New Congress 9 percent raised by Jesuits

The Holy Cross alumni association referred me to this Boston-College-centric article. I glean from the comments here that the Catholic faith is still divided against itself and cannot eschew being judgmental. In internet parlance, it's called being snarky; another word for it would be bitchy, another, fractious, or maybe just sophomoric.

The proportionate religious representation is also interesting here:

In another analysis of the makeup of Congress, the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life looked at the religious makeup of the House and Senate. A few highlights from the report:

• "Members of Congress are much more likely than the public overall to say they are affiliated with a particular religion."
• The Congress is mostly Protestant (54.7%), mirroring the nation, but the Protestants are from multiple denominations; Baptists are underrepresented, while Episcopalians, Methodists and Presbyterians are overrepresented when compared to their presence in the national population.
• "Catholics are the single largest religious group in the 111th Congress. Catholics, who account for nearly one-quarter of the U.S. adult population, make up about 30% of Congress."
• "Jews, who account for just 1.7% of the U.S. adult population, make up 8.4% of Congress, including just over 13% of the Senate."
• There are two Muslims and two Buddhists in Congress; both groups are slightly underrepresented, as are Hindus (there are no Hindu members of Congress).

New Congress 9 percent Jesuit-educated - Articles of Faith - Boston.com

Burke Lakefront Airport named after HC alumnus

A few days ago, for some reason, I was looking up a listing of the mayors of Cleveland and noticed that The Honorable Thomas Aloysius Burke, Jr., had a Wikipedia entry indicating he attended "Holy Cross University." Backchecking on the Holy Cross alumni online community, I found that Burke was indeed one of our alumni of the class of 1920 at the College of the Holy Cross, and that his wife was Mrs. Evelyn Burke.

Burke Lakefront Airport (BKL), the sixth busiest airport in the state of Ohio, was named after him; it opened in 1947. Here, below, are a few notes from the city planning commission regarding the lakefront plans Burke set in motion. As a side note, the Cleveland Port Director when the Air Shows began at BKL back in 1964 was Captain Noel C. Painchaud, USNR (R), also an alumnus of the College of the Holy Cross, class of 1954. Hoya.

1947

Burke Lakefront Airport opened as Cleveland’s second municipally-owned airport with a 3,600-foot dirt runway and a small operations facility.

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1952

The Lakeland Freeway (now I-90) was constructed through Gordon Park, almost destroying it.

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1954

The Cleveland Aquarium opened at Gordon Park south of I-90.   Operated by the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and the City of Cleveland, the Aquarium housed freshwater and marine exhibits in a building originally constructed as a bath house.   A major expansion in 1967 tripled the Aquarium’s size giving it a capacity of 82,000 gallons, but by 1985 structural problems forced the building to close and the exhibits were transferred to the Cleveland Metroparks in 1986.

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1957

After additional landfill had been placed in Lake Erie, a 5,200-foot hard surface runway opened at Burke Lakefront Airport.

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1959

The northern segment of Cleveland’s Innerbelt (I-90) that would eventually wrap downtown Cleveland on its eastern and southern sides opened between Memorial Shoreway and Chester Avenue.   A sharp curve, created as the depressed highway passed under the lakefront railroad tracks and merged with the Shoreway, produced numerous accidents and continues to be known locally as “Deadmans Curve”.

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1968

Intercity Yacht Club was established at East 72nd Street north of Gordon Park.

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1972

The City of Cleveland leased property at the eastern end of Burke Lakefront Airport to the Cleveland Board of Education to build Aviation High School.

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1975

A confined disposal facility, holding dredgings from the Cuyahoga River shipping channel, was filled creating 114 acres of new land at the eastern end of Burke Lakefront Airport.

Damion Ezell's new book and website

About Us -- One of our friends by way of The College of the Holy Cross, Damion Ezell, is on his way to New York this afternoon to promote his new book, The Report: File 1--The Context. At the link is an interesting lead-in, and it explains the journey of self-discovery that led him to write the book in the first place. We've been walking alongside Damion, off and on, for a couple of years now and can attest to the genuine feelings and authenticity that run through this entire work. I'm ordering it now in the reader's edition.

the debut of Peterman's Eye

Sweet Smell of Pig Peterman's Eye -- One of our older Hoya boys is J. Peterman, down in Lexington (Kentucky, that is). He's an entrepreneur whose progress, and ups and downs, I've followed for years. He's an arbiter of taste, a connoisseur, and an incredibly curious Renaissance man; the Jesuits built us all on the same basic frame, so now we have a worldwide mutual admiration society; we like us. We may not always be totally right, or politically acceptable, but we're all pretty much on the same page and share common mythologies. There's a camaraderie in having been raised by Jesuits. I'd imagine Romulus and Remus would tell you just about the same thing.

Check out Peterman's Eye. (John has built his business on his "eye" for what we all want, knowing intuitively, instinctively, and just somehow what merchandise looks like in the Platonic world of forms.) Peterman's Eye is a combo effort at interactive blog, news aggregation, and topical research. I think he's doing whatever he wants to do, which is pretty much what I do here, for the most part, as the spirit moves me. It's salutary.

Welcome, J., to the blogosphere. Do you think it's time for you to MeetTheBloggers?

While you're at it, check out the mission statement, or purpose:


About Us
Welcome.

My aim is to build a marketplace for ideas. A place where we can educate, entertain and discuss with each other topics we find interesting.

