LITTLE NOTES
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Contents © 2004
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
LITTLE NOTES
November 2004
THE 2004 LIFE CHAIN on Sunday, October 3, drew about 320 sign-bearing pro-lifers to Balboa Boulevard east of Genesee in the Clairemont Mesa area. "I was blessed to see a 50 percent increase," says organizer, Phil Magnan, "from roughly 200 to 320 in the attendance because more people are beginning to see how important it is to let their Christian views be known not only at church, but on the streets," Magnan reported. "About 10 years ago, about 60 of those who saw our signs would curse at us and yell 'pro choice.' But, over the years, that has dissipated significantly, with only about 35 percent doing the same. This year's reaction to our signs was much, much less, except for that guy who mooned us." Many motorists indicated their support for Life Chain participants who displayed Life Chain's official signs, which read "Abortion Kills Children," "Lord Forgive Us and Our Nation," "Jesus Heals and Forgives" and "Pray to End Abortion."
In 1998 and 1999 attendance at the local version of the annual nationwide event was about 500. In 2000, it nearly doubled. Organizers at that time partially attributed the increased interest and attendance to its timing. Life Chain 2000 was held a few days after the government's approval of RU-486, the abortion pill, and San Diego was one of the cities where clinical trials for RU-486 were conducted. In 2001 Life Chain attendance was once again about 500. No Life Chain was held in 2002, since its previous organizer, Cheryl Sullenger moved to Wichita, Kansas to join Operation Rescue West's efforts to shut down Wichita's notorious late-term abortion mill run by Dr. George Tiller.
Since Sullenger's departure local pro-life activist Phil Magnan, head of Biblical Family Advocates, a pro-life, pro-family and anti-pornography activism group, has taken over the Life Chain reins. Magnans's group sponsored its first Life Chain in 2003, which had an attendance of about 200.
For information about future Life Chains and other activities, call Biblical Family Advocates at 619-933-1834, or e-mail: bfamilyadvocates@cox.net.
A LAWSUIT AGAINST JOHN KERRY was filed on June 14 in the ecclesiastical court of the Archdiocese of Boston by a canon lawyer named Marc Balestrieri, who is a lay judge with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles tribunal. The class-action criminal suit alleges heresy; diabolical scandal leading to heresy; formal and immediate cooperation in heresy; sacrilegious abjection of the Holy Eucharist; diabolical scandal leading to murder; and grave harm to public morals and contempt for the Faith and ecclesiastical authority. The central issue in all six charges is Kerry's unwavering pro-abortion views coupled with his frequent reception of communion. Appearing on Fox News' talk show "Hannity and Colmes" on July 12, Balestrieri said, "Senator Kerry ... and other Catholic politicians, have been going very recently into churches, into the pews, with camera crews trailing them, really trying to see whether or not the church will do something about it. That's very grave.... I, as a professional, have decided that out of duty and conscience, I have to stand up when no one else is and say things as they are, call a spade a spade.... To say that someone may have the right to choose abortion, to commit murder, in the theology of the Catholic Church, is something which is absolutely intolerable."
Archbishop O'Malley and the Diocese of Boston have refused to comment so far. But the 33-year-old Balestrieri says the prelate, "whom I respect greatly, has a serious obligation to view the facts of the case, which are indisputable, these external violations of canon and liturgical law, which are indisputable, to decide in justice and in truth what the best resolution of this case is. And I submit that it is to declare Senator John Kerry excommunicated automatically for heresy."
If you wish to sign on to the class-action lawsuit, go to defide.com.
ROMAN COLLAR-WEARING SEMINARIANS and some lay Catholics accompanying them were kicked out of a John Kerry rally and debate-watching party in St. Louis on October 8. The group of around 25 also wore sweatshirts emblazoned with the phrase "Dedicated to the defense of all human life." Despite the fact that the group had tickets to the event, Kerry campaign officials expelled them from the building. "They had no grounds for expelling us," wrote one of the seminarians on the website www.priesthood.motime.com, "other than the fact that we were wearing roman collars. They knew our very presence would challenge Senator Kerry's position on life issues and they wanted to avoid that, even if it meant squelching our freedom of speech and freedom of expression. So much for the Democratic Party being a party of understanding and diversity."
THE CHRISTIAN COALITION'S VOTER GUIDES will be available for distribution around October 19. They can be picked up at the Christian Coalition office, located on the old McClellan Buick lot at 7675 University Avenue in La Mesa or in Christian bookstores. The guide is also available online at www.ccca.org. The Christian Coalition guides screen candidates at all levels, including local government entities such as city councils, planning boards, community college districts and water boards. Candidates are screened for their views on several life issues, the radical homosexual agenda, government spending, school vouchers, and the removal of religious symbols from public property.
A version tailored for Catholics is available online at www.ccofsd.org.
INSIDERS AT CATHOLIC ANSWERS say the phones have been ringing off the hook with people calling to order the organization's "Voter's Guide for Serious Catholics." Catholic Answers expects to have sold easily more than three million copies before the election. The guide was already selling at a brisk pace before the El Cajon apologetics non-profit put a full-page advertisement in the USA Today on Tuesday, October 11. Since then, orders have been pouring in. The Associated Press ran a story on the Voter's Guide phenomenon on October 12.
THE MOUNT SOLEDAD CROSS is indeed owned by the City of San Diego. So ruled federal Judge Gordon Thompson on October 12. Thompson confirmed that the former sale of the cross to the Mount Soledad Memorial Association -- who wanted to replace the cross with a non-religious symbol -- had been nullified by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Thompson's ruling removed the final roadblock in the way of Proposition K, which will allow San Diego voters to decide that cross's fate. Leading the legal charge to preserve the cross is the West Coast office of the Thomas More Law Center, headed by Charles LiMandri.