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ROAMIN' CATHOLIC
Contents © 1998
by Jim Holman.
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NEWS
SEPTEMBER 1998
DOCTORS ADMITTED ROGER CARDINAL MAHONY to St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, July 24, after the cardinal experienced sharp pains in the lower rib cage, according to a July 28 Los Angeles Times report. Doctors discovered a blood clot in Mahony's right lung, a result of the prelate's June 15 surgery to remove a cancerous prostate gland. On Friday, July 31, Mahony was released after doctors successfully dissolved the clot.
A STOCKTON JURY HAS DECIDED that the Diocese of Stockton was guilty of ignoring evidence that a priest had been molesting children in the 1970s and 1980s. The jury awarded the plaintiffs, Joh (age 19) and James Howard (age 23) $29.2 million in damages, Thursday, July 16. The Howard brothers claimed that the diocese knew that the Rev. Oliver O'Grady, convicted in 1993 and serving a 14-year prison sentence for molesting the Howards, was a pedophile, and failed to take the proper precautions to protect potential victims. The Stockton diocese argued that, based on the psychological evidence available in the 1970s and '80s, they did not consider O'Grady to be a continued threat to children, and Roger Cardinal Mahony (bishop of Stockton from 1980 to 1985) testified on Friday, June 12, that he had no reason to believe the accusations of molestation were true. (See "A Severe Defect," July/August 1998 Mission).
"I'm ecstatic at the message," Joh Howard told reporters. "The money is so little when you consider the message it delivers." Laurence Drivon, attorney to Joh Howard, opined that "this is by far and away the largest verdict of this type in the history of the Catholic Church. If the church doesn't get the message from this one, they're beyond hope."
And, it seems, the Stockton settlement is the largest award of its kind. The jury awarded each Howard brother $12 million in punitive damages; in addition, both brothers received a combined $200,000 for future medical care and therapy, $650,000 for lost earning capacity, $3 million and $2.5 million respectively for past and future suffering, according to the Friday, July 17 Stockton Record. In the molestation case against the Diocese of Dallas, though the total dollar amount--$120 million-- was greater, it was divided among twelve plaintiffs, making the individual dollar share less than that of the Howards.
In assessing responsibility, the Stockton jury assigned 80 percent of the blame to the Diocese of Stockton, 20 percent to others, and none of the blame to Father O'Grady, according to the Record. "We ruled out Father O'Grady," juror Abraham DeLeon of Stockton told the Record, because "everybody decided he was a sick individual, and he couldn't stop himself. And there was the diocese that had this knowledge, and there were the parents."
Two hours after the verdict was delivered, Bishop Donald Montrose read a prepared statement in which he apologized to the Howards. "I wish to express my sorrow for the suffering that James Howard and Joh Howard and their family have undergone," he said, according to the Record. "I ask for forgiveness for this horrible evil that was inflicted on them.... I regret that we did not understand the depth of this problem. The diocese relied on mental-health professionals. Father O'Grady spent many years in therapy, and during this time, the diocese believed it was acting responsibly."
However, Bishop Montrose indicated that he thought the amount of the verdict excessive. "We are disappointed with the jury's decision to punish the diocese in a way which will effectively destroy virtually all the services provided by the diocese to its people and the community," said His Grace, according to the Los Angeles Times.
According to attorney Laurence Drinon, the diocese's insurance companies are forbidden to reimburse the diocese for the $24 million in punitive damages.
"MY GIFT IS TO APPROACH THE FACTS WITH PASSION for the common ground, looking for ways to create a conversation, for people to be walking closely to gay people, to hear their stories, their agony and joy," said Father Peter Liuzzi, head of the Los Angeles archdiocesan Ministry with Lesbian and Gay Catholics, in an interview published in the July 3 National Catholic Reporter, "Priest assists gays, lesbians in claiming rights of baptism." Described in the article as "'vilified' by the extreme right and perhaps misunderstood by the extreme left," Father Liuzzi warns against both directional extremes, calling Catholics to look beyond polarizations and to focus on baptism, the sacrament that, he says, gives gay and lesbians Catholics the right "to participate fully in the church."
