NEWS
1997 NEWS STORIES
December
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October
September
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ARTICLES
LETTERS
ROAMIN' CATHOLIC
Contents © 1997
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
NEWS
NOVEMBER 1997
ABC'S NEW TELEVISION SERIES Nothing Sacred "has some faults which deserve criticism," says an October 2 Tidings editorial. "But it is clear that the show has potential to grow beyond its problems, and should be allowed to develop before anyone passes judgement." This benign stance towards the controversial program is punctuated by a note of regret that "[a]las, there is a minority group of Catholics who want the show cancelled because they find it offensive." Who is this minority group? The Catholic League, who, along with such a "right-wing fringe group" as Catholics United for the Faith, "as well as the obscure Catholic Defense League of Minnesota and Americans United for the Pope," have sponsored a boycott that has resulted in ten sponsors pulling their advertisements from the series.
According to the Tidings, Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, is "setting himself up as judge and jury with regard to what is and is not an accurate depiction of the American Catholic church today." The "millions of Catholics" who "see potential in 'Nothing Sacred'... have a right to voice their opinion in favor of the show without being unfairly labeled as defective or wishy-washy by Mr. Donohue." Donohue, says the Tidings, has appointed himself the censor librorum of Hollywood. This is unbearable in a Church where "[t]oday, Catholics come in all stripes and colors," and where "we are challenged to discuss our differences in the context of Common Ground."
DOES THE CATHOLIC LEAGUE represent only a minority of Catholics? "Our organization is a national organization of about 350,000, and we're gaining members all the time," said Tamara Collins, spokeswoman for the Catholic League in New York City in a October 17 interview with the Mission. "Our positions, in the past, have proven to be more in line with the general thinking of the Catholic public." Over 30 organizations, not all of them Catholic, says Collins, have joined with the Catholic League in support of the boycott. "We've sent one mailing of petitions to Michael Eisner [of Walt Disney Productions] with signatures numbering over 500,000, and we still have petitions coming in, so we will be doing another mailing."
THE TIDINGS DOES NOT SPEAK for the archdiocese, Father Gregory Coiro, Cardinal Mahony's spokesman, told the Mission: "The Tidings position represents the Tidings." The official position of the archdiocese, said Fr. Coiro, "would have to come from Cardinal Mahony, who has not taken a stand one way or another. We have a rather interesting situation, here, where the Tidings has editorialized against the Catholic League, and I'm supporting the Catholic League. I read the scripts every week for ABC Broadcast Standards and Practices, and I let them know what red flags they need to be aware of, and I've told them consistently that the program is offensive; its basic premise is the only good Catholic is a bad Catholic."
WHAT DO CATHOLICS THINK of Nothing Sacred? On September 18, Santa Barbara's KEYT-TV (Channel 3), an ABC television affiliate, aired a segment on ABC's new fall series, Nothing Sacred, in its nightly news broadcast. Beyond the controversial nature of the series, the news segment itself was upsetting to some local Catholics. Local clergy interviewed included three Catholics and one Episcopalian.
Said Father Virgil Cordano, OFM, pastor emeritus of Mission Santa Barbara: "I think some of the very good people who might have a conservative bent and think everything should just be right--I think they'd have difficulty with it. I think a number of others would say, 'Yes, those are some of the questions I would raise regarding the Catholic Church.'" Bishop Thomas Curry, auxiliary bishop for the Santa Barbara region, observed: "Oftentimes we get our best definitions by having somebody challenge them or they disagree with them, saying, 'I definitely don't believe in that; well, then what do I believe?' So I think it's an opportunity."
While video clips from the season premiere of Nothing Sacred were then shown, KEYT-TV News commented, "Father Ray doesn't look or sound like your average priest, but ABC believes the program offers an honest depiction of a young priest's desire to balance his faith in God with the challenges of modern-day life. Our select audience thinks the network's right on target." They then showed a clip of Father Jerry Helfrich, pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Santa Barbara, who said: "By and large, the positives far outweigh the negatives, on the emotional side and the theological side. I think the human side comes through very clearly and the theology is profound."
Ironically, the lone, token criticism included in the segment came from an Episcopalian priestess, Reverend Michelle Woodhouse of Santa Barbara's All Saints Episcopal Church. Reacting to a scene in which an out-of-habit sister repeatedly interjected the word "Mother" when God was addressed as "Father" during a Mass, Reverend Woodhouse stated, "I hope they do something to correct what I think is a terrible mischaracterization of that nun: overt, kind of militant feminism that seemed to override concern for where the parishioners might be in that scene in the church. I mean, that's inappropriate."
