NEWS
2003 NEWS STORIES
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ROAMIN' CATHOLIC
Contents © 2003
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
NEWS
JUNE 2003
CITY COUNCIL APPROVES "THE WALL." Saying it was difficult to contradict the wishes of their constituents (and several even calling themselves "courageous" for doing so), the Los Angeles City Council on April 22 voted 10-0 in favor of placing an AIDS memorial in Lincoln Park, according to the April 23 Los Angeles Times. Plans for the memorial, called "The Wall -- Las Memorias," met stiff opposition from Lincoln Heights residents, who said it took up park space in a city that suffers from too few parks. Residents also protested that the Wall would force sexual issues on children who play in the park and that it, thus, undercut parental authority. (See "The Wall," May Mission.) According to the Times, an opponent of the Wall at the April 22 city council meeting said that other diseases, such as diabetes, are a far greater threat to Latinos than AIDS. AIDS activist, Richard Zaldivar, however, argued that Latinos refuse to see the threat of AIDS and that the memorial is a necessary reminder.
The Wall, which has attracted the support of prominent Los Angeles leaders, has also, it seems, won the moral support of the archdiocese of Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Times has reported that the archdiocese has supported the project as far back as 1994. In a November 21, 2001 puff-piece on the project in the archdiocesan newspaper, the Tidings, Zaldivar is quoted as saying, "we got started by working with churches. Church, to us, is the foundation of our community and you can't do anything about HIV and AIDS without going to the churches. because you are community." Immediately following that quote, the article cites Father Chris Ponnet, director of the archdiocesan Office of HIV/AIDS Ministry. Said the Tidings, "according to Ponnet, one key focus of his ministry is 'to affirm the dignity of each and every human person.' As part of that goal, said Father Ponnet, there exists a calling to collaborate with other faith communities as well as secular organizations."
MORE DIOCESAN CUTBACKS. Citing a drop in investment earnings, the diocese of Orange announced on April 8 that it will slash spending by 20 percent beginning July 1, said the April 11 Los Angeles Times. The diocese, whose investment earnings went from $26 million in 1999-2000 to nothing in 2002, will eliminate jobs, reduce aid for poor parishes, and cut back on programs.
The archdiocese of Los Angeles, too, will also be cutting its budget. The cutbacks will probably include a hiring freeze and cuts in conferences, discretionary spending, and travelling expenses. Last September, shortly after opening the $189 million Our Lady of the Angels cathedral, Cardinal Roger Mahony announced a budget shortfall of $4.3 million -- for which he eliminated diocesan programs, reorganized others, and laid-off about 60 workers. In January 2003, the archdiocese announced that the shortfall had increased to $13.4 million, in part because of $7.7 million in one-time costs, a large portion of which pertained to the clergy sexual abuse scandal.
BALANCE THY BUDGET! "It's just clear that pastors can't operate with chronic deficits, and the [diocesan headquarters] can't either. We have to adjust our budgets," said Orange's bishop Tod Brown after meeting with pastors of the diocese's four poorest parishes, said the April 11 Los Angeles Times. One of these pastors, Father Bill Barman of Our Lady of La Vang in Santa Ana, said that Brown told him to pay back by the end of June the $50,000 his parish owes to the diocese or lay off his staff of two full-time and one part-time employees. Barman has asked another parish in Rancho Margarita to take up a collection for his staff. Our Lady of La Vang averages $3,200 in donations weekly -- $1,000 short of what it needs for its operating expenses. Barman said his congregation of mostly working-class people can not make up the shortfall.
The diocese of Orange has instituted a program to encourage more affluent parishes to take up occasional collections for poorer parishes. But, Barman told the Times, the program does not go far enough. "If this was Mexico, I'd have no problem with it," said the priest. "But this is Orange County."
"THE NEEDS OF THE POOR keep increasing, especially because of the bad economy," Susan Weight, director of the Cardinal McIntyre Fund for Charity, said in the May 2 Tidings. The fund, established in 1951 by Cardinal James Francis McIntyre, provides one-time financial help to those who need shelter, emergency food, medical care, or funeral assistance. "The needs of the poor keep increasing, especially because of the bad economy," Weight said. While last year's collection of $441,531.27 is the highest ever, it wasn't sufficient, said Weight, who said requests for assistance totaled $488,037.78. Sister Maryanne O'Neill, who directs the Brother Andre Center in Los Angeles and administers the fund at the site, said that this year funding requests will probably be 10 percent higher than last year.
