Since I was born and raised in Massapequa I always like to hear about celebrities who were born and raised here. That would include the Baldwin brothers, Peggy Noonan, Jerry Seinfeld, and Brian Setzer. Kathy of Relasped Catholic links to this article about Brian Setzer, formerly of the Stray Cats. I was told years ago that he was a genuinely nice guy and I am glad to see he appreciates religion.

Somebody stop me before I end up like the guy in the bronx who was trapped in his apartment under a pile of magazines and newspapers! I saw this notice on the Catholic World News blog about Spence Publishing having a sale and ended up buying four books:

Faith of the Fatherless by Paul Vitz

Homosexuality and American Public Life by Christopher Wolfe

The Church Impotent by Leon Podles

Shows About Nothing by Thomas Hibbs

Musical Masses

So there is a long tradition of putting masses to music? Were the masses of Mozart, Bach, Beethoven composed to be listened to? or to actually be used during a Mass?? I have the Ave Maria Mass by Stephen Edwards and like it. It was commissioned by the great Thomas Monaghan for the founding of Ave Maria College and School of Law but then dedicated to the victims of Sept. 11th. The Kyrie is beautiful, so is the Sanctus. The Gratias Deo at the end is stirring and inspirational.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

The year 2003 saw the War with Iraq, which was probably not a just war but one which removed an evil regime and started millions on the road to a better life. The War on Terrorism had some successes during the year and the heat has been kept on the fanatics within Islam. I hope this will continue into 2004. Locally, the release of the Suffolk County Grand Jury report on the Diocese of Rockville Centre proved that Bishop McGann was not good at keeping corruption out of the local Church, and was in fact part of it. The report did not have much effect since all of the incidents were from years ago - but at least most Catholics are more educated when it comes to the Diocese. The economy has improved in the U.S. and hopefully this trend will continue. The "Great Enema" (Mark Shea's term) of the Church calmed down a bit but thankfully continued. At least now, when bishops such as Grahman in Dallas pull stunts, they have a lot more media attention focused on them. Here are some of my hopes for 2004:

*That the War on Terrorism will continue especially with a focus on the hatred preached in mosques throughout the world.

*That the governments of Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Sudan, and China will be overthrown

*That the Catholics in Sudan, China, Saudi Arabia, the middle east, Africa, Cuba, and Indonesia will continue to grow in numbers and faith despite persecution and that all people will support them

*That the USA will reform its culture so that it will prosper and influence the world to the good

*That the purge of bad priests, bad bishops, bad theologians will continue in the Church and the New Evangelization will take hold

*That the so called "Catholic" Universities and colleges will either reform or go out of business and the real Catholic Universities and colleges (Steubenville, Ava Maria, Campion, etc..) will grow and succeed

*That the generation of heretics, haters, and fools will retire from positions within the Church so that younger people can once again grow up with a Catholic upbringing

*That the vocation crisis in communities such as the Nashville Dominicans, FSSP, and Franciscan Friars of the Renewal be solved with more space for their new members

*That all religious vocations are supported and nourished

*That Catholic seminaries are reformed or shut down

*That good priests are supported and dissenters ignored

*That the US will open new relations with countries of our own hemisphere and forget about "old Europe"

*That "old Europe" will be dominated by the "new Europe" such as Poland, etc..

*That developing countries continue to develop so jobs, water, roads, education are all more accessible to people

*That Liturgical reform takes hold so abuses in many dioceses end and that Ecclesia Dei is respected in all dioceses

*That Catholic groups such as Adoremus, Catholics United for the Faith, and Roman Catholic Faithful grow and are successful in their apostolates

*That when Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ movie is released it is a critical and commercial success

Just Asking....

Is it really too much to ask that a Christmas hymn, such as Silent Night, just be sung at Midnight Mass without being coupled with some other song that no one knows???

Voice of the Faithful Long Island had John Salveson, who had been abused by a priest, speak at one of their meetings. The talk is excellent and is posted here. I hope that people who heard the talk were able to pick up a few things that I noticed. I have found that many of the stories of abuse by priests have some similar threads.

