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Contents © 1999
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

NEWS
JULY/AUGUST 1999

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VIEW FROM THE PEW, the pugnacious Catholic bi-monthly from the diocese of San Jose, has called it quits with the May/June issue. Principals were Art Brew, Marc Crotty, and Jane Anderson. A website (http://www.hooked.net/users/racox/view.htm) will persist with stories that would have been carried in the "paper" version. The bi-monthly's readers hovered at 400 circulation for several years, according to the farewell story in the May/June edition. "What has the View accomplished? We have some loyal readers, yes, but they are the ones whose hearts are already with us. We value them, but we have been preaching to the choir. So -- we're not going to do it any more."


A WAR WAS DECLARED between conservative Christians and liberals during the fight over a bill by Assembymember Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) that would have added sexual orientation to a law that already prohibits bias against students on the basis of race, gender, and religion. The three-hour debate on the assembly floor offered a glimpse of the passion that will be seen when the field of battle passes from the legislature to the polling booth in 2000. The defeat of Kuehl's Assembly Bill 222 by one vote, 40-38 in the 80 member assembly, also divided the assembly Democratic caucus between urban liberals and moderate Latino Democrats. Seven of the eight Democrats who opposed the bill came from the Central Valley or other rural areas where there is a high level of Republican registration. Dennis Cardoza, (D-Merced) who voted against the measure, is considered the leader of an emerging moderate bloc with-in the assembly Democratic caucus. Dean Florez, a Latino Democrat from Shafter who also opposed the measure, was quoted in the Sacramento Bee saying, "I'm one of the folks that basically votes the Catholic line." Speaking on another Democratic bill authored by assembly speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles) that several moderate Democrats fought against, Florez said, "We were able to push the speaker and others to compromise."

The division between Christian conservatives and liberals will be magnified in the upcoming battle over the Defense of Marriage Act, sponsored by Senator Pete Knight (R-Palmdale) for the 2000 election cycle. Republicans hope that polling results showing that the measure is favored by 55 percent of Californians will give them the wedge issue they need to get conservatives to the polls in the next general election. These field polls show that 66 percent of Protestants and 60 percent of Catholics favor the measure.

During the debate over Kuehl's bill, Republican assemblyman Bruce Thompson (R-Fallbrook) said, "The war has begun. This issue will be the issue that will divide this country and this state more than any other. We are not hypocrites. We do not preach something on Sunday and turn around Monday and disobey. We believe in our hearts that this lifestyle is wrong, and we are not gong to condone it." Many of the Democrats who voted against the measure were targeted with bilingual ads in their local papers. One of these shows two men kissing and warns, "Proteja a los ninos del asalto homosexual!" or "Protect the children against homosexual assault." During the debate on the assembly floor, Hannah-Beth Jackson, a Santa Barbara assemblymember who is Jewish, said, "So when I hear my brothers and sisters on this floor talk about good Christian beliefs, I ask myself 'I thought being good Christians meant loving everyone?' This is not good Christian values we're hearing. This is fear. This is not American, and it's certainly not right." Governor Gray Davis did not take a position on the bill, but said in a gubernatorial debate last fall that "California is not ready for gay marriages."


PROJECT GABRIEL, the baby-saving ministry offering emotional support, medical aid, and financial assistance to women in crisis pregnancies, has spread from the diocese of Oakland to the diocese of San Jose. Mike and Anne Ronco of Saint Bonaventure parish in Concord brought Project Gabriel to the Bay Area in 1998. United for Life in San Francisco has made Project Gabriel its major project for the year. And now Our Lady of Peace parish in Santa Clara has signed up as an active participant.

Signs throughout the Bay Area bear the message "Pregnant and need help? Call 1-800-910-0191. the members of this church community (if the sign is on church property) are willing to assist you." All calls go to a crisis pregnancy center in Concord, but if enough churches sign up in the South Bay, a South Bay number will be set up. For further information, call 408-732-FREE.


CATHOLIC FAMILY RADIO, initially known as Catholic Radio Network, now on the air in nine major U.S. cities, will be heard finally July 1 by Bay Area listeners on KDIA-AM (1640) broadcast from Vallejo. The network hopes to move the license and broadcast tower to Richmond and boost the power within the next few months.

Power for the Chicago's WAUR (930 AM) and Los Angeles' KPLS (830 AM) should also increase dramatically later this year.

