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Contents © 2005
by Jim Holman.
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NEWS
May 2005

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WHERE WILL THEY GET THE EGGS? California's Institute for Regenerative Medicine, formed after last November's voter approval to fund embryonic stem cell research, may be facing an expensive problem, according to a March 10 Associated Press report — where to get the enormous number of female ova necessary for research. One avenue, taken by the Bedford Stem Cell Research Foundation near Boston, has been to pay women to harvest their ova. But Bedford has exhausted its funds four times since 2001 by this practice: it paid 20 women $4,000 each, plus expenses which totaled $25,000. Then there are some ethical problems. Said Marcy Darnovsky, associate director of the Center for Genetics and Society in Oakland, "payment to these women for their eggs, even if it is considered reimbursement, would create an economic inducement for women to put themselves at risk. This would be especially true for poor and young women."

LIKE "A CHICKEN IN EVERY POT," "'a priest in every parish' could easily be the expression of an historic expectation of the Catholic community," wrote Monsignor Francis Cilia, vicar for the diocese of San Jose, in the March 15 Valley Catholic, the diocese's newspaper. The number of parishes without a resident priest as pastor is growing throughout the United States; hence, wrote Monsignor Cilia, deacons or even laity will have to take over the spiritual leadership of parishes. Canon law, said Cilia, allows this; "Canon 517 §2," he wrote, "allows for the diocesan bishop 'to entrust to a deacon, to another person who is not a priest, or to a community of persons' the pastoral care of a parish." The diocese of San Jose, said Cilia, "has been preparing to implement Canon 517, §2, for a number of years" so that "every parish would have strong pastoral leadership, the best possible leadership." This is necessary, according to the monsignor, because "the number of priests willing and able to assume the responsibility of being a pastor is decreasing at a time when the Catholic population of the Diocese of San José continues to increase." Cilia, however, does not say that the diocese will not have the required number of priests in the future to serve as pastors, but the required number of "qualified priests." Since, he said, "there are many qualified laywomen and laymen whose education, formation, expertise and experience have prepared them for roles of pastoral leadership," these will be increasingly supplied by the laity. Priests will continue to celebrate the sacraments, and each parish will have a priest (presumably in residence) "who serves as a mentor" as well as a dean, "a priest from a nearby parish who will be the lay leader's supervisor."

Whether a priest as "supervisor" will fulfill the letter of canon law is unclear from Cilia's article. The canon he cites reads: "if, because of a lack of priests, the diocesan bishop has decided that participation in the exercise of the pastoral care of a parish is to be entrusted to a deacon, to another person who is not a priest, or to a community of persons, he is to appoint some priest who, provided with the powers and faculties of a pastor, is to direct the pastoral care."

THE SAN FRANCISCO JUDGE who ruled on March 14 that a state ban on homosexual "marriage" violates the state constitution, is a registered Republican and a Catholic, said the March 15 San Francisco Chronicle. San Francisco superior court judge Richard Kramer ruled that the state cannot ban same-sex marriage by a simple statute because, he wrote in his decision, "it appears that no rational purpose exists for limiting marriage in this state to opposite-sex partners." Kramer opined that forbidding homosexual marriage is a "protracted denial of equal protection," which "cannot be justified simply because such constitutional violation has become traditional.

"Simply put," said Kramer, "same-sex marriage cannot be prohibited solely because California has always done so before."

Kramer's decision was stayed for 60 days to allow for appeals.

Mathew Staver, president of Liberty Counsel, a group representing the Campaign for California Families, one of two organizations that with the attorney general's office is fighting to preserve the state's marriage laws, expressed surprise at Kramer's decision. "For a single judge to rule there is no conceivable purpose for preserving marriage as one man and one woman is mind-boggling," said Staver, who predicted that the decision will be "gasoline on the fire of the pro-marriage movement in California as well as the rest of the country."

