Msgr. Daniel S. Hamilton, RIP

When I was an altar boy we called him Father Superman because of his jet black hair that was slicked back, his black frame glasses, and the fact that he was a newspaper editor - The Long Island Catholic was a weekly paper then.  A few times after serving an 8 AM Mass he 'volunteered' me to serve his private 15 minute Mass before he headed out to work and I headed to school.  I once fainted while serving Mass right at the kiss of peace and he had to drag me to the sacristy to lay down until I felt better.  We used to joke that we could not understand his homilies because he used big words, although it was not really a joke because we really did not understand.  Even after giving up the Editor position and becoming a pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Lindenhurst, he continued his writing as described in this article: 


Why this priest has spent 50 years fighting with the New York Times


I remember seeing his letters either in the Long Island Catholic or in Newsday.  He was a very smart guy - He would have made a great blogger! 


Update:  I completely forgot this, but a decade ago I got to see him speak on the topic "Anglicans Looking To Rome: 1570 - Present".  He had once written an article in America Magazine in 1993 in which he called for a "special geographical prelature" for Anglicans although it will probably "draw sharp criticism from those Catholics who want their own church to take the same doctrinal position that official Anglicanism has already taken or is now taking".   Of course, Pope Benedict did exactly that in 2009 and the exact criticism predicted by Msgr. Hamilton came true.