Keywords by David Yonke

They say prayer changes things... but does that include gas prices?
For ye of little faith --and I include myself in that group when it comes to the price of oil -- maybe we can do something instead of just complaining. -- D.Y.

The Associated Press reported this interesting story today:

At a Shell gas station in Washington, Rocky Twyman and an unusual group of activists were mad as hell about soaring fuel prices.

"Last week, this station was 3.51 dollars. Now it's practically 3.60. So it's gone up nine cents in one week," Twyman said as he pumped five dollars' worth of gas into his thirsty American car.

"Someone's making a lot of money and it's really, really wrong," added Twyman, who founded the Prayer at the Pump movement last week to seek help from a higher power to bring down fuel prices, because the powers in Washington haven't.

The half-dozen activists -- Twyman, a former Miss Washington DC, the owner of a small construction company and two volunteers at a local soup kitchen -- joined hands, bowed their heads and intoned a heartfelt prayer.

"Lord, come down in a mighty way and strengthen us so that we can bring down these high gas prices," Twyman said to a chorus of "amens".

"Prayer is the answer to every problem in life... We call on God to intervene in the lives of the selfish, greedy people who are keeping these prices high," Twyman said on the gas station forecourt in a neighborhood of Washington that, like many of its residents, has seen better days.

"Lord, the prices at this pump have gone up since last week. We know that you are able, that you have all the power in the world," he prayed, before former beauty queen Rashida Jolley led the group in a modified version of the spiritual, "We Shall Overcome".

"We'll have lower gas prices, we'll have lower gas prices..." they sang.

At the weekend, Twyman had led a group of around 200 people in prayer at pumps in San Francisco, where gas is touching the four-dollars-a-gallon mark.

On Thursday, US lawmakers and experts at a congressional hearing on Capitol Hill painted a grim picture of how Americans are being hammered by record fuel costs and the steepest food price spikes in 17 years.

"We pay more to drive to the supermarket, and then get hit with higher prices when we get there," Senator Charles Schumer told the hearing.

Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney said Americans have been forced by soaring prices to go on a "recession diet".

"In some areas of the country, people are paying four dollars for both a gallon (3.79 liters) of milk and a gallon of gas," and are substituting meats, fish and vegetables with lower-cost pasta and canned foods, Maloney said.

On the forecourt of the Washington Shell station, retiree Rufus Simpkin was feeling the pain at the pump and praying for relief.

"I'm having to spend much more on gas, and I am retired," he told AFP.

"It is really hitting me and my family hard."

Marcia Frazier-Foster was filling up her car for the long drive home to Laurel, a suburb from which she commutes 35 miles (53 kilometers), four days a week to work in a Washington soup kitchen, serving a hot meal to scores of men who have fallen on tough times.

"The cost of food has gone up... quantities we get from the food bank have gone down. The cost at the gas station has gone up and that means I spend more money to get here," she said after joining the prayer for gas prices to come down.

"Yet I don't see anyone in power really concerned about the high gas prices -- President Bush doesn't even think we're in a recession," she lamented.

Americans have turned to prayer because the earthly powers-that-be don't seem to give a hoot, said Judy Dugan, a research director at Consumer Watchdog, a non-profit group based in California.

She described Prayer at the Pump as "the ultimate Hail Mary."

"It's what you do when you feel you have no one on your side, and they certainly don't have the US government on their side on this," Dugan said.

At the Shell station, Twyman had dire words of warning for those who are raking in profits from high gas prices.

"Woe be unto those people that are really greedy and taking advantage of American families," he proclaimed from his pump pulpit.

"These prices will come down, just like the walls of Jericho came down in the Bible," he said, as another chorus of amens punctuated the sound of cash flowing out of the gas pumps.

Note, Bishop Robinson spoke in Cleveland recently and local Catholic laypeople tried to arrange a Toledo speech but his schedule was too tight. This article was written by the Boston Globe's Michael Paulson, one of the finest religion reporters in the United States.-- D.Y.

