NEWS
2003 NEWS STORIES
December
November
October
September
July/August
June
May
April
March
February
January
ARTICLES
LETTERS
ROAMIN' CATHOLIC
Contents © 2003
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
NEWS
MARCH 2003
"NEVER AS AT THE BEGINNING of this millennium has humanity felt how precarious is the world which it has shaped," said Pope John Paul II in his January 13 address to ambassadors accredited to the Holy See. Speaking of the ills of the world, including the threat of terrorism and the crisis in the Middle East, the pope asserted that "everything can change;" humanity need not "sink into the abyss." The requirements for change, said the pontiff, involve saying, "yes to life;" renewing a respect for law, both national and international; and a commitment to the duty of solidarity. "In a world with a superabundance of information, but which paradoxically finds it so difficult to communicate and where living conditions are scandalously unequal, it is important to spare no effort to ensure that everyone feels responsible for the growth and happiness of all," said the pope.
Each of the three requirements for change, said John Paul, has a corresponding "no."
Leaders and nations are to say "no to death. to all that attacks the incomparable dignity of every human being, beginning with that of unborn children;" no "to all that weakens the family, the basic cell of society;" no "to all that destroys in children the sense of striving, their respect for themselves and others, the sense of service."
We are to say "no to selfishness," said the pope. "The life-style of the prosperous, their patterns of consumption, must be reviewed in the light of their repercussions on other countries. Selfishness is also the indifference of prosperous nations towards nations left out in the cold. All peoples are entitled to receive a fair share of the goods of this world and of the know-how of the more advanced countries."
We are to say "no to war." John Paul said that war, which "is not always inevitable," is "always a defeat for humanity. International law, honest dialogue, solidarity between states, the noble exercise of diplomacy: these are methods worthy of individuals and nations in resolving their differences. I say this as I think of those who still place their trust in nuclear weapons and of the all-too-numerous conflicts which continue to hold hostage our brothers and sisters in humanity."
TURNING TO THE "DEGENERATION of the crisis in the Middle East" in his address to the diplomatic corps, Pope John Paul, said "that the solution will never be imposed by recourse to terrorism or armed conflict, as if military victories could be the solution." "And what are we to say of the threat of a war which could strike the people of Iraq, the land of the Prophets, a people already sorely tried by more than twelve years of embargo?" asked the pope. "War is never just another means that one can choose to employ for settling differences between nations. As the Charter of the United Nations organization and international law itself remind us, war cannot be decided upon, even when it is a matter of ensuring the common good, except as the very last option and in accordance with very strict conditions, without ignoring the consequences for the civilian population both during and after the military operations."
To "avoid descending into chaos," said John Paul, "two conditions must be met." First, "the paramount value of the natural law" in relations within and between states. "Even if today some people question its validity," said the pope, "I am convinced that its general and universal principles can still help us to understand more clearly the unity of the human race and to foster the development of the consciences both of those who govern and of those who are governed." Second, said the pope, "we need the persevering work of statesmen who are honest and selfless. In effect," he said, "the indispensable professional competence of political leaders can find no legitimation unless it is connected to strong moral convictions."
THE VATICAN ISSUED an even stronger statement on January 30 against war with Iraq and the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive strike, according to a Catholic World News report. "We are against the war," said the Vatican's Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, to a group of Italian journalists. Whatever what one may say about a "pre-emptive strike" on Iraq, said Cardinal Sodano, "it is certainly not a defensive war."
According to Catholic World News, "Cardinal Sodano advanced a view which would represent a major new development in Church teaching, questioning whether warfare could ever be justified under current circumstances." The cardinal also seemed to push at the parameters of the just war doctrine. "It is not only a matter of knowing if this war would be just or unjust, moral or immoral," he said. "We want to raise the question: Is warfare worthwhile?"
Catholic World News also reported that the United States envoy to the Vatican, Jim Nicholson, conceded in late January that Pope John Paul II is opposed both to the U.S. war with Iraq and the doctrine of pre-emptive strike.
