NEWS

ARTICLES

LETTERS

FOLLOW ME

ROAMIN' CATHOLIC






Contents © 1997
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

NEWS
OCTOBER 1997

---

"PSYCHOLOGISTS OPPOSE CONVERSION THERAPY FOR GAYS," blared the headline. The August 15 San Francisco Chronicle story reported that the "American Psychological Association voted yesterday to discourage controversial therapies that seek to change a person's sexual orientation.... The resolution reaffirmed the association's position that homosexuality is not a mental disorder and warned psychologists not to make 'deceptive statements' about the scientific validity of their techniques."

But does the APA speak for all psychologists? No, says Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, executive director of the Encino-based National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality. Nicolosi describes the resolution as an attempt "to appease the gay activists" and invites the APA to examine reparative therapy more closely. "We are challenging the APA to do more research," says Nicolosi. "We appreciate your asking the question [about reparative therapy's effectiveness.] Let's go get the answer." Nicolosi says that he and his colleagues can present the APA with a list of 866 men and women who testify to the success of reparative therapy.


PAT DRISCOLL, A BAY AREA CATHOLIC ACTIVIST, died on the Feast of the Assumption. Driscoll, 72, worked diligently for orthodox causes, principally chastity, abstinence, and the rights of the unborn. The founding director of Christian Womanity in Pleasant Hill, she was active in the National Council of Catholic Women, the Couple to Couple League, the Ecumenical Society of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Catholic Women of America, and the St. Mary's Parish Immaculata Guild. (Memorial gifts may be sent to her latest project, "Smart Sex at Stanford" in care of Womanity, l700 Oak Park Blvd, Pleasant Hill, CA, 94523.)


MICHAEL D. O'BRIEN, ARTIST AND AUTHOR of the best-selling apocalyptic novel, Father Elijah, delivered a lecture entitled "The Restoration of Christian Culture" at the University of San Francisco on August 22. "There never has been in the history of mankind a generation like ours," said O'Brien. "The reality is that a large number of highly gifted people disappear from the culture of the west. They are simply exiled from the mainstream of cultural life....How in a generation or two has this happened?" O'Brien said the Christian artist must reject the ethos of the "autonomous" artist in order to restore Christian art: "The restoration of Christian art must begin on our knees."


WANT RELIGION WITHOUT MUCH RESPONSIBILITY? The "White Robed Monks of St. Benedict" offer it. The San Francisco-based group, which describes itself as "contemporary Catholic," is seeking lay Catholics and clergy disaffected with Rome's "petty, bureaucratic, authoritarian, dictatorial, patriarchial, unresponsive ways," says its web page. Invoking the spirit of Vatican II, the monks "offer without question the Word and Sacraments to everyone who requests them. The Monks appreciate that Jesus never really said No to anyone....For example, we serve Roman Catholics who are not able to be married in the Roman jursidiction -- because of a prior (non-annulled) marriage, a mixed creed union, or the couple's choice to be married in a setting other than a Roman church, such as in a garden, home, hotel, or at sea....If a couple elects a Nuptial Mass, we have a practice of open communion -- everyone is welcome to partake in the communion as each so chooses."


ACCORDING TO THE RECORDED TOUR AT THE SPIRIT OF MONTEREY WAX MUSEUM, Father Junipero Serra and his fellow missionaries wiped out three-fourths of the original Indian population of California. One local Catholic wrote a letter of protest to the museum after viewing the exhibit on June 16, which included historical sources and a copy of a magazine article refuting the claim that the Franciscan missionaries to California mistreated the Indians. As of September 4, the museum had not responded.


AT THE CATHOLIC WOMEN'S NETWORK'S 1997 CONFERENCE ("Taste and See: A Day of Discovery"), held June 21 at Bellarmine College Preparatory School in San Jose, several speakers focused on the "virtue" of disobedience against an unreasonable, patriarchial God.

Victoria Rue, described as a feminist theologian and biblical playwright, performed a skit in which she, as Lot's wife, decries the angry God who turned her into a pillar of salt. "I stand as a monument to all the women who stand against the will of the fathers," she said.

Singer Betsy Rose, a graduate of Matthew Fox's Institute of Culture and Creation Spirituality, explained the meaning of the conference theme in a song:

Oh, taste, taste and see
How good is the fruit that falls from the tree
Oh, taste, taste and see
How good is the fruit of the garden.

"There's a story that says we shouldn't have eaten the apple," said Rose. She then invited participants to eat apples supplied by the conference.

TOP