Defying hierarchy, bishop urges change;
Sex abuse stand inspires liberals

By Michael Paulson,
Globe Staff

May 31, 2008

DEDHAM - He is an unlikely hero for the Catholic left: a retired Australian bishop who served for years as an aide to the very conservative cardinal-archbishop of Sydney.
But now Bishop Geoffrey Robinson is under investigation by the Australian bishops’ conference, and multiple American bishops are trying to ban him from their dioceses after he published a book suggesting the Catholic Church examine the roles that power and sex played in the clergy abuse crisis.
The Catholic left - whose weakened influence was captured in a Time magazine essay this month headlined “Is liberal Catholicism dead?” - has rallied to this little-known bishop, packing his speaking appearances and driving up sales of his book.
On Thursday night, Robinson drew a crowd of about 550 to St. Susanna Church in Dedham, which he said was the largest audience he has drawn on a US speaking tour that began earlier this month. On Wednesday night, 110 showed up to hear him speak at the Paulist Center in Boston.
“If we are ever to look to the future with a clear conscience there must first be profound change within the church,” Robinson told a rapt audience in Dedham at the start of a 60-minute talk, in which he questioned the extent of papal infallibility and the rationale for mandatory priestly celibacy. Perhaps most daringly, given the adulation directed toward Pope John Paul II since his death, Robinson repeatedly criticized the late pontiff for not taking enough action against clergy sexual abuse.
To those who despair of change within the church, he said, “Communism changed. Apartheid changed. It just may be the church might, too.”
Some people traveled to Dedham from New Hampshire three hours early to make sure they could get a seat, and the event had to be moved from the basement to the church nave to accommodate the crowd. Every copy of Robinson’s book sold out.
“The fact that this event attracted many hundreds of Catholics, large numbers of whom traveled many miles to attend, indicates to me that there is still significant dissatisfaction among the laity with the church’s response to the sex and cover-up crisis to date,” said Deacon Larry Bloom of the Dedham parish.
An ABC Washington Post poll conducted April 13 of this year said 73% of Catholics are not satisfied with the church’s response to the clergy sex abuse crisis.
Robinson is one of the first bishops since the abuse crisis to break ranks publicly and call for a discussion of the most sensitive issues in the Catholic Church. And the hierarchy responded swiftly. The Australian Bishops Conference issued a statement declaring “doctrinal difficulties” with Robinson, in particular what it described as his “questioning of the authority of the Catholic Church to teach the truth definitively.” A top Vatican official and several American bishops asked him to cancel his trip to this country.
“Canon 763 makes it clear that the Diocesan Bishop must safeguard the preaching of God’s Word and the teachings of the church in his own Diocese,” Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, the archbishop of Los Angeles, wrote in a letter to Robinson. “Under the provisions of Canon 763, I hereby deny you permission to speak in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.”
But where Robinson was denied Catholic venues, he found others.
On Long Island in New York, he spoke at a Unitarian Universalist parish, which waived its rental fee because, he said, the congregation viewed the bishop and his audience as “an oppressed minority.” In New Jersey he spoke at a Lutheran church; in southern California he is speaking at a university, a community center, and a hotel.
In New England, the bishops have been quieter. Robinson spoke at Fairfield University, a Catholic college in southern Connecticut, as well as at St. Susanna Church and the Paulist Center. Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley has declined several requests for comment.
At the same time, Voice of the Faithful, the reform organization founded in Wellesley, last week gave Robinson its top honor as a “priest of integrity.”
And Liturgical Press, the Catholic publishing house that is printing Robinson’s book, “Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church,” said it sold out its first run, of 3,000 copies, and is rushing a second run into print.
“What’s significant here is that you’ve got a bishop who, once retired, decided he’d speak his own mind for a change - that rather than being part of the orchestra, he decided he wanted to do a solo,” said the Rev. Thomas J. Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. “It’s clear there’s a real thirst among the laity and some priests for a more open discussion of issues in the church, and this is the kind of thing he’s trying to stimulate. But it’s not the kind of thing the Vatican or the majority of bishops want to see happen.”
The sympathetic crowds coming to hear Robinson are clearly heartened by his outspokenness. In Dedham, he was given two standing ovations.
“He understands that the crux of the Roman Catholic problem lies squarely with the Stalinist-style power structure of the institutional church,” said Peter Hartzel, a parishioner who lives in Dedham. “He honestly broached the ‘hot’ sexual issues with which the bureaucracy is unable to broach in a realistic manner.”
Robinson, 70, has spent a considerable amount of time thinking about the abuse crisis and meeting with victims.
In 1994, he was named to a committee charged with coordinating the response of the Australian Catholic Church to clergy sexual abuse, and from 1997 until 2003 he was the committee cochairman. Robinson said he is also a victim of childhood sexual abuse, although not by a priest.
Of his work with victims he said, “It was an experience that changed me in so many ways that even if I wanted to I could not now go back to being the person that I was before.”
Robinson said it is incumbent on Catholics to examine “institutional factors” that contributed to the abuse, as well as “the inadequate response to the abuse,” which, he said, “created at least as much scandal as the abuse itself.”
Robinson said that in an effort to prevent debate over mandatory celibacy, the Vatican had blamed gay priests for the abuse crisis.
“The scapegoat they found was priests whose sexual orientation was homosexual,” he said. He called that argument “mistaken” and said, “Homosexuals are no more likely to offend than anybody else,” and, “It’s an avoidance of the truth in order to protect papal authority.”
Robinson did not spell out solutions, but called for Catholics to use the moral force of the abuse issue to push for greater conversation about the church’s teachings regarding power and sex.
“All church leaders have at the very least been through a profound humiliation and embarrassment over this issue,” he said. “Deep within themselves they know that the popes have not given them the leadership they would have hoped for. However much they might pretend to the opposite, they also know that we still have a vast amount to do before we can look to the future with a clear conscience.”
He praised Benedict XVI for his statements about abuse during his recent trip to the United States, but called on Benedict to make a public apology to victims from St. Peter’s Basilica, surrounded by the cardinals.
And he called for the pope to commission a study of ways in which church teachings, including mandatory celibacy, may have contributed to the abuse, and for an investigation of institutional factors that contributed to the moving of abusive priests from one parish to another by bishops.
“He is living proof that bishops are not as united as they might be thought to be,” said Paul Lakeland, a professor of Catholic Studies at Fairfield. “They try to paint him as a lone dissenter, a good man who has gone slightly off the rails, but I think there are lots of other bishops quietly cheering him on from the sidelines.”

Photo below shows Bishop Robinson, center, receiving an award and the photo and award are not related to the Dedham speech on which Michael Paulsen reported.