According to the March 15 Monterey County Herald, Assemblyman Ray Haynes (R-Temecula) has introduced legislation into the state assembly to place on the November ballot a state constitutional amendment to protect marriage as a union between a man and a woman. If the Democratic-controlled assembly, however, defeats the legislation, Haynes said opponents of homosexual marriage would start a petition drive to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot. A constitutional amendment would take marriage out of the hands of legislators and judges.

ANOTHER REPUBLICAN AND CATHOLIC, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, however, will do nothing to protect marriage in California, according to the March 15 Monterey Herald. Though the governor has said he is not in favor of homosexual marriage, he would not support a ballot initiative to amend the state constitution. On MSNBC's Hardball, Schwarzenegger said, "I think that this [Kramer's decision] will be now going eventually to the Supreme Court in California, and we will see what the decision is. And whatever that decision is, we will stay by that, because I believe in abiding by the law and sticking with the law." How changing the constitution violates "abiding by the law" the governor did not say.

NED DOLEJSI, spokesman for the California Catholic Conference, in a statement released March 14, said he hoped the California supreme court would overturn Judge Kramer's decision in favor of homosexual marriage, said the March 21 Catholic Voice, the newspaper of the diocese of Oakland. "We expect that this unfortunate decision will be appealed to, and hopefully overturned by, the California Supreme Court," said Dolejsi. "Marriage, by both custom and biology, is the source of family and children. That union of a man and a woman is sacramental to the Church, traditional to the public and fundamental to civil society — all rational reasons to preserve the definition of marriage."

Dolejsi has also asked members of the state legislature to withhold consideration on a bill that would remove sex distinctions in laws dealing with marriage until the supreme court has resolved the appeal of Kramer's decision.

U.S. REPRESESENTATIVE DAN LUNGREN (R-Gold River) on March 17 introduced legislation into Congress that has angered proponents, and failed to appease opponents, of homosexual marriage, said the Sacramento Bee. Lungren's bill, a proposed constitutional amendment, would define marriage as "a legal union between one man and one woman" and keep both state and federal courts from ruling on marriage issues. The bill, however, would allow states to establish what Lungren called "something short of marriage" for homosexuals. This aspect of the bill has attracted the censure of Randy Thomasson, president of the Campaign for California Families. "Marriage is more than a word," Thomasson told the Bee. "This is similar to other proposals that allow states to create marriage by another name. It plugs some of the holes but leaves others open."

THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY has raised at least $8.6 million to bankroll opposition to a state ballot initiative that, in late March, had not even qualified for the ballot, said the March 28 Los Angeles Times. The ballot initiative, sponsored by Health Access of Oakland, would mandate that drug companies discount drugs for about six to ten million Californians (those who earn four times the federal poverty level — $38,200 for an individual or $77,400 for a family of four — and those who earn more but who have exorbitant medical costs.) The pharmaceutical industry has warned that it will push initiatives that would adversely affect possible donors to the ballot measure — trial lawyers and unions. Democrats in the state assembly have introduced legislation parallel to the Health Access initiative — and the pharmaceuticals have hired former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown to cut a deal with legislators.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has introduced a voluntary discount plan, California Rx, which the pharmaceuticals have not opposed — most likely because it is voluntary. Schwerzenegger's plan would ask drug manufacturers to provide discounted drugs to anyone earning less than three times the federal poverty level ($28,710 for an individual or $58,050 for a family of four), or about five million Californians. Under the governor's plan, Californians could buy drugs on an average 40 percent below retail. Medi-Cal receives 60 to 65 percent savings. Schwarzenegger is a friend to the pharmaceuticals — they have given over $300,000 and in early March held a fundraiser for him in Washington, D.C.

The pharmaceuticals are targeting Calfornia both because of its valuable market and because legislation passed in the state could affect other states that have ballot initiatives.

LAYMEN OF THE DIOCESE of Sacramento recently formed a local chapter of a dissident Catholic group, Call to Action, said the March 19 Sacramento Bee. One of the organizers, Caryl Callsen, told the Bee that she had felt left out of the diocese of Sacramento. "I wondered, 'Where are the progressive voices? What about social justice issues?'" she said. Though it does address social justice issues, Call to Action is perhaps better known for its advocacy of such issues as optional celibacy for priests, women clergy, and homosexual rights.

