LITTLE NOTES

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Contents © 1998
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

December 1998 LITTLE NOTES

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Fr. Marx talked about the contraceptive mentality, natural family planning, and the consequences of abusing God's plan for sex within marriage, stating that "Sex is the second highest cause of death amongst teenagers." Addressing the vocations shortage, Fr. Marx remarked that vocations come from large families. "The vocation shortage is a sex problem," he said. "Vocations come from sex."

When asked to give his reasons for the loss of faith, Fr. Marx listed several factors, including family life, feminism within religious orders, materialism, and Vatican II ("The documents were fine, but the bishops allowed the theologians to bastardize them.") "The great responsibility of parents today," he said, "is to pass on the faith."


USD GRADUATES featured in the fall issue of the alumni magazine were Jonathan Connor (class of 71), former priest for San Diego diocese, who was ordained priest in the Free Catholic Church, locally incarnated at St. Thomas the Doubter, and Amie Ortman (class of 94) who serves in San Diego as an "options counselor" for Planned Parenthood.


FATHER JOSEPH FESSIO, publisher of Ignatius Press, is asking Catholics to make donations to the programming arm of the Catholic Radio Network. On October 31, within moments of the financing deadline, the Catholic Radio Network came up with $4 million to complete the $50 million transaction. It is now on the air in seven of the largest radio markets in the United States, including Los Angeles, Chicago, and Philadelphia.

As Fr. Fessio explains in a letter to readers and friends of Ignatius Press, the pressing need for the network now is programming. "Because we had not been certain that we would be able to complete the transaction, we had not been able to make contracts and commitments with the people we had lined up as program hosts." Consequently, the network began on November 1 with simply music: popular Gregorian Chant CD of the monks of Los Silos-- along with selections from the popular Irish CD Faith of Our Fathers. "What an incredible experience it was to think that these beautiful chants and hymns were now being broadcast to 50 million potential listeners!" writes Fessio.

But now, says Fessio, "we must produce the programming that will reach out and make a difference in the lives of our listeners. The main focus is going to be on talk radio. The hosts will be Catholic, but topics will cover the widest possible range of issues of general interest-family, politics, economics, foreign policy, etc. But from a Catholic point of view and based on authentic Catholic teaching."

Fessio is convinced that the netwok is an "historic opportunity for the Church in America" to "have an authentic Catholic voice in the major media." To make a tax-deductible donation to the Catholic Media Productions, the non-profit programming arm of the network, "make your checks payable to Ignatius Press and indicate that the check is for 'CMP,' writes Fessio. Ignatius Press's address is: 2515 Mcallister St., San Francisco, Ca 94118.


KILL THOSE LITTLE FOREIGN BABIES could be the motto of local Congressman Brian Bilbray, if his voting record published on October 12 by National Right to Life is an indication. Bilbray-- a self-defined practicing Catholic who represents coastal San Diego from Imperial Beach to La Jolla and who squeaked a 49 to 43 percent win over lesbian Christine Kehoe in November-- voted pro-abortion five out of five votes in the category "Foreign Aid for Abortion" in 1997-98. Even Jennifer Dunn (R-Washington), the moderate whom Bilbray supported in her failed quest for Richard Armey's majority leader post, voted only two out of five times to export abortion overseas.


A LONG GOODBYE. Montclair abortionist James Long has not only stopped killing babies in San Diego but he's not living here anymore. And pro-lifers credit the picketing of his home for that. Cheryl Sullinger of California Life Coalition said that she and other sidewalk counselors noticed last March that Long was not practicing anymore at Family Planning Associates, an abortuary in La Mesa. "So we picketed him at his condominium in San Diego," she said. The last time pro-lifers saw him at the condo on Navajo Road was August 29. By Labor Day, he was gone. "When we picketed on Sept. 7," Sullinger said, "we found four college students ... And we had one of the neighbors come out and confirm that" Long had moved.


ABORTIONIST ROBERT SANTELLA has expanded his abortion practice beyond his College Avenue office to work for Family Planning Associates in La Mesa. He has worked there provisionally at least the last two Thursdays in October.


TWO OF THE TWENTY-SEVEN EXHIBITORS at the diocese's third annual Church Ministers Conference, held on November 14, were not of the sort one would normally expect at an official diocesan function. These were the Spiritual Ministry Center of San Diego and La Providencia Spiritual Renewal Center. The notoriously modernist Sisters of the Sacred Heart (RSCJs) run the Spiritual Ministry Center, whose offerings include New Age-oriented courses on the enneagram (which is rooted in occultism) and "Wholeness of the Person, Wholeness of the Earth." The La Providencia retreat center, located in Alpine, is run by Sisters Patricia Hanson, CSJO and Millicent Peaslee, OLVM. La Providencia's unmistakably New Age spirituality is reflected in its mission statement, according to which it "...integrates the needs and blessings of the individual with those of Mother Earth." Sisters Hanson and Peaslee promote concepts and activities such as the "Earth Covenant," "the new cosmology," seasonal solstice and equinox celebrations, and Reiki massage (an Oriental healing art in which Reiki "masters" are assisted by spirit guides).

The other exhibitors were more typical: several publishers of widely used catechetical textbooks, Catholic booksellers, vendors of religious art and supplies, vendors of educational resources, the California Pro Life Council, Rachel's Hope (post-abortion healing ministry) and the National Council for Catholic Evangelization. All of the catechism publishers represented currently publish texts that have been judged by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops to be "in conformity" with the Catechism of the Catholic Church. San Francisco-based Ignatius Press, widely known for its high-quality orthodox books and catechetical materials, and a frequent vendor at Catholic conferences, told News Notes it was not invited. Paulist Press Book Center was. Although it produces standard Catholic fare, Paulist Press also publishes theologically heterodox material. Most of the conference's vendors were selling books and items that appeared to fall within the pale of theologically and morally sound Catholic doctrine and tradition.


