Memorial Day 2009

St. James in Lakewood

Things are still swirling for St. James. Although the appeal to the Bishop was denied there is a group of people who are assembling the necessary documentation to prepare an appeal to the higher level of the Catholic Church. When that will be done, my guess within the next few days.

With the Bishop's reversal of St. Colman's and St. Ignatius of Antioch's decision has certainly changed some peoples thinking about St. James remaining open.

The theory is that those two churches were in tougher shape than St. James and St. James provided a much faster debt retirement and facility upgrade plan. But, we will keep plugging away.

The City of Lakewood is joining the fray in introducing legislation creating a Civic Landmark Designation. How, this is going to play out, I am not sure. I was going to check with Mayor FitzGerald and Ward 1 Councilman Kevin Butler regarding their thoughts on this matter.

I think by Memorial Day, we shall have a better picture.

Congrats to LeBron James

Never in my wildest dreams that a little less than 4 years ago when I was sitting next to him at lunch table in the basement of the Summit County Court House awaiting for another afternoon session in Judge Jane Bond's courtroom on a contract dispute, I was sitting next to an MVP for all of the NBA.

(Okay, I had hoped, but I am a Buffalo Bills fan and I live in Cleveland!)

One of the nicest guys I have met in the sports world.

Carroll's Place: Sorry it's been so long

St. James Closing

As expected the appeal for St. James was denied. Unless there is some movement by the parishioners for appealing to Rome, St. James will cease to exist by the end of 2010.

Based on what I have seen of the letter the Bishop is basically telling all the members of St. James to move to the remaining parishes of Lakewood.

This is not only a crushing blow the the members of St. James, but it will cause some initial financial hardships to St. Luke's, St. Clements and the merged parish of SS Cyril & Methodious and Rose. The biggest loser in all of this will Lakewood Catholic Academy, they are going to have a difficult time in the near term and to the middling years in overcoming the loss of the second largest contributor to their school.

As I see it, this consolidation of Lakewood Parishes is not complete.

Maureen Patricia Carroll Atkinson

This morning I was slated to be Mexico. But, God had a different plan!

On Thursday morning God decided to call my sister Pat home to be with him.

For 40 years my sister had Juvenile Diabetes, it was a constant battle for her to maintain a healthy lifestyle and keeping the diabetes in check. At least once or twice a year it would knock her down, but she would get back up and renew the battle.

Last year the disease took a limb, but she continued to battle. However, the JD was beginning to get the upper hand.

Recently, she moved up to Buffalo to stay with my mother while the home that she,her husband Tom and son TJ shared was rebuilt after a fire in January. A home she will not see again.

I am sad and happy for her because she doesn't have to deal with the daily struggle of Diabetes again, but will not see her son, TJ do all the things that she had hoped for when she gave birth to him nearly 20 years ago.

My heart is broken and my eyes are full of tears!

Rest in Peace, Pat

Love your
Mon Petite General


PS If you hear thunder in the heavens the next couple days, its Pat kickin' my brother's butt for leaving back in 95.

St. James to Appeal Bishop's decision

St. James will appeal the decision of the Bishop. We have ten days in which to respond.

If you are a parishioner or former parishioner we are asking that you submit a letter to Bishop to explain what is that is important to you about St. James.

Send your letter to:

The Most Reverend Richard G. Lennon
Catholic Diocese of Cleveland
1027 Superior Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44114


We ask that you be respectful.

The Parish Council and Finance Committee will be meeting tomorrow night to begin drafting the appeal.

Spread the word.

Help St. James of Lakewood Ohio

As you now the Bishop of Cleveland has decided that St. James in Lakewood is to close sometime in the next 18 months.

I believe that we must fight to save the Church, which in turn will maintain the solvency of Lakewood Catholic Academy.

Tonight, Monday 3/16 at 8:00pm is a Town Hall meeting to discuss the next steps but also share memories of this once glorious parish.
Come join us to show solidarity to the Parish family and the community as a whole.

Just so you are aware, here is the letter the Bishop sent to all the Lakewood Pastors.

