Author: tom

In wanting to get my Jottings out before Thanksgiving Day, so I could wish you all a “Happy Thanksgiving”, I overlooked one of our annual celebrations, which occurs on that day, “The Turkey Trot!” It was brought to my mind by an article in the St, Petersburg Times on Monday, November 24th announcing the “Times Turkey Trot celebrates its 30th anniversary this year”! We as a family have celebrated with a Turkey Trot for some years now. Before that I recall running on Thanksgiving morn with some guys, like Bill King, to soothe our conscience when we stuffed ourselves later that day.  We use to run on the Wissahickon Trail in Pennypack Park and usually had as many as a dozen runners participate. Sometime later in the 80’s I believe there was an organized run in Fairmont Park called the “Turkey Trot”. I believe it is a five-mile distance. So we joined in doing that run. We soon had sons, daughters, grandchildren and neighbors with us and it grew to a Paul McSorley Family tradition. The article I referred to above from the Times, said somewhat the same. “Everyone is at a different level and interest in running, they will be here to participate. That’s what great about the trot; it’s a great family tradition.”

A neighbor of many years and a fellow runner, Paul Keeley, always makes the trot one of his runs.  He has also been a cameraman for the run. I hear from him shortly after the run with a report of whom was there and that pictures are on the way! The Trot in St. Petersburg, attracts up to 14,000 people in four separate runs: The Wingding, a 5 K at 7:15 AM; Fun Run of 5K for walkers, joggers and strollers, at 7:30 AM; The Gobbler, 1 mile fitness run/walk at 8:30 AM; and The Turkey Trot a 10K at 8:45 AM. It raises $30,000 approximately each year and it goes to local charities. The Turkey Trot in Philly is not quite that extensive but is a good way to celebrate Thanksgiving with all of your gang. Try it! Running had been a major activity in my life. From 1971 to 1981 when I ran several marathons and even did two 50 K’s (31+ miles). Then from 1981 to 1996 I ran no more marathons but a lot of lesser distance races. Since then till early this year, 2008, I walked but slowly I began to develop a breathing problem and now I’m down to only a shuffle! In addition to slowing down my walking I have had to add oxygen in some form to keep it up.  Seems there is a twist of some sort at the end of an aortic valve and it is reducing the amount of blood that can be sent around the body. Thus we have a reduction of oxygen. But when I see others my age and some younger with walkers and canes I am still grateful for the ability to do as I can.

December for me always raises thoughts about how our calendar came to be as it is. I remember Decem as the Latin word for ‘ten’. So how did it become the name for the twelfth month of the year? Then there is Nova, nine, Octo, eight, Sept, seven… all preceding the Tenth month, December?

The calendar for most of the old world, as I read a bit of its history, was based on the lunar cycles and maybe that’s why when you read in the bible that the Jewish had their days starting at night, when the moon rose. Somewhere along the way it got adjusted apparently due to the lunar calendar not including a January and February due to snow and bad weather limiting the sighting of the moon.  The Romans only had ten months for a year plus that winter period, which was later, called, January and February. The lunar year only had 354.37 days and finally a Roman King called Numa added the additional days to the year. The seventh and eighth months are named for emperors Julius and Augustus. January is there to show the start of the New Year. Janus was a god looking both forward and backwards. February was the name of a purification feast Februaris that had been held in that month. I didn’t go into where March, April, May and June came from.  Finally in the medieval ages Pope Gregory straightened it all out so that we now have the calendar we use. Even though we call the twelfth month by the word meaning ten, I am sure you can all sleep better now that you know a bit about how the calendar got to the way it is now!

When we think of December we most always think of  “Christmas” It is the time to celebrate the birth of Christ. The event as recorded tells us that the angels announcing to the news to the shepherds said they “bring news of great joy” so we should celebrate. We give gifts and rejoice in thanks for his coming. The author of the best seller, “A Purpose Driven Life” Rick Warren, has written a book called the “The Purpose of Christmas”. In it he muses, “If you stop to think about it, it is astounding that the simple, unassuming birth of a peasant boy born two thousand years ago in the Middle East has caused such commotion.  His birthday event causes traffic jams today in places like New York City, Tokyo, and Rio de Janeiro.”

Unfortunately early in the month we celebrate another day, Pearl Harbor Day called a “Day of Infamy” by President Roosevelt. I was only twelve years old when it happened. It put a dimmer on any Christmas spirit since we had two brothers in the Philippine Island, which were invaded and bombed also on the same day. We know our Mom and Dad were concerned and could see it in their actions and speaking even though we went on with the regular Christmas routine. We would hear nothing about them for at least a year and then only learn the Japanese had interned them both. By strange coincidence, as we have probably mentioned before, another brother, John who was then in the Marine Corps, ended up meeting his two older brothers and having a picture taken that went around the world via newspapers. Another thought about the event is that it caused the Congress to declare war against Japan and her allies. I think historically that is the last time that Congress exercised it constitutional power to do so. Korea came as a result of being a member of the United Nations, and since then it seems to have just disappeared.

“X” means an ‘unknown or unspecified number of persons” (Oxford Dictionary, American Edition) In the Greek alphabet the letter could stand for ‘chi’ or ‘khi’. So how did “Merry Christmas” get to be “Merry Xmas”? The simple answer is ‘to take Christ out of Christmas’ Some suggest it is just a substituting for the English word “Christ” with the Greek word “chi’
of Christ. My thought is that it is clearly an attempt to overcome those 2000 years that Rick Warren refers to. It is also attempting to be done to our historic abbreviations for BC and AD, i.e. Before Christ and Year of our Lord. They now want them to read “Before the Common Era” and the “Common Era” How can we call all that’s happened since the birth of Christ ‘common’ ? Common means ‘occurring often’ or ‘ordinary’ So how do we make things like the Roman Empire, the Dark Ages, the Industrial Revolution, the Renaissance, the Reformation, etc. all ‘common’ or ‘ordinary’ events? To do so makes a mockery of history and all that has come before our age. But it is just another way to try to take Christ out of history and out of Christmas. To me trying to think of Columbus discovering American in 1492 of the Common Era sounds and is ridiculous. So as with most, I’m sticking with BC as Before Christ and AD the year of our Lord.

December also means that the year is coming to an end. Before you know it, it will be 2009 AD. We are all one year older and hopefully one year wiser. In fact there’s an adage, which says something like ‘with age comes wisdom’, I can assure you in my case it still hasn’t happened. I can say however with age come physical difficulties to some. It reminds me of another crack I heard, ‘the Golden Years ain’t for sissies!” I never could figure out who decided to call these times of age, ‘golden’.

Until next time! Pax Tecum!

“These days of November …make me remember. They send
me to the cemetery, at least inwardly. They make aware that I
am not the giver of my own life. Into the cloak of my life is woven
all the affection and tenderness of the people who are not
longer here and whom I remember”(D. Soelle, The Mystery of Death)

November is here. It is a reminder that the year is coming to an end. It also reminds me of the loved ones who left us in this month. In thinking of them I remember, not so much their leaving, but all the joy they brought in to my life. My mom left us when I was still a student in law school. Earlier in that year she suffered a heart failure of some sort and was bed ridden. Winnie, my oldest sister and another mom to me, was coming down every day from her home six or seven blocks away to care for her. It was then decided to move her to Winnie’s home for her care. I was the only one, besides my Dad, who was still living at the home. My Dad moved up to my sister’s home when Mom was moved up there. Even in her semi-conscious state she still was concerned for her children and me in particular since I was not in a settled vocation or position. Winnie told me she often worried that her son Paul was still going from “pillar to post” while all of the other thirteen were settled in their vocations and life plans! It was just one more example of her love. She was more concerned about the wandering son, than her own health. She died on November 15,1952.

Another loved one who left on that day in November was my eldest sister Winifred. She died on the same day in 1998. At one point late on the 14th the onlookers had considered her to have died. Then as the new day began she awoke and disappointedly said “I’m still here?” and then she went to heaven. She was my ‘second mom’. She was constantly inquiring as to my health and progress in studies, etc. Even when I separated from Katherine (my former spouse) she tried to correct the problem. She tried to create an atmosphere of cooperation between us, saying things like “stop trying to blame the other and know you are not without fault.”

