Church vs. Arena

Have you driven by Epiphany Church in the Uptown neighborhood recently? It is unnerving to drive away from Duquesne University, toward either Bigelow Boulevard or the ramp onto the Veterans Bridge (I-579 north), look to your right to the Hill District--and see nothing.  

The Civic Arena is gone.

The historic space-ship shaped structure, built during "urban renewal" -- read, 1950s neighborhood destruction in the name of Mayor David L. Lawrence's Renaissance -- has been demolished.  All of the steel and concrete which anchored the building have been removed.  Large earth-moving cranes are pushing around dirt to level it out, probably to make temporary parking lots.  The Pittsburgh Penguins moved into brand new Consol Energy Center two years ago, making the Civic (nee Mellon) Arena economically unnecessary.  A couple of brave souls tried to stop its demolition, in the name of historic preservation.  But economics won out.  The Penguins didn't want a useless arena on their hands.  They (and the city of Pittsburgh) would rather have the land turned into businesses.  And maybe a few new homes, too.

I'm all in favor of building new homes in the city.  And new homes and smaller businesses will expand the Hill District  toward Downtown, allowing the two neighborhoods to (almost) meet.  But it was striking how quickly the city pushed aside any arguments to preserve the Civic Arena.  Or even just to delay its demolition for a year or three in the possibility some other use or money might make it a viable building for our community.

Contrast that speed with the delay, delay and delay over the proposed demolition of the St. Nicholas Church on Route 28, in the East Allegheny neighborhood of the city of Pittsburgh.  The parish formally left the building five years ago.  All religious items were long ago removed.  The vandals have taken what exterior copper off the building they could.  A plucky and vocal group of preservationists have proposed making the church into a museum to the Croatian immigrant experience in the United States--but have never proven to the Catholic parish and the Diocese of Pittsburgh that they have resources beyond a dream, or anything resembling a sound business plan.  

Yet the city still holds the church, and the parish, hostage, because of the Historic Preservation label imposed on it in 2001.

At least, until Allegheny County Common Pleas Court Judge Robert Colville reversed a Pittsburgh Historic Review Commission decision on July 23.  Colvill's ruling describes the church's historic designation as, in effect, "a taking."  His ruling also questioned the legal standing of the people who testified and offered opinions about the building's alleged viability.  A 2009 feasibility study reported estimated renovation costs to the church building of $7 million.  The court decision noted that there is no evidence that anyone "would attempt to raise $7 million" for that purpose.  

I could bet that  when he heard about Colville's ruling, parish administrator Father Dan Whalen probably said to himself, at last sanity is breaking out.  (The contemporary demands of full disclosure make me admit that Dan is a brother priest, friend, and a former colleague when we both served St. John Vianney Parish, Hilltop.  But he is not responsible for anything I post in my blog.)  But wait, the city one day later announced that it would appeal Judge Colville's ruling.  And so more delay, and more hardship on the St. Nicholas Parish of Millvale, which does have a church which has real historic artifacts -- the paintings of Maxo Vanka.  (Go to www.stnicholascroatian.com .  Or better, drive up the hill and see the paintings in person.)

Why is it government can move so quickly when possible tax dollars, and the influence of the sports team Penguins, speak, and when the church speaks, all it gets is ... well, lots of words and lots of delay?

Email Disaster

To my dear and few friends who read this!

Yesterday I lost my email account.  I had kept my email address ( falmade@verizon.net ) from my former parish, Saint Juan Diego, in Sharpsburg.  But the parish changed its phone and internet service yesterday, and forgot that I had my account with them.

Bye-bye emails, history, saved photos, and address book.

So, to those brave souls who read this, would you be so kind as to contact me at my new email address:  falmade7@verizon.net ?  Yes, St. Vitus Parish has Verizon service.  This new email address is through our parish account.  But after a kindly Verizon service representative worked for 45 minutes to recover my former email address, I learned that the Saint Juan Diego account was a business one, St. Vitus is a residential one.  Ne'er the twain shall meet.  The service rep could not transfer the information in my former address to the new address I set up.

If you don't hear from me by email, this is why! 

I look forward to hearing (emailing??!!) from you.

Festival Time!

