I find it strangely amusing

that politicians complain about what Washington is doing. Umm, last time I check Mrs. Clinton, and Mr. Obama were/are apart of the Washington they are complaining about.

Sometimes I wonder

I really do wonder sometimes why I have been given the graces that I have been given. It makes me happy that so many kids and teens are making their First Holy Eucharist and Confirmation this time of year, but it pains me to no end to watch the priest tell the congregation what to do, when to stand, when to kneel and when to sit. The Celebrant should not have to say, "please kneel in preparation for Communion." It was great to see all the little ones receive the Eucharist for the first time, but it was painful to watch how they actually received Jesus. Many of them seemed to have no idea what was happening, and it caused me to wonder, did you ever practice with them. Use a nilla wafer, a wheat thin, a ritz cracker, something to get them used to the action of receiving Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament. It pained me more to watch adults not know how to receive Communion, to watch a teenager take a host and walk back to the pew with It as if it was something to keep and look at.

Thankfully I have spent time talking to Fr. Brian about my quest of perfection. I know I'm not perfect yet for some reason I strive to be perfect and to have every Mass I go to be perfect. I have started to "offer up" these little imperfections as I see them. Before my cousin's Confirmation this afternoon, I just sat there and said, "Cardinal Cooke, lead me by your example and help me to offer it up for the souls of Purgatory." I did the same thing at the Papal Mass, and it helps. I still Mass to be perfect, I want the people next to me to know what they are doing and when to sit, stand and kneel, I want them to be quiet, but alas it doesn't happen all the time.

At my cousin's party I somehow got stuck in the corner of the "old people" table, my parents, and my aunts and uncles were at it and the topic of discussion was Obama and Hillary and eventually moved into Guiliani and Cardinal Egan. I can't understand why "good Catholics" which is such a stupid term, one is either Catholic or not, will make blanket statements like "Bush ruined the country," or even think of voting for a democrat. Abortion is a grave evil, it is the murder of an innocent human being who has done nothing. I can't see why these Irish immigrants won't look past the idea that Bill Clinton did so much for Ireland, and Bill Clinton did this and Bush hasn't done anything to legalize the Irish. Maybe those dipshits shouldn't have overstayed their visa, Ireland is a country that is well off, they would not be returning to a country that would not be able to offer jobs and what not.

I know that I am a "one issue" voter, I can't see how someone over looks a 100% rating from NARAL or a 100% por-abortion voting record. The excuse my father likes to use is, well plenty of catholics are pro-choice or are doing this or doing that. Normally response is, "well if the Bishops and priests had some guts and weren't afraid of speaking the truth, that wouldn't be an issue." Well if they are pro-choice they have in essence excommunicated themselves, and I'm tired of people calling themselves Catholic and picking and choosing what they want to believe. Life is so much easier to live when you have rules. The Church as been around for 2,000 years and it's still standing, God most know what He's doing.

Maybe the idea that I'm the black sheep of the family is just weighing on me. So many times I look at my parents who instilled my faith in my and taught me the basics of the Catholic faith and wonder why I am the only one who's upset by certain things. In all the times I have been "let go" from schools or parishes it was never "how nice of you to stand up and defend the Church." it always was "you'll never be able to get a job." Maybe I need to give Archbishop Raymond Burke a call, he'd probably hire me. Just once I want to hear my family say "good job defending the Faith." Case in point, after pointing out to my mother that her own son doesn't go to Church each week and if she thinks they do she's crazy, the response I get is well they try, and when I tell her she should say something to them, the response is "why don't you." Because it's your son mom, yes my neice is my Goddaughter and I will be all over her CCD classes and what's being taught, but my brother is not my responsibility. If I was to ever miss Mass, my mother would be all over it, asking why I didn't go, but she doesn't have to worry about that, because as she puts it. "that's not you." No mom it's the gift of the Holy Spirit and the many graces that God has given to me time and time again.

