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

The Moslem American Society

In the recent story on the sale of the St. Margaret Mary convent to the Moslem American Society, our joke of a local newspaper didn't bother to tell us anything about this organization. A basic Google search reveals so much.

The Moslem American Society was founded in 1993 by American members of the Moslem Brotherhood. The Moslem Brotherhood should be familiar to many Americans, as it was the group that influenced so many of the terrorists who have spilled so much blood all over the world. Bin Laden himself was influenced by the Brotherhood and his second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian, was a member. It was founded in Egypt in 1928 on the principle that “Allah is our objective; the Quran is our constitution, the Prophet is our leader; jihad is our way; and death for the sake of Allah is the highest of our aspirations." The Brotherhood's goal was to submit society to sharia law. In keeping with these basic Moslem ideals, the Brotherhood began to engage in a wave of bombings and assassinations, which led to its suppression in Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries. However, it remains a powerful underground force.

With the influx of Moslem immigrants following the passage of Ted Kennedy's 1965 Immigration act, the Brotherhood began to take root in America. Like other subversive groups, they have established numerous front organizations, one of which is the Moslem American Society. The members of this new group were specifically instructed to lie in response to questions about its links to the Brotherhood, but the truth eventually came out. Nevertheless, they still lie about their ultimate goal, which remains a Moslem takeover of America, either through mass immigration or conversion, and the institution of sharia law. Over the years, its leadership has learned the way of the chameleon, and changed its appearance and its words to match that of any loyal American. They praise the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, and express their admiration for American freedoms. Yet, underneath they remain what they were founded to be: a front group for terrorists and Islamic conquest. And our Catholic clergy, who are either simpletons or traitors, allow them to establish a cell in Midland Beach.

Betrayal in Midland Beach.

The pastor of St. Margaret Mary parish in Midland Beach has secretly sold the church's convent- a convent the people of the parish scrimped and saved to build- to a group that is going to convert it into a mosque and Moslem community center. It's a mystery why this group would want to build in Midland Beach, which was a lily White area with few Moslems the last time I checked.

The motivations of the pastor, Fr. Keith Fennessy, can only be guessed at this point, but he is apparently a fanatical, left-wing multiculturalist, as he had rejected an offer from local developers in order to sell it to the Moslems, and whenever parishioners try to talk to him about this situation, "he accuses them of being bigots or racists." In a further insult, the street on which the convent is located is named after a Fire Captain who was killed on 9/11. The people of the parish and the community are so outraged that they are now calling for the pastor's dismissal (which won't happen) and impotently wondering what legal actions they can do to reverse this "done-deal" (which is nothing).

Whatever his motivations, this is a disgrace of monumental proportions. Does this priest have any comprehension of the disheartening symbolism of this action? We are supposed to be the Church Militant, carrying the Cross of Christ aloft, marching off to victory or martyrdom. Instead, we have compromising cowards for leaders, who actively connive to hand over our holy places to our enemies, who will now tear down the crucifixes and the icons, whitewash the Holy Name, and recite their infidel incantations over the building to "cleanse" it of the spirit of Christ. And our weak, Quisling priests and bishops will smile through their flabby, vapid faces and congratulate themselves for their masochistic act of degradation and submission to the enemies of the Faith. They probably take comfort in the thought that Allah and St. Ted Kennedy are smiling upon them from above, if these men believe in a spiritual world at all.

I realize we're supposed to love our enemies, but we're not supposed to surrender to them. And although most individual Moslems are not our physical enemies, Islam as a spiritual system is our age-old adversary, by Koranic injunction dedicated to our conversion or conquest. It is only by the Grace of God- and the swords and artillery of Catholic warriors- that Christendom was not reduced to complete dhimmitude in the past, when canonized Saints preached Crusade and fought under the banner of the Cross. In contrast, our Church today, like our political leadership, seems to be actively working for the other side. This action is an insult and an outrage. I look forward to seeing what the community and parish opposition will do.