Nassau County NY Catholic Blog

I wish I had noticed these great blogs earlier - they both take you on a tour of parishes with lots of pictures and some history. It is a wonderful idea and a great job by the blogger - I will be putting them both on the sidebar.

Nassau County NY Catholic

Brooklyn Catholic

Hofstra Student Shot Dead During Home Invasion

"(CBS/AP) A female Hofstra University student who was fatally shot early Friday in a Long Island home was killed along with an armed suspect during a police-involved shooting as authorities responded to a home invasion robbery, police said, reports CBS New York.

The victim, identified by 1010WINS radio as Andrea Rebello, 21, from Westchester County, was reportedly in the home with her twin sister at the time of the break-in.  

Police said the other sister was not harmed, CBS New York reported."

From CBS News.
 
This is horrible - please pray for this young woman, her family and the other students in this house that will have to live with this.  Hofstra is a great school but near two of the highest crime neighborhoods in Nassau County:  Hempstead and Uniondale.  In 2004 there was a Hofstra student raped right off of California Avenue near where this home invasion took place.  Everyone needs to be aware of bad it is around there and consider living on campus.

With New Leaders In Rome And Beijing, China's Catholics Face Uncertain Future

"SHANGHAI - On the last Monday of April, this city's main Cathedral was filled with believers. They had come to honor the memory of the man who had done more than anyone to improve relations between the Vatican and China's so-called "Patriotic" Catholic Church.

Bishop Jin Luxian died last month at the age of 97. He had done his novitiate preparation for the priesthood in France, returning to his native China in 1951, only to be imprisoned five years later by Mao’s regime -- and would go on to spend a total of 18 years in prison and nine in a labor camp.

Despite all of this, Jin joined the official "patriotic" Church once he got out of prison in 1982, and worked for years trying to bring it closer together with the clandestine communities of Catholics loyal to Rome. The estimated 10 million Catholics in China are split between those with allegiance to the Pope and those that practice under the auspices of the Patriotic Church that is sanctioned by the Communist Party.

In 2005, Monsignor Jin successfully pushed for the ordination of an assistant bishop, who was approved both by Rome and the Chinese authorities. This event marked the beginning of a relative thawing of relations between Beijing and the Holy See.

But that compromise came undone in November 2010 in the northeastern city of Chengde, when the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association resumed the ordination of bishops who had not been previously approved by the Pope. Members of the clergy who were faithful to Rome were forcibly taken to religious services by State security forces.

On the one hand, Beijing argues that the ordination process must be accelerated, especially in dioceses where there is no bishop. Roman Catholics, on the other hand, see this move as a hardening of Beijing’s stance. What they are not sure about is whether this is part of a more general control over human rights militants, or a stratagem on the part of the officials in charge of Catholic affairs, who fear their power would collapse if the improved relationship between Rome and Beijing solidified."

Click here to read the rest of this article.  I hope the situation in China improves for all people so they can live in freedom, particularly the freedom to worship as they see fit.  

Are Catholic Universities Still Committed to Working-Class Families?

The issue of college debt and the affordability of higher education is all over the news today, and with good reason.  Students are graduating with higher debt than ever before and their degrees are not helping them in this economy.  I was glad to see this look at the issue from a specifically Catholic point of view:

From the Cardinal Newman Society:  a look at the affordability of Catholic Universities.

"Catholic colleges have long been known for their generous financial aid, which for many decades helped students from Catholic immigrant and working-class families climb the economic ladder in the United States.


But a new study accuses many of America’s wealthiest colleges of using aid to recruit middle-class students instead of serving the educational needs of low-income families. These include several large Catholic universities: Boston College, Saint Louis University, Santa Clara University, the University of Dayton, the University of Notre Dame and Villanova University."

Bishop Murphy of Diocese of Rockville Centre

Over at The Catholic Thing, there is an article by fellow Long Islander George J. Marlin regarding Bishop Murphy -

Long Island’s Bishop Murphy: Fighting the Good Fight

Telecare to Air Town Hall with Bishop William Murphy

I just saw this announcement on the Diocese of Rockville Centre's website -

ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. – May 16, 2013 -- On Pentecost Sunday, May 19, 2013, Bishop William Murphy will host a live 2 hour program that celebrates the Year of Faith, and our commitment to Belong More Deeply through the New Evangelization!

The program will air LIVE 7:00PM – 9:00PM ET followed by Mass from Rome with His Holiness Pope Francis.

Join parishes and people throughout the Diocese of Rockville Centre with live remotes, special guests, entertainment, and the ability to call or email a question to the Bishop!

