Msgr. Lisante and Our Lady of Lourdes

Newsday published a couple of articles about a situation at Our Lady of Lourdes in Massapequa Park and their new pastor Msgr. Lisante. The second article can be read here. The controversy boils down to: Msgr. Lisante had invited Fr. Blockley - a priest from the South Pacific to assist in the summers for the past eight years at Lisante's former parish -St. Thomas the Apostle in West Hempstead. When Msgr. Lisante was made pastor at OLL Blockley was invited to help out this summer. Fr. Blockley however was not in good standing with his Diocese and did not have his Bishop's permission to be here. Bishop Murphy expelled Blockley from the Diocese of Rockville Centre. Meanwhile, there was a statue of Our Lady of Fatima that was removed from the left side of the sanctuary after 25 years and this also caused an uproar. I have a few observations:

1) Shame on Msgr. Lisante for not following the procedure for bringing in outside priests to the Diocese. This is standard procedure and especially important after the priest scandals exposed in 2002. When tens of thousands of Catholic mothers, fathers, and grandparents have to attend classes on prevention of child abuse in order to volunteer at parishes, all because of the actions of priests and bishops, it is simply incredible that a priest cannot follow procedure. And shame on the parish of St. Thomas the Apostle for not discovering the status of Fr. Blockley sooner and exposing it. While Fr. Blockley is not accused of anything (he seems to be on the outs with his bishop on issues not relating to children or anything criminal), it is very important to make sure priests are in good standing.

2) The removal of a statue from a sanctuary is usually not a good sign. There are those who would love to remove any sign of traditional Catholicism in our Churches but I thought this had pretty much ended in the 1990's. However, OLL was always a weird looking Church - a modern design with traditional things thrown in there by people attempting to make the Church look Catholic. The result was a hodgepodge, so having the statue moved may not have been so bad.

3) The Newsday article mentions bloggers associated with the parish so I did some digging around and discovered Save Our Lady of Lourdes. From this blog I learned a couple of more things: Apparently, chairs were put in front of the altar and the altar crucifix was removed. If this is true then this is a shame. I was never fond of the sanctuary of OLL or the Liturgies celebrated there. But the altar crucifix was a positive. Chairs do not belong in front of any altar and most parishes with this arrangement were corrected in the 1980's and 1990's.

4) Msgr. Lisante is a good priest and very personable. I hope his abundance of talents can help him lead the parish of OLL and pull the parish together. So far, if he has authorized or done these changes, he is off to a very bad start.

5) The Save Our Lady of Lourdes blog has some excellent posts on restoring traditional aspects of parish Churches. It rightly calls for a complete overhaul of the sanctuary. I hope Msgr. Lisante will look into some of this, although I don't think he is of the Benedict XVI mindset of the 'hermeneutic of continuity' when it comes to Liturgy and Church design.

Speaking of the Voice of the Faithful:

Diocese of Rockville Centre's cash reserve rapped

"A clash between a dissident group of Catholics and the Diocese of Rockville Centre over how much the diocese has in the bank - and what it ought to do with the money - reflects a national church debate over how to best use its funds.

Although the diocese disputes the figures, the Voice of the Faithful asserted last week Rockville Centre has what the group calls a "jaw-dropping" $268 million in cash reserves."

VOTF does this almost every year - accuses the Diocese of having too much money, as if that would be a bad thing. It is almost comical how desperate they are to drum up publicity for their ageing, failing group. They are relying on the outside opinion of Richard Grafer, a retired accountant who used to work for Arthur Anderson, the firm responsible for overseeing the finances of Enron. We all know how great they did with that job.

Voice of the "Faithful" Long Island is holding their annual conference. People making up the panels at this conference will be from groups including:

FUTURE CHURCH

CALL TO ACTION

'nuff said.

