Pennsylvania Political Whores Corbett Nutter and Chaput Off to Rome to Woo Pope Francis for Expensive TaxPayer All-Expense Paid Visit to Philly in 2015 – Tuppence to the Poor

I know that whenever a major dignitary, head of state, comes to New York for a major state visit, the price tag to the taxpayers is usually in the tens of millions of dollars. The Fed usually kicks in some funds under the table because New York is host city to the United Nations.

And the price tag for such events goes up all the time. Benedict’s Trip to Madrid Spain in 2011 cost an estimated 72 million dollars that cash strapped Spain forked out for a Catholic event in a “Catholic” country.

I know that Francis is popular at the moment and all that, meaning he does not seem to be half the prick that Benedict is and or John Paul was in real life but get a life Catholics.

Governor Corbett who cuts back on school aid, food stamps and everything else non-white-surburban middle class wants to drum up a visit of Francis to a Catholic Family Conference in Philly in 2015.

Benedict had already promised and hey it will bring an estimated 100 million dollars into the local economy but it will probably cost 100 million in overtime for police, added security, barriers, patrols, electronic scanning devices etc.

The Catholic Governor who protected the Sandusky child abuse set up at Penn State for years as Attorney General says that they are not going to use tax payers money to fund costs of this Pape Fest. Yeah right. 

Pennsylvania taxpayers are about to get screwed for a Catholic Party on the Parkway in Philly.

Off to Rome with Governor Corbett, Mayor Nutter and Charles Chaput in search of his red hat, kissing up to the pope and hoping for a Catholic party at taxpayers’ expense for the cash strapped Philadelphia Archdiocese that must close parish after parish to make up to the devil may care spending like a Drunken Sailor in Rome outside a male brothel of the, of late, not so great Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia/Rome, retired now to a palace in Knoxville Tennessee.

http://articles.mcall.com/2014-03-08/news/mc-pa-corbett-philly-pope-20140307_1_pope-francis-vatican-catholics

The last Holy See to visit Philadelphia was Pope John Paul II in 1979. His outdoor mass along Benjamin Franklin Parkway drew more than 1 million.

 If Francis were to come to Philadelphia, it would be his first trip in to North America, Corbett said. The city's large media market and geographic location, halfway between New York city and Washington, D.C., makes it the perfect designation for Francis to make the cross-Atlantic trip, the governor said.

 In June 2012, when Benedict named Philadelphia as the host site for the family gathering, Chaput admitted he was nervous. The archdiocese was going through a tough period, he said, alluding to the prosecution of Monsignor William Lynn, whose conviction on child endangerment charges related to covering up sexual assaults of children recently was overturned. In January, Lynn was freed on bail pending an appeal.

 But Chaput said his confidence grew after the region's and state's business and religious communities reached out to him to offer assistance. Catholic, Protestant and Jewish leaders have come together to join the host committee, chaired by Nutter, a Democrat ,and Corbett, a Republican, Chaput said.

 "It's a miracle," he said.

 The committee has raised $5 million so far, Chaput said. More is needed to help offset the cost of the event and give a donation to the poor.

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Donna Crilley Farrell To Be Awarded “Cross of Honour” For Her Spin Doctor Services to Bevilacqua Rigali Chaput Regimes – Archdiocese of Philadelphia

Donna Crilley Farrell is to be rewarded for related services to the pope during ongoing and recent Child Abuse Scandals in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for her work in Public Relations and as AD spokesperson.

http://delcotimes.com/articles/2013/05/27/news/doc51a40219c3761488364916.txt

Pope Benedict XVI selected Farrell to receive the Pro Ecclesia et Pontiface cross …the highest ecclesiastical honor that can be bestowed upon (a) lay person in the Roman Catholic Church. 

...scheduled to receive the papal award June 2 at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia during 6:30 p.m. Mass celebrated by Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput who nominated (her) for the honor. 

Pro Ecclesia et Pontiface  

Farrell, who last Dec. 3 left the archdiocese to become manager of external affairs for Independence Blue Cross in Philadelphia, worked in the archdiocesan communications office for nearly 14 years, the last seven and a half of which she served as director. … 

About three months after Farrell was promoted to director of the archdiocesan communications department in 2005, Pope John Paul II died. 

