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Contents © 2005
by Jim Holman.
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NEWS
March 2005

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PRO-ABORTION CITY. San Francisco supervisor Tom Ammiano sponsored a resolution, passed by the city's board of supervisors on January 11, that designated January 22, 2005 (the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court's abortion decision) "Stand Up for Choice Day." The resolution also declared the city's official support for a pro-abortion rally held January 22. A board of supervisors press release left no doubt that the resolution was crafted in response to the anti-abortion "Walk for Life," also scheduled for January 22. "Anti-choice demonstrators plan to descend on San Francisco to protest women's health and rights with a so-called 'walk for life,' said the press release. "Anti-choice hardliners plan to demonstrate against comprehensive, medically accurate sex education, birth control services, and the right to choose. Anti-choice marchers include radical groups such as Operation Rescue, which have a history of violence and harassment of medical clinics."

District 2 supervisor Michaela Alioto-Pier co-sponsored the resolution with Ammiano. "Living in the Bay Area, we don't realize how national trends can potentially threaten the substantive gains that women have fought hard for the last three decades," said Alioto-Pier. "I am urging all women to come out to the rally to stand up for choice." According to a January 19 IgnatiusInsight.com report, Alioto-Pier is a Catholic and attends St. Dominic's church in the city. Ironically, her fellow parishioner, Dolores Meehan, was co-chair of the Walk for Life.

OAKLAND CITY COUNCILWOMAN Nancy Nadel introduced a similar resolution honoring Roe v. Wade, "Oakland Stands Up For Choice," to the Oakland city council for approval on January 5. Nadel said, "In light of recent attacks on women's reproductive rights, it's time to re-energize our efforts to stand up and fight for these rights." The January 15 San Francisco Chronicle reported that the council was expected to approve the resolution on January 18.

DONALD BEARDSLEE, who over two decades ago murdered two Bay Area women, was executed 12.01 a.m., January 19 at San Quentin prison. In 1981, Beardslee admitted to killing Patty Geddling, 23, and Stacey Benjamin, 19, and dumping their bodies in secluded spots. Before that, in 1969, he had knifed to death another woman in Missouri. Having exhausted court appeals to halt the execution, Beardslee's lawyers asked Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for a stay of execution. The lawyers argued that Beardslee suffered from brain damage that had previously gone undetected; they asked the governor to allow Beardslee to undergo a sophisticated magnetic resonance imaging brain scan which had not been available at the time of his trial in 1981. Schwarzenegger rejected the brain damage claim, citing Beardslee's academic performance -- the "A's, Bs and Cs when he attended the College of San Mateo while he was on parole for the Missouri murder." The governor was also unmoved by evidence that Beardslee was a model prisoner. Schwarzenegger refused clemency.

According to the Times, California has 640 inmates on death row, the largest number in the country, while ranking 18th in the number of executions since 1976. Texas rates second in the number of inmates, 455, on death row, and first in executions, 337 since 1976.

IN A STATEMENT published in the January 18 Valley Catholic, San Jose's Bishop Patrick McGrath called upon Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to grant clemency to Donald Beardlsee. "Vengeance does not heal," said McGrath. "It only escalates the violence." The bishop quoted Pope John Paul II (in the encyclical Evangelium Vitae) that "the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity 'are rare, if not practically non-existent,'" as well as the pope's 1999 Christmas exhortation "for a consensus to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary." McGrath also cited the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' 1999 "Good Friday Appeal to End the Death Penalty."

"The death of Donald Beardslee will not stop the hatred, crime and violence which engulf our cities, homes, work places and schools," wrote Bishop McGrath. "His execution will be just another symptom of our failure to deal effectively with the serious social problems of our times."

Bishop McGrath proceeded to condemn the death penalty in absolute terms. "Because we believe in the inherent and transcendent value and dignity of all human life, we oppose always, and in all circumstances, the use of capital punishment," he said. "The use of the death penalty, we believe, only helps to strengthen the psychology of violence and death, while at the same time, weakening respect for life in our society." Though "society has the right to punish the guilty perpetrators of crime, and the civil authorities have the right and duty to protect their citizens from these criminals," said McGrath, "we believe ... that there are ways of protecting people from violent crime and of reducing crime other than resorting to execution, an act that is always in solidarity with the violence it is meant to oppose."

