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Contents © 1999
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

LETTERS
FEBRUARY 1999

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KOLBE CORRECTION

Thank you for the series on small private Catholic schools [see "Authentic Catholic Schools", December, and the conclusion, January]. It provided a look into a growing movement in education here in California and elsewhere. Allow me to take this opportunity to correct the article about our school, Kolbe Academy. The opening sentence in the article began, "In 1981, Fran Crotty opened Kolbe Academy..." This is incorrect. There were three families that opened the school, Vincent and Lucille Cortese, Jerry and Diane Murth, and my wife, Margie, and I.

The Cortese family moved to Southern California early in the history of Kolbe. The Muth and Cortese families are every bit as responsible for the "opening" of our school as we were. There were some high-powered personalities in this early triumvirate. Jerry Muth was Vice President at Dillingham Corporation in charge of the tax division, and Vince Cortese was president of a large hardwood supply company.

But most importantly, whatever place we have had in this effort, the real credit for whatever success we have had goes to the Holy Spirit.

Fran Crotty
Kolbe Academy, Napa


Editor's note: the following exchange of letters took place in late December:

THE INVITATION

Dear Msgr. Kavanaugh:

Governor-elect Gray Davis and Mrs. Sharon Davis would be honored if you would join them at an Ecumenical Service on Sunday, January 3, 1999 at 10:30 a.m. This special service will be held in the Ballroom of the Sacramento Convention Center. Seating and pre-ceremony gather will begin at 10:00 a.m.

Governor-elect and Mrs. Davis have chosen to begin the inauguration of California's Thirty-Seventh Governor with a special convocation on faith and community. They hope you will be able to join them in prayer and celebrate this special time in California's history. If you are able to attend we would be pleased if you would participate in the entrance processional.

If you would like to attend and participate in the Ecumenical service please respond by calling Mark Gaughan at (916) 329-9176 ext. 39 and provide us with your name and church or temple representation.

Shalom,

Rabbi Brad L. Bloom
President, Sacramento Interfaith
Service Bureau


THE RESPONSE

Dear Rabbi Bloom:

Your invitation of December 24th to attend an inaugural event on Sunday morning, January 3, 1999, for Governor-elect Gray Davis causes me profound distress and grave insult.

Surely you must know that Gray Davis is an outspoken, militant champion of violence-- the most cold-blooded violence of killing preborn and partially-born human beings. He incessantly and obsessively proclaimed his commitment to unrestricted and taxpayer-funded abortion on demand in his TV commercials, debates, campaign position statements and even on his Internet campaign site. He would force every California taxpayer, including all the Catholic bishops, priests and lay people to be his fiscal accomplices in payments to abortionists for over 100, 000 Medi-Cal abortions per year (out of about 300,000 to 400,000 abortions per year in California).

Just this Tuesday, December 29, on page A3 of the Sacramento Bee, it was announced that Gray Davis had appointed the militantly pro-abortion Susan Kennedy, who had served for six years as the executive director of the California Abortion Rights Action League (CARAL), to "direct his Cabinet" and "serve as a close Davis adviser, organizing Cabinet meetings and acting as liaison between the governor and agency secretaries." A more extreme and profound empowerment of the abortion movement in the Davis regime can hardly be imagined.

To presume that any true Catholic, and in particular, a Catholic priest and pastor, would violate the moral teachings of the Catholic Faith and the very moral foundation of human rights, and would betray and scandalize the faithful by attending a political function dedicated to a leader of the American Holocaust, is mind-boggling. Any Catholic priest and pastor who would publicly give honor and affirmation to Gray Davis would be subject to severe penalties and would rightfully expect the just denunciation and harsh censure of not only Catholics, but all who defend the right to life.

While I would never remotely consider attending any anti-Semitic, anti-life political event, I would find it more outrageous to invite you and any other rabbi, priest, minister, pastor, or religious leader to attend such an event. How is it that you so casually do so not only with me but presumably with many, or even all, other priests in the Sacramento area or diocese?

As you must also know, our Sacramento Bishop William K. Wiegand has spoken firmly and often against the killing of innocent human beings and we fully support him in this. Gray Davis and his inaugural committee were denied the use of the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament for this event (Sacramento Bee, November 25, 1998, page A4). Rightly so! We also applaud the five Catholics who wrote letters to the editor clearly explaining why Gray Davis was rightfully being denied use of the Cathedral (Sacramento Bee, Sunday, December 13, 1998, Forum 4).

It reminds me of the actions of Pope Pius XI when Adolph Hitler, the recognized leader of Germany, visited Rome in 1938, before World War II, and before Hitler was so widely recognized as a genocidal monster. Pius XI ordered all the Vatican museums with their art treasures to be closed during Mr. Hitler's visit, to deny him any opportunity for an appearance or semblance (Photo "ops" and the like) of approval or acceptance. In fact, the Pope referred to Hitler as "the Nordic pest" and to further shun and snub Hitler, the Pope left Rome.

Recently Pope John Paul II issued an encyclical letter, "The Gospel of Life." This was affirmed in November by the Catholic bishops of the United States in a statement entitled "Living the Gospel of Life: A Challenge to American Catholics." It stated: "excommunication affects all those who commit this crime (of abortion) with knowledge of the penalty attached, and thus includes those accomplices without whose help the crime would not have been committed. The purpose of the penalty... is to make an individual fully aware of the gravity of a certain sin and then to foster genuine conversion and repentance."

Certainly those politicians like Gray Davis who not only proclaim a universal right to abortion but demand that taxpayers be fiscal accomplices in the abortion Holocaust are responsible for the fact that California now has an abortion rate twice the rest of the nation, almost one-quarter of all abortions in the United States being committed in California. It is clear that Gray Davis, by promoting what the Pope has called the "Culture of Death" and demanding taxpayers' money for abortions, has brought on himself automatic excommunication from the Catholic Church.

In California, abortion has a strong racial, genocidal aspect. Abortion mills are disproportionately located in poor and Latino areas of cities, expecially in Los Angeles (one need only consult telephone yellow pages ads and onther promotions to see this), and marketed in the Spanish language to prey upon young, poor, and undocumented women, especially Catholic latinas and blacks, with Medi-Cal funding providing a strong financial incentive for the greedy mill operators.

I must ask you to reconsider your role in promoting Gray Davis's political inaugural event and to immediately send out a letter of regret to all the Catholic priests and pastors whom you have invited and encouraged to attend this travesty.

Sincerely,

Monsignor Edward J. Kavanaugh
St. Rose Catholic Church
Sacramento

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