NEWS
2002 NEWS STORIES
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ROAMIN' CATHOLIC
Contents © 2002
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
NEWS
OCTOBER 2002
THE TWO FACES OF MAHONY. Though Cardinal Roger Mahony has been able to cultivate the public persona of a reformer in the area of diocesan sex abuse policy, the cardinal's "level of deceit parallels that of Cardinal (Bernard) Law." So said Minnesota attorney Jeffrey Anderson, who has represented more than 400 clergy abuse victims nationwide, according to an August 18 San Francisco Chronicle report. While the Chronicle admitted that Mahony has "been more aggressive than many U.S. bishops in dismissing members of the clergy" (he "quietly removed 17 priests from the ministry over the past decade"), still, the paper reported, the cardinal for many years has withheld from authorities information on accused clerics and even allowed some clerics facing prosecution to flee the country.
According to a Los Angeles Times investigation, since 1985, five archdiocesan clergy fled the country after hearing of allegations of abuse leveled against them. One priest disappeared. Of the six, two fled after a top aide to Mahony told them of the allegations, and a third was told to join the priesthood in the Philippines (by former vicar of clergy, now auxiliary bishop, Thomas Curry, according to a September 8 L.A. New Times report). In February of this year, amid the furor over clergy sexual abuse of minors, Mahony dismissed two convicted sex offenders; yet, the two priests had been allowed to serve as priests in parishes within walking distance of Catholic elementary schools. The archdiocese informed neither the administrators nor the parents in the schools that the priests were convicted sex offenders.
According to law enforcement sources, the archdiocese, said the Chronicle, now faces indictments of 15 current and former priests on charges of sexual abuse. In July, two men brought a class action suit seeking millions of dollars against the archdiocese. In all, reported the Chronicle, since Mahony became archbishop in 1985, 32 priests and one deacon have been accused of molesting minors. Seventeen are currently under investigation by law enforcement.
JUST WEEKS BEFORE THE DEDICATION of its $200 million cathedral, Our Lady of the Angels, the archdiocese of Los Angeles revealed that it would have to cut its ministry and education budgets by as much as 30 percent, according to an August 12 Associated Press report. Stock market losses, coupled with settlements of clergy abuse cases, have forced the cuts. According to Cardinal Roger Mahony, endowments for scholarships for Catholic elementary and high schools, along with archdiocesan operational costs have been particularly hard hit by the stock market losses.
BUT WE'LL STILL HAVE THE CATHEDRAL. The estimated $3.5 million a year operating cost of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels will probably not be affected by the archdiocese's budget costs. Along with the sale of burial plots in the crypt (starting, according to reports, at about $50,000 a shot), the parking fees in the cathedral complex's parking garage should keep things humming at Grand Avenue and Temple Street. According to Steve Lopez's August 30 column in the Los Angeles Times, the cathedral parking garage charges $2.50 for every 20 minutes, with a $12 a day maximum. This changes after 5 p.m., when only a flat fee of five dollars is charged. Mercifully, Mass attendees can get their parking validated.
SAINTS RUPERT AND RICHARD, PREY ON US! According to a September 7 L.A. New Times article, two big money moguls and contributors to the cathedral have bought burial spaces in the cathedral's crypt. One of those whose bones will rest in hallowed ground is the non-Catholic news magnate Rupert Murdoch. In 1998, Cardinal Mahony made Murdoch and his Catholic wife a knight and dame of the Pontifical Order of St. Gregory; the following year, Murdoch divorced his wife and married a 31-year-old woman. Ex-Los Angeles mayor Richard Riordan will also rest below what some have called the Rodge Mahal, according to the New Times. In his failed campaign for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, Riordan championed a woman's "right" to abortion. Like Murdoch, Riordan is also divorced and remarried.
Tod Tamberg, the spokesman for the Los Angeles, did not respond to our requests to verify this report.