I was the driver last night taking my wife and two other friends to the Bruce Spingsteen concert at Giants Stadium. On the way there we heard the reports of a propane truck overturned RIGHT ON the exit ramp to the stadium. Fortunately we were able to figure how how to get onto the exit for Route 3 from the Turnpike and make our entrance from there. The concert was delayed an hour due to the mess so we ended up getting home very early this morning. It was a fun night though. Bruce and the E Street band kicked off with a spirited version of Summertime Blues. They also did Blinded by The Light which I have always hated but this version was good. They ended with Jersey Girl and then Rosalita.

UPDATE: I forgot - after Rosalita they did the terrific Irish sounding American Land. Click here for the lyrics.

From Newsday:

Another adult stem cell breakthrough!


"Harvard University researchers have made motor neurons, the brain cells that degenerate in patients with Lou Gehrig's disease, from skin cells taken from two elderly sisters with the condition.

The advance, published yesterday in the journal Science, used a technique developed during the last two years that gives adult cells the same power as those from embryos to turn into any cell type in the body. "

How many more times is this going to happen before people wake up to the fact that moral stem cell research is possible and already fruitful?

‘Summorum Pontificum’ one year later:Diocese expands ‘wonderful opportunity’ for traditional Latin form of Mass

"Since Pope Benedict’s “Sum-morum Pontificum,” an apostolic letter which allowed for regular celebration of the extraordinary or traditional Latin form of the Mass in parishes and other Church settings, St. Matthew’s Church in Dix Hills and Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Massapequa Park have instituted such celebrations — once a week at St. Matthew’s and twice a week at Our Lady of Lourdes."

"He also noted that the diocese sent Father Eric Fasano, former associate pastor of St. William the Abbot Church in Seaford who has been assigned to studies in canon law in Rome, and Father Walter Kedjierski, associate pastor of Our Lady of Victory Church, Floral Park, for training at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in Denton, Nebraska. The seminary is operated by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter. The fraternity is a society of apostolic life founded by Pope John Paul II that trains priests and fosters celebration of the Mass and administration of the sacraments in the older form. “Personally, I consider it a wonderful opportunity and a privilege to celebrate the form of the Roman rite that nourished the holiness of the saints and of all the faithful for so many centuries,” said Father Fasano. “What a blessing, to experience the Mass as my own parents did in their childhood.”

This is wonderful news to have two young priests trained to offer the Extraordinary Form.

Andrea Duda has advised me of this milestone:

The Catholic Blog Directory just passed the 1,500 blog mark


WooHoo!

Researchers to test stem cells to treat Crohn's

"The stem cells are drawn from the bone marrow of adult donors and processed into an infusible preparation. "These are not embryonic stem cells and therefore are not involved with the ethics issues" that have colored the stem cell debate, Richards said."

----Newsday

There have been so many things done recently with adult stem cells!

From Newsday:

Prosecutor: Rosary bead ties driver to fatal Dix Hills hit-run

"Prosecutor Glenn Kurtzrock said that, while there were two eyewitnesses to the collision, victim Patrick A. Haley's rosary beads alone could show the circumstances of the June 3 crash.

"They were right next to where he was hit," Kurtzrock said of the religious beads. "The string was broken, and there was a line of beads going for some distance in the direction that his body was thrown in. And then they found one of the beads on her windshield".

Bishop Murphy ordained 9 new priests and surprisingly, 8 out of the 9 have been assigned to Nassau parishes with only 1 going to Suffolk.

The newly ordained priests will serve as associate pastors at the following parishes.
Father Allan Arneaud: Maria Regina, Seaford
Father Lachlan Cameron: St. Rose of Lima, Massapequa
Father Christopher Costigan: St. Bernard, Levittown
Father Robert Holz: St. Christopher, Baldwin
Father Robert Ketchum: Holy Name of Mary, Valley Stream
Father Gonzalo Oajaca-Lopez: St. Anne, Brentwood
Father John McCarthy: St. Agnes Cathedral, Rockville Centre
Father Allan Sikorski: St. Mary, Manhasset
Father Thomas Tassone: St. Aidan, Williston Park

God Bless our new priests!

via The Long Island Catholic:

Confirmations conferred in traditional Latin liturgy

"They were not yet born — nor had their parents probably met — when the new liturgy was introduced in the 1960s, but a dozen teens and pre-teens last Sunday were happy to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation in a Latin ceremony.Bishop William Murphy conferred the sacrament last Sunday at St. Agnes Cathedral here for a group of children and one adult whose families regularly attend an approved Tridentine (traditional Latin) Mass offered each Sunday at St. Matthew’s Church in Dix Hills."

