The Pittsburgh - Happy Catholic Connection

Many's the time that I have thought the perfect vacations would be to go to various spots in the United States to meet people that I have become friends with through this blog.

You wouldn't normally put Pittsburgh at the top of that list but let's take a closer look at what we can find there.

Mike Aquilina

Just drop by his blog to see the many books he has written, hear his talks about the Fathers of the Church and to enjoy his love of puns. He has been extraordinarily enthusiastic and kind to me, to the point of providing layout work on books.

Which led me to meeting ...

David Scott

Honestly, he is not as serious as this photo looks ... he's really a very cheerful fellow

I was awed to meet David (over the phone, natch) and do the layout for several books he edited. Awed because I enormously admired The Catholic Passion and A Revolution of Love: The Meaning of Mother Teresa. As well, he has been good enough to endure many hours of my blathering about all kinds of other things during our "business calls." Check out his writing at his website and you'll see why I admire him so much.

It was through Mike Aquilina that I also became acquainted with ...

Christopher Bailey

Somewhere in all this, I also became acquainted with Christopher Bailey, who coauthored with Mike, The Grail Code (blog here). Wow, did I love that book which brought the Holy Grail into context for modern times. Chris is not only one of the nicest guys ever but also one of the funniest. We see a touch of this when he says that Pittsburgh is "... considered by many to be the Camelot of North America, because of its beauty and the virtue of its citizens." This shows us his true love of Pittsburgh, as does his Father Pitt blog.

It says more, perhaps, about my taste than it does about Chris when I reveal here that he is the one, the only, the esteemed Dr Boli of Dr. Boli's Celebrated Magazine. Truly Christopher Bailey is a man of all seasons.

He also is the go-to guy when thinking of planning a visit to Pittsburgh. He knows not only all the fun stuff, but most importantly to me, all the cool Catholic stuff!

Which brings me to the next thing ...

Road Trip: Pittsburgh

As fun as it would be to go to Pittsburgh and have dinner with these guys and explore "the Camelot of North America," I kept thinking of how much more fun it would be to do it with a bunch of people. You know, other people who'd like to go to Pittsburgh and meet these guys and who also would groove on this Catholic stuff as much as I would.

And, get this, my sister is a travel agent. So we could get a package put together and all stay at the same hotel with plenty of face time! Which is what I love (just ask anyone).

So I started looking around at what Pittsburgh has to offer ... an amazing amount of wonderful things. Here are where my musings have taken me so far beyond the usual tourist opportunities.

• We could get Mike and Chris each to give a talk (and get a book or two of theirs, natch). Mike also knows of some other great Catholic speakers that we could get on board ... like our own private seminar! David is not into speeches but maybe we could shanghai him into coming to dinner and we could just pelt him with questions on an informal basis ... which is the most fun anyway, right?

• Chris has already told me about some of the greatest sounding places in Pittsburgh ... which I am passing on to everyone below. For instance, St. Anthony's Church has more relics than anywhere else in the world. (Except maybe the Vatican ... but we can always yield to them, right?) C'mon ... lots and lots of relics ... who doesn't want to go see that?
  
  
• We could do that thing I love ... all read a book before the trip and then watch the Hollywood version together and contrast/compare them. The two that immediately pop to mind are Children of Men and I Am Legend. In one case the book is Christian and Hollywood went the opposite direction. In the other case it is exactly opposite. Either would be fascinating to explore.
  
  
• The way we like to travel is to have time to go do things and then time to go off independently exploring ... or hanging and relaxing wherever seems good also. That would give us all some down time to get better acquainted or just to take extra naps if that is what strikes your fancy.
  

This is in the rough planning stages to be sure ... but would anyone be interested in joining in to explore this hidden gem while we also learn more about our Catholic faith?

If we can get enough people who are interested, then I can go ahead and firm up the plans and take a look at costs and all that jazz.

What do you think? Interested?

But wait ... there's more!

Below I have some of Chris Bailey's comments about what we could see and do. His are the blue italics. Take a look.

Oakland is a good place to spend a day. Within an easy stroll you get:

• St. Paul's Cathedral (Roman Catholic - above)
• St. Nicholas Cathedral (Greek Orthodox)
• The Cathedral of Learning with its Nationality Rooms
• Heinz Chapel (world's tallest stained-glass windows, which are beautiful as well as tall)
• The Stephen Foster Memorial
• The Carnegie Museum of Art
• The Carnegie Museum of Natural History (world's best dinosaur collection)

Let me just interject here ... DINOSAURS!

