NEWS
2001 NEWS STORIES
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ROAMIN' CATHOLIC
Contents © 2001
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
NEWS
MARCH 2001
NO SHRINE, NO GATES. Four years ago, Dan Giles, a welder and repairman, was helping to dismantle the interior of Saint Vibiana's cathedral in Los Angeles. Giles told the Los Angeles Times that he was asked to dismantle the cathedral's shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe and stack the eight wrought iron gates that enclosed it
Two years later, according to the January 31 Times story, when Giles was again working at the cathedral, a foreman told him to dispose of the gates. When the foreman asked him how much he wanted to haul the gates away, Giles said he would take them for free. Since then, they have been sitting in Giles' yard in Silver Lake.
The sixty-year-old Giles says he is not a religious man though he says he has "a great respect for the Church." He noted that "the shrine was magnificent and the gates are of Buckingham Palace quality. I can just imagine a priest saying 100 years ago, we want to build a shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe, and his people contribute. quarters and nickels and dimes. And then, years later. they just throw the things out."
In December 2000, however, Giles decided to put the gates up for sale on the internet. His asking price? $50,000. What lessened his respect for the Church? According to Giles, it was news of developer Tom Gilmore's plans to turn St. Vibiana's into a hotel, restaurant and arts academy. If there is no outcry from the Church concerning those plans, said Giles, then his "soul is resting a little bit lighter" about selling the gates.
A week after Giles' story appeared in the Times, Giles received a call from William Delvac, an attorney with a powerful Los Angeles law firm. Monsignor Terence Fleming, archdiocesan vicar, had called Delvac (who represents the Los Angeles Conservancy and the yet unformed non-profit foundation which will complete the secularization of St. Vibiana's) asking him to call Giles about the gates. The gates, said Delvac, were removed in error. He wanted to negotiate for their return. Giles agreed to remove the gates from the internet auction site.
As of Thursday, February 1, Giles had not decided what to do with the gates. Delvac, according to Times, told him it was "inappropriate" that he had the gates. "But I don't think so," said Giles. "I think it was inappropriate the way the church handled them, just tossing them aside." Giles noted, though, that he would not return the gates for free. "I'm not broke," he said, "but I do work for room and board. I told the attorney, 'you have tens of millions of dollars floating around in the church. You are building a new cathedral.' And at the same time, they are asking me to make a sentimental decision about returning the gates."
Less than a week later, Giles said he would return the gates for $5,000; but he added another condition. Even though they will form a part of the secular St. Vibiana's center, they must be used to house a shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe. "They can't have them unless there is at least a painting of the Lady of Guadalupe there," Giles told the Times. "Otherwise, no deal." Giles, who met with Delvac on Saturday, February 3, told the Times that he had reached an agreement with the attorney: he would receive the $5,000, and his sister would get help getting building permits for an apartment garage destroyed in an arson fire. But the shrine? That question it seems is unresolved, at least for everyone but Giles. "If they get them back," he told the Times after his meeting with Delvac, "there would have to be a picture, a plaque, of the Virgin."
FATHER FORD, A CHRIST FIGURE? Sunday, January 28, Roger Cardinal Mahony presided at the rite of dedication of the new altar and "worship space" at San Roque church in Santa Barbara. One thousand parishioners with Father James Ford, San Roque's pastor, and auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry, attended the dedication and Mass, according to the February 2 Tidings.
The renovation of San Roque church's "worship space" accords well with guidelines laid out in Cardinal Mahony's 1997 letter on the liturgy, Gather Faithfully Together. The altar, moved from the apse, now sits in a more central location. The choir and the organ now occupy what was the sanctuary, while the remainder of the congregation face and flank the altar on three sides. The baptismal font, made of Botticcino marble like the altar, sits near the entrance of the church in direct line with the altar which, resting upon the predella, serves as the focal point of the church. Though, as the Tidings notes, "several statues from the previous church" remain, the San Roque renovation betrays the stark minimalism typical of much church renovation.
