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Contents © 2002
by Jim Holman.
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NEWS
NOVEMBER 2002

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INTERFAITH PRAYER SERVICES were held in cathedrals throughout the state in commemoration of the events of September 11. The archdiocese of San Francisco held an evening interfaith prayer service at St. Mary's cathedral on September 11 which included, according to Catholic San Francisco, "representatives of Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Asian religions. "We are diverse but always answering the summons of the great God who has given us life," Archbishop William Levada told the attendees. "We are challenged to turn to our God to overturn the roots of violence."

Among the attendees at the interfaith prayer service were Bishop Anthimos of Olympos, head of the Greek Orthodox diocese of San Francisco; the Rev. Sumner Wells of the Episcopal diocese of California; the Rev. James DiEgidio of the Central Presbytery of San Francisco; and Sister Chandru Desai of the Brahma Kumaris Center. According to Catholic San Francisco, Sister Chandru chanted "om" (which, she said, is "an eternal sign representing peace and God") at the beginning of her presentation. The world's religions, said Sister Chandru, should unite their strength "for the good of humanity."

Iftekhar Hai of the United Muslims of America said the final prayer for the service. In his prayer, Hai said the Koran speaks of "our common God, one God who created all of us, who possesses love, compassion and mercy." Hai asked this God, who calls his followers "to love one's enemy," to teach us how to love and care for each other, in time of pain, suffering and illness."


ABOUT 1,000 PEOPLE GATHERED at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Sacramento on September 10 for an interfaith candlelight service to commemorate the first anniversary of the terrorists attacks of September 11, 2001. This interfaith service, like others throughout the state, featured representatives of Christian, Jewish, Moslem, and Hindu religions, but had the added distinction of having as host not only Bishop William Weigand but Governor Gray Davis. According to the September 11 Sacramento Bee, Davis opened the ceremony, calling "people of all faiths to be especially tolerant of each another.... More than 3,000 people paid a terrible price for our freedom," said Davis.

Some Catholics thought the governor's presence at a vigil for peace and in honor of human life ironic at best. Far more Californians will pay the "terrible price" on account of Governor Davis, who six days before his appearance at the cathedral signed into law four pro-abortion bills. One bill will keep abortion legal in California in the event the Supreme Court overturns its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. After signing the bills, a smiling Davis said, "without contradiction," California "is hands down the most pro-choice state in America."

The Catholic Herald, the organ for the diocese of Sacramento, merely mentioned in passing Governor Davis' attendance at the service. According to the Herald, Bishop Weigand tied the events of September 11 to issues respecting all life. The bishop prayed that we all live "lives of virtue and goodness, in solidarity with all people and peoples, in rejection of all forms of hate and in a radical commitment to honor the human life and dignity of each and every member of our human family -- one family under God." Bishop Weigand also said that "we honor best the victims of 9/11, their mourning families and the valiant fireman, policemen and all the rescue workers, if we dedicate ourselves radically and without contradiction to honor, nurture and defend all human life from conception to natural death. Let no darkness remain -- not unconsciously, nor for personal convenience, nor for political correctness."


CALIFORNIA IS "PERFECTLY POSITIONED to be a world leader" in the area of embryonic stem cell research, said Governor Gray Davis on Sunday, September 22, when he signed legislation that allows the use of state funds for such research. The new law not only permits the destruction of human embryos for research purposes, but mandates that fertility clinics that perform in-vitro fertilization inform women that they can donate their discarded embryos to research. Davis also signed a bill that makes permanent a temporary law that forbids the use of human cloning for reproductive purposes.

Though President George W. Bush prohibited federal funding for research on new embryonic stem cells, the federal government has not outright banned the research.


CLONING IS A NEW FORM OF RACISM, Archbishop Renato Martino told the ad hoc committee at an international Convention Against the Reproductive Cloning of Human Beings, which met the week of September 22 in New York, according to a September 24 Zenit News report. "Here there is a risk of a new form of racism, for the development of these techniques could lead to the creation of a 'subcategory of human beings,' destined basically for the convenience of certain others," said the archbishop, who is the Vatican's permanent observer to the United Nations. Martino called for a worldwide ban on all forms of human cloning. "Human embryonic cloning must be prohibited in all cases regardless of the aims that are pursued," said the archbishop.

Noting that the Church is not opposed to scientific developments, Martino declared that "science itself points to other forms of therapeutic intervention which would not involve cloning or the use of embryonic cells, but rather would make use of stem cells taken from adults. This is the direction that research must follow if it wishes to respect the dignity of each and every human being, even at the embryonic stage."


