My wife and I attended the reception for the opening of the "Catholics in New York 1808-1946" exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York last night. It was enjoyable with perfect weather to enjoy some wine and Brooklyn Lager outside under a tent. The Museum is right across the street from the northern part of Central Park. I spotted Fr. James Martin, Fr. George Rutler, and Bill Donohue among the crowd. My wife and I, after enjoying some wine and cheese, went into the exhibit while most of the crowd was coming out to hear Cardinal Egan's talk. This enabled us to browse the exhibit with plenty of room to check out all the objects. The exhibit itself was a bit small but interesting. There was a great vestment on loan from St. Patrick's Cathedral, pictures of First Communions and a very intricate chalice. A ceramic dish featured an Irish priest who preached temperence (insert own joke here). Interestingly, this small dish was exhumed from the part of lower Manhattan made famous in the movie Gangs of New York and was the only remaining artifact from that exhumation as the rest were all stored at the World Trade Center and were destroyed on 9/11. Another section featured the Catholic orphanages, Catholic social groups, and of course, the Catholic politicians of the "old days". The exhibit, which runs until Dec. 31st., is worth a visit and there are upcoming events related to it at the link above.

China's 1-child policy causes extra pain

"In Wufu, a farming village two hours north of the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu, most of the dead students were a couple's only child -- born under a policy launched in the late 1970s to limit many families to one offspring. The policy was meant to rein in China's exploding population and ensure better education and health care."

Bishop to ordain 13 to permanent diaconate

Cablevision to buy Newsday

Cablevision is somewhat of a monopoly on Long Island although Direct TV, Dish Network, and Verizon have begun to cut into their share. Newsday is a monopoly with no real competition. For the past few years Newsday has been gutted following their inflated circulation scandal, with most columnists gone and the paper a bit more thin. Even with Newsday's (past) virulent anti-Catholic bias I have always enjoyed reading the paper. The Daily News and NY Post is for pictures and sports and gossip, but for real reading, Newsday is the paper. It is a shame how much is missing these days so hopefully this new ownership will pump new life into the paper, without changing its focus on real news.

Catholic League: Hagee Apologizes, Controversy Ends

“The tone of Hagee’s letter is sincere. He wants reconciliation and he has achieved it. Indeed, the Catholic League welcomes his apology.
What Hagee has done takes courage and quite frankly I never expected him to demonstrate such sensitivity to our concerns. But he has done just that. "

This is nice - although I actually enjoy when rural 'bible Christians' rail against the 'Whore of Babylon'. It is so Flannery O'Connor.

Bishop Murphy has issued a Pastoral Letter - DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME (Warning: PDF File)

PASTORAL LETTER OF THE BISHOP OF ROCKVILLE CENTRE TO
THE PRIESTS OF THE DIOCESE REGARDING THE PROPER
CELEBRATION OF THE EUCHARIST AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF
HOLY COMMUNION

I first read about this in Newsday on Friday (Grrrrr....can't a blogger in this Diocese get a sneak peak once in awhile?). The pastoral letter essentially eliminates weekday communion services. St. Blog's has had some interesting reactions - most have been positive. The interesting thing is that I read about this letter in the Newsday article and then on several Catholic blogs, but only now when I read the actual letter did I realize it referred to weekday communion services held in place of Mass. Basically, Bishop Murphy's point boils down to:

"The reception of Holy Communion is never just passively “getting” or “receiving” Holy Communion. Instead, the reception of Holy Communion is the culmination of participating in the celebration (offering of the sacrifice). There is an inherent interconnection between sacrifice, Real Presence, and Communion. We should never sever the connection between receiving the Sacrament and celebrating the sacrifice; the
two go hand-in-hand. Receiving the Sacrament is the culmination of participating in the sacrifice. In this sense, “receiving it” is a reciprocal reality: we receive Christ and in so doing, Christ receives us and presents us to the Father in the Spirit."

"In the popular mind, all too often the purpose of Mass is still seen as an action simply to consecrate hosts; some people think their participation in the Eucharistic Prayer is all about watching the priest and then receiving Holy Communion. They do not understand the need to offer themselves with Christ to the Father in the Spirit during the Prayer, nor
do they understand that their parts in the Prayer (Introductory Dialogue, Sanctus, Memorial Acclamation and Great Amen) are the outward signs of their participation in the entire Prayer."

