You’ve probably heard this story by now, but in case you haven’t.

Pope Benedict to canonize seven saints next October

Cardinal Edward Egan, the Emeritus Archbishop of New York, could not keep a smile off his face as he stood in the sun outside of St. Peter’s after the consistory. He eagerly pointed out that “out of the seven saints, two are New Yorkers.
…
Someone asked me last night whether New York was a secular city? I said it was the most religious city in the world, and if you have any doubt, two out of seven isn’t bad for any state!” he told CNA.

Pretty cool. Although, isn’t it funny how people from NYC mix and match the word “New York” to apply either to the city or the state as they please? Meanwhile those of us who don’t live in the city must be sure to always emphasize State when we say “New York State” so as not to confuse others into thinking that we’re referring to the city. In the case of these Saints, I hereby officially claim them as Upstaters! That makes the grand total:

Upstate: 2
NYC: 0

While we’re at it, I thought these posters going around facebook were funny:

and one more:

photo credit:77krc (flickr)
photo credit: billsoPHOTO (flickr)

Consider this a guest post by James Likoudis

It would be interesting to find out, if it were able ever to do so, how many Letters of laity to the “Catholic Courier” attempting to defend the doctrines and discipline of the Church were never printed!

Note: I see that in the year 2012 Fr. Richard P. McBrien remains a favorite columnist in the “Catholic Courier” of the Diocese of Rochester. It is really incredible that a priest who continually writes to contradict Magisterial teaching remains without protest or contradiction by the Bishop of the diocese. Other bishops have acted to remove his column from their newspapers and rightfully so. This 2003 Letter sent to the “Catholic Courier” of the Diocese of Rochester was not printed but remains relevant since Fr. McBrien has never retracted his false teaching that since Vatican II Catholics no longer believe the Catholic Church was the true Church of Jesus Christ.
-James Likoudis

June 12, 2003

Letter to the Editor
Catholic Courier
P.O.Box 24379
Rochester, NY 14624

Dear Editor,

In his Catholic Courier column (6/12/03) Fr. Richard P. McBrien once again urges dismissal of the Catholic Church’s discipline of mandated celibacy for priests of the Latin rite. It is clear that he is an apologist for rejecting its maintenance as “a possible solution” for the shortage of priestly vocations. “The rule of celibacy”, he sneers, “is regarded, at least implicitly, as more important than making the Eucharist available to every Catholic”. While ostensibly praising Pope John Paul II’s new Encyclical “Ecclesia de Eucharistia”, he ignores everything the same Pope has written in praise of and defense of the Church’s present discipline on priestly celibacy which is of apostolic origin. “The lack of priests”, the Pontiff noted, “is certainly a sadness for any local Church”, but to be utterly rejected is “the framework of systematic propaganda which is hostile to celibacy. Such propaganda finds support and complicity in some of the mass media.” The shortage of priests that has afflicted the Church in the post-conciliar period, he pointed out, “was based on an erroneous understanding of- and sometimes even conscious bias against- the doctrine of the Conciliar Magisterium. Herein lies undoubtedly one of the reasons for the great number of defections experienced then by the Church, losses which did serious harm to pastoral ministry and priestly vocations, especially missionary vocations.” (Address 11/5/90) It is ironic that writers like Fr. McBrien who presume to speak for “the spirit of Vatican II” are at complete odds with the actual teaching of the Popes and the most recent Ecumenical Council supporting mandated priestly celibacy for priests of the Western Church (See Vatican II’s “Life of Priests”, 16)

Fr. McBrien is indeed a “professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame”, but, interestingly, has not received or even requested a “mandatum” from his bishop to be regarded as an authentic theologian. Moreover, the very concept of the Church presented in this same column is not faithful to Catholic doctrine. Non-Catholic Churches and ecclesial communities may indeed possess a “certain, though imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church”, as Vatican II declared. But, contrary to Fr. McBrien’s erroneous view, such dissident Churches and ecclesial communities cannot be said to be “within the Body of Christ” in such manner that the visible unity of Christ’s one and only Church (which is His Mystical Body) is lost sight of. One of McBrien’s favorite (and false) ideas is that the whole Body of Christ and not the Catholic Church alone is the one true Church of Jesus Christ. But then McBrien’s theology in many respects is not faithful to Catholic doctrine and the Magisterium. The U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine noted exactly that when in April 1996 it censured McBrien’s major work “Catholicism” which he never bothered to revise as requested.