The goal of his Office of Ministry With Lesbian and Gay Catholics, said Liuzzi, is to facilitate conversation between homosexuals and heterosexuals. Thus, he said, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles does not form support groups for gays and lesbians, but invites parishes to declare publicly that they are "open, accepting and inclusive to gay people." Six parishes in the archdiocese, says the article, have so declared themselves. Other parishes have declared a welcome status--offering special prayers for homosexuals, their families, and AIDS victims, as well as distributing pamphlets about homosexual ministry activities.
Liuzzi criticized the left/right polarization over homosexual ministry in the Church, which occurs when groups focus on agendas rather than issues and "the basic questions." "From the left," says Liuzzi, "it's until we recognize genital sex and gay unions as totally on the level, we are not going anywhere. And I think the agenda of the right is zero tolerance. It's either their way or get out.... Who takes that [zero tolerance] approach to anyone in the church today? If you did that with married people and birth control, you'd be finished."
Characterizing himself as a member of the "new left"--Liuzzi does not "have to fake respecting the teachings of the church"--Liuzzi described the Church as in the midst of a discerning process in its understanding of homosexual issues--a process that will be aided by the conversations among homosexual and heterosexual Catholics. "I trust as a loyal Catholic," said Liuzzi, "that the church will decide and discern, and one day the bishops will look at that discernment. The process has hardly begun. Where do people really know gay people and walk with them in the church? Everywhere I find polarization, and I don't think the conversation is happening."
While accepting Church teachings, Liuzzi said they are imbued with "Roman subtlety". "There are still many things to be said pastorally" on gay and lesbian issues, said Liuzzi, and in response to what NCR called "rigid orthodoxy," Liuzzi confessed, "I believe all of the church's teachings, but I also believe what the church will say in the future."
In a letter published in the July 31 NCR, Liuzzi sought to clarify what he meant by believing "what the church will say in the future." "I pride myself," wrote Liuzzi, "on my own fierce loyalty to the teachings of the church. I do not give mere lip-service to that teaching, I believe and accept it in my own heart. When I say that I also believe whatever else the church will say and teach, this is not to further any present agenda from left or right, but a simple understanding that whatever develops is always and only in accordance with the teaching authority of the church. My effectiveness rests on my own orthodoxy."
According to the July 3 NCR, Liuzzi is writing a book, With Listening Hearts, which will deal with ministry to homosexual Catholics. "The text," says NCR, "sprang from columns Liuzzi wrote on religion and faith for the Edge, a magazine run by a former Catholic about gay life issues." (Please see our article on Liuzzi's columns in the Edge, "The Outing of the Church," in the June 1998 Mission).
ROME HAS ORDERED THE UNITED STATES BISHOPS to make over 400 changes to the introduction to the new lectionary (slated to be in use in U.S. parishes by December 1998) and to remove an imprimatur to a 1995 translation of the psalter, according to a report in the June 19 National Catholic Reporter. The changes to the introduction (called the praenotanda) accompanied Vatican approval of Volume I of the new lectionary sent to Bishop Anthony Pilla of Cleveland, president of National Conference of Catholic Bishops, in December 1997.
The changes to the praenotanda, according to NCR, contained not only such small details as inserting the word "sacred" where the International Commission on English in the Liturgy had left it out, the capitalizing of such words as "Blood" and "Passion" when referring to Christ, but also "changes intended to make expressions more precise where Rome believed ICEL had mistranslated the original Latin." The psalter, said NCR, came "under fire for its use of inclusive language, such as avoiding masculine pronouns for God."
