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
APRIL 2003
CORRECTION: Following a January 14 Los Angeles Times story, the Mission in March reported that the diocese of San Bernardino had denied faculties to Father John Murphy for reasons unrelated to sexual abuse [see "Little Notes"]. Murphy's name had been placed with the names of two other priests on the diocese's website in an area listing clergy who "do not possess the necessary faculties of the Diocese of San Bernardino." According to Murphy's attorney, Anthony Weber, the diocese had removed Murphy's name from this list. Father Murphy, said Weber, has applied for faculties in the diocese; his faculties have not been denied. Father Howard Lincoln, spokesman for the diocese of San Bernardino, confirmed this. Lincoln said Father Murphy's faculties have "not been denied," but that his application for faculties was "being studied."
THOUGH CARDINAL MAHONY HAS CALLED the vocations crisis "one of the many fruits of the Second Vatican Council, a sign of God's deep love for the Church, and an invitation to a more creative and effective ordering of gifts and energy in the Body of Christ," he has apparently come to see it as a serious problem, as well. In an article, "Our Serious Shortage of Priests," published in the February 28 issue of the Tidings, Mahony said that the archdiocese is "facing a serious shortage of priests" -- and gave statistics to prove it. According to 2003 statistics for priests, wrote Mahony, the total number of "active priests" (including 337 archdiocesan priests, the others being religious or visiting priests) is 1,041, while the number of "retired archdiocesan priests" is 168. "This means that there is just one active priest for 4,040 Catholics -- the highest ratio that the Archdiocese has ever experienced," wrote Mahony. Also, "this is the first time in modern times that the Archdiocese has reported fewer than 400 active Archdiocesan priests. Also, we must keep in mind that many Religious priests are in specialized ministries, such as education, and not serving full-time in parish ministry." Mahony noted that only four priests will be ordained for the archdiocese this year.
LAY MINISTRY NOT ENOUGH. "While the growing number of lay ministers and permanent deacons across the Archdiocese is reassuring and most helpful to our overall ministry," said Mahony in his Tidings article, "we must remember that the Catholic Church derives its deepest identity and spiritual nourishment through the celebration of the Eucharist and the Sacraments, and only the ordained priest is able to celebrate the Eucharist and the Sacraments."
"We have a very serious challenge before us," said the cardinal.
And what's to be done about this challenge?
Cardinal Mahony said he encouraged increased prayer, especially adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. Along with prayer, he hoped more Catholics would invite young men to consider the priesthood as a vocation. "We must not presume that Jesus Christ is not calling more men to serve the Church as priests," said Mahony. "My experience shows just the opposite; many young men are seriously considering service as priests, but in too many cases, no one has extended to them a personal invitation nor personal encouragement." Cardinal Mahony said he supported the goal that every parish in the archdiocese have one seminarian.
ARCHDIOCESAN OFFICIALS SUBPOENED. Since the beginning of the 2003, said a February 22 Associated Press report, Los Angeles archdiocesan officials have been testifying before a grand jury about alleged sexual abuse of minor by 17 archdiocesan priests. Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry (Santa Barbara region), Monsignor Richard Loomis, Monsignor Timothy Dyer and Monsignor Craig Cox, were the first high-ranking archdiocesan officials to be subpoenaed by a grand jury. Each, at some point in Cardinal Roger Mahony's reign, have served as archdiocesan chancellor.
MAHONY CITES RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. In what appears a back peddaling, Cardinal Roger Mahony has said that he will not allow prosecutors and attorneys working on clergy sexual abuse cases access to all documents connected to molestations by archdiocesan priests, said a March 3 Los Angeles Times report. Last May, said the Times, Mahony said of investigations into sexual abuse by priests, "we want every single thing out, open and dealt with, period." But, during the last week of February, lawyers for the archdiocese argued that the confidentiality between a priest and his bishop is fundamental to the Catholic faith and thus is protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. The archdiocese, thus, will not release certain documents to prosecutors. "It's about the right of a bishop to speak openly and candidly with his priests about the most intimate and personal of subjects without fear of being exposed to civil authorities," archdiocesan counsel, J. Michael Hennigan, told the Times. "The archbishop and the priests do not have a typical employer-employee relationship," archdiocesan spokesman Tod Tamberg told the Times. "Their relationship," he said, "is much closer to that of father and adult son. There is a need for confidential, intimate communication."
In other states, courts have ruled against similar claims made by dioceses, said the Times. In Boston, a judge ruled against such a claim made by the archdiocese there, saying it would give Church leaders "unqualified immunity from secular legal redress, regardless of how negligent, reckless or intentional" their behavior.