A VIETNAMESE PRIEST has been chosen to serve as auxiliary bishop for Orange diocese, said the May 2 Tidings. When consecrated on June 11, Monsignor Dominic Dinh Mai Luong will become the United States' second Asian bishop and its first bishop of Vietnamese origin. The Orange diocese is home to 32,500 Vietnamese Catholics. It has, said Monsignor Luong, the largest population of Vietnamese, both Catholic and non-Catholic, outside of Vietnam. The total Vietnamese population in Orange County numbers about 136,000.
Born December 20, 1940, in Minh Cuong, Vietnam, Monsignor Luong attended seminary in Buffalo and Rochester, New York. He was ordained a priest in Buffalo in 1966 for the diocese of Da Nang, South Vietnam. In 1976, Luong became director of the Vietnamese apostolate in New Orleans, where he was incardinated in 1986. Monsignor Luong not only worked with Vietnamese immigrants but served as vocations counselor, as a member of the priests' council, and head of a deanery for the New Orleans archdiocese. He became pastor of Mary, Queen of Vietnam Church in 1983 and, in 1989, the director of the National Center for the Vietnamese Apostolate.
LOS ANGELES COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPUTIES pulled over a box body truck displaying pictures of aborted babies near Dodson Middle School in Rancho Palos Verdes last March, said a May 7 WorldNet Daily report. Saying that displaying such pictures violated a California law that prohibits "disruptive" activity on streets adjacent to schools, the deputies stopped and searched the truck, driven by two members of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform. The deputies warned the drivers not to return to the environs of the school with the pictures. The Center publicly displays pictures of aborted children on trucks and on banners pulled by airplanes to spread the message that abortion is murder. The Center goes to middle and high schools because students there are old enough to have abortions and are not fully informed of what abortion entails.
On April 17, the Thomas More Law Center of Ann Arbor, Michigan, filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, claiming that the sheriff's deputies violated its First Amendment free-speech rights. "Regardless of how one feels about these disturbing photos, [the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform] has a constitutional right to display them," said Robert Muise, associate counsel with the Thomas More Law Center.
HOLLYWOOD AGAINST HOME SCHOOLING? A mainstream television program will promote false stereotypes of home schooling families, the Home School Legal Defense Association reported on April 23. A midseason replacement comedy, "The O'Keefes," will feature a home schooling family whose parents one television review cited by Home School Legal Defense describes as "loving but eccentric parents who've home schooled their three children to protect them from the loud and libidinal world." Yet, despite the parents' "ban on all things pop culture," their three children grow "increasingly curious about what lies beyond the walls of their school/dining room. They can speak six languages, but are unable to converse with kids their own age. The answer lies in their father's worst nightmare -- public school." The father' s reasons for home schooling his children, said Home School Legal Defense are his paranoia that if they attend public school they'll be bullied by other kids and recruited into the CIA.
Home School Legal Defense protested to the show's producer, Warner Brothers, that the sitcom perpetuated the false stereotype that home schooled children are badly socialized. Warner Brothers, however, replied that the four episodes of the program had been filmed and that it had no plans to pull the show or revise the episodes.
ONLY DEATH. NO DIGNITY. New footage examining the application of Oregon's "Death with Dignity Act" has been edited for release. The official report of assisted suicide in Oregon admits the practice has become much more widespread and even includes the caveat that it does "not include patients and physicians who act outside the law."
Brian Johnston's documentary film Death As A Salesman: What's Wrong With Assisted Suicide has been updated with documentation of the abuses. "I suppose you could call it a 'director's cut,'" said Johnston, the director of National Right to Life's Western Office in Sacramento. "I was particularly concerned that the abuses in Oregon be made known. There are so many facts about the death of vulnerable patients that the state's 'official reports' tend to gloss over."
Recent revelations of widespread abuse and non-reporting in the Netherlands have also come to light. "All of the 'public discourse' seems to glibly report that it is a 'controlled and compassionate situation,'" said Johnston, "but nothing could be further from the truth."
The documentary includes interviews with Kenneth Stevens, Oregon oncologist and president of Physicians for Compassionate Care, and Gayle Atteberry of Oregon Right to Life, as well as Joni Earackson, Johnston Derek Humphry (co-founder of the Hemlock Society), as well as numerous others on both sides of the issue.
Filmed throughout the world, the 30-minute documentary is an overview of the debate. It is structured for viewing in a classroom or discussion group setting. The film is available for $21.95 on VHS or DVD from New Regency Publishing: (800) 266-5639.