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Toledo, Ohio
June 2, 2008

Steven Curtis Chapman is a Christian music star but one of the most genuine, down to earth people you'll ever meet. Every time I've talked to him, and when I've read interviews with him, it is always so clear that God and family are his two top priorities.
It was with shock and sadness that I read about the death of his 5-year-old daughter, Maria Sue Chapman, on May 21. And the circumstances made it an even greater family tragedy: Maria Sue was struck by an SUV being driven by one of his teenage sons in the family's driveway.
It was not reported which son was driving.
Steven has posted a notice on his website. You can read about Maria and post a comment online here.
Maria was one of three girls Steven and his wife MaryBeth adopted from a Chinese orphanage.
I often have Big Questions for God when things like this happen, but I really don't have any answers. All I can do is offer my condolences and prayers to the Chapmans in this difficult time.
Toledo, Ohio
June 2, 2008

I was talking to a friend yesterday who is in the construction industry and he said he's working on a new house in a suburb of Toledo that will have a roof costing $470,000. Yes, that's four hundred and seventy thousand dollars for the roof -- alone, not the entire house.

Definitely NOT the house I'm talking about

I've been pondering that number ever since. Here I was stressing out a few years ago when I had to fork over a few thousand to have new shingles put on my roof. This ultra-wealthy homeowner probably spends that much money on a mailbox. The guy's roof, by the way, will be made of hand-cut slate shingles.
Toledo housing prices are extremely low compared to, say, California or New York, and you literally can buy a whole mansion here for $470,000.
Or, you can buy a roof.
This kind of money-is-no-object spending rattles my brain.
While it's true that you could feed a lot of hungry people, or house a few homeless families for that kind of money and still have enough left over to put a regular shingle roof on your very impressive home, I'm not judging the guy.
Who knows, maybe he gives 90 percent of his money to charity. Or maybe he volunteers at the homeless shelter and donates to all kinds of charities. He could be the most giving person on earth, but has a pressing need to have slate over his head. I really don't know.
Still, the number keeps bouncing around in my head. Something just doesn't add up, so to speak.
Meanwhile, I hope my friend makes a hefty profit on the construction job.
* * *
Toledo, Ohio
June 2, 2006

Ever try to do your homework or read a book or say a prayer when your stomach is craving food? Except for intentional fasts, being hungry interferes with your desire to do just about anything.
That's why I'm so impressed with people like Steve and Beth Dailey, Toledoans who are working as missionaries in the Philippines. There they head up a program that feeds 800 poor children every day.
"Studies clearly show proper nutrition provides not only good physical growth, but strong mental and immune system development as well," Steve said. "Our desire is to provide spiritual nourishment in addition to meeting the nutritional needs of the child."
I'm including the Daileys in an upcoming article on how the falling value of the dollar is affecting American missionaries overseas. Meanwhile, they have a great website where you can read about all about their ministry. Here's a link.
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Toledo, Ohio
June 3, 2008

Dean Koontz, in his latest "Useless News" newsletter (or maybe it should be "newslessletter"?) describes what has to be one of the bigger blunders made by a publishing house.
When he was just starting to make it big, he decided to go back and buy the rights to all his earlier works, many of which were published under pseudonyms (Owen West and Leigh Nichols were two).
When his agent approached Pocket Books seeking to work out a deal for four titles written under the Nichols name, the executive said he could have them for free. "They're worthless anyway. They've been fully exploited. Trying to squeeze additional sales out of them would be a waste of money," he told Koontz and his agent.
Within a year, the first of those four books, "The Servants of Twilight," was republished under Koontz's name by Berkley Books and spent six weeks at No. 1 on the N.Y. Times bestseller list. Koontz said all five of his Leigh Nichols titles went on to become bestsellers, are still in print two decades later, and have been translated into 36 languages.
I have heard a number of stories of poor judgment by publishing industry executives but this one really stands out.
* * *
Toledo, Ohio
June 3, 2008

To Spain -- at least that's where one of my predecessors, Rebekah Scott, is now living.
She and Paddy O'Gara, another Toledo newspaper ex-employee whom she married while they were both working in the newsroom, packed up and moved to Pittsburgh first, then in 2006 headed to north-central Spain.
They are running a bed and breakfast for pilgrims on the ancient Camino de Santiago.
Rebekah was a great religion reporter and a fine writer in general who now blogs about her life here.
You may find her adventures in Spain quite amusing.
Paddy, by the way, is a genius at newspaper graphics and design. I had the honor of working with him for two years in the 1990s when he was hired to oversee a redesign program. It wasn't easy but he brought the newspaper into the 21st century, or at least the late 20th century.
* * *
Finally got a haircut from my "regular" stylist last night -- it had been five months. I've been going to the same person for 15 years or so but the circumstances have gotten a bit odd, and then they took another twist in January.
It's a long story, but here's the short version: Kimm (with 2 mm's) is a Toledoan who moved to Florida a few years ago when her husband built a house there without consulting her. She agreed to move but wanted to keep cutting hair in Toledo on a limited basis, and visit friends and family while here. She cut her clientele down from 800 to 80, and had beem coming back once a month for a while and then once every five weeks.
Meanwhile, Kimm has a phobia about flying, so she drives the 1,100 miles each way every time.
Then in January she was a passenger in her neighbor's car when the car was struck by another car in an intersection. Kimm broke a number of bones, including in her hands and legs, and was pretty beat up, putting her out of commission indefinitely.
I've scrambled for haircuts ever since, and never felt comfortable with the subs. Then last night Kimm was finally back at work in Toledo. My hair is looking good. I feel much better. Life is grand.
I know, I know, it's definitely an odd situation. But once you find someone who does a job just right, it's hard to settle for less. As with a lot of services that people pay for, I'm fairly certain it's not just Kimm's hair-cutting talent but also her personality that makes her clients so loyal.
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Toledo, Ohio
June 4, 2008

Bob Dylan was interviewed in Odense, Denmark, by Alan Jackson of the Times of London in regard to an exhibit of his sketches that is opening in London June 14.

