Heavy Hitters Help Church Raise Money

By the time I noticed this story it's very likely over with already. For those of you who don't know St. Sabina is located on the south side at 1210 West 78th Street. The longtime pastor there is a Father Michael Pfleger who's known for being quite an activist. He's always looking out for his mostly black Catholic parish.

Tuesday evening he was looking out for his parish even more. He needs to build a new roof for that cathedral. Hence why you see CBS 2's political reporter Mike Flannery (just fresh off of his nice report about the Governor of Illinois) at the scene of this fundraiser. One of the heavyhitters referred to in this title that I stole from CBS 2's story and you may click the pic for the video was Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. Here's a piece of this story...

Lots of heavy hitters in Chicago are coming out Tuesday night to help raise money for a church roof. They're looking to raise $500,000 because the archdiocese isn't paying a penny.

As CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery reports, the Archdiocese of Chicago insists they have assisted the South Side St. Sabina parish and that they made the building initially safe, but that the parishioners themselves are going to have to come up with the money for the structural repairs.

Benefactors attending the reception at a River North gallery are being asked to help raise $500,000 for St. Sabina, Chicago's largest African-American parish. Major structural repairs are needed for the roof and ceiling.

Apparently Pfleger has been at this parish since 1981 and Archbishop Francis Cardinal George has a policy suggesting that 26 years may be too long for a priest to stay in one place. Still Pfleger says that and then followed by Mayor Daley's comments...

"I'd like to stay here," Pfleger said. "At this point I don't see myself going somewhere else right now, but I do want to have, obviously, I can't stay at St. Sabina forever. I want to have somebody come in who's going to embrace it and take it to the next level."

"It's been a great parish for many, many years," said Mayor Richard M. Daley, who is expected to attend the fundraiser. "He [Pfleger] brought life -- really, really great life – back into that parish, St. Sabina's. He's been at the forefront dealing with guns and gangs."

Hopefully the roof will be fixed and that St. Sabina will have more than enough money to be able to do the job. I believe this church is in the vincinity of 79th and Racine. An area that is slowly but surely turning around after a few years of decline.

UPDATE: Falwell in 'Gravely Serious' Condition

Jerry Falwell is a person I'm sure many of you reading this blog has heard of. This man has been around a long time as a TV evangelist and currently head of his university Liberty University (I say it like that because he founded Liberty in the 1980s). In recent years he's made statements that 9/11 was our punishment for our acceptance of homosexuality.

I'm sure people are dancing over this. Only because they may disagree with his views. It would be unfortunate to celebrate a man's demise. That's not to say he's not made his share of controversial statements that aren't PC. As much as I would like to wish him a speedy recovery, things don't appear to be looking too good for him. From the Tribune...

The Rev. Jerry Falwell was hospitalized in "gravely serious" condition after being found unconscious Tuesday in his office at Liberty University, a school executive said.

Ron Godwin, the university's executive vice president, said Falwell, 73, was found unresponsive around 10:45 a.m. and taken to Lynchburg General Hospital. Godwin said he was not sure what caused the collapse, but he said Falwell "has a history of heart challenges."

"I had breakfast with him, and he was fine at breakfast," Godwin said. "He went to his office, I went to mine, and they found him unresponsive."

Godwin said Falwell was receiving emergency care. A hospital spokeswoman said she had "no information to release at this time."

In any case, I may not always agree with his political and religious views, but I have to accept them. He's led a long life and I'll give him that much. Hopefully the reports that are coming out today aren't as bad as they're being made out to be. Of course either way there will be more updates during the day or until he finally passes away.

UPDATE: Jerry Falwell Dies After Falling Unconscious in His Office from FOXNews.com

The religious zeal of the gross reciepts tax

The Capitol Fax Blog has been on this story about how Gov. Blagojevich has been getting churches into his Gross Reciepts Tax that he hopes to fund a health care program in Illinois. He's going so far as to say that God or The Lord is on his side or at least on the side of a government run health care program. It seems shallow to me though.

Still watching this video, it seems to me that most of the ministers he got at a press conference at the First Church of Deliverance on 4300 South Wabash were black ministers and thank you Rich Miller for this quote...

Bishop Sanders: “The governor is on God’s side.”

Mike Flannery: “And people who would oppose this would be against God?”

Bishop Sanders: “It isn’t that they would be against God. They would be ignorant, so they wouldn’t know whether there was a God.”

Hmmm, maybe Bishop Robert Sanders may actually be for a government run health care program but I really hope he wasn't taken in by the governor. If I were the governor I don't know if I should take this as a positive or a negative. Still it looks like the Governor of Illinois is going to press ahead.

Unless his budget and programs are approved he isn't going to support any other proposals. Check out this article from the Daily Herald. Transportation is in trouble in the Chicago area particularly on the CTA and this won't even be a priority under this governor's budget...

Backers of the Transportation for Illinois Coalition said the six-county region's network of roads, mass transit and freight rail systems cannot afford to deteriorate another year without a comprehensive statewide capital program.

The General Assembly should increase annual transportation program expenditures by $5 billion over each of the next five years, according to the coalition, led by the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce, the Illinois AFL-CIO, and other labor, non-profit and government organizations.

"If we cannot move workers to the workplace and goods to the marketplace, our ability to compete and to attract and retain jobs faces serious jeopardy," DuPage County Chairman Robert Schillerstrom said at the Thompson Center in Chicago. "Future economic growth will bypass our region and our state. We need a comprehensive transportation and transit funding plan and we need it now."

But Blagojevich said he has more pressing concerns.

"As far as I'm concerned, the big priorities are passing our tax-fairness plan and getting everyone access to affordable health care, and fairly and properly fund our schools to give our kids a chance to learn," Blagojevich said during an appearance on the South Side.

"That's the priority, and unless we do that, as far as I'm concerned nothing else is on the table."

This budget debate is going to get interesting. Who knows he may not get everything he wants, but if the governor is looking at holding everything in limbo unless he gets what he's looking for then there is some serious negotiations to be had here. I'm quite glad that Speak of the House Michael J. Madigan is on the case with his own proposal...

House Speaker Mike Madigan, unhappy with Blagojevich's proposed gross receipts tax on business, Tuesday pushed an alternative through committee: a 60 percent increase in the state income tax to provide more money for schools while also reducing property taxes.

Well let's just see what happens shall we.