NEWS
2004 NEWS STORIES
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ROAMIN' CATHOLIC
Contents © 2004
by Jim Holman.
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NEWS
November 2004
FATHER MICHAEL LASTIRI, whom Bishop John Steinbock removed this summer from St. Patick's parish in Merced after revelations surfaced that Lastiri engaged in internet homosexual pornography and solicitation, will not undergo therapy for his "compulsion." Bishop Steinbock in a July statement in the Modesto Bee said he was sending Lastiri to St. Luke's Institute in Maryland to treat his "compulsive and addictive" behavior [see "Baca and The Bear," September Mission]. But in a September 9 letter that appeared in the St. Patrick's bulletin, Bishop Steinbock tells parishioners, "Fr. Michael Lastiri, after returning from his evaluation at St. Luke's Institute, has asked me for a leave of absence from the active ministry rather than undergoing the program at St. Luke's at this time. He does not feel that he can abandon his mother and family who have suffered so much with the publicity of this case."
Steinbock then wrote that Lastiri may return to active ministry in the diocese if he continues with and is successful in his therapy.
THE DIOCESE OF FRESNO has filed two temporary restraining orders against St. Patrick's, Merced parishioner and corrections officer, Brian Kravec, barring him from attending St. Patrick's church and requiring him to relinquish his firearm. The restraining order, filed on behalf of St. Patrick's parish employees Jean Smith, administrative assistant, and Walter Szymusiak, parish accountant and outreach minister, states Kravec "made a credible threat of violence" against the employees and yelled in a "scary way" that "I [Kravec] will get all of you." Some say that the restraining order is in retaliation for Kravec's role in publicizing homosexual internet solicitations by St. Patrick's former pastor, Father Mike Lastiri.
According to ABC30 Action News, Kravec emphatically denies he made such a threat. The restraining order further alleges that Kravec stated he "had called Bill Lucido [diocesan spokesman] from the pastoral center on the previous day and had left his private telephone number and that same evening his [Kravec's] family received a threatening phone call." Kravec recorded the message: "now the fun begins, asshole." Another parishioner and fellow whistleblower, Dr. Robert Butler, has received similar harassing phone calls and claims the voice that Kravec recorded matches that of a St. Patrick's parishioner, who allegedly shouted out his car window at Butler in a Raley's parking lot, "F---- you, Butler!" Kravec and Butler both filed reports with the police immediately after the respective incidents.
A copy of an e-mail carbon-copied by him to Jean Smith was attached to the restraining order as evidence against Kravec's threatening behavior. In it Kravec asks what Jean Smith and former pastor, Father Mike Lastiri, were doing at the administration building after midnight on September 15; if their being there had anything to do with the audit conducted by the diocese on the parish accounts; and how a priest making a modest $1,200 a month can afford to take his family to Rome on a pilgrimage and then to a mountain chalet in Spain this coming November.
DISTANT RUMBLINGS OF CONSCRIPTION? A Pentagon advisory board said in late September that the United States military will not have sufficient personnel to "sustain our current and projected global stabilization commitments," according to the September 30 Los Angeles Times. The Defense Science Board, a group of outside advisors to defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, said the Army's attempts to form more combat brigades out of its ten active divisions are "important, but partial, steps toward enhanced stabilization operations." Among the options offered by the advisory board are that the military should add a substantial number of troops and scale back its commitments in peace keeping missions. The board neither specified the number of troops needed nor how the military should go about recruiting them.
Secretary Rumsfeld disputed the board's findings, saying the military has sufficient numbers of troops.
BUT A DRAFT BILL came up for a vote October 6 in the House of Representatives, said an October 7 e-mail release from the Center on Conscience and the War. The bill sponsored by Representative Charles Rangel (D-NY) would have established a mandatory draft with no exceptions; both men and women would be conscripted either into the armed forces or into national civilian service. House Republicans used a "suspension" rule to move the bill out of committee without a vote and into the House for a vote. In the October 6 vote, the bill was overwhelmingly defeated, 402 to 2; only Congressmen Pete Stark (D-California) and John Murtha (D-Pennsylvania) voted for the bill.
The Center on Conscience and the War said "Republican Congressional leaders brought [the bill] to the forefront in order to put it to rest." Pushing the bill forward was, opines the Center, a response "to [Presidential candidate John] Kerry's rhetoric that if Bush is reelected the draft will be reinstated. The spin will be that the Republicans stopped the Democratic attempt to bring back the draft."