"HONK 4 PEACE" read signs held by about 100 nuns who gathered in Brentwood on Saturday, January 18 to protest a possible war against Iraq. According to the January 19 Los Angeles Times, the sisters, members of St. Joseph of Carondelet, wore white blouses and black pants to symbolize peace and death. The sisters assembled at Sunset Boulevard and Church Lane and some walked to the overpass of the San Diego Freeway where they displayed their signs. The nuns ranged in age from 30 to 90 years.
WEST COVINA RESIDENT and part-time member of the Los Angeles Catholic Worker, Mike Wisniewski, was slated to face trial, February 10, in Columbus, Georgia for civil disobedience at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (formerly the School of the Americas) at Fort Benning, Georgia. The 53-year-old Wisniewski is among 86 others who have been charged with trespass and could face six months in prison and up to $5,000 in fines. Wisniewski and others peacefully crossed onto the property of Fort Benning to protest the Institute that trains Latin American soldiers. Several of the Institute's graduates have been involved in human rights abuses in their home countries. Critics charge that the Institute trains its students in tactics of repression.
The change in name the Institute has undergone signifies, say its defenders, a vast reorganization of the school, ordered by the United States Congress. In his statement to the court (sent out by e-mail), Wisniewski, however, asks, if the school has changed, why doesn't the U.S. government "take responsibility, display remorse and publicly apologize to the living victims and the survivors of the murdered who were terrorized and massacred by graduates of the [School of the Americas], and to the U.S. taxpayers who unknowingly and unwillingly paid for this School of Assassins?" Since the government has shown no remorse, says Wisniewski, "is it not fair to conclude that there is no remorse, no sorrow, no repentance, and therefore, no metanoia, no change of heart? Moreover, would it not also be fair to conclude that the name change is just 'cosmetic,' as former Georgia Senator Paul Coverdell was quoted in the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer as saying. Hence, this charade is nothing less than blatant and unbridled fraud."
Thus, was his own "act of conscience" justified, said Wisniewski "in an attempt to prevent a greater harm, the continued training of terrorists at this School of Assassins, who employ their military training on my sisters and brothers in faith, who most often are the poor and oppressed whom my faith both mandates and empowers me to protect and to whom I must become a voice. Moreover, did not President select George W. Bush state after September 11, 2001, that 'Every known terrorist camp must be shut down'?"
HELP FATHER LARA. Parishioners at Our Lady of Guadalupe, Rose Hill, staged a protest in front of their parish, during Mass, on Sunday, January 26. The parishioners' protest arose from the firing of Father Gustavo Lara last year for his alleged theft of money from the pastor's, Father Tom Baker's, room. (See, "We Aren't Going Away," January 2003 Mission.) Parishioners say that Father Baker has already found the money. "It's known that the money has been found" one woman said. "What we want is for Father Baker to apologize to Father Lara, because Father Lara is an elderly person and he shouldn't be treated like this. He chased him from here, he took away all of his privileges; he even took away the toilet paper."
Another protestor, Pete Corales, who has been a parishioner for ten years, said that "Father Lara put in hours of work. 'Father can you bless this house?' 'Father can you bless my car?' Can you hear my confession?' There are so many priests who don't want to do anything. I don't know why they take up that occupation. You ask them for something and they don't have time."
After Mass, when the Mission asked him for comment, Father Baker said, "you have to go ask them, I have nothing to say to you."
On the day of the protest, Father Lara was visiting friends who live across the street from the parish. Father Lara told the Mission that Bishop Gabino Zavala had promised to meet with him, but that "that was three months ago." Has anyone from the archdiocese called him or offered him any help? "Nothing at all," was Lara's reply. "They are supporting me," he said of the parishioners. "I'm not sure what Bishop Zavala will say. They don't want to face the issue; we are waiting to see if this protest brings a response from them. I'm waiting for an answer from the bishop." Father Lara said he has been a priest for 53 years. "I'm retired; I'm seventy-three years old. I've worked for ten years at this parish," he said.
