Despite an estimate that the Los Angeles...

Despite an estimate that the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese administrative operations are headed for a $5-million to $8-million budget shortfall by the end of the fiscal year on June 30, Archbishop Roger M. Mahony said this week that he will not allow a big cash deficit to occur.

“I’m very confident that we will be very close to a break-even budget by July 1,” Mahony said in a news conference.

Mahony said Jose Debasa, the archdiocesan chief financial officer, last week correctly identified the trends in the $111-million budget for the chancery operations, which have been hit by sharp increases in medical insurance costs and subsidies to inner-city parishes. But Mahony said Debasa was presenting “the worst possible scenario.”

Mahony said he was “optimistic” that relief will come from the current moratorium on hiring and new spending programs and that income from investments and parish donations will be higher than the conservative estimates written into the budget.

“We also are looking at new financing programs to make sure the inner-city parishes have the kind of resources they need,” Mahony said. A committee working on that will make its recommendations in May, he said.

On another matter, Mahony said his office has received 40 inquiries from priests and nuns around the country after news broke recently about his letter to Los Angeles Catholic clergy and sisters seeking volunteers to test an experimental AIDS vaccine.

The archbishop said he was acting on a request from a scientist at the Norris Cancer Institute at USC. The government has approved testing of the vaccine, developed by Dr. Jonas Salk.

The experiment is aimed at testing the prototype vaccine on 10 uninfected persons over age 65 with long, complete medical records. The center alone has received about 75 volunteers, according to a center spokesman.

California officials have not yet given approval for the study, and one project researcher said earlier this month that Mahony should have made his appeal after the project was approved.

Mahony stressed that the test “never was an archdiocese project as such,” adding: “It was an attempt on our part to help promote a move toward a vaccine. They were looking for several study groups and they asked us if we would like to serve as one of those study groups.”

PEOPLE

* The Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the 70-year-old leader of the Unification Church, on Wednesday night made his first-ever speaking appearance aimed at the Los Angeles Korean-American community. He was picketed by a crowd of Korean Christian protesters outside the Wilshire Ebell Theater. Peter Spoto, assistant to the regional director of the Unification Church, said the talk in Korean was on reunification prospects for North and South Korea. Spoto said the 1,270-seat hall was full. Myung K. Kim, publisher of the Korean-language Christian Herald newspaper, said the “Moonies,” as the worldwide movement is often called, have been criticized by mainline Protestant churches for their unorthodox theology, which, among other things, points to Moon as a messiah figure.

* The Rev. Matthew Y. Ahn, 53, rector of a Korean Episcopal congregation in Hollywood since its founding in 1977, will leave next week for his new position in Washington as campaign coordinator for the National Council of Churches’ office promoting reunification efforts between North and South Korea. A send-off service for Ahn is scheduled at 3 p.m. Sunday at St. Nicholas Episcopal Church. Many leading Korean-American pastors circulated petitions last year objecting to National Council policies, saying North Korea had shown little indication that it would allow religious freedom. But Ahn said clarifications of the National Council’s positions have softened some objections in the Los Angeles Korean Christian community.

DATES

* Bishop Frederick H. Borsch has urged members of his six-county Los Angeles Episcopal Diocese to support a “Turn the Tide” march against gangs, drugs and graffiti next Saturday, starting at 10 a.m. at Exposition Park near the USC campus. Borsch, who also has lobbied for participation by other religious leaders, said in a letter to Episcopalians that few have illusions that the 2-mile march and accompanying talks will end the problems. “But the March 31 walk is a time for us to show that we care enough about our community and our children to demand change,” Borsch said. The event is co-sponsored by KABC-AM, KABC-TV and Community Youth Gang Services with the endorsement of civic and private groups.

* One of the largest of the 21 book and media centers operated in this country by the Daughters of St. Paul, a Catholic order of nuns specializing in communications, will be blessed next Saturday in Culver City. The permanent facility, which includes a chapel, was opened last month. The rite of blessing by Auxiliary Bishop John Ward is scheduled for 2 p.m.