NEWS
2006 NEWS STORIES
November/December
September/October
July/August
June
May
April
March
February
January
ARTICLES
LETTERS
ROAMIN' CATHOLIC
Contents © 2006
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
NEWS
November/December 2006
WHERE SIN ABOUNDED.... In August, the Mission received this message by e-mail from a reader. "We stopped in San Luis Obispo, and I saw a Choices Pregnancy Resource Center in a place where I am sure there used to be a Planned Parenthood. It looks like Planned Parenthood still has an office in San Luis Obispo, but I wonder if there's a story about a pro-life place being in their old building. (I could be wrong about it, though)."
The reader was wrong, and right. The Choices Pregnancy Resource Center, which, according to its director, Jim Coles, does post-abortion counseling at 75 Santa Rosa in San Luis Obispo, is located in a space next door to what was a Planned Parenthood clinic that performed abortions. It is now a chiropractic office.
What happened to the Planned Parenthood clinic? It was firebombed, said Coles, nearly ten years ago. Choices was not located in San Luis Obispo at the time; it has been at 75 Santa Rosa only two years, said Coles. And the center did not choose the location because of its proximity to a former abortion clinic. The choice of location, said Coles, was the "Lord's choice."
"This is our second location," Coles said. "Since 1989, we have had LifeLine in Grover Beach. The Choices Pregnancy Center is affiliated with LifeLine." Coles related that he had gone to his board of directors "about moving into San Luis Obispo because there was not an evangelical voice for the unborn here, and the University of California, San Luis Obispo is very close to us." (There is still a Planned Parenthood clinic in the city, on Pismo Street.) "The board mandated that location was vitally important, and this -- the Santa Rosa location -- was the first place that a property management fellow showed me. I knew it was it."
But if the location of the center was not the result of strategic planning, the choice of its name, "Choices," was. "We chose the name Choices strategically so that people would think we are a pro-abortion organization," said Coles. "We certainly are not, but it gives us an opportunity to share the truth about abortion.
"Some in the Christian community were not necessarily pleased about the name," said Coles, "but it's not so much about preaching to the choir but about reaching abortion-vulnerable young ladies."
Do people come to Choices asking, "where's the Planned Parenthood office?" "They do," said Coles. "But it's not frequent. It's occasional."
STATE UNIVERSITY SEEKS HOME SCHOOLERS. The University of California, Riverside, has announced on its website that it "has developed an admission program for homeschooled or other nontraditionally educated students." In a recent press release, the university said that during the past admission season, out of 16 home schooled and non-traditionally educated students who submitted admissions portfolios, 12 were accepted to the university. Six of these were awarded Regents or Chancellor's scholarships -- a higher percentage, said the press release, "than in the regular admission population."
Why is U.C. Riverside seeking home schooled students? Because, says the university's web site, "students can be educated in many ways." Students educated outside the traditional school model "may not only have received an excellent education but may also have developed personal characteristics that can lead to success in college and life." Personal characteristics include, says the web site, "maturity and self-discipline, creativity and ingenuity, an intrinsic motivation to learn, leadership qualities, determination, a desire to volunteer or perform community service, a desire for the exploration of other cultures and languages, and a possession of clear and achievable goals."
Non-traditional students must meet high school qualifications, the SAT or ACT testing requirements, and submit a university application like other prospective freshmen. However, non-traditional students must also submit a portfolio that describes "aspects of their educational background not captured in the UC application." The portfolio will be reviewed by staff and faculty members "familiar with home or nontraditional schooling," according to the university's web site.
Though the university lists subjects it wants home schoolers and non-traditionally educated students to have studied, Professor Frank Vahid, who helped establish the program, says, according to the "Q &A," "even if a homeschooled student has not studied all the subjects listed, they should still apply. It is the portfolio review that will help the committee determine the breadth and depth of the education. So for instance, if a homeschooled student did not study a foreign language, but studied particularly deeply in another subject area, the faculty committee will look at the whole picture to decide if this student can be successful at UCR."
Will other University of California campuses follow Riverside's lead in seeking out home schoolers? Perhaps not. Said an "Admissions Q &A" released by the university, the Riverside initiative "is an independent project, based on a request from UCR faculty members.
DID RUPERT MURDOCH GET RELIGION? In September, News Corp's Fox Filmed Entertainment announced that its FoxFaith division, which has sold over 30 million "faith-based DVD titles" to Christian retailers (making last year over $200 million doing so, a sum equivalent, said the September 19 Los Angeles Times, to the box office sales of the Fox Searchlight division), will make films for the Christian market. According to the Times, FoxFaith expects to make about a dozen films a year, its first release being Love's Abiding Joy, which was slated to open October 6. The film is based on a novel, Love Comes Softly, in a series by Evangelical Christian writer, Janette Oke. Other films, according to the Times, will be based on Christian bestsellars. The budgets for these films, however, will be relatively small -- less than $5 million with a $5 million marketing campaign, as opposed to the average cost of $60 million to make a typical film and $36 million to market it.
