Olympus to leave LI, take 840 jobs

I worked for this company once, when serial killer Joel Rifkin was there as a temp. Although I am sorry for the many good people who will lose their jobs, there were some people who, if they are still there, might consider this an important lesson in life. But they probably won't.

Total as of April 5th, 2004: $332,148,696

The Passion of The Christ is now the 10th most successful movie in US history. Some are saying it will get an extra bump during Holy Week, and I know I am planning on seeing it again during that time.

To the mattresses

This new blog by a convert looks promising - it combines two of my favorite things: Catholicism and Godfatherism. I found it via Come On, Get Lively.

letters to a young Catholic (The Art of Mentoring) by George Weigel

I am almost done reading this book and I should have taken notes because there are many great thoughts in it that could be blogged. Weigel takes the reader on a tour of the Catholic world and he is a fascinating tour guide.

Faith on Tap

Last night was another Faith on Tap event, with the speaker, Dr. Joseph Varacalli speaking on "Catholic Political Impotence". His energetic talk focused on what we in the Church need to do to have the influence we should in this country. Dr. Varacalli is the author of a great book -Bright Promise, Failed Community: Catholics and the American Public Order. He is the co-founder of the Society of Catholic Social Scientists based at Franciscan University, and is a Board of Directors member of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars. He is an orthodox Catholic who has successfully accomplished good things and is not afraid to speak his mind. The love he has for the Church came through very clearly in the talk.

The Weight of the Mass: A Tale of Faith by Josephine Nobisso


The author of this book (and several other children's books) will be in Massapequa on Saturday. Any locals might want to go to Faith and Reason Catholic Shop at 742 N. Broadway for the booksigning. She will be there from 11 am to 12 pm.

Brothers share message of forgiveness

"One brother was abused by a priest when he was a child; the other is a priest who asked himself how he could continue to wear his Roman collar when he learned of his brother’s traumatic experience."

The presentation Mr. Nohs does on the Shroud of Turin is excellent, although when I saw it he did not discuss his abuse by a priest. I believe the article describes the first time he has ever spoken of this. More info on the Shroud presentation can be found at The Holy Face of Jesus.

Total as of March 28th, 2004: $315,020,000

ONE MONTH AFTER “THE PASSION”: BODY COUNT—ZERO

"Last summer, Boston University professor Paula Fredriksen predicted, with no uncertainty, that ‘when violence breaks out’ (following the opening of ‘The Passion of the Christ’) Mel Gibson will have some explaining to do."

The movie now has the chance to enter the top 10 domestic grossing movies of all time!

Do you think Mary Boys, Bill Cork, Paula Fredickson or Abraham Foxman, etc.. will admit that The Passion of The Christ has not killed any Jews but has caused people to confess to crimes???? Don't hold your breath, these are the type of people that never allow facts to get in the way of their stupid opinions.

Robber turns himself in after watching film

Christ movie moves Texan to murder confession

Updated: Johnny Olsen, a notorious convicted killer and neo-Nazi, has confessed to two bombings in Oslo in the 90s. Olsen, 41, decided to purge his guilty conscience after viewing Mel Gibson's controversial film The Passion of the Christ, newspaper Dagbladet reports.

You know, after seeing stories like these, and hearing a few stories of people being positively influenced by the movie, I wonder why so many were so against this movie. You really have to wonder what drove these people to so vehemently blast both the movie and Mel Gibson. I also am wondering whether Mel Gibson's traditionalism is a wake up call to the Church.

The talk around St. Blog's has been on Liturgical abuses, sparked by this post on Church of The Masses. Amy Welborn has shut down the comments at her blog to cool people off because she does not like the tone of the comments. People are wondering why people are so angry and bitter and the best explanation has been at Off the Record. When people speak of Liturgical abuse, it really does mean abuse. And, just as the anger and bitterness of some people was brought out by the sexual abuse stories in the Church, the Liturgical abuse stories raise bitterness and anger as well. For Catholics, it is simply too difficult today to find a parish where the Mass is offered in a way that is conducive to good prayer, and where the atmosphere of the parish is truly Catholic. This explains why so many are turning to traditional latin Masses, whether indult or in unapproved chapels. This is a very serious and important issue and the anger and bitterness should not be met with attitudes of "get a life" or "why so angry?" or "is it really so bad after all?". I honestly don't think there is a more serious issue in the Church today than the lack of properly celebrated, reverent, traditional , and inspirational Masses.

The Passion of The Christ (again)


On Tuesday night I attended a night of recollection that included a lecture on the biblical themes in the movie. It was given by Fr. Edward Seagriff, a great speaker and real hero in this diocese. The crowd of 80 was maximum capacity and the talk was excellent. Fr. Seagriff was funny and inspiring enough to remind me of Fr. Benedict Groeschel. The people there were regular Church goers who usually attend lectures such as these and I think they were impressed by this priest.

