Dogmatic Dicky Durbin Does Doctrine Duty - Abortion Doctrine

• Dogma - “a doctrine or body of doctrines concerning faith or morals formally stated and authoritatively proclaimed by a church.” 
• U.S. Constitution - “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Officer or public Trust under the United States.” Article VI
• Dick Durbin - “Do you consider yourself an orthodox Catholic?”
• Cecile Richards - Planned Parenthood Harpy - “In times like these, you can’t underestimate the importance of leadership.  Planned Parenthood thanks Senator Durbin for fighting for a woman’s access to essential health care no matter where she lives,”

Senator Dick Durbin is nothing if not a clown; an oafish clown at that.

Even the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board of Bruce Dold has been forced to offer a very grudging and tepid criticism of Senator Dick Durbin's oafish treatment of a candidate for the Federal Bench.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told Barrett that “the dogma lives loudly within you” and worried that it might take priority over the impartial administration of justice. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois asked, “Do you consider yourself an orthodox Catholic?”

It may seem out of bounds for senators to raise the matter of how a judge’s Catholic faith would affect her decisions. But the senators didn’t raise it; Barrett did, in a 1998 law review article examining the obligations of Catholic judges in death penalty cases. It concluded that judges faithful to church teachings “are morally precluded from enforcing the death penalty.. . . Given that Barrett said judges shouldn’t let religious faith dictate their decisions, the exact content of her Catholicism, which Durbin wondered about, is irrelevant. He and Feinstein also erred by putting the issue in terms that could easily be interpreted to mean they distrust devout Catholics. That gave Barrett’s supporters room to accuse them of indulging bigotry and imposing a religious test for office.
It’s an implausible charge on its face. Both voted to confirm John Roberts and Sonia Sotomayor, who are Catholics. So, by the way, is Durbin, and Feinstein graduated from a Catholic high school.”

Without offering the slightest suggestion of Progressive Secularist Orthodoxy within the twin Senators' Inquisition, the Chicago Tribune  failed to call-out real bigotry. Feinstein and Durbin 'tested's.Barrett's faith in order to block her appointment to the Federal Bench.

The official religion of the Democratic Party and a very husky hunk of the GOP is Progressive Secularism and worship at the altars of Diversity, Mother Earth, Abortion, Globalism and Oligarchy is all but legislated.

Chicago Tribune columnist and political Latitudinarian John Kass, honestly reported and commented on the oafish and obvious dogmatism of politicians in the pay of Planned Parenthood. This writing savaged the bumptious Durbin.

Bruce Dold seemed compelled to toss out some dish water prose to wash away the blood on Durbin's face.

Durbin went all witch-hunt on Ms. Barrett, in order to show fealty to Planned Parenthood's blood money.

Arthur Miller would have shivered the timbers of the Commonwealth were he alive to pen a new Crucible.

You see, Durbin, is a renegade.  He took the coin of the industry most out of orbit of the Roman Catholic Church - the Abortion Industry.  He not only took the coin but used the office of United States Senator to further its power and influence.

The Catholic Ordinary of the Diocese of Springfield, Bishop Thomas Paprocki noted this in 2014 -

“Senator Durbin was informed several years ago by his pastor at Blessed Sacrament Parish here in Springfield that he was not permitted to receive Holy Communion per canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law,” Bishop Paprocki reportedly wrote in response to a pro-life activist's query, the Illinois Review reported. “My predecessor upheld that decision and it remains in effect. It is my understanding that the senator is complying with that decision here in the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois.”
Canon 915 states that those who have been "obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion."

No taking of the Eucharist for Durbin in his home diocese, but I am certain he will be admitted to the rail at Holy Name Cathedral, where Pastor Pfleger-approved Cardinal Cupich welcomes political powerhouses.  Take that like  doctrine, brothers and sisters, because Cardinal Blase Cupich will offer no criticism of Durbin, Emmanuel, Preckwinkle, Pfleger or Duckworth.  He will offer no reminders to his media friends, Michael Sneed, Carol Marin, Mary Schmich, or Rex Hupke that the media must afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.

Cardinal Cupich wants to be loved, by the powerful and their stooges - he is. He banned guns from Catholic Churches.  This Sunday I will leave my 9mm on the kitchen counter where it belongs, Priase Jesus!

The Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina Catholic Church and a prominent activist against gun rights, said after surveying clergy, the late Cardinal Francis George chose to leave it up to priests to ban firearms from individual parishes. On Tuesday, Pfleger praised Cupich's decree.
"There has been this kind of madness, in my mind, a growing obsession that guns are needed to be safe," he said, adding, "With that reality growing day by day, it is a tremendous statement for the cardinal to say for the church, we are not buying into this madness. In our buildings and our properties, we are not going to allow guns."  

Guns kill people, like pencils flunk tests.

Cupich sought and received the imprimatur of Pastor Pfleger and wears it like his pallium.

Even Mary Schmich, aswell as The Seeker Manya Brachear,  says nice things about Cardinal Blase.

Cardinal George afflicted the powerful and comforted the powerless.  Cardinal George acted more than he proclaimed.

Cardinal George did that and the stooge media detested the man.

Durbin is living Progressive Secularist Dogma.

He only turns to the faith of his fathers when he needs a photo op with some Knights of Columbus.

Dogma Dicky Durbin does doctrine.  He is clown, but a very dangerous and powerful clown

The Way Things Appear at the Moment.

"To watch an American on a beach or crowding into a subway, or buying a theater ticket, or sitting at home with his radio on, tells you something about one aspect of the American character: the capacity to withstand a great deal of outside interference, so to speak; a willing acceptance of frenzy which though it's never self-conscious, amounts o a willingness to let other people have and assert their own lively, and even offensive, character. They are a tough race in this."
Alistair Cooke

 “The world divorced from the God who created and redeemed it inevitably comes to a bad end. It’s on the wrong side of the only history that finally matters.”  Francis Cardinal George

  "I am for socialism, disarmament, and, ultimately, for abolishing the state itself... I seek the social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class, and the sole control of those who produce wealth." Communism is the goal. Roger Baldwin - Founder of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) 

Alister Cooker saw Americans as they are meant to be.

Francis Cardinal George watched Americans turn from the things that made them tough.

Roger Baldwin planned where we now find ourselves in 1931 with the founding of the ACLU.

Old Roger had plenty of help from earnest people who despise the American miracle, but mostly from legions of cowardly and lazy opportunists. 

A Nation built upon energy and industry of individuals is quite a miracle.  Miracles are useless without faith.  

My family came to America at the very turn of the American Century.  Work in the Stockyards of Chicago, or 'cook for the rich Yanks,'  were the gender-specific options. Work they did. Between 1904, Larry Hickey and Nora Sullivan Hickey of County Kerry, Ireland, met, married and parented thirteen children. 

Larry and Nora moved from the neighborhoods adjoining the Great Stockyards to Lake Township in Chicago and built large two story home at 7535 S. Marshfield Avenue in the Highlands of Gresham.   

They made a great life for themselves, their children and their grandchildren during the labor wars of the 1920's, the Depression, World War Two when four of their seven sons went overseas and through the prosperous 1950's, the self-conscious 1960's and into the bizarre 1970's when the American Century began to peel off its clothing in public - Roe v.Wade, credit card economics, Jimmy Carter's apologetic Presidency and the birth of identity politics.

Mercifully, Nora and Larry went home to Christ, before this Nation began its three decades of public streaking. 

Naked America was told to pull up its britches in 1980 and began to get serious about itself, but then wandered off with the Bush Boys and Bubba to even more exercises of fragile individualism.

I was born in 1952 and had no part in getting America out of the Depression, stopping tyranny, or building our standard of living.  However, I was rooted in the faith and values that respect a man's right to a fair wage in union with his fellows and not to use those fellows to camouflage his sloth on the job and to honor my obligations to my wife and children. I must go to work.

In order be an effective worker, I had to take my job as seriously as a surgeon, an electrician, or a cop.  I had better be good at my job.  Know my stuff.  I did and I do. 

I have taught  hundreds of young people, via literature, history and philosophy,  to honor our civilization and America's powerful contribution to Western Civilization and to respect the traditions that allow people to come from Morocco and own a thriving business along with the Polish, African American, Italian, Mexican,Jewish,  Irish, Norwegian, Swedish and Lithuanian Americans in hot economic competition with them. 

At this moment, I am somewhat retired.  I substitute teach.  My children are grown and making their way in the world. 

Now, nearly through the second decade of the New Millennium, we are a nation divided and sensitive to the point of psychosis. 

