Our Lady of Kazan: Hope for Covid-19

In the "third secret" at Fatima, the Blessed Virgin foretold the Second World War but promised that her Immaculate Heart would prevail, the Godless terror would be overcome, and that Russia would be converted to the Catholic Faith.   I do not think that this means that people will be converted from Orthodoxy to Catholicism.   It has always been interpreted as an end of the regime that was godless and persecuting the Faith, and that Russia will be converted to Christ, and will then become a source of Christian blessing for the whole world.   From a heavenly perspective, where the Eucharist is, where Our Lady and the saints and angels are, there is the Church.   Our divisions do not reach as far as heaven, and Mary, the Mother of God, looks at things from a heavenly perspective.   Nothing shows this more than the relationship between Fatima and the icon of Our Lady of Kazan.   Because of what Our Lady said at Fatima, we used to have "prayers for Russia" after every time we celebrated Sunday Mass.   People were encouraged to do small acts of penance for the Church in Russia.   We were practising ecumenism in prayer and penance without realising it!!  When Communism fell in an almost bloodless coup, this was attributed by Orthodox Christians to the protection of Our Lady of Kazan.   At that time, the icon of Our lady of Kazan was in Fatima.   Now the Patriarch and the Vatican are preparing to combine forces in a campaign to save the Christian roots of Europe against all that is attacking Christianity.   Is this not a fulfillment of Our Lady's prophecy?

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The Impossibility of Germantown

City Safari: Is Germantown Rehabilitation-Proof?

Germantown Reinactors.

By Thom Nickels• Wed, Feb 26, 2020

Contributing Editor

Why have so many excellent albeit Utopian design projects intent on improving this historic section of Philadelphia failed? Is there something in Germantown air? Do the neighborhoods here need a "population transplant" before the area can be revitalized? 

In the 1960s and 1970s, Germantown was home to several large department stores: Allen's, JC Penny, Franklin Simon, and CA Rowell. The area was known as a regional shopping district, second only to Center City. Germantown was the home of Asher's Candy, Cunningham Pianos and a first-class restaurant in a Victorian mansion on Greene Street that attracted diners from all over the city. There was also a vibrant YMCA with a large swimming pool and gym. A Linton's Restaurant on the corner of Germantown and Chelten attracted diners who wanted to see their food orders travel from the kitchen to the counter along a conveyor belt. There was a Woolworth's on Chelten Avenue and a pub restaurant with famous roast beef sandwiches at Wayne and Chelten.

Vendors along Germantown Avenue sold homemade pecan pie ("To rot your teeth," as one friend of mine noted.) In the 1970s the area was beginning to show some signs of decay. There was Maplewood Mall, tucked away among Greene Street, Germantown Avenue, W. Armat Street, and West Chelten. The mall featured a shoe repair and cheese shop, a bookstore (Leaves of Grass), a kite shop, a vitamin store, and a popular jazz club. The mall's relative isolation from the street contributed to its downfall. In 2019, the city invested 3.3 million for a Maplewood Mall redo. The redone mall will have direct street access and will effectively end the 50% vacancy rate. 

The beauty of Germantown cannot be denied: Big houses, trees, cobblestones, cleaner air than Center City. There's also that famous "good earth grounding vibe" that so many people talk about. 

In the 1970s the Chelten Avenue offices of The Germantown Courier could have doubled for a big city newsroom. An elevator took you to the offices where the editor-in-chief, decked out in a white shirt and bow tie, sat at an enormous desk. 

On the streets, Hare Krishna devotees filled the air with incense and chants. Occasionally one could also spot an Anglo-Catholic nun or two from St. Luke's parish on the Avenue. White hippie types and gays (mostly lesbians) began moving into the area despite Melvin Floyd's Neighborhood Crusade headquarters (Floyd was a vehement and outspoken opponent of gay rights) on West Queen Lane, where there was also the Queen Lane Projects, a massive Section 8 'snake pit' high rise. I lived two blocks from the projects. The worst 'assault' I experienced was being called 'whitey.' 

