NEWS
2004 NEWS STORIES
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ROAMIN' CATHOLIC
Contents © 2004
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
NEWS
December 2004
MORE LATIN, GREGORIAN CHANT. The Year of the Eucharist: Suggestions and Proposals, a document issued on October 13 by the Holy See's Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, gives several recommendations to make Pope John Paul II's Year of the Eucharist a success. Among these, according to an October 14 Catholic News Service report, is one that encourages "familiarity of Latin, indicating its necessity, especially in houses of formation and in seminaries, for prayer and singing in Latin, particularly Gregorian chant." Among other proposals, the document suggests the promotion of Eucharistic adoration, reflections by priests on such problems as the priest shortage, low Sunday Mass attendance, and teaching the faithful how to behave properly in church.
DOLORES HUERTA, the co-founder, along with Cesar Chavez, of the United Farm Workers, received a cool reception at the union's convention when she proclaimed her support for abortion "rights" and homosexual marriage, said a column by Juan Esparza Loera in the September 20 Fresno Bee. Two hours after a convention Mass, the 74-year-old Huerta voiced her displeasure at Republican attempts to draw more Latino votes by emphasizing traditional morality. "I'm the mother of 11 children, and I'm Catholic," said Huerta in Spanish. "But [abortion] is the proper choice of every woman. It's not the government's decision to determine how many children we're going to have." "Instead of the usual loud applause and shouts of 'Sí' ('Yes') common at UFW conventions," wrote Loera, "there were only scattered voices of support." Huerta then attacked Republican support of reserving the definition of marriage to unions between men and women. "Who cares if two men or two women get married?" asked Huerta. "What matters most to us is how much money they'll spend for educating our children."
"Huerta's comments caught the largely Latino audience by surprise," said Loera, though he noted that "they match the sentiments of many Latinos who, in poll after poll, have made education and jobs their tortilla y frijoles issues." According to Loera, in a recent poll conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center, Latinos identified education (54 percent), economy/jobs (51 percent) and health care (51 percent) "as extremely important in their vote for president this year," while "moral values ranked eighth" at 36 percent. But the surprise evinced by the crowd at Huerta's comments, perhaps, indicates that the Pew and other polls do not tell the whole story as far as Latinos are concerned.
THE WALL-LAS MEMORIAS, a controversial monument to victims of AIDS and HIV, was scheduled to be dedicated December 1, World AIDS Day. Approved by the Los Angeles city council in April, 2003, The Wall had been the subject of much controversy in Lincoln Park. Residents of the heavily Latino area said the monument took up park space in a city that suffers from too few parks. Residents also protested that the Wall would force sexual issues on children who play in the park and that it, thus, undercut parental authority.
The Honorary Host Committee for the December 1 dedication included both California federal senators, a number of U.S. congressmen, and prominent state and city politicians. But the archdiocese of Los Angeles was not absent from the committee. Local Catholic clergy committee members included Fathers Carlos Alarcon, Alexei Smith (head of the archdiocesan ecumenical outreach), and Brian Doran, and Cardinal Roger Mahony.
According to The Wall website, the monument "was designed as a Quetzalcoatl serpent, an Aztec symbol for rebirth. Consisting of eight wall panels, six murals will depict life with AIDS in the Latino community and two granite panels will contain the names of individuals who have died from AIDS. The monument will also include a serene park setting with benches and an archway set in garden areas for personal meditation."
THE NAME OF CALIFORNIA'S FIRST LADY graces a baby nursery at Santa Monica's St. John's Health Center's new North Pavilion inpatient facility, which was dedicated October 7. The Maria Shriver Nursery forms but a part of what the October 15 Tidings said is a 150-room inpatient facility that includes "critical care, labor and delivery, neonatal intensive care and general surgery." The irony of the situation -- that a facility, and that in a Catholic hospital, set up to save the lives of babies is associated with the family of pro-abortion Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger -- seems to have escaped both St. John's and the Tidings. But the archdiocesan newspaper let pass without comment the news that among other "guests" attending the October 7 dedication was California state senator Sheila Kuehl, another champion of "abortion rights."
