NEWS
2001 NEWS STORIES
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ROAMIN' CATHOLIC
Contents © 2001
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
NEWS
DECEMBER 2001
A BILL THAT PRO-FAMILY ADVOCATES warn will undermine marriage in California was signed, October 15, by Governor Gray Davis. The bill, which was sponsored by Assemblywoman Carol Migden (D-San Francisco), will give thirteen specific benefits, currently available only to married couples, to unmarried partners.
Randy Thomasson of Campaign for California Families, who led the fight against the bill, charges that it violates the will of the people expressed in Proposition 22, which guaranteed that marriage remain a unique union between "a man and a woman."
In addition to undermining the will of the people, Thomasson also charges that the assembly bill is not fiscally prudent. Thomasson points out that Governor Davis has vetoed bills because of concerns about the state of the California economy. "Given the rapid decline of our economy, and a budget shortfall of $1.1 billion through the first three months of this fiscal year alone," said Davis in many of his veto messages, "I have no choice but to oppose additional General Fund spending." Thomasson said that the bill will result in "more than $1.1 million in General Fund costs every year" -- something he insists the state can hardly afford.
Using figures from the state senate appropriations committee at an October 9 press conference in front of the Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana, Thomasson illustrated the costs of the assembly bill: $1 million in general tax revenue loss; $100,000 in general unemployment benefits; "unknown, potentially significant" costs for health benefits for a surviving partner; and "unknown, potentially significant" costs for health benefits for increased enrollees.
"This bill marks a stellar advance for lesbians and gays in California," Migden, said after Governor Davis signed the bill. The new law, scheduled to go into effect on January 1, will allow homosexual partners, as well as unmarried heterosexual couples, to register with the state of California as domestic partners. This will allow "an individual to relocate with a domestic partner without losing unemployment benefits, use sick leave to care for a family member and administer a partner's estate," according to a report by the Associated Press.
"In one fell swoop, Gray Davis has cheapened every marriage in the state, undermined the vote of the people, pandered to the special interests, frivolously spent taxpayer money and broke his written promise to the citizens of California," Thomasson said.
A STRING OF VANDALISMS committed against several Los Angeles Catholic churches was the work of a single man who acted on his own and is not affiliated with any terrorist group, says the Los Angeles Police Department. Thirty-five year old Emad Ibrahim Saad , whom prosecutors believed to be a member of the King Fahd mosque in Culver City, was arrested after a "string of hate related grand thefts, burglaries and vandalisms." During his crime spree, which included attacks on statutes of the Blessed Virgin Mary and other statutes at Catholic churches in South Central Los Angeles, Saad left Islamic literature at the churches along with fliers that said, "Allah is the only one true God." Saad is said to have stolen the Islamic literature from a mosque. At one church, St. Augustine's Catholic Church in Culver City, Saad beheaded a statute of the Virgin Mary and then stole a statute of Blessed Junipero Serra. Saad took the statute of the founder of the California Missions to a nearby mosque, according to the Associated Press. In all, Saad attacked four Catholic Churches within several days, according to a Los Angeles Police Department press release.
After being booked for vandalism at a place of worship, Saad's bail was set at $70,000. Saad was arraigned on November 5 and a bail reduction hearing was held the following day. At the bail reduction hearing, Saad's attorney, Kevin D. Greber of Bellflower, asked Los Angeles County Superior Court judge, Thomas Herman, to reduce his client's bail. The judge later denied his request for a bail reduction. According to the Los Angeles Times, Saad "remained silent but smiled and waved at his veiled wife and five children in the courtoom." Times reporter Kenneth Reich told the Mission that, in addition to the Catholic churches, Saad also attacked St. Matthew Tabernacle of Praise church in Los Angeles. "This is a non-denominational church," Reich noted.
The Los Angeles District Attorney's office, which is prosecuting the case, said that, in addition to the one count of vandalism to a Church, Saad is facing a special allegation of a hate crime motive. Deputy District Attorney Erwin Patilos said that a preliminary hearing is set for November 20.
IT IS NOT SURPRISING that a pro-life ministry that displays the mutiliated bodies of unborn children on the sides of trucks, in the middle of rush hour traffic, should receive a number of negative reactions. [See "Tortured, Bloody, Sickening. But Effective," October 2001 Mission.] On October 20, Greg Cunningham, whose Center for Bio-Ethics organizes such grisly convoys, received one such reaction, via e-mail, from one R. H. of Indiana.