Throughout the late 70s and 80s, Germantown showed little signs of improvement. It was neighborhood frozen inside a snow globe as if the visionary designers of Maplewood Mall decided that the area was really bad and got out of town. All seemed permanently lost when the good restaurants began to disappear. The Victorian mansion restaurant on Greene Street closed. Linton's followed suit as did the 'roast beef' pub on Wayne Avenue. Fast food places moved into the area with a vengeance. Asher’s Candy, in the Germantown area since 1899, left Germantown in 1997 for Souderton. Cunningham Pianos, a Germantown institution since 1891, left for King of Prussia in 2016. 

Cunningham co-owner Rich Galassini told The Philadelphia Business Journal that "We loved being here [in Germantown]. People come just to see the architecture, let alone our instruments. It's a really cool place to show pianos, but it's just not in the right location anymore. I'm torn, but I'm going to love being in King of Prussia, and we'll still have a Philadelphia presence." 

"Just not in the right location," sounds like a vague reference to Germantown's demise. What has hampered Germantown's development to some degree is the irregularity of public transpiration in the area. Along with Roxborough, Germantown has less than adequate bus routes. The regional rail lines, Chestnut Hill West and Chestnut Hill East, have far too few trains that run back and forth to Center City. On weekends, the gap between trains is even wider. 

In 2012, the Central Germantown Business District Beautification Plan noted that Germantown was no longer "a regional destination," and that "today the district is characterized by rising vacancy, a lack of diversity in retail offerings, and physical deterioration." 

 What to do?

An international student design competition might be one answer, because a student in the UK may have the key to Germantown's future. 

That's what happened last month when the Center for Architecture and Design announced its 2020 Edmund N. Bacon Urban Design Awards, a student competition with a first prize of $5,000. The competition's theme was the revitalization of Germantown, namely the so-called Chelten Hub. 

The competition's program material spelled it out plainly that in Germantown, "There is a high concentration of empty storefronts, neglected properties, buildings modified with inexpensive materials, parking lots, and fast-food restaurants." The program went on to say that, "Some property owners are preventing development by holding onto vacant buildings and underutilized lots."

The challenge: How might this historic district be designed to better support the local community?

The winner of the competition, Leeds Beckett University (UK) called their vision Platforms for People. 

Leeds calls for the creation of new urban spaces termed platforms. Leeds identified overwhelming problems like crime, lack of amenities, poverty, rubbish, and parking. "These issues have held Germantown back." Leeds' solution is to "push back the fabric of buildings and pull forward the history and the people. This begins to highlight important structures and address wayfinding." 

Wayfinding, according to the Society for Experimental Graphic Design (SEGD, "can help reduce [community] stress by providing easy-to-follow signage and legible directions to their destinations. In some settings, reliance on text-based messaging is minimized and systems rely heavily on non-text cues such as colors and symbols.”

While this sounds smart indeed — it could have come from a millennial's crystal ball — one wonders how this will curtail real-life problems like chronic graffiti attacks on SEPTA's New Payment Technology vending machines. The graffiti war seems to have been lost in Germantown. If only Leeds had suggested a new Anti-Graffiti Network patrol the area, an army of non-text user’s intent on practical beautification. 

Two UPenn students won second place. Their proposal, Chelten Hub, "encourages the adaptive reuse of vacant stores and infill development on vacant lots." This seems about right. The students also call for the integration of transit stops with public spaces and the improvement of transit accessibility. Transit accessibility is a must. The Chestnut Hill West station, for instance, is located down a long flight of concrete steps. In the past, the station platform at the bottom of the steps was not lighted and its dark isolation caused many riders to wait on the bridge over the tracks before hurriedly running to catch a train as it pulled into the station. While the improved lighting conditions at the station are notable, the station platform itself is in such a deep pocket that many riders wait at the foot of steps for the train so that, in case of an emergency, a quick U-turn up the steps can be easily navigated. Along with transit accessibility, transit multiplication — a new bus route to Germantown or added trains on the Chestnut Hill West line — needs to happen. 

Two jury prizes went to students from the University of Massachusetts and another group of students from Leeds.

The New England students focused on green spaces, recreation, and transportation. The students admit that their proposal — Community Builder/The Quilt: Make Little Plans — is a broad one. The proposal to "increase the synergistic dynamic of this living mixture [the diverse 'quilt' of Chelten Avenue] through the creative use of and reuse of wasted spaces," sounds as vague to me as the exegesis of existentialist philosophy. 