Some people say we have evolved. Most insist that we need to get to Roger Baldwin's end-game.

As a teacher, this saddens me. As a parent this frightens me .  As a grandfather, I have faith that maybe my kids will snap us all out of it.  

Today's gospel cheers me a bit.  It reminded me of the greatest priest I have ever known, Francis Cardinal George.  This gospel recounts the pop quiz teacher Jesus gave to his disciples near Caesaria Philippi

"Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah,still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter said in reply,"You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus said to him in reply,"Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter,and upon this rock I will build my church,and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven;and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

Maybe we will be tough again. Tough enough to be kind and considerate of others without legislation, slogans, marches, or the study of poll numbers.   

The Feast of St. John Fisher - The Meaning of Faith and Courage

 

Where are now the kings and princes that once reigned over all the world, whose
glory and triumph were lifted up above the earth? Where are now the innumerable
company and power of Xerxes and Caesar? Where are the great victories of
Alexander and Pompey? Where are now the great riches of Croesus and Crassus? But
what shall we say of those who once were kings and governors of this realm?
Where are they now whom we have known and seen in our days in such great wealth
and glory that it was thought by many they would never have died, never have
been forgotten? They had all their pleasures at the full, both of delicious and
good fare, of hawking, hunting, also of excellent horses and stallions,
greyhounds and hounds for their entertainment, their palaces well and richly
furnished, strongholds and towns without number. They had a great plenty of gold
and silver, many servants, fine apparel for themselves and their lodgings. They
had the power of the law to proscribe, to punish, to exalt and set forward their
friends and loved ones, to put down and make low their enemies, and also to
punish by temporal death rebels and traitors. Every man held with them, all were
at their command. Every man was obedient to them, feared them, also honored and
praised them, everywhere now? Are they not gone and wasted like smoke? Of them
it is written in another place, mox ut honorificati fuerint et exaltati, dificientes quemadmodum fumus 
deficient (when they were in their utmost prosperity and fame, they soon
failed and came to nothing, even as smoke does) (Ps. 36:2). St. James compares
the vanity of this life to a vapor, and he says it shall perish and wither away
as a flower in the hay season. (James 4:15). St. John Fisher  Bishop of Rochester, and martyr; born at Beverley, Yorkshire, England, 1459 (?1469); died 22 June, 1535.

St. Thomas More and Cardinal/Bishop John Fisher were both executed by lusty King Henry VIII of England. They were called traitors to the Crown, because they refused to go along with the King and agree that his divorce of Catherine and marriage to Anne Boleyn was justified and morally correct.

Henry was in love with Anne and the heart wants what the heart wants and being King allows the heart of the King to have his heart's desire, lust and inclination.  Henry VIII was first monarch of Europe to get on the right side of history.  The Paul Simon Institute would have presented polling figures to show that King Hal was right and that his divorce just could not wait - he had evolved.

Had there been a Chick-fil-Ay in Yorkshire the owners heads would be on a spike.  Anyone who refused to bake the newly legislated Royal Couple a cake would never worry about losing his hat - ever again.

Bishop John Fisher and Thomas More stood for traditional marriage and were on the wrong side of history - even their brother clerics went along. They were Catholics for Choice in marriage.

St. John Fisher went to the chopping block before Thomas More and set the great Humanist a tough example to follow.  The Man for All Seasons gets better press and media coverage than St. John Fisher, because Thomas More had secular friends and Europe loved his satirical treatise Utopia.

However, it seems to me that the Bishop of Rochester who alone made public his support for the cast-off Queen Catherine of Aragon and argued her case before all of the Bishops of England, took the much more perilous path to scaffold.  More kept silent.

Today, we feast a hero.  The core truth meant something and St. John Fisher, like Cardinal George in our times, was willing to stick to truth and accept the ridicule, mistreatment and derision of the public.

That is courage.

Happy Feast Day to my neighbors of St. John Fisher Parish!

Father Mallette Picked Up the Check - “give without expecting anything back.”

Father Dan Mallette greets Mike Joyce :“Great souls by instinct to each other turn, Demand alliance, and in friendship burn.”
―Joseph Addison

The world lost another great priest.  A few years ago we lost Francis Cardinal George*.  This Sunday, at Little Company of Mary Hospital, Father Dan Mallette went home to Christ.

There is a very nice story in the Chicago Sun Times giving people a hint of what the man was like in life, but that is like hearing about child birth.

