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ROAMIN' CATHOLIC






Contents © 2000
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

NEWS
DECEMBER 2000

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BUSY MONTHS FOR PRO-FAMILY GROUP Randy Thomasson, former vice president and communications director of the Sacramento-based Capitol Resource Institute, recently formed the Campaign for California Families, which describes itself as "fighting to restore family-friendly values." His group ran newspaper ads in English and Spanish and orchestrated a statewide, week-long "Stop the Insanity" tour in September, to pressure Governor Gray Davis to veto four bills it identified as anti-parent, anti-family, and anti-marriage. Thomasson and several pro-family leaders activists toured the state in a motor home, holding press conferences and rallies in front of Davis' regional offices in several California cities. The "Stop the Insanity" tour received coverage in several California dailies and on WorldNetDaily.com and NewsMax.com, leading conservative news sites on the Internet.

On September 30, Davis signed assembly bills 1785 and 1931. Assembly bill 1785, by Assemblyman Antonio Villaraigosa, will teach appreciation and approval of homosexual and bisexual behavior to public schoolchildren as young as kindergarteners, and requires teachers of immigrant children to receive pro-homosexual "human relations education." It additionally classifies some forms of speech on the public school campus as "hate motivated incidents".

Assembly bill 1931, by Assemblyman Jack Scott, provides over $2 million in taxpayer funds for "tolerance" field trips and "hate violence" programs and training in public schools. According to Thomasson's group, since the bill does not provide definitions of terms such as "intolerance," "hatred" and "prejudice," there are no limits on what students could be exposed to on such field trips and in such programs. Assembly bill 2000, also by Villaraigosa, would have established a statewide "California Human Relations Commission" which would have equated homosexual behavior with racial and ethnic diversity.

"This radical bill would have promoted homosexuality, bisexuality, transgenderism and gay marriage in every city and town in California," Thomasson's group wrote in its online bill analysis. Governor Davis vetoed the bill. Davis also vetoed assembly bill 2421, by Assemblywoman Carole Migden, which would have allowed cohabiting, unmarried heterosexual couples in which one partner is at least 62, to register as "domestic partners" with the secretary of state. Thomasson's group saw the bill as a means to devalue marriage and overturn proposition 22.

In the wake of Davis' approval of assembly bills 1785 and 1931, Campaign for California Families has announced that it will launch a new statewide defense of free speech for students. "AB 1785 is clearly unconstitutional," Thomasson declares on the group's web site. "It's ripe for a lawsuit. AB 1785 erodes free speech of teachers, students and parents, and it should be struck down in the courts." Moreover, in light of Davis' approval of assembly bill 1931, Thomasson is urging all parents to stop sending their children on public school field trips. The organization points out that "tolerance" excursions in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania have resulted in children attending homosexual sex seminars and touring homosexual bookstores.

In addition to the four bills referenced above, during the California legislature's 2000 session, Davis signed three bills that are considered supportive of the homosexual agenda and vetoed four. The three that he signed are assembly bill 1856, by Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl, which mandates nondiscrimination on the basis of "sexual orientation" under the Fair Employment and Housing Act; assembly bill 2418, by Migden, which bans nondiscrimination on the basis of "sexual orientation" in jury selection; and senate bill 2025, by Senator John Burton, which adds "sexual orientation" to the Civil Service Act, thereby adding it as a category under which employment discrimination is prohibited. Controversial bills that were introduced but not passed included three homosexual "domestic partners" bills, a school health clinic bill that would have undermined parental rights, and a bill that would have awarded parental rights to non-parents, a pro-homosexual "hatred" education bill and a bill that would have authorized police persecution of peaceful pro-life demonstrators.

For more information, contact the Campaign for California Families, P.O. Box 782, Sacramento, CA 95812 / 916-443-1410 / e-mail: mail@savecalifornia.com or visit the above-mentioned web site.


GOVERNOR DAVIS SIGNED A BILL on September 29 that will allow mothers to leave their newborns at hospitals emergency rooms and give them immunity from prosecution of child abandonment if they hand over the baby within 72 hours of birth. The bill was authored by senate republican leader Jim Brulte (Rancho Cucamonga). Brulte said in the Riverside Press Enterprise, "The next step is to educate young mothers who are desperate ... that there are families willing to adopt and love these innocent newborns."


SF SCHOOLS VS. THE STATE According to the San Francisco Chronicle, a settlement may be in the works between the San Francisco Unified School District and California's department of education. At issue is whether roughly 10 percent of San Francisco public school students can continue to be exempt from taking portions of the state's Stanford 9 achievement test. Since the test was first administered in 1998, San Francisco has been the only district in California to refuse to test all students by automatically exempting students with less than 30 months of instruction in English. About 25 percent of all California students are considered "limited-English proficient." Attorneys for the state argue that all students should take the test regardless of their proficiency in English so that a baseline is established so parents and the state can measure student progress. The state sued San Francisco unified in 1998 to force compliance with the test, but a superior court judge gave San Francisco a one-year reprieve. Despite the passing of the deadline of the reprieve, San Francisco has continued to defy the state. In November, San Francisco is expected to argue that the state is violating the First Amendment rights of teachers to suggest that parents ask for a waiver to remove their child from the test. Such a waiver is legal, but under current law, teachers are not allowed to recommend it to parents. The Wilson administration believed that teachers would work to attain exemptions for students they felt were low-performing if allowed to do so. Although Berkeley, Oakland, and Hayward administer the test to all students, they have also joined the lawsuit with San Francisco.


