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Contents © 2003
by Jim Holman.
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NEWS
JANUARY 2003

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"HOW COULD A RABIDLY ANTI-CATHOLIC GOVERNOR glide to an easy win among Catholic voters?" was the sub-headline of a November 21 article in the California Political Review. The facts are ugly: Grey Davis won Catholics 53 to 39 percent against Bill Simon, whereas Simon beat Davis among non-Catholic Christians by 55 to 35 percent. The crucial paragraphs: "that Davis won the Catholic vote -- by a 14-point margin, no less -- shows a dereliction of duty by the state's bishops. Far from challenging Davis's anti-Catholicism, many bishops and priests fawned over him like star-struck teenagers. He's frequently seen yukking it up with California's highest-ranking Catholic cleric, Cardinal Roger Mahony, or bear-hugging the pastor of his home parish, Beverly hills' Good Shepherd Church, after Mass."


ONE SMALL LIGHT. On November 22, Jack Smith, in the archdiocesan paper, Catholic San Francisco, pointed out that "the candidate with the strongest and most public pro-life record, Republican state senator Tom McClintock, won significantly more votes than any other statewide Republican candidate: 100,000 more that the next highest vote-getter, pro-life candidate for governor, Bill Simon; 175,000 more than pro-abortion Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, Bruce McPherson; and 350,000 more than pro-abortion Republican candidate for treasurer, Greg Conlon."


AN EDITORIAL, "Politics and the Church," in the November 8 Catholic San Francisco, noted that the "age-old dilemma of the Church's role in politics" -- that no political party fully expresses the Church's vision of man and society -- is far more acute today since Americans disagree on "fundamental human values." Catholics and "other people of faith," said the editorial, believe that human life is sacred and that "our God is the lord of life, who gives and takes away." Many Americans, however, "do not believe human life is sacred -- not because they are bad but because, not believing in God, they don't believe anything is sacred. They believe that human beings are not fashioned by God but accidents in a mindless chain reaction; we come from nowhere in particular and are going nowhere. In this view, men and women are masters of their fates. They, not God, determine when and how life begins, when and how it ends."

To change politics, said the editorial, we must first change human hearts. We must "convince our fellow Americans that human life is sacred, that the destruction of human life in the laboratory and in the old people's home can never be justified, no matter how much it seems to contribute to scientific progress, no matter how much it may seem to relieve human suffering." Not only this, but we must convince Americans "that the use of weapons of mass destruction, weapons that inevitably kill the innocent as well as the guilty, can never be justified, no matter how noble the cause may seem."


THE U.S. BISHOPS at their November meeting discussed the possibility of a future plenary council for the Catholic Church in the United States, but decided that they would discuss the matter during their meetings in the June of 2003 and the summer of 2004, said a November 16 Los Angeles Times report. A plenary council is the most solemn and authoritative way the bishops of a region can discuss problems in their churches and issue decrees governing them. The last plenary council in the United States was held in 1884.

Archbishop Daniel Buechlein, who chairs the ad hoc committee studying the matter, said, that if the bishops approve the plenary council, it would not be held until 2005 or 2006. The American bishops, said Buechlein, are "all over the lot" on fundamental ecclesiastical issues, but thought it would be valuable if they "look at the identity and role of bishops and priests."

In July, eight American bishops issued a letter suggesting that the subject of a plenary council be discussed by the bishops at their November meeting. The bishops requesting the synod represented a wide spectrum of opinion in the American Church.


"COME AND BE RENEWED in spirit mind and body" [sic], invites the website of the Mercy Center in Auburn (diocese of Sacramento). The center, run by the Sisters of Mercy, calls itself "a place apart ... where beauty, tranquility and hospitality create sacred space for spiritual renewal and provide the setting for meaningful reflection, dialogue and learning."

Among the programs the Mercy Center offers is the "On Going Series" which features T'ai Chi Chih classes, taught by Sister Corita Keene; a retreat series called "Crisis and Contemplation," which focuses on this subject "in the lives of Augustine, Ignatius of Loyola and Teresa of Avila," and a "Scripture in Depth" series, led by Deacon "Red" Cheever." This last series is a "course of study" that takes "the Holy Bible to be the "'revelatory text,'" and which involves the practice of hermeneutics -- "which, simply stated, means to understand the Biblical text critically and faithfully, and then to apply God's Word to today's world of challenge and opportunity." The "Scripture in Depth" series, which began in October of this year and will run into April of 2003, "will explore the on-going dialogue between Christianity, Buddhism and psychology."

