The Rejected

Here's another cute (and biblical) prayer, given to me by Lillian Betts, one of the faculty at St. Vitus Catholic School.  I call it "The Rejected."

God, grant me the Serenity to accept the people I cannot change, the Courage to change the one I can, and the Wisdom to know it's me!

The next time you feel like God can't use you, remember...

• Noah was a drunk
• Abraham and Sarah were too old
• Isaac was a daydreamer
• Jacob was a liar
• Leah was ugly
• Joseph was abused
• Moses had a stuttering problem (and was a murderer)
• Gideon was afraid
• Samson had long hair and was a womanizer
• Rahab was a prostitute
• Jeremiah was too young
• David had an affair and was also a murderer
• Elijah was suicidal
• Isaiah preached naked
• Jonah ran away from God
• Naomi was a widow
• Job went bankrupt
• John the Baptist ate bugs
• Martha worried about everyting
• Zaccheus was too small
• Peter, James and John fell asleep while in the garden
• Peter betrayed Christ
• The twelve apostles ran away when Jesus was arrested
• Paul was too religious
• Timothy was too young and had an ulcer...AND
• Lazarus was dead!

What's In a Team Name? III

Yesterday, Peter King, the Sports Illustrated senior writer and guru behind the MMQB.com blog, announced that he will no longer use the nickname "Redskins" for the Washington football team.  Here's what he wrote:

I've decided to stop using the Washington team nickname.  It's a name you won't see me use anymore.  The simple reason is that for the last two or three years, I've been uneasy when I sat down to write about the team and had to use the nickname.  In some stories I've tried to use it sparingly.  But this year, I decided to stop entirely because it offends too many people, and I don't want to add to the offensiveness.  Some people, and some Naive American organizations--such as the highly respected American Indian Movement--think the nickname is a slur.  Obviously, the team feels it isn't a slur, and there are several prominent Native American leaders who agree.  But I can do my job without using it, and I will....I have no idea if this is the right thing to do for the public, or the politically correct thing to do, and I'm not going to sit here and try to preach about it and tell you if you like the name you're wrong or if you hate the name yo're wrong.  I can just ell you how I feel: I've been increasingly bothered by using the word, and I don't want to be a part of using a name that a cross-section of our society feels is insulting.

It's one thing if the New Republic or Slate magazine decides to stop using the Washington nickname.  It's quite another when a high-profile, veteran, and well-respected pro football writer/tv commentator like Peter King decides to stop using the nickname.  He did not speak for his Sports Illustrated colleagues, or for the magazine himself.  It will be interesting if this is a one-time only thing, or if his decision starts a bandwagon.

P.S.  Another writer, commenting on King's decision, says his new name for the Washington team should be "Department of Football."  How about "Bureaucrats"?  

What's in a Team Name? II

A few weeks ago I criticized the NFL team representing Our Nation's Capital to change it's racist name to the Washington Gridlock.  Maybe momentum is building.  Here's a great passage from Gregg Easterbrook's NFL blog, "Tuesday Morning Quarterback."  By the way, you can read Easterbrooks's funny and iconoclastic thoughts every Tuesday (when else?) during the football season here.  Is "Insiders" better than "Gridlock"?

Slate magazine, newly divorced from the Washington Post, will no longer refer to this team as the Redskins, finding the term racists.  It's blowin' in the wind -- the Redskins will not be Redskins much longer, and on one gives a hoot what Chainsaw Dan [Snyder, the owner] thinks.

TMQ banged the drum for years about eliminating the Redskins name.  Then, when the world seemed to lose interest, I returned to using the name in the column.  Now that interest is rising anew -- two lawsuits are in progress -- this column will go back to calling the franchise in question the Potomac Drainage Basin Indigenous Persons.  Not only is Redskins inappropriate, the Washington part isn't right either, as the team practices in Virginia and performs in Maryland.  Like Slate, I will use "Redskins" only in direct quotation of others.  Persons or Potatoes will be the column's shorthand, bounding off Tony Kornheiser's great line that "Redskins" would be a fine name so long as the logo was a side dish of potatoes.

Wouldn't it be nice if, rather than acting defiant, Chainsaw Dan showed people that he cared?  That would be possible only if he cared.  The Persons recently finished 108th in the rankings of fan value published by ESPN The Magazine.

To what should this team's name be changed?  TMQ thinks the franchise should be rechristened the Washington Insiders.  In winning seasons, they'd be the powerful Insiders.

Foolishly Predicting Pigskin Winners III

I should have known better.  I should have known better than to predict that our flightless birds, a.k.a., the Pittsburgh Penguins, would win the Stanley Cup in the spring.

A Chicago Blackhawks-Pittsburgh Penguins final would have been sweet.  But how could our hometown heroes only manages two goals -- ONLY TWO GOALS -- in four-plus games with the Boston Bruins.   Wait till next year.  (Oops, I mean wait until September 11, when NHL training camp begins!)