In his homily, Cardinal Mahony said "the altar is the earliest, the most enduring, and the best sign -- a wonderful and remarkable sign -- of the presence of Jesus Christ." The altar and the Eucharistic clebration, he said, are "the essential source of our change and transformation." The altar "is where we receive the source of our grace and power, the body and blood of Christ, which flows into us and then from us, back into the community we serve." Explaining the position of the baptismal font, Mahony said, "we enter into the body of Christ through the waters of baptism. Having the altar and font in linear configuration, and using similar materials to build them, is very appropriate."
According to the Tidings, Mahony, in his homily, referred to the renovation controversy at San Roque (detailed in the Mission in our November 2000 and February 1998 issues), where parishioners withheld funds to prevent Father Ford from pushing through the renovation. Smiling, Mahony said that Father Ford "must have felt like Jesus in today's Gospel" when the people at Nazareth wanted to throw Him off a cliff.
POPE JOHN PAUL II has appointed two auxiliary bishops for Southern California. One, bishop-elect Edward W. Clark, will preside over Our Lady of the Angels region of the archdiocese of Los Angeles. Bishop-elect Dennis P. O'Neil will serve in the diocese of San Bernardino.
The fifty-five year-old Edward Clark, ordained in 1972, has served in parishes, and as a teacher in and principal of three archdiocesan Catholic high schools. He has been a professor and administrator at St. John's seminary in Camarillo, and president and rector of that institution since 1994. In his statement delivered at a press conference held January 16 at the Archdiocesan Catholic Center in Los Angeles, Bishop Clark admitted that, though he was filled with apprehension when he considered the responsibilities that faced him, he was consoled that "I will not bear these responsibilities alone. It is the People of God who bear them." Having "served under the cardinal in various capacities during his tenure as archbishop," Clark said he was "deeply impressed by his vision, leadership and fidelity." Clark thanked Pope John Paul II for his appointment, and Cardinal Mahony who placed his name in nomination for bishop. Except for a reference to the Holy Spirit's enrichment of the Church of Los Angeles with gifts -- which we should use generously -- Clark made no reference to God, whether in thanks or as a source of strength.
Bishop-elect Dennis P. O'Neil, 61, ordained in 1966, is a priest of the archdiocese of Los Angeles. He has served as an associate pastor, a pastor, and for five years as a missionary in Juneau, Alaska. In his statement at a press conference in San Bernardino, O'Neil asked for prayer and said he sought "the Lord's guidance and steady hand upon" him. "I pray I will always do His will, serving to the best of my ability our diocesan bishop and all the people of God. I want to be a good ambassador for Jesus Christ so that people's lives are filled with hope."
THERE IS HELP FOR CATHOLIC CHARITIES in its quest for injunctive relief from the Women's Contraceptive Equity Act. In its January 26 "Capitol Watch" report, the California Public Policy Foundation announced that it has joined the United States Justice Foundation and other first amendment groups to file an amicus ("friend of the court") brief in behalf of Catholic Charities. The California Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit legal organization. In its brief, the foundation said it "will challege the laws, on U.S. and state constitutional grounds, as violating Catholic Charities' religious freedom rights."
The Women's Contraceptive Equity Act, which passed in 1999, requires health care insurance packages to provide coverage of Food and Drug Administration-approved prescription contraceptive methods. While exempting religious employers, the act so narrowly defines a religious employer that it excludes religious hospitals and universities. In September, California superior court judge Joe Gray rejected Catholic Charities' application for injunctive relief from the act. Following the ruling, James Sweeney, counsel for Catholic Charities, said he would appeal Gray's ruling.
THE CLOSE OF CHRISTIAN UNITY WEEK, Thursday, January 25, saw a gathering of leaders from three Christian denominations with Bishop Tod Brown of the diocese of Orange at Mission Basilica San Juan Capistrano for an ecumenical prayer service, according to the Los Angeles Times. Episcopal bishop J. Jon Bruno, Lutheran bishop Murray Finck, Presbyterian elder Jane Odel, and Bishop Brown each led a part of the service in which a crowd of 500, including 40 clergymen and clergywomen, participated. The service included a choir composed of the members of five churches and liturgical dancers moving interpretively in the aisles
The service closed with a prayer for unity in which the congregation and the clergy joined hands. "As our prayer for Christian unity draws toward its close," said Bishop Brown, who is chair of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops' Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs Committee, "we join hands with those nearest to us to show our commitment to seek daily in this newly begun millennium that perfect unity which the Lord desires for those who are his own."
