This outrage has left me asking myself if I need to church it up more. Maybe I should start attending Mass again, do some praying and testifying and worshiping and maybe slipping in a little request that the Good Lord forgive me for my sins. I could start at St. Peter Claver's, where I was baptized in early January of 1952. Then the next couple of weeks I could visit churches like St. Bernardine's and St. Gregory's and St. Leo's in Little Italy.
And maybe I should drag some of those idiots dealing drugs near St. Frances along with me.
"Historically, people have respected St. Frances," Moore said as he showed me the grotto where the statue of the Virgin Mary stands. "The nuns took neighborhood kids to ballgames and helped residents with housing." There was an understanding about St. Frances that even those who weren't exactly law-abiding types adhered to: There was to be no funny business, not even a hint of misconduct, in the vicinity of St. Frances.
Moore told me a story that actor Charles "Roc" Dutton, who grew up in the neighborhood around St. Frances, told once. According to Moore, Dutton said that when neighborhood kids started a fight and found themselves near St. Frances, they knew they had to take the fisticuffs up to Biddle Street. It was understood that they couldn't fight near St. Frances.
Now the neighborhood has drug dealers walking onto the St. Frances school grounds to stash drugs. Dealers and addicts use lots next to where nuns live to hand out and use drugs.
On Thursday, Moore looked out on a playground across the street from St. Frances where several of the school's younger students swung gleefully down a pole. The administration at St. Frances built the playground for neighborhood children, but even that is now used to stash drugs. Only a few days ago, Moore said, there was an open drug deal at the corner of Chase and Forrest streets, right in front of the school.
"They're just brazen with it," Moore said. So brazen, in fact, that the Baltimore Police Department will have no choice but to treat these dealers like an anvil and drop a heavy hammer on them. Then they will need somebody praying for 'em.
Looks like I'll be doing just that at Mass tomorrow.
greg.kane@baltsun.com
