Ken Carney, Phil Sofia and Tom Diasparra are the names of 3 men who raped and tortured teenage boys. Some of the very disturbing details can be found in this article. The story of the Mepham High School football rapes is a local story that drew some national headlines, most recently in Sports Illustrated. Even worse than the rapes and torture was the fact that the Mepham High coaches and administrators were slow to cooperate with investigators. The district even tried to seal the records of the civil cases brought by the victims. Even worse than that is the fact that this type of brutal violence had gone on for years as shown in this article.

Here is another quote from a Call to Action conference, this one from 1997:

"The majority of us here represent a generation that's been wandering around almost 40 years since the Council, but what about the next generation? Could it be that our concerns have no relevance for the Boomers and Generation X? They don't seem turned on by our debates about who's to be ordained, what gender is needed for marriages, and whether or not we use inclusive language. As we keep insisting on these issues, could we just be the new conservators of a vision of church that doesn't speak to them in their search? Could this be the Spirit's invitation for us to probe more deeply who we are and what will ground us?"

--Michael Crosby, O.F.M. Cap

To answer this question---YES! You are the conservators of a corrupt Church that gave us disgusting priests who raped children! You are the conservators of a Church that left behind the Gospel of Jesus Christ! As another Franciscan priest, Fr. Groeschel said: "I'm not a conservative, I want to blow the whole thing up!"

"In Vatican II, Luther and the Modernists would find a home for many of their ideas."

--Anthony Padovano, speaker at the 2000 Call to Action conference

Is he right? And if so, can a Catholic then accept this council in its entirety?

I just found this: a father and son, both firefighters, both died in the World Trade Center. Another son lived-he carried Fr. Judge's body out of the WTC.

Anyone have any knowledge of theology? Is it true to say that there were other immaculate conceptions in history (Adam and Eve, John the Baptist for example) but that Mary is the Immaculate Conception?

At Catholic and Enjoying It! there is a discussion on The Perennial Santa Question-what to teach the kiddies re Santa. I have always enjoyed Andy Edelstein's column on fathering and this week he happens to touch on a similiar thing with Tooth Shall Set Ye Free .

U.S. Diplomats, Families Urged to Leave Saudi Arabia

"We remain fully confident that Saudi authorities are doing everything they can to protect their citizens and foreign nationals in the kingdom against terrorist attacks," department spokesman Lou Fintor said."

Saudi Arabia Bans Dolls, Stuffed Animals

I am so proud to be from Massapequa! Joey Buttafuoco, convicted rapist, has been arrested again, this time for fraud.

Among cities with more than 1 million residents, New York was the safest by far - with a crime rate nearly four times lower than in Dallas, three times lower than in Phoenix and roughly half as high as in Philadelphia or Los Angeles.

New York City continues to have a lower than expected crime rate. This has been the case for several years now and hopefully it will continue. I never thought of Phoenix or Dallas having high crime rates at all.

I went to an Advent Evening of Recollection tonight with the priest at the center of this story:

Priest: Former Bishop Ignored Abuse Reports
Statement links McGann to church cover-up in 1980s

He was an awesome preacher-one of the best I have ever heard.

The Catholic League is on the job and Bill Donohue is in top form:

"What both of these cases have in common is the tendency of well-educated people to engage in thought control. The cultural fascists in the U.S. are more likely to be found in salons than in saloons; more likely to be intoxicated with ideology than booze. Given a choice between dealing with old-fashioned rednecks and the Multicultural Gestapo, I'll take the former any day- at least they're capable of sobering up once and a while."