Father Copp...a true dirtbag!

The Daily News Tribune has featured the sorry tale of the Little Souls Center above the fold in today's paper.

There's a stunning revelation in the story from Father Copp at St. Charles. It turns out HE'S A LYING SACK OF CRAP!!

As Father Copp has told the Tribune,

"...Contrary to rumors, Copp said, he has not decided to sell the rectory building and does not know what the future holds for it. It's still very much in transition," he said.

Copp said he sympathizes with Wolf's dilemma [ed-as well he should, since he caused it!], but he does not feel he has treated her unfairly. [ed-"You're a lying sack of crap..."]

This is really unbelieveable. The church has told the school and the parents one thing, but has completely flip-flopped before the press so the pastor can cover his own ass. It's purely an issue of money, I can assure you of that. Once again, as pointed out in the Tribune story:

Over the past 10 months, Wolf Said, she has been working with architects and contractors to get estimates for how much it would cost to renovate the St. Charles rectory into day care space. After spending $7,000 of the schools's money on such studies, Wolf came to realize that the renovations would cost more than $150,000, and she conveyed that to the Archdiocese. "They weren't shocked by that at all," she said.

Copp, however, was. Although Little Souls would have paid for renovations, the Archdiocese typically reduces a tenant's rent as a consideration for such spending. The eventual estimate of $197,000 would have reduced Wolf's rent from $6,700 a month to $5,600, forcing St. Charles to absorb the $1,100 difference

.

Once again, it appears that the thieves are in the temple. The good Father, and indeed , the entire Archdiocese of Boston would do well to read their Bibles and remember this:

A fortune made by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor and a deadly snare. (Proverbs 21:6)




I've attempted to alert the media myself, as I have recently penned a letter to Brian McGrory of the Boston Globe; he's the "everyman" columnist in the Globe, and writes about the human interest stories that the readership seems to love....This certainly qualifies. I hope he'll cover it.

Little Souls - Another broken promise by the Archdiocese of Boston

You know that our young son Javier is approaching school age. He’s started two days of preschool at the lovely and convenient Little Souls Center on Lyman street in Waltham…it’s in one of the outbuildings of the now-closed St. Joseph’s parish.

Fortunately, the school has a lease through October 31, so the several hundred children that attend various stages of day care there weren’t thrown out in the street when the church closed. However, that put them under the gun to find a new home.

Some months ago, the director of the daycare started negotiating, via the Archdiocese of Boston, a new lease at the Saint Charles Borromeo parish on Hall Street in Waltham. In fact, back when the powers-that-be were determining which churches to close, Rev. Rodney J. Copp of St. Charles convinced the diocese not to close his church, specifically because the school was coming, and he expected an inflow of cash and new families to the small parish.

Unfortunately, things didn’t play out as the school had planned. Once the church was skipped by the closure committee, Fr. Copp started playing hardball, hemming and hawing over the lease negotiations, and finally calling the school on Memorial Day weekend to let them know that the deal was off, they had decided to sell the building instead. And do you know WHY Fr. Copp reneged on the deal? There’s a rumor afoot that still more churches are to be closed by the diocese. St. Charles has an outstanding debt of approximately $500,000 that has been on the books for OVER 100 YEARS, and Fr. Copp thinks that by selling the building and paying off the debt, it will convince the Archdiocese not to close his church.

I’ll say that again, in case you missed it. Fr. Copp dodged a bullet last year by telling Archbishop O’Malley that the preschool was coming with its families and money. Fr. Copp now hopes to dodge a bullet next year by telling Archbishop O’Malley that the buildings are sold and the church is out of debt…including the building that was to be used by the school that he promised was coming to save the church LAST YEAR.

Is this the biggest, nastiest sack of liquid crap you’ve ever heard about, or what?

There are some things you can do.

1. Call the Saint Charles Borromeo Parish at 781-893-0330 and let them know what you think of their real estate dealings
2. Call the Boston Archdiocese at 617-254-0100 and tell them what you think of the way they take care of the most vulnerable and unprotected in society (re: children)
3. Call Mayor McCarthy at 781-314-3100 at express your concerns over the now-homeless school and daycare
4. Call or email the Little Souls school at 781-893-5880 and litsouls@msn.com with messages of support
5. Tell everyone you know – especially practicing catholics – about what has transpired here.

There’s going to be plenty more in this space. The school promised us a list of contacts and phone numbers in our mailboxes today…there will be some letters posted in this space soon.

The Chidrens Crusade...or, the Bush Youth?

Military programs are moving into middle schools to fish for future soldiers, training students as young as 11 to march in formation and carry weapons.