All are most welcome to come to the St. Vitus Big Festival now going on on our parish grounds here in New Castle.  We are known for great Italian food -- cavatelli, eggplant sandwiches, fried dough, pizza greens, pepperoni puffs, pasta fagioli, and new this year, chicken salads.  We've improved our Kiddlie Land with new rides and booths, and have added dozens of new and enthusiastic volunteers.

Every night, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, from 6 to 10 pm, at 910 South Mercer Street, on the South Side of New Castle, Pennsylvania.

Tonight we have the locally famous Red Coat Band from Mahoningtown offering entertainment at 7 pm, and the Baby Doll Dance at 9 pm.  Friday night is the Lawrence County Brass at 7 pm and the Tonelli Brothers at 8 pm.  And on Saturday local band Capri performs their magic at 8 pm.

See you on the grounds! 

A Message to the Catholic Community in New Castle

Here is the statement I placed in the four bulletins of New Castle parishes this weekend, July 21-22.


Maybe you have heard this bouncy pop song, "Glory Days," by Bruce Springsteen when you were shopping in Giant Eagle or walking in a mall.

I had a friend was a big baseball player back in high school
He could throw that speedball by you, make you look like a fool
Saw him the other night at this roadside bar, I was walking in, he was walking out
We went back insie, sat down, had a few drinks, but all he kept tlaking about was

Glory days
They'll pass you by
In the wink of a young girl's eye
Glory days, glory days

There's a girl that lives up the block, back in school she could turn all the boys' heads
Sometimes on a Friday I'll stop by and have a few drinks after she puts her kids to bed
Her and her husband Bobby, well, they split up, I guess it's two years gone by now
We just sit around talking about the old times, she says when she feels like crying she starts laughing thinking about...Glory days...

Think I'm going down to the Well tonight and I'm gonna drink till I get my fill
And hope when I get old I don't sit around thinking about it, but I probably will
Just sitting back trying to recapture a little of the Gloria
Time slips away and leaves you with nothing, mister, but boring stories of...Glory days...

The Boss wrote this song when he was 33 years old.  He's now an ancient (for a rock musician) 63 years old, and has many more stories of past glory days.

I'll bet you do too.  These are the memorable stories about your kids growing up, or a funny time on vacation, or a tough time of transition or loss in your life.  People from our part of the country love to tell these stories, mostly about when things "used to be " better.  The stories look wistfully at the past, at "things that are no longer there."

Bishop David Zubik has appointed me pastor of the four parishes in the city of New Castle:  Mary Mother of Hope, St. Joseph the Worker, St. Vincent de Paul and St. Vitus, effective Monday, July 30.  He has also appointed Fathers Nicholas S. Vaskov and William P. Siple as parochial vicars for the four parishes.  As I accept this immense challenge from Bishop Zubik, I would like to change our focus and our stories from past "glory days" and "used to be's" to looking to the future with hope, to new "days of glory."  I would like us to sing the future-facing songs of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Jesus called his disciples and sent them out two by two to proclaim the Reign of God.  Jesus said to his apostles, "Go teach all nations."  Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit upon his followers, and on Pentecost fulfilled that promise with power and fire.  Jesus said that we, his disciples, would do even greater things than he did.

These words of Christ our savior direct us outward and forward, to be his missionaries, to share his promise of salvation for all people.  We probably won't travel to another continent, but we can be missionaries right here in New Castle, in Lawrence County, in the Diocese of Pittsburgh.  These teachings of Christ are words of evangelization, of proclaiming the Good News of God's love for all people.  These words call us to be Christ's committed disciples and joyful witnesses right now and into the future.  They are the Word of God which we can make present today and tomorrow in the actions of our lives.

My appointment comes at a special moment in the life of the universal church.  Earlier this year Pope Benedict XVI called for the entire Catholic Church to celebrate a "Year of Faith."  This year (from October 11, 2012, to November 24, 2013) commemorates the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Second Vatican Council.  Vatican II was the 20th ecumenical (worldwide) council in the almost 2,000 years of the church, and probably the greatest religious event of the 20th century.  Pope Benedict said, "The Year of Faith is a summons to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord Jesus, the one Savior of the world."  The Year of Faith also "would give renewed energy to the mission of the whole church to lead men and women out of the desert they are often in and toward the place of life: friendship with Christ who gives us fullness of life."  The Year of Faith would help the church "intensify the witness of charity" in the world.