WHICH WAY BUSH? According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Ari Fleischer, President Bush's press secretary, said of Bush's reaction to the news of California's embyronic research law, "the president has always said states have authority within their states." Later, said the Chronicle, "Fleischer amended his remarks. 'The president [said Fleicher] thinks that all policies -- state or federal -- need to promote a culture that respects life and, in that, he does differ from what California and the governor there have done."

Though, in the name of respect for life, President Bush has pulled U.S. contributions to the United Nation Population Fund because of its support of forced abortions, a September 20 Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute report said that, in his speech to the United Nations in mid September, Bush pledged to rejoin UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The United States pulled out of UNESCO during the Reagan years because of the organization's alleged pro-Soviet slant and radical agenda. In a memo requested by the White House and State Department a year ago, Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM) noted that UNESCO collaborated with the UN Population Fund and the International Planned Parenthood Federation. According to the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, UNESCO, advocates reproductive health services for children, which include reproductive health services, including abortion.


TOO HOT TO SIGN. Facing strong opposition from persons appalled at the thought that foster parents of homosexual children could be liable for civil rights violations, Governor Gray Davis on September 30 quietly vetoed a bill that would have required foster parents of homosexual and "transgendered" children to undergo sensitivity training and would have forbidden "harassment" of such children (such as, perhaps, taking them to a church which teaches that homosexual acts are immoral).

The governor said that the state does not have the necessary resources to carry out the provisions of such a law. "The Department of Social Services' (DSS) resources are stretched too thin to ask the Department to take on a new priority outreach task at the same time we are making significant budget reductions and eliminating 7,000 positions in state government," the governor said in his veto statement. "In addition, the DSS already conducts outreach for gay and lesbian foster parents as part of its general foster care recruitment and this would have the unintended consequence of diluting the priority recruitment efforts on behalf of minority children who represent an overwhelming two-thirds of children in the child welfare system."

Randy Thomasson of the Campaign for California Families said that the governor's veto was "a tremendous victory for children and families. Despite Davis' terrible record of undermining marriage and family, he apparently decided that homosexual and transsexual foster care was too hot to handle in the midst of a tight race for governor."


NONE TOO HAPPY. The California Alliance for Pride and Equality said that they were not happy with the governor's veto. "We are extremely disappointed that the State of California has rejected a measure designed to protect some of its most vulnerable youth from continued discrimination and harassment," the Alliance's executive director Geoffrey Kors said in a press release. The bill, "which passed both houses of the Legislature, would have prohibited discrimination and harassment against foster youth, foster parents, other foster household members and staff based on a number of factors including sexual orientation, gender identity and HIV/AIDS status. Finally [the bill] would have directed the Office of the State Foster Care Ombudsperson to address complaints brought by LGBT youth regarding their care, placement and services."

Foster parents saw the bill as an attack on their freedom of religion and vowed not to take in foster children rather than give up their religious views.

The bill the governor vetoed "was a bold-faced attack on religious freedom," said Verne Teyler, executive director of Hosanna Homes, a private foster care agency. "This bill was unnecessary since foster youth who don't like the values of their foster parents can already request to be placed elsewhere."

A spokesman for Assemblywoman Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park), who sponsored the legislation, said that Chu was not sure if she would carry the legislation again next year.


CONGRESSIONAL PROPONENTS of the Abortion Non-Discrimination Act are "trying to hide behind the Vatican," said Democratic representative Louise Slaughter of New York, according to a September 25, Pro Life Infonet Weekly report. The act, passed by the House of Representatives on September 25, would protect the right of hospitals to decide not to provide abortions. The bill means to clarify a 1996 law that protects hospitals from performing abortions. Recently the law has been interpreted as protecting only medical residents in training.

No California representative spoke in favor of the bill in the House debate. Several California representatives, however, spoke against the bill: Lynn Woolsey (D-Petaluma), Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles), Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara), and Juanita Millender McDonald (D-Carson).

In the final vote talley, among the 229 ayes were: Wall Herger (R-Marysville), John Doolittle (R-Rocklin), Richard Pombo (R-Tracy), and George Radanovich (R-Mariposa).

