Abstractionism: A 3rd Sacred Image From His Most Un-Sacredness

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St. Patrick's Cathedral
Christmas Nineteen 
Eighty-Something

featuring a great actor

leading the priest's choir

That priest appears
to be singing with
the other priests
but, in truth,
he is suppressing 
a yawn.

The night before
Christmas Eve,
FATHER FRANK
who preferred that monicker
to "Monsignor Oliverio" 
was refereeing
Midnight Basketball
in Harlem
 until 4AM

Upon returning "home"
to St. Patrick's,
he was handed a telephone
and a short list of
"reluctant" names.

By noon,
five more New York priests
committed to singing
at Midnight Mass.

The choir's formal rehearsal
began at 3PM
and lasted four hours.

My Uncle
cat-napped for
one hour
then met three
very well-dressed
Harlem gangbangers
for dinner
in Rockefeller Center.

Earl, Pearl, and "Monroe"
were—respectively—
the team captains
and the highest scorer
from the Midnight
Basketball game.

They refused to let
my Uncle
pay for the meal.

Monsignor Oliverio
was influential enough
at St. Patrick's
to secure two pews
for a dozen gangbangers
(and their girlfriends)

Their behavior
at the Midnight Mass
was impeccable
and each one
deposited $50
in the collection plate 

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Footnotes
This page is the copyrighted property

of LCSoL

 

Father Frank was the only

Oliverio of his generation 

  to spend his formative years

in Harlem

 

Only three of the twenty-four

"Harlem attendees"

at this Midnight Mass

were practicing Catholics

 

The most profound thing

my Uncle told me 

about this Mass

was that he would rather 

have been sitting with

the gangbangers

 

What should be obvious

to anyone familiar

with Paul Blogiverio

is that Father Frank inspired

this page 

  

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