My World of Religion, Politics, Entertainment and Social Issues

Dear Blog Visitors: Many of you may be aware that a new English Mass translation will be implemented in all American dioceses as of November of this year. For those of you who wish to examine the current language against the new translation, I have provided a link that will allow you to do this (or simply paste the link to your web browser): http://www.usccb.org/romanmissal/samples-people.shtml It is not my intention to be political with my criticism of the new translation. In the photo above, I am giving a thumbs down from primarily a musical perspective. In simple terms, current musical settings of the Mass will not work with the new translation. Although composers are racing against time to modify scores in such a way that will allow the words to work, they are running into much difficulty. My guess is that once U.S. bishops receive multiple complaints in November from Catholics who do not like the new translation of the Mass, they will perhaps be receptive to allowing optional ...

Dear Blog Visitors: As an independent married priest, commissioned by the Federation of Christian Ministries, I have a freedom of choices that are not available to diocesan priests. For example, I am often approached by Catholic couples who have opted for an outdoor wedding. Since diocesan priests are not allowed to officiate at weddings outside a church setting, I am delighted to be able to offer my services. In this regard, I am pleased to have a reciprocal arrangement with both diocesan priests and priests with Spiritus Christi Church (independent community). With this reciprocal arrangement, either parish priests will refer couples to me, or I will refer couples to them, depending upon the circumstances. On occasions when I have referred couples to diocean priests, it has usually been because of misunderstandings, whereby couples incorrectly assumed they could not have a diocesan wedding. I always tell couples that my commissioning for ministry comes from the Federation of Chr...

Dear Blog Visitors: As you can see in the above photos, I have been very busy with the process of packing boxes, in preparation for retirement from Rochester's City Hall. Those who know me well are aware of the fact that I often complained about the piles of paperwork I had to deal with in City Hall on a weekly basis, especially at the end of a fiscal year. Looking at the boxes in back of me in the photos will give you an idea of how much paper I accumulated over the years. For those who remain in City Hall, they will find their lives will become much easier, for July 1 is the kick-off date for a new paperless/advanced electronic system that will streamline the manner in which the City does business internally and externally. I only wish this process had been incorporated earlier. As stated in a previous post, I look forward to a very active retirement. Although my income will be reduced, I will nevertheless be engaged in my passions, and I feel that is what is most important. A...

Dear Blog Visitors: As we celebrate Black History Month, I fondly recall a man who was a huge influence in my life. I am referring to the late Dr. Calvin O. Dash, who lived from 1924-2005. Calvin Dash excelled at a time when it was often very difficult for African Americans to pursue their chosen fields. In his case, the chosen field was operatic music. Although the world could have been his stage, he chose teaching instead, and I was honored to be one of his students. Calvin received his doctorate from the Juilliard School of Music. Although he had hoped to teach at the Eastman School of Music, he instead taught magnificently at Franklin High School in Rochester, New York and later ran his own music school for many years in the Washington, DC area. I was very privileged indeed to have Dr. Dash as my high school choir director, in addition to taking private voice lessons from him and singing in his church choir while I was in college. Calvin had a very strict demeanor, because he ...

Dear Blog Visitors: In the photo above, you see me surrounded by the 36 boxes I packed in preparation for my retirement from Rochester's City Hall on May 6. In actuality, I still have many more boxes to pack for the City's archives, which serves as a reminder of how many documents I have processed as supervisor of the City's accounts payable unit. My past few years in City Hall have been especially busy, because in addition to my duties as supervisor of the accounts payable operations, I was also responsible for all documents relating to the City's professional service agreements (processing and filing), thus the multitudes of boxes I am packing. As I went about the process of emptying file drawers, I couldn't help thinking about the many trees that were destroyed to create the paper for the documents I worked on. Therefore, I am delighted that the City of Rochester will be moving toward a paperless process for both payable operations and professional service agr...

Dear Blog Visitors: Since I don’t meet the residency requirements for the mayoral race in Rochester, I am not a declared candidate. However, this is not to say that I don’t have ideas on how the City of Rochester should be run. After all, I have spent 23 years of my life in City Hall, and in the process of my assorted positions, I have certainly seen the ‘good, the bad and the ugly.’ As I near retirement on May 6 as a Civil Service employee with the City of Rochester, I would probably be entering my name amongst the several persons running in the special election for Mayor if I were a City resident. While I did in fact spend most of my years within city limits, I am currently a resident of the Town of Henrietta (south of Rochester), which disqualifies me from the current mayoral contest. Since the mayoral election is only a few weeks away (March 29), the media has correctly stated that candidates need to state their positions very clearly and SOON! Although I am not a mayoral candid...

Dear Blog Visitors: Ever since the recent tragedy in Tucson, we have been saturated with commentaries about the need for more civility in American politics. In this regard, I have been thinking of role models, past and present, who had a special gift of generating friendship with those they either agreed or disagreed with on social or political issues. I am writing this on what would have been Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday. Since I have already posted a couple tributes to him during the past week, I won't be repeating myself today. However, I will simply restate that I respected his ability to be a brilliant communicator, in addition to his ability to reach across the aisle, in a spirit of friendship, to those who didn't always share his viewpoints. Throughout much of my life, I have been immersed in a variety of political arenas. In a traditional sense, I had my day in the sun with both Democratic and Republican politics. Later in life, I became embroiled in the poli...

Dear Blog Visitors: A few months ago, I articulated my reasons for opposing the canonization of Pope Pius XII. However, in the case of John Paul II, I find that I am favor of his canonization process, which seems to be on the fast track. I was recently asked to sign a petition being circulated by a variety of Catholic reform organizations that are opposed to the canonization of John Paul II. While initially tempted to sign, I ultimately decided not to. It is quite obvious that I was in disagreement with John Paul II's fierce defense of mandatory celibacy for priests. However, I found this was not a good reason to sign a petition in opposition to his canonization. When a person is nominated for sainthood, his or her entire life needs to be taken to account. I did this in the case of John Paul II. I admired what he did as a young man in Poland. During this horrible period, he worked in the underground against the Nazi regime. Later in life, he supported the solidarity movement...