Cardinal Justin Rigali, who was then archbishop of Philadelphia, had been an English translator for the pontiff, so Farrell was pressed into duty despite being very sick with the flu. 

“He did 40 network interviews between Friday night and early the next week,” said Farrell. 

Five months later, in September 2005, Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham released the first of two clerical sexual abuse grand jury reports that accused 63 priests of sexually abusing children in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia over four decades. At the time, Farrell’s boss was former Marple resident Bishop Michael Burbidge, who now heads the Raleigh, N.C. diocese. 

“I said to Bishop Burbidge, ‘So what do you have planned for my second year on the job?’” recalled Farrell. 

Six years later, she and her staff had to handle press inquiries about a second Philadelphia grand jury report released by Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams that resulted in the arrest of a lay teacher and three priests for allegedly abusing children, and the suspension of more than 20 other priests. 

One priest pleaded guilty, another priest and the lay teacher were convicted in a jury trial and a third priest is awaiting retrial after his first trial resulted in a hung jury. The 2011 grand jury report also resulted in the arrest and conviction of former secretary of clergy the Rev. Monsignor William Lynn for child endangerment for not turning a suspected pedophile priest over to civil authorities, making him the highest-ranking church official in the United States to be convicted in such a case. 

“Several of the bishops said to me, they would say, ‘I hope you’re taking care of your own spiritual life,’”(*) noted Farrell. “There are always people who commit sins and make mistakes and do horrible things. I separate them from my faith.” 

(*) Imagine being the only innocent in the Nest of Vipers at “222” and getting a medal from the pope too.

I really think the award was given when Chaput’s Denver people took over 222 and forced the old timers like Farrell out. Whatever.

Imagine Rigali giving 40 media interviews on one weekend. That was harder than Big Frank worked in the last twenty years of his life. Thank you Donna for being a life coach with Frank on that.

Exactly how many media interviews did Rigali give on the Child Abuse thing (off the record)?

Did I mention, she gets a medal from the pope? 

A great honour.

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Bishop McFadden of Harrisburg Drops Dead – His Legacy in Philadelphia Child Abuse Glory Hole Days Played Down in Eulogy – Liked Basketball – No Mention of Children

Bishop McFadden of Harrisburg dropped dead on May 2 at a Pennsylvania Bishop’s Convention / Conference.

They brought in the green temporary bishop of Allentown John Oliver Barres to give a flowery eulogy to a monster that appears to have been there when as personal secretary to Cardinal Krol, cases of child abuse in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia got filed away rather than be addressed.

Krol with his Polish friend in the Vatican that owed his papacy to king maker Krol would cover up for him same as for Marcial Maciel. What are friends for if not to help cover up corporate mismanagement and or downright evil?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_P._McFadden

“It was during McFadden's service as a secretary to Cardinal Krol that Krol is believed to have excused and enabled the sexual abuse of hundreds of children within the Philadelphia Archdiocese.” (Wikipedia)

I must say that officiating at his funeral was Archbishop Chaput who I think was wise not to deliver the eulogy and or did not want to touch the Krol-Belivaqua-Rigali child abuse regimes/era toxic waste site in the form of the corpse of Bishop McFadden.

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/allentown/index.ssf/2013/05/allentown_bishop_john_barres_d.html

“Allentown Diocese Bishop John Barres today recalled Harrisburg Bishop Joseph P. McFadden's gentle nature and love of basketball as Barres delivered the homily at McFadden's funeral Mass…

…Joseph McFadden may have been a kind and gentle priest and bishop, but he always played to win,” said Barres…

  

…And his way to win as a priest and bishop with a rich interior life and a vibrant missionary spirit was a nonstop full court press for the glory of God and the salvation of souls,”…

(Sniff. Sniff. Not a dry eye in the house.)

Bishop McFadden as monsignor preceded Monsignor Bill Lynn as pastor of St. Joseph’s “Rich Bastards” parish in Downingtown, Pa.

Bishop McFadden as auxiliary bishop of Philadelphia was also instrumental in the closing of the two best High Schools in the racially mixed city, Northeast Catholic and Cardinal Dougherty in Philadelphia owing to the changing minority demographics within the city limits. His vision of the burbs only for new RC high schools in Philly I also think belongs to McFadden as part of his legacy.