So, no more hometown favorites.  I have not been happy with the way our other heroes, the Pittsburgh Steelers, conducted themselves in the off-season.  Unloading veterans is one thing, getting new or drafted players to step up and take their place is another.  Poor Ben Roethlisburger.  I think he's at the peak of his physical and mental powers, and he has few targets, no running game, and a leaky O-line.  The LeBeau defense will again be stout.  But without an offense to chew up yards and time, the aging stars on defense can only do so much.  Wow.  I predict another 8-8 season, another miss at the playoffs, another wasted year without pursuing that 7th Super Bowl ring.

That said, the NFL should be as exciting as ever.  It's wide open -- again.  The story lines make the sports writers giddy.  Will Peyton Manning put it all together for a second ring?  How will running backs/disguised-as-quarterbacks Russell Wilson, Robert Griffin III, and Colin Kaepernick deal with sophomore slump?  Can Chip Kelly's silly-fast Oregon offense work in the NFL?  Will the Bengals, Browns and the Texans break their usual playoff swoons?  Can Tom Brady and Bill Belechik take the mess in New England and make another run for a fourth losing Super Bowl since the spy-gate fiasco?  Will Andy Reid make magic in Kansas City?  And will Rex Ryan end up mayor or sanitation engineer of New York (er, New Jersey swampland)?

So here are my predictions:

NFC East division winner:  New York Giants (4)

NFC North:  Green Bay Packers (3)

NFC South:  Atlanta Falcons (1)

NFC West:  Seattle Seahawks (2)

Wild cards:  San Francisco 49ers (5), Philadelphia Eagles (6)

Packers over Eagles
49ers over Giants

Falcons over 49ers
Packers over Seahawks

Packers over Falcons

AFC East: New England Patriots (1)

AFC North: Cincinnati Bengals (4)

AFC South: Houston Texans (3)

AFC West: Denver Broncos (2)

Wild cards:  Baltimore Ravens (5), Indianapolis Colts (6)

Texans over Colts
Ravens over Bengals

Patriots over Ravens
Broncos over Ravens

Broncos over Patriots

SUPER BOWL 2013:  Packers over Broncos

I know, those of you with long memories will tell me that I picked the Packers to beat the Patriots last year.  The Ravens had everything right happen to them down the playoff stretch, and the Pack fell short.  But Aaron Rogers is a proven commodity, and the Packers are a class act.  They know how to win.  This will be their year.

Let the games begin!

Labor Day 2013

Those with special devotion to St. Joseph, the just spouse of Mary and foster-father of Jesus, were very happy to hear the news from the Vatican in June that Pope Francis had approved the recommendation to include St. Joseph's name in all Eucharistic Prayers at Mass, immediately after the invocation of the Blessed Mother.  St. Joseph is already named in the First Eucharistic Prayer (the Roman Canon).  This inclusion was approved by Pope John XXIII around 1960.  Now you will hear St. Joseph's name in all the Eucharistic Prayers, for daily and Sunday Masses.

The other picture of Joseph is that of worker or carpenter of Nazareth.  In Matthew 13:55, the astonished people in the synagogue of Nazareth rhetorically ask, " Is [Jesus] not the carpenter's son?"  In John "murmuring Jews" are opposed to Jesus' teaching on the bread of life and ask, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph?  Do we not know his father and mother?"  (6:42)  The earliest recorded published devotion to St. Joseph comes only in the 8th century, but March 19 is established as his feast day as early as the 11th century.  In the 19th century Pope Pius IX names St. Joseph the patron of the universal church, and Pope Leo XIII called on all Catholic to pray to St. Joseph for intercession.

In 1955 Pope Pius XII established a second feast day, May 1, specifically for St. Joseph the Worker.  Many people at the time saw it as a Christian response to the Communists' celebration of military and political power (particularly in the then-Soviet Union) on "May Day."  But this designation also reflected the Catholic Church's positive view of the value of labor, working men and women, and unions.  Atheistic communism has passed into the "dustbin of history," but the value of May 1 honoring St. Joseph the Worker continues to grow.  It is through work that human beings build up their families, homes, towns and cities, and the world at large.  Human labor is always to be honored, whether it be through the sweat of farming, manufacturing or nursing, the drudgery of the assembly line, cash register or housework, or the creativity of teaching, business entrepreneurship and the arts.

I find it significant that way back in 1888 Bishop John Tuigg, the third bishop of Pittsburgh, named the second parish in New Castle after St. Joseph the Worker.  New Castle was already known for its workers in manufacturing plants and on the canals and railroads.  Over the next three decades the waves of European immigrants seeking work who came to New Castle would push the Diocese of Pittsburgh to open parishes for Italian immigrants (St. Vitus in 1901; St. Lawrence, Bessimer, in 1906; St. Lucy in 1913), Slovak immigrants (St. Michael in 1910), and Polish immigrants (Madonna of Czectochowa in 1902; SS. Philip and James in 1923).  This year is the 125th anniversary of St. Joseph the Worker Parish.  In October Bishop David Zubik, the twelfth bishop of Pittsburgh, will come up to help us celebrate this anniversary.

