Cardinal Cupich Enables Illinois Infanticide with His Loud Silence

Cardinal Cupich has an opinion on what Trump eats for breakfast.  His first chat with the supine press in Chicago enabled the surprise Archbishop of Chicago to take a swipe at the dying Cardinal George's continued rooming in the Archdiocesan Mansion on State Parkway.

So far

• Cardinal Cupich has embraced Pflegerism and marched with Blond Jesus
• Refused to Venture down Rabbit Holes
• Chastised Trump
• Comforted Laquan McDonald's family a year after his death
• Condemned Global Warming
• Condemned Gun Violence , but Only With National Reportage
• Praised Sister Jean
• Praised Illegal Immigration
• Condemned opponents of illegal immigration
• Said no Bad Thing about Any Gender
• Spoke out of both sides of mouth on Sexual Predator Priests
• Praised and honored America's # 1 Predator Cardinal Theodore McCarrick ( Cupich's Chinaman)
• Falsely Accused a devout pastor of being in three homosexual relationships, removed the traditional pastor from his faculties as a priest, ordered a tribunal to investigate and refused to apologize when the tribunal acquit ed the priest

What Blase Cardinal has never done is condemned Illinois's March to Infanticide, much less Illinois's twin US Senators for pushing Infanticide on the national level.  Durbin created Duckworth from one his many fibs . . .not ribs. Together they stand for Infanticide and no Illinois Cardinal has objected.  That is you, Blase the Closer.  You does your silence in this horror betoken your episcopal consent?
Will he speak out?  

Cupich will not.  Blase Cupich is a political reptile of a prelate. He thinks more of what Chuck Goudie and Carol Marin say about him than what the 2.3 million Chicago Catholics wait from a Catholic prelate. 

Cardinal Blase meets the press.   The press don't care about eternal truths, or doctrines.  The press wants compelling narratives that fit nicely with funding and sales. Fred Eychaner, the Gay Marriage architect and bankroller, controls a huge slice of the media. The Media plays nice with Fred and the current Archbishop of Chicago plays nice with both. 

Will Cardinal Cupich chastise so-called Catholics who back Illinois House Bills that run counter to Catholic teaching? Especiall, the ones promoting Infanticide

Will Cardinal Cupich behave like a priest and not a politician?

Nah. 

The Innocent set for slaughter and Chicago Catholics are on their own.

Blase Cardinal Cupich has the Chicago Media. 

We have the sainted Francis Cardinal George at home with Christ - pray to both for help. 

Goodbye to All That – Forty-Three Years of Catholic Secondary Education

Leo President Dan McGrath, "D" and Me in 2010 at St.Columbanus Catholic Church for Leo Graduation

I had a ball!  Since 1975, I have worked exclusively and loyally in Catholic secondary teaching and fund-raising.  I taught thousands of young people who have grown into remarkable men and women.  I have worked with brilliant people at Bishop McNamara, La Lumiere School, Leo High School and Brother Rice High School.

It was a privilege to work for Alpha-male teachers and school leaders like Bob Foster of Leo, the late Fr. Ken Yarno of Bishop Mac and with Headmaster Larry Sullivan of La Lumiere School. These gentlemen led the herd and protected its flanks – always.  Leading from the front is the action of a true servant.

I was out of the classroom for twenty-two years and when I returned the passive aggressives seemed to dominate.  I went to work as substitute/permanent sub -and at-will, no contract, we can fire without cause, salary saver.

I thought I was part of an old-timey, collegial faculty.  In fact, I was welcomed to the work by the key administrators with all the warmth of a Turk at a christening.

The faculty was very nice. They offered a great deal of help in matters like computer-based learning and scantron testing.

The bosses, not so much.

Wherever passive-aggressives thrive, the culture dies hard.  For years this seemed limited to ‘downtown’ – the educators who mandated directives, issued policy contortions and relayed third-hand dispositions, like “The Cardinal will never agree to that.”

Bob Foster said, “Well then, let’s go and ask His Eminence!” And he did and learned that the Cardinal was in full agreement with Bob Foster.


Today, the Beta primate-in-charge shrugs and smirks in too many Catholic high schools.
I ended my four decades of work in Catholic high schools on January 26, 2018.  Let’s let things go at that.