THE MEDICAL MISSION SISTERS WILL CELEBRATE THEIR 75TH ANNIVERSARY on Sunday, December 10 at St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco. They will join the Cathedral Community for Vespers at 4:15 followed by a reception with light refreshments in St. Francis Hall Sister Jeanette McDermott, Western District Coordinator, will give a short address to mark the occasion. "This celebration," she said "is part of the Medical Mission Sisters' year-long 'Festival of Gratitude' to God and our benefactors for our 75 years of healing presence among those in need." The organization was founded in 1925 by Anna Dengel to help women and children, and all in need, have access to the caring, quality health care and opportunity for healing, that they deserve as human beings. Headquarters for the worldwide group is in Philadelphia. A member of the Medical Mission Sisters, Sister Marie B. Lischwe, managed the Fremont Society, a free crisis pregnancy center in Sunnyvale, for 15 years.


NEW YORK AND OMAHA BISHOPS ADDRESS THE ISSUE OF 'THE CATHOLIC VOTE' In a pastoral letter to all priests in his diocese dated Thursday, September 21, 2000, Bishop James McHugh of the Diocese of Rockville Center, New York, addressed the issue of public or political leaders who claim to be Roman Catholic and pro-abortion. The letter bans pro-abortion politicians from Catholic institutions in the diocese. Bishop McHugh informed all parish priests and diocesan agencies that "persons who are pro-abortion or claim to be personally opposed to abortion but unwilling to integrate their moral principles with civic responsibilities" cannot hold leadership positions, cannot be speakers at Catholic events, nor can they receive public recognition by diocesan agencies. Bishop McHugh also stated: "'It would be foolish and counterproductive to provide a platform to those who favor or support a public policy of abortion or euthanasia. It would also be extremely misleading to provide such persons a platform to promote their views, even on other issues, lest they claim that the Church somehow implicitly tolerates their rejection of Church teaching on pro-life issues. The directive also bans abortion supporters from speaking at graduation ceremonies, celebrated lectures, and from sitting as honorary chairmen of events such as fundraisers. At the outset of the letter, Bishop McHugh reminds his priests, "We are not just private citizens but representatives of the Catholic Church. In Omaha, Archbishop Elden F. Curtiss said that Catholic Democrats have an "obligation in conscience to do everything they can to reverse the pro-abortion policy of their party and to support candidates who will protect human life in the womb," Archbishop Curtiss said abortion is "a serious issue for anyone who embraces the church's teaching regarding the sacredness of human life from conception to natural death."


A WARNING FOR PARENTS At its September meeting, the state board of education adopted new definitions for sex and gender. The Capitol Resource Institute is cautioning parents that these definitions have not yet been certified and many school boards are jumping the gun in implementing them. The definitions have been challenged by an official complaint that the board exceeded its authority. Following are the definitions recently adopted by the state board of education: "Sex means a person's actual sex or perceived sex and includes a person's perceived identity, appearance or behavior, whether or not that identity, appearance, or behavior is different from that traditionally associated with a person's sex at birth." An assembly analysis says that the definitions will apply to nondiscrimination and educational equity requirements of public and private schools not directly affiliated with a church. According to the department of education, over 50% or roughly 2,266 private schools exist in California that are not directly affiliated with a church. In 1998-1999 there were 4,310 private schools in California, of which 2,044 were church-affiliated, 2,266 were not.


THE WASHINGTON POST CONFIRMED that the RU-486 abortion pill is being imported from China. The Post article reveals the Hua Lian Pharmaceutical Plant in Shanghai will manufacture the drug for Danco The Chinese government has long employed compulsory abortion as a population-control method, and the Hua Lian factory's role in that coercive program has yet to be explored. The Post article quotes the spokesman for the Shanghai Institute of Planned Parenthood Research as estimating that about half of China's 10 million annual abortions are performed with RU-486 (manufactured at Hua Lian and two other facilities).


THE NEW YORK TORAH COURT made a bold statement in October by excommunicating U.S. Vice-Presidential Candidate Joe Lieberman on the basis that he caused grave scandal for the Jewish religion. The court commented that "while claiming to be an observant Jew, Lieberman has been misrepresenting and falsifying to the American people the teachings of the Torah against partial birth infanticide, against special privileges and preferential treatment for flaunting homosexuals, and against religious intermarriage of Jews."

This brings to mind that California is represented by two Catholics who are ardent supporters of abortion. Congressman Nancy Pelosi, a parishioner at St. Vincent de Paul, and Congressman Tom Campbell, the California Republican Senatorial candidate, have both on several occasions made clear their views on the taking of innocent life, and yet they continue to see themselves in good standing with the Church.


CALIFORNIA PROLIFE COUNCIL WORKING AGAINST PROP 34 While admitting that money often plays a corrupting role in politics, the California ProLife Council also sees the importance of money in the fight against monolithic government. A council spokesman said, "So long as government has the power to make or break an industry or a company through legislation or regulation, companies, industries and interest groups will find a way to influence the political process. One of the methods will be money, whether deployed as campaign contributions, lobbying or backdoor payoffs. New rules will simply inspire creative ways around them. Those who find this offensive should work on reducing the size and scope of government rather than dwelling on the money that always accompanies big government." There are also indications that Proposition 208, which was also opposed by pro-life groups, may be reinstated in court. Higher courts have ruled in general that to limit the role of money in political campaigns is to limit political speech and is a violation of the First Amendment. Proposition 208, which had more stringent contribution limits and an outright ban on candidate-to-candidate money transfers, was passed on 1996 but invalidated by the courts. However, a recent Supreme Court decision allowing some contribution limits in Maine might pave the way for Proposition 208 to return to California.

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