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Contents © 2003
by Jim Holman.
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NEWS
SEPTEMBER 2003

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RIGHT TO KNEEL. In June, Cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect of the Holy See's Congregation for Divine Worship, affirmed that the faithful maintain the right to kneel or sit after receiving communion. In seeking to implement the new General Instruction on the Roman Missal, some bishops had insisted that the faithful stand until everyone had received communion. Responding to a dubium (question) submitted by Cardinal Francis George -- whether it were the intention of Roman Missal to forbid "kneeling or sitting in personal prayer" after communion, Cardinal Arinze said, no. Arinze said that the General Instruction intended "on the one hand to ensure within broad limits a certain uniformity of posture within the congregation for the various parts of the celebration of Holy Mass, and on the other, not to regulate posture rigidly in such a way that those who wish to kneel or sit would no longer be free."


THE PRESENTATION SISTERS in Los Gatos will build a "green" retreat center, according to a July 10 Catholic News Service report. The center will be built using straw-bale construction -- straw bale "bricks" covered with plaster or cement stucco. Besides this environment-friendly feature, the center will utilize a solar design, have an organic garden, will compost its waste, and have a recharging station for electric vehicles. Sister Marie Mulpeters, directress of the center, said she sees it as setting "an example for the community of environmentally sustainable living and education."


WAL-MART IN THE PINK. In the wake of the United State Supreme Court's decision striking down a Texas anti-sodomy law, retailer Wal-Mart extended its anti-discrimination policy to include homosexuals, said the July 1 New York Times. The company had been lobbied to by a homosexual rights group, the Pride Foundation of Seattle, which had invested in Wal-Mart stocks. In late June, Wal-Mart sent a letter to the Pride Foundation, stating: "we affirm our commitment and pledge our support to equal opportunity employment for all qualified persons, regardless of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, disability or status as a veteran or sexual orientation."

Wal-Mart has said it will not offer benefits coverage for domestic partners. Homosexual rights groups, however, said they will continue to lobby Wal-Mart for such coverage.


SUPPORT FOR HOMOSEXUAL MARRIAGE declined in the wake of "gay rights" victories, such as the Supreme Court's anti-sodomy law decision, Canada's sanction of "gay" marriage, and Wal-Mart's new anti-discrimination policy, according to a USA Today/CNN Gallup poll. The poll released July 28, showed that, while support for homosexual marriage rose steadily from 35 percent (57 percent against) in 1988 to 60 percent (35 percent against) in May 5-7, 2003, in July it declined to 48 percent (46 percent against.) This is the lowest percentage of support for homosexual marriage since November 1996, when 44 percent of those polled said they supported homosexual marriage and 47 percent said they opposed it.

Support for other homosexual issues also declined in July. Though in May of this year, 54 percent of those polled said the homosexual lifestyle should be considered acceptable, in July only 46 percent said it should be so deemed, while 49 percent said it should be considered unacceptable. Support for civil unions for homosexuals also declined, with only 40 percent in July saying they favored them (down from 49 percent in May) and 57 percent saying they opposed them (up from 49 percent in May).


THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, however, presented a different take on public support for homosexual marriage. The July 25 Chronicle cited a new poll, conducted from June 24 to July 8 by the Pew Research Center for People and the Press which, said the Chronicle, shows that "opposition to gay marriage has dropped significantly among Americans in recent years." According to the Pew poll, 53 percent said they opposed homosexual marriages while 38 percent said they supported them. This is in contrast to a similar poll in 1996 in which 65 percent said they opposed homosexual marriage while 27 percent said they supported it.

The Pew poll also noted that opposition to homosexual marriage among Protestants and blacks has remained essentially unchanged from what it was in 1996. "White Roman Catholics and white mainline Protestants," however, said the Chronicle, "have become increasingly open to the idea, according to the poll."


REGISTERED NURSES working at nine Catholic Healthcare West hospitals in Northern California have approved a two-year contract with the hospitals, said their union, the California Nurses Association, on July 25. According to the July 26 San Francisco Chronicle, the nurses union said the contract contains "dramatic gains in pension and pay," while Catholic Healthcare West spokesman, Terry Lightfoot, said "we are pleased to have a contract that will increase our ability to recruit and retain nurses in the future." Besides improved pension benefits, the contract provides a 14 percent pay increase over two years along with better health care benefits and a ban on mandatory overtime.