AND SPEAKING OF THE CATHEDRAL. In his homily, September 3, for the dedication of the cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Cardinal Mahony made passing references to the Eucharist after speaking at great length on the transforming power of the Word in the lives of Los Angeles Catholics. "A Cathedral," said the cardinal, "achieves its destiny when the mystery of the Church is fully lived out: in the gathering of God's People; in the celebration of the Eucharist and the sacramental life of the Church. Every Eucharist is both a gathering and a sending, and both are only possible by the prior action of God." And, said Mahony, the Eucharist ranks with the Word of God in importance. "The power to become a new spiritual house of the Lord flows from the Word of God," said the Cardinal, "but just as potently, that grace emanates from the celebration of the Eucharist. The power of the Eucharist is expressed symbolically and spiritually through the concentric stone floor circles that begin at the base of the altar and eventually envelop everyone in the cathedral" [emphasis added].
MAHONY'S ACCUSER ACCUSED. Prosecutors in Stockton have leveled charges of filing a false claim against a man who in June claimed that Cardinal Mahony molested him in 1982 while Mahony was bishop of Stockton, according to a September 5 Catholic World News report. After a three-month investigation, prosecutors have charged Loren Mitchell Saffels, 34, with extortion, filing a false report and other crimes. Prosecutors say Saffels has a criminal history of fraud and theft, including grand theft from an employer and passing worthless checks. Saffels has pleaded innocent to these charges and is being held on $200,000 bail.
BILL SIMON'S FLIP-FLOP? Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon "has softened his position on domestic partnership laws," according to an August 28 San Francisco Chronicle report. A Campaign for California Families news release has reported that Simon signed a pledge on February 6, 2002 in which he said he would "refuse to support 'domestic partnerships,' 'civil unions,' or any kind of relationship that compares itself to the sacred bond of marriage between a man and a woman." Yet, as reported by the Chronicle, in a questionnaire from the Log Cabin Republicans (a pro-homosexual group), in August Simon allegedly wrote that, though he stands by the February statement, he believes "that human beings enter into relationships with other human beings and that some of those relationships are deserving of recognition, not as the equivalent to marriage or as a substitute for marriage, but in order to allow two individuals who have established a strong caring relationship to more fully function within that relationship." The same questionnaire also has Simon saying that he did "not believe that sexual orientation should be a factor in the recognition by the state of such relationships." According to the questionnaire, Simon also said he would not be in favor of undoing any domestic partnership laws passed during the Davis administration; rather, he "would be open about adding rights and responsibilities as would be appropriate and justified."
According to the questionnaire, Simon voiced his support for a Gay Pride Day in 2003 and said he would "support the continued recognition and involvement of gay Republicans in state party activities." Simon said he "would back a state party charter for the Log Cabin (Republicans) of California."
Though the Campaign for California Families and other conservative groups were angry over Simon's support for homosexual causes, Senator Ray Haynes defended the Republican candidate. In an article posted on CatholicExchange.com, Haynes wrote that the questions posed by the Log Cabin Republicans "were awkwardly written and mislead many readers of Bill's true position on issues." Haynes said that he had spoken to Simon, who said that "unlike other candidates, I will not alter or shade my position based on what I think you want to hear or because it might help me get elected. In the primary campaign I stated that marriage is an institution that should remain between one man and one woman. And that's what I believe."
CHANGE OF HEART? The August 28 San Francisco Chronicle reported that the Rev. Lou Sheldon with the Orange County-based Traditional Values Coalition was disappointed with Simon's answers to the Log Cabin Republicans' questionnaire. "I spent months with Bill Simon touring Anglo and Hispanic churches where he vowed support for traditional values," Sheldon reportedly said. "His responses on this questionnaire tell me otherwise." Yet, in a September 3 e-mail "Action Alert," Sheldon referred to the Log Cabin questionnaire as "supposedly approved by. Bill Simon." Sheldon then included a letter written by Simon to Ray Haynes in which the gubernatorial candidate said that he continues to support Proposition 22's guarantee that marriage shall refer to a union of man and woman and that he does not believe that "other relationships should be elevated to that of marriage." In the letter, Simon said he opposes "creating a special class of domestic partnership laws that is defined by sexual orientation or preference" and that he does not support a proclamation for Gay Pride Day.