IT IS, PERHAPS, DOUBTFUL that Sacramento's Bishop William Weigand will go as far as Lincoln, Nebraska bishop Fabian Bruskewitz and tell parishioners to sever ties with Call to Action and similar groups or suffer excommunication. But if Weigand did, he would have the Vatican's backing. According to a March 10 Associated Press story, Bishop Bruskewitz's 1996 disciplinary act has been upheld by the Holy See, following an appeal by those affected by it. Some canon lawyers had held that blanket excommunications were invalid and that people must be notified individually of the ecclesiastical penalty. Lincoln diocese spokesman, Father Mark Huber, told Associated Press that Catholics in the Lincoln diocese have two months to determine whether the bishop's ruling on membership in dissident organizations applies to them.

LIFE LEGAL DEFENSE of Napa has contributed between $300,000 to $350,000 to the attorneys who fought to keep Terri Schiavo alive, said the Bay City News. Life Legal's executive director Dana Cody announced March 25 that her organization began contributing to the legal battle for Schiavo about four years ago when her parents, Bob and Marcy Schindler contacted the foundation. They had run out of funds. The foundation has been involved in two cases similar to the Schiavo case, though neither of these cases involved feeding tubes but life-sustaining medical care.

BLOODY HAND ACROSS THE DIVIDE. Speaking at the March 10 Power of Choice luncheon in San Francisco, NARAL Pro-Choice America president Nancy Keenan, said her organization is asking pro-life conservatives to join it in finding common ground and preventing unwanted pregnancies, said the March 11 San Francisco Chronicle. At the same time, however, Keenan said her organization is mobilizing to fight President George W. Bush over judicial nominees and "reproductive rights" legislation. Keenan said NARAL has placed full-page advertisements in such "conservative" publications as the Weekly Standard but has been "met with deafening silence" by pro-life advocates. Said the Chronicle, "Keenan's comments underscored increasingly public efforts of the pro- choice movement to regain political traction in the wake of the 2004 election." Hank Greely, a professor of ethics at Stanford Law School, told the attendees at the Power of Choice luncheon that "we've got to convince people that it's about morals on both sides." The pro-abortion movement, he said, "is about respect for someone's choices"; abortion "can be an affirmatively moral choice."

But Mike Spence, vice president of the California Pro-Life Council, said in response to NARAL's olive branch that the pro-abortion group "opposes any type of law that protects unborn children. There is no abortion that is not acceptable to NARAL, so that kind of extremism makes it hard to find common ground." The pro-life movement, said Spence, is "dedicated to protecting innocent human life ... and [NARAL's] solution to poverty and problems is to eliminate future children. That seems to be a harsh world view."

THE KEYNOTE SPEAKER at this year's Monterey County Women's Multicultural Conference, held March 12, seemed to suffer from some confusion. According to the March 13 Monterey County Herald, Bettina Aptheker, professor of women's studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, told attendees in her talk, "Creating a Feminist Agenda in Hard Times," that the abortion issue is merely a "smokescreen" to obscure the real debate — reproductive rights. Aptheker called reproductive choice a human right which includes not only the murder of unborn children but also, according the Herald, "prenatal and postnatal care, the education, care, feeding, sheltering and clothing of children." And the Herald continued, paraphrasing Aptheker, "that right also entails forced sterilization, the exploitation of women commercially and domestically for sex, and the right of boys and girls to have 'full scientific information about sex, free of coercion and reprisal.'" Did Aptheker really say that reproductive choice includes the right to forced sterilization and the exploitation of women? Doubtless, the Herald got this wrong.

