Cardinal Roger M. Mahony's high-profile indictment of Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez over his support of an assisted suicide bill may have signaled the last fitful gasps of the cardinal's influence in Southern California, (to use a wildly inappropriate metaphor.) Now, the power resides with Catholics who may disagree with Mahony: Nunez and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
 "The rise of Latino elected officials has overshadowed the influence of the church. The cardinal's influence is not what it once was," Raphael Sonenshein, a political science professor at Cal State Fullerton and longtime student of Los Angeles ethnic politics, told the LAT. And it's not just California Latinos. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are Catholic as well-- rounding out virtually the entire power structure in California.
As Jim Newton and Louis Sahagun wrote: "The cardinal's dwindling throw-weight reflects several intersecting trends as well as the damage done to the church — and to Mahony personally — by the long, painful scandal over pedophile priests. Those cases have eroded the church's authority generally and have specifically embroiled Mahony in charges that he protected priests rather than taking steps to ensure the safety of children."
The Catholic blogs have mulled the story a bit this weekend. Whispers in the Loggia writes that, "It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone if the disproportionately loud set of Mahony's critics within the church sought to seize upon the story to attain their long-sought goal of nothing less than his scalp."
LA Catholic notes the article "does have a photo of Cardinal Mahony beaming and applauding beside Catholic pro-abortion politician Antonio Villaraigosa as he gesticulates exuberantly during his inauguration as L.A.'s mayor. That photo captures the real reason for loss of clout by the cardinal: He has backed the Catholic anti-life politicians, worked with them and done them many favors even as they have defied him for decades to push the killings of millions of California babies--and, now, to push euthanasia."
(Photo: Nick Ut/AP)
When Cardinal Roger Mahony met recently with Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, he gave him Pope John Paul's "Gospel of Life." Mahony (pictured above) said during a recent Mass that he told Nunez to "please read it carefully. And I encourage all of us in the archdiocese to make our voices heard in opposition to the culture
of death, to contact our legislators to vote down this attack on life."
As California once again debates whether to legalize assisted suicide,
it's important to understand how the
Catholic Church forms its opposition to what John Paul II called "a grave violation of the law of God." More and more, the Catholic church is injecting itself into the political debate in Sacramento over assisted suicide.
In the "Gospel of Life," John Paul II makes it clear that prolonging life "when death is clearly imminent and inevitable" is not always preferable. Indeed, the Pope suggests that refusing extraordinary measures that "no longer correspond to the real situation of the patient" is justified if the treatment is "disproportionate to any expected results or because they impose an excessive burden on the patient and his family." "To forgo extraordinary or disproportionate means is not the equivalent of suicide or euthanasia; it expresses acceptance of the human condition in the face of death."
So then it's a question of will - actively sending drugs through someone's veins to terminate his or her life. Here, John Paul II blamed modern society. He said the "culture of death" has been "marked by an attitude of excessive preoccupation with efficiency and which sees the growing number of elderly and disabled people as intolerable and too burdensome. These people are very often isolated by their families and by society, which are organized almost exclusively on the basis of criteria of productive efficiency, according to which a hopelessly impaired; life no longer has any value."
The Pope spends a lot of time on advances in medical science, and makes a judgment about what to do when a patient is suffering unbearable pain. John Paul II acknowledges that pain killers are morally acceptable when someone is dying. But he adds: "All the same, it is not right to deprive the dying person of consciousness without a serious reason."
There is something in the Catholic Church that
finds value in suffering. Jesus' final, excruciating days -
celebrated this week - are often put in near-pornographic terms in
Catholic literature and art. In the essay about
euthanasia, John Paul II sounds almost mocking when he writes: "The prevailing tendency is to value life
only to the extent that it brings pleasure and well-being, suffering
seems like an unbearable setback, something from which one must be
freed at all costs."
(Photos:
Genaro Molina/L.A Times via AP;Emilio Morenatti/AP)
Whoa, what's happening to the Catholic Church in Los Angeles? George Skelton has an incredible story today about a woman who approached Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez in a restaurant while he was having breakfast with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. The woman said she learned from Msgr. John Moretta that Nunez was "a killer" for supporting an assisted suicide bill in the Legislature.
Skelton says that wasn't the end of it. Moretta sent Nunez (pictured left) a letter Monday stating, in part: "Some of my parishioners, as you know, ran into you and Antonio at breakfast.... I was surprised that when they told you I had spoken at Mass about your authorship of this suicide bill, Antonio mentioned that this was a case of separation of church and state. That's a bunch of bull. And you and he know better. You would never want to see a church that was morally neutral, a church that showed no moral leadership."
And he concluded with this: "I would wish you a happy Easter, but that is a celebration of life. You are attaching your name forever to death." What's next, war with the Huguenots?