"Hey, I think that your trucks are the wrong way to go about stopping abortion," wrote R.H. "I am pro-choice and will always be pro-choice. Abortion isn't about the right or wrong of killing of a child. It's about what is right to do about the situation. You never know what you would do in the situation. It's easy to say you never would have an abortion or you would have one in an instant. Women and young girls who have an abortion realize they are killing their own child, but sometimes it is for the best. What the one thing you don't target is the fact you have to live with the decision you made for the rest of your life. I had to make that decision when I was a young girl. I made a mistake, and knew I couldn't give my child the life it deserved, I did what I had to do. There is no right decision, in this case. I'll always live with my guilt, I still cry over my lost baby, but I have to go on. Your trucks are a disgrace to the integrity of people. It is not what goes into consideration when you are choosing. A campaign about the long-term effects it has on women, would be the right thing to do, not disgusting pictures on trucks, which every high school health class shows. It is not something new, and doesn't give [sic] your message across. It just shows you are barbarians, heartless, cruel and no better then Hitler. One thing, too, it is God's choice to judge, not yours. He is also forgiving, why aren't you? He wouldn't want you do this [sic]. Just think of what I've said, maybe it'll stop your campaign that is hurting society more then helping. Think of the born children and protecting them as well as the pre-born."
Cunningham responded the same day. "Many women have told us that they didn't know what a seven-week embryo looked like, or a nine week fetus, or whatever," he wrote. "They were only willing to abort because they genuinely believed that their baby was a blob of tissue and not a baby at all. Many others have told us that they mistakenly believed abortion could be the lesser of two evils. They said that after they saw that abortion was a vicious act of violence, they couldn't do it in good conscience. And that is the point -- they had a 'good conscience.' Some women abort because they are ignorant and others abort because they lack a functioning conscience.
"You also ask us how we can 'judge' with our trucks? Our trucks don't 'judge ' at all. Our trucks only display a picture of a dead baby with the word 'choice.' Our trucks don't say abortion is wrong, or right, or in between. If abortion is such a good idea, why do pictures of it make the people who have done it so angry? They are angry because the pictures remind them that they have done something shameful. This makes them feel guilty. Guilt is a good thing if it keeps you from doing wrong again.
"So, Ms. H., it is 'cruel' to kill babies, but humane to show life-saving pictures of their little bodies. Saying that we should just let people do wrong because they will have to live with their decisions and God will judge them is as ridiculous as saying the law should allow men to rape women even though rape is wrong -- because men will have to live with their decisions and God will judge them. The fact is that some men lack 'integrity,' to use your word, and they need to be deterred from using their superior power to brutalize women. Babies need the same protection from women who lack the information and or 'integrity' to be deterred from aborting.
"You are also wrong about God. The Bible says that God is only forgiving when we confess our sins and repent (meaning we agree that what we have done is wrong and agree that it should never happen again). You have obviously not repented of your abortion because you still think it can be a 'good' thing to do. You say you aborted because you 'couldn't give the child the life it deserved,' but the truth is that someone else could and would have given your child an upbringing, had you not killed it. That process is called adoption. But some women would rather kill their child than allow anyone else to raise it. That is a little like the sick men who frequently kill former wives and girlfriends because they don't want anyone else to have them. They don't love these women themselves, they just don't want anyone else to love them. That is violence, Ms. H. Please don't be so violent. It is seldom the right answer to life's problems."
THE LOS ANGELES CHAPTER of the California Abortion Rights Action League sent out an e-mail alert calling on "pro-choice" sympathizers to rise in defense of abortion clinics. Claiming that "in October alone," abortion clinics have received 250 anthrax threats, CARAL asked that letters be sent urging United States Attorney General John Ashcroft to take action. Though admitting that Ashcroft "has promised to prosecute all anthrax and other terrorist threats, and the FBI is said to be 'stepping up' its investigation into the anthrax threats to clinics," CARAL wondered if Ashcroft, "with his staunch anti-choice record," will "do everything within his power to stop the anti-choice terrorism?"
"Extremist anti-choice groups are exploiting the tragedies of September 11th and the nation's fear to advance their own agenda," CARAL declared. The October "acts of domestic terrorism" against clinics, CARAL admitted, "have all proved to be false threats, but -- like all threats of this kind -- they have been costly and disruptive and have caused great fear." Bioterrorism, claimed CARAL, "has affected clinics since 1998, with 12 anthrax threats; that number rose to thirty-five in 1999." Clinics have been subjected to "other forms of threats and attacks" -- 3,077 since 1977 -- said CARAL, which remained vague as to the nature of those threats.
