Today At The University of San Francisco

Barbara Garcia

On Friday, May 17, the (Jesuit) University of San Francisco will hold the 2013 commencement exercises for Barbara Garcia, director of health at the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Ms. Garcia was appointed by then-Mayor Gavin Newsom in 2010. She is an open lesbian. Garcia is probably best known to the wider public following national news coverage of a decision of the San Francisco board of supervisors that the city’s Healthy San Francisco  program—that is, the taxpayers—will, in addition to coverage for abortion and contraception, provide free “gender reassignment surgery.” their School of Nursing and Health Professions. The commencement speaker and recipient of an honorary degree will be

As director, Garcia will be in charge of implementing this program. On November 10, 2012 Gay Star News reported “San Francisco will now offer mastectomies (removal of the breasts), genital reconstructions and other surgeries recommended for some transgender people under the city’s 5-year-old universal health care plan.” Garcia justified the procedures: “The community felt the exclusion on Healthy San Francisco was discriminatory and we wanted to change that as the first step.”

As the San Francisco program shows, there are many people who take gender reassignment surgery seriously, rather than seeing it as a mutilation born of mental illness. To put “gender reassignment surgery” into a proper perspective, let’s examine an identical syndrome called Body Integrity Identity Disorder. The noted bioethicist Wesley Smith, writing at the Human Exceptionalism blog at National Review, describes it: “BIID, also known as ‘amputee wannabe,’ is a terrible mental illness in which sufferers obsesses and truly anguish about becoming an amputee–which they perceive as their true identities.” He went on to explain his experience at something called the “transhumanist” conference:

Link (here) to read the rest at California Catholic Daily

Ex Corde Ecclesiae

It is unlikely that there was any collaboration between San Francisco’s archbishop and the University of San Francisco when Vincent Pizzuto was selected to chair the Department of Theology and Religious Studies Department in 2012. Pizzuto was “ordained” a priest in 2006 in the Celtic Christian Church, which is not in communion with Rome. His church’s website states that Pizzuto has presided at same-sex weddings, and his published work—including “God Has Made it Plain to Them: An Indictment of Rome’s Hermeneutic of  Homophobia,” in the Winter 2008 edition of Biblical Theology Bulletin—is openly critical of Catholic teachings. Still, Pizzuto not only teaches Catholic theology at USF, he also heads the theology department—supervising other theology professors in the department who are teaching Catholic theology. It is difficult to believe that USF and the presiding bishop are working collaboratively in implementing Ex Corde Ecclesiae. Just a few months ago in November, Princeton philosopher Peter Singer, the world’s most prominent promoter of infanticide, was the main attraction at a Fordham University conference titled “Conference with Peter Singer: Christians and Other Animals, Moving the Conversation Forward.”

Link (here) to read Anne Hendershott full article at Crisis Magazine

Former Carmichael Jesuit Football Coach Linked To Double Murder

Patrick Streater

“We’re talking about overkill, passion killing-type, what I would consider a passion killing,” investigators said in 1996. Tiffany Campbell and Melissa Chilton, both just 18 years old, were found brutally stabbed inside Exotic Tan for Men, a Nashville adult business. All along, investigators believed the murders were personal, and now think Patrick Streater was Campbell’s ex-boyfriend. Late Nashville Det. Grady Eleam thought he was close to solving the case in 2002. “We do have a suspect. We’re concentrating on him and have been concentrating on for six months now,” Eleam said. Around the same time in early 2002, Streater was arrested in a series of violent home invasion robberies in the Sacramento area. At the time, he was a football coach at Jesuit High School in Carmichael, known to the players simply as Coach Streater. Serving time in state prison for those robberies, detectives believe he is responsible for two murders that went unsolved for nearly two decades. Police say scientific evidence and interviews conducted over the years links Streater to the killings. He will soon be transported to Nashville to face his new charges.

