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Contents © 2000
by Jim Holman.
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NEWS
MARCH 2000
CARDINAL MAHONY WAS THE FIRST RELIGIOUS LEADER to oppose Proposition 21, the Juvenile Crime Initiative, said a January 13, 2000 Los Angeles Times report. Proposition 21, according to the California Secretary of State's official analysis, would increase punishment for gang-related felonies, adding the death penalty "for gang-related murder," along with "indeterminate life sentences for home-invasion robbery, carjacking, witness intimidation and drive-by shootings." Along with authorizing the wiretapping of gang activities, the proposition would also require that juveniles, fourteen years old and older, be tried as adults when "charged with murder or specified sex offenses."
Mahony addressed about 150 protestors of Proposition 21 at a rally held outside Dolores Mission Catholic School in Boyle Heights. The cardinal told the protestors that the California Conference of Catholic Bishops had voted to oppose Proposition 21, saying that funds would be better spent on prevention, counseling and rehabilitation. "Children sent through the adult system," said Mahony, "where there are minimal opportunities for rehabilitation and where their physical and emotional survival is constantly being threatened, are destined to come out of prison as hardened criminals."
Among the chief proponents of Proposition 21 were former governor Pete Wilson, the California District Attorneys Association, and the California Association of Sheriffs.
U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE, David Carter, on Friday, February 4 issued an injunction barring the Orange Unified School district from preventing two homosexual students from forming a Gay Straight Alliance club at El Modena High School in Orange County. In his ruling, Judge Carter told school officials not to act like "thought police" with regards to the controversial club. Last October, the two students, Heather Zetin and Anthony Colin, had petitioned the school district to allow them to meet on campus as a chapter of the Gay Straight Alliance. When the school board denied the pair permission to meet at the school, the People for the American Way and the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund stepped in and sued on behalf of the students. According to Judge Carter, Friday's ruling may pave the way for the United States Supreme Court to ultimately rule on the issue of whether or not clubs that deal with sexual orientation can meet on public school campuses. In a 26-page order, Judge Carter said "[t]his injunction is not just about student pursuit of ideals and tolerance for diverse viewpoints. As any concerned parent would understand, this case may involve the protection of life itself."
Randy Thomasson, Executive Director of the Campaign for California Families said in response to Friday's ruling, "this is a day that will live in infamy for parents everywhere."
In a press release faxed to local media, Kendra Huard, Acting Director of People for the American Way's California office, said "with this case, the students have been forced to teach a big lesson to the very school officials who should be helping them protect their learning environment."
When students returned to school on the Monday following the ruling, they found a flier stuffed in their lockers which advertised a gay dating service. The flier showed a picture of a man embracing another man with a caption that read: "Come on El Mo. Don't be shy! You're either gay or you're bi!" Police declined to take action, citing that it was not against the law to post handbills.
AN INITIATIVE THAT WOULD DEFINE a pre-born baby as a "human with rights" has not received any support from the pro-life community in California, according to initiative proponents. Last Fall, John Seepe and Chris Rosebrough filed an initiative with the California state attorney general's office proposing a constitutional amendment which would include the language,"[a] 'Person' includes an unborn person; 'unborn person' means an unborn child from fertilization until live birth; an unborn person has all of the same rights and protections afforded to any other person under this Constitution."
Rosebrough said that he was surprised at the lack of support pro-life groups gave him. Rosebrough said that early on he approached the California Pro Life Council to join his efforts in qualifying his initiative for the March 7, 2000 ballot. Jan Carroll, legislative director of the California Pro Life Council sent him an e-mail in reply: "This initiative contains a noble objective," wrote Carroll, "which we share, but I fear that it also holds out false hope to the many hard-working activists who might be willing to commit their time, money and energy. Initiatives are difficult and expensive and should only be attempted when there is a very good chance of passage. Otherwise the resources they consume and the demoralization that may ensue because of a loss are very problematic to recoup." Rosebrough said that the only group to offer him and Seepe support was Virginia-based American Life League.
In an interview with the Mission, Seepe said that they had also contacted Charles Parker of the Coalition of Politically Active Christians who promised to help them raise one million dollars. Both Seepe and Rosebrough said that, to date, Parker's group has not offered any support. When contacted by a Mission writer, Parker said that he believes in the work that Seepe and Rosebrough are doing. "I support young people like Chris who have that wonderful Don Quixote effort to effect change" he said.
