The Long Island Catholic has an article on police work and Catholicism that features John Moreno. He wrote Spirituality for Police Officers and runs retreats and nights of recollections that are quite good.

"Police officers “experience all that is bad in society and we do so over and over; we can wind up seeing only the bad in people, expecting the worst from them,” said Mr. Moreno, 74, who worked at Bishop Molloy Retreat House in Jamaica for 13 years and is now the director of adult programs at the Emmanuel Retreat House at Kellenberg Memorial High School in Uniondale."

Basia Me, Catholica Sum

This is a new blog by an 18 year old Christendom student.

TWO MONTHS AFTER “THE PASSION”:
BODY COUNT—ZERO

"Two months have elapsed since the film was released and no Jew has been killed. Not only have there been no pogroms, there have been no reported beatings, and no reported acts of vandalism associated with the film. This is true not only in the U.S.; it is true all over the world. By now the movie has played in literally scores of countries, all without violence. "

"Those who predicted that the movie would generate violence need to explain themselves."

I will personally blog every single written apology from any of The Passion's public critics right here. I hope I have enough space for all them.

HOLY TURF WARS

Good article by Ralph Peters.

"As a student of history alert to ugly surprises, my fear is that Islamic extremists may arouse passions dormant in the West. Muslim terrorists might do well to recall that there are far more Christian holy places in the Arab world than there are Muslim vestiges in Europe.

Suppose the Christians of tomorrow were provoked to demand the return of the apostolic churches of Asia minor? Or the vast lands of Orthodox Byzantium? Of historical Armenia? Or of Alexandria, the city that dominated early Christian thought? Before Mohammed's triumph, even Mecca had a Christian minority - and Jews had a vital presence in Medina. "

BISHOP SICK OF LOCAL CHURCH SCENE

"Don't get me wrong—I still care about everyone's eternal soul," Boland added. "I care deeply, but I must admit that the congregations have sorta become one big blur of blue-haired old ladies. Lately, when I get the question about whether so-and-so's cats are waiting for her in heaven, I just fall back on a stock answer."

"Cardinal Roger Mahony said he was not surprised by Boland's attitude.
"Bishop Boland is going through a temporary period of dissatisfaction, similar to those experienced by many of his colleagues," Mahony said. "As a cardinal, I'm forced to listen to that same complaint again and again. It's getting really old. If he's so unhappy, he's more than welcome to quit the Church and go work at a Taco Bell."

Why is it that one of the most refreshing comments I have read by a Cardinal had to be a made up one from The Onion??

Society for a Moratorium on the Music of Marty Haugen and David Haas

Many members of St. Blog's are signed up already for this, I just sent in an email to join. Woudn't it be great if this movement spread? Picture thousands of protesters across the country outside parishes, chanting "2-4-6-8, Gregorian Chant is really great!". It could really happen man!

I recently heard two talks given by Catholics. One was at a local Faith on Tap event by Dr. Joseph Varacalli. The talk he gave is available at the Catholic Social Scientists website: The Cultural And Political Impotence of Catholics In Contemporary American Life. A quote:

"...herein lies one important incongruity between an orthodox understanding of the faith and the vision of secularists and most present day Catholic “liberationist” and “progressivist” thinkers for whom an all-consuming this-worldly political involvement represents a be-all and end-all of human existence. To the contrary, the reconstruction of society along authentic Christian principles and lines at least compatible with Catholic social thought, while a good in and by itself, nonetheless is not the raison d’etre of the Catholic faith. Rather it is a lesser good; it is both secondary to and derivative of the primary mission of assisting individuals in the quest for eternal salvation. "

The other lecture was on Friday night, and was by Dr. William Donohue of the Catholic League. The speaker who introduced him said "I hope he comes out of his shell and tells us how he really feels" which got a good laugh from the crowd. He spoke on the controversy surrounding Mel Gibson's The Passion of The Christ. He did an excellent job in pointing out the anti-Catholic nature of most of the criticism. He recounted some of the worst examples and then reviewed some of the stories of people, who as a result of viewing the film, turned themselves in for crimes they committed . He did raise the issue of Mel's traditional Catholicism and how that affected some of the controversy. This was something I had hoped would be raised. He also stated he never asked what Mel's exact situation with the Church was. People were able to write questions down after the talk and Dr. Varacalli, who moderated the discussion, then chose the most critical questions for Donohue to answer. I thought the questions were fair and Dr. Donohue did a decent job responding to the questions, although there were time constraints that made it impossible for full, complete answers. Some of the questions and concerns raised by people showed the vast gulf between those Christians and Jews who watched the film, and seemed to see totally different things.

