ARTICLES

Diocese Takes Tiny Step

But Will Anything Happen Until Bishops Feel the Lash?

By Robert Kumpel

After years of restrictions from parishes about handing out pro-life voting information, the diocese reached an agreement with pro-lifers to allow them to put Christian Coalition voter guides in churches.

Rick Otis, a Catholic who lives in Kensington and is a driving force behind the Adam Smith Institute, helped create a "dialogue" between the Christian Coalition and the diocese. Otis, a "not-too-active" member of the Christian Coalition, says, "I met Bob McClellan at an Adam Smith Institute function. He told me that he couldn't believe that these voter guides weren't given out at Catholic Mass. I told him that when I was a parishioner at St. Pius X parish in Jamul, they used to be on the windshields of cars. It seemed to me that we should have been able to get the voter guides distributed at Mass.

"The first thing I did was get to know Kent Peters, the director of social ministries at the diocese. After lunch a couple of times [last July], he expressed interest. The next step was to get Peters, my pastor (Father Perozich), Bob McClellan, and a lady named Alice from the Christian Coalition together [in January of this year]. The name of Don Smith came up -- he's the chairman of the coalition here in San Diego. We got Kent and Don together and that led to Smith and one of the diocese's attorneys, Jim Mullen, having a dialogue. It all boiled down to if the questions could be more diverse they were asking candidates, the diocese's legal people could accept the Christian Coalition voter guide. It would have to not focus on abortion or homosexuality, but include issues like tax questions and everything else. They felt that if they were challenged about the voter guides in the churches, how could they defend their 501C3 -- tax exempt -- status."

After Mullen and Smith's meeting, Otis asked Mullen if he thought they would be able to reach an agreement, and Mullen said he believed they would. "And in the next two or three weeks, Kent Peters told me that there was going to be a memo written by the diocesan legal people and they were going to be able to recommend to each parish that the Christian Coalition Voter Guide could be distributed, at pastor discretion. And that's what happened this year."

Otis is hopeful that the acceptance of voter guides by the diocese will lead to further pro-life activism for future elections.

"The second thing that came out of this dialogue which interested me was to have voter registration of Catholics at each parish and have the diocese involved in these registration drives."

The California Pro Life Council distributes voter slates -- a guide that recommends candidates. Local president Joel Anderson says that the lack of diocesan approval doesn't matter. "We haven't asked the diocese for permission, because we know they won't give it. We just do church drops on windshields and we don't bother asking for the church's permission. It's as if we had dropped pizza coupons on the cars!"

Anderson believes the slates are more effective than a question-and-answer voter guide. "We support the pro-life candidate that we believe has the best chance of winning. We are trying to effect political change. Bill Jones has been pro-life, and Simon was pro-life. We felt that Simon had the best chance of winning, so he got the endorsement. Tom McClintock and Andall, both pro-life and both great guys. We felt Andall had the best chance overall to win, but McClintock won."

In Sacramento, Rod Harmon (not his real name), a Catholic activist, is less hopeful about the Christian Coalition voter guides. According to Harmon, the California Pro Life Council used to do the same thing. "They still have a fold-out they hand out, and they print very few of those. They hand them out to their membership, and they've almost abandoned it. It's a reference document, but it has little effect on the outcome of elections."

The prohibition by churches of the California Pro Life Council's slates is no surprise to Harmon. "Of course, the churches won't let them distribute it, but I think it's just an excuse. The Catholic Church spends a lot of money on lobbying -- they've got a million-dollar office up here to lobby for the interests of the Catholic Church. Of course, the interests are primarily welfare and fiscal interests, not moral issues."

The California Pro Life Council once used to distribute about a million voter guides, according to Harmon. "But a few years ago, several things happened: The distribution network broke down. I remember going over to their office the Wednesday after the election a few years ago, and the office was filled with hundreds of thousands of copies. Calling around the state, I found in many cases where they'd sent out large quantities to local people, they sat in the person's garage."

In Harmon's view, the Christian Coalition is re-creating the fiasco that the Pro Life Council gave up on "They think, 'Gee whiz, nobody's done anything. We're going to jump in here and solve this problem.' And it's not that there's been no effort before. There's been heroic effort put forward, but it didn't work."

Harmon doesn't buy the Catholic bishops' concerns about tax-exempt status. "They're not barred from politics. That's a myth to protect themselves from moral battles. They're willing to engage in political battles over money. They spend a fortune on it

"The [California] Catholic Conference is now having monthly Masses in which they invite a bishop up here and they invite the legislators -- especially the so-called Catholic ones -- from their dioceses. These militant pro-homosexuals come to the cathedral and they stand around the altar for Mass -- in violation of canon law. Of course, they all go to communion even though they're excommunicated, and it's given to them by the bishop of their diocese. How's that for affirming them in sin?"

Harmon does hold out some hope. "I think there could be changes, especially if they [the bishops] feel the lash. The Planned Parenthood bunch are moving to a point now where it's going to impact the bishops directly. They're coming to the point of saying, 'You're not going to be able to get any health care money unless you do abortions and offer contraception and sterilization.' Before it was just unborn babies and abstractions, nothing comparable to social welfare and health care."

In Harmon's words, this puts the bishops "on the horn of a dilemma" where gestures will no longer suffice for appearing to be pro-life. "Once in a while, a pro-life person will get the diocese pro-life job. They don't last long. That happened to Betty Crucitt. She was the pro-life coordinator in San Diego until Brom fired her. She ran afoul of Rosemary Johnston. Poor Betty went to a meeting in Washington for diocesan pro-life directors in August of 1991. At the meeting, Betty saw Rosemary in the corridor publicly denouncing Humanæ Vitæ and the Catholic teaching. So when she got back to San Diego, she brought it to the attention of the diocese. I think she told the chancellor, who said, 'That's outrageous. We have to tell the bishop about that! We have to resolve this.' So she met with the bishop and told him what she heard and the bishop said, 'Well, that's outrageous. Let's call Rosemary in.' So in September they called Rosemary in, and she said, 'She's right. That is my opinion. I do not accept the teachings of the Church, and I never have' or something to that effect. So the bishop thanked her and then said, 'Well, Betty, that's the end for you here. You've got to pack up and leave. This is not the way to do things, so you're dismissed.' Furthermore, the diocesan lawyer, I think it was Whelan, got in touch with Betty and said, 'We want you to take the fall on this. We want you to state on paper that you misbehaved and were fired for cause.'

"But as I said, the screws are turning down now to where it's going to cause conflicts with their [the bishops'] real agenda, because the Planned Parenthood people are insatiable. They will not be satisfied until anybody who even thinks anything against them is purged. Look at Brian Bilbray. When they reach the stage when you're the better of the two that's available to them, they'll support you, but as soon as they find somebody better, like Susan Davis, you're like a sack of rotten potatoes. And it's the same thing with the Catholic Church."

Anderson isn't as cynical as Harmon when it comes to voter guides, whether they're the California Pro Life Council's or the Christian Coalition voter guides. "People say signs aren't effective. Who knows what's effective. Seriously. If you were to ask a candidate who won, I doubt that they would say it is not effective. Nobody has a corner on what is effective."

While Harmon paints a bleak picture and in spite of the obstacles and limitations of the new voter guides, Rick Otis is hopeful that some effort at voter awareness will still make a difference. "If you can't get the truth from where you're going to church, then something's wrong."

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