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2004 NEWS STORIES
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Contents © 2004
by Jim Holman.
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NEWS
October 2004
CARDINAL ROGER MAHONY must submit to deposition as a witness in the case of a Stockton diocese priest convicted of molesting youth, said the September 3 Los Angeles Times. In 1998, Father Oliver O'Grady was convicted of sexual molestation in a trial in which Cardinal Mahony testified. Though the current case involving O'Grady occurred before Mahony was bishop of Stockton (where he served from 1980-85), plaintiff's lawyers said the cardinal's testimony is essential. As bishop of Stockton, Mahony moved O'Grady to an outlying parish after a Stockton police investigation revealed that O'Grady had admitted to molesting a boy. Mahony, however, claims that he knew nothing of O'Grady's admission.
Mahony's deposition will be in private, and transcripts of it will perhaps not be made public. Archdiocesan attorney Donald Woods had asked Alameda County superior court judge Ronald Sabraw for the private deposition "to ensure that the procedure is not used to publicly harass, intimidate or embarrass the witness." Alleging threats made on Mahony's life, archdiocesan lawyers originally asked that the deposition be made at the cathedral compound in Los Angeles or at the offices of Mahony's counsel. But victims' lawyers objected, saying those venues would not be sufficiently neutral for their clients, who would be present for the deposition. No date or place had been set for the deposition in early September.
"DISAPPOINTED" AND "OUTRAGED" were words the September 4 Los Angeles Times used to describe reactions of advocates for alleged victims of sexual abuse by priests. What disappointed and outraged them? The fact the diocese of Orange "quietly" reached an out-of-court settlement of $500,000 with an alleged victim and the accused priest "officially" remains pastor of a parish. The diocese made the settlement late last year after a Riverside County man accused Monsignor Daniel Murray of having sexually molested him when the alleged victim was a boy over a period of six years in the 1970s. In response to the accusation, the diocese placed Monsignor Murray, who was pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish in Newport Beach, on a leave of absence in September 2003, though Murray remained officially the pastor. It is this "officially" that angers victims' advocates.
The diocese of Orange has said that, according to the Times, canon law demands an internal investigation of an accused priest before removing him entirely from ministry. In Monsignor Murray's case, there is a second accusation of sexual abuse, which the diocese dismissed in 1991 for lack of corroboration. The diocese has said it will reopen that case. Though victims ' advocates have said that in failing to disclose publicly the settlement the diocese has not kept its pledge of openness in sexual abuse cases, diocesan spokesman Father Joe Fenton denies the charge. When the suit was first filed in 2003, Fenton said announcements were made at parishes at which Murray had served. The settlement, however, was not announced, Fenton said, in accordance with the alleged victim's wishes. But Roland Bainer of Corona, the alleged victim's attorney, told the Times, "a more accurate statement is that there was a common agreement that it wouldn't benefit either side at that time."
SCHWARZENEGGER WEIGHED IN in support of a California law that would grant most marriage benefits to domestic partnerships, said an August 25 Associated Press report. The law, passed by the legislature and signed by then-Governor Gray Davis last year, is set to go into effect January 1. Previous state legislation already gave domestic partners a host of spousal benefits -- including the right to adopt a partner's child. The latest legislation gives them the right to file joint income taxes and to petition courts for alimony and child support upon "divorce." But in a hearing before Sacramento superior court judge Loren McMasters, two sets of plaintiffs argued that the proposed law violates Proposition 22, the voter-approved measure that defined marriage as between a man and a woman. Plaintiffs' lawyers argued that the intent of Proposition 22 was to confer on unions of men and women alone, not just the name "marriage," but everything that pertains to it. Plaintiffs' attorney Robert Tyler argued that the proponents of the domestic partnership law should present it as a voter initiative to see if the people really wanted domestic partners to have the benefits of marriage without the name.
