The shoe dropped

Fr. Pfleger said he’d bail out of the church if he could not stay at St. Sabina.

Cardinal George replied:

If that is truly your attitude, you have already left the Catholic Church and are therefore not able to pastor a Catholic parish.”

George explained:

This conflict is not between you and me; its between you and the church that ordained you a priest, between you and the faith that introduced you to Christ and gives you the right to preach and pastor in his name, said George. If you now formally leave the Catholic Church and her priesthood, its your choice and no one elses. You are not a victim of anyone or anything other than your own statements.

He’s been talking otherwise in recent years, says George:

George wrote that Pfleger told him several times in recent years that he did not want to stay at St. Sabina for the duration of his time in public ministry.

Introducing Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. and assorted others.

An oldie but goodie on the good life

Happy to see this book discussed, exposed, whatever.  Picked it off the OP Library shelf few weeks back and had some revelatory skimming, including the part where in Boston in 2000 the store clerks don’t sell, they just fill orders.  (Recipe for bored clerks, yawning their way through their time with you)

But the part I remember best is how governmental efficiency takes the hassle out of shopping for the item of your choice.  No, instead you go to stores where samples are for viewing, with full, complete descriptions done impeccably by government employees in a central office!

Glory be, no more schlepping around from Macy’s to Carson’s to Old Navy and back, fretting about what you will buy.  In this marvelous book, government employees slip you the info you need, leaving you time to get back to perfectly tuned and attuned government surround-sound in your perfectly temperature–controlled house.  If only!!!!

Public Education and Illiteracy: Looking back Over 123 Years

Samuel Blumenfeld reports:

The year 2011 marks the 123rd year since the publication of Edward Bellamy’s famous utopian novel, Looking Backward, in which the author depicted a happy, socialist America in the year 2000. In Bellamy’s optimistic fantasy, greed and material want ceased to exist, brotherly harmony prevailed, the arts and sciences flourished, and an all-powerful and pervasive government and bureaucracy were efficient and fair.

A history lesson well worth your time.

Says NewsAlert.

T-party pats and 9/12 S-Town Project

This is the sort of thing you want to support, if only to declare your lack of confidence in how gummint people spend yr tax $.

An Appeal to Heaven

Chicago Tea Party Patriots

and

The 9/12 SouthTown Project

Faith, Hope & Charity

HOMEOWNERS’ PROPERTY TAX RELIEF
AND BUSINESS FAIR

While Illinois spirals into bankruptcy, homeowners are being saddled to foot the bill more and more, through increasing property tax bills, even though home values have plummeted.

How can you get relief?

Join us on Saturday, May 21st, the Chicago Tea Patriots, along with the 9/12 SouthTown Project, at their Property Tax Relief and Business Fair, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m., at Crosswinds Church, 10835 South Pulaski Avenue in Chicago where officials from the City of Chicago Tax Advocator’s Office and Dan Patlak from the Cook County Board of Review will be on hand to explain how property assessment works and how to potentially lower your property tax bill.

All homeowners seeking tax relief is encouraged to attend. In addition, there will be free health care screenings, local businesses on hand to showcase their trades and products, a conservative table of various issues, including help on food storage, book readings and other issues of interest to conservatives, plus a book, CD and DVD sale!

We’ve decided that we need to do more than just protest and rally… We have EVOLVED!  Instead of protesting taxes, we will provide you with the needed tools and knowledge to gain a possible decrease in your property taxes!  So bring your neighbor and learn the tricks of the trade, and get the needed help, to decrease your property taxes!

SOUTHWEST SIDE MEETING

There will be a meeting Saturday, May 7th, 5 p.m., at Durbin’s, 10240 South Kedzie Avenue in Evergreen Park. 

We will discuss our upcoming Homeowner’s Tax Fair, summer events, upcoming elections, the fundraiser and 9/12 parade.  Last meeting was absolutely fantastic! Let’s keep this rolling!  If you haven’t made our meetings yet, do so! Durbin’s serves one of the best pizzas and burgers, so come out and get involved!

LOOP MEETING
There will be a meeting Saturday, May 14th, at 3 p.m., at the Wabash Tap, 1233 South Wabash, just off the Red and Orange Line. There is a nice menu and available parking.
We will discuss our upcoming Homeowner’s Tax Fair, summer events, upcoming elections, the fundraiser and 9/12 parade.  Last meeting was absolutely fantastic! Let’s keep this rolling! 