According to the Times, "FoxFaith will target Evangelical Christians who often have shunned popular entertainment as offensive." The success of the Mel Gibson's, The Passion of the Christ, according to the Times, "really propelled the idea of devoting a label to Christian titles." Fox declined distributing the Passion when it came out, but its home entertainment division subsequently acquired the domestic home distribution rights for the film and has sold over 15 million copies on DVD.
At least some Evangelical Christians have greeted the news of FoxFaith's new endeavor with enthusiasm. "It is extremely satisfying to be taken seriously," Nancy Neutzling, vice president of marketing for Word Distribution, FoxFaith's distributor to Christian retailers, told the Times. "It's like we have arrived." But Brandon Gray, president of the box-office reporting service, Box Office Mojo, sounded a note of skepticism. "If this is something Fox is doing only to exploit the audience -- or if it's something they don't believe in or are doing cynically -- then there could be problems," Gray told the Times. "There isn't a huge turnout for these films unless they speak to what Christianity is all about. People want a guide to life and Hollywood has ignored that by saying nothing or dwelling on vices."
"I THINK IT'S GREAT," said Scott Rolfe, communications director for the Michigan-based Dove Foundation, of the news of FoxFaith's new project. The Dove Foundation has been a sort of censor librorum for FoxFaith in the past, having placed its family-friendly seal of approval on most of the division's DVD releases in recent years. "I think all studios ought to meet the needs of their viewers," Rolfe told the Mission in September.
According to Rolfe, other studios besides Fox are catering to the Christian audience. "Sony Pictures," he said, "has a deal with Provident, which is a Christian distributor, and they are going to be producing films for the Christian market as well. I think that what you're seeing with Twentieth Century Fox is that they've realized there's a large enough viewer base for them to create a unique label to reach those people."
But will these films appeal only to Evangelicals? Rolfe said he did not think so. "While Fox, in their marketing effort, might be targeting specific Christian group -- Evangelicals -- you've got to remember that Evangelicals are multi-denominational. Can Catholics watch these films? Absolutely. You' ve got films like Flicka being released by Fox (though not necessarily under the FoxFaith label) that are not specifically faith-based at all. Mother Teresa is a film that is being released under the FoxFaith label. What they are trying to reach is what they call the Faith and Family marketplace."
Rolfe did not fully agree with Brandon Gray's comment to the Times. "I don't see that Fox is doing it as a cynical attempt," said Rolfe, "but I tend to agree with his [Gray's] comment that, if they are only doing this to market films, there is a potential to overstep the boundaries. I cannot tell you this for a fact, but I think the reason for FoxFaith's relationship with the Dove Foundation is that we offer them an independent review of their product. I think part of the reason they do that is, number one, they know the market they are trying to reach understands our review guidelines and structure. I think they also do it so they will not produce films with elements that are antithetical to the Judeo-Christian faith."
That Fox is motivated basically by a profit motive did not bother Rolfe. "Do I think Rupert Murdoch is trying to convert the world? Given the other films that are in the Twentieth Century Fox stable, I certainly don't see any deep-seated spiritual nature to the Twentieth Century Fox corporation. They are releasing Christian films to make money. They're in the business to make films that make money, not make statements, not political, social, or religious statements. So, did they create this label in the hopes that they would reach a consumer? You bet. But is that wrong? No, that's what their investors expect them to do."
Fox is producing Christian films, said Rolfe, "because there is a marketplace that is being underserved, and I think that they realized that far enough ahead of the other studios that they're getting this initial publicity and press for it. For 15 years, Dove Foundation has been telling video stores and video distributors that 'family' is not a category, it is not a genre, it's a customer. Families like comedies, they like drama, they like action adventure stories. They just want to see them in a way that doesn't offend their sensibilities."
SEX, DRUGS, AND PORN. A lawsuit filed September 7 in Los Angeles County superior court alleges that music industry companies Warner Music Group, Atlantic Records, and others aided in forcing a 16-year-old girl into making pornographic videos, said the September 11 Los Angeles Times. Last October, the rock group Buckcherry invited its fans to join it at Hollywood' s Key Club. The lawsuit alleges that the minor girl, identified as Jane Doe, came to the club, where she was plied with alcohol and then filmed exposing her breasts, kissing another girl, and "writhing against a pole." The girl had come, supposedly, because the band had advertised for extras for a rock video on MySpace, a teen site hosted by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
The lawsuit claims the video of the girl was posted on Buckcherry's website and distributed online, along with a "behind the scenes" program that mentioned the girl's first name. When the video aired, the girl was called a lesbian by school mates. She eventually had to change schools. Douglas Silverstein, the girl's attorney, is seeking unspecified damages.