But Deputy Attorney General Kathy Lynch, arguing on behalf of Governor Schwarzenegger, said that if those who formulated Proposition 22 wanted it "to limit or prevent the Legislature from giving rights to other parties, they should have done so. When the people vote on an initiative, they only get to vote on what's in front of them, so you can't say they were voting on domestic partnerships here." But Scott Emblidge, a lawyer representing Secretary of State Kevin Shelley, went further. The authors of Proposition 22, he said, made it ambiguous enough to hide its true scope. "There's a difference between what the voter's could have been told and what they were told," said Emblidge -- thus, perhaps, tacitly admitting that Proposition 22 does forbid domestic partners the benefits of marriage as well as the name.
On September 8, Judge McMaster ruled that the California domestic partnership law was not in conflict with Proposition 22. Plaintiffs said they would appeal McMaster's decision.
CONSERVATIVES ON THE EAST COAST eagerly awaited Governor Schwarzenneger at the Republican national convention in New York City, said the August 31 Los Angeles Times. Why? Because, despite Arnold's support for abortion and gun control, and tolerance of homosexual marriage, Eastern conservatives think him their ideological champion. It seems they don't know how truly "moderate" the California governor is.
But it was precisely to give the convention a moderate face that Republicans had Schwarzenegger address the convention at which they would nominate George W. Bush for president. According to the Times, Schwarzenegger's aides said he would address the convention on why he was a Republican. In a similar address to the California Republican party in September 2003, Schwarzenegger said in his youth he recalled seeing Soviet tanks in his native Austria. "I'm a conservative," Schwarzenegger declared, "because I believe communism is evil and free enterprise is good."
The Times reported that the $350,000 price tag for Schwarzenegger's three day visit to New York "was being paid by corporations, including drug companies who oppose healthcare related bills that soon will land on his desk."
THE CALIFORNIA STATE ASSEMBLY has passed a law that gives new protections to families being investigated by Child Protective Services, said an August 30 Home School Legal Defense press release. The law, signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, requires that "a representative of a child protective services agency performing an investigation ... of suspected child abuse or neglect ... shall advise the individual of the complaints or allegations against him or her...." Social workers, too, says the law, must be trained that they can only enter homes if imminent harm is likely, if a court issues a warrant, or if the workers have the parents' permission. The state law was passed in response to a federal law that sets such provisions as a condition for a state to receive federal funding. Home School Legal Defense, which helped formulate the federal law, worked behind the scenes with Family Protection Ministries and Rancho Cucamonga assemblyman Bob Dutton on the state legislation, officially sponsored by the California Family Council. The state law had support from other bipartisan organizations.
A BILL THAT WOULD CHANGE the definition of "hate crimes" to include "gender" passed the state assembly's appropriations committee in August, said an e-mail alert sent out by the American Family Association. Sheila Kuehl's (D-Los Angeles) SB 1234 would define gender in state law as a "person's gender identity and gender related appearance and behavior whether or not stereotypically associated with the person's assigned sex at birth." It would thus include homosexuals, trans- and bi-sexuals, and transvestites. The bill would penalize a person or persons who, "whether or not acting under color of law, interferes by threats, intimidation, or coercion," or who "attempts to interfere by threats, intimidation, or coercion, with the exercise or enjoyment by any individual or individuals of rights secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or of the rights secured by the Constitution or laws of this state." According to the American Family Association, "under SB 1234, individuals could claim that someone expressing their sincerely held beliefs presents an 'intimidating' threat, punishable under the law. Even various forms of peaceful conduct, such as prayer vigils outside abortion clinics, could potentially be considered a 'threat of force.'"
The measure passed both the house and senate and was sent to the governor on August 30.
DEMOCRATS may introduce a same-sex marriage bill into the state assembly next year, said the August 14 Los Angeles Times. The same day as the hug-in at the San Francisco city hall, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles) said homosexual marriage is "a modern-day civil rights issue;" a same-sex marriage bill, he said, "is controversial ... [but] I suspect it will go to the governor's desk."
Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) last spring pulled a same-sex marriage bill, the California License Nondiscrimination Act, from the Assembly, because, he said, he did not have enough votes. The bill would have removed the terms "male" and "female," "man" and "woman" from the California Family Code, replacing them with "person" and "persons." The new language would apply to all but one section of the code (section 308.5), which deals with marriages performed out of state, where language from Proposition 22, the initiative that defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman, appears. Leno says he will reintroduce the bill next legislative session. Though polls show most Californians do not support same-sex marriage, Leno is confident that this will change. Homosexual couples "married" in San Francisco have put a human face on the issue. "Time is on our side," Leno said. "With every month, public support grows."
WOULD GOVERNOR ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER sign or veto a same-sex marriage bill? According to the August 14 Times, the answer is uncertain. In June of this year, asked about the issue, Schwarzenegger said, "I don't care one way or the other." In a radio interview on August 13, the governor said nothing about how he would deal with same-sex legislation. Rather, Arnold reflected: "I think right now our law says that we don't accept same-sex marriage.... If the people change their minds, then so be it. If the courts change their mind, then so be it. Then we will follow those laws."
INSISTING ON CONDOM USE among pornographic performers would have devastating effects on the pornographic industry, say industry spokesmen. But an outbreak of H.I.V. in the porn world last March has West Hollywood Democratic assemblyman Paul Koretz worried. According to the August 23 Los Angeles Times, Koretz wrote a letter to 185 producers and publishers of pornography, warning them that unless sex performers started to protect themselves (with condoms, for instance), the state legislature would "exercise its authority to mandate more stringent actions."
The problem is, condoms aren't sexy. "In any sexual interaction where condoms are used, consumers tend to drift from that," Graham Travis of Elegant Angel Video told the Times. Travis said consumers don't like to see condoms, because, in porn, they want to see "something that's as real and intimate as possible." In fact, condom use in porn may have an ill effect on the economy. "A lot of people would go out of business," said Travis.
TWO CHURCHES, Saint James in Newport Beach and All Saints' in Long Beach, have separated themselves from the Episcopal diocese of Los Angeles, said August 19 and 23 reports in the Daily Pilot and the Los Angeles Times. The parishes say they have withdrawn from the jurisdiction of Episcopalian bishop, the Rt. Rev. J. Jon Bruno, over the Episcopal Church's doctrinal deviations -- especially, its ambiguity on the necessity of explicitly confessing Christ for salvation. All Saints', in particular, objected to the Episcopalian acceptance of homosexuality, exemplified in the consecration of the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, an active homosexual, as bishop of New Hampshire last year. The two churches will remain in the worldwide Anglican community, with St. James coming under the jurisdiction of Bishop Evans Kisekka of the Anglican diocese of Luwero in Uganda.
Though Bishop Bruno has said the churches cannot break away, since they are "sworn to obedience to the Episcopal Church," there is little he can do about the schism, since the churches have title to their property. Then there is the higher obedience, which Father Praveen Bunyan, St. James' rector, invoked. "Our loyalties as Christians primarily lie with God and Jesus Christ, and not a particular institution," Praveen told the Times. "When an institution no longer represents our understanding of God's word and his will, if it does not uphold the most basic, important tenets -- the centrality of Jesus Christ and the authority of the word of God -- we must have the courage and faith to stand by our convictions. That's what St. James as a church and the clergy here decided to do." But in a letter to all Episcopal parishes in the diocese of Los Angeles, Bishop Bruno said the "institution" has remained faithful. "I want you to know as your bishop that I continue to uphold the vows I made on the day of my consecration 'to guard the faith, unity and discipline of the church,'" Bruno wrote. "I believe today as I did when I was first ordained that the Scriptures contain all things necessary to salvation. Yet I will not let the Holy Scriptures be compromised by those who seek to make their literalist and simplistic interpretation the only legitimate one."
