Abortion - De Profundis - Out of The Depths I Cry Unto You, O Lord!

2011 IHSA Track Champions of Leo High School and an elected official.

Imagine if these kids were choiced out of existence.

This is a sculpture by artist Martin Hudáčeka”


De profundis clamavi ad te, Domine;
Domine, exaudi vocem meam. Fiant aures tuæ intendentes
in vocem deprecationis meæ.
Si iniquitates observaveris, Domine, Domine, quis sustinebit?
Quia apud te propitiatio est; et propter legem tuam sustinui te, Domine.
Sustinuit anima mea in verbo ejus:
Speravit anima mea in Domino.
A custodia matutina usque ad noctem, speret Israël in Domino.
Quia apud Dominum misericordia, et copiosa apud eum redemptio.
Et ipse redimet Israël ex omnibus iniquitatibus ejus.
Out of the depths, I have cried out to you, O Lord;
Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my supplication.
If you, Lord, were to mark iniquities, who, O Lord, shall stand?
For with you is forgiveness; and because of your law, I stood by you, Lord.
My soul has stood by his word.
My soul has hoped in the Lord.
From the morning watch, even until night, let Israel hope in the Lord.
For with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.
And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.



I am taking four Leo Men to Harry Caray's for lunch with Attorney, Fox Television Legal Analyst and Leo Board Member Tamara Holder.

Masters Williams and Calhoun are freshmen and bigger than Maytag refrigerators; Masters Harris and Hampton are sophomores and lithe of frame - each Man Jack of them is a scholar/athete. Mr. Harris will be a fine sports journalist in five years and is a frequent contributer to the Leo High School Oriole News site -http://www.leohighschooloriole.org/

Not one of these gents have every dined north of 63rd Street, let alone on the Near North Side. Since September, Leo President Dan McGrath and I have been taking two, three or four of our men out on town -they are the best marketing gift this school could dream to possess. Whether with journalists, big shots, donors, Alumni, or waitressess Leo Men never let this school down. Guys with GPAs that reflect my own past performance as a young swine . . . . swain, as well as world beating over achievers go to lunch.

Leo High School is a Roman Catholic high school. The Roman Catholic Church is the only institutional faith to oppose abortion and as such is under attack by the media and government at all levels. Though most Leo guys are not Roman Catholic, all respect the foundation in core values that begin with conception. Life leads to Leo and Leo flourishes because of the gents we take to lunch.

These are young men from low income neighborhhoods. They are the babies Planned Parenthood wants dead - as a matter of Choice. Their Moms and Dads heroically shoved such criminal but legal idiocy away.

I can not imagine this great school without the contributions of any one of our guys.

Abortion is the wrong turn America took in 1971. Abortion can not be called back.

Fight for the Cure With the Boxers of St. Baldrick's - Sat. 3-7 PM at Bourbon Street

Eric Owens vs. Logan Plantz SuperHeavyweights -Really?

These two dreadnaughts will touch gloves and each other. My pal Eric Owens will graduate this Mother's Day from Leo High School. Big E is off to college in the fall well-armed with the Leo Spirit of Giving. Our guys from Mike Joyce's Leo Boxing Club will square off with Celtic Boxers, Marty McGarry's Boxers and many, many other great amateur and pro talents all on the same card to knock-out cancer.

Come on out Saturday for a full afternoon of sport, fellowship, food and fun at the most generous venue on the south side 115 Bourbon Street. There is not a weekend goes by, that 115 Bourbon Street does not help sick kids, suffering families and causes that really matter.

If you can't join us go to the donation website for St. Badrick's Right Cheer!
https://www.stbaldricks.org/donate/event/7780/2012

Or, dial them up at (888) 899-BALD extension (2253)and make a handsome drop. make it is handsome as Tommy Zbikowski of the Baltimore Ravens and the Sqaure Ring of the Sweet Science.

Make it as handsome as Dicky Eklund who is always ringside for anyone, especially kids, who can use a powerful punch of aid.