It was in November just a year ago that I lost my good friend Bill King. We had a lifetime of being good friends and at least 20 years, of running races together. He too is among the loved ones that I now miss. We disagreed on a lot of issues but as C.S.Lewis said, somewhere, even if we disagreed on the points of view we did agree that they were important.
But November 15th is not only remembered because of loved ones who have left us, it is also the day of birth of Katherine Cosgrove Baker the eldest and first daughter of my eldest daughter Suzanne. The name Katherine is in honor of her grandmother, and Cosgrove was the maiden name of her great grandmother. This all happened in 1989 and today “Kate” is now a student at Princeton University, the alma mater of her Mom and Dad!

Some time ago a letter written by my mother to my brother Dick came into my possession. I have a feeling it was among my brother Dick’s papers, which my nephew Jim Allen was handling. It may have come from there. It is dated October 30, 1947. The letter is a chatty review of recent events and the health of others. One of the events mentioned was a visit to Oblate Junior College in Newburgh, N.Y. where I was. In it she writes, “Paul was a real joy. He seems completely acclimated and content. His letters home each week are a riot. He writes at length and seems interested in everything.” In October 1947 I was in my first year at the college. Even over 60 years later, on reading those words, I can still feel the love and the care my mother had for me! The thoughts too of my writings being “at length and seems interested in everything” could be applicable even today.

November is always remembered as the month in which we offer “Thanks”. Thanksgiving Day is our house was a big day. I recall the woman who pestered President Lincoln until he named it a national holiday. She reminded me of my mom who was seldom deterred in accomplishing something that she believed needed to be done! Our celebration of Thanksgiving was triple fold! Because on that day, particularly if it fell on the 28th day of the month, was my mother’s birthday and she and dad’s wedding day! Even when it wasn’t on that day we celebrated thanks for those events.

The deaths of two of my heroes occurred on the same day November 22,1963, President John F. Kennedy and C.S. Lewis. President Kennedy’s assassination overtook the media so that the news of Lewis’s death was lost. So I didn’t learn of his death until later. He always impressed me with his ability to make seemingly difficult matters clear whether there is reason to believe there is a Supreme Being or that Christ and Christianity shows us the path to eternity with Him. Kennedy’s election in 1960 was my first experience of working for a candidate. I can always recall standing on a corner in West Philadelphia speaking to a small crowd as the why they should vote for Kennedy. Suddenly I noticed a familiar face in the back of the crowd, it was ex-congressman Michael Stack. He had served several terms under President Roosevelt and was the father of a good friend of mine, also called Mike Stack. Mike and I went through two years of college and all of Law School together. He later was a campaign manager for Mayor Tate’s first run for mayor in 1973 and got me a place on the Mayor’s ticket (just because he needed the place filled!) So I was surprised to see Congressman Stack and particularly that he even seemed to be listening to this amateur. I tried to get to see him after the talk but he was gone. The newspapers these days report that they expect a turn out for this Presidential election will be high .

I loved this comment in the St. Petersburg Times, “Thank heavens October’s over. Somehow we made it through the Rays’ playoff run, historic stock market crash, and revved up presidential campaign.” Regarding the campaign I heard comments that it feels like it has been going on since the Truman administration.

“There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads to fortune. That was Shakespeare, and on Tuesday America embraced the sentiment. It was an absolute flood. An African-American man named Barack Obama in now president elect of the United States of America. In his youth and eloquence he upended the politics in this country and suggest there is a new way, a new day. Whether you celebrate this outcome or lament it, the American ideal is true: Anything is possible. We are today a different country than yesterday. This is change.” (St. Petersburg Times front page comment on Tuesday November 4, 2008)

The ‘land of opportunity’ continues. Unfortunately I can’t help but recall a young man being elected 48 years ago who never finished his first term due to an assassin. We pray and hope no such person is out there and is able to repeat that history. But there is no question that this is an historic event in the history of America and the World is taking notice. So now that the election is out of the way we have on only the Ray to come back next time with the title, and hope that the new president and congress can get us back from the economic fall out.

This Thanksgiving we have one more thing to be thankful for that America is still the ‘land of opportunity’ and ‘democracy’ is still working. The number of people voting was as high or higher that ’60 and the number of young people doing so was enormous. So regardless of the outcome, the fact that more people took voting seriously is another plus!

Until next time, Pax Tecum!

In the Penn Law School Alumni Journal, the “Gazette”, they list by graduating class year those who have died. Last month I found a name I knew and it reminded me of our relationship. He was James Keating, Deputy Attorney General, for the state of New Jersey.

Keating wasn’t what you would call a “friend” while we were in law school. But I did know who he was and when we reach the end of the third year we discovered we were contesting for the “most improved student” prize.  I had an average the first year of law school of something like 69.7. That meant I had failed. But through intercessions of my father and the fact that during that school year my mother had died, I was allowed to return. There was a condition in order to continue.  I had to have an average, at the end of the second year, above 70 in all the subjects of the first and second year. Fortunately I did so. I won the ‘Most Improved Student’ award probably because I was the lowest in the class at the end of that first year. I have no idea what Jim Keating’s marks were but apparently in the first year he was down close to 70.

The next time I saw Jim Keating was at a Law School reunion in 1977 or ‘78. I was chatting with my good friend Judge Blake. He was now the Court Administrator of the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court. He had been a friend in college and law school. Later he was a partner in the practice of law with me and we were partners in the ownership of property in Avalon, New Jersey. Keating approached us because he had heard I was now divorced. He was I learned a Catholic and just divorced. He was even then a Deputy Attorney General of the State of New Jersey. I noted in his obit that he was still listed as such. He also, I learned as we talked, had seven children. He wondered if I had gotten an annulment of my marriage in the Catholic Church. I hadn’t. Frankly, I could not reasonably think I was entitled to one since my understanding of an annulment meant you either were forced in to the contract or didn’t know what you were doing when you entered it. I had gotten married after earning college and law school degrees so I could hardly say I didn’t know what I was doing when I made the contract. It was also clear no one ‘forced’ me into the contract, so I didn’t apply for an annulment. Now here was a fellow lawyer asking me about annulments and then enlightening me by telling me the best place to apply was the Brooklyn, New York Diocese! He had obtained one there. I then inquired if he had moved from New Jersey. He said no he just established a residence in the Brooklyn Diocese and thus could apply for it there. He was just trying to help a classmate find the easiest way out of the marriage in the Catholic Church. It sounded just like getting a divorce in an easier jurisdiction, like Reno, after setting up a temporary residence there. I thanked him for his thoughts and offer but still couldn’t do it. Later I received a confirmation of the differences in grounds and fees among dioceses from my brother, Jim, a priest working at that time in California. He told me he knew of a man who was preparing a book in which he would list the various grounds and fees for annulments in the dioceses of United State. I never heard if it was published. But there was published a book whose title I can’t recall by an ex-wife of one of the Kennedy’s who blasted the whole system especially since she left the Episcopal Church in ordered to be married in the Catholic Church. She refused to join as requested by her husband in testifying in order to make the granting of the annulment a bit easier.

In the May Jottings, I wrote about an article written by my favorite theologian, Luke Timothy Johnson. He was writing about “Homosexuality and the Church”. He is a Catholic and was referring to that “church”. In the earlier part of the article he made this comment: “Of course Christianity as actually practiced has never lived in precise accord with Scripture. War stands in tension with Jesus’ command of non violence, while divorce, even under another name (annulment) defies Jesus clear prohibition” I agree with his thinking that changing the name of the actions doesn’t take away the real purpose of the action.

It is interesting that the theologian puts “war” as another example of Christians not living “in precise accord with Scripture”. The present war in Iraq is much discussed these days in the Campaign for President. One candidate sees it as a proper exercise of power by our President, the other objected to it when is was planned and carried out in 2003.  The arguments cover the alleged reasons for the President undertaking it and the failure of those reasons to be later confirmed.

“Let me take you down Memory Lane!” Recalling things of the past is most of the time a joy—since our memory conveniently lets us slowly forget those things that were not joys.  I have now years of memories written down in these ‘Jottings’. I can go back to April 1992 and relive some of those ‘good times”. There are too those writings telling of things that were not joys. However they are minimal since writing of such brings back some things that are best forgotten!

