look at this again

It has been two years since Lennon closed Sacred Heart of Jesus, an Hungarian parish in Akron. Lennon went off script, to the surprise of many; but since then some of his lines have become the official line. Listen to the reaction of the congregation to his extemporaneous remarks.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIRVH8SE7XQ

Sacred Heart Closing_Annotated Summary.mpg

Paul pot

Ron Paul says, "...prohibition of anything doesn't work. The only thing we should prohibit is violence."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHS6tk0IBdQ&feature=player_embedded

part I: utilitarian
part II: peacenik

I do not respect libertarianism, it is mere license of self-interest [a Christian can not be a libertarian]. The second sentence might suggest that Paul sees some deficiencies in that programme. It is also possible, that, he just stumbled into the right.

Yes, there are several social justice issues concerning black market dope. Yes on the demand side punishments, but on the supply side too. There is a criminalisation of society. The drug bandit lords cheapen life through violence focused, sporadic, and demonically gleeful. There is blood on the dope.

Here in America, it is apparent in the courts and prisons, too much time and money is spent on this. Enforcement is weighted on the urban, non-white poor. As with everything here, the richer, and more socially respected the class, and ethnic markers of the user and/or suspect are, the less of the weight of the system comes down on him. The burden of guilt is not weighed on the same scale. The police and the courts have taken the power given to them, and expanded upon them, and in direct proportion have reduced freedoms of the citizenry.

Much of the drugs are imported. In the 1970s, the herbicide, paraquat, was sprayed in Mexico by the US on marijuana fields. Paraquat is toxic to people, and a fear developed in potential users of marijuana of smoking this added chemical. Domestic cultivation avoided this dread. Agricultural, and horticultural study and experimentation produced stronger dope.

The smuggled dope trade, cocaine and marijuana prominently, has recovered in Mexico, Columbia and other countries. The bandits have escalated in their criminality and power, becoming murderous terrorists. With their dope profits, they can buy American arms and ammunition, which they use freely. They have become more fearsome. They have destabilised governments. There is a growing death count.

Émigré Latinos involved in drug gangs, in the United States, have returned to their homelands as more dangerous individuals. The criminal brutality they have engaged in, they employ back home.

Of course, with different drugs of choice, there are different pathologies, different levels desperation and their corresponding ravages to the user, and society. Morphine and the opiates derived from the opium poppy are a great cash crop in Afghanistan. That money buys many deaths too. A jonesing addict in America may commit any number of crimes to procure his fix. Not every manufacturer is a careful chemist.

Those pushing for legalisation are interested in their recreation, not agrarian peace abroad, or urban stability at home. That joyful puff of smoke the enthusiast inhales, or the powder one snorts may have caused someone's torturous death, while enriching a monster. A moral dope imbiber would abstain from these blood products. The person who would see this in this light is quite rare.

Now, the black market is a free market; unless one considers economic justice. The United States enjoys free market dope. Such dope legalised, is governable, therefore regulated. Such a market would decrease prices, murders, crimes, terrorism, corruption, and other injustices and tragedies. It would increase legal employment (outside the arms industry), and taxation in the US. It would be beneficial for peace abroad. The world caters to the American market in these commodities, as in others.

Those wanting legalisation are interested in their convenience. They want to be free in using (some in marketing) these products. It should be remembered, that these products once were unrestricted, and therefore legal. Their re-legalisation, even for the selfish reasons [there are medicinal usages for marijuana, at least], will be an exercise in justice.

Hypocrisy, thy name is Republican

What an ugly group the Republican party is. Glancing at just a few of the stories to-day, is to see who they are:

Georgia lawmaker [Kip Smith] who sponsored welfare drug testing bill arrested for DUI. See here, and here.

Punish the poor [hint the Negroes], assume their depravity, have them tested for morality, sobriety...and maybe we will give them some of OUR money.

But we ignore that, because they are so 100% pro-life. See, here. Well, that is the candidate's wife, so that is not an appropriate attack.

Then there is the amiability of the rank and file:
GOP debate audience boos Romney’s Mexican heritage

The audience later booed again when Williams asked if former House Speaker Newt Gingrich had “belittled the poor and racial minorities” by declaring that black Americans should demand jobs, not foodstamps.

Audiences at other GOP debates have booed a gay soldier, cheered the death penalty and cheered child labor.

Also they booed Ron Paul.