Some U.S. bishops saw the Vatican action as questioning the competency of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (which prepared the psaltery and lectionary, and to which the National Conference of Catholic Bishops belongs). At a March 24-25 meeting of the Administrative Committee of the national Conference of Catholic Bishops, one bishop, according to NCR, asked, "Doctrine is doctrine, but when the issue is the meaning of words, would the conference's work be frustrated by people who have less competence in the English language than the bishops do, or no competence at all?" Other bishops indicated support for Rome. NCR reported that Francis Cardinal George of Chicago stated that many American bishops are opposed to the work of the International Commission
Whatever differences they have with Rome, the U.S. bishops at their June 18-20 meeting in Pittsburgh voted 196 to 6 to submit Volume II of the lectionary to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments for confirmation. They hope the whole lectionary will be approved by 1999.
A REPORT ISSUED FROM THE CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL and Prevention stated that California still has the highest abortion rate in the United States, though the number of abortions has declined, according to a Catholic World News report. Though the abortion rate for California is 40 abortions for every 1,000 women, with the total number of abortions reaching 289,987, these figures are down from 1994 when California's rate was 43 abortions for every 1,000 women, with the total number of abortions at 308,564. Twelve other U.S. states have also reported a decline in their abortion rates.
SINCE JUNE, THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS has dealt with important abortion-related legislation, according to Catholic World News reports. On Wednesday, June 24, the House of Representatives voted 273 to 202 to amend the budget bill for agricultural and nutrition programs for fiscal 1998 to keep the Food and Drug Administration from considering the approval of drugs like the abortifacient RU-486. The entire agricultural bill passed by a vote of 373 to 48. The Senate bill, however, did not contain this provision.
On the same day, a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee approved a $475 million spending bill, requested by the Clinton administration, for the Commerce and Justice departments, but required that the funds be first authorized in a related State Department funding bill. The State Department bill links a ban on funding international abortion groups with the payment of United States dues in arrears to the United Nations. President Clinton threatened to veto any legislation containing that provision.
The House approved, on July 15, a bill, by a vote of 276 to 150, that would prohibit adults from taking underage girls for abortions across state lines to avoid parental consent laws. Though the bill passed with a substantial margin, it did not garner the two-thirds majority necessary to override a presidential veto.
On Thursday, July 23, the House voted 296 to 132 to override President Clinton's veto of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban--a vote well above the two-thirds majority required to override a presidential veto. With passage in the House assured, however, the override faces a difficult battle in the Senate where Catholic senators provided the crucial support for President Clinton's November 1997 veto of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban.
SIXTEEN SIGNERS OF THE "DECLARATION OF LOYALTY AND GRIEVANCE" (a public declaration of grievances against the Los Angeles archdiocese, addressed to the Holy Father) met on August 1 at the home of Larry Carstens in North Hollywood. Carstens originated the declaration, as reported in the June 1998 Mission. He called the meeting to discuss the undermining of orthodoxy in the Los Angeles archdiocese, ideas for gathering more signatures, and possible future projects. A wide range of age groups was represented among the attendees. Carstens himself is 33. One woman, who appeared to be under 30, opined that Catholics of her generation had been spiritually raped by older generations of dissenting, modernist Catholics.
The group agreed to form an apostolate called Loyal Catholics of Southern California, and made plans to meet monthly (see Mission Calendar section) and continue disseminating and gathering signatures for the declaration. It was agreed that persons supportive of the declaration who prefer anonymity could sign with an alias, or simply as "a friend of St. [a saint of their choosing]." It was further agreed that the Loyal Catholics will remain neutral regarding the authenticity regarding mystics and recent alleged Marian apparitions.
As defined in the mission statement Carstens read to the gathering, the Loyal Catholics' purposes include the following: to defend the Catholic faith as taught by the magisterium, of which Pope John Paul II is the highest human authority; to expose the corruptions of the so-called 'American Catholic Church' especially as they manifest themselves in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles; to raise the awareness of average, lay Catholics so that they may see and reject the error of 'progressive Catholicism' and those...who undermine the magisterium by teaching doctrines which contain half-truths or outright errors, while claiming some degree of authority in the Catholic Church.