With similar vigor Blessed Pope John Paul II wrote to the whole church at the end of the Great Jubilee Year 2000.  He called the church "to gain a new impetus in Christian living."  He recalled the words of Jesus to Peter, "Put out into the deep," that is, to go forward in a journey of faith "which would enable the proclamation of Christ to reach people, mold communities, and have a deep and incisive influence in bringing Gospel values to bear in society and culture."  He called for all local communities to do pastoral planning.

Many of you, I know, are fearful of the future.  What will happen to my parish?  What will happen to my church?  I hope in the coming months to ease these fears, by focusing on building our four parishes into the church alive.  Jesus said to the crowds when he went to heal the sick daughter of the synagogue official, "Fear is useless.  What is needed is trust."

The only reason to look backward is to thank those great Christians who have build our parishes and churches and schools.  I want us to go forward, to celebrate a Year of Faith, to put out into the deep, to develop many means of sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ.  I want to work with the pastoral councils and finance councils, the staffs and volunteers and people of St. Vitus Parish, St. Vincent de Paul Parish, St. Joseph the Worker Parish, and Mary Mother of Hope Parish.  I am grateful for the help of my brother priests, Father Bill Siple and Father Nick Vaskov, in this journey of faith forward.  I hope that you will also join me on this exceptional journey of faith into God's future days of glory.

A New Challenge

Spiritual writers who reflect on the life and ministry of Catholic clergy -- deacons, priests, bishops -- do not like the term "career" to describe what the man has done since ordination.  Careers are planned, executed with focus and precision, and most often in our money- and famed-soaked society are filled with unholy ambition.


In contrast, in an ideal world the life and ministry of the ordained are to be guided not my personal desires but by the needs of the faithful, or the needs of distressed people.  Also, Catholic clergy, whether secular (diocesan) or vowed religious, pledge obedience to their superior, and go where the diocese/order/Vatican direct.


I accept all that.  Yet you can still look back at one's "career" and see patterns.


One of those patterns in my 33 years as a priest is shorter assignments.  Depending on how you count, I've had no fewer than 13 assignments, with the longest being 7 1/2 years.  Another pattern is moving around.  I have changed residences about once every three years.  And I have fallen into the pattern of being an agent of change as a pastor.  I merged two communities into Incarnation of the Lord Parish (North Side); I closed three church buildings (St. John Vianney, Hilltop); I merged three parishes into Saint Juan Diego Parish, Sharpsburg.  (Of course I didn't do these things alone.  In each case I worked closely, and for years, with the lay leadership of each parish, and acted only after the support of diocesan staff and the formal approval of the diocesan bishop.)


Now again I am asked to transfer, move and be an agent of change.


On Wednesday I met with Bishop David Zubik and received from him the assignment of being pastor of the four parishes in the city of New Castle:  Mary Mother of Hope Parish, St. Joseph the Worker Parish, St. Vincent de Paul Parish, and St. Vitus Parish.  Last August 1 the bishop had assigned me as administrator of St. Vincent and St. Vitus parishes.  Now, in addition I take leadership of the two parishes Father Victor Molka formerly guided.  (On July 9 he was given a new assignment as pastor of St. Valentine Parish, Bethel Park.)


In canon law, an administrator of a parish is a temporary appointment, a pastor is a stable office with a term of six years.  Functionally the administrator and pastor do the same work--lead the community.


To help me in this task the bishop has given me two fine parochial vicars, Father William Siple and Father Nicholas Vaskov.  And the bishop suggested that instead of spreading the priests around, one each to a separate rectory, that we guys reside in the same rectory.


Today I visited the 28 room Mary Mother of Hope rectory just off the "diamond," the center of New Castle's business district.  There is more than enough room for all of us priests.  Each of us will have a five room suite, if you can believe it, with a few rooms left over for the occasional guest and for storage.  Living under the same roof will help us communicate better, and allow us to support one another in this challenging ministry of serving four parishes.


So I receive another assignment.  I move again, out of my current home on the campus of St. Vincent de Paul.  And I'm asked to be an agent of change.