One writer writes:

Cranky old Ron Paul was still at it and the audience booed him when he said he wanted to apply the golden rule to foreign policy: "Don't do to other nations what we don't want them to do to us." One might think people in South Carolina wouldn't boo a principle Jesus espoused, but one would be wrong. If Paul would stop talking about foreign policy and just hone in on his economic views, he might be a serious candidate, but he won't so he isn't.

Remember, yesterday's 'debate' was held on Martin L. King Day. Here is a clip on this question:

How Fox News would have covered MLK

Of course that is speculation, but its probability is very much assured. This is one day's hand dipping through the scum on top of the pond. What is undeniable about the Republican party is the absolute meanness, of it. We all know, they ARE the party of wealth. We have seen Gingrich, Perry and others told to shut up in criticising Romney's capitalism. The party does not want anyone of their boys sounding like a democrat. The party has no problem with their members sounding like racists, xenophobes, hate mongers, blood thirsty militarists, and heartless, vicious bastards. They allow all those statements, and deny their meaning.

Diocese is overseeing maintenance

The parish of St. Casimir, Cleveland, met again [as they have for more than an hundred years] for Sunday services. They have been in street exile, now into the third year.

SUMMARY OF CLOSED PARISH CASH RECEIPTS AND DISBURSEMENTS
Parish: St. Casimir Parish, Cleveland
Status: Since the time of the closing, the parish’s cash and religious items are being held in custody. The Diocese is overseeing any incidental operations or maintenance issues at the closed facilities. The closing of the parish is under appeal to the Vatican. No disposition or other activities will occur until the appeal has been completely addressed by the Vatican.

The diocese has their money "in custody". The diocese had some one plough the driveway between church, hall, and school. They had to open the gate, but a path was cleared to remove an inch of snow. As in their full and complete transparent statement [quoted above in its entirety], they are diligently "overseeing any incidental operations or maintenance issues at the closed facilities".
One of the Casimiri shovels the worship site before the weekly service. This is not overseen by the diocese.
Now, this is a Polish parish. It is after Epiphany. They are looking at their sheets for the next Christmas carol to sing. Much of the Church stops caroling on Epiphany, general American society stops on Christmas Day; but the spiritually enthusiastic can stretch it to Mardi Gras (Shrove Tuesday), and this why the colors of Mardi Gras are: gold, purple and green. The colors of the gifts of the Magi (the Three King) gold--gold, frankincense--purple, and myrrh--green.

What happens when the money doesn't come

Saint Patrick's in Thompson of Geauga County experienced something interesting. Often, what is interesting is not good. This Saint Patrick's was the first Catholic parish in the county. Now Lennon, had not closed a parish in five of the eight remaining counties in the diocese. So, most residents of Geauga, and the other four counties, were aloof and disinterested. Well, Lennon temporarily shut down the parish.

The parish pre-dates the War for Union. Priests came the cathedral, or Ashtabula, or Painesville to say an occasional Mass. People gathered in homes for services. The parish was established in 1853, and its first church built in 1854 [slightly confusing, St.Patrick in Ohio City (now Cleveland) also began at this time]. Over several years, it changed status between a mission church of St. Mary, Painesville, and as independent parish, and a mission church of St. Mary, Chardon.

We must know that Richard Lennon is a tyrant of an autocrat, and enjoys collecting money. In co-ordination with the rummage sales of parishes, there is a further shakedown campaign. This capital campaign is being brought about in stages. Lennon will be in Rome at the beginning of February to present himself. What kind of present will he give?

Back to the far corner of Geauga. The pastor was not pushing the campaign. Beyond that, he refused to furnish phone numbers of possible donors. He has been removed from the parish, officially 5 December 2011. For a time, no Masses were said at St. Patrick's. People were free to go elsewhere. Now, the Chardon pastor will administrate the Thompson unit. Yes, Lennon is ruthless.

oo---ooo---oo---ooo---oo---ooo---oo---ooo---oo

Now, to give Lennon some positive credit: there has been instances, in which, the bishop has been enforcing celibacy on some of those whom take a vow of celibacy. Lennon will not release the names of past perverts, but he is attempting to squelch certain sordid affairs. Some priests, on their days off, do foul things. Some priests have not been staying overnight in the rectories. They have been told to do so. Still, there are those who have not straightened up; and should not have been ordained, or even allowed in seminary.

