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Life & Times Transcript

7/6/07

Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --

He's a Catholic priest with a deep faith, an active parish and a wife of forty years.

Father Bill Lowe>> No, I'm just grateful that I can do this. Those priests who are celibate and who have that call, that's wonderful. It's been a powerful ministry in the Roman Catholic Church, but I'm just grateful that I can be part of that as a married man.

Val Zavala>> And then, Placido Domingo takes the stage at the Music Center, but he isn't singing opera.

[Film Clip]

These stories and more straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times.

Announcer>> Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education.

And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.

With additional support for Life and Times from The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation.

Val Zavala>> Does the term "married priest" sound like a contradiction in terms? Well, since the fourth century, the Catholic Church has required its priests to take a vow of celibacy, so how is it that a priest in Camarillo is married and does this mean the church is changing its policies? Sam Louie has our story.

Sam Louie>> Father Bill Lowe is a Catholic priest at the Padre Serra Parish in Camarillo.

[Film Clip]

Sam Louie>> He's caring, charismatic, dedicated to his parish and the church.

Father Bill Lowe>> What I liked the most was the preaching, leading worship, pastoral counseling.

Sam Louie>> But when the day is over, he is met at home by someone most unusual for a priest.

Linda Lowe>> "Hi (laughter)."

Father Bill Lowe>> "Hi, how you doing (laughter)?"

Linda Lowe>> "I'm doing fine."

Father Bill Lowe>> "Good."

Linda Lowe>> "How was your morning? Give me a kiss first."

Sam Louie>> His wife, Linda.

Father Bill Lowe>> We've been married forty-four years and we joke that it's probably going to last.

Sam Louie>> Father Lowe is a Roman Catholic priest who is also married. He was ordained by the Catholic Church in May at a special ceremony.

Father Bill Lowe>> (Laughter) I wouldn't have done it if I'd had to take a vow of celibacy. I was never called to celibacy.

Sam Louie>> So how does a married man become a priest? By a special provision enacted twenty-seven years ago.

Bishop Thomas Curry>> A provision by which people who have been ministers in other religions who convert to Catholicism can, under certain circumstances, be ordained priests in the Catholic Church even if they're married.

Sam Louie>> Father Lowe had been an Episcopal minister for more than thirty years. Bishop Thomas Curry says, after many years and careful consideration, Cardinal Roger Mahony ordained Father Lowe despite his marital status.

Bishop Thomas Curry>> It was quite a significant event because it's the first time that a married priest has been ordained here in the archdiocese.

Sam Louie>> After serving as an Episcopal priest in Massachusetts, he retired several years ago in California to be closer to his family, but retirement made him restless.

Father Bill Lowe>> I found out that I didn't like retirement and I really missed what I was doing.

Sam Louie>> In order for Lowe to even be considered for the priesthood, he had to convert from his Episcopal roots to Catholicism. Both he and his wife saw it as a natural progression.

Father Bill Lowe>> We had become involved in some friends' Roman Catholic parishes after retirement and it just became more and more natural. We just seemed to be becoming Roman Catholic and it wasn't a very far leap from being Episcopalians to become Roman Catholic.

Linda Lowe>> Theologically, we haven't had to change any of our beliefs.

Sam Louie>> But does this special provision of allowing married converts to become priests signal a change in the Catholic Church's long-standing policy of celibacy? Bishop Curry says a case like Father Lowe's is more an exception than the rule. In fact, in the United States, only seventy men have made use of this special provision in nearly thirty years.

Bishop Thomas Curry>> Right at the moment, the commitment of the church and of Pope Benedict is to maintain the tradition of the celibate priesthood. It's a very long tradition in the church and it's something that we've lived with for many, many, many centuries and, as far as he's concerned, it's something that has enriched the church and he continues that we should continue to live with.

Sam Louie>> But the tradition of celibacy in the Catholic Church has come under scrutiny at a time when sex scandals have cast a dark shadow over the church.

Terrance Sweeney>> You have nothing but problems and that's exactly what we have right now in the Roman Catholic priesthood. Scandals, divisiveness, suicides.

Sam Louie>> Terrance Sweeney is a former Jesuit priest.

Terrance Sweeney>> One priest hanged himself in his rectory. He had been in love for several years and he couldn't take the pressure of being in love, not being with the woman and continuing his priesthood.

Sam Louie>> Sweeney says that the Catholic Church demanded he step down after he began questioning the practice of celibacy.

Terrance Sweeney>> What most people are not aware of is that most of the apostles were married. Peter, the first Pope, was married, and throughout Catholic Church history, close to forty Popes have married.

Sam Louie>> Sweeney himself fell in love, left the priesthood in 1975 and got married. He researched the history of celibacy and says that it was instituted eight centuries ago as a way for the church to become the heir to estates of church officials.