In musing over writing I am reminded of a book by the novelist P.D. James, entitled “Its Time To Be In Earnest”. It was a memoir of her 77th year. The title came from a saying by Dr. Samuel Johnson which was: “At seventy seven, its time to be in earnest!” Ms. James is a big fan of Dr. Johnson and leads a London society that honors him annually. She believed his writings were better than William Shakespeare’s. I recall not particularly liking Dr. Johnson’s when I first read about him, because of his objection to the American Colonies seeking freedom. He wrote a pamphlet entitled “Taxation No Tyranny” in the defense of Parliament and against the idea that “taxation without representation” is unfair. He argued that Americans have no more right to govern themselves that the Cornish peoples. All supporters were ‘traitors’. I remember Benjamin Franklin at that time in London trying to get Parliament’s approval wrote a satire about the Saxons objecting with force the unite of the Island now called Britain. Dr. Johnson became most famous due to his creating a dictionary and an annotated edition of Shakespeare’s plays. The main innovation he made in the Dictionary was to include an illustration of the use of the word from other literature. It took him nine years to complete it. It was noted as the greatest single achievement of scholarship until the Oxford English Dictionary some 150 years later. The same method was used in creating the OED but it took some 30 plus years to finish the first edition. It is never “finished” because unlike Italian and French words are  not approved by Academe’ but grow and go with growing of the culture. I think I read that some 5000 to 6000 words are added each year. Thus every few years there is another edition of OED and other dictionaries.

The humorous Art Buchwald wrote, “Whether it’s the best of times or the worst of times, it’s the one TIME you got!” How true! I am reminded of it now with my huffing and puffing when I do something physical. My cardiologist diagnosed it as ‘old age’. That was nearly two months past. The problems seem to be better some days and not on others so I am going to seek another opinion.

We spent the first week of October at the beach. The beach is St. Pete’s Beach and we had a condo for  a week. The condo building is located on the northern end of the beach.  Every unit in the building has a balcony facing the water, the Gulf of Mexico. It was a great joy and comfort to sit out there as the sun rose. I contemplated the greatness of the Almighty as I looked out over the water. Looking to the south you can take in the entire beach of at least three or four miles. The waves were breaking (not quite like the Atlantic) and the birds flittering about in the silence of the new day. The sky some mornings full of clouds that begin to break up as the pink of the sunrise taints them. Soon we can say “Thank you God!” for a new day has begun! Oh! How I longed to join the walkers and runners who now appear along the water’s edge, but I can only watch and be glad for that! We had a grandson, David Hopkins, who spent the week with us. It was great since he loves the beach and water and could keep June company. I’m not a beach person. We also had friends who came and kept her company. On two days we had ‘rainbows’…one of them a double! All which made our stay even more joyous. Next year we promised to make it two weeks!

Till next time, Pax Tecum!

 

On occasion I have been asked, “What kind of law did you practice?” or “Did you practice in any particular field of the law?” The questions got me thinking of how I did practice and how it might be defined. In fact it did more than that, it brought back thoughts of the whole business of my being in the practice of Law at all! My career originally after leaving high school was directed towards being a priest. That was almost a certainty in our family regarding the men-or boys if you will. I was the seventh son and all six of my older brothers had entered schools to study to be priest. By the time I graduated from high school, in 1947, the eldest Frank had been ordained and was serving as a missionary in the Philippines. Jim and Dick would be ordained in 1948 and Patrick in the early 50’s.  Joe and John both entered the first year of study or the noviate but then left after a year and entered military service, Joe the Navy, and John the Marines. They came out of the school during the Second World War and if they had not enlisted would have been drafted.

So it seemed natural that I study to become a priest. I did have an offer via my father’s friend, Congressman Bill Green, to enter either of the military academies. In fact I took the physical test for the Naval Academy and passed it, so I could have chosen that. But instead I went away to the Oblate Junior College near the town of Newburgh, New York. I turned eighteen while there and was drafted by the selective service board in Newburgh. I guess that they felt it a lot easier drafting strangers than their own eighteen-year-olds. However I did not go into the service since I was eligible for a deferment as long as I attended college. At the end of the first year of study at Oblate College I felt I had no vocation for the priesthood and left. I entered St. Joseph’s College (now a University) and thus my deferment continued. By the time I reached graduation in 1951 United States was involved in the Korean War. It began in July 1950 with Russia backing North Korea and U.S. through the UN, South Korea. It was called a ‘police action’ and was supported by the U.N. Being “Police Action” meant Congress didn’t need to ‘declare war’. Looking back it has a similarity to the present Iraq action except that the United Nations in this instance was ignored. The war played a part in my decision to attend Law School. The college deferment in early 1951 was extended to graduate studies. So I had the incentive to attend Law School if not a burning desire to be a lawyer. Of course, many advised that attending and graduating from Law school would enlarge your scope of your career opportunities. It opened up fields of endeavor in various industries.  So between the war and my father being a lawyer, Law School seemed a good choice. I applied for Georgetown University Law School and was accepted with a grant. The grant required I serve as a proctor in one of the dorms. My father disagreed and advised I should enter Penn Law School even without a grant. He would foot the bill. His reason was that if I practiced law it most likely would be in Philadelphia and most of the students I would study with would likewise be practicing there. It was good advice since it did happen as he predicted.

My entering into the “practice” of law was further delayed since following law school I had to fulfill my selective service obligation, i.e. enter the military service. I chose the Marine Corps since by 1954 there were fewer offers for commissions since the ‘police action’ in Korea had come to an end.  Before entering I took two Bar exams one for Pennsylvania and the other for the District of Columbia. Then I was off to Quantico and Office Candidate School. “School” was not an apt description in that it was more like a ‘boot’ camp in that amount of physical training, which ran way ahead of the ‘schooling’. In October I was commissioned and returned home for short visit and got married. I returned to Quantico for infantry training which ran on until the end of the year. The good news was that I learned in that same period that I had passed the District’s bar exam, while failing the Pennsylvania’s which
made me a lawyer for the Marine Corps purposes. I had now a ‘secondary m.o.s’ (which stands for ‘military occupational specialty’) as a legal officer. All Marines were infantrymen so that was their prime m.o.s.  As a result of passing the bar exam, following the training I was sent to the Naval Justice School in Newport, Rhode Island to learn the new military code. I was then sent to Camp Lejeune to begin my service. I assisted in the running of a complete ‘paper’ company. All those needing discharges for whatever reason and those needing discipline for some reason. Hardly ‘real’ Marine service! Then I almost had an opportunity to use my legal education as an assistant to a Major from Camp Lejeune who had been chosen to represent Sergeant McKeown of Parris Island, the East Coast Marine Boot Camp. The Sergeant had been leading a boot platoon on a night march. They apparently skirted a swamp but unfortunately several strayed and  went into the swamp and were drowned. McKeown had a well-known lawyer from New York as volunteer counsel. We were asked to provide assistance to him. But for me it never came to be since at the same time the base commander, General Earnshaw, chose me as his aide-de-camp. So my opportunity to practice military law passed. The General about a year later, as he prepared to retire, arranged for me to be transferred to the Marine Barracks in the Philadelphia Naval Yard. I went and soon after arriving took the Pennsylvania Bar Exam once more. This time I passed. But also by this time nearly four years having passed, I now had a regular, not reserve, commission and I was seriously thinking of remaining in the Marine Corps as a career. But with three children it seemed maybe not the right career so I left the Marines in November of 1958 to begin the practice.

My father had a small office in the Land Title Building on Broad Street. We as children went there to watch the New Year’s Day Mummer’s parade.  I was given a desk out side my Dad’s room. I handled things handed down to me from my Dad and so I began ‘practicing’. In May1959 was to substituted for him as an assistant defense counsel for the
defendant, Harold Johnson, in the In-Ho Oh case. In-Ho Oh was a Korean student at Penn and was murdered by some eleven men, (more boys than men) in West Philadelphia. It became a national media item making headlines across the country. Harold Johnson was number eight on the list of trials. His participation in the assault and murder was limited to rummaging through the victim’s pockets. After 16 days of trial he was found guilty. The senior counsel, Mr. Walsh, did not care to file an appeal but I thought one should be on the grounds that the lurid pictures of the deceased injuries being shown for over a half a day via projection on a large screen was prejudicial. The evidence against our client did not have him striking the victim. I filed an appeal and hit a home run! The court unanimously reversed the verdict. At a new trial after four jurors were selected we entered an agreement to second degree murder with the time he had spent in prison being his sentence. Then at the urging of the appointing judge I filed an appeal to the Supreme Court for an additional fee for the second trial. It was denied.

