NEWS
2002 NEWS STORIES
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ROAMIN' CATHOLIC
Contents © 2002
by Jim Holman.
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NEWS
FEBRUARY 2002
"THIS WAS ONE OF THE MOST MEMORABLE CHRISTMASES of my ministry," said Cardinal Roger Mahony of what the Tidings called his "whirlwind Christmas tour of U.S. military bases in Japan." In Okinawa, Cardinal Mahony celebrated Christmas Eve Mass for Air Force personnel at Kadena Air Force Base, Christmas midnight Mass at Camp Kinser, and Christmas day Masses at four other installations. On St. Stephen's day (December 26) Mahony said Mass at Yokosuka Naval Base in Tokyo, as well as another Mass later that afternoon. The cardinal returned to Los Angeles on December 29.
Mahony decided to go to Japan after the national office for Catholic military services refused his request to celebrate Christmas with the troops in Afghanistan. Bishop John Caising of the military archdiocese told the Los Angeles Times that he refused Mahony's request because, he said, military protocol would demand the cardinal be treated like a prince of the Church. Mahony, said Caising, would need an around-the-clock escort of officers and the military would try to provide him the very best accommodations, even if the cardinal requested more humble quartering. "There are not Marriott hotels in Afghanistan," said Caising. Besides, "to pop into Kandahar by helicopter would have made a good photo opportunity, but he could have got himself shot."
Mahony spoke about his Afghanistan plans, and the subsequent refusal, on December 19 after blessing the 3,000-pound stainless steel cross that was raised that day to the top of the new cathedral. The Von der Ahe family, of Vons supermarket fame, who had donated $3 million for the bell tower, joined Mahony (wearing a red hard hat) for the cross blessing.
In commenting on the war, the cardinal was hawkish. He enunciated his full support for the war in Afghanistan -- indeed, he said, this is why he wanted to go to visit the troops there, to assure them of the "support of people back home -- that they are deeply loved." The war, said Mahony, fell "well within the parameters of just war," and the military has tried assiduously to avoid civilian casualties. "I think we've been very restrained in trying to stop terrorism and its perpetrators," said Mahony. "Unfortunately, there is always some type of collateral damage, but this has been minimal." According to Pax Christi, a Catholic peace group, civilian casualties by December exceeded 3,700, though the Times of London said more conservative estimates place civilian deaths at about 1,000.
FOLLOWING THE LEAD OF THE DIOCESE OF ORANGE, the archdiocese of Los Angeles on December 5 issued a written apology to Marcus Ryan DiMaria, 28, who had accused Monsignor Michael Harris, known as "Father Hollywood," of molesting him ten years ago when DiMaria was a student at Santa Margarita Catholic High School in Rancho Santa Margarita. Four other men also accused Monsignor Harris of molestation. Though the alleged molestations occurred in the diocese of Orange, the archdiocese was implicated in the lawsuit because one of its priests was said to have failed to follow up on allegations that Monsignor Harris molested a student in the late 70s. The dioceses, last August, settled out of court with DiMaria for $5.2 million. (See "News," October 2001 Mission and "Inflamatory and Outrageous," January 2002 Mission.)
A written apology was part of the court settlement agreed upon by both dioceses. Thought the diocese of Orange had already issued a written apology, the archdiocese insisted that the oral apologies they had given were sufficient. According to the December 6, 2001 Los Angeles Times, archdiocesan attorney John P. McNichols in such an oral apology stated that "the archdiocese abhors sexual misconduct." Such abuse "is a profound contradiction of the teaching and witness of Jesus Christ. On behalf of the archdiocese, I apologize for what has happened to [DiMaria]. It never should have happened." DiMaria's lawyer, however, said such an oral apology was not enough. Though the archdiocese balked that a written apology would open them up to a libel lawsuit on the part of Monsignor Harris (who has denied the allegations), church lawyers agreed to the plaintiff's demands. The archdiocese issued the written apology, though they refused to make it public.
Archdiocesan spokesman Tod Tamberg told the Times that the archdiocese could have more easily issued the written apology if the plaintiff's lawyer had not settled with Monsignor Harris after the Vatican removed him from the priesthood. The agreement reached with Harris, said Tamberg, "let him off scot-free -- no admission of guilt, no apology, no trial." At the time of the settlement, Harris had said that the archdiocese had settled out of court for "their own business reasons." According to The Wanderer, an attorney representing the alleged victims, claimed that the the case was settled out of court to prevent former Santa Rosa bishop Patrick Ziemann from testifying. Ziemann, who resigned as bishop of Santa Rosa after admitting sexual misconduct with a young Latin American man whom he had imported and ordained, was Monsignor Harris' spiritual director.
POPE JOHN PAUL II, last May, issued motu proprio (by his own authority) new rules governing cases of sexual abuse of minors by priests. A summary of the new rules were sent to bishops and heads of religious orders last June, but news of the rules was released by Catholic News Service on December 4. So far the rules themselves have not been released even to bishops, who have only received the summary, written by Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The rules state the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome final authority in judging sexual abuse cases. The Congregation will be able to decide whether a priest abuse case will be tried by a local tribunal or by the congregation itself in Rome. All tribunals will be staffed only by priests and their procedures will be secret. A statute of limitations bars all accusations made more than ten years after an alleged victim's eighteenth birthday. The court's highest possible penalty is expulsion from the priesthood.