We encourage parishes to watch together in groups and at home on Cablevision channel 29 /137 or Verizon FiOS channel 296. The live program will also be available at TelecareTV.org. Questions can be emailed ahead of time to: info@telecaretv.org

Franciscan University of Steubenville Graduates its Second-Largest Class

From Catholic Educational Daily of the Cardinal Newman Society:

"Franciscan University of Steubenville graduated its second-largest graduating class on Saturday, May 11. The University graduated 708 graduates from 40 undergraduate and 7 master's programs.


At the May 10 Baccalaureate Mass, the Most Reverend José H. Gomez, archbishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, noted that today’s society believes “there is no God or his existence doesn’t make any difference. Worshiping God, living our faith, is more and more contrary to the law.” This presents a challenge for the Church, he said, because “we have to find new ways to proclaim Christ and to live as Christians in this culture. This is what the new evangelization is all about, and that’s what we expect from each one of you.”

Archbishop Gomez encouraged the graduates to share the good news of Jesus Christ and to change the world. “Our mission is to continue his mission: To redeem that little part of the world that we live in—our homes, the places where we work, our neighborhoods, to sanctify reality, to help our loved ones and the people we meet every day to find God,” he said. “And we go with Jesus, we go with God. He gives us the promise that he made to his first apostles, the promise that he would be with us, no matter what, until the end of the age.”

IRS Targeted Tea Party Groups

As the scandal over the IRS targeting Tea Party groups continue ('Angry' Obama announces IRS leader's ouster after conservatives targeted), a Catholic writer claims the IRS has her in their sights as well:

Noted professor and sociologist Dr. Anne Hendershott claims IRS may have targeted her with a 2010 audit


5/16 UPDATE:  Bill Donohue of The Catholic League says they were also targeted by the IRS and mentions the same man as Dr. Hendershott:  Chris Korzen, the head of Catholics United:
Bill Donohue:  IRS Targeted Catholic League

Help support Catholic Education

Tomorrow's Hope Foundation Scholarship Gala

Thursday, May 23, 2013 at RXR Plaza in Uniondale, NY

6:30 PM Cocktails

7:30 PM  Dinner and Presentation

Silent and Live Auction

Business Attire

All proceeds raised at this gala will go to support the Tomorrow’s Hope Foundation.

The mission of Tomorrow’s Hope Foundation is to ensure the excellence as well as the continuance of Catholic elementary schools on Long Island, by increasing awareness and by providing scholarships and program funding for the needs of students and schools throughout the Diocese of Rockville Centre.

Our goal is to give more children the opportunity to enjoy the advantages of an elementary Catholic school education.



Msgr. Batule is the new Pastor at Corpus Christi in Mineola

Monsignor Robert Batule has been appointed as the new pastor of Corpus Christi in Mineola, succeeding Msgr. Robert Coyle who was ordained an auxiliary Bishop for the Archdiocese of the Military.  Msgr. Batule is presently working at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers.

"Msgr. Batule grew up in Merrick and attended St. Piux X in Uniondale, which closed in 1984. He attended Cathedral College in Douglaston, NY.

Batule was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Rockville Centre in 1985 and assigned to St. Boniface Church in Elmont. He served at Corpus Christi from 1993-2002 as a parish priest.

After a series of other parish assignments, Batule began seminary duties, including Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington. He currently serves at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers.

Batule is entering his fifth year of seminary assignment. He will be installed as pastor in Mineola on an unconfirmed Sunday in the fall after Labor Day."

Some more detail is at Mineola American

The Rise, Fall and Future of Catholicism in the U.S.

Russell Shaw has written a new book:  American Church  The Remarkable Rise, Meteoric Fall, and Uncertain Future of Catholicism in America


The history of the Catholic Church in America is fascinating and one I want to learn more about.  Shaw talks a bit about this history and the importance for American Catholics today here in Catholic World Report. 

Snip:

"CWR: What is the "Americanization of American Catholicism"? What have been its fruits over the past few decades?


Shaw: The expression refers to the process of cultural assimilation by which American Catholics entered the mainstream of American secular culture, became part of it, and bought into many of its values and attitudes. On the plus side, the result has been acceptance, upward socio-economic mobility, and much professional and material success.

But it has come at a high price. Buying into American secular values has time and again meant buying into a toxic value system in radical conflict with Catholic and Christian convictions on many fronts. And that has meant an ongoing loss of religious identity and commitment to the Church on the part of millions of nominal Catholics—to say nothing of the 22 million ex-Catholics in the United States."