Another series in the "On Going Series" are the Oasis Days, held the fourth Tuesday of every month. The Oasis Day for January 28, 2003, will feature "Proems and Prose for Your Audience of One," led by Dan Maust, who earned a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Chicago and who has spent "over 15 years in spiritual direction and outreach ministries on university campuses in the United States and Europe." According to the series description, participants in this program will learn "how to write 'proems/' (yes, proems), prose and haiku expressions that will enrich your enjoyment of the past, present and future. These simple means of accessing your heart and your mind may lead to some surprising and delightful discoveries. Through this form of writing, you will be able to more richly celebrate the experiences and epiphanies of your spiritual life as well as the events and sights happening around you each day." Would-be participants are invited to "let the right side of your brain rule for a day, and through this process of release discover more deeply the ever-present reality of God in unexpected ways along your journey."


PROSECUTORS IN FRESNO AND KERN COUNTIES say they will not press charges against a priest accused of sexually molesting a former altar boy, said a November 13 Fresno Bee report. Army Special Forces sergeant, Juan Rocha, 27, accused Father Eric Swearingen, pastor of Holy Spirit church in Fresno, of abusing him from 1985 to 1989 while Swearingen was at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Bakersfield and St. Alphonsus church in Fresno. The Fresno County district attorney's office, however, said it has found no evidence to support Rocha's allegations. Rocha's attorney, however, said that the district attorney's opinion will not affect Rocha's civil case against the priest.

The October 4 Fresno Bee reported that Bishop John Steinbock of Fresno had said the allegations against Father Swearingen were "not credible." Though Steinbock had reported the allegations against the priest to the authorities, he said he would not suspend Swearingen unless he received evidence of his wrongdoing.


"BEHIND THOSE NUMBERS is a great deal of human suffering and also heroic efforts on the part of care providers," said University of California, Davis, environmental design professor Dean MacCannell of a survey of homeless people in Placer County. MacCannell reviewed the survey, which showed that the county has 405 homeless persons (208, men, 109, women), including 99 children. The population of Placer County in 2000 was 248,399.

MacCannell told the November 10 Sacramento Bee that while "it's true that many of the people we talked to have been victimized by their own bad decisions. others have been victimized by other people and by mental illness. Anyone who is homeless faces a huge battle to try and build a semblance of a normal life." About half of the homeless live in shelters provided by public funds or private charity. Of those who lived "on the streets," 43 percent had refused assistance because of the rules enforced at shelters. According to the report, 90 percent had alcohol related problems either presently or in the past. Most had not held down jobs or had had "very low-paying, menial jobs," but some had had such positions as airline pilot, grammar school teacher, and legal secretary, while others had worked in the high tech industry.

Deacon Bill Boudier of St. Rose Catholic Church in Roseville told the Bee that he was pleased with the report. "In the past," said Boudier, "the problem of homelessness has often been treated as a police matter -- more concerned about having sworn officers take care of the homeless when they seem to be in the way and a problem."


TWO WOMEN, formerly parishioners at St. Bede's in Hayward, have alleged that former St. Bede's pastor, Monsignor George J. Francis, sexually abused them when they were children, said a November 16 Oakland Tribune story. Monsignor Francis served at St. Francis from 1957 to 1988. He died in 1998. One of Monsignor Francis' accusers, Jennifer Chapin, claims that the priest began molesting her in 1979, when she was five years old, and continued molesting her for three years. Chapin filed a lawsuit in Alameda County Superior Court on November 14 against the diocese of Oakland and other members of the clergy. The other woman accuser, Terrie Light, said that Monsignor Francis began abusing her in 1959, when she was seven. This is not the first time Light has made these accusations. In 1998 she held an "informational picket" before Sunday Mass at St. Bede's.

Sister Barbara Flannery of the diocese of Oakland told the Tribune that four or five people have come forward, either publicly or privately, to accuse Monsignor Francis of molestation. "The people who have come forward and accused Monsignor Francis," said Sister Barbara, "have no connection to each other, and their stories are very similar.We have no reason to disbelieve them."


A FORMER FREMONT PRIEST who called himself the "Pied Piper of the neighborhood," is expected in court in Alameda County on January 23 to see if he will stand trial for new allegations of molestation, said a November 15 Oakland Tribune story. Already charged with 13 counts of child molestation, Stephen Kiesle, 55, faces two additional charges of molestation. One charge stems from a woman who claims she was molested by Kiesle at Our Lady of the Rosary church in Union City when she was about 11 years old, in 1975 and 1976. Other charges of molestation against Kiesle stem from his time at Santa Paula church in Fremont (1968-1972) and at St. Joseph's church in Pinole in the mid-'70s. One of these involves a man who said Kiesle fondled him in St. Joseph's rectory in 1976. Besides these, Kiesle faces two counts of having molested a girl in Truckee. Kiesle has pleaded innocent to all charges.