The publicity generated by my participation in the In-Ho Oh matter lead to an appointment as counsel in another gang killing. The defendant was a sixteen-year-old who took part in the gang that beat up a boy and someone in the process knifed him to death. The knife was found in my client, Sutton’s, school bag. He took the stand and testified. He was found guilty of second-degree murder.  One other publicized case in those early years was a military law one. I filed a writ in the Federal Court to free a young man in the Brig at the Navy Yard. He had entered the naval reserves while in high school but really only on the wishes of his father. He never attended the assigned meetings, etc. and didn’t surrender after high school to be inducted into the Navy. They came arrested him and put him in the Brig. I got him out on the writ and bail was set. But his father refused to put up the bail!  These were some of the highlights of my early years of practice and at the same time I got into writing wills, representing parties in divorce matters, including custody and property fights, and most of all adoptions which was my most rewarding part of the practice! I’ll add more on this subject in the future.

Pax Tecum!

“August” what do I remember about this month from years gone by? The first and most important memory is that this is the month in which I was blessed with my marriage to June. Twenty-seven years ago in this month we were married. The date was the fifteenth of the month, which also happens to be a holy day in the Catholic Church. One of my many good sisters, who was a nun, remarked that it was a blessed omen getting married on a holy day. When I told June, or maybe she heard the remark herself, she said something like, I was married before on a holy day and it certainly didn’t turn out to be a good ‘omen’! On that day, the fifteenth, I also recall that if you went into the Atlantic Ocean, or maybe any ocean or water, you received a special blessing. Why it occurred completely escapes me! I may even have the days mixed up but it is a memory associated with August and the ocean.

Another remembered event in the month of August was that all of my young life in the summer was spent in Sea Isle City, New Jersey. We went down from Philadelphia shortly after school ended and stayed until it was close to starting again. We lived in a big house, which was located just a short distance from the boardwalk and beach. We had only one house between the beach and us. Our house had four floors counting the ground floor or basement as one. It had an attic too but I can’t recall if we ever went up there. There was a porch that ran from the rear of the house all along the side which faced the ocean and then across the front. It was one floor above the ground. Under the porch there was sand like ground on which we played. We often reenacted events like parades and funerals down there.

One August in particular comes back to mind at that house. It was the day I was to leave for a trip to Europe. I was going with my brother Frank on his return trip to the Philippine Islands.  He had come home sometime in the spring. The year was 1948. He had been a missionary there from 1939 on and was interned by the Japanese from 1942 till 1945.After his release he chose to return to his mission in the southern part of the Islands rather than come home. He was returning to that mission now via Europe and I, thanks to my Dad, was going to make part of the journey with him. As I climbed into the car I noticed tears in my brother’s eyes as we waved to our mom standing on the porch. He told me he was feeling sad since he felt it would be the last time he would see our mom alive.  He was right! This was in the year 1948 and our mom had had heart problems and hospitalization earlier that year. She would continue to have such problems and left us in 1952. Frank was her first born and the first son; I was the thirteenth child and the last son. Between us we had five brothers and seven sisters.

The return trip to the Islands via Europe would start with a visit to Cobh and then Dublin, Ireland. We went via a Cunard Lines ship, the Maurtania; it took us five days to cross to the port of Cobh from New York. We would take another boat from Dublin to Liverpool. We then went up to London. We would sail to Portugal from Liverpool. We visited the shrine of our Lady of Fatima in the Northern Portugal and then took a train. It ran from northern Portugal through Spain and then along the Riviera to Genoa, Italy. I remember making it a point to get off the train in Monaco since an ex Philadelphian, Grace Kelly, was now a Princess there. This was so I could say the rest of my life; “ I was once in Monaco along the Riviera!”
We created some future memories of this August by spending the last weekend in July and the first few days of this August in Hilton Village, New York. We were at the home of my son Dan, his wife, Lori and their two daughters Hannah and Meaghan. Meaghan was hardly with us in that she came home on Saturday night from a week of working on a church project and left on Sunday morning for a week at a field hockey camp.

Hilton Village is a suburb of Rochester and is about 3 miles south of Lake Ontario. It is an area of single homes, big trees, and very little of it commercialized. It reminded me of the area around Yardley, Pennsylvania where we spent the months of May and June this year. Dan pointing out the historic sites as he drove us around the area. We drove by many ‘ponds’ which in Florida we would call ‘lakes’. The war of 1812 left many marks here on one of the Great Lakes. It was the first time I ever realized how close the city of Rochester was to the Lake, and in fact part of the city extends northward up along the Genesee River to the lake. There is a sign reading “The Port of Rochester”. I have never before thought of Rochester as being a port.

One day Dan took us out to lunch to a place called the “Crescent Beach Restaurant” It was of course in the town of Crescent Beach along the Lake.  As we headed to our table by the windows facing the lake we noticed that next to our table was a group of five men, all of the gray haired variety. It reminded me of our group who try to lunch weekly here in St. Petersburg and whom we call the “ROMEO’S”. I mentioned the similarity to June as began to sit down and the men at the table must have heard me. One of them turned to us and said ‘we are the ROMEOS!”  He handed me a business card reading, “ I AM A ROMEO!” Under the large print were the words “Retired Old Men Eating Out”.  In St. Pete’s we call ourselves “Real” old men eating out not retired. June of course accents that on occasion by calling us ‘Really, Really Old men!”

August is a month of many birthdays. There are my children Mary, Dan, and Paul as well as June’s sister Mary, and my niece, Winnie Allen, grandson Paulie Berger and a grand niece Denise Bugey. We wish them all a happy day and ‘ad multos annos!”

I finished the book, “Dreams From My Father” by Barack Obama. This was written in 1995 and has a sub title  “A Story of Race and Inheritance”. He searches for his identity as he travels from college to Chicago and back to his roots in Kenya. It is a memoir. He wrote more recently the book, “The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream” In both he demonstrates an ability to write, to tell a story and to be convincing in simple language. It is easy to see how he was elected to be the Editor of the Harvard Law Review.

In the ‘Dreams’ book I came across how the lapel button with a shamrock and below it, “O’BAMA” possibly came to be. The button was a gift from an old friend Nancy Carroll who gave it to me while we were up in Yardley, PA. Barack during his work in the community in Chicago on their problems wrote:

“Whenever I first reached them (people he was trying to get help from) they would often be suspicious or evasive uncertain as to why this Muslim – or even worse yet, this Irishman O’Bama wanted a few minutes of their time”(p.279, emphasis added)

In the book he also refers to the overwhelming feeling of hope. He writes of it as he listens to a sermon one Sunday entitled “The Audacity of Hope” The sermon is based on the story in Samuel of Hannah who is barren and suffers rebuke and taunts from her rivals. She weeps and is shaken in prayer. She promises God if he gives her a son she will dedicate him to the Lord. He does and thus is born the prophet Samuel.

Obama will always be for me a great writer even if he is never President. I read a quote about him in the local Hilton paper. It reads “Central to Obama’s biracial appeal is that Ann Dunham (his mom) was white and from Kansas, and his father was black and from Kenya…if someone with is diverse background can rise to the cusp of presidency, America remains the land of opportunity, despite its flaws.” To which I say Amen! Pax tecum until the next time!

Sometimes as I paint, nothing fancy just number painting, I listen to the radio. Now I wonder, if anyone except when they’re driving, ‘listens to the radio’. There must be some of us that still do since they still have lots of advertising. One of the advertisements that always bring a smile to my face is by lawyers. The way some of them talk it is the biggest mistake in your life if you need a lawyer and don’t hire them. The ads remind me of my own experience for allegedly advertising and being brought before the ethics committee of the Pennsylvania Bar Association for it. You see when I was practicing law back in the 60’s through the 90’s advertising was prohibited. We were ‘professionals’ and they don’t advertise…so said the bar associations then. Another attorney charged me with doing so because I was writing a column in a weekly newspaper. The newspaper was a community weekly called “Northeast Times”. I forget how I got to know the editor or came to start writing the column but some how I did. The column was called the “Foxchase Lawyer” since I lived and practiced in the area of Philadelphia that was called that. I wasn’t paid for writing it. I didn’t add my name to the end of article and how anyone knew it was I took some digging. The articles were mostly about constitutional questions and never offered any advice as to handle any legal problem. The hearing was brief and decision quick. I was not violating the code of ethics with the column.

Today with billboards, radio, TV, the phone book, and newspaper lawyers advertise just like any other merchandisers. I have heard that some spend as much as a million dollars just on that aspect of their practice!