But is this the last word on the draft? Probably not, said the Center. "The Bush Administration continues to talk of a never-ending war on terrorism. To bolster the size of the military President Bush has issued 'Stop-loss orders,' which prevent many in the military from leaving when their time is up." And it likely will not die if John Kerry is elected president. The Massachusetts senator, according to the Center, has said he wants to increase the size of the armed forces by 40,000. According to the Center, "it remains a very real possibility, that once the elections are past, if the troops levels are not met, the draft could be back on the table as a way to maintain or increase the size of the military."
UNITED WAY OF VENTURA COUNTY has apparently reversed its decision not to fund the Boy Scouts of America, said the September 25 Los Angeles Times. In June 2001, Ventura County United Way adopted an inclusiveness policy by which it said it would only fund those entities that do not discriminate on the basis of age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, national origin, or disability. Because of the Boy Scouts policy of not allowing homosexuals to act as scout leaders, United Way of Ventura County decided to pull its $50,000 a year funding from the boys' organization. But in mid-September (some say because of a pending lawsuit), the United Way chapter decided to change its bias policy, which now states that the organization will only fund non-profit groups which accept employees or volunteers "without unlawfully discriminating on the basis of any characteristic protected by state or federal law." This policy change will allow the Boy Scouts to reapply for funding.
But Sean Michael, executive director of the Ventura County Rainbow Alliance, told the Times he was not disturbed by United Way's seeming backpedal. The Boy Scouts, said Michael, "can apply, but whether or not they receive funding is contingent on whether they comply with all laws. United Way policy... still includes nondiscrimination based on sexual orientation, which is in the California law. I don't see it as a backsliding or loss."
THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT on October 4 refused an appeal by Catholic Charities of Sacramento to review a state law that requires religious employers to offer contraceptive health coverage in their health plans, said an October 5 Reuters news report. The California supreme court did not exempt Catholic Charities from the provisions of the law because the organization does not primarily employ and serve Catholics. Kevin Baine, a lawyer representing Catholic charities, presented the appeal to the federal Supreme Court. "The specific issues in this case as well as the broader principles at stake are of interest to religious institutions across the country," Baine said. The California law, he said, is an "unprecedented intrusion upon the religious freedom of Catholic Charities." The Supreme Court, apparently, did not think so and without comment refused to consider the appeal. In 1990, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that state laws could not be judged as violating religious liberty if they applied equally to all citizens and did not single out any religion for special treatment.
Praising the Supreme Court's decision not to hear the case, Louise Melling of the American Civil Liberties Union's Reproductive Freedom Project told the October 5 Los Angeles Times, "this case affirms that institutions like Catholic Charities that employ and serve people of many faiths and whose primary purpose is not religious cannot impose religious views about family planning on employees who may not agree with them,"
California attorney general Bill Lockyer opposed the Supreme Court appeal, saying there was no grounds for it.
WHAT NOW, CATHOLIC CHARITIES? Though the Supreme Court has refused to hear its appeal, Catholic Charities will not submit, said the organization's counsel James Sweeney in an October 7 Zenit News interview. Sweeney said that one rejection is not the end of the road with the Supreme Court, but "the high court allows important issues such as this one to come before it on a petition for certiorari a few times before it takes up the case." A similar New York case, which Sweeney thinks the high court may very well take up, will be coming before the Supreme Court,
But, "in the meantime," said Sweeney, "Catholic Charities is going to have to seriously re-examine itself and its employee benefits programs with a view to carrying out its mission with integrity and fidelity in a hostile social and legal environment. One thing, however, is clear: This fight is far from over, and the Diocese of Sacramento and its charitable ministries are simply not going to disregard the critical moral and religious teachings of our Church. Period."
Since contraceptive treatments that the state California requires in insurance policies include chemical abortifacients, the state is in effect ordering Catholic Charities to pay for abortions. But this is something, said Sweeney, the Church will never do. "Were the Church ever to directly face legal coercion to cooperate in the procurement or performance of abortion, I foresee massive civil disobedience on the part of the Church, its bishops, priests and laity, in resistance to such gravely immoral and intrinsically evil conduct," Sweeney said.
