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ROAMIN' CATHOLIC
Contents © 1998
by Jim Holman.
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NEWS
JUNE 1998
FELONY CHARGES HAVE BEEN DROPPED AGAINST ABORTIONIST GORDON GOEI. Goei had been arrested at his home in Studio City on March 19 for suspicion of murder when investigators discovered the body of a third trimester unborn baby in a dumpster outside Goei's Centro Medico Family Planning clinic in Van Nuys. The District Attorney's office later dropped charges of murder against Goei, but charged him with illegally practing medicine and performing an illegal abortion, both felony charges. Goei's medical license had been suspended by the Medical Board of California as of March 13, 1998.
According to Bill Soucie of Helpers of God's Precious Infants who was present at Goei's preliminary hearing at the Van Nuys Court, Thursday, May 14, the judge dismissed all charges against Goei because she said the state could not prove that the abortionist had read his mail. The Medical Board had sent two registered letters to Goei's house and clinic to notify him that his license had been suspended. In addition, the Board had sent the two additional notices by regular surface mail. A witness for the defense, a man who lives with Goei and who takes care of Goei's house, said that he had picked up the registered letter at Goei's clinic. After opening the letter and reading it, the man stated that he decided to hide the letter from Goei since the abortionist, of late, had experienced so many difficulties, and he felt bad for Goei. The man hid the other three letters, with the first, in his room.
The preliminary hearing judge stated that since the state could not prove that Goei had read the letter informing him of his suspension, the state could not demonstrate that Goei knew of his suspension. Thus the March 19 abortion could not be considered illegal.
POLICE OFFICERS WHO DISCOVERED THE BODY OF A THIRD TRIMESTER BABY in a trash bag outside of Centro Medico Family Planning Clinic in Van Nuys were overwhelmed by the sight, said a long-time pro-life activist. The body of the child aborted by Gordon Goei was, says the activist, "torn into several pieces." The police officers reportedly said that this abortion was the most brutal case of child abuse they had ever seen.
Though originally reported to be 26 weeks at the time of death, the age of the baby--now referred to as "Baby Girl Sandoval"--was 30 to 32 weeks, according to the pro-life activist. Records also reveal that the child's mother had had four abortions previous to this last.
ACCORDING TO THE FEBRUARY 28, 1998 FEMINIST WOMEN'S HEALTH CENTER NEWSLETTER, a study done by the director of that group found that "nearly 90% of doctors of freestanding abortion clinics are on probation with the Medical Board." Despite this figure, few abortion injuries and deaths are ever investigated by state authorities, and the Medical Board does not discipline such abortionists or enforce a 1996 clinic accreditation law. So, ask pro-lifers, how did Riverside abortionist, Bruce Steir come to be charged with murder? And how was Van Nuys abortionist Gordon Goei charged with practicing medicine without a license and performing an illegal abortion? "It is our suspicion that Dr. Allred has connections to protect incompetent abortionists," says one veteran pro-lifer, "and if he just removes his protective hand, then the normal channels work."
In the world of California abortion providers, there are two major camps: the Allred camp, consisting of businessman-abortionists who work for or are friendly with abortion clinic and horse racing magnate Dr. Edward Allred, and the Feminist Women's Health Center camp. Interestingly, local pro-life observers point out, both Goei and Steir are on the "outs" with Allred and fall within the Feminist Women's Health Care camp. On the other hand, other abortionists, friendly with Allred (whose friendship with Governor Wilson and large political donations are well-known), have gotten off for worse offenses. The most egregious example of this was Leo Kenneally, who killed four women in a two-year period, and was prosecuted by the Medical Board, but whose license was reinstated by an administrative law judge on the grounds that he provided a "service" to low-income areas.
In response to the news that an Allred employee, Dr. Michael Morris of the Riverside FPA office (a local competitor for the clinic where Steir killed Sharon Hamptlon), will be testifying against Steir at the trial, a pro-life activist suggested: "What is driving this is economics. Abortions are down. It's a shrinking pie. As long as there was plenty of business to go around, the political infighting among the holders of differing pro-abortion ideologies didn't matter. But as the number of abortions declines year by year (and it's hard to say precisely why), then if a clinic is going to shut down for lack of business, I'm sure Allred is determined that he's not going to be the one to bite the dust and figures it might as well be somebody he doesn't like anyway."
