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Contents © 1998
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

NEWS
JULY/AUGUST 1998

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EVEN AS THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT CONTINUES TO PERSECUTE underground Catholics, members of the American hierarchy offer a helping hand to the Communist-influenced Chinese Patriotic Association Church, according to Joseph Kung, head of the Cardinal Kung Foundation, in a recent interview with the Faith. "If you are talking about supporting the Patriotic Church...you will almost get a uniform answer from the church hierarchy in the U.S. The answer you will probably get is that they have the permission from an appropriate Cardinal in the Vatican... I have not seen any written statement from the Vatican approving such actions."

Kung revealed, for example, that a Chinese Patriotic Association priest offered a public mass in June 1997 at Saint Cecilia Church in San Francisco.

For Kung, the American hierarchy's willingness to accomodate the Chinese Patriotic Association is deeply puzzling. "Those millions sent to the Patriotic Association, those articles and conferences glorifying the Communist Church, those missionaries sent to China... are certainly wounding the sensibility of the silent majority of those Catholics who have suffered and are suffering for their fidelity to the Holy Father."

Kung's uncle, Cardinal Kung, is a symbol of the Suffering Church in China. In the Catholic purge of 1955, the Communists arrested Bishop Kung of Shanghai for promoting the Legion of Mary among the Shanghai youth and for refusing to renounce the Supreme Pontiff. During Kung's 30-year captivity, the Communists repeatedly offered him release in exhange for a statement denying the Pope. Kung always refused, saying: "I am a Roman Catholic Bishop. If I denounce the Holy Father, not only would I not be a Bishop, but I would not even be a Catholic. You can cut off my head, but you can never take away my duties." In 1987, the Chinese goverment released Kung and he came to the United States. In 1997, the Pope elevated him to Cardinal.

To contact The Cardinal Kung Foundation, write or call: P.O. Box 8086 Ridgeway Center Stamford, CT 06905(203) 329-9712; (203) 329-8415-fax; web site: www.cardinalkungfoundation.org; e-mail: jmkung@aol.com


SAN FRANCISCO'S UNITED FOR LIFE is looking for members and donations. Founded in 1970 in response to California's Therapetuic Abortion Act, the group has spread the pro-life message through its newsletter, a speaker's bureau, free literature and videos, and protests. In 1991, it helped organize the largest Life Chain in the history of the Bay Area -- 10,000 men, women, and children of all faiths held pro-life signs for two hours along 19th Avenue.

United for Life has also raised money for pro-life youth education, crisis pregnancy centers, and pro-life newspaper ads. Its fundraising dinners have featured such speakers as Mary Ellen Bork, Joe Scheidler, and Dr. Bernard Nathanson. Catherine Conway recalls how the group paid for "a billboard on Highway 101 South for a month," which "elicited a great response, positive and negative, from the public." She adds, "We also had booths at the San Francisco and San Mateo fairs and floats in the St. Patrick's Day parade. We regularly picketed the Cathedral Hill Eye, Ear, and Throat Clinic where abortions were performed on Saturday mornings."

To contact United for Life, write or call: P.O. Box 590713, San Francisco, CA 94159-0713; (415) 567-2293.


IN THE APRIL 14 VALLEY CATHOLIC, San Jose's diocesan paper, Bishop Pierre DuMaine joined his voice with Cardinal Mahony's in saying that "What is presented on the Internet and elsewhere as 'Catholic' is often, in fact, not so....The term 'Catholic' has become a catchword for the 'self-ordained'....The Catholic faithful must develop skills for discerning whether that which is proclaimed on the Net as 'Catholic' is in fact so."

In the same issue of Bishop DuMaine's paper, Call to Action, an anti-papal organization, is promoted: "Call to Action of Northern California is sponsoring a lecture/ discussion entitled 'Other Views of God....Liturgy with Father Jose Rubio follows the session." Call to Action supports the ordination of women, the use of artificial birth control, and a relaxed stance on abortion and homosexual acts.


BAY AREA PRO-LIFERS SCORED A VICTORY on May 1. In a 28-page decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit struck down a Menlo Park ordinance which banned placards depicting aborted fetuses. Judge Michael Daly Hawkins, writing on behalf of the a three-member panel, argued that the ordinance "stands the First Amendment on its head."

