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Contents © 2006
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

NEWS
November/December 2006

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NOT ENOUGH FRESH EGGS. Embryonic stem-cell researchers at the University of California, San Francisco and elsewhere have what they need for research -- laboratory equipment, funding, and enough scientists. They lack only one thing, according to the September 13 Los Angeles Times: "fresh human eggs." There are just not enough of them for what is called somatic cell nuclear transfer, or cloning, which creates human embryos asexually. A human embryo so produced would then be broken up into its component parts for use in embryonic stem cell research.

Why don't researchers have enough eggs? Because, even though fertility clinic patients may pay women for donating their eggs for use in in-vitro fertilzation, according to the Times, stem cell researchers have to rely on the altruism of donors. Scientific organizations, such as the National Academies of Science, have laid down ethical guidelines forbidding payment for eggs destined for somatic cell nuclear transfer, and Massachusetts, Canada, South Korea, and the European Union have laws prohibiting such payments. So does California. Proposition 71, the 2004 initiative that authorized $3 billion for stem-cell research. The initiative which specifically prohibits compensation to egg donors, though it allows reimbursement for certain expenses. Rules established by Proposition 71 cannot be changed until three years after its passage.

What is the problem with paying women for egg donations to stem-cell research? Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine ethicist, Laurie Zoloth, told the Times that paying donors would lead to an exploitative trade that takes advantage of poor women who need money and who, thus, might not attend to the dangers involved in the procedure. Similar restrictions apply to bone marrow and kidney donations.

THE NEED FOR FRESH EGGS has led some cloning researchers to question the ethical restrictions against paying for egg donations. After all, they say, in-vitro fertilization allows payments to be made to donors, implying that this has not led to exploitation. But, as Katie Short of Life Legal Defense noted to the Faith, there is a great difference between giving eggs for invitro fertilization and donating them for cloning research. "A woman who is giving her eggs for invitro fertilization," said Short, "is presumably thinking they are going to be used to create a baby, instead of being used to create a baby who will be killed for an experiment." And, noted Dana Cody, also of Life Legal Defense, since the number of eggs needed for cloning research is far greater than the number needed for invitro fertilization, the potential for exploitation is far greater for cloning.

How many eggs are needed for cloning research? "Many thousands of eggs [are needed] just in early research to derive one cloned embryonic stem cell line," said Wesley Smith, a senior fellow of the Discovery Institute. The discredited South Korean researcher Wu suk Hwang, said Wesley, "used over 2,000 eggs and did not create one cloned stem cell line, nor any cloned embryos. An animal cloning researcher told the National Academy of Sciences a few years ago that even if the technology of human somatic cell nuclear transfer is developed, it may take between 100-200 eggs to make just one embryonic stem cell line from a cloned embryo. So, if we ever got into using cloned stem cells for treatments of millions of people with degenerative conditions, the number of eggs required would be in the billions."

According to Smith, "given that there are pronounced dangers to egg procurement, including infection, sterility, and even death, and that it is an onerous procedure requiring mass hormone injection into the woman so that her ovaries release 10-15 eggs instead of just one, followed by removal of the eggs via needle inserted through the vaginal wall, it is doubtful that many women who do not 'need the money' will be eager to sign up to donate eggs. The more eggs needed, the greater the likelihood that the poor and destitute will be exploited as so many egg farms."

The temptation for the poor could be very great, since the price currently paid for eggs used in invitro fertilization runs, according to the Times, anywhere from $5,000 to $50,000 "If more eggs are needed for cloning than already required for invitro fertilization," said Smith, "supply and demand tells us the price will inflate. That will tempt poor women to risk their health for the money."