The diocese of Oakland defrocked Kielse in 1978 after he was convicted for having molested two boys at Our Lady of the Rosary, for which he was sentenced to three years probation. Kiesle married and moved to Pinole. After his probation, he petitioned the court to expunge his conviction, and a judge complied. In investigating the latest accusations, police have learned that Kiesle lived only a few blocks from seven-year-old Amber Swartz, who disappeared from her home in Pinole in 1988. Police from Fremont, Pinole and Truckee have searched Kiesle's Truckee vacation home for Swartz's remains, using a cadaver dog to dig up the yard, but have found nothing.


FORMER DOMINICAN MATTHEW FOX, whom the Vatican silenced in 1989 for his "creation spirituality" and who, subsequently, in 1993, left the priesthood and the Catholic Church to become an Episcopalian priest, has found a "new ministry," according to the November 16 Sacramento Bee. "Techno cosmic mass" is what Fox calls the ritual over which he presides at Historic Sweet' s ballroom at 19th Street and Broadway in Oakland. The techno cosmic mass, said the Bee, combines the dance culture of "raves" with the Christian liturgy. "I feel that ritual is very important," Fox told the newspaper, "so we're deconstructing the liturgy. We're trying to show people that you don't have to take the drug Ecstasy to get high. If we do liturgy right, it gives the transcendence people are looking for in drugs."

According to the techno cosmic mass website, the "techno" in the name refers to "the sacred use of technology in our worship"; the "cosmic" to "cosmology, the sacred connection of all creation." Mass, to "an ancestral form of ritual." The techno cosmic mass, according to the website, has a certain "flow": a "Via Positiva: Gathering, invocation, Sharing our Story, Praise Dance;" a "Via Negativa: Contemplation, Community Lamentation, Silence;" a "Via Creativa: Community Breathe, Sharing of the Peace, Eucharist;" and a "Via Transformativa: Warrior Dance, Devocation, Co-missioning."

Among what are called the "qualities" of the techno cosmic mass are: "Ancestral Roots: Deconstructing and reconstructing the traditional ritual of the mass;" and the use of the body: "the TCM brings the body back to worship; trance dance is the primary form of prayer." The ritual works to break down religious, gender and other distinctions, including hierarchical ones. One of its qualities is "deconstructing priesthood," with "the Posse, not just an ordained individual, as Priest."


ONLY IN THE BAY AREA? The Historic Sweet's ballroom, an art deco dance hall built in the 1920s, is "the permanent home of Friends of Creation Spirituality, Inc.," according to the techno cosmic mass website. The 12,000 square foot ballroom, which can accommodate 999 people, was "one of the best-known ballrooms in the country during the big band era," said the web site, and "hosted such pop lights as Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington, Tommy Dorsey and others. It will now house other "lights," according to the website, by providing "a dramatic, inspirational environment for a variety of multiracial, interfaith organizations."

The ballroom, slated for demolition by the city of Oakland, was saved by Friends of Creation Spirituality president, Matthew Fox. Fox, according to the website, "put a $50,000 down payment (from the equity on his house) on the ballroom property," in order "to save the historic value and to encourage community events in downtown Oakland." Though BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) wanted the property for its corporate headquarters, Friends of Creation Spirituality was able to obtain it. "We got the property," noted the website; "don't ask us how."


SEEKING WHOM HE MAY DEVOUR? Though featuring Matthew Fox's new ballroom "ministry," the November 16 Bee article was mostly concerned with the creation spirituality guru's new book, Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet. The book, it seems, is vintage Matthew Fox, referring to God as mother and agog over the wows of the universe. "Science really helps to flesh out the idea of God as creator," Fox told the Bee. "The universe began smaller than a zygote, and is growing as an organism to huge proportions. The systems of the Earth are so intelligent, so interconnected, that it took a mind to make it happen. But we need a new vocabulary to wrestle with these concepts."

But of more interest to Catholics is another book Fox will have published next year. Titled, Letters to My Catholic Brothers and Sisters, this book seems to be an attempt to capitalize on the priest molestation crisis in the Church. "There's a lot of upset in the Catholic Church right now," Fox told the Bee. "I get a lot of letters from Catholics who are upset, from a 90-year-old nun to a 24-year-old seminarian. People need to speak out, express their grief." In his book, Fox will answer the letters he has received from disgruntled Catholics.