Though the lawsuit alleges that no one at the Key Club asked for the girl's identification, Skip Miller of the law firm Miller Barondess, denied this. "We had a guy at the door checking IDs, and to get in, this girl had to show a fake identification showing she was over 18. There were signs telling minors to stay out. This woman filled out a release form with false information. And once it was determined this woman was underage, the video was removed."
Warner Music Group, which says it played no role in the video's original production, nevertheless made a re-edited version of the video when it was contacted by the girl's mother and hired a company to strip the original video from the web. However, as of mid September, versions of the original video featuring Jane Doe could still be found on the web.
ALL SAINTS EPISCOPAL in Pasadena entered a new phase in its dealings with the Internal Revenue Service in September. On September 15, the IRS issued a summons ordering the church to appear at a hearing to determine whether it had engaged in political campaigning during the 2004 presidential election. In October of that year, the Rev. Dr. George Regas delivered the sermon, "If Jesus Debated Senator Kerry and President Bush," in which he noted, that in the debate, not Kerry or Bush, but Jesus wins. "And," he added, "I don't intend to tell you how to vote."
Still, Regas' sermon assailed the policies favored by President Bush in Iraq, though he indicated that Jesus, addressing both the president and the senator, refers to Middle East conflict as "your war." Regas had Jesus ask Bush, "with deep sadness," whether he really intends to end the ban on developing nuclear weapons. Regas had Jesus criticize Bush's policies toward the poor, though, again, addressing both candidates, spoke of "your failure ... to help uplift those in poverty here and around the world." Regas concluded his sermon, saying to the congregation, "when you go into the voting booth on Tuesday, take with you all that you know about Jesus, the peacemaker. Take all that Jesus means to you. Then vote your deepest values." The IRS charged that Regas' was a partisan sermon, forbidden by the tax code to non-profits.
As if to underline the agency's attention to detail, the September 14 summons demanded that All Saints hand over all organizing documents in effect in 2004; vestry meeting minutes for that year; "instructions, guidelines, training material, or functionally similar type writings" the church provided to sermon givers; records of payment to Regas on October 31, 2004; and even utilities bills, bills for janitorial work at the church, and insurance policies for October 2004. The agency gave the church until September 29 to turn over the materials.
On Sunday, September 17, All Saints rector, the Rev. Ed Bacon, devoted half of his 20-minute sermon to the IRS summons. He said he wanted the church's active members to decide whether or not to resist the summons. In his sermon, Bacon said churches should not engage in political campaigning but neither should they remain silent in the face of "dehumanization, injustice and violence." History, he said, "is shamefully littered with the moral bankruptcy of people who were Christian in name but not behavior."
THE PERSONNEL FILES of defrocked priest Lynn Caffoe, according to attorney Katherine Freberg, would show "the church's continuing coverup and protection" of priests who molest children. Freberg represents four out of 570 alleged victims of priest molestation who are suing the archdiocese of Los Angeles.
But, if Caffoe has his way, the files will show nothing to anyone. During the first week of September, Donald Steier, Caffoe's attorney, asked the second district court of appeal in Los Angeles to block the release of Caffoe's personnel files to plaintiffs' attorneys, the September 9 Los Angeles Times reported. Caffoe's appeal cited privacy rights, attorney-client privilege, and physician-patient privilege, among other things. The appeals court stopped proceedings until it could hear Caffoe's appeal.
The documents, said Freberg, are needed for "further investigation." "The church is well aware that if they can tie these documents up in the court system, they also can stop the trial."
Donald Steier, however, told the Mission, that he is not trying to stop the trial. He would fight the release of Caffoe's personnel files, he said, "whether there was a trial or not. I've done the same thing in every other case where there's no trial set. So, the trial has nothing to do with it." Steier noted that he represents his client priests; "I don't represent the archdiocese. To the extent I represent the priests, sometimes [the archdiocese and I] are on the same side and sometimes we're on different sides. I am sometimes totally against [the archdiocese]."
One instance where Steier opposed the archdiocese was about a year ago when "they wanted to release all these summaries, or proffers they were called, of all the [priests' personnel] files. And they put them out ready to go, and I had to go to court and get it blocked and have an order against them." The archdiocese, said Steier, "made their decisions as to what's in their best interests. And public relations is their best interest."
The archdiocese ultimately published the proffers on its webpage, despite the court order against publishing summaries of the personnel files. "They changed the format and put it out there in a different form than the way it was prohibited. What could I do? I couldn't get there in time to stop that."