SACRAMENTO'S BISHOP WEIGAND in January called on Catholic politicians either to renounce their support of abortion rights or refrain receiving from Holy Communion. At a morning Mass at the Cathedral of Blessed Sacrament on the 30th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision, Bishop Weigand said, "as your bishop, I have to say clearly that anyone -- politician or otherwise -- who thinks it is acceptable for a Catholic to be pro-abortion is in very great error, puts his or her soul at risk, and is not in good standing with the Church. Such a person should have the integrity to acknowledge this and choose of his own volition to abstain from receiving Holy Communion until he has a change of heart."
In response, Governor Gray Davis' spokesman, Russ Lopez, criticized Weigand in the January 23 Sacramento Bee for "telling the faithful how to practice their faith." Lopez also wondered if Weigand's public dressing-down of the governor could result in no Catholics going to Mass.
FATHER COLM O'RYAN, pastor of Good Shepherd Church in Beverly Hills, where Davis is a parishioner, told the San Francisco Faith in January that he was not bothered by Davis' pro-abortion politics. "Oh no," he said in a telephone interview. "He's a very private person, he's a very faithful Catholic, he and his wife come to Mass very faithfully when they are in town," he noted. When asked if anyone ever objected to the governor's strident support of abortion, O'Ryan replied, "no, I may get an occasional letter about it, but no matter what you do, you'll get someone upset." Father O'Ryan said that his stance towards the governor was, "judge not and you shall not be judged." O'Ryan said that the parish is very happy to have the governor and his wife attend Mass there.
GOVERNOR DAVIS AND HIS WIFE attended the 5:30 p.m. vigil Mass at Good Shepherd parish on January 25, said young people affiliated with the Survivors, a youth oriented pro life group, who attended the Mass. The Survivors said they witnessed the governor and his wife receiving communion under both species. Robert Montiel, the Survivors director, said that he and others attended the Mass because they knew "Davis was in L.A. celebrating Roe v. Wade" -- referring to the January 22 gala that the governor had attended earlier in the week. "We know he regularly attends the vigil Mass there," said Montiel in a telephone interview shortly after the Mass. "When we found out that Davis was not in good standing with the Church, we decided to go out there. We showed up just prior to Davis receiving Communion and afterwards we spoke with him," said Montiel. When asked if the governor was defensive with them, Montiel said that the governor seemed at ease. "After the Mass we spoke with him and I took a picture with him."
When asked for comment on Davis receiving Holy Communion in spite of Bishop Weigand's statement, Davis spokesman Russ Lopez said that the governor had a simple response to criticism about him receiving communion while supporting abortion rights: "I have been a practicing Catholic for a very long time. I was raised to believe in the separation of Church and State".
"That's all he has to say about this," said Lopez.
A call to Davis' pastor, Father Colm O'Ryan, for comment was not returned.
WHY CARDINAL LAW AND NOT MAHONY? Though "hundreds of new sex abuse suits are queuing up before the courts" in the Los Angeles area, said a January 30 National Catholic Reporter story, "questions about Los Angeles Cardinal Roger M. Mahony have not been publicly discussed or debated with the intensity that focused on Boston Cardinal Bernard Law." Why?
For one, said the Reporter, the Los Angeles Times has been much gentler on Mahony than the Boston Globe has been on Law; the Times "has even editorialized that Mahony has acted aggressively against priests who have abused children."
Too, Los Angeles "lacks the 'critical mass' of critical Catholics that marks Boston" -- and the majority of L.A. Catholics are immigrant rather than white. Boston College history professor Thomas O'Connor told the Reporter, that while the Boston archdiocese has immigrants who are "very traditional, humble, pious, obedient," it has, as well, "'old line' Catholics in city and suburbs [who are] are third- and fourth-generation, increasingly college graduates, middle and upper middle-class, and managers, presidents, CEOs and CFOs of enterprises large and small, private and public, and deeply involved in the region's political life." These white Boston Catholics, said O'Connor, "are used to being consulted on decision-making in their various areas. They expect to be heard. This is a very important consideration in the crisis that developed." According to Fernando Guerra, director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola-Marymount University, unlike Boston, "Los Angeles has historically not been a Catholic city, but historically one of the most Protestant, non-immigrant cities in the country." In Los Angeles, he said, "the Catholic church has hardly been involved in the major institutions or patterns of dialogue; and though, today, Catholics are "the largest religious affiliation," that phenomenon is very recent -- it didn't really take hold until the 1980s, even the 1990s."
