Parent Frustration at Annunciation Goes Largely Unnoticed by Rest of Southwest Minneapolis

Courtesy Lake Area Discovery Center

My irritation split evenly between Annunciation parents and Father Brian Park after I finished reading Nate Gotlieb's report (Southwest Journal August 22) on the latest outrage to rock 54th and Lyndale.

Had the grown-ups forgotten how their former Archbishop, John Nienstedt, wanted to deny state recognition of civil marriage between same sex couples?  

Did they forget that Annunciation read Nienstedt’s letter endorsing that marriage amendment at a special children's Mass, packed with parents and grandparents?

I remember I stopped volunteering at Annunciation to raise money and awareness to defeat the measure.  And although Minnesota voters soundly rejected it, the campaign exposed a gaping fault line among parishioners.

My wife and I contemplated pulling our children from the school that year.  It helped that the faculty appeared insulated from the partisanship, and that our kids roughly grasped the contempt behind the amendment.  So we kept them enrolled, but as full participants, we were done.

.  .  .

Brian Park 

 

 

Park setting fires 2015

He was young, energetic and interviewed well. In 2015, the combined councils gave Park the seal of approval and he became the new pastor.  His stated mission was to light our children’s hearts on fire for Jesus. That sounded redundant at a Catholic school, but whatever. He wanted to set some fires.

Park worked the soft skills he acquired as a member of a charismatic youth retreat.

"NET Ministries," he wrote, "made me the priest I am today."

Before he entered the Saint Paul Seminary in 2007, Park completed four years of evangelization at NET Ministries.  By the time he arrived at Annunciation, he had twice the experience preaching the gospel to youth than he did working as a parish priest.

.  .  . 

NET Ministries 

 

The mission statement is to "challenge young Catholics to love Christ and embrace the life of the Church."  

Every year, 175 missionaries, ages 18-28, volunteer for a month of training that begins in August. Before they arrive, each candidate has to raise roughly $5,000 to cover a quarter of the expense for their own mission. 

In training, their characters are formed through intense study of Catholicism and participation in charismatic prayer.  On completion, the young volunteers are equipped with the ministry skills needed for evangelization. 

They're divided into teams that, for nine months, travel across the US to proclaim the gospel to young people. 

Since 1981, these missionary teams have led over 32,000 retreats and ministered to more than 2 million young Catholics.  

  .  .  .

Don't Look Now

 

Park's predecessor at Annunciation, Father James Himmelsbach, appeared at school pretty much for scheduled events only.  Beyond that he kept busy at the church.

Park treated the school like his private reserve.  He began showing up on the campus impromptu, inserting himself into student conversations at lunch.  At recess, he joined touch football games already in progress.  He circulated at the pick-up line after school.

Park has an MS in Divinity, but he doesn’t have a degree in education or a teaching license. He initiated “Ask Fr. Park” sessions during regularly scheduled class time.  Students were encouraged to place their questions in a box so he could answer them. I remember lice outbreaks that were more popular.

While he was busy setting fires his first year, he seemed genuinely oblivious to the five alarm fire that already engulfed the Archdiocese.  His presence around students, even in plain view of other adults, made me especially anxious and on guard.

.  .  .

Year two, Park started to involve himself more with the school administration.  He gave no heads-up to parents before he doubled the number of all-school masses on the academic calendar.  

I discovered this at paperwork night and sent Principal Jennifer Cassidy an email complaining that my kids needed more time for academics, lunch and recess, not Mass.  There was no bottom-up demand.  

She copied Park and he called me. When I explained this was an academic matter and that I was already in touch with the principal, he cut me off and replied, “I’m in charge of the school."

.  .  . 

Nienstedt's Legacy 

It wasn't a surprise that some parishioners welcomed his involvement and evangelization.  But many parents gently pushed back.  His ministry style was forced and out of sync with the greater school community.  He ignored social ques and continued shaking the fault line.

It’s tempting to conclude that his most recent enforcement of the Archdiocese loyalty oath, a.k.a. Justice in Employment Policy, was retaliation for push back.  

Nienstedt encouraged a similar purge in Catholic Schools after Minnesotans, especially the Catholic ones, rejected his hateful marriage amendment.  It had the same chilling effect, but fortunately Nienstedt's reign of terror was cut short by that child sexual abuse scandal and bankruptcy thing.

.  .  .

The cycle of scandal pommeling the Catholic Church seems to never end.  Annunciation Church collections are flaccid and the school hasn’t refilled nearly 100 desks left empty since 2009, a stubborn and widespread enrollment trend according to the National Catholic Education Association. The school requires cash injection from an outside agency simply to break even.

And now, Brian Park gets to approve the replacements for every Annunciation educator he forces out.  Are there other teachers who feel the clock ticking? Will fashioning a school in the likeness of NET Ministries take precedence over things like open mindedness, curiosity and academics?  It’s starting to look that way.

.  .  . 

What to do now?

Our older children graduated from Annunciation.  But two years ago, we enrolled our youngest daughter at our neighborhood school for a bunch of reasons, not the least of which was the constant state of alert I was in since Park arrived.

Our youngest is thriving at her new school, and we enjoy peace of mind.  If you’re a frustrated Annunciation parent, you’ve got excellent public and private alternatives nearby.  Annunciation hasn’t a monopoly on community.  You’ll find it where you make it.

Stop underwriting inept priests riding herd on the people paying their salaries.  Stop supporting their private operating foundations and their backwater policies that harm women, POC and the LGBTQ community.

If the gospel notion of division is what fundamentalist Catholics believe Jesus wants them to accomplish in this lifetime, then make it easy on them.  Let them enjoy their big empty church alone.  They’ll have no one else to blame after the lights go out.

