2001 Little Notes
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Contents © 2001
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

JULY/AUGUST 2001 LITTLE NOTES

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"We've been at Baja Mar (in Ensenada) for eight years, and if this is to be an international effort we thought we'd alternate one year here and one year at Baja Mar," said Lynda Schnepper, who heads the committee putting on the event. Lynda Schnepper's husband, Fred Schnepper, is an active abortionist affiliated with SharpRees-Stealy and South Bay Women's Health Group, both in Chula Vista, where he performs abortions of unborn babies up to 12 weeks old.

According to the official website for Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside Counties, the Baja Mar Pro Salud Golf Tournament was founded in 1994. In 1998 the golf tournament produced $23,000, and is reported to have raised close to $200,000 to date.

Leticia Ibarra from Tijuana, who became aware of Planned Parenthood's sterilization efforts when she attended a feminist conference last year where they spoke of plans to sterilize poor women from Tijuana's colonias, asks, "Don't poor people have the same value, the same dignity, and the same rights as those of the higher classes?" Commented San Diegan Hilaria Baez of Hispanos Pro Vida,"The people who participate in this golf tournament are contributing with their money so they can go on eliminating us."


ONE MORE CAVE-IN. On May 16, USD's board of trustees approved the inclusion of the term "sexual orientation" in its non-discrimination policy, according to an e-mail announcement from Travis Vowles, the outgoing president of the university's homosexual student group, Pride.

Vowles wrote, "For the past 12 years campus groups have worked to have Sexual Orientation added to the policy, and it's finally happened. While the qualified language was a hotly contested issue, the inclusion of Sexual Orientation in the policy at ALL is a HUGE step!"

Board of trustees, according to USD's 2001-2003 Graduate Bulletin, include Bishop Brom; university president Alice Bourke Hayes; Robert Baker, automobile dealership mogul; Monsignor William Elliott; "Gene" Bell, president and CEO, Union-Tribune Publishing Company; Robert Hoehn, owner, Hoehn Honda; Sister Kathleen Hughes, provincial, Society of the Sacred Heart; Margot Kyd, senior V.P. and CAO, Sempra Energy; John Lynch, chairman and CEO, Lartigue Multimedia Systems Inc.; Monsignor Lawrence Purcell, pastor, St. James parish; Douglas Manchester, chairman of the board, Manchester Resorts; Liam McGee '76, president, Bank of America (Southern California); and Susan Spanos, wife of Chargers football team owner Dean Spanos.


"ESCAPING HOMOSEXUALITY" is the topic to be discussed by Father Richard Perozich and Philip Thorson on "Night Lights," Time Warner Cable (Channel 16 in most areas) on Sunday evening, July 15, at 8:30 p.m. Father Perozich, who pastors Our Lady of the Sacred Heart parish in City Heights, is the leader of the San Diego chapter of Courage. Thorson will tell how a near-death encounter with Jesus Christ and later, the help of Courage, gave him the strength and grace to turn away from the homosexual "death-style."


BRIGHT HOPE FROM THE SOUTH. Last year, in response to requests by the U.S. episcopacy, Cardinal Norberto Rivera of the archdiocese of Mexico opened a seminary in Mexico City to train priests from the United States in Spanish and Mexican culture. The seminary -- El Seminario de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe -- opened last August with six seminarians. Currently the seminarians are from Los Angeles and Milwaukee, but more are expected soon from elsewhere in the U.S.

"Cardinal Rivera has a lot of family in Chicago, so he knows firsthand how much we need Mexican priests", explained Father Sanchez, head of the Hispanic priest ministry in Chicago. The Archdiocese of Chicago, which has a sizeable Mexican population, "is planning to send seminarians in the near future", said Father Sanchez. "It's humbling to know that Cardinal Rivera built a seminary that will never benefit him.

The National Association of Hispanic Priests, an organization of Latino priests in the U.S., works with the seminary in Mexico City and with U.S. bishops. The former president of the National Association of Hispanic Priests, Monsignor José Gomez, was recently appointed auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Denver. Bishop Gomez has worked closely with the seminary and was instrumental in its formation. "It was the Cardinal [Norberto Rivera] who took the initiative in starting the seminary," said Bishop Gomez. "He wanted to heed the Holy Father's request that the bishops of the Americas collaborate with each other."


THE PARSKY FIX. According to the June 1 Washington Times, a pact fashioned by Rancho Santa Fe's Gerald Parsky (a Bush family friend) and announced by Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, a bipartisan Judicial Advisory Committee will be set up with subcommittees in each of the state's four federal judicial districts. "Mrs. Feinstein and Mrs. Boxer will appoint three members to each subcommittee, while Mr. Parsky will name the other three. It will take four votes of subcommittee members for any candidate to be forwarded to Mr. Parsky for final approval before sending the nominee to Mr. Bush. The president will then decide which candidate he will submit to the Senate for approval."

"What is Parsky ideologically?" a state Republican official said privately. "He doesn't care about ideology. But I know he is offended by pro-lifers. He told me directly he doesn't want to see the California Republican Party become a party that gives money to pro-life candidates and consultants."

