We received a reminder from a member of the Concerned St. Paul of the Cross Parents group that tonight’s Park Ridge City Council meeting (7:30pm at City Hall) has an agenda item dealing with treating a homeless shelter as a “special use” under the City’s zoning ordinance.

The City Council “Cover Memo”[pdf] to that item states that St. Paul of the Cross “has indicated that should the City require a special use for a homeless shelter [at St. Paul], they will go through the process.”  But the City still has to require it; and, even then, St. Paul has made no firm commitment to comply.  Which looks to us like just more of the same gamesmanship by St. Paul pastor Fr. Carl Morello and his Park Ridge Ministerial Association [“PRMA”] cronies, most likely aided by their consiglieri, prominent Park Ridge attorney Jack “Mr. Insider” Owens.

With Owens on the case and with Park Ridge Mayor Howard “Let’s Make A Deal” Frimark shamelessly courting the favor of the PRMA members, opponents of the PADS shelter at St. Paul (or anywhere else in Park Ridge, for that matter) have reason to remain concerned, wary and attentive – not only so the City won’t give St. Paul and PADS (which should be required to be a co-applicant, based on the planned use of its organizational and screening services at the St. Paul shelter) a pass on the special use permit, but also so that St. Paul and PADS are required to meet all of the conditions needed for such a permit rather than be allowed to slide by with a Chicago-style wink-and-nod. 

This same Concerned St. Paul Parent also provided us with a page from yesterday’s St. Paul bulletin containing the customary weekly editorial from Fr. Morello, called “Fr. Carl’s Corner”[pdf].  True to form, Morello refuses to look in the mirror and, instead, points the finger of blame at others for “causing division among members of this community.”  He even provides a gratuitous alibi for himself and his PRMA cronies: “It was not my intent, or that of any of the ministers in the [PRMA], to cause any divisiveness.”

Spoken like a typical politician.  But, then again, Morello and his PRMA cronies have been acting like typical politicians from the very beginning of this PADS fiasco…at least during those times when they haven’t been acting like outright dictators.

Morello’s propaganda piece also reveals to his congregation – and to the Park Ridge community as a whole – that this PADS shelter decision was a lot more the product of Morello’s and the other PRMA members’ egos than it was of any congregation-wide, or community-wide, consensus building: “I personally had hoped that by taking the lead on P.A.D.S. and working together with the Ministerial Association of Park Ridge, we might even reach a higher spiritual goal.”

That kind of “I, me” attitude has been the problem with this PADS deal all along.  It’s called hubris – “exaggerated pride or self-confidence,” according to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary – and it’s not an attractive or desirable quality in human beings generally, much less in priests and ministers who are supposed to be modeling humility and the other virtues for the rest of us to emulate.  That’s the same attitude that kept the PADS homeless shelter process hidden from most of the rank and file church members and community members for almost two years. 

Once again, we want to thank the Concerned St. Paul Parents “organization” for taking the baton from the St. Mary’s NIMBYs and forcing the City to look out for the interests of the community that Fr. Morello and the PRMA have been so willing to disregard.  You are showing once again that “The People” can make a difference, for the better, in local government IF they pay attention and if they have the courage to hold the politicians – both those at 505 Butler Place and those wearing the special collars – accountable for what’s happening in our community.