HOME SCHOOLERS, DON'T PANIC. The Virginia-based Home School Legal Defense Association reported January 25 that the website of the California department of education indicated the department will not receive private school affidavits after December 31, 2004 and has removed the affidavit from the website. Home School Legal Defense assures home schooling parents that no laws have changed vis-à-vis home schooling and that the department of education has removed the affidavit before. The action only affects private schools formed after December 31, 2004. In California, home schools are included under the private school designation.

Home School Legal Defense said those home schools that have yet to file an affidavit have three options. First, "the filing of the affidavit is merely a statistical filing requirement and not a prerequisite to establishing a bona fide school," said the home schooling organization. So, if all other requirements of the state education code are met, the home school student cannot be considered truant merely for lack of an affidavit. A second option for those beginning to home school after December 31 is to join a private school independent study program, of which there are many in California. The third option is to download from Home School Legal Defense its "Statement in Lieu of Affidavit," available to Home School Legal Defense members on its website www.hslda.org. Home School Legal Defense "strongly advise[s]" that parents discuss the three options with a Home School Legal Defense lawyer. For information on how to join Home School Legal Defense, see the website above, or contact the organization at P.O. Box 3000, Purcellville, Virginia 20134-9000; phone, (540) 338-5600; fax, (540) 338-2733; e-mail, info@hslda.org.

NO ONE MAY KNOW just how the $3 billion Californians approved for embryonic stem cell research may be spent, said the January 9 Sacramento Bee. The 29-member oversight committee for the institute for stem cell research will make recommendations for spending based on recommendations made by three working groups. The groups are not required to have public meetings nor must their members publicly disclose any conflicts of interest.

California's decision to fund embryonic stem cell research continues to effect other states. Senator David Paterson, who leads the New York state senate, citing loss of jobs to his state, has proposed a 10-year, $1 billion bond issue for stem cell research in New York. Citizens of New Jersey, which has already committed itself to spending $150 million on stem cell research, will in November vote on a $230 million bond issue for stem cell research. Connecticut backers of stem cell research plan to push a stem cell research funding bill in the state's assembly in 2005; a similar bill failed by a small margin last year. A stem cell research bill was defeated in Illinois in 2004, but proponents have come up with a new plan: a six percent tax on face-lifts, liposuction, and Botox injections that would raise $100 million for embryonic stem cell research.

FREEDOM FOR BOOBS. "At some point, men's breasts became liberated and women's didn't," reflected Liana Johnsson, a Ventura County public defender. Johnsson has a crusade, according to the January 22 Los Angeles Times: removing the ban on topless sunbathing on California beaches. And she's not alone; a group of lawyers has joined her to try to get a bill through the state legislature to legalize topless sunbathing for women. Johnsson and her insurgency pectoral are in part motivated by the belief that women convicted of indecent exposure could be listed as sex offenders under Megan's Law. But Attorney General Bill Lockyer's office said that since topless sunbathing is not considered lewd under California law but merely indecent, a woman arrested for going topless would not be treated as a sex offender.

In October, Johnsson addressed the California Bar Association, showing the 400 plus delegates slides of a big-breasted male villain from the movie Austin Powers: the Spy Who Shagged Me. (She also has a short video featuring big-breasted men sunbathing on California beaches -- just more evidence that men and women are not treated equally under the law.) The state bar voted to approve a resolution asking the state to remove topless sunbathing from the criminal code.

MERCY SISTERS SEEK VOCATIONS. In October 2004, four sisters of the Sisters of Mercy Auburn community with three candidates moved into the two-story Holy Spirit convent in Sacramento, said the January 8 Catholic Herald, the newspaper of the diocese of Sacramento. The "common mission" of these sisters, said the Herald, is "to invite women interested in religious life to spend some time at the convent, experience communal living, and observe other women doing God's work to see how it fits into their own lives." The sisters and candidates spend the greater part of their day, it seems, working at their various charitable apostolates. But their regimen of life at Holy Spirit convent includes morning and evening prayer and what the Herald describes as the "highlight of the day for most" of the denizens -- sitting "around the dinner table enjoying a meal they take turns to prepare." "It's time we get to know each other a lot better -- tell funny stories, laugh and catch up on each other's lives," Sister Jeanine Tisot, who "mentor[s], counsel[s], and teach[es]" the candidates, said. "You see all the gifts people have and you also see all our little quirks."

