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Contents © 2000
by Jim Holman.
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NEWS
MAY 2000

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SF ABORTIONIST STEIR PLEADS GUILTY -- AVOIDS MURDER RAP IN RIVERSIDE CASE Defense attorneys and a prosecutor were preparing to pick a jury Wednesday, April 5, for the murder trial of Bruce Steir in a Riverside Superior Court, when Steir pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter for the death of a woman resulting from an abortion. According to veteran pro-lifers, no prosecution of an abortionist in California has been this successful.

Steir was originally charged with second-degree murder after Sharon Hamptlon, 27, of Barstow bled to death in December 1996 after an abortion performed by Steir in a Moreno Valley clinic. Court records show that Steir told his assistant during the procedure, "I think I pulled a bowel." After slicing Hamptlon's uterus, Steir left her in the hands of untrained staff, apparently in a hurry to catch a plane to his home in San Francisco.

Steir faces up to a year in jail and five years' probation. Steir's defense suffered repeated set-backs in pre-trial hearings. The judge ruled that Steir's past misconduct as an abortionist could be presented at the murder trial. (Steir has been under almost continuous scrutiny by the California Medical Board since 1991.) Steir's attorneys attempted to paint the prosecutors and politically motivated pro-lifers. A defense committee sent out a fund-raising solicitation that read in part, "Thank you for supporting Dr. Steir and for supporting women's right to abortion. We continue to fight unjust murder charges against Dr. Steir after the death of patient from an undetected perforation, a known complication of second trimester abortion." The letter continues, "It's not too late. We still have a chance for justice to be served. What does the outcome of this murder trial mean? Conviction of involuntary manslaughter or second degree murder means: Dr. Steir can never teach, further impeding future abortion providers from being trained. The chilling effect will stop other doctors from providing abortions all over the country." Prosecutors said they were prepared to show that the murder charge was based on Steir's negligence, not politics. Sentencing is set for May 26.

The California ProLife Council asked this question in a statement: "Will the price be commensurate to the damage? It never is -- certainly not for mutilation, abandonment, death. And the real shame of it is that Sharon Hamptlon, Steir's young black victim, did not have to die. Her son need not have been orphaned. Had the California Medical Board had the competence necessary to protect consumers, Steir would not have had the opportunity to kill Sharon Hamptlon. Only after four prior malpractice claims did he even serve probation for a 1984 botched cesarean section. By the time Sharon was killed there had been six known victims. There were probably more."

Assemblyman Steve Baldwin of El Cajon has introduced a bill in the California Assembly, AB 2192, which would require that physicians who treat women with complications from abortions report those incidences to local health departments. Senator Ray Haynes (R-Riverside) said, "Safe and legal abortions are a myth." Haynes has known about Steir's record and introduced legislation, the Sharon Hamptlon Act, to rein in currently unlicensed and unregulated clinics. The California Senate killed the bill twice. Senator John Vasconcellos (D-San Francisco) pressured abortion lobbyists during the committee hearing on the bill last summer to explain to him why abortionists could have a problem with legislation that to him, seemed commonsense. He did not vote on the bill.

California does not collect any abortion statistics, so the serious consequences -- such as hemorrhage, sterilization and deaths -- largely remain a secret.


PROJECT GABRIEL MOVES FORWARD Project Gabriel, an ecumenical outreach to women in crisis pregnancy situations, received a major boost recently with strong endorsements from Archbishop William J. Levada and Bishop Patrick J. McGrath.

Already operating successfully in the East Bay among Catholic and non-Catholic churches, Gabriel is poised to expand its operations to the Archdiocese of San Francisco and the Diocese of San Jose. Participating congregations advertise their commitment by placing a 'sign of life' in front of their church which states: "Pregnant? Need Help? 1-800-910-0191 The members of this Church community see in the birth of each baby a fresh expression of God's unfailing love. We offer immediate and practical help to any women faced with a crisis pregnancy." In June 1998, the first sign was installed at St. Bonaventure Church in Concord. Since then more than 30 churches have become Gabriel churches, including four on the Peninsula and in Marin County. Created in Texas nearly 10 years ago, Project Gabriel was named for the angel who brought the news to Mary that she was to be the mother Jesus. Following approval by the pastor, a parish coordinator is appointed and volunteers are recruited to participate in the program on an on-going basis.