"THAT'S WHAT THE CATHEDRAL IS ABOUT -- allowing those miracles to take place," said Cardinal Roger Mahony, according to the September 14 Los Angeles Times. What miracles? The miracles of interfaith gathering, it seems. Mahony was referring in part to a memorial service held in the cathedral for a deceased fire fighter as an example of how Our Lady of the Angels cathedral is "a house of prayer for all peoples." If the non-Christian religious symbols on the cathedral's great bronze doors are not enough to convince one of the edifice's ecumenical character, the parameters placed on the August 20 non-sectarian funeral should suffice. "All that the cardinal asked was that the service be spiritual in nature," Greg Gibson, Los Angeles fire department's senior chaplain told the Times. "He wanted to make a facility available to all of the city. It was fantastic the way they changed things around that day to accommodate us."
And Cardinal Mahony does not only allow non-Catholic cathedral funerals on request, he actively seeks them. At least, some of them. After Times columnist and associate editor Frank del Olmo died earlier this year, Mahony offered to host his funeral at the cathedral -- even though Del Olmo was Episcopalian. The journalist's family, however, opted for All Saints Episcopal in Pasadena. Though, according to the archdiocese, Mahony's offer sprang from his deep admiration for Del Olmo, it seems the cardinal has been eager to host other funerals of prominent people at the cathedral. "I think there are some times the cardinal has called" to suggest such funerals, archdiocesan spokesman Tod Tamberg told the Times. "But people are calling us now."
"AN ABSOLUTE BALD-FACED LIE," is how Robert Bennett described Los Angeles archdiocesan lawyer Michael Hennigan's assessment of the United States bishops' independent review board's February criticism of how Cardinal Roger Mahony has handled the sexual abuse crisis, said the September 24 Los Angeles Times. Bennett is a member of the review board that in February criticized Cardinal Mahony for obstructing litigation of sexual abuse cases. Bennett emphatically denounced Hennigan's statement that the board's criticism of Mahony was "political retribution" for Mahony's earlier criticisms of the board. Bennett said the board could have been more critical of Mahony, but "we didn't see any need to lay out the long history of the Los Angeles Archdiocese in a more critical fashion," he told the Times. "We did feel we had to put in what we put in because the Los Angeles Archdiocese was a good illustrative example of hardball litigation tactics which did not do a service to the church."
THIS IS "NOT THE CROSS I would have chosen," said Cardinal Mahony of the molestation crisis, according to the September 24 Times. But, said the cardinal, since it's the cross he's been given, he sees it as his duty to help the victims of molestation by priests. One means of this is what he calls "apology prayer services," where he offers apologies to the victims and gives them rosaries blessed by the pope. For himself "personally," said the cardinal, the crisis has been "a time of great spiritual renewal. I know the priests, when I talk to them sometimes, a lot of priests say I wish it would all go away.... And I said, 'That's where we're missing it. This is our ministry now. Our ministry is to heal victims and heal the church.'"
BUT COMPASSION FOR VICTIMS does not mean the archdiocese will stop fighting cases brought by many of them in court, Hennigan told the Times. Of the 500 cases against the Church, said Hennigan, 150 to 200 were valid, but others were less clearly so. Some cases he called "frivolous," involving only such minor things as "a pat on the butt."
Both Mahony and Hennigan spoke to the Times about the second front of litigation -- that involving the 12 insurance companies that are balking at having to bear the burden of the settlements. One company has said it does not see why it has to pay for the church's negligence. The archdiocese, according to Hennigan, is willing to make a "sizable contribution" toward the settlements but expects the insurance companies to shoulder the rest of the costs.
MAHONY TAKEN TO TASK. The Los Angeles Times in a September 14 editorial, "Mahony Stalls the Healing," criticized Cardinal Mahony's continued refusal to release personnel files of priests to prosecutors. "Mahony should display whatever moral leadership he has left, call off his lawyers and let the criminal justice system do its job," said the editorial. "When mistakes are made, a moral leader is someone who owns up to them and takes steps to see they don't happen again, rather than stalling closure with questionable legal maneuvers. That's something Mahony should consider as he continues his efforts to protect his priests at the expense of their alleged victims."
Writing in response to this editorial, Tod Tamberg, head of the archdiocese' s media relations department, said "we are not 'stalled,'" but "the healing process continues to move forward." According to Tamberg, the editorial ignored Mahony's apologies to victims; attempts by him and "many parishioners to help bring healing to victims and their families and to ensure the safety of our entire Catholic community;" the training of "nearly 10,000 priests, educators, and parents ... in abuse prevention;" and the formation of a clergy misconduct oversight board which "monitors abuse policies and reviews all cases involving alleged misconduct by archdiocesan priests." Tamberg did not address the editorial's main thrust -- that by engaging in "questionable legal maneuvers" the archdiocese is "stalling closure for victims."