"In light of this clear instruction, after having heard the advice and counsel of the Advisory Committee on Canonical Affairs and brought this matter to the Diocesan Presbyteral Council for their discussion, counsel and advice, I, as Bishop, am declaring that no weekday Celebrations of the Word with the distribution of Holy Communion will be allowed in this Diocese thereby bringing our Diocese into conformity with the liturgical norms of the Church."

Bishop Murphy then encourages the Liturgy of the Word in parishes where daily Mass is not able to be offered due to lack of a priest. He also encourages parishes without daily Mass to publish the daily Masses offered in surrounding parishes. Both of these are very welcome suggestions. I have always thought of the Liturgy of the Hours as one of our best kept secrets.

Shoutouts

I thought it would be good to give some shoutouts to good things I have recently seen within the Church:

The Long Island Catholic - this paper of the Diocese of Rockville Centre has improved greatly over the past year. I find the overall feel of the paper to be a bit more proudly Catholic and more interesting even inspiring, with none of the timid feel of the past. Also, the new columnists (who are also bloggers) such as Mary Ellen Barrett and Alice O'Brien Gunther are refreshing voices.

Bishop Peter Libasci - with Bishop Murphy healing from some health problems, Bishop Libasci has seemingly taken on extra roles. He has been doing a lot lately and by all accounts has made quite an impression.

Telecare - I have criticized some of its programming and "Catholic lite" style as opposed to say, EWTN, but Telecare has done a good job with Pope Benedict's visit. Msgr. Vlaun, Sr. Mary Alice Piil and Joe Perrone were interesting as they hosted much of the coverage. I did not get to see much of the coverage however since I left for Pittsburgh from JFK just a few hours after Pope Benedict arrived there, but from what I saw, it was good. Also, I see Telecare is showing the videos from CatholicsComeHome.com that I have posted about - great to see.

EWTN - what can I say, Raymond Arroyo and Fr. Neuhaus are the perfect tag-team Church events.

The Center for Catholic Studies at Nassau Community College - I have neglected to mention so many of the great events hosted by the Center that I am truly ashamed. Next up is June 21, 2008 - Saturday afternoon Lecture/Panel Discussion /Luncheon: "Communicating the Truth About the Perils and Promises of the Contemporary Bio-Tech Revolution: A Crucial Task for the Catholic Community".

St. Anthony's High School - from the choir that sang at the Traditional Latin Mass at which Fr. Pereda was honored as a Msgr. to the great new chapel they are building this school is truly showing what it means to be Catholic.

I am sure there are many others that could be mentioned but these were just off the top of my tired head.

It seemed the Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral was pretty reverent with good music. Did anyone else see the Secret Service guy push Mother Theresa's nuns away from the Holy Father during the recessional?? It looks like our country is being kept safe from enthusiastic nuns! Anyway, I look forward to Pope Benedict's visit to Ground Zero tomorrow.

Speaking of the Pope's visit, it looks like there will be protests (Zzzzzz) -

THE POPE IS COMING TO AMERICA...
And We’ll be Ready to Protest the Vatican’s Oppressive and Theocratic Agenda for Our Country and the Rest of the World!

Newsday commissioned a poll regarding the Pope's visit that provided results that sound awfully like the exact stance of the liberal editorial board of Newsday. Amazing.

The article on the survey quotes an ex-priest. Amazing.

The survey says Catholics do not agree with the Church on stuff. Amazing.

Haven't we heard this before?

Half of those responding to the poll are Catholic and half are non-Catholic. Of the Catholics:

"Some 69 percent think priests should be allowed to marry, 71 percent think women should be allowed to be priests and 77 percent think laypeople should play a greater role in the church."

Of course, with the catechetics, liberal leadership, and seminary teaching the way it was for most of the 70's and 80's and 90's this is not surprising. I would bet if you surveyed 1,000 Catholics most would not be able to give the theological reasoning behind the discipline of celibacy, the male priesthood, or the roles of lay people in the Church. This just means the Church has still more work to do undoing the damage done of the past 30 years.