One other factor, according to Guerra, is the fact that "Cardinal Mahony is probably a much better politician than Cardinal Law, a much better politician in a less political town. And that has given him greater stature to deal with [the scandal] and deflect it and handle it. He also had the experience of watching what was going on in Boston -- and learned from it and adjusted accordingly."
YET, DESPITE HIS PAST ABILITY to deflect a good deal of criticism, Cardinal Mahony "is staring at a severe test of his public credibility in coming months as lawyers for those suing the archdiocese have let it be known that they intend to press for full disclosure of documents related to their cases," said the Reporter story. Plaintiffs' lawyers, said the Reporter, anticipate 500 new molestation cases to be filed in California because of the new law which removes the statute of limitations on such cases for the duration of 2003. Already, over 100 new cases have been filed against the Los Angeles archdiocese. These cases, according to what plaintiffs' lawyers told the Reporter, will place "Los Angeles' archbishop under the same kinds of pressures -- though not necessarily with the same consequences -- that forced Boston's Cardinal Law into retirement." Yet, Mahony may have a tough time ahead of him. "Americans nationwide will be watching" the unfolding drama in Los Angeles, said the Reporter. "As the scandal's epicenter seems poised to shift from Boston to California, to use The Christian Science Monitor's phrase, there's some evidence the national media's attention will do the same."
THE EFFORT TO CONSOLIDATE all sex abuse claims against the archdiocese of Los Angeles and the diocese of Orange has met with opposition from both diocesan and victims' lawyers, according to a January 9 San Bernardino County Sun report. Though officials of the two dioceses came to an agreement in early January with alleged victims of sexual abuse by priests to consolidate up to 500 molestation suits before one judge, the diocese of San Bernardino's legal representative, Wilfrid Lemann, said he had no plans to consolidate abuse lawsuits with Los Angeles and Orange. "The class action in Los Angeles has maybe 200 people over an 80-year period," said Lemann. "I think we might end up with 10 [lawsuits], maybe 12. We don't have the huge numbers." Lemann said San Bernardino "wouldn't want to get painted with the same brush as Los Angeles. The good news is in our young life, we are pretty good. We have a minimum of problems. Do we want to hook up with the others? Probably not."
A Costa Mesa attorney, John Manly, according to the Sun, has filed a petition with the California state supreme court seeking that all abuse cases in the state be consolidated. If the supreme court approves Manly's petition, all dioceses in the state would have to consolidate their cases with those of Los Angeles and Orange.
IN RESPONSE TO THE SEX ABUSE SCANDAL, the diocese of San Bernardino produced a 15-minute video tape, which was shown at Masses on the weekend of January 25-26, said a January 25 Inland Valley Voice story. The video included a message from Bishop Gerald Barnes and information on how abuse victims could receive help from the diocese. "The tape gives an up-to-date picture of our response to the victims and to the scandal," said Father Howard Lincoln, the diocese's spokesman. "We hope that it will give people a greater awareness for the plight of victims. It also invites anyone who has been victimized to call us."
The diocese also handed out a bulletin that contained the personal account of an abuse victim who had been ignored by the Church, and statistics on the number of abuse cases in the diocese. According to the Voice, a diocesan bulletin reported that there have been 46 allegations of sexual abuse in the diocese since 1978; since 1952, 32 priests have been accused of sexual abuse; there are four cases under criminal investigation and three civil suits against the diocese; and that since since 1978, the diocese has paid out $658,250 in settlements to victims of clergy sexual abuse.