Steier said he thought "the archdiocese is less concerned about the release of personnel files than I am -- though, it's always written that the Church is the one that's blocking everything. Usually it's my motions, and sometimes they join with me and sometimes they let me go."
Plaintiffs' attorneys argue that a Supreme Court ruling this year supports them in their demand for personnel files of accused priests. In 2005, an appellate court had ruled that the Los Angeles archdiocese had to turn priests' personnel files over to the Los Angeles county grand jury. The archdiocese appealed to the United States Supreme Court, contending that it did not have to turn over priests' personnel files on account of First Amendment privileges. But on April 17 of this year, the Supreme Court let stand the appellate court's ruling that "religious believers and institutions" must follow "the rules of civil society, particularly when the state's compelling interest in protecting children is in question."
The archdiocese has made the argument that the court's order that personnel files of priests have to be turned over to the grand jury says nothing about trial courts. Steier agrees. "In fact," he said, "they technically cannot turn it over to the district attorney for the purposes of prosecution. If the grand jury decided to indict someone based on this, then we have a right -- both sides, the prosecutor and I -- to get copies of everything the grand jury's looked into. But at this point, whatever the grand jury has received is under a seal of grand jury secrecy. And they only have two files. They asked for 34 or 36."
BISHOP JOHN STEINBOCK of Fresno has given the controversial priest, Father Jean-Michael Lastiri, a promotion. According to the September 17 Central California Catholic Life, Steinbock has appointed Lastiri to be the director of the diocesan office of liturgy, worship, and evangelization as well as the director of detention ministry.
In the summer of 2004, Bishop Steinbock removed Lastiri as pastor of St. Patrick's parish in Merced for what the bishop called "inappropriate" behavior; Lastiri had frequented a homosexual dating internet site (for men who called themselves "bears") where he solicited liaisons. According to a 2005 Fresno Bee report, an audit of St. Patrick's finances carried out in May of that year revealed that Father Lastiri had behaved in other inappropriate ways. He had "misspent" $60,000 in parish finances, spending it on personal travelling expenses, purchase of personal goods and services, personal loans, a down payment on a car, and other items. According to the Bee, the diocese cited administrative problems as the source of the misspending and repaid the money to the parish.
In June 2005, Bishop Steinbock tried placing Lastiri as associate pastor of St. Philip the Apostle's parish in Bakersfield, but meeting protest from some parishioners and others, the diocese announced that Lastiri would not be assigned to the parish. In a letter written to St. Philip's parishioners, in which he announced he was rescinding Lastiri's appointment, Steinbock wrote, "the issue with Fr. Lastiri has been one of addiction, not criminal sexual behavior. It has been addiction both to the fantasy world of the Internet and to the spending of money." For this, Lastiri has undergone therapy, the bishop noted.
ORANGE'S FIRST ROUND CHURCH. The 16,000-square-foot Our Lady of La Vang church, which was dedicated on August 20, is the first round church in the diocese of Orange, said the August 20 Los Angeles Times. Actually, "it's a round structure upon a square structure," according to the church's pastor Father Joseph Nguyen. "The round and square in the East symbolizes heaven and earth, a harmony. In the West, the round represents eternity and perfection, [while] the square represents justice and strength." The altar sits in the center of the new church.
The new church, which cost $9.3 million, is located at 288 S. Harbor Boulevard near 1st Street in Santa Ana -- about two miles away from the soon-to-be-closed Our Lady of Lourdes. The merging of Our Lady of Lourdes with the new Our Lady of La Vang has been a point of some controversy since ground was broken for the new church structure in 2001. The primarily Latino Our Lady of Lourdes (renamed Our Lady of La Vang after 2001) had been a religious and social center for Latino families for over 50 years, 74-year-old Juanita Vega told the Times. "We had a reason for going there almost every day," she said, "either to pray or to help at the church. All this is gone. I'm not happy about it; it's like they took away 50 years of my life." A June 2003 Associated Press story quoted former Our Lady of Lourdes pastor, Father William Barman, saying that many in his congregation so hated the idea of the merger into a parish with Vietnamese emphasis that "they were going to puke." The Vietnamese, too, were reluctant to share their church with Latinos, said Associated Press, "whom they regard as lower class."
Barman was not opposed to merging the Hispanics and Vietnamese into one parish. But he did have a run-in with Bishop Tod Brown, who in June 2003 asked Barman to step down as pastor to make way for a Vietnamese priest. Brown said he thought it important that the Vietnamese have one parish they could call their own, and that parish should have a Vietnamese priest. "I've determined pastorally that it's best for the parishioners of this new church to have a Vietnamese pastor," said the bishop. "But we will have a competent, trilingual staff. Everyone's needs will be met." When Barman refused to resign as pastor, Brown halted construction of the new church. Eventually Barman did step down and the construction of the parish proceeded.
