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Contents © 1999
by Jim Holman.
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NEWS
MAY 1999

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THE CHURCH'S TEACHINGS on the dignity of man and his rights and responsibilities under God should permeate a Catholic college's curriculum, said speakers at St. Mary's College 3rd Annual John F. Henning Conference on March 13.

These teachings extend to all subjects, including economics, because God speaks to every reality, said Charles Clark, a professor of economics at St. John's University. The myth, said Clark, is that the Church's teachings represent an "anti- growth" threat to economics. In fact, they form the only "realistic" economic framework worthy of man, he said.

Robert Kennedy, a professor of business at the University of St. Thomas, acknowledged the American Catholic Church's failure to promote her natural law teachings at the college level. He said that In his field of business ethics the Church, after Vatican II, abdicated interest in the subject, just at the moment the secular world began to "to take an interest in it." Today, "Catholic philosophers and theologians disdain any involvement with the subject," he said, despite the fact that the Church in the Middle Ages esssentially founded and structured the subject of business ethics. Kennedy laid down a "challenge" to the Church's thinkers: "You have centuries of moral reflection; you haven't been doing anything with it."

St. Mary's philosophy professor Stephen Cortwright said the Church should drop its bashful approach to the modern university and present the Catholic view of reality fully. "We have forgotten that we are committed to teaching according to the whole-the whole person, the whole Catholic Teaching," he said. Catholic colleges should say without apology that Catholic teachings form the "best education for a human being."

The discussion, which mostly revolved around the relationship between Catholic social thought and business, got pointed when the subject of St. Mary's business program came up. One participant wondered how St. Mary's could bring its program into line with Catholic teaching. Ernest Pierucci of the John Henning Institute at St. Mary's responded bluntly, saying that St. Mary's should revise the program's job advertisement so that it read "knowledge of Catholic social thought preferred." Professor Cortwright added that the program should eliminate from one of its books the "disgraceful" section on natural law.


LAST YEAR, THE VATICAN CONDEMNED the practice of using "extraordinary ministers" on an ordinary basis. It also stated that "extraordinary ministers" be pious and intimately familiar with eucharistic theology. But, according to a Faith reader, North Beach's Sts. Peter and Paul "phoned" her to see if she would be a eucharistic minister. "I couldn't believe it. The Church is now calling people up to ask them if they will distribute the Body of Christ? I would expect a cold call from AT&T, but the Roman Catholic Church?"


RETIRED SAN FRANCISCO ARCHBISHOP John Quinn is pooh-poohing the idea that Catholic colleges need a fundamental renewal. At the bishops' meetings in Washington earlier this year, he called for a de facto rejection of Ex Corde Ecclesiae and painted a rosy picture of Catholic colleges.

Meanwhile, the Jesuit University of San Francisco's student newspaper, The Foghorn, contains more evidence of open scandal on the Catholic campus. Its March 11 issue reported on the front page that "students couldn't help but chuckle when Dan McPherson, an openly gay professor in the counseling and psychology deparment at the University of San Francisco, shared his stories about his encounters with a heterosexual married couple."

"When we have them over for dinner and the wife sees that my partner and I switch off with the dinner duties, the wife looks at her husband like 'You pig,'" McPherson told the students. Reported the Foghorn, "[McPherson] talked about his experiences and engaged students in discussion during 'Outside the Box of Heterosexuality,' one of the 90-minute sessions at the sixth annual Visualize and Vocalize conference."

But, according to the March 26 archdiocesan Catholic San Francisco, all is well at USF. The title of its article: "USF 'has never been more deliberately Catholic.'"


SHOULD CATHOLIC SCHOOLS ADVERTISE in a publication hostile to the official teachings of the Church? In February, Jesuit Santa Clara University advertised for a campus ministry opening in the National Catholic Reporter, a publication which dissents from Church teaching on such issues as sexual morality and the priesthood. In April, the Sacred Heart Schools in San Francisco bought an advertisement in that paper.


WANT YOUR CHILD EDUCATED in "human sexuality" according to the ethos of the San Francisco Examiner? On March 25, the Examiner published an advertisement aimed at teachers, offering them a 16-page human sexuality educational supplement "delivered to your classroom with the San Francisco Examiner." "Ordering is easy!" assurred the Examiner, explaining that "sex sells amost everything teens buy--clothes, movies, CDs and magazines, Yet sex is rarely discussed in a straightforward way. This educational supplement provides the facts and frank talk about feelings that teens need to understand the complex issues involved."