Safe to say, I walked into a passive-aggressive booby-trap and took the bait.
 I got to get back to fishing; don’t open your mouth and you won’t swallow a hook. The story is sad and sordid.

The day that my position as a substitute teacher was terminated, I applied for work as a laborer on one of the Flood Brothers Disposal Trucks, where my talents would suit the charism of that corporate culture.  I would rather haul trash than teach wonderful young people, while second guessing every assignment, lesson and word that I might dispense.

The school I worked at is staffed by some phenomenal teachers and administered by a passive-aggressive cohort, not unlike the ‘downtown’ crowd of alumnae of closed girls’ schools who dominated the education chancery.

I wondered about that.  Maybe that is all part of the ‘thinking-outside-the-box’ corporate culture that requires no candor and plenty of empty-sizzle- Marketing 101 stuff.

Anyway, I am out of it for keeps.  I loved teaching and the students seemed to appreciate what I was presenting. Now, I am an acquired taste, I know.

What worries me is the rooted nature of Catholic secondary school administrator passive aggression. It will not go away.

It is not only the school for which I last worked but many of them.  There are no leaders like the Father Kens, the Larry Sullivans, or the Bob Fosters.

Brother Rice President Dr. Kevin Burns and Cardinal Cupich

Teachers hunker down and wait for things to pass over, but Catholic schools do not have much time left.

Forbes magazine noted in 2013 that, “ Passive-aggressive behavior in any company is one of the most destructive cancers to a culture that ends up killing both a great company, and the self-esteem of the individuals working there.  “
Forbes offered these signs of the creeping cancer in an organization – Leader(s) who:
• on the surface appears to be agreeable and supportive, but behind the scenes will back stab, undercut, and sabotage. 
• constantly states that you can trust their words when their actions have consistently shown that not to be true.
• makes promises about things when they have no intention of ever following through, often then blaming things that were “out of their control” for precluding them from being able to fulfill their promise.
• smiles and agrees with you to your face, but then disagrees or even sabotages things behind your back.
• states “I was supportive of you, but this other person wasn’t so there is nothing I can do” in order to place blame on someone else rather than voicing their own lack of support for the matter.
• gives positive praise and feedback to you directly, but then takes actions to undercut you to coworkers and management. . . .

Demoralized faculty members are silent at meetings.  Coaches and teachers who had been part of a school’s golden age of recruitment, school spirit and instruction watched their programs, camps, mission goals and successes shoved aside, or dismantled, in favor of new blood that was anemic at best. The mantra now is - "Hey, what’s the big deal? It’s all good!"

Things are not all that good. If enrollment is down, it is not only the latest census figures to blame.  Kids want to go to a school with a sparked-up faculty and leadership that is willing to have the backs of its teachers and students; not merely, complaint department for helicopter parents.

My last lesson to my Theology 3: Social Justice class was this. “We are, who we used to be.  If we do not honor the Bishop Bernard Sheils, Mother Cabrinis and Terence Powderlys, how can we know what the hell Social Justice is all about?”

Likewise, if Catholic schools do not honor Alpha Dog leaders who built our schools, nurtured their traditions and reputations, how will they keep operating?  If I do not remain faithful to the creed that ran my family to America, I must be a Unitarian.

Catholic high schools will go the way of the carburetor, I'm afraid.

Cardinal George and Leo Legend Jack Schaller '43

Cardinal Cupich seems to agree.   Archbishop Blase Cupich is no Francis Cardinal George,

Sour grapes? Oh, hell no.  I had a ball.  The job is about the kids.  If I did a good job, or bad, they tell me.  They are far from Passive Aggressive.   They learn to be Passive Aggressive out in the work-world.

You will never find a Passive-Aggressive type taking out the trash - they send memos to have it done by others.

I am beginning a new career away from Catholic secondary schools.  I have been selling buckets of golf balls at 50 Acre Park in Evergreen Park, since April. On Monday, I begin a new career.

A Note to Pope Francis - Distorted Visions Don't Contribute to Peter's Pence

" So, all of the Muslims in the wagon trains were scalped by the . . .Seventh Cavalry . . ."

