NEWS
1997 NEWS STORIES
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ROAMIN' CATHOLIC
Contents © 1997
by Jim Holman.
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NEWS
SEPTEMBER 1997
TWENTY-THREE-YEAR OLD ALIYA PEERZADA of Ojai, a former student of Thomas Aquinas College, filed suit against the college in May. The third-year student was expelled in December 1996, when she refused to stop spending nights with her fiancé. The suit states that Peerzada's right to privacy entitles her to "engage in a personal, intimate and private relationship with her fiancé," a right which the college allegedly violated.
The lawsuit maintains that "no TAC rule or regulation prohibited such conduct" as Miss Peerzada's. However, the college's Student Handbook for the 1996-97 school year explicitly states, "The College assumes that students will respect the standards of Christian conduct," and that "when these canons are violated, the College has the right to dismiss a student at any time." The Handbook includes "misconduct off campus" as a potential reason for expulsion.
"Giving scandal is a sin," said Peter DeLuca III, vice president for administration and finance and a founder of the college. "Therefore, the college has to be careful about how it behaves, and not even give the appearance of condoning actions that contradict its principles, because that can lead people to say, 'Well, even they don't stand up for their principles, therefore I don't have to.'"
The college is confident that the suit's outcome will be favorable. "We're quite confident that we're in the right and that the courts will find it that way," said DeLuca. "We have legal counsel about whether we can make rules like that; we had legal counsel at the time we made them. We have, therefore, every reason to think that we are well within our rights. We've done everything we reasonably could have to make sure our rules were written in such a way as to be clear and defensible. They're certainly within the scope of the kind of rules colleges can make."
DeLuca feels the considerable publicity generated by the lawsuit has been "very fair," with the exception of one wire story that listed only Plato and Marx as authors studied at the liberal arts college.
Peerzada is the first student to sue the college in its 26-year history.
THE JUNE 13, 1997 TIDINGS announced Father Thomas Rausch's receipt of the 1997 "best popular presentation of the Catholic faith" award from the Catholic Press Association for his book Catholicism at the Dawn of the Third Millenium. Rausch, chair of the Theology Department at Loyola Marymount University and a member of the Tidings advisory board, gave one of the most controversial talks at the February Religious Education Congress, sharply criticizing Scott Hahn, Karl Keating and other "fundamentalists," whom he says are leading people away from the true teachings and attitudes of the Church. Rausch was challeged during his talk by a number of young people and a nun who defended Hahn and Keating.
A July 25 Tidings feature assures us that, while many Catholics are confused about what they are supposed to believe about the Eucharist, Father Rausch "makes it a point to emphasize to his undergraduate students at Loyola Marymount University that the real presence of Christ is actualized in the Eucharist during the Mass." The piece lamented a recent survey in the Diocese of Rochester, New York, where 34 percent of Catholic Church attendees believed in the Real Presence, while 63 percent thought the Eucharist is just symbolic of Jesus. In the article, Fr. Rausch quoted the Catechism of the Catholic Church that "by the word of Christ and the invocation of the Holy Spirit" the bread and wine become Christ's body and blood."
THE ROMAN CATHOLIC FAITHFUL, originally a group of laypeople fighting ecclesiastical corruption in the Diocese of Springfield, Illinois, has branched out. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles is among several dioceses to be subject to an in-depth investigation by RCF. Over 300 people attended an August 10 meeting near Santa Barbara, officially opening RCF's scrutiny of alleged ecclesiastical abuses in the archdiocese. A letter from author Father Malachi Martin was read at the meeting, giving his blessing to RCF's "Los Angeles Project."
Said Martin: "Even though we are sure we always will have a Pope of Rome until the end of all human time, it is still a sad scene... It is not a question of mere heresy--false teaching--nor of schism as a revolt against authority. This, my friends and fellow Catholics, is the darkness of apostasy: the systematic evacuation of basic Roman Catholic dogmas by those in charge of teaching the Faithful."
Martin praised RCF and said that Mahony "will be reminded by the voices from 100,000 throats: that he is only one of over 4,000 bishops in the Church, all of whom--like him--are subject to the infallible teaching of the papacy, past and present; that, while by papal permission, he has jurisdiction over the Los Angeles archdiocese, he has no personal jurisdiction over the Church Universal and its dogmas....Let no Catholic shrink from admonishing priests, bishops or Cardinals, if they act in ways that are irreconcilable with the Faith of our Fathers. This is Papal teaching, this is the teaching of the Church Councils, this is the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas: We have an obligation to do so."
Roman Catholic Faithful plans to scrutinize the actions and teachings of "diocesan bishops and administrators". "Litigation and public exposure," says their "Plan of Action for the Los Angeles Province", "are the tools we most likely will need to use."
Contact Roman Catholic Faithful at: PO Box 109, Petersburg, IL 62675. Web site: www.rcf.org
THE PRO-LIFE SHOPPING GUIDE lists more than 100 corporations and 3,000 subsidiaries that support abortion. Call Dr. Jean-Francois Orsini at (202) 686-0849 or download the guide from http://www.ewtn.com/antonin/listab.htm.