HATE CRIMES aimed at Catholic and Christian churches in San Francisco rose sharply in 1998, according to the European/American Issues Forum. Two acts of vandalism against Christian churches occurred in 1997, whereas 21 occurred in 1998, reports the group. Why isn't the city of San Francisco addressing this problem? asks Louis Calabro, an official at the European/American Issues Forum. "The Chief of Police, Fred Lau, Assistant Chief of Police Sanders and their administration are aware of the increase. The Human Rights Commission as well as the District Attorney's Hate Crimes Unit are aware. And yet, no public outrcy by this City's officials to find the perpetrators of these bigoted and hurtful hate crimes."

Calabro says that Christians are de facto second-class citizens in San Francisco. "The boards' obvious inability to treat all segments of society with equal dignity and respect must not go unnoticed. What is happening to the cherished reputation of San Francisco as a tolerant city that has St. Francis of Assisi as its patron saint?"


PARISHIONERS AT ST. ISIDORE in Pleasanton in late March held a protest to express their discontent with the parish school's pro-abortion tenor. The protesters also urged parish officials to support Father Terry Tompkins, assistant pastor at St. Isidore, who may leave the parish over his concern about the school.

"Is St. Isidore School pro-life," read a notice handed out by protesters. "Is St. Isidore School Catholic?" "On January 29, 'pro-choice' (pro-abortion) congresswoman Ellen Tauscher visited St. Isidore School to present a flag that had flown over the U.S. Capitol Building. Welcomed at a student assembly, Tauscher -- a Planned Parenthood favorite who votes against even a ban on partial-birth abortion -- reportedly presented herself as a Catholic legislator. She had previously given public scandal by crediting her Catholic upbringing for her outlooks."

"Father Terry Tompkins, assistant pastor at St. Isidore, was acting pastor at the time of the Tauscher visit but wasn't provided notice of the event by the school's principal," continued the handbill. "Then, on March 12, Father Terry was the celebrant at a school mass when an innocent St. Isidore 4th grader read an intercessory prayer he'd been handed -- an intercession that in context seemed to honor Harry Blackmun, the now-deceased Supreme Court justice who authored Roe v. Wade. Father Terry, a courageous pro-life activist, was stunned, and knelt to pray before continuing Mass."


"BUDDHIST NUNS to create sand mandala at Holy Names College," announced the Catholic Voice, Oakland's diocesan paper on March 22. The Voice explained that this "sacred art form is accompanied by chanting, prayer and meditation and is said to by mystically transformative."

"This holy journey and its art form are meant to purify, benefit and bless the physical environment and all beings who inhabit it." The Voice also reported that the Buddhist nuns "will chant and peform the 'Bliss Whirl of the Sky Dancers,' a twirling ritual dance in praise of the divine feminine principal symbolized by the Sky-Dancers of Tibetan Buddhism."


BAY AREA RESIDENT Carl Djerassi, the Stanford chemistry professor who invented the birth-control pill, is the now the author of a new drama, An Immaculate Misconception. The play concerns innovative reproductive techniques, which would allow "postmenopausal pregnancies" so that women could "preserve their young eggs, pursue a career and then fertilize their eggs 20 years later," reported the March 28 San Francisco Chronicle. Djerassi told the Chronicle that it is ironic that "I'm a scientist who contributed heavily to preventing the creation of new life with sexual intercourse," but "now I have written a play about the creation of new life without sexual intercourse."

Djerassi also spoke in the Chronicle interview about his daughter who committed suicide in 1978, a few year before she "had herself sterilized at age 25," reported the paper. Said Djerassi, "She made a brutal decision at an early age, based on her concern about what we call the population explosion. I told her, 'You'd better wait for a while.' But she was very logical about it."


MORE CLERICALIZATION of the laity? The Oakland diocese has established a "ecclesial lay ministers council," the purpose of which is to "foster the spiritual formation and professional development of lay ministers," provide services and materials to "career lay ministers," promote "professional standards, certification, placement, compensation and working environments."

Oakland Catholic Phil Savilla finds this undertaking troubling, for it encourages the laity "to fill the roles which belong appropriately to the ordained priesthood" and thus exacerbates "the problem of the shortage of priests in the diocese."

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