“I went through a long period as a child when I aspired to be a priest. I can still remember being fascinated by the book The Making of a Priest, which I would read at night under the covers of my bed with the aid of a flashlight, when I was supposed to be asleep.”

So those who contend that the vocation crisis is in part a result of corruption are correct, this person may or may not have had a vocation but being abused certainly would have squelched it.

“..in 1969, I met Father Robert Huneke, a new priest in our parish. He was young, smart, funny and sarcastic. He had us call him Father Bob and quickly became popular”

Beware of priests who want to appear to be just like anyone else.

“He was the sponsor of our Folk Mass group and was instrumental in getting us all to sign up for "Christian Awakening" a weekend retreat program involving several Long Island parishes. He let us smoke cigarettes around him and criticized the other parish priests in front of us. He swore. He was like no other priest I had ever met.”

Classic –allowed children to smoke, cursed AND criticized other priests in front of children. I have seen so many stories of abusive priests who criticized others in front of people- no real priest would do this. Of course, to immature children this is “cool” so it is done by pedophiles to win their favor.

“Over breakfast, Father Bob told me that what "we" did was okay. He explained that it was okay to show love for each other, and that God accepted and encouraged it.”

This is familiar, people trying to encourage disgusting behavior by justifying it as “love” that God accepts.

“I wrote to Bishop John Mc Gann of the Diocese of Rockville Centre on Long Island in 1980, telling him of my abuse and asking him to let me know what had happened to Father Huneke.”

Many Catholics on Long Island knew Bishop McGann was not doing his duty as a Bishop in many ways, but they were ignored and called “conservative” “old fashioned” and “rigid”.

“My first attempt to "go public" and expose the abuse involved speaking to a reporter at Newsday, Long Island's most widely read newspaper. The paper wouldn't publish the story. The reporter, a religion writer assigned to the story, told me I seemed more like some sort of "Teacher’s pet" to her than an abuse victim. The editors suggested that if I located other victims they might consider an article… By the end of the evening, I had a list of about 10 other victims of Father Huneke. The newspaper was still uncomfortable with the story, despite my new revelations.”

So Newsday remained silent when faced with a case of sexual abuse of a minor?? Interesting.

The talk ends on a beautiful note:

“Father Hesburgh got off the train in Baltimore. He reached above me for his travel bag, shook my hand and started to walk down the aisle. About halfway off the train, he turned and walked back to me. He said, "If no one has said it to you, I apologize for what happened to you". No one had ever said that to me. To this day, he remains the only priest who has said it. It meant more to me than he will ever know.”

This was a great testimony by this victim and I applaud Voice of the Faithful for having him speak. I think this choice of speaker towers over their choice of Richard McBrien. I just hope that people who read this speech, or heard it live, will see some of the things that I noticed. A good priest would never encourage sin, bad mouth people in front of children, or try to say homosexual sex is accepted by God. No good bishop would tolerate this type of behavior from a priest when confronted with it.

Chris of Maine Catholic and Beyond is having a poll to determine the "Catholic of the Year". (scroll down to the bottom for the poll). The poll's exact wording is:

"Which of the following people would you consider the Catholic who had the most impact on the Faith in 2003?"

And the nominees are :

Cardinal Francis Arinze
Bishop Raymond L. Burke
Bishop Timothy Dolan
Mel Gibson
Fr. Benedict Groeschel
Scott Hahn
Peggy Noonan
Archbishop Sean O'Malley
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger
Mark Shea
Cardinal Angelo Soldano
George Weigel


I won't tell you who is in the lead or anything but after the voting is over I will discuss my nomination and vote.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shown round about them. And they were so afraid. And the angel said unto them: Fear not, for behold, I bring you tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you. Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. And suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, goodwill toward men.

... That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown."

