2002 Little Notes
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Contents © 2002
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

SEPTEMBER 2002 LITTLE NOTES

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Courage is a spiritual support group helping Catholic men and women to live in accordance with the Catholic Church's teaching on homosexuality. There were approximately 200 men and women, ranging in ages from 20s to 80s, who traveled to San Diego (one man came from Spain), to attend the conference. Thursday evening Father Harvey spoke on the prophetic vision of Courage and Encourage. He led one of the workshops on Saturday afternoon titled, "Developing Interior Chastity."

There were two testimonies from Paul and Julie on their struggle with same-sex attraction. Because of Courage's support of Roman Catholic teaching on homosexuality; embracing a personal relationship with Jesus Christ; fellowship with other Courage members; and accepting the truth that chaste friendships are not only possible but necessary in chaste Christian life, Julie and Paul said they have a clearer understanding of the truth about their homosexual inclination and a new-found freedom and peace because of this understanding.

Yvonne spoke about the benefits of applying the Twelve Steps at Courage meetings. Step One is, "We admitted that we were powerless over homosexuality and that our lives had become unmanageable."

Father Raymond Roden, clinical psychologist from Brooklyn, presented "Overcoming Traumas: Past & Present."

Father Jeffrey Keefe, clinical psychologist from Syracuse, New York, presented "The Psychology of Temptation." Father Keefe spoke about the basic human drives: master, merger, finding meaning and purpose; and the sequence to temptation -- resistance, hesitation, weakening, and surrender. He said, "We are the source of our own temptation.... Decide no at the beginning of temptation before we are lost.... No one knows himself except through trial.... Temptation is an invitation to grow -- an invitation to virtue."

The Daughters of Saint Paul recorded the main talks and some workshops. Tapes can be ordered and purchased at their bookstore on Balboa Avenue. Courage produced two videos last year titled Portraits of Courage" (Part 1 & 2), which can be ordered on line at the courage web site couragerc.net or by calling 1-866-BeChaste.

Father Harvey announced that next year's conference will be in St. Paul, Minnesota on August 7th through August 10, 2003.


PRO-ABORTION STATE ASSEMBLYMAN JUAN VARGAS, the Democrat representing south San Diego and South Bay, is facing opposition from Republican candidate Mark Fast in the upcoming November election. The contrast between the two is stark. Vargas, who identifies himself as a Catholic, votes anti-life and anti-family. Fast, an Evangelical, is pro-life and pro-family. An aerospace engineer, Fast moved to the South Bay three years ago from Tucson, Arizona. Married with four children and a baby due in December, he says that Bill Clinton's election to the presidency motivated him to enter politics. "The single most important reason I am running is to protect my family," Fast explained. "If I protect my family from the onslaught of government interference, to break my family up and separate my children from me or tell me what I must do with my children, I protect my neighbor's family as well." In the March primary election he ran for a seat on the Republican Central Committee and for Republican Assembly candidate. Fast won both races; even if unsuccessful against Vargas in November, he will join the central committee in December.

Proposition 22, which was approved in the 2000 primary election, is the centerpiece of Fast's campaign. It defines marriage as being exclusively between one man and one woman. He says in the 79th assembly district, which has a large Latino population, approximately 67 percent of voters supported it. "Everything that Juan Vargas has done in the state assembly is to counteract and undermine Proposition 22."

Fast's website lists 11 bills Vargas supported in 2001 that promote abortion or homosexuality or undermine parental rights. "These people are putting their belief system in our public school system when they went and fought to have Christianity taken out," Fast commented. "They're pushing the homosexual religion onto our children...."

Fast pledges to vote against state budgets containing abortion funding, would support bills requiring minors to obtain parental consent for abortions, and would support bills requiring a 24-hour waiting period prior to obtaining an abortion.

For more information, write to Mark W. Fast, Candidate for California State Assembly District 79, P.O. Box 121448, Chula Vista, CA 91910, call 619-518-9953, e-mail mark@markwfast.com or visit www.markwfast.com. Some information is available in Spanish on the web site.


A POLL CONDUCTED BY PLANNED PARENTHOOD that found significant support for abortion among Latinas in California and Baja California has been called into question by a leader of the Hispanic pro-life movement.

"The whole thing is extremely questionable," said Marcella Melendez, president of Hispanics for Life and Human Rights, headquarted in Torrance. According to information on the website of Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside Counties, www.planned.org, the poll was conducted last year, and surveyed the opinions of 1000 women -- 600 in California and 400 in Baja California. "We knew that 65% of our patients are Latina, and guessed they weren't as conservative as everyone thought," explains the Planned Parenthood document. "The results debunked many common myths about Latinas. First of all, Latinas overwhelmingly support the use of birth control -- 83% said that a woman has the right to limit the number of children she has.... As for abortion, more than half are pro-choice, and many more support abortion in cases of rape (58%), birth defects (66%), and when a woman's health is endangered (74%)."