MAYBE ELSEWHERE. NOT SACRAMENTO. In an interview with the Sacramento diocese's Catholic Herald (July 5), Bishop William Weigand said that the sexual molestation crisis has been "very clearly" the "toughest" issue he has had to deal with. "But I don't mind, because as bishop I have to address whatever the needs are at the moment -- that's my job," said Weigand. "It's a very important issue and dealing with any perpetrators so it doesn't happen again, to put safety measures and safe environment programs in place for children that will keep them safe, that's a very good and positive contribution to society in general."

Bishop Weigand said that what he has found "most burdensome probably" has been "the public scrutiny and the public skepticism, which," he said, "might well be warranted in some quarters of the country, but really from my judgement has not been warranted here. To have the public in a sense, through the media, focus almost solely on the few cases of abuse, as if that kind of defined the church of Sacramento, and it doesn't." Weigand then went on to praise the "vitality and the good things that are going on at all levels" in the parishes of the Sacramento diocese. When asked to "admit. that there's some among the faithful who still have distrust of the church," Weigand said, "yes, and I would say it's especially likely with Catholics who are not fully plugged into their parish. So the most active people are fine -- they know and they see what is going on. But it's the people who may attend Mass and the sacraments with not much regularity ... they don't know what the vitality is and what the care has been and is."


MOLESTATION ROUNDUP. The Franciscan order removed Father Gus Krumm from St. Francis of Assisi parish in Sacramento July 11, the same day the Sacramento Bee publicized Krumm's past sexual misconduct. The Franciscans had sent Krumm from a parish in Oregon to Sacramento in May 2002 after he had admitted to abusing minors while teaching at the Franciscan seminary in Santa Barbara in the 1970s and '80s, said the July 12 Bee. The Franciscans informed neither Bishop William Weigand nor the parish of Krumm's past before placing him in the St. Francis friary, which is adjacent to the parish school. The Franciscans said Krumm posed no threat and that, since his placement was a matter internal to the order, the order did not need to inform the bishop of Krumm's past. Though Sacramento diocesan officials said the Franciscans should have told the diocese of Krumm's past, Father David Deibel, vicar for canonical affairs for the diocese, said "we are grateful for the Franciscan cooperation and sensitivity to this matter."

Two siblings of Joh and James Howard who, in 1998, successfully sued the diocese of Stockton over the claim that they were molested for 10 years by Father Oliver O'Grady, have filed their own abuse lawsuit against the diocese, said a July 25 Associated Press report. Cristin Perez, 36, and her brother Daniel Howard, 34, citing abuse by O'Grady, had filed a lawsuit against the diocese in 1994, only to have it thrown out because the statute of limitations had expired. But, according to a January 1, 2003 law, abuse victims can file new lawsuits if their earlier lawsuits had been rejected because of the statute of limitations.

A Salinas man has filed suit against the dioceses of Tucson and Monterey alleging sexual abuse by two priests at Christ the King church in Salinas and at two churches in Arizona between 1989 and 1996, said a June 6 Monterey Herald story. The man, now in his early 20s, accused the Rev. John Velez and the Rev. Juan Guillen. Guillen, 59, has pleaded guitly in an Arizona court to molesting boys, while the whereabouts of Velez are unknown. The diocese of Monterey says it has no record of Guillen having been in the diocese (he was a visiting priest) and claims it dismissed Velez in 1991 after the man, currently suing the diocese, filed a complaint. The diocese said it had notified law enforcement of Velez in 1991 and again last year and had offered the man and his mother aid and counseling, which was refused.


A LETTER WRITER to the July 9 Sacramento Bee said she had the answer to California's budget crisis: zero population growth. Referring to media reports about California's booming population, the state's ecological and fiscal problems, Stephanie Parmely of Sacramento gave this suggestion: "educate people about zero population growth and the benefits of having fewer children, or even remaining child-free." She then went on: "What would our world look like if we did not feel we needed to have children to be fulfilled and contribute to society? What if the resources parents give (or in some cases, don't give) to their children were given to society? How would zero population growth affect our world? What would the world be like?"

