NEWS

ARTICLES

LETTERS

FOLLOW ME

ROAMIN' CATHOLIC






Contents © 2003
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

NEWS
October 2003

---

"EXTREMELY INCOMPLETE AND INACCURATE" is what Father David Deibel called a San Francisco Faith article that detailed Deibel's dealings with convicted molester, Father Gordon McRae, according to the August 30 Sacramento Bee. (See "Not Credible?" in the September Faith.) Deibel, a lawyer, is vicar episcopal for the diocese of Sacramento and handles sexual abuse investigations for the diocese. In 1994, the trial judge Arthur Brennen criticized Deibel's testimony in the New Hampshire trial of Gordon McRae. "I believe that Father Deibel attempted to mislead the court, that he intentionally minimized the behavior of Gordon MacRae and that he is not a credible witness," said Brennen after the hearing. "I hope and trust he is not representative of the attitudes of the governing body of the Catholic Church concerning sexual predators within its clergy."

"I don't know why the judge said what he said," Deibel told the Bee. Deibel said he was not present in the courtroom when the judge made his statement. The Faith article referred to a memo sent by Manchester diocesan attorney Brad Cook to Manchester bishop John McCormick, which referred to a strain in the relationship between Deibel and McCrae, on the one hand, and the diocese, on the other. The memo read: "as to the strain in the relationship with the diocese, it was more of a strain before, during, and after the 1994 trial as MacRae had Deibel call Bishop Christensen and threatened him and called me and threatened me. Father Deibel was clearly in a position where he threatened the diocesan leadership." In reply to the memo, Deibel told the Bee, "I wonder how you can intimidate someone when you're 3,000 miles away?" Saying that the allegations made in the Faith are not new, Deibel said he could "only speculate" why they were being brought up now.

The Bee article said that Deibel "was not interviewed by the San Francisco publication." The Bee, however, failed to note that, as the Faith article stated, Father Deibel had declined to be interviewed.


BISHOP WILLIAM WEIGAND went to bat for Father Deibel following the publication of the Faith article on him, issuing the following statement: "Father Deibel is a good priest; he is also a good canon lawyer.... He is diligent, responsive and tireless in his efforts. Father Deibel is committed to making sure that complaints of misconduct are taken seriously, that the proper investigations are undertaken and that the appropriate pastoral care and healing is provided to the victims." The August 30 Bee article noted that victims' advocates have criticized the diocese's appointment of Deibel as the point man for abuse investigations.


ANOTHER REASON TO HOME SCHOOL. The student co-president of the Gay Straight Alliance at Gunn High School in Palo Alto, writing in the Spring issue of the Alliance's newsletter, Outright, described how her school's alliance promoted the homosexual agenda. "We brought High Contrast, a photo-narrative exhibit from GSA Network, to our school and set it up in the library and in the middle of the quad for the entire week surrounding Day of Silence," wrote the student. The "Day of Silence" is, according to the Gay Straight Alliance, a "national youth movement protesting against the silence faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their allies." High Contrast is a collection of photographs of homosexual youth. One photograph features a naked torso over which is scrawled, "My belly is not ruled by society it will be smothered with whomever I want close... Genitalia will not limit my physical affection." "The exhibit," wrote the student, "was warmly received by almost everyone. The week before, we presented a workshop on AB 537, the California Student Safety and Violence Prevention Act of 2000, in a mandatory staff meeting where we had teachers sign up to take their classes to go see High Contrast." The referred to act is a law which prohibits discrimination or harassment in California schools based on "sexual orientation" or "gender identity." The discrimination can be either actual or merely perceived.


AFTER ALL, WHAT IS A GIRL, ANYWAY? Outright also reported that the Gay-Straight Alliance Club at Berkeley High School "advocated" with school administration "for a transgender girl [i.e. a boy] to be able to attend a 'girls only' counseling workshop on body image." To leverage its advocacy, the Club used the California Student Safety and Violence Prevention Act, a 2000. "GSA Network, Gay-Straight Alliances, and student activists," noted Outright, will propel forward the movement for gender equity by expanding it to include transgender and gender non-conforming youth."