Diocesan flimflam

Lennon, Tayek, Gulick talk of full transparency that will end all questions and conversation concerning parish closures. I wanted to respond since the degree of interest in detail, and knowledge of the subject appeared scant, and was coupled by temerity in voicing inquisitiveness. We have to remember in Cleveland, television 'investigative reporters' are sent to the East Side to discover how much snow sits upon the roads, and highways in a winter remarkably devoid of snow.

The venue of the 'news conference' was St. Hedwig's, Lakewood. It took place Monday the Ninth. Now, that parish Lennon forced into extinction. They had more than a million dollars in the bank, this was not mentioned. It should have been.

The programme was similar to an auto show, in which automobile executives and spokesmen prattle on, and the reporters politely, and cheerfully present the same statements as reports to their audiences. I wondered what to entitle this wee essay. I had considered: Misdirection; or Disinformation Continues; or Here is my statement, now shut up and go home. Then a few minutes ago, the word, 'flimflam', arrived and presented itself in my thoughts.

Och, it was promised for January, and it did come in January, but with less than a day's notice of time and place. The coloring of the scene was quite artful, as was some hair dye. The church has been repurposed into a museum, and the school adjacent to a cosmetic enterprise. The deeds to the properties include restrictions, as they admit; one restriction they did not furnish in their statements, was a prohibition of using the church for Catholic services.

In Holy Russia the bolševiki repurposed many a church. Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg became a Museum of Religion and Atheism. That was a better fate than Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow which was exploded.

Lennon has tightly circumscribed the universe of areas of discussion, and then presents some of that; and that is supposed to be complete? Lennon wants it to be called closed. In the first week of February he is to give a report on all his Cleveland doings in Rome to Benedict and the curia. Things are not so tidy.

"To some extent, you can be very sad about it, but the utilities have to be paid". What an interesting sentence. He allows for painful emotion, to a degree, but that is trumped by a supposed water bill, and a gas bill, and an electric bill. It is dismissive, and dishonest. Plenty of parishes had no outstanding bills, and were closed. Those who had outstanding debt, had debt to the diocese in the form of past assessments [many formerly forgiven]. 'Assessment' is the euphemism for those taxes the bishop requires of parishes. Cleveland has the highest rate of bishop's taxation on the continent. The parishes are not in debt, the diocese is.

A statement was produced that none of this money from parish property sales goes to pay for scandal settlements. Complete piffle. It is shifting of funds. The diocese collects income in many forms. This fire sale of parish goods brings money. Other avenues produce cash. So, the money that is paid for scandal comes from the other avenues, and this money then replenishes some of the diminished kitty. While it maybe true in a casuistic sense, it is not really true.

James Gulick, financial officer, says a true statement and applies it for something else. "Parish money is just that - parish money". What he does not say, is that the bishop's office gets to play with it. "You'll see in our report that once the debts and expenses of the closed parishes are addressed, the money left over is reinvested in existing parishes".

Lennon says, “We are committed to having strong parishes. We are committed to good stewardship of our resources and we are transparent in what we are doing with the assets and the sales of the parishes that have closed”. This is also the fellow that used to talk about 'vibrant' parishes, and could not define vibrant. The transparency is not there.

Here is the transparency given of one parish; and of the 52 files for 53 parishes made public, 27 are of similar length and transparency:

SUMMARY OF CLOSED PARISH CASH RECEIPTS AND DISBURSEMENTS

Parish: St. Lawrence Parish, Cleveland

Status: St. Lawrence Parish was a personal parish serving the Catholic Slovenian community in Cleveland prior to its closing. Since the time of closing, the parish’s cash is being held in custody. The Diocese is overseeing any incidental operating or maintenance issues at the closed facilities. The parish property is presently listed for sale and a full accounting of the finances will be published following the sale.

Now, on this site http://www.ccdsales.org/index.php St. Lawrence is not listed*. I do not know when, if ever, a real estate sign was on the property. I do know 12 windows had the ransom paid (c. $25,000) by another parish, that many of the parishioners, sometimes, attend. A check for c. $550,000 was given to the bishop's office when the congregation was evicted. There, i have given more information than Lennon, and the press have on one parish; and i have details of more parishes.

The diocese is paying maintenance on the parish properties, and deducts that from the amount collected. If the parish was open, those diocesan payments would be zero. There are too few figures, and they are not all applicable to listed reasons, and listed reasons are not applicable to reality.