DID HE, OR DIDN'T HE? Though Simon's letter referred to his "strongly held pro-family views that have recently been mischaracterized," it never stated that the answers to the Log Cabin questionnaire were not his own. The September 4 Bakersfield Californian reported that the Republican Unity Coalition, formed to promote ties between homosexuals and heterosexuals, dropped Simon from a fundraiser with Mary Cheney, Vice-President Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter, because the gubernatorial nominee reneged on his support for gay issues voiced in the Log Cabin questionnaire. Simon had been scheduled to appear at the fundraiser with Mary Cheney.
In a September 3 interview on a Los Angeles radio station, Simon distanced himself further from the Log Cabin questionnaire. "The questionnaire," he said, "had not been reviewed completely by myself, I didn't see it. There were certain statements in there that I just can't support." According to the Californian, however, the questionnaire bore Simon's signature.
TAKE A TOKE WITH BILL. Along with domestic partnerships, Bill Simon has reportedly said he supports the medical use of marijuana. The Log Cabin questionnaire has Simon saying, "I supported the medical marijuana initiative, Proposition 215, when it was on the ballot in November 1996. I know that the federal government is opposed to the measure. As Governor, I would seek to find common ground with the federal government so that we can avoid politicizing this issue and instead rely on medical evidence in implementing the will of the people of California."
SIMON AND HOME SCHOOLING. A September 9 Los Angeles Times story noted Bill Simon's support for home schooling. The day after Labor Day, the Times noted, Simon "toured the Calvary Christian Center School in Sacramento, where he complained that state regulations impede home schooling." This is one of the signs, the Times intimated, that Simon was out of touch with California's "moderate voters."
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN. AMEN. On September 9, a California state appeals court ruled that the Burbank city council may not open their meetings with prayers invoking any specific deity. The three-judge panel voted unanimously that prayers using specific religious references violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
According to the September 11 Inland Valley Voice, the case arose when Irv Rubin attended a Burbank city council meeting in November 1999 and heard a Mormon minister conclude his prayer with the words, "in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen." Rubin brought the matter to court, and in November 2000 a Los Angeles County judge ruled that such prayers constitute an establishment of religion. The appeals court upheld the lower court's verdict.
Other cities are now toeing the line. Diamond Bar has asked clergy who officiate at city council prayers to give generic, ecumenical invocations. When Paul Lehman-Schletewitz, until recently the pastor of the Walnut Brethren in Christ church, heard this news, he objected. Said Lehman-Schletewitz, according to the Voice: "Basically what they're asking us to pray to is to pray to nobody in particular. If you ask for the blessings of nobody in particular, don't be surprised if you get the blessings of nobody in particular."
THE CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE, during its summer session, debated and passed a number of bills which could undermine the family and the protection of human life. One bill (AB 727) would prohibit "anti-abortion extremists" from posting the home addresses of individuals (e.g. abortion clinic doctors) on web sites. Another bill, passed by the senate (AB 2194), would require all hospitals with designated rape crisis centers to offer "emergency contraception" (such as the abortifacient RU-486) to rape victims. Democratic senator Deborah Ortiz (Sacramento) has three pieces of legislation before the senate: one permits the destruction of human embryos for their stem cells (SB 253); the second establishes a panel to advise the state legislature on stem cell research (SCR 55); and the third asks the United States congress and the president to reject any bills prohibiting stem cell research and the cloning of human embryos for research. Senator Betty Karnette (D-Long Beach) introduced a resolution (SJR 51) asking Congress and the president to reinstate $34 million in funding to the United Nations Population Fund. In July President George W. Bush pulled this funding from the Population Fund because it underwrote coercive population controls in China.