Link (here) to

San Francisco Archbishop On St. Peter Claver, S.J. And The Humana Vitea Wars

Archbishop Salvatore Joseph Cordileone

The 56-year-old is a native of San Diego and grew up in a strong, inter-dependent Italian-American family, with his paternal grandparents living next door and his maternal grandparents a few miles away. During his childhood he was in constant contact with his grandparents, who spoke the old Sicilian dialect with his parents, as well as with his entire extended family on both sides. They didn’t keep every feature of life from the old country; as he says, “our generation lost the old Sicilian (Calabro-Sicilian) language”. But the family remained loyal to the traditional pieties of Sicilian Catholicism. St Joseph was the focal point of their devotions. On the feast day of Jesus’s foster father they set up an altar in their home with his statue and three loaves of bread to represent the Holy Family, which included a braided loaf of bread for Our Lady. They would stage a drama of the Holy Family coming into the home, with a young girl as Mary, an older man as Joseph and, on several occasions, the young Salvatore was in role as Jesus. The archbishop says there was never a time when he struggled with his faith or did not believe in God. He did, however, feel the stirrings of a vocation, while also feeling drawn to being a husband and father. “My main challenge in seminary was interior, in discerning if this was really my call,” he explains. “When I entered the seminary at the age of 19, in 1975, I felt strongly inclined in that direction but was not yet absolutely convinced that God was calling me to be a priest. It was when I gave my life totally to God, I felt a burden was lifted from my shoulders, and had the confirmation of my vocation to the priesthood."

At seminary he developed a keen attachment to St Peter Claver, S.J. a favourite saint whose courageous ministry to African-Americans and radical holiness has inspired him throughout his 30 years of priesthood. Now, as a member of the Church hierarchy, he continues to pray to the patron saint of slaves, for “commitment to the Church’s mission and for graces to help the poor and marginalised”.

As Archbishop Salvatore Joseph Cordileone was a seminarian in the 1970s, the obvious question is whether he inclined more to the spirit of rebellion of that time or if he held true to the Church’s time-honoured teachings. “I’m quite a law-abiding type who doesn’t have a problem with authority,” he says, “but more than that, the Church’s teachings are completely rational and made sense to me.” It was the time of the Humanae Vitae wars: did he have any problems with any of the details in the most resisted encyclical of the age? No, in fact, in 1978 he and some fellow seminarians travelled from San Diego to San Francisco so that they could attend a symposium held by the archdiocese in honour of the 10th anniversary of Humanae Vitae.

Link (here) to The Catholic Herald

Fr. John Baumann, S.J. And Juanita Cordero

Fr. John Baumann, S.J. And woman priestess Juanita Cordero at the February, 2006 retreat of the West Coast Companeros. 

Link (here) to read the full story at A Shepherd's Voice

Jesuit Novice's Building A Baseball Field In 1892

In March of 1886, after an exhaustive search, the Jesuits from Mission Santa Clara purchased 39 acres of land located just south of Los Gatos on which to build the Novitiate of the Sacred Heart, today the Sacred Heart Jesuit Center at 300 College Ave.

In 1892, the property was expanded to include a hill at the back of the novitiate where the novices built a baseball field.  

The boys wore clothing similar to that of the Spanish missionaries; long coats and broad-brimmed hats which protected their eyes and faces from the sun.

Link (here) to The Los Gatos Patch

A Message From The California Province

.....prevention of at-risk behaviors by Jesuits, and care and supervision of offending Jesuits.
Link (here) to read the full statement

Bishop Salvatore Cordileone

The appointment of Bishop Cordileone represents a significant departure from recent appointments in the archdiocese of San Francisco. Recent elevations to the local hierarchy– Archbishop George Niederauer, and Auxiliary Bishops William Justice and Robert McElroy–all seemed to have come from within a circle close to Cardinal William Levada. That is not the case with Bishop Cordileone. The selection indicates a recognition, at the highest levels of the Vatican, of the dangerous drift of the Archdiocese in recent years. Instances of that drift have been reported regularly in CalCatholic. 

They include Catholic Charities of San Francisco’s “gay adoptions” fiasco of 2006; the creation of parishes where homosexuality is openly celebrated, notably San Francisco’s Most Holy Redeemer; the loss of Catholic identity and outright anti-Catholic teaching at the (Jesuit) University of San Francisco; not to mention (as Palmo notes) the ongoing tolerance of misstatements of Catholic teaching by the city’s Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi. 

