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CHRIS SELLEY: Could Scheer's devotion to Big Dairy finally break the supply management consensus?
Chris Selley, Postmedia News (cselley@nationalpost.com)
Updated: Jul 19, 2019 at 12:58 p.m.
Andrew Scheer - Postmedia
Do Liberals really want to be seen and heard enthusiastically agreeing with their arch-enemy on inflating grocery prices?
Part of the standard Liberal narrative about Conservative leader Andrew Scheer is that he's beholden to social-conservative party members who supported Brad Trost for party leader but wound up picking Scheer over Maxime Bernier on the final ballot. This explains to many Canadians why Scheer is likely to legislate on abortion despite vowing not to, even after Stephen Harper spent 10 years vowing not to legislate on abortion and kept his word. (Of course, Harper was portrayed as an identical threat to women's rights after Reform's merger with the Progressive Conservatives.)
I long ago concluded that the most, shall we say, passionate social conservatives — the ones trafficking in photos of aborted fetuses, for example — are, above all, masochists. They keep supporting nominally conservative parties, and all they do is lose ground, and then back they come four years later. But if I were one of the many far-more-reasonable so-cons placing some hope in Scheer — if I pined for a Swedish-style abortion law, say, rather than an Alabama-style one — I would be preparing myself right now for yet another crushing disappointment. Because Scheer is currently demonstrating in quite spectacular fashion what it actually looks like for a Canadian political leader to be utterly beholden to a special interest group, and it's not the so-cons. It's ultra-protectionist Big Dairy, representatives of which bought up scads of memberships during the leadership race and are credibly credited with handing him the leadership over Bernier, who is — for all his innumerable faults — one of Canadian politics' very few apostates on the question of supply management in the dairy industry.
"I truly do believe that chocolate milk saved my son's life," Scheer joked to a room full of dairy farmers in Saskatoon on Wednesday. Said son was apparently a very picky eater in his early years. The line earned him much mockery, not least because he deployed it as a weapon against the recently updated Canada Food Guide.
Scheer alleged a "complete lack of consultation" went into said document, and argued that it "seems to be ideologically driven by people who have a philosophical perspective" — namely, one that doesn't see the need for Canadians to consume half a litre of milk every single day to keep their vitamin D up, and that savagely demotes milk into a nutritional category called "milk and alternatives."
Certainly some ideology and philosophy went into the food guide de-emphasizing milk and animal proteins. But this version of the food guide is notable for having largely fended off various industry groups that have in the past successfully interceded to make a mockery of the entire exercise — for example to make fruit juice, which is basically just a sugar-delivery mechanism, a recommended food for children. This time medical science largely won the day, and whatever medical science's flaws, we can safely trust its advice over that of the Dairy Farmers of Canada or the Cattlemen's Association.
There's no shame in a conservative politician opposing the federal government of a gigantic country containing multitudes of lifestyles trying to create an ideal diet for all its citizens. "I'll eat what I want, get out of my kitchen," is a perfectly respectable position — especially since the food guide is such a joyless, under-salted slog. But that's not Scheer's position. Instead he's vowing to "get it right." This suggests consulting people other than medical and scientific experts, most of whom were relatively pleased with this edition of the food guide. It suggests bringing industry voices back into the mix. And that's not something anyone other than Big Dairy and Big Meat should want.
The so-con comparison is somewhat facetious, of course: Abortion is a third-rail issue, or at least the media treats it as such, whereas unwavering protectionist support for our dairy farmers is an all-party consensus-cum-contest to see who can most abase themselves. The winner, by far, is Andrew Scheer. On Wednesday he excoriated the Liberal government for allegedly missing deadlines to explain how it would compensate dairy farmers for ever-so-slightly opening the Canadian market to European and Asian countries.
"(This) mistreatment is unacceptable," he told the Saskatonian audience. His future government would "never back down from defending the (dairy) sector," he vowed.
In a strange way, it gives me hope. Surely it's objectively weird that a man the Liberals are trying to portray as the human embodiment of Canada's future ruination is so cartoonishly in favour of subsidizing and coddling a given industry, thereby continuing to inflate prices for Canadian consumers, and yet his opponents' only instinct is to find a way to agree with him. By rights it ought to be the Conservatives who bust up lactosa nostra (copyright CBC's David Cochrane). But having rebuffed Big Dairy's dubious dietary advice, the option is entirely open to the Liberals as well. The average Canadian grocery shopper will thank whichever party finally gets it done.
• Email: cselley@nationalpost.com | Twitter: cselley
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Our Lady Queen of Peace: What's been happening in the Parish?
What's been happening in the Parish?
Things have begun to calm down a bit now that the Easter season is nearing the end. We shall be returning to Ordinary Time soon.
The Parish has had a very busy spring. We have purchased a new stove for the kitchen. Our next monthly dinner will be held on Friday, June 5 and will begin at 5PM. It is a full pork dinner! We will even have applesauce. So bring your family, friends, and neighbors to the Monsignor Foynes Hall for a delicious meal and fellowship.
Recitation of the Rosary was held in the Monsignor Foynes Hall on Wednesday, May 20 at 10:30 AM. There were approximately 55 people that attended. We were unable to hold this event at Peace Hall this year due to the construction in Sims Park, downtown New Port Richey. However, all appreciated the air conditioned room and refreshments provided by our Rosary Altar Society members.
We've noticed that our winter visitors have returned home for the summer months. Having a bit more elbow room at this time of year in the church is appreciated. We thank the part time members for their continued support of this Parish.
We will be having another Rosary recitation along with benediction and a procession with the statue of the Blessed Mother on Saturday, May 30, after the 4PM Mass. We welcome your participation.


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Against all Odds The History of the 2/18 Battalion A.I.F.
[2/18 Battalion] BURFITT, James
Frenchs Forest: published by the 2/18th Battalion Association, 1991. Octavo, hardcover, 296 pp., maps and photo plates. Near-fine copy with the dust-jacket, previous owner's label to front endpaper. Official history of the 2/18 Battalion in the Second World War. Stationed in Malaya and hopelessly outnumbered and out-gunned by the Japanese.....	More
War Dance A Story of the 2/3 Inf. Battalion A.I.F.
[2/3 Battalion] CLIFT, Ken
Brookvale: Steamlined Press, 1980. Octavo, hardcover, [xiv], 450 pp., maps and illustrations throughout. Slight foxing of the fore-edge, a near-fine copy in mildly rubbed dust-jacket. Obituary notice for Ken Clift pasted to the title-page, related newspaper article loosely inserted. One of the classic recent Battalion histories, with a desirable provenance.....	More
Guns and Gunners The Story of the 2/5th Australian Field Regiment in World War II
[2/5th Australian Field Regiment] O'BRIEN, John
Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1950. Octavo, original blue cloth, xviii, 268 pp., frontispiece, 16 double-sided photo plates, endpaper maps and a further 12 maps throughout the text. Cloth a little dulled and flecked, internally in very good order. First edition of a scarce and desirable Second World War regimental history.....	More
Aero-Engines. Inspection Before Flight "C" Licence Aeronautical Engineering Series
[AIR MINISTRY]
London: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, 1940. Slim octavo, original printed boards; vi, 36 pp. Boards mildly rubbed, yet a very good copy. A two-part manual. The first section provides information on how to inspect aero-engines before flight. The second part regards the law relating to civil aviation.	More
Pilot's and Flight Engineer's Notes: Liberator III, V, VI & VIII
Lancashire: Air Data Publications, no date. Small octavo, printed wrappers, 72 pp., six folding plates. A very good copy. This publication is divided into six parts: descriptive, handling, operating, data, emergencies and general handling.	More
Wings of the Phoenix The official story of the Air War in Burma
London: HMSO, 1949. Octavo, original black cloth, [vi], 144 pp, plates. A fine copy in a bit ubbed and torn dust jacket. An important summary of a crucial theatre of war that is not well documented.	More
The Story of the 2/2nd Australian Pioneer Battalion
AITKEN, E.F. [Edward Fawcett]
Melbourne: published by the Battalion Association, 1953. Octavo, original burgundy cloth with gilt spine lettering, xvi, 288 pp., frontispiece and numerous photo plates. A little flecking affects the spine, otherwise an attractive copy. History of the Battalion through various theatres during the Second World War: Middle East, Syria, Java and.....	More
Darwin's Air War 1942-1945 An illustrated history
ALFORD, Robert & RADTKE, Peter
Darwin: Aviation Historical Society of the Northern Territory, 1992. Large quarto, hardcover, 80 pages, plates. Inscribed by the Aviation Historical Society of the Northern Territory to aviation enthusiast John Fisher, otherwise a fine copy in dust jacket. An excellent history of the air battles over Darwin, being the first publication.....	More
American Fighters of World War II Combat Aircraft Library
ANDERTON, David A.
