"...Any Graven Image"?

In an earlier blurb, we checked in on Cardinal Adam Maida's Golden Jubilee celebrations on Thursday in Detroit.

Well, it seems we've been remiss -- the piece from the Free Press reports a detail left out elsewhere (emphasis mine):

The mass and reception had all the upbeat style of a celebrity party, including a 44-page commemorative booklet featuring snapshots of Maida and, at the reception, a huge bust of the cardinal carved in ice.

Forgive me for asking the dumb question, but "WHAT?!"

You've got to be kidding me. Or, as a friend put it, "Don't any of these guys have a person who says something to them like, 'Your Eminence, perhaps in light of the unpaid loan to the JPII center, and the impending closing of our poorest parishes, maybe the 40 page full-color booklet is enough and we should consider not doing the ice sculpture'?"

Apparently not.

Now, stories about Maida shelling out cash are like Red Wings' Stanley Cups earlier in the decade -- i.e. you could bank on it. But this is just... Good God. He's just lucky that his priests didn't take blowtorches to the thing during the cocktail hour. And it never ceases to amaze that seemingly no one in this country can just put a mitre on a cake and, as Anheuser-Busch likes to say, "know when to say 'when.'"

God help us, Jesus -- God and Baby Jesus help us.

As if the suite at the Inn at St John's wasn't enough... and, as you all know, that's just on top of the $40 million of Detroit money poured into the Temple/White Elephant, which begins its new life as the world's most expensive catering hall a week from tomorrow.

On second hand, as outrageous as having an ice bust of the golden jubilarian carved out is, at least it's not an excess of the kind of "ice" which some other bishops get carried away with....

And how I would love to see a photo of this thing.


PHOTO: Romain Blanquart/Detroit Free-Press

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