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Contents © 2005
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

LITTLE NOTES
July/August 2005

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Francis is a member of St. Vincent de Paul Management Inc., the board which manages Fr. Joe's Villages' food, shelter and medical programs. Francis may have better name recognition in the homosexual community, since Nicole Murray-Ramirez, a writer for the Gay and Lesbian Times reported in his May 19th column that he met with Francis at Mr. A's to discuss his candidacy. In his column, Ramirez praised Francis as a "progressive." This may be due in part to the activities of Francis' wife, Gayle, who was a co-producer with the Araca Group of The Laramie Project, the play depicting Matthew Shepard as a gay martyr. (Among the Araca Group's other artistic triumphs was a XXX stage rendition of Debbie Does Dallas and the musical comedy Urinetown.) Mrs. Francis joined Toni Atkins and Bonnie Dumanis as a VIP guest at Ramirez' Nicky Awards on May 19, where they watched porn producers All Worlds Video receive an award for Best Adult Business and The Eagle named as Best Leather/Levis Bar. Mrs. Francis has also served on the board of the La Jolla Playhouse, where she was closely associated with supporters of Planned Parenthood.

Apparently, Fr. Carroll isn't troubled by Francis or his wife's connections. In a phone conversation with ex-Gay Christian activist, James Hartline, Fr. Carroll said that he would be campaigning for Francis and that he thought Francis would make a great mayor. When Hartline told Fr. Carroll about Francis' associations with homosexual activists, pornographers, and abortion providers, Fr. Carroll said that he "didn't know any of that to be true." When Hartline asked Fr. Carroll how he could support such a candidate, Fr. Carroll replied, "What his wife does is irrelevant to him being a good mayor." When Hartline countered that what people do behind closed doors will ultimately affect what they do in public, Fr. Carroll said, "I don't agree with that."

HELL WASN'T AVAILABLE. So mayoral candidates Steve Francis, Jerry Sanders, Donna Frye, Jim Bell, Shawn McMillan, Richard Rider, and Pat Shea settled for the Hillcrest Gay and Lesbian Center, Friday June 17 for a forum. The center, which received nearly two million dollars tax payer money last fiscal year, is known to be the nerve center of the gay agenda in San Diego. When not hosting political roundtables, the center hosts such wholesome events as leather/bondage get-togethers, mixers for HIV positive men, book signings for gay porn stars, monthly meetings of the Cunning Linguists lesbian women's book club, weekly men's coming out groups, a Mr. and Mrs. Gay Teen San Diego pageant, and support group meetings for "transgender questioning" youth. Other than you, the taxpayer, sponsors for the Center include All Words Video, one of the biggest gay pornography companies in the world; Bourbon Street, the gay club formerly owned by the late John McCusker, Club San Diego, a gay sex club, the Imperial Court drag queen review run by Nicole Murray Ramirez, and the Vulcan Steam and Bath gay bathhouse.

PRO-ABORTION FORCES have long been backing away from the very word abortion. Hence, the moniker "Pro-Choice" and the focus on "women's rights." Earlier this year the National Abortion Right Action League changed its name to NARAL Pro Choice America. But now, some anti-life forces are reaching the ridiculous extreme of borrowing pro-life language for their pro-death propaganda. World Net Daily columnist, Jill Stanek, offered this example from the Ayn Rand Institute in her June 9 column. "The enemies of embryonic stem-cell research ... are brazenly willing to force countless human beings to suffer and die for lack of treatments, so that clusters of cells remain untouched. To call such a stance "pro-life" is beyond absurd. Their allegiance is not to human life or to human rights, but to their anti-life dogma.... In the name of the actual sanctity of human life and the inviolability of rights, embryonic stem-cell research must be allowed to proceed unimpeded. Our lives may depend on it." (Italics added.)

And, in a recent 85-page report on Argentina's legal ban on abortion and restrictions on contraceptives, in a section titled The Right to Life, the pro-abortion civil rights group Human Rights Watch stated, "The right to life is guaranteed by all major international and regional human rights treaties. Restrictive abortion laws have a devastating impact on women's right to life."

ATTENDANCE AT SAINT EPHREM'S Third Annual Mariam Mother of Life Festival grew for the second straight year. Father Nabil Mouannes, pastor, estimated this year's attendance at over 1,000, compared to about 800 in the previous year. "I was surprised; I saw visitors from all the communities," Father Mouannes commented. Highlights of this year's festival were the arrival of the Mariam Mother of Life Shrine's permanent statue from Lebanon in mid-May, the visit of Monsignor Mansour Labake, and a special Mass held to give thanks to America. The festival was held on Saturday, May 28 and Sunday, May 29, Memorial Day weekend.

