A decent column by Fr. DeGrocco is in this week's edition of The Long Island Catholic. He writes about the Introductory Rites and I hope every parish takes note of these two important points:

"Notice, however, that the entrance hymn is definitely not supposed to be a greeting for the priest presider! An instruction such as, “Please stand and greet our celebrant by singing …” is entirely inappropriate."

AND


"....secular or casual greetings that emphasize a mere human exchange (such as “good morning”) are inappropriate."

Crisis Magazine published a study ranking Dioceses in the USA according to various criteria. The Diocese of Rockville Centre came in second to last. But the largest dioceses all did poorly according to this report, which makes me wonder how the size was factored into the figuring. I would also like to have seen Mass attendance, number or percentage of fallen away Catholics, and number of baptisms and weddings counted as well. I think it is possible to know the "health" of a Diocese and I would not consider DRVC to be less healthy than Rochester. I also think DRVC is a lot healthier today than it was 10 years ago, but it would be hard to prove it with statistics. Overall, the report did not interest me much at all.