NEWS
1998 NEWS STORIES
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ROAMIN' CATHOLIC
Contents © 1998
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
NEWS
DECEMBER 1998
CALIFORNIA PRO-LIFERS ANXIOUSLY AWAIT January 1999, when Governor-elect Gray Davis will assume the governorship of California. For the first time in 16 years, California has a governor who is a Democrat, and in addition, Democrats dominate the state senate and assembly. In addition, pro-abortion Democrats won several congressional races in California. Some pro-lifers are concerned with the fact that though there are now 28 pro-life Republicans in the assembly, the pro-abortion segment of the Republican party will be pushing a pro-abortion stance for the party. Pro-lifers point to the elevation of pro-abortion Republican Assemblyman Rod Pacheco as Assembly minority leader, as an example of the direction that the Republicans may take.
Jan Carol of the California Pro Life Council affirmed that the make up of the new legislature is even more pro-abortion than before. She told the Mission that it will be harder, if not impossible, to pass legislation that favors the unborn.
Some of the seats that pro-lifers lost are in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. The most notable race was for the 46th Congressional District, including parts of Santa Ana and Garden Grove. In this race, incumbent Loretta Sanchez, a supporter of abortion on demand, was challenged by pro-life candidate Bob Dornan who had held the seat for 18 years before losing to Sanchez in 1996. Prior to the November election, Sanchez came under fire from pro-lifers who were concerned about Sanchez's appearances at Catholic Churches in Orange County. Bob Cielnicky of the Alliance Against Abortion Funding, told the Mission that Sanchez produced a flyer which stated: "Congresswomen Loretta Sanchez does not support abortion. She does believe that women have the right to make their own choices about family planning." The flyer circulated throughout Sanchez's district prior to the November 3 election. This statement is contradicted by the fact that Sanchez received money from EMILY's list, a pro-abortion political action committee, and by her own voting record in congress.
In the 69th Assembly District, which includes Santa Ana, pro-life incumbent Jim Morrissey was challenged, and beaten, by pro-abortion candidate Lou Correa. During the campaign, Correa also came under fire for his pro-abortion stance, though he is a practicing Catholic and had been a lector at Saint Boniface Catholic Church in Orange County. (See "Herod Resurrected," November Mission).
The ouster of Senator Robert Hurtt in the 34th Senatorial District was a mixed bag for pro-lifers because, while he was the Republican minority leader in 1996, Hurtt demanded that the abortion issue not be discussed by Republican senators. Only Senator Dick Mountjoy, of Arcadia, stood up and spoke on behalf of the unborn, in spite of Hurtt. This year Hurtt did vote against the budget, but Ceilnicky catagorized this as "too little, too late." Ceilnicky told the Mission that, over all, the November elections turned out to be "a bad return for the unborn child."
Other less-watched races in Southern California included the unsuccessful challenge to Hilda Solis, the incumbent in the 24th Senatorial district, by relative newcomer Carl Taylor. Taylor received the endorsement of the Catholic Democrats for Christian Values, a political action committee that support pro-life Democrat candidates.
Mary Ellen MacCaffrey, of the California Right to Life Political Action Committee summed up the situation by saying that the "establishment" Republicans, by putting up too many pro-abortion candidates, had missed an opportunity to win the election. "Too many conservative, pro-life voters of different parties sat out the election because they were not given real choices among candidates," she said.
FATHER JOSEPH FESSIO, publisher of Ignatius Press, is asking Catholics to make donations to the programming arm of the Catholic Radio Network. On October 31, within moments of the financing deadline, the Catholic Radio Network came up with $4 million to complete the $50 million transaction. It is now on the air in seven of the largest radio markets in the United States, including Los Angeles, Chicago, and Philadelphia.
As Fr. Fessio explains in a letter to readers and friends of Ignatius Press, the pressing need for the network now is programming. "Because we had not been certain that we would be able to complete the transaction, we had not been able to make contracts and commitments with the people we had lined up as program hosts." Consequently, the network began on November 1 with simply music: popular Gregorian Chant CD of the monks of Los Silos-- along with selections from the popular Irish CD Faith of Our Fathers. "What an incredible experience it was to think that these beautiful chants and hymns were now being broadcast to 50 million potential listeners!" writes Fessio.
But now, says Fessio, "we must produce the programming that will reach out and make a difference in the lives of our listeners. The main focus is going to be on talk radio. The hosts will be Catholic, but topics will cover the widest possible range of issues of general interest-family, politics, economics, foreign policy, etc. But from a Catholic point of view and based on authentic Catholic teaching."
Fessio is convinced that the netwok is an "historic opportunity for the Church in America" to "have an authentic Catholic voice in the major media." To make a tax-deductible donation to the Catholic Media Productions, the non-profit programming arm of the network, "make your checks payable to Ignatius Press and indicate that the check is for 'CMP,' writes Fessio. Ignatius Press's address is: 2515 Mcallister St., San Francisco, Ca 94118.