Thanks to “Dave” for the Allentown link.

RIP Bishop McFadden. (I don’t really mean it. Just a press statement of sorts on the topic of your funeral like the so many press releases you signed off on in your lifetime. lol)

Joe McFadden true legacy comes from District Attorney Seth Williams at the conclusion of the Monsignor Lynn trial:

"Many in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia hierarchy had dirty hands. They failed to realize that the church is its people."

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The Changing Face of Religion = St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philly looks to Lease out Property to Wal-mart, Home Depot, Jack in the Box?

Well somebody has to pay the child abuse lawyer bills from the decades long drunk on the blood of martyrs and saints party by power hungry, greedy Cardinals Krol, Bevilacqua and Rigali. 

Who better to pay the bills than a carpetbagger like Archbishop Charles Chaput who, where he comes from in Kansas and Denver, Wal-mart, Home Depot and Jack in the Box etc. are considered a “good thing” - the only thing. Duh!

Whatever. 

Welcome to the new secular global culture! (no need for the sacred when it can be replaced with the $ecular)

http://articles.philly.com/2013-03-09/news/37564098_1_seminary-enrollment-seminary-board-seminarians

Theology is shrinking its footprint at the intersection of City and Lancaster Avenues in Lower Merion. 

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia said Thursday that it would explore selling or leasing 45 acres of the St. Charles Borromeo Seminary campus in Lower Merion, consolidating in older buildings on 30 acres in the back of the property. The move follows Eastern University's relocation last year of its Palmer Theological Seminary from the southwest corner of that intersection to a rented space one-fifth the size in King of Prussia. Over the next three to five years, St. Charles Borromeo Seminary will vacate the palatial college building that was built in 1928 and dominates the view of the property from Lancaster Avenue, the archdiocese said. 

 Proceeds from selling or leasing underused land and buildings will be used to help pay for renovations of existing buildings, parts of which have been mothballed for 35 years, officials said. 

 "St. Charles Borromeo Seminary is the heart of our church in Philadelphia, and we remain dedicated to not only maintaining its presence in our community but strengthening it for many generations to come," Archbishop Charles J. Chaput said in a news release. 

 Since arriving in Philadelphia from Denver in September 2011, Chaput has been working to improve the church's financial health by selling real estate, trimming operations, closing schools, and consolidating parishes. 

 An open question until Thursday was what the archdiocese would do with the seminary, founded in 1832 and moved to its current location in 1871. Deliberations included moving it to a new site.

Location, Location, Location -  Retail, Retail, Fast Food (GoogleMaps)

Soon to be Lost Iconic  85 year old View From City Ave. (GoogleMaps)



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Cardinal O’Brien Fears for Life in Rome, His Name on Vatican Death List like Albino Luciani, John Paul I?

Between the Rigali wing of the Swiss Guard, the Opus Dei New Pope Lobby, the media is the last thing Cardinal O’Brien is worried about. 

The fear to set foot in Italy for O'Brien is now that the German Retires, an act of survival on O'Brien's part does not give Britain a vote, by veiled threat of death by parties within the Vatican Corporation? 

Is this papal election regarding Britain the first time since the Reformation under Henry VIII that Rome is doling out its unique brand of queered justice? 

The Laity in Britain don't mean Jack Shit to Rome? You bethca!

Whoever emerges as Benedict’s puppet pope in Rome in March, he will not have any validity in Great Britain. This kind of petty bitch politics of the Vatican is a sign of the end days of the Vatican I think. 

The Counter Counter Reformation against Vatican II is under full steam. The cliff over which the RCC finally jumps is within sight?

The Smoke of Satan blinds the vision of many these days in the soon to be late, great, Vatican City State.

O’Brien is not stupid. He knows that he is not welcome. The American pedophile protector enablers Cardinals Mahony and Rigali are embraced as true brothers of the Vatican twisted sister cult that runs the RCC these days.

O’Brien having alleged encounters with adult male clerics is like the most common thing in the Vatican City State or the church worldwide in a sexual sense I would imagine. As Catholic as Apple pie!

