By DEXTER DUGGAN
If politics is the continuation of war by other means, there are sure to be feints, disinformation, and counterfeit battle plans deployed in legislative chambers to keep the other side in disarray.
It initially was reported on July 8 that a California bill requiring priests to report sex abuse of minors by breaking the confessional seal was withdrawn from consideration at the state capitol in Sacramento by its liberal Democrat author.
A confessor who revealed such privileged information would be subject to excommunication from the Church.
In a July 9 statement, Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez said he was “thankful that the bill’s author, Sen. Jerry Hill, has decided not to continue pursuing its passage this year.
“This outcome is good for the Catholic people of California and for believers of all faiths, not only in this state but across the country,” Gomez said.
“SB 360 was a dangerous piece of legislation,” the archbishop continued. “It was a threat to the Sacrament of Confession that would have denied the right to confidential confessions to priests and tens of thousands of Catholics who work with priests in parishes and other Church agencies and ministries.”
However, the capital city’s main news platform, the Sacramento Bee (sacbee.com), quoted Democrat Hill on July 9: “To be clear, I have placed SB 360 on hold. The bill is on pause, it has not been withdrawn.”
Hill’s own senatorial website echoed this statement on July 9: “To be clear, I have placed SB 360 on hold. The bill is on pause, it has not been withdrawn.”
The Bee reported that Hill “said he ‘hit the pause button’ on Senate Bill 360 because he became aware that it would not pass.”
The news site added that in a July 9 statement, the senator said: “This issue remains important to me, and I will continue to champion it in the hope that my colleagues can come together on legislation. I strongly believe that for any institution, self-policing and self-investigation are not effective ways to combat alleged abuse, as our own state legislature has found.”
Perhaps adding to the confusion, the Bee’s headline on the story said the bill had been “pulled.”
In a July 8 statement, the California Catholic Conference lobbying arm said: “The day before hundreds of Catholics were planning to voice their opposition by attending a hearing in the Capitol, SB 360 was pulled from the Assembly Public Safety Committee agenda, effectively removing it from any further consideration this year.”
The CCC statement concluded: “Authors can pull bills for a variety of reasons ranging from not having enough votes to a desire to continue working on details. Since the California legislature has a two-year session, the bill can still be considered next year.”
A Washington Examiner contributor accepted as accurate a statement that the bill was withdrawn and wrote on July 9 that “this is probably a smart political move for the Democrats. If the bill had passed, it would have put the Democrats at odds with tons of Hispanic Catholics, a Democratic demographic that is very prominent in California.
“The Democrats would have been spending a lot of political capital on a bill that is probably unenforceable,” the Examiner writer added, “and they could have lost themselves votes in 2020 as a consequence — certainly not enough to make California go for Trump, but possibly enough to make the California state legislature more moderate.”
Acting on the initial information about the bill being withdrawn, The Wanderer asked some California sources for their reactions. But even they cautioned that the battle wasn’t over. And one of them, who asked not to be identified, claimed that the bill was just a ruse so that the liberal California Catholic Conference can continue to cooperate otherwise with the culture of death’s Democratic Party.
Northern California conservative commentator Barbara Simpson, a Catholic, told The Wanderer, “People may think the battle is over but, knowing human nature and knowing the mentality of California liberals, it’s just the first step in the fight against morality and most specifically the Catholic Church.
“SB 360 was ‘withdrawn’ but that does not mean it was killed,” Simpson said. “It can, and probably will, be back in slightly different form but aiming at the same result. The libs have their guns aimed at Catholics and the clergy, not only with this bill but with others.
“Rumbling around in the Sacramento legislature are varieties of bills that would eliminate the tax-exempt status of churches and other religious organizations,” she said. “I have no doubt that the list of names of people who signed petitions against SB 360 will become targets of the state.
“How about refusing,” she asked, “to allow them to declare contributions to their religious organizations as tax-exempt? How about questioning their tuition and donations to religious-sponsored schools? How about taxing religious schools?
“Remember,” Simpson said, “money is their weapon — libs have it and want to take it away from conservatives. Yes, the Confession Bill will be back, and so will others with the long-term goal of wiping out religion and getting rid of people with religious morality. Hint: Read the Constitution and know what it means for your freedom.”
Derry Connolly, president of John Paul the Great Catholic University in Escondido, north of San Diego, told The Wanderer: “The victory for Catholics is very significant in that once again California’s progressive left have had to back down in their assault on people of faith. However, these attacks will continue until Catholics in this state see the hatred of the progressive left and vote them out of office.
“On Sunday, my pastor observed relative to the Gospel reading ‘The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest’,” Connolly said. “He felt an increasing hunger in California for the truth that is Jesus Christ. I agree with him. Such attacks will turn people against the left — praise God.”
Gibbons J. Cooney, a San Francisco Catholic, told The Wanderer: “It was the efforts of our bishops, plus hundreds of thousands (maybe millions) of California Catholics, that caused the bill to be withdrawn. It is a good wake-up call for us as Catholics, showing, first, that the enemies of the faith never rest; and secondly, that when motivated, we are a very powerful force both spiritually and socially.
“Finally,” Cooney said, “it would be irresponsible for California Catholics not to look at SB 360 and note which state senators supported this attack and which state senators opposed it. This is the kind of thing that needs to be remembered.”
One person known to The Wanderer declined to be named for publication but asked that he be identified as “a deep California political observer.” He said SB 360 was “a decoy bill” that was “quite clearly unenforceable and unconstitutional.
“However,” he said, “it was useful for the Democrat leaders to get the Catholic Church bureaucracy putting on a high-profile effort in only about three of the state’s 12 dioceses to collect signatures of parishioners on a preprinted form letter which was not even accurate.”
The observer noted that the liberal California Catholic Conference, while being notably ineffective regarding pro-life legislation, nevertheless works closely on liberal Democratic Party priorities.
“SB 360 sailed through the Senate with the votes of all the Democrats, including the ‘Catholic’ Hispanic Democrat senators,” he said. “Then the author, Democrat Sen. Jerry Hill from uber-liberal San Mateo County, just south of San Francisco, decides he will ‘pause’ the bill. That way, he can help keep California Catholics voting for pro-abortion Democrats.
“Meanwhile,” he said, “there’s crucial legislation, like SB 24 to mandate free RU-486 abortions (estimated at more than 500 per month) at all University of California and California State University campus ‘health centers’ — about 34!
“SB 24 and other extreme pro-abortion and pro-Planned Parenthood legislation are effectively destroying life, youth, marriage, and family and the Catholic Church in California,” the observer said.
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