HOW L.A. ABORTIONIST JAMES MCMAHON, inventor of the partial birth abortion procedure, was given a Catholic burial at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, was detailed in a December 1995 Mission article. His wife, Gail, a nurse who assisted him in his abortion clinic, and who still works to promote partial-birth abortion through the Jim McMahon Memorial Fund, has purchased a plot next to McMahon's, with her headstone already installed.
In August, Mrs. McMahon sold her late husband's Eve Surgical Center (two locations: National Boulevard in Los Angeles and Craftsman in Calabasas) to abortionist Christopher Dodson.
MISSION SAN JOSE COMMUNITY, a Charismatic Covenant community, launched a new magazine in June, California Mission. The publication focuses on the life and work of Blessed Junipero Serra, exploring ways in which the vision of the early California Franciscan missionaries can be applied today. Other issues covered will include preparation for the Jubilee Year, Marian devotion, and the teachings of Pope John Paul II. The community operates under spiritual direction from Father Gerard Beigel, S.T.D., associate pastor of St. Leonard's Church in Fremont and former professor at USF's Ignatius Institute. Subscriptions are $16/year (6 issues). Write: California Mission, PO Box 24589, San Jose, CA 95154.
WHAT'S A PRELATE TO DO? As if it were not enough that the Los Angeles Conservancy blocked His Eminence, Roger Cardinal Mahony's plans to build his new cathedral complex at Second and Main in downtown Los Angeles, the cardinal now faces a possible obstacle at his new 5.8 acre cathedral site between Temple and Hill Streets, the Hollywood Freeway and Grand Avenue. According to the August 8 L.A. Times, worried that the $50 million Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels might be built atop an ancient tribal burial site, the Gabrieleno-Tongva Tribal Council asked on August 7 that archaeological testing be conducted on the site. Said Lilian Robles, a Native American leader, "I have no objection to the cathedral, but don't do it on the bones of our ancestors."
According to the Times, fragments of an ancient skull were found on the site in 1957. The tribal council thinks more graves might be found, along with artifacts of a Gabrieleno settlement. The Council's request for a delay in the preparation of the city's environmental impact report was denied by the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, though the CRA allowed for an archeological team to monitor excavations.
What will the archdiocese do with but another group concerned over their historical heritage? Monsignor Terrance Fleming, the archdiocese's vicar general, said he thought that satisfying Gabrieleno concerns need not conflict with the September groundbreaking.
FAMILIES TRAVELING SOUTHBOUND on the 710 Freeway on their way to the August 1-3 St. Joseph Communications National Family Conference at the Long Beach Convention Center passed a giant billboard depicting a used, broken condom, asking, "Need emergency contraception? Call (888) NOT-2-LATE."
A call to the hotline reveals it is a referral service for doctors and clinics willing to prescribe oral contraceptives in high enough dosages to cause an early abortion (by preventing implantation of an already-conceived embryo). The 24-hotline is operated by Princeton University's Office of Population Research.
The Emergency Contraceptive Hotline's advertising campaign, run by Reproductive Health Technologies, Inc., is targeting five markets: Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle, Chicago and Miami. Advertisements are in Spanish and English. According to press information on the ECH website, the campaign is being conducted to try to prevent the "more than 3.5 million unintended pregnancies every year" in the United States--one and a half million of those end in abortion each year.
People concerned about ECL's advertisements can contact: Harold Shapiro, President, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, (609) 258-6100; fax (609) 258-1294; and the Office of Population Research (same address) at (609) 258-5510. Complaints to billboard companies posting the advertisements might also be effective.
PARISHIONERS AT OUR LADY OF SOLITUDE parish in Palm Springs recorded several meetings of the Confirmation class, hoping to get the bishop to take action against the new pastor and his liturgical and theological innovations.
An excerpt from an April Confirmation class meeting:
TEACHER: Is there such a person as a horned devil with a pitchfork and a tail in some fiery place called Hell?
STUDENT (CYNTHIA): Yes, yes there is.
TEACHER: No! I went to this one church one time and, like, the pastor was saying, "Hell is in the middle of the Earth." ...The best thing I can teach you as teacher and help in teaching is just let you guys know not to be stupid--to look past that and have an open mind. That's the best thing we can do without having to be ignorant....There's no such thing with two horns and a pitchfork!
CYNTHIA: Yes there is!
TEACHER: Oh, that Cynthia!
CYNTHIA: I believe that, ever since I was little.
TEACHER: Okay, I always believed in a lot of stuff when I was little. That doesn't mean I believe it now.
The class finished the day with the usual "trust" exercise where each student must close his eyes and fall backwards into the arms of another student.
ROLLAND LOWE, M.D., President of the California Medical Association, sent a July 7, 1997 memo to all members of the state House and Assembly, stating CMA's uncompromising support of all late-term abortions. "In a society where values are assaulted on every side and technology often seems to replace human relationships the bond between healer and patient is ever more important. Any prohibition on this medical procedure [late term abortion] would be one more step in eroding that relationship." This opinion was unsolicited by the legislature, and no late-term abortion bills were being considered at the time of the memo.