The expressed opinions or views of this letter does not necessarily represent the opinion of the MiddletownMike blog:
This essay is intended for those opposed to the Trinity Hall project. It is for those who can just feel “in their guts” that there is something ethically fishy about this whole thing, but who might have difficulty putting an articulate finger on it. Because I live on Sleepy Hollow road and would be drastically affected by the traffic nightmare that would be unleashed by Trinity Hall, I feel that this warrants me the right to comment on the overall issue of this impending fiasco. Since many others have already commented on the traffic and the blatant destruction of one of the few remaining gems of rural land in this area I will, instead, give my opinion on the moral and ethical foundations of the Trinity Hall project. If there is any one word that would sum up this` moral/ethical premise it would be “disingenuous.”
This disingenuousness has played out a number of times in the newspapers where, sometimes even in the same paper, there are articles about the terrible financial state of Catholic education found alongside puff pieces about Trinity Hall. One after another, Catholic schools ... REAL Catholic schools ... are closing because of inadequate funding. Parents and students are forced into do-or-die fund raising scenarios, practically becoming beggars to the general public. Because of Trinity Hall, the real Catholic Church, already trying hard to pay its bills, must now face the reality that a group of religious fakers could even make matters worse by siphoning off that much more money. The real Catholic Church is now sitting on acres of idyll school property, which could be pulled out of mothballs and made ready for true parochial education, for a fraction of the cost that would be required to deface one of the few remaining tracts of farmland in this whole area. The word that explains this paradox is the word “disingenuous”.
If those behind Trinity Hall were not disingenuous, they would come clean and just admit it that Trinity Hall does not really need the sanction of the real church because Trinity Hall is not intended for a real Catholic education. Trinity Hall is a country club finishing school for unsuspecting girls whose wealthy parents feel their daughters’ education must not be marred by the presents of kids of lower economic classes. Their educations must not be impeded by having to look at such ugly sights as highways and lower class neighborhoods, all of which they would be looking at if they accepted a school location provided by the real church. As well, a Trinity Hall girl’s education should not be impeded by the real Catholic Church’s pesky and obnoxious preoccupation with the poor and underprivileged. Of course, Trinity Hall will have to offer at least some scholarships to lower class girls, which means the campus will still have to tolerate the occasional Toyota wedged in between the Lexuses and Beemers.
So, how do disingenuous people latch on to the esteem of the Catholic Church? If you are a flim- flammer, you create a totally disingenuous marketing catch phrase such as... “in the Catholic tradition”. What “in the Catholic tradition” means is that it’s not really Catholic. It just looks Catholic for marketing purposes. If the Trinity Hall founders showed you a knock-off handbag that they got from Canal St., they would still expect you to swoon over it because, after all, it was made in the “Louis Vuitton tradition”.
Even though Bishop David O’Connell would not sanctioned Trinity Hall as a true Catholic institution, its origin certainly can be found in the Bible. It is the follow-up to the story of how Jesus purged the money changers from Herod’s temple. If you open the New Testament to John 2:13-16 you will see the following:
“And making a whip of cords, he [Jesus] drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade”.
It is important to note that both money changing and bird selling were legal practices, but they were considered disreputable. So, if you are a disreputable money-changer or bird seller and you want to deal inside the temple without having Jesus throw you out, what do you do? You do what the Trinity Hall people are trying to do right now. You build your own temple.
It is when fakers like these show themselves for what they are that the reality of their fakeness instills anger in those being manipulated. In the case of Trinity Hall it is the disparity between the lofty character and integrity building propaganda and the reality of their actual promotional technique. In the process of expediting its approval, the promoters of Trinity Hall have lied, manipulated, obfuscated, deceived, curried suspicious favor and otherwise produced a veritable cornucopia of soft-core fraudulence. The integrity of their technique now serves as the best testimony to their true character.
Trinity Hall, as I understand it, is mostly the creation of two families, whose mission is to create “designer education” for young girls, leaving no conscience obligation to consider anyone or anything. The Navesink/Chapel Hill area will be chronically gridlocked. Not their problem. The sewage system will be driven to over capacity. Not their problem. The environment will be permanently thrown out of kilter by this monstrosity. Not their problem. The quality of life in the entire area will be vastly diminished. Not their problem. Driving will increase on a road known to be deadly, thereby playing Russian roulette with the lives of citizens and students alike, but it’s not their problem.
By now the parents of Trinity Hall must be asking themselves, why is this particular piece of property so important? Why is this so important when, as cited by one of the school’s founders, there were twenty other locations (and all better suited) on which the school could be built? Why is this so important when the school’s construction could have been well under way by now, at one of these other locations? Why is this so important that it is being fervently and obsessively pursued in spite of a litany of dramatic drawbacks — dangerous and otherwise? As the founders have often replied, “we are committed to the address” and most importantly, “it was most convenient”.