Sincerely yours,
James Likoudis

Today the airwaves praised President Barack Obama for his great willingness to compromise in a heated debate. If you filled out the petition “Rescind the HHS Dept. Mandate Requiring Catholic Employers to Provide Contraceptives/Abortifacients to Their Employees” at whitehouse.gov, you likely received this official White House response  (don’t click this link if you plan on sleeping soon because your blood will boil) in your email today:

Now, as we move to implement this rule, however, we’ve been mindful that there’s another principle at stake here –- and that’s the principle of religious liberty, an inalienable right that is enshrined in our Constitution. As a citizen and as a Christian, I cherish this right.
…
The right to religious liberty will be fully protected,

Sounds pretty decent, right? Except that it is a lie. What exactly is the “accommodation” that President Obama has made? Get this – contraception will be provided for “free” by the insurers. Of course, the free contraception (and other abortifacients) are not free to all – only those people who are in the plan. So, if you, as an employer, buy the plan for your employees then they receive the “free” contraception. If you don’t buy the plan they don’t receive the free contraception. But don’t worry, you aren’t actually paying for that part of the plan. Got that? I didn’t think so.

The White House’s email finishes with 4 endorsements – two from the “Catholic” side (Catholics United and the Catholic Health Association) and two from the culture of death side (NARAL and Planned Parenthood) which is supposed to demonstrate the goodness of the great compromiser. Well, Mr President, I’ve got some better names to share with you from the Catholic side. Former Vatican Ambassador Mary Ann Glendon, Princeton Prof. Robert George, Notre Dame Law Prof. Carter Snead, Catholic University of America President John Garvey, and EPPC Fellow Yuval Levin issued the following response:

It is no answer to respond that the religious employers are not “paying” for this aspect of the insurance coverage. For one thing, it is unrealistic to suggest that insurance companies will not pass the costs of these additional services on to the purchasers. More importantly, abortion-drugs, sterilizations, and contraceptives are a necessary feature of the policy purchased by the religious institution or believing individual. They will only be made available to those who are insured under such policy, by virtue of the terms of the policy.

Other responses (shamelessly stolen from Fr Z’s site):

Bishop Tobin of Rhode Island:

“At first reading, the so-called “accommodation” offered by the Obama Administration seems to fall short of the requirements of the moral law,” said Bishop Tobin. “Although the discussions about this matter will continue, the bottom line is this: the government cannot require religious institutions or individuals to operate in a way that violates their convictions. Our nation cherishes religious freedom. By what authority does the President of the United States seek to impose this immoral policy? This is the United States, not North Korea.”

Bishop Zubiek of Pittsburgh (video) calls Obama’s accommodations “smoke and mirrors”.

Note: People cannot seem to get this story right. John Delano, the reporter in the above video, posed the dilemma this way:
1) Is a woman entitled to birth control no matter where she works
or
2) can religious institutions … deny their employees access.

You, John, and most of America are completely fumbling this story! Apparently professional newspeople are using this opportunity to prove that bloggers who work for free are actually more qualified at reporting news than they are.  No employer is attempting to deny women access to birth control here. Let me rephrase this dilemma for you:

1) gov’t can force employers to buy any products or services for their employees the gov’t says they must
or
2) employers are free to choose to offer whatever benefits they wish to their employees

Which one is freedom and which one is tyranny? It’s amazing how many people have this story completely backward. The MSM is doing their best to add to the confusion.

And here’s Jimmy Akin’s response: Don’t Be Deceived! Evil Obama Policy Now Even MORE Evil!

Print it right away before you forget to (at least that’s what I tell myself):

http://www.mprp-roc.org/mprp01-12February.html

“He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.” -Luke 10:16

By now everyone’s probably seen the nonsensical youtube video entitled, “Why I hate religion, but love Jesus.” The content of the video is even sillier than the title suggests. I’m not going to embed the video here or link to it. I’ll be honest – I haven’t even watched it, although I’ve read the poem line-by-line in some critiques. Quite honestly, I think this video provides a good teaching moment for Catholics and Protestants alike. It shows just how silly certain movements like the Emerging Church movement are. If you’re at least a partially educated Catholic, I think this video is almost harmless because the claims are so egregious and contrary to both reality and scripture. However, we should not presume that all DOR parishioners would have enough knowledge to realize just how harmful and dangerous such ideas are. If you’re going to discuss the issue, it should be done carefully. Certainly a good principle when discussing differing points of view is to emphasize what you agree upon. However, this should never be done without also clearly distinguishing major points of disagreement lest anyone make the mistake of thinking you agree on or concede certain points. One of the major shockers for me as a protestant convert to Catholicism has been the protestantization of the local Catholic Church. With that said, I offer for your reading pleasure 3 rebuttals of this video. You decide for yourselves which of these would challenge a non-Catholic to consider Catholicism (or a Catholic to stand even more firm in their faith).

Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus — The Smackdown – Marc Barnes – Bad Catholic
Why I Hate People Hating on Religion – Jimmy Akin
Jesus and Religion – Rev. Peter Clifford – St. John of Rochester parish – Perinton, NY (included below)

JESUS AND RELIGION
Parents of teens and otherwise media aware folks may be familiar with a recent video on YouTube that has had nearly 14 million views in just over two weeks. Jefferson Bethke has grabbed the attention of many with his views on Jesus and His relationship to religion. In part the attraction of this piece is its attractive and professional appearance. More however is the theme of being drawn to Jesus and a relationship with Jesus while being turned off by religion and persons who make religious claims. Mr. Bethke has some good and cogent points which makes his piece even more alluring. He starts right off decrying the many wars that religion has sponsored past and present. He identifies the hypocrisy of religious institutions and religious people judging persons thought to be sinners while being sinners themselves. Jesus obviously made the same condemnation in His day. Mr. Bethke later in the piece confesses that he was similarly caught himself saying that going to church can be like putting on the jersey of your favorite sports team. You show your loyalty for the team but no way could you wear that jersey onto the field or court of play. It is all for show. He says of himself, he acted like a church kid on Sunday, while on Saturday he had been caught up in sin.

Somewhere along the way, he heard the Gospel. Mr. Bethke says midway through the video, that he has come to faith through the Grace of Jesus and found forgiveness for his sins. That conversion moment changed him, he seems to say. He says at that point that if anything, church should be a “hospital for the broken, not a museum for the good.”

Both here and at the start, I found myself in agreement with Mr. Bethke. The church, whether ours or other religious institutions presently and throughout history, have given plenty of ammunition to critics like him. The present abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic church is only the most recent instance of our flawed and fallen humanity tarnishing, spoiling and threatening to destroy faith in Jesus. That is true and is all part of that hospital for the broken image that Mr. Bethke uses. If church is not such a place, then it is not what Jesus meant it to be. To the extent that we put people off or send them away empty handed and angry for our rejection, we have sinned yet again. However, today’s readings underscore Jesus’ intention to gather people around him. Again today, as last Sunday, the text recounts calling disciples. They will in turn call others and from such gathering, the church is founded. From such calls of Jesus for followers have come good, grace, and blessings beyond counting through history. The poor fed, naked clothed, homeless sheltered and more because folks like you and I heard a call and followed and still do today. Thank God for that, because believers are the ones who preach that Gospel of Grace that Mr. Bethke heard and by that was saved. True, we are broken. But together we are on a search for God and Jesus in our lives. As I said at the end of the homily two weeks ago, Jesus is at the same time on a search for us too. For many, the meeting place is church. That is the community of disciples we gather with in common faith and seek to live the Gospel with. For where two or three gather in My name, Jesus said, there I am in their midst.

Alright, I’ll go a little beyond allowing you to decide for yourselves and offer my opinion.  The above article from Fr. Clifford gives too many concessions to the dangerous video and falls short of offering a serious rebuttal.  I’ll give Fr. Clifford credit for tackling the subject and addressing the modern world, but I wish he were more put off by the video and offered some more substantive argumentation against it.  Yes, I understand it’s a bulletin with limited space, but that’s what footnotes are for.  With every passing year, it’s become more and more evident that there has been a serious lack of catechesis in the Catholic Church over the last few decades and is why so many Catholics fall prey to either Protestant denominations or the temptations of the secular world.  I’d suggest that priests try offering a little more meat.  Roll your sleeves up a little bit and don’t be afraid to go to battle for you faith.  People won’t be turned off – they will be drawn to the truth.  Afraid of being seen as negative?  Just look at how many people flocked to Bethke’s video which was basically a hate speech.  If you have friends or family that go to St. John of Rochester, you might wish to pass Jimmy Akin’s article along lest they be tempted to be think Catholics don’t have a better answer to Bethke’s attack.

(I’ve seen lots of links to video responses as well. I’m not as much into watching videos as I am into reading, but feel free to leave links to those videos or other critiques in the comments)

The blacked out parts are personal information.

