I enjoyed reading the correction in today's Newsday regarding Jimmy Breslin. I could not find it online but Extreme Catholic links to it on the NY Newsday site.

"Breslin said he erred in not referring to the 1995 column before writing his April 7, 2004, column. Instead, he drew the quotes from memory. The result is that the quotes attributed to Sheldon in the April 7 column were incorrect and not Sheldon's precise words. Breslin maintains, however, that they were an accurate reflection of the essence of the reverend's views on homosexuality in the 1992 interview." (emphasis mine)

"the column did not adhere to Newsday's standard of publishing only direct quotations that are accurate and precise."

Good to know that they have this policy but hopefully they will expand it to include not just direct quotes, but all printed facts. When it comes to the Catholic Church Newsday has printed some incredibly incorrect things, which indicates an extreme bigotry. Their commentary is bigoted also, but that is always opinion, news reporting should be unbiased and correct.

In reference to a post below from April 7th, on the Palm Sunday Gospel and my parish's weird way of reading the Gospel, a reader writes:

"I came late to the discussion on the reading of the Passion (your Apr. 7 post). Perhaps I can shed a little more light on the changes.

I am a musician at my parish. Beginning about 10 years ago I began hearing and reading about a minor movement to take away the people's parts in the reading of the Passion where they are the voice of the crowd, including the chant, "Crucify Him!" The thinking, obviously by liberals or progressives or whatever one wants to call them, was that it was somehow not appropriate for us to be the ones calling for the death of Christ. It looks like some of the "worship aid" publishers bought into this. Our missalettes* always used to have the crowd parts in bold type, indicated as "All." About four years ago the company removed the bold type and began indicating the crowd parts as "Chorus," not in bold type, hinting that the people should not be saying these parts. I read comments by various liturgy "experts" encouraging the use of short acclamations throughout the Passion in order to give the people a part in it. We actually did this at our parish for a couple of years, using the sung Lenten gospel acclamations "Glory and praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ" or "Praise and honor to you...." Of course the people had to be instructed in the new procedure, and I never liked it since it seemed too forced. This year we went back to having the people do the crowd parts. After the many accusations of anti-Semitism in "TPOTC" by the media, it was made abundantly clear that WE are truly the ones who caused the death of Jesus, so why should we not act the part in the reading of the Passion? (Sometimes I reflect that if I had lived in Jesus' time, I might have been one of those failing to see Him as Messiah and calling for Him to be crucified!)

(*Be aware that "missalette" is a trademark of the J. S. Paluch Company, and they get testy when people use the word to describe "worship aids" published by other companies. I use it here because Paluch is our music supplier.)"

Thanks for the email! The strange thing is that the missalette (or whatever) at our parish still prints the Gospel with the parts, and we all say the crowd parts out loud anyway. Also, I wonder if part of this thing is an attempt to stop the priest from reading the part of Christ exclusively.

Here is where I will be on Friday night--

The Controversy over Mel Gibson's "The Passion of The Christ"

Panel discussion led by sociologist William Donohue, Ph.D., President, Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights

Friday, April 16th, 2004, Nassau Community College, Building K, Ballroom, 7-9 PM, to be followed by questions from the audience