The mothers and fathers of Trinity Hall need to have faith in their own daughters. They need to realize that in the end, their promising young women will flourish because of who they are, not because of where they are. This is something that has become horribly lost on the founders of Trinity Hall as their main goal now is to win a piece of property at all costs- even if that cost is the educational and spiritual well-being their own daughters. The school will be built by following a path of convenience and want, in lieu of walking in the footsteps of Christ.

If you want to know how a school should be established, you have to go no farther than the actions taken by Mater Dei High School. When they were notified that they were being closed due to lack of funds, within hours the students themselves organized the funding process to keep Mater Dei established. They then went to anyone who would listen ... friends, family, church officials, alumni and even total strangers to pitched their project. When whoever it was coined the expression “grass roots movement”, they could not possibly have been thinking of a situation better than this.
The Mater Dei students did everything from fundraisers, to “friend raisers”, to prayer meetings, and to anyone with half a chunk of faith, it looked as though God himself looked benevolently on their undertaking. Their success came from endless hours of hard work and the good will of legions of small people. Their combined efforts conveyed the unmistakable belief that the result was universally desired and their cause was undisputedly righteous.
Trinity Hall’s motto is probably what gives me the most reservations. On a large sign, fastened to the front of their current building, are the words... LEADERSHIP, RESPECT, PERSERVERENCE, FAITH. These are noble attributes to be sure, but we live every day with proof that there is no need whatsoever to destroy a neighborhood and the environment to get them. It is this proof that brings us right back to Mater Dei.
When Mater Dei students found that their school was going to be closed, it touched off a veritable explosion of leadership, respect, absolute perseverance and undisputable faith. I am sure that there is no sign on the front of Mater Dei that flaunts those words because none is needed. These words reverberate in the hearts and minds of every student at that school.
Trinity Hall’s motto simply highlights the impossible moral paradox it has created for itself: How do you build a school whose only real purpose is to flaunt how superior you are to everyone else, without losing the support that you must have from the same people who you just implied as inferior? You can’t. You can be as pushy and aggressive and sneaky and filthy rich as you want, and the peasants will still not support you. There is something else that you cannot do. Trinity Hall’s motto has the word “leadership” and the word “respect” and the word “perseverance” and the word “faith,” but the one word that is missing from this motto is the word “HONESTY”. You are not allowed to use this word. You do not deserve it.
Tony Sloan: peasant in revolt
Sleepy Hollow Rd., Middletown
Showing posts with label Catholic church. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Catholic church. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Thursday, May 17, 2012
House Passes Bombs Not Bread Budget
By Imogen Reed
The House of Representatives voted 218-199 to approve Paul Ryan’s ‘bombs not bread’ budget last Thursday. The vote means that America’s military will be exempted from all budget cuts over the next decade. The same cannot be said for the poorest and weakest elements of society who will continue to feel the brunt as the budgets for Medicaid, federal worker benefits and food programs are cut to ribbons.
This new budget will actually allow the defense budget to grow by 20 percent and was designed in order to head off an automatic budget of $1.2 trillion over 10 years, which would have kicked in during the summer. Termed a ‘reconciliation’ budget by the Republicans, the budget has effectively saved the military from a budget cut of about $600 billion.
Instead, the Republicans will force retired federal employees to take a 5 percent pay cut to make an $83 billion saving, cap malpractice lawsuits for Medicaid thus saving around $49 billion and by cutting another $48 billion from Medicaid programs in general. In addition to this, the budget is due to slice $36 billion off the food aid budget. It is the kind of budget to make the blood boil, and it even riled 16 Republicans into rejecting the deal; sadly their votes were not enough.
Rep. Jim McGovern (D. Mass.) exploded during the floor debate and said:
"I am so sick and tired of the demonization of programs that benefit poor people in this country, especially the [food stamp] program. This is not some extravagant, overly generous benefit. Rather than cutting waste in the Pentagon budget, which we all know exists, you protect the Pentagon budget. You know, rather than going after subsidies for oil companies and going after billionaire tax breaks, you protect all that."
Dennis Kucinich asked Republicans how they could “reconcile more money for bombs while cutting money for bread?”
The question is especially pertinent as the Congressional Budget Office reported that the number of people requiring the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has increased by 70 percent in five years from 26 million people in 2007 to 45 million in 2012. As a result of this, the cost excluding administration, has increased over 100 percent from $30 billion to $72 billion. As a result of this budget, less money will have to help more people.