I’m wondering if someone could help me find the checkbox for “No, thank you. I do not wish to receive the Catholic Courier and I would prefer my parish keep the $20″. Can you help me find it? Or perhaps you have a caption of your own you’d like to share.

UPDATE: The missing fact that makes this interesting (and which I failed to mention initially) is that if you don’t pay your bill for the lapdog, dissenting, divisive newspaper which you never signed up for, then the DOR takes it from your parish anyway. At least that’s how it was 5 years ago, so I’m assuming it still is.

DISCLAIMER: Certainly there are individuals who do noble work for the Courier. My disdain for the Courier is the general lack of balance in regard to reporting local stories as well as giving voice to national columnists who grossly misrepresent Catholicism and who are thinly veiled voices for progressive politics.

If you’re hardcore Catholic for leaving your Christmas decorations up until the Baptism of our Lord, what are you if you leave your tree up deep into ordinary time? Super hardcore or just plain lazy?

How many of us thought we’d make it to see 2012?  Congratulations – you survived another year!  Happy Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.  And pray for these priests this January:

http://www.mprp-roc.org/mprp01-12January.html

Fr. Michael Bausch (Transfiguration, Pittsford – supporter of Fortunate Families) recounts in the parish’s Oct 30th bulletin some of the Masses he experienced during his sabbatical. He begins describing positive Masses he attended/celebrated, then he goes into two extreme examples of negative experiences. The first one is clearly off the wall. The second, on the other hand, seems to describe the way the Holy Father offers the Mass.

“Then again, in my opinion, some presiders allowed their personal preference to overshadow the fact Roman Catholics believe the Eucharist is a celebration of the entire community; not something the presider does in isolation.
…
Then there is the other side of the story. I also ‘attended’ Masses where the presider over personalized the Liturgy. In one parish the priest was very “folksy” and included his dog in the celebration. The dog sat next to the presider’s chair and the end of Mass it retrieved the hymnal from the book stand. At the other end of the extreme I attended Mass where the Priest sat with his back to the people [aka - facing God], refused to participate in the sign of peace, had at least 10 large candlesticks on the Altar blocking everyone’s view and recently reinstalled the altar railing and a raised pulpit.”

So it seems Fr. Bausch is placing a traditional, reverent liturgy like that being promoted by the Pope as an extreme alongside dog altar servers.

It looks like the Holy Father’s uses 7 candles.  I believe that’s called the Benedictine arrangement.  If you have more info on that – please share in the comments.

This is why I don’t like spectrums. Catholicism is not a spectrum. When people start defining spectrums, they usually assume that’s it’s best to fall somewhere in the middle. The problem with this is that it doesn’t really matter what everyone else is doing. What’s right is right and what’s wrong is wrong even if that puts you all the way at one end of the spectrum. All too often, you’re considered “balanced” and “level-headed” if there are 50% of the people on either end of you – even if that means you believe about 50% of the CCC and follow about 50% of the GIRM. If you happen to simply be Catholic (which, by the way, requires believing 100% of the CCC), you are considered a right-wing nut-case.

To give the benefit of the doubt to Fr. Bausch, perhaps there is more to this story than he shared. Perhaps the priest was truly rude in his refusal to sign the peace. But perhaps he simply not do an overabundant dog and pony show that we often see in our masses? According to the GIRM:

Chapter 2: The Structure Of The Mass, Its Elements, And Its Parts

The Rite of Peace

82. There follows the Rite of Peace, by which the Church entreats peace and unity for herself and for the whole human family, and the faithful express to each other their ecclesial communion and mutual charity before communicating in the Sacrament.

As for the actual sign of peace to be given, the manner is to be established by the Conferences of Bishops in accordance with the culture and customs of the peoples. However, it is appropriate that each person, in a sober manner, offer the sign of peace only to those who are nearest.

I’ve heard it said that the typical part of the rite of peace where the priest tells everyone to shake hands and hug is actually optional. I’ve been at masses where the priest verbalizes his peace to the congregation and that’s the end of it. Personally, I think that’s just fine, but quite honestly I’m not a liturgist, so I don’t know what’s required.  If you have more info on that – please share.

