LITTLE NOTES

2004 Little Notes
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Contents © 2004
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

LITTLE NOTES
April 2004

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Now, the Diocese of Orange is circulating an internal memo under the heading "Tough Love." It states, "Father Rod Stephens, the former Director of Liturgy and Worship in the Diocese of Orange, was apparently asked recently to choose between the Church, the Bride of Christ and his domestic partner, Howard Sellers. Having chosen his domestic partner last year, and in view of his permanent 'leave of absence' from the priesthood, it is manifestly inappropriate for him to consult or render any liturgical or architectural service for the Catholic Church in this diocese or any other, unless and until he expressly disavows his homosexual relationship with his partner. This is true regardless of the extent of his liturgical or architectural expertise, or rate of compensation if any. To do otherwise would not only be contrary to the clear teachings of The Church, but would also in fact be a direct hindrance to the hope that Rod will someday reconcile in humility his spiritually destructive lifestyle with his Maker, who longs for holy union with his soul as much as anyone's."

Now that Father Stephens has been officially discredited, Father Ron Hebert still has no regrets about hiring him. "I don't think that changes anything with regard to his skills and knowledge," Hebert said. "Knowing this, I don't know that I would have had him as a consultant, but from the point of view of his abilities, he had the capacity to do the job."

The approval for hiring Father Stephens fell upon Mary Ann Fallon, diocesan director of liturgy and spirituality. She did not return phone calls.


THE UNITED STATES JUSTICE FOUNDATION'S financial crisis worsened last month after a California appeals court on March 4 upheld a move by Planned Parenthood attorneys to collect an estimated $100,000 in attorney's fees from the pro-life law firm.

The three-judge panel ruled that San Diego Superior Court Judge Kevin A. Enright properly imposed sanctions in the form of attorney's fees because the Justice Foundation filed a frivolous motion to dismiss a lawsuit, according to WorldNetDaily.com.

In the suit, Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside Counties sought an injunction against pro-lifer Cheryl Sullenger for allegedly harassing employees and customers in front of Planned Parenthood's Mission Valley headquarters in 1999.

In October 2002, Enright awarded Planned Parenthood attorneys more than $60,000, agreeing that based on photographic evidence, no reasonable attorney would file a motion to dismiss the case against Sullenger. The United States Justice Foundation will also be forced to pay Planned Parenthood's attorney's fees in the appeals case, which could amount to an additional $40,000 or more, reported WorldNetDaily.

The new sanctions come after the foundation has already been forced to pay $15,000 in sanctions to Planned Parenthood in another case involving Enright, in which the judge threw out counts of their lawsuit charging the abortion provider with unlawful business practices and with failing to report suspected physical and sexual abuse of hundreds of children. The pro-life law firm now stands on the verge of bankruptcy.

In a March 4 press release to supporters, United States Justice Foundation lead counsel Gary Kreep said, "The attorney for Planned Parenthood has informed [me] that if he cannot collect the money from USJF, he will seek it from [me] personally. Please pray for USJF, as it does not have the funds to pay this award, and, barring the money being raised immediately to pay it, Planned Parenthood may realize its goal of shutting USJF down."

You may donate to USJF online at usjf.net.


"UNLOCKING YOUR PERSONAL POWER" was the theme of the University of San Diego's second annual women's leadership conference held the weekend of March 5-6 as part of Women's History Month.

Saturday's keynote speaker was Nancy Sasaki, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial Counties, whose organization has masterminded the effort to remove the Boy Scouts from Balboa Park and Fiesta Island. She spoke on the topic "A Matter of Women: Leadership in America." Liberal 53rd District Democrat Congresswoman Susan Davis, who was a keynoter at last summer's North American Conference on Bisexuality, also spoke.

Other recent Women's Center-sponsored events include "Witches: A Historical and Contemporary Perspective" held February 26 in the Aromas cafe. Wicca high-priestess, Kathryn Campbell spoke at the event along with Dr. Evelyn Kirkley, an openly lesbian professor in the university's Theology and Religious Studies department.