This follows a personal attack on Nunez by Cardinal Roger Mahony (pictured) during Mass, where he said: "We should be troubled that Fabian Nunez, who has worshiped here in
this cathedral, is a Catholic, somehow has not understood and grasped
the culture of life but has allowed himself to get swept into this
other direction, the culture of death."
Few people had heard such a high-ranking Catholic official publicly chastise an individual by name from the pulpit. Nunez now says he is rethinking his allegiance to the church.
In response to Mahony, Steve Hopcraft, a spokesman for the assisted suicide movement in California, passed along an article about Pope Benedict once attempting to cancel a concert by Bob Dylan at a Catholic conference in Bologna in 1997. Dylan played for Pope John Paul II anyway, but Pope Benedict continues to have a strong dislike for popular music. "I'll stand with Dylan and the
majority of all faiths against the Pope, his cardinal and their Dark Ages
philosophy," Hopcraft said.
(Photos: Rich Pedroncelli/AP; Ric Francis/AP)
Pastor Bob Cornwall of the First Christian Church of Lompoc likes "Star Trek," Coltrane and Barbara Brown Taylor. And he's not afraid to acknowledge his pagan roots; on his website, Cornwall notes that he is a Pisces. Pastor Bob also is part of a growing movement to shift some Christians, mostly evangelicals, away from their obsession with abortion and gays.
Cornwall says a summit is being planned for this summer between the faith community and the California Democratic Party that will look at "the environment, foreign policy/war,
poverty, health care, and immigration. It's not as if family and
sanctity of life aren't part of the conversation, but they need to be
discussed as part of the broader conversation of moral issues."
Environmentalists, for one, are courting Christians to back their fight against global warming, mostly using God's commandment in Genesis to "have dominion over the fish of the
sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves
upon the earth." The Sierra Club has a special liaison with faith communities to preach the gospel of environmentalism. One is Lyndsay Moseley, who pulled out the Bible yesterday and used some Old Testament scare tactics: "The scientists tell us that we have time to avoid the most devastating
impacts of global warming if we begin to act now. Remember the story of
Jonah, who was called to preach the coming destruction of Nineveh? The
people heeded his warning and turned from their ways, repenting and
seeking God's mercy and forgiveness. We, like the people of Nineveh,
can heed the warnings and take steps to be better stewards of the earth
- not only for ourselves, but for our neighbors, our children, and God."
Last fall, scores of churches in California joined a nationwide campaign to show Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" to their congregations. Rev. Dr. Aloha Smith, rector of St. Francis of Assisi Episcopal Church in San Bernardino, told the Press-Enterprise about the event: "God put us in charge. The Bible is very, very clear. We're supposed to take care of it (Earth)."
Evangelicals are struggling with this concept. On March 1 this year, a joint letter written by James C. Dobson (pictured) and two dozen other Christian activists called on the board of the National Association of Evangelicals to muzzle its vice president for government relations, Richard Cizik. They said Cizik has been "using the global warming controversy to shift the emphasis away from the great moral issues of our time, notably the sanctity of human life, the integrity of marriage and the teaching of sexual abstinence and morality to our children."
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has yet to fully embrace Christians into his global warming efforts. In his State of the State address, he did say that Californians need to be "good stewards" of their state. That's the most frequently used code word by environmentalists; Christians must be "stewards" of God's earth. But Schwarzenegger had a different context: he was encouraging the Legislature to pass a new infrastructure program, which could actually contribute to global warming by building new freeways.
(Photo: Mark J. Terrill / AP)
Standing before a gathering of African American pastors, state Treasurer Phil Angelides today claimed that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger defended the apartheid regime in South Africa during the 1970s and '80s.
Angelides' comments came barely an hour after a Schwarzenegger advisor, Margaret Fortune, broke down in tears while attempting to address the same ministers at St. Andrews African Methodist Episcopal Church near downtown Sacramento. A pastor spoke to her from the audience and said the governor had been disrespectful for ignoring their invitation, and Fortune issued what some said was a veiled threat.
 "When I leave this engagement in 22 days, I’m going back to the administration. And when you knock on the door, it’s going to be me who’s going to answer for the governor. The governor respects me.''
"That sounds like a threat,'' someone says from the audience.
Fortune: "No, no, no. That is not a threat.''
The claim that Schwarzenegger supported South African apartheid has been circulated for years, and it's dubious at best. After his appearance before the ministers today, Angelides said he made the claim based on news accounts.
It certainly was one of the most explosive things Angelides could have said about the Austrian-born governor in front of that audience, and it highlighted the intense fight between the two candidates to woo African American voters.
"There have been news reports that have indicated the governor might have made comments defending apartheid," Angelides said. "Now, you can make a judgment about those."
