Next up...Maria Goretti and Cardinal Nguyen Van Thuan.

See ya later...

I recently had an OSV column that pointed out the problematic juxtaposition of the expensive LA Cathedral and the obliteration of various ministries, including the Respect Life Office, two weeks later, and two weeks before Respect Life Sunday. Here's one of the several notes I received in response:

Thank you for a surprisingly insightful piece on the Archdiocese of LA. Catholics here who are perhaps more traditional or who work in the inner city and speak Spanish as I used to, feel alienated from what is happening in our diocese. As a physician who does not do abortions, "morning after" pills, etc., and ultimately was forced to leave a 20+ year position at the University of Southern California School of Medicine in the Department of Family Medicine indirectly but most certainly because of my pro-life beliefs, I feel that there is just about no serious support from the church for those who oppose the policies of this very pro-abortion state (I'm not speaking of individual priests here).

Our Hispanic population, it seems to me, needs the support to maintain their traditional beliefs about the family and the sacredness of life, and an active, aggressive outreach by the Church may forestall the awful, yet very successful legal assault against pro-life medical professionals which will permit a great increase in the availability of abortions of all stripes and the closure of medicine as an ethical vocation to Catholic youth. (Two examples: nurses removed from positions or harassed severely for refusal to cooperate in abortions, physicians effectively excluded from working with minority or uninsured patients if they won't sign on to a state program funding both prenatal care and abortions, which means referring for abortions if that's what the "client", usually a poor minority woman, "wants", and mandated teaching of abortion in all ob-gyn residency programs).

Could go on longer, but I now do "scab" shifts to earn a living, and its five am, must scrub the floors before my next shift.