Newsday has a story about a situation in the wealthy neighborhood of Manhasset:

"When the Rev. Nick Zientarski invoked the name of Jesus Christ during his traditional blessing of the official Christmas tree lighting in Manhasset last week, he had no idea he had signed on as a soldier in the culture wars over Christmas.

Even as he spoke, the Roman Catholic priest said he could hear North Hempstead Supervisor Jon Kaiman angrily objecting behind him, "this is inappropriate." Then, Kaiman got up and told the crowd, "I just want to make it clear that this is in no way a religious ceremony."


I met Fr. Zientarski when he was a seminarian on a retreat. He seemed like a solid JPII type of guy with a great attitude about things in the world and in the Church.

"She tried to break it to me gently and then, just as she was about to tell me, I said 'I was aborted, right?' She said 'Yeah, you were.' And my reaction was 'Well, at least I have cerebral palsy for an interesting reason.' "

Amazing story found via Off the Record.

Fired nuns speak out

3 older nuns were replaced as campus ministers by younger "peer ministers" while a 73 year old nun at one campus was kept in place. The 3 fired nuns are claiming age and gender discrimation. What is really going on is part of a larger story within this diocese and the Church in general. The job shifting really doesn't have to do with age and gender so much as orthodoxy and tradition. The Diocese is trying to reach the young college age students and keep their faith alive. The nuns, from interviews in the past, seem to be concerned with interfaith services, social justice and counseling. The Catholic teachings and traditions did not have a special place of value at least from I have read. The Diocese seems to want to focus on the type of ministries that have worked throughout the country, with a focus on Church traditions, sacraments and teachings. Although I am very sympathetic to anyone who loses their job, the 3 nuns will not be in danger of being homeless, as their orders are able to support them and they will find work. Although I am very interested in seeing this Diocese overcome its horrible past under Bishop McGann, I would hate to see the Church treat people as corporate America treats people. So, although this sounds like a good move on the part of Fr. Barr, I had hoped the nuns were treated fairly. One fact that I have not seen before confirms that the Church has been more than fair:

"Moreover, Dolan said, the bishop, who met with the sisters in September, offered to rescind their terminations, keep them on the diocesan payroll and the diocese would find them a job -- but not in campus ministries."

"It's really not rescinding if you're not offering us a position within campus ministries," Riordan said. "This is the job we wanted to do and we didn't want to take away other people's jobs in the diocese."

This sounds just like Bishop Murphy - he would rescind their terminations, keep paying them and find them other jobs. What could be more Christian than that? That is certainly not treating these nuns like "dirt" as one of the nuns claimed. It sounds like the Bishop bent over backward to help the nuns out, but they just couldn't take being replaced. I could understand the feelings involved, but ultimately this is going to help keep campus ministry in line with the New Evangelization.

"Father James Williams hasn't forgotten his own prom at Chaminade High School.

'Afterward, we went to the diner, and then we went home," he said. "I think we went to the beach the next day.'

Ah, innocent youth, circa 1987!"

Ellis Henican in Newsday on the Chaminade non-prom story.

The other story in today's Newsday quotes junior Sean Rober, the blogger at Fac ut Gaudeam.

"Why the Pope is better than Elton John" at Relapsed Catholic

Newsday.com has on the front page: No Prom for Chaminade High School

Amy Welborn linked to Fac ut Gaudeam on the cancellation of Chaminade High School's proms.

Dan at Shrine of the Holy Whapping (a fellow Chaminade grad), asks the $1,000,000 question -

"This culture of unmediated affluence is in some sense a dark side of the "American dream" removed from recourse to the moral and social teaching of the Church. In that sense, this particular issue ought to raise some thoughts among Catholics about why the Church in the Northeast is so dessicated compared to the Midwest and some parts of the South. Did the same comfort and affluence help to foster the general stifling of a distinctively Catholic culture and of evangelical zeal after the second generation or so of immigrants?"

While I applaud the schools for dropping the prom and trying to fight the culture of excess, I hope Kellenberg and Chaminade can come up with an alternative event. As Andrew Cusack comments on the post at the Shrine, students need to be taught how to behave at a formal event. For Chaminade men, a formal dance is especially important, what with being cooped up with no female students for 4 years! Anyway, both Kellenberg and Chaminade have Senior Proms that will continue - students from both schools go to a local nursing home and host a formal dinner/dance with the elderly residents. The students host the event and act as dates for the seniors. It is a popular event and I have yet to hear of any stories of excessive spending on food, limos or drink.

This post on Liturgy by Fr. Jay Scott Newman is just awesome. I found it via Off the Record.

"Remember that every liturgy leaves chronological time and enters kairotic time. In chronos we say Good Morning; in liturgical kairos we say Dominus vobiscum. If we do not depart from the texts of the Church, then we stand a fair chance of taking the people with us into the never ending liturgy of the New Jerusalem. This is also why SLOW walking, talking and gestures are important. Same with hiding street clothes under sacred vesture. Ditto for the athletic shoes of the altar boys."

I have attended very few Novus Ordo Masses where the above type of stuff is understood. Please go and read the entire post, it is very good.

CIA Realizes It's Been Using Black Highlighters All These Years

This headline from The Onion is funnier than the actual article.