The candidates spoke of what attracted them to the Sisters of Mercy. One said she was struck by the "simplicity and friendliness" of one of the sisters. "She was cheerful and happy and I knew that was what I wanted to be." Another candidate said, "I was struck by the way [the Sisters of Mercy] conducted their lives professionally and the way they find a way to live that faith in a very concrete way." The third candidate said the life of a Mercy Sister is "a beautiful vocation for the person called to it. I was searching for a form of caring for the other.... I enjoy the freedom the Mercy community offers. It is a very cheerful group of sisters and their appreciation of you touches my heart very much."

The professed sisters return the appreciation. Sister Mary Campos said of candidates, "I think women today who enter have much more knowledge of who God is and where they are in God's life than we were at age 19 entering community."

The Herald said of the Mercy Sisters that they "not only possess a spiritual thirst to serve God," but "they are the 'real deal' -- witty and wise, and toting academic credentials that would impress most corporate CEOs."

ST. JOSEPH'S CHURCH in Vacaville dedicated its new parish church building in a Mass of dedication celebrated by Bishop William Weigand on December 12. The January 8 Catholic Herald, the newspaper of the diocese of Sacramento, described the church as built in the "new classic Romanesque style." And indeed (by what one can judge from photographs of the church found at www.stjosephvacaville.org), the new church would in many respects please the tastes of the traditionally-minded Catholic. The exterior has rather traditional appointments, and the interior, though pews fan out like a turkey's tail feathers, is nevertheless symmetrically focused on a traditional Romanesque altar and a large crucifix before a backdrop of three arches. To the liturgical south of the altar, behind the presider's chair, is what appears to be a repository for the sacred oils; the absence of a sanctuary lamp suggests it is not the tabernacle. One appointment mentioned in the Herald article which does not appear in the pictures is the baptismal font, cut from an 11,000 pound soapstone boulder found at Angels Camp. This font (which was a key factor in determining the church's liturgical design), it seems, is not located near the sanctuary, for the Herald notes, "a video camera focused on the font and two screens installed in the front of the sanctuary will enhance baptisms, which will be scheduled during Masses."

INVOCATION OF THE SPIRITS. On January 13, a reader of the San Francisco Faith alerted us to an interesting prayer found on the website of the archdiocese of San Francisco, on a page dedicated to those who have been abused by priests. This prayer, called "Blessing Our Oneness," contained no discernible invocation of the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit; rather, it called on the Spirits of the North, South, East, and West, and the Spirit of the Earth. The directional spirits are invoked clockwise. The prayer asks the Spirit of the North, among other things, to help us believe "that we, like the earth, already hold within ourselves the seeds of new life." The prayer asks the Spirit of the East to "in-spirit us that we might reach out to you boldly to grasp the miracles that are given birth with each new dawn." The Spirit of the South is invoked to "lead us to accept fatigue with resignation, knowing that life is not to be rushed, that there is no flower of the field that grows from seed to blossom in a single day." The Spirit of the West is invoked to "fill us with your peace as you enfold us with your great mystery of night that we might rest securely in your arms until morning call us forth again."

Finally, the prayer acclaims the "Great Spirit of the Earth:" "It was from you we came as from a Mother; you nourish us still and give us shelter. Teach us to walk softly on your lands, to use with care your gifts, to love with tenderness all our brothers and sisters who have been born of your goodness. And when the day comes when you call us back to yourself, help us to return to you as a friend, to find ourselves embraced, encircled and enfolded in your arms."

News of the prayer traveled the internet in the days following January 13, with an invitation to contact the archdiocese with one's opinion of the invocation. When the Faith on January 20 checked the website, www.sfarchdiocese.org/oneness-english.html, we found a new prayer, "Blessing Our Oneness:" the "Peace Prayer of St. Francis."

