Catholics Are Stupid!

This is the title of a book that Fr. Benedict Groeschel said he wanted to write. He was referring to how Catholics have neglected their incredible heritage and allowed silly people to take away their best art and traditions. I thought of this phrase for an entirely different reason when reading the local anti-Catholic rag today. Bishop Murphy held the first of 3 listening sessions and of course Newsday's reporting on the event is incredibly biased. But many of the people sound, well, stupid. The fact that Murphy has not had a single priest on Long Island abuse anyone in the 2 years he has been here seemed to be ignored. The fact that Bishop McGann, under whose watch most of the abuse occurred, never paid any attention to the people of the diocese was also ignored by the Voice of the Faithful types. The more I have learned of what went on in this diocese under McGann, and now under Murphy, I'll trust the current leadership and try to ignore anyone associated with the former leadership.

Very Sad Story

This very sick man walked into Our Lady of Peace Church during Mass last year and shot to death the priest and a parishioner. He had been treated for paranoid schizophrenia and was not taking his medicines. He had been educated at Chaminade High School, my alma mater, and today called as character witnesses, four of the priests and brothers from the school who taught him. Ironically, they also teach at least one family member of the murdered parishioner. The sick man comes from a good Catholic family, the priest was an great priest, and the parishioner came from a good Catholic family which had already had more than its fair share of troubles. The whole situation is just awful.