Callers to the 800 number are put in touch with the local church community whose workers stand ready to lend support in the way of medical assistance, transportation, housing, clothing, education, employment, counseling, along with friendship and emotional support. Local crisis pregnancy centers are also involved as help agencies and work closely with church volunteers. The 800 number is answered in the East Bay by a staff of 35 ladies who handle calls five days a week for 11 hours a day. At the annual United For Life dinner in San Francisco on 1 April, Gabriel organizer for Northern California, Mike Ronco, was the recipient of the Human Life Award for the year 2000. A retired oil company executive, Ronco thanked the many pastors whose churches are involved in the project, the ladies who handle the 800 number calls, and the 563 volunteers currently working on Gabriel. Archbishop Levada, guest speaker at the dinner, spoke on the culture of death that is gripping the world and the need to end abortion in this Jubilee Year. Bishop McGrath met with Gabriel volunteers in late March and pledged his support of the project. Priests For Life, which was founded by Father Lee Kaylor of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, was represented by its current national director, Father Frank Pavone, who said, "the beauty of the Gabriel Project is that it is designed to be attentive to the particular needs of the mother and child and calls for true Christian charity and activation of the local community. The response to the pregnant mother's needs is a whole church response. "When the parish commits to the Gabriel Project, they are not committing to a centralized fund. The entire local community provides or raises money for rent, food, medical bills, and other needs. The woman receives from those who are nearest to her, and who are in the best position to understand her circumstances and draw upon local resources." (For additional information about participating in the Gabriel Project, call 1-800-910-0191).


LIAR, LIAR: SECRET TRANSCRIPT REVEALS DEPTH OF PATRICK ZIEMANN'S DECEPTION "Patrick Ziemann is a crook," says a former Vatican official, outraged at the former Santa Rosa's bishop's financial mismanagement and homosexual affair with Father Jorge Hume, an embezzling priest under his supervision.

No one knows this better than the parishioners at St. Anthony's parish in Mendocino. A transcript of an off-the-record March 7, 1999 meeting between Ziemann and concerned members of St. Anthony's parish in Mendocino reveals the pathological character of Ziemann's deception. According to the transcript, Ziemann assured the parishioners that Father Hume -- the subject of repeated sexual assault charges -- was not "a homosexual." At the time he made this statement, Ziemann was either concluding or continuing a homosexual affair with Hume.

"I sent Father Jorge to a five-day residential therapy program," Ziemann told the crowd. "And they confirmed that he was not a pedophile and that he was heterosexual." Why hadn't Ziemann prosecuted Hume for embezzlement a few years earlier? demanded parishioners. Because of his "civil rights," explained Ziemann. "Our attorney said in no way [would our evidence] hold up in court. And there was the dilemma, of course, that Father Jorge had a very strong following of Hispanic people in that parish, and I just didn't want something to go to court that would be thrown out of court."

Transferring responsibility to his lawyers was a consistent refrain for Ziemann. "My legal advisers said that confession would not hold up in court, because it was a confession that Father Hume made to Father Hans, the pastor, behind a closed door, on the other side of which was a policeman taking notes. So we had to make a judgment not to prosecute even though that disappointed some of the parish council people. But it was a judgment made under advice of counsel."

Ziemann also transferred responsibility to psychologists: "Even the professionals couldn't tell me if [Hume's alleged assaults] had happened or not. Some of them said it probably didn't happen because he's not of that propensity. So it was very complicated."

Ziemann stressed that after the embezzlement-and-assault scandal hit at the Ukiah parish Hume "was in therapy the whole time." Psychological screening, Ziemann assured the crowd, had improved greatly since his days in the pre-Vatican II seminary: "They get much better screening now than when I was in the seminary. They get screened by psychologists and teams."

"All of the pedophile allegations that have been proven true or at least very credible are cases that go back to the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Seminary training is far different now. Our society is very different now. You take, for example, in the 60s, skinny-dipping was acceptable. I remember going to our YMCA in Pasadena and being expected to swim in the nude because that was natural in swimming."

"Well, times have changed, thanks be to God, huh?... Our seminarians go to primarily two major seminaries: Mt. Angel in Portland, Oregon, and St. Patrick's in Menlo Park. Their training is far better than it was in my time."