Speaking in a Catholic Church, Paul Ryan defended his budget as a moral budget by saying that he supposed “that there are some Catholics who for a long time thought they had a monopoly of sorts, not exactly on heaven, but on the social teaching of our Church." Also that the poor should see independence from the state as a preferred option, but Ryan is ignoring or not realizing that many depend on the state not out of choice, but out of necessity.
90 faculty members and priests of the Catholic Church, however, deigned to disagree with the rising star Republican. In their letter, they said: "We would be remiss in our duty to you and our students if we did not challenge your continuing misuse of Catholic teaching to defend a budget plan that decimates food programs for struggling families, radically weakens protections for the elderly and sick, and gives more tax breaks to the wealthiest few."
In a final quip and attack on Ryan’s budget, the letter added that his “budget appears to reflect the values of your favorite philosopher, Ayn Rand, rather than the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” Ayn Rand, born Alisa Zinoy’yevna Rosenbaum was a Russian-American philosopher who died in 1982. She is most famous for her novel Atlas Shrugged and for her philosophy of Objectivism whereby she put cold calculated reason ahead of ideas such as faith and religion. The Church, therefore, was calling Ryan amoral.
While certain Republicans who voted in favor of the bill and those who support it like Mitt Romney have accused the Democrats of playing politics with the budget, it is clearly a case of accusing someone else of doing exactly what you are. The budget helps to draw the battle lines for the forthcoming election by pitting the party of the poor against the party of the rich, with the former ranting from the unemployment lines while the latter prosthelytizing from their expensive chaise sectionals and luxury yachts. Republicans will point to creativity and venture capital, to small government and the rich creating jobs.
The budget, in actual fact, is a godsend to the Democrats. It emphasizes all of the negative perceptions people can have about the Republicans. The party of small government is expanding the Pentagon while cutting back on care to the vulnerable, is penalizing the poor’s pockets while not taking a cent more from the rich, the party of the Church and of religion, is being left behind by those very institutions.
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| Paul Ryan |
This new budget will actually allow the defense budget to grow by 20 percent and was designed in order to head off an automatic budget of $1.2 trillion over 10 years, which would have kicked in during the summer. Termed a ‘reconciliation’ budget by the Republicans, the budget has effectively saved the military from a budget cut of about $600 billion.
Instead, the Republicans will force retired federal employees to take a 5 percent pay cut to make an $83 billion saving, cap malpractice lawsuits for Medicaid thus saving around $49 billion and by cutting another $48 billion from Medicaid programs in general. In addition to this, the budget is due to slice $36 billion off the food aid budget. It is the kind of budget to make the blood boil, and it even riled 16 Republicans into rejecting the deal; sadly their votes were not enough.
Rep. Jim McGovern (D. Mass.) exploded during the floor debate and said:
"I am so sick and tired of the demonization of programs that benefit poor people in this country, especially the [food stamp] program. This is not some extravagant, overly generous benefit. Rather than cutting waste in the Pentagon budget, which we all know exists, you protect the Pentagon budget. You know, rather than going after subsidies for oil companies and going after billionaire tax breaks, you protect all that."
Dennis Kucinich asked Republicans how they could “reconcile more money for bombs while cutting money for bread?”
The question is especially pertinent as the Congressional Budget Office reported that the number of people requiring the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has increased by 70 percent in five years from 26 million people in 2007 to 45 million in 2012. As a result of this, the cost excluding administration, has increased over 100 percent from $30 billion to $72 billion. As a result of this budget, less money will have to help more people.
Speaking in a Catholic Church, Paul Ryan defended his budget as a moral budget by saying that he supposed “that there are some Catholics who for a long time thought they had a monopoly of sorts, not exactly on heaven, but on the social teaching of our Church." Also that the poor should see independence from the state as a preferred option, but Ryan is ignoring or not realizing that many depend on the state not out of choice, but out of necessity.
90 faculty members and priests of the Catholic Church, however, deigned to disagree with the rising star Republican. In their letter, they said: "We would be remiss in our duty to you and our students if we did not challenge your continuing misuse of Catholic teaching to defend a budget plan that decimates food programs for struggling families, radically weakens protections for the elderly and sick, and gives more tax breaks to the wealthiest few."
In a final quip and attack on Ryan’s budget, the letter added that his “budget appears to reflect the values of your favorite philosopher, Ayn Rand, rather than the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” Ayn Rand, born Alisa Zinoy’yevna Rosenbaum was a Russian-American philosopher who died in 1982. She is most famous for her novel Atlas Shrugged and for her philosophy of Objectivism whereby she put cold calculated reason ahead of ideas such as faith and religion. The Church, therefore, was calling Ryan amoral.