A NORTHERN CALIFORNIA SCHOOL ACKNOWLEDGED in September the right of two students to wear pro-life t-shirts on campus, the Pacific Justice Institute reported September 16. Last year, officials at Livingston Middle School in Livingston forbade two students, sisters, from wearing pro-life t-shirts. On the front, the shirts read, "Help Cure Abortion," and on the back, "Abortion: The leading cause of death in America 1,200,000 every year." Two instructors pulled one of the students out of class, telling her she was not to wear the shirt because it was "inappropriate." She had either to remove the shirt or turn it inside-out. Another teacher told the student's sister that the school's office had sent a note to her parents, requiring the removal of the shirt. The girls complied, fearing disciplinary action from the school.

Pacific Justice Institute attorneys sent an administrative complaint to the school arguing that forcing the students to remove the shirts violated their First Amendment right of free speech. The school's administration replied to the complaint that the students indeed have the right to wear the shirts in question and that school staff have been instructed not to take any action against the students.

Brad Dacus of the Pacific Justice Institute told the Faith that incidents where school administration forbids students to express anti-abortion speech on campus is nothing new and is "actually increasing." "The younger generations," he said, "are actually much more pro-life than the '60s generation and the baby boomers and are becoming more outspoken."

But do public schools have any right to regulate student speech on campus? "The courts have held," said Dacus, "that students' free speech rights do not stop at the schoolhouse gate. Schools do have the right [to regulate speech] when it comes to maintaining order and preventing a substantial disturbance. But just the mere fact that some students may disagree with what a student has on his t-shirt or the fact that the message is controversial is not sufficient grounds for a school to censor a student's beliefs."

Dacus said schools rarely if ever censor student speech when it embraces establishment positions. "For example," he said, "we've seen no complaints regarding t-shirts that are pro-choice, no attempts to censor students who have decided to wear t-shirts supporting homosexual rights or environmental issues. The only time we've seen such censorship under the guise of tolerance has been when it has involved students that have conservative or religious perspectives in their speech."

The only case where a school may ban t-shirts with messages is if it has a uniform policy, said Dacus. "The courts have held," he said, that "the school can enforce that uniform requirement. But they can't simply just say, 'no shirts are allowed that have any kind of expression on them.' That would not hold up to constitutional scrutiny."

ANOTHER STUDENT T-SHIRT CASE IS PENDING in the courts. The case involves a Poway High School student, Tyler Chase Harper, dismissed from class for wearing a t-shirt with an anti-homosexual rights message. During the 2004 National Day of Silence -- in which students are encouraged to go an entire day without speaking to protest the silence allegedly imposed on homosexual students in schools -- Harper wore a homemade t-shirt that read (on the front), "Be ashamed, our school embraced what God has condemned," and on the back, "Homosexuality is shameful." A teacher asked Harper to remove the t-shirt, and when he refused, the principal took him out of class, placing him in a conference room for the rest of the day. Harper was not suspended.

Harper sued the Poway School District, with the help of the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, arguing that in barring his t-shirt the school violated his First Amendment rights. In November 2004, U.S. district court judge John Houston in San Diego ruled against Harper, and the case was appealed. In April of this year, a three-judge panel of the U.S. ninth district court of appeals in San Francisco, in a 2-1 decision, ruled against Harper on the narrower question of whether Poway school district would have to suspend its dress regulation until the larger question of Harper's First Amendment rights is decided.

Judge Stephen Reinhardt, however, writing for the majority, showed how he might rule on the larger question of student free speech. According to Reinhardt, Harper's wearing of the t-shirt "'collides with the rights of other students' in the most fundamental way.... Being secure involves not only the freedom from physical assaults but from psychological attacks that cause young people to question their self-worth and their rightful place in society." But Judge Alex Kozinski disagreed. "While I find this a difficult and troubling case," wrote Kozinski, the Poway Unified School District has "offered no lawful justification for banning Harper's T-shirt." The school suffered no real disruption, wrote Kozinksi, and, "while words were exchanged, the students managed the situation well and without intervention from the school authorities. No doubt, everyone learned an important civics lesson about dealing with others who hold sharply divergent views."

Harper's lawyers appealed the panel's decision to the full ninth circuit. But, 365Gay.com reported on August 1, the court refused a full court review of the ruling.