Carstens' mission statement also anticipated the objections that "progressive" Catholics typically raise when confronted with orthodox Catholic initiatives. To the accusation of promoting disunity in the Church, Carsten counters: "It is the American Catholic establishment which has divided and disunified the catholicity of the Catholic Church, by gradually recasting the Church into the image of American popular culture....We work for unity with the whole magisterium....Any 'unity' which is not in full union with the magisterium is a false unity...."
Carstens is also prepared to respond to those who would label the Loyal Catholics as a right-wing fringe group: "We are traditional and orthodox as all true, loyal, informed and obedient Catholics are and always have been....If these figures [Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton and Archbishop Oscar Romero] were still living, they would be smeared as 'right-wing conservatives' by the same progressives who now exalt them as heroes, because whatever their political views, they were orthodox in matters of faith and morals."
To those who would describe the Loyal Catholics of Southern California as "pre-Vatican II," Carstens would answer as follows: "First, we accept the legitimacy of the Second Vatican Council, but we do not accept the dominant distortion of its teachings and documents. These are quoted and cited by the progressives in ways that usually do injustice to the spirit of the actual documents.... Secondly, we find it ironic that many who will accuse us of perpetrating disunity think nothing about promoting disunity between the past and present Church. There is no separate 'pre-Vatican II' and 'post-Vatican II' Church; there is only one, holy Catholic and apostolic Church...."
The Orange County-based Concerned Roman Catholics of America was represented at the meeting, and the two groups agreed on mutual support and information sharing. The possibility of networking and joint efforts with other orthodox, Catholic lay activist groups in other areas of the country was also discussed, along with several ideas for direct action in the archdiocese.
Carstens will continue collecting signatures until October 1998, a month he has chosen because it honors the Blessed Mother. To obtain a copy of the "Declaration of Loyalty and Grievance," write to 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 in a single mailing to the Vatican in October.
EASTERN CATHOLICS MAY ONCE AGAIN ORDAIN MARRIED MEN. On July 15, 1998, Archbishop Judson Procyk of the Byzantine Ruthenian Catholic Metropolia of Pittsburgh (which includes the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy [diocese] of Van Nuys, California) promulgated 59 statutes of particular law, which included a statute restoring the ordination of married men, according to the August 16 Horizons, the newspaper of the Byzantine Eparchy of Parma. The statutes were slated to take effect September 1, 1998.
This decision was made, according to Horizons, by the Council of Hierarchs of the Metropolia of Pittsburgh, in accord with the new Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches which grants sui juris churches the right to be largely self-governing. The Metropolia of Pittsburgh is such a church. The Council of Hierarchs says that in restoring a married clergy, they are merely returning to their ancient tradition--in accordance with the pope's intent expressed in the encyclical Orientale Lumen. The Council of Hierarchs stated that the 16th century Union of Uzhorod, which re-established communion between Rome and the Ruthenian churches, mandated the retention of a married clergy, and that the abrogation of a married clergy in the United States in the first half of this century greatly harmed the Ruthenian Church. (It led to a sizable schism, with some Ruthenian Catholics forming an Orthodox jurisdiction). The council also noted that the ordination of 100 married former Episcopal priests in the United in recent years, and ecumenical concerns vis-a-vis the Orthodox Churches, which have a married clergy.
Among the 59 statutes promulgated by Archbishop Judson, one statute forbids women to serve during divine services. Another dispenses the faithful from the holy day obligation when a holy day falls on a Saturday or Monday, Christmas excepted. A more controversial statute allows a limited number of laymen in each parish to distribute Holy Communion.
It is this last statute that has led some who would otherwise support the reestablishment of the eastern tradition of a married clergy, to be hesitant over the new laws. If the new laws, wrote a Byzantine monk, Maximos, on an Eastern Catholic e-mail discussion list, signify a return to authentic Eastern tradition, how does one justify the establishment of lay eucharistic ministers, which have formed no part of Byzantine tradition (Catholic or Orthodox) since the early church? Also, why in re-establishing a married clergy has there been silence on the renewal of monastic ascetic tradition, which, said Maximos, has always been the context in which a married clergy has existed? "Abandoning celibacy without embracing monasticism," wrote Maximos, "simply amounts to a further secularization of our Church culture."