“I am afraid there are very dangerous alliances between powers who have a distorted view of the world: America and Russia, China and North Korea, Russia and Assad in the war in Syria,”  - Pope Francis I

“I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.” - Barack Obama

"There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people." - Howard Zinn


Pope Francis seems like a very nice man.  That said, I believe that he owns a very jaundiced view of America (United States), the American people and our values.

This is not a surprise as the Pope visited the United States for the only time in his life, after he became St. Peter's Successor. Pope Francis was squired around and reported on Washington, D.C., New York City and Philadelphia by people who have as yellow a vision of America (USA), its people and its history.  A simple look at the CBS coverage highlights the social and cultural agenda of the media more than it does the impact of the Pope upon Catholics in America - at least two features go to great lengths to condemn the conscience of a Kentucky county clerk and attempt to make her out to be liar, rather than anything else of moment. President Obama had spoken and LQBTQIAPK marriage replaced traditional marriage, to some minds.

President Obama seemed perfect for Pope Francis and vice versa.  President Obama is the first Howard Zinn indoctrinated President, as well as the first Planned Parenthood, LGBTQIAPK and Black President.  Howard Zinn affected the study of American history like no scholar since Francis Parkman.  Zinn is 100% wrong on his Marxist disdain for American history, the American people and American values.

Zinn believed that the Greatest Generation, our fathers and grandfathers, should be ashamed of their sacrifices freeing Europe and Asia from global totalitarians, " Should we not honor, instead of parachutists and bomber pilots, those conscientious objectors who refused to fight or the radicals and pacifists who opposed the idea that young people of one nation should kill young people of another nation to serve the purposes of politicians and financiers?"

No, Howard.

My Dad did not collect Japanese grenade fragments in tribute to Wall Street.  He liberated the Melanesians of Bougainville, the Chamorros of Guam and whatever was supposed to live on Iwo Jima. One more landing and there would have been bump in the Hickey DNA and I would not be typing this.

President Obama's America came from Howard Zinn, Frank Marshall Davis and Pastor Jeremiah Wright. 

The Pope is political and his politics seems to be much more strident than his fore-runners, including the sainted John Paul II.  His appointment of the ultra political Blase Cupich to the Chicago Archdiocese is a pretty clear indication that Pope Francis wants his bishops to lock-in with the  local political powers.  Blase Cardinal Cupich has locked step with Chicago and Cook County politicians like a ballroom dancer. As a result, Chicago political pastor Micheal Pfleger :

It’s a first: Father Pfleger tells Sneed the appearance of Cardinal Blase J. Cupich at St. Sabina’s summer kickoff rally and March for Peace in the neighborhood was the first time a cardinal from the Chicago Archdiocese had ever attended the neighborhood event.
“I’ve been inviting them year after year to no avail. And Cardinal Cupich came directly off a flight from a Bishops Conference in Indianapolis in order to make the march. Pretty special”

Pretty special indeed. Pfleger owns the Chicago media and just made Cardinal Blase bullet-proof.  Cardinal George was vilified by the political stooges on Chicago's newspapers, as well as radio and television. It appears that Cupich cares more about the good opinion of Michael Sneed and Jay Levine than he does about the people in pews at St. Bede the Venerable, or St. Pascal's.

Pope Francis sponsored Cupich and now Phleger sponsors him as well. Is that a vision thing?

You bet.

Pope Francis does not seem to like President Trump.  Fair enough.  However, while President Trump was in Poland and later Germany in defense of Western Civilization, Pope Francis grouped America(USA) along with Russia, North Korea, Syria and Red China as nations with 'distored visions.'

I do not recall America crossing the 38th Parallel in 1950, crushing speech in Prague in 1968 and sending millions of people to the GULAG as well as persecuting Jews, or sending tanks into Tibet, nor laying down gas on civilians anywhere.

The late Howard Zinn could straighten me out, I guess, but he has shed his mortal husk.

I do know that American Catholics ( I'm one) send the most financial support to Peter's Pence every year.  Yep.  America on average contributes almost 30% annually to the Pope's Pot.

People with 'distorted vision' don't crack open their wallets. People with 'distorted visions' don't run to join the Marines and liberate people from real oppression for three years.  They don't qualify for Honor Fights.

People with 'distorted visions' are political people, Your Holiness.