The irony of abortion providers complaining of violence grows more acute when CARAL cites a letter from "abortion provider" Dr. LeRoy Carhart to President Bush, which evokes images of almost Ulster-like terrorism. "In the last quarter of a century, over twenty percent of our buildings have been destroyed by arson and bombs," wrote Carhart. "Terrorists have murdered our policemen and guards, as they tried to come to the aid of the innocent victims of the attacks. They have murdered nearly 0.2 percent of our community, in their homes, in front of their children and friends and at their places of work.."
Carhart then proceeds to describe an-like Al Quaeda pro-life network. "Like the terrorists that struck the World Trade Center and Pentagon," wrote Carhart, "some mainstream religious groups support our domestic terrorists. While their religious leaders preach salvation, they fund terrorists to commit arson and murder. Like the September 11th terrorists, domestic terrorists live and work amongst us, as 'sleepers' in our communities. They send their children to our schools, they work out in our gyms and they live a 'normal' life while awaiting their assignments."
LAST AUGUST, the archdiocese of Los Angeles opened its Human Sexuality Institute, a series of four workshops presented by the archdiocesan Office of Religious Education, the department of Catholic schools, the Ministry with Gay and Lesbian Catholics, and the St. Camillus Center for Pastoral Care. The workshops, according to the Office of Religious Education, "will help anyone in ministry as they approach topics of human sexuality. Come find out the 'whys' behind the 'whats,'" runs the invitation, that promises "excellent presentations" that are "lively, informative, and extremely helpful."
Sister Carlann Paganelli, in August, hosted the first of these workshops, entitled "Human Sexuality." According to her own web page, Sister Carlann, a Sister of Notre Dame who resides in Los Angeles, has taught at La Reina High School, in Thousand Oaks, St. Matthias High School, in Downey, and St. Bonaventure High School, in Ventura. "Don't be fooled by her 'habit,'" Sister's website (called "Sister Carlann's Fun Page") warns, "she does have a 'wild' side. Go ahead, read on...."
Reading on, one discovers that, what Sister Carlann does "for fun" is "hang out with friends;" that her "favorite place to hang out" is Starbucks, and that her favorite food is "Mexican and Italian (MmMmMm. excellent choices)." Under the heading "interesting facts," one learns that Sister "has done quite a bit of public speaking, usually workshops on human sexuality," and that "she was invited to Tokyo in 1995 as a consultant for junior high and high school teachers trying to integrate sexuality into their curriculum."
Father Chris Ponnet and Doctor Elizabeth Crabb Breen were scheduled to give the workshop on the "Medical and Pastoral Issues of HIV/AIDS," on November 8 and 9. Father Ponnet is the pastor of St. Camillus Center for Pastoral Care at the USC Medical Center. He serves, as well, as a chaplain for the Spiritual Life Committee for AIDS Project Los Angeles. On January 10 and 11, 2002, Father Richard Benson will direct the workshop on "Morality and Conscience Formation." The Tidings, the archdiocesan newspaper, reported in August that Benson, academic dean and professor of moral theology at St. John's Camarillo seminary, said that although "a five day old embryo is not a human person, it is a human life." (See "News," October Mission.
Father Richard Sparks, who will present "'Hot Topics' in Human Sexuality" in April, is something of a hot topic himself. Sparks, who wrote Contemporary Christian Morality: Real Questions, Candid Answers has been said to offer a relativistic approach to morality. In this book, Sparks, a frequent presenter at the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress, says that the term "fornication," while "not altogether incorrect," is "offensive to many and, in some instances, too simplistic or loaded. for the complexity of the situation and the subjective sincerity of many of the couples involved." Sparks says his nuancing of fornication does not mean he is "defending sex outside of marriage;" rather, there seems, he says, "to be degrees of moral difference between a couple making love within days prior to their wedding vows and a prostitute or gigolo selling sexual services to a customer and two teenagers groping their way through a puppy-love sexual encounter in the backseat of a car. All are instances of sex outside of marriage. According to the Christian tradition each act is objectively wrong, though each has its own distinct situational features. I'm not convinced that the somewhat cold term 'fornication' describes accurately or with sufficient nuance the almost married couple or the naively premature teen encounter."
Sparks seems to treat Catholic teaching with a remarkable detachment, as if he were analyzing but another theory of morality. Thus, in presenting Church teaching on homosexuality, he writes (in the journal Catholic Update): "While many homosexual couples embrace one another sexually and intimately as an expression of their love, it can be argued that such intimate genital embraces are fundamentally created to be heterosexual acts, reserved to those couples pledged to each other for life in the bond of marriage."
