Archdiocese of Detroit sells downtown warming center, soup kitchen

[Bozita]

Source: Detroit News

Last Updated: November 07. 2011 2:32PM
Archdiocese of Detroit sells downtown warming center, soup kitchen
Louis Aguilar/ The Detroit News


The Archdiocese of Detroit has sold a downtown Detroit building that housed a warming center, soup kitchen and retail shop operated by St. Aloysius Catholic Church to AKNO Enterprises.

No sale price or development plans for the 1209 Washington Boulevard building were disclosed. But the move has shut St. Al's Community Center, also called Canticle Café, and caused a Franciscan friar, a priest and volunteers from St. Aloysius — located across the street from the now-sold structure — now to use bicycles to feed and clothe the downtown needy.

"St. Francis of Assisi walked among the people where they lived in order to preach the Gospel and to be of service to the poor," said Brother Al Mascia, who spearheaded the idea of using street vendor bikes equipped with food and clothing. "We are seeking to do that same thing by going out to the people in our downtown Detroit neighborhood."

Mascia used to operate out of St. Al's Community Center, but it was shut shortly after the building was sold about a month ago to the owners of the empty Book Building and Book Tower next door. That means AKNO Enterprises now controls the western side of the 1200 block of Washington Boulevard, which is near the glitzy Westin Book Cadillac hotel.


Read more: http://www.detnews.com/article/20111107/BIZ/111070412/1361/Archdiocese-of-Detroit-sells-downtown-warming-center--soup-kitchen

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This piece appears in the business section of the Detroit News.

[Submariner]

1. Sell the Vatican and feed the world

I like that idea.

Sell the Vatican and feed the world?

By David Waters

Comedian Sarah Silverman says Pope Benedict should "sell the Vatican, feed the world." Funny, but shouldn't Christians seriously consider it?
"What is the Vatican worth, like $500 billion?" Silverman says on her monologue, featured on Bill Maher's HBO show and now a YouTube sensation. "This is great, sell the Vatican, take a big chunk of the money, build a gorgeous condominium for you and all your friends to live in . . . and with the money left over, feed the whole f---ing world."

Actually, selling the Vatican probably wouldn't generate enough cash to buy the whole world lunch.
According to the AP's Nicole Winfield, the Holy See's real estate was worth about $900 million in 2004 -- before the real estate bust. That doesn't include St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel, but even if both brought holy sites brought in another billion, that wouldn't come close to covering it. The UN reports that poor countries get $7.9 billion in agricultural aid each year, and will need $44 billion a year by 2050.

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/undergod/2009/10/sell_the_vatican_feed_the_world.html

[stlsaxman]

5. here ya go... Silverman vid-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bObItmxAGc

[jerseyjack]

2. --- and don't forget Lenny Bruce's description of Christ

resurrecting and walking through Harlem and coming to St. Patrick's Cathedral and seeing the contradiction between the poverty of Harlem and the wealth in the cathedral.

Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Mark Twain's "The War Prayer" ... wish they were still here.

[jerseyjack]

3. I wonder if the property was sold to pay the lawsuits from abuse claims.

[red dog 1]

4. The Archdiocese Should Try Harder To Find Another Place To Lease!

[Bozita]

6. Anyone figured out yet how to get a warming center onto a bicycle?

Michigan winters are brutal.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

7. Put a big basket on the handlebars

and fill it with coats, sleeping bags, blankets, thermos bottles.

It's too bad they couldn't maintain the church building. I'm sure it costs a fortune to heat, even more to re-roof if necessary.

[SpartanDem]

8. Sounds like a renovation of the Book Building could be near

[No Elephants]

9. Matthew 25:37-45. Just saying. (KJV is not the version Catholics use, but I can't imagine

another translation would be dramatically different.







34Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

35For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

36Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

37Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

38When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

39Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

40And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

41Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

42For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

43I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

44Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

45Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.


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