THOUGH A PRIEST FOR 42 YEARS, Cardinal Roger Mahony, writing in the September 24 Tidings, said he "never had the opportunity to take a sabbatical of any kind." But "after consultation with the Holy See," Mahony said he received permission to treat the month of October as a special sabbatical month this year and the next several years. "The purpose of each October's sabbatical," wrote the cardinal, "will be to visit parts of the world where newer, younger Catholic Churches are taking root and beginning to flourish." This year's sabbatical, which stretched from October 6 to 29, consisted "of two portions: visiting young Churches in central Africa, and a final week of art and architecture in Florence and Siena, Italy."
Cardinal Mahony said that "all of our priests who have taken sabbaticals over the years have returned with a renewed sense of commitment to Jesus Christ and to the work of evangelization." Mahony said he "look[ed] forward to the same experience." And the practical benefit to the archdiocese? "Since Los Angeles has countless thousands of people from so many continents and countries, each year's sabbatical will enable me to know and understand the local culture and religious practices of our immigrant peoples," wrote Mahony.
CARDINAL MAHONY ORDAINED Monsignor Alexander Salazar a bishop November 4 at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. As an auxiliary to Cardinal Mahony, Bishop Salazar will preside over the San Pedro Region, a position left vacant by the retirement of Bishop Joseph Sartoris in 2002. A native of Costa Rica, though he attended schools in the archdiocese of Los Angeles, Bishop Salazar has since 1994 served as pastor of St. Teresa of Avila church in Silverlake. In January 2003 he was appointed vice-chancellor for the archdiocese.
In an interview published in the November 5 Tidings, Bishop Salazar said that during a retreat he attended in preparation for his episcopal ordination, he was "able to focus on the centrality of the Eucharist in our lives." The new bishop said that "to reflect on the Holy Father's homily of last Holy Thursday, in which he reiterates not only how the Eucharist is the source and summit of our lives, but also on the many altars around the world where he has celebrated the Eucharist in his pontificate, was very powerful for me."
The 54-year-old Bishop Salazar said he realized he was called to the priesthood while serving as a Eucharistic minister. "In realizing the importance of that ministry, of sharing the body and blood of Christ with others," the bishop said, "I have been and continue to be profoundly moved to serve as Jesus did." Salazar said he "love[s] being a priest, celebrating Eucharist, bringing new members into the faith, and being with the people at their happy moments and even their difficult moments."
SOME CATHOLICS OPPOSE a consistent ethic of life, wrote Jesuit Father John Coleman in the October 15 Tidings. Since the 1970s, said Coleman, a professor at Loyola-Marymount Univeristy in Los Angeles, the United States bishops have espoused the consistent ethic of life, which embraces the sanctity of life "from cradle (abortion) to grave (euthanasia and capital punishment) and in between -- with concern for poverty and quality of life; for both security and the tempering of any rush to war."
But does this consistent ethic trivialize abortion, which, some Catholics argue, should serve "as the ultimate and priority litmus test"?
Coleman admits that abortion should not be simply equated with capital punishment. But, he says, "opposition to capital punishment serves to build a culture more widely respectful of life." "Similarly," continues Coleman, "the Catholic position on war (where popes consistently narrow the conditions for a 'just war' to legitimate defense against an unjust attack) stems from respect for life." Since in modern wars "something like ten times more innocent civilians get killed than combatants... the church inveighs against easy resort to war." Like abortion, "the use of a hydrogen bomb or saturation bombing which carpets cities and destroys innocent life" is a sin against life. "A culture which dismisses the innocently slaughtered as 'collateral damage' is likely to see the aborted fetus as equally 'collateral' to a woman's right to choose."
Coleman suggests that "quality of life" issues also fall under a respect for life, since such issues like poverty "impact abortion." And though millions die from abortion, said Coleman, "more innocent millions die in the Third World, every year, from addressable issues of malnutrition, lack of health facilities and unjust economic structures."
