I’m fairly certain that most of you are familiar with the whole St. Anne Church debacle which began about a year ago. However, none of you have heard the latest development. An uncle of mine who still attends St. Anne (his wife was baptized and buried from there) told me that Sr. Sobala has asked at least two of the ushers (both men over 70) to serve Mass because the young have fled from the parish. Of course, “fled” is my word, not hers. Something tells me that my word is a bit more accurate, though. Anyways, these two both said “no” in language which displayed their contempt for her and the situation which she has created. One said, “I haven’t served since the Mass was in Latin. I’m not going to restart now.” The other said that “I don’t know how to serve the Mass anymore.” I love subtle jabs which take a while to process.
Just one year ago, that parish had (according to other blogs) several young altar servers. However, after the regime change, most fled. Please see the following articles for more information. Mr. Leonardi has some good insight:
http://richleonardi.blogspot.com/2008/10/this-is-how-parishes-die.html
http://richleonardi.blogspot.com/2008/07/father-joan.html#c3473112165055085582
(The comments are just as informative as the actual articles.)
Tags: Joan
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Vince L. has always done an excellent job training altar servers for Saint Anne Church. He still does. It was, in my opinion, a serious insult when, right off the bat, Sister pushed the altar servers away from sitting next to the priest to well behind the priest –while she took the seat next to the priest. (At Lourdes they pushed the servers right off the 'stage' all together.) I know that Vince did not mind the change but I thought it certainly reduced the sense of importance the servers had felt being next to the priest. (Why else did Sister feel the need to sit there?) My liberal brothers and sisters talk about involving the young but they more often than not take actions that reduce the excitement, sense of responsibility, and sense of accomplishment of the young. In most celebrations of the new Mass the kids seldom have anything important to do up there. Wow! I remember becoming an altar boy and serving the traditional Latin Mass. That was a BIG deal!!! We had to learn so many things: where to move to, when to bow, when to genuflect, when to ring the bells (never my strong point), and, of course, correctly pronounce the Latin prayers (the hardest thing of all; THAT I excelled at!)The liberals just don't understand the young. They are too wrapped-up in 'doing theology' to notice what works and what doesn't be it in reference to the young or the community as a whole. I taught in public school for 33 years and it pains me to see how stupid we Catholics have become regarding young people –to think of what we had! It's nearly all gone. Sad. Sad. Sad.
http://www.seekandfind.com/bulletins/06/0132/20090621.pdf
Page 3, bottom left is an ad saying much of the same. This ad has been in the St. Anne/OLoL bulletins for at least a month.
I'd suggest that Sr. Sobala offer to serve herself, but that would require too much humility for this person that demands to serve as a priest.
~Dr. K
Sr. Joan Sobala is 2 years away from "mandatory" retirement. She is currently 68, I believe.
We're also 31 days away from 3 years away from Bishop Clark's retirement.
Sorry, make that 25 days. Even better.
Re: above two posts
A nice site for those interested in the USCCB landscape-
http://www.canonlaw.info/ten_bishops.htm
It's fun to watch Bishop Clark's name move up this list. It also gives a good idea of the turnover expected in the bishops of the USA in the years to come. Some big names retiring in the next 4 years: Clark and Hubbard (Jadot's boys), and of course LA's Mahony. Thank the Lord the great Bishops Morlino and Martino are a good decade away from retirement. Would love to see one of them in Rochester.
~Dr. K
I would like to see Father Antinarelli as bishop of Rochester. Yeah, like that will ever happen!!!
Happy Father's Day all you Dads!
Choir,
We can always dream! He would be the best candidate of all, being familiar with the problems in the DoR while having his head on straight at the same time. If that were to happen, there would be no doubt that God truly loves us and has heard our cries for the past almost 40 years (especially the last 30).
~Dr. K
Fr. Bonsignore and Fr. Lioi are also great candidates.
Looks like we're having our own little conclave. lol
Tell ya what, if Father Antinarelli gets elected Pope, I'll buy him a 4-foot miter.
I remember once attending a Tridentine Mass at St. Patrick's in NYC. The Mass was celebrated by the very short Cardinal Stickler. Seriously he couldn't have even been 5-feet tall, if that. My view was from the extreme Gospel side of the Nave and as the solemn procession started with all the priests, etc. all you could see of Cardinal STickler was his mitre inching forward as he processed down the aisle. He was so short of stature. It was too funny. I busted a gut (things see funnier when they happen in church for some reason). Then the procession enters the sanctuary where the cardinal's assistant had to help remove the Cardinal's robes including his 25-foot cappa magna.
It appeared that we lost Cardinal Stickler in the folds of his robes for a good 3 minutes. Too funny. I had to exit the cathedral for a few minutes. Cappa magnas are seriously LONG trains. I had never seen one ever until that day. It makes for an impressive procession with a train bearer for all 25-feet of red damask. One quick snap of the train and you could tumble a Cardinal onto the ground.
Or, heaven forbid, it accidentially drops out of your hand and you step on it and a you bring a Cardinal down to his knees. PHEW!!!!
I'm rambling now..Thanks for letting me ramble down "memory lane".
Oh I agree Fathers Antinarelli and Bonsignore would be perfect canadates. Both would encourage Latin.Beautiful.
Fr. Antinarelli would restore Sacred Heart Cathedral with his bare hands.
~Dr. K
I can see Fr. A doing that! Laying down brick by brick the baldacchino where it once stood.
I can see Father A doing it too. He certainly has the moxie.
Father gave a very good sermon at Mass today for the feast of St. John Fisher, the patron saint of the Rochester diocese.
How about Fathers Antinarelli and Bonsignore job share the Bishops position. How many more days?
1117 as I type away on my keyboard. If those two were in charge, the Rochester Diocese would be an amazing place once more.
A follow up on my note above. The original patron of the diocese was St. Andrew. SJF became patron in the late 50s/early 60s. When we had a minor seminary, the name was St. Andrew's.