But this change is different.  The four parishes in the city of New Castle, along with the other four parishes in Lawrence County, have been working together on several ministry fronts for years now:  RCIA, nursing home pastoral coverage, youth ministry.  Bishop Zubik and I are agreed that now is not the time to pursue formal structural change, such as merging parishes or closing churches.  Rather, I hope to work with the pastoral and finance council members, the staffs, volunteers and faithful of all the parishes to work even more closely together on as many issues as possible.  Collaboration is the key term.  


Then, open to the Spirit, and recognizing the declining number of people in our county and priests in our presbyterate, somewhere down the line (that is, years from now) the people may recognize the need for unity as one parish.


For now, however, my desire is to work with four unique parishes to be the very best we can be, as a hospitable, evangelizing, caring Catholic community in New Castle.  


Stay tuned.

Googlenope? Nope!

I almost did it!  I almost had a Googlenope.


What's a Googlenope?  (Of course, you can google it to find out!)  Humor columnist Gene Weingarten of the Washington Post coined the term a few years ago to describe a phrase which when you put it into the Google search engine between quotes, has no hits.


For example, Weingarten's first Googlenope was "Queen Elizabeth's buttocks."  Others he has found and written in his column are "In my past life I was an ordinary person" and "my gynecologist respects me."  


Of course, the Googlenope is elusive, and once identified, disappears.  The very act of identifying a Googlenope kills it.  Then it becomes a Googleyup--a phrase which has only one hit in the search engine.


A few weeks ago I did a post on the current heat wave enveloping the U.S.  In an attempt to be funny, I titled the post "Palm trees in New Castle."  Ha!  When a few days later I googled this phrase I came up with only one hit -- from 1956!  Not a Googlenope, but at least a Googleyup!


Try it!  See if you can come up with a Googlenope!  You read it here first.  


Let's see some other phrases I'll try:  "matinee idol handsome accordion player"; "holy atheist"; "evil nun"; or "dumbest blogger in New Castle."  

Retreat by the Sea

Late Tuesday evening I returned home after a ten hour drive from an eight-day retreat at the Eastern Point Jesuit Retreat House in Gloucester, Massachusetts.  Universal canon (church) law and diocesan clergy personnel policy require each bishop and priest to make an annual retreat.  No one has to force me to do this!


What a blessing my retreat was this year.  I returned to the same house where I did the full Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola two summers ago.  I returned and was greeted by the same wise and kindly spiritual director, Father Ken Hughes, S.J., whom I had for the 30 day retreat two summers ago.  I returned to a site bordered on three sides by water, with its own rugged beauty as it overlooks the Atlantic Ocean.  To see photos of the property visit www.easternpoint.org . 


A directed retreat in the Ignatian tradition is different from the usual preached retreat diocesan clergy are used to. It is done in silence by all retreatants. No talking in the dining room, no chit-chat in the hallways, no night-time tv surfing, no telephone conversations (well, at least not in the open where your voice carries and startles). I was taught to try to spend four one-hour periods in intense prayer every day.  These are in addition to participating in daily Mass as a community, and the personal celebration of the liturgy of the hours.  Each retreatant meets with his/her director for about 30-40 minutes each day in private.  The retreatant talks about what went on in prayer, what are his/her desires, concerns, sometimes obstacles to prayer.  Most times the director will give his/her directee one or two passages from the bible, to meditate on and to use as a "jumping off point" for conversation with God.


The whole exercise is grounded in St. Ignatius's understanding that God wishes to have a personal relationship with each one of us.  Only in a "deafening" silence, and with an open and listening heart, can we "allow God in."  We listen not only to the voice of God, but also to our own desires, which can lead us to where God wishes us to be.  


This was my eleventh eight-day silent retreat.  I love the silence.  Only in silence, I believe, can one really "pray hard."  Each of these retreats has brought me closer to God, to the point that I dare to call our relationship a friendship, and our occasional conversations as personal, idiosyncratic, and even humorous, as one with my best friend.  


Two years ago I did longer explanations of both the Spiritual Exercises and my reaction to my 30-day retreat for the parishioners of Saint Juan Diego, Sharpsburg.  When I can put my hands on these essays, I'll paste them in this blog, with some of my photos.


If you are at all interested in a developed explanation of the Spiritual Exercises, or even in growth in the spiritual life, I highly recommend Jim Martin's wonderful book, The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything:  A Spirituality for Real Life.  He explains Ignatius's vision, and the Spiritual Exercises, with clarity, insight, personal stories, and not a few jokes.