The diocese offered $6 million for the construction of Our Lady of La Vang -- said to be an unusual move on its part.
LITTLE MAYWOOD, a suburb of Los Angeles, became the center of a fierce immigration demonstration on August 26 when the anti-illegal immigration Save Our State and similar groups disrupted traffic on Slauson Avenue. The Save Our State group was on hand to protest because some city officials have described Maywood as a sanctuary for illegal immigrants. Last December, the Maywood city council voted to oppose congressional immigration legislation because, said critics, it would force small cities such as Maywood to enforce immigration laws. Maywood is 96 percent Hispanic.
According to the August 27 Los Angeles Times, the demonstrators waved American flags and shouted into bullhorns behind police barricades, while, behind other barricades and police in riot array, a group of about 200 counter protesters shouted back, telling the "racists" to go away. Maywood's 40-strong police force had to be augmented by officers from nearby cities, including South Gate, Whittier, and Huntington Beach, along with Los Angeles city school police. The mayor, Thomas Martin, estimated that the city spent from $20,000 to $30,000 for police overtime.
On the day of the demonstration, Maywood mayor Martin was at Saint Rose of Lima Catholic Church, where about 200 people were treated to a free lunch and Mariachi music, while being encouraged to become citizens and register to vote. Father David Velasquez, St. Rose's pastor, told the Mission, that he, city officials, and "and some groups and leaders of different organizations," held the event as an alternative to a counter-protest to Save Our State. "We decided not to confront them because we decided to put our energy in looking for more citizens and give information to them about citizenship and make some health event," said Velasquez. "We did not want to confront them, because we were not going to change their minds, and they were not going to change ours." Of the counter protesters that did arrive in Maywood, "they came from other cities," said Velasquez. "We were upset with that because they gave publicity to [Save Our State]. They were not from our parish."
Father Velasquez said that the city was not designated a sanctuary for illegal immigrants. "This is one of the wrong conceptions about our city," he said. "We are not inviting [illegal immigrants] to come here; we are not supporting illegal immigration. We want to protect the citizens here in Maywood." The city was declared a sanctuary, according to Velasquez, because "the police were persecuting the Hispanic people in the city. The police were taking and impounding cars in our community and an impound company was involved." Up until November 2005, when three new members were elected to the city council, police in the city set up sobriety check points on city streets in the afternoon, by which they were able catch not only drivers under the influence but drivers without licenses, whose cars would be impounded. Many of those without licenses were immigrants, but not all.
The population of Maywood is officially 28,000, but officeholders say that, counting the unregistered immigrants, it is closer to 45,000.
Mayor Martin and Save Our State did not return requests for comment.
THE FIGHT OVER ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION in Costa Mesa continued in September and October, with the majority on the city council making it a city issue while an organized opposition group opposed them, said the August 15 Los Angeles Times.
Mayor Allan Mansoor, who was up for reelection in November, has denounced illegal immigration on talk shows and has led the majority on the city council to enforce some federal immigration laws. Under his leadership the council ended the city's Human Relations Committee, which worked against unjust treatment of immigrants, and closed a job center for day workers. Mansoor had the backing of the Minuteman Project's Jim Gilchrist.
Mansoor himself backed Wendy Leece for city council in the November election. Last year at a recreation commission meeting Leece suggested that police cite any group with more than ten members playing soccer at Paularino Park because they need a permit -- a suggestion which, critics said, was directed at illegal immigratns. "Why are we allowing people to openly break a rule?" asked Leece. "It seems that is what gives structure and order to our society."
Former local politicians, residents and businesses, including the owners of South Coast Plaza, C.J. Segerstrom and Sons, formed a group, Return to Reason, which supported two opposition candidates to Mansoor and Leece. The group said the city should focus on local issues, such as taxes, rather than on enforcing federal immigration law.
CARDINAL ROGER MAHONY has commissioned a biography of himself, the September 22 Tidings reported. The biography, said the Tidings, will be issued by "a nationally-renowned publisher following the cardinal's anticipated retirement at age 75 in 2011."
Mahony chose Dr. Michael Downey, his theologian since 1998, to write the volume. Downey is also a professor of systematic theology at St. John's Seminary in Camarillo. Downey, who has written or edited over 20 books, including a biography of l'Arche founder Jean Vanier, said of his Mahony biography, "I want to provide readers throughout the country, indeed in different parts of the world, with an accurate and reliable portrait of the boy, the man, the priest, the bishop, the archbishop and cardinal; the issues, the challenges and the difficulties he has faced; and how he has responded to them."
