LITTLE NOTES

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Contents © 1999
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

January 1999 LITTLE NOTES

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The bill of sale dated March 30, 1998 and signed by Womancare president Cynthia Thornton and regional Planned Parenthood president and CEO Mark Salo, does not disclose a specific dollar amount. Instead, it lists "assumption of specified liabilities" as the consideration given by Planned Parenthood to Womancare in exchange for Womancare's property and other assets, including patient records, donor lists, grant applications, licenses, and "evidence of collectible indebtedness."

One of the liabilities assumed could be the $59,279 owed to its previous landlord on Sixth Avenue in Hillcrest as of December 1996, when it was evicted and forced to re-locate to Fourth and Juniper, its present location.

Calls to both Planned Parenthood and Womancare confirmed that the merger had taken place. A Planned Parenthood spokesperson added that the Womancare facility is no longer a family planning clinic. "We only do abortions there now." Womancare's spokesperson, Bona Espinosa, said that the merger had been publicized, but was unable to cite any details. Checks of major local newspapers, including the San Diego Union-Tribune, failed to produce any announcements of the merger.

TIM RYLAND IS A STAND-UP KIND OF GUY, a fact recognized by Catholic Answers, the San Diego-based apostolate, which recently hired Ryland, editor of News Notes for two and a half years.

Ryland, 41, has watched Catholic Answers grow from "a one-man pamphleteering project"-- that one man being local lawyer Karl Keating-- "to a national apostolate." And Keating has watched Ryland take stands in News Notes for which he has from time to time been charged with uncharitableness -- a charge with which Catholic Answers is sometimes tarred.

"In talking to Karl," Ryland said, "I know that anytime you stand up strongly for what the Church teaches-- as News Notes (does)-- you open yourselves up for charges of uncharitableness ... As my father always says, sometimes you have to call a spade a dirty rotten shovel." Ryland's father, Ray Ryland, is also a father with a capital "F"-- Father Ray Ryland of the San Diego diocese. Currently teaching at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Father Ryland is a frequent contributor to This Rock, the magazine put out by Catholic Answers. Tim Ryland credited his family's longstanding friendship with Keating as one reason why he chose Ryland to be the editor of This Rock.

The whole Ryland family was baptized Catholic in 1963 when Tim was six. His father was a former Episcopalian priest. Soof after Pope John Paul II gave an indult or special permission for married Episcopalian priests who became Catholics to be ordained Roman Catholic priests, Father Ryland was ordained in 1983.

While his father writes and teaches as a scholar and an apologist, Tim Ryland sees himself as neither. "I can see if an article is well written or if I can chip it into shape."

PRO-LIFE ASSEMBLYMAN BILL CAMPBELL of Hacienda Heights gave $10,000 of his campaign funds on September 30 to pro-abortion Republican assembly candidate Julie Alban of Long Beach; Alban lost to the Democrat in November, but as one pro-lifer wrote Campbell, "When people give money to Bill Campbell, they give because they support his positions. It is an absolute betrayal of Bill Campbell's supporters to have their money perverted by being channeled through a pro-life Republican to an anti-life candidate."

THE DIVINE MERCY MOVEMENT of San Diego's second annual conference at St. Therese parish in San Diego on November 14, drew about 450 people. In addition to several talks and musical entertainment, the all-day conference featured the recitation of the rosary and Divine Mercy chaplet, Eucharistic benediction and adoration, Mass and veneration of a relic of Blessed Faustina. Priests were available for several hours to hear confessions.

Bob and Maureen Digan shared their personal experiences with the Divine Mercy devotion. At age 14 Maureen was stricken with an incurable disease and, over the next several years, lost her faith, her hope, and one leg. In 1981 the Digans made a pilgrimage to Sister Faustina Kowalska's tomb in Poland. Sister Faustina, a member of the Congregation of Our Lady of Mercy, received private revelations about God's mercy in the 1930s. There Maureen was suddenly cured of her illness, which cure was verified and used as the one miracle necessary for Sister Faustina's beatification, which took place on April 18, 1993. "To me, my spiritual healing was much greater than my physical one," Maureen nonetheless admitted. "Go to confession and tell it all," she advised, warning against the temptation to omit certain sins. "The greater the misery, the greater the right to His Mercy.... The greatest miracles take place in the sacrament of reconciliation."

Back by popular demand from last year's conference was Father Charles Willingham, O.Praem., of St. Michael's Abbey in Orange County. In his talk on the souls in purgatory, Father Willingham reminded his audience that Jesus said that, unless we are merciful to others, we cannot receive mercy, and commanded us to love our neighbors as ourselves.

