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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Joe Paterno – Child Abuse – Enablers - Sanity and U.S. Bishop$

Better than I can write on these current topics:

http://bilgrimage.blogspot.com/2011/11/joe-paterno-story-musings.html

http://enlightenedcatholicism-colkoch.blogspot.com/2011/11/some-thoughts-on-insanity.html

CEO Finn Broke the Rules – Ignored Safeguards in Place – Protected Ratigan – Did Not Care (about the children)

Former diocesan advocate criticizes failed system in KC

http://ncronline.org/news/accountability/former-diocesan-advocate-criticizes-failed-system-kc

Nov. 08, 2011

By Joshua J. McElwee

Accountability

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- "This diocese is in desperate need of healing, and I do not believe that can happen until Bishop [Robert] Finn is held accountable” for his mishandling of clergy sexual misconduct cases, a former victims' advocate for the diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., said today.

Mercy Sr. Jeanne Christensen, who served as the diocesan victims' advocate from 2000-2004, spoke at a press conference hosted by the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests this afternoon.

Christensen is thought to be the first former diocesan advocate to publicly criticize her diocese over its response to allegations of abuse, according to SNAP members.

Finn and the diocese have been criminally charged with failing to protect children from abuse.

Christensen said Finn did not use diocesan procedures to investigate allegations against Fr. Shawn Ratigan, a diocesan priest arrested in May for possession of child pornography. The diocesan victims' advocate, the immediate response team, and the independent review board, she said, "were in place but not utilized."

"By not doing so, children were placed at risk and were victimized," said Christensen. "This must never happen again."

Allegations of mishandling of clergy sexual misconduct cases have roiled the Catholic church here over recent months. A local prosecutor announced separate charges Oct. 14 against both the diocese and Finn for failing to report suspected child abuse.

The flashpoint has been the response of the diocese to the child pornography case of a local priest. Images of naked children were found on the computer of Fr. Shawn Ratigan in December last year. The Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese learned about the images and removed Ratigan from his parish, but did not report the incident to authorities until May.

While Christensen said in a telephone interview today that "it's not for me to judge" how Finn might be held responsible, the former advocate suggested others in the hierarchy should ask the bishop to resign.

"Whoever is responsible within the church hierarchy needs to say to Bishop Finn, you're not going to be bishop in Kansas City," she said.

That suggestion by members of the hierarchy, Christensen said, should come about in order to help the Kansas City diocese try to heal.

"[Finn] didn’t do what should have been done, and, quite frankly, he's lost credibility with a lot of people," she said. "A lot of people no longer trust him. How are we going to heal our church in that situation? How do we heal in the diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph?"

During the press conference, SNAP also announced a new lawsuit against Fr. Michael Tierney, a diocesan priest who has been the focus of several other lawsuits accusing him of abusing children in the 1970s. Tierney was removed from active ministry in the diocese June 2 after the independent review board met with a person accusing Tierney of abuse and found their testimony credible.

The diocesan spokesperson, Rebecca Summers, said she did not have any immediate comment on Christensen's remarks as the diocese had not been made aware of the press conference or the new suit against Tierney.

SNAP, Summers said, often does not inform the diocese of its press conferences and the diocese "usually doesn't know anything about what the specifics are until someone brings us the suit or let's us know what is going on."

At the press conference, Christensen said she also felt compelled to speak because her experience working as the diocesan advocate gave her a sense of the "anguish caused by abuse." During her time at the diocese under retired Bishop Raymond Boland, who was replaced by Finn in 2005, Christensen said she heard the stories of some 40 victims of abuse.

"I speak because I cannot remain silent but must speak in support of the victim survivors of abuse, for their families and especially for those who are unable or too afraid to speak themselves," she said.

"I urge others to speak out too because we must speak and act for the protection of all children -- so that no more children ever suffer abuse at the hands of the clergy."

After leaving her role as the victims' advocate for the diocese, Christensen continued to serve in the diocesan peace and justice office until 2006.

The charges against the diocese and Finn came from Jackson County, Mo., where the diocesan chancery is located. Ratigan is in jail on charges filed in neighboring Clay County, Mo., where his last parish is located.

Media reports have indicated that a grand jury in that Clay County is also investigating the diocese's response in the case, and has heard testimony from Finn and vicar general Msgr. Robert Murphy.

A federal grand jury charged Ratigan in August with 13 counts of production, attempted production and possession of child pornography.

No matter what happens next in the diocese, Christensen said in the interview her focus is on why the appropriate diocesan procedures for reporting abuse were not followed, and whether children could have been put in danger.

The fact that the advocate, the response team, and the review board were not notified, she said, "is a travesty."

"They were there. There's no reason for those children to have been put at risk."

Big Frank Rigali and his Religious Crime Family in Philly

Ascension Church Philly - Out of the God Business - October 1, 2012

St Jerome's Parish in northeast Philly must be a great bed and breakfast kind of place. Great at least for a few priests involved in the current criminal Catholic sex abuse scandal to have lived there. One, the current Bishop of Saginaw and one, the “Smiling Padre” Edward Avery.

