Report: LI, Fla. dioceses settle sex abuse suit

"Rockville Centre sent Fitzgerald to Florida in 1989, purportedly because of his allergies, without disclosing multiple complaints against him.

On Long Island, Fitzgerald served in the Westbury parish, where another priest had complained that Fitzgerald was fondling young boys. Fitzgerald eventually was transferred to Dix Hills, where he was placed in charge of that parish's youth ministry."


FYI - that "other priest" who complained about Fitzgerald is an orthodox priest who is now at perhaps the most conservative parish we have. He was put in Westbury right out of the seminary and also complained when yet another priest at a different parish he served was molesting boys. Because of his experiences he went on leave for a year and lived at his parents' house- many pastors would not take him in because he was labeled a "trouble maker". It must have been hell to be an orthodox priest in this diocese in the days of Bishop McGann. Thankfully things have changed significantly.

I have been working on updating my St. Blog's Directory (check it out) and hope to have a database of the blogs that I can put into columns for easier searching. I am learning more about Catholic bloggers out there. For instance, Steve Ray of Defenders of the Catholic Faith in addition to being a top notch apologist, is also the founder and owner of a huge office maintenance company.

I have a fascination with the locations of varous parishioners of St. Blog's. I hope to be able to put the directory in a chart form that can be searched or sorted by location. I try to get the info from the blogs so if any info is incorrect please let me know. I am not done adding locations to the directory but surprisely, so far, the state that has the most Catholic bloggers is........ (Howard Dean screaming voice)


CALIFORNIA!!!
A voice from eden - San Francisco
Ad Altare Dei - Santa Barbara
Basia me, Catholica Sum
Between Heaven and Hell
Catholic L.A. - Los Angeles
Church of The Masses - Hollywood
Converted Journey - Brentwood
El Camino Real
Erik's Rants and Recipes
Lex Communis - Fresno
Philothea Rose at Home
Revolution of Love
The New Gasparian - Newark
Veritas. Quid est veritas? - San Francisco

Yesterday I went to Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral and then to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. It was a nice way to start off Advent.

Diocese plans for future of Catholic elementary schools

Catholic elementary school enrollment is down, while Catholic High School enrollment has risen. This is simply due to the high cost of Catholic schools. Many people send their children to public elementary schools (most of which are very good here on Long Island) because it is just too much to live here and pay for Catholic schooling. There will probably be more closings and consolidations of elementary schools which makes sense. The second collection and foundation are good steps and hopefully the school situation here will stabilize. Meanwhile, everything should be done to make the parish religious education system top notch.