The accusation appears based on the impressions of a single person quoted in Wendy Leigh's biography of Schwarzenegger: "According to Rick Wayne, who is black, when they discussed apartheid, Arnold said he thought South Africa was right, saying things like, 'If you gave these blacks a country to run, they would run it down the tube.' " That account has been repeated in a few newpaper stories.
Katie Levinson, spokeswoman for Schwarzenegger, had this to say about the accusation: "This is just more nonsense talk from Phil Angelides and a flailing campaign that has come untethered from reality."
The question-and-answer session for candidates was organized by the NAACP's Sacramento chapter and a group called Associated Ministers Empowering Neighborhoods, AMEN.
Before Angelides arrived, Fortune was asked to address the group. She quickly became emotional and broke down in tears when a minister said "the bride didn't show up" and dismissed her as an underling. In fact, the governor's office had declined the invitation two weeks ago but a few pastors were not informed, campaign officials said. A spokeswoman for the NAACP, however, said they only heard late Monday that the governor would not attend.
As she stood in front of the assembled ministers, Fortune dabbed her eyes and attempted for a few minutes to "share with you some of the things the governor has been saying with the black clergy." After the event, Fortune headed to her Mini Cooper, which was boxed in by several other cars. She made a brief comment to TV cameras. Then, after a church official moved some cars, she drove away.
UPDATE: Longtime Schwarzenegger friend Albert Busek, who operated the Universum Gym in Munich that Schwarzenegger used in the mid-1960s, wrote to say: "I have been on tour with the governor through South Africa in November 1975 staying in Pretoria, Capetown, Port Elizabeth and Durban. We both were shocked how unhuman apartheid really is if you see right there. Never ever I've heard any comment of the governor to defend apartheid. To use a phrase of Steve Lopez' article in L.A. Times of today, I can say that apartheid is against the governor's 'molecular cell structure.' "
(Photo: Robert Salladay / LAT)
Saturday, a "pro-family" rally takes place at the state Capitol to "demand that candidates support religious freedom and family values." Christian conservatives have been protesting in Sacramento for many years, but this event signifies something has changed.
 It illustrates the growing movement of Russian-speaking immigrants and their church leaders joining in the debate over morality in California politics. A new group has been formed called Watchmen on the Walls, which describes itself as an "international" pro-family organization. Randy Thomasson, one of a few Christian conservative lobbyists in Sacramento, gets little respect from the Democratic state Legislature, but now he has latched onto this Sacramento community of conservative immigrants — one of the largest in the country.
The L.A. Times and other papers have quoted Thomasson many times; I have called him on stories about conservatives and gay-rights legislation. But I often wonder how many people Thomasson really represents. This skepticism goes back to when an unctuous man walked into my Sacramento office about nine years ago and dropped off a press release. It was Lou Sheldon, the conservative crusader, and I immediately surmised that Sheldon was a one-man show at the time, made powerful only by the media attention he had received. He was, after all, trudging around passing out press releases by himself, about himself.
Now Thomasson and other religious conservatives have found some friends. Rone Tempest of The Times has a wonderful overview of this movement of evangelical preachers and their efforts to influence California politics. From his story: "Over the last 18 months, Sacramento Russian-language church members have picketed gay pride events, jammed into legislative committee meetings when gay issues were on the agenda and demonstrated at school board meetings.
"Incited by firebrand Russian Pentacostal pastors and polemical Russian-language newspapers, the fundamentalists turn out en masse for state Capitol protest rallies....
"In most instances, the Russian-speaking demonstrators far outnumber representatives from all other anti-gay groups combined. Anti-homosexual rallies that a few years ago attracted a few dozen participants now regularly draw hundreds and sometimes thousands, many with a heavy Russian accent.
"Even in a state capital where impassioned public demonstrations are a daily event, the Slavic fundamentalists stand out. Elderly women in babushkas stand next to small children carrying signs stating: 'Perversion is Never Safe' and 'I Am Not Learning About Gay People.'
"Speakers address the crowds fervently in Russian and Ukrainian."
(Photo: Matthew Cavanaugh / Getty Images)
A few stories today about African American leaders and their endorsement of campaigns.
 Shane Goldmacher has a piece today about Alice Huffman, president of the California NAACP. She has been paid $100,000 by a campaign account funded by Philip Morris at the same time her group is opposed to Proposition 86, which would raise taxes on cigarette companies.
"Alice Huffman, [in photo] who has served as president of the state NAACP since 1999, is also on retainer by AT&T for $12,000 per month — a fact she never disclosed to her organization — even as Huffman testified on behalf of the NAACP in support of major legislation to ease access for the phone company into the lucrative cable industry.
"The campaign payments to Huffman's political company, A.C. Public Affairs, come only a year after the firm was paid $330,000 in consulting fees by the pharmaceutical industry. In 2005, the state NAACP sided with the drug companies' position on two ballot measures."
