My spouse has been trying to get me to tour the St. Paul Cathedral. I’ve resisted. Fifty years ago, in my twenties, I lived for a year in an eight-plex -- two hundred yards from the Cathedral and never once set foot in it.

I was raised Catholic and seriously considered becoming a monk. I spent a week in an abbey. The older I got, the less I wanted to have anything to do with Catholicism, or any other traditional church.

The St. Paul Cathedral makes me nauseous.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis settled with 450 victims of clergy sexual abuse in 2018. The settlement was part of the archdiocese's bankruptcy reorganization. It was the second-largest payout in the United States.

If 450 came forward, how many thousands elected to remain silent?

Yet, yesterday I did go on a self-guided tour of the Cathedral. I looked throughout the entire massive construction for any sign of repentance. Other than the three confessionals, there was none.

My first cousin committed suicide after he was raped in the early seventies by a rogue priest. . .and no one would believe him. This is personal for me.

The Cathedral cost over $2 million to build, which is over $60 million in current dollars.

Poverty was rampant in Minnesota when the Cathedral was built. If they had a job, the average person made about twenty cents an hour. In today’s dollars that would be about $6.35 an hour which is well below the poverty line. Yet, I’m quite sure many of these people put about ten percent of their earnings into a collection box. . .to the detriment of their children’s stomachs. I lived in such a household in my childhood.

Of course, James J. Hill, and other robber barons contributed large amounts. Hill wasn’t a Catholic, but his wife was a devout Catholic and pushed him to contribute heavily, including the land where the Cathedral is built. Hill later donated his mansion to the Catholic diocese. In today’s dollars, his house would have cost about $30 million. It's located a block from the Cathedral.

Where did Hill get his money? He created monopolies in several industries, but his fortune was built largely in railroading. I grew up on a farm in an area serviced by the railroad to sell our crops. Hill made much more on the grain through shipping fees than the farmer.

So, what does this have to do with Columbine’s wonderful short story? The story includes an exorcist. It occurred to me that the Catholic Church needs to perform that ritual on itself. It’s time they purge the demon within.

I highly recommend you read Columbine’s story. A decision has been made not to enter it in the Halloween Contest, which is terrific news for the other probable contestants. It would be very hard to beat.