Staten Island news

A few items on Staten Island Catholicism:

• The disloyal Jesuits at Mt. Manresa are advertising their weekly Zen Buddhist "interfaith" meditation session, taught by their RESIDENT SENSEI, Kenneth Byalin. They are also touting their recent Breakfast with Santa and a talk by famed anti-war activist "Fr." Daniel Berrigan, who seems to have given an entire speech without even mentioning God, an amazing feat for a priest. Does this really sound like a faithful, Catholic organization? How do they stay afloat financially?? Surely it's only a matter of time before they end up selling off some or most or all of their beautiful property to developers, such as is happening now with St. Charles seminary...
  
  
• ...I should say "St. Charles Mission Center", which is considering selling (they describe it as "leasing") a huge chunk of their land to developers. Two years ago they were talking about converting the mansion into assisted living units. Since the Center for Migration Studies moved to Manhattan, I really don't know what goes on up there. Every once in a while, they'll host an expensive talk by a Catholic speaker, but surely that doesn't pay the bills. A few decades ago this was a thriving seminary. Now it's deserted. Just more of the fruits of Vatican II. How long before the entire property must be sold? Is there anything in history comparable to the intentional self-betrayal and suicide of Catholicism since the 1960s? The nearest comparison I can think of is the decline of mainstream American Protestantism in the 20th century, but even that sad example doesn't sink to the level of the Catholic Church's monumental implosion.
  
  
• The Archdiocese announced that 4 old and beloved Catholic schools on Staten Island will be closed. St. Sylvester, St. Roch, St. Margaret Mary and St. Mary will not reopen in the Fall. I'm sure the economy had something to do with the low enrollment, but I think the Church has been the architect of its own problems over the past few decades: horrible catechesis, zero pastoral care, apathy, heresy, stupidity, and cowardice have resulted in loss of faith, decline in parishioners, declining vocations, declining birthrate (the Pill has decimated the traditional large Catholic family, with zero opposition from the pulpit) and so we're left with the unbelievable situation of St. Margaret Mary school, located in a huge Italian Catholic neighborhood,with a student body of only 74 (that's an average of 9 kids a class).
  
  Still, I think the parents are being unfair, when they accuse the Archdiocese of greed. If the school is so financially unviable, how on earth do they expect it to remain open? Why do they think they deserve subsidies? Their children will still get a Catholic education, but at a different, nearby school. However, judging from the empty pews at Sunday Mass at St. Margaret Mary, and the hysterically ignorant comments from the people in the video at the silive article, maybe it's a good thing that the school is closing, since their students obviously haven't been learning their Faith, basic elocution, or logical reasoning all these years.
  

Victory in Midland Beach!

The anonymous board of trustees of St. Margaret Mary church finally met and anonymously voted against the plan to sell the vacant convent to the Moslem American Society. This is wonderful news. However, it is a disgrace that the Archdiocese and the pastor allowed this contentious issue to linger for so long, creating so much bitterness and ill-will. This plan never should have been approved in the first place, but once it became public knowledge and the intense opposition materialized, the archdiocese should have expedited a decision on this one way or another. Instead, for 2 months they've allowed this issue to boil over. There have been weekly protests, with signs like "Get out of my country"; there have been dueling Facebook pages; we've been lectured by our own Archbishop on tolerance; and the national media has focused its gimlet eye on Staten Island and its supposed bigotry. As we've seen in numerous other instances, our Church is utterly clueless about public relations; it's like they purposely do whatever will reflect most negatively on the hierarchy and Catholicism.

Nevertheless, we achieved victory eventually. And the lesson we can take away from this is that a significant percentage of the clergy and the bishops are wolves in sheep's clothing who don't give a damn about ordinary Catholics or Catholicism and who would sell us down the river for 30 pieces of silver or a pat on the head from the liberal media. It was a defiant and united people who stopped this outrage and forced the church to do the right thing in the end. Let us not forget that we ordinary Americans and Catholics have real power when we stand together and fight.

So, the mosque plan is finished. Good. But now what will be done with the vacant convent? In all this hubbub about the MAS, have Catholics experienced any shame at the fact that our religion is declining so rapidly that we are forced to sell off our religious buildings? Does the hierarchy experience any shame at the lack of vocations illustrated so dramatically in this vacant convent, not to mention the legions of shuttered churches? I wonder how many of the anti-MAS protesters are A&P (ashes and palms) Catholics, or simply functional pagans; I didn't see too many people at Mass when I visited St. Margaret Mary. I would hope that this controversy would impress upon us the need for a mass rededication to the Faith. We shall see.

Correspondence with the Archbishop

I recently sent a letter to Archbishop Dolan expressing my displeasure with the MAS situation, and urging him to stop this deal immediately, instead of inexplicably allowing the issue to linger and fester throughout the summer. I received the following absurd form letter, which defended Fr. Fennessy, whom I never even mentioned in my letter, and criticized me for blaming all Muslims for the World Trade Center attack, an accusation I never made.

Dear Mr. ***********

Thank you most sincerely for your letter of...Your thoughtfulness is deeply appreciated.

Father Keith Fennessey is, in my judgment, a fine priest and pastor of the archdiocese, undeserving of the criticism that he has been receiving.