Lennon says (often), "I closed my own parish back in Boston, and it was the church that my grandfather built, where I made my first communion, where I buried my parents, where I said my first mass". Well, that may all be true. He made that decision, not the parishioners here. If he is fine with it, that is one matter; the parishioners here are not fine with the closures here, and that is another matter.

The numbers are too few. There were 231 parishes when Lennon came. There is far less than 231 pages presented. It was admitted 14 parishes have appeals pending with Rome. A list was not given. Reading the documents, 13 were apparent. One reporter states 54 church closures were accounted for (the press, and the chancery never made that high number before — there were 58 parishes closed): 26 sold, 14 for sale, 14 on appeal; but one on appeal (St. Martha was open as Blessed Trinity, which was one of his 5 examples of successful transitions in his 8 minute speech) was not closed. Reading the files, 13 are of them were for sale. On page 1, of a 4 page handout available at many weekend Masses, there was a picture of Lennon with the repurposed doors of St. Catharine's (the church was demolished late September). St. Catharine's did not have a file. The Community of St. Malachi had no real estate, nor file. Still the numbers of parishes closed is not transparent, certainly not consistent!

The exercise that was Monday's 'press conference' was staged to 'show' everything is fine here, now get along there is nothing to see. The bishops of Ohio, and Michigan will report to Rome February 1st. They will be there for their first ad limina visit to see Pope Benedict XVI. These are supposed to be quinquennial reports of each diocese to the Holy See. Benedict has been pope since 2005, this is his first time seeing American bishops for this. The last time Ohio bishops went was in 2004. Ad limina apostolorum is to the threshold of the apostles. The bishops come to pray at the tombs of Peter, and Paul. They come to meet, and explain, and present to the current Pope the state of the local dioceses.

While Lennon was destroying parishes that were created to be perpetual, and this point is the point, and it is not publicly spoken, he was trying to simultaneously raise capital. That drive was delayed, and delayed, and the goal was reduced.

We have seen a ruthless drive to exercise power, and gather money. We have seen little public accountability. We have seen anyone critical of this maligned, or sent away. We have seen terrible pastorship at the episcopal level. We have seen few questions answered. We have seen all this denied.

Lennon was asked about the criticism he received, he says, he believes some of it was "unfair". He defends himself with they "don't have the information that I do have". He could tell us, we have asked; but that would be sort of like 'transparency'. Perhaps, he is just self-pitying. He does realise the source of his flock's displeasure, they have "very strong, religious feelings about what they lost". Finally, a recognition of reality. Still there are things he doesn't see about Lorain, Summit, and Cuyahoga counties of Ohio — Geography. He showed in this well rehearsed farce in answering a question, which he, in part repeated bits of his stump sermon of Eviction, but with an inability to recognise the country we come from is called the Mid(dle) West.
_____________________________
*In the print copy of Tuesday's Cleveland Plain Dealer, there is a note, that there is a sale pending on St. Lawrence, and on the vacant lot where St. Andrew Svorad had recently been [E.51 and Superior].

Write your Nuncio

The bishops of Ohio and Michigan will report to Rome February 1st. This includes Cleveland's. It may benefit the Faithful for some letters to be read in Rome before that day. We all must know, that, Monday's 'press conference' was staged to 'show' everything is fine here, now get along there is nothing to see.

The papal nuncio is the Vatican's ambassador to a country. It seems, the Vatican (Rome, and the papal bureaucracy) prefers letters to be sent to the nuncio, and he will forward them in a diplomatic pouch. Some could write a letter to him, or send letter(s) to (a) curia chief(s) in another envelope to him. You may send the same message in open envelopes to different recipients, within the outer envelope to the nuncio.

Apostolic Nuncio
Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano
The Apostolic Nunciature
3339 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington, DC. 20008

Other individuals that might be the addressees inside this outer envelope are:

#1
Benedict XVI
(contact Benedict through his Secretary of State: Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. Ask that Bertone please bring this matter to the attention of the Pope)

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone
00120 Vatican City State
Europe

#2
Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Prefect
Congregation for Bishops
Palazzo della Congregazioni
00193 Roma, Piazza Pio, 10

#3
Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, Prefect
Congregation for the Clergy
Palazzo delle Congregazioni
00193 Roma, Piazza Pio XII, 3

#4
Cardinal William J. Levada. Prefect
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Piazza del Uffizio II
00193 Rome, Italy

#5
Cardinal Raymond L. Burke
Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura
Palazzo della Cancelleria
00186 Roma, Piaza della Cancelleria, 1