I can't even begin to recount all the stories of what a difference this has made in my sidewalk counseling! Having a small, pretty--yet unmistakeably religious--gift for women is actually a tool for touching women's hearts." Many women have turned away from the clinic after receiving a rosary from Colette.
Volunteering at a pro-life booth at a youth faire at St. Catherine Laboure parish in Torrance, Colette signed up nine teens to help her make rosaries to hand out in front of the clinic.
THE ARCHDIOCESE OF Oklahoma City offers a traveling "parish NFP mission" program. Father Daniel McCaffrey travels around the country, accompanied by a pro-life ob/gyn physician, to present the moral and medical virtues of natural family planning. When Father McCaffrey comes to a parish, he preaches at the Sunday Masses, then conducts an afternoon workshop, with a theological presentation by himself and a medical presentation by the physician. Several of the doctors available to appear with Fr. McCaffrey speak Spanish.
At an April 20 workshop at Our Lady of Grace parish in the Diocese of San Diego, Father McCaffrey said priests should not be shy about teaching NFP. "When we, out of a false compassion, decide not to tell you the whole truth of Jesus, we do you a great injustice," he told the crowd. "It's an insult to people, like we don't think you're capable of becoming saints, of following the full teachings of Jesus." He added:"In Humanae Vitae, Paul VI told priests to preach this issue. He said the Holy Spirit in the Magisterium is the same Holy Spirit in the hearts of the people hearing it, and it resonates." Exclaimed Fr. McCaffrey, "Don't tell me this is unpreachable! Don't tell me the people won't listen! The people have not rejected Humanae Vitae; they just haven't heard it!"
Contact Fr. Daniel McCaffrey at the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, Post Office Box 32180, Oklahoma City, OK 73123; (405) 720- 9873. Fr. McCaffrey also sells a 15-minute video tape of one of his NFP homilies ($10 post paid).
IN LATE MARCH, Temecula pharmacist John Boling made the news by refusing to accept a prescription phoned into the Long's Drugs on Rancho California Road for "morning after" pills for a woman who was afraid she had conceived and wanted to cause a very early abortion. Local Planned Parenthood vice-president Mary Ellen Hamilton called his refusal "scary and disturbing." The March 28 Riverside Press Enterprise article criticized Boling, saying that he did not "have the right to intervene in a personal decision made between a woman and her doctor."
The California Pharmacists' Association issued statements in support of Boling. The California group is one of several state pharmacists' associations that have adopted "conscience clauses."
In a May 19 phone interview, Boling noted that he is a Christian (he attends a Baptist church), but is not involved in pro-life activism. He noted that the issue of a pharmacist's right to conscience will become more prominent in the future, especially once the RU 486 abortion pill goes on sale. He also noted that drug companies will soon be distributing birth control pills in special "morning after" packages--short-term, high-dosage hormones designed to make the uterus inhospitable to the developing baby before implantation.
PRO-FAMILY GROUPS are fighting AB-257, a bill introduced by California Assembly Majority Leader Antonio Villaraigosa (45th district in Los Angeles) which they say would make homosexuality a civil right. Not so, said Teresa Stark of Villaraigosa's Sacramento office. The bill, she says, would simply take protections gays already have obtained from favorable court rulings against housing and employment discrimination and make them part of the state Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA). The primary result of this, she said, would be to make it illegal for property owners to refuse to rent to homosexual couples. But according to Natalie Williams of the Capitol Research Institute in Sacramento (affiliated with evangelical Christian leader Dr. James Dobson), Villaraigosa's bill includes specific language defining homosexuality as a civil right. "This would be the first time that a group of people gained civil rights status because of their conduct, which is a choice, not something unchangeable like race." Regarding Stark's claim about case law, Williams countered, "They're taking case law--a liberal judge's interpretation of the law--and are putting that under FEHA. Then there will be proactive efforts by government bureaucrats to enforce this...perhaps even quotas." Williams says Governor Wilson's office has been silent on the bill. "He's quite pro-homosexual," noted Williams, "But we don't know if he'd go this far."
The Mission asked Teresa Stark how Villaraigosa, as a Catholic, could support such a bill. She responded that the issue "has nothing to do with being Catholic" and that those who are opposed to it are "anti-gay."
Villaraigosa has a "perfect" pro-abortion voting record, according to Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, even voting in support of partial birth abortion.
Contact Assemblyman Antonio Villaraigosa, State Capitol, Sacramento, CA 95814, telephone (916) 445-0703, fax (916) 445-0764.
ASSEMBLYMAN GEORGE HOUSE, a Republican from the 25th district in Modesto, sponsored AB-1113 which would prohibit use of tax money for advocating homosexuality and would prohibit schools from referring children to homosexual groups for "counseling" about their sexual orientation. This bill was also unable to pass out of committee, and House converted it to a two-year bill, for consideration next year.
House also sponsored AB-1490, which adds a section to the state Education Code reiterating that parents have a "fundamental right" to educate their children. Asked why this basic constitutional right needs to be repeated in an education code, Natalie Williams of the Capitol Research Institute in Sacramento said the purpose of the law would be to give parents more ammunition in fighting controversial issues in schools. "Many parents don't know they have these rights. Many schools ignore the fact that the parents are in charge of education of their children. Parents rights are mentioned in numerous places in ed. code, such as removing their children from sex education classes, but this would make a clear statement of that fact." This bill failed to pass out of the Policy Committee, but will be reintroduced next year.