Work is just not cutting it these days, so I am officially seeking another job here on Long Island. I am experienced in customer service, AP/AR, supervising an office, and proficient in Word, Access, and Excel so if anyone knows of any good jobs out there please let me know, thanks.

A History Professor of mine at St. John's University was quoted in an article on the release of files from the Vatican Secret Archive. Dr. Frank Coppa is also working on a book on Pius XII

We interrupt this blog to make the following announcement: The Mets are the National League Eastern Division champions! Yankees suck! Yankees suck!

I am adding Jihad Watch to the permanent links.

I was sent this article on the Pope's talk about Faith and Reason-

"Unreasonable People Will Not Keep the Pope from Reasoning"

By Mary Katharine Ham

Catholicism is a "gritty" religion according to George Weigel in the excellent "Letters to A Young Catholic". He means the intellectual, cultural and spiritual aspects of the faith are anchored by a tactile, real life center. Touching the glove of a Padre Pio, seeing the Shroud of Turin, bathing in the waters of Lourdes, these are things which can reach anyone in their heart, perhaps people that would fall asleep during a lecture on Thomistic philosophy. This is my way of introducing a pretty big thing here on Long Island -

The heart of St. John Vianney will be coming to Cure of Ars parish in Merrick, Long Island! From October 6th - 11th the incorrupt heart in a reliquary will be at the parish for veneration.

For those who just spit their coffee over the keyboard, please read the bulletin of the parish where the pastor explains why we venerate relics (PDF). Remember the amazing crowds when the relics of St. Therese of Liseux (about half her remains) came to New York? This could be as big.

LECTURE OF THE HOLY FATHER
Aula Magna of the University of Regensburg
Tuesday, 12 September 2006

Above links to the full text of the Pope's address that has resulted in violence in the muslim world. I believe if The Onion did a headline on this it would read "Pope Calls Violence Unreasonable, Muslims Violently Protest"

As the 5th anniversary of 9/11 passes, another significant anniversary will soon arrive. The 5th anniversary of the explosion/exposing of the priest sex scandals. It is important for Catholics to know just how widespread the corruption is in the priesthood, so keeping tabs by reading the Roman Catholic Faithful website is recommended, although not for the weak of heart. The public exposure of this massive problem of (mostly) homosexual abuse by Catholic priests all started with the release of documents relating to Fr. John Geoghan and Fr. Paul Shanley from Boston. Geoghan was later beaten to death in jail. All the info you need on Shanley can be found here. Today, it seems he is inmate # W84979 at the Old Colony Correctional Center in Massachusetts.

Diocese of Rockville Centre

An update on this diocese should be made, hopefully Newsday will do a story updating the situation soon. Most of the information Catholics get on the "scandals" has to come from secular sources as the Dioceses are just not honest and forthcoming enough. Just this week the Long Island Catholic reported a priest, Fr. William Logan would be returned to ministry because allegations could not be substantiated, but no details were given. Newsday provides the details here. The two accusations mentioned do not involve sexual acts. There have been two other accused priests returned to ministry - Fr. Brian Brinker and Fr. Michael Carroll. If the allegations against Brinker and Carroll are true, then I would not let any boys anywhere near these two and I don't see how these two priests can possibly remain in ministry.

Otherwise, the most info available can be found on Bishop Accountability right here. This page lists all the accused, except Logan. The site is good for info, but it is not totally up to date. I count 4 accused priests that have died, one that is in jail (Millar), and 1 that was defrocked according to the page. But Michael Hands, the last priest to be arrested for raping a boy, was also defrocked. Others may have died since the page has been updated. The page also lists each of the accused priests by letter from the Suffolk County Grand Jury Report, but those accused are the same accused listed by name in many cases so it is a bit confusing. Since Bishop Murphy has been here, the number of allegations of abuse has been 0, so that is good news, but there are still some priests living mostly in the St. Pius X residence in Uniondale that were accused of abuse. They have not been defrocked as far as I know, and little info is given to Catholics. The fear of "scandalizing" Catholics is what helped this crisis grow, and that fear is misguided anyway. The Diocese should offer more info to people so that this situation won't ever become as widespread again. I was an altar boy and attended Catholic schools for 16 years and never experienced anything negative in the Church. The priests I knew were all pretty good men, except for one I thought was arrogant and not so nice. I never knew an abusive priest and have known some really good ones, so it is hard to believe just how much went on in this Diocese. All Catholics should remain vigilant to help keep the priesthood holy. With so many stories of sexual abuse of children making the headlines today, all people should remain vigilant with regards to any adults in authority as well.