O’Brien is likely to be welcomed as a hero by the clerics in Rome Italy for being merely human. 

If he dared to place his vote in conclave, he would likely die under mysterious circumstances like the late Albino Luciani, aka John Paul I.  (Wink. Nod)

Here Today - Literally Gone Tomorrow - LOL

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Benedict’s Demotion Back to High Priest of the Inquisition – March 1, 2013

Reading some progressive Catholic Blogs in the last few days, I get the sense that once Josef Ratzinger got promoted to pope, he found out how little real power a pope has in the Vatican.

That John Paul II made it look easy. That Joe thought that he too could be a rock star pope.

Truth is that JPII was only a media star and his role as conduit for cash through the Vatican and into the Eastern Bloc i.e. Poland for political intrigue fit into pro bono American East Coast media gold during the Cold War.

Well, along comes Joe the Pope and the first thing he does is he wants to show the world what a great scholar he thinks he is and then insults all of Islam with his scholarly Cliff Notes at Regensburg in September 2006.

The man clearly does not understand Islam or he thinks himself insulated in some small college delivering his cheesy little college work that nobody outside the college will know or care about.

No doubt Joe’s best moment came in May 2006 when he finally, after years of writing private secret memos about Maciel to General Wojtyla who never read them apparently, he pushed an aged Legion of Christ founder and general all around pervert and Madoff like crook Marcial Maciel Dellogado into a forced retirement. Not that hard to bring down an old toothless lion at the zoo.

All well and good. And like Henry VIII’s breaking up of the very corrupt obsolete Monastery system in England, the breakup and redistribution of wealth and serfs and seminarians and foot soldiers is still underway for that Legion of Christ empire.

Aside from that, the pope these days is little more than Mickey Mouse at Disneyland who must ride around in his ridiculous pope mobile and wave to the tourists, the majority of practicing Catholics in Rome on any given day of the week, that far outnumber the non-practicing natives etc. and then once a week arrive in Superstar Audience Hall and deliver a pithy little moral sounding message to inspire the rich tourists and justify their very expensive trip to Rome and the Vatican museum.

All this time, the thousands of folders on all the pedophile Priest and pedophile religious members of his church worldwide have been sitting on his old desk collecting dust at the Inquisition, toxic waste that nobody other than a good German clerk could deal with in terms of classifying, stamping and filing away for future reference and or possible authoritative action. Yeah right.

I think that Joe the Pope got bored, and worse than that, that pile of toxic files back in the Inquisition office were becoming his only legacy, a full floor's worth in acreage no doubt in the underground bombproof eternal Vatican Library.

Ratzinger’s, Benedict’s, recent obsessive ranting about homosexuality no doubt is from his long term memory both from his own personal past, the type of distorted sexuality of the average Roman cleric, and along with his past as John Paul’s chief clerk, gatekeeper and fire putter outer of the child abuse thing that got out of the Vatican Fire Brigade’s control both under John Paul II and the overlapping John Paul/Benedict united regime.

The modern world, democracy and communication technology brought perversion to the surface of the pond in the form of all the Bernard Laws of the Hierarchy, one state and one country at a time.

When I see somebody like Cardinal O’Brien finally getting some kind of payback from the Vatican, I see a man without a political party in the Vatican being picked off as road carrion for the sake of public example to all the incoming Cardinal’s about to rush in and crown Benedict’s hand-picked successor from a field of stooges hand-picked over three decades during the John Paul/Benedict Magisterium period of the church.

That and stabbing a Britain in the back fits well into the Wehrmacht training of his youth, a story that he has controlled all along his timeline btw.

That Mahony in Los Angeles carries the Gomez’s Opus Dei Vote to Rome. Rigali certainly knows the details of the Cedric Tornay Swiss Guard Murders and can vote because he has the blackmail power to do so. 

And no doubt there are a handful of Cardinals now who as younger men heard their older cardinal bosses discuss the results of the secret autopsy of John Paul I. Blackmail power there too I think.

John Paul II in his obsession with the dead, dare I call it necromancy, had the bones of some Polish saint, a national Polish hero examined and cat scanned, and also had the body of Celestine V, the last pope to voluntarily resign forensically examined, an object of obsession now for Benedict also.  