GEORGETOWN PRESIDENT, Father Leo Donovan, was sighted by a Mission reporter at the Beverly Hills Hotel in late January. Donovan is a controversial figure at Georgetown. He is known for his friendship with President Bill Clinton, who spoke at Georgetown with Donovan's blessing. Donovan blocked students who sought crucifixes in Georgetown classrooms -- a move that elicited criticism from Washington cardinal James Hickey.
Why was Donovan staying at the fabled Beverly Hills Hotel, which commands room prices from $355 to $410 a night and suite prices from $600-$4700? A former curial official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Donovan was perhaps in Beverly Hills to grease down potential contributors, such as Michael Eisner of Disney, which now holds a seat on Georgetown's board.
"THIS IS A KILLING OF INNOCENTS -- a tragedy that affects the whole world," said Patriarch Raphael I Bidawid, Catholic Patriarch of the Chaldeans, of the United Nations embargo of Iraq, according to a January 27 Zenit news service report. For the past nine years, according to the Patriarch of Baghdad, infant mortality rates have risen on account of the embargo and the continued United States and British bombing raids on Iraq. Citing a report issued by Iraq's ministry of health, the patriarch said 8,000 Iraqi children died in December 1999 because of lack of medicine and food.
According to the ministry of health report, while in 1989, 101 children younger than five died of dysentery, in 1999, the number rose to 1,576. From 1989 to 1999, the number of children younger than five dying from lack of food rose from 81 to 3,060, and deaths among children from respiratory infections, including pneumonia, increased from 117 in 1989 to 3,372 in 1999.
According to Patriarch Raphael, the "data of the Ministry of Health was substantially confirmed by the investigation of United Nations' commissioners who visit our hospitals. These deaths are the clearest proof that should move the world to do something against the embargo." United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator, Denis Halliday, estimated that 60,000 Iraqi children had died per year, with a total of 500,000 dying since the embargo began.
The grand total of those in Iraq who have died because of sanctions related causes since August, according to a report issued by the Vatican ambassador to the Holy See, is 1,215,787 people. The number includes mostly children and the old.
IN THE WIDENING SEX AND FINANCIAL SCANDAL in the diocese of Santa Rosa, the laity more than the clergy are providing strength to the diocese, said a February 2 Los Angeles Times story. "At the candle-lit support meetings, these devout Roman Catholics are discovering comfort and strength in newfound activism..." wrote the Times.
In the last decade, at least five priests have left the diocese due to sexual misconduct with underage children, costing the diocese at minimum $6 million. The diocese, according to Paul Gaspari, a diocesan lawyer, "has settled between 75 and 100 claims in the last three years alone," reported the Times.
"These men are messing up my church," said Sister Jane Kelly, the nun who alerted the diocese to financial and sex scandal and was told to go away. "I say to people hurt by this, 'We are the church, not them.' The diocese has got to face up to the consequences of what these people have done."
The Times reported that the laity in the wake of the outrages have "fostered a feisty activism as they have discovered that they -- not the diocese hierarchy -- are the backbone of the church."
Former Santa Rosa Bishop Ziemann (also formerly an auxiliary bishop for the archdiocese of Los Angeles) faces sexual and financial lawsuits. Father Jorge Hume, the man with whom he had an affair, is suing Ziemann for sexual assault, saying that Ziemann demanded sexual favors in return for silence about Hume's embezzlement. Some parishioners in Santa Rosa are demanding that Ziemman be "jailed" for placing the diocese in $16 million debt. But at a recent meeting, San Francisco Archbishop William Levada told congregants not to commit the sin of "rash judgment."
"I READ WITH GREAT INTEREST Martin's note about rumors of another letter coming from the Vatican," began a message posted by "Sam" in the gay clergy chat room. The alleged letter, according to another message in the chat room, is to originate from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, headed by Josef Cardinal Ratzinger and will purportedly ban seminaries from accepting homosexual applicants.
"Actually, this is not the first time I have heard of such," continued "Sam's" message. "When the Los Angeles bishops, et al. went to Rome for their official visit late last fall, they came back talking about that very letter. Apparently Ratz's office was very proud of it, and was telling all those who were visiting that the next official letter would in fact ban gays from religious orders and priesthood. When the L.A. crew mentioned the letter to the more sympathetic Pio Laghi, he told them not to worry, that the rest of the congregations would never allow such a letter to get through. So, in spite of Pio Laghi's best intentions, it appears as though the letter might have made it through."
When a Mission reporter called Los Angeles archdiocesan spokesman, Father Gregory Coiro, for comment, he replied that he did not deal with the Mission.