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Contents © 1997
by Jim Holman.
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NEWS
DECEMBER 1997

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OAKLAND'S FATHER JIM SCHEXNAYDER was a member of the committee that drafted Always Our Children, revealed Father Robert Nugent--another draft committee member--at a September 10 seminar in Orange, California. (Nugent is currently under Vatican investigation, along with his New Ways Ministry co-founder Sister Jeannine Grammick.) Schexnayder, head of the Gay Task Force for Catholic Charities of the East Bay and executive director of the new National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries (NACDLGM), has strong ties to Dignity, an organization censured by the Church for promoting the gay lifestyle. Schexnayder owns a home in Oakland with Mario Torrigino, who until last April was co-chair of Dignity San Francisco (according to the Alameda County assessor's office, they purchased the duplex in 1994). Schexnayder has given retreats and said Masses for Dignity San Francisco, including an October 19, 1996 retreat, "Engaging Our Gifts: A Journey Toward Action" and a Dignity Mass immediately following the 1996 San Francisco Gay Pride Parade.

In an October 28 phone conversation, Fr. Schexnayder at first denied the report about the home. When told about the county real estate records, he stated that Torrigino "is not the co-chair of Dignity." Informed that Torrigino was mentioned on Dignity San Francisco's web site as co-chair (the March 1997 on-line newsletter recounts Torrigino's letter to Mayor Willie Brown opposing Archbishop Levada's request for exemption from domestic partner benefit requirements), Schexnayder replied, "I don't know anything about that." Asked if Torrigino was ever co-chair of Dignity San Francisco, Schexnayder said, "I don't know." Schexnayder asked why this information was requested, saying, "This is really intrusive and it really doesn't relate to a Catholic newspaper." Told that the reporter was attempting to document a connection between Schexnayder's group and Dignity, he replied, "There isn't any."


NANCY PELOSI, A CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO U.S. CONGRESSWOMAN, sparred with Rep. Chris Smith over the issues of birth control and abortion on October 7 at the House of Representatives. Smith, who is also Catholic, said, "Finally, in response to Ms. Pelosi, the Vice President, Al Gore, clearly stated, and I have the transcript, when asked what the administration is doing in the area of global warming, launched into gloating about the demise of the pro-life Mexico City policy by executive order...Mr. Gore blames the babies of the poor for the consumption excesses of the rich and powerful. He makes them do the dying to advance an opinion on global warming...People aren't pollution--every child has just as much right to be here as my kids--or Al Gore's kids."

In response, Pelosi defended Gore, saying, "[A]nyone who has read the Vice President's statement will know that, in answer to his question about global population, he said the three things that the administration would advance would be child survival, availability of birth control information, and the empowerment of women, especially politically, socially, in the context of the family." Pelosi contended that the debate was not about abortion, but "about international family planning initiatives that save lives."


THE CATHOLIC ALLIANCE, A PUBLIC POLICY ORGANIZATION committed to introducing orthodox Catholic values into American politics, is seeking to found a chapter in San Francisco. Peter Colosi, Catholic Alliance's director of research and writing, spoke at St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco on October 12. "There are two cultures in this country--a culture of life and a culture of death," he said. "We propose a culture of life in the public square." For more information, call or write: Catholic Alliance, 214 Massachusetts Avenue, NE, Washington, D.C. 20002; 1-888-22-I VOTE; www.CatholicAlliance.org


ON SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18, DOMINICAN COLLEGE OF SAN RAFAEL hosted "an evening celebrating Sister M. Samuel Conlan, OP," at the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco. "Sister Samuel," as she is known in Dominican College circles, has been a long-time professor of English and past president at the Catholic college. The evening honored her past accomplishments and marked her current transition to assisting the college's Office of Institutional Advancement, which includes a fund-raising component.

Invitations issued by the Office of Institutional Advancement for the "black-tie optional" dinner were sent to alumni and friends of Sister Samuel. Listed on the invitation were members of the event's honorary committee. Among them were San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, former California State Assembly Speaker, and U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, both staunch, long-time supporters of legalized abortion-on-demand. In recent years Feinstein has been on record for her defense of partial-birth abortion in the U.S. Senate.

