DIVINE INTERVENTION
Archbishop Blase Cupich huddled with Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Police Supt. Garry McCarthy to discuss city’s plague of violence and how church might help
Archbishop peacekeeper . . .
He is taking up the mantle. Clearly, Archbishop Blase Cupich seems to be moving the city’s social problems to the top of his agenda.
Sneed hears three of the city’s most powerful men— Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Cupich and Police Supt. Garry McCarthy— huddled for a private chat Sept. 25 after a blessing ceremony at the new Arrupe College at Loyola University Chicago’s downtown campus.
The subject: Sneed is told they discussed what role the church can play in helping to find solutions to social ills and gun violence threatening the city’s neighborhoods. Neither Cupich nor McCarthy’s office would verify anything other than the trio had a private chat.
The scene: Quiet frustration with a desire to find answers.
During Cupich’s first Chicago press conference in September 2014, he said he has been reading about the gun-violence issue in Chicago since his selection— and was disheartened by a fatal shooting in Old Town of a 16-year-old named Devonshay Lofton.
“It’s a city that’s alive, and yet I know there are some very serious social problems that have to be attended to,” he said. “I’d be willing to partner with people in the social community to build solutions.”
Cupich, who has been doing his homework since taking the helm of 2.2 million Roman Catholics, is a social activist with a cerebral, quiet demeanor. He has asked to accompany McCarthy on a ride along through the neighborhoods hardest hit.
At this juncture, it seems the end of this nightmare is going to take a miracle.
Stay tuned.
The papal file . . .
Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who is claiming conscientious objector status by choosing to go to jail rather than issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, is a convert to Apostolic Christianity.
The kicker: Her private meeting with Pope Francis may have been a surprise, but littlenoted is the fact her parents were Roman Catholic.
He said, she said . . .
The Battling Bickersons, aka Ken and Anne Dias Griffin, the state’s richest couple— head to divorce court Monday if a lastminute settlement isn’t reached.
The case has launched headlines because Griffin, 46, has a net worth of $7 billion— and his estranged wife, Anne, wants more than the $25 million plus change listed in their pre-nup.
The volatile volleyball being tossed back and forth in court documents is primarily financial. Both litigants are fiscal brainiacs. But the fact a bedpost was described as a key piece of evidence causes one to chuckle.
Anne claims her husband broke a piece of furniture during a particularly bitter argument over the pre-nup. Ken claims he accidentally removed a bedpost, “which resulted in a moment of levity ending the argument.”
R-R-Rubio . . .
The GOPer guys and gal trying to snag the presidential brass ring are in the process of lining up their support teams in Illinois. Sneed hears state Sen. Michael Connelly (R-Wheaton) will serve as state chair for GOP presidential candidate and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s campaign.
Gift ’em. . .
Well, I’ll be gobsmacked. Now comes word Secretary of State John Kerry brings along a 6-inch scalloped pewter tray bearing his signature as a gift to foreign dig- nitaries when he travels abroad, according to Politico.
Duh? Da. Somehow the thought of Kerry handing such a gift to Russian President Vladimir Putin makes one wince.
Sneedlings . . .
Bon voyage to Cook County Homeland Security and Emergency Management Executive Director Michael Masters, who is leaving to be the senior veep at the Soufan Group, a strategic security consulting company. ... Saturday’s birthdays: Gwen Stefani, 46; Tommy Lee, 53, and Al Sharpton, 61 . . . Sunday’s birthdays: Derrick Rose, 27; Susan Sarandon, 69; Alicia Silverstone, 39, and Ken Babe, ageless.