Page 77

By Jack Joseph Smith

: 7 from the mill towns-are good football players, They are also tough, which puts the spirit of Saint’ Bernards on a level Papa Joe feels good abouts’ The following | ATtenpte ol is aflquote form the newspapaer article my friends mom read us one day when. she Was ‘telling us about good men and bad mens She read a short part’ smiling}! Father Lawnegan Tells Bishop To Go To Hell’ . Father: Lawnegan, parish pastor of Saint Bernards Churoh in the wealthy section of Mount Lebanan dyring last Syndays sern@n Suggestéd that the Bishop mind his demongrRahve own business; and became-more. demonstertive: later in his sermon by telling the F most SVEE9 nop to go to hell; Gi. Lawnegian said to those attending twelve o'clock Masa ,look around all of yous Do you see the-chairs your sitting ong I'11 bet some of you wonder why they akntt fastened to the floors Well I'11 tell you whys Becausge-we take them all out of here: every Sunday after you leave and set up partbal eo bor Siasroon oft Mondays Kids from all over the place come, , here-for school; and its:going to stay that ways Father Lawmegan is also known. ; ‘ for his passing out holy cards:at Mass, which on the back read, if your ever in troubles you didn't see anything, you didn't hear anything, ,and you know nothings Notify Father Lawnegan inmediatelys Testifying to the type of commumication he has-with his children is also the statement printed im: his own newspaper, The-Boy- Scouts:are twenty percent boy and eighty percent girl, which made-him somewhat: a conta erachy from Pittsburgh to Miamis \ I can see him now dark and dismalWin his walking in the early mornings His hat ' was frayed and old like his vestments that he had been wearing sence-he was ordaineds He lived'alone in an attic above the tattered wooden rectorys The rectory was the only building on the grounds, that wasn't made of stones But his face was stone, and the ! Mount Lebanon people were afraid of hima He was a tall man who novelas if he was

Original Scan

Page 77

AI Interpretation

GPT

Papa Joe Lawnegan enters as a scandalous parish force through newspaper legend, football pride, holy cards, and a school that he insists will stay open to children from everywhere, not just wealthy Mount Lebanon families.

The newspaper voice and neighborhood retelling make him feel larger than a priest almost immediately, half outlaw and half protector. School, church, class, and toughness are fused together so completely that his defiance of bishop and police reads like the moral style of Saint Bernard's itself.

Claude

Father Lawnegan's portrait gets built up: holy cards reading if your ever in trouble you didn't see anything, and the statement that the Boy Scouts are twenty percent boy and eighty percent girl, with his black eyes and jagged teeth.