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Contents © 2005
by Jim Holman.
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NEWS
January 2005

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FOR THOSE WHO WONDER whether Christ's presence in the Eucharist is at all unique (compared to His presence in the Word or the Church), Monterey's Bishop Sylvester Ryan has given a definitive answer: (seemingly) no. The November Observer, the newspaper of the diocese of Monterey, carried questions with responses by Bishop Ryan, one of which was, "is there a special way in which Christ is present in the Sacrament of the Eucharist?" To this the bishop answered neither yes nor simply no; but no seemed to be the gist of his response. After quoting Vatican II on the presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the Word, the priest, and the assembly, Bishop Ryan noted that "it is the extraordinary truth of our faith that the presence and power of Christ in our celebrations of the Liturgy of the Eucharist merge into each other." And how so? "The priest celebrant," said Bishop Ryan, "is the teacher and the preacher of the Word and it is by the same power of Christ that the priest preaches and Christ speaks to His people through the Word. Christ is present in the assembly and by His power the bread and wine are transformed into the Eucharistic Body of Christ so that the people of God become transformed more deeply into the Mystical Body of Christ." The bishop then went on to talk about the various ministries carried on by the "people of God."

Perhaps Bishop Ryan should have consulted the Catechism of the Catholic Church to answer this question. According to the Catechism, "the mode of Christ's presence under the Eucharistic species is unique;" and quoting Paul VI's encyclical Mysterium Fidei, continues: "this presence is called 'real' -- by which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence as if they could not be 'real' too, but because it is presence in the fullest sense: that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present."

AMONG THOSE FISHING for the $3 billion in embryonic stem-cell research funding approved by Californians in November is the University of California, Davis. Though stem-cell research at the university has been vestigial to date, UC Davis hopes that will change. "When the government or whatever sector puts up funding in order to engage people to solve problems, people will rally around it," Barry Klein, the university's chancellor for research, told the November Sacramento Bee. And UC Davis is not alone. "I know of three start-ups focused on stem cells that are leveraging the idea that California is going to be a hotbed of stem cell biology, and that's the place to be," said Theo Palmer, a neuroscientist at Stanford University. Menlo Park's Geron Company, which sponsored a University of Wisconsin study that produced the world's first embryonic stem-cell line, also stands to benefit, though Tom Okarma, Geron's president and CEO, vaunted that his company "will dominate the field and take (the technology) into the clinic regardless of who is president or whether Prop. 71 (exists)." Though Okarma said his company has not decided on whether to accept state funding, it will benefit from the presence in the state of more research scientists. "We have 200 patents pending around the world," said Okarma. "We've created a fortress of IP [intellectual property rights]. So the more commercialization occurs, the better it helps us."

According to the Bee, the countries where stem-cell research has thriven are South Korea, Singapore, Israel, and Great Britain. State funding in California will offer it the dubious honor of joining these countries. It may even have growth effects outside the state, even though the monies will go only for in-state research. Dan Anderson of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology told the Bee, "I'm sure with that much money, many new advances will be made, and these will affect how research is done outside of California." The governor of Wisconsin, Jim Doyle, who followed the Proposition 71 campaign, said he would sponsor a $750 million initiative to further stem cell research. New Jersey's acting governor Richard Codey said he will expand his state's stem cell research efforts, while in Illinois a bill that would render stem cell research legal in that state failed by two votes to pass the senate.

THE DEATH OF HOLLY PATTERSON of Livermore resulting from the abortion pill, RU-486, in 2003 has had some policy effect at the Food and Drug Administration -- but not enough, say critics. In September, Monty Patterson, Holly's father, met with FDA officials to discuss improvement of the safety standards for clinics distributing the drug; Patterson also wanted the FDA to require reporting from abortionists and businesses of adverse effects arising from the drug. According to a November 15 LifeNews.com report, the FDA's response so far has been to place new warnings on packages containing RU-486, explaining that infections can cause death in women taking the drug. The drug, however, already carries the highest level FDA warning.

Meanwhile, in November, another woman was reported dead from RU-486 -- a sign, said Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America, that warning labels are not enough. "It is reported that another woman has died after taking the abortion drug RU-486, and the FDA's response is to change the drug's label," Wright said in a statement. "This is a dangerous drug that deserves to be pulled off the market immediately." The FDA's response? The agency said it will continue to monitor the usage of the drug.