WE CAN LEARN A LESSON from European America's despoliation of Indian people' s land and culture, wrote Christine Cipperly in the November 20 Sacramento Bee. Cipperly is coordinator of Respect Life Ministries for the diocese of Sacramento. Writing in response to the Bee's November 12 editorial, "'Dirty Words,' Bush stoops to appease anti-abortion zealots," Cipperly wrote that "if the lesson we seek to learn from this history is to avoid cultural imperialism, we are not learning our lesson well." Unlike our ancestors, who worked "to convert the natives to Christianity," Westerners, today, said Cipperly "are attempting to impose our attitudes toward family size, sexual behavior and gender roles on all peoples of the Third World.. The prevailing attitude that we are right in our beliefs, and that the poor women in other cultures need our rescue is no less passionate -- and no less myopic -- than that of any missionary."

Among the claims advanced by modern Western "missionaries," wrote Cipperly, is that contraception and abortion save the lives of Third World women, since they have a higher rate of death than Western women from pregnancy and childbirth. "Such an assertion is ludicrous," declared Cipperly. "These women die because they do not have access to appropriate medical care. Abortion and contraception do not save lives. Antibiotics, vaccines, nutritious food and sustainable employment do."

It is "hubris" and "elitism," wrote Cipperly, for Americans to say that the people of the Third World need to reduce their populations, since Americans "consume 600 times more of the world's resources than the average Third-World poor person does." In most countries, children, said Cipperly, are seen as a blessing. For every nation, "people and families are every nation's most valuable resource" -- a fact underscored by the shrinking populations of Europe and Japan. "Americans concerned about human rights and human dignity," declared Cipperly, "must forcefully challenge those who seek to eliminate poverty by eliminating the poor." Modern efforts "to eliminate poverty by promoting contraception, sterilization and abortion may one day be seen as the 21st century's version of handing out smallpox-infected blankets."


"THE BISHOPS OF THE UNITED STATES continue to affirm that the posture is standing for those coming forward in procession to receive the Body and Blood of Christ," noted an article by Notre Dame sister Sharon McMillan in the November 8 Catholic San Francisco. According to Sister Sharon, assistant professor of sacramental theology and liturgy at St. Patrick's seminary in Menlo Park, this posture is nothing new. What is new, she said, is that when "we approach the priest, deacon, or communion minister who offers us the Body or the Blood of Christ, we are asked to bow our head as a gesture of reverence before the Lord truly present in this sacrament. We bow our heads first, then we are offered the Body or Blood of Christ and we answer 'Amen.' It remains the choice of each communicant to receive the consecrated host in the hand or on the tongue. What a tremendous privilege is ours to be called to the Supper of the Lord to eat his Body and drink his Blood as he commanded," wrote Sister Sharon. 'We are now invited to add another act of reverence to this participation in Holy Communion."

Sister Sharon did not say whether those whose custom it has been to receive communion kneeling may continue to do so. According to the October 2002 issue of Adoremus, the American adaptation of the General Instruction on the Roman Missal says that, though, the "norm" in the United States for receiving communion is standing, people "should not be denied Holy Communion because they kneel," but that they "should be addressed pastorally, by providing the faithful with the proper catechesis on the reasons for this norm."


ABOUT 2,500 PEOPLE, paying $60 a pop, crowded into Memorial Auditiorium in Sacramento on November 14, for a two-day retreat with Croatian priest, Father Zlatko Sudac. Many pushed to the front of the auditorium, said the November 16 Sacramento Bee, to get a good look at Father Sudac who, report has it, bears the stigmata -- the wounds of Our Lord. Father Sudac has been touring about the country.

The 31-year-old Sudac, who was ordained in 1998 and incardinated in the diocese of Krk (an island off the coast of Croatia), said he received a mark on his forehead -- an inch-long, cross-shaped indentation -- in May 1999, according to the Bee. According to Medjugorje magazine, Sudac has said that the mark "doesn't hurt me, except when I am in prayer, and then I feel it pulsing." On First Fridays and at certain other times, the wound is said to "bleed and leak as though it is crying." A year after receiving this mark, Sudac allegedly received other marks in his wrists, feet, and side. Sudac also claims he has the gift of speaking in tongues, prophesying, and bilocation.

Those who came to see Sudac's alleged stigmata were, however, disappointed. He covers his marks by order of his bishop. The message of the priest, who, according to the Bee, with his long brown hair, looks to many as how they envision Jesus, was one "of love and hope. He spoke passionately about Christ and following him."

Sudac is connected with the alleged apparitions of Mary and Medjugorje -- about which the Yugoslavian bishops' conference in 1991 declared, "on the basis of investigation up till now it cannot be established that one is dealing with supernatural apparitions or revelations." Father Sudac came to Sacramento at the invitation of Fiat Voluntas Tua, a travel agency that organizes trips to Medjugorje.

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