SACRILEGE. Four Oakland diocese churches suffered from acts of theft and vandalism last year, said the January 10 Catholic Voice, the newspaper of the diocese of Oakland. At St. Isidore's church in Danville, the tabernacle (broken from a cement base on the altar), the Blessed Sacrament, and chalices were stolen. At St. Edward's in Newark on the weekend of December 11, unsuccessful attempts were made to break into the poor boxes. The tabernacle door had also been pried open, but the Sacrament seemed untouched. Similar attempts were made on the poor boxes at St. Barnabas' in Alameda last spring; someone also removed the crucifix from the wall, placing it on the altar, and spray painted "IF" on the altar. About a month after the St. Barnabas incident, at St. Joan of Arc in San Ramon someone tore the corpus off the crucfix, laid it on the altar, and spray painted "IF" followed by ellipses along with images of arrows at the church' s two main entrances. Bishop Allen Vigneron has called for investigations of these occurences and has said that if evidence of intentional sacrilege of the Eucharist is discovered, he will perform a penitential rite at St. Isidore's.

VANDALISM also struck Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Parlier, southwest of Fresno, on January 20 or 21. According to the January 23 Fresno Bee, someone used blank spray paint to deface three religious statues, one being a replica of the Pietà, and painted obscenities (including "Mary is the devil") on the front of the church and the side of rectory. Parishioners repaired the damage. A complaint has been filed with the Parlier police department.

THE OLD NOT WANTED. A letter in the January 10 Oakland diocese Catholic Voice complained that rock and roll Masses alienate the old. The writer, Randy Schornack, a former Lutheran, said he left "my Lutheran church" because it "became blurred with the Assembly of God and Pentecostal religious worship service." Searching "for a faith and worship that was similar to ours," Schornack said he and his family found St. John Vianney in Walnut Creek. There, wrote Schornack, "we attended RCIA and one year later experienced one of the most spiritual moments in our lives -- the Easter Vigil. My wife, who was never one much for church, began attending on a regular basis. Prayers became part of our family life."

Matters seemed to go well for the first two years; but then, attending their third Easter Vigil, Schornack said he and his wife "were shocked to hear amplified guitars and entertainers at the altar beckoning the members to participate to the sound of drums, piano, tambourine and electric guitars." This, said Schornack, sent him the message "loud and clear" that the church does "not want the older families and aged. We want the young." And Schornack added, "the young, as it happens, have less concern for the poor and hungry and more concern for spending money on themselves."

JUDGE RONALD SABRAW, the Alameda County superior court justice who is presiding over the more than 150 sexual abuse lawsuits involving Northern California dioceses, on January 14 said he thought all the cases involving all the dioceses except Fresno could be settled before March 7, the date the first civil trial is to begin. The January 15 San Francisco Chronicle also reported that Sabraw removed San Jose diocese as a defendant in cases dealing with incidents of molestation before July 1981, the date of its incorporation. These cases, the judge said, would fall to the archdiocese of San Francisco, of which San Jose was then a part. Sabraw also threw out the case of a woman who settled with the church in 1995. The woman's claim to retrial based on the fact that she had been represented by a lawyer not licensed to practice in California did not, Sabraw ruled, obviate the fact that she had "release[d] and forever discharge[d]" St. Joseph's Abbey in Monterey from any claims. Sabraw also ruled that a group of victims could not have a retrial because the diocese of Monterey-Fresno had destroyed documents related to accused priest Patrick McHugh. Sabraw said he had no reason to believe the destruction of documents showed the church knew about McHugh's abuse of minors.

RESPONDING TO a December 17, 2004 ruling by Judge Sabraw, the diocese of Oakland met a December 28 deadline for submitting church documents concerning priests accused of sexual molestation of minors to the Alameda County superior court, said the January 19 Catholic Voice. Diocesan attorney Steve McFeely said this was not the first documents the diocese had turned over to the court; over the past several months the diocese had handed over files and other material. The diocese though has not submitted certain documents, contesting Sabraw's order concerning these.

OAKLAND'S BISHOP Allen Vigneron on January 13 told a gathering of lay leaders from parishes that his first priority is getting the sexual abuse cases against the diocese settled, said the January 15 Oakland Tribune. His other priority is the completion of the proposed Christ the Light Cathedral on the shores of Lake Merritt, a project begun under his predecessor, Bishop John Cummins. The cathedral project is in its closing design phase and has received help from an anonymous donor. As for the diocese's financial future (given clergy molestation settlements), Bishop Vigneron said, "it is very, very unlikely that we would face bankruptcy. I do think the resources of the corporation of the Diocese of Oakland will be taxed."