(Note: obviously not a current photo)

As an aside, I've tried to interview Dylan every time he has played in Toledo, but no luck. I know his publicist fairly well but she said he rarely grants interviews because "he doesn't need to." That's pretty much the case. But he did this to promote his art, not his music, which is understandable. In the interview, Dylan characteristically avoided talking about the meaning of his work. (I once had some fun "making up" an interview with Dylan by writing questions and then posting answers that were taken from his lyrics. It was quite amusing, if I don't say so myself.)
One thing bound to draw more media attention than usual about this interview: At the end of the talk, Dylan spoke up in favor of Obama and the need for change.
Here is a link to the whole story, and below are some excerpts from the interview conducted in a dark hotel room, curtains drawn in late afternoon:

On both our previous meetings, Dylan voiced his disdain for those completists who wish to see every scrap of paper he has written on or hear every studio out-take that he has rejected. With that in mind, I ask if it was a big deal for him to sign his name on each of the Drawn Blank paintings. “Yes!” he exclaims, laughing. “I finally grew into it, but yes, it was.” And did he perhaps practise his signature in advance? “I did, because it's tricky getting it just right. Finally you think, ‘Oh, to hell...' and just go for it, like you're writing a cheque or something.” He has, he says, no particular favourite among the images. “It's the same as with the early songs...In the Sixties, by the time they came out we were way past the recorded versions and were saying, ‘No, don't release that. We are playing it this way now.' So it is with the art. I find myself thinking, ‘I could have done this or that to make it better'. In the end, though, you've just got to let the work go and hope you'll know to do better next time.”
* * *
When I ask if he finds the art establishment preferable to the one he is more used to, Dylan grins and pulls a face of mock disgust. “The music world's a made-up bunch of hypocritical rubbish. I know from publishing a memoir [2004's Chronicles Volume One] that the book people are a whole lot saner. And the art world? From the small steps I've taken in it, I'd say, yeah, the people are honest, upfront and deliver what they say. Basically, they are who they say they are. They don't pretend. And having been in the music world most of my life [he laughs again], I can tell you it's not that way. Let's just say it's less...dignified.”
* * *
Yes, he allows, he was gratified by the critical and commercial success of Volume One. “Especially given the effort that went into it. Writing any kind of book is a lonely thing. You cut yourself off from friends and family to find that necessarily quiet place in your mind. You have to disassociate and detach yourself from just about everything and everybody. I didn't like that part of it at all.
* * *
“Well, you know right now America is in a state of upheaval,” he says. “Poverty is demoralising. You can't expect people to have the virtue of purity when they are poor. But we've got this guy out there now who is redefining the nature of politics from the ground up...Barack Obama. He's redefining what a politician is, so we'll have to see how things play out. Am I hopeful? Yes, I'm hopeful that things might change. Some things are going to have to.” He offers a parting handshake. “You should always take the best from the past, leave the worst back there and go forward into the future,” he notes as the door closes between us.
* * *
This sign has nothing to do with Dylan but it cracked me up... nice way to end a blog:

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Toledo, Ohio
June 6, 2008

I'm on vacation this week, entertaining my brother and my best friend who are visiting from Florida. We've seen some wonderful places in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan and it's been great just hanging out with them.

Meanwhile, the news never sleeps.

Below is the most-read article in yesterday's online edition of The Blade. It's about
Father Frank Murd's appearance in court Wednesday for a non-jury trial involving the March 18 "hot tub incident."
It is a sad day for the church that this priest admitted to fondling a man in the hot tub of a YMCA/Jewish Community Center. The judge will rule today whether Father Murd is guilty of misdemeanor sexual imposition.
Whatever the judge decides in his ruling on legal grounds, it is beyond dispute now that the 66-year-old Toledo diocesan priest sexually touched a stranger by grabbing him in the crotch.
A lot of people looked up to Father Murd and when the allegations were first reported, many vented their anger at me. I'm used to the "blame the messenger" syndrome, and understand how and why it happens with regard to the people in the pews. That doesn't go for church officials and professionals who should be more concerned with dealing with problem clerics instead of trying to dodge the issue by blaming the media.
It breaks my heart when I think of how much damage the church in general suffers when a man who is supposed to represent Jesus on earth admits to such deviant behavior.
These kinds of cases sadly give more ammo to those who reject Christ and Christianity by blindly claiming that all Christians are hypocrites.
On the other hand, isn't it better to expose such behavior and deal with it properly rather than try to sweep it under the rug and pretend it never happened?
I hope Father Murd gets the treatment he needs, and that the parishes where he served and the people who revered him can begin the difficult healing process.
--------------------------------------------------
Here's the article that appeared in The Blade yesterday:

Catholic priest confessed sexual assault to police;
During interview, Murd admitted fondling man

The Roman Catholic priest and former pastor of a Maumee church accused of sexually assaulting a man in a hot tub at a recreational facility in Sylvania Township confessed to police that he fondled the victim, according to testimony yesterday in Lucas County Common Pleas Court.