This survey is just a local example of the typically shoddy work reporters will do for the Pope's visit. The standard treatment over the past 20 years has been the Pope is popular but Catholics do not agree on X, Y, and Z. Still, I would imagine it is not easy for journalists to cover another Papal visit, especially since Pope Benedict is not the "popular" world figure Pope JP II was. This visit especially might prove to be more "inside baseball" for Catholics. For the best coverage of the visit, check out Pope2008.com, a blog by Tim Drake at the National Catholic Register online.

They caught the man who torched Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Church in Wyandanch, the parish with the largest outreach program on Long Island. Every parish has an outreach program, one of the good things to come along in the Church since the 1970's, and OLMM's program was devastated by this act of arson. Bishop Murphy authorized a collection to be taken up in all parishes to help rebuild. One of the men who received assistance from the parish was behind the arson. The pastor of OLMM was quoted in Newsday:

"I don't know what would ever have driven him to do a thing like that," Brisotti said yesterday at the church, where black scars are visible outside the rectory."

It is called evil Fr. Brisotti, and you do a good job fighting it, but it is always going to be there.

(montage by Mr. Devlin)

Joannes Paule Magne, ora pro nobis

April 2nd, 2008 - the 3rd anniversary of his death.

In lieu of actually burying St. Joseph upside down:

St. Joseph please help my wife and me as we attempt the sale of our co-op and the purchase of a house. Let us do all this without driving each other crazy, Amen.

Deacon Don Zirkel was arrested at the Smithtown Mall, he says for only wearing an anti-Iraq war tee-shirt. There are currently 331 comments on the Newsday story from all different points of view.

"On Saturday, Zirkel, 80, was at an anti-war rally outside the mall in Lake Grove, wearing a white T-shirt splotched with red and emblazoned with a simple message about the fatalities of the Iraq war: "4,000 troops, 1 million Iraqis dead. Enough."

Zirkel said he was at the rally to support the anti-war protesters. "I was an encourager. I was an affirmer," he said.

During the rally, Zirkel and his wife went into the mall's food court for coffee and French fries. After he declined mall security's request to either turn the T-shirt inside out or leave, he said police put him in a wheelchair and escorted him from the mall. Suffolk police charged him with criminal trespassing and resisting arrest."

Msgr. Lisanti to become the new pastor of Our Lady Of Lourdes in Massapequa Park?

Post-9/11 Life:

Winners of Pope Tickets Must Pass Security Checks (Newsday)

Nipple Rings Cause Airport Security Issue (Msnbc)

If you plan on going to see the Pope you might want to leave the nipple rings at home.

From MSNBC:

Natural birth control well-received, study says
Using beads to keep track of fertility was effective, inexpensive option

"A "natural family planning method" in which women use a set of beads to keep track of their fertile days is effective and widely acceptable to women and their partners, according to a new study conducted at 14 sites in six countries.
"I'm really convinced that this is a method that needs to be part of an informed choice approach to family planning," Dr. Victoria Jennings, director of the Georgetown University Institute for Reproductive Health in Washington, DC, told Reuters Health. "Women have lots of options and they need to be aware of this one."

"Ninety percent of both men and women in the study said they felt the SDM was easy to use, and that they would recommend it to others."

"Bob Sheppard, the Yankees' public address announcer since 1951, will miss the final opener in Yankee Stadium's history as he recovers from health issues that have limited his workload over recent months. "

Mr. Sheppard was one of my favorite teachers at St. John's, a real gentleman. I hope he has a speedy recovery as I am sure he misses his work.

I added The Deacon's Bench to my sidebar Long Island Catholic Blogs, (which includes a few from Queens and Brooklyn). This is a great new blog that I read from Deacon Greg Kendra of Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Catholic Church in Forest Hills. Deacon Greg will be chanting the beautiful Exultet tonight

The Winners of the 2008 Catholic Blogs Awards have been announced! What Does The Prayer Really Say? swept many of the categories. I didn't win anything in this contest but it was probably because I stumbled when trying to answer the question: why can't one-fifth of Americans locate the US on a map.