The study was conducted by Norma Ojeda, president of Fronteras Unidas Pro-Salud, Planned Parenthood's affiliate in Tijuana. "This is not an unbiased organization," commented Melendez. "I think the whole survey should be questioned. I wouldn't trust the results." Ojeda also teaches sociology and Chicano studies at San Diego State University, and is an investigator with the department of Population Studies at Colegio Frontera Norte in Tijuana. Melendez said Planned Parenthood should have provided more information -- like a list of the questions they asked and more detail about the people they surveyed. "I would like to see the questions," she said. "I would like to see how they phrased them."


READ MY LIPS. Capitol watchers have noticed an interesting thing done by California state assembly speaker pro-tem-designate Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego) since the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled on the alleged unconstitutionality of the phrase "under God" within the Pledge of Allegiance. Part of the speaker pro-tem's duties every day is to announce who will lead the assembly in the Pledge. The speaker pro-tem then steps slightly away from the microphone and joins his or her colleagues in saying the Pledge. In each instance since the circuit panel's decision, Kehoe can be heard reciting the pledge without the supposedly offending phrase: "one nation, ... [utter silence], indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

On Thursday, July 25, before stepping away from the microphone, Kehoe could be seen turning off the microphone at the speaker's rostrum. The camera televising the proceedings then cut away to Ellen Corbett, who led the assembly in the Pledge that day. It is evident that Ms. Corbett is uttering the words "under God." However, one can hear Miss Kehoe in the background even without a microphone, and when it comes time to exclaim the now controversial words, she goes silent.

Miss Kehoe did not return calls for a comment on this matter. However, when asked about the omission, her chief of staff, Michael Miller, replied Miss Kehoe's choice of words were a matter of individual preference. "I don't feel I should ask her about that because it's really a private matter," he told News Notes.


RALPH INZUNZA, San Diego City Council District 8 representative who attends Mass at downtown's St. Joseph Cathedral, has been named a "Friend of the Year" by the San Diego Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual And Transgender Pride committee, along with District 6 representative Donna Frye.

According to the San Diego Pride 2002 Souvenir Program, Inzunza and Frye "both demonstrated their support to the LGBT community by voting against the Balboa Park land lease renewal for the Boy Scouts. While the majority of council votes were cast in favor of renewal, they each joined [homosexual] Councilmember Toni Atkins in publicly expressing their unyielding opposition to the Scouts' policy of discrimination toward citizens of our community.

"Inzunza, whose goals include the creation of affordable housing and more libraries in the 8th District, resides in Otay Mesa with his wife, Ana."


WEDNESDAY, JULY 31: Harmony Allen, from U. S. Representative. Randy Cunningham's office, called the News Notes phone line. Miss Allen said that she was making a "pre-emptive" strike phone call so that we wouldn't think that Cunningham was shirking his 100 percent pro-life record. Allen said that there was some confusion about when the vote would be taken on the Partial Birth Abortion Ban. As a result, Cunningham missed the vote. He did go back and, on the record, note that he would have voted for the ban.


CATHOLIC MEMBER OF THE ASSEMBLY, Charlene Zettel (R-Poway), a supporter of Planned Parenthood and legalized abortion, had taken a slight break from voting pro-choice during her primary campaign for state senate. After losing that contest to conservative Temecula assemblyman Dennis Hollingsworth, however, she returned to voting pro-abortion. On Wednesday, August 7, she cast one of 15 votes to move SB 1301, the Reproductive Rights Privacy Act, out of appropriations committee and onto the assembly floor. SB 1301 would make abortion an inalienable right in California and would allow nurse practitioners to administer non-surgical chemical abortions such as RU-486. (Zettel voted against SB 1301 in the assembly health and human services committee on June 23.)


DURING THE MONTHS OF JULY AND AUGUST, the San Diego Union-Tribune ran stories in which Bishop Brom appeared to speak openly about sexual abuse scandals in the diocese of San Diego. The first story, July 28, concerned allegations of molestation by the late Monsignor William Kraft and the second, August 10, concerned molestations committed by Monsignor Rudolph Galindo, announcing that Brom had barred Galindo from all priestly ministry (even though he is retired and lives in Texas). Most interesting is the fact that each priest-abuser was covered by the media long ago. The San Diego Union reported on an out-of-court settlement between Galindo and a former altar boy as far back as 1985. The Evening Tribune reported molestation allegations against Kraft in 1988. The day after the August 10 Galindo story appeared, an open letter from the bishop was inserted into parish bulletins, assuring Catholics that he was committed to "absolute transparency" in cases of sexual abuse of minors. Which leaves one to wonder: Since it has been reported that as many as 90 percent of the priestly abuse cases were committed on boys aged 16 or older, what about those who are not technically minors? Since Brom has been the bishop of San Diego for 12 years, and the reports on Galindo went as far back as the Maher administration, why did he wait until now to confront Monsignor Galindo and banish him from all priestly ministry? After the Dallas meeting of bishops, Brom announced that less than $200,000 had been paid in settlements of abuse claims against priests, yet diocesan chancellor Monsignor Steven Callahan admitted that the diocese had paid out $250,000 in December 2001 for the Kraft settlement alone. If the bishop is committed to "absolute transparency," when will he free all accusers, including those who have accused him of sexual misconduct from their confidentiality agreements? So far, the only priests named by Bishop Brom are known abusers, one long-retired, the other dead.