GIVEN GOVERNOR DAVIS' RECORD, several pro-homosexual bills will likely receive his signature. One (AB 2215) grants domestic partners the same inheritance rights as married couples, and another (AB 2777) would grant domestic partners of county employees survivorship benefits equivalent to those enjoyed by spouses of county employees. A third bill expands the category for domestic partners in the probate code (which deals with wills). Another bill (AB 2651) would require foster parents of homosexual and "transgendered" children to undergo sensitivity training and would forbid "harassment" of such children (such as, perhaps, taking them to a church which teaches that homosexual acts are immoral).
ABORTION IS UNHEALTHY. According to a survey done by the Elliot Institute of Illinois of 173,000 low-income women in California, women who have abortions are more likely to die within two years of the procedure than are women who give birth. Yahoo!'s HeathScoutNews, which conveyed this news from the Southern Medical Journal on September 5, said that women who have aborted are more likely to die from suicide, accidents and natural causes than are women who give birth.
POMONA SCHOOLS SQUELCH RELIGION? The Pomona Unified School District announced near the end of the 2001/2002 school year that it would no longer allow for the distribution of permission slips for Release Time, a program where students are released from school one hour per week for Bible based instruction, said a June 25 Pacific Justice Institute press release. According to the Pacific Justice Institute, the California Education Code allows for Released Time programs. For the past ten years the Pomona school district itself has made permission slips for the program available to students.
According to the Pacific Justice Institute, the school district's new policy not only forbids teachers to hand out permission slips, but forbids students to hand them out to other students on school premises. The Pacific Justice Institute has sent a written legal response to the school district regarding its new policy.
Patrick Leier, superintendent for Pomona Unified School District, in August told the Mission that he knew nothing about such a policy. "There has been no affirmative action [on such a policy] that I know -- or no action period -- by the policy makers, the board and. I know that hasn't happened," said Leier.
But Brad Dacus, an attorney with the Pacific Justice Institute, said "we have a letter from their legal staff which we got today [August 5] confirming the policy. The letter," said Dacus, "tended to qualify [the policy] some, regarding the ability of students to pass out the forms; [the students] they said could not do so in the classroom." According to Dacus, the school district's legal counsel said that students would not be permitted to pass out permission slips for Release Time before and after class starts.
Dacus said that passing out permission slips before and after class violates neither the establishment clause of the First Amendment nor the California constitution. "The mere providing of permission slips for possible activities of outside organizations in no way connotes an endorsement of those organizations," said Dacus, "but merely is an administrative necessity for allowing outside activities and outside organizations to make contact with parents."
LITURGY AND MOLESTATION. The June 2002 Adoremus Bulletin reported that the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions announced that its executive director, the Rev. Michael Spillane, would step down from his position at the end of this year because of sexual abuse charges for which the archdiocese of Baltimore defrocked him in 1991. It is reported that Spillane molested six youths between 1969 and 1986. But despite this revelation, the Federation (which advises United States dioceses on liturgical matters) will offer Spillane its 2002 Fred McManus Award for his "services to pastoral liturgy."
Ironically, Spillane has been engaged in writing prayers for children's Masses. He has also been involved with the National Federation of Catholic Youth Ministries and consulted with the homosexual New Ways Ministry on the 1997 letter "Always Our Children," issued by the United States Council of Catholic Bishops' Committee on the Family.
But Spillane is not the only priest associated with the Federation to be involved in scandal, according to Adoremus. In 1999, Father Kenneth Martin became board chairman of the Federation, but resigned to become, in 2000, associate director of the bishops' Committee on the Liturgy Secretariat. But in June 2001, Martin was arrested for having molested a male student at a high school in Maryland where Martin, then a Xaverian Brother, had taught before his ordination to the priesthood in 1989.
Father Martin has local connections. Becoming a Sulpician in 1992, Martin served as director of studies and of liturgy at St. John's Seminary College, Camarillo. He also served on the Theological-Liturgical Commission for the archdiocese of Los Angeles until 1997.
