Hough rhymes with tough

And now they have bells at St. Agnes-Our Lady of Fatima parish in the Hough neighborhood. Good news for a place which has historically appreciated every bit of good news it can get.

The $2.5 million dollar construction project introduces a new church building to the redeveloping area.

The bells, like many of the items being used in the new construction, are re-purposed items from nearby churches which have closed. The bells had been in the tower at Holy Trinity-St. Edward parish on Woodland at east 72nd Street which closed in 2004.

SA-OLF-bell-work-DSC02313_500The new 350 seat sanctuary is scheduled for dedication on Wednesday, November 25th, the day before Thanksgiving. The worship space was much-needed as the parish has continued to grow in recent years as the neighborhood also has seen new life.

Cops save black lives

Lee Habeeb argues that cops have a right to be angry at the false witness being born toward them, and I agree. Excerpt:

New York cops are mad at Mayor de Blasio in particular because he failed to mention that 2013 ended with the lowest number of fatal shootings by the police in 40 years in their city. Only eight people died from police gunfire, with a police force of over 30,000. And all of the victims were armed with either a gun or a cutting instrument. But none of those leaders bothered to report these narrative-busting facts — nor did the media.

And no one bothered to mention that New York City is on track in 2014 to have the fewest murders in 50 years. As of the beginning of December, there had been 290. That’s down from 2,200 in the early 1990s. The majority of lives saved were black, because the overwhelming majority of murder victims in the city are black. Do the math. Tens of thousands of black lives have been saved in the past two decades by cops in New York, but Mayor de Blasio couldn’t manage to share that fact in his heartfelt speech.

Cops save black lives. Sensible people see this truth.

I wonder, though, how eager a policeman will be to rush toward 911 calls in some neighborhoods now, knowing that they may face a decision between having either his life or his career ended. Or, will he even feel like patrolling those neighborhoods? Will there be some time in the future when patrolling the worst neighborhoods will be given to the C-average cops? This already is somewhat the case now, or at least there is anecdotal evidence which seem to confirm this. Nobody disputes that some policemen are better or smarter than others, or that some policemen are downright corrupt.

We shouldn't forget that these men know and are fully aware that they may be killed or hurt badly every time they suit up. But we as a nation need to support the police. Sea of Blue is an attempt to counter the lies and support good men (and women) in the police force. If we didn't have company on Saturday I would have gone downtown to add my support.

Tamir Rice Made A Fatal Mistake

Here's my take on the sad Tamir Rice shooting at the Cudell Rec Center. Excerpt from the report:

Police saw Tamir take what they believed was a pistol from a picnic table under a gazebo where he was sitting with a group and stuff the weapon in his waistband.

A first-year officer, who officials have not named, got out of his car and told the boy to raise his hands. Instead, police said he reached for what later proved to be an airsoft-type gun, a replica of a semi-automatic handgun that shoots pellets.

The officer fired two shots from less than 10 feet away. A least one of the bullets hit Tamir in the stomach. He was rushed to MetroHelath Medical Center in serious condition and died early Sunday.

Questions about the shooting arose when police revealed that the man who called 9-1-1 before the boy was shot told dispatchers "the gun was probably fake."

The caller told the dispatcher he saw "a guy with a pistol" on the swing set pulling a weapon from his pants and "scaring the s—t out of everyone."

Listening to a local Saturday call-in show on WTAM-1100, it would seem that almost everybody who can speak proper English and form an argument agrees that the primary reason that Tamir Rice is now dead is his own stupidity. There were blacks as well as whites calling in to lament the kid's stupidity, and most people mentioned that if you're a cop and you get called to Cudell no one should blame you for being ready to use your sidearm. It's a crime-ridden place.

I don't have much to add except to say two things. One, maybe the cop could have done something else. I'm sure that in hindsight he wishes he used a taser, or maybe used he x-ray bionic vision to determine that the Rice's pistol was only an airsoft gun. As Christopher Johnson from MCJ recently noted:

....You’ve got one second to decide what to do an a life-threatening situation. Well, I guess I should…time’s up. You’re dead.

But come to think of it, I don't know if the officer has a bionic eye. (Sounds like a question Don Lemon might ask, though.)

The second thing is that Tamir Rice's father should be absolutely ashamed of himself for not teaching his son that playing with guns (which have been doctored to look real) in public and not listening to policemen with real weapons will get you killed. I realize that his father, Leonard Warner, has a criminal history, but that should only make him more ashamed that he hadn't taught his son simple survival skills, and what a mistake it is to play chicken with the cops.