Event St. Baldricks Fight for a Cure A Good Time for a Great Cause

Saturday March 10th 3:00-7:30

115 Bourbon Street 3359 west 115th street

Open bar, buffet, raffles, headshaving, St. Patrick's Day queen and court, music and live boxing

Featuring boxers from Leo High School, Celtic Boxing Club, McGarry Boxing Club and Southside Knockout

$25 Donation

All money raised goes to the St. Baldricks Foundation which is the largest fundraiser for childrens cancer research

If you can not attend and would like donate please visit www.stbaldricks.org and search Fight for a Cure

For more info please contact Trish O'sullivan 708-536-0003


Click My Post Title for a Great VIDEO


DONATE On LINE - I did - it is THAT simple.

http://www.stbaldricks.org/events/donorlist/7780/2012

Tales of the South Side - Police Officer George Newell and the Temptations

The "Classic 5" lineup of The Temptations: David Ruffin (bottom left), Melvin Franklin (top left), Paul Williams (top right), Otis Williams (bottom right), and Eddie Kendricks (center) circa 1965.

Chicago Police Officer George Newell* is a man of parts - husband & father, public safety professional, Leo Alumnus and civic minded neighbor.

I did not know until last night that George also drinks deeply from the Pierian Spring.

"You have two books out, Hickey."

Indeed, and read by tens of people.

" I wrote a study of the Temptations, the Temptin' Ts. This woman from a publishing house in New York liked my proposal and I submitted the manuscript: six hundred pages with notes and photos."

Hey, that's wonderful George. You are among the Leo Literary Lions, Dr. Lawrence McCaffery of Loyola authored many books on Irish history, Paul Somers is the author of the history of Lake Michigan Aircraft Carriers of WWII, Dr. Jack O'Keefe has published two best-selling novels and former Fire Commissioner Jim Joyce has a book about life on 79th Street in publication. You are standing in tall company with your brother Lions.

" There's a problem."

There always is in bringing any book to full-term, George.

" The publisher has a problem with my book. I love The Temptations!"

Who could not?

" I concentrated on the early years of the group. I tried to make a case for the cause of the many splits and personnel changes in the group, substance abuse, creative shifts in the R & B genre, the clash of ego, the train wreck of celebrity, the racism in the recoding industry."

All good topics of focus. What was the problem? Were they looking for a substantial treatment on some other point of discussion?

" No, they liked where I took the ideas fine."

Were there problems with point of view?

" No. not at all."

Was there a problem with your format?

"No, I handled that well - one-inch margins on all sides;double-space;courier or new courier font; no smaller than twelve-pitch; no more than 26 lines per page all that was fine."

What did they tell you was the problem?

"It was just my Pagination . . . running away with me!"

Uh,huh.

I continue to be a Ball of Confusion, much like the world today, Hey. Hey.

The hook slipped nicely into my gills; set with authority. George boated another fine bass-hole.

In the sobering words of the Dublin prose genius, Flann O'Brien, " out such events weaves the pattern of what I am pleased to call my life."


*

Newell, 45, of Morgan Park, has lived in the 19th Ward for 15 years with his wife and son, who attends Morgan Park High School. He grew up at 95th and Sangamon streets and attended St. Margaret of Scotland Elementary School and Leo High School. He has been an officer for 20 years, including the last nine with the 22nd District. He currently works as a school resource officer at Percy L. Julian High School.

19th Ward.com

Leo Freshman Context and Consensus - Assyria & A Prophet

We often find that our academic courses begin in 1900, or perhaps with the French Revolution, or the Protestant Reformation, or Machiavelli, or the discovery of the New World. Whenever we see this happening in our courses, we must be ready to look elsewhere and seek out what we are not presented. The fact is that very few human truths or errors were not already treated by the Greeks, by Plato and Aristotle. Not to know this is a very serious intellectual impediment.

Father James Schall, S.J. Crisis


Yesterday, I had the pleasure to take over classes from Pete Doyle, who has taught on and off here at Leo High School, both as an Irish Christian Brother, lay teacher/coach and Principal since 1967.

One floor above Pete Doyle's classroom Denny Conway '62 and Dr. Jack O'Keefe '59 were conducting ACT and SAT exam prep with seniors and juniors. Denny and Jack volunteer their time and talent.

Pete Doyle and football coach Mike Holmes took a ride over to check on Father Dan Mallette who was brutally beaten and robbed in the early morning hours of Monday, by two thugs who broke into his rectory at St. Margaret of Scotland Church and robbed the saintly man.

I had a roomful of freshmen. We were studying the Old Testament prophet Isaiah. The Son of Amos was known as the Evangelical Prophet, because Isaiah foretold of the coming of the Messiah.

