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Contents © 2002
by Jim Holman.
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NEWS
SEPTEMBER 2002
NO NEED FOR WORDS. Sun worshipers bathing on Santa Monica's beaches recently had their rays eclipsed by an airplane towing a 30-by-100 foot banner. The banner depicted vivid images of an aborted fetus.
The aerial campaign is the latest in a string of abortion awareness campaigns organized by Gregg Cunningham, executive director of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform. Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Cunningham noted that most people are outraged by his campaigns, which include displays on college campuses and billboards pulled by trucks during rush hour. "People were saying they were denied relaxation," Cunningham told the Times. "But when Americans are killing children, they don't deserve a day at the beach."
Cunningham resorted to such strategies after being turned down by the mainstream media. "We are committed to un-falsifying abortion," he said, "and we think we can do that best visually." According to the Times, many Santa Monica beach goers said that they didn't understand the message. The banner had only an image of an aborted fetus, the words "10 Week Abortion," and a telephone number. "I think it's stupid," one beach goer was quoted as saying. "It's like, call this number and get an abortion." "That's absolutely correct," said Cunningham. "The banner was purposely designed to be ambiguous. It is value free, non-polemical. We have been flooded with calls of outrage telling us, 'how dare you be judgmental,' and [with] claims that we are 'forcing our values' on innocent by-standers. But we haven't. It 's just a picture, but the picture speaks for itself. If abortion is such a noble thing, why does the mere picture of it cause such outrage and horror?"
Cunningham plans aerial campaigns over Dodger and Angel games, local college campuses and "any time there is a large assemblage of people."
MAHONY MAKES TOP TEN. A leading religion web site recently elected Cardinal Roger Mahony as one of the nation's nine "worst bishops" in handling clergy sexual abuse cases. Beliefnet.com, which says it nearly 5 million people a month, said that despite Mahony's recent efforts for reform, he had failed to dismiss at least three priests who admitted to sexual abuse of minors. As reported in the June 26 Los Angeles Times, archdiocese spokesman Tod Tamberg complained that the web site had failed to contact the Los Angeles archdiocese to verify the information on Mahony before posting the list. He said he was only contacted several hours after the site had sent out a news release naming the nine bishops. Tamberg, however, would not comment to the Times on whether the Beliefnet.com report on Mahony was inaccurate.
DUDE, LET'S NOT EVEN GO THERE. In hopes to unseat Governor Gray Davis, Republican nominee Bill Simon, Jr. has vowed to spend the rest of his campaign seeking Latino support. In doing so, he goes after one of Davis' core constituencies. Davis, in 1998, won 77 percent of the Latino vote and still enjoys a huge margin in the Latino community.
Both Simon and Green Party candidate Peter Camejo appealed for Latino votes on July 12 at the annual banquet of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, a nonpartisan effort to get 50,000 new Latinos to the polls in California this fall. Simon told the group that he would improve the state's school system and promised to support a guest-worker program for illegal immigrants. Although noting his Catholic faith, he did not make any mention of moral issues, such as abortion. "He didn't want to go there," Simon's press office told the Mission.
NEW THREAT TO DIOCESAN COFFERS? A bill which the author, state senator John Burton of San Francisco, says will address shortcomings in current law regarding sexual molestation, was signed into law by California governor Gray Davis on July 11. The new law allows victims to sue both abusers and the organization for which they work. In an interview with the Mission, Burton's press secretary, Dave Sebeck, denied that the bill specifically targeted the Catholic Church. But in spite of his press secretary's denial, Burton has been very vocal in saying that the bill was prompted by sexual misconduct on the part of some Catholic priests.
In addition to holding organizations liable for sex abuse, the law also changes the time limit in which victims can sue their molesters. Current law does not allow victims who are over 26 years of age to sue. The new law gives victims of whatever age three years after they have discovered the abuse to sue the perpetrator and the organization responsible for them.
THE WANDERING JESUIT. In June, Michigan-based Ave Maria College announced plans to open up another campus. Though the exact location has not been decided, Florida is a strong possibility, according to Ave Maria College spokesman Robert Falls. The four-year-old liberal arts college graduated it first class this past June. When looking for a seasoned educator, Ave Maria president Nicholas Healy, Jr. said that he had asked the Society of Jesus if it would assign Father Joseph Fessio to the new campus. The Society of Jesus "graciously agreed" that they would assign Father Fessio to Ave Maria, said Healy.
Last March, Jesuit provincial Father Thomas Smolich moved Father Fessio, the founder of Ignatius Press and of the University of San Francisco's Saint Ignatius Institute, to Santa Teresita Hospital in Duarte in what some considered a punitive move. After University of San Francisco president Father Stephen Privett changed the character of the Saint Ignatius Institute, Father Fessio started Campion College in a building nearby the University of San Francisco. Father Smolich ordered Father Fessio to cease all ties to Campion College when he assigned him to work as a chaplain at Santa Teresita Hospital.
Because California Jesuit provincial Thomas Smolich was on vacation, Father Alred Manuche commented on Fessio's assignment to Ave Maria. "It's a great move," he said. "It's an appropriate use of Father Fessio's many gifts." When asked if having Fessio serve a non-Jesuit institution was in keeping with the Jesuit tradition, Manuche said that although the school was a new one, it was still a Catholic school. "The Jesuits still consider themselves Catholic," he said.