Someone should do a quick anecdotal study about how many of these kids involved in these high-profile shootings (Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, etc.) have the same last name as their father and mother. It seems like they all come from broken homes, which would seem to be a much stronger indicator than race.

Blackbird Baking Company

Just thought I'd take a second to give props to a cool place in the Cleveland area to stop and get a cup of coffee and a treat. Blackbird Baking Company is up on the corner of Sloane and Detroit in the west end of Lakewood. Really good stuff and lots of variety; of course I always get the cranberry oatmeal cookie. But that's me. Great ambiance and all that too.

I took down a post

I took down the post about Charles Ramsey's past. The extension of the man's fifteen minutes is irritating to me, but I suppose I'm more irritated with the people who have tried to turn him into the next Antoine Dodson. One of the reasons that the Dodson bit and Bed Intruder is funny and entertaining is that nothing all that bad happened. There was a break-in, a failed rape attempt and a clumsy escape which left the Dodsons traumatized for a short time. The interview—which was with the actual victims, not a bystander—was the perfect example of what Nipsey Washington (NSFW) calls "crime humor".

But the taunt "You are so dumb" can't be hurled at Ariel Castro, a man who successfully hid three women in his rape dungeon for 10+ years. You can't compare what happened to Kelly Dodson in her bedroom to what happened to Michelle Knight over the last 11 or so years.

So, Charles Ramsey, I'm trying not to be a hater, man. You turned down reward money and I'm trying to give you your props. I'm just not amusable with regard to the situation. Cleveland made the front of the National Enquirer—I noticed in the checkout line. Hooray. Luckily we also get some positive publicity.

Well, we're all happy

I couldn't believe the news when I heard it this morning. And I was happy, obviously, we all thought these women were long gone. But immediately I thought "Does this say something about law enforcement around here?"



Charles Ramsey seems like a great guy, and a good guy. But why does he go racial at the end? They should have cut that. Irritating. My kids aren't afraid of people with dark skin, and they're as white as Edgar Winter.

Kevin O'Brien scores in "The sequester soap opera script"

Kevin O'Brien narrates it perfectly in the Plain Dealer today. Congrats on hitting the RCP Front Page, Kevin! This Clevelander wouldn't be reading it otherwise. Excerpt:

President: "If you make me do what I said I would do, which I now say is The Worst Thing Ever, I'm going to blame you."

House Republicans: "For what?"

President: "When airliners start falling out of the sky, you're going to be held responsible. When something happens in Whateveristan and the American people find out the Navy didn't build the ship we needed to send there, it's going to be all your fault. When all the teachers lose their jobs and undocumented immigrants come streaming across the border and firehouses and police stations go dark, it's all on you."

House Republicans: "Right, right. You forgot, 'When thousands of lawbreaking illegals are released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement holding cells.' "

President:"We already did that, just to show that we're serious about making sure these cuts hurt."

House Republicans: "Hold on. Did you really just say that? Rather than adjust what gets cut, you would knowingly and intentionally inflict pain on Americans?"

President: "No. Of course I didn't just say that. Did I, guys?"

Associated Press: "If you did, I must have missed it."

Tons of links. The guy is a great blogger as well as a creative writer.

I'll be at St. Clarence tonight at the Sister Mary McCormick presentation

Here are the  remaining events, per the Cleveland Diocese's page on the topic.

Thursday, September 27, 2012, 7:00 p.m. - St. Clarence Parish (Special Presentation on Conscience Formation by Sister Mary McCormick, OSU and not a panel presentation) 30106 Lorain Road, North Olmsted, OH.

Thursday, October 11, 2012, 7:00 p.m. - St. Mary Parish, 250 Kraft Street, Berea, OH.

The Bishop's secretary did call me back with this information. I was glad I called, not just because I learned that they had been inundated with calls on this matter, but it helped give me insight on how the Diocese reacts to pro-life activism. Many of the Catholic Pro-lifers I've encountered simply say these folks are pro-abortion. I don't claim to know that, and it's classic overstatement (a tendency for which Catholic conservatives always need to be wary), however the fact is that they simply aren't too exercised about the travesty of abortion. This might be due to their own over-reaction to certain extreme aspects of the pro-life movement, both perceived and actual.

And that's what I'm guessing I'll detect more than any blatant heretical material in the presentation at St. Clarence tonight. Maybe there will be balance and proportionality in the discussion, and maybe the speaker will demonstrate wisdom, insight and relevance. We will just have to wait and see.