Finally, the second group of Leeds students came down hard on the area's concentration of fast food outlets and the lack of fresh food. This Leeds group envisions the creation of a modular timber structure built by the community (Amish style?) that will support workshops, learning spaces, and hydroponic growing systems.

It all sounds very quaint but perhaps not impossible. 

Will Germantown see any of these plans realized?

Or will the plans once again become a beautiful but impossible urban designer's academic fantasy?

Seeing Stars

Seeing Stars With Jacqueline Bigar

Jacqueline Bigar

By Thom Nickels• Wed, Mar 11, 2020

Contributing Editor

Jacqueline Bigar, the writer of horoscopes for The Philadelphia Inquirer and many other newspapers, died March 1st of this year in her home in Glendale, Arizona. Her son, Geoffrey Livingston, described the death on his Facebook page as stemming from "natural causes.”

I met Jackie in the late 1970s after she began her astrology column in The Daily News. I was writing for the South Street Star at that time and arranged a reading and interview with her in her house near Fifth and Lombard Streets. She suggested I bring a cassette tape so I could record the reading. The reading was conducted on the floor of her living room where we both sat squat style as if in a teepee. She read from a chart she had prepared. These were the calculations she made regarding my birth chart given to her one week in advance. 

Jackie asked me if I’d like a drink. Since she was having a Scotch, I followed suit. 

She gave a less than hopeful reading on a love interest of mine — the reason for my visit. When the reading was over, I started my interview. It was at that point that I had the feeling that we would become friends. I was startled, however, when she insisted that she read the interview before publication. This is something that no journalist should ever do; but I made an exception in her case because I liked her. As it happened, she liked the piece very much. Two weeks later I was hanging out in her house once again only this time she ordered a take-out pizza, some salad, and opened a bottle of wine. 

 Jackie amazed me with her advanced views on sexual orientation, gender, and what it meant to be married. She seemed to know everyone at The Daily News, thanks to her talent as an astrologer and the valuable connections provided her by her husband, Tom Livingston. 

Jackie moved quite a bit when she lived in Philadelphia. From Lombard Street, she moved to another house, and then to another house after that. I could barely keep up with all the moves. For a time, she lived on Front Street in a beautiful home that reminded me of a house in New Orleans. When I showed up for a reading there, she left the door of the house open for me. Walking inside, I noticed a large open bottle of white wine on the kitchen counter and several snacks. Jackie was with another client in another room. I was told beforehand to make myself at home. 

 

She told me a lot of things about various Philadelphia personalities, many of whom were in broadcast news. She talked about growing up with Action News’ Jim Gardner. When it came to her professional life, she could be quite competitive. One day during a visit to her place I noticed that she had the Maury Povich "People Are Talking” show on TV. Maury’s guest was Philadelphia psychic Valerie Morrison. Morrison, dressed in a flowing pink chiffon gown, was filmed walking into the studio audience carrying a candelabra. Povich, who had introduced Morrison as a psychic/astrologer, listened as Morrison gave predictions for the various Sun Signs. Jackie flew into a rage and called the TV station, saying that she was the astrologer while Morrison had always called herself a psychic. 

 

Semantics, perhaps, but it was a clumsy moment for me because I knew and liked both women very much. 

At one point I applied for a job at The Daily News as an ad copywriter. Jackie helped me get the job interview where I was expected to bring in an ad that I had designed and written, so I brought a pen and ink advertisement I wrote for Jackie’s astrology column. To be honest, I look back on this with some embarrassment. The advertising copy was dense and esoteric and my 'product' choice, Jackie, gave the whole thing a sycophantic feel. The Ad Dept head, I think, was being kind when he nodded his head and said as little as possible. 

Jackie was always discovering some new guru to follow and her coffee table was always filled with the new guru’s books. The Indian mystic Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (1931–1990), also known as Osho, was a major guru for her. He was a guru who fit Jackie’s bohemian lifestyle. 

At one point she invited me to attend a Shree Rajneesh conference but on the appointed day Jackie was not at home. Jackie called me later that night and told me that she had been in an automobile accident. 

