ST. HEDWIG'S CLOSING - FOLLOW-UP

I looked at the news reports at the local TV stations on the the matter of the closing of St. Hedwig's. Of course only the bare details are available. There's no mention of the internal 'razzmatazz' that Bishop Blair (and probably) Fr. Billian pulled to contrive the closure the church building.

I sent an email to Dave Yonke about this - no response. I think he has come to believe I am just a crank or a buffoon to be ignored. (Now as for the Diocese - they have to keep an eye on all quarters, so I am sure Sally peeks in now and again).

I talked to one of my neighbors - a scuttlebutt source - and the word on the street is that plenty of the members of the St. Hedwig's are hopping mad about this and intend to fight.

They can hop all they want. Yeah, great-great grandpa might have lovingly laid the bricks so long ago when the building was being erected, but when completed the people themselves handed the building over, in perpetuity, to whomever the bishop is, in trust. He has the right to do whatever he wishes with it - unless challenged. If challenged - good luck folks as he'll bring in the Shoo-Loop lawyers (paying them from the big $$$ that are put in collection baskets) and drill any opponent a new one.

ST HEDWIG'S TO CLOSE

This is breaking news. I'm late though - it broke this morning at the 8 AM Mass at St. Hedwig's.

The deacon read a letter at the end of Mass - a letter from Bishop Blair - given him either a day or two ago. The bishop's letter stated that a priest, Fr. Heinschel (sorry about sp if it's wrong) who was supposed to take over as pastor at St. Joseph's on Locust St. is being assigned to some office in the Vatican.

The result: Fr. Poggemeyer, who was supposed to take over as pastor of the soon to be merged parishes of St. Hedwig/St. Adalbert on July 1, 2010 will remain pastor of St. Joseph too.

And the effect of this? Well, before the SURPRISE announcement, St. Hedwig was going to retain an 11:30 AM Mass on Sunday - the new schedule. Now that schedule will only apply to July. After that a new one will come out - and likely St. Hedwig will be designated an 'oratory' with no regular Mass.

It means, effectively, St. Hedwig's is closing.

Rumors have been flying around since 2005 that Bishop Blair wanted the parish closed. However, he kept denying them saying that that the building would remain open.

I believe he just bided his time and got his way. The excuse given sounded so lame: that Fr. Heinschel has to go to Rome because the Holy Father beckons and the bishop just couldn't turn him down. I'm sure there is documentation to prove it. But I am certain given Bishop Blair's behavior in other parish closings in the past that this was, in the end, contrived. He was just trying to avoid an angry confrontation with parishioners.

An old story goes that if you pop a frog into a pot filled with hot boiling water it'll jump right out; however if you put a frog in cold water and slowly turn up the heat, the frog will stay in the pot content - until it's boiled to death.

That's what happened here. So, will there be any angry response from the die-hard St. Hedwiger's? I doubt it - they'll lay down and play dead and let him have his way and scatter to the winds.

If I weren't so deeply involved with trying to get justice and healing for the victims of sexual abuse in the Church from him, I'd take this on.

Bishop Blair concealed the truth about Fr. Nuss in 2006. In 2004 and 2005 he cooperated in concealing information on Fr. Gerald Robinson from the police (he was quoted as saying with a sneer "We gave the police what they wanted" in Dave Yonke's book, Sin, Shame and Secrets) and forced the police to obtain a 'No-knock' search warrant to get it. It seems that concealment is a life habit of his. Omertà. So, I do believe he concealed his true motives here and used a Church process to mask them too.

Justice and truth just does not play into his way of being a shepherd. God have mercy on him.

I do wonder what some of my fellow parishioners think of him now - especially with a surprise announcement like this which begs a million questions.