I am not sure, but it looks like the top picture in the article shows Bishop Murphy administering the ol' slap of the face, another great Catholic tradition tossed aside in the 60's! Darn hippies ruined everything!

Recently I have started watching Jon & Kate Plus 8 about a couple who had twins, and then sextuplets. I find it fascinating to see the 8 children and the very laid back father in everyday life.

"I will never forget this day as long as I live. There were seven sacs with four yolk sacs, or babies in four of them. At the count of four, I was scared. At five I started crying and at six I was shaking absolutely sobbing. Jon had turned form the screen, he couldn’t look anymore. I have never seen him so close to tears in my life! The doctor “reassured” us by telling us we would talk about reduction. I pulled myself together and stared right at him and said “We’re not doing reduction!” After the ultrasound he called us into his office and tried to convince us that reduction was the thing to do. Again, we refused! That weekend, Jon and I spent our time staring at the walls (literally) and crying. It was the worst weekend of my entire life! On Sunday, Jon took the girls to church and asked if he should tell anyone. I told him to tell a few people so we could get prayer started for us. Before he was home form church, the phone started ringing. Everyone was so encouraging and offered their prayers and help. I began to feel that we could do this! With God’s help, of course! "

I did some chores early this morning and was back home at 11 AM watching the ordination of 9 men to the priesthood for the Diocese of Rockville Centre. The 9 men were called forward after Msgr. McDonald publically announced their worthiness, and Bishop Murphy began a homily on the priesthood. The screen went fuzzy as Telecare lost transmission and the ordination was apparently not able to be witnessed by so many viewers.

After having dinner out tonight and driving home in a downpour, I turned on Telecare again and the homily is being shown right now, so hopefully I will now get a chance to see the ordination. I attended the ordination of deacons a few years ago, watching the beautiful ceremony from the front row, but I have never seen an ordination of priests before. Please pray for these men, that they become holy priests and serve God well.

UPDATE: They are now praying the Litany of Saints as those to be ordained are prostrate in the aisle of the cathedral. The Litany is not the more modern one ( this is nice - we included this in our wedding Mass), but the more traditional one with no music. Although I like the modern version, this Litany sounds very solemn and is very moving also.

From the blog For God, For Country, and For Yale, I discovered the website The Art of Manliness. One of the articles there "Rediscovering the Barbershop" describes my exact situation. Snip:

"Every time I go to the barber shop I just feel manlier. I don’t know what it is. Perhaps it’s the combination of the smell of hair tonics and the all-man atmosphere. But more so, it’s the awareness of the tradition of barbershops. Barbershops are places of continuity; they don’t change with the shifts in culture. The places and barbers look the same as they did when your dad got his hair cut. It’s a straightforward experience with none of the foofoo accouterments of the modern age. There are no waxings, facials, highlights, or appointments. Just great haircuts and great conversation."


I went to a barbershop with my Dad when I was a kid. I am not sure why but at some point I started going to a chain unisex salon and was usually unhappy with my cut. There was always a long wait, usually with few choices in reading material to pass the time -most of the magazines were for women, and the haircuts ranged from bad to ok, depending on what woman cut my hair, all for a high price. A couple of times I got my hair washed in a sink by a woman who had "European Style" armpits. Finally, I looked around and settled on a barbershop that turned out to be right down the block from where my grandparents used to live. What a difference! The magazines were for men, the guys doing the cutting were manly men, all from some indeterminate country where men are still men (I still can't figure out what country it is and don't really care). They shave my neck with a straight razor, trim my eyebrows so I can see, and slap a hot towel on my face which is awesome. Someday I will get up the nerve to have a real shave with a straight razor, which is a specialty of theirs. At Christmas time there was a small table set up with some complementary cookies, wine, and vodka! I will never go back to a salon.