A Catholic who called KEYT the week following the premiere was told that viewer reaction was then running roughly half in favor of the show and half against. KEYT-TV can be contacted at 730 Miramonte Dr., Santa Barbara, CA 93109; or call (805) 882-3955/comment line 882-3935; e-mail: keyt@aol.com
THE GROUND BLESSING for Cardinal Mahony's new cathedral took place on September 21. The 5.8-acre property at the corner of Temple and Grand in downtown Los Angeles will be the site of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. The cornerstone of the new cathedral will include a stone from the Chapel of St. Francis of Assisi.
On the morning of the twelfth, the cardinal, accompanied by his auxiliary bishops, left St. Vibiana's on foot, and walked to the site of the new cathedral. Various groups of people dressed in ethnic costumes joined the cardinal's entourage. Awaiting the Cardinal at the site were various groups protesting the new Cathedral. These included native Americans, traditional Catholics, and the Catholic Worker. The Native Americans were mostly members of the Gabrielino-Tongva tribe; the site of the new cathedral, they claim, is a Native Ameican burial site and is considerd to be sacred.
The Catholic Worker protested the spending of $50 million on the new cathedral with such a problem of poverty in Los Angeles. There was also a small group of Catholic traditionalists led by Margaret Coats. Coats is concerned about the pending liturgical changes that the cardinal hopes to enact throughout the Los Angeles Archdiocese. Another protestor was Don Kohles who is well know to the Chancery officials.
His Eminence arrived at the Temple and Grand site, accompanied by Mayor Richard Riordan of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County Board of Superviosors chairman, Gloria Molina. Molina is well known for her pro-abortion views. During the ceremony, the cardinal announced that his personal secretary, Monsignor Kevin Kostelnik, would be rector of the new cathedral.
After the customary words by Los Angeles city leaders, the ground blessing came to an end. As everyone was leaving, the Native Americans' drums could be heard in the background.
As reported in the September Mission, the Gabrieleno-Tongva tribe has requested that archeological tests be conducted on the site of Cardinal Mahony's proposed $50 million cathedral complex. The property is the site, says the tribe, of a sacred tribal burial ground. As reported in an August 8, 1997 Los Angeles Times article, fragments of an ancient human skull had been found at this location in 1957.
During the public hearing phase for the proposed cathedral development, the Native American community asked the CRA to delay issuing an Environmental Impact Report in order to ascertain whether there were human remains on the location; but this request was denied. In a telephone interview with Fern Mathias, a relocated member of the Dakota nation and now representative to Chief Vera Rocha, head of the Gabrieleno-Tongva Indian tribe in the San Gabriel Valley, Mathias expressed horror that the new cathedral would be built on what the Native American community considers sacred burial grounds. "Building over the bodies of our ancestors is a sign of disrespect. It is unchristian how the cardinal behaves." Chief Rocha and her tribe held a protest at the September 21 ground blessing for the new cathedral. Recently the archdiocese hired an anthropologist to study the issue, to which the Chief said: "The anthropologist is not helping. He's not a person that we can trust, he's not interested in the traditional ways."
WHY ARE WE IN THE CHURCH confused and disunified today? According to Father Richard McBrien, in a op-ed piece in the September 26 Tidings, it is "the 1984 indult permitting the Tridentine Mass" "coupled with various uncontradicted, semi-official statements from Roman officials...calling into question the entire liturgical reform of the council" that is the cause. Quoting "Liturgical Renewal: Two Latin Rites?" an article by Archbishop Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee that appeared in America magazine, Father McBrien writes that the indult sent "'an encouraging signal to those who wanted to reject all or most of the liturgical reforms of Vatican Council II.' Indeed they have now 'increased their efforts to undermine and reverse the liturgical reforms of the council and especially the implementation approved by Pope Paul VI immediately following the council.'" According to McBrien, because of the Vatican's "undermining" of liturgical renewal, all Catholics are "now in the 'cafeteria' line, not just the so-called liberals or progressives."
Why this attack on the pope's attempt to accommodate a small minority of Catholics who prefer traditional worship, Could it be that the likes of Archbishop Weakland and Father McBrien fear that their liturgical renewal is failing?
A similar sentiment to McBrien's and Weakland's was voiced by Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie Pennsylvania at the Notre Dame Pastoral Liturgy Conference in mid-June of this year. According to the August 1, 1997 National Catholic Reporter, Bishop Trautman warned that such conservative groups as Adoremus, which seeks a reform of the reform of the liturgy realized at Vatican II, will turn the actual Vatican II reform into a "dinosaur." "We do not need to reform the reform," said His Grace. "We need to revitalize the reform... Those advocating a reform of the reform have prevailed in high places." In an interview with NCR Trautman said, "I think liturgists have to be more courageous in their teaching. I'm concerned that we're losing ground. We need a concerted effort to get back to the movement of the Holy Spirit at Vatican II that breathed new life into the church. It's a question of accepting the legitimacy of Vatican II and taking it into the millennium."