• A street lined with interesting bookstores, restaurants, and shops (South Craig Street).
• That part of Oakland is Pittsburgh's monumental district, something like the Mall in Washington, so it's impressive just as an urban space as well as for its individual attractions.

AHA! All in walking distance. Now, let's take a closer look at churches ... specifically unique ones that you won't see anywhere else. (Here is Father Pitt's list of Top Ten Catholic Churches with a few nonCatholic churches thrown in too ...)

1. St. Nicholas in Millvale, a Croatian church the inside of which is covered in fantastically provocative 1930s murals equating the sufferings of Christ, the ravages of war, and the deadly toll of heavy industry.

We remember Max Vanko, right?

2. St. Anthony's Chapel in Troy Hill. This chapel in an out-of-the-way hilltop neighborhood of impossibly narrow streets is, believe it or not, the home of the largest single collection of saints' relics in the world. Father Suitbert Mollinger traveled Europe in the 1800s, snatching them up at fire-sale prices as secularist revolutions made their value plummet.

See that monstrance?

"A relic of the True Cross is, of course, in the center, with the relics of Sts. John the Baptist, Mary Magdalene, Lawrence, Dionysius, Blase, Stephen (the first martyr), & a shred of the Sacred Winding Sheet."

The True Cross people! The Sacred Winding Sheet! C'mon, this is like a piece of Catholic pilgrimage heaven, right here in the U.S.

Cecil who diligently stands guard at the Andy Warhol Museum ...

he's a bit of a stuffed shirt, just between you and me.

The North Side is also easily accessible from downtown: the Andy Warhol Museum is just a short stroll across the Andy Warhol Bridge, and a little more walking or a short bus ride will take you to the National Aviary, the Mattress Factory, the Children's Museum, and the Carnegie Science Center (which is where the model trains are).

Literary pilgrims can see the homes of Gertrude Stein and Mary Roberts Rinehart, which are a block and a half apart on a street lined with beautifully restored Victorian rowhouses. On the same street is Calvary Methodist Church, whose stained-glass windows are perhaps the greatest works of the Tiffany Studios.

More bridges than any city in the world (or so Father Pitt told me). I like bridges. Especially old ones. With architectural touches. Surrounded by green hills. Which they also have plenty of in Pittsburgh. As well as architectural touches ... and plenty of monuments in graveyards (I'm a sucker for those).

Memorial in the Allegheny Cemetery

Public transportation is very good around here, so most things are accessible that way.--but some neighborhoods are more accessible than others. Downtown and Oakland, the two centers of Pittsburgh, are both very good for walking--compact and relatively flat, which is unusual around here. Those two considerations might give you a good way of narrowing down the choices.



Saturday morning in the Strip is an unforgettable experience. Food-loving pilgrims who see the Strip might decide never to go back home. Primanti's is the Pittsburghiest eatery in town, famous for sandwiches that pile cole slaw and French fries on top of the meat and cheese.

Stephen Foster sculpture in Allegheny Cemetery ... featured in Roadside America.

You can combine shopping with visits to two interesting churches. St. Stanislaus Kostka is the mother church of Polish Catholics in Pittsburgh; the interior is full of rich dark wood and stained-glass Polish saints.

St. Patrick is an unassuming building with a fascinating history: it was the first Catholic parish in Pittsburgh (at least since the French left), and one of its pastors was the famous rabble-rousing Father Cox who ran for president in 1932 and led the veterans' march on Washington.

The Heinz History Center is in the Strip; it's a first-rate museum of local history, affiliated with the Smithsonian. Finally, the Strip is important in labor history.

Fort Pitt Blockhouse

Downtown Pittsburgh is an architectural treasure trove, with buildings in every style from Federalist to Postmodern and beyond. Point State Park has the remnants of Fort Pitt and a museum that explains its pivotal role in the French and Indian War.

When you're tired of walking, the subway downtown is free; you don't pay until you cross the Monongahela.


Just across the Mon is Mount Washington; you can get off the subway at Station Square and transfer to the Monongahela Incline, which takes you up to one of the most spectacular views in North America.

So ... anyone up for a road trip? I'm thinking June or July would be lovely in Pittsburgh. (Of course, I must admit that practically anywhere in June or July is more lovely than Dallas at that time of year.)

If you're interested, email me (julie [at] glyphnet [dot] com) and let me know!