FATHER COLEMAN wrote his essay to address the question how a Catholic should vote in the presidential election. Noting that Catholic columnist George Weigel urged a vote for Bush, Coleman mentioned Fordham University sociologist James Kelly, who urged support for Senator John Kerry. Quoting Kelly, Coleman writes: "'It is harder to welcome new life when life itself seems unwelcoming to parents as they face cuts in health care, growing economic inequality and minimum wage levels below the poverty line.' [Kelly] also argues that pro-life sponsored legislation is most effective not when it directly attacks Roe/Wade but emphasizes real choices and alternatives to abortion."
TWO SAN GABRIEL VALLEY PRIESTS have inspired both criticism and praise for their opposition to a proposed Wal-Mart superstore in Rosemead, said the October 30 Los Angeles Times. Father Mike Gleeson, pastor of St. Anthony Catholic Church in San Gabriel, readily agreed when two parishioners asked his help in fighting a proposed Wal-Mart superstore in Rosemead. Father Gleeson not only agreed to allowing signature gathering on church grounds against the retail giant, he wrote a column in the parish newsletter opposing the superstore. He also wrote the Rosemead city council, saying, "I hope you will not prostitute yourself to Wal-Mart, but instead consider the implications of their suggested entry into Rosemead and the people who elected you." Wal-Mart supercenters, critics say, kill surrounding businesses and depress wages.
Father Ralph Berg at Mission San Gabriel also lent his aid to a referendum opposing the Wal-Mart supercenter. "The issue as I saw it was about the City Council making a unanimous decision over the protest of a large number of people," Berg told the Times. "As a Catholic priest I tried to let people know what their civic responsibility was, to be involved and not just be passive citizens, to hold government accountable."
Some parishioners, however, were not pleased with their pastors' social activism. Mary Ellen Dundas, a parishioner at the mission, was among those who wrote a letter of complaint to Cardinal Mahony. "This is not what I go to church for," said Dundas. "This is not a moral issue. When I go to church, I go to be uplifted, to get what I need to move on to the next week. I don't want to hear that I'm a sinner for supporting Wal-Mart."
A BILL IN THE U.S. SENATE that would provide funding to help restore the California missions violates the principle of the separation of church and state, say some critics. According to the October 12 San Francisco Chronicle, the bill, sponsored by Senator Barbara Boxer, would allow up to $10 million in federal funds to restore the missions while requiring matching funds from the California Missions Foundation. State funds from Proposition 40, which set aside $267 million for historic preservation projects, might also go to helping the missions, though state attorney general Bill Lockyer has yet to rule on the legality of using state funds to restore church-owned property. Boxer's bill passed the Senate on October 12 and had to go to House for a second vote. The House approved an earlier form of the legislation in 2003.
But Joe Conn, a spokesman for Americans United for Church and State, said his group "is very concerned about the constitutionality" of the Boxer bill. "Our legal department will look at it and consider a lawsuit. I don't think the Founding Fathers intended for Congress to maintain these buildings in this way." Nineteen of the 21 missions, said Conn, operate as churches. To avoid such a challenge, the Senate bill was amended to say that the department of justice would review applications for grants to make sure the monies would not promote religion but only preserve the missions' historic features. Under President George W. Bush, Old North Church in Boston and the Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island have benefited from similar federal funding.
CAMPAIGN FOR CALIFORNIA FAMILIES and the Proposition 22 Legal Defense Fund, two groups that oppose homosexual marriage, will join Attorney General Bill Lockyer in defending a California law defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman, said the October 16 San Francisco Chronicle. Both groups say that their help is needed in the lawsuit since Lockyer, who supports homosexual marriage, cannot be trusted to defend the law.
Superior court judge Richard Kramer ruled October 15 that both pro-family groups could take part in the hearings and have the right to appeal, though plaintiffs argued the groups have no legal rights at stake and so should only file written arguments. But Robert Tyler, an attorney for the Proposition 22 Legal Defense Fund, said in a statement that his group is "uniquely qualified to defend this law. They will seek to prevent any activist organizations from thwarting the will of Californians."