It's a blessing and curse to love the Church so much and I know I'm not alone out there. I am very thankful for my friendship with Bridget and being able to know that when I bitch and moan about something she'll more than likely agree with me and make me feel normal about it. She wonders where I got the insane intensity to defend the Church, it's probably the Irish in me. I know that Terence Cardinal Cooke's family came from around the same area of Galway as some of my mom's family so, maybe back quite a few generations he and I are related. Maybe it comes from having Cardinal Cooke as my archbishop for almost 3 years, granted I was almost three years old when he died, but my mom spoke about him as I grew so I wanted to know his story and well now I do. Maybe it comes from having John Cardinal O'Connor as my archbishop for almost 10 years, and even when I moved to NJ John J. O'Connor was still my cardinal. It's hard to believe that 8 years ago today, he entered eternal life. I have met many bishops and heard of many cardinals since my days of being in the Archdiocese of NY, but Cardinals Cooke and O'Connor hold a special place in my heart and I think it's their staunch support of the pro-life movement. I talk to them almost daily as they are my Cardinals. At the Papal Mass I couldn't help but miss my Cardinal and my Pope, JP2. Don't get me wrong I love Benedict, but JP2 was pope for the majority of my life. Maybe my insane defense of the Church comes from being named for the Blessed Mother, having Christ as part of my middle name, and for chosing Anne as my Confirmation name or maybe it's simply because I was baptized on the 12th of December, the feast of our Lady of Guadalupe. Who knows what caused it, but it is who I am.

I say it proudly that I am a perfectionist, traditionalist, conservative, young Catholic woman. As my t-shirt says I am proud to be Catholic and I love the rules Holy Mother Church has laid out for us, I just wish more people would come to love them as much as I do.

Ascension Thursday

You know it's a good homily when I have to blog right away about it. Fr. Brian gave a wicked homily for the Ascension, quoting "P B 16" as he calls him. I don't know if I can do that yet, it's too close to JP2, but it's growing on me. Anyway, Fr. Brian spoke of a story involving two college softball teams and a tremendous story of what the atlethic word call sportsmanship and what the normal world would call being nice and what a Christian calls being Christ to others.


Go check out the link http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/columns/story?columnist=hays_graham&id=3372631

I will eventually cut and paste the story, but for now I'm being lazy. I will also add in the quote from Papa B16 that Padre Brian used. It was a comment the Pope made about the Ascension and how we enter Jesus when we enter Heaven. I am doing it no justice, I'm just putting in some key words so I can find it later on. I e-mail Fr. Brian and asked where he got the quote from.

Speaking of Papa B16, his speeches and homilies from his trip to the US are quite easy to read and digest, which I did not expect!

Papal Mass.. comments questions and concerns!

I don't know where to start when it comes to the Papal Mass at Skank... I mean Yankee Stadium. Well let me begin there, I am a die hard Mets fan, one of those crazy ones that can't stand the Yankees, and I had sort of make a promise to myself that I would never enter Yankee Stadium and was really excited that it was going to happen, seeing as it's being knocked down later this year. Alas the "Man in White" is the only person who could get me into that Stadium. So yes the Pope is who made me enter the belly of the beast.

The day went very smoothly considering what could have gone wrong. I guess I should really start with the ticket story, I blogged a few entries ago about maybe having a ticket to the Mass, that was a Monday evening. Tuesday morning I was told it was up in the air and that the lady who was offered the ticket had already said she didn't need it. Anyway she calls me on Tuesday takes my name, social security number and date of birth so they can "make sure I'm not a terrorist." I assured her that my background as far I knew was clean, considering how many times it was check for all the schools I worked at. Anyway she said she'd know by Wednesday probably Thursday if her captain could get the ticket. The logical part of me is thinking there is no way this ticket is still around, but my gut feeling was it's still around. Well Friday morning I got a call from the woman, and not only did I get one ticket, but I got two tickets. So I took my mom with me. It was only fitting considering all she and my father have done for me and how many times they sent me to World Youth Days and to Rome so I could see JP2.

So on Friday afternoon I had to drive to this lady's house, which was a good 45/50 mins away from my house. Thank God for navigation systems, the GPS was awesome! So my mom and I dropped my nephew off at school and continued on our way to get the tickets. Once I got the tickets I needed to plan out our day on Sunday, as we had to make our own way into the city. That was done thanks to NJ Transit's webpage and NYC's MTA's webpage.