THE PARISH COMMUNITY THAT WILL one day worship at the diocese of Oakland's Cathedral of Christ the Light was formed this past August by the merger of two existing parishes in Oakland, according to the September 6 Catholic Voice, the newspaper of the Oakland diocese. On August 27, St. Andrew and St. Joseph's parish joined with St. Mary and St. Francis de Sales' parish in what is now known as the Catholic Parish of Christ the Light. The new community is located at the church that was St. Mary and St. Francis, about 1.5 miles from the cathedral site at Grand Avenue and Harrison Street in Oakland.

The two former parishes were themselves the results of mergers. In 1993, four years after suffering what the diocese called irreparable damage in the Loma Prieta earthquake, the former diocesan cathedral, St. Francis de Sales (built in 1893), was demolished and its congregation merged with St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception. Called the "Mother Church of the East Bay," St. Mary's was founded in 1853, its current church structure erected in 1868 (and renovated in 1905 and again in 1961). St. Andrew's, which opened in 1907, was slated for closing in 1957; it was spared because the diocese, at the time, thought "that the Catholic population, then about 500 families (about 30 percent of them black), was stable and that the parish had the potential to increase in size through conversions." Its current church building was dedicated in 1958. In 1965, Bishop Floyd Begin closed St. Joseph, founded as a Portuguese national parish in 1907, and merged it with St. Andrew's.

With founding of the parish of Christ the Light, the former St. Andrew and St. Joseph's will be used by a senior center, St. Mary's Center, which has been at the site of St. Mary and St. Francis de Sales. Diocesan spokesman, Father Mark Wiesner, told the Faith that the "St. Andrew-St. Joseph site has been leased to St. Mary's Center for one dollar a month. It is a lease with an option to purchase." What will happen, though, to what was St. Mary and St. Francis de Sales' when the congregation moves to the new cathedral? "At this time," said Wiesner, "the diocese does not know." The diocese, he said, "recognizes the building is of historical significance and will, at that time, determine what will best serve the needs of the people of God in Oakland."

Father John Direen, formerly administrator of St. Andrew and St. Joseph's, will serve the new parish of Christ the Light as parochial vicar, working alongside the pastor, Father Quang Dong. According to the Voice, Father Direen helped St. Andrew and St. Joseph's parishioners "explore other options" other than closing their parish. At least one other option, according to Father Wiesner, "was for St. Andrew-St. Joseph to become financially viable as a parish. This option was pursued, but not successfully."

NO MORE CAJUN COOKING. It seems, however, that the diocese was unable to accommodate one St. Andrew-St. Joseph ministry -- the St. Andrew-St. Joseph Soup Kitchen. Opened in 1973, the soup kitchen became known for its Louisiana bayou-style cookery after cook Shirley Weber joined the volunteer staff in 1986. But with the moving of St. Mary's Center to what was St. Andrew and St. Joseph's, there was not enough space for the soup kitchen, which served its last meal on August 18. "St. Mary's Center decided to use the soup kitchen space for other purposes," said diocesan spokesman, Father Mark Wiesner. "However, St. Mary's Center will provide food for some of those in need when they are up and running, in accordance with their funding requirements. Additionally, the Dicoese donated many of the kitchen facilities from St. Andrew-St. Joseph to the Saint Vincent De Paul Dining Room, located five blocks away, to help them provide meals to those in need."

The "other purposes" St. Mary's center had for the old soup kitchen was parking, according to Deacon Eugene Stelly, Sr., who with his wife, Mary Lou, ran the soup kitchen; she was the director and, he, the treasurer. "The new parish at present did not have the facilities for us to be able to function there," said the Rev. Mr. Skelly, who is on staff at the parish of Christ the Light, "and St. Mary's Center, [which] has taken over our establishment, has no need for a soup kitchen, because they cater primarily to seniors and, of course, childcare. In order for them to provide the off-street facility for their staff parking, they would have to expand the parking area."