The Bee weighs in as well. The S.F. Chronicle also has more about Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's outreach to the African American community, which includes asking the Rev. Amos Brown to work for his campaign. He has been paid more than $16,000 as a consultant. The Times had a good piece on this subject as well, highlighted by a complaint from the Rev. Harold R. Mayberry, senior pastor at First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Oakland: "Faith-based entities are certainly not for sale."
(Photo: John M. Heller / Getty Images)
My colleague Michael Finnegan makes this fundamentally important point summing up Phil Angelides' campaign problems: You have to build the groundwork. That means telling voters your background and courting influential groups such as the churches. Showing up at a few churches won't get you elected, but it sends a message to the media and elsewhere that you know the basics.
With 45 days left, it's still not done. Finnegan writes: "Basic political work has also proved a challenge for Angelides, a former state Democratic chairman, particularly in his appeals to African Americans. By the time Schwarzenegger one-upped him last month by speaking at First African Methodist Episcopal Church, a must-stop for Democrats in South Los Angeles, Angelides had yet to make a courtesy call to its politically influential pastor, the Rev. John Hunter.
"'It was certainly an oversight,' said Kerman Maddox, who handles political matters for the church.
"The Rev. Frederick O. Murph, pastor of Brookins AME Church in South Los Angeles, said he was concerned that Angelides had failed so far to make any 'big thrust, in terms of the African American vote.'"
From the L.A. Times today: "Stepping up its probe of allegedly improper campaigning by churches, the Internal Revenue Service on Friday ordered a liberal Pasadena parish to turn over all the documents and e-mails it produced during the 2004 election year with references to political candidates.
All Saints Episcopal Church and its rector, the Rev. Ed Bacon, have until Sept. 29 to present the sermons, newsletters and electronic communications.
The IRS investigation was triggered by an antiwar sermon delivered by its former rector, the Rev. George F. Regas, at the church two days before the 2004 presidential election. The summons even requests utility bills to establish costs associated with hosting Regas' speech. Bacon was ordered to testify before IRS officials Oct. 11."
Angelides undoubtedly will get the majority of the ethnic vote in California. But that hasn't stopped Schwarzenegger from an aggressive, behind-the-scenes effort to court minority groups. And it's not just Latinos.
If he can improve his margin among African American voters from around 15% to perhaps 20%, his campaign will be happy. Some of the same campaign strategists who helped orchestrate a similar effort for President Bush now are advising Schwarzenegger.
Significantly, the governor's education adviser Margaret Fortune, who is African American, has been quietly working for months with black churches. Fourteen Bay Area black churches will form an alliance to receive some of the $500 million in Proposition 49 money for after-school programs, she said, and the First AME Church in L.A. is working to start a similar group effort.
Much of Schwarzenegger's work with minority groups has bypassed the Capitol press corps. After Maria Shriver returned from visiting the Dalai Lama, Schwarzenegger announced he would lead a trade delegation to India if re-elected -- telling Indian reporters based in California first during a private session. The governor has courted the Asian American press and held little-noticed events in the Capitol with Filipino Americans. He has received glowing stories in their press for just showing up.
Schwarzenegger visited the Lula Washington Dance Studio in L.A. The MSM virtually ignored it, but the event received heavy coverage in the African American newspapers. He met with California Black Media, a group of African American newspaper publishers, and again got good reviews.
"It was history because it's the first time that the Republican leadership on that level had met with us," said Hardy L. Brown, chairman of the Black Voice News in Riverside.
The Republican governor beat Angelides to the First AME Church in Los Angeles, after more than a month of planning. And he has reached out to influential pastors in ways that go beyond attending Sunday services. He called J. Alfred Smith Sr., pastor at the Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland, after his wife died. Angelides, who has visited the church as well, sent a condolence letter but did not call.
"I don't forget about people who are nice to me," Smith told his congregation on Sunday, during a second visit by the Republican governor.
(Photo: Damian Dovarganes / AP)
The influential pastor of the Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland, J. Alfred Smith Sr., all but endorsed Schwarzenegger after a two-hour visit Sunday. The media, he said, made too big a deal about the governor's recorded comments about "black blood."
Smith said: "I wish he would have said that J. Alfred Smith is a dynamic little east Oakland leader because of the rich ancestral blood from the motherland of Africa that flows through his veins. I am not a European.... My nose is flat. My lips are thick. But I am proud to be a son of ebony hue."
Listen to audio from after the Sunday church service:
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"The rise of Latino elected officials has overshadowed the influence of the church. The cardinal's influence is not what it once was," Raphael Sonenshein, a political science professor at Cal State Fullerton and longtime student of Los Angeles ethnic politics, told the LAT. And it's not just California Latinos. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are Catholic as well-- rounding out virtually the entire power structure in California.
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