Carl Icahn and Pope Francis

I was reading an issue of Forbes today with Carl Icahn on the cover.  Icahn has been all over the news over the past few years because he is going on a frenzy of activity buying up stakes in various companies.  He is at the peak of his long career in business investing and is a much feared 'activist investor' who is able to shake up boards of major corporations.  The article mentioned that he was 77 and that reminded me of Pope Francis' election.  Specifically, the first reactions I heard at work when the new Pope was announced was 'Why do they keep electing these older guys, why not someone younger?'.  Icahn shows that age is not a factor when it comes to vitality and the article made me think:  If a 77 year old (with billions of dollars) can be so influential in the corporate world where morality is not valued highly, can the 76 year old Pope be highly influential (with no money) in the Church where morality should be the #1 concern?

Related:  Here is a post on the ages of Popes through the centuries from a blog at the NY Times.

Catholic history and Genealogy

The Catholic Gene - Exploring Out Catholic Family History

I found this great group blog that happens to focus on my two great interests - Catholic history and genealogy.  Check it out, and if you have not researched your family history consider starting now.  It can be amazing how much you learn and how many people you are connected to in the world.  You will, at some point, end up using the resources of the Mormon church, who have a theological reason to keep the world's largest collection of genealogy records:  They believe in re-baptizing non-Mormons who have died.  This post at The Catholic Gene looks at this issue which can be a bit tricky for a Catholic interested in genealogy.

"It is well-known that the LDS church has some of the greatest genealogical information in the world in both quantity and quality. They obtain those records by going out all over the world and collecting or copying the original records. What is less well known is the doctrinal motivation for collecting ancestral records. Not being a member of the LDS church I’m hesitant to characterize their purposes other than to say that I am informed that it has to do with so-called re-baptism of non-LDS ancestors. That is the least what the Vatican knew in 2008, when the Holy Father instructed Catholic parishes not to cooperate with Mormon records seekers.


This issue had been brewing for quite a while. In 1995, Mormons and Jews reached an agreement that the LDS church would no longer “re-baptize” or “seal” Holocaust survivors that some LDS members had characterized as their ancestors. In 2001, Pope John Paul II approved a statement from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which stated that baptism in the LDS church cannot be held to be a valid Christian baptism. The statement went on to say that because of differences between the Catholic and Mormon understandings of the Trinity, “one cannot even consider this doctrine to be a heresy arising from a false understanding of Christian doctrine.”

Catholic Founding Fathers - The Carroll Family

At the Catholic Education Resource Center, this article on the Carroll family was written by a direct descendent of one of the Carrolls.

"George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, Patrick Henry, Benjamin Franklin. Nearly every schoolchild recognizes them as the Founding Fathers — signers of the Declaration of Independence, framers of the Constitution, heroes of the Revolutionary War.

There were a great many more Founding Fathers, however, even if their names are not so familiar as the above. Several of those lesser-known men who played key roles in the creation of the United States of America were Catholics. Chief among them were three members of the Carroll family of Maryland: Charles Carroll, the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence; his cousin Daniel Carroll; and Daniel Carroll's brother John Carroll, who became America's first Catholic bishop."

Read the rest here.

French Benedictine abbey streams its daily round of Latin liturgy to a worldwide audience

"First you hear muffled footsteps. Then a discreet cough. Moments later, the black-robed monks begin intoning the service that they are broadcasting to the world. In Latin. Forget the Singing Nun. The Benedictine monks of Le Barroux Abbey in the Vaucluse region of south-eastern France don't have a hit record but they do know about podcasts and streaming.


They have taken the unusual step of distributing their religious offices on the internet. The idea came from worshippers from outside the monastery, known as oblates, who wanted to feel connected to the abbey's spiritual life, says Abbot Dom Louis-Marie. "So we looked into broadcasting via the internet. We decided to do it because it didn't involve any extra work for us."

Read the rest here.

Job Opening for Holy Trinity - Campus Minister

Job Description
Title: Full time Campus Minister

Place: Holy Trinity Diocesan High School

Starting date: August 2013

Description: The campus ministry program at Holy Trinity is rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The role of the campus minister is to offer opportunities for the spiritual growth and empowerment of young people. Responsibilities include organizing retreats; coordinating services; and facilitating opportunities for seasonal prayer and rituals, social justice activities, reflections and discussions, and Sacraments of Liturgy and Reconciliation. The campus minister works in collaboration with the school's Chaplain and Principal as well as with other faculty and administrators, related club moderators, and high school campus ministers in the Diocese of Rockville Centre (some night and weekend work is required).

