This page was last updated on January 9, 2012.
Icons more than statues; Robert V. Appel; Beaver County Times; January 8, 2012. An editor’s note asserts, “The writer is a member of the Ambridge Area School Board.”
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“My friend, who is not Catholic, and I have had numerous discussions concerning our respective religions. One issue that also comes up is why Catholics pray to cement statues.
“I have tried to explain to him that they are not statues but images and symbols of the people who are most revered in our religion.
“The Sisters of St. Joseph have proven me wrong. They have removed and covered many of those statues and pictures that have been symbols of our religion and are planning to cover and remove the rest of them in order that the Baden Charter School can be there.”
[RWC] Does Mr. Appel want us to believe church-owned buildings like churches and schools aren’t repurposed when the original demand/reason for their being goes away?
“I guess the dollar is more valuable than our symbols or are they really just cement statues.
“A little sidebar to the Trombetta army who have depicted me as Pope Appel. I am not the Pope, just a disheartened Catholic.”
[RWC] It appears on at least two points Mr. Appel tried to hide his involvement in this issue. First, most of us would not have known Mr. Appel “is a member of the Ambridge Area School Board” had the BCT not included an editor’s note. Second, Mr. Appel failed to note as a board member he voted “to deny the Baden Academy Charter School application.”
These omissions make it reasonable to ask, is Mr. Appel more upset about the Sisters of St. Joseph making an unused building acceptable for the Baden Charter School (BCS) or that BCS represents new competition for his school district?
In the interest of full disclosure, my two brothers and I attended St. Titus grade school from the late-1950s to the early-1970s and the Sisters of St. Joseph ran St. Titus. When the Aliquippa School District recently used the closed St. Titus building because of construction delays at the New Sheffield school, why wasn’t there a big stink?
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