How much we owe to Fray Junipero Serra, O.F.M.

Have you thought lately how much we owe to Blessed Padre Junipero Serra (1713-1784), the apostle of California? After all, in great hardship, pain and sacrifice over many years he led the way in bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Alta California and planting the Faith here forever.

We are Father Serra's spiritual children. How can we repay him?

We can defend him from the enemies of the Church who attack him and the missions; we can tell them how much he loved his flock and protected them and sacrificed so much for them.

We can thank him in prayer every day, too. We can also invoke his intercession for the reform and strengthening of the Church in our Archdiocese and throughout California, and ask him to help protect his Catholic flock of today against all enemies, external and internal.

To subscribe to Siempre Adelante!, an occasional official newsletter about Padre Serra, send your e-mail address, and ask for the newsletter online, to Alexis Packard at ofmcadev@att.net

As you might know already, Padre Serra's motto, and did he ever live up to it, was, "Siempre adelante y nunca atras" -- "Always go forward and never turn back."

Click on this post's title to visit a Serra (vocations) Club website about Padre Serra. Among other features, it lists the missions he founded in both Californias and those that his fellow missionary, Padre Fermin Lasuen, O.F.M., founded.

The photo above is of the famous statue of Padre Serra by Ettore Cadorin. The statue was given in 1931 to the National Statuary Hall.

Have you ever received any favors from praying to Padre Serra? It would be wonderful to hear about it!

Let's pray for the Holy Father

As we know, our Holy Father, Benedictus XVI, is to visit Turkey starting this Tuesday, November 28, and to be there until December 1.

All of us here in Los Angeles can join with the rest of the Church in praying for the success of the Holy Father's trip and especially for his safety. One specific way of doing that is to pray the prayer that the Knights of Columbus will be saying for the Holy Father. You can click on this post's title to see the prayer, and here it is, too:

Heavenly Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name, we humbly ask that you sustain, inspire, and protect your servant, Pope Benedict XVI, as he goes on pilgrimage to Turkey – a land to which St. Paul brought the Gospel of your Son; a land where once the Mother of your Son, the Seat of Wisdom, dwelt; a land where faith in your Son’s true divinity was definitively professed.

Bless our Holy Father, who comes as a messenger of truth and love to all people of faith and good will dwelling in this land so rich in history. In the power of the Holy Spirit, may this visit of the Holy Father bring about deeper ties of understanding, cooperation, and peace among Roman Catholics, the Orthodox, and those who profess Islam.

May the prayers and events of these historic days greatly contribute both to greater accord among those who worship you, the living and true God, and also to peace in our world so often torn apart by war and sectarian violence.

We also ask, O Heavenly Father, that you watch over and protect Pope Benedict and entrust him to the loving care of Mary, under the title of Our Lady of Fatima, a title cherished both by Catholics and Muslims. Through her prayers and maternal love, may Pope Benedict be kept safe from all harm as he prays, bears witness to the Gospel, and invites all peoples to a dialogue of faith, reason, and love. We make our prayer through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

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P.S. The photo here is from the Vatican website: http://www.vatican.va

P.P.S. Anyone who visits the K of C website could, at the "Contact us" page, politely urge the Knights to expel the pro-abortion politicians who hypocritically belong to their order.

Bishop Bruskewitz on purity

Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska, wrote a tremendous column on purity (click on this post's title) in the November 10 issue of the Southern Nebraska Register, his diocesan newspaper.

The bishop writes, "...the witness through the centuries of the heroic martyrs who suffered death rather than commit any sins of impurity and unchastity stands as a counter-cultural beacon in our degenerate world."

Bishop Bruskewitz praises the early virgin martyrs and then tells in detail the stories of St. Maria Goretti and the Martyrs of Uganda.

Have you heard any homilies or talks on purity lately in our Archdiocese? It would be nice to hear about them -- when and where, and so on.

We could be in Santa Barbara on December 10!

Have you been to Santa Barbara lately? A good day for us to visit would be Sunday, December 10, because that evening is the annual Guadalupana procession up the main street.

Ole Quintero's friends in Santa Barbara say that every year a thousand people or so from all the parishes gather at 5:30 p.m. at the city's Placita, namely De La Guerra Plaza, and process eight blocks or so up State Street, behind an image of La Morenita. They pray the Rosary and sing Guadalupana hymns all along the way, and then they go into beautiful Our Lady of Sorrows Church for concluding prayers.