Fr. Dan Mallette had fore-arms like Popeye and the deeply chiseled face of a tough guy that could do tribute to mankind on Easter Island.

At Mass, the Body and Blood of Christ was offered as the very real Presence of the redemptive Crucifixion and not some three-ring circus of self-congratulatory rhetoric. The Eucharist was about Christ in the lives of people and not about Dan Mallette.

Christ gave all and that made sense to Father Mallette.  He recognized no enemies.

Every moment with Father Mallette was sermon.

Imagine being at Franconello's, where you had just treated your family to big Italian feast.  You reach for your wallet and realize it is five blocks away on your dresser.  You are embarassed. anxious and worried that a great night will be spoiled by your mistake.

Marcia arrives; not with your bill, but with a message.

" Father Mallette, paid your bill!  He wanted you all to love one another, Oh, and I got a huge tip, already."

* Take the story of tensions between Cardinal George and Father Dan with a huge chunk of salt - the the press feared and hated Cardinal George for the very same reasons it praises Father Mallette.

Chicago Values vs. Catholic's of Catholic Chicago

Ride the Dan Ryan into the Loop.  Look in either direction and notice the spires of scores of Catholic churches.  Take a trip up Milwaukee Avenue from Ogden on and you notice the store front hip dwarfed by the magnificence of the Polish Churches built with the pennies  of the real dreamers during the 20th Century.  Chicago is a Catholic city.  A Jewish billionaire and prominent civic minded philanthropist told me, "without the Catholic Church, Chicago would be a one-horse town and a blight on the lake."  I returned the compliment. Without large hearted Jewish givers, many Catholic schools would have closed long ago.

You would never know that to look at either Chicago newspaper. Both editorial boards detested the late Francis Cardinal George, because he stood with iron will for his faith.  Both boards seem to have adopted Blase Cardinal Cupich as a nodding media pet.

Today, neither paper on-line offers any coverage of the March on Washington by Pro Life Americans.

Yesterday, after morning Mass, I noticed bus loads of kids loading up at St. John Fisher Parish.  I know Mother McAuley has a tradition of young women marching in January for the Unborn.

Bruce Dold busies his little self slamming Trump, excoriating Chicago cops, and offering tips for LGBTQ parents -scores of them. No mention of the legion of Chicago Catholics, Lutherans, Evangelicals, Jews and Muslims marching for the unborn.

The Sun Times slams Trump, excoriates cops and continues its mission to get Chief Keef lit up.

Chicago Values are for some real creeps.

Well, off to Providence High School of some Catholic League wrestling.

Allow me to speak on Siebert's Pub and then St. Raphael's Catholic Church - Greeting a New Wave of Catholics With the Grandeur of West Side and South Side Icons

If you’re looking for a family friendly place with a unique menu, full bar and 12 draft beers then... 
Siebert's Pub is the place for you!

This is why I left you in Crete, that you might amend what was defective, and appoint presbyters in every town as I directed you (Titus 1:5).


Last weekend, Terry Sullivan and I spent some long planned quality time with two of the most impost important people in my life - Kate and Charlie Olson. Both of these people got me through the toughest times in my life and made the happiest ones beyond special.

Charlie and I taught at Bishop McNamara High School in Kankakee, IL.  Kate was senior the year I began there and was one year junior to my wife Mary Cleary Hickey.

In 1988, Mary and I went to La Lumiere School in Laporte, Indiana and shortly after Charlie and Kate moved up to Lake County, Illinois where Kate worked as an engineer for Baxter and later Abbott Labs and Charlie taught and coached at Grayslake North.

When Mary was diagnosed with brain cancer, Charlie and Kate would drive to our home in Griffith, Indiana and often take the three kids with them.  They were with us all through that horrible time.

They helped me recover from loss and regain my balance - sort of.  They are delightful friends.

Though last weeks Arctic Chill and blizzardy road conditions turned Lake County into a scene from Dr. Zhivago we soldiered out to Salem, Wisconsin just over the State Line and had a great dinner at Sieberts Pub, which seems to have shanghaied a four star chef from somewhere, because the sea food and other dishes made more happy Packer Fans, than the Bears did the next day. Charlie and I both had the grilled Ahi Tuna steak, lightly seasoned with a side of homemade wasabi mayo. Most places do to tuna steaks, what TGI Friday's and Chili's do food in general.  
You eat it with all gusto and passion of David Mamet strapped to chair and subjected to 48 hours of Bill Moyers on PBS loop tapes -"We must have a pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie." In the absence of a fine pie, go to Siebert's*.