HOLLY'S BILL, legislation introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives in November 2003 following the death of Holly Patterson, will be reintroduced when the new Congress convenes in January. The bill, which has 80 sponsors, would require an investigation of the FDA to see if it violated its own rules in approving RU-486 in 2000. Then South Carolina Representative, and now Senator Jim DeMint, who co-sponsored the bill, charges that the approval of the drug during the Clinton administration was "thoroughly political, not scientific." The bill would require an indefinite banning of RU-486 if it is discovered that the FDA violated its own rules

IT WAS ALL HER FAULT. Christina Comfort, the director for the Chico abortion business, Women's Health Specialist, blamed Holly Patterson for her own death. In an interview appearing in the November 29 California Aggie, the student newspaper of the University of California, Davis, Comfort said that Patterson's death after taking RU-486 resulted from her own negligence. "The complications came from Patterson not seeking medical care soon enough," Comfort said. "If she had gone to an emergency room in a timely manner she may have prevented her death." Patterson, however, did seek treatment when she began experiencing pain and bleeding; doctors at ValleyCare Medical Center in Pleasanton, gave her painkillers and sent her home. Three days later, after experiencing no improvement, she returned to ValleyCare and died that afternoon.

According to a November 29 LifeNews.com report, the California Department of Health Services conducted an investigation into Patterson's death. The report issued by the department indicates that Patterson's boyfriend "called the [Planned Parenthood] call center several times to report severe cramping, constipation, nausea, vomiting, and visits to the local acute care hospital emergency room." But Planned Parenthood tells its clients that such symptoms are normal; thus, says LifeNews.com, "Patterson and other women taking the abortion drug may likely wait for such symptoms to subside before seeking emergency medical care."

ABORTIONIST DR. JOSEPH DURANTE has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in federal court in Riverside during a malpractice case against him by Ann Marie Santana, who alleged that she almost died subsequent to an abortion at Durante's Victorville office in 1998. She suffered a perforated uterus, perforated bowel, and gross sepsis from fecal material erupting into her abdomen. In order to avoid paying any judgment in the Santana case, Durante filed the bankruptcy.

In filing for bankruptcy, Durante revealed the names of five female patients, an action which appears to be in violation of federal statutes protecting patient identity. He lists them purposely as creditors who might file "possible malpractice suits" against him. Federal law strictly prohibits physicians from disclosing any information about a patient except with patient permission.

In his bankruptcy filing, Durante states that he has only $44,280 in assets and has total liabilities of $434,625. He also states that he owes $50,787 to the IRS, $10,254 to the California Franchise Tax Board, $25,312 for a judgment against him by MENA America Bank, a judgment of $110,252 by Wells Fargo Bank, and another judgment of $50,000 for breach of contract from Eliverto Solis.

DURANTE HAS A LONG HISTORY of discipline by the Medical Board of California. In 1978 he was found incompetent in the care of female patients and given probation with 30 days of actual suspension. In 1986 Indio Community Hospital (now JFK Hospital) filed a complaint with the Medical Board against Durante for injuring several female patients who required emergency care. Durante was found to have no malpractice insurance and was thrown off staff at both JFK Hospital and Desert Hospital.

In 1996 the Medical Board filed a case against Durante for negligence in the case of a baby he tried to abort but which survived. He was disciplined and placed on probation. In 1998 the Medical Board again disciplined Durante for falsifying a state record and suspended him for 60 days.

Last January, Durante sold his Moreno Valley abortion office (the site of the 1996 abortion homicide of young black victim, Sharon Hamptlon) and in November abandoned his Victorville office where Santana had been injured. He continues doing abortions at his Palm Desert site.

DELANIE EASTIN, who served as California's superintendent of public instruction from 1994 to 2002, now continues her push for government regulation of home schooling in Washington, D.C., said a November 15 Home School Legal Defense report. Towards the end of her tenure as superintendent, Eastin wrote to all California legislators to urge them to pass legislation making home schoolers accountable to the state. Now working for the National Institute for School Leadership, Eastin is on the rolodex of newspaper reporters throughout the country. She told the Akron Beacon Journal, "we're making such a fuss about accountability for some and no accountability for others, shouldn't we pay some attention to the homeschoolers?" Eastin claims "both the federal and state governments ignore home schooling."