Also some sense of trying to make papal sense out of the bizarre way that popes fuck things over for the sake of personal power and prestige masked in a face of that strange bizarre truly unknown to them Christ creature.

John Paul II, and his obsession with dead papal royal bodies and Polish national heroes, in his role of also turning John XXIII’s body into another tourist thingy in St. Peter’s, a Vatican II trophy?, did not under his watch order an autopsy of John Paul I because he already knew the results or did not want to know those results that catapulted him into global power and fame. Believe it or not.

Now Joe’s only role left is to protect his niche in papal history, is to shred or misfile those thousands of pedo files in the Office of the Inquistion’s vaults, not to be refound in next thousand years by the average mediocre Vatican scholars of the future allowed to examine them.  LOL

“Wenn Sie einen Job richtig zu erledigen wollen, müssen Sie es selbst zu tun.”

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Cardinal O’Brien of Scotland Resigns – Bishop Finn (Opus Dei) Still Untouchable with Kiddie Porn Associations

Benedict and American Favorite Finn

The biggest fish yet in the RC hierarchy resigned amidst accusations from adults and adult sexual encounters (alledged) from years ago.

No doubt the publicity and media attention would have been on O’Brien if he had made his way to Rome to vote for a new pope.

We salute you Cardinal O’Brien for falling on your sword for the sake of a good show in Rome.

The decades old accusations came out of the woodwork after Cardinal O'Brien mentioned the Celibacy thing as something that should change. A coincidence?

American Cardinals Mahony and Rigali, knee deep in the blood and guts associated with the Child Abuse scandal in the United States, will go to Rome to vote for the next Bishop of Rome.

Opus Dei Favorite Bishop Finn of Kansas City, the Teflon Bishop, is immune from any calls for resignation despite his association with and protection of convicted kiddie porn friend and priest Ratigan currently in prison. Yellow Ribbon for Shawn tied to an old oak tree outside Bobby Finn's Bishop's Residence? (True Love?)

The usual RC/GOP stuff on capitol hill and the local American chancery. Whatever.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/26/world/europe/top-british-cardinal-resigns-after-accusations-of-inappropriate-acts.html?pagewanted=all

LONDON — A day after a newspaper accused him of committing “inappropriate acts” in his relations with three priests and one former priest, Cardinal Keith O’Brien said on Monday that he had resigned as Britain’s most senior Roman Catholic cleric.

Bishop/Priest (a special kind of?) Love - Kansas City MO

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Cardinal Rigali States Requirements of a Good Pope – Pot Calling Kettle Black?

Justin "Big Frank" Rigali - Philly Crime Boss (Retired)

Cardinal Regali is not under the rule of Archbishop Chaput the same way Cardinal Mahony in under the fat thumb of Archbishop Gomez in Los Angeles and being criticized for past performances. 

Mahony is being pulled through the mud in the Italian Press regarding his dirty bloody hands voting for a new Pope.
 

No such media mucking about for fellow retired reprobate Rigali. Both Mohony and Rigali are under 80 and as Cardinals are still eligible to vote.

No doubt Opus Dei wants to influence Mahony’s vote since OD Archbishop Gomez had not yet gotten his red hat.

Rigali will no doubt be selling his vote for a promotion for his portege Ambrose St. John Richard Stika to get out a shithole assignment of Knoxville Tennessee. 

Young Richard has yet to spend the money, build a new Bishop’s palace for his old boss now that he smells promotion in the air. Maybe even Chicago at this point. Anything is possible in papal elections.

The American Media is eating up the Cardinal Emeritus of Philadelphia’s fatherly advice on picking a new pope.  It is good to have your old protégé give you protection from mean old Charlie Chaput in the form of Bishop Stika of Knoxville Tennessee still planning and trying to fund a new Bishop’s palace for his old Philly crime boss Justin “Big Frank” Rigali (retired – yeah right).