A SECOND BOSTON PRIEST who had been serving in the diocese of San Bernardino is facing sexual molestation charges in Boston, said a January 14 Los Angeles Times story. Father Paul McLaughlin, 72, was accused last May of having molested a boy in Boston in the 1960s. McLaughlin had been serving at St. Francis of La Quinta Church in La Quinta, as well as in other parishes in the Coachella Valley, from the fall of 2001 to April of 2002, and left the diocese in June. The Boston archdiocese did not inform the San Bernardino diocese of the accusations until September of 2002. The notorious Father Paul Shanley was the first Boston archdiocesan priest who had been sent to San Bernardino without prior warning from Boston of his molestation record.
According to the Times, the San Bernardino diocese has not yet informed the parishes where McLaughlin served of the allegations made against him. They did place a notice on the diocese's website merely stating that three visiting priests, including McLaughlin, no longer had faculties to minister in the diocese and asked those approached by those priests to contact Bishop Barnes as soon as possible. A second of the three priests, Father Esteban Trujillo, had been accused of sexual molestation, though the Order of St. Augustine, to which he belongs, said it had no evidence that the allegations were true. The third priest, Father John Murphy, was denied faculties for reasons unrelated to sexual abuse.
IN-VITRO FERTILIZATION and a related technology, intracytoplasmic sperm injection, have been linked to an increased risk of birth defects, said a January 24 Los Angeles Times story. An Australian study published in 2002 in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that birth defects were twice as high in in-vitro conceived children. Now, in the journal Lancet, researchers in Holland report a fourfold to sevenfold increase in the rate of retinoblasma, a rare cancer of the eye, in children artificially conceived. Over the past year, other studies have linked artificial conception with an overgrowth disorder called Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome and Angelman syndrome, characterized by such problems as speech impairment and mental retardation. Scientists, however, say the studies are not conclusive.
Scientists say that the increased risks of these disorders should not dissuade couples from seeking artificial conception technology. The Times noted that "scientists said disorders such as Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome can be tested for and avoided. They are more concerned about subtler errors involving complex traits and genes for which there are no tests." The story did not detail how the syndrome, once tested in an embryo, could be "avoided."
MORE BUDGET WOES. Though four months ago, the archdiocese of Los Angeles said it faced a $4.3 million budget deficit, on January 23 it was announced that the deficit had grown to $5.7 million, said a January 24 Los Angeles Times story. That figure, combined with $7.7 million in one-time costs (mostly related to the sexual abuse scandal) brought the deficit for fiscal year 2002 to $13.4 million.
The archdiocese's financial report noted that the archdiocese's assets (including investments) had decreased by about $20 million. According to the Times, "the church counted $7.6 million less in pledges, largely because of the winding down of fund-raising to build the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels." At the same time, however, donations from the faithful increased from $148.6 million in 2001 to $153.8 million in 2002.
Already the archdiocese has cut ministries and eliminated about 60 jobs. On January 23, the archdiocese also announced it would close St. John's Seminary College. Asked if there would be further personnel cuts, archdiocesan spokesman Tod Tamberg told the Times, "no decision has been made regarding a reduction in work force."
"BEARER OF HOPE, RESTORER OF SPIRIT" is the theme for this year's Los Angeles archdiocese Religious Education Congress. Congress (as it is called in chancery circles, without the definite article) was scheduled to be held the weekend of February 28-March 1 at the Anaheim Convention Center. Sister Edith Prendergast, director of the office of religious education, told the January 31 Tidings that, given the crises of the world, the congress's theme was most relevant. "Living in a time of uncertainty, distrust and darkness, we stand firm, confident of God's brightness in the midst of pain," said Sister Edith. "Our hope is centered on trust in an all-embracing God dwelling in the darkness as much as in the light."
Among the "bearers of hope" who will speak at the congress is John Allen, Jr., Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter. The Reporter is well known for its promotion of such issues as the ordination of women, the democratization of the Church, and the redefinition of the papal magisterium. In the November 8 issue of the Reporter, Allen noted that the pope's ecumenical actions seem to belie the Holy See's doctrinal statements. With a wink, Allen said, "to understand what the pope is trying to communicate, therefore, sometimes it's a good idea to keep the pictures but turn down the sound." Allen will address "The Next Pope and the Future of the Church" and "The Unfinished Business of John Paul II.