Among the 189 noes were: Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena), Doug Ose (R-Sacramento), Robert Matsui (D-Sacramento), Lynn Woolsey (D-Petaluma), George Miller (D-Martinez), Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), Ellen Tauscher (D-Alamo), Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo), Fortney Pete Stark (D-Fremont), Anna Eshoo (D-Atherton), Michael Honda (D-San Jose), Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose), Sam Farr (D-Carmel), Gary Condit (D-Ceres) and Calvin Dooley (D-Hanford).

The bill goes next to the Senate which, "everyone knows. will not touch it," according to Representative Slaughter.


YOUNG ADULTS MORE "CONSERVATIVE," BUT LESS RELIGIOUS. A study released by the University of California, Berkeley, finds that young people are more likely to favor restrictions on abortion than are their elders, reported the September 25 Daily Californian, the student newspaper of UC Berkeley. The study, which interviewed 1,000 randomly selected Americans nationwide, showed that 44 percent of those age 15 to 22 favor government restrictions on abortion as opposed to only 34 percent of those age 26 and over. Similar results were shown for other "conservative" issues. For instance, 59 percent of the upper age group approved of prayer at public school functions, as opposed to 69 percent of the lower age group. Sixty-seven percent of younger teens said they supported federal aid to faith-based charities, while 59 percent of college-age and 40 percent of older respondents said they favored such aid.

Though younger Americans are more conservative than their elders, the study noted that they are less religious. Youth respondents were less likely to attend religious services or take religion as a guide in life.


PRAY FOR PEACE. Since "the international situation is heavy with tensions, including some explosive ones," said Pope John Paul II on September 30, the faithful should turn to the rosary, according to a September 30 Catholic World News report. The rosary, said the pope, is a prayer that helps bring peace to the world and hope to those who fear that "political efforts are of no avail." "I want to suggest, therefore," said the pope, "that people, families, and Christian communities pray the Rosary."


WHO CAN LIVE HERE? Of the nation's six least affordable rental markets, four are in northern California, according to a September 24 Associated Press report. A study by the National Low Income Housing Coalition in Washington, D.C., said a resident of the Bay Area would have to make at least $24.96 an hour to afford a median-priced two-bedroom apartment. In order to afford the same apartment, a minimum wage worker would need to work 145 hours a week -- which does not include time for eating or commuting.

San Francisco, according to the study, was the least affordable city, followed by San Jose in second place, Oakland in fourth place, and Santa Cruz in sixth place.


ECCENTRIC SAN FRANCISCO MAYORAL CANDIDATE, Jim Reid, has a solution for the homeless -- miniature houses, said a September 25 San Francisco Chronicle report. What Reid calls the "smallest house in San Francisco" is 100 square feet, including a bed, bathroom, small kitchen and a washer/dryer. Reid and his organization, Habitat for the Homeless, hopes to build 2,000 of these houses across the city. "I'd like to see them on every block," said Reid. The cost for to build a miniature house is about $50,000.

Thus far, the San Francisco city council has shown no interest in Reid's homeless housing plan.


IT MAY COME AS NO SURPRISE that trends in religious membership for northern California differed from those in the rest of the nation. A study sponsored by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies found that, in northern California, such a body as the Mormons, which grew nationwide by 19.3 percent, declined by 9.3 percent over the past ten years. The conservative Southern Baptist Convention, which also experienced nationwide growth, shrank by nearly 20 percent in northern California, though another conservative group, the Assemblies of God, gained about 3,600 members. On the other hand, the liberal United Methodist Church, which has experienced a seven percent decline nationwide since 1990, grew from 54,445 to 56,564 in the ten counties that make up the San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose region. Yet, despite this small growth, other mainline liberal denominations in northern California -- the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Episcopal Church lost adherents over the last decade. The Catholic Church in northern California grew by 16.2 percent, from 1,443,220 to 1,676,993.


DO THE MOVES WITH SISTER CORITA. The calendar of events found on the website of the diocese of Sacramento carried the following notice for September 12: "T'ai Chi Chih free introductory session. Come and discover gentle moving meditation in a prayerful retreat setting. Classes taught by Mercy Sister Corita Keane at Mercy Center at 535 Sacramento St. in Auburn." According to T'ai Chi Chih Homepage, T'ai Chi Chih offers a series of movements "completely focused on the development of energy, called Chi." Among these movements are: "Pulling Taffy," "Bird Flaps Its Wings," "Joyous Breath," and the "Pulling in the Energy Cosmic Consciousness Pose."