Cardinal Rigali, in retirement and in shabby digs, when not in Rome, with his former Protégé Bishop Stika when not in Rome, from former glory days and exile in St Louis (wink, nod), states what the new Pope needs:

Compassion

Experience

Understanding

Linguistics

What? Nothing about Kids Justin????????????

http://catholicphilly.com/2013/02/local-news/local-catholic-news/before-conclave-cardinal-rigali-lists-qualities-cardinals-will-seek-in-electing-next-pope/

“He is first of all, going to be the Bishop of Rome. He is going to be pastor of the Universal Church with all that entails, so just imagine the qualities that are needed.”

Among the qualities he listed are compassion, and “he has to have experience, he has to have understanding.”

Also, “the question of languages is not without consideration. Since the pope is pastor of the Universal Church he has to communicate with people. Pope Benedict certainly was very good at languages and Pope John Paul II was even more so; he had an extraordinary capacity to speak languages.”

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Cathedral Grounds in Philadelphia Haunted? – Built on Ancient Potter’s Field and Execution Site

222 N 17th Street (foreground right) - Rear of Cathedral (background left) Google Maps

I can remember in the seventh grade going downtown after school with some classmates to pick up some boxes of plastic icons of the Virgin Mary down at the Archdiocesan offices behind the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia and returning uptown to make delivery to the local convent of these items before returning home. 

I can remember those buildings, townhouses behind the Cathedral that had many various departments crammed and housed in Victorian building space.

I can remember when they tore those buildings down and in a weekend or was it a week it seemed, they put the prefabricated tinker toy like steel girders snapped into place of the “Archdiocesan Office Building” out of some kit do doubt sent from overseas. 

Then the prefab sheathing of windows and faux stone filler went up. The resulting 13 story office building would provide plenty of office space for decades to come in this new Chancery.

No doubt with Cardinal Krol’s campaign for the papacy and Cardinal Bevilacqua's grand child abuse cover up schemes with future bishops Cistone and Cullen and Rigali's follow up with want a be bishop Msgr. Bill Lynn one must take one’s breath, think of Cardinal Rigali’s using the address as a mere mail drop for his real full time digs in Rome next to the Swiss Guard’s Barracks (wink, nod), one might give pause to the thought how isolated and lonely it is at the top of the Philadelphia Catholic Hierarchy in the 13^th floor penthouse suite of the Archbishop’s office.

In that corner office overlooking the copper dome of Sts. Peter and Paul’s, the Parisian style grand public buildings of Logan Square and the magnificent Greek style temple of the Philadelphia Museum of Art beyond, one might wonder if one was at least on the slopes of Parnassus is not on mighty Mt. Olympus itself. 

Indeed even the five star Four Seasons Hotel could only be built here on Logan Circle as the premiere gateway to the cultural heart of the city.

Of course it was not always like this. There was a time when the Cathedral was first planned for and built, Logan Square was quite isolated and not a desirable or fashionable part of the W.A.S.P. culture city further to the east. Logan Square was the ideal out of the way place to build a Papist temple without upsetting the Protestant elites of Philadelphia.

That and Logan Square was the potters field, one of several in the city and adjacent to the gallows once there. That like all things official and or unofficial in the past, the potter’s field, a burial place for the poor, the low lifes, prostitutes, criminals and executed prisoners, the boundaries of a designated city square haphazardly overflowed its boundaries onto the future cathedral site. 

The nearby legitimate Quaker burial grounds would also have had an overflow of graves for the poor who brought their dead and those in the middle of the night that just dumped dead bodies in the general vicinity of the whole general area of death.

That the present chancery of 222 N. 17^th Street might have been part of a stockade off Logan Square to house the convicted about to die on the gallows as a staging area to send them off to their fates and a place to hold or store executed bodies after until a means of burying them could be organized or arranged.

Sounds a bit odd but I am reminded of the scene in the movie The Sixth Sense where the psychic child who can supposedly talk to and see the dead sees a place of execution that history does not record but the child witnesses the dead dangling from the gallows that held even children, those whose only crime might have been the capital crime of stealing bread to survive back then in the past.

So it is rumored that before they built the present day fashionable bits of upscale downtown Philadelphia, in the past, the dark past, the underside function of a city dealing with death used to be practiced and had a place here and around Logan Square (now Logan Circle).

It is little wonder that some say the building at 222 N. 17^th Street, the Chancery is haunted with death and evil from the past and passing all the way, reinforced, to the present day there.