Going to the Archdiocese of New York for Mass was a coming home of sorts for me. All of my sacraments, well the ones I have received so far, have been conferred on me via the Archdiocese of NY, so I was coming home to my Church. It was strange as all of my other papal events involved JP2, and I kept wanted to bust out the Giovanni Paulo chant not the Benedicto chant. So that make it a bit strange. I wasn't moved to tears like I thought I would be, I was overly excited to see Papa B16, but it wasn't the same. I must say that even with this this being my 4th papal Mass it was the first Mass I felt was like a Mass. I know the other ones were World Youth Day (WYD) Masses and therefore massive, but there was always a feeling of me being unprepared and other things for Mass. 1 million people vs. 60,000 is a pretty dig difference. The age group was completely different too. Some other reasons could be that we camped out the night before and left before Mass in Paris, so this was really my 3rd Papal Mass, and camped out in Rome and Toronto. Rome was ok, Toronto had a highly spiritual battle going on around me, so I guess this Mass was really the first one I could be calm at, the first one I would have a "seat" for, the first one I could dress "up" for, the first one where I could feel like I was at Mass. That's what I noticed, this Mass felt like a Mass, I was able to block out the annoy things around me, and remind myself that it was a Mass. I think talking to Fr. Brian about perfection helped, I keep reminding myself that I like everyone else am not perfect, and I turned to Cardinal Cooke's, fitting as he was Cardinal Archbishop of NY when I was a baby, example of offering up something for the souls of Purgatory and well they seemed to work.

Looking back on my reactions to the Cardinals I can see the "POPEY POPEY POPEY!!!" person in me. I was literally standing on a chair to see over the people in front of me. My mother did tell me that the people next to us would think I was nuts, so I guess the me from WYD did show up, but I think I was more interested in my mom's reaction. I knew what was going to happen it wasn't my first papal event. I did find it strangely amusing the attitudes of people at the Mass, well before Mass anyway. I know that Mass was at a non-traditional site, but NY did an awesome job of making that skanky stadium look well suited for Mass. I knew I was in a baseball stadium, but I didn't feel like I was. Maybe that was God's grace yet again working in my life, or it comes with practice of being able to focus on what's going on at Mass so one feels like they are at Mass.

Anyhoo, back to the actual event. I had a nagging feeling that we should be on the first train out of Hawthorne aka H-town, and that was at 6:39am, and the damn thing was 2 mins early by my watch. No big deal, when it's something like that I'm actually early for it. We got into Penn Station about an hour later so we stopped for some good ole Dunkin Donuts for breakfast and some caffeine. We decided to actually sit and eat vs. bringing it with us. We had pleanty of time to get to the stadium. We got to Yankee Stadium well before the 9am gate opening, but we were not alone. We were shuffled along by the NYPD, who asked us to have our tickets out so they could tell us where to go and that's exactly what I did and they told us where to go. By getting there then we didn't have to deal with the protesters who were out. There were a few pro-test-ants aka protestants those Christian people. Actually these morons probably weren't even Christian. A few of the signs caused me to be a smart ass. One asked if I knew Jesus and I said yes I did, I was just at Mass with Him. Another said Constantine was the first Pope and I said no Peter was, read your Bible! Yes it was the signs that asked not the people who were holding them doing the asking.

Oh well, I'm starting to babble, I'm trying to kill time while some pictures from the blessed event print, but I'm just going to get loopy so I'll stop for now and let you ponder the crazies that were outside protesting the Holy Father and the Church.

Latin Mass

My parish had a Latin Mass last Saturday in honor of our 100 years of being in existence. It as a wonderful experience to have old school meet new school. Thanks to Pope Benedict we're allowed to have Latin Masses said in a non Latin Mass church. I attempted to take pictures, but I felt strange as no one else expect the "official" photographer for our Jubilee was taking pictures. I did find the comments from the people afterwards quite amusing. Most of then expected to remember more of the Latin and I would turn and say oh I was surprised at how much I knew. The looks of why does a 28 year old know Latin would ensue and I would explain that studied Latin in college and that this wasn't my first Latin Mass.

I loved it, and despite the many "I don't want to go back to this" comments I heard, I wouldn't mind bringing back parts of the Mass, like how Communion was received, it was so much easier to receive on one's tongue while kneeling vs. standing. I was quite impressed that I could follow along with the Latin side of the program they gave us. Maybe it's my weekly Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist duties that are finally getting to me, but it was nice to just sit and enjoy Mass vs. having to jump over people to get out to distribute Communion.

Even though we are a Novus Ordo church the women coming to the Mass were asked to wear something on their head. I wore my big purple shawl that also covered the top part of me. I wasn't wearing it on my head when I walked into the Church and some guy in attendance gave me a look, I placed it on my head once I got settled. I might have also gotten the look because I was one of very few "young people" at the Mass. Considering it was a Saturday afternoon Mass I was impressed with how well dressed the majority of people in attendance were. I think I saw two women wearing jeans, everyone else was in skirts, or dress pants and nice tops, most of the men were in pants, shirts, and jackets. I wonder what happens when these same people go to Mass on Sunday.