THE 2004 ELECTION showcased Wal-Mart's interest in California. The retail behemoth not only has plans to build 40 of its supercenters (combination grocery and department stores) across the state, it has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on state campaigns and one ballot measure, Proposition 72. According to the November 6 Sacramento Bee, Wal-Mart contributed $650,000 to the no on Proposition 72 campaign. The measure, which lost by the narrow margin of 51 percent for, 49 percent against, would have required businesses with 50 or more employees to pay up to 80 percent of healthcare costs for their employees. However Wal-Mart spokeswoman Cynthia Lin told the Bee that it was not for fear of health care costs that the company opposed Proposition 72, but because advertisements for the measure "tried to make this debate all about Wal-Mart." Union backers of Proposition 72 said they supported the measure to make a level playing field for union stores and stores like Wal-Mart.

The company says it provides health care coverage for two-thirds of its full-time employees. Critics of Wal-Mart, however, have charged that the company's health coverage is inadequate; a study by the University of California, Berkeley said that the state spends $32 million on health care costs for Wal Mart employees to make up for this inadequate coverage. Another study said that Wal-Mart's coverage in 2002 was 30 percent less per employee than other employers. Cynthia Lin called the Berkeley study "bogus, biased."

This election also saw Wal-Mart dabbling in local politics. It spent $95,000 to oppose a ballot measure in Lodi that would have made it more difficult to build a supercenter there. In Antioch, it spent $36,000 to back three candidates for city council and mayor; all were pro-company. Over the past two years, Wal-Mart has donated $153,000 to the state Republican Party, $10,000 to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and lesser amounts to other, mostly Republican, candidates.

VOICE OF THE RELIGIOUS LEFT? A Richmond priest, the Rev. Jesus Nieto, joined about 40 religious leaders on November 18 at the capitol in Washington, D.C. to tell Congress that the religious right does not have a corner on American religion, said the November 19 San Francisco Chronicle. Father Nieto and members of about 50 religious groups belong to an Oakland-based organization of faith-based community organizations, since its founding in 1972 called the Pacific Institute for Community Organizations, but now the PICO National Network. According to the Chronicle, abortion, homosexual marriage, or embryonic stem cell research were not among the issues about which the group addressed Congress. Rather, the moral issues presented by the group were health care, affordable housing, safer inner-city neighborhoods, and improved public schools. These issues are as much moral issues as any other, according to the group.

TEENS FOR LIFE is now engaging in a new tactic to convince high school students of the evil of abortion, said the November 25 Sacramento Bee. The pro-life group has been known for its displays of large images of fetuses outside public high schools. But in mid November, at Rocklin High School, the group distributed brochures titled, "Lynching is for Amateurs," which compares Planned Parenthood to the Ku Klux Klan. Above a list of statistics showing abortion rates among blacks, the brochure states, "Planned Parenthood is accomplishing what the Klan could only dream about." Most Planned Parenthood clinics are located in minority neighborhoods, says the brochure, and "more than 25 percent of the black population has been aborted" since the abortion became legal in 1973.

Kathy Kneer, president of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, of course dismissed the Teens for Life pamphlet. "There is a high correlation between the women's reproductive rights movement and the civil rights movement," Kneer told the Bee. "Both were founded on the core basis of human rights and justice."

Rocklin High's principal Debra Hawkins said the school has a "protocol" for dealing with demonstrators like Teens for Life. "(Administrators) stand out there on the sidewalk with them and make sure there are no confrontations," she said. And counselors are available to students. "Usually the kids will ask, 'Do I have to take these things?' and we say, 'No, you can throw it right in the trash if you don't want to look at it,'" said Hawkins.

"NO ONE CAN DENY that the decline in priestly vocations represents a stark challenge for the church in the United States," said Pope John Paul II to American bishops on November 26. Twenty bishops from Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska met with the pope for the their ad limina visit. Though he made no direct reference to the clergy molestation scandal, the pope said that seminary training must inculcate in candidates for the priesthood a commitment to "holiness and spiritual wisdom." The challenge of increasing priestly vocations, said John Paul, "cannot be ignored or put off;" rather, it should be addressed by "insistent prayer" and a "program of vocational promotion which branches out to every aspect of ecclesial life." According to a November 25 Associated Press report, within a year the Holy See will conduct an investigation of United States seminaries.