The Long Island Catholic has been printing columns by Catholic teenagers recently. (Most have been from Catholic school students so the paper put out a call for public school teens to write.) This week the teen writer describes her and some friends meeting the Sisters of Life and preparing food for an upcoming profession of vows ceremony. Her wonderful column describes her impression of the Sisters, the Mass and vow ceremony, and the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer in Manhattan. St. Vincent is supposed to be one of the most beautiful in the city, I have to get to see it soon! The column is well worth a read:

Of sweet potatoes, roller hockey and joy-filled faith

Speaking of the latest Long Island Catholic edition, Kathleen Gallagher writes about the New York State Catholic Conference making a video to educate people about (former) Gov. Eliot Spitzer's radical Reproductive Health and Privacy Protection Act. This act would require Catholic hospitals to provide abortions by making abortion a "fundamental right". The video was produced by Telecare (good job!) and put on You Tube. Gallagher's article mentions what she calls the "viral effect" of the blogosphere as the You Tube video was posted or linked to on the blogs (here is the link). She says:

"In less than a week, our video had enjoyed more than 8,000 views, or “hits” as they are known in the business. We received phone calls and e-mails from all over the country about our video, from Catholics and non-Catholics alike. We were written up in The New York Times and the Daily News. The original message of our video spread like wildfire, far beyond the borders of the Church’s typical communication methods. I had never experienced the “viral effect” of the Internet quite like that before."

We Catholic bloggers have experienced this effect for years but preferred to call it "releasing the power of the blogs" a term which I believe is attributed to Mark Shea, who is one of the most popular Catholic bloggers. The Catholic blogs have had some impact in concrete ways and the NYS Catholic Conference was very wise to tap into this great communications tool. "St. Blogs Parish" has been a great tool for Catholics to spread the word as well as spread The Word since 2002. Some examples of what the article calls the 'viral effect' would be:
removing pro-abortion links from a Jesuit University
linking to a video of a Bishop in California treat a woman rudely for kneeling for communion
pointing out the anti-Catholic nature of the movie The Golden Compass
pointing out the USCCB's positive review of the Golden Compass and Brokeback Mountain
spreading the word about a movie Mel Gibson was making about Christ's Passion a year ahead of its release
spreading the word about Summorum Pontificum a year ahead of its release

There were many more I cannot remember and I am too lazy to link to any of these right now. But the Church is wise to use "St. Blog's" because it has proven to be a good way to spread good or bad news.

Here is another blog by a Catholic on Long Island:

Tales From The Bonny Blue House

The author is Mary Ellen Barrett who writes a column for The Long Island Catholic.

Governor Eliot Spitzer (aka Client 9) has been caught in a prostitution sting:

"The meeting apparently lasted from 9:36 p.m. ET, when Kristen arrived, until 12:02 a.m.
Kristen collected $4,300 from Client 9, according to the FBI affidavit."

You have to feel for his wife and 3 teenage daughters, and prayers for the entire family would be appropriate. The very pro-choice governor might want to consider some other ways to spend 2.5 hours and $4,300.

Spitzer could have:

Donated $1,400 to Birthright
Donated $1,400 to Momma's House
Donated $1,500 to Life Center of Long Island

Plus he could have spent 1 hour volunteering at Momma's House in Jericho perhaps doing some work around the house, and then another 1 hour and a half at the Life Center of Long Island doing various things to help women in need.

Long Islander quote of the year:

"I have a general disgust for Catholic architecture since the 1950s,” he said recently."

-Brother Gary Creegan, Principal of St. Anthony's High School

This quote comes to you via this NY Times article regarding St. Anthony's new chapel that is being built. I found this via New Liturgical Movement. There are many of us that share Brother's digust. I am glad to see this chapel being built and hope this serves as an example for many other schools and parishes.

Click to Enlarge

Can anybody tell me what the deal is with the drawing? It appears to be a Last Supper-like depiction, but with all girls? It is strange to me - especially because it is a First Holy Communion Remembrance certificate from 1933!

More info: This Remembrance certificate is by the Edward O'Toole Co. in NY which was a successful Catholic goods business. There is now a Theresa & Edward O’Toole Foundation that was apparently started with this company's profits.

UPDATE: This is not a photo as I first wrote, but a drawing.

A new local Lutheran church is being started to try to attract younger, more diverse and unchurched people.

From Newsday:

Lutheran Church's Ablaze! to attract members

"Instead of robes and vestments, Harmon said, "We'll wear a jacket and polo shirt. We'll probably have more of a band, music that is more in tune with what people are hearing today."

