LITTLE NOTES
2003 Little Notes
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Contents © 2003
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
LITTLE NOTES
January 2003
"HOW COULD A RABIDLY ANTI-CATHOLIC GOVERNOR glide to an easy win among Catholic voters?" was the sub-headline of a November 21 article in the California Political Review. The facts are ugly: Grey Davis won Catholics 53 to 39 percent against Bill Simon, whereas Simon beat Davis among non-Catholic Christians by 55 to 35 percent. The crucial paragraphs: "that Davis won the Catholic vote -- by a 14-point margin, no less -- shows a dereliction of duty by the state's bishops.... Far from challenging Davis's anti-Catholicism, many bishops and priests fawned over him like star-struck teenagers. He's frequently seen yukking it up with California's highest-ranking Catholic cleric, Cardinal Roger Mahony, or bear-hugging the pastor of his home parish, Beverly hills' Good Shepherd Church, after Mass."ONE SMALL LIGHT. On November 22, Jack Smith, in the archdiocesan paper, Catholic San Francisco, pointed out that "the candidate with the strongest and most public pro-life record, Republican state senator Tom McClintock, won significantly more votes than any other statewide Republican candidate: 100,000 more that the next highest vote-getter, pro-life candidate for governor, Bill Simon; 175,000 more than pro-abortion Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, Bruce McPherson; and 350,000 more than pro-abortion Republican candidate for treasurer, Greg Conlon."
RELIGION AND ETHICS EDITOR Sandi Dolbee reported in the December 4 Union-Tribune that the California's Catholic bishops had drafted a letter to be distributed and read at all Masses December 8 warning parishioners of a possible flurry of lawsuits in the coming year due to a one-year lifting of the statute of limitations for victims of sexual abuse to sue their abusers. According to Dolbee, Bishop Brom's version of the letter omits an apology to the victims in the last paragraph and replaces it with a statement of the Church's commitment to "reaching out to victims and promoting healing". Especially noteworthy is that unlike most of the other bishops, Brom did not ask that the letter to be read at Sunday Masses, explaining, "I guess it's my liturgical background that says stay with the theme of the day, like Advent." If that is the case, it must be asked how the theme of sexually abusing seminarians applies to Palm Sunday, since Brom had his statement denying all allegations of sexual abuse against him distributed in every parish bulletin and read by priests at Masses the week before Easter Sunday in 2002.
PRO-LIFE, HISPANIC? Want to make a difference? Full-page ads are running in the January and February issues of the Los Angeles Mission and La Cruz de California soliciting solid pro-life Hispanic candidates to run in the following ten congressional districts in 2004: the 27th and 28th (San Fernando Valley), 29th (Glendale, Alhambra, Pasadena), 32nd (El Monte, Azusa, Baldwin Park, West Covina), 34th (Bellfower, Downey, Huntington Park), 37th (Compton, Carson, Long Beach), 38th (Norwalk, Pico Rivera, Pomona), 39th (South Gate, La Mirada, Lakewood), 43rd (Ontario, Fontana, Rialto, San Bernadino), and the 47th (Anaheim, Garden Grove, Santa Ana).
Like the 51st congressional district in San Diego and Imperial counties, where Maria Garcia waged a strong pro-life campaign (and ran eight percent above GOP registration) in November, these ten districts contain large Hispanic populations and are represented by unflinching pro-abortion Democrats. As the ads say, running as a pro-life Democrat or Republican will provide "no better forum for intelligent, compassionate dialogue of pro-life issues." Call 213-896-9554 for more information.
HOMOSEXUAL MEN MAY NOT BE ORDAINED. In response to an inquiry from a bishop (said to be American) as to whether homosexual men may be ordained, a Vatican congregation has given a definitive no, said a December 5 Catholic World News report. In a letter dated May 16, 2002, but published in the November-December bulletin of the Congregation for Divine Worship, Cardinal Jorge Medina Estevez wrote, "Ordination to the diaconate or priesthood of persons with homosexual tendencies is absolutely unadvisable and imprudent, and from a pastoral point of view, extremely risky." Cardinal Estevez said, before issuing his letter, he had consulted with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Congregation for the Clergy. He had also, he said, been guided by previous Church discipline and from experience derived from dispensations given for homosexual men in the past.
FOLLOWING CALIFORNIA'S LEAD, the legislatures of at least three states will next year consider measures that will allow, and encourage, research on stem cells taken from aborted embryos and the cloning of human embryos for such research, said the November 29 Los Angeles Times. This past September, Governor Gray Davis signed into a law a bill allowing embryonic stem cell research. Bills supporting embryonic stem cell research were introduced into the Pennsylvania and New Jersey legislatures in November, and were expected to be introduced into the Massachusetts legislature in early December. Other states may consider similar legislation.
Neither the federal government, nor most state governments, forbid stem cell research and cloning for research as long as they involve only private funding. According to the Times, the new state bills "aim to encourage investors who may have been driven away from stem-cell companies by fears that the federal government will restrict the research." "Our intent is to bring as many research people into the state as we can," Democratic New Jersey Senator Richard Codey told the Times. "If this in fact passes, money will flow into the state and those firms. This sends a message that we want [stem-cell research] to start and continue in our state."
The bio-technology industry has been pushing state legislation in favor of embryonic stem cell and cloning research. According to the Times, a trade group called the Biotechnology Industry Association has sent copies of the California law to its affiliates in 35 states to encourage them to get similar laws through their legislatures.