In an interview three weeks after the March 18 incident, the Rev. Frank Murd apologized for touching the 27-year-old man at the JCC/YMCA, 6465 Sylvania Ave., and assured a Sylvania Township police detective that he would tell Bishop Leonard Blair about the incident.

"I did touch him. … I want to apologize. It is inappropriate. It is wrong," the 66-year-old priest told Detective Jim Rettig in an audio recording played before Judge James Jensen, who will decide whether Father Murd is guilty of misdemeanor sexual imposition.

Judge Jensen, who concluded hearing testimony last night after a one-day bench trial in lieu of a jury, said he will issue a verdict in the case at 10 a.m. tomorrow.

The victim, who works part time and attends college, testified that he was sexually assaulted by Father Murd about 9:30 p.m. after the priest joined him in the octagonal-shaped hot tub and began fondling him.

He said he was offended by the unsolicited act that lasted less than a minute and told Father Murd the contact was inappropriate. "I felt like I had been violated," the man said.

If convicted on the third-degree misdemeanor charge, Father Murd faces a maximum sentence of 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.

He resigned as pastor of St. Joseph's Church in Maumee about a month after the victim reported the incident to police. His departure from the church was made known to parishioners April 10 - three days after the interview with Detective Rettig.

Father Murd, who wore a blue dress shirt instead of a clerical collar during the trial, was entered into treatment at an undisclosed residential facility for "appropriate spiritual remedies" and "professional evaluation and counseling."

The victim testified that Father Murd brushed his leg against his hand twice while they were in the hot tub before the alleged assault.

He said the priest apologized in the hot tub after the incident and told him: "I hope I didn't upset you."

County Assistant Prosecutor Michael Loisel argued to Judge Jensen that Father Murd used the locker room area at the facility as a "hunting grounds" to cruise other men for sex.

When asked by Father Murd's attorney, Tom Matuszak, why he didn't push away the priest's hand, tell him to stop fondling him, or get out of the hot tub, the victim said he was shocked and taken off guard by the incident.

"I was frozen. I was paralyzed," the victim said.

Connie Torrey-Cluff, executive director of the YMCA branch, testified that video surveillance showed that Father Murd arrived at the facility about 5:30 p.m. and never went outside the locker room area until he left at 9:30 p.m.

Briefly: The judge ruled today that Father Murd is not guilty of sexual imposition. While saying the priest's behavior was "repugnant," he said the victim did not flee or seek to repel the priest's advances and his groping.
* * *
Sylvania, Ohio
June 13, 2008

Yesterday was the day we all celebrate Father's Day. It's a bit odd to me that we have to set aside a day for that when it should be part of our everyday lives. Like many things, with our busy schedules and myriad distractions, it is easy to let things slide and forget to take a moment to honor the people we appreciate and love.
I had a wonderful time with the family. Two of my three daughters were home, my other daughter in Illinois called me at 1:05 a.m. Sunday. I think she forgot that she's an hour behind us... it was 12:05 there. She wanted to be the first one to wish me a happy father's day. Fortunately I was still up.
Family means everything to me, and I have done all I can to be the best father I can be.
You do what you can every day, one day at a time, and it's never to get any special honors or Hallmark cards for your efforts. You just love your children so much you want to do everything you can for them. It reminds me of the love God has for his children: I believe a father's love -- and a mother's love -- is modeled after God's divine and pure love, since the Bible says we were created in God's image.
You know my daughters must really love me because they watched the end of the U.S. Open with me. They're not golfers but they humored me. And what a great match it was -- with Tiger Woods tying Rocco Mediate on the last hole. They're having an 18-hole playoff today to decide the championship. Got to root for Rocco -- he hasn't won a PGA tournament in 6 years and would be the oldest U.S. Open champ ever. Meanwhile, what hasn't Tiger Woods won?
* * *
I've been getting calls about the Father Murd trial. Most callers feel it was a travesty that the priest was not convicted of sexual imposition. But even so, he confessed to fondling a strange man in a hot tub. It's on the record, it will not be swept under the rug.
I think it was commendable that shortly after the verdict, the Toledo diocese issued a press release re-stating the fact that the priest had resigned as pastor and is undergoing treatment, and it encouraged other victims of clerical sexual abuse to contact law-enforcement and diocesan officials.
Here's part of the diocesan statement: "Father Murd resigned as Pastor of Saint Joseph Parish, Maumee on April 8, 2008 and continues to be reassigned to a residential facility for appropriate spiritual remedies and for professional evaluation and counseling. He will return to that facility today.
To report any suspected or actual sexual abuse by Diocesan personnel, immediate contact should be made with local civil authorities, and with the Toledo Diocesan Case Manager, Mr. Frank DiLallo. He can be reached at 419-243-2150 (private line) or 419-244-6711, ext 632 in the Toledo calling area, or 1-800-926-8277, ext 632 (Outside Toledo, Within Ohio)."