I enjoyed reading the correction in today's Newsday regarding Jimmy Breslin. I could not find it online but Extreme Catholic links to it on the NY Newsday site.

"Breslin said he erred in not referring to the 1995 column before writing his April 7, 2004, column. Instead, he drew the quotes from memory. The result is that the quotes attributed to Sheldon in the April 7 column were incorrect and not Sheldon's precise words. Breslin maintains, however, that they were an accurate reflection of the essence of the reverend's views on homosexuality in the 1992 interview." (emphasis mine)

"the column did not adhere to Newsday's standard of publishing only direct quotations that are accurate and precise."

Good to know that they have this policy but hopefully they will expand it to include not just direct quotes, but all printed facts. When it comes to the Catholic Church Newsday has printed some incredibly incorrect things, which indicates an extreme bigotry. Their commentary is bigoted also, but that is always opinion, news reporting should be unbiased and correct.

In reference to a post below from April 7th, on the Palm Sunday Gospel and my parish's weird way of reading the Gospel, a reader writes:

"I came late to the discussion on the reading of the Passion (your Apr. 7 post). Perhaps I can shed a little more light on the changes.

I am a musician at my parish. Beginning about 10 years ago I began hearing and reading about a minor movement to take away the people's parts in the reading of the Passion where they are the voice of the crowd, including the chant, "Crucify Him!" The thinking, obviously by liberals or progressives or whatever one wants to call them, was that it was somehow not appropriate for us to be the ones calling for the death of Christ. It looks like some of the "worship aid" publishers bought into this. Our missalettes* always used to have the crowd parts in bold type, indicated as "All." About four years ago the company removed the bold type and began indicating the crowd parts as "Chorus," not in bold type, hinting that the people should not be saying these parts. I read comments by various liturgy "experts" encouraging the use of short acclamations throughout the Passion in order to give the people a part in it. We actually did this at our parish for a couple of years, using the sung Lenten gospel acclamations "Glory and praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ" or "Praise and honor to you...." Of course the people had to be instructed in the new procedure, and I never liked it since it seemed too forced. This year we went back to having the people do the crowd parts. After the many accusations of anti-Semitism in "TPOTC" by the media, it was made abundantly clear that WE are truly the ones who caused the death of Jesus, so why should we not act the part in the reading of the Passion? (Sometimes I reflect that if I had lived in Jesus' time, I might have been one of those failing to see Him as Messiah and calling for Him to be crucified!)

(*Be aware that "missalette" is a trademark of the J. S. Paluch Company, and they get testy when people use the word to describe "worship aids" published by other companies. I use it here because Paluch is our music supplier.)"

Thanks for the email! The strange thing is that the missalette (or whatever) at our parish still prints the Gospel with the parts, and we all say the crowd parts out loud anyway. Also, I wonder if part of this thing is an attempt to stop the priest from reading the part of Christ exclusively.

Here is where I will be on Friday night--

The Controversy over Mel Gibson's "The Passion of The Christ"

Panel discussion led by sociologist William Donohue, Ph.D., President, Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights

Friday, April 16th, 2004, Nassau Community College, Building K, Ballroom, 7-9 PM, to be followed by questions from the audience

Here is a story on Long Islanders coming into the Catholic Church tonight at Easter Vigil. I will be at the Easter Vigil tonight, something I have done for several years now. It is a beautiful finish to the Easter Triduum and I hope that all those entering the Church are enthusiastically welcomed by Catholics.

