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Contents © 1998
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

NEWS
DECEMBER 1998

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THE NOVEMBER ELECTIONS PROVED A MIXED, perhaps dismal, outcome for California pro-lifers. The most serious blow is that for the first time in 16 years an aggressively pro-abortion Democrat, Gray Davis, now occupies the Governor's office.

According to a Republican operative, who spoke on condition of anonymity, Dan Lungren deserves considerable blame for this outcome, having run a feckless, defensive, and self-absorbed campaign. "Lungren's message was essentially, 'I'm a great guy, I come from a great family, I come from a great state, vote for me'."

While Davis presented his pro-abortion views unapologetically, Lungren fled from his staunchly pro-life past, relegating his view of abortion to the subjective sphere of private religion. He trotted his wife Bobbi out for a campaign ad in an attempt to neutralize the abortion issue. According to the operative, many pro-lifers did not participate in the election because of Lungren's waffling and his willingness to support pro-abortion judges like Chief Justice George and Justice Ming Chin.

Republican candidate Matt Fong ran scared as well, says the operative. After the San Francisco Chronicle revealed that in 1997 he had given $50,000 to the Rev. Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition, Fong quickly signed a statement in which he promised to fulfill a homosexual wish-list ( a vote to confirm homosexual James Hormel's appointment as Ambassador to Luxembourg, hate crime legislation, etc.) Sensing weakness, Boxer continued to bludgeon Fong with the novel claim that he was too conservative for California and she won easily.

Other Republicans also fared badly. Relative political newcomer, Cruz Bustamente, a pro-abortion Catholic, defeated Republican Tim Leslie in the Lt. Governor's race by 14 percent. Democrat Phil Angelides defeated Republican Curt Pringle in the Treasurer's race by 13 percent margin in the Treasurer's race. Democrat incumbent Diane Eastin defeated Gloria Matta Tuchman in the Superintendent's race by 6 percent.

The Northern California congressional races, however, contained a few happy returns for pro-lifers. The 4th Congressional district reelected its pro-life Congressman, John Doolittle. His opponent David Shapiro had conceded defeat weeks before the election. In the 2nd Congressional district, pro-life Republican Wally Herger defeated Democrat Patricia Thiessen, winning by almost a 2-to-1 margin. Pro-life Republican Richard Pombo also won by almost a 2-to-1 margin in his race with Democrat Robert Figueroa.


FATHER JOSEPH FESSIO, PUBLISHER OF IGNATIUS PRESS, is asking Catholics to make donations to the programming arm of the Catholic Radio Network. On October 31, within moments of the financing deadline, the Catholic Radio Network came up with $4 million to complete the $50 million transaction. It is now on the air in seven of the largest radio markets in the United States, including Los Angeles, Chicago, and Philadelphia.

As Fr. Fessio explains in a letter to readers and friends of Ignatius Press, the pressing need for the network now is programming. "Because we had not been certain that we would be able to complete the transaction, we had not been able to make contracts and commitments with the people we had lined up as program hosts." Consequently, the network began on November 1 with simply music: popular Gregorian Chant CD of the monks of Los Silos-- along with selections from the popular Irish CD Faith of Our Fathers. "What an incredible experience it was to think that these beautiful chants and hymns were now being broadcast to 50 million potential listeners!" writes Fessio.

But now, says Fessio, "we must produce the programming that will reach out and make a difference in the lives of our listeners. The main focus is going to be on talk radio. The hosts will be Catholic, but topics will cover the widest possible range of issues of general interest -- family, politics, economics, foreign policy, etc. But from a Catholic point of view and based on authentic Catholic teaching."

Fessio is convinced that the netwok is a "historic opportunity for the Church in America" to "have an authentic Catholic voice in the major media." To make a tax-deductible donation to Catholic Media Productions, the non-profit programming arm of the network, "make your checks payable to Ignatius Press and indicate that the check is for 'CMP,' writes Fessio. Ignatius Press's address is: 2515 McAllister St., San Francisco, CA 94118.


NORTHERN CALIFORNIA PATRONS OF VATICAN MUSEUMS is active in the Napa Valley. On October 16, some 50 Patrons and friends gathered at the home and gardens of Calistoga artist Carlo Marchiori. Father Allen Duston, O.P., director of the Patrons office in the Vatican, gave a slide presentation and talk about Angels from the Vatican: The Invisible Made Visible, a major exhibition currently touring several art museums in the United States and Canada.

The Patrons of the Vatican Museums is an international association dedicated to conserving the Vatican's extensive art collections. The Patrons support specific conservation projects, provide equipment for the museums' restoration laboratories, and assist in new acquisitions.

The thirteen museums of the Vatican hold a vast collection of art treasures from antiquity through modern works, both sacred and secular. Since these museums receive no funding fron the Holy See or the Italian Government, they depend upon private sources like the Patrons.

Benefits of membership in the Patrons include complimentary admission to the Vatican museums, private guided tours and visits to exclusive sections of the museums such as restoration laboratories.

For more information about the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums, contact Patrons of the Arts, c/o P.O. Box 432, Oakville, CA 94562-0432.


THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE PUBLISHED A SUPRISINGLY POSITIVE OCTOBER 16 editorial on Pope John Paul II's twenty-year reign, calling him the "single most powerful moral authority on Earth."

"In a shaky world of moral relativism, the 78-year-old pope is an uncompromising champion of Christian ethics, human rights and Roman Catholic orthodoxy...Even in his declining years, with shoulders stooped and trembling hands, John Paul's influence-- both spiritual and temporal-- is unmatched by any religious leader of the 20th century."

The Pope "has exercised his authority like no pontiff since the Renaissance and left his indelible signature on the church and the world beyond." He was a "key to the ulimate collapse of the Soviet Union." "He has harshly condemned tyrants on their own turf for human rights violations and scolded the West for its shallow moral values and failure to share its vast bounty with the poor of the world."

"Only three of 264 [popes] have the epithet 'the Great' attached to their names-- Leo I (440-461), Gregory I (590-604), and Nicholas I (858-867). Future historians may one day look back on John Paul's long, dynamic and sometimes controversial pontificate and properly number him, too, among the greats."


THE SAN FRANCISCO JESUIT COMMUNITY IS PLANNING TO MOVE TO A NEW LOCATION. Its present location is Xavier Hall, a building with room for 100 Jesuits on the lower campus of the University of San Francisco. But because only 30 Jesuits live there, the University of San Francisco and the Jesuit community have decided to build a smaller residence for the remaining Jesuits. This would make it possible for USF to convert Xavier Hall into faculty offices.

Father Thomas Lucas told USF's newspaper, the Foghorn, that the new residence will be small because "we have to look at the fact that there is not a vast number of Jesuits (applying). We didn't want to overbuild." Lucas expressed relief that the new building will afford more comfort for the Jesuits. Each Jesuit's room "will include its own bathroom, so residents won't have to share common restroom space," reported the Foghorn. "Dorm-style living gets kind of old when you're in your fifties and sixties," said Lucas.

In the November 1 Foghorn, Jesuit Paul Bernadicou acknowledged the disappearance of Jesuit vocations. "It's the way of the future," said Bernadicou. "The school has grown, but the number of Jesuits is no more than 30." Foghorn reporter Les Shu wrote that "Bernadicou does not foresee the University losing its Jesuit identity and mission, however most people at USF may not know what that mission or Jesuit education is. To Bernadicou, it is trying to help human beings develop personal skills as well as civil service, being helpful to one another. It is also broadly religious and tries to engage in dialogue."


WHY IS INTEREST IN GREGORIAN CHANT so stagnant in the American Church? Because "there is a deafness on the part of most of the hierarchy," said Stanford historian William Mahrt in a November 1 lecture at the University of San Francisco.

Mahrt, discussing the value and structure of Gregorian Chant, noted that the sung "Diviine Office has the function of sanctifying time." It enables Catholics throughout the day to "enter into a sacred action."

Unfortunately, said Mahrt, many priests and liturgists see Chant as passé. Priests who used to say the Divine office now "have an hour of meditation," said Marht.

Mahrt recalled asking a liberal liturgist, "But surely you must admit that the liturgy must be beautiful?" The liturgist was dumbfounded, said Mahrt. He had "forgotten that."

Mahrt said that there are "signs of revival," but "not as many as I would like." Some of the strongest interest in Chant, ironically, is coming from non-Catholic circles, he noted, including secular university students and Protestants. One Protestant group in Massachussetts sings "more Gregorian Chant" than priests do in Catholic France, where it originated.


IN A CAREFULLY WORDED COLUMN APPEARING IN THE ARCHDIOCESAN PUBLICATION Sunday to Sunday on November 1, San Francisco Archbishop William Levada condemned Gray Davis's and Barbara Boxer's aggressive pro-abortion campaigns, acknowledging that "the cities, suburbs and farms of America are full of Catholics...who can't vote anymore for Democrats who seem to make abortion the focal point of their campaigns."

Levada, perhaps wary of inflaming secularists in San Francisco, stressed that there is "not, and should not be, a Catholic political party or voting bloc," but wondered: "How many Catholic and other life-supporting voters have left the Democratic party and its pro-abortion policies and candidates over the past 25 years?" Pro-abortion "attack ads like those of Davis and Boxer not only make many of us uncomfortable, but place us in a situation of having to judge these candidates' values incompatible with our deepest values about life-values which both reason and faith reinforce."


ST. CHARLES BORROMEO CHURCH IN LIVERMORE DECLARED that it is "not a branch of the Diocese of Oakland; nor is it a branch of the Vatican" in its parish bulletin of September 20. The bulletin quoted dissident Father Richard McBrien's condemnation of the "common pre-Vatican II notion that the Church is, for all practical purposes, always to be understood as the Church universal, centralized in the Vatican under the supreme authority of the pope, with each diocese considered only as an administrative division of the Church universal, and each parish, in turn, an administrative subdivison of the diocese."


DEACON JIM CAMPBELL, EXPOSED IN THE FAITH as a booster of gay unions, resigned as director of religious education at St. Augustine parish in Oakland. His October resignation came two days after 12 St. Augustine's parishioners papered 300 cars in the parish parking lot with copies of Campbell's pro-homosexual statements.

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