VIRTUAL MARRIAGE. By one vote, the California state assembly, on September 4, sent to the governor a bill that, if signed, would give California de facto same-sex marriage. The bill extends all the rights and duties of marriage under California law to domestic partnerships. It even requires that the dissolution of same sex "domestic partnerships" be effected through state superior courts. The bill's passage comes three years after California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 22, which defined marriage as the union between a woman and a man. That ballot initiative passed with 66 percent of the vote and carried 52 of the state's 58 counties.

"California law gives some 300 rights and obligations to marriage," said Assembly Republican Leader Dave Cox (R-Fair Oaks). "This bill gives homosexual couples 299 of those rights and obligations. How is that any different than marriage?"

Proponents argued that the bill was a matter of basic fairness and a turning away from discrimination.

Openly homosexual assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) denied that gay marriage "goes against the will of the people. How presumptuous it is for you to decide that the love [of two gay people] is in any way unequal to the love of anyone else," he said. "The sanctity of intimate consensual [same-sex] relationships is no different than that of other relationships. Love knows no bounds of orientation, and the sooner you understand that, the sooner you believe that, then the sooner we won't have these kinds of debates."


NONE OF YOUR RELIGION! During the debate on the domestic partnership bill, Assemblyman Tim Leslie (R-Tahoe City) quoted the recent Vatican document on same sex unions: "The respect we should have for 'homosexual persons cannot lead in any way to approval of homosexual behavior or to legal recognition of homosexual unions. The common good requires that laws recognize, promote and protect marriage as the basis of the family, the primary unit of society. Legal recognition of homosexual unions or placing them on the same level as marriage would mean not only the approval of deviant behavior, with the consequence of making it a model in present-day society, but would also obscure basic values which belong to the common inheritance of humanity.' We have to 'defend these values, for the good of men and women and for the good of society itself.'"

Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg (D-Hollywood), the bill's author, disagreed. "It's imposing your religion to impose your opposition to domestic partnerships," she said, "and that is unconstitutional. If you for religious reasons oppose domestic partnerships, then don't be in one, but don't use your religion to oppose my domestic partnership. This is a fundamental issue of civil rights. I'm asking you to stand up for fundamental rights."


SOME CATHOLIC HEALTHCARE leaders have criticized a new California law that prohibits the sale of hospitals if the contract dictates the kind and degree of medical services the buyer may offer, said an August 13 Catholic News Service article. Under the new law, sellers of Catholic hospitals can not prohibit buyers from offering abortions, direct sterilizations, contraception, or assisted suicide in those facilities. In the past, in sales to secular, for-profit companies, Catholic hospitals have bound buyers by contract to follow the ethical and religious directives for Catholic hospitals, issued by the United States Catholic bishops. However, even before the passage of the new law in July of this year, state attorney general Bill Lockyer prevented the sale of Santa Maria Hospital in Los Angeles to Star Healthcare Group, where the terms required the hospital follow Catholic norms. In a letter to the California Women's Law Center, Lockyer wrote: "I will not approve the imposition of religious principles on a secular for-profit hospital."

Father Michael Place, president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association, criticized the law, calling it "an unprecedented interference in the sale of property. Historically, sellers could put covenants on contracts for their buyers." The law, said Father Place "is an invasion of the government into the freedom of the private sector in carrying out business in accordance with its beliefs. It is part of a larger coordinated effort to restrict Catholic health care [facilities] from carrying on their mission -- to protect innocent human life and the dignity of human sexuality."

Ned Dolesji, executive director for the California Conference of Catholic Bishops, told Catholic News Service the conference did not take a position on the measure because "it is not a direct affront to our religious liberty. The law allows Catholic hospitals to sell to buyers that are morally appropriate."


RELIGION IMPROVES STUDENT PERFORMANCE, said a study released on July 28 by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. According to the July 29 Sacramento Bee, the National Council studied the effects of Released Time Bible Education, using 75 fourth and fifth grade students of the Oakland public schools. With parental permission, students were allowed to skip one class a week to receive Bible instruction from volunteers. The study found that students who participated for one academic year in the Release Time program scored higher on tests in reading, language, and mathematics than those who did not participate.

