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Contents © 1999
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

September 1998

-- Father John F. Harvey, Letters to the Editor, Crisis, July-August 1998


IN WELL OVER 1,000 MARRIAGE NULLITY CASES which I have seen either as Defender of the Bond or as Judge, artificial contraception figures significantly in 99 percent of them. Indeed, I can only recall a single annulment case in which natural family planning had been seriously tried by a couple who eventually divorced, and only one other in which it was even considered. For that matter, a clear majority of these couples are using contraception prior to their weddings -- a fact reported to us as casually as would be, say, the fact that the couple kept pets.

-- "NFP and Marriages that Last" (letter to the editor), by Dr. Edward Peters, Diocese of San Diego, Catholic World Report, August/September 1998


IN EACH ONE OF THE SEEMINGLY ENDLESS STRING of pedophilia cases, I have watched bishops and diocesan spokesmen express the sadness, their regret, and their hope for forgiveness. These are all healthy sentiments. But they leave something missing. Personally, when I hear about a man who preys on young boys, I do not immediately think about forgiveness. I think first about my own children; then I think about where I left my baseball bat.

-- "Where is the Outrage?" by Diogenes, Catholic World Report, August/September 1998


THE DEL MAR FAIR IS IN FULL SWING and we are representing ProLifers of San Diego as usual....A group of first graders gravitated to the booth, to Sandra's explanations of the story of the baby's development. They seemed fascinated by seeing the little ear on the model at four months and then looking for the tiny bud a month earlier. Sandra talked about heart beats and little toes and kicking and somersaults. The children were engrossed, when in swept their teachers; two young women tried to shepherd the children away from our booth. One of them stammered the excuse that the parents wouldn't understand, and the school couldn't allow this message to be passed on.

-- "A Day at the Fair," from LifeLine, newsletter of the Pro-Life Pregnancy Counseling and Education League of San Diego County, Summer 1998


LOUANN HERRON LAY BLEEDING from a punctured uterus for more than three hours as a medical assistant at the A-Z Women's Center begged her supervisor to call 911, three former employees of the controversial abortion clinic say. By the time the supervisor paged Herron's doctor to get permission to call paramedics [see box, below left], it was too late.

Herron died hours after an abortion performed by Dr. John Biskind, the same doctor who delivered a full-term baby at the clinic June 30 after misdiagnosing the fetal age by 13 weeks. Biskind and center officials on Monday refused to comment on the case, which has prompted a police investigation.

-- "Patient 'didn't have to die,'" by Heather Ratcliffe, Susie Steckner, and Jodie Snyder, The Arizona Republic, July 14, 1998


THE KENNEDY BROTHERS were often cited as shining examples of Catholics taking moral responsibility for the good of the nation. But privately, a week before his death in 1963, President Kennedy had revealed to a journalist his support for legalized abortion, and Robert Kennedy had openly supported that legalization in New York.

-- "Remembering 'the Long Hot Summer,'" by James Hitchcock, Catholic World Report, July 1998


IN THE UNITED STATES THE PERIOD C. 1900-1960 can be considered a golden age of the priesthood, not merely in modern times but throughout all the Catholic centuries. (This golden age was not confined to America but existed in other countries as well.) While priests of that era certainly had their faults, by all measurable standards there was less ignorance, less immorality, less neglect of duty, and less disobedience than at almost any time in the history of the Church. More positively, priests of that era were generally pious and zealous, and those who were not at least had to pretend to be....

At the end of the [Second Vatican] Council a few strategically placed individuals -- certified "experts" of various kinds -- already had in mind a program for the transformation of clerical and religious life, based on certain theories of psychological well-being and wholly opposed to the traditional ideal of self-sacrifice. These authorities were quickly commissioned by dioceses and religious orders to explain the meaning of renewal, and often their agenda and its catastrophic affects were not recognized until it was too late....

Sometime in the 1980's observers began to notice that a more conservative type of priest was beginning to emerge from the seminaries, a trend which seems to get steadily stronger. The reasons for this are rather obvious. Given the culture's animus against chastity, heterosexual young men are likely to embrace the priestly life only if they accept the ideal of redemptive sacrifice, only if their vision of the priesthood is not that of a therapist or a social reformer but of a witness to the Kingdom which is yet to come....

The sadness caused by the spectacle of permanently estranged older clergy is the realization of how false their memories are. They did not feel, as they now recall that they did, demoralized and oppressed in the 1950's. On the contrary many of them were filled with genuine idealism. The Church which they now hate was the Church which nourished them and offered them a vocation which they found compelling....

But this is the generation of priests which now controls many dioceses and most religious orders, and they are often ruthless. Having successfully rebelled thirty years ago, having destroyed the traditional system of authority, they now often employ tactics of control and intimidation which preconciliar religious superiors, carefully following the rules, would never have dreamed of using. In all but a few blessed places, orthodox younger clergy now have to endure varying degrees of suffering until the day comes, if it does, when they are finally in a position to shape the direction of their communities.

-- "Thirty Years of Blight," by James Hitchcock, Catholic Dossier, August/September 1998


IN YOUR JUNE LETTERS SECTION, A READER FROM VISTA, California, wrote to explain why he opted to support the NOR [New Oxford Review] financially rather than to give to the Diocese of San Diego's Annual Appeal. His claim was that to aid his local bishop would constitute support for "the modernists' assault on the Holy Catholic Church."

As people in his local diocesan Annual Appeal Office, as well as in other diocesan departments, also subscribe to and read the NOR, I ask: Where does the letter-writer presume to point in making such an accusation? He is seeing the shadow of a bogeyman where one doesn't exist, and his statement amounts to calumny. The Appeal supports Catholic schools, the training of seminarians, the care of retired priests, and the work of Catholic Charities.

-- Jennifer E. Turck (El Cajon), letter to the editor, New Oxford Review, July-August 1998


AS FALL-WINTER COLLECTIONS GOT UNDER WAY in Rome this week...one designer announced he would send a model prancing down the runway to the accompaniment of Pope John Paul II -- A CD recording of the Pope singing a Gregorian chant at Mass that was electronically woven into a hip-hop background beat....

"This is outrageous and offensive to believers," said Archbishop John P. Foley, who is head of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. "Unfortunately, any comment only gets them more attention, which is what they seek, but I personally cannot let something like this go by. They are guilty of sacrilege -- using a sacred part of the liturgy for a very secular event."...

"It wasn't meant to be blasphemous or even ironic," said Andrea Mariotti, one of the composers. "It is very beautiful and emotional."

Mr. Mariotti, who said he began his project with cooperation from the church, now charges that the Vatican moved to prevent him selling his CD in stores not out of religious concerns, but commercial ones.

"They are trying to block me so they can steal the idea and sell it themselves," he said. ...

This year Mr. Mariotto, who said he was a believing Christian, substituted holy water for beer in the show on Monday night. The theme was unfinished fashion, a tribute to the hundreds of construction sites all over Rome that are being made ready for the year 2,000 jubilee.

One scene called for models, dressed as construction workers, to spill out of a bar, guzzling beer. "I put holy water in the models' bottles instead," he confided. "I wanted to save the girls in the show from feelings of envy and bad energy."

-- "Religion's in Vogue, and the Vatican Is Scandalized," by Alessandra Stanley, New York Times, July 16, 1998

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