"A lot of people share my skepticism about the Parsky deal," said a county Republican official from Southern California, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "Maybe it seems less dumb now that Vermont Sen. James M. Jeffords has switched. But this pact was made six weeks ago.

"Even if it made sense that a candidate could be approved with three Democrats and one Republican vote, wouldn't you want to have good, solid conservative or at least politically active Republicans, chosen by the California congressional delegation, sit on each district panel?" the county Republican official said.


CARDINAL ROGER MAHONY and other liberal Catholic clergy took few pains to conceal their resentment of Vatican authority when commenting on the May 21-24 extraordinary consistory of cardinals. The Boston Globe quoted Cardinal Mahony saying that "sometimes his authority has been undermined by Vatican bureaucrats who respond to a Southern California Catholic's complaint about a local dispute without consulting the archdiocese.... Mahony was one of several cardinals who called for revamping the synod of bishops, periodic monthlong gatherings of top church officials, which Mahony called tedious because of all the speechifying that goes on. The cardinals did not agree on a specific course of action but said that they hope the Vatican and bishops can agree on changes before the next synod of bishops in October in Rome."


SOFT ON CROSSDRESSING. On May 31 the California assembly passed a transgender special rights bill, by a 41-34 vote. The vote came after pro-family activists tried unsuccessfully to pressure the California Catholic Conference into taking a tougher stand against the measure.

Introduced by homosexual assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg in February and officially titled "Discrimination," the text of the measure states, "This bill would expand the prohibition on sexual discrimination and harassment by including gender, as defined, in the definition of sex" and "would permit employers to require employees to comply with workplace appearance, grooming, or dress standards consistent with state and federal law, but would require employers to permit employees to dress in a manner consistent with the employee's gender."

Capitol Resources, a pro-family lobbying group, explains the ramifications of the measure: "This could mean that if a 200-pound, bearded employee feels his gender can best be expressed in a dress and high heels, the employer can't object."

California Campaign for Families describes the bill's consequences even more bluntly: "This bill would mean $50,000 fines against businesses, including Bible bookstores, and non-religious non-profit organizations such as the Boy Scouts, for refusing to hire transsexuals and drag queens."

A few days before the bill's first committee vote on April 25, a Southern California activist who requested anonymity visited the Catholic Conference's website. "The Catholic Conference tracks bills through a software program called CapitolTrack. There are five position codes that can be assigned to a bill in CCC's system, which in turn appear to dictate its lobbying efforts," explained the activist. "FS stands for fully support, IS for indirectly support, N for no position, IO for indirectly oppose, and FO for fully oppose.

"This particular bill was assigned to lobbyist David Pollard under the subject of 'sexual orientation' with a priority of 'significant.' But there was no date in the Letters field, which would explain why the Catholic Conference isn't listed as an opponent in the bill analysis. Also, the position code was N -- no opposition. Why not 'fully oppose'? It seemed like a no-brainer to me that the Church should totally oppose this bill."

The activist said, "I found another way to view the bills in the CapitolTrack program that shows two 'Misc.' fields that are not normally visible. One of them said 'seeking attorney analysis.' Apparently the Conference was waiting for a lawyer to tell them what they needed to know about this bill. Then I thought, 'Why not have the laity tell them?' So I wrote up a press release, of sorts."

The "press release" was distributed by Phil Sheldon, son of Traditional Values Coalition founder Lou Sheldon, asking readers to "contact the California Catholic Conference and ask that it take a 'Full Opposition' (FO) position on this bill."

The notice was forwarded to Daily Catholic editor Michael Cain. On April 25, Cain published an editorial about the bill on his website under the following headline:"California closing in on Sodom and Gomorrah! Where are the California bishops at a time when they're needed? Hiding in their ivory towers?"

Did the press release help? On April 25, the Goldberg bill passed its first committee by a 4-2 vote. On May 23, it passed its second committee vote by nearly the same ratio, 13-7, paving the way to its May 31 victory in the assembly. As of this writing, the bill is now in the senate awaiting committee assignment. No roadblocks are expected as it makes its way through the senate to Gov. Davis for final signature sometime in early fall.

Has the CCC changed its position? A check of the bill on June 4 showed that the position code changed from "N" to "IO" -- from "no position" to "indirectly oppose." Everything else was still the same, including the blank "Letters" field.


STILL AT IT. Stop Planned Parenthood's May 2001 Ryan Report reported that Wal-Mart's Walton Family Foundation continues to support Planned Parenthood. Among the several PP chapters benefiting from Wal-Mart's largesse, PP of San Diego and Riverside Counties received the largest sum by far. Although not mentioned by STOPP, a visit to the foundation's website reveals that, in 2000, Walton grants were given to two organizations that promote population control. The May Ryan Report states that the foundation supported Planned Parenthood in 1999 and that "although the foundation is technically a separate entity from the Wal-Mart Corporation, Walton family members started both, and the Waltons still take an active part in running Wal-Mart. S. Robson Walton is Wal-Mart's chairman of the board." Under the category of "health," the Walton Family Foundation awarded the following grants in 2000: Planned Parenthood of Arkansas & Eastern Oklahoma, $23,750; Planned Parenthood of Arkansas, Inc., $2,250; Planned Parenthood of Central & Northern Arizona, $5,000; Planned Parenthood of San Diego & Riverside Counties, $62,000; Population Action International, $5,000; and Population Services International, $2,000. STOPP urges pro-lifers to express their displeasure concerning these grants by contacting the Walton Family Foundation, P.O. Box 2030, Bentonville, AR 72712, phone 501-464-1570, fax 501-464-1580.