The new rules look to balance the claims of both alleged victims and accused priests. On the one hand, wrote Cardinal Ratzinger, if a bishop hears "even a hint" of pedophilia, "he must open an investigation and inform the Congregation." This is to prevent pedophilia cases from being swept under the carpet. On the other hand, to protect accused priests from summary defrocking by their bishops, the Congregation can decide to hear the case in Rome. Said a canon lawyer to the National Catholic Reporter, "The Congregation for the Clergy has received numerous complaints from priests who have been systematically denied procedural rights after an accusation, even one they have denied."
A FORMER INMATE OF THE VENTURA COUNTY JAIL is suing Ventura County Sheriff Bob Brooks, Ventura County and California Forensic Medical Group, Inc., a private company that provides medical care to inmates, according to a December 22 Los Angeles Times report. Cynthia Torres filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court in Los Angeles alleging that the county denied her "right" to abortion because she could not pay the fee for transportation to an abortion facility where she had made an appointment. Torres claims that she could not have the abortion upon her release in January 2001 because she was already six months pregnant -- too far along for a safe abortion. Her child was born the following May.
Ken Kipp, the sheriff's chief deputy, however, denied Torres' charges. Several inmates have been able to obtain abortions while in prison, he assured the Times. Kipp said the county's policy is to allow elective procedures off-site, provided the inmates can pay the medical bills and the cost of a deputy to escort them. For those who are poor, the medical group provides care at no cost. Torres' attorney, though, said the county did not tell his client that she could obtain a free abortion. As she was a drug user, Torres, said her lawyer, did not want to bring her child to term. As it turns out, the child, the lawsuit alleges, has medical problems.
OFFICIALS AT THE FAMILY PLANNING MEDICAL CENTER, an abortuary in West Covina, welcomed a state law that makes it a crime to harass or intimidate anyone entering an abortion clinic, according to a January 3, 2002 San Gabriel Valley Tribune report. The law, authored by Senator Deborah Ortiz of Sacramento and signed by Governor Gray Davis in October, declares a misdemeanor any act that "by force, threat of force, or physical obstruction that is a crime of violence, intentionally injures, intimidates, interferes with, or attempts to injure, intimidate, or interfere with" anyone seeking "reproductive health services" or any one providing such "services." Mauricio D'Tejeda, spokesman for the abortuary, told the Tribune, that the Ortiz law is "wonderful" if "they enforce it." While in El Monte, the Family Planning Medical Center had been picketed by pro-life activists. Finally the clinic moved to another office building in West Covina.
Jan Carroll of the California Pro Life Council told the Tribune that the state has "set up in this law a profiling system of anti-abortion activists that includes different penalties. that don't apply to others. We vigorously opposed this and feel it is a violation of the Equal Protection Amendment and the First Amendment rights of [pro-life] people." A first-time commission of the non-violent misdemeanor under the new law earns a prison sentence of up to six months and a fine of $2,000. Second offenses increase the fine to $5,000.
AFTER YEARS OF WORK AND DEBATE, the new English Sacramentary, it appears, is dead. The Sacramentary (book of prayers for Mass), a revision of the 1974 Missale Romanum, done by the International Commission for English in the Liturgy (ICEL), contained not only a translation and revision of about 2,000 Latin texts, but added about 300 new prayers in English. Both the new prayers and the non-literal translations from the Latin utilized "inclusive language" that avoided gender-specific language. The Sacramentary also introduced simplified introductory rites. From 1992 to 1997, the United States bishops approved the different parts of the new Sacramentary. In 1997, the entire text was submitted to the Vatican for approval.
The Vatican's publication, last year, of Liturgiam authenticam, which established new norms for the translation of liturgical texts, nixed the chances for approval of ICEL's Sacramentary. Though the Holy See has made no formal statement rejecting the Sacramentary, Father James Moroney, chief of staff of the United States bishops liturgy committee, told Catholic News Service on November 21 that, because of Liturgiam authenticam it "would be a waste of printers' ink" to put out the Sacramentary. ICEL will have to work out a new translation of the Missale Romanum more in keeping with the new norms.
NOT JUST THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, now even the alternative press is interested in Cardinal Mahony. The December 20-26 issue of the New Times Los Angeles carried an article by Ron Russell, entitled "Taj Mahony," purporting to tell how Cardinal Mahony "threatened, hoodwinked and strong-armed to get a lavish new cathedral built in L.A. The result is a colossal monument to his ego." This article forms the first part of two articles called "The Cardinal's Empire." The second, published a week later, claims to tell that in a "secret deal with funeral giant Stewart Enterprises" Cardinal Mahony "turned L.A.'s Roman Catholic cemeteries into a cash cow," though "it is the faithful who're getting milked."
