Dr. Philip Blosser, the Pertinacious Papist, has posted about Dr. Joseph Varacalli and his new book, The Catholic Experience in America. Dr. Blosser points out Dr. Varacalli is

"Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Catholic Studies at Nassau Community College-SUNY. He was co-founder of the Society of Catholic Social Scientists, first Editor-in-Chief of the Catholic Social Science Review, twice a Board of Directors Member of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars -- whose meetings are truly enjoyable affairs -- and the 12th recipient of the Pope Pius XI Award for the furthering of a true Catholic social science as called for in Quadragesimo Anno."

Obviously, Dr. Varacalli is a scholar and has done much work "in the field". I haven't read The Catholic Experience in America yet, but I read his Bright Promise, Failed Community: Catholics and the American Public Order and it was very good. Besides his academic credentials and great work for the Church, he is a true gentleman. At a conference of the Center for Catholic Studies at Nassau Community, featuring Cardinal Avery Dulles and others, he greeted my fiance with such warmth and good wishes for our upcoming marriage, it absolutely made her day.

DEUS CARITAS EST

The encyclical is out!

Want some insight into Msgr. McDonald, the new seminary rector? Matt Abbott quoted a letter written by him in 2004:


Straight Guy with the Catholic Eye: Priest’s ‘Letter to Freshmen’

And here he is writing a letter to America magazine responding to an article (scroll down)

And finally, a Long Island Catholic article from 2004

Bishop William Murphy Names New Seminary Rector

This is good - Msgr. McDonald is known for his orthodoxy. His parish is where a Novus Ordo in Latin is celebrated with chant (The Recovering Choir Director used to be in the choir there). Also, this parish has offered to be the host of the traditional Latin Mass for the Diocese so it can be celebrated in a parish Church. The interim administrator, Fr. Pereda, offers the traditonal Latin Mass for the Diocese in a chapel of a former school. Msgr. McDonald does not have the usual academic credentials for being a seminary rector but that is not necessarily a bad thing. He is known for encouraging young men to consider the priesthood. He will be able to keep the seminary on the path it has been on for a few years now. They now have Msgr. Fink as the spiritual director, who is also excellent, so things are looking up there.

Newsday's take

There are now 729 Catholic blogs in the Catholic Blog Directory and you can now see where many of these blogs are written! Click here to see the Directory broken down by location, starting with states in the USA and then by other countries.

[Cliff Clavin voice] It's a little known fact that the US state with the highest number of Catholic blogs is California - 38!

Ok class, time to compare and contrast:

The Catholic League's view of The Book of Daniel

Vs.

Long Island Episcopalians' view of The Book of Daniel

At least he wasn't using a cell phone -

"Suffolk County police had to use their own patrol cars to stop an unconscious driver in Medford Friday afternoon.....officers broke into the car where they say they found a crack pipe"

"At her inauguration Monday, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said the public "bestowed upon me a trust that I will not take for granted." But by the end of the week, she had already undercut that promise. Rice is making a mistake in hiring her brother's wife as a $95,000-a-year executive assistant. "

Dennis Dillon made a reputation for himself by being completely above the board and by keeping political patronage out of the DA's office. Dillon was a blessing for Nassau residents: a life-long democrat who switched parties simply because of his deeply held beliefs on abortion. He was not a loyal democrat or republican but that made him a great DA and a great person. People in Nassau understandably felt the need for change after having the same DA for 30 years. Now, we end up with a typical politician as DA - someone who hires their own relative. Newsday also informs:

"Rice, who pledged during the campaign not to make any political appointments, also hired Jeff Stein, former executive director of the Nassau Democratic party and the Democratic elections commissioner, to be her chief of administration. Rice defended that decision, saying Stein chose to leave politics behind."

Based on these two appointments by Rice, I wonder whether we will go back to the bad old days of political corruption in Nassau.