Terrance Sweeney>> The fathers would pass on their profession to their sons. This included benefices. It included their spiritual endeavors. So if a Bishop passed on the benefices of his church, the donations, the land and everything else, then once again the Vatican and the papacy wouldn't have control of it.

Sam Louie>> Others say that it has less to do with control and more to do with commitment.

Bishop Thomas Curry>> It's a matter of commitment and of assigned value that the church has always held up as a sign of a commitment to God to recognize the power of God in one's life and the power of God to enable one to do this.

Sam Louie>> Still, Sweeney believes that in the past forty years the celibacy requirement is the top reason why more than one hundred thousand men have left the priesthood.

Terrance Sweeney>> I want to marry and I want to, you know, forego my promise or vow of celibacy. I want to marry and serve the church as a married Roman Catholic priest. The mandatory celibacy laws say that you cannot do that and, if you marry, you must resign your priesthood.

Sam Louie>> Father Lowe admits that he feels a bit guilty for having both titles of priest and husband.

Father Bill Lowe>> I realize this is unfair, by the way. There's a really unfair element to my being ordained. There are men who have had to choose between family and the priesthood and it's not fair that I'm able to do this.

Sam Louie>> Parishioners at his parish seem to have no objection and have welcomed his arrival.

Bob Hernandez>> A married priest brings something to the priesthood that sometimes our priests don't have, and that's the fact that he is a family man and he can relate to some of the problems that families have more readily than perhaps a priest that has never been married.

Linda Lowe>> People are so excited about this. It's just wonderful and exhilarating and I think what pleases both of us is the fact that it seems to give people in the church a new energy.

Sam Louie>> Nevertheless, Father Lowe is the first married priest in the Los Angeles archdiocese and that still takes people by surprise.

Linda Lowe>> The stunned silence, and I just wait (laughter). After a while, they say, "Wait a minute. Did you say a Catholic priest? How can that be?" So that opens the door to try and explain that there's a special provision and it's been in existence since the 1980s and we go from there.

Sam Louie>> For now, it appears that Father Lowe's ordination into the Catholic priesthood is not the beginning of a growing trend for the future, but rather an anomaly, an unusual case of one man who desired to serve God, the Catholic Church and his wife.

Father Bill Lowe>> We're assigned here, my wife and I, for the next year and that could be extended, but we're very happy. This is a wonderful parish and they have been very happy to have us here and have been welcomed us very graciously and we love it. We feel very much a part of what's going on here.

Sam Louie>> I'm Sam Louie for Life and Times.

Val Zavala>> So what do you think of married priests? You can post your opinion. Just go to kcet.org/lifeandtimes/blog.

Announcer>> Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, plus transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org, scroll down the page and click on "Life and Times".

Val Zavala>> The statistics are irrefutable. Drunk driving is a bigger problem among Mexican Americans than other ethnic groups. Some say the problem is rooted in Mexico where drunk driving laws are more lax and where macho men don't want to hand the keys to their wives. But others say that the problem lies with American beer companies.

For a provocative discussion, we brought three people together at the Kitchen Table. David Lehrer with CommUnity Advocates; April Snook with Mothers Against Drunk Driving; and Henrik Rehbinder, editorial page editor with the Spanish language newspaper, La Opini�n. The Kitchen Table is made possible by Ralph Tornberg.

David Lehrer>> April, what is the data that MADD has collected over the years with regard to drunk driving in the Mexican American community?

April Snook>> The data has been collected not specifically by MADD. It's been collected by other agencies such as NHTSA, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The numbers are just huge. 59.7 percent of the fatalities among Mexican Americans are due to alcohol-related crashes.

There's only one other group, Native Americans, who have a higher percentage than that and it is specifically Mexican Americans. For example, within the Latino minority, there were other ethnic groups that were also discussed. As far as Cuban Americans being at 33.7 percent, Caucasians were at 44.1 percent.

The numbers are there. It's a huge amount of people being killed. MADD's issue is that we are out there to save lives. We're not there to single out any particular group, but we do have to look at these because these are families that we're dealing with on a daily basis who have lost someone to a drunk driver.

David Lehrer>> Henrik, what is your take on the data?

Henrik Rehbinder>> Well, I think that there's a serious problem, the alcohol in the Latino community. I think that the young males are the ones who are having problems. I think that, you know, I understand the data and the whole thing. But I think that sometimes to frame it as a cultural issue as it has been framed now that's something to Mexican Americans or to the Latino culture that immigrants bring, I think that is an over-simplification. I think it's a simplification because basically there are a lot of issues that make a person drink and drive.

David Lehrer>> Such as?

