CALIFORNIA CATHOLIC CONFERENCE

California’s Catholic bishops, holding their annual meeting next week in San Diego, will consider new statewide strategies for anti-abortion efforts in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s July ruling that permitted states to place limitations on terminating pregnancies.

“Diocesan officials in Catholic Charities feel the dioceses need to provide more pastoral care and social services for women so they won’t need to opt for an abortion,” said Julie Sly, communications director for the Sacramento-based California Catholic Conference, the bishops’ policy-making body.

The state’s two dozen bishops, meeting Tuesday and Wednesday, will also consider new efforts to inform the state’s nearly 17 million Catholics about California abortion laws. “We don’t have anything concrete to propose for legislation at this point, however,” Sly said.

Los Angeles Archbishop Roger M. Mahony, in an open letter that sparked controversy last June, informed Catholic lawmakers and government officials that they are under a “moral imperative” as church members to change laws permitting abortion. It was uncertain whether Mahony would seek to have his statement endorsed by fellow bishops from the 11 other dioceses.

The bishops also are expected to renew their opposition to the death penalty. No one has been executed in California’s gas chamber since 1967, but Catholic leaders have expressed fear that court decisions may have expanded the use of the death penalty.

Bishop John S. Cummins of Oakland, president of the bishops’ conference, wrote Gov. George Deukmejian earlier this year requesting that he not allow executions to resume.

The bishops said their opposition to capital punishment is based on their “commitment to . . . the sacredness of every human life from conception through natural death and to proclaim the good news that no person is beyond the redemptive mercy of God.”

* MEETINGS

More than 4,000 Southland members of the Worldwide Church of God convened in the denomination’s headquarters city of Pasadena Friday to launch their eight-day Feast of Tabernacles. Through an international television satellite link, Joseph W. Tkach, the “pastor general” of the church, is expected to address 150,000 members meeting today at 100 sites in 54 countries.

* DATES

Peter Ediger, co-director of the Nevada Desert Experience, will describe the religious organization’s long-running, nonviolent protest against U.S. nuclear weapons testing in talks next week. He will speak at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Our Lady of Assumption Church in Claremont and at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the campus ministries office at Loyola Marymount University.

The Rev. Arthur Simon, founder-president of Bread for the World, will be the speaker at an interfaith service at 4 p.m. Sunday in Los Angeles observing World Food Day. The service at Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church will be preceded by a fair providing information on anti-hunger programs.

* PARISH

One of the largest parishes in the nation’s most populous Catholic diocese--San Pedro’s Mary Star of the Sea Church--will celebrate 100 years of existence Sunday with music and a Mass on the parade grounds at Ft. MacArthur, the U.S. Army base located within the parish boundaries. The Los Angeles archdiocesan parish has 6,000 registered families on its mailing list and estimates that an additional 3,000 to 4,000 families attend Mass at the church, according to Father Dennis Brennan, associate pastor. Joined by Msgr. Patrick Gallagher, the pastor, and several bishops, Archbishop Roger M. Mahony will celebrate the outdoor Mass at noon, following an hour of music and ethnic dances.