No. 34: Tony Cornish and a World of Game

By Luke Savage| 5:15PM| March 23, 2016

Rep. Tony "Mad Badger" Cornish

St. Paul, MN – Minnesota’s most carnivorous legislator is about to enter the crowded herd of processed meat snacks.  In a big way. Not just a new brand name or secret blend of seasoning. It’s a different animal altogether.

Look out Minnesota.  Here comes people jerky.

Rep. Tony Cornish (R), Vernon, is urging House colleagues to consider adding language to an already controversial
“Stand Your Ground” style bill inching its way towards both chambers.

"My will is strong. Their flesh is tasty - when its done right."

Cannibalism is illegal in Minnesota.  Cornish insists the prohibition is nothing more than a political end around.

"Government can't tell me what I can and can't eat.  Its liberals playing God again. Get these liberals out of my pantry.”

Cornish isn't alone.  Speaking on condition of anonymity, one Democratic lawmaker agrees in principle that not eating what you shoot "is totally un-American."  

Waste in all forms really bothers his rural constituency. "When these people come to lobby inside the House? They're not just hungry. They're armed with loaded guns.  If I'm on the wrong side of this, I am lunch."

Unidentified slabs of jerky left inside the House of Representatives retiring room.

A Republican majority controls the House and many rural Democrats who vote in lock step with Minnesota's influential gun lobby are lifelong game lovers. Rep. Carly Melin (D) Hibbing takes a pragmatic approach.  "If preservation doesn't occur right after a kill, spoilage happens quickly. Neither side of the aisle likes spoilage.  We can all get behind that."

Rep. Carly Melin (DFL), Hibbing doesn't like 
spoilage.

Cornish agrees.  "It takes hours before an already justifiable shooting is fully investigated. Contacting the next of kin adds more delay" he complained. "What a waste."

None of the Republican lawmakers from the seven county metro could be reached for comment. Cornish isn’t worried.  “What do they know?  There’s a world of tasty game right outside the state capitol. My favorite is organ meat.”

What’s Old is New

While cannibalism hasn’t trended anywhere outside tribal New Guinea and tiny Wisconsin enclaves in over a half century, smashing together the Stand Your Ground (SYG) movement with Eat What You Shoot (EWYS) is a novel approach to this ancient taboo.  Separately, both SYG and EWYS are popular within overlapping rural and ex-urban demographics.  But the idea of combining the two came to Cornish after a night of heavy drinking.  

“The next morning I pan fried gizzards in my Texas skillet." His drinking partner, Lefty, didn’t know Cornish snuck in a hand full of "butt-holes."  He couldn't remember from what animal but Cornish does remember his friend licked the plate clean and wanted seconds. "Drunks eat anything I guess.”

Cornish neither confirmed nor denied he’s eaten human before. “If I did, I don’t remember.  We did a lot of crazy stuff on reserve weekends.”

A Divided Minnesota

Before it goes to hearings, the Committee on Government Operations and Election Policy will consider the bill in its entirety, including Cornish’s Eat a Thug for Jesus clause.

Asked whether Eat a Thug for Jesus points to a growing divide between rural Christian fundamentalism and urban secularism, Cornish grew irritable.

Float testing product labels for Cornish Brand People

Jerky. Cornish is researching Kosher varieties for his

"many friends of the Jewish persuasion."

“It’s about government over reach. Shooters have a right to life like everyone else. Game meat sustains that sacred right. Government shouldn’t be telling shooters what they can and can’t eat.  That’s for me and the Big Guy to sort out.”

Cannibalism has an undeniable chilling effect and Cornish admits he steers clear of the word when championing Eat a Thug for Jesus among his constituency.  He substitutes phrases like herd control, human conservation and waste reduction. 

“Liberals can call it what they want.  People have been eating each other since the beginning of time. It says so in the good book. Look it up. Genesis 9:3 and Leviticus 26:29.”

Freelance contributor to Jews for Jesus

Quarterly, Andy Rothmann.

Lending Aid and Comfort

Support for Eat a Thug for Jesus is easy to locate inside Minnesota’s gun lobby. Even though the Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance has its hands full lobbying free silencers for school age children, it plans to contribute.

“GOCRA will make room on its plate for human jerky, kielbasa, whatever or whomever we want to eat.” said Director Andrew Rothmann. “Provided it’s a clean shot. I’m not harming anyone at that point” he quipped, chuckling at his own wit before aspirating on spittle and coughing up ribbons of phlegm.

No Slam Dunk

Hearings for the Public Safety and Crime Prevention Policy and Finance committee attract lots of attention.  With Cornish calling cadence as chair, approval for this measure is a foregone conclusion.  Asked whether he would testify in support of Eat a Thug for Jesus, Rothmann, a Jew by birth, didn’t hesitate to say yes. “It’s already in my NRA day planner. And, come on. Jesus asked his best friends to eat him. He'd have no problem with this.”

If the measure prevails in both chambers its unlikely Governor Dayton will sign it into law.  He dodged the question however his chief of staff released this statement. 

“Its vital for Minnesota that someone prepare and eat Rep. Cornish quickly, before this change to the existing law goes to full vote on the floor.”

”Is the Governor man enough to eat people jerky?  We’ll see about that,” Cornish winked, patting his holster.  “Me and my little friend have our work cut out.”

A senate version called Shoot Em, Dry Em and Eat Em, still needs a sponsor.  Actual language of the House bill, Eat a Thug for Jesus clause:

“A shooter in fear for his/her immediate safety and or the safety of others, then credited with a clean shot, shall promptly field dress and harvest any or all of the shootee’s parts if that is their desire; that the preferred method of game preparation, for consumption of all its deliciousness, includes but is not limited to smoking, curing, drying, grilling, roasting, pot roasting, pan searing, pan frying, braising, canning or pickling.”