THE PROBLEM OF INTERPRETATION. A commentator in the August 21 Daily Pilot, Timothy Titus, took the "broad church" line in looking at the schism in the Episcopal diocese of Los Angeles. Though Titus suspects that St. James' decision was motivated more by the consecration of a homosexual bishop, he says he takes the church at its word and asks how Jesus' being the "way, the truth, and the life" translates into practice. St. James' strict interpretation, that only Christians can attain salvation, "could be right," says Titus. "But how do they know?" In the United States, different religions coexist, "and the Gospels instruct Christians not to judge," says Titus. "What do we do with those who disagree? To denigrate them is counterproductive; it only makes nonbelievers more distrustful of the faith, encourages anger and can stimulate violence. Witness the Middle East -- different religions, intolerant actions, violence on both sides." To judge members of other religions, says Titus, "is playing God."
Then there is the problem of interpretation of scripture. "All Christians ignore or interpret some part of the Bible," says Titus -- even St. James' church. "Once you have interpreted one thing as unnecessary, especially something explicitly stated in the Gospels, you have opened the door to rival interpretations," says Titus. "Therefore, you must tolerate them." The Episcopal Church, he says, does just that; Bishop Bruno calls it a "roomy house." "Someone guards the door to the heaven," writes Titus. "The argument is over who. But check your Bible; Jesus was pretty unkind to those who claimed this honor."
WAL-MART WILL FIND IT more difficult to open its superstores in Los Angeles, said an August 13 Tidings story. On August 10, the Los Angeles city council in a 12-1 vote approved an ordinance that would require Wal-Mart and other superstores to pay for an analysis of the effect of their operations on the local economy before they could receive approval to build their superstores. The council vote was in response to a study, conducted between March 2001 and March 2002, in which researchers Arindrajit Dube, Ph.D, and Ken Jacobs found that Wal-Mart's low wage employment policies annually cost California taxpayers about $84 million. Wal-Mart workers, said the study, rely on the state for about $32 million a year in health services and $54 million a year for such things as school lunches, subsidized housing, and food stamps. Dube, who works for Berkeley's Institute for Industrial Relations, and Jacobs, who is with Berkeley's Center for Labor Research, wrote, "when workers do not earn enough to support themselves and their families through their own jobs, they rely on public safety net programs to make ends meet."
The grocery strike last fall and early this year was in response to Vons/Pavillion's, Ralphs', and Albertstons' attempts to lower employee benefits for fear of competition with Wal-Mart, which has said it wants build 40 supercenters in California. The Dube/Jacobs study noted that if other retailers lowered wages and benefits to the level of Wal-Mart's, the cost of public assistance programs in California would rise by $410 million a year.
A BILL LIKE THE LOS ANGELES ORDINANCE was passed by the California state legislature, said the August 29 Los Angeles Times. Senator Richard Alarcon (D-Sylmar) sponsored a bill, SB 1056, that would require local governments to assess the impact on the local economy of stores of more than 130,000 square that devoted at least 10 percent of their sales to groceries. The California Hispanic Professionals Assn., the AFL-CIO, the Teamsters union, and the Sierra Club of California, among others, supported the bill. Opponents included Associated Builders and Contractors of California, the League of California Cities, the California Chamber of Commerce, Costco Wholesale, and Wal-Mart. The bill was submitted to Governor Schwarzenegger, who had 30 days to sign or veto it. As of early September, the governor had taken no position on the bill.
WAL-MART, though, did score a victory, when the Rosemead city council voted unanimously to allow the retail behemoth to build one of its superstores, said the September 9 Los Angeles Times. Rosemead lies only 12 miles east of Los Angeles. The city council cited the $640,000 in sales tax revenue Wal-Mart would bring into the city coffers; the supercenter, said a city-sponsored study, could also create 325 to 500 jobs. Opponents of the decision said they would try to stop it in court in order that voters might have an opportunity to decide whether or not they want a Wal-Mart in their city.