THE POPE AND ABOUT 3,500 PARTICIPANTS, including priests, bishops and cardinals, celebrated the tenth anniversary of Ecclesia Dei, the 1988 papal letter which allowed a wider application of the indult to celebrate the Tridentine Mass. Santa Monica resident, Paul Cunningham, who heads the Los Angeles chapter of Una Voce, an international group that promotes the Tridentine Mass, attended the celebration in Rome which took place on the weekend of October 23-26. Cunningham said that among the speakers who addressed the international crowd on Saturday, October 24, were former Vatican librarian, Cardinal Alphonse Stickler; Dom Gerard Calvert, abbot of the traditional Benedictine abbey of Le Barroux in France; Bishop James Timlin of Scranton, Pennsylvania; British author Michael Davies; and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The pope himself addressed the gathering at an audience.
Bishop Timlin, said Cunningham, was warmly welcomed in Rome. In a colloquium, said Cunningham, addressing the imperfect application of Ecclesia Dei in the United States, Timlin related that "he has spoken to a lot of bishops in this country and said that he knew all of the American bishops didn't think that they were being deliberately obstructive of the wishes of the Holy Father. They had to be shown that the Tridentine Mass can be a sign of diversity, not of disruption or disunity, in the Church... Timlin said the bishops need to be talked to more."
According to Cunningham, Cardinal Ratzinger told Saturday morning conference attendees that, after Vatican II, he would have preferred a slower, more considered development of liturgical reform which would have included more lay participation, the singing of responses and the use of the vernacular but would also have retained the God-centered sacrificial nature of the Mass. The Vatican party line, said Ratzinger, has been that of all the Vatican II reforms, the liturgical reforms have been the best accepted and most fruitful. However, said the cardinal, no rational analysis could have sustained such a rosy view, with 25 million Catholics in the United States no longer attending Mass. In Britain, said Ratzinger, the situation is probably even worse; the expectation being that within 30 years Catholicism may be wiped out there.
Cunningham said that at the conference "people were saying we had the pope's word [guaranteeing the traditional Mass] but the bishops were not going along with us." In this context, Cardinal Ratzinger said "a new generation of bishops is what we need. We need new bishops. That was the most astounding thing that came out of his mouth."
During his audience, said Cunningham, Pope John Paul II told traditionalists that in order "to safeguard the treasure that Jesus conferred" upon the Church, and in order that she may be "turned towards the future, the Church has the duty to reflect constantly its bond with tradition which comes to us from Our Savior by the apostles as it is constituted along historical lines." However, the Holy Father said "this appeal is... not a one-way street; Catholics swift to abandon the heritage of the past... should reflect on the continuity of tradition. The others, attached to the old Latin rite should understand... that the Catholic Church at Vatican II undertook the reforms necessary for the good of the Church..."
"I've been told since I've returned," said Cunningham, "that [the pope] was very impressed by the number of people that were there. There were 425 young traditional priests with whom he had his picture taken." It seems traditionalists were, in turn, impressed by the pope. Young Frenchmen, who were present, vigorously shouted 'Vive le Pape! Vive le Pape!' It was deafening," said Cunningham.
"OUR PRIESTS ARE STRETCHED to the breaking point, and we cannot ask them to do even more to fill these gaps," wrote Roger Cardinal Mahony in an open letter to Catholics of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Warning about a "very serious shortage of priests," Mahony asked Catholics in the archdiocese to pray for and support priests, and to pray for more graduates from the seminary. Another option recommended by the cardinal would be having a smaller number of priest "serving a cluster of parishes." The cardinal also called for increased lay participation in the parishes. Laymen, said Mahony might need to offer their expertise in administration or counseling.
According to statistics released by the archdiocese and published in the October 24 Los Angeles Times, as of October 1997 there were 412 archdiocesan priests serving 225 parishes. These numbers do not include religious nor parishes staffed by religious. Of these archdiocesan priests, 17 pastors are 70 or older, and fifteen priests will assume pastorates, but will probably not be replaced in their prior assignments. Six priests, too, left the priesthood in the past year. Of the over 60 parishes staffed by religious priests, most will face the same shortages as most of the priests are older and there are few in the orders to replace them.
Though 14 men were ordained this year, the archdiocese does not foresee any amelioration of the decline in numbers. The archdiocese projects that the next three classes graduating from St. John's Seminary in Camarillo will yield at best five new priests from each class. By the year 2002, while the number of Catholics in the archdiocese is projected to climb from its current level of 3.5 million to 5.5 million, the number of active diocesan priests will drop to 400, a figure the Times said the archdiocese might think too optimistic.
CITING TRASH, FIRE HAZARD from burning candles, and broken glass, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles this year enforced a twenty-year rule banning the celebration of the Day of the Dead in archdiocesan cemeteries, according to an Associated Press report published in the November 1 Las Vegas Review Journal. For Hispanic Catholics, All Souls Day, November 2, is Dia de Los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. It is customary on this day to honor the dead by placing candles, trinkets, and their favorite foods on the graves of deceased relatives. Though the archdiocese now bans such activities on All Souls, it makes an exception to the prohibition for Christmas and Easter.