We can phone Our Lady of Sorrows Parish for more information: (805) 963-1734.

My friends send along this brief announcement for us en Espanol:

Actividades Guadalupanas: El 10 de diciembre a las 5:30 p.m. nos reuniremos en la Plaza De La Guerra para una procesion por la calle State culminando en la Iglesia de Nuestra Senora de Dolores.

Viva Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe!

Santa Rosa bishop admits wrongdoing -- Santa Rosa de Lima, pray for us!

Today's San Francisco Chronicle reports (click on this post's title) that Bishop Daniel Walsh of the Diocese of Santa Rosa has admitted wrongdoing and will enter a four-month "pre-filing diversion" program in which he will receive counseling.

That way, the bishop will avoid criminal misdemeanor charges for failing to notify the police promptly last April 27 about an admission that day by Fr. Francisco Ochoa Perez, also known as Francisco Xavier Ochoa, of "sexual misconduct with minors." The bishop notified the diocesan attorney instead of the police, and Father Ochoa, 68, fled, probably to Mexico, in the three days before the diocese did notify the police.

The Chronicle reports that Santa Rosa District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua said, "It is clear that Bishop Walsh should have known of his obligations to immediately report the matter involving Francisco Ochoa."

The newspaper also quotes Santa Rosa Diocese spokeswoman Deirdre Frontczak: "The bishop is a priest and is trained to deal with sinners. I don't think it crossed the bishop's mind that this priest was a criminal and a flight risk."

That's what she said.

Santa Rosa de Lima, pray for us! By the way, the image above of St. Rose, the patroness of the Diocese of Santa Rosa, is from the diocesan website.

+ Bishop Manuel Moreno, R.I.P. +

Let us pray for the repose of the soul of Bishop Manuel Moreno, who died this past Friday night in Tucson with his relatives about him. Requiescat in pace.

Adjutorium nostrum in nomine Domini, qui fecit caelum et terram.

Only 100 days left!

Have you visited the Archdiocese's Religious Education Congress site yet? It's at www.recongress.org

They sound excited as they announce that there are only 100 days left until "congress."

It will be hard for them to top last year's exhibition, when the Cardinal's keynote speaker recommended seeing the anti-marriage, homosexual propaganda dirty movie "Brokeback Mountain" and reading homosexual novels. But no doubt they will manage to outdo themselves again.

Got your picket signs ready yet? Think up your slogans now. Only 100 sign-painting days left!

Rome: "Pro multis" means "For many," not "for all"

Catholic World News today reported (click on this post's title) that Cardinal Francis Arinze has written the heads of bishops' conferences around the world to tell them that "in the next one or two years" they must prepare for a correct vernacular translation of the phrase "pro multis" in the words of the Consecration -- "for many," NOT "for all" as they have said in recent decades.

Cardinal Arinze is prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

Deo gratias -- Thanks be to God! Gaudete -- Let us rejoice!

You can access Catholic World News at www.cwnews.com

P.S. Think our bishops will implement this directive quickly? How about in Los Angeles?

The latest news on three scandal cases

Today's Los Angeles Times reports (click on this post's title) on a canonical tribunal now handling a case that involves a charge of clergy sex abuse in the Archdiocese of New York.

The Times today also has an article (sorry, don't have the link), "D.A.'s office disputes [C]hurch version." In it, the district attorney's office and the LAPD both deny Archdiocese spokesman Tod Tamberg's assertion that prosecutors in the abuse case involving Daniel Murphy High School asked the Archdiocese not to tell students' parents about the sex abuse probe.

And a third article in today's Times (sorry, don't have that link now, either), "Freeze on priest abuse cases lifted." The story's subhead reads, "The decision, after a 3-year delay, allows lawyers to begin pretrial investigations of more than 100 claims against 32 Catholic clerics."

The U.S. bishops need to stop admitting homosexuals to seminaries and to stop hiring homosexuals.

What do you think?

Another L.A. scandal

Today's Los Angeles Times reports (click on this post's title) that John Joseph Malburg, 37, a former dean of students at Daniel Murphy High School who was fired in July, has been charged with 12 counts of child sexual abuse, lewd acts and making a videotape of a minor committing sex acts. The charges involve the alleged molestation of four boys.

Malburg has pleaded not guilty.