As you will see in this picture our church still has it's "back altar" in place, and when the comment "I wonder if they will want the back altar" was made to our liturgy committee last Monday I responded with "knowing the fraternity they will want the back altar." I nearly said, what else would they use, but I know better than to be sarcastic with my pastor in those cases. I do find it amusing that the conversation was pretty much ended once I added my comment in.
The altar was very nicely decorated, well undecorated as we had to take the flowers down and honestly the altar is gorgeous on it's own. The tabernacle which is covered by a white cloth, I apologize for not knowing the technical name, and don't feel like looking it up at the moment, is the tabernacle that we use on a daily basics, so it was nice to see it used like this too. As you can see we are still decorated for the Easter season, and normally the back altar has flowers on the top part of it. The altar we normally use is the one in the front. Fr. Brian, our parochial vicar made a comment when we were discussing that the back altar would probably be used and it amused me, while it annoyed others. The comment was "the altar is not a flower holder." I love my vicar and would have loved to see him partake in this Mass, but the Holy Father trumped and he was in attendance with a few teens from the parish at the Papal Youth Rally. I don't think the comment was directed at how our church is normally decorated, I think he was simply stating what the priest from the Fraternity of St. Peter would say and honestly it's true and people need to stop getting their panties in a bunch. I also find it strangely amusing that I was the only one from the committee at the Mass, and that is simply because I got tickets to the Papal Mass on Sunday.


Fr. Joesph Howard FFSP, from the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter was the main celebrant of the Mass, considering this is the Mass he says on a regular basis. Our pastor, Fr. George is on the side and I was excited to see him in full cassock and to have his biretta with him. While I have no idea what Fr. Howard was saying or doing at this point, I was able to follow the Schola Cantorum while they chanted. It was a high Mass which was great and I found the way Fr. Howard incensed the altar interesting, ovbiously he couldn't walk around the whole altar like the Novus Ordo Mass allows, but he stopped at the ends and incensed it there. I don't know why I found it so interesting, but I did.

I enjoyed watching Msgr., hence the red on the cassock and biretta, aka Fr. George partake in the Mass because he had to take the biretta on and off and carry it in. Again the simpliest things amuse me and keep me entertained. The young man, the altar boy, next to him was telling us when to sit and stand, that really amused me because at most "big" Masses it's Fr. George doing that. I must add that while I don't have a picture of him, there was one young altar boy who my mom and I both commented on how well he knew what he was doing. I also noticed how reverent this young man was especially when incensing the priest, servers and the rest of the people. I hope that he has a vocation, because that is what I thought when I saw him. I also found it interesting that Fr. George put his stole on for the Eucharistic prayer and took it off if I remember correctly before he went to receive Communion. Fr. George was the second person to receive Communion, the first being Fr. Howard, and Fr. George had to kneel directly in front of Fr. Howard who was directly in front of the tabernacle. Quite an impressive and humbling site.

Fr. Howard during the homily re-read the readings in English and spoke on the traditions of why the reading were picked and explained how we would receive Communion at the rail in front of the Blessed Mother statue, on our knees and on our tongues. I did find it amusing that the picture of Benedict 16th was also placed on that side and if it wasn't for him, the Latin Mass would not have been at our parish as Fr. Howard pointed out. It's also appropriate that it was the Fraternity that said the Mass as they began at the request of then Cardinal Ratzinger.

In this last picture Fr. Howard could be reading the Last Gospel, I'm not a hundred percent sure. Either way it's a great picture of how awesome his vestments are.


Over all the Mass was a great experience, and the only thing that was missing was the people's responses being in our booklet. While those like my parents would remember them, those like me who very rarely have been to a Latin Mass didn't know them. I told Fr. Howard that I know his chapel well because I know a family that goes there and we had a small discussion on how I know them. I dare say some Sundays I may find myself up at Our Lady of Fatima for Mass. There was food afterwards and there was also older vestments on display. The vestments compared to today's are impressive, there was so much detail put into them and it's no wonder that Papa B16 is leading us back to them. To have a Latin Mass one day and then a Papal Mass with the creed in Latin the next day made for an awesome and unforgettable weekend.

Papal Mass!!!