Listening to the radio reminds me of our family sitting around the big Zenith in the parlor (never called it a living room) listening in the early ’40. The Zenith was cabinet size, about three feet tall and a foot and half wide. It was the only radio in the house as I recall. It sat in the corner of the parlor on the right hand side. It was in a niche between the fireplace in the middle of the wall on the right and the wall separating the room from the rest of the house. The reason I suppose the front room of our house was called a ‘parlor’ is that we only used it for this radio listening and for wakes. The room had two windows facing you as you entered and through them you could see the front porch, our piece of green, the iron fence and then the street, Baltimore Avenue. To the left of the windows as you entered you could see a grandfather clock sitting in that corner. It was shining black with a glass panel in the front so you could see the pendulums moving. It had a gold and white face with black hands. It had something like a small fence that covered the front and sides of the top. As I recall it only rang on the hour.

We would, whoever was home, sit in front of the Zenith on Sunday nights and listen to Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen. I recall too coming home from grade school and finding my Mom and Catherine, our nanny, cook, bottle washer, cleaner, etc. sitting in front of the radio listening to “Stella Dallas” a soap of those days and once in a while “Grand Central Station” another.

Another memory I have of our home on Baltimore Avenue is the room where we met most of the times when we were in the house, the kitchen/dining area. It was a large room, as wide as the house itself- maybe about 25 feet. A table that ran from wall to wall took up most of the room. On the one wall was a sink and on the other a large window. This is where all our meals were taken. I don’t ever remember eating in the ‘dining room’ which was the room between the kitchen/dining area and the parlor. Whenever Dad was home for dinner, we would go into the dining room and pray the rosary. There was a kneeler before a cabinet on which there was a crucifix. We did this on our knees unless we had some physical ailment that excused us.

I remember after dinner one evening listening to my brother Dick, the second oldest, and my dad discussing Dorothy Day. She was an active social reformer, founder of the “Catholic Worker” and worked with the poor in New York City. They also had a farm they operated in upstate New York. My mom and dad had met her and were helping her in her projects. They visited her when she came to Philadelphia soliciting help. She was then being called a ‘communist’ because of her objecting to the state not helping those most in need. I remember Dick repeating this accusation and my Dad telling him it was all political nonsense. Recently, I read where Dorothy Day is being considered for canonization in the Roman Catholic Church. So I could brag my Dad knew a Saint, but I can already brag since my Mom, whether canonized or not, was a ‘saint’.

My memory of when this conversation between my brother Dick and Dad occurred is uncertain. The Japanese in the Philippine Islands had imprisoned Dick and my brother Frank. So it could have been after that in 1945 or so when Dick was released and returned to U.S. But then I know he was very busy on his return to America since the years of interment had interrupted his course of study for the priesthood. He was ordained in 1948. Dick had been assigned three years of teaching in the Islands and then would return to continue his studies in Theology. However the imprisonment and war made that a longer time. So I think that his chat was before he went to the Philippines. Another memory of that chat was he called Dorothy Day a ‘pacifist’. He used the term in a derogatory manner and it is a bit of irony that later in his life he became an avid ‘pacifist’

All of my brothers, except Pat, at one time or another were in the Philippine Islands. Frank went there as a missionary in 1939. Jim did the same in 1949. John was there in the Marines and was a gunner on a Douglas dive-bomber. He was shot down in the lower area of the Islands while on a mission to search out any remaining Japanese hiding in various places. He almost lost his leg. But thanks to the intervention of his brother Frank, when John was brought to Manila for treatment, the leg was not amputated. Joe while in the Navy aboard a Destroyer Escort was anchored for a time in Manila Bay. I went to the Philippines and then to the Sulu Islands with my sister Marge to attend the funeral for my brother Frank in 1970. Frank spent sixteen years in the Sulu Island preaching Christianity. It was initially just a mission but eventually the area became a Vicariate and then a Diocese. He became their bishop. The majority of the people were Moslems. In the schools he had built the children attending could be excused to go outside during classes and pray, as was the Moslem custom. This he did before Vatican II and the ecumenical movement it encouraged. He established clinics and had seaside services for the many wandering seamen that only occasionally visited shore. After his death in 1970 there was a large gap in time, maybe seven or eight years before a new leader was appointed. In the meantime the Moslems were over taken by the extreme sect of their religion. By the early nineties the islands were completely controlled by them. The cathedral built by Frank and where they laid his body was destroyed. I can hear him up there in heaven growling, as he often did, about the incompetence of the leadership which caused this loss.

The Internet produces some of the most amazing things! I mentioned in the past in these writings about a daughter of a client of mine in the sixties found me by searching the net. She searched for her family name Perpiglia. I had mentioned in one of the jottings representing Tony Perpiglia. Since the year 2000 thanks to my son-in-law Tom Baker the jottings have been placed on the net on the McSorley.org web page along with other items. Thus the daughter searching found the name and with my story of representing him. She contacted me and we did have some exchange of emails.

Well, another such phenomenon recently occurred. I received and email from an old friend and adopted cousin, Charlie “Fuzz” McSorley. He got the name Fuzz from being a narcotic officer for at least 20 years in Philadelphia. He sent me a web page address that he said was all about ‘Paul McSorley’! I went to the page www.News3Online.com. And the lead story and video on it was “Paul McSorley Phenomenon” It stated he was running for President in 2008, In one scene the commentator ask a lady passing on the street with another, whom she was going to vote for in the elections. She turned away from the camera and lifted her blouse and just above her waist was a tattoo reading “Vote for Paul McSorley in 2008!” The commentator, taking note of the placement of the tattoo, went on to say the phenomenon was that of Paul McSorley “coming up from the rear” in this election. It is frightening to both Democrats and Republicans because of the possibility of his winning. I can assure you I am not that Paul McSorley nor have I really heard of any such “phenomenon” happening. I ran once for an office and lost so my ambition was put to rest. Speaking of the election of 2008 reminds me that I received from a former client, and still friend, Nancy Carroll, an Obama button which is green has a shamrock in a circle near the top of the pin, and below it in big white letters “O’BAMA”. Like most Irish politicians they are always ready to adopt a potential winner. Until next time, Pax Tecum!

The thought arose as, I walked between the rain sprinkled trees in the beautiful country of Yardley, Pennsylvania, why do I bother writing these monthly essays/letters? The first response was I liked to keep in touch with my family and friends. But then undoubtedly I enjoy trying to clarify my thoughts about any subject in my mind. Writing helps me do that. In writing you must put it in some logical and clear manner what are now just ideas. Undoubtedly, my professional past, a life of creating letters and arguments has helped me in my writing. All that said I found it doesn’t fully explain why! It is a good habit and it does give me pleasure to read that others enjoy, or at least note those thoughts. At times I am amazed how long this has been happening! I’ve been writing these things since 1992,now close to sixteen years. It started with an imitation of my father’s weekly (or maybe a monthly) letter to his children then spread around the world. Some of my original letters were six to seven pages long! But in 1994 I began to limit the number of pages to four.

They keep me in touch too and even faster now with the speed and ease of ’email’. A secretary typed my Dad’s letters and then he would add a personal note. I do the same when emailing the document. I add a personal note. Fortunately they are typed and thus readable…even if occasionally grammatically skewed. I recall my sister Winifred telling me that our brother Patrick, who was away at the seminary, sent our Dad’s notes to her to translate his scrawl! I don’t know if it happened every time or once in a while, but I can attest from having work some years with him that his writing was often unreadable.

Returning to the Philadelphia area and reading the local Philadelphia Inquirer always brings back memories. One of them that have occurred over the last five years is that of the governor Ed Rendell. Back even before he became Philadelphia’s DA and Mayor I knew him. He was then in 1971 an assistant D. A.

Rizzo’s election in 1970 brought an end to my serving as the Commissioner of Records of Philadelphia. He, Rizzo, and I had a couple of run ins while he served as Commissioner of Police. One incident with him, which I’ll never forget, occurred at a Commissioner’s meeting. The Mayor called the meeting to talk about the United Fund (UF) campaign in Philadelphia. It was then in progress. It seems that Rizzo had ordered his policemen not to contribute. The Mayor apparently was anxious to bring the matter to a head and thought a meeting of all the commissioners would do it. Rizzo was asked for his ‘reasons’ for prohibiting his men to contribute. His answer was that the leaders of the UF were liberals! I suppose he meant in politics but it was never clear, as were a lot of Rizzo’s concepts. I spoke out against such thinking since it had nothing to do with the association’s helping people in need. The real issue was ‘how do the leaders of UF use the money given to them’. The rest of the Commissioners agreed and that was the last we heard of the matter – but not from Rizzo. From that day forward I was addressed when we met as “counselor” with a tone that really sounded something like ‘son of a bitch!’