ALSO CITING FIRST AMENDMENT religious freedom protections, lawyers for the diocese of San Bernardino argued that courts should not hold the Church liable for keeping on a priest accused of sexual misconduct, said a Februay 19 San Bernardino County Sun story. A woman has accused Monsignor Patrick O'Keefe of having molested her in 1990 when she was a child. O' Keefe, who is believed to be in Ireland, has been charged in another case of 15 felony counts of molestation of a 17-year-old girl in 1972.
Since "it is a purely religious decision whether a former sinner has sincerely repented and is qualified to become or remain a priest," the diocese's lawyers argued that "the First Amendment to the United States Constitution precludes a civil court from holding a religious organization liable for making a decision to employ a particular minister or for making a decision about what assignments to give to a particular minister." During the week of February 9, however, the first district court of appeals in San Francisco ruled that the First Amendment does not protect dioceses which knowingly shield priests accused of molesting minors. The San Bernardino case was slated to be heard February 26 in San Bernardino superior court.
"THIS HAS TO DO WITH A REPRESSED-MEMORY sort of thing," said attorney Gaspar Garcia II, who represents an alleged clergy abuse victim who is suing the diocese of Stockton and Cardinal Roger Mahony, according to a February 7 Associated Press story. The victim, known in court papers only as "John Doe," claims that he was assaulted between 1980 and 1983 at St. Mary of the Assumption Church by the Rev. Ferdinand Villalobos, who has since died. The victim claims that the diocese of Stockton, then under Bishop Roger Mahony, violated anti-racketeering laws by covering up the assault. Both a spokeswoman for Stockton diocese, Sister Barbara Thiella, and Tod Tamberg, spokesman for the archdiocese of Los Angeles, would not comment on February 7 about the lawsuit, saying they had not seen it.
The lawsuit was one of three brought against the diocese of Stockton. Nancy Sloan of Fairfield brought another, saying she had been molested by Father Oliver O'Grady in 1976. In 1999, the diocese of Stockton settled for $7.5 million a lawsuit brought by two brothers, Joh and James Howard, who claimed they had been molested by O'Grady. Cardinal Roger Mahony, as bishop of Stockton, was implicated in this case for allegedly having transferred O' Grady to other parishes while knowing that the priest had been a molester.
"SOME, PERHAPS MANY, OF THE FAITHFUL of our Archdiocese are disheartened and even angry" on account of the "unprecedented scandals regarding priests involved in sexual misconduct and abuse, seemingly unfathomable decisions on the part of Bishops and Church leaders, and a host of related issues that beg for attention and action." So said Cardinal Mahony's February 21 letter, "Being and Building the Body of Christ: The Synod." The resultant "tensions," wrote the cardinal cause some in the archdiocese to "view the approaching Synod with a certain skepticism, even with cynicism. Some have judged," said Mahony, "that I have already set the agenda for the Synod and am directing both the process and its results. While this is not the truth, I nonetheless believe that I understand such attitudes and feelings."
Yet, despite the current challenges, said Mahony, "with faith and in hope we have continued with our listening sessions and Regional Synod Assemblies throughout the past year." The cardinal admitted that "this has been a bold step on our part" and that "many have judged it silly and frivolous to engage in this process at a time of crisis." But such "difficult, painful times are nonetheless rich with promise," and "our most pressing challenge. is to actualize our God-given potential to be and to build the Body of Christ, the Church, at this particular moment in our history."
To Mahony "it is clear. that God's Spirit is calling us to a new spirit of mutual trust and candor." Since the Vatican Council, said Mahony, "the Church has acknowledged that the wisdom of God is to be discovered in the hearts, the lives, of ordinary faithful people. the People of God, the Body of Christ. We believe this, we teach this, but I am not sure that we have always acted on this belief.. Being and building the Body of Christ requires that we respect one another because of our equality rooted in the one Baptism." Communion in Christ, said Mahony, requires "a corresponding 'holy communication'" -- "a profound respect, indeed reverence, for one another, to really trust each other -- especially when we speak and listen, when we challenge and affirm, when we bring our insights rooted in our pastoral experience to the various assemblies of our Local Church."
THE LISTENING SESSIONS, wrote Cardinal Mahony, have given many "a better knowledge of how other Catholics throughout the whole Archdiocese feel about the present state our Local Church and about its future." Speaking "from our hearts," however, "we become vulnerable," leading some to "misunderstand our efforts to be faithful to the Gospel or to criticize "us for what they consider to be disloyalty to the institution of the Church. Still others will dismiss what we say because it appears to threaten their spiritual security, their sense of Church." Some Catholics feel discouraged, the cardinal admitted, because they "have tried to speak honestly and openly in the past" and "believe they have not been listened to carefully or taken seriously." Mahony, however, urged "one and all to not lose heart."