Downey called Mahony "the most significant and influential moderate voice in the American Catholic hierarchy. So many people all across the country, and in different parts of the world, look to him as a paragon of the middle way and of moderation, an embodiment of the Common Ground so dear to the heart of his brother bishop and good friend Cardinal Bernardin."
According to Downey, Cardinal Mahony is a man of "deep and abiding prayer," a disciple of Jesus Christ, a man of the Church, indeed a 'Prince' of the Church Universal. But he is also a simple and humble man, a very uncomplicated but mature person. In any and every situation, the cardinal is the first one to roll up his sleeves and get down to work -- be it the work of endless tedious meetings, or caring for his priests and people, or helping set the dinner table and doing the dishes, or repairing leaky faucets. All the while, his eyes are constantly 'fixed on Jesus.'"
AFTER A ROLLERCOASTER RIDE that started late this summer, pro-family forces claimed victory when Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the "triple threat" -- the term coined to describe three bills before the state assembly and senate. Although the governor was quoted in the Sacramento Bee earlier this year as saying he would oppose one of these bills, SB 1437, a senate bill which would have required that textbooks used in California public schools make note of the sexual orientation of historical figures, pro-family forces did not trust him to keep his word. Another "triple threat" bill, AB 606, would have forced public schools to create "tolerance" policies by threatening to withhold money from those districts which refused to draw up such policies. The third bill, AB 1056, would have forced students to "convey respect" towards homosexuality.
Late this summer, pro-family forces launched an intense lobbying effort in order to shoot down the "triple threat." On August 19, Capitol Resource Institute along with the California Republican Assembly staged a rally at the Century Plaza hotel in Los Angeles, where the Republicans were holding their semi-annual meeting. At the rally, social conservatives called on the governor to veto all three bills. Speakers included Brad Dacus of the Pacific Justice Institute, California Republican Assembly president Mike Spence, Assembly member Sharon Runner (R-Lancaster) and her husband, Senator George Runner (R-Lancaster).
At the rally Karen England of Capitol Resource Institute told the gathered crowd to keep the pressure on the governor to veto all three bills. Also invited to the rally was the Republican nominee for the United States Senate, Dick Mountjoy, as well as Republican contender for the state controller's office, Tony Strickland.
At the rally, Brad Dacus said that parents should be concerned about the bills that were scheduled to land on the governor's desk some time in late August. "The aggressiveness of the intolerant homosexual lobby in forcing their social indoctrination programs in public schools must be matched by the determination and conviction of citizens who respect the rights of parents to direct the upbringing of their children," said Dacus.
Laura Power, press secretary for Assemblywoman Runner, told the Mission that her boss was opposed to the bills. "Yes, she is opposed to the entire package. Sharon voted against the original bill. SB 1437 was recently amended and Sharon voted against the amended version. The Republican Caucus is in the process of drafting a veto letter."
Republican Caucus leader George Pleschia's press secretary would not confirm or deny that a letter was in the works.
On September 6, the Governor vetoed SB 1437. Following the veto, Randy Thomasson of the Campaign for Children and Families alerted pro-family groups to a phone poll that the governor was conducting and urged people to flood the line with calls urging the governor to veto the two remaining bills. On September 28, the governor vetoed the remaining two bills.
BUT GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER SIGNED another bill which critics called an assault on religion. Authored by Santa Monica Democratic senator Sheila Kuehl, the bill, SB 1441, requires that any institution that receives state funding not discriminate against homosexuals. No exception is made for religious institutions.
In the time leading up to the governor's August 28 signing of the bill, Republicans put up minimal resistance to it; but once the governor signed the bill, pro-family groups unleashed a firestorm of opposition. Those groups that signed on opposing SB 1441 included Capitol Resource Institute, Traditional Values Coalition, and Concerned Women for American of California. There was no opposition on file from any religious group. One source close to the Republican Party said that the governor's re-election team had consulted with the California Catholic Conference to see if it thought social conservatives would angrily react to the governor's signature. According to this source, the Catholic Conference assured the governor's campaign that church groups would not react vehemently.
In spite of the Catholic Conference's alleged assurances, as soon as the governor signed the bill press releases were shot out by pro-family groups who uttered dismay that the governor would sign a bill that was an affront to social and religious conservatives. Even operatives within Schwarzenegger's own re-election campaign, Victory '06, expressed alarm at what the governor had done. One operative (who requested anonymity) said that it would be impossible to get social conservatives to volunteer at the Victory '06 phone banks.
Karen England of Capitol Resource Institute spoke to the degree of outrage over the governor's signature on SB 1441. "We normally don't have people calling the office just to talk," she said, "but this time the phone just rang off the hook. People are really angry. This will affect voter turn out. I'm hoping that people still come out for the down ticket and the ballot propositions." Mike Spence of the California Republican Assembly said the governor's actions "may suppress conservative activists and conservative turn out." Spence said the governor was not focusing on pro family voters."