I don't know where to start, but these few picture will cover me for now! Click the pictures for the full size ones, they are nice and big!


I am not a Yankee fan, actually I hate the Yankees, I'm a die hard Mets fan! So this picture was taken simply because I was told to turn my camera on for the security detail check in.




The slightly disturbing yet intriguing pope-cakes as I call them, I couldn't bring myself to eat the Pope's face, so I opted for the Yankee cookie, that in my opinion was hilarous because I was eating the Yankees.




Out of all the pictures I took, I happen to like the Pope-mobile shot the best!





Some of the Cardinals, I know you can see Sean Cardinal O'Malley, I think Mahoney is somewhere behind him because my reaction was OH O'MALLEY, *smile*, oh Mahoney, *smirk*


Pappa 16 on his way to his chair, again out of the shots this is the one I like the best!


Just to whet you appetite for what I could see, we, my mom and I had great seats. The camera is on full zoom, but I never had to look a the big screen unless I wanted to. I'll get some pictures of the view from the seats up later on!

I've got a golden ticket!

Actually I have 2 golden tickets, and yes they really are gold. It's offical I have tickets to the Papal Mass on Sunday. It's very exciting, and do expect pictures from the Mass and of me actually inside Yankee Stadium. Also expect a blog on the Latin Mass my parish is having tomorrow, I plan on taking pictures of that too.

He's here!!!!

THE POPE IS HERE!!!! YAY!!!!!

I am quite impressed with the speed of the nearly 81 year old Pontiff as he came down the stairs from the plane. The smile on his face was great, and I'm quite happy that Jenna (thanks Fox News) to greet him along with President and Mrs. Bush.

I have EWTN coverage taping on the old TV and I sat with the high def tv and flipped the channels and took pictures with the camera of the TV, so expect a picture blog to come. While flipping the channels I turned to CBS aka channel 2 and burst out laughing and screamed as I head them say "Msgr. Joe Chapel." Father Joe as I met and know him was at SHU while I was there and is good friends and quite possibly a classmate of one the priests I know quite well. So I have pictures and video of that too.

Oh well, I am off to make dinner, but I'm so excited the Pope is here. I'm sure my age and growth mentally, physically, and spiritually is helping but it's totally different from JP2 came in 1995, I didn't get it back then, now I do.

Welcome to the US, Papa B16! We love you!

Oh my Sweet Jesus, how wonderful You are.

*update* Like I said nothing was/is official, the lady who was getting the ticket told them no, that she didn't need the ticket, so now it's all up in the air, but if God wants me there He'll get me there. *update*

I can't even put into words what just happened. My parish had it's liturgy committee meeting tonight and at the end we sit and have cake and talk about life. Fr. George, our pastor, went upstairs to check his messages before retiring the for evening. I'm standing downstairs where the meeting was and I hear Fr. George saying "blah blah, Mary Woolley... Mary you still here?" Yes I am was my response. The following "conversation: takes place on"I have a woman on the phone who has a ticket for Mass on Sunday, you'd have to make your own way into the city, are you interested." Well my response was YES!

As Fr. George put it, "I guess the Good Lord wanted you there." I said I guess so. I was joking around in my twisted little head yesterday about being on 5th Avenue and having Cardinal Egan stop the motorcade so he could get out and hand pick me to go to Dunwoodie for the Youth Rally, and I'd get to meet the Pope. Nothing more than a nice little day dream that I had well thought out, little did I expect this.

The sheer happiness that is running through my body now is indescribable. I liken it to the time when we came out of the Scavi tour at St. Peter's in Rome and not one of us (college students) could figure out a way to thank the priest who ran the class, because we know that many English speaking tours were hard to come by. The more I think about the idea of being at Mass with the Pope, the bigger my smile is, the tears come to mind. Even Fr. George sounded excited for me, which is awesome, because I was beginning to think he and I were not on the same page on things.

It won't be official until I actually get my ticket, but the woman didn't want to let the opportunity pass by, so I have to call her in the morning to finalize everything. What I can make if it, is that her daughter who happens to be in the NYPD must have had the ticket or gotten the ticket and I think may have to work now, or she works around Yankee Stadium. They will need my drivers license and social security number to do my background check. Thank God I'm clean. ;)

Fr. Brian told us yesterday at Mass about how he felt like Charlie from Willie Wonka when he got his golden ticket to say Mass with the Pope. I had an ear to ear grin on my face because he "was like a little kid" when he opened the letter and literally saw a gold ticket for Mass with the Pope and he showed it. The joy on his face was enough to light up the whole Church let alone a room, I dare say my story will trump his.