The archdiocese of San Francisco covers three counties, San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin. While there is a strong pro-Catholic and pro-family movement, exemplified by the Walk for Life West Coast, San Francisco itself is well known for its activist homosexual political structure and anti-Catholic attitude. Some of those attitudes are even found in parishes and certainly in the (Jesuit) University of San Francisco. In 2008, more than 80% of San Francisco voters supported Barack Obama. San Francisco also has the fewest number of children of any comparable city in the United States.  

Link (here) California Catholic Daily

Lie About It On The Stand

Jeff Rosen and Vicki Gemetti

The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office said Friday it's investigating whether to file perjury charges against Los Gatos Jesuit priest Jerold Lindner, the victim in the high-profile William Lynch assault and elder abuse case. The trial for Lynch, 44, ended July 5 with his acquittal by a Santa Clara County jury of the two felony charges stemming from an admitted confrontation he had with the priest, now 67, whom he says raped and sodomized him and his brother while children in the '70s. Last week, the DA's Office announced it wouldn't retry Lynch for a misdemeanor assault charge on which the jury hung 8-4. However, even before the county's top prosecutor announced he wouldn't be refiling the charge, Lynch's supporters were calling for Jeff Rosen to file perjury charges against the priest. On June 20, the first day of the trial, Lindner, 67, took the stand to testify under oath how Lynch had walked into the Los Gatos Sacred Heart Jesuit Center the afternoon of May 10, 2010 and had punched him causing him some bruises and injuries. Under cross-examination by the prosecution, the priest denied abusing Lynch and his brother. The denial came after the surprising admission to the jury by Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Vicki Gemetti that the priest had indeed molested the brothers and would lie about it on the stand.

Link (here) to The Patch

Los Gatos In The California Province

William "Will" Lynch

Last week, Jesuit Priest Jerold Lindner testified for about 40 minutes about what he said was a "vicious" and painful attack. But Judge David A. Cena instructed the Santa Clara County jury to ignore Lindner's testimony, including his denial of the alleged molestation, after the Jesuit refused to answer any more questions on the grounds it might incriminate him. That left Gemetti with receptionist Santos and health care coordinator Eden as key witnesses, both of whom are now retired from Sacred Heart. Santos testified last week. On Wednesday, Eden painted a sympathetic portrait of the priest, who she said seemed "shaken" and "frightened" after the attack. She had to help him walk to the nurse's station, she testified, to get treatment for lacerations to his face after he refused her offer of a wheelchair. 

In three police interviews shortly after the incident, Eden said she did not witness the attacker strike Lindner. Then, last year, during the preliminary hearing, she said she saw a man she identified as Will Lynch punch Lindner. On Wednesday, she changed her story again, saying Lynch tried to get back in the parlor where he left Lindner crumpled on the floor and bloodied, but she blocked the entrance. 

Gemetti attempted to minimize the inconsistencies after Lynch's lead lawyer Pat Harris gently but relentlessly grilled Eden."Is it fair to say certain details are very clear in your mind and others that aren't so clear?" Gemetti asked. But Eden listed only two things that were very clear to her -- that Lindner was bloody and that the attacker paced while yelling about Lindner's alleged molestation of him and his brother. Yet the jury may well disregard the inconsistencies and focus on the combined effect of Gemetti's witnesses -- that it was Lynch who hit the priest because, as Eden testified, he was "very distressed" about the alleged molestation. Harris' focus has been to try to minimize the priest's injuries, as well as build a case that the attack was fleeting -- perhaps no longer than a minute. But if the jury believes Eden's latest account -- that she saw the punching and blocked the door -- they may also believe her testimony that Lynch stopped the attack only because she and Santos had come in the room. The jury remained mostly stoic Wednesday, enduring constant interruptions as the attorneys objected to the testimony and then conferred privately with the judge. 

But Harris got a reaction out of the panel when he asked Eden if she was aware that priests had committed sexual misconduct while living at the center. "Yes," she said, prompting some surprised looks on jurors' faces. About 10 years ago, the Jesuits paid two developmentally disabled men who had been living at the center for three decades $7.5 million to settle their lawsuit contending they had been molested by two priests.