I'll lay out some thoughts, you join in, points of view will accumulate and alter, new topics of interest will emerge...

I don't know where it will all lead. But I'm confident there will be a certain feeling of creditability and openness. A wonderful chaos where actual facts and real opinions collide without apology.

(Frankly, the "media landscape," as they say, has gotten a bit loud. Most traditional outlets want us to believe they are unbiased. Some Internet voices want us to believe they alone hold the truth. And, sometimes search engines feel like mousetraps shuffling us endlessly here and there.)

I've traveled a lot over the years. Met lots of folks, from ranchers to maharajas. Made lots of mistakes. Laughed. Argued. Learned, a lot. Been lucky, but mostly curious. Pull up a chair; I'm sure we can find something interesting to discuss together.

"If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples," G.B. Shaw said, "then you and I still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas."

Amen.

[J. Peterman]

Peterman's Eye
1001 Primrose Court
Lexington, Kentucky 40511

ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam

Latin Mass Draws Interest After Easing of Restrictions - New York Times -- My dad was a convert to Catholicism during Word War II. We kids always assumed he converted in deference to and to please my mother, his sweetheart and schoolmate at Cleveland Heights High who lived in a house with big sycamores on Grandview, right behind his house on Bellfield. Talking to him towards the end of his life, a few years ago, we were surprised to find out that he became a Roman Catholic not because of mom but because of the ritual and the pageantry of the Mass per se, the old ceremony that reached out and grabbed him one Sunday in the Pacific, when a friend invited him to Mass.

Now here comes that same old ritual and pageantry back at us with the pope's giving blanket permission to revive the Latin Mass locally, on an ad hoc basis. I wonder if we sixty-somethings will be pressed into service as altar boys again until the younger generations get up to speed? Et introibo ad altare Dei. Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam.

As I skimmed over the NYT article, a name from the past popped up, and I had to go to my alumni directory to validate the fact that Father Baldovin and I were contemporaries at the College of the Holy Cross in the '60s, and we were. The fact that we had to attend mandatory daily Mass with sign-in cards for our first few years there may account for the fact that he seems less than enthusiastic about the promise of this Latin-Mass revival. Personally, I'm really looking forward to it, but I wasn't permanently emotionally scarred by the daily sign-in experience; I never took it too seriously and got a lot of napping and/or homework done.

If you need to brush up, or check it out for the first time, you can do so here.

for the record: Holy Cross president clarifies stance, squelches rumors of decertification as a Catholic college

TO: Alumni and friends of Holy Cross
FR: Michael C. McFarland, S.J., President
RE: Upcoming conference

A great deal of misinformation and misrepresentation is circulating about the upcoming meeting of the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy in rented facilities in the Hogan Campus Center at the College of the Holy Cross.

Many alumni have received e-mail or other correspondence from Raymond B. Ruddy '65, which is an unauthorized use of the College's alumni online community. It is disheartening that the College is being portrayed in this way; we are doing our best to make it clear what our position is and where we stand.

I'm writing to provide you with assurances and facts.

Holy Cross regrets any confusion that in renting space, the College is supporting Planned Parenthood, NARAL or other agencies that promote practices contrary to Church teaching. Our rental contract is with the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy, an umbrella organization of about 50 groups, some of them Catholic. Our contract and dealings are do not involve Planned Parenthood or NARAL.

Holy Cross fully affirms and promotes Catholic teaching on abortion and the sanctity of all human life. The College is adamantly and clearly opposed to abortion, and has not wavered in this regard since issuing a statement in 1991 when students petitioned the College to organize a pro-choice student organization. See http://www.holycross.edu/president/abortion_position/

Last week, Most Rev. Robert J. McManus, Bishop of Worcester, asked the College to disassociate itself from the conference and the groups involved; and to revoke our contract with the Alliance. To cancel at this point would break a legal contract and would make it impossible for the Alliance to hold a conference that we believe deals with a worthwhile subject. Teenage parents and teenagers at risk of becoming pregnant are among the most vulnerable people in our country today.

As president of a Catholic college in the Diocese of Worcester, I wholly respect the duty of Bishop McManus to uphold the teachings of the Church—most especially the sanctity of life and opposition to abortion. However, it is the College's position that providing rented meeting space to a conference of professionals from a variety of Massachusetts organizations discussing the safety and care of at-risk teenagers does not represent a disregard of Catholic teaching.

Please also be aware that no Holy Cross administrators, faculty members or students are involved in developing conference content, nor will they attend the conference. This is a meeting of adult professionals who work for the health and well-being of Massachusetts teenagers and children.

I invite you to visit the section of our Web site where there is more detailed information, including the statement I issued last week. http://www.holycross.edu/president/teen_conf/

With gratitude for your prayers and support,

Michael C. McFarland, S.J.
President
College of the Holy Cross
October 18, 2007

Roberts parses Supreme Court mission

Worcester Telegram & Gazette News--Roberts cites challenges: Chief justice avoids politics.
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., spoke at my alma mater's commencement exercise this year; his wife's on of the alumnae (see, my A.B. was not for naught) and also on the board of directors. He made a distinction with regard to the Supreme Court that I wanted to share:

Mr. Robert’s short commencement address was filled with advice and humor but was devoid of politics.

At one point, however, Mr. Roberts intimated that his Supreme Court would plow a less expansive judicial path than its predecessors by stressing the role of the nation’s highest judiciary is to interpret law and not set it.