Ziemann patted himself on the back for issuing new guidelines concerning sexual misconduct in the wake of the horrifying Fr. Kimball allegations. He said that he even suggested that they be placed in the diocesan paper -- "It was my idea to put it in the Redwood Crozier" -- but his priests opposed that plan, so he scotched it. Prompting laughter from the crowd, one parishioner shot back: "I think as the boss, on occasion you have to insist." Another parishioner wondered how a thief and accused sexual deviant could be transferred to a new parish, even after a two-year absence: "I don't understand why a priest who has stolen money does not lose his job." Ziemann responded, "Well, I removed him because of that." The parishoner fired back: "You removed him but assigned him to another parish." Again Ziemann: "I removed him for a year and nine months.... When he was sent to Napa, one of the conditions was that he was not to be anywhere near money." Another parishioner interjected: "If a man steals money, then his character is probably not sound."

"Sure, sure," Ziemman replied, "But then you have the problem, of course, that, according to Church law, then we would have to give him a stipend the rest of his life. We have to take care of him. He is one of ours, huh?... A priest is not an employee; I can't just fire him." Firing employees, as Protestant parishes do, would diminish priests' "prophetic" role, said Ziemann. Priests wouldn't tell "parishioners what they need to hear." An exasperated parishoner asked: "What do you have to do to get rid of one that's bad?" It is hard to laicize priests, Ziemman told them, because "Rome tends to side with the priest sometimes over the bishop, because there are a lot of bishops who'd like to get rid of their priests, you know? So it's a whole question of civil rights is what it amounts to." Asked about the status of another investigation of Hume (after his transfer from the Ukiah parish, another group of young adults accused him of sexual assault), Ziemann replied that he had conducted some of the investigation himself: "In this case, we needed a Spanish-speaking person, so I did some of it myself."

In light of Hume's continued problems, how could a congregation know if a transferred priest is morally respectable? asked a parishioner. "You can certainly ask me," said Ziemann. "If there's something in the past, I will tell those who need to know." Ziemann lamented, parenthetically, some of his priests' lack of "people skills." (A trait, by the way, Ziemann had in abundance, according to Cardinal Mahony and other California prelates who expressed support for Ziemann after he acknowledged his relationship with Hume.) A parishioner asked why the Church obstructs civil investigations: "I don't want this shell game of priests being moved from parish to parish, and this is what's gone on in the past." Yet another parishioner noted that he had to read the Santa Rosa Press Democrat to get the truth, "but I don't think I can get anything from the diocese."

A catechism teacher, appalled by Ziemann's transferring of Hume to a new parish without telling congregants about his past, commented: "I try to tell the catechism students, because I don't think they hear it anywhere from our Catholic community these days, that they shouldn't be afraid to try to be saints; and being a saint has a high cost. And I notice when you talk I think you try to please too many people: you worry about dividing communities and things. I think it would have been valuable to try to prosecute Hume on the embezzlement charge in court and see what happens. Because you had proof that he was guilty."


NEW CHURCH HAS NO TABERNACLE, NO CRUCIFIX Father Dan Danielson, an Oakland diocese priest who, two years ago, was castigated by Bishop John Cummins for authorizing gay weddings inside his parish church, has come under scrutiny again for building what some parishioners are calling "a Protestant hall" with funds donated for the building of a Catholic church. Danielson is pastor of St. Augustine's, Pleasanton and of a new church, St. Elizabeth Seton in Pleasanton, which will be dedicated by Bishop Cummins in April. Elizabeth Seton, which took 15 years to build and cost $5 million, was the site of an attempted lesbian wedding on May 9, 1998. The wedding was called off when fifty Catholics came out to the partially built church in a protest which was recorded in the San Francisco Chronicle and on San Francisco's Channel 7 News. At the time Danielson bragged he would continue blessing gay unions outside of the church building, and Bishop Cummins, who appears reluctant to exercise any authority in these situations, left him as pastor of St. Augustine's and head of the local deanery of priests, merely warning him to stop talking to the press about his gay blessings.