However, Eileen Schnitger of the Feminist Women's Health Clinic main office in Chico and a committee member of the group's "Dr. Bruce Steir Constitutional Litigation Fund," says her group considers Family Planning Associates to be on their side in Steir's murder trial. She notes that Family Planning Associates made a donation to Steir's defense fund. Schnitger said she was unaware that an FPA doctor was going to testify against Steir. She did comment that the anti-Steir testimony of another local competitor, Dr. Eugene Albright from the Riverside Planned Parenthood office, might be motivated by a desire to put a competitor out of business.
THE EL NIÑO WEATHER PHENOMENOM HAS TAKEN A HEAVY TOLL on the poorest neighborhoods in Tijuana. The recent series of rainstorms brought by El Niño has claimed several lives, and devastated many buildings and homes in those areas. Among its victims are several members of San Jose Parish, which is located in an impoverished, outlying area of Tijuana. As a priest from the parish explained to the Mission in an April 18 telephone conversation: "I could show you things down here that would make you cry." Several of the parish's members suffered major damage to, or the total loss of, their homes. Those who have lost their homes have constructed makeshift shelters from wooden pallets of the type used in warehouses and factories for moving or storing large loads of material. According to the priest, their homes were modest to begin with, and most have families.
Mexico's Social Security system provides basic medical care and subsidized housing for its people. However, according to the priest, the system is inadequate. Long waits are required for medical care, and the system is often unable to provide the care needed. The housing program offers dwellings in crime-ridden complexes that are nonetheless so much in demand that they can only be obtained through a special lottery. Residents pay for it by means of payroll deductions. For these reasons, explained the priest, the parish would prefer to provide more direct assistance to its members who suffered losses from the floods. Donations for this cause may be sent to San Jose Parish, P.O. Box 434210, San Ysidro, CA 92143-4210.
PRIESTLY FORMATION IN THE ARCHDIOCESE OF LOS ANGELES is taking a new direction, as mandatory "convocations" featuring prominent speakers on the Catholic lecture circuit, replace the traditional-style annual retreats. Attendance at one of three convocations, to be held in June, will be mandatory for all priests of the archdiocese. Priests will also have fewer options in attending a private retreat, and may need written permission from Cardinal Mahony to attend a retreat of their choice.
Formerly, priests were required to attend one of three weeklong retreats hosted by the archdiocese at St. John's Seminary in Camarillo. They were also allowed one week of private retreat, at a location of their choosing. Now, in addition to attending one of the three convocations, they must select their private retreat from an approved list.
In the past, the annual retreats included traditional details such as silence, three daily conferences, Mass, Morning and Evening Prayers, Rosary, and Benediction. In recent years, however, according to one archdiocesan priest who asked not to be named, "The official retreats had become increasingly secular and were less and less like retreats. It seemed like the consensus was that it would be best to return to a more traditional style of retreat or simply acknowledge reality, and stop calling them retreats and rather call them 'meetings' or 'convocations.'"
Perhaps the most well-known of the featured speakers at the 1998 convocations are Sister Fran Ferder, FSPA and Father John Heagle. A sister/psychologist and a priest/psychotherapist, they co-direct a Seattle counseling center for priests and have co-authored several books, most recently Your Sexual Self: Pathway to Authentic Intimacy. In addition to speaking at the Religious Education Conference, Ferder and Heagle are frequent speakers at Call to Action conferences. Outspoken defenders of homosexuality, they are known for ridiculing the Church's teachings against all sexual activity outside of marriage, labeling such teachings as evidence of the Vatican's fixations at an adolescent psychological level.
The convocations have been slated for the weeks of June 1-5, 8-12, and 15-19, 1998.
PRO-ABORTIONISTS IN THE CALIFORNIA SENATE HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE shot down a March bill by Senator Richard Mountjoy which would provide minimal controls on the now unregulated abortion industry. Mountjoy's bill proposed that, in order for Medi-Cal to pay for an abortion, the woman must undergo a pregnancy test first, the abortion must be provided by a physician and that a one-hour waiting period elapse between the pregnancy test and the abortion. Pro-abortion Catholic legislators from Los Angeles who helped defeat the bill included Diane Watson, Teresa Hughes, Hilda Solis and Richard Polanco. Mountjoy said he sponsored the bill because a state investigation revealed that as many as 20% of Medi-Cal-funded abortions are performed on women who are not even pregnant. "This is just further proof of the low regard with which the abortion indusry holds women," said Mountjoy in his opening statement introducing the bill to the California Senate.