I think the Bishop is wrong

Forget the platitude the Bishop is saying about the parish closures and consolidations, this was not about Priests, demographics or vibrancy. For some parishes especially in Lakewood, this is decision was all about money.

Unfortunately, the kids may suffer the most.

More later.

Banned from Lakewood Observer

I have joined what seems to be the growing ranks of those banned from posting on the Observation Deck.

For those individuals reading this off of Facebook, the Lakewood Observer is a local Community Forum and newspaper. It started 4 years ago as a way to engage the community in discussion about issues facing the local cummunity and the world affairs at large, it has been up to now a successful venture with expansion to other communities mostly in the Northeast Ohio area.

Now, why did I get banned you ask, well I am affiliated with another forum site, that is viewed as in direct competition to the Observer. The site administrator is banning those involved with the Lakewood Soapbox and is according to my sources planning to seek legal remedies to shut us down.

Now, so far everyone else was notified by email that they were going to be banned, me I didn't get that courtesy, I got a round about threat from the phone.

Today JOB posted this topic as you can see was the third post, my original post said this:

You must be kidding right? You are now Thanking her?

I need to change my medications, because I am not seeing this straight! Maybe, you just needed to peddle around the Internet a little to find those pictures:

Here let me help you!

http://carrollforlakewood.blogspot.com/2008/11/gov-sarah-palin-in-lakewood.html http://carrollforlakewood.blogspot.com/2008/11/more-photos-of-sarah-palin-in-lakewood.html

I have a couple of more one is of the Gov. Palin with the Lakewood Hometown Band sign behind her.

The signs were there and behind her. Funny thing is all my photos were taken from the media stand and have photos of Lakewood for McCain. I will have to let all my Republican friends know about this post! Especially Ryan and Steve, they won't believe it!

Funny thing is it now has been edited by the Site Administrator, here how it is now:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You must be kidding right? You are now Thanking her?

I need to change my medications, because I am not seeing this straight!

Maybe, you just needed to peddle around the Internet a little to find those pictures:

Here let me help you!

http://forlakewood.blogspot.com/2008/11/gov-sarah-palin-in-lakewood.html

http://forlakewood.blogspot.com/2008/11/more-photos-of-sarah-palin-in-lakewood.html

I have a couple of more one is of the Gov. Palin with the Lakewood Hometown Band sign behind her.

The signs were there and behind her.

Funny thing is all my photos were taken from the media stand and have photos of Lakewood for McCain.

I will have to let all my Republican friends know about this post! Especially Ryan and Steve, they won't believe it!

Well JOB posted a reply and I received an email about it and hit the link and received notice that my user name and password have been deactivated.

Funny, I am looking at the terms of service as provided by the LO and I don't believe I violated any terms:

Here it is in its entirety:

You must use your real first and last names.

Please use a space between your first and last names in the user name entry box.

If you do not comply to the terms of service agreement, your account will be immediately deleted.

While the administrators and moderators of this forum will attempt to remove or edit any generally objectionable material as quickly as possible, it is impossible to review every message. Therefore you acknowledge that all posts made to these forums express the views and opinions of the author and not the administrators, moderators or webmaster (except for posts by these people) and hence will not be held liable.

You agree not to post any abusive, copyrighted, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-oriented or any other material that may violate any applicable laws. Doing so may lead to you being immediately and permanently banned (and your service provider being informed). The IP address of all posts is recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. You agree that the webmaster, administrator and moderators of this forum have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic at any time and deactivate any user should they see fit. As a user you agree to any information you have entered above being stored in a database. While this information will not be disclosed to any third party without your consent the webmaster, administrator and moderators cannot be held responsible for any hacking attempt that may lead to the data being compromised.

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I Agree to these terms, will use my real first and last names and am over or exactly 18 years of age

I Agree to these terms, will use my real first and last names and am under 18 years of age

I do not agree to these terms

Well, I guess I won't be over there anymore and will be at www.LAKEWOODSOAPBOX.com

I really won't miss the Observer too much, since I was ready to drop it anyways, this just makes it a little sooner.

There are some people in Lakewood that need to hear this!

h/t Blackfive