According to Skelly, the soup kitchen served one meal a day to "on an average, about 125 people a day, five days a week, plus two Saturdays per month." In his Louisiana drawl, Skelly related the disappointment of his former clients, "because they enjoyed the food at the soup kitchen, because our cook cooked the food with the home touch of Louisiana, of which she's a native. In fact, they made comments of her food being much more tastier than the food at St. Vincent's, where they ate, too -- which is just about a few blocks from us."

Will the soup kitchen reopen? "At present, there isn't any immediate plans," said Skelly. "However, there is speculation and hope that eventually a soup kitchen will be reestablished. That's just speculation." The closing of the kitchen, he said, was "kind of a sad moment, but we say as Christians we have to go with God's directions, because He knows far better than we do. It 's a sad moment, but we have to continue on."

BISHOP ALLEN VIGNERON in August named a new diocesan chancellor to replace Sister Barbara Flannery, a sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet. Earlier this year, Sister Barbara announced she was stepping down after 12 years as chancellor, first under Bishop John Cummins and then under Bishop Vigneron. Her replacement will be Mission San Jose Dominican Sister Glenn Anne McPhee, a native daughter who grew up in St. Mary Magdalene parish in Berkeley. Sister Glenn Anne for the past five years has been secretary for education at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Prior to that, Sister Glenn Anne was superintendent of schools for the San Francisco archdiocese. She will begin her new duties January 2, 2007.

Sister Glenn Anne won some notoriety in recent years for landing a spot on the U.S. government's no-fly list for suspected terrorists. According to a September 28 Wired News article, in October 2003, she was stopped at Baltimore Washington International Airport while two policemen ran a security check on her. Such checks and searches continued for nine months, often taking several hours to complete. Once, Sister related, she said to a police officer, "something to the effect that 'If this were Northern Ireland, I would understand.'" But the police officer did not find this amusing. "'Ma'am,'" he said, "I'll pretend I didn't hear that, or otherwise I would have to arrest you.'" Said Sister Glenn Anne, "after that, I didn't say anything." Even when it was discovered that Sister was being stopped because an Afghani man was using McPhee as an alias, the searches continued. Finally, Monsignor William Fay, head of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, contacted Karl Rove, then President Bush's top political adviser, on Sister's behalf. The searches subsequently stopped.

SISTER BARBARA FLANNERY announced she was stepping down as chancellor at about the same time the Oakland diocese laid off 17 administrative employees in the chancery office, reportedly to help cover a $1.2 million budget deficit related in part to a $23 million loan it took out in 2005 to pay clergy sexual abuse settlements. Whether her resignation was related to this event or not, Sister Barbara has been no stranger to the diocese's dealings with victims of sexual abuse by clergy. Indeed, she has been praised for overseeing a diocesan program that has become a national model to help victims of such abuse. She herself has met with numerous victims of clergy sexual abuse.

Sister Barbara described her work to the April 26, 2002 National Catholic Register, thus: it "is not about bringing people back into the church. It's about restoring justice, giving people back their voice, restoring to them something that was given away, as best we can. I understand we can never fully do that, but we can certainly attempt."

Sister Barbara told the Reporter that a sexual relationship with a member of the clergy "is never consensual, period. Any time you are in a relationship, priest to parishioner, or even if the person knows you are a priest, it's not consensual. We do have a category called 'consensual.'This would be cases of anonymous sex," where the person does not know the identity of the priest.

Less than a year after this article appeared, however, the Oakland diocese's Sensitive Issues Committee, of which Sister Barbara was a member, decided that a relationship diocesan priest, Father Brian Joyce had with an adult woman, SueDee McClelland, was "consensual and not abusive," even though McClelland knew Joyce's priestly identity (she had sought counseling for a troubled marriage from him in the late '60s.) Nevertheless, the committee did not recommend removing Joyce from ministry or putting him on administrative leave. This consensual and non-abusive relationship was not sexual but emotional, both Joyce and Sister Barbara claimed, and ended in the late '70s -- though McClelland insisted it lasted to as late as the late '90s, and was more than emotional.