As to the proposed sale of the convent to the Muslim American Society, the archdiocese consented to it when the pastor wrote in favor of it. Since then, he has decided to withdraw his support for the sale, and the parish is attempting to resolve the matter.

The Muslim American Society is in dialogue and communication with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and as such one must be careful about drawing conclusions. Also, as your bishop, might I suggest that it is very unfair to link all Muslims to the attack on the World Trade Center. It was not that long ago when Catholics in the United States were suspect because of their ties to the Vatican, and such bigotry should not be revisited by Catholics on others.

With prayerful best wishes, I am,

Faithfully in Christ,

Most Reverend Timothy M. Dolan Archbishop of New York

Meet the Neighbors

This video montage contains a clip of MAS Freedom Foundation Executive Director Mahdi Bray cheering for Hamas and Hezbollah.

Mosque meeting

I attended last night's meeting of the Midland Beach civic association and luckily made it in before the doors closed. There was an Arab Protestant church handing out fliers at the door which stated that they would like to buy the convent for the full asking price and they would ensure that the Cross would never be removed from its walls. I thought that argument was very effective. As I entered the building a woman handed me a 40 page expose' of the Moslem American Society, written by the Investigative Project on Terrorism. This damning report fleshed out in more detail what everyone already knows about the MAS- it was established as a front group by terrorists, it's currently linked with terrorists, and it seeks to infiltrate, conquer and convert the United States to Islam.

The meeting began with an address by one of the three MAS representatives, a young and affable physical therapist. Although all three were foreign born and spoke with accents, they were all very, very slick. The primary speaker spun the expected line about the MAS- they're a peaceful organization which works with children, feeds the hungry, stands for tolerance, etc., to which the audience responded with furious shouting. The thing is that Staten Islanders have been educating themselves about the MAS for about a month now and we have seen the facts about this organization in black and white; no amount of denials or slick presentation can change what this organization, and Islam itself, really are.

The floor was opened to questions and the first speaker, who looked Arab, turned out to be the famous anti-Islamic writer Robert Spencer. I've read Spencer's book, "The Truth About Mohammed" and found his arguments about Islam indisputable, although I object to his neo-conservative associations. However, the man knows Islam and Islamic radicalism backwards and forward and posed some pointed questions to the MAS men about their connection to the Moslem Brotherhood and their president's public defense of certain terrorist groups and individuals. Their answers were evasive and unsatisfactory.

Other speakers came forward with equally incisive questions, citing the Koran, investigative reports, and the public statements of the MAS' own leaders, to show that this group is untrustworthy and unacceptable. One man had a great point about the MAS' boasts of charitable programs. He pointed out that prison gangs, like the Latin Kings, also perform charity and write children's books, etc., but such public displays don't really mean a thing when such groups are also involved in crime and violence. He cited the MAS leader Mahdi Bray's public defense of 3 men who were arrested for terrorist activities. At one point a Middle Eastern-looking priest got up and shouting about how he loved Jesus and Jesus was God, etc. He had to be quieted down by ushers.

Surprisingly, most of the speakers seemed to be women. At least, most of the best speakers were women. The men who got up mostly spoke in weak, quiet voices and rambled on endlessly about irrelevancies. The women of this community, who are generally reputed to be loud and obnoxiously pushy, gained my undying respect. They certainly were loud and pushy, but for a great cause, which was to defend their families and homes from a threat. As the saying goes, "The female of the species is more deadly than the male". They were all like Joan of Arc: brave, defiant and eloquent. One lady called Father Fennessy a Judas and asked the MAS why on earth they would want to come to a community that doesn't want them. Another challenged the speaker's constant declaration of respect for Jesus, and demanded to know if he believed that He was the Son of God. Another Iron Lady said that the FBI had told her the MAS was on the terrorist watch list and swatted down the MAS man when he unctuously addressed her as "sister". One woman cited the Koran's dictate to slay the infidels and demanded to know if we were infidels. Another cited the MAS' well known terrorist ties. An Egyptian woman detailed the barbaric treatment of Christians in her home country. At one point, the crowd shouted down a white civic leader and an Arab Catholic priest from Brooklyn, who had been invited to testify to what good neighbors the MAS mosque in Brooklyn are. The meeting was adjourned early when the "priest" in the crowd, who turned out to be the pastor of the Arab Protestant church, started shouting and got a group of people to start chanting.

Although at one point one of the MAS men started lecturing us on the Bible, they were generally polite and calm and faced an extremely hostile crowd without losing their temper. But that's what the public face of any organization is supposed to do. The overwhelming evidence has shown that this organization supports terrorism. The overwhelming evidence is that the Koran itself supports violence against non-Moslems. With the exception of the sex abuse scandal, the sale of the convent to this group is probably the most outrageous and scandalous thing I have ever seen the Church do.

The natives were as furious as any mob I've ever seen, and rightfully so. It was like a valve had been opened that let out decades worth of frustration and anger. We Americans, and we Catholics, have been forced to swallow so much insulting BS about so many things (Islam being one) for so long, without being able to say anything about it because of politically correct censorship. The newspapers won't print how we really feel; the radio or TV won't interview us; internet forums like silive delete any comments they deem incorrect; last night we finally had our say.