Thursday, April 12, 2007

My baby is growing! Andrea has the Catholic Blog Directory up to 1,011 blogs.
A story about a Nigerian-born priest involved in a car crash. Priests from Nigeria are very inspiring.
Justice is a favorite topic of mine and today there are a few justice stories going around:

The Duke lacrosse players finally had all charges dropped and were declared innocent, which was obvious to all after the late Ed Bradley's 60 Minutes piece. Perhaps they have learned a tough lesson in life: don't ever hire a stripper, as they tend to be skanky, lying, conniving, uneducated whores. Also, people are often accused of things they did not do, particularly by uneducated people.

Don Imus was finally fired for being a racist jerk. This is also not news to anyone who paid attention. I had to laugh when I saw this article about Fr. Hartman of the God Squad and a racist incident on the show that caused him to leave the studio.

"Today was a disappointing moment, the lowest point in our appearances," said Father Hartman, regarding McGuirk's imitation of New Jersey Nets forward, Jayson Williams. "It was the most direct form of bigotry. I don't agree with what he said. It's against what I believe in and what my Church believes in. And I'll do something about it in my own way. I have to think and pray about what happened. If that is characteristic of the entire show, then we couldn't be on the show, but I don't believe it is." (my emphasis)

This was from May of 2000! And here is an article from 1999 about Philip Nobile who wrote to Bishop McGann complaining of Fr. Hartman appearing on Imus' show.

"Nobile has written the pair and sent two letters to Hartman's superior, Bishop John McGann of Rockville Centre, N.Y. In his first letter to the bishop, Nobile accused Hartman of "giving scandal by his association with Don Imus, the most powerful and active white racist and homophobe in the American media."
Nobile, who holds a theology degree from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, contends that the Imus show "routinely smears racial minorities, homosexuals and the handicapped with vicious and vile remarks that should shock Catholic conscience."


Of course, Bishop McGann was famous for ignoring complaints of Catholics when it came to priests, as the Suffolk County Grand Jury Report on sexual abuse of minors by priest showed.

All of the people who were frequent guests on his show knew the deal, and they supported the racism by their presence. It is about time justice was served to Imus, who was always a rotten person to those around him.

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Christ is Risen! He is truly risen!

I went to Easter Vigil last night at St. Kilian parish in Farmingdale. It is a beautiful Church lined with statues and a large sanctuary. According to the parish history on its website, the Church looked like an auditorium before its renovation, so they did an excellent job. Only the ceiling in the main section of the Church reminded me of an auditorium. The vigil had 4 priests, and 1 bishop and 5 deacons. The altar servers did a good job with so much to do- lighting everyone's candles during the service of light, ringing bells at the Gloria, kneeling with the giant candles at the Eucharistic Prayer, incensing at the elevations, etc.. The choir sounded excellent chanting the psalms in between the readings (there were only 3 done). This Liturgy nut enjoyed both Holy Thursday Mass and Easter Vigil - feel free to describe what you saw this Triduum/Easter Sunday at parishes on Long Island.

Now it is off to Easter Sunday Mass with the wife and then to dinner with family. I am going to beat my nephew and niece at Life if I have to play 100 games!!
In tsunami-hit Solomons, LI native offers hope

From Newsday, an article about Bishop Chris Cardone

"Cardone plans to travel next week to Gizo, where he spent 14 years as a missionary. The Chaminade High School graduate went on to Providence College in Rhode Island and was inspired by some Dominicans there. He switched his major from business to liberal arts and became a friar. Cardone was sent to the Solomon Islands 18 years ago to train the native people in Catholicism. The three-year assignment turned into a permanent position. Cardone was promoted to bishop in 2001.


In the comments section of the article, Fr. Gerard Twomey wrote the Solomon Islands is "the island chain where Marines landed on Marines landed on Guadalcanal in 1942 and P.T. 109 was sunk in 1943".

Bishop Murphy has authorized a special collection to be taken up in parishes on April 15th for relief.