So by the grace of God and the wonderfulness of the Holy Spirit I will be at Mass with the Holy Father on Sunday. He is the only person I would set foot inside Yankee Stadium for.

Popey's visit!

Let me preface with where "Popey" came from... My friend Bridget's is from a huge family (she the youngest of 16), and when JP2 came to Newark, her family living literally blocks from the Cathedral Basilica walked over to stand and see the Pope as he passed. I'm not sure but I think it was one of the young nephews at the time who instead of saying Pope, was saying Popey's coming." As a result from this incident in 1995 we started to call JP2, POPEY on one of our World Youth Day trips and it stuck and has carried on to the current Holy Father.

Now onto your regularly scheduled blog.

Why is it that the first article I read in the Bergen Record about the pope's visit starts out with "Yvette Cid is a 52-year-old widow and a practicing Catholic. She also is a lesbian who doesn't want to leave the church." Why they point out that this woman is a lesbian is beyond me, they make no mention of her being a practicing lesbian, but I assume they would like you to assume she is. The Church has no issues with a person being "homosexual" they like a "heterosexual" are called to live a life of celibacy until they are married and well since "homosexual" can't get married they are called to the single life. They are allowed to be Catholic, there is nothing stopping them.

The next paragraph begins with this "As a practicing gay Catholic, Cid is unusual. But her willingness to rely on her conscience, rather than church teachings, is increasingly typical of American Catholics." This statement is disturbing because the reporter is implying that the woman's conscience differs from the Church's teachings. Before this statement is, "The pope and the bishops, they follow the old way, and I understand that," Cid said in a recent interview. "But that doesn't mean I have to leave my faith because I disagree." Well, I'm glad the Pope and the Bishops follow the old way, they are following in the steps of the Apostles, considering that whole Apostolic succession thing, they are teaching Jesus' teachings.

The next section goes on the give some "facts about American Catholics" and it seems like a bunch of gobbledygook to me, but I will go back and try to figure out what the reporter is trying to say.

Following that section is the statement"Pope Benedict, who will arrive Tuesday in Washington, D.C., and travel to New York City on Friday, has a reputation from his days as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as an enforcer of church orthodoxy." I want to know what the heck "enforcer of church orthodoxy" means. I remember 3 years ago sitting on the bed screaming and crying "OH MY GOD THEY PICKED RATZINGER!!!!!" I was extremely happy because I knew nothing would change, the media would treat him like this vicious holier than thou man, and I knew he was no different than JP2. JP2 had the charisma to make the room jump, and the media loved him, but he taught Church teaching the same way Pappa B16 does.

Thinking about it, I find it strangely amusing that my parish is having a "Latin Mass" on Saturday, the 3 year anniversary of Pappa B16's election. I however as much as I would love to be at the Latin Mass have decided it's worth the trip to NYC to wait to see the pope mobile drive past me. As I've said, I can go to the Latin Mass whenever I want, how many times is the Pope going to be in my country and so close. I can never understand why people assume it was Cardinal Ratzinger making the rules or why they blame the Pope for the teachings they don't like. I've said it before, Jesus pissed people off, He got them thinking, He got them angry, He died because people were bothered by Him. It is no different today, the Vicar of Christ is going to say stuff to annoy you if you don't agree with him, the same way that the Clintons and Mr. Obama annoy the hell out of them whenever they open their big mouths.

The next section of the article finds and old person and a young person, a 75 year old woman and a young lady who is a senior in high school. Nothing like covering your bases and getting the middle aged woman who is in the Church but disagrees with and then finding the classic little old church lady and the Catholic high school student.

This sentence/paragraph amused me greatly "His words will be scrutinized carefully." Yes the Pope's words will be greatly scrutinized by you the media, because those of us who have no issues with the Church tend to agree with what he has to say.

What follows next is more gobbledygook to me, people trying to sound smart but it's not working. "Liberal Catholics say they hope that the pope adopts a pastoral approach that emphasizes dialogue, reconciliation and social justice." The terms liberal and Catholic should never go together. The Pope is a pastor, so that would imply that he had a pastoral approach, and I don't know what they want to dialog about, be reconciled with/for, and goodness knows I hate the term social justice. I had to teach a class called social justice and it was the stupidest class every, it should have been called. "The Works of Mercy" but again that's the old version, not this now enlightened version we have today.