Despite the positive effects of Released Time, some cautioned that it came dangerously close to violating the separation of church and state. One of these was the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director for Americans United for Separation of Church and State. "Some organizations have demanded that public schools help promote released-time programs," Lynn said. "The Supreme Court upheld off-campus released-time under certain conditions in 1952. This means that public schools may allow these programs, but they may not promote or help organize them." Lynn ascribed the students' success to the opportunity the Released Time program offered for additional reading and language instruction. "I expect we would have seen the same results with a secular reading program," said Lynn.


ANOTHER CALIFORNIA SYNOD. For a time it seemed that building new cathedrals was the rage among California bishops. Not long after Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles set to work to build his $200 million Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, both the dioceses of Oakland and Orange announced construction plans for their own cathedrals. Then, in 2000, Cardinal Mahony called for an archdiocesan synod, the first to be held in Los Angeles since 1960. In 2002, San Jose diocese took a similar step, like Los Angeles instituting listening sessions where the laity could voice their concerns, but resulting only in a plan for renewal, not a full-fledged synod. In 2001, the diocese of Stockton (under a former Los Angeles auxiliary bishop, Stephen Blaire) also set in motion a synod, which will conclude in 2005-2006. A synod, according to canon law, establishes particular law for a diocese.

Though Bishop William Weigand of Sacramento is not planning a new cathedral, merely a renovation of the existing one, he is holding a diocesan synod. According to the August 9 Catholic Herald, after removing the Eucharist (in a gold monstrance) from Blessed Sacrament Cathedral in downtown Sacramento and officially closing the cathedral for renovations, Weigand announced the opening of a synod. The synod process, which began in October 2000 with a priests' convocation, will last 15 months and the synod itself will convene October 11-13, 2004, at the Holy Rosary Parish Center in Woodland.


THE SACRAMENTO SYNOD, titled "Journeying Together in Christ," will follow a pattern similar to the Los Angeles archdiocesan synod, which completed its work this summer. It will be directed by a "Synod Preparatory Commission," consisting of priests, religious, and lay representatives. It will be directed by a religious sister, Mercy Sister Eileen Enright, and will have "speak-out sessions" in parishes and deaneries to consult the laity. During the synod itself, said Sister Enright, "the dominant voice will be the laity. This will be the first synod where the majority of the delegates are lay people." According to Enright, of the 350 delegates, 250 will be lay.

In preparation for the synod, in 2001, the diocese surveyed 65,000 lay Catholics. According to the Catholic Herald, "the study showed that a large majority of Catholics were pleased with their parishes and parish leadership, and that they ranked children's religious education, youth ministry, adult religious education and marriage preparation among top priority parish needs."


WRITING ON HUMANÆ VITÆ, Pope Paul VI's 1968 encyclical in which he reiterated the Church's condemnation of artificial birth control, Bishop William Weigand of Sacramento said (in the August 9 Catholic Herald): "Unfortunately, many people consider contraception a non-issue, even though until 1930 all Christian churches held that artificial contraception was a grave evil. Of course, the Church does approve of family planning in many circumstances, but only through the use of natural methods, which, today, are equally as scientific and effective as methods of artificial contraception."

Weigand noted that, when Humanæ Vitæ was issued, "few people took seriously the warning of Pope Paul VI that contraception would lead to the devaluing and increased breakdown of marriage and family life." Far from being "the answer to problems," artificial contraception, said Weigand, was "the root of problems." When "husband and wife began to place artificial obstacles in the way of their lovemaking, besides the moral evil involved," said the bishop, "they put at risk their relationship, both humanly and spiritually."

Bishop Weigand encouraged readers to read and reflect on Humanæ Vitæ, and gave this address where they could access Pope Paul's encyclical: www.nfpoutreach.org/HUMANAEVITAE.htm.


CALIFORNIA'S MISSIONS NEED millions in dollars for preservation, said an August 16 Associated Press story. According to the California Missions Foundation, $39 million are needed to repair adobe walls, wood damaged by termites and other causes, and fire hazards. An additional $5.8 million are needed to preserve Spanish-era paintings, historical documents, and such items as historical vestments. Another $5.2 million are needed for parking ramps, facilities for disabled, and burglar alarms. Though the Missions Foundation hopes for $10 million each from state and federal governments, it will need to rely on private donors for the remaining sums of money. Nineteen of the 21 missions are owned by the Catholic Church.