According to reliable sources, a full 18 hours a day have been filled by talk show hosts including GOP presidential hopeful Alan Keyes (6:00 a.m.-9:00 a.m.), clinical psychologist Ray Guarendi, who calls himself a "Catholic Dr. Laura" (9:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m.), and former California governor Dan Lungren (12:00-3:00 p.m.)

According to a May 13, 1999 Los Angeles Times story, Father Gregory Coiro is working with the network's Los Angeles marketing director to revive the "Religion on the Line" program that for 30 years had aired on KABC-AM (790). "It'll be the same format -- priest, minister and rabbi," said Coiro. "If it happens," said Coiro, "I will host it."

John T. Lynch, president of the network, told the Times that he is negotiating with the "God Squad" on ABC's "Good Morning America" -- Father Tom Hartman and Rabbi Marc Gellman -- for a place on the network's weekly or daily schedule. Boston Mayor Ray Flynn, a Democrat opposed to abortion, may also come on as a national host.


ANOTHER INDEPENDENT CATHOLIC SCHOOL opens in Santa Clara this fall. The founders, Arthur and Margaret Kalb, will begin with kindergarten through fourth grade and then expand one grade a year. According to a story in the May/June View from the Pew, tuition for Veritas Academy will range from $2500-3000, and the academy will lease facilities from Our Lady of Peace in Santa Clara. A brochure left at Our Lady of Peace says the purpose of Veritas will be to provide the Core Knowledge Sequence academic program, to foster good character, and to offer "solid religious education whose content is faithful to the teachings of the Catholic Church." For further information e-mail veritasacd@aol.com or call 408-629-8691.


IN A LETTER TO THE FRIENDS OF THE MINISTRY TO LESBIAN AND GAY CATHOLICS, Father Peter Liuzzi outlined some of the activities in which the Los Angeles archdiocese's outreach to homosexuals has been involved. According to the April 21, 1999 letter, in March Father Liuzzi had participated in a roundtable discussion regarding the Defense of Marriage Act which was sponsored by the California Conference of Catholic Bishops. Father Liuzzi cautioned the council of bishops against their proposed support of the bill which guarantees that marriage be defined to include only a man and a women. "I have urged our bishops to be cautious and restrained in their support, safeguarding their pastoral responsibilities and concerns for lesbian and gay Catholics and their parents.... Jim Schexnayder and Terri Lacino from the National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries were also participants in at the Sacramento meeting. I was pleased that we had such representation." In the same letter Father Liuzzi reports that a parents support group has been formed in Santa Barbara, with Father Larry Dowdel serving as chaplain. Additionally, the archdiocese has another parents support group in Simi Valley with Father Mike Carcerano serving as chaplain. Father Liuzzi continues to serve as the chaplain for the Los Angeles area parent's support group. "The more I think about it, I believe that parents are our greatest source of energy for change in our Church" Liuzzi recounts. Father Liuzzi says in the letter that he is planning to attend the June 12-13 gay pride parade in West Hollywood. There he will set up a Christopher Street West booth in order to reach out to "inactive gay and lesbian Catholics." At 10 a.m. there will a be a Mass at St. Ambrose's church in West Hollywood, "celebrating all our gay and lesbian Catholics." In August, the ministry will host their annual barbecue for the parents groups and parish groups at Amat house. Father Liuzzi closes his letter with, "Don't forget to check out our website address at http://mlgc.la-archdiocese.org."


TRASH HERO. This chart, giving the numbers of abortions performed during nine months last year by each clinic in California's largest abortion chain, may make your eyes glaze over. It looks like a document faxed to an arm-chair pro-lifer by the state health department. This chart, however, having been faxed from the pathology lab used by Souther California's Family Planning Associates, eventually wound up in one of its abortion clinic's dumpsters where it was scooped up by a pro-lifer who was willing to get his hands dirty. Tim Wilson rummaged through the trash thrown out by the 20 Family Planning Associates clinics because the only abortions the State of California tracks "are the ones funded at taxpayer expense," he said.