Tonight, I went to my parish where there must have been 200 people in the Church meeting room to hear a talk by another priest on the spirituality of The Passion of The Christ. The sliding wall partition had to be opened and another rack of chairs had to be brought out so everyone could be seated. The movie has generated great interest and it is sad to see how some of that interest is wasted. Tonight's talk was done by a priest, dressed in civies, who teaches at a nominally Catholic college. He could barely disguise his disgust at the movie and Mel Gibson's failure to "study the Bible not just read it". Many of the people at the talk were parents who I think are required to attend a couple of talks a year in order for their children to be confirmed, or to attend the school or something. Basically there might have been many semi-Churched people who just might have been reached had the talk been evangelical. The priest's point seemed to be that each Gospel writer had a different point to make and the movie could not show all of them. He made it clear that the Gospels are not to be read to provide historical facts and that it would be a mistake to try to investigate what historians of the time said about the Gospel events. Also, he said that there are many pious legends surrounding Christianity and that Jesus did not get as severe a beating as the movie depicted. I just think that this attitude of cynicism and academic pooh-poohing of "pious legends" is not exactly going to influence people who may or may not go to Church to deepen their faith. This is where the Church loses people.

A man who bashed Mother Angelica, EWTN and the traditional latin Mass now has a website for writing on various things. Do what I did, email him to tell him just how welcome he is on the web.

Old Oligarch's post on The Passion of The Christ - excellent read.

March 22nd was a great day for justice:

Joey Buttafuoco Gets Year in Jail for Insurance Fraud

Hamas Founder Killed in Israeli Strike

Pelosi to face charges in Ammon murder

Reputed mobster admits role in killings

Travel agents indicted for arranging `sex tours'

Four More Suspects Charged in Madrid Blasts

Nichols State Trial Gets Under Way

W.W.J.K: Who Would Jesus Kill?

This is the second time I've linked to Ann Coulter and both times were articles mentioning The Passion of The Christ. Again, too many great quotes, a must read!

"Like Timothy McVeigh, the Columbine killers and the editorial board of The New York Times, Hitler detested Christians."

Interesting point- I have seen McVeigh mentioned as a "Christian" even though he was on public record as an atheist.

"Hitler denounced Christianity as an "invention of the Jew" and vowed that the "organized lie (of Christianity) must be smashed" so that the state would "remain the absolute master." Interestingly, this was the approach of all the great mass murderers of the last century -- all of whom were atheists: Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot."

The column also mentioned that the movie The Sum of All Fears changed the bad guys from muslim terrorists (as they were in the book) to neo-nazis. I liked this movie and remember how everybody I saw it with agreed that the neo-nazi thing made no sense. It was unrealistic.

Total as of March 21st, 2004: $295,507,244

Soon, The Passion of The Christ will become the most successful R rated movie in US history and it will also enter the top 20 for domestic grosses. Yeaahh!

UPDATE: 24 hours after I wrote the above line, The Passion of the Christ is now the most successful R rated movie of all time, and the 18th most successful domestic grossing film of all time. And still no attacks on Jewish people. At what point do you think the arrogant bigots who said the film will cause violence will admit they were wrong??

FAITH, TERROR AND MARTYRDOM IN ALGERIA: THE MONKS OF TIBHIRINE

"But in the 1980s and 1990s, Algeria, like many other countries with large Muslim populations, began to feel the pressure of fundamentalist Islamic groups that were springing up around the world. "


Yet another story about the killing of Christians by muslims. My local representative and fellow parishioner Peter King has been getting slack from muslims over statements he made. He has written a novel, Vale of Tears, in which muslim terrorists attack in Nassau County. When he spoke on Sean Hannity he said that 85% of the mosques in the USA have extremist leadership. Of course, muslim leaders did not like hearing this. Oddly, you never hear statements from these muslims about the slaughter their people, their "religion", their culture causes. The local leader of the muslim mosque in Westbury was quoted by Paul Vitello in Newsday as saying that Israel might have been behind the September 11th attacks. Can you imagine the constant reporting Newsday would have done if this statement was said by a Catholic leader instead of a follower of the heresy of mohammed? In order for the slaughter to stop we need strong people like Peter King.

What Will Follow Gibson's Passion?


"Abraham Foxman, executive director of the B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation League, predicts that if Gibson dramatizes either Jewish rebellion, "we'll lose."

"He'll write his own history," Foxman says. "I would prefer to leave the fate of Jewish history and Hollywood to Steven Spielberg. The Maccabees and Bar Kochba are our sacred history.

"The way he treats history - with a cherry picker of that which fits his ideology or view - is not the way I would like the world to learn about the heroism of the Maccabees or Bar Kochba. So, thanks but no thanks."


---So now Foxman is saying Mel Gibson can't even make a movie on this topic. His ADL just lost a $12 million ruling because they FALSELY accused a couple of anti-semitism. He is a bigot. And notice he says it is "our history", whose history is the Passion???

Abe Foxman and the ADL will have to pay $12 million to people they falsely accused of anti-semitism.

Via Protocols

Jon Voight criticized The Passion of The Christ because there were some scenes in the movie that were not in the Gospels. He was on The O'Reilly Factor complaining about the movie. I would boycott Voight's movies but I don't know any of them.