In the NCReporter, Deacon Michael Piehler of Transfiguration Pittsford made the trek down to Arlington Virginia to PROTEST a pastor’s decision to have boys alone serve at the altar in his parish (which the priest is well within his right as pastor to do). Read about it here:
Fishwrap rakes up some muck in the Arlington altar girl dispute

The NCR’s poster parish has an article written about them [my comments in red]

Ten years later, controversial New York church still thrives [yes, that "church"]

Ten years after her historic [fake] ordination, Mary Ramerman rarely makes it into the papers anymore [the thrill of being a rebel only lasts so long]. Watching her minister as a [fake] priest today, it may be hard to believe that she was at the center of a highly publicized, painful battle between the diocese of Rochester, N.Y., [and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger] and the parish then known as Corpus Christi [I believe it's clustered now, but the Roman Catholic Church still bears that name, does it not?] in the late 1990s.

Back then, Corpus Christi was a Roman Catholic parish on the fringe. Led by Fr. Jim Callan, a charismatic priest with a radical commitment to the poor and marginalized [and also a hatred of the rich and any system that allows for people to be rich.  aka - Occupy Wall Street], the church was known for taking risks [Certainly the corporal work they do for the poor is a good thing - no one will argue that.  It should be noted that there are many people and organizations within the Catholic Church right here in Rochester that do amazing work for the poor as well.  It's not like Spiritus has a monopoly on helping the poor.].

They invited everyone to Communion, they blessed the unions of gay and lesbian couples (though never on diocesan property) and they allowed Mary Ramerman, the parish’s lay associate pastor, to preach and to stand with Callan at the altar during the Eucharistic prayer. Eventually, she was also invited to raise the chalice during the consecration. [in other words, they stopped being Catholic]
…
“I have found it so immensely freeing to not have to hang on to that mode of thinking that says, ‘We are Catholic, you are not Catholic,’” [if you don't care whether or not you are inline with Catholic teaching, then you are not a Catholic] Ramerman told me in an interview earlier this week. “When I became free of that system, it opened up such a greater understanding of God and the people around me.”
…
Ramerman says, “In the structure of the church, the sacraments are very important to what a [real] priest does, and I’ve found that’s even more important than I thought it would be.”

“I think I’ve grown in my understanding of the role of the [fake] priest,” Ramerman reflects. “Fundamentally, my role is to love people and to [trick people into thinking I have the authority to] forgive people. I don’t think there is anything more powerful than when I do that [there certainly is a spiritual power at work here]. And if I don’t do that well, it is harmful to people. They need to know that they are loved and they need to know that they are forgiven.” [only God and those He gives authority to are capable of forgiving sins.]

Ramerman admits that Spiritus is sometimes criticized for being too traditional. [this is when it's starts getting funny]

“They ask me, ‘Why do you wear an alb?’ or ‘Why do you allow people to call you reverend?’” she said. “Given our size, we can grow quickly in terms of preaching or social action, but other areas, like changing these traditions, have to move a lot more slowly.”

Spiritus currently has 1,500 active parishioners, including 250 families, with 1,100 people attending one of the parish’s three weekend Masses every week. They are the largest non-Roman Catholic-identifying congregation in the country. [got that?  This is somewhat misleading.  They aren't the largest non-Roman Catholic congregations in the country - they are the largest fake-Catholic congregation in the country.]

This is part one of a two-part series. The next part will be published Wednesday, Dec. 7. [we'll be waiting]

This story is just so sad all around.  I’m not sure what’s more sad:

1) The fact that a publication can identify itself as Catholic and publish an article like this without explicitly stating that this church is not Catholic and this woman is not a priest.  Will any bishops come out and explicitly condemn this publication?

2) The fact that many souls are being led astray.  Quite honestly, though, I’m not sure how many of these souls weren’t already lost.  Remember, many of them weren’t Catholic to begin with.

3) The fact that it’s possible that Fr. Callan’s masses are valid and thus the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Our Lord is defiled on frequent occasions.

There’s been so much hype about the new translation and I can’t believe it’s finally here.  To prepare, I watched videos, listened to lectures, read about it, etc.  Last week it finally came.  Our parish has mass cards to help us out.  So I’m staring directly at the mass card, completely conscious of the fact that the new translation is finally here and the priest says, “The Lord be with you”, and I say, “And also with you… shoot!”.  It was my first time, so I cut myself some slack.  I wasn’t the only one having a hard time breaking the habit.  Today I went back to mass and was ready this time.  ”And with your spirit.  And with your spirit.  And with your spirit,”  I mumbled on my way to mass.  The moment came and I don’t think I did any better than my first time.  A couple weeks of screwing up wouldn’t be so bad, but I fear unless I don’t do something more proactive I’ll drag this transition out way too long.  ”I’ve got to fix this”, I thought.  The geek in me came up with a grand plan of making a long audio clip that was mostly silence, but would randomly speak, “The Lord be with you” so I could train myself.  Ideally this plan would have some way of shocking me if I didn’t say the right words.  Then reality hit and I realized I didn’t have time to create such a system, so I asked my wife to randomly say “The Lord be with you” to me and scold me appropriately.  (note: there are times when a wife can fulfill the duties of the computer).  Hopefully this will help.