She was an extremely generous woman. Her favorite restaurant was Montserrat at Sixth and South Street, an American Bistro. She often invited me to tag along with her (and she usually paid the bill). She never seemed to mind that I could rarely pay. Over time I introduced her to a number of my friends. 

At one of her parties, she introduced me to Miguel Rivera, one of several alleged killers of an 18-year-old man in one of the pools of the Museum of Art whose girlfriend was raped in June of 1973. Riveria, who was awarded a new trial in 1987 after spending nine years in jail, was acquitted of the murder. Rivera needed a place to stay and because Jackie was friends with his attorney, he was Jackie’s guest for a couple of weeks. Jackie’s pizza and wine party for Rivera included lots of wild dancing. 

After the party, she said she didn’t mind if I wrote about it in my Different Strokes column in the Welcomat.

Jackie’s cats were always beautiful and luxurious looking creatures. She always had a pet. 

When she told me something I didn’t like in a reading — "Jackie, how could yousay that you make it sound like one day I'll retire to a monastery!” — she said inno uncertain terms, "Well, what’s wrong with that?” Her mind was as broad as her tastes. 

When her astrology column went over to The Inquirer I didn’t see much of her for a while. 

That other Philadelphia psychic, Valerie Morrison, had contacted me about writing her biography, so I felt I couldn’t be friends with both women at the same time.

Jackie was now a syndicated columnist and traveling in different social circles. We lost touch, and my book "deal” with Morrison failed to materialize. 

 Jackie introduced me to a Philadelphia psychic she said she consulted for private readings. Her name was Arlene Ostapowic. Arlene and Jackie were also roommates for a time. Ostapowic, who died last year, told me that she was one of Jackie’s astrology teachers. 

Jackie’s syndicated success was nothing less than startling. I did touch base with her a year or two before she left Philadelphia. The reading was pleasant but the excitement of the past had vanished. 

Not long after the reading, Jackie would move to Arizona.

Philadelphia's New Archbishop

Philadelphia’s Lovable Lot Of Quirky Catholics Say Good-Bye To Chaput (Rhymes With “Slap You”) And Welcome Perez

Parez and Chaput

By Thom Nickels   •  Wed, Mar 18, 2020

  Philadelphia Free Press

A head shot of Bishop Nelson Perez of Cleveland, appointed by Pope Francis to head the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, reveals a charismatic smile and an ‘everybody’s favorite uncle’ look. It’s interesting to note that CatholicCitizen.org stated that the bishop’s former hobby was deep sea diving: "A deep sea diver not afraid to swim with the sharks.” 

Nelson Perez may have to learn to swim with sharks now that he’s in what used to be known as the Quaker City, now commonly referred to as the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection, at least until this year when it was renamed The City of Sisterly Love to commemorate the 19th amendment, giving women the right to vote. (The new marketing name will expire in 2021 although Philadelphia City Council will almost certainly devise further configurations). 

Philadelphia has become as politically correct as Bill de Blasio’s New York and London Breed’s San Francisco. Philadelphia is also one of the nation’s premier Sanctuary Cities, something of which the city’s 99th mayor, James Kenney, is very proud. 

Bishop Perez’s instillation as Archbishop of Philadelphia took place on Tuesday, February 18, 2020. The utilitarian, secular sounding word ‘installation’ is a far cry from the word ‘enthronement,’ which was commonly used prior to the revolution in Church rubrics in the 1960s and ‘70s. Perez replaces Archbishop Charles Chaput, who was Archbishop of Denver before his arrival in Philadelphia in 2011. 

Chaput, a New York Times best selling author, is a man of keen theological intellect. A stickler for Church doctrine, he has refused communion for Catholic politicians who support abortion and euthanasia and he roused the anger of the gay and lesbian community after his refusal to compromise on the issue of same sex marriage. 

Philadelphia Catholics are a loveable, quirky lot. They take their identity as Catholics seriously while generally going along with whatever the hierarchy advocates in the way of change, at least in liturgical matters. There was little opposition here after the Second Vatican Council when the Mass was reformatted and church architecture turned on its head. The Traditional Latin Mass community in the nation’s sixth largest city should be three times as big as it is but most Catholics here are just fine with the liturgical status quo. Philadelphia Catholics tend to "go along” to such a degree that if a new archbishop said that crosses must be turned upside down on all the altars, many Catholics would go along with the change, thinking the switch was divinely inspired. 

