The leaders of the city's Catholic, Jewish and Muslim faiths have a plan to turn Baltimore's summer into the "summer of peace."
But they complained Wednesday that the mayor is making their efforts difficult because of plans to close recreation centers and pools and curtail library hours.
Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien mentioned the issue in passing in his remarks after meeting with city officials on preventing youth crime, but when questioned he openly leaped into the political fray and called for the city's chief executive to reverse course.
Cutting money to youth programs, said the leader of a half-million worshipers of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore, "will make it very difficult for us to follow through" on initiatives to save lives and save children. His auxiliary, Bishop Denis J. Madden, said, "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that rec centers and pools are going to give kids something to do."
And Bishop Douglas I. Miles, co-chairman of the advocacy group Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development and past leader of a coalition of African-American churches in Baltimore, questioned whether the closings are driven by budget cuts. "This is not a matter of the wallet, it is a matter of will," he said during the meeting at St. Mary's Seminary & University in Roland Park.
This was to be a routine announcement from O'Brien and a diverse group of faith leaders, including representatives from the Muslim and Jewish communities, who are working with the Baltimore Health Department to support Operation Safe Streets, an initiative that uses peer counselors to mediate disputes between rival gangs and has been hailed as a success in East and South Baltimore.
After meeting privately with city officials, O'Brien and the clergy emerged to announce that the group would meet regularly, would work to open school buildings in the summer as havens for youngsters, and would designate June 19, 20 and 21 (a Friday, Saturday and Sunday) as a time in which people participating in religious services will be asked to donate "a dollar for peace" to help fund Safe Streets.
"We have all presided over too many funerals," O'Brien said. "We want to change the entire culture of this city, from one that tolerates violence to one that will not stand for it."
Closing rec centers and folding Police Athletic League Centers into the recreation program has been a contentious issue leading up to a vote on the budget sometime before the end of June.