In "Taj Mahony," Russell states that, though the archdiocese claims that the cathedral project is being financed solely by private funding, the archdiocese "has kept a tight lid on who some of the donors are and about how much they have pledged, including the identities of at least two corporations that have remained anonymous." This is significant to Russell, since "speculation" has it "that one of the cathedral's biggest benefactors may be Stewart Enterprises, Inc., the world's third largest funeral-service company." The archdiocese has given Stewart Enterprises (the subject of the second article, "Unholy Alliance") exclusive right to build mausoleums in Catholic cemeteries throughout the archdiocese. In return, says the New Times, Stewart is leasing ground beneath the mortuaries for 40 years. According to the New Times, a "funeral industry source" says "the intriguing aspect is that there's no outlay involved for the archdiocese. The money [from Stewart] is theirs to spend on anything they see fit."
Is the archdiocese using the money received from Stewart to build the new, $200 million cathedral downtown? Is Stewart one of the "anonymous" contributors? When asked this, archdiocesan spokesman Tod Tamberg said neither yes or no. "You want me to out an anonymous corporation?" said Tamberg to the New Times. "I'm not going to play that game. The sea is full of anonymous contributors." Tamberg further said that the great sums spent on the cathedral do not impact the archdiocese's spending on charity. Still, when the archdiocese cites costs in closing Catholic schools (as when it announced in December the closing of Our Lady Queen of Angels Academy in Compton), some (including some of Mahony's priests) wonder, said the New Times, whether the archdiocese is observing just priorities.
In commenting on Mahony himself, Russell notes that, since becoming archbishop of Los Angeles, the cardinal has become increasingly more conservative. Though, as a monsignor and as bishop of Stockton, Mahony championed the rights of farm workers, as archbishop in the early 90s he "was widely perceived as having scuttled an effort by poor, mostly immigrant Latino Catholic cemetery workers to organize a labor union." Currently, said Russell, the company that handles the archdiocese's cemetery-plot sales "employs people on an 'at will' basis, meaning they may be terminated for any reason, at any time."
Mahony, said Russell, has cultivated friends in high places -- friends, who include media mogul Rupert Murdoch and former Los Angeles mayor Richard Riordan, now a pro-abortion Republican candidate for governor. Russell also makes this somewhat surprising statement about the cardinal: "Mahony," he says, "has earned a reputation as someone who rigidly toes the line on papal issues."
One can read the articles at the New Times website: newtimesla.com.
LITURGIAM AUTHENTICAM served as focus of discussion during the November 12-15 meeting of the United States bishops in Washington, D.C. According to the December-January Adoremus Bulletin, four bishop presenters "commented on implications of the instruction from the point of view of theology, liturgy, scripture and ecumenism." As chairman of the bishops' Committee on Ecumenical and Religious Affairs, Bishop Tod Brown of Orange addressed the ecumenical aspects of the instruction.
Brown noted that collaboration with other, non-Catholic churches in "a common lectionary and liturgical texts" has accomplished much over the last 30 years." The bishops, said Brown, "may wish to talk about how our catechesis and priestly formation can situate these developments in the Latin Church within wider Catholic and ecumenical commitments, how to help our ecumenical work on translation, a common lectionary and common liturgical texts be understood and appreciated by our people, how both translation and catechesis can enhance an accurate understanding of our relationship with the Jewish people, and how, in the light of the priority of translation from the Latin, our common translation and liturgical ecumenical work can deepen." Brown said it was important "to remember that in all of our liturgical and biblical renewal, the common faith we share with fellow Christians and the progress that has been made with churches and ecclesial communities in dialogue over sacraments, biblical and authority issues must remain before our people."
During the November meeting, the bishops received copies of an October 25 letter by Cardinal Jorge Arturo Medina Estévez, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. Estévez wrote that his congregation approved "in principle" adaptations to the General Instruction of the Roman Missal suggested by the United States bishops at their June 2001 meeting. Among these adaptations was permission for United States Catholics to kneel throughout the Eucharistic Prayer. In June, some bishops, including Cardinal Roger Mahony, had suggested that the Church in the United States adopt the "general norm" of standing for the Eucharistic Prayer and kneeling for the consecration. This would emphasize, said Mahony, the unity of the United States with the rest of the Church, which follows the general norm. The bishops, however, rejected Mahony's suggestion.
The congregation, it seems, has found no problem with the United States bishops' revision of the General Instruction's norm that "the faithful are not permitted to take up the consecrated Bread or the sacred Chalice themselves, and still less hand them to one another." The U.S. bishops' revision of this norm does away with this clause which, in effect, forbids communion in the hand, and adds that the "consecrated host may be received either on the tongue or in the hand."
The U.S. bishops' revision also states that "the posture for the reception of Holy Communion in the dioceses of the United States is standing." In approving this provision, however, Cardinal Estévez notes "the tenor of not a few letters received from the faithful in various dioceses" of the United States "leads the Congregation, even after a very careful consideration of such data, to urge the [United States bishops'] Conference to introduce a clause that would protect those faithful who will inevitably be led by their own sensibilities to kneel from imprudent action by priests, deacons or lay ministers in particular, or from being refused Holy Communion for such a reason as happens on occasion."