"The reason I originally went in the trash," said Wilson, who started about two years ago, "is a 'for sale' sign went up at the Inglewood Family Planning Associates clinic, and I wanted to see why the building was for sale. I never did find out why it was for sale, but I found some very interesting trash, especially stuff sent from one clinic to another.... So I went to another clinic to find out about Inglewood." Wilson explained that the 20 clinics are constantly sharing information with each other; he was more likely to find out about the Inglewood clinic by examining the trash at another clinic to which Inglewood had sent a fax. In fact, the clinics share financial resources as well; they are all owned and operated by abortionist Edward Allred. "Even if Inglewood lost money, Allred would keep it open to keep the competition out," Wilson said.

Wilson never did find out why the Inglewood clinic building was for sale, but by piecing together a fax here, a memo there, retrieved from more than 300 "dumpster dives," Wilson determined not only the exact number of abortions performed by Family Planning Associates, but who was performing them -- not just physicians but other healthcare professionals as well.

Asked to describe a typical dumpster dive, Wilson laughed. "There'll be discarded gowns and operating-room trash." That's what you ignore. "You go for the office-room trash and the lounge trash... It's like mining a vein; when you find a good vein, you just keep mining."

Wilson has not found aborted babies in the abortion clinic dumpsters or in the dumpster for Professional Pathology in Long Beach, although he has seen them in containers through the window there.

How does he cope with stressful sights like that? "I don't know how I cope with it," Wilson replied. Even the paperwork is stressful, he added, since it folds, spindles and collates "the human tragedy." Perhaps it's to avoid such stress that lawmakers in Sacramento have repeatedly shied from mandating the collection of statistics for all abortions performed in California, according to Jan Carroll, legislative analyst for the California ProLife Council. "We have introduced [legislation mandating collection] three or four times," she said. "It fails because anything in it with the 'A-word' fails." When it comes to abortion, "they will not pass even the most minor of legislation..."

Currently, the MediCal-funded abortions are tracked, Carroll said, "but they are losing track because they're putting so many MediCal funded abortions into HMO systems." When women get their abortions through an HMO referral to an abortion provider, "they don't get back a report of what number were provided."

If that's so, how accurate can the statistics be which for a few years now have shown a drop in the number of abortions? "That's a very good question," Carroll said. "We've been dependent on [Planned Parenthood's] Alan Guttmacher Institute and organizations like that."

Until now. What does Wilson make of the statistics he found, provided by the abortion providers themselves for themselves? "Obviously, the numbers seem to be falling," he said, "but that's happening around the country. They seem to be falling more in Orange County and San Diego County than other places.... In Orange County they lost one of their abortionists...

"I was able to find their names and addresses from stuff that was thrown away," he went on. Last summer, Wilson and his wife (and fellow activist) sent a mailing to each doctor, stating that their organization, Choose Now, was "compiling a list of doctors who routinely perform abortions" and that no response was necessary if he "met that criteria." A week later, Choose Now sent a flyer to the doctor's neighbors saying, "did you know that your neighbor, Dr. [NAME], is an abortionist?"

"The purpose is not to get these people to quit," said Wilson, "the purpose is to get other people not to go into the abortion industry." Nevertheless, "after we did it, two abortionists did stop working for Family Planning Associates -- that was not our goal -- but that was a fact."

Last month, Wilson sent a similar mailing to 88 putative Allred abortion clinic nurses, from the nurse practitioners who work directly with the abortionists to the "back-office supervisors" who control the abortion mill's flow.

In late May, Allred's attorneys dragged Wilson into court to prevent him from using records gathered from the trash. The court agreed to stop Wilson from violating the privacy of abortion patients but did not turn over records to Allred, as his attorneys wanted.

And this did not prevent Wilson from alerting by mail thousands of women whose records were left in the pathology lab dumpster. (Wilson got more than 300 postcards back from the women seeking help against Allred.) On June 4, attorney Jack Schuler filed a class-action suit against Family Planning Associates on behalf of "more than 10,000 female medical patients" for "reckless handling of private and confidential medical records."


PRO-LIFE PRIEST CENSORED IN PARISH. On January 29, during Sanctity of Life Month, "pro-choice" congresswoman Ellen Tauscher visited St. Isidore School in Danville to present a flag that had flown over the U.S. Capitol. Welcomed at a student assembly, Tauscher -- whose votes have helped perpetuate partial-birth infanticide -- reportedly presented herself as a Catholic legislator.