SENATOR BARBARA BOXER vehemently objected to a measure, tacked on to an omnibus spending bill, that makes it easier for hospitals and health providers to refuse to provide abortions or cover them, said the November 21 Oakland Tribune. The House of Representatives and the Senate passed the spending bill, with the measure, on November 20. The Republican-backed measure basically blocks any money from the $388 billion spending bill going to federal, state, or local agencies which in any way seek to penalize health providers or insurers for refusing to perform, cover, or refer for abortions. To date, healthcare providers have been required, in exchange for federal money, to at least tell pregnant women that abortion is an option.

While the current measure seems only to affect monies from the current spending bill, opponents, including Senator Boxer, see it as weakening previous federal law that favors abortion as an option. "Now any business entity can decide to tell doctors working for it they can't give information to women about their right to choose," complained Boxer. According to Boxer, Senate leaders have promised her a vote on the measure next year, though Democrats admit they probably do not have the numbers to vote it down.

House minority leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) also objected to the measure. "The Title X family planning program provides much-needed reproductive health services that reach millions of low-income, uninsured individuals," said Pelosi. "Under this amendment, clinics could participate in the Title X program without providing a full range of reproductive health services. Federal dollars should not be used to deny the federally-protected right to choose."

PELOSI BLAMES CATHOLIC BISHOPS. In a letter to major Democrat donors, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) has implicitly blamed Catholic bishops for her party's losses in the recent election. For the most part, the letter is a thank you for the donors' support and an optimistic assessment of the future. However, in the letter's second paragraph, Pelosi wrote: "the Democratic message was eclipsed by so-called values pronouncements.

"As a devout Catholic, I observe with great regret the intervention of some Catholic bishops who joined evangelical leaders in the political arena," said Pelosi. She asserted the bishops' words confused voters about the separation of church and state, "and that is wrong."

A number of bishops spoke out on non-negotiable issues in the last election, and many of them actively distributed Catholic Answers' Voter's Guide for Serious Catholics, which stipulated that there are five non-negotiable issues that no faithful Catholic voter or candidate can support: abortion, euthanasia, fetal stem cell research, cloning, and homosexual marriage. The bishop of Green Bay, Wisconsin, went so far as to tell his flock to vote in strict opposition to abortion and gay marriage.

The Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call reported that one "Catholic PAC donor was offended when he received Pelosi's thank-you letter that not-so-subtly blamed the bishops." "Oh, so it wasn't that we had a bad message badly delivered by bad candidates," the Catholic Democratic donor said. "It wasn't the Catholic Bishops' fault. It's bizarre to be blaming them."

Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly said the San Francisco legislator stands by her letter.

A RECALL EFFORT launched to unseat a Sacramento judge who upheld the state's same-sex domestic partner law is gaining some support, said the November 13 Sacramento Bee. The Campaign for California Families took the first legal step to begin the recall process that, it hopes, will unseat, Sacramento superior court judge Loren McMaster. On September 8, Judge McMaster ruled that a California domestic partnership law that goes into effect in January 2005 was not in conflict with Proposition 22. Plaintiffs, which included the Campaign for California Families, argued that the law, signed by Governor Gray Davis, violates Proposition 22, which defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Tony Andrade, who chairs the recall committee and is a leader of the group that led the recall of Governor Davis, said Judge McMaster "has trampled upon traditional family values."

The McMaster recall committee must meet several legal requirements and deadlines before it can begin to gather the 44,284 signatures needed to put the recall onto a ballot. The recall, which would occur this year, when no regular election is scheduled, would be a special election, which would cost more than $2.4 million.

State attorney general Bill Lockyer opposes the recall. "When a group threatens to recall one judge because they disagree with a ruling, they threaten all judges. They threaten the independence of the judiciary," Lockyer said in a prepared statement.

FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL DAN LUNGREN, who won only 38 percent of the vote in his gubernatorial contest with Gray Davis in 1998, has made a political comeback, beating Democratic challenger Gabe Castillo, 62 to 36, percent for the third district congressional seat. This will be Lungren's second time in Congress, where he served as representative for the Long Beach district from 1979 to 1989. Lungren left Congress to serve as state treasurer for Governor George Deukmejian. In 1990, Lungren was elected as state attorney general, a post he held until 1998, when he lost the gubernatorial contest to Davis. When Lungren, who had been living in Roseville, northeast of Sacramento, learned that Republican U.S. representative Doug Ose was retiring, he moved his residence to Gold River, said the November 8 Sacramento Bee. Despite tough opposition in the primary, where he was simultaneously attacked as too moderate and too right-wing, Lungren won the nomination and went on to beat Castillo in November.

