Frank Magazine Issue 578.pdf - Besthostingplanever.com

LOOSE LIPS SINK BISHOPS
BY CARDINAL SYNN
NEARLY THREE YEARS AFTER TERRENCE
PRENDERGAST LEFT HIS SEAT AT THE HEAD
OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESE OF
HALIFAX TO BECOME ARCHBISHOP OF
OTTAWA, NEWS OF OL’ PRENDY’S ANTICS
CONTINUES TO FASCINATE.
Most recently, I hear that the 65-year-old
Montreal native has incensed fellow Jesuits
the world over by printing gossip about a fellow
holy man — no less a giant of Catholicism
than Cardinal George Pell of Sydney,
Australia — in a recent blog posting.
On January 26, during a recent trip to Rome
for a meeting of something called the Vox
Clara committee, Archbish Terry for some reason
saw fit to announce, at archbishop
terry.blogspot.com, that committee chair Pell
“had a pacemaker installed at the Gemelli
Hospital after having difficulties on arrival in
Rome.”
Problem is, according to my source, it’s not
true. The posting disappeared from the Archbishop’s
blog almost immediately, and the next
day there appeared a photo of the Cardinal,
looking hale and hearty, going about his committee-chairing
duties.
The person answering the phone at Pell’s
office Downunder (that’s coming out of your
paycheque — ed.) seemed mystified about
my questions regarding the Cardinal’s health,
HOLY
WRIT
and I still haven’t heard back from an Ottawa
Archdiocese spokesthingy about the circumstances
that led to the errant communique.
Incidentally, the Vox Clara committee is a
12-member body which is currently presiding
over an English translation of the Roman
Missal, which I understand is the liturgical
book containing texts relating to the celebration
of Mass. I don’t know about you, but I
could’ve sworn the last time I was in a Catholic
church the priest was already speaking in
my native tongue, but then again he was a bit
mumbly so I couldn’t tell for sure.
Nevertheless, isn’t it comforting to know
that, while the Antigonish Diocese and other
Catholic precincts in North America and beyond
are struggling to pay multi-million dollar
abuse settlements with no help from the Vatican,
the Holy See is sparing no expense for
a task that could be accomplished by any yahoo
with a Latin-English dictionary and a few
decades to kill?
In other Catholic news, former Antigonish
Bishop Raymond Lahey who as far as I know
is still crashing at Prendy’s place in Ottawa,
A TIDY SOUTH END LEGACY
BY WILL N. TESTAMENT
CHARTERED ACCOUNTANT H. ROBERT
HEMMING, A PAST N.S. LIBERAL PARTY
TREASURER AND CHARTER MEMBER OF THE
SOUTH END ESTABLISHMENT, LEFT A TIDY
$1.5-MILLION ESTATE MOSTLY EARMARKED
FOR HIS WIFE AND TWO SONS.
Acting chair of Halifax Herald Inc. and a
long-time confidante of Graham Dennis, Bob,
the son of a Halifax builder, began his illustrious
beancounter career in 1964 with Crowell,
Balcom & Company, becoming a KPMG senior
partner after the firms merged. He practised
in his own Hemming Weir Casey firm
(est. 1975) until retiring at about age 70.
But Bob, prez of Towerview Apartments
Inc., owner of the Kings and Queens Court
rental pads at 50 Towerview Place in Sydney
(ass. $2.4 million), did not slow down in
retirement, joining the TSX-traded Atlantic
Industrial Minerals board just last March.
Bob hopped aboard AIM as director and CFO
along with Antigonish bizman and Piper’s
Pub owner Colin J. MacDonald, his former
board colleague at Seabright Resources. That
N.S. gold mining venture spawned a legal quagmire
in the late 1980s-early 1990s, after its
acquisition by an Aussie outfit.
The Hemming estate includes $1,359,000
in personal property and $142,300 in real
property, subject to final inventory. In his September
2005 will, Bob makes wife Margo the
beneficiary of his various RRSPs, and signs
over to Margo his interest in their 52
Briarwood Crescent abode (ass. $309,000)
and Towerview apartment building.
Son Jeffrey, who I believe works in the hotel
biz, is bequeathed the cottage property in
Seabright, while son Stanley receives a lump
sum of equivalent amount.
Bob earmarks $10,000 to daughter Heather,
a United Church minister out West. She is
the only child of his first marriage, which ended
with his wife’s death. Margo is Bob’s second
wife, and the mother of Jeff and Stan.
I’m the Bish
with the dish!
Archbish Terry Prendergast
is scheduled once again to answer to those
pesky child pornography charges on February
3, one day after this edition of Frank appears
on Nova Scotian newsstands.
Does Frank Know?
atlanticfrank@eastlink.ca
Aside from dividing the remainder of his
estate between Jeff and Stan, Bob’s only other
bequest is a $10,000 gift to the Canadian Red
Cross.
Krever Commission followers may recall
Bob’s testimony as Red Cross national prez
and board chairman from 1989-1991, and his
previous board experience spanned some of
the darkest days of the tainted blood scandal.
In 1990, under Bob, the disgraced organization
finally started direct screening for Hepatitis
C, but it was far too late. And even after
1990, according to the CBC, unscreened
plasma in blood products continued to make
it into the veins of ordinary Canadians, possibly
for another two years, a senseless and
massive institutional failure on both sides of
the U.S.-Canada border.
Politically, Bob was a backroom player, and
looked up to his mentor and fellow CA, Senator
Irvine Barrow, although Halifax Curling
Club and Metro Food Bank booster Bob certainly
did not rival Barrow in the troughing
department.
Bob Hemming died at the VG palliative care
unit on December 26. He was 73.
Does Frank Know?
atlanticfrank@eastlink.ca
FEBRUARY 16, 2010 ATLANTIC CANADA FRANK 7