Perhaps, too, the Herald also misreported other parts of Aptheker's presentation. For, according to the paper, in speaking (diapprovingly) of "systems of domination," Aptheker, the champion of "reproductive rights," said such systems are "an outgrowth of a way of thinking — the self versus the other. We are all ourselves, and part of one another." She said, in encouraging her audience to run for political office, "you're part of the world and we need you. Every human life is a precious gift."

THOUGH VIOLENT CRIME has dropped in California, the prison population has soared, said the March 13 Los Angeles Times. According to a February 23 survey, the California prison population stands at 162,276 and the state prison system — the largest in the United States — is dangerously overcrowded. For instance, California State Prison in Vacaville, designed for 2,600 inmates, houses about 6,000. Because of a lack of cells, prisoners are bedded in the gymnasium in triple-high bunk beds. At other prisons, inmates are housed in hallways, classrooms, a chapel, and ground-floor corridors used as emergency exits. With insufficient work and recreation areas turned into dormitories, the threat of violence has increased — especially as idle prisoners make a kind of alcoholic beverage called Pruno from fermented fruit juice. In the fall of 2003, state prison officials predicted a decline in the prison population; instead, the number of inmates sent to prison has increased 8.8 percent, to 43,000.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger's prison reform — which would help alleviate the prison population problem by sending non-violent parole violators to half-way houses and equipping them with electronic ankle monitors — is on hold because of contracting disputes, labor negotiations, and delays in getting the ankle monitors. And though the governor has said he wants to increase inmate educational, counseling, and job-training programs, his proposed budget for the new fiscal year includes a $95-million cut in funding for such programs.

ALAMEDA SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE Harry Sheppard on March 10 rejected attempts by the diocese of Oakland to exclude witnesses in the sexual molestation trial involving retired priest, Robert Ponciroli, said the March 10 San Francisco Chronicle. Lawyers representing the diocese have admitted that the diocese knew Ponciroli had molested youth when it made him pastor of St. Ignatius church in Antioch in 1979. Attorney Allen Ruby, who represents the diocese, asked Judge Sheppard to limit the number of abuse victims the plaintiffs' lawyer can place on the witness stand: "there is something about the DNA of these cases," Ruby told the judge. "Multiple incidents of abuse cause people to develop a rage reaction." But Sheppard denied Ruby's motion. The judge denied Ruby's request that the Rev. Thomas Doyle and A.W. Richard Sipe be barred as expert witnesses in the case. Sipe is touted as an expert on priest molestation, and Doyle is the author of a report that in the '80s warned the bishops about a looming molestation crisis in the Church. The judge ruled that a 1962 Vatican document detailing how Church authorities are to deal with priests who solicit sexual favors in the confessional could be referred to in court testimony but not submitted as evidence. The Oakland diocese had requested that all reference to the document be banned from the courtroom. Finally, Sheppard denied the diocese' s request that Church documents in the case be placed under seal.

Bob Thatcher (34) and his brother Tom (37), who have brought the suit against the diocese, allege that Ponciroli had molested them when they were boys. They asked punitive as well as compensatory damages, which Judge Sheppard granted them on March 10. "The church knew Father Ponciroli was a serial sexual predator, but it allowed him to supervise and counsel these youngsters," said Sheppard. "They deliberately hid a violating priest for their own benefit." Sheppard called the diocese's actions "outrageous, oppressive and malicious."

According to the March 29 Los Angeles Times, Ruby said the diocese of Oakland is willing to compensate the Thatchers for whatever harm they suffered at the hands of Ponciroli but asked the jury not to punish the diocese with a large punitive damage award. In court testimony, Antioch police detective Mary Hooker said she and her partner had located 15 people who had accused Ponciroli of abuse. She said when she questioned Ponciroli at his Florida home, the priest admitted to being a sex addict but said he prayed daily for his victims.

