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ROAMIN' CATHOLIC
Contents © 2000
by Jim Holman.
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NEWS
SEPTEMBER 2000
FATHER RICHARD ALBARANO has left his post as director for the office for worship for the archdiocese of Los Angeles. He has been replaced by Kathy Lindell, who will assume Albarano's post of overseeing the implementation of Cardinal Mahony's pastoral letter on the liturgy, Gather Faithfully Together.
Lindell is no stranger to the office that she will direct. Until 1998 she served as associate director of the office for worship when she left to join the office's former director, Douglas Ferraro in the Junior Chamber of Commerce, a non-profit organization that organizes programs for at-risk youth. Ferraro had gone to work for the Junior Chamber of Commerce after leaving the office for worship and the priesthood.
According to the Wanderer, Father Kevin McCracken, who chaired the search committee for the office of worship, said of Lindell: "Kathy's overall sense of enthusiasm for liturgy; her understanding of liturgy as prayer and as a transforming experience; here real sense of commitment to the local community; and her previous experience in the archdiocese were all factors that impressed the committee."
An archdiocesan source has another take on Kathy Lindell. Lindell, this source said, "has absolutely no experience in the liturgy. I imagine by now she's gone to many of the typical liturgy classes offered by the archdiocese. She's a nice lady, but she has no clue about the liturgy!" The cardinal decided to bring Lindell back into liturgy office, said our source, because "she's compliant enough to actually try to implement his embarrassing liturgy letter. The archdiocese went through a 'show applicant search' to replace Father Dick Albarano, and she applied for the position. It's a joke among the priests that she will actually be heading that office. Now the office has no credibility whatsoever."
Father Albarano has been appointed pastor of St. Frances Cabrini Church in Burbank.
"FOLKS, COME ON OVER; there is plenty of room in Reform," exclaimed Pat Buchanan to the Reform Party convention, held in Long Beach. This exhortation to "come on over" was not directed to convention delegates, but to "those homeless conservatives who were locked up in the basement at the big Bush Family Reunion in Philadelphia."
In this August 14 speech in which he accepted the nomination to be the Reform Party's presidential candidate in the November 2000 elections, Buchanan laid out the points that would be the foundations of his campaign. Praising Ronald Reagan, who made "our world safer and freer than the world we grew up in," and America "as dominant as Rome in her day," Buchanan recognized a "deep anxiety, a foreboding within our people" that "revolves around these questions: Where are we going? How are we Americans using all this wealth, power, and freedom? Are we still God's country? What about the forgotten Americans of Philadelphia? I mean America's unborn children, another million of whom will die this year without ever seeing the light of day. For these lost innocents, there was barely a word of compassion from the party of compassionate conservatism. Well, Republicans may be running away from life, but as long as there is life left in me, I will never run away -- because their cause is my cause, and their cause is God's cause."
Buchanan drew attention to those he called "some of the other forgotten Americans at Philadelphia" represented by laid off steel workers in Weirton, West Virginia. Why were these workers laid off, "even though the U.S. economy was booming and U.S. companies were crying out for steel"? Because, said Buchanan, "cheap steel was being dumped into the United States from Russia, Korea, Brazil, and Indonesia so those bankrupt regimes could raise the cash to pay off the international banks. The workers of Weirton and their families were being betrayed by Bill Clinton and sacrificed to the gods of the Global Economy. I told those steel workers we would stand with them; and in one of the prouder moments of my life that union endorsed me, and joined our cause."
Voicing his opposition to the foreign interventionist policies of Bill Clinton and his predecessor, George Bush, Buchanan condemned the bombing of Serbia and the continuing sanctions against Iraq. In regards to Serbia, Buchanan admitted that though "Milosevic is a thug and a tyrant," is was not his country that we destroyed. The country, asserted Buchanan, belongs to the Serb people who "have always been friends of the United States." Saddam Hussein, too, said Buchanan, "is another wicked tyrant who has launched aggressive war and murdered his own people. But who has killed more innocent Iraqis? Saddam Hussein, or U.S. sanctions?" Noting the that the body count of children from the ten year sanctions had reached 500,000, Buchanan asked, "when did the greatest nation on earth start waging war on children?"