In an October 13 interview with the Faith, a Dominican College staff member, who declined to be quoted, was asked why a Catholic institution would enlist the support of politicians such as Brown and Feinstein, with political stances that are diametrically opposed to key Catholic moral teachings.The staff member explained that Dominican is Catholic in tradition, but is only loosely affiliated with the Catholic Church, and emphatically asserted that the College has no accountability to the Church.


IN THE SEPTEMBER 25 ISSUE OF THE FORUM, the University of San Francisco law school newspaper, Ming Chin, a pro-abortion, Jesuit-educated member of the California Supreme Court, is profiled under the banner, "A Look at Success." "Justice Ming Chin's rise to the California Supreme Court is a paradigmatic American success story," gushes reporter Andrew Zangrilli. "He should be able to sell his story to Hollywood someday."

In the same issue of The Forum, columnist Simon Barsinister discusses American Academy of Pediatrics et al v. Daniel E. Lungren, the case involving California's overturned parental consent law. Barsinister writes, "No matter how you feel about abortion, prioritizing an unemancipated young woman's (or child's) privacy right over the interests of her parents and the legislature is a moral act."


IN THE BOOK SALT OF THE EARTH, PUBLISHED THIS YEAR by Ignatius Press, Cardinal Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, comments on the Traditional Latin Mass: "I am of the opinion that the old rite should be granted much more generously to all those who desire it. It's impossible to grasp what could be dangerous or unacceptable about that. A community that suddenly declares that what until now was its holiest and highest possession is strictly forbidden, and makes the longing for it seem downright indecent, calls its very self into question."

Given such high-level support for the Traditional Latin mass, why are no indult Latin masses said in San Francisco? That is a mystery to Jack Rogers, who staffs St. Dominic and Francis church, which offers an unsanctioned Latin mass in San Francisco. "I don't know what kind of numbers it would take," he says, noting that 20 families attend the Latin mass.

"It would be lovely if we did receive the indult."


THE JESUIT RETREAT HOUSE IN LOS GATOS HELD A RETREAT for the separated and divorced--"From Pieces to Peace"-- on October 31-Nov 2. The retreat featured Fr. Barry Brunsman, O.F.M., whom the organizers described in a promotional flyer as a "hopeful and exciting personality," adding, "He is very informal (likes to be called 'Barry'), practical, down to earth, humorous, and adventurous. In his other life, he is a Franciscan priest..." What they did not mention is that Brunsman openly dissents from Church teaching on divorce. At a recent Call to Action conference, Brunsman suggested that Catholics model their position on divorce after Christ's attitude towards the Samaritan woman at the well, who had been divorced five times. "Jesus didn't seem to have a problem with that," Brunsman said.


MARIANNE JOZOVICH, AN ORGANIZER OF THE GAY AND LESBIAN OUTREACH MINISTRY at Holy Cross Parish in Santa Cruz, took home a message from the September conference for the National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries in Long Beach. "God does not care about sex, so much as he cares about how we care about the person we have sex with," writes Jozovich in the Fall, 1997 issue of Journey, the newsletter for the Holy Cross homosexual outreach ministry.

In the same issue of the newsletter, it was noted that Monterey Bishop Ryan would address the group next March. "Bishop Ryan has been very supportive of our efforts to reach out to the Lesbian and Gay community," wrote the newsletter editor.


"OUR CATHOLIC PATH--FALL FEST '97," A CONFERENCE FOR YOUNG ADULTS, was held at the University of San Francisco on October 18. "Refueling, Retooling, Debugging Your Spiritual Terminal," "Vatican II: Loud and Clear," "Centering Prayer," and "The Dance of Spirituality" were among the day's workshop topics. The conference's web page promised a day in which participants would "experience dance as a beautiful, enjoyable, deeply moving and meaningful form of worship and an embodied expression of the soul in prayer." In addition, "[t]hrough meditation, poetry, chanting, and discussion, we will explore the possibilities for greater aliveness and satisfaction in work and relationships....We are the Church! As Church, we have been asked to move from a hierarchical pyramid model to an inclusive communal model." The conference also taught Catholic young adults to "be at home as an imperfect person in an imperfect Church that welcomes, heals and reconciles an imperfect world."

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