I would like to know your suggestions whether you would rather have Loop meetings on Fridays or Saturdays, and if you have any ideas on nice meeting places… Let me know your thoughts.

Tongue-tied in Rochester

Sun-Times’s Rosalind Rossi and Kim Janssen pack a lot into one sentence:

At once disarming and unhelpful, the Rochester superintendent’s response seemed to reveal little beyond a healthy fear of a politician who once sent a dead fish to one of his enemies.

He’s new Chi schools chief Jean-Claude Brizard, newly hired by mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel by whom he’s been told to keep his mouth shut as accusations swirl about him

Fascism revisited

Wish I’d said it in just this way . . . . :

“I wouldn’t call it fascism exactly,
but a political system nominally controlled
by an irresponsible, dumbed down electorate
who are manipulated by dishonest, cynical, controlled mass media
that dispense the propaganda of a corrupt political establishment
can hardly be described as democracy either.”

. . . . Having said it differently back when Big O. was not quite elected president, noting that Oak Parkers were going all-out for him:

The “man of action” business is particularly foreboding. It’s a staple of fascism, of course. Mussolini, Hitler, and FDR were a mutual admiration society before the stuff hit the fan in the matter of Jewish people being rounded up and beaten up and eventually much worse-the German contribution to fascism. The political appeal was based on admiration for the strong man who brooked no opposition.


Mussolini was crafty about it and inspired admiration in “progressive” circles in this country, as he had admired American pragmatism in Woodrow Wilson, the college professor-become-president with a yen for power that puts even today’s tenured radicals to shame. Then came FDR, the roaring pragmatist, and then Hitler. Progressives, later called liberals, yet later progressives again-the name changes keep them ahead of the awareness curve-love the man of action.

Now they have one. He’s The One, our smooth-talking Democrat presidential candidate with a yen for deciding how much you should earn before being hit with a tax hike-to “spread the wealth around,” as he unfortunately told that plumber in

Ohio.

Forget about the plumber.  It was the thought that counted — then and now. 

The third Emil breaks the traces

Emil Jones gives a talk to a Political Science...
Emil II, who puffed Obama early in the game

This Illinois state senator offers words of wisdom with implications he has not realized, I’d say.

“You can put all the laws on the books, but you can’t ever prevent anyone from committing crimes,”

said Emil Jones III, referring to cemetery regulations imposed in the wake (no pun intended) of the Burr Oak burial fiasco.

But what he says is applicable to gun laws and marijuana prohibition, among many other currently criminalized instances.  He’s an incipient libertarian?

Holy week!

Two thoughts 2/3 through the Sacred Triduum:

1. Foot-washing on Holy Thursday is a liturgical loser.  Liturgy is theatre.  You have to see it or hear it or smell it or touch it or taste it, none of which 99% of pew-sitters can do with foot-washing, which is hidden from their view in any church I have been in.  You can do it yourself, of course . . .  if you’re into that sort of thing.

2. Ditto venerating the cross on Good Friday.  It really calls for more talent as liturgy (theatre) than most parishes can muster, and what do the hoi polloi do while waiting to do this medieval thing, besides listen to “Were you there when they crucified my lord?” or “Amazing Grace,” which are 19th-century sentimentalism run riot?

Let’s hear it for low mass on Sunday and a nice, calm thoughtful sermon.

Priest out at night

This fellow is now at an Arlington Hts (IL) parish but spent his first 17 years as a priest on the Spanish-speaking Southwest Side:

“What I learned at Epiphany and St. Mark’s is, you meet people in the streets. I did my most effective ministry at 11:30 at night talking with gang bangers, or in Mt. Sinai Hospital’s ER — not on Sunday morning. The people who come to Mass on Sunday, to a certain extent, are going to be OK. They’re staying close to the fold. They need to be nourished and challenged, of course.

“‘Mission’ is meeting people where they’re at and presenting Jesus in a way they can understand. Creating an atmosphere where people feel safe enough to be honest with themselves and God. Let’s just get to know the Lord in the best way – in the sacraments.”

He has an older priest as mentor (“ spiritual director”), which would be very important.

Comboni fathers in the ‘hood

Home mission.

Shooting baskets, doing homework, taking classes and playing pool, Ping-Pong and video games are among the activities offered to at-risk youth from the Austin neighborhood at the Peace Corner, 5022 W. Madison.

Now they can do it in a new $1.6 million facility April 9. The 75,000-square-foot building, still smelling of paint and new construction, has a basketball court, offices, a lounge area, a computer lab and a large dividable classroom. The project was funded through private donations.