While certain Republicans who voted in favor of the bill and those who support it like Mitt Romney have accused the Democrats of playing politics with the budget, it is clearly a case of accusing someone else of doing exactly what you are. The budget helps to draw the battle lines for the forthcoming election by pitting the party of the poor against the party of the rich, with the former ranting from the unemployment lines while the latter prosthelytizing from their expensive chaise sectionals and luxury yachts. Republicans will point to creativity and venture capital, to small government and the rich creating jobs.
The budget, in actual fact, is a godsend to the Democrats. It emphasizes all of the negative perceptions people can have about the Republicans. The party of small government is expanding the Pentagon while cutting back on care to the vulnerable, is penalizing the poor’s pockets while not taking a cent more from the rich, the party of the Church and of religion, is being left behind by those very institutions.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Witch Conjures Demon to Dwell in Church
Here's a twisted and true tale that fits right in the the season from the Phantoms & Monsters blog:cambridge-news - A witch who plans to open an occult centre in Cambridge says he has conjured up a demon - in the city's Catholic Church.
Magus Lynius Shadee says the demon could possess parishioners and drive them to suicide.
He claims to have instructed the evil spirit to "dwell" in the famous church to "cleanse it".
The occultist, who calls himself the King of All Witches, says he let loose the entity to prey on worshippers at the Church of Our Lady and the English Martyrs in Hills Road.
Fr Dick Healey has branded the occultist "twisted" and plans to report him to the police for practising witchcraft in a church.
He said: "He should be reported to the police. It's as if someone came into your home and performed some sort of magic trick without your permission.
"He's obviously a bit twisted to perform witchcraft in a church.
"We will not be performing an exorcism, but I will consider reporting him to the police."
Mr Shadee, a Frenchman with an occult centre in Normandy, claims to have made the "incantation" to evoke the demon on a visit to the city to look for a site for his occult centre, which he plans to open on December 24.
He said: "It's an element, a hunter that will attach itself to an individual, then try to take the person, either send them insane and make them depressed, and the worst is to cause them to take their physical life.
"I did not speak to the priest, just performed a visual ritual format, an incantation, to bring in an element to dwell within the building.
"When I perform, unless it's within the confines of a ritual room, most of my work is on my own with associates observing."
Fr David Paul, of St Laurence's Roman Catholic Church in Milton Road, fears the occultist's move into the city is to target university students, as the News reported.
Now the witch hopes to "convert" the priest.
He said: "I will have to visit Mr David Paul's church and perform a ritual for him - perhaps he will be converted."
Police said a potential crime under the Public Order Act could have been committed if anyone was in the church at the time of the ritual and was alarmed or distressed by it.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Internet Radio Host/Ultra Right-Wing Nut Job, Hal Turner Arrested
- The Hartford CourantInternet radio host Hal Turner — accused of inciting Catholics to "take up arms" and singling out two Connecticut lawmakers and a state ethics official on a website — was taken into custody in New Jersey late Wednesday after state Capitol police in Connecticut obtained a warrant for his arrest.
Turner, who has been identified as a white supremacist and anti-Semite by several anti-racism groups, hosts an Internet radio program with an associated blog. On Tuesday, the blog included a post that promised to release the home addresses of state Rep. Michael Lawlor, state Sen. Andrew McDonald and Thomas Jones of the State Ethics Office.
"Mr. Turner's comments are above and beyond the threshold of free speech," Capitol Police Chief Michael J. Fallon said in an e-mail announcing the warrant. "He is inciting others through his website to commit acts of violence and has created fear and alarm. He should be held accountable for his conduct."
The remarks on the blog were a reaction to the recent controversy over a bill that would have changed the way the Roman Catholic Church is governed, taking power away from church officials and turning it over to lay members. It was pulled in mid-March following an outcry from Catholics across the state and questions about its constitutionality.
READ MORE>>> Here
Comment - If anyone takes the time to listen to Hal Turner or read his blog postings, I think that you would agree, they are simply chilling. I believe in the right of free speech but there are limits. Inciting others into violent acts is not free speech, it is domestic terrorism!
Comments left by readers and listeners on Hal Turner's blog are also very disturbing, if possible those commenters should be tracked down and questioned as to their intent.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Pope Picks Archbishop of Milwaukee to Lead New York Archdiocese
Archbishop Dolan, who has a towering frame and a gregarious presence, is orthodox in his theology but more likely to use persuasion than punishment on Catholics who do not share his views. In choosing him, the pope passed over other candidates equally conservative but more confrontational with Catholic priests, parishioners and politicians who question church teaching.
Read More >>> Here
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