Siebert's prepares ( Medium rare tuna – Cooking temperature 132°F (56°C) – Cooking time 30 minutes) the fish and presents it with care.

Kate and Terry had pasta and pulled pork, but I am so self-absorbed that I only can comment on what I had for dinner.

Siebert's is and old timey road house on Antioch Road above the Chain of Lakes.  The staff are very welcoming to south of the border FIPS. Never once, did I feel the need to comment on the Packer wear, nor the fried cheese curds getting vacuumed up at the bar, by all and sundry.

We were stated and satisfied.

The next morning We went to 11A.M Mass at St. Raphael the Archangel Catholic Church, before the trip home and my daughters Christmas gathering in Oak Lawn.

St. Raphael the Archangel is a work of genius.  This original place of worship was a typical post-WWII era, cookie-cutter modern American barn-like ecumenical design - externally indistinguishable from the the 11th Day Unitarian Temple of Coexistence, or an interior not unlike a rock concert venue.

Some people think that Catholic Churches are empty, only because of the scandals, or that the liturgies are too traditionally Catholic.

Nonsense, the Catholic Church has had scandals ever since Acts of the Apostles.  The Catholic Churches in the Catholic Church that are unashamedly Catholic - not Episcopalian/Methodist Lite, or Unitarian Book Club variety - are packed on Sundays.  If it looks Catholic, it more than likely is that.  Try and get a seat at St. John Cantius, or St. Odilo's three minutes before the Gospel and then try and reserve parking in front of City Hall.

We took Little Grassy Road east to Route 45 and then north for about a mile and there on our left ascended a blast from the past.

St. Raphael the Archangel was the dream of the late Francis Cardinal George, a Chicagoan steeped in our towns faith and history.In 2006, knowing the ever increasing population of Lake County, Cardinal George ordered Father John Jamnicky to assess the need for and begin the planning for the construction of a traditional Catholic Church.  On April 30th, 2007 Father Jamnicky became the first pastor of St. Raphael the Archangel. It was a barn - literally.

"An old barn, on the Alfred and Florence Pedersen farm in Antioch, converted into the temporary St. Raphael the Archangel Catholic Church.
Liturgical artifacts and furnishings salvaged from various shuttered Chicago Catholic churches and recycled in the temporary church."

Unlike too many houses of worship, it did not stay a Catholic barn.

The beauty of the immigrant built churches of Chicago reflected the authenticity and power of the devout who labored and penny'd - up the pew money to build St. Adalbert's, St. Patrick's and Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica in Chicago.  The parish cut out a fine Mission:

St. Raphael the Archangel is a young parish, only 6 years old, of approximately 600 families. We are currently holding Mass in a remodeled barn, which we believe to be the most beautiful temporary church you will ever see, while our permanent church is being built in Old Mill Creek.
We are a traditional Roman Catholic Church that teaches the Gospel and the Bible with clarity and enthusiasm. We are loyal to the Magisterium – the teaching authority of the Roman Catholic Church. It is important to us that we live our beliefs, that we are witnesses of the compassionate love of Jesus for all people, that we share his message with others so that they may grow in spiritual life and find salvation. It is our goal to affirm and advance the Catholic faith.

St. Raphael the Archangel took the best of Old Catholic Chicago - the facade of St. John of God and the interior of St. Peter Canisius - matched the 'welcome home' mission sparked by Cardinal George.

His spirit rises above the prairies of Lindenhurts with the Bell Towers and Stained Glass windows of St. Raphael the Archangel.



The place was packed.  There were many young families, especially Mexican and Filipino, as well as former Chicagoans.  A south side priest Father Michael McGovern is pastor of St. Raphael the Archangel.  Father grew up in  Christ the King parish. His homily reflected the many signs demanded of God by weaklings like me and the daily signs that blow by my notice.  An angel told Mary and Joseph to expect the unexpected. They did not blink.  I get whacked between the eyes with two by four and I ask when lunch is served.

St. Raphael the Archangel is a sign that Cardinal George is very much with us, renewing Christ's Church by pointing to the signs of our faith in history. Pretty good weekend trip north of Madison Avenue.