So there no chance that under his administration I would serve in any capacity– much less heading one of the city departments. So I resigned two days before his term began despite the then present Mayor Tate’s objections. The mayor’s objection was a surprise since he had told us earlier to cooperate with the elected mayor. His calling me and telling me not to resign was one of the many signs that showed that the old Mayor was not pleased with the actions of the newly elected Mayor. Why Mayor Tate ever supported Rizzo I’ll never know since they were two different political animals and it was always a surprise as the campaign began that he did so.

In the new year I received from friends, now judges, the appointments to defend some charged with the crime of murder who could not afford to pay a lawyer themselves. Under the law then in Pennsylvania it was one of the areas where an appointed counsel could receive payment for his services and any reasonable expenses. Having lost an income it was a great gift to a Dad with then seven children. It was while trying these few cases that I got to know Ed Rendell. I remember especially talking to him later when he was being considered as the party’s nominee for Mayor. He evidenced a real anxiety about whether he could do a good job at such an office. He performed it so well that he became known as “America’s Mayor”, a title conferred on him by Al Gore. There was also a book published, entitled “A Prayer for a City” by Buzz Bissenger. He managed to do all this in part by having around him people whom he not only trusted but were knowledgeable in the fields he asked them to handle. He did that without reference to their party affiliation only their talents. All of which led him to “the most stunning turn around in recent urban history” and to win a primary to run for Governor. In which office he has served and will serve the maximum two terms. I last saw him at a granddaughter’s graduation from Buck West High School in 2004. He was the main speaker. It just happens that while we have been up here this time, we attended the same granddaughter’s graduation from college, i.e., Towson University in Maryland. I only saw and heard Ed from distance but enjoyed his comments to the graduates. He encouraged them to take part in politics. It was he said a way to make their world better and use all the knowledge they had acquired.

As noted earlier, one of the reasons we were north, was to attend our granddaughter Kelly Golden’s graduation from Towson University. We had been up there on previous occasions while she was attending the university. It is physically located outside of Baltimore, MD. It is near John Hopkins University where another grandchild, Dave Hopkins has attended. It wasn’t till we attended Kelly’s graduation on the campus, that I became aware of the size and character of the University. I had some idea it was just a small suburban college and no where near the size it really is. It covers nearly 328 acres. It is the second largest university in Maryland…the University of Maryland alone is larger. It was founded in 1866 offers more that 100 bachelors, masters, and doctors degrees in liberal arts and science, and applied professional fields. It had more that 18,000 students.

We attended her graduation on Friday afternoon of May 23rd when two of the colleges, Graduate Studies and Research and the College of Business and Economic had their graduations. Prior to this one there had been four other graduations commencing May 21. A total of six graduations were held that week. The President of the University during the ceremony made a note of the flags covering the rear of the stage from one side to the other. He said that there were 83 flags representing the countries of students who attended Towson University! So I had an education myself in learning the kind and size that Towson University really was!

While we were north I celebrated a birthday. One of the gifts I received was a book entitled ”Taking the Hill: From Philly to Baghdad to the United States Congress” It is written by the man who made that trip Patrick Murphy. I received the book from my nephew Richard McSorley, Esquire who claims him as a friend and asserted that one of these days he’ll be president. Richard has worked for 20 years or more with the Philadelphia Municipal Court. After reading the story I can believe too that such a result is possible. He, Murphy, came from a police officer’s family living in northeast Philly. He worked his way through college and one of the ways that helped was via the ROTC. Following graduation he enters the Army and is assigned the to the 82nd Airborne Division. He does qualify as a member of that distinguished division. While serving he takes leave to enter law school and becomes a lawyer. He’s then sent to West Point were he ultimately is a law professor in their law school. His being sent to Bosnia and later to Baghdad breaks this service. There he sees friends killed and dodges many IED’s…imported explosive device. He like those there continue to question ‘why are we here?’ This is especially true since the Government disbanded the Iraq Army and it lead to have to train others to try to create order. He returns after at least a year plus and is discharged with a Bronze Star. He finds a law office in Philly he begins working with. He lives in Lower Bucks County, the area where we just spent May and June. He works for Kerry during his campaign and gets the idea of running for the seat to congress from that area. The incumbent is a long time politician from lower Bucks. The area is a heavily Republican and he is seeking it as a Democrat. He does what seems to be the impossible winning the primary and then the general election. It is a story that sounds like fiction but isn’t. One of his main winning issues is the lack of planning regarding the war in Iraq. I can agree with my nephew’s claim that one day he could be President!

Traveling is fun up to a point. Your routine is broken and a new one is required –then the fun starts to diminish. So it is a joy now, that as I write, that we are back in St. Pete’s and back in our old routine! Well almost, we are both down with colds and are taking antibiotics. As I have said before. travelling and being away from home especially as long as we have this time, i.e., two months, makes a reality of the adage “there’s no place like home” Until next time Pax Tecum!

As April came to a close we prepared to head north and would not return till the end of June. This was a longer time away for us than any of our previous planned trips.The first thought I had, as the bags,boxes, and the like piled up, was will we ever get all of this “stuff” in the car! We did- or almost all since later I heard June speak of things she would have liked to have had with us – but we ran out of room. We had a clothing problem, how many changes of them would we need, how heavy should they be ? We were ending our stay at the beach in Avalon,New Jersey so we tossed in chairs, a beach umbrella, etc. So there was much to consider and arrange – but fortunately for me June was handling it, so all the problems were solved.

We left in mid morning and made good time so that we were in Hardeville, South Carolina for our overnight stay. On Saturday we traveled all the way to Fredricksburg,Virginia. Our last leg was the toughest due to rain,heavy at times, and a detour off of I-95 but we managed to get to my daughter’s in Yardley, Pennsylvania by noon. We had covered just under 1100 miles and were glad to be getting out of the car.

It is now four weeks later as I write. June and I have been living apart. She lives with Katherine about four miles away while I reside with my daughter Mary, her husband Ron and their three boys, Aidan & Alex age 11,and Owen,who just turned eight. June has been entertaining guests with meals. It is one of the things she really enjoys – cooking. She adamantly states she is happy to do that but no housecleaning! The variety of meals is terrific and the compliments from the guests are well deserved. I hop over for lunch and dinner. I keep busy in between times by reading,painting,walking and occasionally baby sitting the three boys. It is a whole new style of living for both of us and it is taking time to adjust ourselves to it.

In the previous jottings I spoke of mine and June’s dislike for modern art. I received some comments from readers that they feel the same way. Around the same time I received an email pointing me to a webpage that reports all that happened in any year. I went on to the year 1929, the year of my birth, and what to my surprise should I learn: The Museum of Modern Art in New York City, was founded in that year! Over the years I had often kidded that I was born and the stock market collapsed shortly thereafter– making me wary for most of my life from investing in stocks. The web page address is: www.infoplease.com in case you would like to find out what happen the year you were born. I also noted that the Philadelphia A’s won the World Series that year and Notre Dame had a 9-0 season.

Over the last ten years one of the things that has helped me increase my faith has been the reading and studying of the Bible. Through my years of education in Catholic schools from first grade through college there never was a course that I heard or saw that did so. The Bible was always a part of courses like Moral Theology, History of the Church, etc. but not a specific subject of study.We did have readings each Sunday at Mass which were excerpts from the New and Old Testaments. I never heard of a Bible Study in the Catholic church until the year 2000. I had attended an ecumenical meeting at the Holy Family Catholic church with our Pastor and his wife. I was invited shortly after that to attend a “Bible Study” at their church. I had been attending one at the Lutheran Church of the Cross(of which I am a member) and at another church, Faith Covenant Church,but nevertheless I decided to also attend the one at Holy Family. It is usually held in the seasons of Lent or Advent while FCC is all year round. In any case the last ten years I’ve attended such studies. All have increased my knowledge and belief in the “word of God”.

It occurs to me as I write about my increase in Faith, I am overlooking one of the crucial reasons for my coming back to Faith and that is June. After my divorce I lost a great deal of my belief in the practice of any religion. I could blame it on anger etc. but it would not really be the only reason. In any event thanks to June I was brought back to my senses and to the acknowledgement of our true purpose for being. June brought me back to worship and a belief that had gone astray. Since then her encouragement and will certainly have helped me more than even a Bible study.