5th Anniversary of September 11th

May all those who perished on 9/11, and all those murdered since then rest in peace.

My list of Long Islanders killed on 9/11

Newsday's database of all 9/11 victims

Prosecutors: priest raped teen parishioner


Oops, I left out a word in the that headline - "Hindu". Between the Catholic priesthood's problems and the recent arrest of that polygamist and the surrounding media coverage, child molestation really should be wiped out of the clergy. Now, if we can do the same in the teaching profession...

DO THE BOW

Catholics on Long Island have suffered for 35 years with regard to poor Liturgies. One thing I learned from attending the traditional Latin Mass is that by genuflecting during the Incarnational lines in the Creed, ("by the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the Virgin Mary and became man") it really emphasizes just how important this belief is to Christians. The Church changed this from genuflecting to bowing with the Missal of Paul VI and I think this was a positive change. While bowing still forces us to do something with our bodies that emphasize this phrase, it is less noisy and distracting. The problem is, most people don't do the bow! All Catholics should start bowing during these lines and tell me if it makes a difference when they are saying this prayer.

n.b. Twice a year, on Christmas and Easter (Correction in comments, Christmas and Annunciation) we genuflect rather than bow. This makes it even more special and appropriate. The problem there is, I have almost never been to a parish where this was done, although one year our pastor told us the Church invites us to genuflect during the part of the Creed, and then he forgot to do it so no one else did.

Telecare, the television network of the Diocese of Rockville Centre is now offered nationally. The programs are available through CIPTV (Internet Protocol TV) and you pay $12.95 a month for a box that connects to your tv and internet connection. I would not recommend paying for Telecare's programming though. They advertise it as Catholic, but most of it is not at all Catholic. It is pretty lame actually, but most importantly nothing like EWTN as far as orthodoxy and evangelism is concerned. This IPTV sounds like a great idea for EWTN however. I am sure Long Islanders will be willing to pay for EWTN since it is not available on Cablevision. EWTN is worth paying for, but Telecare is not.

"With the warmest of personal regards and with every good wish for the Holiday Season"

Taking a page from Diogenes, this polite and politically correct closing is from a letter:

A) From President Bush to supporters in December 2005

B) From a school principal to parents of students in December 1990

C) From a Catholic Bishop to local civic leaders in December 1985

D) From a Catholic Bishop to a Catholic priest in December 1976





If you answered D, then you realize just how bad the Church leadership was even then. This was the closing of a letter sent by Archbishop Cousins of Milwaukee to a priest in California asking him to give a job to a Fr. Widera, who was a molester of boys. I guess the Archbishop couldn't say "Christmas" since the priest might have been offended?

Wheelie Catholic is a blog written by Ruth, who is a disability advocate and often writes about accessibility issues in the Church.

Robert T. Miller has been posting at First Things. He was a classmate of mine in high school.

Hey! We got tree new bishops in Brooklyn over here! You got a problem with dat?

The local Marianists celebrate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Province of Meribah. They accepted one man into their aspiracy program and two men renewed their first profession of vows. Apparently Augustin Cardinal Meyer, O.S.B. was very helpful in the establishment of this province, which was formed from the New York province of Marianists.

Everything makes sense now!

I just saw Office Space for the first time.

"Six of 11 Egyptian students who failed to show up for classes after entering the United States are in federal custody, the FBI said Thursday."

Michelle Malkin posts the pictures of all of them.

Perhaps related, perhaps not, the arrests of the 24 plotters in England is good news, and should remind people that we are at war against muslim terrorists.

Former Newsday publisher pleads guilty in child porn case

No comment. Except to say that child porn, child abuse, and hypocrisy ain't just found in our Catholic Church.