THE LOS ANGELES BOARD OF SUPERVISORS may abolish the Los Angeles County Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, according to a February 6 Morality in Media e-mail report. The proposal to abolish the commission was on the agenda for the Tuesday, February 20 meeting of the supervisors. As of February 9, only one supervisor, Michael Antonovich (fifth district), was opposed to abolishing the commission.
In recent years, the board of supervisors has neglected the commission, founded in 1964 to combat pornography. Each supervisor is to appoint three members to the commission board -- making a total of 15 commissioners -- but, to date, only nine members serve on the commission, three of whom have retired.
Morality in Media president, Bob Peters, wrote to the supervisors that, though a national organization, his organization is concerned about the board of supervisors' move. "L.A. County," he wrote, "is a primary source of the illegal and destructive hardcore pornography pouring into communities, homes and children's minds nationwide."
In an e-mail message to Morality in Media, Jean Huston, Antonovich's justice deputy, noted that the supervisor wanted groups like Morality in Media, churches, synagogues, and other groups (especially in Los Angeles County) to contact the other four supervisors. "We have also contacted Cardinal Roger Mahony," said Huston. "We really need all of the support we can muster in order to save the Commission."
ROE VS. WADE "profoundly changed our society, and weakened the attitude toward the sanctity of life for a full generation," said Roger Cardinal Mahony at the Sixth Annual Commitment to Life Conference, held at Alemany High School in Mission Hills on January 20. According to the Tidings, since it was inauguration day, there was much talk among the hundreds of conference participants about their hopes for the Bush administration. "Just as eight years ago," said Cardinal Mahony, "there was a dramatic shift for abortion with the Clinton administration, we're hoping to see some signs now of a shift back" toward pro-life. "We're hoping that President Bush will be a lot more willing to raise up the value of human life and help Americans understand the position."
The conference featured talks on several life issues: abortion, bioengineering, cloning, and euthanasia. Doctor Bernard Nathanson, a former abortionist, addressed the subject, "The Ethics of Cloning."
According to the Los Angeles Times, in an interview before the conference, Cardinal Mahony said he thought changing "hearts and minds" was more important than the focus on politics. A happy shout, though, interrupted the cardinal -- "I have an announcement: Bill Clinton is no longer the president of the United States." "The room," said the Times, "burst into applause.
ECUMENICAL LAND DEAL. In order to expand its school facilities and to build a larger church, Our Lady Queen of Angels parish in Newport has offered neighboring St. Mark's Presbyterian church $6.7 million for four acres of land, enabling the church to move its facilities and build a new, larger church, according to the February 8 Los Angeles Times. Though it will lose its old church, the money from the sale will enable St. Mark's to gain ten acres of prime real estate (adjacent to Fashion Island mall) and Our Lady will be able to build a 1,200 seat church for its parish of 4,800 families. The affluent Our Lady parishioners will raise the $20 to $25 million needed to build their new complex.
The unusual idea of paying St. Mark's to move to a new and better location was the brainchild of Father Vincent Gilmore, O. Praem, parochial vicar for Our Lady. The deal still faces some hurdles -- such as approval from the diocese of Orange.
The new Our Lady's church will feature an exact replica of the Portiuncula chapel that St. Francis of Assisi rebuilt following the vision where God asked him to restore His Church. The chapel, which will be placed behind the altar and which will hold the Blessed Sacrament, will be "museum quality," said Father Vincent. "You won't have to go to Assisi to see what the Portiuncula looks like." Father Vincent said that parishioners at Our Lady want the chapel because "we want to tie into the tradition because everything around us is so modern."