The reason I got to thinking about my Bible studying experience is that I came across an article by a Theology professor whose thoughts and how they are expressed in writings I liked. He is Luke Timothy Johnson,Professor of the New Testament at Condor School of Theology at Emory University. He was a former Benedicting monk and studied at schools like Yale and other such prominent Theological institues. He is now the father of seven children. I took a course he taught on audio tapes some years ago from the Teaching Company. It was on the “Acts of Paul”. His article was “Homosexuality and the Church”. In my study sessions and in particular, my Via de Christo reunion group, this issue arose often. The Episcopal Church in America brought the issue to the forefront with the appointment of a known homosexual as a Bishop. The covering up of the pedophiles in the Catholic church added another dimension to sexual orientation and the Bible.In these groups there really was never any discussion re the matter. “It was unatural and prohibited by the Bible”. I could never get a citation of where it was so stated. I asked for it and yet there was no reply or if it was, it was vague and uncertain. I sent the reunion group an excerpt from a Gary Wills’ book “What Jesus Meant” in which he described a funeral at a Catholic Church of a homosexual in San Diego. At the funeral there were protesters carrying signs like, “God hates Fags!” I suggested in the note attached to the excerpt,as did Gary Wills, that such conduct was hardly Christian. He further noted that Jesus message was of love and that outcasts were those that he often associated with…like prostitutes, lepers, tax collectors, etc. I got one response out of the seven I sent. It was an explanation that such subjects were not discussed in ‘reunion’ groups!

In the article by Johnson he notes “… the Bible no where speaks positively or even neutrally about same sex love” But even if it did Christianity as actually practiced has never lived in precise accord with Scripture. War is opposed in scripture by Jesus,divorce (even under another name like “annulment”) defies Jesus’ clear prohibition. Then there are those exhortations in Leviticus to stone psychics and put adulterers to death. Johnson then discusses how a literal reading of the Bible is wrong and we need to apply our experience and understanding of God to any difficult passage. He shows how experience and love conquered the Biblical approval of slavery. It was approved in the Bible but is today not in the least considered Christian. “Our situation vis a vis the authority of Scripture is not unlike that of the abolitionist… So how is it that now that the… “authority of scriptural text on slavery and arguments made on their basis appear to all of us as beside the point and deeply wrong” His explanation is that … “human experience of slavery and its horror came home to the popular conscience through personal testimony and direct personal contact” We need to place our trust in the power of the living God.. “to reveal as powerfully through personal experience and testimony as through written texts”. He cites Paul’s 2 Corinthians 3:6: “…our qualification comes from God, who indeed has qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter brings death, but the Spirit gives life” (The New American Bible). Professor Johnson notes however that those who base their convictions on experience should not make it a form of cheap “grace” as though whatever “feels good is morally acceptable”. He refers to another example in the New Testament of the Apostles accepting experience – or “God’s direction in human stories”. It was their decision to include Gentiles without requiring them to be circumcised or observe Mosaic law.

One more example, and to me those most appealing, was the story in John of the healing of a blind man on the Sabbath. Christ rejects the notion,existing then that the blindness was caused by any body’s sin. His body,the blind man, “was simply an opportunity for Jesus to show the ‘outward’ sign of God’s presence and power in the world” The Pharisees contend it was done by the devil since God wouldn’t violate the Sabbath. To this the blind man responds: “Whether he is a sinner, I do not know; what I do know is that I was blind and now I can see. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind,if the man were not from God,he could do nothing.” To which Johnson adds,“The man’s experience and testimony stand against the authorities insistence that God can only act within the framework of righteousness as defined by traditional piety”

*****

We are looking forward to the graduations and a week in Avalon. I’m looking forward even more to having my loving wife back with me. We are constantly reminded that “there’s no place like home” so it is to us even more meaningful the longer we are away! Until next time, Pax Tecum!

“April is the cruelest month…” T.S.Eliot

The above quote by Eliot was in a poem entitled “Wasteland”. I had read these lines somewhere before and wondered why the poet thought that of April. It was written, I learned, in 1922 and at that time Eliot was a British citizen living in London. He had formerly been an American and was born there. All of which assured me that he wasn’t calling April the ‘cruelest month’ because of having to file a tax return! So I pursued my inquiry and found the poem and the next lines. I then learned these lines were the opening ones of the poem. The first verse went like this”

“April is the cruelest month,
breeding Lilacs out of the dead land,
mixing Memory and desire,
stirring Dull roots with Spring rain.”

Thus I found no answer there as to why April was the cruelest. But I did learn that Eliot, due to this work, was considered the earliest “Modern” poet! It reminded me of a visit June and I made to the “Museum of Modern Art” in New York City. The paintings look like works done by kindergarten and elementary students. Since that time I have seen many drawings and paintings done by elementary and kindergarten students that were much better than those in the Museum of Modern Art. We learned June and I, we are not admirers of Modern Art. I have now learned from this verse I’m not a lover of modern poetry! I like a simple verse like “April showers bring May flowers” which since it rhymes is not ‘modern verse’.

Eliot was a contemporary of C.S.Lewis. They weren’t friends but did occasionally correspond. Lewis thought his literary criticism “superficial and unscholarly”. Lewis as a professor of Renaissance Literature and Language at Oxford and Cambridge Universities knew much about literary criticism. He was selected as one of the authors of the Oxford History of the English Language (which he referred to as the “O’Hell Book). So his criticism was based on extensive knowledge of literature and his observations were well noted in the literary circles of that time. Later Lewis was to write to Eliot “I hope the fact that I find myself often contradicting you gives no offense…”

We had the great pleasure as March came to an end with visits by Sue, Tom and the their three beautiful girls, Kate, Meg and Colleen and by our son Bill. They came to view some Spring training baseball games. Sue and her gang are Yankee fans. Bill is an ardent Phillies fan. June went with them to see the Phillies play the Yankees and the Phillies won! I came across a quote about a Yankee fan in a book by G. Wilson, S.J. He said this: “In large areas of our lives we act the way we do because we have taken on the beliefs, attitudes, and behavior of people who held significance for us. Why else would anyone ever root for the Yankees?” On Tuesday night we had a birthday celebration for Colleen who had turned 14 a few days before. Bill and Tom helped me to get a laptop by going with me and choosing what would satisfy my needs. We are heading north near the end of April and will be there for two months. It is why we sought to have a laptop. Bill also found time between games to plant some more sod. It was a great way to end the month.

Some quotes I came across recently reminded me of my father. He was a lawyer and I did get a few years to practice with him. He was not the kind of father we think of these days. He was 43 years old when I was born and there were eleven other children. He had his hands full in making a living for us all. When I reached two years of age my oldest brother went away to a seminary. Each year or so another child would leave. The words that reminded me of him were: “Determine never to be idle. No person will ever have occasion to complain of want of time, who never loses any.” This was by Thomas Jefferson and the other was: “ …so that night we were wakened by those who would go through the dormitory and pilgrim’s house ringing bells, as one monk went from cell to cell shouting ‘Benedicamus Domino” to which were expected to respond, Deo Gratis!” This was in the novel “The Name of the Rose” by Umberto Eco. The entire novel took place in a monastery. My father practiced the same in awakening us. He also often reminded us that “Idleness is the devil’s workshop” I can still feel him today looking over my shoulder when I find myself playing games on the Computer for too long a time!

We, June and I, went to see an ‘updated’ or ‘modern’ Hamlet. It was performed at the American Stage Theater in downtown St. Petersburg. The theater is small and unlike most is in an amphitheater style. There is no stage to look up to. We sit in rows looking down on the stage. It seats about three hundred to four hundred patrons. There is no curtain. The scenes when changed are done so in the dark but most of the time that is just to move around furniture or bring in some new things. The actors on occasion even come down the aisle between the patrons reciting lines. Hamlet is the longest of Shakespeare’s plays. It is five acts. They boiled it down to two – the first act of one hour and twenty minutes and the second of forty-six minutes. The play opened with Hamlet sitting in boxer shorts and T-shirt on the side of a bed looking at a laptop. The normal black of the old Hamlet was not there. The updating certainly had begun! The next surprise was when Hamlet stood he attached his cell phone and recited the famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy. It confirmed this was certainly a new version of Hamlet. Hamlet had not at that point in the play even learned of the ghost of his father wandering around the castle’s walls nor that he had been murdered. The soliloquy in the old play is in the third act. Hamlet had by then walked with the ghost of his father and learned how he died. He then becomes torn with doubts as to what he should do to avenge his father’s death and his mother’s concupiscence. So the updating seem to take the story on a whole different trip. But never the less it was with wonder that we watched the actors, especially, Hamlet recite from memory the many lines of the play. We heard many that we recalled like, “Conscience doth make cowards of us all” and “Words without thoughts never to heaven go!”