The real reason for this post is I wanted to ask you - what are doing to kick the habit?

Below is snippets and some comments on a CNS story entitled “Archbishop Dolan says N.Y. bishops impressed with ‘ad limina’ process“. Can you imagine any bishop saying it wasn’t a positive experience? Now I’m glad it was a positive experience, but I sincerely hope that the our Holy Father pressed these bishops to change things for the better. This particular article doesn’t address same-sex marriage and certainly doesn’t go into detail about the discussions, so make of it what you will.  The fact of the matter is that none of us know what happened behind the scenes and that’s alright.  It’s good for the parties involved to be able to speak privately, but we must remember the way the bishops tell us about their conversations with the Holy Father and Roman Curia officials might be very different from the actual conversations.  Nevertheless, you may wish to attempt to read through the lines.

He said one specific piece of news the group took away from the weeklong visit was that the Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy is preparing a document that it hopes will offer “crisper and cleaner and more consistent” guidelines on parish closings and mergers, both for the bishops and for the faithful who sometimes appeal a bishop’s decision.

…
“Sometimes people’s perception of the Holy See is that its job is to protect the power structure of the church and to protect the bishops and clergy. Well, they also are very sensitive to the rights of God’s people,” he said. [that's nice, but I continue to think about Raymond's comment. To answer your question, Raymond, no, I have never received a response. I have received a response from Bishop Clark the two times I've written him. I received a stock response from Archbishop Dolan simply stating he received my letter. I have not received a response from anyone else (and I've sent out a good amount of letters)]

The archbishop said the bishops were impressed with the curiosity and sincerity of the Roman Curia officials. Education officials, for example, had some probing questions about the costs of church-run schools, their level of support among Catholic parents, and the arguments against state support of such schools. [I hope the Roman Curia officials are getting input from more than just the bishops on all of this.  My children will be reaching school age in the next few years.  Perhaps the Roman Curia would like my input on why I will not be sending my children to diocesan run schools.  They'll get a different answer than I'm sure Bishop Clark gave.]

Using data from the apostolic visitation of U.S. seminaries in 2005-2006, they noted shortcomings cited in the seminaries of New York state and asked the bishops what they had done to improve the situation.

“That’s a call to accountability, that’s a check — and that’s not bad,” Archbishop Dolan said.

“It’s good for us, every once in a while, to be in the principal’s office,” he added with a laugh. [!!!]

 

Along these lines, Hopefull posted a link to a LifeSiteNews article in the comments. What’s better than the actual article is the comment that Hopefull left:

Does the Pope have any idea what has really been going on in Rochester NY? Does anyone have any evidence to offer that he is taking any action there? How can a Fr. Charles Curran not be allowed to teach any longer in Catholic universities but still address the faithful in the parish pew? How can priests in the Rochester Diocese still be raising the question of women’s ordination in their church bulletins (as recently as 3 days ago when the pastor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parish, Fr. Wm. Spilly, raised it after receiving an award recognition from Call to Action? How can the bishop have appointed so many women to act as pastoral administrators of parishes, with priests “reporting” to those women? How can dozens of priests be listed as contributors to Fortunate Families, which is “proud” of their gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered children’s life styles? Where is the financial accountability for the assets of so many closed churches and schools? If there is any evidence that any of this is being addressed, it is certainly subtle. A clean-sweep new Bishop is desperately needed, as soon as possible!

One more note… As ScottW pointed out, Rich Leonardi is back in the blogging world with his new site Over the Rhine and Into the Tiber.

A friend sent me this email today

January 22
February 19 – Quinquagesima Sunday
March 18 – Laetare
April 1 – Palm Sunday. Only chant.
April 8 – Easter. Only chant.
April 15 – Divine Mercy Sunday
May 27 – Pentecost
June 10 – Corpus Christi. Only chant.

Also, we have a Tridentine Latin High Mass on December 11. Third Sunday of Advent.

All Mass are at Saint Stanislaus at 1:30 p.m. I know it’s not the best time, but that’s the time for now.

Oremus pro invicem.

See you in the communion line or at the altar rail, depending on where I see you.