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Contents © 1998
by Jim Holman.
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May 1998 LITTLE NOTES

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"At the time, I didn't have a piece on this from either a Jewish or Catholic perspective, so I wanted to run something on it," Bernie Jones, the U-T opinion page editor, told News Notes in mid-April. Jones said that he was aware that the current pope has been active in attempting to bring Catholics and Jews together.

"The role of an opinion piece is to make a point," Jones said. "That [the cartoon] was one side. Normally, I do try to run something on the other side of an issue if there is an opportunity to do so."

Jones did not read the Vatican document in question prior to his decision to run the cartoon. "I read 17 to 18 hours a day now," he said, explaining he didn't have time for in-depth study of every topic dealt with on the opinion pages. Still, he considered himself "probably as well-versed as anyone outside the issue." Jones's reading on the topic was limited to secular newspapers and news services, such as the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Asked whether he had ever run cartoons caricaturing religious leaders from non-Christian religions -- such as a Jewish rabbi, a Muslim imam, or a Hindu priest -- Jones said the only one he could recall in recent times was one involving Jewish rabbis, which dealt with the tensions between Orthodox Jews and more liberal forms of Judaism.

"This [cartoon] was not, in my opinion, something that specifically addressed Catholicism," Jones said. "It addresses the Church's role during a historical period." Would he run similar cartoons in the future? He said it depended on what comes up in the news. -- A.K.


MUCH-NEEDED CATECHESIS or breaking the rubrics? A priest at a downtown parish has taken a unique approach toward reaffirming belief among his parishioners in the True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Before beginning the Consecration at noon mass, March 29th, he addressed the congregation: "Statistics show that 73 percent of Catholics don't believe that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist. My brothers and sisters, this is very sad. So I want you to extend your right hand toward the altar, close your eyes, and repeat after me: 'Lord Jesus, I believe...that you have given the power to the priest...to change the substance of the bread and wine...into the substance of your body and blood....We believe...and we thank you." According to sources, the priest continues to perform this ritual at other Masses. -- E.G.


THE RECENT SERIES OF EL NIÑO RAINSTORMS has claimed several lives and devastated many buildings and homes in Tijuana's poorest neighborhoods. "I could show you things down here that would make you cry," said a parish priest at San Jose parish, located in an impoverished, outlying area of the Tijuana hills. Several parish members who suffered major damage to, or the total loss of, their homes have constructed makeshift shelters from wooden pallets. Most have families. Mexico's social security system provides basic medical care and subsidized housing for its people. However, according to the priest, the system is inadequate. Long waits are required for medical care, and the system is often unable to provide the level of care necessary. The crime-ridden government housing complexes are nonetheless in such demand that residency can be obtained only through a special lottery. Residents pay for it by means of payroll deductions. For these reasons, the priest said, the parish would prefer to provide more direct assistance to its members who suffered losses from the floods. Donations may be sent to San Jose Parish, P.O. Box 434210, San Ysidro, CA 92143-4210. -- A.K.


CONNIE YOUNGKIN WON her April 17 trial against Teri Mudry, who was accused of vandalism against Youngkin while the latter was engaging in pro-life activity. Last December 30, Youngkin and frequent pro-life protest companion Ron Brock were standing on the public sidewalk in front of the El Camino Real Mall off Highway 78 in Carlsbad, holding large photos of aborted babies. Youngkin told News Notes Mudry approached the pro-lifers and "poured black fabric dye all over my sign, on my blouse, on my boots and on my hand. Then she ran away.... She ran into the street and onto a median [strip].... She lifted up her skirt, and she said, 'You want to see something ugly?' Then she showed Ron Brock her bottom with her black underpants." The pro-lifers had Mudry arrested and, according to Youngkin, as Mudry was being driven away in the police car, she yelled out, "And I'll do it again!"

During her trial, held in North County Municipal Court in Vista, Mudry was represented by attorney James McElroy, who has a long history of pursuing legal action against local pro-lifers. (See News Notes, March 1994, April 1996, and January 1997.) Mudry's defense: she poured dye on the aborted baby photos so that children wouldn't be offended by them. In court, Mudry said she couldn't remember whether she had actually attacked Youngkin. It was a defense eerily similar to that of another McElroy client, Kathleen Gregory, in a suit she brought against Youngkin and Troy Newman in January 1996, for picketing an abortionist's office. In that case, Gregory claimed in court that, because she is manic-depressive, she couldn't recall some of her violent actions toward the pro-life picketers, which had been caught on videotape. Gregory's suit was unsuccessful

Youngkin's attorney Rick Vattuone told News Notes Mudry should also have been charged with assault and battery, since the caustic dye she used in the attack was dumped not only on Youngkin's sign but on her person as well. Vattuone also observed that, under existing "hate crime" laws, Mudry could have been charged with a religious hate crime, since Youngkin and Brock were holding literature of a religious nature. "I think this is an example of increasing violence by militant pro-abortionists against peaceful, law-abiding, pro-life picketers," he said.

Mudry's guilty verdict was returned by the jury in a half hour. Her sentencing is scheduled for May 11, 8:15 a.m. at the Vista courthouse. -- A.K.