Sydney: Golden Press, 1982. Quarto, hardcover, 80 pp., illustrated in full colour. A fine copy in dust jacket. A graphic tribute to World War II American Fighters.	More
The Anzac Squadron
ASHWORTH, Norman
Perth: Hesperian Press, 1994. Octavo, printed wrappers, ix, 276 pp., illustrated throughout. Cover slightly rubbed at spine ends, otherwise a near-fine copy A scarce copy. This is an account of the No 461 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, which was formed in Britain on Anzac Day 1942 and which spent.....	More
Roger Keyes Being the biography of Admiral of the Fleet Lord Keyes of Zeebrugge and Dover
ASPINALL-OGLANDER, Cecil
London: Hogarth Press, 1951. Octavo, original blue cloth, frontispiece and plates, xvi, 478 pp. A very good copy. Biography of Roger Keyes, mastermind of the legendary raid on Zeebrugge during the First World War, which was largely responsible for disarming the U-Boat menace.	More
Inaugural Document and Reports ACA-1 to 12 of the Australian Council for Aeronautics
[Australian Council for Aeronautics]
Melbourne: Government Printer for the Australian Council for Aeronautics, 1944. Quarto, original blue cloth boards, iv, 20 page introduction followed by twelve successive reports with separate pagination, graphs and illustrations throughout. An excellent copy. This is the first annual volume of the Australian Council for Aeronautics, a milestone in the.....	More
Reports ACA-13 to ACA-18 of the Australian Council for Aeronautics
Melbourne: Government Printer for the Australian Council for Aeronautics, 1945. Quarto, original blue cloth boards, four page foreword followed by five successive reports with separate pagination, graphs and illustrations throughout. An excellent copy. This is the second annual volume of the Australian Council for Aeronautics, a milestone in the progress.....	More
Melbourne: Government Printer for the Australian Council for Aeronautics, 1946. Quarto, original blue cloth boards, title-page and contents leaf followed by ten successive reports with separate pagination, graphs and illustrations throughout. An excellent copy. This is the third annual volume of the Australian Council for Aeronautics, a milestone in the.....	More
Aircraft of the Aces The Legendary Spitfire Mk I/II 1939-41
AZAOLA, Juan Ramon (editor)
Madrid: Osprey Aviation, 1999. Octavo, printed wrappers, 64 pp., illustrated. A near-fine copy. A history of the operational career of Mark I and Mark II versions of the fighter in the period before, during and after the Battle of Britain.	More
Adolf Galland The Authorised Biography
BAKER, David
London: Windrow & Greene, 1996. Small quarto, hardcover, x, 316 pp., plates. The spine is bumped at the top and bottom. Dust-jacket slightly creased on the front at the top. Otherwise a fine copy. Adolf Galland was the most famous German fighter pilot of World War II, and until his.....	More
Torres Strait Force 1942 to 1945 The Defence of Cape York-Torres Strait and Merauke in Dutch New Guinea
BALL, Reg A.
Loftus: Australian Military History Publications, 1996. Quarto, hardcover, xv, 302 pp., illustrated throughout. Small label 'History Unit' stuck on spine end, cover extremities slightly bumped, otherwise a near fine copy. A history of the operations of a number of units which eventually became the nucleus of the Torres Strait Force.....	More
On Ultra Active Service The Story of Australia's Signals Intelligence Operations during World War II
BALLARD, Geoffrey
Melbourne: Spectrum Publications, 1991. Quarto, red cloth with gilt lettering, [vi], 384 pp., profusely illustrated. Moderate foxing, otherwise a near-fine copy in dust jacket. Inscribed and signed by the author. The story of the people of the 'Sigint' organisation. Their skill and dedication in analysing and decoding the enemy's signal.....	More
Hitler's Digger Slaves Caught in the Web of Axis Labour Camps
BARNETT, Alex
Loftus, NSW: Australian Military History Publication, 2008. Octavo, printed wrappers, xx, 306 pp., illustrated. A fine copy. An account of the 'Benghazi Handicap' in North Africa, which resulted in the capture of some 200 Australian plus Allied troops, when the Afrika Korps overran them in April 1941.	More
Graduation List of Officers of the Australian Military Forces. Volume II
BAXTER COX, Brigadier A.R.
Melbourne: published under direction of the Military Board, 1946. Octavo, green papered-boards, continuously paginated from page 741 through to 1777 (following on from the first volume). With additional separately paginated appendices. Cloth bumped and marked, internally in very good order, a well-preserved copy. A list of reserve, retired and deceased.....	More
Mohawks over Burma
BEAUCHAMP, Gerry
Earl Shilton, Leicester: Midland Counties Publications, 1985. Octavo, green cloth, 312 pp., illustrated. A fine copy in dust jacket. First edition. In the late summer of 1942, the sole aerial defence of India against the victorious Japanese advancing through Burma rested on the shoulders of a little band of Commonwealth.....	More
Ardennes 1944 Hitler's Last Gamble
BEEVOR, Antony
London: Penguin Books, 2015. Large octavo, hardcover, xx, 452 pp., plates. A fine copy with dust-jacket. On 16 December 1944, Hitler launched his 'last gamble' in the snow covered forests and gorges of the Ardennes. He believed he could split the Allies by driving all the way to Antwerp, then.....	More
Defeat to Victory No. 453 Squadron RAAF
BENNETT, Squadron Leader John
Melbourne: RAAF Museum, 1994. Octavo, printed wrappers, xi, 188 pp., illustrated throughout. A fine copy. Squadron Leader John Bennett is an RAAF navigator who has served on both RAAF and RAF squadrons flying Canberra, F111 and Buccaneer strike aircraft. Defeat to Victory recounts the events that took place in Singapore.....	More
The Battle of Britain The Greatest Battle in the History of Air Welfare
BICKERS TOWNSHEND, Richard
London: Guild Publishing, 1990. Quarto, blue cloth, 208 pp., illustrated. A fine copy with dust-jacket. Signed by R.L. Jones '6419 Spitfire Squadrons 1940'. A foreword by Air Marshal Sir Denis Crowley-Milling. The full story of the greatest air battle in history. A team of distinguished authors and historians describe the.....	More
BINNING, John
Sydney: Australasian Publishing Company, 1943. Octavo, original red cloth, 180 pp., frontispiece and plates. The cloth is a bit rubbed at extremities, yet a very good copy overall. First-hand account by an anti-aircraft gunner stationed in Darwin and northern Australia during the Second World War. The front endpaper bears the.....	More

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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The fish that can survive for months in a tree
By DAVID DERBYSHIRE
Last updated at 22:20 17 October 2007
It's one of the golden rules of the natural world – birds live in trees, fish live in water.
The trouble is, no one bothered to tell the mangrove killifish.
Scientists have discovered that it spends several months of every year out of the water and living inside trees.
Scroll down for more ...