A JURY DECIDED that the archdiocese of San Francisco either knew or should have known that one of its priests, the late Rev. Joseph Pritchard, was molesting boys, said a March 18 Associated Press story. In the civil lawsuit against the archdiocese, plaintiff Dennis Kavanaugh alleged that Pritchard had molested him in the early 1970s. The archdiocese argued that it could not have known about the molestation (to which it admits), given the degree of understanding of molestation it and the general public had thirty years ago. According to the March 18 San Francisco Chronicle, in court testimony two other men claimed that each on different occasions had been molested by Pritchard as they sat on his lap in his private quarters and that during the molestation another priest, Father Lino Pelarzi, had walked in on them. Archdiocesan attorneys argued that Pelarzi could see nothing but a priest holding a boy on his lap. Thirty years ago, the attorneys said, this would not have been considered a cause of concern. An FBI agent and sexual crimes investigator, Gregg McCrary, when asked whether a priest holding a child on his lap was in itself suspicious, said, "not necessarily." "You have to put it in context," McCrary said. "In the 1970s, it was a time of innocence. That innocence has clearly been lost. We're not looking at it as we understand child molestation today." Richard Hesselroth, a retired San Francisco police sex-crimes investigator, agreed with McCrary. The archdiocese contended that it had no inkling that Pritchard was a molester, since he was a highly respected pastor and well liked by his parishioners at St. Martin of Tours church. But the jury did not buy these arguments and in a 10-2 vote, sided with Kavanaugh.

BUT THE ARCHDIOCESE ACKNOWLEDGED in a statement on March 28 that it had failed to investigate "thoroughly enough or do enough at that time to protect the children," referring to a 1977 sex-abuse complaint against Pritchard, said the March 29 Los Angeles Times. The statement admitted that three priests "sometimes walked into the room where sexual molestation had been taking place and should have seen enough circumstances to make them suspicious of Father Pritchard's behavior." The priests, said the statement, should have reported Pritchard to superiors. The week before the archdiocese's statement, a jury awarded one of Pritchard's victims $437,000 in damages. Jury selection began March 28 for civil proceedings against the archdiocese by four other alleged Pritchard victims. The settlements of these cases, according to legal experts, could influence settlements in the more than 700 cases against the Church in California.

SOME DIOCESES MAY NOT be able to weather many more financial settlements if they equal the settlement in the Pritchard case, said a March 26 Associated Press report. The archdiocese of San Francisco could perhaps survive "a moderate financial hit," said Associated Press; it has $56 million in cash and liquid assets and listed $99.7 million in total assets through June 2003. Oakland diocese is less secure; its financial statements list $39 million in ready cash assets and $54 million in total assets. Dioceses may and will rely on insurance, but punitive damages must, by law, be paid by the churches, not their insurers. Because sexual abuse by clergy is an emotional issue, juries may tend to rely on feelings in assessing damages. According to Associated Press, though in the Pritchard case a San Francisco archdiocesan lawyer recommended as "proper" an award of $200,000 to $350,000, jurors arrived at $437,000 after less than five hours of deliberation. Patrick Schiltz, a teacher at the University of St. Thomas Law School in Minnesota who has defended the Church in over 500 sexual abuse cases, said "jurors tainted by publicity think churches, especially the Catholic church, has more money than it does.... They look very wealthy on paper. They think the bishop is writing the check or there's a big, giant savings account somewhere. When there isn't insurance coverage, the people who pay these verdicts aren't the bishops or priests, it's the innocent parishioners or the people showing up at soup kitchens."

DEFENSE ATTORNEYS for the diocese of Oakland have found it hard to find jurors who come to the trials without a preconceived bias against Church authorities, said another March 18 San Francisco Chronicle story. Allen Ruby, the lawyer for the Oakland diocese, in questioning potential jurors, heard the following sentiments: "I'm repulsed by priests molesting children. But something must be wrong with people like that. But those who sit down and rationally decide to cover up child abuse — that would really make me angry." "There seems to be a pattern of the church not dealing with this, and protecting the priests first, not the victims." And, "priests should be better than other people. They should know what not to do." In questioning one potential juror, Ruby asked what he thought should be the upper limit in the amount of money the Church should pay out in a settlement. The juror gave it some thought, admitted that it would depend on various factors, and finally said that, to his mind, the penalty should be placed definitely "under one trillion dollars."