Cardinal Combine? Strange Smoke from Pope City

Crain's Chicago Business February 1998 :Chicago's Archbishop Francis George, 61, was elevated to cardinal by Pope John Paul II during ceremonies in Rome. The new cardinal led a special mass in Vilnius, Lithuania, in honor of Valdas Adamkus, 71, the Chicago-area resident who was sworn in last week as Lithuania's new president. . . 

So I'm wondering, rhetorically for the purposes of a Sunday column, what do we call this relationship, again? This Illinois custom of quiet sharing of power across party lines for the benefit of a fat connected few? . . .What is it? What is it, again? John Kass, Chicago Tribune

The Combine!  The Illinois Combine!  That Illinois peace in the valley when the 'two parties can be as one when there's money on the table,' Brother Kass! Praise Mammon and bless his name.

Now, it appears that the once secular band of boodlers opened its arms to Holy Mother Church via our media darling Archbishop.

I do not recall a caravan of Illinois politicians, grifters, hangers-on and venture capitalists going to Rome for the elevation of Archbishop Francis Eugene George, O.M. I. to Prince of the Church , a kid from Portage Park and St. Paschal's Parish.

I recall members of his family and childhood pals making the pilgrimage.  Cardinal George returned to Chicago as 'Francis our Neighbor' and was treated to having his house and person egged, T-p'd and porch poop-bagged at least twice a month by theological room temperature I.Q.s of the Chicago Tribune, Sun Times, WTTW and the likes of  Manya Brachear, Cathleen Falsani, Michael Sneed, Elizabeth Brackin and Carol Marin, as well as all the political creeps at City Hall and the County Building.

Agenda and Grievance politics played out in the media against a real priest, who took it all with grace, patience and good humor. Chicago Values conflicted regularly with traditional - some might say ultramontane - values.

Francis Cardinal George was a Lion of the Church and simple parish priest, who could have cared less what Jay Levine, Chuck Gowdy, Windy City Times or Toni Preckwinkle thought of him. But touch his flock, or mock his faith and Cardinal George would throw down, like a Canaryville tough guy on St. Paddy's Day.

The media detest straight froward people.

I was gobsmacked by the embrace of the Catholic Church by the very people who made Cardinal George's life a bed of nails, even during his final days. Here are the members of the Chicago entourage for Blase Cupich:

The mayor and first lady of Chicago Amy Rule will lead the delgation (sic) at which Cupich will be elevated by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica on Nov. 19, a dinner in support of Catholic Extension in Rome that evening and a celebratory Mass in St. Peter’s Square on Nov. 20.
Among those joining Emanuel’s entourage: Father Tom Hurley of Old St. Patrick’s Church; Reverend Stan Davis, co-Executive Director of the Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago; Bishop Wayne Miller, President of the Council of Religious Leaders; Jo Ann Rooney, President of Loyola University; Dennis Holtschneider, President of DePaul University; Gov. Bruce Rauner; Senator Dick Durbin; State Senate President John Cullerton; State Comptroller-elect and current City Clerk Susana Mendoza; Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke; Congressman Mike Quigley; Aldermen Ed Burke, Pat O’Connor, Danny Solis, Michelle Harris and Marge Laurino; Cook County Commissioner Bridget Gainer; Anne Pramaggiore, president and CEO of ComEd; Stefano Pessina, executive vice chairman and CEO of Walgreen Boots Alliance; Desiree Rogers of Choose Chicago; Don Edwards, CEO of Flexpoint Ford; Daniel McCaffrey, CEO and Chairman, McCaffery Interests; Margaret Houlihan Smith of United Airlines; Wynona Redmond, of Wyn-Win Communications; Cherryl Thomas of Ardmore Associates; Senator Renato Turano of Turano Bakery; former NBA star Isiah Thomas;  Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson; Chicago Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago; Rocco Claps, director of the Illinois Department of Human Rights; a Cristo Rey Jesuit High School student and a Christ the King High School student–both of whom work in the mayor’s office. Shia Kapos in Chicago Sun Times 11/ 15/2016

The only name I read above without having the feeling that I was wearing spun-glass underwear is Father Tom Hurley.

I was surprised Pat Quinn didn't make the trip.