The Times story says:

"The Archdiocese of Los Angeles learned about the sex abuse inquiry sometime before Malburg was fired in July but did not notify parents at the Fairfax-area school, spokesman Tod M. Tamberg said. Tamberg said the district attorney's office asked the archdiocese to keep the matter confidential. Jane Robison, a district attorney's spokeswoman, could not confirm that. 'The school has been cooperating fully,' Tamberg said. He said there had been no earlier complaints against Malburg, who joined Daniel Murphy in 1997."

Cave men treated babies better than we do

Today's USA Today (page 4D) reports on an article in Nature magazine about three babies, including twins, from 25,000 B.C. (Upper Paleolithic period) in Austria who were buried with ivory beads and mammoth tusks, just like grownups of that time.

The article in Nature (click on this post's title) says:
"Here we describe two recently discovered infant burials from this period at Krems-Wachtberg in Lower Austria, in which the bodies were covered with red ochre and decorated with ornaments and were therefore probably ritually buried. These findings indicate that even newborns were considered to be full members of these hunter-gatherer communities about 27,000 years ago..."

Notice how the modern authors say "even." "Even newborns." They sound a bit like Peter Singer of Princeton, the professor who thinks killing newborn babies might be okay.

One of the biggest struggles of our time is to get people to admit what our "cave man" ancestors knew 27,000 years ago, that babies are "full members [of our] communities."

Right here in L.A., abortionists' aborted baby victims have been found dumped in fields, stored in semi rigs (16,000 babies were found that way in 1981 or so) and so on.

A burial ceremony eventually was held for the 16,000 aborted babies found in the truck, but not before a big struggle in the courts and denunciations of pro-lifers.

Yes, the cave men in Austria 27,000 years ago were more decent and humane than we are in ole L.A. today.

The bishops' document on homosexuals, and other news

Click on this post's title to see Mary Jo Anderson's WorldNetDaily column of November 9, "Catholic bishops' 'gay' guidelines 'gravely flawed'" / "Experts criticize new 'Ministry to Persons with Homosexual Inclinations.'"

Here are links to the Catholic News Service stories about the bishops' new documents:

On homosexuals --
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0606489.htm

On receiving Holy Communion --
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0606495.htm

On Natural Family Planning and artificial contraception --
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0606488.htm

The USCCB is going to reduce its committees and cut 60 jobs. At least one of those jobs is in the pro-life secretariat, which they ought to expand, not cut. Here is a link to the Catholic News Service story about the cuts:
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0606525.htm

Another "pro-life" Catholic politician shows his true colors

Have any of your friends here in L.A. been telling you that we should support "pro-life" Democrats like Bob Casey Jr., the new Senator-elect from Pennsylvania?

Tell them they are 100% wrong.

According to pro-family groups, the day after the election, the homosexual group Human Rights [sic] Campaign issued a press release in which the supposedly pro-life, pro-family Casey said he would be pushing in the U.S. Senate for a federal "hate crimes" bill.

Obviously, that is the kind of bill that would include "sexual orientation" [sic] and "gender identity" [sic] and so on as hooks upon which to have the federal government persecute Catholics and others who oppose the homosexual agenda of taking over every facet of society.

The pro-family groups say homosexual and far left groups gave Casey mega-bucks and he is paying them back already.

So if your pastor or fellow parishioners praise Casey to you, tell them the truth about him: He is a disaster. He will tear down the common good, not build it up; he will promote division and discord, not unity. We do not need his kind in Pennsylvania, Los Angeles or anywhere.

This is the reward the Cardinal gives the mayor

What do you do when someone for whom you've done a favor kicks you in the teeth?

You do him another favor -- at least, you do, if you are Cardinal Mahony and The Tidings.

The Cardinal, you'll recall, did a huge political favor for flaming pro-abortion mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa in June 2005 by hosting a big interfaith prayer service at the Cathedral for him and then prominently walking beside him all the way to the inauguration.

The mayor returned that favor in the last few weeks by coming out in L.A. radio ads against pro-life, pro-family Proposition 85, the Parents' Right to Know and Child Protection Initiative, which Cardinal Mahony supported all summer and fall -- and which lost last Tuesday, 46%-54%.

So has The Tidings ripped Villaraigosa for being an ingrate to the Cardinal, not to mention being fanatically pro-abortion? Nope -- although this week's issue does carry one letter to the editor that chides The Tidings for not mentioning the mayor's opposition to Prop 85.