Tommorrow night is the Faith on Tap session featuring John Zmirak. Any locals in their 20's or 30's might wish to attend. Those from NYC can take the LIRR and get off at the Wantagh RR Station, and the Wantagh Inn is right across the street. This time Mr. Zmirak will speak on his book - The Bad Catholic's Guide to Good Living

I created one of those Frappr! maps but not for Gen X Revert readers. It is for my Catholic Blog Directory and I am encouraging all Catholic bloggers to put their pin on the map so it will become a map of Catholic blogs.

If you have a Catholic blog and it is listed on the Directory, please add your pin, thanks.

8th Commandment 101

Kellenberg High School became somewhat famous when it announced it would no longer sponsor a senior prom. Now, some Kellenberg students make the news again -

"Two teenagers videotaping a school project caught a convicted thief on camera allegedly stealing money from a church in Malverne. "

I'd say give those kids an A+.

Tassone's domestic partner asks for "marital privilege" in court

"Two months after former Roslyn Superintendent Frank Tassone implicated his longtime companion in an $11.2-million embezzlement scheme, the partner says Tassone would be violating "solemn" vows they made during a commitment ceremony in the Caribbean if he testifies against him."

From Newsday, a list of stories on this scandal

The scandal at the Roslyn school district involved several figures stealing millions of dollars over the course of several years. The school district discovered assistant superintendent Pamela Gluckin had stolen some money and allowed her to pay it back and quietly retire. The school district did not tell anyone, not even the police for fear of scandal. Sound familiar Catholics? The scandal broke when an anonymous letter was sent indicating what had happened. It turned out a lot more money was stolen than the district realized. The scandal involved many people and shocked this very wealthy neighborhood. The people involved were absolutely selfish- Frank Tassone gave up information on his homosexual lover, the former assistant superintendent Pamela Gluckin gave up information on her own son (John McCormick) and niece (Debra Rigano), and the district auditor (Andrew Miller) tried to cover up the embezzlement by altering documents. He ended up losing his entire business. What were these people thinking? Is Long Island so filled with trash that important jobs can't even be filled with honest, decent people? Gluckin was the most conniving, even keeping records on all the rest so that when the crimes were uncovered she would be able to give up the others in exchange for a lighter sentence. It makes you wonder how the people in this very good and very wealthy school district could be so clueless about the character of the people they trusted. I mean I really don't find it too hard to tell when a person is a liar, a professional charmer, two-faced, etc... Newsday should do a story on the people who knew these crooks, worked with them, dealt with them to see how so many people could miss so many clues.

From the minutes of the Long Island Voice of the Faithful regional meeting (9/8/5):

"VOTF will continue to “sing a new Church into being.”

I prefer the old Church thanks.

The chief engineer at the television station of the Diocese of Rockville Centre was arrested. He was accused of setting up a company to do the maintenance work around the station's tower and this work was never done. Telecare paid for this work for several years and the engineer, Joseph Kosik collected the money. Telecare said this was discovered after a routine audit that occurred soon after a new priest took over the station. This is the second time I have seen someone arrested after a "routine audit" after a leadership change. The last time was when Holy Family parish in Hicksville got a new pastor and two men who were long time employees of the parish were discovered to have used the parish's credit cards for all sorts of personal uses. The Diocese needs to keep good control over what goes in the seminary, the priesthood but also all the various apostolates.

This would probably also be a good time to ask whether it is worth having Telecare around. It is nice to have a place where people can see what is going on in the Diocese, but perhaps the network should stick to showing EWTN mostly and just produce a couple hours of local Catholic programming a week. EWTN has succeeded because it is not Catholic Lite, it is fully Catholic. Sadly, this cannot be said about Telecare.

"T’hee zichro Baruch. [May his memory ever serve as a blessing.]"

I like this expression I stumbled upon. It comes from a local rabbi's reflection on the death of Pope John Paul II.

Monsignor's resignation stuns
Sudden departure of noted clergyman at cusp of seminary review surprises faculty and students

I heard about this a few days ago. I am not sure what to think of this, although I think that mentioning the seminary review is a bit of yellow journalism, surprising from Newsday quite frankly. (They are anti-Catholic bigots there but politically correct to the max.). I have briefly met Msgr. Schneider and don't really know much about him. I have seen changes at the seminary over the past few years that are rather good.

Mass celebrates LI immigrants

Nice Newsday article on the annual Mass for Immigrants.

"Hammers, saws and dozens of volunteers swung into action to help a breast cancer survivor with a much needed home repair."

Volunteer Fire Departments on Long Island

Newsday is starting a series of reports on the volunteer fire departments here on Long Island. This is sure to open a can of worms but this type of local reporting is what Newsday does best. The fire departments are cherished and act as more than just a fire department, they are also am important social network. It is good to know you have neighbors who will come to your aid when you need them, and vice versa. Long Island is supposed to be the largest area covered almost exclusively by volunteer firemen. Many of the volunteers work for pay in the NYC fire departments. The system works well, but there are some growing questions about the budgets and ability of the departments to handle things compared to how we would do with paid firefighters. Nobody here wants to say we should get rid of the volunteer system as it is too much a hallmark of Long Island, and the volunteers are great people. I would hope Long Island can create a paid system, perhaps one for each county, but still maintain a large system of volunteers. As any Long Islander can testify, the volunteer firefighters here are some of the best men and women you will meet.

One thing I read in the article that I have also heard in the Knights of Columbus is the difference between the older volunteers and the younger volunteers. The older people ask what can I do for this community, and the younger ask what can this do for me.

Great guys!

"Two bodega workers helped save about two dozen mentally handicapped residents from a Harlem group home yesterday when a fire destroyed the three-story building."