JUNIPERO SERRA HIGH SCHOOL in San Juan Capistrano hit another snag in its attempt to develop land on the north side of the city, said the August 14 Los Angeles Times. For over a year, the private charter school run by Catholic laymen has fought for approval for a complex it wants to build across the street from the school's main campus. First, some members of the Juaneño Indian tribe fought construction on the property, which they claim has an Indian burial ground and is the site for Putiidhem, a 15th century Indian village. In March 2003, the San Juan Capistrano city council approved the school's plans for the site and in May of that year voted to change the site's zoning, bypassing public and environmental review, so the school could build a sports complex there. Though a superior court judge voided the March decision, he also said that Indian opponents of the school's plans did not have the legal standing to challenge the city and the school in court. The Juaneños opposing the school's plans want the land preserved as a cultural and historical spot. The high school says it will preserve the burial site and erect monuments to the Juaneño tribe.
But in early August, the San Juan Capitstrano planning commission in a 3-2 vote rejected the school's plans to build a performing arts center on the site alongside the sports fields, tennis courts, Olympic-size swimming pool, and gymnasium. The performing arts center, said the commission, was far too big and would cause parking and traffic problems. The Juaneños opposing the project, who have so far filed two lawsuits to stop it, saw the planning commission vote as a small victory.
But, according to the September 2 Times, the San Juan Capistrano city council on August 31 ignored its planning commission and voted 4-1 to approve the school's project. Diane Bathgate, the lone council member who voted against the project, said it was "out of scale and not compatible with the [rural] character of the northwest area," as well as serving "primarily ... outside residents." A spokesman for the Juaneño faction which opposes the project said, "we have 30 days [to legally challenge], so I still feel we'll file a lawsuit. It's such a core issue to us. These are our family's graves."
THE STATE ASSEMBLY PASSED another bill granting inheritance rights to children conceived using frozen embryos or sperm, said the August 29 Los Angeles Times. The bill, sponsored by Assemblyman Tom Harmon (R-Huntington Beach), recognizes the rights of children so conceived if their parents gave permission for the use of the embryos or sperm in conception and if the conception occurred within one year after the parents died. The law, however, does not apply to human clones. As of late August, the bill awaited the governor's signature.
THE LOS ANGELES ARCHIDIOCESAN Office of Detention Ministry has changed its name to the Office of Restorative Justice, said an August 6 Tidings article. The name change reflects the office's endeavor to minister to both victims and the perpetrator's of crime, said the Tidings. Restorative justice seeks to go beyond the adversarial system of the courts to bring healing to both victims and those who commit crimes. Offenders must make restitution for their crimes and show due repentance. Victims and offenders, through a mediator, work to come to an agreement on how restitution should be made.
The archdiocesan office has established a restorative justice pilot program through the Pasadena courts, in which judges and the district attorney will refer cases for mediation. The archdiocese's Victim Offender Reconciliation Program trains mediators for the Pasadena program. The program will deal only with minor crimes; if mediation is successful there, the archdiocesan office hopes it can be used with more violent crimes, as well.
Last year, archdiocesan budget cuts reduced the detention ministry's staff from 24 full-time ministers to only twelve, noted the August 6 Tidings. Among those dismissed were chaplains at some detention facilities as well as other staff. Though funding has allowed the office to restore five positions, it seeks further funding to fully restore the department. A development committee is currently trying to raise $500,000 for this purpose.
TWO HOMEBOY INDUSTRIES workers were gunned down in June and August, said an August 6 Ventura County Star story. The Los Angeles-based Homeboy Industries, run by Catholic priest Father Gregory Boyle, helps former gang members transition out of the gang world through counseling and jobs. According to the Star, "a Homeboy shirt once was likened to a Red Cross armband in a war zone." Now no more, it seems. Rafael Gomez, 35, was shot and killed on the morning of June 24 while he was removing graffiti. On August 3, Arturo Casas, 25, was shot numerous times while sitting in a Homeboy truck at a stoplight. The motives behind the killings were unclear as of early August.