And last week's issue of The Tidings actually rewarded Villaraigosa -- by giving him a puff piece and photo for nothing more than holding a routine proclamation ceremony.

So: When Villaraigosa made his anti-life, anti-85 radio ads, did he know he would have little to fear from Cardinal Mahony? Unfortunately, the answer would seem to be yes.

By the way, did you know that "Villaraigosa" is not the mayor's birth name? His original surname was Villar. In his younger days he was called Tony Villar. When he and a lady named Raigosa married, they combined their names.

Mark your calendar for December 3

If you have not been to the annual Fiesta of Our Lady of Guadalupe at the East Los Angeles Community College stadium in Monterey Park, be sure to attend this year, which is the 475th anniversary of Our Lady's visits to St. Juan Diego, December 9-12, 1531. This year is also the Archdiocese's 75th such celebration.

The celebration for Our Lady begins at 12 noon on Sunday, December 3, with a mile-long procession from La Soledad Church (4561 Cesar Chavez Ave.) to the stadium, followed by the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, ending by 4 p.m.

Click on this post's title for all the details.

CELEBRACION DE NUESTRA SEÑORA LA VIRGEN DE GUADALUPE
Domingo, 3 de Diciembre, 2006
PROCESION Comenzará a las 12:00 p.m. en la esquina de Long Beach FWY (710) y Cesar Chávez Ave. cerca de la parroquia La Soledad (4561 Cesar Chavez Ave.)
LITURGIA EUCARISTICA en East Los Angeles Community College, 1301 Cesar Chávez Ave., Monterey Park

Says the Archdiocese, "Monsignor Diego Monroy, Rector of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, will make a special trip to Los Angeles to bring a 'Peregrina' image of Our Lady of Guadalupe for the procession and Mass. The image is an exact digital reproduction of the original in Mexico City, [and] has been blessed and touched to the original image."

"In preparation for Dec. 3, the 2006 Archdiocesan Guadalupe Committee, 'Guadalupanos Unidos,' is also celebrating a novena, a series of special Masses in honor of the Virgin, nine days prior to the procession at nine churches throughout the archdiocese...For more information the public can call Resurrection Church at (323) 268-1141."

Do note that the Cardinal has made the theme this year, "Mother of All Immigrants." But regardless of any politicization, the celebration is always an unforgettable Catholic experience, and of course it is wonderful for us to honor Our Lady in this way.

By the way, why not bring appropriate pro-life signs with you? (No, that is not politicization!)

Pro-abortion Catholic politicians

All right, we should note that many Dems won by talking pro-life -- but we can bet that they will never actually buck their party's leadership by supporting pro-life bills once in office.

The Dems as a whole might propose and push deceptive, phony bills that promise to reduce the number of babies killed but in reality would only push contraception. Bush might sign such bills into law in ther name of "compassion."

But in any case, we should focus on the disgraceful number of flamingly pro-abortion, Church-defying Catholic politicians who won election or reelection.

We will need calculators to count them all.

What, if anything, will the Bishops say about pro-abortion Catholic politicians at their Fall meeting in Baltimore next week? Whatever they say, it will be after the election and therefore moot.

Suggestion: The bishops need to change their semi-annual meetings from June and November to May and October. That way they could defend preborn babies in the spring, before many of the primaries, and in the fall, before the general elections.

Of course, to do that they would first have to actually want to defend the babies. There is no doubt that in many bishops' residences and parish rectories on election night and since then, many members of the hierarchy and the clergy have been rejoicing over the Demo sweep.

They dream delusions of their pro-abortion pals promoting social justice and the common good. They forget that the slaughter of babies in the womb negates both of those aims. They ignore experience that tax hikes and big government work against social justice and the common good.

Yes, many bishops and priests are registered Democrats and regularly vote for pro-abortion Democrats. We need to tell them over and over, "You cannot be Catholic and pro-abortion." Many Catholics now drive home points such as that by redirecting their giving so as to donate their $$ only to their parishes' restricted funds (such as sanctuary funds), which do not go "downtown." That way they support their parish but not anything questionable.

"You cannot be Catholic and pro-abortion."

We can get through this

We have all known that the election results would not bode well for abortion-targeted babies, first of all, or for pro-life, pro-family Catholics. There is suffering involved in hearing the bad news.