In Mexico, a Very Slow Build
Cathedral Nears Finish After 106 Years of Tumult


"Zamora, Mexico - On a festive day in 1898, workers laid the cornerstone for the Sanctuary of the Virgin of Guadalupe, boasting that their little strawberry-growing town in central Mexico would soon have a towering neo-Gothic cathedral to rival the grandest in Europe.

Nearly 106 years later workmen are still cutting stone and hauling mortar, saying that within two years they will finally finish a project that has soared and suffered through a century of Mexico's tumultuous relationship with the Roman Catholic Church. "

Eve Tushnet links to Godspy's interview with Barbara Nicolosi of Church of the Masses. Great interview, just go and read the whole thing.

"When I was watching The Passion I thought, in this particular moment, where we're coming out of the priest sex scandal and all the rest, the Church in a slumber -we've negotiated terms with the world in every quadrant, we've just settled in. We're not leaven in the dough, we are the dough. We're mostly indistinguishable from "the world" in so many places, in every profession. All of a sudden this movie comes out. It's going to rank with some of the greatest works of devout art that the Church has ever produced. I have absolutely no problem saying that. It's right up there with the other masters of their art forms. We don't deserve this film."

Ken Carney, Phil Sofia and Tom Diasparra are the names of 3 men who raped and tortured teenage boys. Some of the very disturbing details can be found in this article. The story of the Mepham High School football rapes is a local story that drew some national headlines, most recently in Sports Illustrated. Even worse than the rapes and torture was the fact that the Mepham High coaches and administrators were slow to cooperate with investigators. The district even tried to seal the records of the civil cases brought by the victims. Even worse than that is the fact that this type of brutal violence had gone on for years as shown in this article.

Here is another quote from a Call to Action conference, this one from 1997:

"The majority of us here represent a generation that's been wandering around almost 40 years since the Council, but what about the next generation? Could it be that our concerns have no relevance for the Boomers and Generation X? They don't seem turned on by our debates about who's to be ordained, what gender is needed for marriages, and whether or not we use inclusive language. As we keep insisting on these issues, could we just be the new conservators of a vision of church that doesn't speak to them in their search? Could this be the Spirit's invitation for us to probe more deeply who we are and what will ground us?"

--Michael Crosby, O.F.M. Cap

To answer this question---YES! You are the conservators of a corrupt Church that gave us disgusting priests who raped children! You are the conservators of a Church that left behind the Gospel of Jesus Christ! As another Franciscan priest, Fr. Groeschel said: "I'm not a conservative, I want to blow the whole thing up!"

"In Vatican II, Luther and the Modernists would find a home for many of their ideas."

--Anthony Padovano, speaker at the 2000 Call to Action conference

Is he right? And if so, can a Catholic then accept this council in its entirety?

I just found this: a father and son, both firefighters, both died in the World Trade Center. Another son lived-he carried Fr. Judge's body out of the WTC.

Anyone have any knowledge of theology? Is it true to say that there were other immaculate conceptions in history (Adam and Eve, John the Baptist for example) but that Mary is the Immaculate Conception?

At Catholic and Enjoying It! there is a discussion on The Perennial Santa Question-what to teach the kiddies re Santa. I have always enjoyed Andy Edelstein's column on fathering and this week he happens to touch on a similiar thing with Tooth Shall Set Ye Free .

U.S. Diplomats, Families Urged to Leave Saudi Arabia

"We remain fully confident that Saudi authorities are doing everything they can to protect their citizens and foreign nationals in the kingdom against terrorist attacks," department spokesman Lou Fintor said."

Saudi Arabia Bans Dolls, Stuffed Animals

I am so proud to be from Massapequa! Joey Buttafuoco, convicted rapist, has been arrested again, this time for fraud.

Among cities with more than 1 million residents, New York was the safest by far - with a crime rate nearly four times lower than in Dallas, three times lower than in Phoenix and roughly half as high as in Philadelphia or Los Angeles.

New York City continues to have a lower than expected crime rate. This has been the case for several years now and hopefully it will continue. I never thought of Phoenix or Dallas having high crime rates at all.