Georgia on my mind

Fox News did a story on St. Gerard's moving to Georgia. My friend Melissa from Facebook hipped me to it. You can check out the online version of the story here.

I have to say, reading it, my joy in the St. Gerard's story is tempered by my dismay at the writer's command of language. She writes: "In Norcross, Ga., a magnate for young families and new industries..." It is "magnet," not "magnate." And it is "stained glass," not "stain glass." Ay yi yi.

This world, you know?

Still this is a story I love revisiting. Because I will never forget driving past Gerard's that one Saturday and looking up at it and saying that prayer. Telling God out loud that I loved the new church I had found, St. Anthony's, and the Latin Mass there, but please, do something for Gerard's. That I wanted it to be a Catholic church, not a Protestant church and not a Buddhist temple of a mosque or anything else. That I couldn't stand to see it rot on that corner. And I said, "God, I can't imagine how You could work this out. I have no idea at all. I can't imagine. But please, God, please..."

I knew I was asking the impossible and not long after that I learned the impossible was happening.

Every once in a while you just get a big reason, you know, to believe in God? That was one of those times.

In the Fox News story I love how Father Butch is quoted and he is inclusive. "We just don't have the craftsmen and the craftswomen who can do things like that." Craftswomen. Father Butch, I love him. He said Howard's and my wedding Mass at Gerard's.

I wanted to see where Gerard's was going so I looked around for pictures of Norcross, Ga. Above is a picture I found of a street called Buchanan Street there.

And here is the colorfully named Thrasher Park.

I think St. Gerard's will be happy down there. It looks pretty enough.

Georgia has a history of appreciating Buffalo's cultural offerings. As I understand it Norcross is a suburb of Atlanta. And Atlanta is where Leonard Pennario once took seven curtain calls. Seven! The orchestra manager said it was the longest applause in the history of the Atlanta Symphony.

Something tells me I like that town.

When Gerard's goes there I will be down to visit.