"We want to tear down barriers that unchurched people feel keep them from coming to church."

"There are more and more congregations that will see their Sunday morning and their other activities during the week populated by people who are not just old white guys."

In the interest of ecumenical dialogue I would like to point out that if you want to attract people other than "old white guys", wearing polo shirts and jackets is.....probably not the best idea. That sounds like the official uniform of old white guys. Churches that are "diverse" tend to have congregations that dress in suits and dresses. Also, having a band to provide music that is 'in tune with what people are hearing today' would be quite interesting, considering some of the songs on the pop charts today. I don't want to put the people behind this effort down, but whenever I hear about efforts to attract younger, more diverse people to Church, it tends to be a bit off.

Anthony, a reader of this blog, kindly emailed me to advise Bishop Murphy would be coming to the Traditional Latin Mass in Uniondale on March 9th. I was reminded of his email when I spotted it on the Bishop's schedule in The Long Island Catholic. He will be there to confer the honor of Msgr. on Fr. James Pereda.

UPDATE: I just spotted this same news on Creative Minority Report, with the added note:

"On June 15, 2008 at St. Agnes Cathedral the Most Reverend William Murphy, Bishop of Rockville Centre, will confer the Sacrament of Confirmation according to the Traditional Form."

More Blogs by Catholics on Long Island

Alice Gunther, who writes a column for The Long Island Catholic, has a blog called Cottage Blessings.

MacBeth's Opinion is written by a Catholic homeschooling Mom.

CATHOLICS COME HOME.ORG

I found this site via Charlotte Was Both and it looks good. I particularly liked the Epic and Movies videos. This group is involved in the New Evangelization and attempts to create more of us "Reverts". I wish them luck and hope Dioceses will take avantage of this apostolate. If Catholics are the largest group of Christians in the US, then the second largest group would have to be lapsed or former Catholics.

Found via Ten Reasons -

This report of the National Council of Churches shows the 25 largest Christian denominations in the US. The Catholic Church is the largest Christian Church and grew by .87 percent. The report also states:

"Jehovah's Witnesses and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, regarded by many Christians as cults, reported the largest membership increases in a year, according to the National Council of Churches' 2008".

The Mormons (Latter Day Saints) have large families so that would probably explain their growth. The Jehovah's Witnesses however simply do the evangelical work that Christians are called to do. It is easy to make fun of them for their door to door work, (see Barats & Bereta video The Good Word) but apparently it does work. Around here they are very successful with evangelizing minorities. At the train station my wife and I sometimes use there is usually a nice, elderly gentleman handing out Watchtowers. It is too bad their theology is so unorthodox. The Catholic Church has a long way to go with evangelizing, and in most cases, "re-evangelizing". Meanwhile, growth is not happening in some Christian groups:

"The greatest losses in membership were reported by The Episcopal Church, which dropped 4.15 percent in members, and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which decreased by 2.36 percent. Both denominations are currently wracked by theological differences and the issue of homosexuality."

5 Year Blogiversary

I forgot that January 18th, 2008 was my 5 year blogiversary. As I said last year - "Any moron can have a blog, it takes a special one to keep it going for 5 years!"

Here are my previous Blogiversary posts.

I once expressed mild disappointment on my blog that the days of the large stadium Masses celebrated by a Pope were not over. During John Paul the Great's reign there were ceremonies that raised eyebrows on those of us concerned with the dignity of the Liturgy and Papacy. My post caused an anonymous commenter to say:

"I think you come across a little arrogant and disrespectful in being "holier" than the Pope regarding the sacredness of an outdoor mass."

Well, that anonymous commenter might be interested to learn that the Pope appears to "holier" than the Pope as well -

Benedict XVI on vast, outdoor Masses: “there is a problem”

"How do we reconcile the treasure of the liturgy in all its solemnity and with the sentiment, emotion and excitment of masses of young people called to participate in it?"
Benedict XVI responded immediately that, in effect, there is a problem: "Liturgy in which masses of people participate", he said, "is a big problem."

The American Papist explains better than I can regarding why many of us, including Pope Benedict XVI, may have no problem with large outdoor Masses in some cases, but want to ensure that they are dignified and maintain the proper Liturgical atmosphere. I am glad to see the Pope and Marini II are doing what they can to restore reverence in Papal Liturgies.