RIGGED VOTE. The United States Senate voted 51-48 on March 16 to approve oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. For years, environmentalists have fought opening up the refuge for oil drilling, saying it could harm the delicate natural balance of the region and produce only negligible amounts of oil. Proponents have argued that oil drilling in the refuge is necessary to ease American dependence on foreign oil imports. But, according to the March 17 Los Angeles Times, the projection of proponents that the refuge could yield 16 billion barrels of oil does not suggest much easing of reliance on foreign oil, since the United States uses about seven billion barrels of oil a year. Opponents of drilling say stricter vehicle fuel efficiency standards and other conservation measures would go farther to ease America's reliance on foreign oil.

Both proponents and critics, however, did agree on one thing: the Senate vote could ease attempts to open up other restricted areas to oil exploration, including areas off the California coast.

"WHO OR WHAT IS SATAN?" asked syndicated columnist Father Ronald Rolheiser in a column published in the March 15 Valley Catholic, the newspaper of the diocese of San Jose. Rolheiser noted that ancient saints spoke of Satan as a personal being and "describe[d] physical encounters with Satan within which they would, literally, get beaten up by him.... In that fight, they had a great weapon, simple one-line mantras: 'Get behind me, Satan!' 'Satan, leave this room!' 'Satan, leave me alone!'" Rolheiser noted that "such language sounds pretty esoteric and even superstitious to us.... Believers today are split as to whether or not they believe that Satan is an actual person or simply a symbol for a venomous power that can overwhelm you, strip you of moral strength, and leave you precisely with the feeling of having been beaten up." Rolheiser, though, did not attempt to say which interpretation — Satan as an "actual person or simply a symbol" was the correct one — nor did he seemingly think that it was an important question, since "the encounters that the saints describe happen to us too in our rational, agnostic lives just as surely as they happened to pious believers in former times." For Rolheiser, it seems, the distinction between person and symbol is, finally, an unimportant one. "We just word things differently. We speak of being 'obsessed,' while the saints speak of being 'possessed.' It's just a difference of words," said Rolheiser. "Satan, however we choose to conceive of that power, is harassing us all the time" — with feelings of jealousy, meaninglessness, deep emptiness, fear, paranoia, insomnia — and we, like the saints of old, need to learn the mantra: 'Get behind me, Satan!'" Rolheiser did not mention temptations to sin, but perhaps those do not occur with people who lead "rational, agnostic lives."

THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT on March 28 let stand a ruling by the ninth circuit federal court of appeals in San Francisco that an Idaho law requiring parental consent when an underage girl gets an abortion is unconstitutional. The appeals court had said the Idaho law's provisions on emergency abortions was too strict; the law says that only in the case of "sudden and unexpected" instances of physical complications could a minor girl obtain an abortion without parental consent. The appeals court said there was no reasonable explanation for this restriction, since it is not found in laws dealing with other emergency medical procedures that do not require parental permission. The Idaho law had been challenged by Planned Parenthood of Idaho and an Idaho abortion doctor.

HOMOSEXUAL TOLERANCE is the issue that affects Scotts Valley high school students most, according to some students, said the March 1 Santa Cruz Sentinal. Hence, the need for posters specifically promoting tolerance of homosexuals in classrooms. Some students, however, have said that the posters make them uncomfortable, and parents have protested that the school is pushing support for homosexual practices. At a February school board meeting, Don D'Andrea, a parent, argued that the school should be promoting appropriate behavior toward all persons, not singling out homosexuals. This, according to an attorney with the Sacramento-based Pacific Justice Institute, would accord with the California Student Safety and Violence Protection Act of 2004, which stipulates that schools must create a safe environment for homosexual students and teachers.

In a further development, on February 28, the Scotts Valley school board voted to approve the creation of a panel to draft a more detailed discrimination policy for the district. District superintendent Stephen Fiss said the advisory panel "will be clear in its intent — it's an AB 537 advisory committee to advise the board (of trustees) on those specific issues." The panel will include parents, students, community members, school staff, and faculty.