Proclaiming: "To hell with empire; we want our country back," Buchanan promised that his administration would move the United States out of the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, and the United Nations. "We are not isolationists," said Buchanan, countering a common criticism made against him; "but," he continued, "we will no longer squander the blood of our soldiers fighting other countries' wars or the wealth of our people paying other countries' bills. The Cold War is over; it is time to bring America's troops home to the United States where they belong -- and end foreign aid. And when I step out on that inaugural stand to take the oath -- when my hand goes up, their New World Order comes crashing down."
Buchanan said that the soldiers he will bring back from overseas, instead of "defending the borders of Kosovo, Kuwait, and Korea," will defend the "borders of Arizona, Texas and California" against illegal immigrants.
Buchanan also promised to lower taxes. His administration would eliminate death taxes, the marriage penalty and cut income taxes for all tax brackets. A ten percent tariff, he said, would be laid on all imports to eliminate all taxes on small business. "And," he vowed, "we will chop down the IRS until is so small all the IRS agents will fit into the building that is being vacated by the National Endowment for the Arts." A Buchanan administration, too, would oppose all discrimination and respect civil rights, said the candidate. For Buchanan, no discrimination means not being "against anyone because of color or creed; not [being] in favor of anyone because of color or creed."
"We will never restore a republic," said Buchanan, "unless we replace the 'commissars' of the U.S. Supreme Court, those un-elected judges, appointed for life, who answer to no one, and who have begun to erect a judicial dictatorship in America." Though George W. Bush has no litmus test for Supreme Court justices, Buchanan does. "When Supreme Court vacancies open up," he said, "only constitutionalists who respect the inalienable right of life of all Americans, and our religious heritage will be nominated -- and no liberal activists need apply."
Buchanan said he would also dismantle the Department of Education and "get God and the Ten Commandments, and discipline back into the public schools. Democrats, he said, will never do this, being "held hostage by the teachers' unions," just like the Republicans will never shut down the International Monetary Fund because "the corporate lobbyists would cut off their room, board, tuition, beer and gas money." The "political swamp" in Washington will never be drained by either party "because to them it is not a swamp; it is a protected wetland, their natural habitat. They swim in it, feed in it, spawn in it, and are as happy there as B'rer Rabbit was in his briar patch."
Why is Buchanan running on the Reform ticket? Because, he said, "there has to be one party that has not sold its soul for money. There has to be one party that will stand up for our sovereignty and stand by our workers who are being sacrificed on the altar of the Global Economy. There has to be one party that will defend America's history, heritage and heroes against the Visigoths and Vandals of multiculturalism. There has to be one party willing to drive the money-changers out of the temples of our civilization."
CONGRESSWOMAN LORETTA SANCHEZ (Democrat--Santa Ana) created a stir within the Democratic Party when she planned to stage a fund-raising party at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles on August 15, the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. On August 2, the Catholic League president, William Donahue, said that Sanchez "was quite vocal in denouncing George W. Bush's visit to Bob Jones University last winter, yet she is now orchestrating this event on a holy day of obligation for Catholics, the Feast of the Assumption." Sanchez had told "Meet the Press" that "George W. Bush's failure to condemn the anti-Catholic views of Bob Jones University is offensive to Latinos."
Within Sanchez' own party, there has been strong reaction to her choice of the Playboy Mansion. According to the Washington Times, Vice President Gore's spokesman, Chris Lehane, said that the Vice President is "not attending, participating, supporting, condoning or giving our imprimatur in any shape, way or form" to Sanchez's fundraiser. House Minority leader Dick Gephardt's spokesman, Fabiola Rodriguez, said that Congressman Gephardt "has no comment," and echoed the sentiment expressed by Gore's spokesman. "Mr. Gephardt will not be attending the party," she said.
On Thursday, August 10, however, the party took more decisive action against Sanchez. In a letter to Sanchez, Joe Andrew -- chairman of the Democratic Party -- told Sanchez that "as a father of young children," he had tried "to convey to you my dismay at the kind of message that this event would send. As the national chairman of the Democratic Party, I told you how Democratic state chairs, Latinos, leaders of women's groups and just plain Democrats have called and told me that this event was neither appropriate nor reflective of our party's values. But you refused to budge. While this is not a Democratic Party event nor is it sanctioned by our party and therefore I can't force you not to have it, I am hereby informing you that if you go forward with it, I will take actions in my capacity as party chair and president of the Democratic National Convention Committee." When Sanchez refused to move the fundraiser from the Playboy Mansion, the party removed her as a speaker at the convention.
