LITTLE NOTES

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Contents © 2005
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

LITTLE NOTES
April 2005

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But, in a March 22 phone conversation, a source close to the diocese said that Bishop Brom had made no such acknowledgment in the course of his three-hour meeting with the McCuskers. The source added that, contrary to the way it was reported, the Bishop's statement (see below) doesn't reverse his original decision. Rather, the statement offers an apology for the pain caused to the McCusker family and a promise to preside over a private mass "for the family" of John McCusker personally. The source says the Bishop "did not cave" but was "done in" by the McCusker family who, after insisting on a written apology for their pain, took it to the Gay and Lesbian Center to claim victory. According to the source, Bishop Brom spent more than an hour explaining to the McCuskers that he couldn't reverse the decision to deny their son a Catholic burial. —Ernie Grimm

Bishop Brom's March 21 statement on the John McCusker situation: "I deeply regret that denying a Catholic funeral for John McCusker at the Immaculata has resulted in his unjust condemnation, and I apologize to the family for the anguish this has caused them. To help rectify this situation, insofar as it can be, I will preside at a Mass for the family, in memory of John, at the Immaculata. In consideration for the family, I will not be available for any further public statements on this matter."

THE GIANNA CLINIC, which Culture of Life Family Services planned to operate at Our Lady of the Rosary in Little Italy, will not be opening after all. Although the parish had donated 1200 square feet to the prospective center over a year ago, and despite pastor Father Steven Grancini's comment that helping start the center would be their "contribution to saving lives," plans ended recently when the parish voiced its reluctance to have a family practice medical office in operation on the church grounds. Culture of Life's mission is to offer free care to women in crisis pregnancies while operating a full-service family medical practice at the same facility. The prospect of a full-time medical office operating on the church grounds proved daunting for the small parish.

Another hindrance to the establishment of the Gianna clinic at Our Lady of the Rosary was the lack of resources on hand. "The facility couldn't be opened as quickly as we would have liked," said Marya Jauregui, one of the organization's directors, "given the donations and volunteer labor that we had."

Despite the disappointment in Little Italy, however, Culture of Life recently opened a 1900-square-foot clinic in Hillcrest and plans to open their Escondido clinic in June. The organization will welcome a new family practitioner to the staff when they are joined in June by Dr. George Delgado who is relocating from Benicia in northern California.

BIRTHLINE marked its twenty-fifth anniversary with a dinner held at All Hallows Catholic Church on Scenic Drive in La Jolla on February 25. The crisis pregnancy support organization was founded in 1980 by Catherine Ewers.

A meal of macadamia chicken, shrimp scampi, Mediterranean vegetables, and raspberry vinaigrette salad was served to a group of seventy. According to Eileen Caroa, the director of the organization, it was a small turnout compared to their twentieth anniversary dinner five years ago. She said the event was hard to pull together due to difficulties and distractions such as the demands of setting up a new support center, illness among staff members, and fallback from speakers. She was quick to add, however the conversation among those present was lively and earnest, and people seemed reluctant to end the evening.

Carroa gave the address, talking about her vision for the future of Birthline. "We want to go into an area, spread the word about who are, bring in volunteers, and elevate young women," she said. "We want to educate them to love and forgive."

The organization currently operates centers in Chula Vista and Clairemont Mesa and plans to open a new center on Market Street in downtown San Diego within the next two months.

THE MOUNT SOLEDAD CROSS and its defenders may be out of options. On March 8, the San Diego city council voted not to transfer the Mount Soledad Cross and its surrounding land to the federal government on Tuesday, apparently quashing the last hope of San Diegans seeking to save the cross. But attorney Teresa Mendoza of the Thomas More Law Center, insists that there is still hope to keep the cross up.