The congress will once again feature speakers who follow the Call to Action circuit, including Father Michael Crosby and Fran Ferder. Barbara Fiand, another noted dissenter from Church teaching on women's ordination, will again address Congress, as well as Diana Hayes, who travels the Women's Ordination Conference and Call to Action circuit. On the other hand, Austin Ruse, president of Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, which focuses on world family and human life issues, will address congress attendess on "U.N. Attacks on Life, Faith and Family" and "Anti-Catholicism at the United Nations."
THE WEBPAGE FOR THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION CONGRESS offers "messages of hope" and "reflections" from conference speakers, in keeping with the congress' theme, "Bearer of Hope, Restorer of Spirit." The offerings, though they do not specifically mention Christ, do mention God and two of them reference Sacred Scripture. The best of them reaches the spiritual intensity of Reader's Digest.
Kathy Chesto offered a verse from the song "Anthem," by Canadian rock singer Leonard Cohen: "Ring the bells that still can ring/ Forget your perfect offering/ There is a crack in everything/That's how the light gets in." Anne Bryan Smollin shares: "We need to take care of the person we see in the mirror. We need to make choices to be healthy, happy, holy people. Only then do we discover our giftedness and live each moment fully." And Patricia McCormack notes, "yesterday is history. Tomorrow is mystery. Today is a gift. Perhaps that is why it is called the present."
Paula D'Arcy, however, drew from her experience this gem of inspiration. "This summer in Italy I worked with several others to build a labyrinth on the floor of a stone chapel. The light of candles defined its spirals. Weeks later, in describing this moment to retreatants in the U.S., I realized for the first time that the pathway of light we'd created was a perfect depiction of our lives. At each bend of the path, at every turn: light. And no way to permanently get lost, because if you stay on the path, you will ultimately reach the center. Whether or not a turn in the road 'appears' to be dark, the pathway is in fact pure light. That image powerfully reminds me that 'darkness and light are both alike to God' (Psalm 139). Nothing gives me greater hope."
CYBER CENSORSHIP? The Legislative Data Center for the California state legislature allegedly put pressure on an internet server to stop an anti-new tax e-mail campaign, said a January 20 World Net Daily report. The internet website for the Campaign for California Families in January had started an e-mail campaign to convince state legislators not to raise taxes (http://ca.conservativepetitions.com/). The website was shut down in mid January when an employee for the Legislative Data Center complained to the Campaign's server, Vortech, Inc. of Orlando, Florida, of the amount of e-mail the Data Center was receiving because of the anti-tax campaign. Vortech, claiming that the volume of bounced-back e-mail it received was so great as to slowdown its system, barred the Campaign from using its facilities.
Randy Thomasson, president of the Campaign for California Families, told World Net on January 20 that he had found another server, and that the e-mail campaign was again underway. Claiming the state interfered with the Campaign's First Amendment rights, the Campaign filed a cease and desist order in court on January 16 and is considering further legal action against the state. "The state could try to keep blocking us, and they could try to keep chasing us around," Thomasson told World Net. "There is the possibility of a federal lawsuit based on the U.S. Constitution."
TASTE OF THE MELTING POT. According to the February 2 Orange County Register story, Auxiliary Bishop Jaime Soto of Orange said "that being Catholic has become increasingly against the cultural norm." While 80 percent of Latino Catholics oppose abortion, the Register noted that 20 percent of Latinos support "abortion choice." Speaking to the Register's claim that more second-generation Latinos embrace "abortion rights" than do their immigrant parents, Soto said that immigrant Latinos are eager to be acculturated to the American mainstream, and so "many Catholics stay quiet about their pro-life beliefs, because they know it goes against the grain; it's improper dinner conversation." Thus it is, said Soto, " important as teachers, as pastors, to give people the language and courage to speak about this issue in a way that's persuasive and gives joy and hope to others." Bishop Soto said one cannot be Catholic and pro-abortion. "The church's position on abortion is precisely trying to do what Jesus did -- honor life," said Soto.