The very next day, though, Sanchez capitulated and moved her fundraiser to B.B King's Blues Club at Universal Studio's City Walk. She was promptly placed again on the list of speakers. Slated to deliver a speech on Monday, August 14, she again surprised party leaders by refusing to speak.
Gloria Matta Tuchman, best know as the co-chair of the Proposition 227 campaign which ended bi-lingual education in California public schools, is challenging Sanchez for her congressional seat. Tuchman's campaign manager, Jarryd Gonzalez, told the Mission that the party at the Playboy Mansion was "vintage Loretta Sanchez."
The Sanchez re-election campaign did not return calls for comment.
ST. VIBIANA'S PRESERVATION for profane use has received some help from the state of California, according to a July 21 Los Angeles Times story.
In July the state legislature approved a grant of $4 million dollars to retrofit Los Angeles' historic cathedral. After the cathedral had suffered damage during the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the Los Angeles archdiocese had slated the cathedral for demolition, saying that the $10 million price to retrofit the cathedral would be too expensive. The Los Angeles Conservancy, who set the retrofit price at $4.76 million, got a court order to stop the demolition. Later, the archdiocese sold the cathedral property to Tom Gilmore for $4.6 million. Gilmore plans a development, which he calls "Cathedral Place," for the cathedral and its surrounding property. Gilmore plans to renovate the church into a performing arts center, while turning the old rectory into a hotel and restaurant.
The $4 million state grant will go towards the $5 million needed to retrofit the cathedral. Gilmore still needs another $40 million to redevelop the property.
The Times also reported that the archdiocese has outfitted its $169.6 million cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels with the latest in earthquake safety technology. The price for this technology? Four million dollars.
A NEW WORK of fine religious art has been placed at the entrance to Mission San Juan Capistrano's parish church -- the 5th Station of the Cross, Simon of Cyrene Helps Jesus Carry His Cross. The work includes two life-sized bronze statues, one of the suffering Christ and the other of Simon of Cyrene carrying Christ's cross to Mount Calvary. The sculpture is the creation of master designer and illustrator A. Wasil of San Diego, commissioned by the non-profit Via Dolorosa Society. Mission San Juan Capistrano is Orange County's only mission, one of 21 California missions founded by Spanish Franciscans in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The artwork will remain at the Mission church until all 14 Stations have been finished, perhaps in 2002, and then be relocated permanently, as a national shrine, to the grounds of Mission San Luis Rey in Oceanside. The finished shrine will include 80 figures. Mission San Juan Capistrano was initially considered as the location for the shrine, but due to limited space, Mission San Luis Rey was ultimately selected. Its 56 acres (more than five times larger than San Juan) include a knoll ideal for the stations.
The project is the brainchild of 81-year-old Peter Maturo, a retired physician, who first conceived the idea while visiting Jerusalem. He was disappointed to see that each of the stations there was designated by only a simple, plain marker.
"Throughout the world there are many shrines dedicated to various saints and the Stations of the Cross. However, none, I believe, depict the magnitude of the Passion in its fullness," Maturo explains. "My goal is to create these stations in life-sized, three dimensional sculptures. The stations would be designed so that the devoted can experience a sense of the presence by touching and mingling among the personages portrayed in each scene."
After an extensive search, Maturo found the appropriate sculptor in A. Wasil, who had years of experience with sculpting the human body and face in bronze. He founded the Via Dolorosa ("Sorrowful Way") Society to raise funds for the project. "I've never seen anyone with so much dedication," comments Via Dolorosa Society Vice President Walter Steidle. "Peter has put his entire effort into making his dream a reality."
Steidle, also retired, once worked in Orange County and came to know its only mission in San Juan Capistrano. It was his favorite of all of California's 21 missions -- having visited them all with wife Elaine -- and it was at his suggestion that the Capistrano mission was selected as a site for a station.