1895 Map (PhilaGeoHistory)

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Perversion (love?) Among the Ruins – Ascension RC Church – Harrowgate Philadelphia

Ascension RC Church - Harrowgate Philadelphia - Out of Business

One of the strangest footings along a pathway of historical research, looking for a historical geographical reference, yesterday, landed me back where I had written a piece about a dying decaying parish adjacent to the parish I grew up in, in Harrowgate Philly, of that of Ascension Church and Parish.

Trying to disseminate the closing story which apparently came very quickly and in a press release, so typical of Charles Chaput, like a thief in the night mentioned somewhere in the Gospels was an overlay story of BTW, the pastor of Ascension already on one admin leave and cleared by one of Charles Chaput’s Blue Ribbon Citizen’s Committees of Justice had to be put back on admin leave because the Blue Ribbon Commission missed something when they gave him a clean bill of health to be around children etc.

Citizen Robespierre Chaput offers no explanations, just a press release. "Off with Ascension's head!"

And since I was trying to disseminate two stories I missed the timeline which was that Pastor Michael Chapman had been re-relieved from his duties(?) among the ruins of a once great city upon a hill church and Parish in old white working class Philly and ten days later the Archdiocese padlocked the place with less than a week’s notice for the sole office worker to pack her box and a few other miserable boxes of church records and become unemployed after 25 years of service etc. 

Want a mass? God is that way. Go 1.7 miles that way or another mile or so that way.

I should say that the racism in Philly has always been there. The neighborhood where I grew up was quite white, catholic and lower working class Irish.  That the new mix of 50% Hispanic and Black probably changes nothing in terms of the human condition there.  Those conditions always were poor to none for the inhabitants.

That I could blame the Hunky Cardinal Krol for ignoring race relations in favor of his politics to become the first Polish pope.  I could also blame the traditionally bigoted Italians, the Guinea Cardinals “Small Tony” Belivacqua or Justin “Big Frank” Rigali as his Swiss Vatican Guard male friends used to refer to him when he was their chaplain, but I won’t blame anybody.  It is what it is. 

It is the modern disease of the American middle class that once you manage to blow, with sex or drugs or frat house connections, a foot over the threshold of the front office, get your toe into that front office cocoon, the back office, the little people, the rest of humanity can just go to hell as you party and count your crony Bonuses etc.  Just the same way Jesus played the establishment game in his day. Right?

Whatever.

Anyway, I do not think that many people read my piece about Ascension in which I actually quoted Pastor Mike – geezus mary and joseph.

http://thisculturalchristian.blogspot.com/2011/03/big-frank-rigali-and-his-religious.html

http://www.delcotimes.com/articles/2012/09/17/news/doc5057808682614960538309.txt

The Rev. Michael Chapman, 56, was originally placed on administrative leave following allegations of sexual abuse of minors last spring . Chapman, who is pastor of Ascension of Our Lord Parish in Philadelphia, was placed on leave in March 2011 for an alleged violation of archdiocese standards of ministerial behavior and boundaries.

After an investigation, Archbishop Charles Chaput found Chapman suitable for ministry in May 2012. But before Chapman's return, the Archdiocese received new allegations of sexual abuse of minors against Father Chapman in May. The alleged abuse reportedly occurred approximately 30 years ago. The Archdiocese immediately reported the new allegations to law enforcement and delayed Father Chapman's return to the parish.

http://articles.philly.com/2012-09-26/news/34083394_1_archdiocese-archbishop-charles-chaput-worship-site

(Sept 26) Archbishop Charles Chaput has approved plans to close the Ascension of Our Lord Parish in Philadelphia's Harrowgate section, the Archdiocese announced today.

Parishioners can now go to either Holy Innocents Church, about 1.7 miles away, Visitation, B.V.M. Parish, less than a mile away, the Archdiocese said in a statement.

It said the church will not be maintained as a worship site since the 98-year-old building requires at least $3 million in physical improvements.

The closure, effective Oct. 1, is the latest in a series by the Archdiocese as it deals with declining enrollments and rising maintenance costs for aging church buildings.

Chicken Soup for Bill Donohue's Catholic League Soul - Art

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