"THE POPE AND THE BISHOPS have articulated a prophetic vision. War is not the answer. International law is the appropriate place to resolve conflicts," said Father Chris Ponnet, according the April 25 Tidings. Father Ponnet was arrested on Ash Wednesday for blocking traffic at the intersection of Temple and Los Angeles Streets in protest of the war in Iraq. He began serving a 45-day jail sentence in Los Angeles on April 23. He and others were arrested Ash Wednesday for praying and singing in the street and blocking traffic at the intersection of Temple and Los Angeles Streets, near the downtown federal building. Ponnet is head Catholic chaplain at County USC Medical Center, pastor of St. Camillus Center for Pastoral Care, and co-director of the the Los Angeles chapter of Pax Christi. He told the Tidings, "I believe that this war is immoral and unjust, and I needed, as a religious leader and priest in the church, to be vocal and visible about our opposition."
Four others, Catholic Workers, are also serving time for the Ash Wednesday protest. These include Jeff Dietrich, who has been in jail since March, and his wife, Catherine Morris.
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH awarded citizenship posthumously to Guatemalan Marine, Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez, who was killed in battle at Umm Qasr in Iraq on March 21. According to an April 8 Catholic News Service story, shortly after celebrating Gutierrez's funeral Mass on April 8, Cardinal Roger Mahony wrote a letter to President Bush asking him to extend citizenship to all non-citizens serving in the military, not only to those who have died. President Bush also granted citizenship to Cpl. Jose Angel Garibay, a Mexcan native who had been living in Costa Mesa.
A LESBIAN STUDENT may sue the Banning Unified School District for violating her constitutional rights, the federal district judge in San Francisco declared on April 4. The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Center for Lesbian Rights filed the lawsuit in behalf of Ashly Massey, a student at Susan B. Coombs Middle School in Banning, after a teacher dismissed her from gym class after a student claimed Massey was a lesbian. Massey says that for two weeks she was forced to sit in the principal's office during gym class, without explanation. According to the January 10-16 L.A. Weekly, Massey's teacher, Karen Gill, said she dismissed the girl from class because having a lesbian in the locker room made the other girls uncomfortable.
According to an April 4 Gay/Straight Alliance news release, the Banning Unified School District tried to have the case dismissed, claiming it did not know that barring Massey from gym class was illegal. Federal judge Audrey Collins, however, called the district's argument "disingenous" and "utterly misguided." Judge Collins said, "the law has been clearly established for several years that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation gives rise to an Equal Protection claim."
IN AN INTERVIEW with the L.A. Weekly (January 10-16, 2003), Ashly Massey said she knew she was a lesbian when she was 12 years old. "I always had a feeling that I was different, but then one day I knew that I had an attraction to girls, and it stuck, and guys were out of the picture," said Massey. "I have an aunt who says she knew when I was 7, though," she continued, "She told me I was always dressing like a guy, and I never wanted to be out there with the girls. I've always been a tomboy." Massey said she did not "come out" right away, but waited until she was thirteen. "We lived in Palm Desert then, and I already knew a lot of gay kids, and they were out," she said. "They have a gay and lesbian youth group there. So I came out then to some of my friends, and then also to my family. My mom didn't really believe me at first. I had hinted at it before, but at first she didn't think I was serious. But when she understood that I meant it, she was really cool about it. I give my mom a lot of props."
Massey said she now attends a "much more laid-back" high school in Beaumont. She said she does not attend school dances but explained that "the gay and lesbian student association in Palm Desert is trying to raise money to have a prom so girls can just dance with girls and boys can dance with boys and gay kids can relax and enjoy themselves and not feel ashamed of it."
AN OXNARD POLICE OFFICER, Manuel Vega, and a group of former altar boys have filed a lawsuit against Father Fidencio Silva, 53, claiming that the priest who served at Our Lady of Guadalupe church in Oxnard from 1978 to 1986, molested them when they were boys, said a March 28 Los Angeles Times report. Silva, a Missionary of the Holy Spirit, is currently in Mexico.
Vega, though, also "filed" a protest against the archdiocese of Los Angeles and Cardinal Roger Mahony. During Holy Week this year, Vega slept on a small, folding bench chair, not far from the entrance to the plaza of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles and carried on a bread and water fast. Vega wants the archdiocese to release to prosecutors confidential personnel files of priests, which the archdiocese has thus far refused to do.
Vega told the April 25 National Catholic Reporter, that his experiences have made him and his wife, who have two children, hyper-sensitive. "It tears me up inside because from my life experiences and as a police officer I've seen there are two pillars in life that we lean on. One based on family and the other on religion," said Vega. "And when one's lacking or both lacking, that's when we're having problems. Now, as a Catholic parent, I want to believe things will get better. In the end," he continued, "I'm interested in bettering my church. I think the leadership here is lacking. This should have been handled a long time ago. The police are moving forward. This is a pivotal time."