Fullerton College student, Yolanda DeLeon, however, disagreed. As a Latina who is pro-abortion, DeLeon said she has thought of leaving the Catholic Church, but has decided to remain. "I was brought up Catholic with the real, true teachings to share, to have compassion and have love and respect for my elders," DeLeon told the Register. "I'm also going to respect other people's choices, and that's based on tolerance. Didn't Jesus Christ advocate tolerance?"
MORE PRO-HOMOSEXUAL LEGISLATION. The homosexual members of the state legislature unveiled their agenda to a packed press conference on Tuesday, January 28. The Gay and Lesbian Caucus, made up of Senator Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) and Assemblymembers Jackie Goldberg (D-Los Angeles), Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego), Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), and John Laird (D-Seaside), discussed four bills that were their top priorities.
One of their goals is to pass a bill (thus far without a number) mandating sensitivity training for foster parents of homosexual children. The governor vetoed similar legislation last year because it infringed on the religious beliefs of many foster parents, and would have made it even harder to find people to take on this important responsibility.
Another bill (AB 17-Kehoe) would prohibit the state from entering into contracts with any business that does not offer domestic partner benefits. A third bill (AB 196-Leno) is practically identical to last session's so-called "Klinger" bill. It would prohibit employers from discriminating against those who cross dress or who are in the process of obtaining a sex change. It would also force employers to make accommodations for such people, such as allowing men dressed as women the use of the ladies' restroom. The most controversial of the measures is AB 205 (Goldberg), which will give domestic partnerships rights that are virtually identical with those of marriage, even though California's constitution limits marriage to unions between women and men.
"This is homosexual 'marriage,' pure and simple. No one should be fooled," said Randy Thomasson, executive director of the Campaign for California Families. Goldberg's bill tells children "marriage doesn't matter." The measures have not been assigned to any policy committees, and hearings on them will likely not take place until February at the earliest. For more information, log onto www.leginfo.ca.gov.
THE UGLY FACE OF PRO-CHOICE. Peggy Loonan, writing in the January 15 New York Times, criticized the National Abortion Rights Action League' s announcement in early January that it was changing its name to Naral Pro-Choice America. The NARAL president's statement that the new name was "the right name for this moment in history" "couldn't be more wrong," writes Loonan.
Loonan, the founder and executive director for Life and Liberty for Women (a group that promotes "aggressive abortion rights education") writes "the name change is the latest misstep in the group's nearly 20-year-old strategy to expand its electoral base by appealing to voters who may not feel strongly about abortion rights, but who nevertheless do not like their government telling them what to do. Make the issue about choice, and not rights, and you may win over moderate, even conservative, voters." Such a victory, however, says Loonan, "comes at too great a cost" since "it sacrifices principles that the abortion-rights movement holds dear and leaves it operating from a place of weakness and compromise rather than from a place of strength." Instead of following NARAL's strategy, writes Loonan, "the abortion-rights movement should be honest. Legal abortion kills pre-viable human life. But the rights of a pre-viable human life should not take precedence over the rights of a woman."
A PROTESTANT WEBSITE, Reformation.com, offers a "Special Bulletin" on sexual abuse in Protestant churches. "Catholic sex scandals dominate the news," says the site. "Are we next?" The Special Bulletin offers a sample of Protestant sexual molestation scandals, referring readers to cases throughout the nation. The Bulletin offers the following numbers of Protestant ministers accused of molestation: 84 Baptist ministers, 219 "Bible" Church Ministers (fundamentalist/evangelical), 39 Episcopal ministers, 32 Lutheran ministers, 32 Methodist ministers, 12 Presbyterian ministers, and 32 "various Church ministers." The number of molesting ministers for all Protestant denominations (including Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses), said the Bulletin, is 468, based on reports mostly from within the last ten years.
The site quotes the Good Friday sermon of the Rt. Rev. William Persell, bishop of the Episcopal diocese of Chicago. "We would be naïve and dishonest," said Persell, "were we to say this is a Roman Catholic problem and has nothing to do with us because we have married and female priests in our church. Sin and abusive behavior know no ecclesial or other boundaries."