Perhaps, this is signals a new spirit of cooperation between Church and State, a cismontane rapprochement.  Maybe it is just all Civic Spirited, good fellowship.  Maybe.  Maybe, I should lace up my Converse Chuck Taylors and pound the boards against Dwayne Wade.

Or, maybe, . . . . perhaps the sleaze of the Illinois  Combine will be now sanctified. That would be dispiriting.

Cardinal Kilroy has some funny pals.

Mass will be interesting all this week.

Chicago - Untouched by Change: Media, Politics and Bad Activists Doing Just Fine

I live in the only city and county completely unaffected by the election of Donald Trump to the Presidency.  I live in Chicago, Cook County of Illinois.

Every incumbent and sanctioned candidate held onto or won public office. Same old, same old. In fact, a clerk who pretended to be a judge was elected to be a judge.  What could possibly go wrong there?

The tide, turned in by the votes and the Electoral College, missed the shores of Lake Michigan entirely.

On election day, my Ward, the 19th, which includes a neighborhood known as Mount Greenwood and home to a great many Chicago police officers and firefighters, became a racial flash point.

On the Saturday afternoon(Nov. 5th) before the election, at about 3PM members of a family that had buried a young man at Mount Hope Cemetery in this Ward travelled west on 111th Street, a two lane shopping district with barbershops, restaurants, boxing gyms, banks, dentist offices, a Walgreen's and other local concerns.  This is a two lane street with parking available on both side.  At Troy Street is a Chicago Firehouse. People in a hurry attempt to make a new right lane and cause accidents, traffic jams and on this Saturday a fatality.

Beal and others had just left a funeral in several cars and were driving to their next destination when the incident occurred, Beal’s relatives said. According to Guglielmi*, they were stopped in traffic near a firehouse when an off-duty Chicago firefighter saw one of the vehicles and notified the driver that it was illegally blocking the fire lane and causing delays. 

The firefighter then began arguing with three people who got out of their cars, said Guglielmi. While this was going on, a woman inside a nearby business saw the argument, called police and then became involved in the fight, the police spokesman said.

At this point, an off-duty Chicago police officer in a barbershop nearby also spotted the fight, approached the scene, identified himself as an officer and became involved in the brawl, Guglielmi said.

A sergeant in full uniform who was driving to work at the Morgan Park Police District then stopped when he saw the melee, the spokesman said.

“There’s a sergeant on his way to work. He now sees a man with a gun in his hand. He gets out, announces his office in full uniform,’’ Guglielmi said.

The sergeant displayed his weapon, Guglielmi said. As the incident escalated and the man with the gun did not drop his weapon, shots were fired, and the man was hit multiple times, the police spokesman said. Chicago Tribune

The man, Joshua Beal died.  He pulled a gun, waved it, pressed the trigger and was shot multiple times.

Immediately the story became a narrative - one that erased the culpability of Mr.Beal and his family altogether. One of the most egregious narratives was written by a man named Davis Steiber and printed in the dubious Huffington Post. 

Joshua Beal, who was in Chicago for a funeral, was killed Saturday by a Chicago police sergeant. The reason an off-duty police officer felt the need to start waving his gun around and pointing it at a lot of different people is baffling. To see the video, click here.

I, however, don’t want to focus on the killing itself ― I want to focus on the reaction of white people. Specifically in Mount Greenwood, where the incident occurred. Last night, hours after his death, while people gathered to support Josh’s family, some residents of Mount Greenwood came out of their homes with Blue Lives Matter flags to apparently show that Black people are not welcome in Mount Greenwood. Instead of letting people grieve the loss of a life, these white residents thought it appropriate to call them names and tell them to leave “their” neighborhood. To see this video click here.

As is the case in most police related shootings, the media twist the facts, invent the facts and turn the attendant hate on people who have done nothing to warrant a raised eyebrow let alone anger.

A local media news site, DNAinfo Chicago, which had up until this shooting in Mount Greenwood been dependable with reporting and has three very fine writers in Mark Schipper, Ed Komenda and Pulitzer Prize winning Mark Konkol, took up group thought and malicious slandering of people in order to whip up a controversy.

Three writers have crafted the Mount Greenwood Narrative.