Though some of the more popular missions, such as Mission Dolores in San Francisco, San Carlos de Borromeo in Carmel, and Santa Barbara, can rely on tourists and philanthropists for donations, other less frequently visited missions cannot attract the same money. For instance, San Miguel, near Paso Robles, could fall in the next "decent-sized earthquake," said Terry Ruscin of the California Missions Foundation.

For more information on the Foundation's campaign, please visit www.missionsofcalifornia.org/


ANOTHER ALLEGED VICTIM has accused Father Oliver O'Grady of having molested him, but the diocese of Stockton responded that the molestation was partly the victim's fault, said an August 15 Associated Press report. Joh and James Howard, in 1998 successfully sued the diocese of Stockton over the claim that they were molested for 10 years by Father Oliver O'Grady; their siblings, Cristin Perez, 36, and Daniel Howard, 34, it was reported last month, also filed suit against the diocese, citing abuse by O'Grady. The latest alleged victim, a man who now lives in Oregon, filed suit in February of this year, accusing O'Grady of about 150 acts of abuse at St. Anne's church in Lodi. The abuse allegedly occurred over a three-year period when the man was around 11 or 12, according to his lawyer, John Manly.

In late July, the diocese of Stockton, in court documents, said the latest alleged victim did not exercise due "care, caution or prudence" to avoid molestation at the hands of O'Grady. Lawyer Manly called the diocese's statement "the 'kid-wanted-it' defense. That's what they're saying," said Manly. "What was it? He looked really attractive in his Little League uniform? This is atrocious and foul."

In 1993, O'Grady pled guilty to molestation charges and spent seven years in prison. In 2000, he was deported to his native Ireland.


IN RESPONSE to the Associated Press article, Bishop Blaire said, in a press release (given to the Faith on August 25), that "the Diocese of Stockton states unequivocally that it does not in any way take the position that a victim of childhood sexual abuse is responsible for that abuse. The legal response from the attorneys of The Diocese of Stockton ... will be amended since it was never intended to suggest any responsibility of a child victim for acts of sexual abuse."

Bishop Blaire asserted that "the Catholic Church is deeply committed to the pastoral care and healing for all who have suffered the devastating effects of child abuse."


"NEW ECUMENICAL CHALLENGES" face dialogue between Episcopalians and Catholics because of the appointment of an openly homosexual man as Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire, said a "reflection" written by Bishop Stephen Blaire. At their triennial convention, held in Minneapolis in early August, the Episcopal Church in the United States (a branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion) confirmed the election as bishop of New Hampshire of Canon V. Gene Robinson, who admits to having a homosexual relationship. The convention also recognized "that local faith communities are operating within the bounds of our common life as they explore and experience liturgies celebrating and blessing same-sex unions."

In his August 11 "reflection," Bishop Blaire, chairman for the United States bishops' committee for ecumenical and interreligious affairs, said that the convention's decisions "reflect a departure from the common understanding of the meaning and purpose of human sexuality, and the morality of homosexual activity as found in Sacred Scripture and the Christian tradition. As such they have serious implications in the search for Christian unity and for the work of our bilateral Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue in the United States." The bishops, however, said Blaire, "remain committed to prayerful and honest dialogue" with Episcopalians.


IN LIEU OF MASS, communion services are held at 8 a.m. every Saturday morning at Holy Cross parish in Santa Cruz, within the old mission chapel. A female presider leads the congregation in a communion service, complete with a confiteor, kyrie, readings read by lectors, the Gospel read by the female presider, and the Prayer of the Faithful. The presider stands behind the altar to lead the congregation in the Our Father. In imitation of priest's actions during Mass she holds the chalice and the host in the air to recite, "this is the Lamb of God."

When asked what the pastor, Father Stetz, does Saturday mornings to prevent him from saying Mass, a woman from the rectory replied, "baptisms, weddings and other things."