"IT IS A UNION TAKE OVER," said Donna Sigales of Parents Rights USA regarding the recent school board election in the Orange Unified School district. Sigales noted that the California Teachers Association (CTA) worked in tandem with the local teachers union in the Orange Unified School District to win a 100 % union majority on the school board. The Orange Unified School district has been embattled for several years over various concerns ranging from gay rights to low teachers' salaries. Some say that at the heart of the ongoing controversy over the school board is a battle for the hearts and minds of the pupils.
Some of the controversy started when two teenagers decided on creating a pro-homosexual club on the El Modena high school campus in 1999. When parents caught wind of the plan to create the club, they quickly mobilized and alerted the community. A great outcry arose from the community over the proposed club. Responding to the concerns from parents over the prudence of having a pro-homosexual club on a high school campus, the school board majority decided to oppose the creation of the club. Sigales said that after the 7-0 vote in December of 1999 against the gay club, homosexual activists became so violent that her group, Parents Rights USA, decided against holding their press conference.
Two of the school board members, Martin Jacobson and Linda Davis, who voted against the club were then targeted for a recall in June of this year. After being recalled by a very narrow margin, Jacobson and Davis decided that the best action to take was to run for school board in the November election. Their fellow former school board members, Kathy Ward and Terri Sargeant, ran for re-election in order to retain their seats. Opponents of the recall effort say that the campaign was rife with problems and fraud. Sigales said that currently the Orange County District Attorney's office is investigating the recall effort for fraudulent signature gathering when trying to qualify the recall for the ballot. "There is a grand jury investigation going on right now," she told the Mission. "The DA has spent several months investigating fraud, the way in which the signatures were gathered in the recall effort. When the DA does an investigation, they don't go to the Grand Jury unless they can indict." Sigales said that the teachers' union does not want conservative school board members because "the objectives (of the union) are to implement the legislation that Governor Davis signed into law," referring to a slew of pro-homosexual bills that the California governor has signed both last year and this year. In addition to the controversy over the gay rights issue, the teachers' union also opposed the school board members that were recalled because teachers did not receive higher salaries. The four recalled school board members insist that the money for bigger salaries was just not there and that the school district would go bankrupt if they caved into the union.
The four candidates received heavy support from pro-family and pro-life forces in Orange County. Anne Pepper of the Orange County Register said that the candidates had received heavy support among conservative Republicans and pro-life groups. In their campaign literature, the four spelled out their slate: "The CTA and the OUE [Orange Unified Employees Unions are out to regain control of Orange Unified schools. They are supportive of gay sensitivity curricula, Planned Parenthood-type sex education, and will take OUSD to a bond measure if necessary to underwrite their agenda."
Rick Lesdesma who was elected to the school board in this election, and is considered pro-union, was not available for comment for this story.
"A CATHEDRAL IS MORE THAN A BUILDING," said Cardinal Roger Mahony in his addresss at the symposium on church architecture, held October 21-23 at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. What, then, is a cathedral? "It is a place or space in a city or town," said the cardinal. Catholic cathedrals, he continued, "like some great buildings of other religions, have been more like oases in the middle of densely inhabited places: here the people assemble."
The cardinal said that, in building a cathedral, he had learned a few things. First, a cathedral is a place where "there is an exchange of the gifts that have been and are being given by God to the community, the Local Church." The cathedral is also the place where the "Catholic community does what is central to its faith and life," such as celebrate the Eucharist and other sacraments, "discuss and debate the theological issues of our day and make pronouncements on matters of faith and morals," teach, offer support to the oppressed, etc.
The cathedral, continued Mahony, is "a place of hospitality" and "a place of transformation." It is, as well, "a place of beauty. you cannot go on starving Catholic people, and people in general, of beauty, of visual art, music, great architecture, glass and light, the good crafting of beautiful materials." A cathedral, said Mahony, must be "finely-crafted setting for a precious jewel -- the jewel being the Body of Christ in all its diversity."
A cathedral, concluded the cardinal, is always incomplete, always in the process of becoming. "Over and over again it will be what it is not," said Mahony, "more than what it is, summoning us to more than what we dreamed we might be. And in this age, an age whose greatest poverty is its service to the literal, to the purely functional, that will have been worth all our effort."
THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR of the U.S. bishops secretariat for the liturgy addressed the Los Angeles archdiocesan liturgy conference, held October 11-13 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. According to the Tidings, Father Maroney said "participation of the faithful [in the liturgy] is an internal action with external manifestations." Liturgists, he said, need to study church liturgical documents, including "the most important," Sancrosanctum Concilium from Vatican II. Elements of the new General Instruction on the Roman Missal, said Maroney, have caused many fears. "We can get the new [instruction] and complain that's it's too far to the left, or too far to the right," Maroney said, "or, we can say, 'I am the servant of the liturgy, not its master. It is Christ who gives me the immemorial prayer of the church and enables me to serve.'"