TEARING A PAGE FROM THE PRO-LIFE BOOK, embryonic stem cell and cloning research advocates have redirected their efforts at state legislatures, noted the November 29 Times article. Pro-life groups have been somewhat successful in the battle against cloning and embryonic research. While three states -- Iowa, Michigan and Virginia -- have laws banning cloning for any purpose, and three other states -- Louisiana, Rhode Island and California -- ban cloning for initiating a pregnancy, other states have laws protecting embryos which could apply to research and cloning. "I think the pro-research side has realized that we have to work a little harder in the states, but it is an uphill battle for us," Sean Tipton, a vice president of the pro-embryonic research Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research, told the Times. "Traditionally, the other side has been much better organized in state capitals, because they are used to fighting the abortion battles on the state level."
CALLING AMERICA'S DISPOSITION toward war "harmful," the director of Vatican Radio has criticized President George W. Bush's policy toward Iraq, said a December 3 Catholic World News report. In a December 3 broadcast, Jesuit Father Pasquale Borgomeo called "ridiculous" President Bush's characterization that Iraq's firing on U.S. and British planes in no-fly zones was a "counteroffensive" against the allies. Iraq's actions are justified, said Borgomeo, by the "principal of sovereignty." (U.S. and British patrols over the no-fly zones in Iraq have never been authorized by the United Nations.) Borgomeo said that the fact that U.S. and British warplanes have concentrated bombing on an Iraqi petroleum center was "revealing," suggesting that the firing of Iraqi anti-aircraft guns was more symbolic than threatening to allied planes.
NOISE AND BLIGHT, NOT ABORTION. After losing a first round in court, the city of Huntington Beach has rescinded an ordinance that prohibited sign-dragging aircraft from flying over the city. On September 16, the city of Huntington Beach enacted the ordinance in response to the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform's aerial banner campaign this past summer. By hiring a towing plane, which carried a picture of an aborted baby, the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform was able to reach thousands of beach goers during the height of the beach season in Southern California.
The Huntington Beach city council passed the ban, citing concerns over the noise and disruption generated by the aircraft. The Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Thomas More Law Center promptly filed suit in federal court on behalf of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, and asked the court for temporary and permanent injunctive relief which would stay the ordinance. On October 16, the day that the ordinance would have taken effect, Judge Alice Marie Stotler granted the Center's request for a temporary ban on the ordinance.
At a November 1 injunctive relief hearing, Judge Stotler extended the ban on the ordinance to December 6. Rather than facing a losing court battle, the city of Huntington Beach held an emergency city council session and rescinded the ordinance. Thomas More Law Center attorney Robert Muise said that he was happy with the city's reversal. "We are pleased that the city acted quickly to repeal its ordinance. However, they didn't have much of a choice -- if they didn't do it, we are confident that the judge would have. It's unfortunate that the city had to spend taxpayer's money in this litigation. This law should have never been passed in the first place."
Richard Barnard of the city's communications department initially said that the lawsuit "did play a role" in the city's rescinding the ordinance. Later in the interview, Barnard said that the city had rescinded the ordinance "because the FAA changed their rules and reasserted its jurisdiction over this airspace." Barnard said that the city council did not pass the ordinance because of the abortion issue, but because "of the noise and visual blight."
THE U.S. BISHOPS at their November meeting discussed the possibility of a future plenary council for the Catholic Church in the United States but decided that they would discuss the matter during their meetings in June 2003 and the summer of 2004, said a November 16 Los Angeles Times report. A plenary council is the most solemn and authoritative way the bishops of a region can discuss problems in their churches and issue decrees governing them. The last plenary council in the United States was held in 1884.
Archbishop Daniel Buechlein, who chairs the ad hoc committee studying the matter, said, that if the bishops approve the plenary council, it would not be held until 2005 or 2006. The American bishops, said Buechlein, are "all over the lot" on fundamental ecclesiastical issues, but thought it would be valuable if they "look at the identity and role of bishops and priests."
In July, eight American bishops issued a letter suggesting that the subject of a plenary council be discussed by the bishops at their November meeting. The bishops requesting the synod represented a wide spectrum of opinion in the American Church.
OUT TO GET THE CHURCH. Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, prefect for the Holy See's Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, in a December 3 interview with Zenit news, said that he thought the media in the United States are spearheading a campaign against the Catholic Church. Ratzinger said that he is "personally convinced that the constant presence in the press of the sins of Catholic priests, especially in the United States, is a planned campaign, as the percentage of these offenses among priests is not higher than in other categories, and perhaps it is even lower.
"In the United States, there is constant news on this topic, but less than one percent of priests are guilty of acts of this type," continued the cardinal. "The constant presence of these news items does not correspond to the objectivity of the information nor to the statistical objectivity of the facts. Therefore, one comes to the conclusion that it is intentional, manipulated, that there is a desire to discredit the Church. It is a logical and well-founded conclusion."
"REDUCING STAFFING would be the very last resort for us," said MaryRose Wallace, chief financial officer for the diocese of San Bernardino, according to a November 27 Inland Valley Voice report. Though San Bernardino diocesan investments have fared better than those of Orange diocese and the archdiocese of Los Angeles, the diocese of San Bernardino did take a hit in the stock market in 2001-02 and was forced to pay out $1.1 million from its reserves to parishes. Yet, despite the losses, the diocese will not make significant cuts in the coming years, but will pare back unnecessary expenses. Diocesan offices, though, could not increase their budgets above three percent, and wage increases, which were normally seven percent annually, were also held to that limit. Though Catholic schools in the diocese receive some funding from the diocesan investment pool, they receive most of their funding from tuition and fund raising. Diocesan spokesman Father Howard Lincoln said that even if the stock market continues to fall, the diocese will try hard not to raise school tuitions.
On November 26, Father Lincoln released figures that show that, over the last 24 years, the San Bernardino diocese has paid out $658,250 in five child-abuse settlements involving priests and two laymen. The diocese itself has paid out $6,776 for counseling over that period.
The diocese of San Bernardino is rated one of the poorest in the country.