Spence said he would concentrate his efforts on campaigning for the "down ticket," which includes not only Tom McClintock for state treasurer but Tony Strickland, who is running for Controller as well as Chuck Poochigian who is running against Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown for attorney general. In conclusion Spence said, "this governor can't be trusted with pro family or fiscal matters."
PROPOSITION 22 UPHELD. On October 5, the first district court of appeal for the state of California issued a ruling in favor of pro-family groups who sued San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom when he directed the city clerk to alter marriage licenses so to allow gays and lesbians to marry. In a February 10, 2004 letter, Newsom unilaterally directed that men be allowed to marry men and women be allowed to marry women in spite of the fact that the California Family code specifically states that marriage is between a male and female. Additionally, the voters of the state of California passed Proposition 22 in 2000 which again stated that marriage is between a man and a women. Pro-family groups are elated with the 1st District striking down a lower court's ruling that Proposition 22 was unconstitutional. Kevin Snider of the Pacific Justice Institute said, "we applaud the Court of Appeal for refusing to engage in judicial activism with such an important issue as the definition of marriage. The people of California have spoken clearly through Prop. 22, and it's encouraging to see the court enforce the law as it was enacted."
Originally there were several lawsuits filed which were later consolidated by the courts. In their lawsuit, plaintiff Randy Thomasson and the Campaign for California Families pointed out that a municipality cannot alter state law. In their ruling the California Court of Appeal said, "the six cases before us ultimately distill to the question of who gets to define marriage in our democratic society. We believe this power rests in the people and their elected representative, and courts may not appropriate to themselves the power to change the definition of such a basic social institution."
Rich Ackerman of the Pro Family Law Center was one of the first attorneys to sue Newsom. He said that he and his fellow lawyers at Liberty Counsel and the Alliance Defense Fund were concerned about California setting a bad precedent if it allowed Newsom to prevail. "The entire legal team always saw this as an issue about the democratic process. California, nor any other state, should be controlled by radical activists, such as Mayor Newsom, who happen to be in political positions of power. The People ought to be able to decide what is right and wrong for society when it comes to the fundamental institutions of family and marriage" Pro gay groups are vowing to appeal the decision to the California Supreme Court. Jennifer Pizer of the Lambda Legal Defense Fund said, "We believe that the Supreme Court will find as the trial court did that there is no room in California for a 'separate but equal' status that serves only to stigmatize same-sex couples and their children."
PALMS SPRINGS IS SO GAY. In fact, according to the September 22 Los Angeles Times, the city "has one of the nation's largest percentages of same-sex couples, plays host to high-profile gay oriented events, and has elected gay people to three of the five seats on its City Council." So, it came as something of a surprise -- and a source of outrage to the local "gay community" -- when Palm Springs' openly homosexual mayor, Ron Oden, formally welcomed to the vicinity a "Love Won Out" conference, which was sponsored by a Christian group that believes that homosexuals can overcome their orientation. In a letter to conference organizers, Focus on the Family, Mayor Oden wrote, "it's a pleasure to welcome you. We are so proud to have you here in the Palm Springs area."
What made Oden's warm welcome to Focus on the Family more odious to many was that it seemed particularly gratuitous; on September 21, the conference was not even held in Palm Springs, but 20 miles away, in Indian Wells. Palm Springs homosexual activist Claire Jordan Grant said that local homosexuals were "completely unified in their outrage" at Oden's letter. Lesbian city councilwoman Ginny Foat said Oden's letter was "unfortunate." Since it was not even requested by the conference sponsor, "it was not a mistake," said Foat.
Oden's letter not only welcomed the conference but indicated he wanted it to return in future years. He said he hoped conferences goers might "discover all that makes this a great place to live and visit.... We are going to do everything we can to make you want to come back. We'll tempt you with so many things to do and see that you will just have to return."
On October 21, Oden justified his letter. "Not long ago people were saying they didn't want us in their communities," he said. "If we now turn around and say we don't want them, where does it stop? If we want the acceptance and understanding of others, it's also important for people to see we're willing to extend the same courtesy to others."
"WE HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY to absolutely" make Los Angeles "the peaceable kingdom," said Sister Diane Donoghue, a "real estate developer," according to the October 5 Los Angeles Times, though an unusual one. In 1989, Sister Diane founded Esperanza, an organization to build affordable housing for the poor in the area of Los Angeles lying between the University of Southern California and the increasingly-gentrified downtown area. Over the years, Esperanza has renovated nine tenements into apartment complexes for garment workers. Rents are affordable (which is the point), set at 30 percent of a typical worker's salary -- $575 a month for a three-bedroom apartment. Another Esperanza project was Mercado La Paloma (Grand Avenue and 37th Street), which was built to foster the growth of small businesses.