The Long Island Catholic has a special section on the 9 men who will be ordained for the Diocese of Rockville Centre this June 14th.

Worst Book By a Catholic Priest. Ever.

God Underneath by Edward Beck

A few weeks ago, I had managed to lock both my wife's car keys, as well as her spare car key in her car. This meant we had to wait for my father in law to come home from Mass since he also has a key, so we had some time to kill. I picked up this book and started reading and it was just sad. Fr. Beck is a Passionist Priest and his book made me wonder if he wished he had done something else with his life. He tells of the ordination Mass for two of his classmates and him and how he really wanted to have a friend of his who sings and plays guitar to sing at this Mass and insisted this be allowed. His classmates did not really want this and when they tell him their opinion and remind him that the Mass is not just for him it makes Fr. Beck burst into tears. For his first Mass he invites a female friend to both read the Gospel and give the homily. He somehow "forgets" to mention this to the pastor of the parish and when she comes forward to receive the pastor's blessing before reading the Gospel the pastor, totally caught off guard, correctly says oh no and does the Gospel reading himself. The woman then gives the homily, in violation of Church teaching that lay people do not give homilies. Fr. Beck frames this story as rudeness on the part of the pastor, who he says later apologizes. Fr. Beck does not seem to think asking a lay person to proclaim the Gospel and give a homily without telling anyone what he is doing is not rude. These two stories pretty much sum up the book, all the world is filled with people who are not kind and considerate enough to allow Fr. Beck to do his thing. Liturgy, retreats, music should not be about worshiping God, but about Fr. Beck, friend of Carly Simon, showing the world how compassionate Fr. Beck is. He presents himself as a knight in shining armor coming to the rescue of those poor Catholics oppressed by the rigid orthodox clergy. This is a silly, sad book.

BustedHalo.com interviews Bob Sheppard, longtime Yankee announcer who has been sidelined this year due to illness. He was my speech teacher at St. John's University and one of my favorite teachers. He comes across as a Catholic gentleman in class and in this interview.

Found via Whispers in the Loggia

I found another Long Island Catholic Blog!

The Family Denn

The author is apparently a former copy editor of my favorite Catholic newspaper: National Catholic Register.

My wife and I attended the reception for the opening of the "Catholics in New York 1808-1946" exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York last night. It was enjoyable with perfect weather to enjoy some wine and Brooklyn Lager outside under a tent. The Museum is right across the street from the northern part of Central Park. I spotted Fr. James Martin, Fr. George Rutler, and Bill Donohue among the crowd. My wife and I, after enjoying some wine and cheese, went into the exhibit while most of the crowd was coming out to hear Cardinal Egan's talk. This enabled us to browse the exhibit with plenty of room to check out all the objects. The exhibit itself was a bit small but interesting. There was a great vestment on loan from St. Patrick's Cathedral, pictures of First Communions and a very intricate chalice. A ceramic dish featured an Irish priest who preached temperence (insert own joke here). Interestingly, this small dish was exhumed from the part of lower Manhattan made famous in the movie Gangs of New York and was the only remaining artifact from that exhumation as the rest were all stored at the World Trade Center and were destroyed on 9/11. Another section featured the Catholic orphanages, Catholic social groups, and of course, the Catholic politicians of the "old days". The exhibit, which runs until Dec. 31st., is worth a visit and there are upcoming events related to it at the link above.

China's 1-child policy causes extra pain

"In Wufu, a farming village two hours north of the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu, most of the dead students were a couple's only child -- born under a policy launched in the late 1970s to limit many families to one offspring. The policy was meant to rein in China's exploding population and ensure better education and health care."