In the March Jottings I wrote about the reasons one might help his fellow man. In one article it was looked out through the philosophies of materialist versus a Christian. In another it was taking the fact of our all being connected and continue to survive because of the help of others we do not know. To us they are perfect strangers and we help them as thanks for their being there. Basically he, the author, was saying we should help others because we are all related. In March in the NYTimes magazine there was an article exploring the same ideas. It was entitled “Good Instincts: Why is anyone an altruist?” The reason he asked this question is, that if you are convinced the theory of evolution is a fact, than such acts are contrary to that belief. Evolution by its logic of natural selection requires that any tendency to act selflessly be snuffed out in the struggle to survive and propagate. He then talks of the reasons given by such evolutionist. He takes as an example Bill Gates and his foundation which “…may today be the single most powerful force in the world for the relief of suffering.” But what, one might ask, is in it for Bill? Evolutionary psychologists have come up with four plausible Darwinian reasons. One is something like the navel gazing theory I mentioned in March, i.e., “kinship selection” Second, shared altruism, i.e., you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours. These two according to the atheist Richard Dawkins are the twin pillars of “altruism in the Darwinian world” Neither however explain the philanthropy of Bill Gates. The third reason is some kind of advantage of having a reputation for generosity and fourth is the aim of bankrupting one’s rivals. Neither explains the motive of the giving of the Bill Gates’ type. Evolutionary psychologists do not claim that people always have selfish ulterior motives for being generous. They maintain our genes have endowed us with altruistic instincts. But can that really be a reason. There was experiment conducted in which nineteen students were given $100 and told they could anonymously donate a portion of this money to charity. Two who donate the most were found by brain scans not to have any neural reward such as a ‘warm glow’. The last explanation is by the philosopher Nagel who says it is rooted in the “conception of oneself as merely a person among others” It is similar to the reason I take to avoid my own future suffering. In any event no objective reasons come from the vagaries of natural selection”

So now you some of the reasons why people give and help others. But no matter what they are don’t you give up doing it! Until next time Pax Tecum!

We ended February and began March by being on a retreat. It started Friday evening and ended on Saturday at dinnertime. It was in the form of what we previously called Discovery. It is like a Via de Christo or Cursio retreat and is conducted and lead by lay people. This year it was called “Faith Builders”. Pastors do give talks on the doctrines of Faith found in the Creed and elsewhere. The main speakers were lay people and their ages ranged from fourteen to seventy five. They told the story of how their Faith has helped them in their living of life.

June and I both worked on the retreat. June as a table leader and I served in the chapel as Chaplain/prayer leader. It is a time to consider your faith and how it is being lived out in your life. It is a pulling back from every day affairs and giving time to your deepest feelings and beliefs. It is a practice that even business people exercise. They call them conferences or such and they spend the time reviewing how well they are doing and what they can do to improve etc. Men or women who have succeeded and written books about it, etc usually conduct them. Men and women listen to them to learn how to better their beliefs in a business success. So we do the same in pulling back and reviewing our success in understanding and living our faith.

Being in the chapel gave me time to pray and read. Each speaker did come to the chapel before his or her talks and pray. We received requests from participants to pray for their particular problems. But most of the time was spent in readings and attempting to mediate on them. One of these reflective readings was by CS Lewis. It was a proposition I had heard before but not as well stated. It was about how a Christian and Materialist who both want to do good to their fellow man. “The one believes that men were going to live forever, that they were created by God and so built that they can find their true and lasting happiness only by being united with God. The other believes that men are an accidental result of the blind workings of matter, that they started as mere animals and have more less steadily improved, that they are going to live for about seventy years, that their happiness is fully attainable by good social services and that every thing else (e.g. vivisection, birth control, the judicial system, education) is simply to be judged to be ‘good’ or ‘bad’ simply in so far as it helps or hinders that kind of ‘happiness’” They both can agree on a number of things for example one might be very keen about education but the kinds of education they wanted people to have would obviously be very different. “To the Materialist things like nations, classes, civilizations must be more important than individuals, because individuals live only seventy odd years and the group may last for centuries. But to the Christian, individuals are more important, for they live eternally; and races, civilizations and like, are in comparison the creatures of a day.

“The Christian and the Materialist hold different beliefs about the universe. They can’t both be right. The one who is wrong will act in a way, which simply doesn’t fit the real universe. Consequently, with the best will in the world, he will be helping his fellow creatures to their destruction”

The comparison is revealing and makes sense. It is particularly appealing in that it speaks only of the part the basic beliefs must play in our wanting to do good for mankind. It is not even an attempt to convince one of their errors but to plainly show how it must exist. It is to me another example of the ability of CSLewis to use our language precisely and to clearly draw reasonable conclusions.

Being reminded of how our basic beliefs affect our wish to help caused me to recall another expression of the idea. It is our physical connection to one another. In a book entitled “Longing for Enough in a Culture of More” the author talks about ‘navel gazing’ Navel gazing reminded me of some oriental religious practice, but I found a simple explanation of it on the net. It advised me that contemplating one’s navel was called “Omphaloska”. It is done to aid one in meditation. This author wasn’t talking about that kind of ‘navel gazing’. He spoke of it as a way to look at where we originated. It is to realize our bodies are ‘hand me downs’. So too is the ability we possess even to consider them in the first place, identify their original source and purpose. He quotes a Bantu South African saying which states, “A person is a person through other persons” He notes that despite Descartes assertion that “I think therefore I am” (Cogito ergo sum), what is even truer is “I am related therefore I am”. Others have both created me and now sustain my existence. “Others” include more that Dad, Mom, Grandparents. He asks questions like, who purifies the water you drink? Do you know the name of the mid-wife or doctor who delivered you from your Mother’s womb? We don’t have the benefit of knowing them or their names so they could logically be called “perfect strangers”. The realization of our being because of others should give us a desire to help others as a ‘perfect stranger’. Basically he is saying we should help others because we are all related!

March is the month in which we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. It is surprisingly this year also when we celebrate Easter. I forget how many hundreds of years before it happens again but I need not worry since I am sure I won’t be here to celebrate it. In years past in March we were reminded of the warning in Shakespeare, “Bewared the ides of March!” The ides of March is March 15th and it was years ago the date when your tax return was due. The warning was a lot more applicable in those days. The ides of April is the 13th day so we can’t apply the warning.

This month as usual brings birthdays and we have three grandchildren, Hannah McSorley, Colleen Baker, and Matthew Golden. It was the birthday of my good friend Bill King. He is no longer with us having gone to heaven in November of last year. I always had to dig him every year when his birthday arrived by noting that he ‘was now older than I’. Of course, two months later I would catch up.

March is as we noted above is the month in which we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. The day is full of parades all over U.S. and elsewhere. We remember, as we probably noted in some other March Jottings, on that day the first to arise and get to the piano and play “Wearing of the Green” got a buck. I wasn’t in the running back in the childhood days since I did not get around to learning how to play the piano ‘till law school days. But I still remember some of the words of the song. They were: “Oh! Paddy dear, did you hear the news that’s going around, they’re hanging men and women now for the wearing of the green!”

St. Patrick (I don’t think he was every officially made a saint but he became one just naturally) could be considered as one of the first reformers of the Roman church. “Patrick’s gift to the Irish was his Christianity- the first de-Romanized Christianity in human history. A Christianity without the socio-political baggage of the Greco-Roman world, a Christianity that completely inculturated itself into the Irish scene” Today his day is a celebration more of the Irish spirit as expressed by Patrick. ”He enjoyed the world and its variety of human beings—and he didn’t take his self too seriously. He was in spirit an Irishman” (The quotes are from “How The Irish Saved Civilization” by Thomas Cahill)

Patrick said this about himself in his “Confessions”: “…be astounded, all of you great and small who fear God, and you men of rhetoric on your estates, listen and pay attention to this. Who was it that raised me up, fool that I am, from among those who in the eyes of men considered wise and expert in the law and powerful in speech and in everything? And He inspired me—me, a despised outcast of this world—above many others, to be the man (if only I could) who, with reverence and without complaint, should faithfully serve the race of Gentiles to whom the love of Christ brought me and left me for the remainder of my life, if I should be so worthy; yes, to serve them humbly and sincerely”(#13). He may not have ‘taken himself too seriously’ but he knew why he had the power to do what he did.

We hope you had a great St. Patrick’s day and Easter. Until next time, Pax Tecum!