Labor Day in our country is at one and the same time a way to honor all workers, to pray for the unemployed who are seeking honest work at a living wage, and to rest from our labors to enjoy family and friends   One of my parishes, appropriately St. Joseph the Worker, will host a Mass at 9:00 a.m. on Labor Day.  Let us pray for St. Joseph, the loving husband of Mary and woodworker of Nazareth, to guide us in our work on Earth.

Walking Toward Unity

My first anniversary (July 30) as pastor of the four parishes in the city of New Castle came and went.  My two associates have also passed their first anniversaries serving here.  When I tell people about our unique (to the Diocese of Pittsburgh) pastoral situation here in Lawrence County, they often ask, well, are you merged yet?

I explain (with maybe too much an air of "been there, done that") that when the bishop gave me this assignment, he and I agreed that the first thing was not "merger" but "being church."  I have long felt that it takes a priest anywhere from 18 to 36 months to feel that he is settled into his assignment.  With the people, organizations and histories of four parishes, that number of months probably has to rise.  So my brother priests and I are trying our best to "just be church" and do our work in all four parishes.

At the same time, however, we are working together.  For the first anniversary, I sat down with my associates at our weekly lunch-and-business-meeting and came up with a list of areas where we have collaborated.  Let me share it here.  

First off, at the suggestion of Bishop Zubik, all three priests live under one roof at Mary Mother of Hope rectory.  We only had to do minor fix-up, paint-up to put together three nice four room suites for each of us.  We have weekly business meetings and three regular shared meals together, as well as a schedule which allows each of us a full day off each week.  The people have been incredibly supportive of our small fraternity of priests.  

In January I reorganized the pastoral and finance councils of all four parishes.  Instead of meeting with each parish's councils separately (potentially 40 meetings a year!  Ugh!), the councils meet together five times a year.  The pastoral council has done good work in discerning three goals (catechesis, evangelization, stewardship) for our situation.  It has also made concrete suggestions for action under each goal, which we are tackling and planning to accomplish over the next 12 months.

We have hosted joint meetings from all four parishes of the secretaries, musicians, directors of religious education, St. Vincent de Paul Society conferences, and bookkeepers.  I hope that these meetings continue, so that people can work collaboratively and effectively.  One result of the meeting with DREs is for the first time (ever?) there will be one celebration of Confirmation for the young people of all four parishes this fall.  Bishop Zubik is coming on Wednesday, October 16, to confirm 110 ninth graders in St. Vitus Church.

We have set schedules for the four parishes, for Sunday Masses, weekday Masses, civil holiday and holyday Masses, and Masses in local nursing homes.  Fathers Nick and Bill (with others) have organized a one-day marriage preparation workshop for engaged couples, which is offered twice a year.  Parishioners have led a schedule of monthly classes for parents to prepare for the baptism of their children.  This class is rotated among the four sites.  Our parishes continue the longstanding cooperation with the other four Lawrence County parishes for shared penance services in Advent and Lent, the youth group and the RCIA process.

One special achievement was the planning and execution of a chapel for the extended adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.  After more than eight months of preparation  on the Feast of Corpus Christi (June 2) we began round-the-clock adoration (six days a week) in the Mary Mother of Hope religious education building on North Beaver Street.  Over 190 parishioners have signed up for a weekly hour of silent prayer.  Many have thanked me for the spiritual enrichment this hour in the presence of Our Lord has brought them.  But this cooperative effort was led by parishioners, I'm happy to say.

Another nice thing was the diocese assigning two seminarians to us for a pastoral internship this past summer.  Chris Mannerino and Zach Galiyas worked hard, and (God willing) are looking forward to be called to the Order of Deacon for ordination in June 2014.  I know I enjoyed their youthful enthusiasm and energetic assistance.

Last winter two of our parishes, St. Vincent de Paul and St. Vitus, completed their efforts for Our Campaign for the Church Alive!  Both parishes exceeded their diocesan-set target:  St. Vincent de Paul (103%; $493,000) and St. Vitus (125%; $1,435,000).  Now is the "fulfillment" stage, and parishioners who made pledges fulfill them monthly, quarterly or annually.  In November these parishes will receive their first payment (40% of money received since January) from the Church Alive Campaign, to begin fulfilling their parish case statements.

There may be other ways we've worked together, but this is a start.  I would say we've been busy about the Lord's work.  And as parishioners from each of the parishes get to know each other, go to each others churches for Mass and halls for meetings and festivals, we are walking together on the journey to unity.

Prayer Before Math Class

Our parish school, St. Vitus, began classes one week ago.  It's great seeing the kids back in school, although I'm not ready to admit that this Labor Day weekend marks the coming of fall.

When I went around to see the kids on the first day, our fourth grade teacher, Justin Venasco, handed me this cute prayer.

Dear God,

May we, through your blessings,

add purity to the world,

subtract evil from our lives,

multiply your good news,

and divide your gifts and share them

with others.

Amen.