Letter writer Terry Fritzshe of Sacramento answered Parmely on July 27. Referring to her relatives and their children, Fritzshe said, "I'm sure they would have amassed a sizable fortune by now had they not put their seven children through Catholic schools and colleges. However, they have a far better treasure -- their family.

"'What would the world be like, if we did not feel the need to have children to be fulfilled and contribute to society?' We would be a nation of self-indulgent, lonely, rich, old people without family.

"Give me family over riches any day."


SOCIAL WORKERS will no longer enjoy the absolute immunity enjoyed by prosecutors, said a July 24 Pacific Justice Institute press release. In the case Miller v. Gammie, the ninth circuit court of appeals in San Francisco ruled that social workers will have a more limited immunity, similar to that of police officers, in dealing with families. "For the last fifteen years, [social workers] had unfettered discretion to do what they wanted," said Pacific Justice attorney Donnie Cox, who assisted with the case. "They will now be held accountable when they maliciously violate the rights of parents or their children."


SAN FRANCISCO'S DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S office has dismissed charges against 407 people involved in the antiwar protests in San Francisco last March, said a June 27 New York Times report. The district attorney will only pursue charges against 20 cases which, it says, involve violence or vandalism. "We have made the decision to dismiss, keeping in mind that these cases basically involved nonviolent offenders, people that when ordered to step out of the street refused to, or when told to go left went right," said assistant district attorney Mike Menesini. Menesini also said that the police department had said it could not "establish the facts necessary to convict any of these individuals" because arrest reports were too general.


SAN FRANCISCO SUPERVISOR, Tony Hall, however, had urged district attorney Terrence Hallinan to prosecute the arrested protestors, saying they at least should be required to pay fines for the expenses the city incurred because of the protests. According to the June 27 New York Times, the city of San Francisco incurred $3.5 million in costs in March because of the protests.

While some news reports have emphasized the peaceful character of the March protests, which shut down downtown San Francisco, the Berkeley-based New Oxford Review in June offered some very different details. Some protestors tossed newspaper stands, smashed windows of parked cars, destroyed the cameras of newsmen, and slashed the tires of police cars. Police confiscated such items as wrenches, brass knuckles, a stun gun, and Molotov cocktails from a few protestors. A group called Pukers 4 Peace carried on a street performance of induced vomiting in front of the federal building. Another group staged a poop-in, defecating in front of the Civic Center.

"Now we're not denying that the demonstrators had a valid message (so eloquently expressed by the Pope)," said the Review, but their 'drastic measures' drowned out the message."


CATHOLIC, PRO-LIFE San Francisco supervisor, Tony Hall, told Catholic San Francisco (July 25) his views on Proposition N, the "Care Not Cash" initiative passed by city voters last fall. The initiative was to replace with city services the cash payments it gave to approximately 2,800 homeless.

Supervisor Hall said he did not endorse Proposition N. "When you take something away from someone, it's usually because it's hurting them," Hall said. "I'm not convinced that every person on cash assistance is a substance abuser, as the campaign portrayed. I think a lot of people use that $349 a month to subsist on, albeit in a very meager fashion, but for some it represents independence and at least hope. The measure itself broad-strokes the entire homeless community as substance abusers. [a category] that represents 25-30% of the homeless population."

Hall noted that offering services such as shelters would be three to four times more expensive to the city than the cash payments because of the waste involved in what he called the city's "homeless industry." "It doesn't take a genius to tell you that these services are neither effective nor efficient," Hall said. He noted that an effective system would be "one that would start to identify what categories those people coming for services fit so we could give true Christian service to them."

"Care not Cash," said Hall, "treats every homeless person with a broad stroke, telling them all their cash is gone and we're going to put them in a shelter. I ask you from a Christian point of view, in understanding people as human beings, what does that do to a person who has fallen on hard times? He's left with no way to help himself and he's enslaved in the shelter or SRO system. Then he becomes a subsidy; our lifelong problem. Then we've institutionalized his misery. We've done nothing to help him pull himself up and get out of this. My approach is to really help the guy who has fallen on hard times. Prop. N doesn't do that. It treats the abusers and the non-abusers the same way. That is inhuman, it's not charitable and it's not going to save lives."