It's time for Faithful Catholics to throw the "Faithful Citizenship" mess in the garbage

I'm a bit behind on this, but I really wanted to report on this entire "Faithful Citizenship" fiasco.There are all kinds of Democrat activists running this show; Karen Leith, and Patrick O'Bryan from Catholic Charities are two names that come up in the list of the usual suspects. I don't know how involved the Bishop is in this travesty. You can call his office at 216-696-6525, ext 2030, and voice your concerns.

I just called to find out if there are any more meetings. I heard a rumor that there is one more meeting tonight at St. Clarence Church in North Olmsted at 7pm. Supposedly the Bishop's secretary is going to call me back if there is a meeting--we'll see if she does.

Here's the email from Cleveland Right to Life which I received two days ago:
- - - - - - - - - -

Tuesday - September 25th 2012

Further to our press release yesterday about a series of "Faithful Citizenship" forums orchestrated by the Cleveland Diocese and intended to help Catholics understand the issues in the upcoming election, we have more evidence that they are being led by people who have strong ties to the Democrat Party. This is a problem! 

Now, having ties to the Democrat Party in and of itself is not the problem (this is America). Rather the problem is the bias of the forums due to the political leanings of the forum leaders. Here we have the leaders of the Cleveland Diocesan Social Action Office, employed and paid by the Diocese and under the direction of the Bishop's Office, hosting a "Faithful Citizenship" forum series while at the same time being openly and strongly aligned with the Democrat Party. The outcome of this forum leadership is that the "Faithful Catholic Citizen" in attendance is leaving with at best a muddled understanding of Catholic Teaching and how it applies to the issues in play during this election. But even worse, many are coming away from these forums with the impression that there is no moral hierarchy (the absolute antitheses of Catholic Teaching) and that the Truths enumerated by our Founding Fathers are no longer relevant.

One would expect the Diocese to be non-partisan; but these forums have at least the appearance of a Diocesan endorsement of the Democrat position on the issues.

Herewith some background on just two of the forum leaders namely Karen Leith, and Patrick O'Bryan. As we have previously noted, Leith has publically identified herself on FaceBook as a supporter of Obama and is also a past board member of a dissident Catholic organization called Future Church. And O'Bryan was trained in Chicago by none other than the Industrial Areas Foundation, (IAF); an organization that has the distinction of being the first community organizing group founded by Saul Alinsky. But why should we be concerned about the IAF and Saul Alinsky? Well the IAF has never deviated from its roots that include strong ties to the far left and the Democrat Party and their training still embraces methods as laid out by Saul Alinsky in his book, "Rules for Radicals". This is the same book that is dedicated to Lucifer. Hmmm .... Strange place to go for the Truth as taught by the Church!

Here are some of the groups and organizations that the leaders of these forums are associated with and/or have referenced in their presentations:

Catholics For a Greater Cleveland Congregation: On their website the GCC openly declares that they are:"part of the Industrial Areas Foundation, the nation's first and largest network of multi-faith coalitions, and we draw on their seven decades of experience winning tough battles across the nation." Remember that in 2008 ACORN which is also "part of the Industrial Areas Foundation" was doing the work now tasked to GCC in Cleveland, so one has to wonder if "elections" are the "tough battles" the GCC is referencing.

FutureChurch:The Cleveland Catholic Diocese has disavowed this group as being "not consistent with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church"

Call to Action:  

• FutureChurch is the Cleveland chapter of Call to Action
• Call to Action's members were officially excommunicated by Bishop Bruskewitz of Nebraska, a decision affirmed by the Vatican in November of 2006 with this statement: "The judgment of the Holy See is that the activities of Call to Action in the course of these years are in contrast with the Catholic faith due to views and positions held which are unacceptable from a doctrinal and disciplinary standpoint. Thus to be a member of this association or to support it is irreconcilable with a coherent living of the Catholic faith" (emphasis added).
• Call to Action supports "Catholics for a Free Choice" which the US Bishops have said is an arm of the abortion industry
• Supports Gay Marriage
• Call to Action is closely aligned with NETWORK

NETWORK: This Lobby group played a significant role in the passage of ObamaCare and has been identified by the Catholic Church as NOT representing the Catholic Church teachings. Consider these facts:

• Sr. Simone Campbell, Executive Director is a regular speaker for the Cleveland Social Action Office.
• Network wrote the now famous "nuns letter" that was instrumental to the passage of the Affordable Care Act.
• Network currently has a "Nuns on the Bus" national tour to oppose the Paul Ryan Budget. Public Relations for "Nuns on the Bus" was supplied by "Faith in Public Life" which is funded by billionaire Democrat supporter George Soros.
• Campbell spoke at the 2012 Democrat National Convention and in 2008 gave the Benediction.
• NETWORK is a partner of "Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good" of whom Archbishop Caput said in 2008: Groups friendly to the Democrat Party such as "Catholics United and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good have done a disservice to the Church, confused the natural priorities of Catholic social teaching, undermined the progress prolifers have made, and provided an excuse for some Catholics to abandon the abortion issue instead of fighting within their parties and at the ballot box to protect the unborn."

JustFaith: A discredited organization that is infiltrating the local diocesan churches with programs that are NOT supported by Catholic doctrine, such as liberation theology (rooted in Marxism), support for homosexual lifestyle, extreme pacificism and environmentalism. In addition the JustFaith program follows and is closely aligned with that followed by The PICO National Network, the Industrial Areas Foundation, The Gamaliel Foundation & Direct Action and Research Training (DART). These organizations are all members of members of the Alinskian (Industrial Areas Foundation) Network that we referenced above. Yes, the same organization whose founder dedicated his community organizing guidebook to Lucifer!

Justfaith is also a partner with NETWORK who lobbied extensively for the Affordable Care Act that has now resulted in 1^st Amendment violations against Religious Freedom with the Catholic Church as its first target.

JustFaith also in their Fall 2009 newsletter counseled readers to join the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) in working on women's issues. Well the IWPR has on their website their "Policy Update on Safe and Legal Abortion, 30 Years after Roe v. Wade".

And there is a lot more about JustFaith that should be of major concern to serious Catholics but we will leave that for a later eblast.

Evolutionary Christianity: A smorgasbord of New Age theology that has very little to do with Catholicism or a Biblical worldview.

The writing is pretty clearly up on the wall. The official Catholic Church has plainly stated they outright reject or have serious issue with the philosophies and goals of these groups and organizations. The Social Action Office of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese needs to clean house if they expect to be taken seriously by Catholics. The Cleveland Bishop should terminate the employment of anyone connected to these groups and revamp the current forums to reflect true Catholic beliefs that are rooted in Natural Law principals, Biblical moral absolutes and the principal of subsidiarity. There is no place in such forums for Moral Relativism, Humanism, Objectivism, Secularism and New Age Spiritualism. The current series has serious flaws because many of the presenters are twisting Catholic teachings to neatly fit the hymnal of the Democrat National Platform.

In 2008 Cleveland Area Catholics were given misleading counsel with respect to the issues in the election with the net result that most of the Catholic swing vote went to Barack Obama despite him being what Archbishop Caput called the "most committed 'abortion-rights' presidential candidate since the Roe v. Wade abortion decision in 1973." 

Correcting the on-going bias in the Social Action Office and Faithful Citizenship forums will not turn every Catholic vote but it will move the swing vote sufficiently to protect human life.  
- - - - - - - - - - -
This reminds me of the CCHD debacle, but that was/is on the fund-raising side. This is obviously on the get-out-the-vote side of things and the target is Ohio Catholics.

I'm planning to go to any events I can to see them up close and report on them. I'll keep everyone posted on what I discover here. I usually try to be low key about this kind of thing, but I'm done. Obama and the left have to be defeated this November. I'll gladly stand up on Judgment Day and say "Yeah, I helped kicked these people out."

Yeah, that's breaking and entering, dummy

Just plain weird.



I suppose she'll send them another bill with late charges once she gets out of jail.

"No greater cause"

From the Endangered Catholics website:

PLEASE JOIN US FOR A WEEKLY PRAYER SERVICE AT ST. CASIMIR'S CATHOLIC CHURCH, UNJUSTLY CLOSED BY BISHOP LENNON.

The “Prayer Service will take place EVERY SUNDAY in front of St. Casimir's Church at 11:30 am on E. 82nd Street between Sowinski and Pulaski Streets.

Come with your cars packed full of supporters for this most noble cause.

There is no greater cause than to save a church built by our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents!

Really? No greater cause?

Whenever Pro-lifers talk this way, viz, "There is no greater cause than to save the life of an unborn baby," we hear all kinds of people taking issue with the statement. Catholics on the left start bringing up feeding the poor, social injustices, victims of global capitalism, the seamless garment stuff, innocent people killed in a war somewhere, etc. So I wonder why someone thinks they can make a statement like this and suddenly have it be taken seriously.