THE ARCHDIOCESE OF LOS ANGELES may not join the diocese of Davenport, Iowa, in a constitutional challenge to a California law that removed the statute of limitations in civil cases involving sexual molestation, said United States district judge Larry Alan Burns. In a September 23 ruling, Judge Burns said that the archdiocese failed to show it was directly involved in the case brought by the diocese of Davenport and that the archdiocese can argue its case in the context of the 500 cases filed against it in California courts. The diocese of Davenport was sued in a state court in San Diego over accusations that an Iowa priest molested a young man on a trip to California both took in the late '60s. Citing the United States Constitution, Davenport has removed the case from state court since, it says, the parties involved are from different states and so should be tried in federal court. Further, the diocese of Davenport is asking a federal judge in San Diego to void the state law that removed the statute of limitations in civil cases.
FRANCISCAN FRIAR FATHER GERALD CHUMIK, who fled molestation charges in Canada and has spent the past two years at Santa Barbara Mission, has been moved to Missouri, said the September 8 Los Angeles Times. Chumik has been in California since the 1970s. In 1990, Canadian prosecutors issued a warrant for his arrest but because of Canadian law were unable to extradite him. Chumik's Franciscan superiors said the priest admitted the molestation to them but said they could not order him to return to Canada to face prosecution. Cardinal Roger Mahony, who has limited jurisdiction over Franciscans in his diocese, did not insist that Chumik leave but expressed his assurance that the Franciscans were properly monitoring him. Father Alberic Smith, the superior at Mission Santa Barbara, said, "I consider [Brother Gerald] as a success story, and yet people refuse to see that. I knew that there was no danger." The 69-year-old Chumik, said Smith, had cancer (in remission) and advanced diabetes and was housed in the mission's infirmary. Father Smith said he informed the schools at the mission of Chumik's past but did not consider him a threat.
Chumik, say Franciscan authorities, will live at a Franciscan friary in Missouri, isolated on 280 acres.
THE SUDDEN CLOSING in August of the California Charter Academy, may lead to greater state regulation of existing charter schools, said the September 17 New York Times. California's superintendent of education, Jack O' Connell, told the Times that, while the state's 537 charters are contributing to education, the state will need to apply "tough love" to them "to keep this kind of near-bankruptcy and chaos from happening again. If there's mismanagement and malfeasance," O'Connell said, "we'll come in and put you out of business."
State auditors are looking into why the California Charter Academy, run by former insurance executive C. Steven Cox, became insolvent. Cox formed his charter under the Oro Grande School District's auspices and eventually had 60 schools throughout the state. Cox, who received from the state $5,000 for every student he enrolled, built up a thriving business and hired his wife, son, daughter-in-law, and other relations at his corporate office in Victorville. Because of disputes with Cox, however, the state department of education withheld millions of dollars in funding, and Cox lost more money in legal fees in trying to force the state in court to pay him the money.
SOME JUAÑENO TRIBAL MEMBERS have not given up in their attempts to keep Junipero Serra High School, a Catholic-run charter school in San Juan Capistrano, from building a sports and performing arts complex on land which, the Juañenos claim, is a tribal burial ground and the site of the 15th century Indian village, Putiidhem. In September, the San Juan Capistrano city council approved plans for the school's $75 million project, which is opposed as well by environmentalists and neighbors. These opponents have started a petition drive to force a public referendum on the development. School supporters have claimed that the tribe has been using paid signature gatherers that have used bullying tactics to get people to sign. However, Doug Korthof, an environmental activist, told the September 17 Los Angeles Times that opponents of the petition have been interfering with petition gathering.
REVIVING OLD RUMORS that the Juañenos hope to build a casino, backers of Junipero Serra High School tried to change the minds of those who have signed the petitions in favor of a referendum to decide the fate of the disputed land, said the October 11 Los Angeles Times. School backers have sent voters signature-withdrawal cards as well as two mailers; one of these carries the heading, "Schools Not Casinos." Tribal member Rebecca Robles, who launched the tribes petition drive, said that since the Juañenos are not a federally-recognized tribe and do not have a reservation, they couldn't build a casino. The Juañenos petitioned the federal government for recognition in 1982; a tribal splinter group petitioned again in 1996.
A proposal in Congress, however, that would require the Department of the Interior to review within a year longstanding petitions for recognition from Indian tribes could lead to federal recognition for the Juañenos. Though Damien Shilo, chairman of a Juañeno faction, said the casino rumors peddaled by high school backers is "an out-and-out lie and it's shameful," he did admit, according to the Times, that the Juañenos might one day seek to establish a casino in Orange or Riverside counties.