"EVERYBODY RUNNING FOR MAYOR is Catholic. Don't you love that one? And yet every one of them knocks me for being pro-life. And isn't that the essence of Catholicism?" asked Hall in the Catholic San Francisco interview. Hall, a father of seven who attends Mass every Sunday, said he knows "about the value of life because I believe in it with seven kids. And yet I'm castigated as some kind of right-wing pro-lifer." And he continued: "I'm not afraid to stand up to anybody and say 'yes I believe the most important thing that we have is life.' And that reflects on my views about the homeless. If a guy out there needs a hand up, I'm going to give him a hand up. If my giving him a hand up is going to hurt him, then I'm not going to do it. But you have to start with your basis as a Catholic. When you've got seven kids your whole outlook changes a bit. What these people don't understand about someone like me is that 'choice' is a misnomer. You're either pro-life or you're pro-abortion. 'Choice' is a word fabricated by the media to confuse the issue. Everybody has a free will and because of that you make choices. You either support life or you're against life. That's all. That's what the choice is."


THE UNITED NATIONS AIDS AGENCY published in late June a draft of a study that demonstrates that condoms are ten percent ineffective in protecting against HIV, said a June 24 LifesiteNews.com/Catholic World News story. According to the story, some studies show a 50 percent failure rate for condoms. In a Boston Globe story on the report quoted by Catholic World News, Edward Green, a senior research scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health, said that the ten-percent failure rate of condoms in protecting users from HIV is "not good enough for a fatal disease. The way condoms are marketed in Africa and other developing parts of the world is as if they were 100 percent safe. Condoms have brand names like Shield and Protector that gives the impression that they are 100 percent safe." Indeed, a September 2002 pro-condom Population Action International report, "Condoms Count," said, '"Public health experts around the globe agree that condoms block contact with bodily fluids that can carry the HIV virus and have nearly 100 percent effectiveness when used correctly and consistently.''


REPUBLICANS OBJECTED to a resolution honoring Fathers Day, brought onto the floor of the state assembly on June 12. The resolution honored "single fathers, foster fathers, adoptive fathers, biological fathers, stepfathers, families headed by two fathers, grandfathers raising grandchildren, fathers in blended households and other nontraditional fathers." Assemblyman Tim Leslie (R-Roseville) said that, the reference to biological fathers notwithstanding, he didn't recognize himself or his own father in the resolution. Indeed, he noted someone could be a biological father from "something created from a test tube."

La Mesa Assemblyman Jay LaSuer concurred. He noted he has a wife, two daughters, represents "mainstream America," and doesn't call himself a "biological father. We leave out the way it all began, the way the good Lord intended," he said. "We cannot even recognize fathers of traditional families. I'm a traditional father. A biological father can be the result of a one-night stand, rape, incest -- I don't want to be grouped with that." Ray Haynes (R-Murrieta) noted "If all they'd said was 'we honor all fathers,' and left it at that, then every single father would have felt we were honoring them. But they have to inject all this extraneous garbage into it."

Democrats said Republican criticism was much ado about nothing. "That's the kind of thing that makes you think they're from another planet from time to time," Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg (D-Los Angeles) said. "I don't know of anybody in the general public who would be unhappy or upset by a resolution saying all fathers in all kinds of families should be recognized on Father's Day." "Let me tell you, some of us who have a child who is not biologically ours are just as much proud and just as much fathers as you are," said Assemblyman John Longville (D-Rialto), who raised his stepdaughter Regan from a very young age.

For her part, the bill's author, Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego) said she would have put in the word "traditional" had she known that is what conservative lawmakers wanted. Alan Nakanishi (R-Lodi) was not convinced. "It didn't belong on the floor," he said. "It was a homosexual bill in the sense that they wanted to make a point out of two [gay] fathers."

The resolution passed by one vote, 41-18, along partylines.

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