GAY DAYS IN OLD CALIFORNY. On June 27, the California state assembly passed a resolution proclaiming June 2002 Gay and Lesbian Pride Month and urging "all citizens to join in celebrating the accomplishments of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Americans." The resolution "encourages the people of California to recognize the notable achievements and outstanding service that gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Americans make to our great state and nation."
Assemblyman Phil Wyman (R-Tehachapi) led the charge against the resolution in the assembly, citing biblical admonitions against homosexuality and asking how the legislature could go on record celebrating something so sinful. Several assemblymen noted that the same assembly that rejected resolutions honoring the Boy Scouts and Fathers Day was now poised to celebrate what many people in this state saw as a dishonorable lifestyle. Though Assemblyman John Longville (D-Rialto) noted the resolution was merely honoring the achievements of homosexuals, Assemblyman Dennis Mountjoy (R-Arcadia) remarked that it wasn't their achievements, but primarily their identification as "gay, lesbian, and transgendered" that was being honored.
The measure passed by the bare minimum, 41-21, with 18 members abstaining or absent. Though the resolution was brought to the floor near the end of the month, the second floor of the capitol's rotunda had for several weeks featured a number of displays of the accomplishments of the gay rights movement. Assemblyman Bill Leonard (Republican-Redlands), in his weekly "Leonard Letter," encouraged parents not to let their children visit the capitol while the display was up.
THE 2002 LIFE CHAIN is scheduled to be held on October 6. Across the country, thousands of people, from all walks of life, will stand for an hour along roadways holding signs proclaiming that "Abortion Kills Children."
Royce Dunn of Yuba City, California, along with six friends, started Life Ch ain in 1985. Over 2,000 people came to the first Life Chain. Life Chains are now found in Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. But in spite of Life Chain's success at getting the pro-life message out, this year Dunn fears that there will be fewer Life Chains across the United States because of a lack of resources to get the word out. "We don't have a fundraising letter, so we don't have the means to raise funds," he told the Mission. "We are all volunteers; these are people working out of their homes." Dunn said that it is his hope that some of the larger national pro-life organizations will see the benefit in Life Chain and make it their own, as has been done with the annual March for Life that is held in Washington, D.C.
Royce Dunn may be contacted at NationalLifeChain@otn.net; or at (530) 67l-5500.
IS MEXICO BACKWARD? The state of Nuevo Leon in northern Mexico has opened an ethical stem cell bank for the poor, said a June 26 LifeSite news report. According to David Gomez, who heads up the bank at the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon, the bank will only store stem cells taken from placentas and umbilical chords. The university hopes that the stem cells will be used for therapy and research and so make the university a leader in this kind of medicine.
The state of Nuevo Leon has a good pro-life record. In June 1999, the state called a referendum to include in the state constitution the "right to life from conception until natural death," and proposed "penalties for those who in any way support or practice abortion." In July 1999, Nuevo Leon's congress made this proposal an amendment to the state constitution. The amendment, however, did not change the state penal code which does not penalize abortion when a woman is raped or gravely ill or in danger of death.
"NATURALLY, THE HOLY SEE is not in favor of an unlimited growth of the world's population, nor in favor of governmental or international programs that impose limits," noted Archbishop Diarmuid Martin over Vatican Radio on Thursday, July 11 -- World Population Day -- according to a July 12 Zenit news report. Archbishop Martin is the Holy See's permanent observer to the United Nations in Geneva. "For many years, the Holy See has repeated what Vatican Council II confirmed on the right of parents to freely choose the number of children, to establish the temporal distance between births and the economic means to achieve these objectives," Martin said. "Nature itself establishes a certain balance between generations. We have seen on many occasions that, when there is a radical intervention on this balance from outside, problems are created."
The archbishop noted that predictions of demographic time bombs have not come true. In fact, "for some years now, it is evident that the birthrate is decreasing, in a diversified way, according to countries," he said.
Archbishop Martin noted that "one of the most interesting things that has arisen in the numerous international conferences, is that the most important factor in establishing the number of children that a family wishes to have is linked to the education of women.