"We had no other sexual complaints against Brian Joyce," Sister Barbara told the September 2003 Faith. "...What the independent review board was asked to look at was the issue of abuse or manipulation or, you know, had this woman been coerced into this relationship. That's what was reviewed. The decision of the committee was that she entered into that relationship as an adult, a healthy adult, and therefore it was consensual. We were not asked to give an opinion about the rightness or wrongness of that. Those issues are canonically between the priest and his bishop." The bishop at the time was John Cummins.

NO BASILIAN FATHERS REMAIN at Bishop O'Dowd High School in Oakland, the Catholic Voice announced in June. The last members of the order that had staffed and administered the school since 1978 left after the 2005-06 academic year -- the same year the Oakland diocese established, according to the O'Dowd website, "a President/Principal model of governance with a Board of Regents of Limited Jurisdiction designed for the 21st century." The last three Basilians, Fathers John Malo, Lee Shaefer, and Robert Glass have gone on to staff other schools in Indiana, Michigan, and Texas. O'Dowd president, Stephen Phelps, told the Faith, that because the order's "average age is about 70, they couldn't stay out here. They have schools back east."

The Basilians' presence at O'Dowd, however, was not without some controversy in recent years. When John Cummins was bishop of Oakland, O'Dowd had a pro-homosexuality group, the Gay-Straight Alliance, on campus. In September 2002, the drama department at O'Dowd performed Moses Kaufman's play, The Laramie Project, which deals with the brutal 1998 murder of homosexual college student Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming -- a murder that has become a rallying point for gay rights groups, who have made of Shepard a martyr to intolerance. Father Malo had directed the school's Gay-Straight Alliance and has taught the school's "Human Sexuality" course.

The presence of the Alliance at O'Dowd apparently earned the censure of Bishop Allen Vigneron. According to the September 6, 2006 East Bay Express, though O'Dowd "administrators approved of the idea [of the Alliance], Bishop Allen Vigneron of the Oakland diocese didn't, and had the club disbanded. The school responded by changing the name of the club, which had become widely popular. But again, the bishop found out."

Did Bishop Vigneron nix the Gay-Straight Alliance at O'Dowd? No, said Phelps, who said O'Dowd's administration had talked with the bishop "at length," and "it wasn't a big issue last year. His instructions were clear," continued Phelps. "He wants the students who are gay to be ministered to the same as any other student. He doesn't have a problem with gay students meeting about issues that affect gay students; he just wants them to be taught with the same moral strictures as we would any heterosexual student."

The school doesn't have, Phelps told the Faith on September 11, "a club called the Gay Straight Alliance; we have a group of kids -- I'm not a hundred percent sure what its called; they met the other day -- but they are students that have different issues, some of them questioning their gender or sexual orientation and stuff like that. And others have other issues. But the bishop wants, as do we, all our students to be ministered to for whatever their needs are." The bishops, said Phelps, "are saying is that we don't want adults in the schools and anywhere else working with kids and encouraging them to do behaviors which we consider to be immoral. You certainly don't want gay students having unsafe sex and so on and so forth."

THOUGH IT NO LONGER HAS a Gay-Straight Alliance chapter, O'Dowd, according to the Express article, "has held a schoolwide presentation on AIDS, and according to some students, bisexuality is tolerated." But, the article noted, O'Dowd's "required Christian Sexuality class teaches abstinence to its freshmen -- at least it's not espousing intelligent design ... yet."