Food for the soul can come with wasabi mayo or a parish that dedicates itself to renewal without erasing tradition, beauty and history.


* Siberts Pub: 8403 Antioch Rd, Salem, WI 53168
Phone: (262) 843-4621:  Aaron & Kim Edmonds owners

What to do on Friday: March 11th 2016 - Let's See? Free Trump Passes or Pay a Sawbuck and Watch Leo Win State Title?

Donald Trump?  You can have him.  Not as President, I hope, nor pretty much anything else, but he's all your's.



He is going to be at UIC (Cement City) on Friday and is giving away free passes to hear him talk about himself. Caveat!  If you go to see Trump, you also must endure Chicago's GangBanger Emeritus clown Congressman Luis Gutierrz. Lord Have mercy! Two humps on the same cement?  Nah. Pass.

You see, both humps are here to help Hillary Clinton nail down the Oval Office.

The only thing that could get me anywhere near that hump Trump might be an all you can eat gift certificate for Tufano's Vernon Park Tap, which is within walking-away distance of the UIC Pavilion.

So you have that going on.

Leo High School is in the IHSA Class 1-A Final Four.

So, I intend to drive 2 hours and fifty-seven minutes away from the clown show at Cement City and drive to Whiskey City - Peoria, IL and watch the mighty, mighty Leo Lions defeat Woodlawn ( no small task that) and then return on Saturday to watch the same-said Lions cut off the nets in the Carver Arena.

You see, Donald Trump is exactly same kind of clown as the ones who get all of the urban media face-time and ink-slop over race-hustling, thug murder and street activism.  There is absolutely no difference, whatsoever, between Trump and any of the insta-loudmouth-Reverend- prophet -activists the media worship.  In fact, the very same words of affection used to 'justify' the local blatherskites, apply to Donald H. Trump: "fiery, speaks his mind, helps so many, concerned, at times divisive, obnoxious, contoversial, but always news worthy."

Uh,huh.

The fact is that street hustling stiff-collars and Donald Trump have done and will do nothing for kids, old people, or starving blind match girls.

I would much rather enjoy the joy and sparkle of the faces of fifteen young men and their coaches engaged in the formative combat that is athletic competition, where no one is a victim and outcomes matter.  Score more baskets; cut nets off of the rims attached to expensive backboards at the Carver Arena.

Leo High School ( the maintenance staff, the ladies who run the offices and Leo the parents, the teachers,  the administrators, the Alumni, The Big Shoulders Fund, and the many generous non-Leo donors who are Catholic and Jewish ) knows that Black Lives Matter, Blue Lives Matter, Lives in the Womb Matter and All Lives Out of Womb Matter a whole bunch and our kids will tear off nets because of that knowledge.

Street hustlers say that they know it, but they could care less and do absolutely nothing to ever make a difference here, or anywhere, unless Jay Levine, or Carol Marin can broadcast their words and totally ignore anything else.

Cardinal George knew Leo High School stood for everything in my above parentheses  and Acted upon it.  Cardinal George, to use the media word 'advocated' for Leo High School and also acted to raise money sending checks from his personal account and not the Archdiocese bank accounts, or some creep State legislator, or City Hall stooge to scratch up a taxpayer funded boondoggle.  Mostly, Cardinal George ministered to students, counselled individual kids from Grand Crossing, Englewood, Gresham and Canaryville without a call to the Tribune or the Sun Times.  No bishop of Chicago, ever did more for kids at Leo than the late Cardinal George.

Chicago wants Francis Cardinal George in its memory hole - forgotten.

Donald Trump wants everything in a memory hole.

Now, I am no fan of Trump, as I am no fan of race baiting, street hustling prophets, but that does not mean you should not delight in their words and the media words about them.  Oh, Hell No!

That's just me.

However, I am a huge fan of pure high school achievement - athletic and academic.  I am a huge fan of Facta Non Verba: Deeds and Not Words.

Two hours and fifty minutes, two tanks of gas at praeter-Cook County prices, parking in Peoria and a $10 ticket to the Carver is well worth being anywhere near bumptious ass who wants to help Hillary Clinton become President.

The Man Who Shaped Francis Cardinal George: Jean Jacques Olier (1608-1657)

Jean Jacques Olier

One evening, Cardinal George asked me to bring two students from Leo High School up to the Cardinal's Residence in Lincoln Park, in order to pray with and for them. Leo High School's student population is 97% African American; these two young men were white and from Canaryville. Both young gents had very tough home lives and I'll leave it at that.