I asked the gents, if they knew the context of Isaiah's ministry. They did - Pete Doyle teaches.

The Kingdom of Israel was destroyed by the Assyrians under Tiglath Pileser III leaving the Tribe of Judah and taking most of Israel into Captivity.

The Assyrians ( Medes, Babylonians, Persians, & etc.) were a New World Order in the 800 BC Cradle of Civilization. Israel was plagued by self-interested kings. Ahaz was the Jimmy Carter of the day. The Children of Zion went into Captivity - Babylon.




Isaiah railed against Kings going against God's Will. It is believed that Isaiah was martyred by the son of Hezikiah -Manasseh who cashed in faith for economics.

The guys had the context. We talked about being a prophet. Most of the kids at Leo are African American and most are Baptist and AME Christians, a few are Nation of Islam. To say the least, these guys are schooled in the Old Testament.

Okay, Gents - what is a prophet - Isaiah is said to be one - what makes him a prophet? Raheem?

A prophet appears in a bad situation for his people and speaks to truth.

Nice words. What do they mean?

We got into it. We covered all manner of topic merging to our core issue.

Jabari -A prophet is a guy who is aware of what is going and can make sense of it by what went on before and predict future outcomes.

Joe S.The person who refuses to accept bad terms in exchange for moment a peace is a prophet.

Chris McS. A prophet can not be bribed or bought off.A prophet will not be a crook.

Raheem A prophet believes in more than his own comfort. Like Father Mallette, Hickey!

Context - Father Mallette is beaten viciously, but Father Mallette forgave his torturers.

Consensus That is a prophet, Hickey.

You may say, gentlemen.

I never work a day in my life.

Francis Rupert Finch, CFC December 16, 1999 -Whose Womb Came This Ice? - Veterans and Above All Our Elderly

Brother F.R. Finch in 1948 at Leo High School.

Job 38:29

Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it?

Last Friday, as is our custom, Leo High School honored our Veterans of America's Wars. Scores of heroes who survived Tarawa, The Bulge, Chosin Reservoir, Khe Sahn and Pleiku, Desert Storms I-II, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Like most of us who enjoy our way of life, I missed every one of those wars and honor those who serve . . .I like to think that I do. I was lucky. I had a high enough draft lottery number and never was called up at the end of Vietnam.

Note the predominance of the first person singular pronoun in the immediate above? Five "Is" in three short sentences. The Veterans never seem to use that. Service must have erased the use of "I" from their vocabulary. We, They, Him and She dominates their declamations.

Men from the Classes of 50, 51, 52, 61, 65, 66, 67, and 68 came home from Korea Vietnam with gray and even white highlights and some of them without limbs, or tiny steel souvenirs from rockets, grenades or mortar rounds that found a home within their young muscles, stood like heroes.

Men from the classes of 40, 43, 44, 45, 46 47, who served in WWII, Korea and, a very few, both Wars occupied cold folding chairs or leaned on the back of them, but stiffed with pride and remembrance when taps was sounded by Vietnam Veteran Larry Richards.

This week I talked with freshman Raheem, a man-mountain of a child -6'3" and every bit of three hundred pounds, who will be a Division I football prospect in three years about his school. Raheem asked me who was the greatest Leo Man of All Time.

Bob Foster, Jimmy Arenberg, Bill Koloseicke, Bob Hanlon, Ed Ryan, Don Flynn, Chico Driscoll, Doc Driscoll, Bro Farrrell, General Gerrity, Bishop John Gorman, Father Finno, Father Tom Mescall, Tony Parker, Jack Fitzgerald, Tom O'Malley, Dr. Hartnett, Frank Considine . . . flooded through my consciousness.

To me, the greatest Leo Man was Brother Francis Rupert Finch. Brother Finch was a short, muscular, scholarly, and saintly man. He taught Latin, Physics, Chemistry, and Theology, coached the Lightweight ( 5'8" & under) basketball team to the National Championship, served Leo as the athletic director and died while teaching big tough smart kids like Harold Blackman, Jelani Clay, Mario Bullock and Kenny Philpot.

Brother Finch embodied the soul of Leo High School. The school is not as some might believe a Jock-ocracy; rather, it is an incubator for the human heart.