The project is an ecumenical one -- Steidle himself is Episcopalian, and a station was also placed at St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral, San Diego. Other locations include Mary Star of the Sea Church, La Jolla, and Mission San Luis Rey. A fifth station is planned for the University of San Diego.
With four Stations complete, Maturo is excited with the progress of the project: "It's been wonderful. I could die tomorrow [with the project incomplete] and I'd still be fulfilled."
Stations with two figures cost about $250,000 each to create; those with several cost much more. The total price tag of the project is expected to exceed $10 million. The Via Dolorosa Society welcomes donations. For additional information, contact Peter Maturo at (858) 551-1242, or at www.viadolorosasociety.org.
ST. ISIDORE'S CHURCH may be preserved, but not for religious purposes. According to an August 14 Los Angeles Times article, the 77-year-old church which has served as a religious and cultural center for Latinos in Los Alamitos may receive the needed seismic retrofitting to make it safe in earthquakes. Last year, the diocese of Orange closed St. Isidore's after much protest, saying it was not earthquake safe. Even after a group of Los Alamitos residents, calling themselves the Committee of Love, said they could easily raise the $300,000 needed to retrofit the church, the diocese still refused to re-open it [see "Evicted," October 1999 Mission].
Now that the Committee of Love has found a contractor who will retrofit the building for free so it can be used as a community center, new protests have arisen. Some residents of Los Alamitos want the church reopened for religious services, not used merely for community purposes. "We want a mission church like the kind they have in Oxnard, where they have religious services twice a month; not to betray the community and sell it out for a community center," a resident, Seferino Garcia, told the Times. However, there is little hope that the diocese of Orange will consider even that modest proposal.
WINDING ITS WAY THROUGH THE STATE legislature is a bill that would repeal the penal code sections that allow prosecutors to file charges against non-physicians or doctors whose licenses are suspended when they perform an illegal abortion on women in California. The bill, carried by California state senator John Burton (Democrat--San Francisco), was originally an elder abuse bill and was thought dead. Revived and readdressed, the bill was scheduled to go up for vote before the full assembly as early as the week of August 7.
Because the bill came so closely on the heels of the prosecution of Dr. Bruce Steir, some pro-life activists wonder if Steir's conviction had anything to do with the bill's introduction. "I think it's a desperate attempt on the part of the pro-aborts to cut down on the number of cases that can be filed against back alley abortionists," said Troy Newman of Operation Rescue West.
Bob Cielnicky of Life Priority Network said "I have often wondered how supportive the feminist movement is towards women. This bill gives us the answer. They [the feminists] support it and it's back to the back alley." Life Priority Network sent out an action alert, listing the names and numbers of key legislators to contact regarding the bill.
Riverside County prosecutor Kennis Clark, who successfully prosecuted Dr. Steir for murder in the death of Sharon Hamptlon, said that the repeal of these code sections would not affect the prosecution of abortionists who needlessly kill women because of their negligence: "Dr. Steir was charged with the murder statutes," she told the Mission. Clark added that she "didn't see the point" in repealing these statutes.
Senator Burton's staffer, Anthony Williams, told the Mission that he could not comment on the bill. The senator's press secretary, David Seaback, did not return a call for comment.
FROM DEMOCRAT TO REPUBLICAN. Congressman Matthew "Marty" Martinez, whose 31st congressional district cuts across the San Gabriel Valley, recently announced that he was resigning from the Democratic party and re-registering as a Republican. The 71-year-old Martinez suffered a defeat at the ballot box during the last primary election when California state senator Hilda Solis (Democrat--El Monte) handily beat him in his bid to retain the seat that has been his for the past 18 years.
Fabiola Rodriquez, the Hispanic media director for House Minority Leader Richard Gephart of Missouri, said Martinez's "decision to switch is confirmation that the district made the right decision [not to re-elect him]. We are looking forward to having Hilda Solis in Congress. She is going to be a very energetic member of Congress." Rodriquez said that Congressman Martinez "has been voting like a Republican" since the March primary.
Frank Venti, Mayor Pro Tem of Monterey Park, said that he hopes Martinez made the switch "for the right reasons and not just because of sour grapes."
Martinez's office did not return repeated calls for comment.