ALEXANDER SANGER, GRANDSON OF MARGARET SANGER, the eugenicist who founded Planned Parenthood, told a gathering of Planned Parenthood's North County supporters on March 5 in Carlsbad "that the re-reading of his grandmother's first book, Woman and the New Race written during a winter vacation in Coronado, inspired him to publish his own book on procreative freedom," wrote San Diego Union-Tribune columnist Logan Jenkins on March 8.

Sanger is currently chair of the International Planned Parenthood Council. Sanger previously served as the President of Planned Parenthood of New York City and its international arm, The Margaret Sanger Center International from 1991-2000. Mr. Sanger speaks around the country and the world as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund. His new book is titled Beyond Choice: Reproductive Freedom in the 21st Century.

In his column, Jenkins mused adoringly, "How had I as well as the Coronado and San Diego historical societies failed to hear of this local link to a colossal figure who, more than any other individual in American history, advanced the reproductive health of women?"

Margaret and Grant Sanger spent three months on the picturesque island during the winter of 1918 after traveling from New York, where two years earlier she had opened the nation's first birth control clinic in Brooklyn.

"Imagine [Margaret Sanger's] delight today," Jenkins gushed, "in an erudite grandson, the former president of Planned Parenthood of New York and current chairman of the International Planned Parenthood Council. Clearly, Alexander Sanger will never sway the part of the U.S. population that's morally opposed to abortion. But he hopes to give those who support unrestricted choice -- Planned Parenthood and its allies -- a new language to convince the rest that even the gruesome option of late-term abortions are a necessary part of human nature's plan for survival."


A FEW HOURS AFTER PRESIDENT BUSH signed the partial birth abortion ban act last November, Planned Parenthood filed three lawsuits -- in New York, Nebraska, and San Francisco --challenging the law, saying it was unconstitutional because it did not contain a health exception. In the course of the litigation, the Justice Department served six Planned Parenthood affiliates with subpoenas requesting medical records, saying in a February 12 statement, "In defending the law prohibiting partial birth abortion, the Department has sought to ensure that sensitive patient information remains private. The Department believes that we can obtain the information needed to test the plaintiffs' claims of medical necessity while also protecting the privacy rights of individuals by having the hospitals or doctors delete information that would identify specific patients prior to releasing their records."

One of the clinics served with the Justice Department's subpoenas is the San Diego and Riverside county affiliate of Planned Parenthood. However, the affiliate refused to turn over their medical records and challenged the request before Judge Phyllis Hamilton in the United States District Court in San Francisco. Amy Denhart of San Diego and Riverside Counties Planned Parenthood affiliate told a News Notes reporter in a March 11 telephone interview that the Attorney General's office had served the clinic with the subpoena on March 2. "We couldn't have complied with this. It would have taken over a thousand hours to compile."

On March 6, Hamilton ruled that Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside Counties as well as the city and county of San Francisco did not have to produce their patient records, citing medical privacy rights. Meanwhile, the judge in the New York case has expressed frustration with Planned Parenthood's refusal to turn over medical records and has threatened the abortion provider with court sanctions.


THE ACADEMY OF OUR LADY OF PEACE, the University of San Diego, and University of San Diego High School are among local Catholic schools listed as participants in the upcoming "Day of Silence" on April 21. The schools' names are listed on dayofsilence.org.

The "Day of Silence" is an annual pro-homosexual propaganda ploy sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network in which students pledge to keep silent throughout the school day, even if called on by teachers and other school authorities, to "protest anti-LGBT discrimination and abuse."


UNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO THEOLOGY PROFESSOR, ORLANDO ESPIN, a former Jesuit, has spent his academic career creating what he calls "Latino Popular Catholicism." Espin, who is incarnated in the diocese of Venice, Florida, has pioneered a field of inquiry, which he calls "Latino Catholicism." This idea holds that the Catholicism practiced by Latinos is distinct from traditional Roman Catholicism. Espin is part of a small, but growing academic movement which embraces this idea. Although primarily an academic whose work usually appears in academic journals, Espin is now venturing out into the Latino community at large.