CALIFORNIA'S ATTORNEY GENERAL Bill Lockyer joined with the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association to challenge a measure tacked onto a federal $388 billion spending bill (passed by Congress in November and signed by President Bush) that blocks funds 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. According to a January 6 LifeNews.com report, the Association filed suit asking Washington, D.C. U.S. district judge Henry Kennedy to block the law, claiming it puts needed monies to local agencies at risk and compromises a woman's right to an abortion. Pro-life groups, however, say the federal law is necessary because abortion advocates in state governments try to force medical personnel and institutions to provide for abortions.

THE EL DORADO COUNTY School Board voted unanimously in early January to keep a policy that requires parents to be notified if their teenage children leave school for "confidential medical services," said a January 13 LifeNews.com news report. Some members of the school board, before the vote, prepared a news release saying the board had overturned the policy. But a survey that showed that 88 percent of citizens in the county favored parental notification seemingly changed board members' minds, and they voted to maintain the policy.

THE CATHOLIC CHARITY Loaves and Fishes opened Sister Nora's Place at 1310 North C. Street in Sacramento to provide shelter for chronically homeless and mentally ill women, said the January 15 Sacramento Bee. The women will be housed in thirteen "modular bedrooms" designed by Sacramento area resident Trong Nguyen. The roughly seven-foot by six-foot bedrooms or cubicles are of steel frame and laminate wood panel construction. They have privacy walls, a single bed, pull-out storage shelf, and a locked closet. Nguyen, a wealthy restaurant owner, made the 13 units below cost for Loaves and Fishes. He says he would like to build 1,000. Nguyen, born and raised in Saigon, has been in the United States since 1968. "When I first came to America, I thought it was the greatest country on earth," he said. "But now you go to San Francisco. You see people with shopping carts on the street corners. It's embarrassing. You feel you need to do something to help these people."

POLICE BULLDOZED a homeless encampment along the Contra Costa Canal on January 24; according to the January 25 Contra Costa Times, police said it was their last resort for dealing with the problem. Concord police lieutenant David Chilimidos told the Times that his department rarely has to deal with homeless encampments since it tries to refer the homeless to shelters or social services before they can establish an encampment. Contra Costa public works placed notices of the impending demolition around the camp a week before bulldozers arrived.

INCLUSIVE ARNIE. Log Cabin Republicans, a group that works for the promotion of homosexual rights issues in the Republican Party, announced on January 25 that it opened its "first-ever California office" and hired a western field director, Jeff Bissiri, who will also head the California office. Bissiri is past president of Log Cabin-Los Angeles, was a delegate to the 2004 Republican national convention, and serves as a member of the California Republican Party State Committee. "California will be at the forefront of the fight for the Republican Party's future and the fight for basic fairness for gay and lesbian families. In the coming months, Californians will begin an important debate about how to strengthen gay and lesbian families. Log Cabin looks forward to playing a critical role in this debate," Bissiri said.

Log Cabin Republicans president Patrick Guerriero has great hopes for California, with Arnold Schwarzenegger at the helm. "We have an unprecedented opportunity to work closely with Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger whose inclusive vision represents the GOP's future," Guerriero said. "The California office will work to build a more inclusive GOP and advance issues of fairness and freedom for gay and lesbian Americans."

ATTORNEYS REPRESENTING CUPERTINO Union School District asked a federal court in San Jose to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a Stevens Creek Elementary school teacher alleging violations of his First Amendment rights to talk about God and religion in his classes, said a February 2 Los Angeles Times story. History teacher Stephen Williams filed a lawsuit in November accusing the Stevens Creek administration of "systematically rejecting" all references to God or the Christian faith in his handouts and of restricting his academic freedom "because of its religious content and viewpoint." Williams is being represented by the Alliance Defense Fund. But Mark Davis, an attorney representing the school district, said the court should throw out Williams' case since in 1971 a federal judge ruled that "a school need not tolerate ... speech that is inconsistent with its basic educational mission even though the government could not censor similar speech outside the school." A hearing on the notice to dismiss was scheduled for March 28.

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