"One made a promise to become a Catholic if his back surgery was successful. Another was baptized a Lutheran but says she was not raised in a very religious household. A third, an emigrant from Japan, says he realized Catholicism reflects his own values.

Saturday, on the eve of Easter, they will be among 548 people who join the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Rockville Centre and 150,000 in parishes nationwide."

Jeff Sharlet of The Revealer posts a discussion at BloggerCon on religion and blogger.

"So what do religion blogs mean to traditional media, religious and secular?"

For me, correction. Media (especially Newsday) is so anti-religion and especially anti-Christian that I will turn to St. Blog's to get the correct information on current news. The errors I see daily add up to an incredibly ignorant understanding of the Church and Christianity in general. St. Blog's will often have people who are behind the scenes or who can give 1st hand info on what is going on in the Church.

"Are they bringing belief more visibly into the public sphere?"

For St. Blog's, no, I think it is an "in-house" thing that does not necessarily appeal to a wider audience, although the best few blogs might.

"Do they threaten traditional religious hierachies?"

Ha!, no, but they treaten the lunkheads who have infested the hierachies for the past 30 years, since they expose their doings to the light. I don't think Fr. Paul Shanley could have gotten away with what he did if blogs were around in the 80's.

"Do they tend toward the politicization of religious beleif?"(sic)

I hope not, but this might be a chicken or the egg thing. Do they politicize religious belief, or are they manifestations of politics within religion?

"How do belief blogs relate to the real world -- as lay ministry, as rebellion, as outsider critique?"

Again, as far as St. Blog's goes, I think the blogs are mostly outsider critique, in the sense that most orthodox Catholics are outside of the parish/diocese power structure. We blog about the way we would like to see dioceses and parishes run because we are not the ones running them. Very few blogs would be lay ministry, although there are some apologetic blogs. Overall, most of us could do a better job of making blogging more of a ministry.

"Are they a force for change within religious institutions? Journalistic institutions?"

I could hope!

Alicia of Fructis Ventris will be at BloggerCon and it looks like it should be interesting.

I just did the optical image thing at A Catholic Blog for Lovers and it works. We Gen-Xers are famous for being cynical but this is cool!

I went to the Chrism Mass this morning and it was good. I have never been to this before. Five bishops, hundreds of priests and deacons, hundreds of lay people, and a good choir made the Mass quite inspirational. A liturgical highlight was at the Our Father- the organist played only a few notes at the beginning and then the rest was sung, chanted really, a capella by everyone present.

Jimmy Breslin Accused of Faking Interview

JIMMY BRESLIN IS A LYING BIGOT admits Les Payne.

"Newsday's New York editor, Les Payne, said Breslin should have made it clear in Wednesday's column that the quotes he attributed to Sheldon came from a 1992 interview. "Our readers should have been let in on the time frame," Payne said. "

I heard a priest say that Breslin became angry at the Catholic Church because at the funeral of his first wife, the priest read the prayer that includes the line "forgive her her sins". Breslin was insulted because you see, he believes his wife was perfect. Which is why he has a problem with the Church, because the Church knows all people are sinners. That is why Mother Theresa went to confession often. Since Breslin is a child in many ways, he never could get over the death of his first wife, and a lot of anger and bigotry is hurled at the Church. But a bigot is a bigot, and Catholics are not the only ones who are his targets--

"It was a Friday afternoon in May 1990. Ji-Yeon Yuh, then a journalist at Newsday’s Queens bureau in New York City, came home to discover more than a dozen messages waiting on her answering machine. She soon learned why.

Pulitzer Prize–winning columnist Jimmy Breslin had called her a “yellow cur” and “slant-eyed” during an angry outburst in Newsday’s Manhattan office after he read Yuh’s e-mail message in response to one of his columns, which she had criticized as being sexist. "

This is from the Northwestern University magazine. But this article left out one of the things he called the woman, so I link to this article by Nat Hentoff that reminds people Breslin also called her something the "The New York Times demurely called "an obscene anatomical reference. . . .". He adds:

"In that soliloquy, which will dog him the rest of his days, Breslin also railed at her for having the nerve to send him a computer message that called a column of his "sexist." She had no right, he more than implied, to criticize him, because she was inferior, in more ways than one. She did not deserve free speech."