PARENTS OF STUDENTS in the Hanford high school district will next year be able to veto which clubs their children join, said the March 9 Fresno Bee. Parents had asked trustees with the Hanford Joint Union High School District to ban a new Gay-Straight Alliance club on the Hanford West campus; but under the federal Equal Access Act the district may not ban co-curricular clubs on account of content. With this avenue closed, parents asked to be given control over which clubs their children join. On March 8, the trustees in a 4-1 vote modified the district's student organization policy to allow this parental oversight.

THE DIOCESE OF OAKLAND is looking to open two new high schools, said the March 20 Contra Costa Times. One, in northeastern Livermore, would accommodate 1,200 to 1,600 students and would provide an alternative to existing Catholic high schools, which now turn away students because of space. Parents have been forced to send their children to public school, though, not only because there is no room in existing high schools but because of cost. Sandy Oto of Dublin told the Times that the new high school would be in close enough proximity to allow her to take her children to school and hold down a second job. "My dream and hope was for them to go on to get a Catholic high school education, but a couple of things — the distance and the astronomical cost — have deterred me," Oto said. "I wanted Catholic values, tradition and environment." The second high school being considered by the diocese would be in Oakland and would be modeled after the Jesuit Cristo Rey High of Chicago, which offers academics and job training for students in low-income areas.

"GOD GAVE US A PASSION for shopping," Ladonnis Reynolds told the Sacramento Bee. Reynolds and her friend, Jeanna Hayden have followed their "God-given" passion and designed what the March 19 Bee called "a local line of women's clothing that's devoted to the Christian lifestyle." The women, who run their business, Grace and Mercy, out of their homes in Rocklin and Lincoln, design tee-shirts that, said the Bee, "have stylish cuts and trendy lettering with demure, curious messages: 'Mary & Joe' or 'Abe & Sara.' There's 'Meet Matt' and 'Meet Mark' or '10 Simple Rules' (meaning the Ten Commandments)." The messages are meant to spark curiosity without being offensive. And Reynolds and Hayden seem to hope Grace and Mercy will expand beyond tee-shirts and design even intimate apparel (Christian teddies?). "After all," Reynolds said, "Christians shop at Victoria's Secret, too."

LESBIAN IN A MAN'S BODY? "My heart and soul are really those of a woman," Dr. Judson Lively told his colleagues at Kaiser Permanente in Walnut Creek. According to the March 16 San Francisco Chronicle, the 48-year-old surgeon said that he has known he is a "transsexual woman" for over 40 years. To accommodate his body to his soul, Lively has been taking hormones to develop breasts, grown his blond hair long, and begun using a female voice at home. But on March 15, Lively announced to hospital staff that in two weeks he would return to work at Kaiser Permanente a full-fledged woman — thenceforth to be known as Dr. Judy Lively. After living full-time as a woman for one year, Lively said he (she?) planned to get a sex-change operation.

All this seems to sit well with Karen, Lively's wife of nearly 20 years. A Halloween stunt, where Lively showed up on the couple's doorstep dressed like a woman, "led to a conversation, which led to nearly two decades of soul searching and exploration for the couple," said the Chronicle. Three years ago, after a therapist confirmed Judson was transsexual, he began taking female hormones. Karen said of her husband (wife, partner), "the more feminine she became, the better our relationship became. The person I knew was there finally surfaced. She's more comfortable with who she is and allows her emotions to be there." "When friends ask about their changing sex life," said the Chronicle, "Karen tells them to ask a lesbian. She thinks people are too hung up on labels."

Not all of the Lively's relatives have been as supportive of Judson's transformation to Judy as Karen's father, whom the Chronicle describes as a "staunch Roman Catholic." When this papist heard of Dr. Lively's coming transformation, he bought the couple a knife set, engraved with the names Karen and Judy.

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