Two years later, a Jesuit priest who had been sent to the center because of mental health problems -- not pedophilia -- committed suicide. His family won a multimillion-dollar legal settlement after filing a wrongful-death lawsuit claiming that his religious superiors at the center failed to protect him from sexual abuse by a priest there.

Link (here) to Mercury News for the full article.

Jesuit Pleads The Fifth Amendment

A Jesuit priest who was allegedly assaulted in 2010 by a man who claims the priest molested him several decades ago is refusing to testify further in his accused attacker’s San Jose trial. The Rev. Jerold Lindner told Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge David Cena Monday morning that, under the advice of his attorney, he is invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and is declining to give additional testimony. Cena allowed the change and tossed Lindner’s previous testimony. Lindner testified last week in the trial, in which defendant William Lynch, 44, has been charged with felony assault and elder abuse for allegedly attacking Lindner at a Los Gatos retirement home in May 2010.

Link (here) to read the full story.

Royal Lichtenstein Quarter-Ring Sidewalk Circus.

In “The Circus that Ran Away with a Jesuit Priest,” Nick describes how he came to have such an unforgettable career. Father Bob introduces Nick and his best friend Doug to sleight-of-hand, and Nick gets to know Jesuit priests during his time at Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose, as well as perfecting his magic and patter. After time spent in discernment, Nick opts to use his Jesuit ministry in theater and asks to be reassigned to work full-time directing the Council Players. As Nick describes, the group, committed to combining morality tales with circus acts, dubs itself with “a grand-sounding title that would contrast with and mock the show’s tiny scale, lending a tongue-in-cheek atmosphere.” That name is the Royal Lichtenstein Quarter-Ring Sidewalk Circus. It was an exciting and inspirational idea that would have a 22-year run.

Link (here) to read the full review

On A List

Fr. Jerold Linder, S.J.

Father Jerold Lindner always pitched his tent far from everyone else on religious camping trips in the Santa Cruz Mountains. That way, his accusers later said, no one could hear his young victims whimper. But more than 30 years later, one of those accusers is striking back -- in a rare way chosen by only one of the 16,000 Americans who are known to have been sexually molested by Catholic clerics. Will Lynch, who says he was raped by the man he knew as Father Jerry on a camping trip in the mid-1970s, is accused of beating up the priest -- and he is now using his own assault trial to try the cleric in the court of public opinion. On the eve of his trial in San Jose, an emotional Lynch talked in an exclusive interview on the 15th floor of a San Francisco hotel about why he's willing to put his freedom on the line to protest a legal system that never made Father Jerry pay. Even though the Jesuits have doled out millions of dollars to settle cases brought by Lindner's victims, the priest was never prosecuted because Lynch and others reported the abuse after the brief window of opportunity set by the statute of limitations at the time slammed shut. Lindner has denied the accusations. But a health care administrator who works for the Jesuits testified last year during Lynch's preliminary hearing that Lindner is on a list of molesters living at the Sacred Heart retirement and medical center in Los Gatos.

Read the rest of the article (here) and watch the interview at Mercury News

It Is The Bishops Who Speak For The Church

Fr. Francis Sullivan, S.J.

Distinguished commentators in the New York Times and elsewhere wrongly interpret the assessment as "a stinging reprimand of American nuns," or an attempt "to muzzle American nuns." Contrary to these misguided critiques, the assessment expresses concerns about aspects of the conference itself. It is critical of the conference's silence on certain key issues facing the church and society, e.g., the dignity of human life from its conception to natural death, the biblical view of marriage and the family. It also expresses apprehension that the conference fails to support the church's official teachings on such issues as women's ordination and homosexual activity. 

Jesuit theologian Francis A. Sullivan points out that all Christians share the apostolic mandate to proclaim the good news of Christ to the world. Bishops have inherited the apostolic ministry of pastoral leadership with a fullness that others have not. Because of this charism, it is the bishops who speak for the church. At the same time, the voices of other members of the church - for example, women religious - need to be heard because they speak in the church. 

