Rick Barr

Rick Barr, the guy who published a blog with many historic photos from the Catholic Telegraph, died last week. Below are three (of many) interesting photos he posted. These are all demolished:

Sacred Heart Italian church at 527 Broadway
 

St X Commercial School, 520 Sycamore
 

Teacher's College, stood directly the east of St George's in Corryville
 

The Catholic Telegraph has been continuously published in Cincinnati, since 1831! I would love to see more of their extensive archives published online.

St Francis Seraph Nativity

At the corner of Vine and Liberty daily 1-7pm:

 

 

 

Sheep in OTR

What are sheep, goats and donkeys doing in the heart of OTR? They are part of the live nativity at St Fancis Seraph at the corner of Liberty and Vine. They are open every day until January 6th, 1-7pm:

 

St Francis started the Nativity Creche tradition in 1220 AD:
 

Snake Handling

The Gospel reading at church today was the end of Mark which talks about going forth to drink poison and handle snakes. In the sermon, father says that this last entry of Mark was added by another author and that we should not go handle snakes... Darn.

Old St Marys Interior

 

Live Nativity OTR St Francis

Begining this Friday Dec 19th and continuing until Jan 6th, 1-7 pm daily, St. Francis Seraph will have their first annual Live Nativity at the corner of Vine and Liberty.

St Boniface Northside

Very nice church, very well kept:

 

Inside the school gymnasium, a nice fall festival fundraiser:

 

Catholic Schools Convert to Charter

Interesting article about seven Catholic grade-schools in Washington DC that decided to convert to non-religious charter schools because of their declining enrollment.

Courtyard at Vine and Liberty

At this busy intersection is a brick wall, and behind the brick wall, next to St. Francis Seraph, is this beautiful courtyard. The friars tend the garden and Brother Tim has rejuvenated the fountain, with fish:







[where: 1615 Vine Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202]

To the East, across Vine is the Elementary School and a residential building squeezed-in on the corner. The first floor storefront has The Canticle Cafe:
The Canticle Cafe is an informal outreach program of the Fransiscans. It is a place to cool off in the summer and warm up in the winter. They offer pastries and doughnuts, bingo, AA meetings etc..
[where: 1600 Vine and 14 East Liberty, Cincinnati, OH 45202]

Here is the auditor's map of the corner. Notice that the south side of Liberty was widened and buildings removed, and thus the lot lines are still visible on the map:

Rev Mike Pfleger

Only tangentially relevant to the subject of this blog, and and at the risk of alienating some readers, I am posting a link to this confrontational interview of Roman Catholic Priest Pfelger, with a Bill O'Reilly staffer. I found I was ruminating about it 24hrs after I had seen it. Maybe because I had never heard a white Catholic defend Farrakhan before? Maybe because he is so passionate about his forgotten urban parishoners?

Here is his bio and a quote I found about him:

The man has taken a formerly Irish Catholic Parish that was dying and turned it into the most successful black parish in the archdiocese. Amazingly he has done it in a neighborhood that is not middle class and that has serious social problems. If he had taken a parish in a middle class black neighborhood and made it successful it would have been amazing enough, but he did it in what is best described as ghetto. ....(He) preaches self reliance, personal responsibility, and helping your fellow man.

In Cincinnati, the remaining urban parishes are typically subsidized by the diocese, but in Chicago, St. Sabina is self-sufficient. I can't help but think that if the Archdiocese of Cincinnati had more priests like this, they might be more successful in the inner-city, and perhaps wouldn't have sold or demolished so many old churches for lack of attendance.

1967 Billy Graham on Rioting

I found this pamphlet laying on a windowsill at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church [Where: 1522 Race Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202]. The original congregation moved out of this church two years after this pamphlet was published to their new church on Central Parkway (Concordia Lutheran). They funded an outreach church that has remained there since.

 

 

 

Would Jesus Litter

Found along the sidewalk this morning, (along with some Steel Reserve cans), left from a church handing out sandwiches Saturday.

 

Found Items - Windshield

Things left on my windshield this week:

 

 

I also had a Vote Winburn flyer, again. This guy never stops.

Free Lunch and a Bible Tract

 

Church groups come regularly to Washington Park to hand out lunches, and sometimes to hand out used clothing. They now hand-out on the sidewalk after apparently being asked to leave the park by city officials.

St. Peter in Chains

 

I was busy at work yesterday, and my wife calls on her cell phone while walking with stroller downtown, running errands, and in the background over the phone, there is all these city sounds, prominent among them ... church bells. She was relating how she had just bumped into several old acquaintances, and at that moment I really wanted to be there too.