But let's seek grace, strength and purpose from the Good Lord and, as the poet says, "Keep a-goin'." We all know veteran pro-lifers, after all, who have gotten through the Jimmy Carter years and the Slick Willie years, so we can stand this election and keep slugging away.

The pro-aborts and the anti-Catholics, and they're often the same people, will be out for blood. But here is some encouragement for us from our first Pontiff.

Here is I Peter 4:12-14:
12 Beloved, do not be surprised that a trial by fire is occurring among you, as if something strange were happening to you.
13 But rejoice to the extent that you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that when his glory is revealed you may also rejoice exultantly.
14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

Here is I Peter 5:6-11:
6 So humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.
7 Cast all your worries upon him because he cares for you.

8 Be sober and vigilant. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for (someone) to devour.
9 Resist him, steadfast in faith, knowing that your fellow believers throughout the world undergo the same sufferings.

10 The God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory through Christ (Jesus) will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you after you have suffered a little.
11 To him be dominion forever. Amen.

And here is some encouragement from a beloved poet:

KEEP A-GOIN’
Author: by Frank L. Stanton (1857-1927)

If you strike a thorn or rose,
Keep a-goin'!
If it hails or if it snows,
Keep a-goin'!
'Taint no use to sit an' whine
When the fish ain't on your line;
Bait your hook an' keep a-tryin'--
Keep a-goin'!

When the weather kills your crop,
Keep a-goin'!
Though 'tis work to reach the top,
Keep a-goin'!
S'pose you're out o' ev'ry dime,
Gittin' broke ain't any crime;
Tell the world you're feelin' prime--
Keep a-goin'!

When it looks like all is up,
Keep a-goin'!
Drain the sweetness from the cup,
Keep a-goin'!
See the wild birds on the wing,
Hear the bells that sweetly ring,
When you feel like singin', sing--
Keep a-goin'!

This is the reward the mayor gives the Cardinal

What do Catholic bishops get out of their seeming friendships with pro-abortion politicians? Never any conversions to the right to life, that's for sure.

Remember in June 2005, when Cardinal Mahony hosted an "interfaith" service at the Cathedral for longtime-pro-aborting-babies mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa and then marched alongside him and dozens more longtime-pro-aborting-babies politicians to his mayoral inauguration?

That was the time the pro-life college kids were behind them in the march, with big signs that read, "You can't be Catholic and pro-abortion." God bless them!

Now Villaraigosa, the alcalde of our fair city, is doing broadcast ads against Proposition 85, the parental notification initiative -- which Cardinal Mahony has been supporting. Of course, Villaraigosa could say to the Cardinal, "Well, you've known all along I'm not pro-life."

You and I ought to encourage the Cardinal to do Villaraigosa no more favors ever -- no more public appearances, no co-hosted events, nothing, zip, nada.

Or if he does want to appear beside the mayor ever again, the Cardinal should be carrying a big sign that says, "You can't be Catholic and pro-abortion." We can find a sign like that for him!

Good advice from Padre Pio

Astrid Bennett Gutierrez of Hispanics for Life and Yes on 85 and the Archdiocesan Commission on Catholic Life Issues had this quote on one of her recent Yes on 85 e-mails:

"Love the Madonna and pray the Rosary, for the Rosary is the weapon against the evils of the world." -- St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina

Amen. God bless --

Little Brandon, age 6, is a real Catholic hero

Remember the story this past July of the New York City cop who ticketed the car of Father Cletus Forson of St. Andrew the Apostle Church in Brooklyn?

Father Forson was on a rush call to bring the Last Sacraments to a very ill elderly lady in Maimonides Medical Center, and because time was of the essence and no parking places were available, he parked his car in an ambulance space and displayed his "Clergy on Call" permit.

As you can imagine, the Catholicism and the God-given freedom of religion of Father Forson and the very ill elderly lady carried no weight whatsoever with the august bureaucratic majesties of the parking "authority" of Gotham. The disgraceful city bully-crats have now refused twice to nullify the ticket and rescind the $115 fine.

Here is where Brandon Rodriguez, age 6, of Florida comes in. Click on this post's title to read his story. Learning what happened from his Dad, Brandon immediately emptied his piggy bank of its $3.42 in change and asked if it was enough to go to New York and pay Father's fine.

Being wonderful parents, Brandon's Mom and Dad said it was enough, and within a few days they flew to New York and Brandon and Father Forson got to meet.

