Catholicism in Romania

Priest-Martyr Vladimir Ghika Continues to Inspire Romania’s Catholics

"BUCHAREST, Romania — The life of a saint can be part parable, part thriller and, often, part nightmare — but always 100% inspiration.

A beloved Romanian priest, Vladimir Ghika, was beatified Aug. 31 before 10,000 people at a Mass in Bucharest celebrated by Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints, together with Cardinal André Vingt-Trois of Paris, Romania’s sole cardinal, Lucian Muresan, and more than 200 other priests and bishops.  
Msgr. Ghika’s sacred story reads like a novel with a tragic ending."

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/priest-martyr-vladimir-ghika-continues-to-inspire-romanias-catholics/#ixzz2fZo23iDu

Race With the Devil

Austin Ruse writes about one of my favorite authors Joseph Pearce and his new autobiography:

Race With the Devil: My Journey from Racial Hatred to Rational Love


In Race with the Devil: My Journey from Racial Hatred to Rational Love, Pearce himself takes the reader through his journey from racist revolutionary to Christian, including:

The youthful influences that lead him to embrace the National Front and their racist platform

His dark, angry, exhilarating but ultimately empty days as a revolutionary on the front lines

His imprisonment and subsequent dark night of the soul

The role that Catholic luminaries such as G. K. Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc, and C. S. Lewis played in his conversion from racist radical to joyful Christian

And his eventual reception in the Catholic Church

St. G.K.C.?

From the Catholic Herald in the UK:

"The Diocese of Northampton has appointed a cleric to investigate the possibility of opening the Cause of GK Chesterton.
In a statement released today, the Diocese of Northampton said: “The Bishop has appointed Canon John Udris, a priest of the Diocese and currently a spiritual director at St Mary’s College, Oscott, to undertake a fact-finding exercise on his behalf.”
In August this year, the American Chesterton Society released a statement announcing that Bishop Peter Doyle of Northampton was seeking “a suitable cleric” to investigate the possibility of opening up the Cause of the prolific writer.
GK Chesterton died at his home in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire in 1936. He wrote biographies of St Francis of Assisi and St Thomas Aquinas"

When parishes in the Diocese of Rockville Centre were founded

This is a list of the parishes of the Diocese of Rockville Centre in the order they were founded, starting with St. Patrick in Glen Cove (1856) and ending with St. John Chrysostom Malankara in Hempstead (1999).

The parishes that have been a part of my family's history are:

• 1856—St. Patrick, Glen Cove. At first, Brooklyn pioneer priests, Revs. Edward Maginnis and John McCarthy who traveled from Jamaica, offered Mass here. An influx of Irish Catholics fled from the Famine to work here in a starch factory. This led to formation of a parish in 1856. Rev. Patrick Kelly was the first resident pastor. A new church was dedicated in 1900. In 1915 a parish school opened with the School Sisters of Notre Dame in charge

•  1871—Our Lady of Loretto, Hempstead. There were few Catholics in this town prior to 1850, after which Irish and German immigrants began to settle in large numbers. The first Mass, celebrated in the home of Barney Powers in 1840 by Rev. John O’Donnell, was attended by only 7 persons. Bishop Loughlin sent Rev. Eugene McSherry to be pastor in 1871. A Catholic school opened under the Sisters of Charity BVM in 1927. The present church and rectory were dedicated in 1954.

• 1898—St. Martin of Tours, Amityville, was a mission of St. Kilian’s in Farmingdale until established as a parish in 1898. On Christmas Day, Rev. Benno Ferstl, OSB, the founding pastor, offered Mass in a small building. Men of the parish actively participated in the building of the first church which was completed and dedicated in 1899; a new church was dedicated May 24, 1964. The school, built in 1921 was staffed by Dominican Sisters from Amityville.

• 1901—Corpus Christi, Mineola, a mission of St. Brigid, Westbury, was canonically erected with Rev. James F. Flynn as the first pastor. A small chapel, built with funds collected by 23 Catholic families in 1895, was replaced by a church in 1908 which served the parish well until 1971 when the present church was dedicated. The school, staffed by the Sisters of St. Dominic of Amityville, began in an estate residence in 1922. The cornerstone for a regular school building was laid in 1954.

•  1928—St. William the Abbot, Seaford. A butcher shop was the site of the first Mass in Seaford in 1913. Rev. Theodore J. King of Bellmore accepted the offer of the butcher’s Catholic daughter to use it. Father Galvin of Bellmore was authorized by the bishop to build a church where the first Mass was celebrated on Christmas Day, 1926. In 1928, St. William became a parish with Rev. Francis X. Debold as pastor. The Ursuline Sisters of Tildonk opened the school in September 1954.

Barcelona's Sagrada Familia church to be finished by 2026

Why the rush?  From the Merced Sun-Star:

"BARCELONA, Spain — Barcelona's emblematic Sagrada Familia church will be finished by 2026, 144 years after its construction started, its chief architect said Tuesday.

The five-tower basilica with curvilinear forms imitating nature, designed by legendary architect Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926), is one of Spain's top tourist attractions.

