LITTLE NOTES
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Contents © 2005
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
LITTLE NOTES
February 2005
SINCE THE KILLER TSUNAMI STRUCK SOUTH ASIA, the Catholic parishes of San Diego have been taking collections at Sunday mass for the relief of the disaster's victims. Checks are to be made payable to the Diocese of San Diego, with "Tsunami Relief" specified in the memo section of the check. A recent call to the diocese confirmed that all such checks will be forwarded to Catholic Relief Services, without the diocese taking a cut.Catholic Relief Services has pledged at least 25 million dollars toward the Tsunami relief effort. To contribute, donors may call 877-435-7277, donate online at www.CRS.org, or send a donation to: Catholic Relief Services Tsunami Emergency Relief Fund, P.O. Box 17090, Baltimore, MD 21203-7090.
DEFROCKED HOMOSEXUAL PEDOPHILE PRIEST, Paul Shanley, who was arrested in San Diego in 2002, went on trial in Cambridge, Massachusetts on January 18. He faces three counts of raping of a child and two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child. The list of accusations (and accusers) was longer at one time, but prosecutors have dropped three of Shanley's four accusers from the case. The last was removed on the eve of the trial because prosecutors hadn't been able to locate him since a hearing in October at which the man had trouble composing himself to testify.
CONDOMS DISTRIBUTED BY PLANNED PARENTHOOD rated very low in tests performed by Consumer Reports magazine and published in their February 2005 issue. In air inflation tests on 23 different condoms, the three types Planned Parenthood offers ranked 14th, 22nd, and 23rd.
Not to worry, says Dr. Vanessa Cullins in her online Q&A column, "Ask Dr. Cullins" on Planned Parenthood Federation of America's website. Planned Parenthood has done their own testing and, "Our condoms are quality condoms that have consistently met or exceeded industry standards when tested by the manufacturer, the FDA, or independent testing laboratories. The Consumer Reports article prompted us to arrange further independent tests of the same lots of condoms that Consumer Reports tested. In fact, we went further than Consumer Reports and tested every one of our Planned Parenthood condom styles. We are proud to say that our condoms passed these stringent tests with flying colors."
Caution: when she said "flying colors," Dr. Cullins might have been referring to the melon-colored condoms which Planned Parenthood distributes. Consumer Reports rated them 23rd out of the 23 brands they tested.
THE DIOCESE POSTED $40,000 BAIL FOR FATHER GARY HOLTEY, former pastor of Saint Charles Borromeo in Loma Portal, after a brief incarceration on child pornography charges. Prosecutors had argued that he posed a threat to the safety of minors. After the bail was posted, Holtey returned to the Maryland facility where he's been receiving treatment. "The diocese is financially and emotionally supporting him," defense attorney Dan Williams was quoted as saying in the December 23, 2004 Union-Tribune.
A recent perusal of Holtey's case file revealed that, when investigators showed up at his door, he said he knew why they were there and told them where the child porn was. According to the file, the authorities confiscated two computers, two Web-TV boxes, a camera, gay porn videos, and images of male children in sexually explicit poses.
HOLTEY MENTIONED HIS TRAVEL TO THAILAND to parishioners during his time as pastor of Saint Charles Borromeo. Thailand has long been known to be a sexual tourism destination, particularly for those seeking sex with children, and authorities say they found an image of a young Thai boy in Holtey's camera. On January 13, Ralph Ballmer, a local Catholic, called Bernadeane Carr, diocesan communications director, about the Holtey case. She referred him to Rod Valdivia, diocesan chancellor. "I asked him if Holtey had gone to Thailand and he seemed to admit that he had," Ballmer reported. In addition to Holtey, Ballmer mentioned two other local priests alleged to have engaged in inappropriate activities on the Internet in the last several years and asked Valdivia if the diocese was going to monitor or put filters on diocesan PCs. Ballmer reported that Valdivia told him no, because this was a privacy issue. "I also brought up Father Holtey's vacation habits.... I said, 'Do you monitor those trips?' He said no, again invoking privacy. So I guess the diocese is not interested in what their priests do on the Internet or on their vacations. This is beyond me, but they invoke privacy, which I took to be a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy. I also asked him if it was true that the diocese was paying Holtey's legal expenses. He admitted it. I asked him if they were going to publicize that. He said no, they wouldn't publicize the amount. If anyone called and inquired, they would give the amount. I said, 'What is the amount so far?' He said, 'We don't have that figure.'"