As the U.S. bishops, the Vatican and the conference embark on their "patient and collaborative renewal," there must be a reverent respect and mutuality between those who speak for the church and those who speak in the church.

Link (here) to read the full article by Fr. Gerald D. Coleman in The San Francisco Chronicle

Fr. John Baumann, S.J. And Some PICO History

Fr. John Baumann, S.J. on a panel discussion

Around 1970 several national networks began to coalesce and develop systematic and distinctive approaches to community organizing. These include the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), ACORN, Citizen Action, National People's Action, PICO, DART, and the Gamaliel Foundation. Each was indebted, in greater or lesser degree, to Alinsky and his early organizing programs in Chicago through IAF. Many influential organizers, including Tom Gaudette and Fred Ross, Sr., developed their characteristic approaches based on experience with Alinsky's projects. With IAF support Ross founded the Community Service Organization in California in 1949, enlisting talented young organizers Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta to develop a network of organizations in Mexican American communities, and later worked with them in the United Farm Workers union. Although Alinsky and many others have argued that community organizing is a discipline distinct from wider social movements, his early projects drew energy and inspiration from such movements: Chicago's Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council was established in 1939 during the Packinghouse Workers organizing drive, and civil rights activities energized such 1960s projects as The Woodlawn Organization in Chicago and FIGHT in Rochester. Methodical training of community organizers can be dated from 1969, when Midas Muffler founder Gordon Sherman gave Alinsky a sizable grant. As IAF executive director, Edward Chambers continued the program following Alinsky's death in 1972, setting training at the heart of IAF's expanded organizing activity, centered on broad-based organizations, built around religious congregations and parishes and often including civic associations and labor unions. IAF's most successful projects have been based in Texas, where Communities Organized for Public Service (COPS) in San Antonio helped elect Henry Cisneros as the city's first Hispanic mayor. As IAF state director, Ernesto Cortes, Jr. built a powerful network of six affiliates, collectively known as Texas Interfaith; he is now the IAF southwest regional organizer. IAF's East Brooklyn Congregations set up Nehemiah Homes to build 2,100 low-cost houses and became a model for federal housing assistance. Baltimore's BUILD has tackled education, jobs, and housing. IAF presently has 57 affiliates in 21 states, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Germany. The IAF model of organizing religious congregations into powerful local and regional networks has been taken up by three other groups -- PICO, Gamaliel, and DART -- most of whose leaders got their start with IAF. 

PICO was founded in 1972 by John Baumann, S.J. as the Pacific Institute for Community Organization, headquartered in Oakland, California. As it expanded from the West Coast, PICO characterized its acronym as standing for People Improving Communities through Organizing. In 2005 it renamed itself the PICO National Network, emphasizing the autonomy of its affiliated organizations, and its role developing national strategy, training, and consultation. PICO works to "increase access to health care, improve public schools, make neighborhoods safer, build affordable housing, redevelop communities, and revitalize democracy." 

Recently PICO has been developing a strategy of consolidating power in metropolitan areas, and exploring a state-wide effort to influence public policy on children's health in California as well as having an impact on such national issues as immigration reform. In 2008 PICO has 50 local and regional affiliates, representing 150 cities in 17 states, with 1000 member institutions claiming to represent a million people.

Link (here) to David Walls full a paper.

Read the paper entitled, "Problems With PICO" (here)

Jesuit Arrested And Convicted Of A Felony In California

Readers of this blog may recall my post from two weeks ago today about Joe Hoover, S.J., a classmate of mine at the Jesuit School of Theology who was found guilty of obstructing a public thoroughfare during an Occupy Oakland march on January 28, 2012.  Joe was sentenced on Easter Monday to ten days in the “sheriff’s work program,” a fine of $233, and two years probation.  Because Joe already had credit for time served for the four days he spent in jail after his arrest, he needed to serve only one more day in jail, which he did last Saturday at Glenn Dyer Jail in Oakland.