FORMER LA JOLLA PRO-LIFER and supporter of Afghan freedom fighters, Lawrence Dixon, has written The Book of Honor as "a father's advice to his family, offered to everyone's family." (Dixon now lives in Tijuana with his wife and three children.) The book is available for $10 from Fierce Press, P.O. Box 1371, La Jolla CA 92038.


I ATTENDED OR RECEIVED REPORTS from reliable sources on six of the ten presentations given at the San Diego Diocese's Annual Conference for Church Ministers, held on November 14 at the San Diego Convention Center. All six stayed within parameters of acceptable Church teaching. About 2,000 people attended this year's conference, which included parallel programs in English and Spanish.

Its theme this year was "Journey Toward the Father," reflecting the Holy Father's three-year preparation plan for the Year 2000 Jubilee (1997 is devoted to Jesus Christ, 1998 to the Holy Spirit, and 1999 to God the Father). Hence Lawrence Cunningham's interesting and sound keynote address on "The Fatherhood of God." Cunningham is a professor of theology and department chair at the University of Notre Dame, and regular columnist for Commonweal magazine. He stated that Father is the proper name for the first person of the Holy Trinity, and emphasized the Bible's naming of God as Father: it is used ten times in the Old Testament, and more than 200 times in the New Testament, 109 instances in John's gospel alone. "The Father is the fundamental source and sustainer of all that is, a loving God most perfectly revealed by Jesus Christ as the source of the unity of all people and the parent of all of us, His adopted children," he explained.

Citing Scripture and Vatican II's Nostra Aetate (The Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions), Cunningham showed the progression from the truth that men are made in the image and likeness of God to the understanding that God is everyone's Father, and that this is what unites us as brethren. He provided three reasons for the importance of the "father-language" Christ gave us with which to pray: 1) "When we talk about father-language in relation to God, that helps us to get away from the idea that, somehow, God is some impersonal force in the world." 2) Father-language in Christian prayer underscores that our relationship to God is as intimate as a parent-child relationship. "By saying 'our Father' we are explicitly saying that God not only creates, but God sustains our life," Cunningham stated. 3) "Praying to the Father is to join oneself to Jesus....in that spirit by which we seek a relationship with God that's as trusting, intimate, hope-filled and secure as Jesus had when He prayed or taught people to pray."

Cunningham credited some elements of feminist theology with advancing our perception of the Heavenly Father not limited by perceptions of our earthly fathers. However, he rejected feminists' claims that equate the portrayal of God as Father with "patriarchalism."

In "Social Justice and the New Evangelization," Dr. John Haas, president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Boston and former professor of moral theology, discussed the link between social justice and evangelization. He dispelled the notion that Catholic social justice is the "middle way" between capitalism and socialism. Rather, said Haas, it transcends both because its origins are in God. Authentic social justice must be based on religion as its founding principle. Real authority of public officials-- kings or elected officeholders-- comes from God and must be recognized as reflecting the Father's authority and justice, he asserted. One attendee commented that Dr. Haas' talk was "excellent."

A priest who attended Abundio Parra Sanchez's presentation on "The Names and Attributes of God" and Dr. John Yzaguirre's on "Believing in and Responding to the Father's Love" reports that these Spanish-language workshops were very well attended and received, and that they presented "good, sound theology." He was also very encouraged by Dr. Haas' talk on social justice, and Cunningham's address on God as Father, and described this year's conference as "a great way to begin the year of the Father."


GIVEN HIS BACKGROUND, Father Robert J. Kennedy's speaking engagement at the diocese's November 14 catechetical conference was surprising. Father Kennedy is an assistant professor of liturgical studies at St. Bernard's Institute in Rochester, New York, a Catholic graduate school in theology (as distinct from a seminary). Some Rochester-area Catholics regard St. Bernard's as a hotbed of radical dissent from the Church's magisterial teachings. The catechetical conference brochure did not mention that Father Kennedy has recently presided at Dignity-Rochester Masses (Dignity attempts to pressure the Church into changing its teachings on homosexuality) and in September, spoke at the controversial National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries, which held its fifth annual meeting this year in Rochester. The San Diego Diocese was perhaps unaware of St. Bernard's reputation and Father Kennedy's support of the "Catholic" militant homosexual movement when they invited him.

A report from the gay ministries' meeting in Los Angeles last fall revealed that it promoted Dignity's philosophy and disparaged Courage, the Church-approved outreach to homosexuals which promotes chastity. Implicit in the Rochester conference brochure's workshop descriptions is the assumption that gay and lesbian life is morally legitimate. Father Kennedy's workshop at the Rochester conference was on "Finding Ways to Reconciliation." This statement was included in the Rochester conference brochure's description: "Ministry with gay and lesbian persons often reveals ruptured relationships and raises reconciliation issues...."

In San Diego Father Kennedy's presentation bore the same title, but was tailored to a different audience. Gay/lesbian issues were not mentioned. Father Kennedy's focus was on the psychological dynamics involved in reconciliation, which means, he said, "to move into a new life in Christ." He aimed to enable his listeners to "map strategies and dynamics for reconciliation in our lives, our parishes, our homes and the world." "You're never going back to where it was," Father Kennedy cautioned. "There's no return to paradise in a reconciliation process." Conversion, a fundamental component of the reconciliation process, involves the following steps: recognizing what is wrong in our lives, naming what is wrong, deciding to live a new life, informing those affected by our actions of our commitment to work toward reconciliation, and deepening our new life in Christ.

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