On Saturday evening, a Tauditho Mass was celebrated by Father Mouannes and Monsignor Labake. Tauditho means thanksgiving in Aramaic, and the intention of the Mass was to thank America for its role in recent political changes in Lebanon.

"President Bush was firm and determined and that's why [the Syrians] left [Lebanon]," Father Mouannes commented. "We thought it was a miracle, and the one who has done the miracle is President Bush."

Parliamentary elections are now being held in Lebanon, and Father Mouannes commented, "Many Christian candidates are winning in the elections; there are positive things happening and they are going to continue."

Father Mouannes hopes to make the Tauditho Mass an annual tradition to thank America for what it has done for Lebanon and for Lebanese immigrants to the U.S.

The homily at the Tauditho Mass was given by Monsignor Labake, renowned in Maronite circles worldwide for his composition of most contemporary Maronite hymns, his leading role in a Lebanese Catholic television network, and his establishment of a village for Lebanese children orphaned by war. He congratulated Saint Ephrem's on its shrine and reminded the congregation that Maronites are a Marian community. Monsignor Labake attributed the survival and resilience of the Maronite community throughout the Middle East's tumultuous history, including the last 30 years of Syrian occupation, to Mary's maternal protection. At Father Mouannes' request, he composed a hymn for the shrine, which he presented at a separate festival event. At the Tauditho Mass two converts to Christianity were baptized.

The new shrine statue, about 26 feet high, was specially sculpted from a single block of stone in Lebanon, shipped in three pieces and shipped to Saint Ephrem's in three pieces. Like the shrine's temporary statue, the Blessed Mother is depicted holding Jesus, but the permanent statue features Jesus as a child, rather than an infant, with a visible heart circled by a crown of thorns. The new statue is also distinctive for the way in which Mary appears to be presenting Him to the world, and the Christ Child in turn has His arms outstretched toward the world. Father Mouannes pointed out additional interesting features of the permanent statue: "As we approach the shrine from a distance, the Virgin Mary appears to be looking off in the distance. As we get very close to the shrine, we discover that Jesus is looking at us and we no longer see her; we see only Jesus.... And Jesus is on her left side, where her heart is, and from that we can understand that Jesus is in the heart of Mary and in the heart of Jesus we can see the heart of Mary."

Regarding Jesus being depicted as a young child, rather than a baby, Father Mouannes explained that this is analogous to a mother bird pushing her fledgling out of the nest to fly on its own, in that Mary pushes her Son toward His people and reminds us of the wedding at Cana, at which she urged him to perform His first public miracle.

SPEAKING OF SAINT EPHREM'S, the Maronite parish will be hosting the National Association of Maronites' 42nd annual convention July 20-24. It will mark the first time the convention will be held in San Diego. Another first is that this convention will include Maronite bishops and laity from other countries in the Americas (including Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina) in addition to Maronite bishops in the U.S. Non-Maronites are welcome to attend the convention. Presentations will be given on "Mary, Mother of Faith," "Mary, Mother of Hope," "Mary, Mother of Fair Love," and "Mary, Queen of Heaven." Featured speakers are Catholic Answers apologist and Jewish convert Rosalind Moss, Father Mitch Pacwa of EWTN, and Maronite Catholic apologist Naji Mouawad who leads a weekly Bible study at Saint Ephrem's. Advance reservations are recommended, but if space permits, attendees can pay $25 at the door for a package of five talks; the advance fee is $20. The convention will be held at the Town and Country Convention Center in Mission Valley, at 500 Hotel Circle North. For more information, call 619-337-1350 or visit www.stephrem.org.

BETWEEN 30 AND 40 CHRISTIAN ACTIVISTS gathered in Balboa Park on Saturday, May 14 to reach out to local youth being indoctrinated into the homosexual lifestyle at Gay Pride's 3rd annual Youth Event.

"The Hillcrest Mission," James Hartline reports, "and other affiliate ministries set up camp right next to the Gay Pride event for seven hours of evangelistic outreach. Despite coming under constant threats, name-calling and taunts by gay and lesbian activists, and pagan practitioners, the ministry teams stood their ground, refusing to be intimidated or deprived of their constitutional right to be present on the public park land.

"One of the primary reasons that the Christians were able to successfully defend their position in the park was the presence of a team of attorneys sent in by the Alliance Defense Fund ... one of the premier Religious Liberty organizations in the United States. Robert Tyler, one of California's top legal experts on constitutional law, as it relates to religious freedoms, has become a great friend to The Hillcrest Mission and its director James Hartline. With Robert's help, two outstanding Christian attorneys, Doug Edgar and Ken Dickson, also with the Alliance Defense Fund, drove all the way down from Temecula to spend the seven hours in the park with the ministry teams. The Alliance Defense Fund provided all of their legal services for free."

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