Is O'Dowd's Christian Sexuality class so Neanderthal? A look at a teacher's webpage posted on the O'Dowd website in September, suggested it is not. Sara Bauermeister teaches "Christian Sexuality" at O'Dowd, according to the school's website (as of September 11). Her teacher's website gave under, "Links for Christian Sexuality," "A Hotlist on Christian Sexuality," created by Ms. Bauermeister herself. The hotlist contained links, none of which are particularly Catholic or even generically Christian. One, "Teen Source," featured a "Find a Clinic" page, where one can type in his or her zip code and find a clinic, such as Planned Parenthood of San Mateo. "Teen Source" also provides a page on birth control, which gives morally neutral information on abstinence, Natural Family Planning, barrier methods, hormonal methods, sterilization, and emergency contraception. "Teen Source" offers articles, such as one on oral sex, which informs the reader that "the safest way of giving a guy a blow job is by using a condom. There are flavored condoms so that their partner girl doesn't need to suck on a piece of bad tasting rubber or plastic. Condoms come in chocolate, banana, mint, cherry and lots of other flavors. The safest way to 'eat out' a girl is by using a dental dam...."

The "Teen Source" links section asks, "are you having trouble making a tough decision on your own or need some help dealing with an issue in your life? Do you need a little more guidance? Check out this list of hotlines and other useful websites and get the information you are looking for." Under the heading, "Abortion," the hotlines given are for the National Abortion Federation and Planned Parenthood. The hotlines for Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, and Queer include Youth Resource, "a project of Advocates for Youth," which touts the normalcy of homosexual relationships.

Stephen Phelps said he knew nothing of Bauermeister's links page. While talking to the Faith by telephone, Phelps uploaded the page in question. "Yeah, that's a great thing. We don't need that," he said of the "Teen Source" page. "Oh, my goodness! I need to look at this." Of the hotline reference to Planned Parenthood, Phelps said, "oh, God. We don't want to encourage that.

"I didn't even notice that," said Phelps of the "Teen Source" link. "We'll all definitely sit down with Sara and ask her -- we certainly don't want that up. She might not even know. I wonder if she realizes what's on that? I can't believe Sara would have that. Kids can find that anyway; you don't have to put that on your website."

By early October, the "Links for Christian Sexuality" feature was no longer on Bauermeister's website.

SAN FRANCISCO CITY ATTORNEY Dennis Herrera asked the San Francisco district court to dismiss a lawsuit brought against the city and county of San Francisco by two city residents and the New York-based Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, the August 15 San Francisco Chronicle reported. Plaintiffs Richard Sonnenshein, Valerie Meehan, and the Catholic League claim the San Francisco board of supervisors violated the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution when, last March, they issued a resolution condemning the Catholic Church for opposing adoption of children by homosexuals. The resolution urged Archbishop George Niederauer to defy a directive from Archbishop William Levada, prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, that San Francisco Catholic Charities' facilitating of adoptions by homosexuals violated Church teaching. In asking the San Francisco district court to dismiss the case on the grounds that it has no merit, Herrera said, "Church officials weighed in on a matter of public policy and they are certainly free to do that. But the fact they are a religious institution doesn't constitutionally shield them from being criticized."

But Robert Muise, an attorney with the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Thomas More Law Center, which is representing the plaintiffs, told the Faith, "there is a difference between government speech and private speech. Here you have the government passing an official resolution that condemns the Catholic Church and Catholic leaders on an issue of Catholic religious doctrine." And this violates the Establishment Clause, said Muise. "The courts," he said, "have held that, by the Establishment Clause, government cannot convey a message of approval of religion simply by putting out a nativity scene temporarily during Christmas, because this passive symbol conveys a message of approval of religion. If that's the case with this temporary passive symbol, how much more so with an official government resolution that explicitly attacks and condemns the Catholic Church because of its position on a matter of religious doctrine? I think it is plain that [the supervisors] have crossed the line of violating the Establishment Clause."

In this case, "we'll see whether the law truly has a double standard," said, Muise.

Muise called "grossly inaccurate" the Chronicle's report that the plaintiffs were suing the city for "an unknown sum in damages as well as reimbursement of legal fees." They were suing, he said, for "nominal damages -- what you get as a matter of law for a constitutional violation (which is like a dollar) -- not compensatory damages. They're not looking for any monetary damages out of this; it's a matter of principle and a matter of law. If they prevail, said Muise, the plaintiffs are entitled to reimbursement of attorneys fees.