The Children's Crusade

Tarsha Moore stands as tall as her 4-foot 8-inch frame will allow. Staring straight ahead, she yells out an order to a squad of peers lined up in three perfect columns next to her. Having been in the military program for six years, Tarsha has earned the rank of captain and is in charge of the 28 boys and girls in her squad. This is Lavizzo Elementary School. Tarsha is 14.

The Middle School Cadet Corps (MSCC) program at the K-8 school is part of a growing trend to militarize middle schools. Students at Lavizzo are among the more than 850 Chicago students who have enlisted in one of the city's 26 MSCC programs. At Madero Middle School, the MSCC has evolved into a full-time military academy for kids 11 to 14 years old...

...Ranjit Bhagwat, an organizer for Chicago's Southwest Youth Collaborative, has worked with students at Kelly High School in Chicago to inform their classmates about the provision and how to opt out. The Kelly group, founded in January, has already convinced more than 10 percent of the school's population to sign the opt-out petition. Bhagwat says the group targeted military recruitment because the students felt the military's presence in their school was an issue that needed to be addressed. "They had a problem with the fact that there were a lot of lies the military told," he says.

Opponents of the JROTC program also cite ethnic profiling, arguing that the military targets students from minority and low-income areas. The Chicago Public School system is 49.8 percent African American and 38 percent Latino. Students coming from low-income families make up 85.2 percent of Chicago's student population. JROTC director Mills is correct when he says the racial and socioeconomic status of those in Chicago's JROTC program reflects the school system as a whole, but only five schools in all of the more affluent Chicago suburbs have JROTC programs.

Military recruiters are known for their flashy tactics: television ads, omnipresent brochures, recruiting ships, trucks and vans, and even a free Army video game kids can download off the Internet. Yet, the Army hasn't met its recruitment goals in three months. The Marines haven't met their quotas since January. Suspicious recruitment tactics are in the headlines and Army recruiters took off May 20 to retrain in the ethics and laws of recruitment.

Blog readers of a certain age may well remember the Hitler Youth...are you scared yet?



Characteristic of Fascism point #4:

Supremacy of the Military

Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

Catholics and Liberals

Good Morning!

I was not overly surprised to read in today's Globe that the new Popenfuhrer has come out and condemned gay marriage...after all, the church opposes that sort of thing, and he's the leader of the church, right? I suppose they're within their rights to tell the membership what they think.

But the statement he made is extraordinary from a liberal point of view. I was so stunned by what he said, I just sat there and stared at the printed page, reading it over and over to make sure I saw it right. Here it is, verbatim: ''The various forms of the dissolution of matrimony today, like free unions, trial marriages and going up to pseudo-matrimonies by people of the same sex, are rather expressions of an anarchic freedom that wrongly passes for true freedom of man,"

Go ahead. Read it again. "Expressions of an anarchic freedom that wrongly passes for the True Freedom of Man". I don't know about you, but where I come from, the true freedom of man means that each individual should have the right to choose for himself what's best for himself, his family, and his loved ones, without government, religious, or other interference. What our new pope is telling all Catholics, is that the "true freedom of man" is the right to be subservient to the whims of one man in Rome that is increasingly out of touch with the modern world.

I hate to use a movie analogy, but if you've just seen Revenge of the Sith, you know that Chancellor Palpatine continually harps on the theme that once people are in power, they'll do anything to hold onto that power...this is exactly what this seems to be to me. What's the pope afraid of?

It's becoming obvious to me that you can't be a liberal and a Catholic...it's increasingly apparent that these are two conflicting views. So the choice is yours. Do we do what's right for ourselves, our families, and society, or do we continue to be subservient to the will of one "infallible" man?

Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts

Hey, remember those 14 defining characteristics of Fascism that I have posted in this space previously?

We'll here's a sorry case out of New York City that illustrates that we're not making it up. To whit: Point #11, Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts... "Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked..."

And here's the story:

NEW YORK - (KRT) - The Bronx martial arts expert arrested in an alleged plot to build a secret al-Qaida training camp is a well-known city jazz musician who has backed greats like Abbey Lincoln and Betty Carter, friends said Tuesday.

Tarik Shah, 42, has played bass at local clubs for years, and fellow musicians said they've never heard him espouse an allegiance to Osama bin Laden.

"This man talks about music. That's all he talks about," said pianist Donald Smith, 61, who last month played with Shah at St. Nick's Pub in Harlem.

"The only thing we know is he is a devout Muslim, loves God. He loves his family."

But prosecutors charge Shah, the son of a former aide to Malcolm X, was only using his musical skills as a "cover" for a plan to train his Muslim "brothers" to wage jihad...

And there's an even more troubling example from Florida....