Archdiocesan spokesman Father Gregory Coiro told Associated Press he did not know why the largely Hispanic archdiocese continues to allow the decorating of graves on Christmas and Easter. As regards All Souls Day customs, Coiro said not all are "necessarily appropriate... Leaving food on graves is not a Christian tradition."
ON OCTOBER 11, the remains of 54 aborted babies were buried at Crestlawn Memorial Park in Riverside (see "An Act of Mercy," October Mission, and "News," November Mission). A year and a half earlier, the babies, who ranged in ages up to 6 months gestation, had been dumped in an empty lot in Chino Hills where they were discovered by two boys who happened to be playing nearby. The babies had been aborted by Dr. Albert R. Brown, M.D. at his central Los Angeles clinic, Clinica Feminia Para La Mujer.
The State Attorney General's office filed, among other charges, an accusation against Dr. Brown for his role in the illegal dumping of the aborted babies. A review of the accusation shows that Dr. Brown was "very angry that the boxes had not been disposed of in such a way that they would not be discovered." According to the accusation, the majority of the young women on whom Brown had performed the abortions were either teenaged girls or young women in their twenties. The accusation details what happened when some of the 54 Chino Hills babies had been aborted.
As one cause for discipline due to gross negligence the accusation outlines, "on or about April 17, 1996 respondent performed an elective therapeutic abortion on M.C...19 years old." Another entry is "on or about August 17, 1996, respondent performed an elective therapeutic abortion on M.C....19 years old." This is followed by "[o]n or about February 11, 1997, respondent performed an elective therapeutic abortion on M.C....20 years old" (it is presumed that this is the same young women). The report details how a section of fetal remains, from the February 11, 1998 abortion, was sent to a pathology lab, whose subsequent report showed that the tissue examined was not fetal tissue. Dr. Brown did not follow up to determine what had happened. The attorney general's office alleged this as "constituted extreme departures from the standard of care".
According to the accusation, patient W.A. had an abortion on June 8, 1996. At the time, W.A. was 15 years old. Her baby's age was listed as 24 weeks gestation. On January 8th, 1997, Brown performed another abortion on W.A. Again her baby's age was listed at 24 weeks old.
Another cause for discipline due to gross negligence stemmed from an abortion that Brown performed on 16 year old E.V. on September 1, 1996. E.V.'s baby was approximately 26 weeks of age. According to the accusation, complications arose during the abortion, which may have included perforation of the uterine wall. The laboratory results of tests performed on the patient showed that she had an elevated white blood cell count and elevated liver function. According to the accusation, Brown "did not assess or follow the patient's elevated white blood cell count or liver function."
"YES! YES! PRAISE THE LORD, HALLELUJAH!" said Troy Newman of Operation Rescue West of the U.S. Senate's decision, during the week of October 22, not to confirm the nomination of United States District Court Judge Richard Paez, one of President Clinton's nominees to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In 1989, Judge Paez, then a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge, presided over the trial of Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry and four others who had been charged with trespassing during a series of abortion clinic blockades which had been held during Holy Week of that year. Judge Paez was the first judge in Los Angeles to preside over the trials of pro-life activists who blockaded abortion clinics.
Andrew Zepeda, of the law firm Lurie and Zepeda, an attorney who assisted at the 1989 trial, told the Mission that Judge Paez was "pretty open in allowing a lot of leeway during the course of the five week trials." Zepeda pointed out how Terry, who had represented himself in propria persona had done an excellent job in convincing the jury that the blockading of the clinics was necessary, because babies were being killed. "Judge Paez virtually allowed much of the testimony for the necessity defense" said Zepeda, alluding to the legal doctrine that allows that it is permissible to violate a law that protects property when human life is at stake.
The jury acquitted all five defendants, but in subsequent trials, the legal situation changed. Afterwards, judges would not allow the word "abortion" to be used by the defendants or attorneys. Pro-life lawyer, Colette Wilson, who was jailed for contempt of court, told the Mission that some judges went so far as to issue lists of words or concepts that could not be used in court. Some of the words included "baby," "rescue," and "God."
When Judge Paez later went to the Federal bench he was not as favorable to pro-lifers. Troy Newman told the Mission that when Operation Rescue has faced Judge Paez in other cases, "the minute we see he's going to be the judge, we settle, since we know we won't have a fair trail." Newman faces new federal charges for a rescue he and others did in Washington, D.C. last January 22, the 25th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.
A COMMEMORATIVE MASS on October 11 began the 90th anniversary celebration of St. Anne's Maternity Home. Run by the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart, St. Anne's not only cares for needy mothers and children, but has expanded its services to deal with substance abuse, neglect, and poor nutrition. "In our most recent year," said Tom Owenson, President and CEO, St. Anne's has served "over 200 teenagers and their children in the residential unit, another 1,200 with case management in our outreach program, provided abstinence based pregnancy prevention education to over 30,000 young people and general information on teen age pregnancy and parenting to another 30,000.
For Christmas, St. Anne's is now collecting baby clothes, strollers, layette sets, and other items for babies and mothers. To help, call Jennifer Martsteen at St. Anne's, (213) 381-2931, ext. 230. St. Anne's is located at 155 N. Occidental Boulevard in Los Angeles.