Toledo, Ohio
June 16, 2008

I've got so many things in the air, my juggling skills are really getting good. They'd better be or I'll drop something on my foot and break a toe.
Here are a few quick notes in no particular order -- hope you don't mind this scattershot approach:
* As everyone knows, Tiger Woods beat Rocco Mediate in the U.S. Open playoff... but Woods played against doctor's orders. Now I just heard he's out for the rest of the season. Ideally, he should have withdrawn for health reasons and let Mediate win the Open. But you know that would be impossible for Woods, one of the most competitive athletes of all time.
* Have you heard of "The Shack"? This spiritual novel is causing quite a stir. I'm working on a story about it. Within the course of a year, it went from being a self-published book sold out of a guy's garage to being No. 1 on the N.Y. Times bestseller list. Truly an amazing story. Check it out online here.
* I'm going to meet a woman today who "channels" dead Catholic saint Padre Pio. Should be interesting. She said she can do some channeling for me.
* Tom Ferguson has withdrawn his lawsuit against former Toledo diocesan deacon Glenn Shrimplin, due to statutes of limitations concerns.
* The national "Pray at the Pumps" group is coming to Toledo on Friday to pray for lower gas prices.
* I've been wanting to fence in my back yard so my dog(s) (I have one dog and my daughter who is at home for a while also has one) can have room to run, but the yard is big and the price is so high. A friend of a friend knew I wanted to do that and called to say he knows someone who is giving away 1,600 feet of fence and all the accessories. I'm hoping this really works out -- it would be a wonderful blessing. People can be so kind and generous. And who else but God would hook me up with someone wanting to get rid of fencing?
(I tried using an invisible fence last year and it was a disaster... Scotty ran right through it, chasing a jogger down the road. The kindhearted jogger ended up picking Scotty up and carrying him back to our house.)
* My Saab is running so well, I just love that car. I am hoping to get some bodywork and paint done to it this summer. Funny though, I guess those flaws are not as obvious to others as they are to me. A friend who saw it Tuesday asked me if it was a new car -- and it's 14 years old!

(not my car but the same model)

Toledo, Ohio
June 18, 2007

Here is a copy of the editorial that was published on Saturday, June 21, in The Blade regarding the Father Murd trial:

SEXUAL-abuse cases are usually highly emotionally charged. When a verdict is announced, it is very rare to have it accepted as fair by all sides. So it is no wonder that past victims of sexual abuse and their families find themselves distressed that a Roman Catholic priest was acquitted on a misdemeanor charge of sexual imposition. However, Lucas County Common Pleas Court Judge James Jensen found that the prosecution failed to prove that the actions of the Rev. Frank Murd offended the victim. The judge then found the priest not guilty in a bench trial.
The accusation stemmed from a March incident involving a 27-year-old man at the JCC-YMCA in Sylvania Township. During a police interview, Father Murd, former pastor of St. Joseph's Church in Maumee, initially denied that he inappropriately touched the man, but then admitted that he did and apologized. When the victim explained during the trial why he didn't immediately rebuff the priest, he said he was shocked by his actions and froze before objecting. The man asked a facility attendant for the identity of the priest. He went home and called his psychologist, who instructed him to notify police.

It's understandable that Judge Jensen was puzzled and bothered that nearly a full minute passed during the encounter and the man had not resisted, told the priest to stop, moved away from him, or left the hot tub. True, sometimes victims of inappropriate physical contact are so stunned by another's aggression that they don't take action until later. Could that have been what was going on here? After all, no matter what any of us says, none of us honestly knows how we would respond to a situation until confronted.

And though the judge was bound by the testimony he heard during the trial, he was not insensitive to the victim and said the verdict should not be misinterpreted. Neither is the outcome of the trial an attempt on the judge's part to score points with the Catholic community. In fact, Judge Jensen said the verdict should not be considered an "affirmation or verification" of the priest's behavior or interpreted to "impugn the character" of the man who claimed to have been victimized.

Whether Father Murd is again assigned as pastor or is named priest to a parish is now up to the Toledo Catholic Diocese. Father Murd - who returned to a residential facility where he went for treatment after he resigned from St. Joseph's - was acquitted of a crime because the judge found reasonable doubt that one occurred. But the diocese needs to exercise care in deciding his future role with the church, particularly in light of the sexual-abuse cases that have rocked the Catholic Church in recent years.

I've had a lot of strange encounters in my life but probably nothing as bizarre as last week's "interview" with Padre Pio, the Italian Catholic saint who died in 1968.
A Toledo-area woman says she "channels" the late saint, and when I went to do the interview her brother insisted that when Padre Pio appeared I should ask him questions.
I am rarely at a loss for questions but this one caught me by surprise. What would you ask a dead man?

Well, I interviewed the woman in her "normal" state and then when Padre Pio appeared, I asked him some questions. It was quite interesting but I won't say more until the article is published, which I have tentatively scheduled for July 5th.

Toledo, Ohio
June 22, 2008

Here are a few photos from the week I took off recently to hang out with my brother, Rick, and our longtime friend, Peter, who were visiting from Florida. I showed them some of the "best of northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan" in this too-brief visit but we sure had lots of fun in a short time...

David, Rick & Peter: The three horsemen of the Apocalypse?

Ben Franklin and his protege, Rick Yonke.

David at the wheel of his sweet Swedish Saab.

A couple of real dummies...

Lookalikes: David and and his pet schnoodle Scotty.

Dwarfed by a steam locomotive -- made in Lima, Ohio -- at the Henry Ford Museum.

The view from the Perry Monument at Put-in-Bay, South Bass Island in Lake Erie.

Posing in front of a glass sculpture by the incomparable Dominick Labino.

* * *
Toledo, Ohio
June 22, 2008

Here is a report by the Pew Forum on the Anglican crisis that is worth reading for anyone interested in how the denomination got to this point.