Cardinal George called me every once in while to ask about the status of certain young men whom he knew to be challenged. One African American sophomore had been shunted off to nine different foster homes and sat on the edge of life as a Gangster Disciple.  The Cardinal managed to lift this kid off of that razor's edge. These two white boys were freshmen at the time and had acted out enough at school  to indicate volcanic home lives.

The Cardinal's Residence has been and shall continue to be, in the Chicago and national media, portrayed as some kind of 1%er Xanadu and described as 'lavish.'  That is pure nonsense.  It reminded me of any  successful immigrant's  family home: clean, tidy, simple and proud. The well polished hard-wood floors creak. The media made my Cardinal's home into something opulent to point to as an anachronistic touchstone in  its arguments used to attack the Catholic Church, be it ordination of women, Gaza Flotillas, redefinition of marriage, abortion, or attacking School Choice. Bullshit is King in Chicago.

The Residence is a nice rectory with a lot of chimneys and that is all. Lavish?  My broad manly ass.

Well, the media won that one.  The Residence built and maintained by Catholics will go away. The Nuns who worked with Cardinal George lived in a convent behind the Residence and they are real people who will now be tossed out and eventually put their love and talents elsewhere and fade from Chicago's flabby memory.

That night when me and the guys visited?  They were not taken by any opulence, but hospitality. Two boys learned what a woman's love is all about because of the Polish nuns who work with George and the spirit of a 17th Frenchman who served as the Cardinal's model.

These are two teenagers who had been ear-bombed with abuse and pummeled with all manner of neglect, including abandonment.

The boys were greeted by the wonderful religious women  like they were favorite nephews. The ladies are members of The Albertine Sisters. The boys were treated to home baked treats and tea served in lavish cups.

Cardinal George wore a sweater and his clerical collar and welcomed the boys.    Cardinal George took the brace of tattooed youngsters into a study  and I was dismissed.  The sliding doors closed and the three of them laughed loudly . . .about me, I'll bet.

I walked around and looked at the portraits of Chicago's great Archbishops, Feehan, Quarter and Mundelein, the icons and the statuary. One simple wood carving  I did not recognize*.  It was a wood carving of a 17th Century Frenchman.

After about forty minutes, the Cardinal and the guys reemerged from the study. I asked the Cardinal about the wood carving.  " That is Jean Jacques Olier.  He is not a canonized saint, but I have very special attachment to his life and works.  Read up about him, Pat," was this great teacher's advice.  I did.

Jean Jacques Olier was a 17th Century man of Christ.  He moved easily among Kings and Counts and lived with people swimming in the gutters.  A first rate intellectual and fierce man of action, Jean Jacques Olier opened seminaries, orphanages, asylums and organized soldiers and notorious street duelist to combat the plague of dueling -street violence, or sword violence, depending upon whether one has Chicago values, or not.  Olier fought equally. the heretics and orthodox fanatics within the protection of the Church

To know Francis Cardinal George, one needs to add an understanding of the man who served as his historical and spiritual model to the compelling narrative of the kid with polio who became a bishop.

Cardinal George was no hair-shirt.  He was a genuine Chicago tough guy - a guy who can take it.  A guy can take anything, as long as he honors the virtues that endure. Those virtues are learned through a piety and a dignity shaped by other persons.  Persons like Jean Jacques Olier.

The two kids had their lives oiled and comforted by Cardinal George, but what they took away from the Cardinal's Residence on north State Parkway was a bag of baked goods and the love of great women. That was all either one of the boys talked about - the women who treated them like they were meant to be treated in their lives - Jesus, living in Mary.

They can thank Cardinal George and a 17th Century Frenchmen for that introduction to love.

Cardinal George prayed this every day.

O Jesus, living in Mary, come and live in your servants, in the spirit of holiness, in the fullness of your power, in the perfection of your ways, in the truth of your virtues, in the communion of your mysteries. Rule over every adverse power, in your Spirit, for the glory of the Father. Amen. Jean Jacques Olier, S.S. (1608-1657)

* Correction:  the wooden carving is of St Eugene de Mazenod who founded the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in 1816. I got onto Jean Jacques Olier with the Cardinal by some other icon.  My bad.  Thanks to the sharp eyes of Tom Zbierski.