Henrik Rehbinder>> Well, a cultural thing, no? Let's look at machismo, for example. Not that we can talk in Mexico, something when you drink, you imply that you are more macho and the whole thing. You know, the cultural trait of machismo is not drinking and driving. The drinking and driving, unfortunately, you know, the drunk person who grabs the key and says, "I can drive", is a universal person.

April Snook>> And the bottom line is, it's still a problem. When the numbers are there, when you see -- I mean, I work in the community every day. I'm out there. I see the numbers. I see the people. The fact is, the majority of the drunk drivers that I see who have been arrested are the males and that's not just in the Latino community. That's across the board. That's something that has to be addressed.

David Lehrer>> Well, in fact, I read that the largest gender gap in drinking is between Latino males, Mexican American males and Mexican American females. Mexican American females practically don't drink at all and Mexican American males drink such -- the gap is greater than in any other community.

April Snook>> We're not talking about the drinking aspect of today. I mean, at least not from MADD. We're against drunk driving. We're not against drinking. It's the act of drinking and driving, and the same thing happens. I mean, I'm out in the community.

I see the sobriety checkpoints. Couples are pulled over and the Latino husband is behind the wheel and he's drunk and his sober wife is sitting right next to him. I'm sorry. There's no excuse for that. If you have a sober driver, you should have the sober driver be the person driving the car. People die.

David Lehrer>> Do you think those are cultural issues?

Henrik Rehbinder>> No, I don't think they're cultural issues. I think that basically what we are talking about -- I don't know. When you take a cultural issue and you talk about gender roles, men driving, the women not driving, I don't know really if I want to follow this. Because you can say that the man is the boss of the house, but if you know many Mexican families, in reality, he's not really. Mexican women are very strong. So I would not follow this stereotype.

What happens when immigrants come here? For example, the Center of Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown found that Latino kids are dangerously over-exposed to alcohol commercials. The industry of alcohol is really targeting Latinos in a very special way.

Cinco de Mayo is not a celebration that happened in Mexico. Here it is Drinko de Mayo because you have the beer companies that come there and they do all the shows, all the advertisements, all the things and their explanation is, "We target and the youth market is so big that we cannot ignore." I really wish there could be other companies who would be more positive and would see more benefits to give to our good causes than beer companies.

David Lehrer>> Well, how do you counter the reality of the economics? I mean, if Budweiser's Bud Light is sponsoring Drinko de Mayo, as Henrik said, I mean, they have dollars that MADD could never match.

April Snook>> The bottom line is that they're still not the only companies out there. I mean, in San Diego, our chapter in San Diego specifically worked with all of the soccer groups down there since we know soccer is a huge part of the culture as well. All of the kids were running around, five and six year old kids, with Bud Light on their soccer logos.

Now you're not talking about drinking and driving. You're getting into under-age drinking, like you said, advertising to youth. One of our volunteers who is a Cuban American worked with those soccer companies and got other sources of funding for them and none of those kids have alcohol logos on their uniforms.

There is other money out there. I realize it's easy because Bud Light is huge or, you know, Anheuser Busch or whoever. Pick any of the alcohol companies. They're huge and they have money. But if you really want to make change within your community, you find other ways around it. It's happening, but it needs to happen more.

Henrik Rehbinder>> But you cannot avoid the culture that is surrounded. Here, you know, I've been for thirty years here, so I saw a lot of the drinking that goes to the excessive. I've never seen it in Europe at that level. Not that there are not drunks. There are a lot of drunks everywhere, but the act of having fun just drinking. I saw here that you just go and drink as an activity as young adults. This I have never seen in any other country. You go and meet and do something and then you drink, but not as I saw Americans go out and drink as an activity.

David Lehrer>> We have this ambivalence, on the one hand, the kind of puritan ethic with regard to alcohol. On the other hand, every place you look there's alcohol. I've noticed actually there's a big difference between Los Angeles and New York. In New York, they don't really take carding very seriously because, if you drink in a bar and you're under twenty-one, you're going on the subway. You're not driving a car, so who cares if you're a little tipsy?

I mean, there's a cultural difference for young people between Los Angeles and New York. Do you see the statistics moving the good direction or the wrong direction? Are the trends lower in drunk driving or higher?

April Snook>> Actually, they're stagnant. The last few years, the numbers have been stagnant as far as -- and that's not just in the Latino community. That's across the board.

David Lehrer>> Really?

April Snook>> Alcohol-related deaths in crashes have been about sixteen thousand in the United States across the board. So, unfortunately, it's kind of been -- preferably going down, but we're not seeing a lot of change at all.

David Lehrer>> On that somber note, thank you, April, and thank you, Henrik. I know that we could talk about this a lot longer, but I think we've made a bit of a dent on a very difficult problem.