THE ORANGE COUNTY DYKE PARADE went off this year without a hitch, said the September 14 Daily Pilot. In 2003, organizers of the Dyke Parade applied for a permit from the city of Costa Mesa but were met with what the organizers said were onerous requirements. Because of this, the Gay and Lesbian Center of Orange County said that the city of Costa Mesa had violated the parade organizers' constitutional rights to free speech and freedom to assemble and, with the American Civil Liberties Union, filed a lawsuit against the city in August 2003. In response, the city changed the process it uses to approve special events. Previously, such events were reviewed by a committee and submitted to the city manager for approval. Now, special events are processed by the finance department, with the option of appeal to the city council -- thus removing any judgment of a special event's content. This year was the third time the Dyke Parade -- part of a larger homosexual festival -- was held in Costa Mesa.
A MISSION VIEJO HOMOSEXUAL COUPLE are the first Californians to file a federal lawsuit against state and federal laws forbidding same-sex marriage, said the September 10 Los Angeles Times. Christopher Hammer and Arthur Smelt, who met through a dating service in 1996, have twice asked Orange County to grant them a marriage license, and have been twice refused. They were "married" in a commitment ceremony in 1997. On September 1 of this year, they filed a federal lawsuit against the county and the county clerk. Hammer and Smelt's lawsuit is one of four federal lawsuits; the other three were filed in Florida.
Among homosexual marriage rights proponents, Hammer and Smelt are considered radical. Most homosexual rights activists prefer to challenge state laws at the state level because, said Lambda Legal Defense counsel Jon Davidson, "history has shown that civil rights advances are most likely to occur first in state courts, so we think that's the wiser course. The U.S. Supreme Court has signaled that they're not ready yet to rule on marriage, so one of the ways we can get them ready is by winning in state courts under state constitutions."
But Ellis Rubin, one of the lawyers representing the three Florida cases, disagrees. He thinks the federal courts are ready to hear same-sex marriage cases. "The established gay rights organizations did not want to do it because they're too conservative," said Rubin. "But these things have got to get going. There's only one way that gays and lesbians are going to get any relief from the present situation, and that's the courts."
A YORBA LINDA COUPLE says they wish the best for their daughter, but, it seems, they would have preferred she had never been born. The one-year-old Leilani Duff has spinal bifida, which renders her paralyzed from the knees down. According to the September 9 Los Angeles Times, her parents, Dan Fraker and Colleen Duff, are suing their obstetrician, Dr. William Dieterich, because they say he did not tell them about a state-mandated test that screens for defects, such as spinal bifida. Dr. Dieterich, they say, is guilty of "wrongful birth" -- and because of his negligence, they are forced to bear the costs of caring for a handicapped child. "The whole rationale of the statute is to provide pregnant women with the information so they can make an informed decision about whether or not they want to keep the baby," said Larry Eisenberg, Duff and Fraker's lawyer. "In this case, the parents would have had to think long and hard about it, but my understanding is they would have opted for an abortion."
In 1982, the California supreme court recognized the right of parents to sue for wrongful birth. Such decisions, said Mark Lally, legal counsel with Ohio Right to Life, establish the notion that only perfect children should have the right to live. "You have a situation," said Lally, "where the only way to avoid injury to a child is to abort him or her. It comes down to saying her life isn't worth living. That's not someplace we want to go with our laws."
UNDER THREAT OF A LAWSUIT by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Los Angeles County board of supervisors voted 3-2 on September 14 to change the county seal. The American Civil Liberties Union objected to the old county seal because it included a cross -- which was a government endorsement of religion, according to the ACLU. The new seal replaces the cross with a mission church, of course, sans cross. Though the ACLU did not object to the image of the goddess Pomona on the old county seal, the new seal will have, instead, the image of an Indian woman. The oil derricks on the old seal will be replaced by the Hollywood Bowl.
Supervisor Gloria Molina, who with supervisors Yvonne Brathwaite Burke and Zev Yaroslavsky voted to change the seal, said it could take ten years to replace all the seals in the county, according to a September 14 Associated Press report. County officials said the cost of replacing the seal could reach nearly $1 million. Supervisor Michael Antonovich, who voted to keep the old seal, said changing the county seal is "a waste of time, energy and tax dollars for a radical organization's political agenda."