ON MARCH 26, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported that state attorney general and gubernatorial candidate Dan Lungren had cited his Catholic faith as the source of his pro-death penalty views. Lungren quoted from the Universal Catechism [paragraph 2266] which says Church teaching acknowledges the "right and duty" of the government to punish criminals by means of "penalties commensurate with the gravity of the crime, not excluding, in cases of extreme gravity, the death penalty."

In opposition to Lungren, Bill Ainsworth, the U-T reporter who wrote the piece, quoted from the "updated catechism, issued last year" which says the death penalty should be "very rare, if practically non-existent." Ainsworth quoted Father Ron Pachence, director of the Institute for Christian Ministries at USD, who said the church has long opposed the death penalty as part of its "'seamless garment' doctrine, which holds that all life is sacred" and is "the basis for the Catholic Church's opposition to abortion, the death penalty, and assisted suicide."

The "seamless garment" is not doctrine but "a product of [the late] Cardinal [Joseph] Bernardin," says Karl Keating of the local apologetics group Catholic Answers. "It's...a political construct. It's not incumbent upon a Catholic to buy into that at all."

Keating explains the Church's stance: "The death penalty may be imposed, but it's a prudential judgment as to whether it should be imposed in particular circumstances. On that question, Catholics can differ. Church teaching stops at the point of saying the death penalty may be inflicted if it is necessary to protect society. After that point, the Church doesn't give us any means to weigh prudentially how this would go. It is not correct to say that the Catholic teaching is that the death penalty should not be imposed. That's certainly not been the teaching of the Church historically."

Why did Ainsworth quote only Father Pachence as a spokesman -- and an inaccurate one -- for the Catholic view? "It was one of those things that came up so quickly that I just went with whatever source I could find." News Notes asked why he didn't contact the local diocese. "I heard that the bishop doesn't talk to the press," Ainsworth said.

Told that Bernadeane Carr, the diocesan communications director, is often quoted in his newspaper, Ainsworth replied, "I don't know who she is, but I'm new to San Diego and this paper." -- E.G.


A WEEK AFTER AINSWORTH'S story ran, three members of a traveling death penalty abolition group called Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation spoke before a gathering of about 20 in the parish hall at Sacred Heart church in Ocean Beach at 7:00 p.m. Carol Duncanson of Santa Ana, Bill Pelke of Portage, Indiana, and George White of Arkansas City, Kansas all gave testimonies of family members being murdered and how they'd come to forgive the murderers and, in that forgiveness, come to be against the death penalty.

During the question and answer period, White brandished a copy of the U-T piece on Lungren and said, "I'm outraged by this." An 84-year-old nun in the front row said in all her years of Catholicism she had "never heard of the Church being for the death penalty." Asked by a News Notes reporter if it is possible to forgive and still be for the death penalty, Pelke responded in part, "Maybe you can have forgiveness and be for the death penalty, but you can't have compassion for humanity and still be a supporter of the death penalty."

Pastor Ronald Hebert, who did not attend the presentation, told News Notes, "They asked my permission to make a presentation and, because of the Church's interest in the matter, I said yes. They were allowed to come because the church is looking at that question and more and more moving towards an ever-stronger stance against the death penalty." -- E.G.


CATHY FLORENTINO, A PRO-LIFER running for re-election to the 77th Republican Central Committee in the June 2 primary, received for the first time a candidate questionnaire from the Planned Parenthood Action Fund for San Diego and Riverside Counties. Sylvia Sullivan, another incumbent pro-life Central Committee member, said she had received a PP questionnaire once before and again this year.

"Since the Action Fund's beginning seven years ago," the questionnaire states, "our success has stemmed largely from identifying pro-choice voters, and then educating them about the candidates' views through our Pro-Choice Voter's Guide." According to Mary Ellen Hamilton, VP of community affairs for the local Planned Parenthood, the PP Action Fund has distributed the questionnaires for six years to all candidates for public office who garner at least five percent of the vote. The decision whether or not to survey candidates is made by each local Planned Parenthood organization.

Hamilton said PP has not supported local candidates because elections would be unwinnable against pro-life incumbents such as U.S. Congressmen Duncan Hunter, Ron Packard, and Duke Cunningham. The local PP Action Fund does not endorse candidates and considers itself bipartisan. In the event of a race between a staunchly "pro-choice" candidate and a staunchly "anti-choice" candidate in a tight race, Hamilton admitted, "We could become more active."

Such was the case in the March 10 special election for the seat left vacant by the death of Democratic Congressman Walter Capps in California's 22nd Congressional District (San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara). The candidates were Capps's widow, Lois, who supports partial-birth abortion, and Republican pro-lifer Tom Bordonaro. According to Mary Ellen McCaffrey, chairman of the California Right to Life political action committee, PP contributed $90,000 to Capps, who outspent Bordonaro by a 2-1 margin. Capps also received $100,000 from the National Abortion Rights Action League, as well as support from labor unions, including the teachers' unions, and the American Association of Retired Persons. Capps won the election with 53 percent of the vote to Bordonaro's 44 percent.

Florentino's response to the survey: she faxed back to Planned Parenthood the cover of a pamphlet called "Is This a Choice? Or a Child?" which carries a photo of an unborn child and a quote from Thomas Jefferson: "The care of human life and happiness and not their destruction is the first and only legitimate object of good government." -- A.K.

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