Amy Welborn wrote a great post regarding Joseph Bottum's piece in First Things on Catholic Culture in America. The post and the piece are both excellent and should be read entirely. To focus on just one thing mentioned - the removal of the Friday fast (abstaining from meat) was called a mistake. Welborn says it was "an important touchstone for Catholics" and Sandra Miesel comments that there is "no reason why Catholics can't do it voluntarily". This is true - I don't eat meat on Friday, and also don't take communion in the hand. I receive communion only from priests and deacons and I always bow during the incarnation lines in the Creed. Unfortunately these things are not done by most Catholics and so there is no sign of unity there. Not eating meat Friday may not seem like a big deal, but the point is that it was a sign of unity, and the ending of the fast was a part of the collapse of Catholic culture.

I found another Catholic blogger from Long Island - Francis Porretto blogging at Eternity Road where he writes about politics but occasionally religion.

I lived my whole life in Nassau County, home of such sleazy people as Joey Buttafuoco, the Mepham High School rapists (Ken Carney, Phil Sofia and Phil Diasparra), and the Roslyn School District crooks (Pamela Gluckin, her neice and son, and Frank Tassone and his lover . But when I married I moved further east to Suffolk County, home of some of the worst, most sleazy politicians ever. This place just had to rename an airport terminal because it had the name of a crook on it (Peter McGowan). The former Republican Party chairman here (John Powell) was arrested in a stolen car chop shop racket. Today, Newsday reports on the latest aspect of the Smithtown Town Supervisor scandal. (This kind of reporting is why I love Newsday despite its history of anti-Catholic bigotry)

From Newsday:

"Smithtown Supervisor Patrick Vecchio's son -- who was fired from the Suffolk County Water Authority last summer after an inquiry blamed him for a costly E.coli panic on Fire Island -- is not the only family member who was able to land and hang onto a patronage job despite a troubled work history, records show.

Bernadine Kinder, who is married to Vecchio, was caught stealing early in her tenure at Suffolk Off-Track Betting, according to OTB records. She not only kept her position, that same year she was promoted to branch manager, a job where she handles thousands of dollars a day. And she got the job in OTB in 1998 despite having been fired from a secretarial job in Suffolk District Court for excessive absences and unsatisfactory job performance, court personnel records show."

Talk about SLEAZY. She stole money and then gets promoted! How do these criminals get away with this stuff? Oh, that's right, they are white so it is ok. If these were black people or immigrants that would be another story. Or perhaps we on Long Island have to work so hard to keep up with the incredibly high taxes we don't have the time to notice or care? Please also notice that Kinder and Vecchio Jr. both failed to graduate from college?