It was inaugurated by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010. Some religious services have been held there, but about 35 percent of it still remains to be built.

"If we keep up the current construction speed, we will make it" by 2026, Jordi Fauli said.

The 54-year-old architect currently heads the project launched in 1882. Gaudi designed and supervised construction from 1883 until 1926, when he was hit by a tram and killed.

Based on a proposal by a local religious association, the Sagrada Familia is financed solely with donations and entry fees - a reason it is taking so long to build.

"My client is not in a hurry," Gaudi reportedly said, referring to God"

Read more here: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2013/09/17/3227264/barcelonas-sagrada-familia-church.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2013/09/17/3227264/barcelonas-sagrada-familia-church.html#storylink=cpy

On Saturday, October 5, 2013 in the Multipurpose Room of the College Center Building at Nassau Community College, Bishop William Murphy of the Diocese of Rockville Centre will offer a lecture, "The Diversity of Sanctity and the Unity of Holiness: Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II." The talk deals with the achievements of these two Popes leading to their eventual canonization as saints in the Catholic religious tradition.  The event is sponsored by the NCC Center for Catholic Studies.

 

    The event formally starts at 2:15 P.M., with an audience welcome and a biographical introduction of Bishop Murphy.  Bishop Murphy speaks from 2:30 P.M. to 3:15 P.M. followed by an audience question and answer session ending at 3:45 P.M.  (Note that light refreshments will be provided and available at 1:30 P.M. before the official start of the event.)

 

    All are invited,  free of any charge but registration and parking permit are required.  All attendees must register with the Nassau Community College Office of Lifelong Learning.  The registration process starts by contacting the Office of Lifelong Learning by calling 516-572-7472 between the hours of 9 A.M. and 4 P.M., Monday through Friday.  After registering, a registration receipt, a campus map, and a one-day parking pass will be mailed to you by Lifelong Learning at the address you indicate. 

 

    Attendees should be aware that failure to display a parking permit on the inside dashboard of their vehicle or otherwise parking illegally could result in a Nassau County parking ticket being issued to them.

Join us for
AN EVENING WITH G. K. CHESTERTON
at
Kellenberg Memorial High School

On Wednesday, September 25, 2013, we will have AN EVENING WITH G. K. CHESTERTON. We are privileged to have Mr. Dale Ahlquist as our guest speaker. The evening will be open to all and will begin at 7:30 PM.

Mr. Ahlquist is President of the American Chesterton Society, creator, and host of the EWTN series “G. K. Chesterton: The Apostle of Common Sense”, and Publisher of Gilbert Magazine. He is the author of three books on Chesterton, including The Complete Thinker, published in the fall of 2012.

Click here for details

Brother Pierre Toussaint professes final vows with Franciscan Friars of the Renewal

A Kellenberg Memorial graduate (2004) has professed his final vows with Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.  Some pictures can be seen here.

Sag Harbor grandmother: I'm LI's first female priest

From Newsday:

"A Sag Harbor grandmother says she has become the first Long Island woman to be ordained as a priest in a group that seeks equality for women in the Roman Catholic Church. Eda Lorello, a longtime church worker, said she was ordained during a service in Wellesley, Mass., on Aug. 10 organized by Roman Catholic Womenpriests, an advocacy group that says it has ordained 120 women to what it calls the priesthood in the United States in the past decade. The Vatican does not recognize the ordinations as legitimate, and has said that the women automatically "excommunicate" themselves when they take part in such services. Sean Dolan, a spokesman for the Diocese of Rockville Centre, called the effort to make Lorello a priest "absurd." "It's wrong for her to portray herself as a Roman Catholic priest," he said. "She is not."

One of the major developments over the past few decades in the Church is a huge push for lay people to be involved in 'ministries'. The negative aspect of this is that people begin to see the 'roles' they have (lector, EM, Etc..) as being the important part of their Church attendance, when in fact praying is the most important role.

"Lorello said she has served as a pastoral associate in parishes in Manorville and Bridgehampton, ran religious education programs in several Long Island parishes, and taught in the Diocese of Rockville Centre's Pastoral Formation Institute for lay people. She said she is a certified spiritual director and holds master's degrees in theology from the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Lloyd Harbor and in pastoral counseling from Iona College in New Rochelle." 
 
Does anyone else remember the firestorm that erupted when Bishop Murphy wanted to eliminate or reform the PFI?

Pete Sheehan named editor of the Catholic Exponent

Pete Sheehan was a reporter The Long Island Catholic when it was a weekly newspaper. I am glad he found a job but am still sad to see the paper was discarded.

"Pete Sheehan, a Youngs-town native with 35 years of experience in the Catholic press, has returned to his hometown to assume the duties of editor/ general manager at the Catholic Exponent in the Diocese of Youngstown. Sheehan, 57, returns to the diocese and the newspaper where he served as a staff reporter from 1979 to 1986 before moving to New York to become senior reporter at the Long Island Catholic, where he served from 1986 to 2012."

More here.