A BILL THAT PRO-LIFE GROUPS say will, if passed, harm women, especially minorities, is making its way through the California legislature. The bill (SB 1301, Sheila Kuehl -- Santa Monica) will allow non-physicians to administer abortifacient drugs such as RU 486 and the Morning After Pill, according to pro-life sources. In addition, the bill will make the right to privacy with regards to abortions and birth control a "fundamental right" which could pose legal problems for medical providers who are pro-life. Carol Hogan of the California Conference of Catholic Bishops told the Mission earlier this year that the "fundamental right" provision in the bill may lead to legal prosecution of medical personnel who for religious reasons refuse to perform or assist with abortions.
Similarly, California Right to Life is very worried about the ramifications of the bill. According to California Right to Life spokeswoman Cecilia Cody, California Right to Life "opposes SB 1301, not for its basic acceptance of abortion on demand to the day of birth, but for its acceptance of seriously reduced medical standards. With little oversight of abortion facilities presently, [the bill] would create an atmosphere where no oversight would be required. There would be no public accountability for the use of public tax dollars for abortions. The lack of reporting will also allow abortionists to target minorities more openly. Injuries and medical complications to aborted women may not be recorded or reported."
Although pro-life groups are pointing out the fact that the senate bill will disproportionately affect minority women, Latino Democrats in Sacramento, who represent minority communities back home, have given the bill wide support.
AND A LUTHERAN SHALL LEAD THEM. The June 21 Los Angeles Times asked several Inland Empire clergy whether it was fair criticism to say that the clergy sexual abuse crisis facing the Catholic Church is a result "of how the church is governed and a lack of accountability among its leaders."
Father Vince Connor of St. Matthew's Catholic Church in Corona answered that there is "not a lack of accountability for the leaders of the Catholic Church," since all clergy bishops are accountable to others, such as their bishops, superiors, the apostolic delegate or the pope himself. Even the pope, said Connor, is "answerable to those who he has chosen to counsel him." The current crisis, said Father Connor, will only improve this chain of accountability. Connor concluded that some bishops' negligence concerning priest abuses arose out of ignorance "of the psychological dynamics of compulsive sexual pathology." No Church leader, however, would "deliberately or intentionally place children in danger."
Father Wayne Maro, Catholic chaplain for the Claremont Colleges, said he thinks "an approach which is both moderate and founded on an expansive spirituality of reconciliation will be best." And he further clarified his position: "as a people of God, whether we are Christian or not, we have a leadership role and a responsibility to inspire others by walking the talk through our example. To paraphrase Gandhi, we must be about the change that we want to see happen in the world."
Father Thomas Welbers of Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church in Claremont said he thought that "the criticism is a fair one, and points to the real agenda ahead for the Catholic Church." The Catholic Church, said Welbers, is "uniquely vulnerable to a scandal of this kind taking on universal proportions" because of her "centralized authority structure and the immense weight of long-standing tradition" -- though these constitute "our greatest strength and our most vulnerable weakness." With arresting clarity, Welbers noted that the Church's challenge "will be to reform in a way that preserves essential values while at the same time brings about greater involvement of the whole Church -- laity and clergy alike -- in governance and administration."
It took Pastor David Berkedal of Faith Lutheran Church in San Dimas to provide a spiritual dimension to the question. There are few pedophile priests in the Catholic Church, said Pastor Berkedal; "the majority of cases involve homosexual encounters with post-pubescent but underage boys." To show that institutions are prone to corruption, Berkedal cited similar instances of abuse cover-up in the public schools and "the silence within families in the face of abuse." Protestant churches, said Berkedal, are "far from guiltless in any respect." Berkedal continued that "the Catholic Church is currently taking heat because celibacy is an affront to our sex-abusing culture, and authority beyond oneself is an affront to our culture of individual destiny. The devil is a coward and attacks the Church at her weakest points.... The answer is to recapture what it means to be the Church, the Body of Christ, with Christ as the head (Colossians 1:15-20), and to put our full faith and trust in Jesus who is in us and who has overcome the one who is in the world (1 John 4:4)."
MAHONY'S NEWEST SEXUAL ABUSE BOARD. In efforts to follow through on his promises to reform how the archdiocese deals with clergy sexual abuse cases, Cardinal Roger Mahony has replaced and appointed new members to the Clergy Misconduct Oversight Board. The new board will deal with all accusations of misconduct in Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, and will have its own staff to investigate allegations. At a June 20 news conference, Mahony said the panel will be able to make recommendations directly to him on whether a priest should be defrocked, placed on leave or subjected to other action. Curiously, names of the old board have never been released, but members of the new panel include: Richard Byrne, a former Los Angeles superior court presiding judge; William and Judi Arnold, whose sons were molested years ago; Dr. Kevin Jablonski, a psychologist; Sister Diane Donoghue, director of the Esperanza Housing Corporation; Dr. James McGough, a professor of clinical psychology; the Rev. Jarlath Cunnane of St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Los Angeles; and Dr. Nanette De Fuentes, a psychologist.
The last of these, De Fuentes, who has a private practice in Glendale, is not a Catholic, and claims to be herself a "survivor of clergy sexual abuse." According to an Los Angeles Times article, beginning when she was 18, De Fuentes had a four-year sexual relationship with her nondenominational Christian pastor who was 40 years her senior. She claims that at the time, she didn't understand how she got so attached and addicted to the pastor. "I was able to turn down my boyfriend sexually... but not him [the pastor]," De Fuentes told the Times. "I was a good girl!" While she felt tremendous shame and guilt about the relationship, De Fuentes said she didn't think of it as abuse until she was 30 and doing her doctoral work. A key principle she said she learned -- and that she'll be taking with her to the panel -- is that it's always the responsibility of the person in power to maintain the boundaries.