Smiling Padre

Somewhere on the timeline between Joe Cistone's hanging out at St. Jerome's and smiling Ed Avery's hangin out there, I went to my aunt's funeral there which was her parish.

Of course Joe Cistone was only in residence there working his ass off in the Chancery downtown shuffling pervs all over the archdiocese and Ed Avery was on “no child” duty as a chaplain at the nearby Nazareth hospital. The “no child” duty as chaplian did not somehow prevent him from hearing children's confessions at St. Jerome's as a resident of the rectory there. Oh well.

I look at last week's clergy sex abuse indictments in Philadelphia, that festered and festered over decades of neglect and cover-up, and have seen all this before.
 
Catholic sex abuse cases
 
Looking at all this I have to agree with Canon lawyer Thomas Doyle that:

...Doyle said of attempts to reform the Catholic Church that it was like "trudging through what can best be described as a swamp of toxic waste".

From stats, I know that few people bother to read what I write on this subject. Not that they want to look away, they are probably just disgusted and can only take so much diarrhea overflowing the cups of catholic bishops and their criminal conspiracy to hide this ongoing situation.

And the catholics do not have a monopoly on this but the Celibacy bullshit, not specifically spelled out in the gospels, is a thousand year old problem with the Romans who split with the Orthodox church a thousand years ago and went to one sex only, males (unmarried!), in its clergy thing.

The comments in the first article above seem to typify the situation as most people see this ongoing spiritual mismanagement of criminal activities by the Vatican on a worldwide scale.

-What was it Rigali said on As Wednesday? "The safety of children is paramount". I wonder when that policy began????
 
 -...I know, that whenever I see a catholic priest, the first thing I think of is, how many little boys is he molesting.
 
-The church needs to take a long, hard look at their practices. The church has become a hiding place for men with sexual problems of all sorts. Reevaluate the requirement for priests to refrain from marriage and you will see a change in the men who come into the priesthood.

I am tapped out on comment and anger and indignation. I see the recent Philly scandal in terms of allegory or metaphor or parable in looking at it.

I see retired Cardinal Tony Bevilacqua as playing some part in a Soprano like soap opera like “Uncle Junior”.

...yoos can't indict me. I'm senile.

And “Big” Frank Regali, the de facto head of the archdiocese gang, a religious crime family, and its irregulars, like the infamous Tony Soprano seeing a shrink but knowing all along he is a total bastard.

No doubt Frank Regali knows Tony Bevilacqua's consigliere Ed Cullen who got promoted to Bishop of Allentown Pa. No doubt Frank misses one time enforcer or enabler Joe Cistone who also got a promotion within the crime family as Bishop of Saginaw Michigan after taking over Ed Cullen's old job.

But then you gots to feel for Frank Rigali's current Capo, Billy Lynn, aka the “Monsignor” who got indicted last week as an enabler of the rank and file priests who touch and feel occasionally but are all getting a bad rap in the media.

Imagine, Monsignor William Lynn, under indictment and thinking to himself like Brando in On the Waterfront

“I could a been a contender” (bishop) if these whining bleeding hearts in the D.A.'s office had only looked the other way for a few more years.”

I can only imagine how many pervs in the ranks got promoted to Saginaw or Allentown when the heat was on regarding some private sexual habits of some really special priests or they just got to hang out at a St. Jerome's type bed and breakfast for naughty priests.

To finish, I go with an allegory or parable with the words of a visitor to a once great city on a hill structure of Ascention Church in Kensington-Harrowgate in Philadelphia (pictured above), to describe feelings about both the bishops and clergy in the upper church, the laity in the lower church and the general outlook of the sick sister of the Christian faith – the RC church in general.

As I stated in an earlier blog, I do not want attack the RC church. But my original image of it was formed during a period when the neighborhoods of Kensington-Harrowgate in Philly were filled with full churches, full catholic schools, full factories and full working class simplicity. That simplicity lasted two, three or even four generations floating in time somewhere between the the 1880s and Vatican II.
 
Ascension of Our Lord church

The upper church is, in the words of Pastor Michael Chapman, a “disaster” and is totally off-limits, even to visitors. The Project tried very hard to get a glimpse, but even I was denied. … The lower church is supposedly still in use, but a good chunk of their masses instead take place at the rectory chapel. That’s where ...(I)... found (my)self this past week. Nice, but not exactly what I had in mind when I dropped by for a visit.

It’s really a sin, because Ascension looks to have been really wonderful at one time. It’s a good-sized behemoth that’s notable for its red-tile roof, Greco-Roman-style colonnade, and elaborate stone banisters and staircases. Some of those design elements, particularly the banisters, are not seen anywhere else in the city.

Unfortunately, this church has seen better days. The roof is caving in, there is visible water damage and cracks everywhere, a couple of broken windows and even graffiti on all the side doors. Even worse, the front portion of the church is blocked off by a chain link fence, where the front banister wall is crumbling. Huge chunks of concrete are just lying on the sidewalk, and what’s left is warping and buckling. You can still get glimpses of its past glory, but mostly you just see a desolate husk rotting before your eyes. Despite the fact that it’s still an active parish, it feels more like a ghost town.

 And so it goes.