APPROXIMATELY 150 PEOPLE gathered at the San Diego Zoo entrance on July 28 to protest a homosexual "Zoo Party" held there in connection with Gay Pride weekend. The protest was co-sponsored by the local Concerned Women for America and San Diego Christians United. In a July 26 press release from the latter: "Gay circuit parties are rife with drug and alcohol use as well as unprotected and public same-sex behavior. Zoo visitors, particularly families, should know that the Zoo is promoting unsafe activities to which their innocent children may be inadvertently exposed."

Protesters stood on the sidewalks at the Zoo's entrance, displaying signs warning patrons about the event. Zoo Party attendees were heard shouting epithets such as "Breeders!" at the protesters as partygoers drove past. One protester reported observing "lots of flipping off, belligerent attitudes, profanity and verbal abuse" from attendees. "A lady with two 10-year-old sons asked her sons if they wanted to go in to the Zoo," said another protester, John Giery. "The boys said no, and they turned around." Protester Allyson Smith reported that a husband and wife on exiting the Zoo thanked protesters for notifying them about the event inside.

Robert Knight, affiliated with Concerned Women, was interviewed about the Zoo protest on a national radio broadcast on July 31. "[The protesters] ... stood there and were witnesses and asked these guys, 'Don't go in and do this; your lives are more important than that,'" Knight said. "They prayed for them, they talked with them, and they were met with lots of insults.... Some of the gay activists had cel phones, and while the Christians were there praying and just talking with them peacefully, they were calling up the police headquarters and saying, 'We're getting hit by stones; these people are screaming at us hateful slogans; we're being abused; you have to do something.'"

For more information on Concerned Women of America: 760-929-0352 or e-mail sd.california@states.cwfa.org. For San Diego Christians United: 619-444-6166 or e-mail siainc5@qwest.net.


"I USED TO GIVE THE SERMONETTE-OF-THE-WEEK to the abortionist (James Long) in the story below every Saturday for about three years," writes local pro-lifer Cheryl Sullenger, on top of the following story which appeared in the August 9 San Bernadino Press-Enterprise. "We picketed his condo in San Diego, and he moved the following week. Then, my daughter Brenna was sidewalk counseling in Feb. of 2000 at Family Planning Associates in San Bernardino (where Long had fled to after being chased out of SD) when the ambulance came for Angela. Brenna and her friend Jarmey took the ambulance pictures that we still use today. They befriended Angela's family and gave them Christian love and support during Angela's time in a coma and urged the family to file the lawsuit against him."

The Press-Enterprise story: "State medical officials have requested the revocation of the license of a doctor who performed an abortion at a San Bernardino clinic that left a Riverside woman severely brain damaged.

"Dr. James M. Long of San Diego is accused of gross negligence, repeated negligent acts, and incompetence in his handling of the February 2000 procedure performed on Angela Vidano, 22. Vidano suffered from an asthmatic condition at the time of the operation, which was performed at Family Planning Associates on Hospitality Lane.

"A formal accusation against Long was filed last month by the state attorney general's office, representing the medical quality division of the Medical Board of California....

"Long did not take precautions to deal with Vidano's medical condition before beginning the abortion of her 10-week-old fetus, the attorney general's office contends.

"The doctor also failed in treating Vidano after she stopped breathing following the procedure, according to the accusations.

"Vidano's family sued the doctor, the clinic and other staff members. The lawsuit sought unspecified damages and compensation for Vidano's injuries and loss of future wages....

"Long, a 1985 graduate of Eastern Virginia Medical School, was granted a California medical license in 1986, state records show.

"His license remains current, but he faces unspecified restrictions since the accusation was filed July 22."


SAYING POLICE UNFAIRLY FORCED an abortion protester's RV off the road during last year, officials at the Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan filed a lawsuit August 13 against the City of Royal Oak (Michigan) and six of its police officers. San Diegan Ronald Brock's motor home was covered with "big written messages, photographs of aborted babies, Christian crosses, Bible quotes, and on the back last year he had a big picture of an aborted baby above a photograph of the remains of Holocaust victims," said Ed White, a lawyer with the Thomas More Law Center. According to the lawsuit, before police impounded the motor home, one officer told Brock he was being investigated for displaying obscene materials. The lawsuit, filed by a legal center founded by former pizza king Tom Monaghan, was to be heard in Detroit on August 15.

A court order was issued August 15 by U.S. District Judge Paul Gadola -- guaranteeing that Brock "may exercise his constitutional rights on the public streets of Royal Oak freely during the 2002 Woodward Dream Cruise weekend ... and thereafter, without government

interference."

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