Father Willingham lamented that Catholic traditions of offering Masses and prayers for the dead are currently in decline, and that some Catholics believe that Vatican II abolished belief in purgatory. "Purgatory remains a dogma of our holy faith," he declared. Father Willingham lamented that relatively few people now go to confession, a phenomenon he attributed to poor or nonexistent catechesis, a lack of preaching on it, and overt efforts to discourage confession

While dispensing advice for making a good confession, Father Willingham explained that having a purpose of amendment means to have a concrete plan for avoiding the situations that draw us into frequent sins, and that lacking a purpose of amendment renders a confession sacrilegious, even if you only had venial sins, as does a failure to confess all mortal sins since one's last confession. Other tips: It is not necessary to confess each instance of venial sin, but each mortal sin should be confessed. Name the sin without a long explanation, but tell how many times you committed it and any special circumstances surrounding it. Remember that the priest has heard everything, your sin will not shock him, and nothing is beyond God's mercy: "God loves us precisely because of our sinfulness and weakness.... Confession is mercy in action." Avoid postponing confession. Frequent confession is good: "The more we go to confession, it's like finely tuning our soul; we become very sensitive to any deviation from God's will and we also obtain the strength to go along with God's will." For this reason, Father Michalenko reported, Pope John Paul II confesses daily. Finally he recommended, "Go to a priest you can trust to tell you the truth about God's law, about what is good and what is evil."

The Divine Mercy Movement of San Diego got its start as a diocesan organization in 1996. Father Richard Huston, of Good Shepherd Church in Mira Mesa, is the movement's spiritual advisor. The group meets monthly and all are welcome to attend (see Calendar section for details). For more information, call (619) 276-6637.

LOS ANGELES PRO-LIFE ACTIVISTS Tim and Colette Wilson have adopted their first child, Paul Howard Wilson, born November 1 to a young mother living at His Nesting Place, a maternity home and church to which the Wilsons belong.

Tim and Colette met in 1990 when Colette represented a group of Operation Rescue activists (including Tim) arrested for blocking an abortion clinic. They married in 1991.

Unable to have a family of their own, Tim and Colette expressed their love for children in a full-time pro-life apostolate. Colette quit her job as an attorney and began sidewalk counseling five days a week. Tim, a carpenter and handyman, reduced his work hours so he could spend time investigating malpractice lawsuits and other legal woes of southern California abortionists.

Tim and Colette had considered adopting, but had not yet taken steps to begin the process, waiting until they were in a better financial position and until Tim finished remodeling their house.

But when their pastor, Al Howard, called them in mid-October asking if they would like to adopt the soon-to-be-born baby of a new resident of His Nesting Place, "We didn't even have to think about it," said Colette. "We were overjoyed!"

Paul's natural mother is an 18-year-old Hispanic woman who came to His Nesting Place in her 8th month of pregnancy, after the first prospective adoptive parents (arranged through an adoption agency) fell through. "Kelly" told Colette that the planned adoptive Five parents, with whom she was staying, got into some legal troubles and she had to leave with no notice. A police officer who had delivered legal papers to the couple paid for a hotel room for Kelly and put her in touch with His Nesting Place, as the adoption agency had told her that they did not know of any place she could stay.

Colette says she put her trust in the Lord and "All of the things I saw as obstacles to adoption just dropped away. God provided the money. God provided baby clothes and equipment." Paul made his entrance Sunday, November 1, weighing in at just 5 pounds.

Concerned that their unfinished house would not meet with the approval of social workers at the county adoption service, Tim and Colette moved into Viva House, an apartment rented by a group of LA pro-lifers as a home base, located next to the Inglewood Family Planning Associates abortion facility.

Colette has returned to her sidewalk counseling. She often walks back and forth in front of the nearby abortion clinic, wearing Paul in a baby sling and praying. Paul has already played a part in saving a baby, she says. When another sidewalk counselor brought a pregnant girl to Viva House to watch a video, the girl decided to keep her baby after holding Paul.

Colette points out that His Nesting Place is an interesting meeting point for Catholic and Protestant pro-lifers. Although it's a Protestant church, the majority of its funding comes from Catholic parishes. Pastor Al Howard and his wife Judy come to local parishes, speak after each Mass (Colette often speaks at the Spanish Masses) and set up a table outside to sell pro-life items and accept donations. They have spoken at over 30 southern California parishes so far.

Contact His Nesting Place at 350 East Market Street, Long Beach, CA 90805, (562) 422-2137.

NO SAN DIEGO COLLEGES among the top 100 schools listed in recently-published Choosing the Right College by Intercollegiate Studies Institute. This 672-page assessment, more complete than National Review's college guide, includes the Harvards, UCLAs, Stanfords (tells what professors to look for), but gives pride of place to Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, University of Dallas, and Thomas More in New Hampshire. Franciscan U. at Steubenville included but is criticized for weak core curriculum. To order from I.S.I., call 800-526-7022.

COMPANIES TO BOYCOTT because of their involvement in abortions: look on the Internet: www.ewtn.com/library/BRITISH/LISCO95.TXT

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