A fork in the road...

So a depraved and decadent nation, including a majority of nominal Catholics, re-elected Nero to a second term. Now that they can't count on a deus ex machina in the form of a President Romney saving them from the consequences of their decades-long collaboration with Democratic evil, the big question is what the bishops are going to do about the Health Care contraceptive mandate. Are they going to stand up like men or will they lie down like lambs? Are they going to compromise with evil or are they going to lead our church in civil disobedience to this vile regime and its attempt to make Catholics pay for what is sinful and loathsome? The next four years will undoubtedly be horrific, but fidelity and martyrdom always produce great fruit for Christ's Church.

From Mount Manresa to Mount Mohammed?

So, the disobedient and dishonest Jesuits at Mt. Manresa, who were publicly crowing last year about their dubiously glorious future, knowing full well that they were bankrupt, are selling the undeniably glorious Mt. Manresa for 15.9 million dollars. (Seriously, why not just say 16 million? Are they trying to sell socks at a five & dime shop?) So, now this treasure of the Church will pass into the hands of Caesar (i.e., the State) or Mammon (i.e. Staten Island's vulgarian real estate developers) to be, in either case, transformed into some version of social and architectural Gehenna, one possibility being a refuse pit of revolting, identical townhouse as far as the eye can see, or the dumping ground for New York City's problem children- Section 8 housing for the criminally insane perhaps? Or maybe, our religious rivals will jump at yet another opportunity to desecrate the holy places of Christ. Mount Manresa would make a great headquarters for the Muslem American Society, who were temporarily thwarted in their attempt to take over the convent at St. Margaret Mary. 16 million dollars really isn't that difficult an amount to raise for such a prolific, influential and politically-protected people. I can see it now: "Mt. Mohammed", where aspiring Islamic "freedom fighters" use the leftover crucifixes and statues of Mary for target practice!

Shrinking Moore?

Moore Catholic High School recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. No, the goonish student body did not mark the occasion by any sort of vandalism, rioting or debauchery, as they are wont to do. It was just the usual round of back-slapping and self-congratulatory accolades by the faculty. In fact, they celebrated with a $150 per head gala dinner in September. What caught my eye from the article was the fact that the student body, which once numbered 1000 students, is now down to 500 which is odd considering that the population of Staten Island is exploding and Moore is still located in an all-White, upper-middle-class neighborhood, unlike St. Peter's girls school, which recently fell victim to the 50 year demographic murder of the North Shore. So, why the slump in enrollment at Moore? Is it simply the astronomical cost to attend the school, or is it yet another sign of Staten Island Catholics' ongoing apostasy and rejection of the Church?

Countess Mary Young Moore

R.I.P. Mt. Manresa

I've written many times about the disobedient Jesuits of Mt. Manresa, the venerable 101 year old retreat house. There was their weekly Zen Buddhist meditation sessions, their yoga and Mandala classes, their ecumenical latitudinariansim, their leftist radicalism, and their grasping quest for money with high-priced lectures and dinners. That's not to say that Mt. Manresa didn't host good programs and events, but there were enough questionable activities going on there to make the place scandalous, in keeping with the general secular and disobedient spirit of the Jesuit order. Even this week, their own calendar indicates that they are hosting a Methodist youth group. Huh?

One just didn't get the sense of a very Catholic, or even spiritual attitude emanating from Mt. Manresa, as I noted in this blog post. The administrators of the retreat house apparently prided themselves most on being some sort of community center or social services provider, and not for their role in winning souls for Christ. They played up their role as a shelter for 9/11 rescue workers, a meeting place for drug addicts, a refugee camp for children from overseas and other sundry services. Well, the inevitable has happened, and it was announced that Mt. Manresa will be closing in 2013.

