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Contents © 1999
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

NEWS
FEBRUARY 1999

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JESUIT-RUN ST. IGNATIUS CHURCH in San Francisco no longer "guarantees" daily confessions, according to a reliable source. "It is difficult to find a confession these days without Fr. Cornelius Buckley around," says the source, referring to the exiled Jesuit who now works in Michigan as a chaplain to Domino's founder Tom Monaghan. "I wanted to go to confession, but I was told that daily confessions are not available anymore. I thought it strange, given that St. Ignatius Church is next to a house full of priests. Don't they consider administering the sacraments a priority?"

A thin confession schedule isn't St. Ignatius Church's only problem, says another St. Ignatius Church patron. "The other day I was forced to receive the Eucharist in the hand. I clearly indicated to the lay eucharistic minister that I wanted to receive it on the tongue, which is my right according to canon law, but she refused to give it to me on the tongue."

Things weren't always so disappointing at St. Ignatius Church, according to historian Kevin Starr in The Dream Endures. In the 1930s and 1940s, the "Jesuits at St. Ignatius-- Kavanaugh, the poet Alexander Cody, the historian Peter Dunne, the bibliophile Richard Gleeson, the saintly Aloysius Stern-- specialized in preaching, confessions, and personalized spiritual direction in addition to their duties as professors and chaplains at the adjacent University of San Francisco. Priding themselves on being available to any caller twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, the Jesuits made a point of walking in the garden adjacent to the church while reading their breviaries, attired in black cassocks and birettas, figures from the Counter-Reformation, always there, always available."


THE SAN FRANCISCO ARCHDIOCESE will begin publishing a weekly newspaper in February. Catholic San Francisco will join The Tidings, the Los Angeles archdiocesan paper, as the second Catholic English-language weekly in the state. Its editor is Daniel Morris-Young, the former editor of the Oakland Catholic Voice and a humor columnist for the Catholic News Service. The free publication is projected to reach 100,000 Bay Area households.

"I hope the paper succeeds," says a San Francisco media professional. "Its name is a legitimate attempt to shore up the Catholic identity and I understand that Kevin Starr is involved with this paper somehow. That is heartening. I just hope that the paper doesn't pander to the Catholic left like The Tidings. Will Catholic San Francisco, like the Tidings, publish anti-papal priests like Fr. Richard McBrien and Fr. Andrew Greeley? I hope not. Will it pass off liberal political opinions as official Catholic teaching? I hope not. My hope is that it will promote papal orthodoxy, address, rather than overlook, heresy and error in the archdiocese, and instruct the faithful in the official doctrines of the Church. We don't need another one of these lame, glorified Church bulletins promoting anti-Roman American Catholicism."


"IT'S HER POLICY TO BE INVOLVED" was the head of a page-one story about California's new first lady on the front page of the January 4 San Diego Union-Tribune. Excerpts: "...The Davises share strong religious convictions. Although she was raised Episcopalian, Sharon Davis is credited with bringing her husband back to his Catholic roots. Even on the question of religion, there was a hint of pragmatism when the Davises decided which path to follow. They chose Catholicism for a variety of reasons, but what she talked the most about in the interview was that the services are more succinct. A Mass lasts about 45 minutes, she said, while an Episcopal service takes up about an hour and a half. Now, she said, the governor-elect makes sure that they never miss a weekly Mass."


THE JESUIT UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO'S Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender club held a "winter mixer" in December. Fr. William Dohar, a member of the university's campus ministry program, attended the event. The Faith asked Dohar to explain why a Catholic university would permit such a group. "Your question is laden with judgment," said Dohar. "I think these are people who are easily alienated." Asked if USF sponsors a chapter of Courage, an orthodox Catholic group for persons struggling with homosexual attraction, Dohar said no. USF does, however, have a group for college-age divorcees--New Wings.


SAN FRANCISCO'S LEGION OF MARY, an orthodox marian group, is thriving in the archdiocese of San Francisco, according to Father Lawrence Goode, its chaplain. Goode estimates that the group has presidiums in 25-30 parishes. Once largely European and American, its membership is now significantly Latino and Filippino. "They have been coming on with a vengeance," says Goode. "They like the idea of some kind of apostolate" and "they are very marian."

Spreading the gospel in the Tenderloin District, one of the toughtest neighborhoods in San Francisco, is one of the Legion's activities, says Goode. The group recites prayers, evangelizes, and distributes rosaries and miraculous medals to prostitutes, pimps, and the homeless. The group finds that its presence has a pacifying, even sanctifying effect, on members of the community. One distraught man gave Fr. Goode the bullets in his gun, saying, "I was just going to shoot somebody," but "I saw you praying." Another time a drugged-up prostitute gravitated to the collar-wearing Goode and asked him to "pray with her." Concludes Goode, "When Our Lady is down here, Our Lady disarms people."

Priests and lay Catholics interested in the Legion of Mary should call, (415)469-4836.


THE RONALD REAGAN LIBRARY in Simi Valley contains documents of interest to orthodox Catholics. Examples include: documents in which Reagan communications director Patrick Buchanan promotes the Wanderer newspaper, saying "It is de rigeur for traditionalist dissidents"; White House counselor David Gergen sounds a warning about the late Cardinal Joseph Bernadin, "One cautionary note: Archbishop Bernardin, chairman of the group drafting the anti-nuke pastoral letter, speaking to [the National Catholic Educational Association] on Tuesday and is receiving some award"; a vice president at Bechtel, Paul Cane, stresses to the White House that the "vocal priests, nuns and bishops do not speak for all Catholics" and reveals that he turned down an invitation to join the board of regents at St. Mary's in Moraga because of his distaste for the left-wing Catholicism of Archbishop Quinn and other American prelates; a letter from former Sacramento Bishop Francis Quinn to Reagan asking him, among other things, to "involve more women in Summit and negotiation sessions"; a consultant to the chairman of Colt Industries, Gerald Lynch, worries to the White House that the quasi-socialist Bishops' pastoral letter on capitalism could have "undue influence on some 50 million American Catholics."

Reagan, documents the library, visited Pope John Paul II at the Vatican twice. He pledged to join the Pope in stopping "godless tyranny." Reagan, like the Pope, venerated the Virgin Mary. In an address to the Portguese parliament, he said that the Pope and the children of Fatima showed that the power of prayer is greater than the power of kings. Several Communist Portuguese legislators walked out in protest.

To visit the Ronald Reagan library, call or write: 40 Presidential Drive, Simi Valley, California 93065; (800)410-8354; library@reagan.nara.gov


FR. GERALD RYLE, PASTOR OF ST. LAWRENCE parish in the Sacramento diocese, attended pro-abortion Governor Gray Davis's ecumenical service on January 4. Over 75 Catholic and pro-life protesters showed up for the event, holding placards that said, among other things, "Fr. Ryle Is Anti-Catholic." One protester asked Ryle point-blank why he would support a event in honor of a pro-abortion Catholic. "I said shame on you," says the protester. Ryle informed the protester that he was there to read the Sermon on the Mount. The protester asked Ryle if he belonged to Call to Action, a dissident group that opposes the Church's teaching on abortion. "Oh yeah. Proud of it," said Ryle, according to the protester.

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