Hidden away inside rotten branches and trunks, the remarkable creatures temporarily alter their biological makeup so they can breathe air.
Biologists studying the killifish say they astonished it can cope for so long out of its natural habitat.
The discovery, along with its ability to breed without a mate, must make the
mangrove killifish, Rivulus marmoratus Poey, one of the oddest fish known to man.
Around two inches long, they normally live in muddy pools and the flooded burrows of crabs in the mangrove swamps of Florida, Latin American and Caribbean.
The latest discovery was made by biologists wading through swamps in Belize and Florida who found hundreds of killifish hiding out of the water in the rotting
branches and trunks of trees.
The fish had flopped their way to their new homes when their pools of water around the roots of mangroves dried up. Inside the logs, they were lined up end to end along tracks carved out by insects.
Dr Scott Taylor of the Brevard County Environmentally Endangered Lands Programme in Florida admitted the creatures were a little odd.
"They really don't meet standard behavioural criteria for fish," he told New Scientist magazine.
Although the cracks inside logs make a perfect hiding place, conditions
can be cramped. The fish – which are usually fiercely territorial – are forced to curb their aggression.
Another study, published earlier this year, revealed how they alter their bodies and metabolism to cope with life out of water.
Their gills are altered to retain water and nutrients, while they excrete nitrogen waste through their skin.
These changes are reversed as soon as they return to the water.
Previously their biggest claim to fame was that they are the only known vertebrate – animal with a backbone – to reproduce without the need for a mate.
Killifish can develop both female and male sexual organs, and fertilise their eggs while they are still in the body, laying tiny embryos into the water.
They are not the only fish able to breathe air. The walking catfish of South-east Asia has gills that allow it to breathe in air and in water.
The climbing perch of India can suffocate in water unless it can also gulp in air.


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Drug addiction is the worst curse that humanity is suffering from. It has affected the whole human race and taken away millions of lives. Opiate addiction has spread like a plague and engulfed mostly the teenagers all over the world. It must be uprooted from our society; otherwise our future generations have to face unforeseen consequences. Drug addiction is a disease that has taken control over millions of human beings all over the world. The most common form of drug practiced nowadays by the people is the painkiller addiction. The teenagers are worst hit by this form of addiction. Since, painkillers are legal and used for its medicinal properties; they are found in any medical stores and are easily available.
In order to cure people from opiate addiction, many drug rehabilitation centers have grown up which provide great treatment facilities to the patients. Opiate addiction comes for various reasons, sometimes it comes from depression, loneliness and sometimes it comes from mere curiosity. Teenagers often try to show their smartness in front of their friends and take these drugs, which later turns to be addiction. Due to the easy availability of opiates like the painkillers, the teens get them very easily. They are not well informed about the effects of painkiller addiction, so they do not see any risk in consuming them. But, when the effects show up, it becomes too late for them to get back.
Tags: drug addiction essay, painkiller addictions, pharmaceutical treatment, signs of painkiller addiction, symptoms of painkill.
Filed under drug abuse essay by drugabusetreatment on Jul 4th, 2011 . Comment.


Let me introduce you to one of our favorite summer dishes. You have to love it when mother nature supplies a perfect food like sweet and juicy peaches- simply amazing as is; however, grilling those peaches takes them to a whole new level of good. I think even mother nature would find it hard to resist one of these grilled peaches topped off with balsamic and brown sugar along with a scoop of ice cream or some cinnamon-sugar grill bread. It's hard to find a more simple and impressive dessert than this.
Heat grill to medium high. Rub a little olive oil on the grill to prevent your peaches from sticking. Drizzle some balsamic vinegar on cut side of peaches and sprinkle with brown sugar. Place cut side down on grill for 3-4 minutes (until heated through with grill marks). Turn peach halves and drizzle with a little more balsamic and sprinkle with more brown sugar. Let cook for another minute until brown sugar melts. Serve immediately.
Note: Any stone fruit such as plums and nectarines are also wonderful.
These look sooooo good- can't wait to try them!


text:
Medium is becoming an interesting writing community that actually pays
Watch Anecdotes: People from the IL DMV and emissions offices
communities,
To get it out of the way, the pros and cons of Medium have been discussed thoroughly elsewhere. But in a recent newsletter, the company shared some stats about its paid membership program that I think are at least worthy of discussion.
In short, Medium's membership program sounds kinda like Netflix. It charges readers $5/month, then divides that money between the writers of all the articles people read. For now, Medium doesn't even take a cut off that $5; the full amount goes to writers.
Eventually, I wager Medium will have to do something like either raise that price or start taking a cut. But I applaud the company's effort to avoid advertising.
For example, here are a few of July's payment stats:
47% of authors or publications who wrote at least one story for members earned money. 9.8% of active authors earned over $100.
$16,007.02 was the most earned by an author, and $2,260.42 was the most earned by a publication.
$2,059.72 was the most earned for a single story.
Medium also put out a call for stories on topics they want to feature in August. I think the company is doing a good job venturing beyond its tech roots:
Code as Art: Stories celebrating the creative side of coding.
Losing My Religion: Perspectives on parting ways with faith, for better or for worse.
Not Another First Time Story: Reflections on doing something unexpected for the first time (particularly off the beaten path, so no: first ex; yes: first hex).
If you write something in any of these ballparks, email editors@medium.com with the subject line "Partner Program Submission" and the title of your piece.
Our HomePods haven't been able to play music for months, but I finally fixed it
A combination of a self-inflicted wound may have combined with an obscure bug to render our HomePods as paperweights. Fortunately, I fixed it.


For the launch campaign of our Creative Agency we worked with made oil paintings that played with our company name ONOGRIT in lots of silly and clever ways. Breasts and animals included.
"Onogrit." - "Ono… what?" That's pretty much the first response we get about our studio name. To prevent any future misunderstandings, we illustrated the best slips of the tongue (and ear). By hand, on paper, with color and brush. And here they are - our top ten artworks. Any more rhymes in stock? Send them to us!


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Are there any fees associated with the Guaranteed Income Optimizer?
Can I purchase the Guaranteed Income Optimizer jointly?
Yes. In order to jointly hold the GIO, you and the other owner must jointly hold the account in which you purchase the Guaranteed Income Optimizer.
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What are some of the tax considerations for the Guaranteed Income Optimizer?
Tax slips will be issued for the interest paid up to the end of the calendar year in which it is earned.
CDIC eligibility is subject to a maximum coverage and other limitations.
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Faith/
Check Out the Biblical Reference Behind the Name of Israel's Military Operation Against Hamas
"…the Lord looked down upon the Egyptian army from a pillar of fire and cloud, and threw the Egyptian army into panic."
Sharona Schwartz
"The Crossing of the Red Sea", Nicholas Poussin (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In English, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is calling its effort - launched Wednesday - to strike a blow to Hamas' terrorist infrastructure "Pillar of Defense," but in Hebrew the operation's name has another, deeper biblical meaning. In Hebrew, the IDF named its operation "Amud Anan," that is Pillar of Cloud, a clear reference to the flight of the Children of Israel from Egypt and how God protected them.
In the Book of Exodus 13:21, as the Israelites flee Egypt and the oppressive Pharaoh, the scene is described this way:
The Lord went before them in a pillar of cloud by day, to guide them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light, that they might travel day and night.
The pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire remained with them throughout their journey. Meanwhile, a very angry Pharaoh deployed his chariots, horses and warriors to chase after the departing former slaves. As the Egyptian soldiers began to catch up with the Israelites, this is what happened, according to Exodus 14:19-20:
The angel of God, who had been going ahead of the Israelite army, now moved and followed behind them; and the pillar of cloud shifted from in front of them and took up a place behind them and it came between the army of the Egyptians and the army of Israel. Thus there was a cloud with the darkness, and it cast a spell upon the night, so that the one could not come near the other all through the night.
