“Whos fight is this anyway & are we crazy, you cant take on the diocese. Everyone will have their own personal experience about the situation that we currently find ourselves in. As I announced to some friends prior to heading out to Astoria last night, one said oh are you going for lamb in Ditmars?, No ?, Oh, is Calvary cemetery open that late, referencing the two most common reasons why in the last several years I head out to the greek ghetto as some former Greeks innocently refer to our beloved neighborhood. Despite that all of my family is long gone from Astoria, I still find reasons to drive by and give my wife & daughter repeated {and often uninvited} wearying highlights of the landscape with my discourse that could easily come from a proficient Greyline Tour Bus driver. They do remain quiet & patient (for the most part) as I slow down to point out the church, the school, Louies Greasy Coffee shop across from the Broadway school yard, Years earlier, I brought my daughter to Mass at MPB and at 8 years old she was so worried that our current parish 40 miles away would be upset that we came to a different church. I assured her all would be fine, muttering under my breath out of earshot, “yes fine, as long as our parish got the weekly vig (envelope)” As I sat in the gym last night I had a mishmash of strong feelings. Proud to see so many gathered and united for such an important reason and you certainly could easily feel the passion, enough to cut it with a knife. A little scary at times as I was thinking it would exceed the boundaries previously established and pointed out by J.W. Perhaps close, but it did not in my view go beyond acceptable limits. Another competing feeling was regret that I had decided to come thinking maybe it would have been better to avoid watching the charade. Though only temporary, something could be said about ignorance being bliss and staying ignorant to this entire ordeal of watching the rectory and the dioceses poorly rehearsed theatrics. I dont know the pastor, never met him, never sat with him & looked him in the eye so as to get a sense of who he is. I know theres plenty being said by many about his intent, his motive etc. I have no reason to go there as I am not qualified for the reasons I cite. Perhaps those describing him do have that right. But I will tell you, I sat there & watched him, listened to his answers, and I was not impressed. This was a public relations disaster. Just too much vagueness, non – committal & non-answers. I understand how this is being played out. I get it, I understand the system. His handlers at headquarters gave him a bad script to work with, but to me, he came across as an empty suit. BTW: I am not saying that he played no role and is just carrying the water; for all I know it could have been his personal recommendation 6 years ago to let the place go and not fund any repairs. My point is that Im not attacking his character just his performance last night. What I heard last night and what I have read from many here on FB and which is profound, is that “the church” not the building, is defined and made up of the community that it serves. It’s not the structure; the true church, its heart and soul, lies within the people. Take away the people with their love and commitment to their faith and you have an empty building with fancy marble and stain glass windows. If you don’t have the school to teach these young people through a catholic education you will not need a house to worship. This fight that is going on right now is extremely important and will remain a large part of how those following us will evaluate us. The kids in school now and those who will come later {if we prevail},will be able to talk about us as similar to how many of us talk about the “greatest generation” that came before us. We would want them to say that we were not bystanders or just had our head in the sky or somewhere else. The Sisters who gave us boot camp training for 8 years in order to prepare us for life’s challenges, will be proud in seeing that we are not just whistling past the graveyard, or being led as lambs to slaughter. Sisters Catherine de Sales, Grace Agnes, Rose Loyola & others, would say “don’t be a whimp, that’s not what we prepared you for”. But I digress. Returning to my earlier point regarding my well intentioned friend who then inquired as to whos fight this is anyway. After he asked me to calm down, I pointed out several things. There are really so many who have skin in this game, whether they acknowledge it or not and they are: • The children currently attending, future students as well as their respective parents. • The immediate residential community at large. • The catholic community, the surrounding parishes and other parishes who will undoubtedly have their own fight at some point, sooner or later. In fact the parishes who themselves had their own fight before us and succumbed to the powerful forces currently in play here, should have another chance to join forces and rally with us. • Everyone who shares this faith shares the risk of losing something very important. • And lastly, anyone who practices any faith who mistakenly thinks that this cannot happen to them. So yes, there are many who have a responsibility to get involved and mix it up as we use to do every so often in the school yard. Listen, win or lose, when this all over, we want our opponent to never forget that they just had 15 rounds of heavy contact in the ring. Thank you for letting me vent and submit my essay. Very new to FB, so apologies if I breached any rules such as word count etc.
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 20:11:39 +0000
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