Mendoza believes the motivation behind the city council's vote was ending the anti-cross lawsuit brought against the city in 1989 by atheist anti-cross zealot, Philip Paulson. "The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found the last sale of the cross and its property to the Mount Soledad Memorial Association to be invalid under the California constitution," Mendoza explains. "But last summer a lot of activists who support the cross persuaded the city council to put a proposition on the November ballot, Proposition K, which offered the property for sale in a bidding process that would be structured not to incur the same constitutional violation found in the last sale. Unfortunately, it didn't pass ... and the city had said that if Proposition K didn't pass they would enter into a settlement [part of which] included taking down the cross. Even though they were presented this other option of letting the feds handle it they are going to proceed with entering into a settlement and taking the cross down. The attorney for Paulsen is really pushing to get this done ASAP, because he knows there is so much strong, organized support for the cross that if he doesn't do it really quickly, something is going to happen."

Mendoza adds, "We are looking into ways to prevent the city and the memorial association from entering into a settlement with Paulsen at this time. And we're finding ways to get the city council to reconsider their vote, or to put something on a ballot in a special election to get the citizens to vote on whether or not to donate the property."

Mendoza says that postponing the settlement is a stop-gap solution for saving the cross. "A more permanent solution would be to find a way for the citizens to vote to transfer the property or have the city council change their minds," Mendoza explains. "Congressmen Cunningham and Hunter are also looking into options that the federal government might take to preserve the memorial without the city council's help. I would normally be less optimistic than I am, but Mr. Paulsen has been trying to take down the cross since 1989 and there has always turned out to be a way to keep it up."

The cross may also be saved if a petition drive currently underway can collect the 33,610 signatures needed to force a special election on the matter by April 7. Leading the charge on the drive are KOGO talk radio hosts Mark Larson and Roger Hedgecock.

ASSISTED SUICIDE and assembly bill AB 654, which would implement an Oregon-style legal euthanasia in California, were the topics of a forum held at the Natural History Museum in Balboa Park on February 22.

"By far, the biggest pressure my patients face for hastening their death comes — at least 50 to 1 — from their families," said Dr. Charles von Gunten, medical director for the Center for Palliative Studies, San Diego Hospice, one of three panelists at the evening forum. "Families want to know why mom is just lying there and they see no point to keeping her alive if she is not very functional. It's very mechanistic view."

Dr. von Gunten is opposed to the recently introduced California state assembly bill AB 654 "Compassionate Choice Act" which was introduced on February 17, 2005 by Assemblywoman Patty Berg (D-Santa Rosa) and Assemblyman Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys). The bill would give doctors the power to prescribe lethal drug doses to patients.

Rita Marker, J. D., director of the International Task Force on Euthanasia & Assisted Suicide and another panelist at the forum, outlined the many pitfalls of the Oregon law. For example, she pointed out that inequality in health care already victimizes the poor who can't afford health care. "Doctors and insurance providers," she warned, "may suggest assisted suicide to ill patients as an inexpensive option."

Marker pointed out that the bill lacks safeguards for patients with mental illness or depression, that the voluntary reporting by doctors who prescribe the lethal doses allows for distortion of the facts, and no penalties are in place for doctors who don't report.

The third panelist, Faye Girsh, Ph.D., of the Final Exit Network, an assisted suicide advocacy group, retorted, "Everything always sounds spooky when Rita Marker talks."

Arguing that AB 654 is a very "modest proposal," Dr. Girsh went on to state that eight years of data from Oregon has proved assisted suicide to be working very well, despite the constant efforts from the opposition to "scare us about the dire consequences of giving us our freedoms".

During a question-and-answer segment, Dr. von Gunten was asked by one attendee (who identified himself as a psychiatrist) how to justify the care and treatment of the thousands of patients with Alzheimer's who "waste away for years and years lying in a fetal position with seizures," and by another, "Why not let quadriplegics end their miserable lives?"

Dr. von Gunten explained that Alzheimer's patients are usually cared for in nursing facilities are usually not suffering. "In reality, it is family and loved ones who are uncomfortable with the condition of the Alzheimer's patient," he said.

"Isn't it interesting," added Marker, "that when we began this discussion, the focus for assisted suicide was on terminally ill patients with less than six months to live? Now we are discussing the value of life for an Alzheimer's patient or quadriplegic."

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