Immediately after the shooting members of REVCOM Chicago - the Revolutionary Communist Party - sent teams of activists to the neighborhood.

DNAinfo Chicago's three reporters (Evan Moore, Joe Ward and Howard Ludwig)  have yet to mention this fact and have all but erased the crimes of Saturday the 5th by Beal and family in a sad attempt to make the 'manufactured outrage' appear spontaneous, genuine and heartfelt.  Outrage is directed against the neighborhood of Mount Greenwood, Marist Hig School and a few teenage girls unaware that texting matters.  REVCOM, along with Moveon.org has been identified by law enforcement as forces behind protests and riots around the nation.  REVCOM boasts to its retainers.

When we heard about this outrage, the Revolution Club went to the scene, arriving in the early evening. We found members of Joshua’s family sitting in a Mt. Greenwood Burger King—unable to leave because police had surrounded their cars as part of the “crime scene.” A Club member explained to the family members who we were, and we began talking with them. Already grieving for the loss of one loved one who had been buried that day, this family was now dealing with the murder of another—shot down in front of their eyes by Chicago police.

The family members told us stories of being taunted by racists in Mt. Greenwood. They had been called “n****rs” and “monkeys” and were told to “go back to the ‘hood” by white people shouting from their cars as they drove by. 

The Revolution Club brought a Stolen Lives banner into the BK and unfurled it. Many family members gasped, as they looked at the faces of so many others murdered by police. At this point, the Burger King manager announced that the family would have to leave the restaurant. This callous racism was called out by the grieving family members and people from the Club. “This is not Mississippi in 1960. This is 2016.” “They are afraid of too many Black people in this place.” Everyone stood firm, saying, “We paid for food and we aren’t leaving.”

The manager called in the police. The police arrived in force, further crowding the Burger King. They ordered everyone to leave, announcing that the BK was closing its doors early. People were forced outside into the dark and the cold without coats or sweaters.

DNAinf Chicago has printed photos of REVCOM as well as Black Lives Matter, activists Ja'Mal Beal, Jedidiah Brown and the egregious Pastor Michael Pfleger.  However there is no mention of the Communists who sparked riots and violence in Milwaukee only this past summer.

More troubling, DNAinfo Chicago managed to get a high school girl's Twitter tweet that was racially offensive and managed to get the girl and five other of her friends from a Catholic High School after Archbishop Blase Cupich was contacted for comments in keeping with this divisive and inflammatory narrative.

The narrative has erased the story of Joshua Beal's bad behavior, illegal use of a hand gun, threatening the lives of Chicago Police Officers and bystanders and morphed into the very reasons why Donald Trump appealed to voters.

I live in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois - the land untouched by change.  The message sent to the American elites is lost here.  The people get it.  The elites do not.

Same old, same old.


* Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi

Bishop Cupich is the New Cardinal Cody

John Cardinal Cody was a sad man, a flawed man and a very small man.  He was a prince of the Church.

Cody took over the Archdiocese of Chicago and immediately fired pastors who built parishes and schools and served the needs of their flocks. Cody never took the time to learn anything about the City and the people he was supposed to serve.  In fact, John Cardinal Cody didn't much care for the people of Chicago. He was Cardinal for a very long time.

Cardinal Cody wanted only good press and powerful financial people to help tighten his grip on the Archdiocese through Project Renewal ( 1965-?) He got both here in Chicago.  He had the media until 1981.  People with wallets and check books loved him; people with change purses, not so much.

Bishop Cupich reminds me of Cardinal Cody - quite a bit.

One of his first remarks to the press seemed to be open slap at the dying Francis Cardinal George, "Wherever I live, I want to have a place where I can get some rest and feel the support of people who are around me,It is a lovely place, and I really want to honor that," he said. "At the same time, I would have to say I'm going to take my time to make that decision. I'm going to see where I can be most effective."

Cardinal George understood that the Cardinal's Residence was the peoples house in this Archdiocese, but the Chicago Media ( Carol Marin, Michael Sneed, Eric Zorn, Jay Levine et al) harped constantly on a priest living in such luxury.  Bishop Cupich is a Media Man.  He crafted a narrative parallel to Pope Francis I and will soon be rewarded with a red hat when he is elevated to Cardinal.

