NEWS
1999 NEWS STORIES
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ARTICLES
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ROAMIN' CATHOLIC
Contents © 1999
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
JUNE 1999
A JUST WAR. In a radio interview on National Public Radio, Roger Cardinal Mahony said the NATO air assault on Yugoslavia "probably has crossed that threshold" for a just war, according to the April 30 National Catholic Reporter. In an April 13 interview on National Public Radio's "Talk of the Nation" program, Mahony said that, although "no war is ever black or white" or "totally just or unjust," "this particular war has probably gone over that edge already."
Quoting a transcript of the interview provided by Catholic News Service, the Reporter gives two of the criteria cited by Cardinal Mahony to justify the NATO war. "There were incredible negotiations and efforts made to halt this," said the cardinal. "All the time the Albanian Kosovo people have been suffering greatly. There just seems to be no other way to halt that continuing assault upon innocent people, and that does then nudge the conflict into the just war category. Certainly when every effort has been expended to try to find a justifiable, peaceful means through negotiations to end the problem, and that fails and human lives are at jeopardy, then one is able to take actions necessary to halt that."
Mahony's endorsement of the NATO campaign was echoed by the bishops of England, according to an April Catholic World News report. The bishops' statement read: "War is a failure. But we have to remind ourselves that enormous numbers of people were being murdered, expelled from their homes, and-- more recently and more alarmingly -- raped in order to expel them from their own district."
Cardinal Mahony's statement came only 12 days after the eight United States cardinals, including Mahony, sent a letter to President Clinton asking him to use his "influence to bring about a cease-fire." In the letter, dated March 31 and issued April 1, the cardinals wrote: "We associate ourselves with the suggestions expressed to the member-states of NATO and the U.N. Security Council by the Holy See. There must be no time lost in an effort to return to the negotiating table. The efforts of these negotiations must seek to guarantee the populations of Kosovo a degree of autonomy which respects their legitimate aspirations, according to history and law." The cardinals also wrote to President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia, asking him "to urge an immediate cessation of Serbian military and police operations against the population of Kosovo," and to urge his government's "cooperation in accord with international conventions, with those agencies wishing to provide emergency assistance to the population of Kosovo."
While the Vatican had not at Mission press time declared on the justice of the NATO air war, the pope's calls for peace stand in marked contrast with the statements made by Mahony and the English bishops. On May 2, according to a Zenit news service report, Pope John Paul II, in the midst of a talk on the newly beatified Padre Pio, turned his thoughts to Kosovo. "I raise my voice again to implore, in the name of God," said the Holy Father, "that this attack by man against man come to an end, that the instruments of destruction and death be stopped, that all channels of aid be activated to help those who are obliged to leave their land in the midst of unspeakable atrocities. That dialogue be renewed, with the intelligence and creativity that God has given man to resolve tensions and conflicts, to build a society based on the respect due to every human person."
CALLING IT UNFAIR COMPETITION, local, independent funeral directors in Los Angeles have attacked the Archdiocese of Los Angeles for its contract with a funeral service conglomerate to build mortuary complexes in six of the eleven archdiocesan cemeteries, according to a May 3 Catholic World News report. As the Mission reported in our May 1998 issue ("Catholic Cemetery Superstores"), the Louisiana-based chain, Stewart Enterprises (one of the "big three" mortuary chains) will build "one-stop shopping" mortuary centers that will include full-service flower shops, visitation and arrangement rooms, and after-service reception areas, visitor lounges and family meditation rooms. Four will include chapels.
Catholic World News quoted John J. Horan, the owner of five funeral homes in Denver, who said that the number of his funerals dropped from 800 to 500 a year when similar Catholic funeral homes opened there. "The Church should not engage in competition with private enterprise," said Hogan.
ALLEGEDLY THREATENING TO KILL CARDINAL MAHONY, an ex-altar boy has been forbidden by court order to come within 100 yards of the archbishop, according to an April 20 Los Angeles Times report. On March 11, thirty-five year old Michael Patrick Falls of Azusa allegedly told an employee at Charter Oak Hospital in Covina that upon his release from the hospital he would assassinate Mahony. On April 20, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Richard E. Denner granted an injunction against Falls.
