A Wonderful Sign of the Spring Growing Season--the New Growth on My Spruce Trees

The early spring wildflowers are beginning to fade, but we have another wonderful sign of the spring growing season--the new growth on the spruce trees. The color is the freshest green or blue. The feel is soft. I love it!

Magnificent Blue Spruce; Norway Spruce seedling in foreground

Norway Spruce seedling in my front yard

Dr. Jim O'Connell--Physician to the Homeless in Boston

Today I heard the extraordinary news that my old Notre Dame/Innsbruck classmate, Jim O'Connell, has a new baby. Now most of my old classmates are bragging about new grand children, not children. Jim is one of the great humans on this planet. He founded and is president of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (short bio of Jim O'Connell) and has been doing that work most of his professional life. Many of his patients are like the people we work with in the Karpos Ministry at St. Mary's Church in Painesville, Ohio, where we feed the hungry and homeless every Wednesday and Thursday evening. On a given day there could be 100 up to 150 meals served out of our small facility. Many of our guests sleep outside all year round, and in the video below Jim O'Connell talks about how vulnerable these folks are to health conditions many people live with. The Karpos Ministry was founded by Kathy Philipps and Gregg Stovicek and has been going on for about four or five years now. Linda and I have been part of it a little over two years.



Here is a link to the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program: http://bhchp.org/

More Pics from Marias River Float

Marias River-- Island Campsite. Sara and Carolan

Singing and Playing the Flute

Happy Girls!

Jeremy, Carolan, Sara, Brian

Bald Eagle in Tree

Carolan atop a Mushroom Rock

A Castle Rock on the Marias

Carolan and Jeremy Paddling in sync

Floating Down the Marias River in Montana

My daughter Carolan and her friends Jeremy, Sara, and Brian just finished a long float, in inflatable canoes, down the Marias River, a river which rises in the Blackfeet Indian Reservation (just east of Glacier National Park) and eventually meets up with the Missouri River. Below are some photos from their float:

Carolan with her inflatable canoe

Carolan again

The Rocky Mountain Front, seen from a distance

Sandstone Cliffs along the Marias River

Memorial Day. And Dad's 92nd Birthday.

Today my Dad would have been 92 years old. He was born in Cleveland on May 26, 1922, to Cora Esther Bowers Coughlin and Cornelius (Connie) Francis Coughlin. Both my grandparents were first generation Americans. In 1922 they lived around East 87th Street, between St. Clair and Superior. My Dad was the third child, after Fran and Jack. Bill was born about a year and a half later. And Bernice followed Bill. My grandparents' marriage seemed a little odd--Connie was a rough and ready Irishman and a great semi-pro baseball player. My grandmother was the daughter of a bridge engineer, Frank Bowers (changed from Bauer) and Mary Voelker. My impression is that they were upper middle class. So Cora married a guy who was in a lower social class. But Connie had charm and smarts. He was funny, affable, a great athlete, with lots of friends.Their marriage lasted about 43 years, until my Grampa's death in 1960.

During World War II, their 4 boys were all in the service, all over seas. My Dad was a signalman in the Navy, and spent most of his 4 years in the South Pacific, on very small ships (including wooden Subchasers!). We honor him today, his birthday, and Memorial Day.

Today I also think about my cousin Tommy Fitzpatrick, who was just 6 months older than me. Tommy was killed in Vietnam in 1969, just 21 years old. His death is an unending ache to his family and friends.

I also think about my Notre Dame/Innsbruck friend, Steve Shields. I studied with Steve in Salzburg and Innsbruck, Austria in 1967-68, and we graduated from Notre Dame together in 1970. Just a couple years later, around age 23 or 24, Steve's helicopter was shot down in Vietnam and he was killed. Rest in Peace, Tommy and Steve.

I also think about some of the unsung heroes of the Civil Rights and Peace Movement on Memorial Day. There is no official holiday for them, but they are also heroes for our country and our world. Names that come quickly to mind are Ernest and Marion Bromley, Maurice McCrackin, and Chuck Matthei. But there are many more, many whose names are totally lost to history.

So to all the heroes, both of wars and of the struggle for peace and justice, we say Thank You!

Tommy Fitzpatrick in Vietnam (center)

Dad and Mom, August 1947, Willoughby

Steve Shields (left)--Salzburg, Austria
[Also, Charlie Bradley, Brian Wilson, me, Mike Gerrity]

Floating Down the Marias River in Montana--Carolan's Memorial Day

My daughter Carolan, who lives and works in northwest Montana, is floating down the Marias River today in an inflatable canoe with some friends, Jeremy, Sara, and Brian. This is truly a wilderness experience. In places they are probably 50 miles from a grocery store. In fact, where they are floating there isn't even a bridge crossing this river for some 70 miles. I found a youtube video of a couple paddling the Marias. I'm pretty sure this is what Carolan, Jeremy, Sarah, and Brian are seeing right now.

Regina Brett's Second Article on the Catholic School Contract

For the second time in about a week, Regina Brett, the Plain Dealer's outstanding columnist, has written about the contract Catholic school teachers are being forced to sign (sign it or else--no job).

Click for Regina Brett's article

In the column Brett asks, "What happens if you're a teacher whose child was conceived by in vitro fertilization? Are you allowed to share the miracle story of the birth?" Then she talks about her cousin whose child was born via in vitro, and says, "His sons are children of God as holy as all the others created in God's image and likeness."

Brett has heard from hundreds of teachers. Many said they would reluctantly sign the contract (otherwise no job); some said they would not sign the contract and would leave their jobs. These teachers thought that this would be quite a loss for the children they teach.

One teacher asked that this addendum be appended to the contract: "Role as Catholic/Christian: the Teacher-Minister, in signing this Agreement, represents that s/he has read and understands the Gospel of Jesus and will attempt every day to love as Jesus loves . . . ." [click on the article above for the entire proposed addendum].

Brett isn't hopeful pastors will "stand up for their teachers and stand up to the bishop and against his morality squad." She fears that this will happen: "Many good teachers will leave with broken hearts. Many good teachers will stay with broken hearts. And the church will be more broken."

In the end, Brett concludes, "This 'morality' contract violates the spirit of Christian and Catholic love." And she proclaims, "The Catholic church needs the people who love it enough to embrace it 100 percent as is, and people like me, who love it enough to challenge it relentlessly to be a more loving church."

I couldn't have said this better. I myself love the Church and will not leave it. And like Regina Brett, I will continue to challenge it and pray that it becomes a Church in the Spirit and image of Jesus.