The district court was to decide on the motion for dismissal on October 3.

BISHOP TO JAIL? The Sonoma County Sheriff's office has recommended that criminal charges be filed against Santa Rosa bishop Daniel Walsh for failing to report sexual abuse by the Rev. Francisco Xavier Ochoa in a timely fashion, the August 26 San Francisco Chronicle reported. The delay in reporting gave Ochoa enough time to flee the country. On April 27 of this year, Ochoa, a priest at St. Francis Xavier Solano parish in Sonoma, admitted to Bishop Walsh that he had sexually abused a minor. The next day, Walsh suspended Ochoa from priestly functions and, the following day, Saturday, April 29, discussed the matter with the diocesan attorney, Dan Galvin. Galvin faxed a letter to Child Protective Students on Monday, May 1 and notified the county sheriff's department the following day. By that time, Ochoa had fled the country.

In a written statement issued August 25, Lt. Dave Edmonds said, "based upon our investigation, the evidence indicates that this case is worthy of district attorney review." Edmonds said the Sonoma district attorney's office has to decide whether it can prove Walsh broke any law and whether there is "sufficient evidence and circumstances to sustain a conviction."

According to state law, clergy, teachers, and others must report suspected child abuse to law enforcement authorities "immediately or as soon as is practicably possible" and then, within 36 hours, send in a written statement. Violation of the law is a misdemeanor that carries with it a penalty of up to six months in jail and a fine of $1,000.

With the announcement of the investigation into his possible negligence, Bishop Walsh issued a statement to the diocese. In his "Candid Message from Bishop Walsh," issued in August, Walsh noted that when he came to Santa Rosa in 2000 "it was beset with controversy over the misdeeds of my predecessor and those of a number of priests who put themselves above the people, the Church and the law." Walsh's guiding principles, he said, have been "a need for honesty, for decisive action, and for steadfastly doing the right thing regardless of personal cost." But with Father Ochoa's "admission of his deplorable acts," said the bishop, the diocese has "taken a giant step backward towards our troubled past."

In delaying to report Ochoa, Walsh admitted to "an error in judgment;" but he did not delay to report the priest to authorities "in order to allow Rev. Ochoa time to escape, as some critics have claimed. I did not wait, as others have claimed, because of some desire to keep the abuse silent. I waited from an excess of caution." Walsh said he wanted first to consult his legal counsel.

In publicly admitting his failure to report Ochoa immediately, the bishop said he risked being charged with a misdemeanor and thus having to go to jail. But "if I am found guilty for not taking immediate action," said Walsh, "I will accept whatever punishment is imposed. It was evident to me that my choice was two-fold: to remain cautious and avoid possible legal repercussions, or to acknowledge my error come what may." He chose the latter course, because to do otherwise, he said, "would only compound my original inaction and further tarnish all of our shared efforts over the past six years, in working to eradicate sexual abuse in the Church."

THE FORMER PASTOR OF ST. BONIFACE parish in San Francisco, Father Louis Vitale, was arrested July 28 for blocking a White House entrance. The 74-year-old Franciscan priest was arrested with four others, including Diane Wilson, co-founder of CodePink, a women's peace group, at around 1 p.m. by park police. They were detained for a few hours and fined $50 each. The demonstration, which occurred while President George Bush was meeting with British prime minister Tony Blair in Washington, D.C., was part of a month-long period of prayer and fasting. "We did fasting and praying for the month of July in front of the White House," Father Louis told the Faith, "at the same time visiting various congressional offices and just trying to work towards an end to the war in Iraq. For me, when all else fails, this kind is cast out by prayer and fasting."

Though Catholic News Service called the fast a "hunger strike," Father Louis rejected the description. "When one is engaged in a kind of non-violent activity, whatever harm or suffering is imposed is imposed upon yourself not upon another," Father Louis told the Faith. "Sometimes people mean by hunger strike more of a way of imposing something on someone else. This is a way of praying and offering penance."