According to the Catholic News Service, the promulgation of these laws by the Pittsburgh Metropolia might lead to a "showdown" between the Eastern Catholic Churches and the Holy See. The Holy See, in the past, has not favored the return of married clergy to the Eastern Churches, especially in predominately Latin Catholic countries. In May, the Holy See asked the Ukrainian Catholic bishops in Poland to cease using married clergy in that country.
"I CRIED ALL THE TIME while working on the series," said Bill Cane, S.J., in a May 17 talk he gave at Santa Clara University, as reported in the July/August 1998 issue of the San Jose-based radical feminist magazine, Catholic Women's Network. According to Cane, the creator and writer of the controversial television series Nothing Sacred, five completed episodes were never aired: a Jewish-Christian wedding, the Easter Vigil, sexual abuse by clergy, HIV and contraception.
Cane, unhappy that the series was cancelled, defended his show as an authentic representation of the Catholic Church, and noted that all episodes were submitted to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles for review. The script for the pro-abortion episode, he said, had no margin notes written on it by the archdiocese except a comment stating that the parish secretary who had the abortion would be excommunicated. Following the article was a plea by Catholic Women's Network to its readers to contact ABC-TV, to protest its recent decision to cancel the series. To order the full text of Cane's talk on Nothing Sacred, contact the Religious Studies Department of Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA 95053; (408) 554-4547.
DEBATE ON THE CREATION OF A UNITED NATIONS-sponsored International Criminal Court concluded in Rome, Friday, July 17, with the Rome Conference voting in favor of the court's establishment. The International Criminal Court would be a permanent legal entity to investigate and prosecute war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity. Since June 15, when the Rome Conference opened, debate has centered over the inclusion of the terms "enforced pregnancy" and "gender" in International Criminal Court articles dealing with war crimes, according to the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute. Both the Women's Caucus, a feminist group, and homosexual groups have fought for the inclusion of these terms whose insertion into the court's statute, say opponents, would lead to the international protection for abortion access and homosexual marriage under the court. Though in the past the Women's Caucus has admitted that "enforced pregnancy" refers, in part, to denial of access to abortion, the Rome Conference refused to admit that it would necessarily have the same meaning in the International Criminal Court statutes.
Both Catholic and Muslim countries led the fight against the inclusion of "enforced pregnancy" and "gender" in the International Criminal Court statutes. The Holy See, according to the Catholic World News service, joined forces with these countries in opposing the term "enforced pregnancy," saying that the term corresponds to no definition in international law. Though saying the Church has always opposed crimes against women, the Holy See insisted that the law should always define the terms for crimes that merit prosecution.
Though both terms were included in the approved International Criminal Court statute--which led feminist and homosexual groups to claim that access to abortion and certain homosexual rights agenda items are now recognized under international law--pro-life and pro-family groups say that these terms should cause no concern, since the definitions given them in the statute exclude radical interpretation. According to the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, the International Court statute defines "enforced pregnancy" as "the unlawful confinement of a woman forcibly made pregnant, with the intent of affecting the ethnic composition of any population or carrying out other grave violations of international law. This definition shall not in any way be interpreted as affecting national laws relating to pregnancy." Gender, according to the statute definition, refers to "the two sexes, male and female, within the context of society."
The Holy See played a key role in negotiating this compromise. L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's official newspaper, hailed the Rome agreement, saying that through the International Criminal Court the international community can offer "ever greater protection and wider expansion of human rights."
Though approved by the Rome Conference, the International Criminal Court still faces an uphill battle for approval. Key nations--the United States, China, India, and Turkey--voted against the statute, while 21 nations, including Russia, abstained.
For more information on the activities of the United Nations, contact 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. The institute has a website: www.cafhri.org.