MOLESTATION ROUNDUP. A well-respected priest of the San Bernardino diocese, Monsignor Peter Luque, 67, was accused on April 22 of sexually abusing two boys over 30 years ago, said an April 22 Associated Press report. Luque, who most recently served as pastor of St. Edward's church in Corona, has been accused of molesting one boy in 1963 and again in 1966, and of abusing another several times between 1967 and 1969. The San Bernardino diocese put Luque on administrative leave in 2001 after it provided authorities with a hitherto unreleased accusation against the priest. Later, the second alleged victim came forward and accused Luque of abuse.
San Bernardino County prosecutors will not press charges against Father Peter Covas, citing lack of evidence, said a May 1 Inland Valley Voice report. Allegations against Covas, who served at St. Peter and St. Paul parish in Rancho Cucamonga, surfaced in February 2001; a 42-year-old man claimed that Covas had carried on a sexual relationship with him for ten years, beginning in 1974 when he was 14 years old. The accuser's credibility, however, was put in doubt since an elderly woman is currently prosecuting him for fraud. Father Covas, however, was arrested in 1987 and 1988 for public lewd conduct. Covas, put on administrative leave last year, will not be restored to public ministry.
An Orange diocesan priest, Denis Lyons, 69, was arrested April 25, said the April 26 Los Angeles Times. Lyons has been accused of having molested a teenage boy for three years, beginning in 1978. Lyons, it is alleged, had other victims. Diocesan officials say that in 1993 Lyons admitted to "inappropriate behavior" with two men while he was pastor of St. John the Baptist in Costa Mesa. In 1994, parents complained to the diocese that Lyons had molested their teenage sons in 1979. The diocese sent Lyons for counseling, but he was not removed from ministry because, said the diocese, the two brothers' allegations could not be proven.
Father Honesto Bismonte, 78, of St. Joseph's church in Pomona, was ordered to face trial on April 22 for allegedly fondling the breasts of two sisters, said the April 23 Inland Valley Voice. In the preliminary hearing, though, a man who had been dating the two girls' aunt said that the older of the girls was given to lying. "She would do anything to anybody that would get in her way," the man, Michael Thompson, testified. "If it wasn't the accusations that were made against the father, it would be against me."
BRAVO MAHONY. In calling on the United States bishops to rethink portions of their sexual abuse policy adopted at Dallas last year, the president of the National Federation of Priests Councils, Father Bob Silva of Stockton, commended Cardinal Mahony. According to the May 7 Los Angeles Times, Silva, addressing the federation in Kansas City, Missouri, said Mahony did well in his refusal to turn over to prosecutors some confidential personnel documents of priests accused of molesting minors. Bishops, said Silva, must exercise "further vigilance" in protecting priests' reports and, therefore, the priests' reputations. "Even as the mood of the country makes the defense of civil rights the subject of editorials, within the church the right to confidentiality, the right to reputation, the right to application of justice within a reasonable amount of time, the right to appropriate defense are items needing more consideration," Silva told the federation. Prosecutors attempts to look at priests' confidential documents, said Silva, violated the Church's freedom of religion.
MOUNT SAINT MARY'S COLLEGE in Los Angeles invited two pro-abortion congresswomen to give the commencement address to the class of 2003. On May 10, Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez (D-Santa Ana) and her sister, Linda Sanchez (D-Lakewood), who have a 100 percent pro-abortion voting record, addressed the graduates at the college's Brentwood campus.
Demonstrators, carrying large signs and pictures of Our Lady of Guadalupe, stood outside the campus gates protesting what one demonstrator, Delia Cruiso, called "the total hypocrisy of Loretta Sanchez being a speaker at this Catholic graduation event." When the Sanchez sisters arrived on campus, the number of protestors was about 70.
In a press statement issued by the college, Don Davidson, director of communications and marketing, said that the selection of the commencement speakers was "a collaborative process that begins with nominations by our students and by members of our Board of Trustees, which comprises of many prominent Catholics." Davidson added that the college "recognizes that the selection of any elected official can create controversy, particularly among those whose opinions differ on public policy issues. The freedom to dissent is at the heart of our democracy and of the academy."
Joe Starrs of the American Life League, one of the demonstrators, said, "we had a good turn out." Starrs said that they were especially pleased with the "huge poster we had of the picture of Loretta with Hugh Hefner, in the March issue of Playboy." When told that the graduates had given Sanchez a standing ovation, Starrs said, "it's very sad, very sad."
Monterey Park councilman Frank Venti, who attended the commencement, reminisced, "in the forties, I was taught by the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet [the order that runs Mount Saint Mary's]. They were so orthodox back then. I was at the ceremony and I was not impressed with them [the Sanchez sisters] speaking at the college. It's a disgrace," he said.