Mahony cautioned that "it is crucial to recognize that not all that we would like to do for the good of the Church is possible at this time." Among the things not "possible at this time" are "several crucial questions that have been raised, such as the admission of women to holy orders, or the possibility of restoring to active ministry those priests who have married, or dispensing with the discipline of clerical celibacy." Though Mahony believes "that these are important issues facing the Church today," nevertheless he can do nothing about them, because "they cannot be resolved at the level of the Local Church."
Though he did not specifically address Catholics with less progressive concerns, Cardinal Mahony presumably included them in urging all addressed "to speak to me, to your pastor, and to each other honestly, openly, and without fear" about their concerns. "Anything less is simply not in keeping with our Christian dignity," said Mahony. "And anything less will subvert the final phases of the Archdiocesan Synod."
IN HIS LETTER, Mahony promised that "in the next phases of the Synod process in the months ahead, a new kind of listening will be required, not merely desirable" -- a listening accompanied by "the humble conviction that each of us can learn from each other, that each of us may be an instrument of God's Spirit." In the synod, said Mahony, "we will be creating together new structures of participation, accountability and governance across the Archdiocese, so that we can more effectively achieve the pastoral priorities now emerging from your input in the synodal processes."
Everyone must listen to each other, said the cardinal, for "no one of us has the definitive answer. Our words, after all, may be off the mark or may not be in harmony with the Gospel." And how will anyone know if any words are or are not in accord with the Gospel? By the fact, wrote Mahony, that they "will lift our spirits and help us give shape to a new vision for our Local Church. Together we will recognize these honest and holy words. And the assembly of God's people will say 'Amen!'"
MORE SEX ED is the key to how the Church should confront the clergy sexual abuse scandal, said Boston College's Tom Beaudoin, according to a March 1 Los Angeles Times story. On February 28, Beaudoin addressed about 200 Catholics at the Los Angeles archdiocese's annual Religious Education Congress. According to the Times, decline in confidence in the Church cannot be attributed to media bias; it "is a problem we have created ourselves." Beaudoin said "we have many fears operating in our church: a fear of sexuality, a fear of discussing openly married sex, a fear of discussing homosexuality, a fear of discussing that we are sexual beings." And youth sense that fear, said Beaudoin.
NOTHING BUT A SHAM. A clergy-abuse victim resigned in December from the Sexual Misconduct Oversight and Review Board of the diocese of Orange, saying it was "a public-relations sham preoccupied with protecting the good name of the priests," according to a February 23 Los Angeles Times report. Last June, the diocese augmented its board, adding two sexual abuse victims, a retired judge and children's rights advocate, a retired police officer and a retired United States attorney. Eight, however, of the board's 13 members are diocesan clergy, employees, and persons who have conducted business with the diocese. Though the diocese says that it is working toward a board directed by laymen, the unnamed abuse victim, a woman, said that the board's current makeup is too dominated by members of the diocese and that discussion focused mostly on how scandals could adversely affect the reputation of priests and how to keep sensitive information from the press and plaintiffs' attorneys. "The whole thing was put together to have a nice cover in place," said the victim.
The victim said another reason she resigned was because the diocese of San Bernardino had asked her to relate her experiences, to be ghost written by a diocesan official. "I just felt like I was being used," the woman said. She has hired a lawyer to look into the possibility of a lawsuit against the Church.
Orange diocesan officials, however, denied the woman's allegations. They said the committee's recommendations have led to the removal of several priests in the last two years.
FASTING A WEAPON OF PEACE. In his Angelus address on February 23, Pope John Paul II said that Catholics should become "sentinels of peace" by praying the Rosary for "the cause of peace, especially in the Middle East," said a February 24 Catholic World News story. Fasting, said the Holy Father, is applicable not only to personal sanctification, but to the cause of world peace. By penance, he said, believers "ready themselves to receive from God the greatest and most necessary gifts, including in particular that of peace." The pope expressed the hope that Catholic families would crowd Marian sanctuaries throughout the world to pray the rosary. "The future of mankind can never be assured by terrorism and the logic of war," said John Paul.