In the campaign, Castillo attacked Lungren for hiding what the Democrat called the Republican's anti-abortion stance. Castillo charged that Lungren wanted to ban abortion even in cases where pregnancy results from rape and incest. In response, however, Lungren's campaign manager, Robert Molnar, told the September 22 Sacramento Bee, that the Republican campaign wanted "to focus on serious issues of the day, such as national security and the economy. We don't want to be dragged into a tit-for-tat on an issue Mr. Lungren has not been campaigning on." But, during his first stint in Congress, Lungren co-sponsored a human life amendment to the Constitution that would have banned abortion in cases of rape and incest. But Wayne Johnson, Lungren's political consultant, old the Bee that Lungren's position has changed since that time. "He said in the race for governor that while he would counsel any woman who came to him for advice against having an abortion, as a matter of practical law, rape and incest would be exceptions," Wayne said.

In his run for governor, Lungren, though a Catholic, supported rape and incest exceptions for abortion.

CATHOLIC STATE ASSEMBLYWOMAN Patty Berg (D-Sebastopol) will join Assemblyman Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys) in holding hearings in San Francisco and Los Angeles to craft an assisted suicide law for California, said the November 14 Sacramento Bee. The proposed law will be similar to Oregon's 1998 Death with Dignity Act. This will not be the first time that a suicide bill has been considered in California. In 1992, an assisted suicide ballot initiative failed at the polls. In 1999, Assemblywoman Dion Aroner's bill failed in the assembly

Why might the Berg/Levine bill succeed where others have failed? Because, say the bill's proponents, California has the most progressive pain-management and end-of-life care policies which will preclude arguments that patients who opt for suicide do so because they are driven to desperation. Kathryn Tucker, legal director for Compassion in Dying, an Oregon-based group, opined that "when an aid-in-dying measure is presented, there will be no traction to an argument that it is important to address the needs that patients have." But the California Medical Association, which opposes physician-assisted suicide, won't make that argument. Said Ron Lopp, a spokesman for the group, "our position all along has been that physicians are healers, not killers. Instead of participating in assisted suicide, doctors should aggressively help and attend to the needs of the patient at the end of life. The patients shouldn't be abandoned."

But why does Berg, a Catholic, support legalizing assisted suicide? Her "support for the issue was strengthened after she watched her husband die after a stroke 17 years ago," said th Bee.

SACRAMENTO'S BISHOP William Weigand was hospitalized the day after the close of the Sacramento diocesan synod on October 13, said the November 13 Sacramento Bee. Bishop Weigand suffers from primary sclerosing cholangitis, a disease which causes scarring of the liver. His doctors say that his condition has reached the point where he needs a liver transplant. They would like to perform the procedure soon, but have not found a donor. Donors, who must be between the ages of 18 and 50, need to have the same blood type and body size as recipients. Only a portion of a donor's liver is removed. In the meantime, Bishop Weigand said he would cut back on some of his workload, discontinuing weekend parish visits.

THE GREEK ORTHODOX PRELATE who presides over the Greek Orthodox Church in California and six other western states underwent treatment for a rare form of cancer, said the November 23 San Francisco Chronicle. Metropolitan Anthony Gergiannakis, who was made bishop of the Greek Orthodox diocese of San Francisco in 1979 and elevated to metropolitan in 1997, has been diagnosed with Burkitt's lymphoma, a cancer that effects the lymph nodes and which is rare among adults. Metropolitan Gergiannakis, 69, according to doctors in November, was responding to treatments.

SENATOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN, shortly after the November 2 election, seemed to think that support for same-sex marriage hurt Democratic contenders, said the November 7 San Francisco Chronicle. "The whole issue has been too much, too fast, too soon," said the senator. But state assemblyman Mark Leno has learned no caution from election day results. Instead of banking his fires, the San Francisco legislator said he he would open the legislative session in January by introducing a bill that would change the definition of marriage from a union between a man and a woman to a contract "between two persons." Leno's confidence left some Democrats unconfortable. Said incoming state senate president, Don Perata (D-Oakland), "I understand [Leno's] intent, but it's a matter of timing. We still have a huge budget problem, and we still haven't had a chance to examine the true nature of the bus that just hit us." Speaking presumably of Democratic performance in the last election, Perata said, "we got our backsides kicked. We should not be so smug as to think we are the nose cone of social change."