Mike Hayes, the Associate Director of BustedHalo.com thinks the Vatican should be protecting Pope John Paul II's assassin from danger -

"If the Vatican is not involved in securing his safety then maybe they should be. I think John Paul II would probably pick him up from the prison himself if he were alive today. And yet I believe unfortunately that Agca's life indeed will come to an end soon. Could the Vatican have prevented this loss of life? "


This is quite a stretch from saying the Pope forgave the man to saying the Vatican should be responsible for his safety.

Tommorrow's Hope Foundation

Bishop Murphy and Sr. Joanne Callahan started this foundation to support the Catholic elementary schools of the Diocese. Parishes will have a second collection on one Sunday a year and half the money will go to the Foundation and half will go to the parish or regional school. This is a good idea but one that is about 20 years late. Having bake sales and car washes to raise money does not cut it anymore when you are talking multi-million dollar budgets. I am a supporter of Catholic schools, but only when they actually teach the faith and when they are viable. Tommorrow's Hope will give out scholarships to students based on need, which is important since Catholic schools are no longer affordable for most. Since Long Island generally has good schools, the Catholic schools have to be very good to survive. I am sure many Catholics would love to send their kids to Catholic school but can't afford it. This Foundation should help.

The figures: 58 Catholic elementary schools

22,000+ students

GEN X Schält

La GEN X Invierte

La GEN X Retournent

La GEN X Ritorna

via Google Translate

Parents pledge fair play (Newsday article)

The article doesn't mention it but this event took place at Chaminade High School. All parishes in the Diocese of Rockville Centre have to abide by a new "Fair Play Agreement" for sports. This Fair Play Agreement sounded like a great idea when I first heard it, but this article makes it sound wimpy -

"If a parent got into a shoving match with a referee or another parent, for example, the fair play coordinator would diplomatically remind them of their pledge to uphold good sportsmanship.

In that case, the coordinator would hand the disgruntled parent a form to write his complaint, and the matter would be discussed at a later meeting. "

What??? Here is a better idea - if a parent got into a shoving match with anyone - the police are called and the parent is arrested. That parent would be banned for life from being anywhere within 500 feet of a Catholic Youth Organization event and would be forced to go to professional counseling. I mean the situation in school sports is already out of hand, and this is the land of the "Mepham High School Football Rapists" - Ken Carney, Phil Sofia, Rich Guccione, and Phil Diasparra in case anyone forgot. So, I think the approach should be much stronger to prevent any violence, or any silly behavior on the part of anyone around sports. Zero tolerance is good for child molesting priests, and it should be the idea in sports as well.

"Ayman al-Zawahiri -- Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in the al Qaeda terrorist network -- was the target of a CIA airstrike Friday in a remote Pakistani village and may have been among those killed, knowledgeable U.S. sources told CNN."

This would be good news. The war on terror must be fought in small battles like this, with the Just War Theory applying.

I have been following the story of George Smith, the man who dissappeared on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship on his honeymoon. (My honeymoon will be on a Royal Caribbean cruise.) This past weekend I read a transcript of the entire story from MSNBC's Dateline. Tonight on MSNBC, Rita Cosby (she seems nice and compassionate, but that voice sounds terrible!) had some more info that came out today, such as that Smith's new wife was so drunk she had to be helped to her cabin by two ship employees, and that the men who were hanging out with George Smith were accused of rape by another female passenger. The case is very interesting, and confusing. I hope for the families' sake, the case is solved soon. In reading all about the case, it is still not clear who may have done it, as it seems everyone involved is suspect in some way.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I attended Mass at my local parish on Jan. 1st. The celebrant wore gold vestments and used Canon I. The music was quite good, with a trumpeter making the Christmas hymns more glorious. The Church was nicely decorated with trees, wreaths, and pointsettias, making me more excited about the upcoming renovations.

As of tommorrow, I have exactly 5 months to go until my wedding day. The plans are going well, although we still have to solidify the music selections. Within the next few weeks we will meet with the priest celebrant.

