JOE BALISTRIERI HAS A MESSAGE FOR YOU.

Rival Celebrations Set for
St. Joseph Feast Arouse
His Ire

By Michael Horne

Hey, you! Yeah, you with plans to celebrate the Feast of St. Joseph. I gotta message for you from another Joe -- namely, Joseph P. Balistrieri, President of La Societa di San Giuseppe.
From his redoubt deep in the Shorecrest Hotel, the aging Don wrote the following in a letter to Italian Community Center President Dominic Frinzi, published in The Italian Times:
"It has recently come to my attention that this year there will be two competing editions of "La Tavolata di San Giuseppe," one legitimate, the other a renegade, one to be held at the Italian Community Center, the other at another venue.
"While it is beyond the authority granted to me in my terrestrial brief to prevent or prohibit anyone from manifesting a devotion to San Giuseppe, I still am able to discern and endorse the genuine over the ersatz.
"Therefore, I appeal to you on behalf of La Siocieta di San Giuseppe ... to publicize the fact that our Society endorses and will stand behind the Tavolata to be held at the Center and has no connection whatsoever with the other event."
Milwaukeeworld went searching for that other event, and found a likely candidate in the doings planned for the basement hall of St. Rita's church at the northwest corner of N. Cass and E. Pleasant streets. (How many Sicilian banquets can this city support, anyway?) Admission to this feast is free, and it runs from after the 10:45 mass on Sunday, March 18th, all the way until 3 p.m., which should give you plenty of time to enjoy the traditional vegetarian repast. (The only thing apparently ersatz about this event is that it is to be held a day before the actual feast day.)
However it seems unlikely that a feast held in a church after a Sunday mass would merit the cognomen of "renegade," or "ersatz" as President Balistrieri put it. This is particularly true since Rev. Tim Kitzke, pastor of Three Holy Women Parish, (of which St. Rita's is a part) is also the chaplain of the Italian Community Center. He is listed as a celebrant at both the St. Rita event and the one planned for the center on the actual feast day, March 19th ($15, noon). But, who knows?
I placed a call to Signore Balistrieri to find out more about the rival celebrations of the feast of the Patron Saint of carpenters, fathers, and Sicilians, but he said I would have to find out the location of the other party on my own.
"Is it the one at the church..?" I asked.
"Michael, Michael, Michael," Balistrieri said, "didn't you hear what I told you? Then why do you ask me a follow up question?"
"Well, just to clear up the controversy ..."
"Well if you say there is a controversy, I would like to abjure you of that notion. There is no controversy."
Whatever it is, it sure doesn't sound like a picnic at the Savoy.
--Michael Horne