Sister of Social Service, Eva Lumas of Berkeley's Franciscan School of Theology, told conference participants that they should "consider Sunday worship as a communal narrative event that expresses and informs the identity and vocation of the people gathered in prayer. Liturgy expresses our primary values, the actions and relationships that give meaning to our lives; it invites us to be better than we are." Sunday worship, she said, should be connected with life throughout the week. So many Catholics leave the Church, said Sister Eva, because God is not presented to them as relevant to the rest of the week. "God is the source and summit of our faith," she said. "These people leave because they don't find God in their lives the rest of the week. Sunday worship is necessary, but celebrating liturgy on Sunday can't substitute for celebrating the liturgy of life."
WITH ASSURANCES THAT both the diocese's capital campaign (for projects that include a new cathedral and a priests' retirement home), and projects already approved by the diocese will not be affected, the diocese of Orange announced Monday, October 29 its first budget deficit in its 25-year history. According to an October 30 Los Angeles Times report, the Orange diocese has fallen into the red $14 million. The previous fiscal year -- the first year the diocese made financial information widely available -- the diocese reaped a net income of over $21 million.
Why the drop? For one, diocesan investment returns fell from $22.6 million the previous year to $2.2 million this year. At the same time, the diocese increased by $12 million the aid to needy parishes and scholarships to parochial students. Bishop Tod Brown said the diocese had not expected such a big drop in the market, but indicated he was not alarmed by the deficit. "We're in a good financial state," said Brown. "We spent millions on the poor in Orange County, and that says a lot about us. We knew what was coming."
To balance the budget this fiscal year, which began in July, the diocese is contemplating a hiring freeze, cutting back on some programs and on grants to schools and parishes, and an all-round reduction in expenses.
CHAT WITH THE CARDINAL. On Wednesday, September 26, Cardinal Roger Mahony conducted an on-line chat session with eighth graders from Holy Family School in South Pasadena. The students' questions to the cardinal covered a wide range of topics, such as the September 11 tragedy at the World Trade Center, Islam, what the students were studying in religion class, the new cathedral, and what the cardinal thinks about women priests and mandatory celibacy.
Asked what he thought about "the idea of women priests," the cardinal responded that "for whatever reason, Jesus did not choose to include women as priests or apostles, even though He included them in many aspects of the Church's life. The Church does not believe it has been given the authority to make such a change." But, asked a student, "do you feel the Church will ever be given that authority?" To which, Mahony: "I just don't know about that authority; we will have to see what the Holy Spirit does over the coming years."
One student asked if Mahony could see himself "becoming the first American pope." "No. There will not be an American pope," replied the cardinal. Mahony seemed to evade the question, why there would be no American pope, by himself asking a question -- "how many different nations are represented in your class?" When he heard that the eighth grade represented more than 13 nationalities who spoke a number of languages, the cardinal responded "Wow!! That's terrific. We need to appreciate each other's culture and background, and learn from one another."
Asked, "how do you feel about married priests?" Mahony responded: "These questions are not really about how I 'feel' about issues; rather, what does the Church teach and why." Holy Family's reply: "They all get the message." The cardinal then went on to explain that the Eastern Catholic churches have married clergy. "Both systems have worked well," he said.
One student asked the cardinal why he chose "a contemporary style" for the new cathedral, to which Mahony replied that the architect, Rafael Moneo, chose the cathedral's "exterior style to allow the maximum amount of sunlight to enter." When asked what was the "most impressive cathedral" he had visited, Mahony gave the politic answer: "Well, each one is different and unique. For example, most European cathedrals are quite dark inside -- they have a unique feel to them. Ours will be much more light and exciting."
One student asked the cardinal how he felt about the "Islamic people"? Mahony responded that "the Islam faith is a wonderful faith. All peaceful, etc." "Fanatics," though, like the terrorists, said Mahony, "are not Islamic; they just use the name to look for support."
The cardinal asked the students what they were studying in religion class. "Catholic Heritage," they responded. "What are you studying now in Catholic Heritage?" asked Mahony. "We are studying our personal Catholic heritages," was the reply, "and how we feel about the Trinity and other beliefs."
The cardinal told students that a small café will part of the new cathedral complex, and that he would give a prize to whoever came up with a name for the restaurant. Suggestions included, said Mahony, "Holy Grounds" and "Angel Food." The students themselves made some proposals, such as "Soul Food," "Seventh Heaven," and "Holy Orders."