It was only less than a year ago that the administrators of Mt. Manresa threw themselves a gala ball in the Great Hall of Snug Harbor to celebrate their greatness and crow about how successful Mt. Manresa was, as if they didn't have an inkling that the handwriting was on the wall. Well, now the beautiful property which was paid for and maintained by the millions of dollars of donations from Catholic people over the course of a century will be sold off to pay for...what? Sexual abuse lawsuits? Cushy pensions? And the spectacular campus and its buildings will be handed over to...who? Townhouse developers? A Protestant megachurch? Or maybe the Jesuits will try to cut another deal with the Moslem American Society?

In any case, this is yet another body blow to the faithful in Staten Island, and just one example of what's happening in the American Church at large: disloyalty, dissent and eventual disappearance.

More Buddhist Catholics

I've written many times about the scandalous activities of the disobedient Jesuits of Mt. Manresa, particularly their long-time, regularly scheduled Zen meditation classes which were conducted by a "resident sensei". As recently as December 2011 this group was holding sessions at Mt. Manresa. Therefore I was very surprised to read in the Advance that the group had moved their classes to Wagner College. I wonder why. Did someone in authority finally have the guts to put an end to this disgraceful collaboration?

Postscript: as it turns out, no, there wasn't a sudden revival of orthodoxy at Mt. Manresa, just greed: the reason the Zen meditation group moved was because Mt. Manresa tripled their rent, while the space at Wagner College is being provided free of charge.

Naughty, naughty!

Nick Williams- tattooed, chain-smoking former lead singer of the Anteaters, recently hosted "The NY Pin Up Club: A Night of Burlesque" at The Full Cup in Stapleton. The NY Pin Up Club has been producing retro-themed photo shoots and performances for five years, "celebrating the classic charm" of old time strippers and porn models like Lily St. Cyr and Bettie Page. For $10 admission, the event promises "Fancy cocktails! DJs! Nick's body art! Semi-nudie networking!" Oh, by the way, the erotic evening's impresario, Mr. Williams, is also the "long-time music minister for Our Lady Star of the Sea"!

Rest in peace, Brother Jordan

Although I didn't know this priest, I just wanted to link to his obituary, which describes an extraordinary life in service to the Church. After teaching in high schools for many years, he suddenly up and moved to teach in Kenya where he served impoverished children from the streets of Nyeri. Our Church has so many heroic priests and nuns like this whose deeds go untold and mostly unnoticed, except by the Heavenly Father and the countless lives they touch.

Grim prospects

I recently wrote a letter (well, filled out an online petition) to Congressman Michael Grimm, protesting the President's recent birth control mandate. I just received a response from the Congressman, detailing his disapproval of the Administration's new rules, and describing his actions in opposition. To wit, he and other pro-life members of Congress got together and came up with the pathetically futile idea of writing a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius urging her to "reconsider" the rule and "respectfully" requesting that she suspend the mandate. What a bold and resolute pro-life warrior we have in Congress!

Local priest put in jail by the aspiring Diocletian in the White House.

The Rev. Denis Wilde, Associate Director of our local Priests for Life, has been arrested for praying in front of the White House, in a protest against the Obama Administration's unconstitutional birth control diktat.God! What heroes walk among us! I encourage all to listen to the Rev. Wilde's sermons and interviews, which are available on the Priests for Life website.

Buddhist-Catholic or Catholic Buddhist

There was an interesting obituary in the Advance recently, which exemplifies the utter lack of strength and fidelity in our local Catholic church. An old woman died who, although a graduate of a Catholic high school and Catholic college, is described as "a member of Manhattan’s Jewel Heart Buddhist Center and the Gurdjieff Foundation, where she taught classes in meditation." She was not described as belonging to any parish, yet she was given a funeral Mass at St. Peters church, with burial at St. Peter's cemetery. It is possible that on her deathbed she could have disavowed her heathen and New Age beliefs, but if that were the case then why would those affiliations be trumpeted in her obituary? I guess the message that Monsignor Dorney is sending is that one can be a Buddhist and Catholic at the same time. Does our church stand for anything anymore? Why do these hollow men who lead us seem to be desperately attempting to remake our Church into a syncretic and universalist sect? Why are our priests so scared of being Catholic?