Henrik Rehbinder>> It's a pleasure.

April Snook>> Thank you.

Announcer>> To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us by mail at this address:

Life and Times
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You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org.

Val Zavala>> There's probably no bigger name in opera than Placido Domingo and yet his musical roots are not in opera, but in a lighter form of opera, a form of musical theater. It was called "Zarzuela" in Spain. I talked with Placido Domingo about what Zarzuela is and how it had such a major impact on his life.

[Film Clip]

Val Zavala>> This is Zarzuela. It's a lighter form of opera that originated in seventeenth century Spain. They were musical plays performed for King Phillip, the Fourth.

[Film Clip]

Val Zavala>> This one is called "Luisa Fernanda". It is by Frederico Moreno Torroba. Placido Domingo plays the role of a wealthy landowner in revolutionary Spain in love with a woman who's in love with another man.

Placido Domingo>> "The name of Zarzuela. . ."

Val Zavala>> As the Los Angeles Opera's general director, Placido Domingo was eager to include this art form in the opera's repertory.

Placido Domingo>> Simply, it is a beautiful music which has a story and sometimes certain drama, but is never as tragic as operas. In operas, we have one or two or three of the characters dying at the end. In the Zarzuela, we find a solution or no solution for the drama, but it's not a big tragedy and it is a combination of beautiful music and dancing. Most of the Zarzuelas are for different regions of Spain. You know, "Luisa Fernando", in particular, happens in Madrid.

[Film Clip]

Val Zavala>> Now you have a very personal connection to this particular Zarzuela, "Luisa Fernanda". In fact, your parents played the lead roles.

Placido Domingo>> Well, the family collection is the story of my life probably, you know, because the composer, Frederico Moreno Torroba, was a very successful composer and my mother and my father were singing in his company. He decided in 1946 to bring the company from Spain to Mexico for Zarzuela. So he brought my parents with the rest of the company. They went to Cuba, they went to Puerto Rico and finally to Mexico.

They stayed for a long, long time in Mexico, so long that, I mean, it was two years that my sister and me didn't see our parents. We were living with my aunt in Spain. The public very much loved my parents and they encouraged them to form their own company, so they immediately make us come from Spain, my sister, my aunt and myself, and we went to Mexico.

Val Zavala>> At that point, you were reunited.

Placido Domingo>> Exactly. We were reunited. We were reunited because the Zarzuela in Mexico changed from Spain to Mexico. So I am Spanish, but I grow up in Mexico. They say, "Are you Spanish?" Yes. "Are you Mexican?" Yes. There's no doubt that I am born in Spain and Spanish by nationality, but the roots are very strong also for me in Mexico.

[Film Clip]

Placido Domingo>> I used to love the interpretation of my father. It was really great. It's something that I never thought I would do it because there are two parts in the pieces, the tenor and the baritone. All of my life, I have been singing the tenor, so my father always sang the baritone. But the really hard part belongs to the baritone and I always wanted to do it and now I am doing it remembering my father in song.

[Film Clip]

Val Zavala>> At what point exactly did you realize that you had this amazing voice?

Placido Domingo>> Since I was little, I hear to the music from my parents. I start studying music, being involved in the theater, helping them for everything, so almost without trying, they realize I have a voice.

Val Zavala>> How old were you?

Placido Domingo>> I was changing my voice, you know, fourteen or fifteen. Then I realized that I have voice to sing opera and then I went to try to sing opera. So then at the conservatory, I meet Marta, my wife. Then I started to realize that I have to sing opera. I kind of left my parents a little bit because I realized that I was able to do something that would be more international, you know, but that's the story.

[Film Clip]

Val Zavala>> Many operas right now are struggling to attract new audiences, younger audiences. How do you approach, how do you strategize the future of the Los Angeles Opera?

Placido Domingo>> We have to practically please everybody, but now the most difficult thing is to the high level that we have going now and it's to maintaining that, to maintaining that without going tremendously crazy economically. You know, we have grown artistically, but the growing artistically needs the support. In some moments, we have had a certain amount of troubles because our dreams have been slightly bigger than what we can have, but I think people are reacting wonderfully.

[Film Clip]

Placido Domingo>> It's just a blessing, you know, when you can do it and then you can dedicate your life to make people happy and make people forget about the problems and be able to enjoy it still today. I mean, to feel the same kind of anticipation and excitement as when I started my career years and years and years and years back.

Val Zavala>> So it hasn't gotten old?

Placido Domingo>> Not at all, no.

[Film Clip]

Val Zavala>> And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. We'll see you next time.

Announcer>> Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education.

And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.

With additional support for Life and Times from The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation.

Sponsored in part by:


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