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We Were All Pretty Shocked

Scrappy Priest Humiliates Governor Davis

By Maria Kennedy

In a continuing battle against the pro-abortion politics of California governor Gray Davis, Monsignor Edward Kavanagh of St. Rose's parish in Sacramento stopped an attempt by Davis to stage a media event at a Catholic group home for children. On December 20, Davis had planned to deliver Christmas gifts to the children at St. Patrick's Home for Children in Sacramento, but Monsignor Kavanagh, director of the home, demanded that the governor sign a pledge promising to recant his support for abortion rights, or else forgo the delivery of the gifts.

"We don't allow anyone to come to our grounds that does not support the sanctity of human life," Monsignor Kavanagh told me in a telephone interview. "We have to take a stand against those who don't support the unborn. That's the Church's philosophy, and that's my philosophy."

The children's home has been a recipient of gifts from the governor's office since 1981 when a staffer for then-California governor Jerry Brown decided that a representative of the governor's office pay a Christmas visit to the group home. According to a story in the Sacramento Bee, when Monsignor Kavanagh found about Governor Davis' intended visit, he quickly drafted a pledge for the governor to sign denouncing his support of abortion rights. "I, Gray Davis, repent of ever having promoted the killing of innocent unborn children through the murderous act called abortion," the pledge read. According to the pledge, Davis would "use all of my personal and gubernatorial power and resources to restore the right to life and fully protect unborn children." The pledge was delivered the day before the scheduled December 20 event.

When asked why he thought the governor would want to deliver presents to St. Patrick's in person, Monsignor Kavanaugh said that Davis wanted "to make himself look like he's in good standing with the Catholic Church."

Davis' office denounced the pledge and accused Kavanagh of using the children as pawns. "It was outlandish," Hillary McLean of the governor's press office said to me in a telephone interview. "Our office has a twenty-year history of bringing gifts to the home. It's all voluntary; the staffers contribute the gifts and usually a staffer will bring them. This year, the governor offered to bring the gifts to the home. The monsignor had this outlandish declaration that he wanted the governor to sign. He wanted the governor to renounce his support for a woman's right to choose; he wanted the governor to get the Democratic Party to renounce its support for a woman's right to choose or quit the Democratic Party. It was amazing. We were all pretty shocked," she said of Monsignor Kavanaugh's request.

This is not the first run-in between Monsignor Kavanagh and Governor Davis. After Davis won the California governor's office in 1998, Rabbi Brad Bloom of the Sacramento Interfaith Service Bureau sent out invitations for an ecumenical service, to be held January 3, 1999, in order to open Davis' term "with prayer." Monsignor Kavanagh, who had received an invitation to the prayer service, sent Rabbi Bloom a letter declining the invitation because of the governor's support of abortion. "Your invitation of December 24th to attend an inaugural event on Sunday morning, January 3, 1999, for Governor-elect Gray Davis causes me profound distress and grave insult," Kavanagh wrote. "Surely you must know that Gray Davis is an outspoken, militant champion of violence -- the most cold-blooded violence of killing preborn and partially born human beings. He incessantly and obsessively proclaimed his commitment to unrestricted and taxpayer-funded abortion on demand in his TV campaign commercials, debates, campaign position statements and even on his Internet campaign site. He would force every California taxpayer, including all the Catholic bishops, priests and lay people to be his fiscal accomplices in payments to abortionists for over 100,000 Medi-Cal abortions per year (out of about 300,000 to 400,000 abortions per year in California)." Monsignor Kavanagh also pointed out how, in one of his first moves as governor, Davis appointed Susan Kennedy, long-time executive director of the California Abortion Rights Action League, to act as a liaison between the governor's office and agency secretaries.

In a December 19, 2002 press release, Monsignor Kavanagh reiterated what he thought were the governor's motives for delivering the gifts to a Catholic children's home. "Davis and his staff, without notifying Monsignor Kavanagh, have planned a media event to falsely promote Davis as a friend of the children and how acceptable he is to the Catholic Church." But McLean denied that the governor had any ulterior motive. "Yes we had advised the media that the governor was dropping off the gifts," McLean said in a telephone interview. "That was not the goal of the event. He wasn't making it a political message." McLean said that, ironically, the monsignor's actions created a greater story in the press than would have been the case if Kavanagh had not denounced the governor's actions. "We would have just gotten one photographer from the Sacramento Bee; now it's an international story." McLean said that no one of the governor's staff had noted Monsignor Kavanagh's past opposition to the governor before the decision had been made to have Davis drop off the gifts at the group home. "We didn't do our homework," she admitted. "It's not an unusual thing for a politician to have a photo op of dropping off gifts at Christmas."

McLean said that the governor's staff has made sure that, in spite of Kavanagh's opposition, "the story had a happy ending." An hour before the event, while the governor's advance team was decorating the home's library with Christmas decorations and a tree, they were told that the monsignor did not want them in the home. The governor then invited the children to the capitol and gave them their presents and a tour of the capitol." Monsignor Kavanagh said that the children had been taken to the capitol without his consent; "they got around to the staff," he said. McLean admitted that the home's staff had not gotten Monsignor Kavanagh's permission to take the children to the capitol. "The staff was worried that there would be repercussions against them," she confided.

Though it has been the custom for a governor to attend an ecumenical service as part of his inaugural activities, on December 23 the governor's office announced that Davis would forgo the ecumenical service in favor of a Mass on January 5 with his family at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills. Davis' inaugural committee spokesman, Gabriel Sanchez, denied that the decision had anything to do with the flap over St. Patrick's Children's Home.

In the past, the ecumenical service has proved to be a headache for pro-abortion politicians. At the 1991 inaugural service for Governor Pete Wilson, which was held at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament on a Sunday morning, pro-life protesters were dragged out of the cathedral after reciting the Our Father and attempting to unfurl a pro-life banner. One protestor told the Faith that their reciting the Our Father was frowned upon because "it wasn't part of the script." One person was dragged out of the cathedral after walking in, thinking he would be able to attend Mass. After removing protestors and bystanders from the cathedral, Wilson operative Russ Colliau made a citizen's arrest, saying that the protestors had disturbed the service. California state police then hauled off the protestors to jail. Prosecutors offered the protesters plea bargains to lesser charges, which they rejected. Finally, Sacramento County District Attorney Steve White decided to drop the charges. Colliau did not return calls for comment.

Father Colm O'Ryan, pastor of Good Shepherd Church in Beverly Hills, where Davis is a parishioner, said that he was not bothered by Davis' pro-abortion politics. "Oh no" he told the Faith in a telephone interview. "He's a very private person, he's a very faithful Catholic, he and his wife come to Mass very faithfully when they are in town," he noted. When asked by this reporter if anyone ever objected to the governor's strident support of abortion, O'Ryan replied, "no, I may get an occasional letter about it, but no matter what you do, you'll get someone upset." Father O'Ryan said that his stance towards the governor was, "judge not and you shall not be judged." O'Ryan said that the parish is very happy to have the governor and his wife attend Mass there.

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