These were just some of the articles I had on file about the bigotry of Jimmy Breslin because a long time ago someone came to this blog after doing a google search for "jimmy breslin slant-eyed". I had mentioned this bigot on my very first week of blogging.

Brother Juniper

I don't know where it came from, but since I was a child there was a cartoon book in our house called More Brother Juniper. It featured a round faced franciscan who was child-like and it quite humorous. Today I found some information on this cartoon, which I was shocked to find out ran until 1989!

The Brother Juniper story

The creator Fred McCarthy is still alive but no longer a priest

Sample cartoons

I took off from work for Holy Week, something I have done for the past 4 years. For a Liturgy nerd there is nothing better than the Easter Triduum. Even the horrible liturgists can't seem to mess that up entirely. However, one thing that I would love explained to me is why on Palm Sunday and during Holy Week, the Passion Gospel is not read in parts anymore. The priest used to read the parts marked Christ, a lector would read the narrator parts, and everyone in the pews would read the crowd part. Now, the lectors and the priest simply take turns reading sections of the Gospel, with no regard to different parts, including the words of Christ. The reading is also stopped a few times for the singer to sing "Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom", which I don't mind since it is a beautiful refrain.

Change of Heart: Sister Butler Explains Why She No Longer Backs Women Priests

"Sister Sara Butler, a Missionary Servant of the Most Blessed Trinity, is a theologian who in the 1960s and 1970s was one of the leading proponents for women’s ordination. But she now embraces and defends the teachings of the magisterium on the priesthood with conviction and expertise. "

It is always comforting to see women defend the tradition of an all male priesthood. Although this is solid Catholic tradition and I have never understood how people can see this in terms of equality and power, I have always felt it is difficult for me, as a guy, to defend it without sounding sexist. The best is when former clergy convert, such as Linda Poindexter, a former "episcopal priest". Jennifer Ferrara and Patricia Ireland, former Lutheran ministers who are now Catholic, wrote a book entitled The Catholic Mystique, which tells the story of women converts.

I added a Passion of The Christ gross tracker to the right. It is supposed to automatically update itself. I enjoy seeing the success of the movie because of all the bigotry surrounding it. I wonder if Roger Friedman from the Foxnews website has ever printed a retraction of the lies he wrote about the movie not being distributed widely, or in Jewish or wealthy neighborhoods. In case anyone forgot here is the original article, here is a second, and a sampling of what he wrote:

"When the film — which some critics are calling anti-Semitic and inflammatory — opens on Feb. 25, it will be in very select theatres only. "
(emphasis mine)

"Theater-goers will also be hard-pressed to find "The Passion of the Christ" in Nassau County, Long Island on either the south or north shore, or in affluent Westchester County, New York."

Funny, I only know of a few people who have not seen the movie, all by choice, none because they had trouble finding it.

"The theaters they have chosen in Jewish areas are minimal — none, for example, on Long Island near Valley Stream and the Five Towns or Great Neck and Roslyn — but screens in more friendly places like Merrick, Lynbrook and Seaford. "

Towns where the movies is showing compared to the towns he cites:

Lynbrook is 12 minutes (4.77 miles) from the Five Towns area
Lynbrook is 5 minutes (2.20 miles) from Valley Stream
Port Washington is 17 minutes (5.28 miles) from Great Neck
Port Washington is 13 minutes (4.38 miles) from Roslyn

And: The movie is showing in Seaford, which is in between Massapequa and Bellmore, both of which have large Jewish populations. Also, Merrick is both heavily Jewish and upscale.


As David Poland wrote here and here, Roger Friedman should be fired for this bigotry. For such a hard to find movie, it is amazing The Passion of The Christ is one of the 10 most successful movies of all time!

I thought I had seen all the stupidity possible in critiques of The Passion of The Christ, but Tom Beaudoin takes the cake. Writing in the non-Catholic National Catholic Reporter, he claims the movie is anti-Christian. It is writing like this that makes me so glad to see the box office numbers climb higher and higher.