Qualifications: Bachelor's degree in theology required

Master's degree in theology preferred

Experience in working with youth at the secondary level

Salary range: Dependent on Qualifications

Application: Please send cover letter, resume and list of three professional references to Mr. Gene Fennell at gfennell@holytrinityhs.echalk.com

Source: Catholic Jobs

F Scott Fitzgerald's gravesite

From The Independent, a column about the obscure burial place of the author of The Great Gatsby:

"When he died in 1940, the writer considered himself a failure. He was an alcoholic, broke, and reduced to writing mostly unused Hollywood screenplays. His marriage had collapsed and Zelda was diagnosed as a schizophrenic. Fitzgerald's family were from Rockville, and though he had never lived there himself, the plan was for his body to be buried at St Mary's in the family plot. But the church refused, on the grounds that he wasn't a practising Catholic. Moreover, noted the parish priest, "we find his books objectionable".


Instead, Fitzgerald was interred in nearby Rockville Cemetery. Few attended the funeral, and the Protestant minister who led the service didn't know who he was. The occasion was an eerie re-enactment of Gatsby's funeral, attended by not a single one of the hundreds of "friends" who went to the sumptuous parties at his Long Island mansion. Eight years later Fitzgerald was joined in death by Zelda. Only in 1975 were their remains moved to St Mary's."

Catholic Events for Long Islanders

If you know of any events that would be interesting for Catholics on Long Island please email me by clicking the Email Me at the right.  I would like to be able to keep Long Islanders informed of events going on within the Church - Diocese of Rockville Centre, Diocese of Brooklyn and the Archdiocese of New York.  Thank you!

I will keep the Events link on the right so they can always be easily found.

2 popes praying: Egyptian Copt and Pope Francis

The Associated Press

"VATICAN CITY —

Two popes prayed together Friday at the Vatican, one Catholic and one Orthodox, in a sign of improving ties following the election of new leaders for both churches.

Pope Francis welcomed the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt, Pope Tawadros II, in the first such meeting at the Vatican in 40 years, saying his visit "strengthens the bonds of friendship and brotherhood" between the two churches.

The Coptic and Catholic churches split in the fifth century over theocratic differences.

Christians comprise about 10 percent of Egypt's population. The Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt counts about 10 million faithful, while the Coptic Catholic Church in Egypt — whose faithful are loyal to Pope Francis — counts about 165,000.

Both, however, have complained about increased discrimination and attacks against them since the 2011 overthrow of longtime Egyptian ruler Hosni Mubarak, especially with the rise of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood."

Read the rest of this article with some pictures of the two Popes exchanging gifts.  Since Pope John XXIII and the Second Vatican Council the Church has had improved relations with other Christians.  It is good to see old rifts healed a bit, so hopefully we will see the Church 'breath with both lungs' as Pope John Paul II said.

Pope Tawadros shows Pope Francis how to be gangsta with some bling:

(AP Photo/Andreas Solaro, pool)

Mommy Blogs

Catholic News Service has a story about Mommy blogs - this subspecies of Catholic blogs has fascinated me since they first started to show up in growing numbers.  Unlike the typical blogs in the early years of 'St. Blogs Parish', (See this early list of Catholic blogs that I read 10 years ago) Mommy Blogs do not focus so much on Church politics, regular politics, the Liturgy wars, or the Church scandals.  They are more focused on the daily life of a Catholic mother, the joys and challenges of mothering and raising children in the 'domestic Church'.  I find the mommy blogs to be very high quality and interesting, even though I am a daddy and not a mommy.

The Catholic bloggers mentioned in the article are:  Catholic Mom (Lisa Hendey), Not Strictly Spiritual (Mary DeTurris Poust), and Coffee Talk (Rebecca Teti). 

Excerpt:

"WASHINGTON (CNS) -- One of Mary's titles is "Christ's First Disciple," and some of Christ's earliest followers were women, two of whom he appeared to first after his resurrection.


Now, some 2,000 years later, another special group of women, specifically Catholic moms who blog on the Internet about their faith, the Catholic Church, as well as the joys and challenges of parenthood and everyday family life, can be considered among Christ's newest evangelizers or "digital disciples."

"Part of our vocation as mothers is to be within our home and do our work with love, and (as Catholic bloggers) we can also do work that draws people closer to Christ and his church," said Lisa Hendey, a Catholic wife and mom blogger from Fresno, Calif.

In between carpool, dinner and homework duties, a growing number of Catholic moms have turned to Internet blogging as a newfound outlet to enrich their own Catholic faith, as well as the faith journeys of their regular readers, with whom they form a sort of spiritual camaraderie."