Link (here) to read the full post at America Magazine

Jesuit Novitite Party Thrower

An excerpt from the Catholics in Media website. Catholics in Media recently recognized the Modern Family tv show

Fr. Eddie Siebert, S.J. was technical advisor for the MGM/Frank Mancuso, Jr. production STIGMATA, starring Gabriel Byrne and Patricia Arquette. He has consulted for THE WEST WING, THE SOPRANOS, and other major television and film productions. Siebert’s hands-on training included stints with WDIV Detroit (NBC) and WWL New Orleans (CBS), both of which resulted in broadcast specials (CRACK HOUSE, TOGETHER AND ALIVE.) In addition, Siebert has worked on the staff of the Sundance Film Festival and the San Francisco Film Festival. He has taught high school, served as a retreat director, and is a regular instructor at Loyola Marymount University. Siebert received an MFA in film production from Loyola Marymount University’s School of Film and Television. He also holds a Masters Degree in Education Administration from the University of San Francisco and a Master of Divinity from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley. Siebert lives in Los Angeles at the Jesuit Novitiate where he serves as minister and party-thrower.

Link (here)

When God Wants You

A young Jerry Brown in boxing gloves

Reams have been written about Jerry Brown's relationship with his father. When Jerry was in his final year at St. Ignatius High School, he decided at age 17 to become a priest. He needed parental permission to enter the Sacred Heart Novitiate in Los Gatos. It wasn't forthcoming. 'Wait until next year,' his father suggested, hoping, so the story goes, that young Jerry would change his mind and eventually follow in his footsteps: university, law school and politics. 'When God wants you,' young Brown protested, 'He doesn't want you next year.' (Springfield Union, June 6, 1976)

Link (here) to the full article at Mercury News

Man Can Become The Author And Maker Of His Own Everlasting Bliss

The Lord's promise registered in the Apocalypse (11,10), '' Be thou faithful until death, and I will give thee the crown of life," points out to us all our sublime earthly task in the clearest language.

Whoever fails to merit God's remunerative crown will fall into the hands of His punitive justice, the awful lot which the sinner himself freely and deliberately chooses. 

As it is stated in several parts of this work, the final decision as to the place where eternity is to be spent lies in the power and will of man himself—either eternal happiness or eternal misery, either heaven or hell. Such is the choice which he must make before departing from this world. With the help of divine grace, which is granted to all in answer to prayer, man can become the author and maker of his own everlasting bliss. No one will be reckoned among the elect unless he deserves this lot by his own earnest efforts. On the other hand, no one will be counted among the reprobates unless he brought upon himself that greatest of evils, the loss of celestial bliss. In the light of eternity our temporal life acquires a value and a significance which are truly astounding, nay, overwhelming.

Either man chooses the arduous and steep path of virtue, which leads to heavenly happiness, or runs headlong on the broad way of sin, which brings him to perdition, that is, everlasting misery. 

This is the alternative presented to all by Jesus Christ in His Gospel. Here there is no neutral ground for us to stand upon, for He tells us: "He that is not with Me is against Me." No mortal that has reached the use of reason can evade this dreadful alter

Link (here) to the position of the book entitled, The Future Life by the one time Superior of the California Mission Fr. Joseph Casimir Sasia, S.J.
 

Felony Convictions And Prison Terms For Two Jesuits

Two Jesuit priests, a nun, a retired teacher and a social worker who cut through fences at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor over a year ago to protest nuclear weapons were each sentenced to prison Monday. Jesuit priest Stephen Kelly, 61, of Oakland, Calif. and retired teacher Susan Crane, 67, of Baltimore, were given 15-month sentences, while social worker Lynne Greenwald, 61, of Tacoma, was given a 6-month prison sentence. The judge gave lighter sentences to the two protesters who were over 80 years old. Jesuit priest Bill Bichsel, 82, of Tacoma, was sentenced to three months in prison and three months of home monitoring, while sister Anne Montgomery, 84, of Redwood City, Calif, was sentenced to two months in prison and four months home electronic monitoring. U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle ordered Father Kelly taken to prison immediately. Settle was going to allow the others to report to prison next month, but they told the judge they might not show up, so Settle ordered that they be taken to prison immediately, too.

Link (here) to read the full story at KOMONews.com