Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Personal Asides: It’s Quigley and Nalepa for Sunday Shootout…A Brilliant Priest Leaves the Archdiocese for the Jesuits.

JimNalepa

Quigley & Nalepa.

Independent Democrat Cook county board member Mike Quigley will be one of my guests on Political Shootout on WLS-AM Sunday night (8 p.m.) along with a man whom a growing number of fans hope can be convinced to run for the U. S. Senate against Dick Durbin…a man whom I referred to cryptically yesterday…Jim Nalepa. Jim Nalepa, a graduate of West Point, made a brilliant run for Congress in 1994 and could easily have defeated Bill Lipinski that year except for one Republican Riverside township committeeman who flooded her district with sample ballots marked for Lipinski—the indefatigable State Senator Judy Baar Topinka who was running that year for state treasurer and needed the help of the Democratic machine which delivered for her because she delivered for them. (She noted to a friend when she ran for governor last year that I—whom she described in terms that cast doubt on my mother’s heritage—cost her 16,000 votes in her losing effort. I am depressed to learn that was all I subtracted from her total but it was worth it…even to get Blago.)

Former S.J. Again S.J. Fr. Matthew Gamber.

One of the archdioocese’s finest priests, Fr. Matthew Gamber, who left the Jesuits to become a parish priest on the hope that his talents and skills would be used in evangelization, has decided to return to the Jesuits…not because the Jesuits are any better but because he will have a teaching assignment he cherishes. It is rumored he had been promised fulsome duties in the archdiocese which is in dire need of good priests…but in the three years he has been here he has not received such summons nor visited with the Cardinal. Nor, reportedly, has he had an easy time getting through the Iron Curtain on Superior street…this again by speculation not by personal verification by me.

One of the best priests I and his many admirers have ever known, Fr. Gamber did great things as an assistant at St. Paul of the Cross in Park Ridge which includes the institution of the 24-hour-a-day Eucharistic Adoration.

Perhaps had he marched with Jesse Jackson or paled around with such Catholics as Dick Durbin, Mayor Daley, Todd Stroger, Mike Madigan, Lisa Madigan, Dan Hynes, Tom Hynes and Emil Jones…all pro-aborts… he would have had his phone calls returned—at the least by Chancellor Jimmy Lago (Jimmy, not James being his Christian name). Who knows?

Good luck and many fond wishes to Father Matthew Gamber, again S.J. The archdiocese will miss you whether it knows it or not.

3 comments:

  1. Great choice; I was afraid you were going to say Kirk for some reason. What do we need to do to convince him?

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  2. I read your comment about Topinka and I scratched my head. Has Republican politics become so petty that you would prefer to shift votes to a Democrat to spite Judy?

    We all know that Judy is a moderate Republican but so is Mark Kirk, Judy Biggert, etc. Edgar and Thompson were moderate Republican governors who got elected again and again. There is a difference between a moderate Republican and crooked Republican like the infamous George Ryan.

    In the end I would always prefer a moderate republican to a democrat like Blago. Yes I would prefer Judy to Blago! And there are many republicans who have kissed up to Daley! Look at your rich cosmetics company buddy whose wife donated money to Daley!

    But then in my opinion you have thrown in with the Neo-Cons on just about everything including the Iraq war, Scooter Pardon, etc. They certainly don't care much for your anti-abort position and yet you praise them every chance you get and you go after a fellow conservative Catholic, Buchanan who is not part of the neo-con clique.

    Tom Roeser are you a stealth Democrat? Maybe Mr. Quigley knows!

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  3. TR,

    "Nor, reportedly, has he had an easy time getting through the Iron Curtain on Superior street…" probably can get a lot more done by staying away from Superior Street, than by mixing it up with the Kremliners.

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