Bro Finch was an orphan raised by the Irish Christian Brothers in Tacoma Washington. From there Frank Finch too his degree and joined the Order at Iona, NY and was posted to Leo High School at the end of the 1930's, just when Leo was emerging as a great sports powerhouse and college preparatory standout.

Brother Finch radiated muscular piety. He was a tough man without a trace of the bully and absent of ego. His students learned from his quiet, courtly, and gentle voice mastery of numbers as the language of God - pure Math. It's applications mean nothing unless they lay a carpet before the throne of God.

He did not hit, nor did Brother Finch lash with irony.

On the basketball court, Brother Finch mixed it up while wearing his cassock and one time took an elbow from Bart Murphy '45 that shattered his lower jaw. Brother Finch completed the practice and then went to the doctor's office in Frank's Department Store east of the school and missed no classes, no practices. Brother Finch sat on the bench with his jaws wired shut and his play book in his hands. His boys knew what to do and what was expected of them. They won the upcoming game and went undefeated in 1944-45.

Decades later, after the Irish Christian Brothers withdrew from Leo High School, Brother Francis Rupert Finch, refused to abandon his Leo boys - they were African American now- a-days. Althrough the 1990's, it took Brother Finch more time to climb the stairs to the second floor to get to his Lab, than it did for him to drive the six miles from Brother Rice Monastery to 79th & Sangamon. Brother Finch was never late and only absent when he was hospitalized.

Brother Finch died as a faculty member of Leo High School. He was youthful in his old age, as he was gentle within his toughness. Brother Finch was Christ Resurrected and Triumphant. He was Our Lady's little boy wearing fingerless wool gloves in the Lab that always seemed too cold for him as he spooned Campbell's soups heated over his Bunsen burners.


Brother Finch was a veteran of God's many wars. His silver hair stayed with him like the frost on the flagpole behind Leo's War Memorial.

Francis Rupert Finch, CFC died December 16, 1999*, just before our new century. His spirit is Leo High School and the best that can be found in any man or woman.


*Brother Francis Finch, 87, Coach
December 19, 1999|By Virginia Groark, Tribune Staff Writer.

Brother Francis R. Finch was an award-winning high school basketball coach, leading Leo Catholic High School to two Catholic League basketball titles, two Fenwick lightweight basketball championships and two all-city trophies in the 1930s and '40s.

Despite his accomplishments, the Catholic League Coaches' Hall of Fame coach was "tremendously embarrassed" when the school named its gym after him, said school President Bob Foster."He was very, very modest," Foster said. "He just didn't want any publicity or anything. He was a very modest, a very humble man."

Brother Finch rarely missed a day of school, so Foster sensed something might be wrong when he failed to show up about three weeks ago. His instincts proved correct. Brother Finch, 87, died Thursday, Dec. 16, in Christ Hospital and Medical Center in Oak Lawn after a brief illness.

For Brother Finch, the most important thing was his students. For more than 60 years, he taught math and science and never missed an opportunity to encourage troubled students, according to those who knew him.

At Leo Catholic, where he taught intermittently for six decades--including his most recent stint beginning in 1982-- Brother Finch arrived at school by 7:15 a.m. every day, beating many of his younger colleagues to work.

"He was always on time, even in a snowstorm," Foster said. "He had a hip operation . . . and we thought he might be down . . . and may retire. But he didn't. He came back and he was stronger than ever."

Born in 1912, Brother Finch graduated from Briscoe Memorial in Kent, Wash., and joined the Congregation of Christian Brothers of Ireland, of which he was a member for 72 years.

Brother Finch taught at several other schools, including Vancouver College in Canada, Lewis University and St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Romeoville. But his closest ties were to Leo, Foster said.

Brother Finch also made a lasting impact as a teacher, according to school officials. Many of the school's alumni called him the "most brilliant teacher that they ever had," Foster said.

Though he was modest, Brother Finch's work did not go unrecognized. This year, the National Association of Religious Brothers chose him as its first honoree

for the Recognition of Brotherhood Award.

He was to receive the honor in January.

Visitation will be from 3 to 9 p.m. Sunday at the Brother Rice High School Chapel, 10001 S. Pulaski Rd., with a prayer service at 7:30 p.m.

Mass will be said at 2 p.m. Monday at Queen of Martyrs Church, 103rd and Central Park.