In October, Sister Diane, 75, announced that she would retire from Esperanza. She has been in the neighborhood along the Harbor Freeway and south of the Santa Monica Freeway since 1985. She has been a bulldog in her efforts for affordable housing for the poor. At one point, she fought to stop a garment factory that would have replaced housing. City Hall then helped her find contacts for money. Learning real estate financing and architecture from non-profit affordable housing developer, Los Angeles Community Design Center, Sister Diane spear-headed the building of Villa Esperanza, a 33-unit complex that stands where the garment factory was to go. In years past an opponent of USC's expansion plans and its attempt to cut its food workers from its health plan, Sister Diane now advises the school on its build-out plan. In retirement she will continue to work in support of affordable housing.
A native daughter of Los Angeles, Sister Diane attended UCLA and, in 1955, entered the Sisters of Social Service. She said of her life as a sister, "the devotional prayer part was not as much of a call to me as working the Gospel, making the Gospel real in the world. Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the jailed -- that's what the Gospel's about."
THE THEME FOR THE 2007 Los Angeles archdiocesan Religious Education Congress will be "Stand in the Light." Said the congress' directress, Sister Edith Prendergast, of the theme, "light poured out wraps all of creation in beauty, in warmth, in love and in solace. The invitation, 'Stand in the Light,' nudges us to bask in the incredible radiance of a God whose glory, brightness, penetrates everyone, everything and everywhere."
Those who will attend the upcoming congress, to be held March 2-7 at the Anaheim Convention Center, will be able to bask, if not in the "incredible radiance of a God," then, at least, in the light of such speakers as Father Bryan Massingale, who will give the congress' key-note address. In 2004, Father Massingale, a priest of the archdiocese of Milwaukee, addressed that diocese's 20th Annual Spring Assembly of Priests. Speaking on "Prophetic Ministry for a Church in Transition," Massingale referred to the death of the present understanding of the Church. He said he believed "a new Church is coming," one that "will be browner and poorer, more sensuous and feminine, less clerical and more collegial, less concerned about charity and more conscious of justice and more multilingual and polycentric than the one we know now."
"Things are ending," said Massingale. "To put it bluntly, a particular way of being 'Church' is dying. The decline of the all-male, mostly celibate priesthood is but the most obvious symptom of this dying. The transition in which we find ourselves is irreversible; our groans point to a larger picture of seismic shifts and epochal changes occurring in the Church and Western society. Richard Schoenherr lists them thus: '1. A shift from dogmatism to pluralism in worldview; 2. The change from a transcendentalist to a personalist construction of human sexuality; 3. A shift from a Eurocentric to a truly global Church; 4. The shift from male superiority to female equality; 5. A decline in clerical control and increase in lay participation; and 6. The decline in sacramentalism and rise in Bible-based worship, even in the Catholic Church' ... Things are ending. And the prophet dares to proclaim that this demise is aided and abetted by God's own self."
Massingale will not be the only speaker of, perhaps, questionable orthodoxy at the congress. Among others are John Allen, Jr., Rome correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter. Father Michael Crosby will also address congress goers. At a Hindu-Catholic dialogue co-sponsored by the Los Angeles archdiocese and Loyola-Marymount University, Crosby said, speaking of celibacy, that it is "a system of power, of patriarchy. So much of it is not holy, but a reaction to sin. The Roman Catholic Church has not had a history of holiness with celibacy. You have to be celibate to have power in the Church. This is threatened by Jesus; Jesus rejected this. We have to jettison this. The institutional expression of Catholicism is profane!" Dr. Richard Gaillardetz will address the congress as well. At the 2005 congress, Gaillardetz indicated that he did not think that the Church's teaching that artificial contraception is immoral is certainly true, since, he said, the entire Church has not yet received it as true.
Franciscan Sister Fran Ferder, an expert on sex, returns to this year's congress. As late as 2002, at least, Sister Fran denied that Church teaching against the possibility of the priestly ordination of women. Writing in the May 10, 2002 National Catholic Reporter, Sister Fran, with Father John Heagle, wrote: "central to a more inclusive, open system [in the Church], is, of course, the need to welcome sacramental ministers from all lifestyles and both genders. It cannot be denied that the Vatican effort to maintain maleness and mandatory celibacy among its clergy has profoundly affected both the number and quality of Catholic priests. In practice, if not by intention, this papacy and its leaders have in effect chosen to keep sexually abusive priests as sacramental ministers rather than open up the priesthood to married men or women."