Father Terry Tompkins, St. Isidore's Parochial Vicar and a pro-life activist, was acting pastor at the time of the Tauscher visit but received no advance notice of the event from the school's principal, Kathy Gannon-Briggs.

On March 12, Father Terry was the celebrant at a school Mass when a St. Isidore 4th grader innocently read an intercessory prayer he'd been handed -- an intercession that seemed to honor Harry Blackmun, the recently deceased Supreme Court justice who authored Roe v. Wade and a companion case, Doe v. Bolton, in 1973. Stunned, Father Terry knelt to pray before continuing Mass.

After these incidents Father Terry asked to speak to students -- grade by grade -- about the Church's pro-life ethic and to write to parents about the Church's response to public figures who support abortion. But St. Isidore's pastor, Rev. Daniel Cardelli, denied Father Terry's request. Father Terry then submitted an application for diocesan reassignment.

Hearing of the controversy, St. Isidore parishioners began writing and calling Father Cardelli, asking his reconsideration of Father Terry's request to address school parents and students. When the pastor failed to answer or seemed to be temporizing, over 40 individuals conducted a Rosary and informational "picket" in front of the parish church and school the morning of March 26. As car pools dropped off students, adult drivers were offered handouts asking "Is St. Isidore School Pro-Life? Is St. Isidore School Catholic?" and recounting the Tauscher-Blackmun incidents, along with a summary of the impact on Father Terry, and excerpts from the national bishops' conference statement on abortion. Picket signs ranged from "In your very presence, aliens devour your land -- Isaiah 1:7" to "St. Isidore School -- Pro-Child, Pro-Family, 'Pro-Choice'?"

A number of St. Isidore students (and later, school parents) thanked the "demonstrators" for supporting Father Terry. The next day, several members of St. Isidore's Pastoral Council suggested a compromise: allowing Father Terry to address a voluntary assembly of school parents and (presumably) older children. But Father Cardelli rejected that alternative.

On April 14, three dozen parishioners sent an advisory letter to school parents, with copies to school staff, the pastor, and Bishop John Cummins of the Oakland Diocese. The letter apprised readers of Father Terry's impending departure and lead-up circumstances: "Whatever the politics at work here, we urge school parents -- and other parishioners -- to pray mightily and simultaneously to join us in imploring the earthly 'powers that be' to permit Father Terry to speak and/or write to students and parents. Father Terry, a dedicated servant of the Lord, should be gratefully encouraged to fulfill the unequivocal pro-life directives of America's bishops and the pro-life pastoral duty he rightly and reasonably feels bound to uphold."

A month went by with no resolution of the conflict. Deciding that some "players" were running out the clock, and fearing that Father Terry's separation from the parish was imminent, several parishioners distributed fliers, now including a student-generated notice, at all Masses the weekend of May 15-16.

A second letter was directed to school parents, remarking, "...you've been sent an April 21 letter expressing Father Cardelli's 'utmost confidence in the principal, faculty, and staff of St. Isidore School....' Regrettably, Father Cardelli expressed no simultaneous confidence in his talented, hardworking, and faith-filled Assistant Pastor.... Though in a separate context, Ms. Gannon-Briggs expressed in the April 21 letter a 'need to keep communication with our children open and honest.' Why, then, is Father Terry not permitted to speak to the children?"

But the diocesan personnel board had already directed Fr. Terry to interview at St. Ambrose Church, in Berkeley. That assignment was made, and Father Terry celebrated his last Mass at St. Isidore's on May 30. He received three standing ovations during the Mass and consoled hundreds of parishioners at receptions following that Mass and three others.

To at least one parishioner, Fr. Cardellij said that it was appropriate for Father Terry to move on, since he should have become a pastor presiding over his own parish some time ago. The parishioner reminded Father Cardelli that Father Terry has been told that he could not become a pastor unless and until he agreed to marry co-habiting couples. Father Cardelli then claimed there is "no basis in Canon Law" for such exclusions. The parishioner responded in writing to that claim later the same evening, citing two Catholic Catechism precepts and at least five sections of Canon Law that support Father Terry's position.

To a number of parishioners, Father Cardelli said that their visible activism in support of Father Terry's position was only making things worse for him. Several of the parishioners responded that they had received no reply to their letters, and they expressed their hope that their independent actions taken on Father Terry's behalf would not trigger a campaign of vengeance directed against him by his ecclesiastical superiors.

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