Then the Red Sea split, the Israelites began to cross on dry land while the Egyptian military on horse and chariot chased after them into the now-divided sea. Exodus 14:24 reads:
At the morning watch, the Lord looked down upon the Egyptian army from a pillar of fire and cloud, and threw the Egyptian army into panic.
TheBlaze asked Haifa University bible scholar Dr. Jonathan Ben-Dov why he thinks the IDF chose this biblically significant reference as the name of the operation to strike Hamas. He said:
They chose it because it's something for defense. The pillar of cloud stood to absorb the arrows of the Egyptians. That's I think what they had in mind. It was in front of them and then behind them and then back in the front of them. The pillar of cloud is there to defend.
And now Israel seeks a modern day "Pillar of Cloud" to defend itself against relentless attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups.
On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invited the foreign ambassadors serving in Israel to Ashkelon – a city that's suffered from rocket fire launched by terrorist groups in Gaza, including Hamas, to try to prepare international public opinion while he was planning the more wide-scale military operation in Gaza. Israel is investing great effort in emphasizing the defensive objective of its military mission, that is, to protect the million Israeli citizens living within the radius of Grad and Qassam rockets. According to IDF statistics, more than 12,000 rockets launched by Gaza terrorist groups have hit southern Israel in the past 12 years. It reports that since the beginning of 2012, Palestinian terrorists in Gaza have fired 768 rockets into Israel. More than 120 were fired between Sunday and Tuesday.
The biblical passage refers to a specific example in which God was defending the Israelites from a cruel and merciless enemy – one with a hard heart. Thus, in those three words "Pillar of Cloud," the IDF can convey Israel is on the defense, while Hamas and other terrorists – like the biblical Egyptian warriors - are unjustifiably chasing innocent men, women and children.
The IDF has in the past used biblical phrases for its operations' names. For example, the 1996 battle Grapes of Wrath against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
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December 11, 2020 December 11, 2020 ross
The Happiest Season Leaves Me Sad and Wanting More
Abby (KRISTEN STEWART) and Harper (MACKENZIE DAVIS) in TriStar Pictures' HAPPIEST SEASON.
The Streaming Experience: Hulu's 'Happiest Season' on Canada's Amazon Prime
By Ross
'Happiest Season' is just the kind of Christmas candy that I've been looking forward to for years. The Hulu original (Amazon Prime in Canada) has a starry cast of lovely pros, such as Kristen Stewart, Mary Steenburgen and Victor Garber lined up to deliver, and a modern non-hetero stance that it consciously and determinedly decided to take, and it's about time we got some representation. The Christmas movie is purposeful, as put forth by actor-turned-director and writer Clea DuVall ("The Intervention"; "Argo"), with an assist on the story by fellow 'Veep' co-star, Mary Holland (who plays sister Jane in the tale), in its attempt to change the vantage point on the classic holiday romp set-up, by shifting the angle and adding a sexuality layer of conflict that, although we've seen an essence of this before (I must say am curious and stupidly hopeful about the upcoming 'The Christmas Setup'), a homosexual coupling has not been featured at the center of a holiday treat before, at least to my knowledge. It is a galant attempt, and I give the duo plenty of positive chops for taking the stance,. It succeeds, in that made-for-holiday season television kinda way, by being almost obstinately predictable and straightforwardly traditional. It doesn't challenge nor push too hard to be anything more than what its heteronormative counterparts present, but because of that typical manner of delivery, 'Happiest Season' fails, falling head-first into a hole of stomach-churning disappointment, making me sad that this is what the film was made to be on purpose, and not by mistake. It detaches from my hopeful happy place, specifically because it lacks the desire to to be anything but formulamatic and therefore, completely disheartening.
The holiday film aims to be a pleasant Hallmark equivalent, but with a lesbian twist that is somehow supposed to enlighten the masses, while not challenging them to step too far off the snowy upper-class white suburban privileged path. It definitely doesn't shy away from itself, placing 'true love' at its core, standing up against the confines and the unreasonable expectations of parents who don't get it, while also laying out a lesbian coming-out tale within the problematic dynamics that live and breath within this 'traditional' made-for-TV family. Abby, played to the max by a focused Kristen Stewart (The Twilight Saga film series, "The Clouds of Sils Maria") is a woman in love, deeply and thoroughly, with Mackenzie Davis' Harper. Their relationship is seemingly perfect , at least in the eyes of Abby's friend, John, played by the always appealing Dan Levy, creator and star of the infinitely more refined 'Schitt's Creek'. But in a fit of overzealous Christmas cheer, Harper invites the parentless Abby home for Christmas with her family. Abby agrees, reluctantly at first, but full heartedly after sleeping on the idea, as Christmas has a delicate and painful edge to it ever since the death of her parents. Abby is nervous about dancing on that very edge, but has a surprise for Harper, one that comes in a jewelry box, but means a great deal more. The main problem is, unbeknownst to Abby, Harper has a surprise as well, but one that isn't so festive or marital. It seems she has not been exactly truthful about her coming-out story to Abby. In fact, there is no coming-out story, because Harper, played erratically by Davis (HBO's 'Station Eleven') has never told her parents that she is gay, and has decided to wait until they are halfway to her parents' overly perfect house before letting Abby in on the bitter truth.
So, as in almost every gay coming-out movie I can remember (or at least that is how it feels), gay characters, like Abby, are always being asked to 'play straight' for the time being, however long that will be, and pretend to be the proverbial 'roommate', a dramatic concept that makes my head fume and my stomach hurt. How many times am I going to have to watch this play out, in almost the same way? It's toxic, I must say, and says more about their relationship than this movie ever pretends to understand. Abby's decision, although well navigated by Stewart, makes me wish that some other plot point could be found in all this holiday madness, and that Harper wasn't written out to be such a mind-swapping scaredy cat ass. Steenburgen ("Miss Firecracker"; "The Help") and Garber ('Legends of Tomorrow'; "Titanic") play their paternal roles dutifully, although the two are still just cut-out characters from an old movie that I don't ever want to watch again. The two actors deserve better, as both parents seem to live in an inauthentic realm of interaction and understanding, never finding the language or the dimension to equate themselves to better parental figures, like the couple at the head of "The Family Stone" or as the core of "Home for the Holidays", two infinitely finer and more sophisticated ventures about family and conflict. Maybe it is the reality of the time we still live in, but 'Happiest Season' feels dated while trying to be revolutionary, forward-thinking while feeling insulting and out of touch. You can disagree with me on that, but my stomach can't be soothed by any type of explaining or pacifying on the concept.
Dan Levy and Kristen Stewart in a scene from Happiest Season.
All of the ingredients inside 'Happiest Season' makes sense, but the formulations fail to find a pathway out of the classic inauthentic traits of this particular brand of sugary sweet holiday confections. So many of these types of films are rolled out, one after the other, as if from a factory, in the month of December by Lifetime and The Hallmark Channel, but this one needs to be something different and/or deeper to make it feel truly equal or advancing. In what should have been at least a bit ground breaking, 'Happiest Season' becomes something as shortsightedly similar as the rest of the holiday pack. The forgettable awkward dialogue and clumsy characterizations kept me at arms length from the human connections, leaving me sad that I got so excited for something that turned out to be so unremarkable. The only true moment of authenticity and true emotionality comes from the well spoken mouth of Levy, playing the almost stereotypical gay sidekick character named John, a name that seems almost insultingly simple for the difficult task he was given. John finds himself out in front as everything crumbles around inside, beautifully explaining to Abby the complicated wide spectrum that exists when it comes to a person's coming-out experience. His tone and presence finds the one slice of clarity needed in this sad truth, and through this very touching exchange, a real emotional moment of connection is created, for us, and for them. Left up to him, and maybe to the formidable Aubrey Plaza ('Parks and Recreation') as the old jilted girlfriend Riley (who brings more sexual tension and fire to this film than almost anyone else), the movie does manage to find some much needed grace and tender connection inside some pretty overly self-aware teaching moments. Praise be.