Falls was among eight other former altar boys who accused now-deceased archdiocesan priest Father Ted Llanos of sexually abusing them for over 20 years, beginning in 1973. As reported in the April 1999 Mission, these alleged victims in March called upon Cardinal Mahony and the archdiocese of Los Angeles to apologize for Llanos' acts and to pay for therapy. The archdiocese has refused to do both.
FATHER GREGORY COIRO, press liaison for the archdiocese of Los Angeles, may host a talk show for the new Catholic Family Radio network (in Southern California, heard on KPLS-AM 830), according to a May 13, 1999 Los Angeles Times story. According to the Times, Father Coiro is working with the network's Los Angeles marketing director to revive the "Religion on the Line" program that, for 30 years, had aired on KABC-AM (790). "It'll be the same format -- priest, minister and rabbi," said Coiro. "If it happens," said Coiro, "I will host it."
According to the Times, Catholic Family Radio's core weekday programming currently includes Alan Keyes, from 6-9 a.m.; a clinical psychologist, Dr. Ray Guarendi, who calls himself a "Catholic 'Dr. Laura,'" 9 to 11 a.m.; and former California attorney general and gubernatorial candidate, Dan Lungren, noon to 3 p.m. John T. Lynch, president and CEO of the network, told the Times that he is negotiating with the "God Squad" on ABC's "Good Morning America" -- Father Tom Hartman and Rabbi Marc Gellman -- for a place on the network's weekly or daily schedule. Boston Mayor Ray Flynn, a Democrat opposed to abortion, may also come on as a national host.
Lynch told the Times that the network is "trying to make the world a better place in which to live, make some money while doing it, and...to create the largest 24-hour talk network in the history of radio."
THOUGH ONLY LAST FALL the United States House of Representatives voted to cut funding for the United Nations Population Fund, the House was again considering restoring funding, according to a April 30 report issued by the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute. The House cut funding when the Population Fund announced that it was returning to China after repeated promises to stay out of that country. China, notorious for its one child per family policy, is noted for its coercive population control programs.
In mid April, San Jose, California Republican representative Tom Campbell introduced a bill in the House International Affairs Committee, which voted to appropriate $25 million in funding for the Population Fund for the next fiscal year. According to the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, "the vote to refund UNFPA will be the first pro-life vote for this Congress. Pro-life staff members are concerned since this Congress lost pro-life members in the last election."
The United Nations Population Fund argues that the availability of contraception and abortion in the developing world is necessary to save women's lives. The Population Research Institute, based in Virginia, disagrees. Women's lives will be saved, argues an Institute report, "Money for Nothing," not by greater availability of contraceptives, but by improved health care and medical services. In fact, says the report, "the indiscriminate distribution of contraceptives to women in the developing world, who are often malnourished and in poor health, is dangerous to their health." Bangladeshi women given Norplant, says the report, suffered "serious side effects" they were not warned about, such as "continuous bleeding, weakness in the limbs, severe pain, and blurred or double vision."
For more information, contact the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute at 866 United Nations Plaza, Suite 4038 New York, New York 10017; phone, (212) 754-5948; fax, (212) 754-9291; e-mail, cafhri@cafhri.com; website, www.cafhri.org.
