Faithful Citizenship in Pa's 1st Congressional District and the Central Garden State

I attended my last NY St. Patrick's Day in 1980. Please read no further, if you are offended by graphic descriptions...

Starting near St. Patrick's Cathedral, the parade goes up Fifth Avenue, as far as 81st Street. There at 81st Street, I could see the backs of a large group of young men, as they stood urinating against the wall of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. At the time, I was still in my own "wild and crazy" college years. Yet, as a first generation Irish Catholic New Yorker, I was deeply embarrassed. The scene contributed to the absolute worst stereotypes of my people.

A few years later, there was a priest whose birth place was Philly but who was clearly intended for Broadway. Cardinal O'Connor had a "I'm not afraid of anybody" feistiness that was a perfect match for the Big Apple. When I first heard that Cardinal O'Connor was insisting on the religious nature of the parade, I thought of the not-yet-house -broken young men. From what I have heard, Cardinal O'Connor quietly got much of that nonsense cleaned up.

Cardinal Dolan is absolutely a congenial man. Several months ago, I ran into him on a NYC street and asked him to pose for a "selfie." He immediately obliged and swung his arm around my back, like we were old pals. The cardinal strikes me as a nice, nice man. His announcement about the parade, however, seems nonsensical and tantamount to an insult to the memory of Cardinal O'Connor and those struggling to keep a grasp on the truth about marriage: http://www.archny.org/news-events/news-press-releases/index.cfm?i=34077