At the time of the Senate hearing, the Los Angeles Times published a report, run in many California papers, about California local abortion clinics known even to other abortionists as "chop shops," which provide cheap, assembly-line abortions and substandard care. According to the Times, many of the small number of cases in which charges are brought represent only the most egregious problems and reflect the difficulty in policing the clinics." Women who patronize such clinics are poor Latino women "who may not speak English or understand how to obtain free or low-cost abortions from other organizations."
ACCORDING TO AN APRIL 17 FAX RECEIVED FORM CATHOLIC FAMILY AND HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTE, certain initiatives before the 54th Session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland, are of grave concern to family and human life advocates. One such initiative is a resolution--the "Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups, and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms." This resolution, passed by the Commission on Human Rights, urges United Nations member nations not to interfere with human rights workers and to "facilitate their work and affirmatively protect them from interference by other citizens."
Concern stems from an article of the declaration that would allow "any individual or group to unilaterally declare new human rights, and would also allow them to reinterpret long established human rights in entirely new ways." Those who so interpret or reinterpret human rights would, then, receive special privileges and protection from the declaration. Protection "from interference by other citizens" could include shielding human rights workers from financial damage awards sought by citizens of the various countries affected by the declaration.
What "new rights" might find protection under the declaration? A May 8 fax from Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute reports that speakers on a Human Rights panel held in conjunction with the 54th session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights had as its theme that "modern culture is dominated by religion, tradition, and men, and there fore stands in contradiction to the rights of women." One speaker, Berhane Raswerk of the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices described how African governmental ministers signed a declaration condemning violence against women, including "enforced pregnancy," which, says the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, "feminists interpret to include the lack of access to abortion services."
For more information, contact Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute at 866 United Nations Plaza, Suite 4038, New York, New York 10017; (212) 754-5948; fax (212) 754-9291; e-mail: cafhri@cafhri.com.
CALIFORNIA ASSEMBLYMAN CRUZ BUSTAMANTE (D-Fresno), former Assembly speaker (December 1996 to February 1998), is running for lieutenant governor. In the June 2 primary election pamphlet, Bustamante says in his candidate statement, "I support a woman's right to choose." When asked by the Mission on May 13 if Bustamante identifies himself as Catholic, Bustamante campaign staffer Andy Martinez responded, "I believe so."
Bustamante's stance on the life issues, as chronicled in the Mission, has evolved from being "vaguely pro-life" ("The Best We Can Hope For," December 1996) to advising the entire Democratic Assembly membership to vote on the pro-abortion side of the May 1997 Wilson budget bill's taxpayer-funded abortion component and its pro-life amendments ("Catholics, Republicans Sabotage Unborn," July-August 1997). The latter issue of the Mission listed Bustamante among the legislators identifying themselves as Catholics who voted pro-abortion in that legislative battle.
The Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's 1974 Declaration on Procured Abortion stipulates the following: "It must in any case be clearly understood that whatever may be laid down by civil law in this matter, man can never obey a law which is in itself immoral, and such is the case of a law which would admit in principle the liceity of abortion. Nor can he take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law, or vote for it. Moreover, he may not collaborate in its application."
A RESIDENT OF NORTH HOLLYWOOD, LARRY CARSTENS, HAS DECIDED THAT ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. Carstens has written a draft of a document addressed to the Holy Father, a "Declaration of Loyalty and Grievance," that lists five grievances against the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The essence of Carsten's missive is contained in this excerpt: "...you [Pope John Paul II] and the Magisterium have loyal followers in Southern California. We affirm... our commitment to you and the Roman Catholic Church, over and above... the so-called 'American Catholic Church.' ...we remain loyal, obedient subjects to the office of his grace, the Cardinal Archbishop. However, our primary commitment is to the universal Catholic Church, and thus we are concerned about the direction [in] which the Los Angeles Archdiocese appears to be headed, which, in our view, is not in concert with the direction of Your Holiness. Since previous communications to the Cardinal's office (regarding these grievances) have been ignored, we now bring them to your attention...."