PRO-LIFE VICTORY. On February 19, the United States Supreme Court, in a 8-to-1 decision, handed pro-lifers a major victory when it ruled that pro-life activist Joe Scheidler and others who held peaceful protests outside abortion clinics were not "racketeers" as the National Organization for Women (N.O.W.) alleged. The case, N.O.W. v. Scheidler, stemmed from 1986, when N.O.W. and abortion clinics in Delaware and Wisconsin sued Scheidler, Operation Rescue, and other pro-life activists under the federal Racketeer Influence Corrupt Organization Act (R.I.C.O.). They argued that Scheidler's peaceful protest disrupted their business and led to economic losses. A jury trial found Scheidler and his allies guilty and ordered them to pay $258,000 in damages and refrain from protesting in front of abortion clinics for 10 years. Scheidler appealed the decision to the United States Supreme Court, which took the case under consideration in early 2000.
Writing for the majority, Chief Justice Rehnquist said that Scheidler and his allies were not guilty of R.I.C.O. violations. "Even when their acts of interference and disruption achieved their ultimate goal of 'shutting down' a clinic that performed abortions," wrote Rehnquist, "such acts did not constitute extortion."
Colette Wilson, an Inglewood-based attorney who worked on the Scheidler case, said she was happy with the outcome. "Under the 7th circuit's ruling, any act of civil disobedience that 'interferes' with a business's operations -- which is, of course, the whole point of a protest! -- would count as an act of criminal extortion, punishable by up to 20 years in prison under R.I.C.O. By reversing the 7th circuit, the Supreme Court has stopped that logic dead in its tracks."
Wilson said that throughout the case abortion groups portrayed pro-life groups as violent. She said she and others have compiled evidence proving that several of N.O.W.'s witnesses lied about their claims of violence. "With this Supreme Court victory," said Wilson, "we're more determined than ever to use that evidence to set the record straight once and for all."
STUNG BY THE COURT'S DECISION in favor of Scheidler, the National Organization for Women said it will use other tactics to stop protests at abortion clinics. Speaking to reporters at the National Press Club, Kim Gandy, president of N.O.W., said, "With this reversal, N.O.W. rededicates itself to the protection of women's legal right to abortion. We will work to ensure that the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (F.A.C.E.) is enforced. But that is not enough. F.A.C.E. is too limited and doesn't reach the organizers of the violence. We will use whatever is at our disposal to see to it that religious and political extremists do not resume their reign of terror at women's clinics. We are looking at every avenue, including the U.S.A. Patriot Act, in order to protect women, doctors and clinic staff from these ideological terrorists".
RESPONDING TO WIDESPREAD REPORTS that abortion clinics such as Planned Parenthood routinely ignore child protection statutes that require medical providers to report suspected cases of child molestation, Assemblyman Dennis Mountjoy (R-Monrovia) has introduced a bill, AB 930, that would extend these reporting requirements. Last year the state attorney general's office reaffirmed that medical providers must report when some minor girls come into an abortion clinic seeking an abortion. In some cases, the fact that a minor girl is pregnant or has a sexually transmitted disease, is considered indicative that the girl was sexually molested.
Mountjoy said it is important to safeguard California's children from sexual predators. Under the provisions of his bill, he said, "health care providers must simply report to law enforcement any knowledge or reasonable suspicion that a minor is pregnant or has a sexually-transmitted disease. Law enforcement would take it from there -- investigate the report and, if they find evidence of child abuse, take measures to protect the child, and prosecute the abuser so he or she cannot continue the abuse or go on to abuse other children."
Mountjoy notes that current child abuse laws already require health care professionals to report suspected child abuse. "We expect health care providers to report physical signs of child abuse -- broken bones, burns, bruises," Mountjoy said. "It makes sense to have them also report specific signs of sexual abuse."
Mountjoy's bill will require officials to investigate a complaint within one week and issue a report. If there is evidence of child molestation, then law enforcement would be required to take the child into protective custody and file charges against the perpetrator. The bill also allows for civil remedies.
Rich Ackerman, an attorney with the United States Justice Foundation who has sued Planned Parenthood over their failure to report child sexual abuse, said that he is pleased with the bill. "The abuse of children is intolerable in a civil society. Being an abuse kid myself, I can't believe that anyone would have the audacity to say that it can be allowed to go on."
MANDATORY KINDERGARTEN. A proposed law that would lower the age for compulsory school attendance has been reintroduced by Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg. The bill, AB 56, if passed, will impose mandatory kindergarten for all California children who are at least five years old. Home schooling advocates are concerned that this call for mandatory kindergarten will usurp parental rights and heighten the possibility of mandatory pre-school for three- and four-year-olds.