Last Friday, Rocky Twyman of Maryland came to Toledo and joined up with a small group of people at two gas stations to pray for lower gas prices. Earlier that day, the price of gas jumped 20 to 29 cents a gallon in Toledo, to 4.099 at most stations.
Well yesterday as I was driving home I saw the price of regular gas at $3.809 per gallon -- at both BP and Speedway, on the corner of Talmadge Rd. and Sylvania Ave. I drive by those two stations every day on the way to work and for me, they are the local bellwethers. Speedway almost always changes its price first, BP soon after, then every other station in town seems to follow suit.
As I stopped to get gas, I wondered how much Rocky Twyman's "Pray at the Pump Movement" had to do with the 29 cents per gallon saving.
I also read yesterday that there are some new signs that gas prices are going to drop in the long-term.
Funny thing, when I wrote about Rocky Twyman and his prayers to "deliver us from high gas prices," I got very mixed responses. Some people thought it was ludicrous, while others praised me for writing such an article for the mainstream news.
As usual, people read into the news articles according to their own preconceptions, or "worldview" as the buzzword goes, and then either love me or hate me for reporting the news objectively.
Then this morning I saw BP had spiked its price back to $4.09 while Speedway was still holding it at $3.80. Let's see what they're at on my way home tonight.
I'm really wondering what will happen over the July 4th weekend, aren't you? This is a big holiday weekend for traveling in the United States. Will the oil conglomerates gouge us even more, or are they sated with the multizillion-dollar profits they've already devoured this year? I'm guessing they want more.
* * *
My old buddies Hootie and the Blowfish are coming to town! Maybe I can get out on the golf course with them again.
What a great band and wonderful group of guys. They rose to the top and their careers then tapered off, but they were level-headed all the way. The superficial self-anointed "critics" may look at them as washed up, but in reality these guys reached a level of fame and fortune that very few musicians (or any other career people) ever achieve. It never went to their heads, at least not very much. They were smart with their money and are set for life. They now make music for the love of it, regardless of the chart hits or commercial success.
Not a bad spot to be in.
I still love their songs, which are part of life's soundtrack for the 1990s.
* * *
Sad to see George Carlin passed away. He was a brilliant guy and very, very funny. I interviewed him a couple of times and he was always interesting, although he was bitterly anti-religion. I hope he's in a good place now.
Among his many funny lines, I always liked this one the best:
Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?
Toledo, Ohio
June 24, 2008

Toledo may not be alone in having a priest convicted of murder, depending on how this story develops. Be sure to read the quote at the end of this article. -- David

Vatican: Church defends Marcinkus
Ex- Vatican bank chief linked to kidnapping 25 years ago

(ANSA) - Vatican City, June 24 - The Vatican has lashed out at allegations that a former head of the Vatican bank may have been involved with the kidnapping of a 15-year old girl 25 years ago.

The Vatican said the accusations were ''infamous and without foundation'' and made against someone ''who has been dead for some time and cannot defend themself''.

''We do not wish to interfere in any way with the efforts of the judiciary to ascertain facts and responsibilites.... but at the same time we cannot help but express our firm disapproval for the way certain information has been made public, in a manner more bent on sensationalism than ethical and professional sincerity''.

Emanuela Orlandi, the daughter of a Vatican employee, disappeared in May 1985 and has never been seen or heard of since. It was initially thought that she was taken hostage in order to be exchanged with Ali' Agca, the Turkish terrorist who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981.

Recent testimony leaked to the press claimed that she was kidnapped by a renowned gangster acting on orders from Msgr. Paul Marcinkus, the then-head of the Istitito per le Opere Religiose - the Institute for Religious Works - also known as the Vatican bank.

The testimony reportedly came from Sabrina Minardi, the onetime wife of former soccer star Bruno Giordano who later became the girlfriend of Enrico De Pedis, a leader of the notorious Rome Magliana gang in the 1980s.

According to press reports, Minardi told investigators that De Pedis kidnapped Orlandi and later killed her, dumping her body in a cement mixer.

She said she thought De Pedis did it as a favor to Marcinkus, who was allegedly involved in laundering the Magliana gang's illegal earnings abroad and wanted to ''send a message high up''.

De Pedis was gunned down in broad daylight on a central Rome street in 1990. Msgr. Marcinkus had resigned his IOR position a year earlier and six months after De Pedis' death he returned to his native Chicago, in United States.

Msgr. Marcinkus later retired to Arizona, where he died in February 2006.

The Vatican official sparked controversy for his involvement with Roberto Calvi, the chairman of Milan's private Banco Ambrosiano who was dubbed ''God's banker''.

Calvi, a member of the secret P2 Masonic lodge of Lucio Gelli, was found hanged in London in June 1982, triggering the nation's biggest postwar banking scandal. According to Magliana gang supergrass Antonio Mancini, De Pedis did kidnap Orlandi but to extort money from the Vatican to make up for the huge amount of cash it lost through Calvi.

Sicily's Cosa Nostra is also believed to have lost a lot of money through Calvi and some believe may have been behind his 'suicide'. Investigators are believed to be somewhat skeptical of Minardi's testimony because she also reportedly claims that Orlandi was thrown into the cement mixer along with the 11-year-old son of another Magliana gang member who disappeared in 1993, three years after De Pedis was killed and ten years after Orlandi was kidnapped.

Orlandi's family has also expressed its doubts on the validity of Minardi's testimony.

The appearance of her testimony in the press prompted an investigation by police who searched the offices of the AGI Italian news agency, which may be accused of violating court secrecy.

Despite his criminal record, De Pedis was buried in a crypt in the Church of St Apollinaire, near the central Piazza Navona, next to members of the clergy and the nobility.