According to the Star, though violent crime in Los Angeles is down 15 percent, gang-related murders have risen more than 20 percent. The upsurge may result from the recent release from prison of gang leaders, who want to settle old scores and who may be inciting power struggles.
OF MORE CONCERN THAN ATHEISM to Oblate of Immaculate Mary Father Ron Rolheiser are the "ways we try to think of God." In his column, appearing in the August 20 Tidings, the newspaper for the archdiocese of Los Angeles, Rolheiser said that "on the one hand," there is a "creeping fundamentalism" that takes the Bible "as a history book" and the "language surrounding God "at face value." On the other hand, there is a tendency to make God "just a symbol, a myth, not real in the normal sense." Fundamentalism appeals to those "who are tired of relativism wherein everything can mean anything," while God as symbol appeals to those "who, rightly, have grasped that the human mind and imagination cannot wrap themselves around the idea of God in a literal way."
But though God is a symbol, he is also "reality," said Rolheiser. God is ineffable, and all our language about Him is "necessarily metaphor, analogy, and is more inaccurate than accurate." "God is a person in that, at some deep place, there is a divine mind, heart and personality that's meant to be personally related to and is meant to be the object of worship, love, affection and appeal."
But what is true about God is also true, it seems for Rolheiser, about the resurrection of Christ. Rolheiser asks how Jesus' resurrection -- a "religious myth" -- could so change the world. It did so, he says, because finally it was more than a symbol. But how much more? The column does not say, except to allow that the resurrection is, at least, one of the manifestations of God. "The great religions of the world have their staying power," writes Rolheiser, "because, at least at a few key times, a God who is very real, alive and personal, manifested a real, physical, tangible presence within actual history."
LONG BEACH'S "GAY GHETTO" is "a contrast to West Hollywood's vibrant gay scene, which is decidedly more glitzy and nightlife-oriented," said an August 26 Los Angeles Times story. The area of a few blocks around Broadway Avenue, stretching from Alamitos Avenue to just beyond Redondo Avenue, has become "one of Southern California's largest gay districts, complete with bars, stores, a bookstore and cafes," said the Times.
Long Beach, it turns out, is quite a "gay"-friendly city. Its homosexual population has grown significantly over the past few years, William "Trip" Oldfield, who directs the Gay and Lebian Center of Greater Long Beach, told the Times. It was also one of the first cities in California to pass a sexual orientation non-discrimination law; and, eight years ago, it was the first California city to allow homosexuals to register as domestic partners.
But, said the Times, Long Beach has this further distinction. It is "becoming known as a place for gay couples to buy houses and raise families." According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 31 percent of same-sex couples in Long Beach have children.
GENDER EQUALITY EXACERBATES fertility decline, said a United Nations official, according to a July 22 C-FAM report. "A growing number of countries view their low birth rates with the resulting population decline and aging to be a serious crisis, jeopardizing the basic foundations of the nation and threatening its survival," Dr. Joseph Chamie, director of the population division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, said last spring. "Economic growth and vitality, defense, and pensions and health care for the elderly, for example, are all areas of major concern."
Chamie, speaking at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America, said that one-third of countries now have "below replacement" fertility levels. The push for gender equality, he said, is partly to blame for this. "While many governments, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations and individuals may strongly support gender equality at work and in the home as a fundamental principle and desirable goal," said Chamie, "it is not at all evident how having men and women participate equally in employment, parenting and household responsibilities will raise low levels of fertility. On the contrary, the equal participation of men and women in the labor force, child rearing and housework points precisely in the opposite direction, i.e., below replacement fertility. And this is in fact precisely what is being observed today in an increasing number of countries."