"WE STILL HAVE SOME CHAIRS AVAILABLE for the THLA annual dinner this Thursday evening, May 10 at the Rock Bottom Cafe," wrote USD law professor Steven Hartwell in a May 6 e-mail invitation to PRIDELAW-L, the university's homosexual law student group. "The dean agreed to purchase a table for ten at $850 -- so let's not let the money, good times or support for the community go to waste! Should be a good program and we'll all be home in time to study for finals."

"THLA" stands for the Tom Homann Law Association. According to its website it is "San Diego's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender bar association championing equal rights through education, advocacy and fellowship." The group's website lists Hartwell as the "law school liaison" for USD and contains links to the USD law school. The group's February 2001 and March 2001 newsletters describe the "good program" that Hartwell urged Catholic law school students not to miss: "Arizona State Representative Steve May will headline the THLA annual dinner. May, a Republican, found himself in the national spotlight after coming out as a gay man during a speech on the floor of the Arizona House. He was subsequently investigated by the U.S. military under the controversial "don't ask, don't tell" policy, even though he was not an active member of the service at the time. May's legal challenge to that policy is likely to reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

The March newsletter also reveals Hartwell's active involvement in the Tom Homann group. Under the headline "University of San Diego is a 'Peacemaker'," the newsletter states "Former THLA Board Member Steve Hartwell reports that the San Diego Mediation Center has awarded the University of San Diego a "Peacemaker" award for a year-long colloquium the University held that examined the relationship between the University and its sexually diverse members in light of the University's mission as a Roman Catholic institution. The colloquium brought together ten members, representing voices from the administration, staff, faculty, alumni and student body who met for dinner and two hours of frank discussion." Prior to the start of the colloquium, in June, 1999 the Homann newsletter reported, "The University provost and the Director of Mission and Ministry, who also serves as a University vice president, gave their personal support to the colloquium. Professor Hartwell is a co-director of the project and will serve as its recorder and report writer." Monsignor Daniel Dillabough has been USD's vice president for mission and ministry since 1998. Elsewhere on the website, writer Becky Jones answers the question, "Who was Tom Homann anyway?"

"Tom Homann was a gay lawyer in San Diego who died of AIDS at age 42, in 1991. He moved to California from the Midwest in 1952 and moved to San Diego in 1974. He passed the bar in 1978. In his relatively short legal career, Tom made an enormous impact on the local community. The San Diego newspapers from the 1980s are filled with reports on his constitutional battles with the establishment. He fought with the city to prevent it from shutting down the F Street adult bookstores or limiting the materials they sold; he fought city efforts to license and restrict the operations of topless bars; he sued the San Diego County Sheriff when the sheriff refused to hire gay and lesbian deputies, persuading the sheriff to stop discriminatory hiring policies; and he represented two sailors with AIDS who the Navy wanted to discharge without medical benefits because they were gay."

During the 1996-97 academic year, Hartwell served as a member of the advisory committee for USD's "Ethics Across the Curriculum" program responsible for overseeing the grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to develop interdisciplinary ethics courses and other ethics-related events, including "Soliciting and reviewing recommendations for the visiting scholar."

That year, Hartwell's committee approved the selection of Carol Gilligan, a professor at the graduate school of education at Harvard University, as visiting scholar. Hartwell provided further assistance by hosting a "dinner with selected faculty" for Gilligan during her visit.On USD's ethics website Values Institute director Lawrence Hinman wrote that the choice of Gilligan "proved to be an excellent one for several reasons," one of which was that "Her work on gender and moral development ... has had a profound impact on a wide range of disciplines." While at USD, Gilligan held a workshop on "How attention to gender opens up the ethical conversation" and gave a public lecture titled, "Voice and Relationship: Rethinking the Foundations of Ethics." Her lecture, wrote Hinman, "addressed one of the key issues at the very heart of this grant. If we take the issue of gender seriously, Professor Gilligan argued, then we must rethink the very foundations of ethics." In other areas, however, Hartwell's ethics appear to be more situational than foundational. In an article about student cheating in the Winter, 2000 issue of USD Magazine Online titled "A Question of Honor," author Michael R. Haskins offered the following insight into Hartwell's definition of ethics: "'What constitutes cheating and plagiarism is often arbitrary, and faculty and students who serve on honor courts typically see their mission in terms of protecting the institution,' says law professor Steven Hartwell, who frequently defends students accused of violating the law school's honor code. 'Also, honor codes are often essentially punitive. USD needs to consider these issues before going down that road.'"

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