The stone cold hostile sister Sloane, played by Alison Brie ('Glow'; "The Post"), her ethnically diverse family, and Holland as the hyper-dutiful forgotten sister, Jane, play our their assigned positions as clearly as if laid out on a Hallmark map to television success. Really off is presented as quirky and unique, with just too many basically cringe worthy configurations to mention in 'Happiest Season', particularly when trying to tackle the inner conflict of a coming-out story,. This unimaginative, cookie-cutter holiday film seems to be telling us we should be the happiest of people just because it has been made with so many of the central characters being gay, and not entirely stereotypical. Maybe I should rejoice for this very fact, but I can't get past that fact that it fails to be authentic, other than being an honestly traditional holiday romp that is as forgettable as the other one scheduled on Lifetime. Maybe I was asking for too much art and thoughtfulness from a genre that is overflowing with similar structured silly sweetness, but I just can't help myself. This is supposed to be a feel-good movie with a feel-good ending, but I just didn't buy into it. I want more, without the hard-to-comprehend sugar hangover at the end. Fingers crossed for the next Christmas Setup.
The cast of Happiest Season.
Dan Levy
The Happiest Season
Previous Carolee Carmello Embraces the Big Picture in Estella Scrooge, A Christmas Carol with a Twist
Next Meet Me in St. Louis For a Zing Zing Zing Heartstrings Great Time
The Prom Musical Glitter Explodes its Inclusive Zaaz All Over Broadway, Netflix, and Edgewater, Indiana. – front mezz junkies says:
[…] watching the stomach churning lesbian coming-out pseudo-Hallmark Christmas movie the other day, The Happiest Season didn't feel so happy, so I knew I really needed a cleansing feel-good lesbian coming-out […]
Making The Yuletide Gay, For All to See, On Lifetime and Those Other Cable Channels – front mezz junkies says:
[…] But on that note, I did, as my first dive into the genre, manage to sit through, and write about The Happiest Season, the lesbian take on the Hallmark-styled Christmas tale, and it didn't leave me all too […]


Launched in 1983 as a subscription only bimonthly publication, the Tellus series took full advantage of the popular cassette medium to promote cutting edge music, documenting the New York scene and advanced US composers of the time. Maybe surfing on the ROIR cassettes selling figures, Tellus 'The Audio Cassette Magazine' was in activity for 10 years (1983-1993), witnessing the digital revolution taking place in the new media arts. The series included some landmark soundworks now regarded as historical: Alison Knowles 'Nivea Cream Piece' (Tellus#24), Christian Marclay's 'Groove', Lee Ranaldo 'The Bridge', Louise Lawler's 'Birdcalls', etc. The series included many women composers, which was very needed at this macho time. Curatorial policy has proved very efficient as well – asking specialists to compile a program in their own field insured state of the art results. Today, Tellus is mentionned as an inspiration to the opening of the Sound Art Museum in Rome in 2007. An exhibition was held at Printed Matter, NY, devoted to contemporary American cassette culture ('Leaderless: Underground Cassette Culture Now', May 12 to 26, 2007). It seems it's now time to reappraise Tellus' major contribution to the perception of independent music as an art form.
to begin: these tellus uploads! marvelous absolutely essential fantastic, i'll be doing a write up on the j.h c site soon — maybe we can get them up at ubu too!? as you've linked above, there are some there already, but these are astounding documents, maybe you'd like to swing a write-up, i'll check with kenny, surely he'll want to host if yr interested (they ARE, afterall, yr rips, happily here on continuo's weblog).
we should try n gather the full digital set — something that ought to exist.
ALSO: RE: An exhibition was held at Printed Matter, NY, devoted to contemporary American cassette culture ('Leaderless: Underground Cassette Culture Now', May 12 to 26, 2007).
was this good homework or happy happenstance!? on one of my ealier comments here, i'd mentioned the sound art noise poetry of my pal james hoff operating under his airport war moniker — this was his show (he curates at printed matter, the center of the bookart / artist's book world). the event as great, james dj'd a lot of the stuff listed in yr CASSETTOGRAPHY (bravo;) here, included was a superb performance by cassette mangler electro tape manipulator lucas crane (vs. nonhorse) — someone whom if yr not aware of, you'd surely be very interested in — if you don't have, i'll see if i can get some of his recordings — one of the more interesting underground sound artists in new york right now, methinks.
anyway, james hoff organized the thing (i kno him thru work we did together republishing vito acconci's 60s conceptual writing zine called 0 to 9, thru ugly duckling presse) there was all sorts of tellus / cassette detritus under panels, i'm sure james has the full set maybe i cld cajole him into digitizing too!
anyhow, anecdotes & propositions aside, this is great work & i'll be enchanted to drop more lines as i've time nuanced listening to these aural necessities only now unzipping themselves into my speakerbox.
Glad to see you back on track, JH. It seems a wonderful idea to upload the Tellus series on UbuWeb. Plus, it will be the 25th anniversary next year, so this all makes sense to me. I'm not sure I understand what you mean by 'swing a write-up', though I'd be eager to help in the process with whatever you see fit. I could extrapolate my introduction and amplify the Cassettography, even if I'm not qualified to do so: your friends in NY would be more apt. Did you notice Ellen Zweig – curator of 'False Phonemes' – wrote a comment on Continuo the other day?
She said she'd get in touch with me after december 12th. It would be great to include her in the UbuWeb Tellus project, I think. Anyway, a Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine dedicated page on Ubu would definitely be a treasure.
One last note: don't you feel the All Chemix Radio series deserve an UbuWeb page as well?
Ciao, I still own some Tellus cassettes. To my surprize, #7 to #12 seem to have followed me in these years, moving from a place to another. I remember I also got #1 to #6 but I realize now they are not in the shelf, most probably they are unreturned stuff. For your cassettography: Tellus #7 is "The Word I" (1985) incl. Linda Fisher, Michael peppe, Wiska Radklewicz, John Miller, Terry Wilson, Lynne Tillman, Victor Poison-Tate, Jean-Paul Curtay, Chaire Picher, Patrick McGrath, Molly Elder, Mike Gira, Gregory Whitehead, Nicolas Nowack, Cid Collins Walker, Richard Kostelanetz, Paul Bob Town, Nameless Stone Productions.
Thanks for the info, anyway. Very much appreciated.


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The Git developers have just released a major new version of the Git command-line utility, Git 2.3.0. As usual, this release contains many improvements, performance enhancements, and bug fixes. Full details about what's included can be found in the Git 2.3.0 release notes, but here's a look at what we consider to be the coolest new features in this release.
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Q: Loading Google Maps on backbone I'm using backbone to develop a maps application. How do load the google script asynchronously without using the google loader? I'm trying to use $.getScript, but for some reason, the google global object it returns doesn't have any of the standard API functions like google.maps.LatLng.
My Code
$.getScript 'https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?key=XXX&sensor=false', ->
  console.log google
  mapOptions =
    center: new google.maps.LatLng(-34.397, 150.644),
    zoom: 8,
    mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.ROADMAP
  map = new google.maps.Map document.getElementById("map")

A: Use ajax instead of getScript:
$.ajax({
    dataType: 'script',
    data: params,
    url: 'http://maps.google.com/maps/api/js'
});

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
PublicSource | News for a better Pittsburgh (https://www.publicsource.org/faith-and-switch-these-congregants-feel-they-were-baited-into-giving-money-to-closing-churches/)
Faith and switch: These congregants feel they were baited into giving money to closing churches.