Becky Burgoyne, a research writer with the Capitol Resource Institute, said, "making mandatory, all-day kindergarten is a first step to universal pre-school. It's a slippery slope. Also, given the budget crisis, isn't this just blowing wind?" she asked. J. Michael Smith, president of the Home School Legal Defense Association, said he was concerned about the bill. "We have opposed this and any lowering of the compulsory attendance age in any state, including California. There is no evidence that shows that it helps to have children attend kindergarten. Especially for home schoolers, we would have to begin educating children that aren't ready," Smith said in a telephone interview.
Smith said that advocates for the bill say that too often parents will enroll their children in kindergarten only to remove them after a short while, causing disruptions for the entire class. Smith said that last year his group "offered an amendment that would provide for this." Smith said that the language in the amendment said that after a certain period of time, children enrolled in kindergarten would be subject to compulsory attendance requirements. This would avoid forcing home schoolers from having to begin formally instructing their children while in kindergarten if the child is not ready for formal education.
Gary Davis of Assemblyman Steinberg's office did not return calls for comment on the bill. Those wishing to express their concerns about the bill can reach Assemblyman Steinberg's office at (916) 319-2009.
GUADALUPE VIRGIN NOT FOR SALE. The archdiocese of Mexico City on February 11 denied reports that it had sold use rights for the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe to a U.S. firm, said an Associated Press story. The archdiocese, however, admitted that it had considered the idea of selling the copyright for the image to Viotran, a firm which handles money transfers from migrant laborers to their families.
"The Virgin of Guadalupe is, quite simply, not for sale," said the archdiocese in a press statement. "The sacred image of the Virgin of Guadalupe is the patrimony of all Mexicans." The statement, however, acknowledged that "there exists only a contract proposal signed by both parties, but which was canceled by those parties."
'PEOPLE OF GOOD WILL may disagree on how just war principles apply in the current situation with Iraq," said a February 21 statement by Cardinal Roger Mahony; nevertheless, "it is clear that two fundamental moral questions are before us." The first question, wrote the cardinal, is "how to protect the common good by ensuring that Iraq complies with its obligation to disarm according to the legitimate directives of the United Nations resolutions;" the second, is "how to address this situation in a manner that respects traditional moral norms as outlined in the just war ethic." Mahony cited the November 2002 statement of the United States bishops against the war, as well as Pope John Paul II's urging of a diplomatic solution to the crisis.
Though four months old, said Mahony, the bishops' concerns remain valid, because, first, "those who would justify war must, according to just war principles, demonstrate that Iraq poses an imminent threat to its neighbors or the world community. To accept the notion that the preemptive use of force is justified in this case even absent an imminent threat of attack would create a dangerous moral precedent." Second, noted Mahony, "it is United Nations' resolutions that are being violated or shunned," and so "it seems appropriate. that the United Nations be the one to decide how to respond to issues of noncompliance." And third, "the United States and the United Nations must carefully calculate the possible consequences of military action" on the "long-suffering Iraqi population," as well on "an already volatile situation in the Middle East." Would war lead to the democratization of Iraq, or only serve "to further destabilize the region and fuel distrust of Western motives and intentions?" Would it "provoke the very attacks with weapons of mass destruction that it is intended to prevent? Would war be followed by "serious, long-term efforts to create a just peace in Iraq and the region?" The terrible and often unintended consequences of war require a sober and realistic answer to these and other questions.
Having noted that "legitimate alternatives to war include a renewed commitment to diplomacy and dialogue, a more robust inspection regime, and the continuation and strengthening of existing measures to contain and deter Iraq," the cardinal called on all parishes "to include in their weekend liturgies special prayers for peace."
IN THE WAKE OF PEACE DEMONSTRATIONS, worldwide, as well as in San Francisco and Los Angeles, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim and Jewish leaders met with peace activists on February 17 at USC Religious Center in a meeting, sponsored by Pax Christi, to discuss how to broaden the peace movement beyond protest against a war in Iraq. According to the February 18 Los Angeles Times, Father Felix Just, director for the Center for Religion and Spirituality at Loyola-Marymount University in Los Angeles, said, "in order to really advocate for peace you can't be against just one particular war. You have to look at the big picture and look at what war does to our country, to our society, to our world." Other speakers, said the Times, listed other causes that could fit into a broadened peace movement. These included nuclear disarmament, questions of human rights, and the effect military spending has on spending in education and in social services, such as the provision of health care and affordable housing.
Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, retired auxiliary bishop of Detroit, gave the keynote address on weapons of mass destruction and U.S. nuclear war policy. In an interview after his talk, Gumbleton shared his fears for the future of the peace movement. "There is no doubt in my mind," he said, "that across this country there's a public refusal to support the war. But I don't want to see what I am afraid will happen -- once the president says we're going to go forward [the public will say] now we have to support the president and support our troops. I think that would be a major moral disaster."