Father Louis and his companions completed their fast August 4 (it had begun July 4), following which he and others traveled to Amman, Jordan, to meet with members of the Iraqi parliament and others from non-governmental organizations. "We were mostly listening," said Father Louis, "trying to see where there were points where we could bring about some resolution to the conflict. We were a non-violent group and were coming just to show our support and the efforts to bring about some exchanging of information and some gatherings."

Father Louis said he opposes the Iraq war because "I'm opposed to any war, any and all wars in the spirit of St. Francis." But though he was what one might call a pacifist, Father Louis said he does not so much reject the Church's just war teaching but thinks it is not applicable today. "I believe, in this world, particularly, the world of nuclear weapons, etc.," he said, "it's pretty difficult to imagine a war in which there's still proportionality. The danger of going into a war with weapons of mass destruction is so great that it's hard to imagine a situation in which there are greater hopes for positive results than there are for the opposite. In this war [the Iraq war], the damage has been so great. I'm not saying there should not have been some efforts to restrain those who were doing violence -- we can call them terrorists, we can call them whatever we want -- but, this has to be part of the international community, and it was not really."

After retiring as pastor of St. Boniface, Father Louis' superior allowed him to spend "the rest of my life is dedicated to work for peaceful resolutions of war and certainly against nuclear weapons. To me, a message of peace is a pronouncement of the Gospel. It's evangelization, and -- though John Paul II wasn't necessarily referring to the same thing, in his letter to the Americas, he said we should not miss any opportunity of evangelization, and to me the most important gospel message today is to work for peace. Armageddon can come if we continue to pursue ways that are not God's ways, and God's ways are ways of peace."

THE NINTH CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEAL in San Francisco in two separate cases in August upheld the constitutionality of the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000. President Bill Clinton signed the law as a means of protecting churches from local officials who restrict houses of worship with zoning regulations. In the two rulings, the court sided with the Washington, D.C.-based Becket Fund for Religious Liberty in its litigation on behalf of two churches in California.

The first case involved the Guru Nanak Sikh Society, which wanted to build a temple in the county unincorporated area of Yuba City, but was denied by the Sutter County Planning Board. The society then decided to build a temple in an agriculturally zoned area of the outskirts of Yuba City. After the society agreed to various conditions put on their application, the Planning Commission agreed to their request. But reacting to local residents who feared increased traffic and noise from the presence of the temple, the commission unanimously reversed its decision. The society sued under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. When a lower court sided with the society, the county appealed. On August 1, the ninth circuit court of appeals affirmed the right of the society to build its temple on its own land.

Later that month, in a separate ruling, the 9th Circuit again reaffirmed the constitutionality of the religious land use act. A church had sued the city of Lake Elsinore in federal court when the city denied the church's request to use an existing structure as a place of worship. When the lower court ruled that the religious land use act was unconstitutional, the case went to the ninth circuit court of appeals. Matthew McReynolds, assistant counsel with the Pacific Justice Institute, said that the opposing Lake Elsinore and Yuba City court decisions forced the ninth circuit to deal with the issue. "The ninth circuit had to resolve it," he said.

Does the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act give churches free rein to do what they wish on their land, regardless of zoning. No, said McReynolds. "These cases are decided in a case by case basis. No local government can put a substantial burden on the practice of religion. The court can say that something is not a substantial burden but is an inconvenience. For example, in a historic district, the court can say that the church must follow a certain type of architecture. The religious land use act is not blanket one way or another, it is not a yes always and never a no."

BISHOP INJURED. Oakland Bishop Allen Vigneron fell from the top of the front stairs of his residence last month, breaking his left arm in two places, his right wrist, as well as bruising his head and pelvis. He underwent surgery to set the bones on his left wrist and experienced considerable pain in the initial recuperation. However, according to diocesan spokesman Father Mark Wiesner, "his recovery is going very well, and he should return to full time work at the end of October. The bishop is very grateful for the prayers and support he has received from the people of the diocese."

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