CALIFORNIA HAS THE RIGHT to grant homosexual couples nearly all the rights of marriage while defending "the deeply rooted and historic understanding of marriage," said Attorney General Bill Lockyer, according to the October 9 San Francisco Chronicle. In defending marriage, Lockyer appeals to tradition, said a statement written by Senior Assistant Attorney General Louis Mauro. "The common understanding of marriage as between a man and a woman predates the founding of this state or nation, and is deeply rooted in our history and traditions," wrote Mauro. "There simply is no deeply rooted tradition of same-sex marriage in California or in any other state."
Lockyer, however, appealed to state law, not tradition, in rejecting arguments that homosexual marriages harm children and threaten the stability of society. These are contrary to the state's policy of equal treatment, he claimed. In another statement, Lockyer noted that "committed and loving relationships between two individuals deserve recognition under California law;" but whether they should be allowed to marry, he said, should be decided by voters and the legislature, not the courts.
Robert Tyler, a lawyer with the Proposition 22 Legal Defense Fund, however, criticized Lockyer's disregard of studies on the effects of homosexual marriage on children and society. "The attorney general did not forward any evidence in support of the public policy behind preserving marriage to be between a man and a woman," said Tyler. "We will do our best to insure that that evidence gets before the court."
IN SCHEDULING A HEARING on December 22 to determine the constitutionality of California's same-sex marriage ban, superior court judge Richard Kramer told both sides in the dispute that he would decide nothing but the legal merits of the question, said the October 27 San Francisco Chronicle. Does the forbidding of homosexual marriage amount to an unconstitutional discrimination against homosexuals or a violation of the right to privacy would be the questions Kramer said he would ask; he would not concern himself with the alleged negative effects of such a law on homosexuals nor whether homosexual marriage is harmful to children or destabilizes society. "My job is not to sit here and figure out ... who's right about their values," the judge said. Kramer, however, said if he saw that the "factual" issues beyond simple constitutionality were necessary to decide on the matter, he would schedule a further hearing.
ADMINISTRATORS, TEACHERS, and some staff members at Washington Preparatory High School have called "gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual" students derogatory names, even saying their behavior is "unholy," claims an October 28 lawsuit filed in U.S. district court by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. According to an October 28 Associated Press report, the staff of Washington Preparatory High School has created "a climate rife with hostility toward and discrimination against students and staff based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation." This discrimination must end, says the lawsuit, and the Los Angeles Unified School District must "institute proper training procedures for all staff to put an end to the hostile and intolerant school environment."
School district attorney Kevin Reed, however, denied the lawsuit's allegations. During the past year, he said, the school district has offered many training programs for teachers and staff; three of those training programs, he said, were held at Washington Preparatory High School.
WESTMINSTER SCHOOL BOARD member Helena Rutkowski, who was one of three board members who last spring opposed state-mandated changes to the school district's anti-discrimination policy, lost her bid for re-election on November 2, said the November 4 Los Angeles Times. The state mandated a broadening of the basis on which parents and students can allege discrimination from merely sex to "gender" -- including transsexual. Rutkowlski had criticized the state policy, saying that by it "we create protected groups that will shove their lifestyle down our throats. A person can be anything that they wish to be, but I don't need to accept their behavior. I will do everything to protect the students from this mindset."
THE U.S. SUPREME COURT declined an appeal of a lawsuit alleging that Planned Parenthood covered up information linking abortions to breast cancer, said an October 18 Associated Press story. The case, Bernardo et al v. Planned Parenthood, brought by three women, Pamela Colip of Loma Linda, Agnes Bernardo of Chula Vista, and Saundra Duffy-Hawkins of Sacramento against Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside Counties and the national Planned Parenthood organization, had been dismissed by the California supreme court, which ordered the women to pay Planned Parenthood' s more than $77,000 in attorneys fees. The federal supreme court let this decision stand, without comment.
A PETITION DRIVE to keep Junipero Serra High School, a Catholic-run charter school in San Juan Capistrano, from building a sports and performing arts complex failed to get the required number of signatures to be put on the ballot, said the November 4 Los Angeles Times. Members of Juañeno Indian tribe have claimed that the 29-acre site for the school's facility 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 started a petition drive to force a public referendum on the development. But on November 3, the Orange County registrar of voters said two petitions for a referendum failed to meet the required threshold of 1,752 signatures. Junipero Serra High School may now proceed to build its complex.