Brandon said, "I felt really happy to give [Father Forson] him the money [for the ticket]. That's what God wants. He wants everybody to be nice to each other."

By the way, some $1,500 that the public had already sent Father earlier this summer is going to charity.

Let's hope little Brandon does not hear about the Archdiocese of New York wrecking 150-year-old St. Brigid Church on the Lower East Side. No amount of money could save St. Brigid from the wreckers, not even an innocent, good-hearted little Catholic boy's $3.42 in change.

St. Charles Borromeo, pray for us

What with today, November 4, being the feast day of St. Charles Borromeo (1538-1584), who is known as Father of the Clergy, and is the patron saint of bishops, seminarians, spiritual directors, catechists and catechumens, we ought to say a few extra prayers to him for all our intentions.

Along those lines, read this commentary on the U.S. bishops' fall meeting, specifically the document on homosexuals that they will consider:
http://catholiccitizens.org/press/contentview.asp?c=37182
Hint: This author says the document does not exactly sound perfect.

What do you think?

St. Charles Borromeo, pray for us and our bishops and the Pope and the Holy See! O Mary, Queen of the Clergy and Refuge of Sinners, pray for us now and at the hour of our death! Amen.

Yes, the Archdiocese did smash St. Brigid's 19th-century stained glass windows

Here (click on this post's title) is a lot of information on the Archdiocese of New York's vandalism this past summer against historic St. Brigid Church on the Lower East Side.

The liberals talk about love, but do they practice it? What on earth could explain the refusal to save the seven historic stained-glass windows, each 25 feet high?

Here is a link to a statement by the Archdiocese of New York:
http://www.ny-archdiocese.org/news-events/news-press-releases/index.cfm?i=2650

Tragedy: Cdl Maida sells Our Lady Help of Christians for a mosque

Last Sunday, October 29, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was celebrated for the last time at Our Lady Help of Christians Church, a venerable Polish American parish in Detroit, after 83 years.

Why should Mass be said for the last time there? Because the Archdiocese of Detroit has sold Our Lady Help of Christians Church to Moslems for a cultural center and mosque.

You heard right. Click on this post's title for the Detroit News story. By the way, the article quotes a parishioner, 68, as saying, "It's going to hurt. There are a lot of memories there. But you've got to go with the times."

"The times," indeed. The late Father John Hardon, S.J., used to say that the Church died out in North Africa centuries ago and the same could happen here if we don't reform.

At this link you will find a recent photo of Cardinal Maida with Moslem leaders:
http://www.aodonline.org/AODOnline/News+++Publications+2203/News+Publications+-+Latest+News.htm

The Archdiocese's sale of Our Lady Help of Christians Church to Moslems is especially unfortunate when you recall that before and during Polish King Jan Sobieski's epochal victory over 300,000 invading Turks at Vienna on September 11 (!), 1683, Catholics all over Europe were praying the Rosary for victory and the citizens of Vienna were in their city's Capuchin church making special devotions to...Our Lady, Help of Christians.

Our Lady, Help of Christians, pray for us who have recourse to Thee!

AmChurch outrage: Demolishing Manhattan's "Famine Church"

The last news I can find on this is from August, but photo above is part of what the Archdiocese of New York did this summer to beautiful and famed St. Brigid Church in Manhattan, which was more than 150 years old. It is called the Famine Church of the Lower East Side because it welcomed survivors of the so-called potato famine in Ireland in the mid-19th century.

A familiar story: Faithful parishioners raised money to save St. Brigid, and a donor even offered to pay for ALL repairs needed, but the Archdiocese said no and had wreckers smash St. Brigid's historic stained glass windows and wreck the historic and irreplaceable interior.

The stained glass windows were crafted in Belgium in the mid-19th century and were valued at perhaps $100,000 apiece. But AmChurch hates Catholic beauty and history, evidently.

New York State Senator Martin Connor says, "When they take away our history, they're attacking our values." Truer words were never spoken.

Click on this post's title to visit the site of the Save St. Brigid Committee. Also see this link, where you can see St. Brigid's interior before the Archdiocese attacked it:
http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/powerplays/archives/002773.php

Of course, nothing like that could ever happen in Los Angeles. Nobody, for instance, would ever sell off St. Vibiana. Ooops, well...

I do not know if the site of the Archdiocese of New York has anything to say about St. Brigid Church, but I will investigate.