Cardinal George had poor kids from Englewood, Canaryville, Bronzeville and Gresham in as his guests on very regular basis.  He fed them cake, pop and cookies.  He listened to their struggles to avoid the GDs, the Stones and the Irish Deuces.  He prayed with them.  He called Leo High School to ask about their progress and chew them out when needed.

This weekend, Bishop Cupich saw to it that a young girl who texted a racially offensive thought to her friends in her Twitter circle be expelled - Excommunicated  - from Marist High School as a political sop to Pastor Pfleger, Black Lives Matter and Rahm Emmanuel. That made the media happy because damned a whole neighborhood as well.

"Marist High School is a privately operated school in the Archdiocese dedicated to Gospel values," Cupich said. "We support them as they take the necessary steps to deal with this situation swiftly and take appropriate disciplinary action." 

His taking a shotgun to kill a gnat approach to race relations this past weekend went one better gave it to people who have done nothing but live their lives.

"Racism is a sin and has no place in the church, including the Archdiocese of Chicago," said Cupich, who recently was chosen by Pope Francis to become a cardinal. "Our schools must be places where all are respected and the values of tolerance and peacemaking are taught and nurtured." 

The people of Mount Greenwood , the students at Marist High School and all of Chicago did not 

• block a firehouse exit after right lane weaving
• brawl with a firefighter and an off-duty cop
• draw a hand gun and threaten to fire  
• Joshua Beal did that and died as a result

Instead, the media want to replay the 1960's and make Mount Greenwood Selma and Ja'mal Green and Pastor Pfleger the Dr. King twins.  Bishop Cupich joined in the fun. Cardinal Bernardin never called out a high school kid, even when a few beat a kid with bats.  Cardinal George took hurting young men from Chicago's meanest streets and treated them to what a priest is all about and made calls to improve their lives.  The media hated Cardinal George.

Bishop Cupich will have a red hat very soon.  He is Cardinal Cody.

I was at an Ordination Party for a young priests the day Cardinal Cody died.  When his death was announced . . .the prayer was brief and party was back under way.

John Kass on Virtue

Unlike his conservative predecessor, the late Cardinal Francis George, the new leader of the Chicago Archdiocese has taken a decidedly progressive stance on union rights. ABC 7

 I never thought of "the late Cardinal Francis George" as a conservative.  Rather, I  knew and experienced Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I. as a priest and a man of rock solid virtue.  I know another such man - John Kass of the Chicago Tribune.

John Kass and I have disagreed even to the point of a good old south side, " Well, @#$% You!" exchange of words.  Friends can do that and I consider John Kass a friend.  A friend is someone who will tell you in thunder and you have abandoned virtue, for convenience.

I was honored to attend a Breakfast Talk sponsored by Midtown Education Foundation at the Gleacher Center center yesterday. The featured speaker was John Kass​.

My take-away from John's thoughtful and heartfelt assessment of our times was the diminished study of Virtue at all levels.

Virtue is learned; you are not born with it.  To be brave you must do brave deeds.  To be kind and thoughtful, you  must act accordingly.  You see, virtues are what used to be called shared truths.

John Dewey strangled Virtue when he put 'shared truth' into the intellectual shredder and our public scholars, schools of Education and public schools have been spreading Dewey's Gospel like Miracle Grow on Hinsdale lawns.

John Kass​ lectured a few score of Chicago's big-hearted business leaders on Virtue and what it means to our liberty.  People who are called businessmen and business women (bankers, investors, traders & etc.) very often are the most vital resources to charity and the group assembled to hear John Kass are just such persons.   I am an old Catholic high school teacher and Catholic and private schools depend upon the kindnesses of these strangers.  I am also very much like these charitable folks.  We are all 'Chumbolones' - self-interested civic idiots who elect and return the absolute worst people among us to public office.

Chumbalones is a plural noun meaning 'idiot' in street Italian and re coined by John Kass.

An executive attending Thursday's breakfast asked John to explain the term, which sprang to his sense while covering a Chicago mob trial.  I will not even attempt to retrace the etymology of Chumbalone here, but offer the following. Chumablones want to appear hip, hep, plugged into the skinny and with it in regards to civics and voting and therefore will go along with the group think.: Obama is great. Jan Schakowsky is great. Dick Durbin in never a fatuous ninny who will go along with prevailing winds blown from Media Matters. Chumbalones will vote in and retain room temperature IQs,  snouts in the public trough and social engineers who could not craft a paper airplane.