The grievances listed in the document include the "weeding out" of orthodox candidates for the priesthood by St. John's Seminary in Camarillo, the archdiocesan seminary; the archdiocese's suppression of Courage, an orthodox Catholic ministry to homosexuals in favor of its own "Gay and Lesbian Ministry," which downplays both the Church's teaching that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered, and the "hope of conversion and healing" for homosexuals; the endorsement by the archdiocesan newspaper, the Tidings, of the television series Nothing Sacred, deemed offensive by many Catholics, including the Catholic League; and the annual Religious Education Congress in Anaheim, which, says Carstens, "...has become a platform for dissenters...."
The declaration concludes, "We do not... recommend a course of action; we simply wish to bring our grievances to your attention." In a letter Carstens wrote to Cardinal Mahony explaining his reasons for writing the declaration, he tells the cardinal, "I have not written this declaration... in a spirit of judgment of Your Eminence as a person. ...but I can and should judge actions... and some actions in this archdiocese are grievously wrong and sinful.... If... you choose not to correct the abuses I have described... it will be my duty (to God and to you) to oppose you--without fear of the consequences... to pray for your conversion, and... encourage others in this archdiocese to do the same."
Carstens told the Mission, in a May 12 telephone interview, that by undertaking this initiative, he hopes to raise the consciousness of Catholics and make it clear to Cardinal Mahony that, in the event of a "division" in the Church, "...we stand with Peter."
To obtain a copy of the "Declaration of Loyalty and Grievance," write Loyal Catholics of Southern California, 8244 Laurelgrove Avenue, North Hollywood, CA 91605; or e-mail: larmarcarstens@compuserve.com. Once signed, the declarations should be returned to Loyal Catholics of Southern California, so that they can be submitted to the Vatican in October.
PAT BUCHANAN HAS BLAMED HIS LOSS OF THE REPUBLICAN NOMINATION IN 1996 ON ALAN KEYES. In an interview in the Spring 1998 Latin Mass magazine, Buchanan stated that "if Alan Keyes had not been in the race, I would have won the Republican nomination. I believe I would have won Iowa. I think he got eight percent and I think I would have gotten the lion's share of it."
In the same piece, interviewer Roger McCaffrey asks Buchanan "about what Keyes said in New Hampshire, which Terry Jeffrey quoted," that "Buchanan is 'trying to impose his Roman Catholicism on the country.'" Buchanan calls this alleged quote of Keyes "an overreation... to a statement I made, I believe, in the Iowa debate. He would quote Jefferson's 'inalienable right to life,' and I said that the right to life goes back a long way before the Declaration of Independence. It goes back 2000 years at least. And, frankly, I didn't say this, but I should have: the right to life would exist if Jefferson had missed the stagecoach.... But the truth is that those of us whose beliefs are rooted in biblical truths or Catholic teaching, or natural law, have the same right to try to have our views and values represented in law as those who get their views and values from Betty Friedan, or whomever."
Did Keyes lose the election for Buchanan? And did Keyes accuse Buchanan of crypto-ultramontanism? To the first charge, David Quackenbush, who works on the national Keyes 2000 Committee, says that, according to polling done after the Iowa caucuses, Dr. Keyes drew support away from Senator Phil Gramm, not Buchanan, and drew in new people who would not normally have participated. Very little of Keyes' support, says Quackenbush, came from supporters of Buchanan.
As for the second charge, Quackenbush says "Keyes never made this charge, or any other like it. Keyes repeatedly warned that if Buchanan did not make it clear that his pro-life position could be defended by appeal to commonly held American principles--best found in the Declaration of Independence--then he would risk making moral conservatism look like a private religious opinion, and not a philosophy drawn from principles binding on all Americans."
Quackenbush says Keyes pointed to his own Catholic faith and to a hypothetical case where he would impose his faith on all his listeners, Protestant as well as Catholic, so that they would "reflect on how they looked to non-believers when they base their political positions only on scripture." In fact, says Quackenbush, Keyes stated that no moral conservative "aims at religious domination" when he said "We cannot do it [bring Americans back to moral principles] in a way that suggests that we aim for religious domination, because none of us do."
For more information on the Keyes 2000 Committee, call 1-888-307-2526; or view their website at www.Keyes2000.org. Dr. Keyes also has a daily radio and television program, The Alan Keyes Show: America's Wake-up Call, available on America's voice television network, many cable systems, and also the Dish Network satellite television service. One may hear the most recent two weeks of the show on the internet at www.AlanKeyes.com.