"This feels real good"

Emphasis mine. It's from a guy named Bob Kloos from Cleveland Heights mentioned in this article about a new micro-schismatic group in the Cleveland Diocese, and the line pretty much sums up the justification for defying an order from Bishop Lennon. Excerpt:

Defying the authority of their bishop, parishioners and their priest from the closed St. Peter Catholic Church in downtown Cleveland celebrated Mass Sunday in leased commercial space they transformed into a church independent of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese.

The move by the new Community of St. Peter puts members in danger of excommunication because they had been warned by Bishop Richard Lennon, who shuttered St. Peter's in April, not to hold worship services in places without his approval.

Still, about 350 people, joined by their spiritual leader, the Rev. Robert Marrone, gathered for their first Mass and communion in their new home ― a newly renovated, century-old building on Euclid Avenue and East 71st Street.

"This feels real good," said parishioner Bob Kloos of Cleveland Heights. "This is the handiwork of hundreds of people over many, many months."

Uh, huh. The article gets even goofier. These people are called traditional Catholics several times, which makes these two paragraphs fairly laughable:

At the opening hymn, the standing-room only crowd, joined by a choir and classical musicians, sang "Christ be our light. Shine in your church gathered today. . ."

Following the closing hymn, the crowd burst into an extended applause as the faithful hugged each other and cried tears of joy.

I must be losing my memory. In my many years attending a traditional Latin Mass I don't recall group hugs afterward nor ever once singing "Christ Be Our Light." The photo further down in the article of a smiling lady "pass[ing] out communion" was also a sight I missed in my old Trad circles.

Also, check out this related morsel from a sidebar about schismatic groups on the same page by the same author:

The irony is most who splinter off are actually more Catholic in their beliefs than main-stream Catholics.

Well, yeah, this is what I've had preached to me over and over again ever since running into my first schismatic acquaintance years ago. He also informed me that everything the Church has taught for the last 60 years is untrustworthy and the Pope is probably a phony. Plus I heard from another that the authority of the bishops doesn't exist and that all Novus Ordo Masses were invalid. And from a third I learned that anyone not folding their hands properly at Mass is going to hell. We used to call this "more Catholic than the Pope"; I'm guessing he qualifies as "mainstream".

Then we get some more "feelings" from Ms. Joseph of Shaker Heights:

"I feel wonderful at this moment," said parishioner Suzanne Joseph of Shaker Heights. "It's a little scary. We're kind of going into a new way of being within the Catholic church, but I'm very happy we're on this journey."

It's called a honeymoon, sweetie. Wait until the arguments begin about what to do next. Then everyone will really be feeling the love.

The St. Peter rebellion is unique because unlike in Boston, where five congregations, in defiance of the archdiocese, have been illegally occupying closed churches for up to five years, the Cleveland group has created its own worship space complete with a new altar, baptismal fount and sacred icons.

Like the coining of "St. Peter rebellion". Kind of Star Wars-y. Note the absence of the word "protest" in the article. Advice: call these people "protestants" at your own peril. My friend did this once; I don't think the guy ever talked to him again. It's funny―they don't know anything more about what Protestants believe than what the Catholic Church teaches about it's own authority. What they do know is that they are most definitely not Protestant―that is NOT cool, whatever it means.

The new space, unlike the classic cathedral structure of the closed St. Peter's, is a huge, brick-walled room painted white and lighted with rows of overhead spot lights and glass sky lights above exposed steel rafters.

It is very sad to note that the writer of this piece, Michael O'Malley, is the Plain Dealer religion writer. Seriously, does he know that the word "cathedral" does not designate a type of architecture? Must have gone to school with Nancy Pelosi.

I don't suppose there will be any weddings at the newly formed St. Peter More-Catholic-Than-You church. Brides favor that "classic cathedral" look over the "steel rafters".

If you read the rest of the article it gets more and more depressing. This thing has been done so many times before. Of course it's schismatic. Of course it will be short-lived. And, of course, it is an example of blatant ignorance and naivete on just about everyone's part except for the priest. Father Marrone likely knows better; hopefully he will repent of this action.

Update: What do you know? Huffington Post reports that Bob Kloos gave $325 to Barack Obama's Presidential campaign in 2008 and $765 to Dennis Kucinich's 2004 campaign. Thanks for the clarification, Arianna.

Thanks for reading my blog. For current commentary and what-not, visit the Est Quod Est homepage