Thanks to Dappled Things, I found this fun romp of a blog: Fireside Chat with the Rector.

Not a Culture of Life:

"PATCHOGUE, N.Y. -- A 37-year-old man was charged with child endangerment after one of two toddlers he was baby-sitting was found drunk, authorities said. "

"MILWAUKEE - A prosecutor began reviewing possible charges Thursday against five juveniles in the brutal mob beating of a man yanked from his car while driving through a north side neighborhood. "

"Great Falls, Virginia - The man responsible for fatally shooting four people, including his mother, on Christmas before taking his own life also shot at two houses four days earlier, police said Thursday. "

"New York - A stray bullet fired in the air outside a Queens apartment complex killed a woman standing at her fifth floor window, police said Thursday."

I am updating the Catholic Blog Directory. Unfortunately, I cannot highlight new blogs added, but I thought I might put a couple of interesting ones here:

Fay's Catholic Thoughts is by a Chaldean Catholic, born in Iraq and now living in Texas.

Live Jesus! is the blog of a monastery of Visitation nuns in Georgetown.

Merry Christmas!

This is one of the most arrogant things I have seen:

"More than one commentator has mentioned that, as Pope Benedict XVI takes on his new task of being Pope for the whole Church, he brings with him much baggage from his past position as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The press and theologians all over the world have carefully scrutinized that baggage over these years. We all wish the new Pope well as he sorts out how the new role to which he has been called differs from the old he leaves behind. We want him to keep in mind that the new role has a pastoral claim on him that the old often hid." [emphasis mine]

-Rembert G. Weakland, May 17, 2005

What do you mean "we" cowboy? This former archbishop has more baggage than all of JFK airport! The man took money from his Catholic Diocese and gave it to a male lover. He hid this fact for approx. 20 years while lambasting orthodox Catholics such as Mother Angelica. Gimme a break.

Parish Renovation

I attended a meeting today to hear a presentation on our parish's upcoming renovations. The good, bad and ugly:

Ugly:

• The new altar follows the latest fad: square table look with 4 legs. (Boo!)

Bad:

• The tabernacle will stay on the right side, rather than the center, where it belongs.
• Still no sign of Mary or Joseph in the Sanctuary.
• The Priest's chair is at the back wall, instead of the side, where it belongs.

Good:

• Goodbye carpeting! Hello tile/marble floors!!
• Goodbye electric organ! Hello antique pipe organ!!
• Goodbye Risen Christ sculpture on center back wall of Sanctuary! Hello CRUCIFIX! (Yeah!)
• Risen Christ sculpture sent to the side wall of the Transept, which is now blank. New sculpture will be added to other side wall.
• Stations of the Cross will be put on new backing and spread around the Church, rather than on one spot on 1 side wall.
• Addition built on the entrance of Church will mean a large narthex for chatty people to chat. Also, handicapped accessible bathroom added so people won't have to go to the basement, to go.
• Old marble altar will be used to create a new Marian Shrine, where currently there is simply a statue of Mary.
• Baldachino will be built over the tabernacle, making it more prominent.

I am overall very happy about this renovation. Although by the time this is all finished I will be married and living elsewhere, this is the parish I was baptized and confirmed in so it is important to me. I wish there had been a little more attention to the traditional look of the parish, but this renovation will still correct some of the mistakes of the huge expansion/renovation done in 1982. The Church then was made plain and bare and this renovation will add artwork that will correct this problem. The pipe organ and tile floor with marble should make it feel and sound more like a Church. The Crucifix is the best aspect of this project. The word Wreckovation was coined because of the changes done to parish Churches in the 70's and 80's but I think it is time to coin the word Correctovation to describe the latest changes being done.

While typing this post on such an upbeat note, I happen to turn on Drudge and Peggy Noonan is now talking about her new book John Paul the Great. This has been a good night.