The NCR article also quotes Father Richard Albarano, head of the Office of Worship for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, saying, that while he supports the "official reform," he is not going to turn his office into a "liturgical police" to see that parishes "conform," presumably to the archdiocese's liturgical reform. "We're trying to teach the people of God what Vatican II has given us as gift in the liturgical documents. We're not about to go around pointing the finger at bad liturgy, good liturgy, but to teach people what Vatican II is, why we have made these so-called changes, what it means to change the liturgy."
OCTOBER WAS "BREAST CANCER Awareness Month." For pro-life activist and counselor, Colette Wilson it was also Abortion Awareness Month; for, says Wilson, there is a direct link between abortion and breast cancer.
To draw public attention to this link, Wilson led a picket, on Saturday, October 11, in front of the Family Planning Associates Abortion Clinic on Brookshire Avenue in Downey. Picketers carried signs that said, on one side, "Abortion Increases Breast Cancer," and, on the other, "Abortion Clinic Fails to Warn." The number of protesters was between 40 and 60.
"I decided to do a different type of pro-life picket," said Wilson in an October 16 interview with the Mission, "one that would focus completely on the woman." She said she chose to picket Family Planning Associates "because they claim to be a national leader in women's healthcare," and they do not "reveal to women this strong scientific evidence that shows the link between breast cancer and abortion. I've seen their materials, and none of them say anything about breast cancer."
Wilson says that the British Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health (October 1996) published a paper by Dr. Joel Brind detailing a meta-analysis of worldwide research on induced abortion and breast cancer. There were 28 such studies, and of these, says Wilson, 24 showed a positive link between abortion and breast cancer.
A main cause of breast cancer, says Wilson, is an overexposure to estrogen. "When a woman is pregnant, there is a period of time in the first part of the pregnancy where the estrogen goes twenty-fold higher than what it normally would be. This estrogen level only falls during the third trimester." Because of other hormones that "kick in" during the third trimester, the breasts reach maturity and change permanently. This makes them much less susceptible to getting cancer than they were before the woman was pregnant. When a woman has an abortion, the pregnancy is interrupted during the high surge of estrogen, and the breasts are left in an unstable state. Thus, there is no protective effect, and the woman is worse off than if she never became pregnant. Miscarriages, says Wilson, are different, since, often, the cause of miscarriage is "an amount of estrogen insufficient to maintain the pregnancy."
IN A SEPTEMBER 8 LETTER to Bishop Thomas Curry of the Santa Barbara Pastoral Region, Roger Cardinal Mahony has allowed for the celebration of the Tridentine Indult Mass at San Buenaventura Mission in Ventura. "This permission," writes the cardinal, "is contingent upon meeting any special conditions requested by Monsignor Patrick O'Brien, the pastor, or yourself."
"I am hopeful," continues His Eminence, "that the celebration of the Tridentine Mass will be of help to those few people who find the old Latin Mass meaningful for their spiritual growth and development. At the same time, I would expect the people attending this special Mass to participate fully in all of the pastoral undertakings of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, such as the special collections."
Cardinal Mahony concludes his letter by asking for a six-month evaluation of the Mass from Monsignor O'Brien, focusing on "its progress, and the manner in which this group of Catholics is involved with the entire life of the Church."
GOVERNOR PETE WILSON has vetoed AB 257 (Villaraigosa) which would have added "homosexuality" to the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA). FEHA is designed to protect people, especially minorities, from discrimination with regards to employment and housing. Adding "sexual orientation" to FEHA would have subjected landlords, small businessmen and others to the possibility of state sponsored lawsuits for alleged discrimination against homosexuals.
The Boy Scouts of America were among the groups that opposed AB 257, as well as small businesses and churches.
In his veto message, Governor Pete Wilson said that AB 257 was similar to AB 101 and would unduly burden employers with lawsuits. The Governor's veto of AB 101 in 1991 led to rioting by homosexuals in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Citing his concern that employees do have a right to be free of discrimination, the Governor signed AB 2601 the following year, which established an administrative procedure for remedying discrimination rather than resorting to litigation. Wilson noted: "Discrimination in housing on the grounds of sexual orientation is already prohibited by law in California under the Unruh Act and enforced by the Department of Fair Employment and Housing."