By Nick Keppler | August 16, 2018
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Jean Ripepi, 87, is a plaintiff in a court case against the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh. She is pictured listening to other plaintiffs in the case speaking during a meeting at her home in Monongahela, Pa., on Aug. 9, 2018. (Kat Procyk/PublicSource)
Jean Ripepi, 87, remembers her first mass at St. Anthony Church. The building had two wings separated by a bell tower and stood atop a hill overlooking downtown Monongahela. She was entering a new faith and a new marriage. Ripepi had been raised in the Polish Catholic Church — a sect not affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church — and converted to her husband Angelo's denomination after they wed.
Italian-American identity was the cornerstone of St. Anthony. The Diocese of Pittsburgh established the parish in 1904 to connect an Italian-speaking priest to the throngs of immigrants settling in industrial river towns like Monongahela. St. Anthony went through a few buildings and makeshift locations before the church that was completed in the 1950s. Jean Ripepi's husband's family was Italian, so of course they attended St. Anthony.
This story was co-published with 100 Days in Appalachia, a collaborative project from West Virginia University's Reed College of Media, West Virginia Public Broadcasting and The Daily Yonder.
"We attended [our]first Mass in 1957 and were active members since," she said. "My husband's family helped sustain it." In addition to tithes, she says various Ripepis have put in countless hours of "sweat equity," working on repair projects and volunteering for the annual festival for its patron saint held the third weekend in June. She was confirmed as a Roman Catholic there.
Now, St. Anthony is shuttered. A sign prohibiting loitering, skateboarding and other nuisance uses that plague empty parking lots stands awkwardly outside the ornate entranceway and neatly trimmed hedges.
The Diocese of Pittsburgh closed it in 2014, claiming that Monongahela — whose population had decreased by half since its 1950 prime of 8,922 — could not support both St. Anthony and its other parish, Transfiguration. After a long and contentious process, the Diocese merged the two into a new parish, called St. Damien of Molokai, and chose the former Transfiguration building as its site of worship. (There is a difference between a parish and a church: a parish is a spiritual community recognized by a Diocese and usually allotted a priest. A church is a building where that community meets. The two words are often used interchangeably, but the distinction is important when discussing Catholic bylaws.)
St. Anthony's Church located on Park Avenue in Monongahela, Pa. (Photo by Kat Procyk/PublicSource)
Not every former St. Anthony congregant has marched into the fold of St. Damien of Molokai. Some meet weekly in the Ripepi home to share covered dishes, prayers and Bible verses.
"We've done it ever since [the closure]," said Barbara Falappi. "We have a prayer service. It's an excuse to get together. We do a lot of things. This is a spiritual family."
Some of them also meet to plan a legal strategy. Five former St. Anthony congregants are suing the Diocese of Pittsburgh, accusing its leadership of defrauding them. They say the Diocese baited them into investing money to save St. Anthony when the Diocese had already decided to close the church.
"We felt like a franchise," said Falappi, one of the plaintiffs, "that we either had to pay up or they were taking their name off the building."
They aren't the only ones. Former congregants of St. Agnes in Richeyville, another Washington County town, have enlisted the same lawyers — Steven Toprani and Michael Hammond of Dodaro, Matta and Cambest — and filed suit, alleging the Diocese also defrauded them into giving money to sustain a church whose fate was sealed. St. Agnes ceased regular services in 2017 and the Diocese consolidated its parish into a "mega-parish" grouping of former parishes in Washington County.
"They keep asking [for donations] until the parishes are merged and that's the game they play," said Hammond.
Ann Todora (center), 88, and Mary-Beth Gregorini (right), 63, listen during a meeting among plaintiffs and former St. Anthony congregants at a house in Monongahela, Pa. on August 9, 2018. (Photo by Kat Procyk/PublicSource)
In the case of both mergers, the Diocese had several church buildings from which to choose as a home for the new consolidated parish. Both lawsuits say the Diocese chose to close more desirable buildings — whose upkeeps were the result of donations and work from congregants who are being displaced. Hammond said the Diocese is intentionally shuttering the churches that fetch more on the real estate market.
With mergers looming, Pittsburgh-area Catholics wrestle with the impact of shrinking parishes
When Monsignor Jack Bendik first learned about parish mergers and closures in the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, he thought, "I couldn't believe it could be so dramatic. I was shocked that you were going from 188 parishes to 57.
In the LGBTQ community, faith brings comfort and pain. Six Pittsburghers reflect on feeling rejected for who they are.
Members of the LGBTQ community reflect on their relationship with faith after facing rejection from religion.
Bob DeWitt, a spokesperson for the Diocese, said the organization won't comment on ongoing litigation. Plaintiffs from St. Agnes declined to speak to PublicSource.
In November, a judge in Washington County Common Pleas Court dismissed the cases, arguing that First Amendment freedom of religion and precedents of Pennsylvania case law prevented the court from ruling on internal matters of the Diocese. An appeal to the Vatican also failed. The plaintiffs have appealed the civil court case.
Hammond said he wants to force the Diocese into discovery, the legal process by which evidence in a civil suit is viewed by both parties. He said that may shed light on Diocese financial practices. "We want to see their books," he said.
Parish consolidation, the process that left congregants of St. Anthony and St. Agnes disillusioned and combative, will play out across the Diocese in the coming years. Citing a priest shortage and a diminishing Catholic population, the Diocese of Pittsburgh announced that it would shift its 188 individual parishes — spread out across six counties — into 57 groupings. They will no doubt shut down some churches and redirect their attendees to others.
This process can be "brutal," pitting parish against neighboring parish, said Peter Borre, co-chair of the Council of Parishes, a Boston-based organization that advocates for individual parishes within the Church hierarchy and advised the St. Anthony congregants. "There are three or five [pre-existing] parishes trying to compete against each other, trying to survive. It can be like a circular firing squad."
Money recently donated may again become an issue. In the years before its massive reconsolidation, the Diocese of Pittsburgh embarked on a fundraising effort, Our Campaign for Church Alive!, which was an astounding success. When the campaign began in 2012, its goal was to raise $125 million. The Diocese announced it had received $149.8 million from the faithful, with a total of $234 million pledged. Those parishioners gave under the promise of benefits to their specific parishes, parishes that the Diocese may soon effectively eliminate.
The growth and decline of Catholicism
When the Diocese of Pittsburgh begat St. Anthony Parish to minister to Monongahela's Italian-speaking population, Italian immigrants were spreading across Western Pennsylvania in a vast wave, working in coal mines and steel mills. They helped build up the ranks of Catholics within the Diocese of Pittsburgh, from 270,000 in 1897 to a peak of 962,412 in 1975, according to church directories.
More recent shifts in demographics have not been as kind to the Diocese. In the 1980s, deindustrialization and an exodus of young people diminished the population of Pittsburgh and its suburbs. Bishop Donald Wuerl led a consolidation of the parishes, from 332 to 218.
The Diocese of Pittsburgh located at 111 Boulevard of the Allies. (Photo by Kat Procyk/PublicSource)
Catholic Church membership has actually grown nationwide by 68 percent since 1965, according to Georgetown University's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. It has been buoyed in part by a new immigration wave, from Latin America. But in depopulating areas like Pittsburgh, the ranks of Catholics continue to dwindle. In 2016, Catholics in the Diocese of Pittsburgh stood at 632,138, down by about a third from 1975.
And today's Catholics are less reliable churchgoers. According to a 2018 Gallup poll, fewer than 40 percentare in church on any given Sunday — down from three out of four attending church weekly in 1955. Many people who are counted as Catholic by confirmation do not actually participate in the church, said Borre, and aren't financially supporting any parishes. "Lapsed Catholics are in the millions," he said. "Society has become too secular or consumerist."
Another major challenge is a priest shortage. While the number of priests stays steady worldwide, in the United States, it has dropped from 59,192 in 1970 to 37,181 in 2017.
"You cannot staff everything with religious sisters and deacons. There is a terrible lack of religious vocations," wrote Jack Ruhl, a professor of accountancy at Western Michigan University's Haworth College of Business and an expert on Diocesan finances and restructuring, in an email to PublicSource.