The interment was said to have been authorised by the late Cardinal Ugo Poletti, who at the time was Vicar of Rome, in recognition of the ''offerings'' De Pedis had made.

According to fellow gang member Mancini, De Pedis ''was very religious, he killed people but he was a religious person''.

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Toledo, Ohio
June 25, 2008

Gas prices are holding steady at $3.80 or so at my bellwether intersection (see yesterday's blog, "Prayer Power"). Then again, the prime July 4 weekend driving time is still more than a week away.
I'm hoping Rocky Twyman's prayers will still hold sway for a long time to come.
Despite my hopes, I would advise filling up the tank before next Wednesday, July 2. (I know, O ye of little faith and all that.)
A year ago we were paying $2.84 a gallon.
Sigh. Wish we had better alternatives in the United States. I would ride a Vespa scooter or even a bicycle to work when the weather is OK if there were separate lanes. But it's far too dangerous out there on the main roads with all the crazy car, SUV, and pickup drivers distracted by cell phones, screaming babies and spilled coffee.
* * *
Christmas is six months from today. Just thought you'd want to know that.
* * *
In my "idle" time, here are some of my activities:
Listening to: "Viva La Vida" by Coldplay; "Don't Do Anything," by Sam Phillips; "Chase the Light" by Jimmy Eat World, and "Zappa Plays Zappa" by Dweezil Zappa. Have pre-ordered the new Beck CD, "Modern Guilt," due out July 8.
Reading: "Blue Like Jazz" by Donald Miller; "The Shack" by William P. Young; "In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day" by Mark Batterson; the Pew Forum's new "Religious Landscape Survey" (you can click here), and the National Geographic article on Stonehenge.
Watching: Michael Clayton; Across the Universe; Springsteen in Dublin, and Alvin and the Chipmunks. (Really liked George Clooney in Michael Clayton, a good suspense thriller). Also catching up on old episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm with Larry David (not thrilled with some of the lax HBO standards but the show is hilarious nonetheless.)
Listening/Reading: Stocked up on audio books on disc for an upcoming trip by car, including "The Face" by Dean Koontz; "Beach House" by James Patterson, and "Cross Bones" by Kathy Reichs.
Online reading: Blogs by three compadres, Rebekah Scott, Paddy O'Gara, and John Rockwood, as well as a missionary in Scotland, David Schmidgall, whom I met last year and who writes a great blog.
* * *
Toledo, Ohio
June 25, 2008

From the Boston Globe's story on the Pew Forum's survey of American religious life:

"Another finding almost defies explanation: 21 percent of self-identified atheists said they believe in God or a universal spirit, with 8 percent 'absolutely certain' of it."

To say this is a contradiction in terms is the understatement of our young millennium. It is literally impossible for an atheist to believe in God. I just checked with Webster's Dictionary and the definition of an atheist has not changed:
"n. a person who denies or disbelieves the existence of a supreme being or beings."

In my mind, there can only be two explanations:
1. the survey questions were poorly worded, which seems unlikely given the reputation of the Pew Forum, or
2. Fears or concerns on the part of self-professed atheists to speak freely about their disbelief. I would lean toward this one.
Any other theories out there? I'd be interested in hearing them.
* * *
Toledo, Ohio
June 25, 2008

I turned the page on my desk calendar at home this morning, a collection of cartoons from the New Yorker, and look what I found -- The Vesparados! It ties in so well with yesterday's blog about gas prices. I think it's all in God's perfect timing, don't you?
If nothing else, it's good for a chuckle. There's' not enough levity in this world.
* * *
Toledo, Ohio
June 26, 2008

Yesterday afternoon, busy as always, juggling a couple dozen projects at work, my mind going in a million directions, the phone rang and snapped me out of my dreamstate.
Rinnnggggg!
OK, who was calling?
I had made a lot of calls and was waiting for them to be returned.
In addition to the usual suspects, I was expecting important calls from two different Marks -- Mark Bryan, guitarist with Hootie & the Blowfish whom I've known for 14 years, or Bishop Mark Hollingsworth, head of the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio.
Rinnnggggg!
I scramble for my notes, needing to be ready whoever is at the other end of the line.
Bishop Hollingsworth is leading a 250-mile bike ride across Ohio next week. He is elusive, hard to get on the phone or in person. The Episcopals are caught in a maelstrom of sorts over the ordination of homosexuals and the blessing of same-sex unions.
The bishop is clearly along the liberal edge of this divide. He's kind of a gentle man and I think he avoids the media because of all the controversy over these issues. But knowing that I was just writing a feel-good story about the bike ride, he was willing to talk.
Rinnnggggg!
Mark Bryan is one of the nicest rock stars you'll ever meet. I met him and the rest of Hootie in October, 1994, when they played a small club in Toledo. Months later, their album "Cracked Rear View" just "blew up" and became a phenomenon, selling 16 million copies.
Mark, Darius, Dean and Soni kept their heads on straight and I've always enjoyed their company. I even played golf and videogames with them.
Usually I don't do my music interviews during my normal work hours, preferring to schedule them in my off time, but this time I was on a deadline and couldn't be too fussy.
Rinnnggggg!
Hello, David? It's Bishop Mark Hollingsworth...
See the story this Saturday. Mark Bryan called me this morning, it was just like old times. Spoke with him and Darius, looking forward to seeing them in Toledo.
Life in journalism has its drawbacks but one thing for sure, it's never dull.
* * *
Toledo, Ohio
June 26, 2008