Katie Short, a lawyer who worked on the case for the Life Legal Defense Foundation, comments, "We won quite a bit. On points we creamed the city." Short adds that "one of the more interesting aspects of the case is that the city attorney who drafted the ordinance, William McClure is/was on the board of the local Planned Parenthood, and also served as their general counsel. This is the same Planned Parenthood that our guys are picketing. So he drafts this ordinance, which might be dubbed the 'Planned Parenthood Protection Act' then guess who ends up defending it when the city is sued? That's right; his firm is hired by the city to defend the ordinance."


ST. ISABELLA, ST. RAPHAEL, AND ST. RITA IN MARIN are making an unusual appeal to fallen-away Catholics in an advertisement sent to the Faith by a Marin Catholic. "The Catholic Church wants to make a confession," reads the ad. "Jesus' Ministry was based on love -- the only rule and reason for its existence. Love still works. But sometimes we failed to practice it. Instead of loving you, we pushed you away. We may have been too rigid, too cold, remote. We may have spoken to you through righteous legalism without love or respect. If we have hurt you, please know that we are sorry. Please give us another chance. Have you left the Church because of divorce, birth control, issues of sexuality, sexual orientation, abortion, hurt feelings, anger, guilt or other reasons? Join us for another look at your faith, to discuss your questions and feelings. We will respond!"


THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH teaches that it "belongs to the laity to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according to God's will...It pertains to them in a special way to illuminate and order all temporal things with which they are closely associated that these may always be effected and grow according to Christ and may be to the glory of the Creator and Redeemer."

San Francisco Archbishop William Levada recently appointed Fr. Michael Barber, a Jesuit who accepts the Church's official teachings on the laity, to serve as the new head of the San Francisco School of Pastoral Leadership. Fr. Barber told the Faith that he intends to stress lay "apologetics in the world." Like "Cardinal Newman, I want an educated laity," "evangelizing the world and the family...out there in the marketplace, the schools, the factories, the shops."


IN THE MAY 18 CATHOLIC VOICE, Oakland's diocesan paper, two East Bay priests submitted comments in apparent defense of Father Makobane, the South African priest who distributed communion to President Clinton. Father John Maxwell of St. John the Baptist Parish in El Cerrito sarcastically wrote, "Jesus had it all wrong. His Body and Blood should be received only by saints and not by public sinners." Father Declan Deane of St. Monica Parish in Moraga, wrote, "No priest or Eucharistic Minister should ever refuse the Eucharist to anyone who presents themselves for it...Christ is present in the communicant as well as in the Communion, so respect must be tendered to both." Deane added that Jesus "in his life on earth received and practiced hospitality. We do no honor to him when we either deny his real presence in the Eucharist or when we deny the Eucharist to those who come to our altar believing in the hospitality of God."

The Catechism of the Catholic Church takes a different tone: "To respond to this [Eucharistic] invitation we must prepare ourselves for so great and so holy a moment. St. Paul urges us to examine our conscience: 'Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself.' Anyone conscious of a grave sin must receive the sacrament of Reconciliation before coming to communion."


IN JUNE, THE SAN FRANCISCO ARCHDIOCESE HELD A PRIESTS' CONVOCATION in Monterey, leaving many parishes without a priest for almost a week. The San Francisco Chronicle seized on the unusual event, running a June 3 story titled, "Deacons, Women to Fill in While SF Priests Go on 4-Day Retreat." Chronicle religion writer Don Lattin speculated that "Bay Area Catholics will get a taste of the future next week when all 220 priests working for the Archdiocese of San Francisco disappear for four days...Next week's clerical vacuum could provide an early look at the Catholic church in the new millenium."

Lattin reported that at "St. Vincent de Paul parish in San Francisco, services will be led by Sister Sheila Donegan, the pastoral associate at the parish, and a married couple, Patricia and Joseph Keegan, who head the liturgy committee of that Marina District church...'The parish will be in good hands,' said the Rev. John Ring, the pastor at St. Vincent de Paul. 'They may not want me to come back.'"