St. Damien of Molokai Parish located on West Main Street in Monongahela, Pa. (Photo by Kat Procyk/PublicSource)
It's not an attractive profession, after years of sexual abuse scandals, he said. "I had a priest friend in Chicago who told me that when he would go out somewhere [and] strangers would glare at him in disgust or would actually say nasty things to him. Who wants to be a priest today?" There are the disincentives of a celibacy vow and low pay and "like the comedian Rodney Dangerfield, they 'don't get no respect.'"
The Church is ordaining fewer priests in the U.S. and the Diocese of Pittsburgh has fewer Catholics for them to serve than in decades past. Taking all that into account, Bishop David Zubik unveiled a plan last April to reduce 188 individual parishes into 57 groupings, with decisions to come concerning which churches in each grouping stay and which are shuttered. (In some cases, churches that are part of "mega-parishes" stay open as auxiliary sites, available for weddings, celebrations and/or holiday Masses.)
In Washington County, a process like this started 10 years ago.
The saint of lost things
In 2007, the Diocese launched a study to determine the viability of parishes in Monongahela, Donora and Charleroi, three depopulated towns in the Mon Valley. Two years later, the study was completed and recommended the merger of St. Anthony and Transfiguration. Zubik issued a decree merging the parishes in 2011.
According to the lawsuit, then began two years of meetings of parishioners and clergy to discuss the possibility of keeping open both churches, served under one parish. St. Anthony still had regular services. Plaintiffs say that Diocesan representatives led them to believe that if enough funding was raised, St. Anthony would remain open. They claim they reduced the church's debt load of $144,000 to $44,000 in one year and a private donor offered to pay the remainder, but the priest of the new St. Damien of Molokai parish refused it. They also claim that $2 million was spent on renovations, including the installation of a new roof.
Laura Magone, one of the plaintiffs, said she and other congregants gave as much as they could to "show that we have an interest and ability to sustain it."
Laura Magone (right), one of the plantiffs in the case against the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, led an opening prayer at a meeting among plaintiffs and others in their community on Aug. 9, 2018. (Kat Proyck/PublicSource)
The lawsuit states that in his decree, Zubik made arguments referencing the "financial distress" of St. Anthony. These statements were "blatant falsehoods," the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit alleges that the St. Anthony building is in better condition than the former Transfiguration one, which has no parking lot and had no bathroom until after the merger, at which point the parish spent $30,000 installing one.
The plaintiffs claim the Diocese kept open the former Transfiguration building and shuttered St. Anthony because it had long planned to sell the St. Anthony building, which would fetch more on the real estate market. They claim their fundraising efforts only went to making it even more profitable.
The suit alleges fraud, breach of fiduciary duty and unjust enrichment, among other claims. It seeks injunctive relief, essentially asking a judge to prevent the Diocese from selling the building.
At the heart of the lawsuit over St. Agnes is a similar claim, according to Hammond: the Diocese consolidated parishes and left congregants in a less desirable building, so a better one can raise capital at sale.
The church building that until recently housed St. Agnes parish was constructed in the early 2000s. The lawsuit claims that in February 2015, Pastor Edward Yuhas advised the congregation via letter that St. Agnes would be closed and its parish merged with four others nearby. A month later, Yuhas allegedly told them the closure had been rescinded. The next nine months were reportedly filled with confusion over its fate, but parishioners continued to attend Mass and provided tithes, donations and offerings of at least $100,000.
An Aug. 9, 2018, meeting among plaintiffs in a case against the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh and other former St. Anthony congregants. (Photo by Kat Procyk/PublicSource)
The suit claims that an engineering study, ordered during the consolidation process, showed that St. Agnes' building would have the lowest future maintenance costs. It also asserts the building is the one most central to the five former parishes, but the Diocese instead chose to house the new St. Katharine Drexel Parish in a church building in Bentleyville that dates to 1909.
The former St. Agnes parishioners are also seeking an order preventing the Diocese from selling the building.
The plaintiffs are in the uncomfortable position of battling, in court, an institution that guided their spiritual lives.
"I used to be a Roman Catholic," said Falappi, a retired healthcare worker. "Now I am a roaming Catholic. I will never, ever give up the Catholic faith." But she said she hasn't joined a Diocese-sanctioned parish yet and says she lost confidence in Zubik, a defendant in the lawsuit.
Five former St. Anthony congregants are suing the Diocese of Pittsburgh, accusing its leadership of defrauding them. They say the Diocese baited them into investing money to save St. Anthony when the Diocese had already decided to close the church. The plaintiffs and others met to discuss the legal issue on Aug. 9, 2018. (Photo by Kat Procyk)
The Ripepis went to a few services at St. Damien of Molokai, but Angelo has mobility difficulties and the church relies on street parking, whereas St. Anthony has a parking lot with handicapped spaces. It was too difficult to coordinate their attendance, Jean Ripepi said. A lay minister comes to their home to perform the communion ritual, a vital part of maintaining status as Catholics for them.
At the weekly get-togethers at their home, congregants light devotional candles to St. Anthony of Padua. A Franciscan friar who left his home country of Portugal and spent time preaching in Italy, he was an obvious choice for the patron saint of St. Anthony Parish when it was founded; he was an immigrant and familiar in the country of origin for the Italian-born congregants.
For a congregation that lost its church and its faith in its leaders, he has a new significance: St. Anthony is the saint of lost things.
Awash in donations, but spending is unclear
Catholics in the Diocese of Pittsburgh are fewer these days, but they are generous.
When a fundraising effort, Our Campaign for the Church Alive! began in 2012 with a goal to raise $125 million, Zubik promised to split the money between individual parishes and Diocese-wide efforts.
"It will focus first on individual parishes – on the ways that parishes can continue to fulfill a vision that limited resources have denied," he wrote in the pamphlet announcing the effort. "It will also focus on some goals for us collectively as the Church of Pittsburgh."
Specifically, the campaign assigned each parish a fundraising goal, based on financial history and membership numbers. For every dollar raised from that parish, 40 cents was promised to go back to the parish — until it reached its goal. After that, the parish would receive 60 cents of each dollar. (Seven percent went to pay off fundraising costs and that portion was taken evenly from parish and Diocese-wide funds.) Some parishes ran campaigns concurrent to Church Alive! that went only to that parish.
After a long and contentious process, the Diocese merged St. Anthony's and Transfiguration into a new parish, called St. Damien of Molokai, and chose the former Transfiguration building as its site of worship (pictured). (Photo by Kat Procyk/PublicSource)
The Diocese spent the money collected for its central fund on Catholic schools, tuition assistance, charitable causes, continuing education for priests and lay leaders, retirement funds for clergy and evangelizing efforts, among other uses.
Church Alive! far exceeded the Diocese's expectations. In its 2015 report to donors, the campaign announced $62.6 million had been raised and donors had committed $230 million in pledges to be paid through 2019. In its 2016 report, the campaign had $105 million in the bank. By 2017, it blew past its goal, with $130 million in donations on hand. By 2018, that number had budged to nearly $150 million, with $234 million pledged.
The first pamphlet for Church Alive! stated that "each parish is in the best position to determine its extraordinary needs, and among them its most urgent priorities." However, the Diocese did not simply give pastors a sum to spend as they saw fit. Each parish came up with a "case statement" detailing their desired use of the money, usually written by a pastor in consultation with lay leadership, said Diocese spokesperson Dewitt. They submitted that to an advisory council of 15 pastors from parishes across the Diocese for approval.
"Much of the campaign funding earmarked for parishes was expended on long-deferred repair projects for buildings and properties that needed to be completed regardless of future use of parish sites," DeWitt wrote in an email. "Some donations were invested in [Americans with Disabilities Act] access, such as wheelchair ramps and automatic doors. Campaign funds also have been invested in parish programs such as faith formation and evangelization."
