Free Republic

Mayor Bloomberg’s latest program is a greatest-hits package of failed ideas.Selective amnesia is an essential trait in anyone promoting government antipoverty initiatives. Last week, as he announced the Young Men’s Initiative, a government effort to improve the life outcomes of black and Hispanic males, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg tried to assert the radically new nature of the program. The “pioneering new initiative” (which will cost taxpayers $67.5 million, with another $60 million thrown in by George Soros and Bloomberg himself) represented “an entirely new approach” to poverty reduction, said Bloomberg. The “across-the-board policy reforms” of the “action plan” would...

In Memoriam: Br. Francis Mary Kalvelage, FI (1923-2007)THE EARLY YEARSBorn Martin Kalvelage on April 9, 1923, Bro. Francis Mary was raised in San Francisco, California. During World War II he served with the armed forces as a pilot in the Pacific theatre of operations. Such initial training prepared his natural propensities for the gift of grace: discipline, fidelity, hard working and above all a deep sense of purpose. The angelic doctor St. Thomas confirms that grace is built upon nature. A humorous account Bro. Francis used to tell his confreres that served as one of the factors for him to...

A Son of St. Francis, A Knight of the Immaculate 1923-2007 Br. Francis Mary Kalvelage, FI was born in Portland, Oregon in 1923, the youngest in a family of five brothers. While he was still young the family moved to San Francisco and it was here that he was raised. During the period of World War II, Br. Francis served his country in the United States Air Force as a naval aviator. It was in this period of his life that Our Lord was preparing him to engage in a different type of service. One day Brother attempted to perform...