We do this, not because we are intrinsically bad persons, but because " We know a guy, or girl   who needs an Obama, a Durbin, a Quigley, a Claypool, a Rahm Emanuel to think well of him, or her and might, just might, do them, and by extension all of us,  "a real genuine solid."

That has been my public sin of commission in the polling booth.

I have voted for public asses (repeatedly in too many cases) knowing full well that they had no business in public life, because a relative, a friend, a neighbor, an acquaintance, or even a precinct captain ( ubi sunt, hodie?) asked me to "Do them a solid."

I knew better and know better than this and I, like all of my fellow Americans, Chicagoans, Cook County taxpayers and citizens of this Land of Lincoln, have reaped the complete and thorough shafting of our democracy and liberty.

Mea Maxima Culpa.

Good God, last night I watched the news and even the Archbishop of Chicago is doing a solid for politics with his most public local labor statement aimed at the mess in Springfield.

I want to thank John Kass for calling me out and challenging me to embrace Virtue and skip doing someone a solid.

"Hey, Have You Heard About The Pallium?" Who has not?

That's the pallium! The white thing with crosses around the neck and over the shoulders of Archbishop Blase Cupich, when the pallium was invested recently, after much media attention and breathless anticipation.

Archbishop Blase Cupich has the Pallium. NBC, ABC, WGN and every newspaper (including a very special edition of the Catholic New World ) in Chicago has talked about the pallium conferred upon Chicago's Archbishop by Pope Francis and sent through the Papal Nuncio to Archbishop Blase Cupich.

The Catholic pallium is, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, ". . .  is a circular band about two inches wide, worn about the neck, breast, and shoulders, and having two pendants, one hanging down in front and one behind. The pendants are about two inches wide and twelve inches long, and are weighted with small pieces of lead covered with black silk. The remainder of the pallium is made of white wool, part of which is supplied by two lambs presented annually as a tax by the Lateran Canons Regular to the Chapter of St. John on the feast of St. Agnes, solemnly blessed on the high altar of that church after the pontifical Mass, and then offered to the pope. The ornamentation of the pallium consists of six small black crosses — one each on the breast and back, one on each shoulder, and one on each pendant. The crosses on the breast, back, and left shoulder are provided with a loop for the reception of a gold pin set with a precious stone. The pallium is worn over the chasuble."

Got that?  It is piece of garment; it is a symbol of a shepherd being a shepherd.

I have been kind of amazed by the news coverage this summer about the pallium. Does an Irish American family in St. Barnabas Parish call the Beverly Review and Can-TV the first time young Eamon, or Mickey dons his first South Side Irish shirt , green Sox Side Irish hat and over-sized  khaki cargo shorts?  Does a De LaSalle Institute lad with bloodlines linking 24th & Oakley to Lucca in Old Tuscany get his folks to rent out Ignotz for a feast and shout to all and sundry that his Pop bought him his first Three-pack of Haines 'Wife Beaters' for summer street wear?  I just don't know.

I have been a Catholic for three score and almost four years and have yet to see the level of news worthy importance placed upon an article of ecclesiastical clothing placed upon the shoulders of an ecclesiastic.



In fact, I do not remember The Eighth Ordianry of Chicago, nor his attendants making much of an issue about the pallium.  Maybe , they did.  Any way the pallium is on the shoulders of Ninth Ordinary and any and all news tangent to being Catholic in Chicago is pallium centered.  Now, even ABC 7's I Team Honcho Chuck Goudie, probably knows what a pallium is all about. By the way, the late Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I. had a pallium and a Red Hat . . .several red hats, but he only seemed to be impressed by the collar he always wore with his black clerical shirt and coat.

I don't know.  I think there might be some things, you know, like all of the things that Francis Cardinal George thought was important, might be newsworthy.  What do I know?

Perhaps, this is signal by the media that there is new age of really good feeling for Catholics, so long as matters of Faith get tucked away. Perhaps.

I know that Archbishop Blase Cupich is wearing the pallium. Cool.