Chaput, as Archbishop of Philadelphia, inherited the financial disasters necessitating school and church closures not to mention a clergy abuse crisis so vast that it warranted a Federal investigation. Chaput has also had to deal with the merciless left-progressive-at-all-costs Philadelphia media, which had few good things to say about him since he became archbishop in 2011. 

The mainstream media’s message was that Chaput’s directness was polarizing. Now that Perez has been appointed to replace Chaput, the media guns are out in force: You, Chaput, did not have to be so adamant about Church doctrine. You should have referred to Church doctrine in a softer, more ambiguous way so that it didn’t sound so harsh. And mean. 

A charismatic smile mixed with winks and nods will not change the black and white directness of the Catholic Catechism but it goes a long way when it comes to approval ratings. 

Chaput has been demonized not only by The Philadelphia Inquirer but by a large number of the city’s weeklies, beginning with The Philadelphia Gay News, and The Philadelphia Weekly, where the editor there ran a column entitled, Chaput Your Mouth. 

The Philadelphia Gay News stated, "While we note Chaput’s hatred toward LGBT people, that is not what he will be remembered for. 

Chaput’s legacy will be that he enabled predator priests to molest and rape children. ” But Chaput, one might argue, has only been a Philadelphian since 2011. 

Does Chaput really hate LGBT people because he opposes same sex marriage? 

 

At the news of Pope Francis’ appointment of Perez to head the Philadelphia Archdiocese, the rejoicing in the progressive media was like the roar of excited Philadelphia hockey fans. 

The Guardian, while describing Chaput as an "ultra traditionalist,” went on to sing the praises of Perez. The Washington Post praised Perez as "a Cuban American moderate” while reminding readers that Chaput criticized Pope Francis as being "too liberal” and stating that "mass shootings are caused by a culture of sexual anarchy and perverted freedom.’ Chaput, of course, was being made out to sound like the Catholic version of Jerry Falwell or the Westboro Baptist Church. 

The Advocate headlined Philadelphia’s transition this way: "Anti-LGBTQ Archbishop Charles Chaput Fired in Philadelphia.” The fact is, Chaput was not "fired.” He turned in his resignation as every Catholic bishop is required to do when they hit age 75, and then it is up to the pope to accept or deny the resignation. The pope readily accepted Chaput’s resignation which does indicate that he was probably less than pleased with the prelate’s unambiguous points of view. Far left Catholics and over zealous secular reporters who know nothing about Catholicism (except that all popes wear white) managed to gain the insider Catholic view that since 2011, the pope never offered the reigning prelate of Philadelphia (a city usually headed by a a Cardinal), a red hat. 

"He never got the red hat.” Translated, that means: "Even the pope felt he was a bigot.”

The big irony is that Perez was not bishop of Cleveland long enough to amass a track record on LGBTQ issues. He has no real record on LGBTQ issues but you can bet that when those views surface, they will parallel Chaput’s—to a ‘T.’ 

The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Mike Newall, who loves to showcase his more-radical-than-thou Catholic Worker-style Catholicism, wrote that Chaput always said the wrong thing in times of crisis, whereas "Perez talks about the church as it should be: universal. Chaput seemed at every opportunity to draw a line in the pews: These are the beliefs. You’re either with us or against us. Perez has said the diversity of the church is its greatest strength.” 

But, if you were to push both Chaput and Perez to the wall and ask them simple ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ questions about Church doctrine both would give the same answers. Perez would echo Chaput’s beliefs on same sex marriage. Like it or not, the two views would be identical. 

Perez may say them in a "nicer” way but his responses would parallel Chaput’s. The progressive media has the mistaken belief that when a representative of an institution like the Catholic Church says things in a ‘nicer way’ they are leaving the window open for radical change. 

The new archbishop of Philadelphia is his own brand of progressive social justice warrior when it comes to immigration, a subject on which he is far from silent. 

Chaput was criticized for commenting on social issues with a right of center point of view while the incoming Perez is being applauded for his left of center advocacy for "immigrants,” only immigrants in this case means the confusing conflating of illegal immigration with the legal kind, the latter being something that few good clergy persons would ever oppose.