Many parishes did not spend as much as they wanted to on building improvements, according to a church official involved in Church Alive! who spoke on condition of anonymity and who said his motive to talk was a need for greater financial transparency within Catholic institutions. The pastors' advisory council routinely rejected expensive renovations and case statements that solely or largely requested money for building repairs. The Diocese had already decided that many of its buildings would be put up for sale in the coming years and preferred funds spent on evangelical and educational expenses, even at the local level, he said. The Diocese "did not want to repair buildings," he said.
There is no publicly available accounting of how much Church Alive! money went to brick-and-mortar projects.
In 2015, at the height of the fundraising effort, the Diocese launched Our Mission for the Church Alive!, the program to review and consolidate all its parishes. Despite the very similar name, it is a different project from Our Campaign for the Church Alive!
There is no publicly available accounting of how much Church Alive! money went to brick-and-mortar projects. When asked for one, DeWitt pointed to the 2015 annual report. In addition to only detailing the campaign's earliest stages, the report does not have any account of spending in parishes, only a list of "campaign results," showing the sum pledged and percent of a target reached for each parish.
Such results by parish were only included in the first annual report. In an email to PublicSource, DeWitt wrote that $70.8 million in total has been received by parishes for their local priorities. But the Diocese did not provide an account of how much went to individual parishes or how it was spent.
However, the campaign kept donors well informed of how the Diocese-wide money was spent from 2014 to 2017. Annual reports detailed grants totaling $44,770,400: $1 million to underwrite the costs of a full-time dentist at the Catholic Charities Free Health Care Center, $1 million to create a program for "pro-life" outreach to expectant mothers, $151,080 for new servers and software for website of The Pittsburgh Catholic, $50,000 for print and electronic media to recruit men to the priesthood and $32,000 to increase attendance at the annual Gathering of Catholic Men.
The Church Alive! campaign also issued quarterly "Good Works" newsletters. For several years, the newsletters included a section entitled "Progress in the Parishes" that outlined anecdotal church improvements across the Diocese: roof replacements, stained glass repairs, ramp installations, repaved parking lots, new boilers. Unlike Diocese-wide spending, no dollar amount was attached to these projects and there was no comprehensive account.
The summer 2016 newsletter was the last to feature a "Progress in Our Parishes" section. There seemed to be a shift in focus: In spring of 2017, the newsletter highlighted Father Michael Decewicz of St. Juan Diego Parish in Sharpsburg, for using a smaller portion of funds than anticipated on parish hall renovations and redirecting them to ministry projects for the young and the elderly.
DeWitt wrote that the Diocese "neither emphasized nor de-emphasized these parish projects. They were developed, promoted and managed at the local parish level, and continue to be handled locally." Many were "completed" so the Diocese's "more recent updates have focused on diocesan-wide grants."
The Diocese of Pittsburgh established the St. Anthony's parish in 1904 to connect an Italian-speaking priest to the throngs of immigrants settling in industrial river towns like Monongahela. (Photo by Kat Procyk/PublicSource)
One project promised to channel some of the Diocese's share of funds from the campaign to "struggling" parishes outside the city. The 2013 brochure outlined the "Grants for Parishes in Need" program, saying that $7 million would "help our sisters and brothers in parishes that are struggling in those areas in our Diocese where the Church must remain present…. where, if a parish disappears, the presence of Church disappears as well."
"When we speak about our Diocese we speak of it as the 'Church of Pittsburgh,'" it reads. "Yet it is important to always remind ourselves that our Church stretches from the most northern tip of Lawrence County to the most southern parish boundaries in Greene County."
But millions from that program didn't go to the Diocese's geographic fringes, according to annual reports. In 2016, $250,000 from the program went to St. Stephen in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Hazelwood to help convert a school into a community center. In 2017, $2,203,200 earmarked for "Grants to Parishes in Need," went to a plan to reach youth in Pittsburgh, to "support of Hispanic ministry in Diocese" and to "Our Mission for The Church Alive!" - the program to consolidate parishes. (No other money for that program has been accounted for.)
DeWitt said that outreach to other cross-sections of the church was a consistent interpretation of the original intent. "Part of the diocesan-wide funds are meant to help our sisters and brothers in parishes that are struggling in areas of the diocese where the Church must remain present — and this includes assistance for urban youth and the Hispanic community," he wrote.
One may wonder why a Diocese whose parishioners have just pledged nearly double what it asked in a fundraising campaign is drastically reducing the parishes to which those donors belong.
The anonymous church official said the timing of the two efforts was not coincidental. Despite the sunny verbiage of Church Alive! promotional materials, the Diocese expected to have fewer buildings and less of a presence in the future, he said. Church leaders saw that congregations had aged and Church Alive! was prompted by the knowledge that Baby Boomers may be the last sizable and wealthy cohort involved in churches in the Diocese. For some parishes, this would be the last era in which they would be able to pay off a debt load. The official said, "There was frank recognition that going forward, we would have fewer people."
Who owns a church?
Parish consolidations have occurred throughout the history of the church and have been prevalent recently in parts of the Rust Belt and Northeast where Catholic participation is declining, said Borre, who founded the Council of Parishes to counter parish mergers in his native Boston. The Pittsburgh plan is the widest and most comprehensive he's seen.
These plans can play out with acrimony, particularly when churches are closed. "That's when it hits the faithful right in the gut," Borre said. Many churches have been parts of congregants' lives since birth and the site of confirmations and weddings. It's particularly fraught when the Diocese sells the location and former congregants look at their old church building and see "a bar or some condos."
Often parishioners go to lengths to demonstrate to the Diocese that their congregation can support itself — or at least do better than the other congregations nearby whose church may remain open as the home of the newly merged parish.
Borre said he helps parishes apply all the way to the Vatican, but in the end they have to accept: "The Catholic Church is not a democracy."
Laura Magone, one of the St. Anthony plaintiffs, said parishioners in the Mon Valley always understood the Diocese of Pittsburgh controlled how their church was run. "We know that money goes up the river and orders come down from it," referring to the Monongahela River with which her town shares a name.
"We think of our church as our church. The Diocese said everything belongs to the Diocese."
None of the St. Anthony plaintiffs gave to Church Alive!, instead dedicating their money to trying to save their church — which they ultimately consider theirs.
"We think of our church as our church," Magone said. "The Diocese said everything belongs to the Diocese."
They'll press their claim in court. Magone hopes that as the Diocese merges other parishes and as other congregations consider pressing their case against a Diocesan decision, their effort shows that there are options besides just shuffling into a pew in a church across town. "We didn't know what to do or who to believe when this started," Magone said. "Now we can show others what they can do."
Nick Keppler is a Pittsburgh-based freelance writer who has written for Reuters, Slate, Mental Floss, Vice, Nerve and the Village Voice. Reach him at nickkeppler@yahoo.com.
This story was fact-checked by Oliver Morrison.
2 thoughts on "Faith and switch: These congregants feel they were baited into giving money to closing churches."
Sue Kerr on August 16, 2018 at 9:48 pm said:
This reads as tone-deaf considering the release of the Grand Jury Report. None of these buildings or assets are as important as the thousands of victims who will not have any day in court. If good Catholics embrace the recommendations of the Grand Jury to heal and prevent further violence against children, it will require massive infusions of cash to pay off the civil lawsuits that should justly rule against the Diocese. That means more schools closed and most assets sold off. To pay a debt accrued in part by adults of the generation in this story who weren't listening to children and not pushing back against the Diocese on the sexual violence. Fighting over assets in the wake of this report is a slap in the face to thousands of victims and survivors.
Laura on August 16, 2018 at 8:01 am said:
Thank you, Public Source, for talking with St. Anthony parishioners and also the Diocese. We may be reached via Facebook at Keep St. Anthony's Alive


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