SCOUT MASTERS IN DRAG? On August 2, Governor Gray Davis signed into a law a bill that levies $150,000 in fines against any one who refuses to hire or rent to transsexuals, said a Coalition for California Families report. According to the Coalition, the new law affects all citizens, as well as religious entities and the Boy Scouts of America. The law, said the Coalition, is based on the section of the California state penal code which defines "gender" as identity, appearance, or behavior, whether or not that "identity, appearance, or behavior is different from that traditionally associated with the victim's sex at birth."

According to the Coalition, the bill passed the state senate, 23-11, on July 24 "without a scintilla of debate" from Republicans. This was in contrast to the seven Republican assembly members who spoke out against the bill when it was in the Assembly in April. (The bill passed the Assembly on April 21 with only a small margin.) The senate Republicans' "silence," according to the Coalition, "sent Gray Davis a message that there wasn't going to be much fuss" about the bill.

Why didn't the senate Republicans debate the bill? "It was a majority bill, that requires only Democratic votes," said Nghia Nguyen, press secretary for Senator Jim Brulte (Rancho Cucamonga), head of the Senate Republican Caucus. "When bills require only majority votes, Republicans really don't have a lot of clout. The Republicans will speak till they are blue in the face, and it will still pass." That all the Republicans voted against the bill, said Nguyen, sent a "strong message" to Gray Davis that he should not sign the bill.


LATINOS FAVOR DEMOCRATS, but tend to be more pro-life than non-Latinos, said a recent New York Times-CBS News poll. The August 4 New York Times reported that Latinos support the Democrat Party by a margin of 49 to 21 percent, and a majority thought the Democrats were better able to make and sustain a strong economy than were Republicans. Latinos tended to support a bigger government that offers services, supports affirmative action, and questions the Iraq war. Yet, on other issues, a majority of Latinos were in favor of tax cuts, school vouchers, were "less likely" to favor homosexual marriage, and were evenly divided on whether homosexual relations between consenting adults should be legal ("among the general public, this position is supported by 54 percent to 39 percent," said the Times). As for abortion, 44 percent of Latinos said it should not be legal, compared to only 22 percent of non-Latinos.

The nationwide poll was conducted with 3,092 adults, 1,074 of whom described themselves as Latino. The entire poll has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points and four percentage points for Latinos.


ABOUT 1,0000 PEOPLE gathered at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on August 10 to protest laboratory's role in producing a new generation of nuclear weapons, said the August 11 San Francisco Chronicle. Recently the United States Congress overturned a ban on "mini-nukes," and President Bush has called for "more usable" nuclear weapons, which would be researched and developed at Lawrence Livermore and other laboratories. One "new generation" bomb being developed by Lawrence Livermore is the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator bomb, that burrows into the ground to destroy targets.

Protests at Lawrence Livermore began during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, but over the years have dwindled to a few die-hards who would gather there on the weekend closest to August 6 and August 9, the anniversaries of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This year, in the wake of the large anti-war protests in San Francisco, the Lawrence Livermore protest crowd swelled. "It is the 100th day of [United States'] occupation [in Iraq], and they still haven't found weapons of mass destruction," said Tara Dorabji, who helped organize the demonstration. "The people of the United States are realizing that those weapons are right here in the Bay Area."


JUAN DIEGO PRESENTE! Though some historians have questioned the existence of St. Juan Diego, to whom our Lady of Guadalupe appeared on Tepeyac Hill outside Mexico City in 1531, new research has confirmed that he did, indeed, exist. According to Catholic News Service, on July 31, Mexico's National Library of Anthropology released a report that analyzed new evidence -- some letters and a document which, researchers say, is Juan Diego's will.


ASYLUM. The United States ninth circuit court of appeals in San Francisco has granted asylum to a Chinese woman who had had to undergo two forced abortions in China, said a September 2 LifeNews.com report. The court unanimously overturned a Board of Immigration decision denying asylum to Xuan Wang and her husband. Said Justice Betty Fletcher, Wang had "shown a genuine and well-founded fear of future persecution, should she return to China." Chinese officials had issued an order that Wang be forcibly sterilized should she return to China.

The decision of the federal court was in accord with a 1996 Congressional law that allowed 1,000 people a year to declare political asylum if they could demonstrate that their countries would force abortion or sterilization on them pursuant to population control programs.

TOP