IN A LETTER TO THE FRIENDS OF THE MINISTRY TO LESBIAN AND GAY CATHOLICS, Father Peter Liuzzi outlined some of the activities in which the Los Angeles archdiocese's outreach to homosexuals has been involved. According to the April 21, 1999 letter, in March Father Liuzzi had participated in a roundtable discussion regarding the Defense of Marriage Act which was sponsored by the California Conference of Catholic Bishops. Father Liuzzi cautioned the council of bishops against their proposed support of the bill which guarantees that marriage be defined to include only a man and a women. "I have urged our bishops to be cautious and restrained in their support, safeguarding their pastoral responsibilities and concerns for lesbian and gay Catholics and their parents.... Jim Schexnayder and Terri Lacino from the National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries were also participants in at the Sacramento meeting. I was pleased that we had such representation." In the same letter Father Liuzzi reports that a parents support group has been formed in Santa Barbara, with Father Larry Dowdel serving as chaplain. Additionally, the archdiocese has another parents support group in Simi Valley with Father Mike Carcerano serving as chaplain. Father Liuzzi continues to serve as the chaplain for the Los Angeles area parent's support group. "The more I think about it, I believe that parents are our greatest source of energy for change in our Church," Liuzzi recounts.
Father Liuzzi says in the letter that he is planning to attend the June 12-13 gay pride parade in West Hollywood. There he will set up a Christopher Street West booth in order to reach out to "inactive gay and lesbian Catholics." At 10 a.m. there will a be a Mass at St. Ambrose's church in West Hollywood, "celebrating all our gay and lesbian Catholics." In August, the ministry will host their annual barbecue for the parents groups and parish groups at Amat house. Father Liuzzi closes his letter with, "Don't forget to check out our website address at http://mlgc.la-archdiocese.org."
THE HIDDEN FACE OF OUR INTERNATIONAL ECONOMY. According to a May 2 Zenit news service report, the International Workers Organization has reported that the exploitation of child labor is far greater than originally estimated -- and exists even in first world countries. In the document, "Child Labor: the Intolerable View," the International Workers Organization stated that "some 250 million children, varying in ages from 5-14 years, work in developing countries, virtually double the original estimate." There are some 120 million who work full time, and 130 million who work part time. 61percent of these children live in Asia (153 million), 32 percent in Africa (80 million) and 7 percent in Latin America (17.5 million). "There is also evidence of child labor in industrialized countries," stated the document, and, "the problem is emerging in many countries of Eastern Europe and Asia, which are in a period of transition towards a market economy."
The exploitation, says the International Workers report, extends even to the selling of children."There are 'proprietors' who buy children for their tenants,' or for whom 'employers' pay rural families in advance in order to put the children to work in textiles, glass factories or prostitution," says the report."This child slavery was denounced sometime ago, although it is officially denied both in South and Southeast Asia as well as West Africa."
As to their employment, the report states that children all over the world work in agriculture, mixing, applying, or carrying "pesticides, fertilizers and herbicides which are often very toxic and potentially carcinogenic." Child labor is used also in mines in many countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America. "There is information," too, says the report "that three-year old children work in match factories." In Asia, there are many children who work in the fishing industry, "diving into deep waters or on board vessels." Every year, many of them die by "drowning, in decompression incidents or very high atmospheric pressures, or attacked by carnivorous fish."
PARENTS REMOVED THEIR CHILDREN last December from James Merrick's eighth grade classroom because, according to the March 19 Los Angeles Times, his "mannerisms were distracting and the language he used in front of the students was suspect." Additionally, the parents were upset by the way Merrick, an openly gay teacher in the Bakersfield area, spoke out on gay issues and brought his partner to class. Merrick's openness about his homosexuality set off a firestorm in the tiny, one school Rio Grande-Greeley Union school district last summer when Merrick had a dispute with a member of the Kern County Human Relations Committee regarding homosexuality. At that time, Merrick disclosed that he was homosexual.
Reacting to the school district's approval of transferring students out of his class, Merrick filed a complaint with the state labor commission alleging discrimination based on his sexual orientation. In March of this year, a state labor commissioner ruled that the school district had discriminated against Merrick because of his sexual orientation. The school district was ordered to apologize to Merrick and consult with a committee, that includes Merrick, which will instruct school personnel on how new policy will be implemented. Merrick will not return to the classroom. He is scheduled to finish the rest of the school year writing a science curriculum and then retire from teaching. Merrick is the father of four grown children by his wife of 45 years. He currently lives with his male partner.