According to a 1993 article written by Justin Stone, originator of T'ai Chi Chih, "those who do T'ai Chi Chih regularly have not been taught how they should feel or what they should experience. Whatever happens is right and does not have to be adjusted to any doctrine or dogma. It is for this reason that the writer sometimes does not answer questions which would call for conceptual answers -- they would spoil the experience."

According to an article in the December 1, 2001 Catholic Herald (the organ of the diocese of Sacramento), Sister Corita Keane said that when she first experienced T'ai Chi Chih at the Franciscan Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, "I began to experience the 'chi' or life force. When I would do t'ai chi chih, I would think of the spirit moving through me and giving me divine, intrinsic energy." One of Sister Corita's t'ai chi chih students, Katie McAllister of St. Robert Parish in Sacramento, said that with T'ai Chi Chih, "I noticed a change in my breathing, which became deeper and more relaxed. It was like breathing out everything you want to get rid of ... and inviting the Holy Spirit to come in and refresh me." According to the Herald, McAllister practices T'ai Chi Chih early in the morning facing east as the sun rises. "For me, t'ai chi chih becomes a prayer," said McAllister.


FRANCISCAN YOGA. The September/Fall newsletter for the Mercy Center in Auburn offered a retreat led by musician Russell Paul and Rufino Zaragoza, O.F.M., entitled the "Yoga of Sound and the Spirituality of Music." "The Yoga of Sound is about caring for the Soul," noted the newsletter. "Just as Hatha Yoga uses stretches and postures to stretch and tone the body, the Yoga of Sound uses consonants and vowels, and musical intervals to flex and expand the Soul. Most of all, the Yoga of Sound is about direct encounters with Spirit, with the strength of presence that comes from deep knowing and deep feeling." According to the newsletter, Zaragoza, who is a liturgical music consultant for the Oakland diocese, "brings gentle, Franciscan warmth and a deep compassion for justice to his workshops, retreats and compositions."


JESUITS SETTLE. Facing an October 15 trial date, the California province of the Society of Jesus has agreed to pay two former workers 7.6 million dollars. The two plaintiffs, who are mentally impaired, filed their lawsuit in June 2001. The lawsuit alleged that Father Edward Burke, 81, and Father Charles Conner, 80, molested the two plaintiffs over the course of thirty years while they worked at the Jesuit retreat center in Los Gatos. The lawsuit also named a Jesuit brother, who is an invalid. Charges against a fourth defendant were dropped.

According to Father Thomas Smolich, the California Jesuit provincial, the settlement has been in the works for approximately a year. "A significant" portion of the settlement will come from the Jesuits with the remainder to be paid by an insurance carrier, according to press reports. Robert Mezziti, the attorney who represented the two men, said that the money will allow his clients to live out the remainder of their lives comfortably and safely. "They are extremely relieved to know that they never have to go back to the Jesuit center and that they can live in a safe environment. I don't think they really comprehend the comfort of the life they will be able to live."

In June of this year, Father Edward Burke was sentenced to two years in state prison for the molestation. Father Conner was sentenced to house arrest. Both priests have to register as sex offenders. Currently there are five registered sex offenders in the Jesuits' California province.


A SAN FRANCISCO GRAND JURY on September 13 indicted Monsignor Patrick O'Shea on charges of molesting an 11-year-old altar boy at Mission Dolores in the late 1960s, according to the September 20 Catholic San Francisco. O'Shea faces 22 counts of molestation and lewd conduct with a minor. San Francisco police alerted the archdiocese that O'Shea was under investigation for sexual abuse of minors in 1994. Former archbishop John Quinn removed O'Shea as pastor of San Francisco's St. Cecilia parish. Later, O'Shea was forbidden to exercise his priestly duties.

According to a September 20 Associated Press report, the archdiocese had paid $2.5 million to settle a lawsuit which 15 men had brought against O'Shea, a former priest, Austin Peter Keegan, another unnamed priest, and their superiors. The San Francisco grand jury indicted Keegan on September 12 on 40 counts of molestation. Three people claim Keegan molested them from 1964 to 1992. Keegan, whom authorities believe is in Mexico, is wanted on a warrant of $5 million. Also indicted on September 12 was Salvatore Billante, a former Salesian and youth minister who has been accused of molesting a student on various occasions between 1972 and 1978. In 1989, Billante pleaded guilty to committing lewd and lascivious acts with a boy under 14 years of age. Billante was sentenced to eight years in prison, but paroled in 1993. The 62-year-old Billante is being held on $10 million bail.

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