The purpose of the convocation was "to discuss the challenges of being a Catholic priest in San Francisco," vocations director Fr. Forner explained to Lattin. "We have all been affected by the scandals," Forner said. "We've talked about it with our friends, but we haven't had a chance to get together and discuss the challenges and the pain."


THE SALVATION ARMY HAS DONE WHAT THE SAN FRANCISCO ARCHDIOCESE REFUSED TO DO: surrender $3.5 million in San Francisco city contracts rather than accept, even in a compromised form, its domestic partners law. "We didn't feel it was appropriate for the city of San Francisco to tell us what to do," spokesman Debbi Shrum told the Faith on June 4.

An editorial in New Frontier, a Salvation Army publication, spelled out the reason for the group's stance: "The Army's belief system, grounded in traditional interpretation of Scripture, does not perceive domestic partnership arrangements as similar to the sanctity granted marriage partners."

Tom Ammiano, San Francisco supervisor, said to the San Francisco Examiner, "It's unfortunate the Salvation Army is being so narrow-minded...We did come to an accommodation with the archdiocese, and we were hoping to use that as a model."


CALIFORNIA ASSEMBLYMAN CRUZ BUSTAMANTE (D-Fresno), former Assembly speaker (December 1996 to February 1998), is running for lieutenant governor. In his candidate statement in the June 2 Candidate Voter Information Guide, Bustamante says, "I support a woman's right to choose." Two of Bustamante's campaign staff members, Andy Martinez and Chris Wagaman, said on May 13 and May 20, respectively, that they believe that Bustamante identifies himself as a Catholic.

Bustamante's stance on the life issues has evolved from being vaguely pro-life to advising the entire Democratic Assembly membership to vote the pro-abortion line on the May 1997 Wilson budget bill's taxpayer-funded abortion component and its pro-life amendments.

The Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's 1974 Declaration on Procured Abortion stipulates the following concerning Catholic politicians:

"It must in any case be clearly understood that whatever may be laid down by civil law in this matter, man can never obey a law which is in itself immoral, and such is the case of a law which would admit in principle the liceity of abortion. Nor can he take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law, or vote for it. Moreover, he may not collaborate in its application."

The Faith contacted Bustamante's campaign office three times between May 14 and May 20 to ask Bustamante to explain his pro-abortion stance in light of his Catholicism. Campaign aides said they would either call back with Bustamante's response or have the assemblyman himself call to respond. No response had been received from Bustamante or his campaign staff by press time.


IN JUNE, A CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE BILL that would have offered mothers the option of pain relief for their fetuses during abortions was defeated in the Assembly Health Committee. Assembly Bill 1758, the Fetal Pain Prevention Act of 1998, would have required the physicians performing third trimester abortions to offer women anesthesia to alleviate pain felt by the fetus. It would have also required counseling to the woman about fetal pain.

"There are a number of medical reports and doctors stating that third trimester abortions cause 'death agony' to the fetus," said Assemblyman George Runner, sponsor of the bill. "To ensure that pain is not experienced, it is vital to take the recommendation of these experts and require the use of anesthesia."

A 1997 report by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommended that physicians who perform abortions at 24 weeks or later consider the requirements for feticide analgesia and sedation to prevent the fetus from feeling pain.

"I find it outrageous that lab rats are better protected from pain under current law than a fetus," Runner said. "The question we need to ask ourselves is do we care about the pain of the fetus? Since third trimester abortions are legal in California, we at least need to ensure that the abortion does not cause unnecessary pain to the fetus."

The California Animal Welfare Act of 1987 requires animal research facilities to minimize the pain of animals:

"For animal care, treatment, and practices in experimental procedures to ensure that animal pain and distress are minimized, including adequate veterinary care with the appropriate use of anesthetic, analgesic, tranquilizing drugs, or euthanasia; in any practice which could cause pain to animals -- that the doctor of veterinary medicine is consulted in the planning of such procedures; for the use of tranquilizers, analgesics, and anesthetics for pre-surgical and post-surgical care by laboratory workers, in accordance with established veterinary medical and nursing procedure; against the use of paralytics without anesthesia; and that the withholding of tranquilizers, anesthesia, analgesia, or euthanasia when scientifically necessary shall continue for only the necessary period of time."

According to 1993 statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 3,900 third-trimester abortions are performed in California every year.

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