In February, Espin addressed the Latino participants at the annual religious education congress sponsored by the Los Angeles Archdiocese. Espin's talk, which was given to Spanish-speaking Latino religious education instructors, was a synopsis of his teachings with regard to "Latino Catholicism."

Espin's Center for the Study of Latino Catholicism is sponsoring a symposium that will be held in July in Mexico City titled, "The Philosophical Foundations for an Intercultural Feminist Theology." One of the goals of the project is to "empower the work of U.S. Latina and Latin American Feminist theologians." Espin's sister, Olivia Espin teaches Women's Studies at San Diego State University.

One Latino priest who asked not to be identified, said that the idea of a Latino popular Catholicism "is the most ridiculous thing I've every heard." He went on to say, "Latinos practice Roman Catholicism as do all other Catholics around the world. They may have their particular devotions as would the Chinese, Irish, Italians, Poles, Germans, et cetera. But the faith is the exact same Catholic faith as articulated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church."


A SAN DIEGO HOMESCHOOLER was cited for a daytime curfew violation on December 16, 2003 by a San Diego Police officer for violating the San Diego daytime curfew ordinance. But on January 13, a San Diego Superior Court judge dismissed the citation.

The San Diego police officer cited the 13-year-old boy while conducting a "truancy sweep." The boy had been riding his bike on a Christmas shopping excursion. The police officer cited the boy under a code section reserved for public alternative schools. The home-schooling boy is attending a private independent study program that is not considered an alternative school according to the California educational code. When Mike Smith, president of the Home School Legal Defense Association spoke with the police officer, he explained that the grounds for the citation were flawed. "Tell it to the judge," was the officer's reaction.

Jim Mason, an Associate of Smith's at Home School Legal Defense Association, then filed for a demurrer; a legal proceeding which allows for a judge to dismiss a case before its hearing date. The judge agreed with Smith's demurrer and the case was dismissed. "This case," Mason said later, "demonstrates the importance of having an attorney familiar with the issues surrounding homeschooling involved in a case from the very beginning. If this family had simply gone to court and entered a "not-guilty" plea, the opportunity to file a demurrer would have been lost. Further, the matter would have been set for trial, at which time the police officer, who was not present at the arraignment, would have appeared to testify against the family and explain his interpretation and application of the ordinance to the judge. It is also possible that an attorney from the city attorney's office would have been present to prosecute the case. Because HSLDA was involved from the outset, the case was dismissed before it even began."


COMPASSION WAS THE THEME of the eleventh annual All Faith Service, held at the Immaculata on Friday January 30. As noted in the service pamphlet, "This tradition brings together in prayer the leaders of faith communities, faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends." As a rationale for the event it was stated, "The Catholic Church acknowledges what is true and holy in these various religions, and though their doctrines may differ from its own teaching, the Church realizes that they often reflect through different lenses a truth which enlightens all peoples." The church was packed, students making up the majority of the crowd.

The event opened with a procession of students bearing the flags of twenty four nations. Then the prayer leaders entered, each wearing their distinctive ceremonial garb: Venerable Man Guei, Abbess of Hsi Fang Zen Buddhist Temple; Sandip Shastriji Kapase, priest at the Shiva-Vishnu Temple; Navajo native dancer Eric Running Path; Moslem Student Mohamed Rajab; Rabbi Wayne Dosick of Elijah Minyan; Right Reverend Gethrin Hughes, Episcopal Bishop of San Diego; and Monsignor Daniel Dillabough, Vice President of the University of San Diego.

Monsignor Dillabough welcomed the assembly. He pointed out that the origin of the All Faith Service is the teaching and example of Pope John Paul II. He declared, "Compassion requires us to break down all walls of division that hinder community."

Beginning with the Islamic call to prayer and concluding with the Jewish invocation, representatives of each religion took turns as equals. Between each presentation, choir and congregation sang, "The Lord is kind and merciful."

Episcopal Bishop Gethrin Hughes presented the "Christian Reflection." Witty and urbane in speech, he was careful to say nothing which would offend any non-Christian present. Thus he spoke of God as "compassion itself," but of Jesus only as a great teacher and example of compassion.

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