BOTH DEMOCRAT AND REPUBLICAN homosexual activists are rethinking their strategy after the November 2 election, said the November 10 San Francisco Chronicle. The passage of laws banning same-sex marriage in 11 states (eight of which banned civil unions as well) was a sign that the homosexuals lost, said Patrick Guerriero, president of the Log Cabin Republicans, a Republican homosexual group. "If we listen to those attempting to sanitize or sugarcoat the post-election analysis, we are doomed to repeat our mistakes and destined for setbacks ahead," Guerriero said. Homosexual rights leaders, however, were somewhat heartened by the exit polls, which showed that 60 percent of voters favored either civil unions or same-sex marriage, while only 35 percent wanted no legal recognition for homosexual couples. Even President Bush told ABC's "Good Morning America" just days before the election, "I don't think we should deny people rights to a civil union, a legal arrangement, if that's what a state chooses to do." Evan Wolfson of Freedom to Marry said he thinks the key to securing homosexual marriage is to convince the third of voters who, he said, are undecided on the issue.

Other strategies homosexual activists are considering for the future include court challenges to state marriage bans, pushing for marriage rights in more liberal, red states, such as California, and promoting state ballot measures to expand rights to hospital visitation, inheritance, and other rights reserved for kin.

ARCHBISHOP WILLIAM LEVADA is guilty of "deception, manipulation, and control" in refusing to release the results of an investigation into 40 priests accused of sexual molestation of minors -- including the names of priests credibly accused -- said James Jenkins, founding chairman of the Independent Review Board for Northern California, the lay board which conducted the investigation. The November 12 San Francisco Chronicle reported that in a resignation letter to Archbishop Levada, Jenkins charged that "there has been no public acknowledgement that these accusations [of molestation] were made and whether they were sustained or not sustained." He claimed that the lay board could be reduced to "an elaborate public relations scheme," and that the Church could not hope to regain credibility with the public "given its present leadership and the state of its corruption." Jenkins, an East Bay clinical psychologists, was appointed to the review board by Levada in 2001.

Archdiocesan spokesman Maurice Healy, however, told the Chronicle that Jenkins' fellow board members do not share his criticisms. Jenkins "wants the names of alleged perpetrators released," said Healy, "and other board members do not." Board chairwoman Suzanne Giraudo, said the Chronicle, did not return calls for comment.

The archdiocese claims that so far it has investigated 18 out of 40 priests accused of molestation. Of these 18, nine have agreed to minister no longer as priests; five have appealed their cases to the Holy See; and four were cleared.

THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES approved $10 million to restore the California missions, said the November 18 Sacramento Bee. The legislation was introduced in the House in 2003 and was sponsored by Sam Farr (D-Carmel) and all but two of the California delegation. The legislation waited for months before it was approved in the fall of 2003. It then went to the Senate, where Senator Barbara Boxer had already initiated a similar bill. When it reached a hearing, the Interior Department objected to it while others said it violated the separation of church and state, since 19 of the 21 missions are run by the Catholic Church. According to the Bee, the bill languished because of opposition from Republicans, who worried that its passage might bolster Senator Boxer's reelection in November 2004. When the Senate committee amended the House Bill, with the endorsement of House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier (R-San Dimas) added as a co-sponsor, it was sent again to the House. There Representative Jim Gibbons (R-Reno, Nevada) insisted on a deal with Farr that emphasis be placed on the "fact" that the missions were slave camps where hundreds of thousands Indians died under "inhumane conditions." Farr said that "fact" would be noted in a letter to the Interior Department. The House approved the bill on a voice vote.

Though the Bush administration last spring strongly opposed the measure, House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo (D-Tracy) said he expected the president to sign it. Under President George W. Bush, Old North Church in Boston and the Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island have benefited from similar federal funding.

The bill still has its opponents -- Americans United for Separation of Church and State said they might file a lawsuit to stop it. The U.S. Department of Justice would have to certify that funding the missions does not violate the separation of church and state.

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