The newly-opened St. Elizabeth Seton church has no tabernacle (the tabernacle is housed in a separate building), no crucifix, no stations of the cross, AND no kneelers. Predictably, there are no stained glass windows or statues. Chairs are arranged in an oval, looking down on a simple wooden table which suffices as the altar. Also predictable is the 8-foot-long, waist-deep, full immersion, baptismal bath complete with bright blue tiles and jacuzzi jets.

At his first Mass in the new church Danielson, who refers to his parish as "the Catholic community (not church) of Pleasanton," told the congregation, "There is no sanctuary because this is all holy ground now. This is not a church but a gathering space." He said there was no Christ on the cross because in a circular worship space some people would have had to look at the back of the figure of Christ so it was better just to have a plain, wooden cross. He said there was no room for kneelers so the congregation stands throughout the Eucharistic Prayer and consecration, as they do at St Augustine's from time to time under Danielson's orders. Worshippers sit after receiving Communion. A woman who attended the Ash Wednesday Mass said, "It was a circus. People were talking loudly before and after Mass because, without the tabernacle, there is no reason to regard the church as anything other than a hall. It really is just a gathering space. They were waving at each other across the circular space during the Mass." Prior to his authorizing gay weddings at St. Elizabeth Seton, Father Danielson, drew the attention of the local media several years ago when his pastoral associate , Father John Gilmore was featured in the local Valley Times newspaper as having fathered two children with a St.Augustine's office employee. Bishop Cummins swiftly removed Gilmore from St. Augustine's and gave him pastorship of St. Perpetua in Lafayette, one of the wealthiest suburbs in the East Bay. On November 14, 1996, the Valley Times reported that Gilmore had retired from active ministry in the priesthood.


UN FLIP-FLOPS ON POPULATION Last fall, the United Nations Population Fund commemorated "The Day of 6 Billion" -- Tuesday, October 12, 1999 -- as the date on which world population reached 6 billion persons. Several other organizations joined in observing the day, termed by the population group's executive director Nafis Sadik as a "milestone in the steady growth of human population." The "event" was noted by major U.S. news networks and included a series of "Year of 6 Billion" reports televised on CNN, owned by population control advocate Ted Turner. Less than six months later, it appears the UN is reversing its predictions.

In a March 21, 2000 report titled "Replacement Migration," the Population Division of the UN Secretariat says that immigrations is the only hope for many countries to maintain existing levels of working-age populations. Austin Ruse, president of the New York City-based Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute, summarized the UN's findings.

In the March 31 issue of "Friday Fax," Ruse wrote that the report cites "two ongoing trends that are both 'striking' and 'critical:' 'population decline and population aging.' " In addition, "The study reflects policy decisions made by governments over the past half century to decrease the fertility rate of its citizens. The result is that many countries are experiencing the new phenomenon called "below replacement fertility" whereby populations are no longer having enough children to replace themselves.... The long-term results of below-replacement fertility are aging populations, and eventual population decline. Additionally these countries face the decline in the overall number of active workers (those between 15 and 65 years old)." This decrease in the working-age population suggests "retirement ages will have to increase, that retirement and medical benefits will have to change, and that financial support paid by workers for retired persons may also have to increase dramatically."

Father Richard Welch of Human Life International echoed Ruse's summary. In a March 30, 2000 EWTN Feature Story titled "Experts Show Economic Disadvantages of Abortion," Welch said, "Abortion isn't just morally wrong, it's economically stupid.... 'No children' first means no toys, no baby food, no baby clothes, no pediatric services, no schools.... Of course, as this aborted generation -- we are talking about nearly one-third of the people conceived in America since 1973, the oldest of whom would now be in their late twenties -- fails to grow up, they fail to buy houses, cars, clothes, groceries. They don't join the workforce, don't contribute to the tax base, social security, rising property values and other consumer services. People's homes, their most important economic asset, don't increase in value, retirement plans are jeopardized ... there is no one there to compensate for the losses in projected growth."

Welch continued, "Abortion has increased out-of-wedlock births, driven down the marriage rate, raised the divorce rate and, not coincidentally, coincided with parallel increases in child abuse and sexually transmitted diseases. The social costs are enormous. The economic costs of each of those factors are terrible.... As more time passes and abortion skews our population, creates disparities in population aging, and begins to make its long term economic impact felt, those who are unable to see the clear moral wrong will be forced to face the clear economic disaster."

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