Next in the article are two I want to say opposite statements from people, one from "a Midland Park resident and a retired theology professor at Marymount College." I don't know why we need to know where this woman lives, but she says, "I would hope that he would come pointing out that one out of three people globally live on less than a dollar a day and our church needs to respond to that," and "I hope he encourages the American church to be a pastoral, communal church." Why would the Pope come to tell us that one out of 3 people globally live on less than a dollar a day, we see plenty of the "save the starving children" commercials to tell us that, and if people paid attention to their "Operation Rice Bowls handouts, they would know that too. The Pope doesn't need to come and tell us what's going on in the world, he's here to tell us Catholics what to do in areas of faith and morals, and yes he'll tell us to take care of the poor, but we need to care for the poor at home too.

Next you find these statements, "A Hillsdale man who is more conservative said that the church has gotten off-track during the last several decades, and that the pope should strive to bring people back to the basics of the faith. 'There is this concept that some Catholics have that if you don't think something is wrong, then it's not wrong,"' Philip Krey said. Wonder what statement I agree with. I don't think it's the Pope's job to bring America back to the fold, that the job of the priests and bishops who are in the country. While the Pope is the Vicar of Christ, he's not Jesus so therefore can't be everywhere, and even if he did bring the American Church back to the glory of the olden days, someone would have an issue with it.

Apparently the only thing that happens in the Church is clergy abuse and the scandal that followed. Last time I checked that was 6 years ago, seriously, it sucked it was a black eye for the Church, but do you need to bring it up every time a prominent Catholic comes to visit. There's a decline in priests because people don't want their children to be "religious: more emphasis is placed on carrying on the family name than calls to vocations. I've said many times if God places the right man in my life and we get married, and I have all sons, I'll gladly foster any vocations, and God can take them all into the priesthood. I know I'm not normal, in the last 6 months 2 priest have called me crazy on separate occasions, one because my friends are married and have more than one child, actually most of them have 2 kids, and the other priest called me "the good kind of crazy, our crazy" I consider both of my parents to be good devout Catholics but I don't remember them fostering vocations or talking about vocations to their children. I don't even remember the sisters who ran my grammar school talking about vocations and they wonder why their numbers are low. Such an emphasis is placed on the decline of priests, and that is because you don't see priests on TV, unless you watch EWTN and if you're watching EWTN, you likely have your head screwed on correctly. ;) When I happen to catch Bishop Sheen's show on EWTN I sit and watch it, and Bishop Sheen died 2 days before I was born and his show captures me, meaning that if one speaks the truth of the Church that it is timeless.

The article goes on the mention the dewindling numbers of Catholics and mentions two parishes in the area, Church of the Presentation in Upper Saddle River, and St. Mary's in Pompton Lakes. Now I know of both parishes, I'm not a 100% sure on Presentation now but when I was church hopping they seemed to have a decent young adult ministry program, and I have yet to hear any bad comments about them, St. Mary's on the other hand I have countless stories on, and I have heard that it's getting better, but when the "not so conservative" complain about the parish you know it can't be good. I don't mind the paper quoting the pastor of Presentation, but my thoughts on St. Mary's were, "of course you'd pick the most liberal Church in the area to be quoted." These two parishes are the largest in the area. I know Presentation get a good few young adults and young people into it, again I'm not 100% sure on what happens as I haven't been there in quite a while. St. Mary's and the dealings I have had with staff members, scared me, to the point where I with a lowly BA would have to correct the person with the Masters and a good few years of experience and of course that was not liked.

There's a quote from one of the Jesuits at St. Peter's in Jersey City, this priest says, "I think he should gather people together, Catholic intellectuals and laypeople, sit down for a couple of hours and say, 'Tell me the truth.' " The Pope doesn't need to sit with the layity to hear the truth, he teaches the truth, he's not stupid he knows what's going on in America and in it's churches. It not like all of a sudden Cardinal Ratzinger magically forget everything when he became Pope, give the man some credit. Of course I wonder what type of lay people this Jesuit wants to have sit with the Pope, I know they wouldn't invite me, simply because I would agree with the Pope.

The article when mentioning the two largest parishes in the area also mentions that laypeople are actively leading many aspects of parish life. This would be why so many people are so damn confused when it comes to the Catholic Church. As a woman who has worked for and would love to work for the Church again, I can see that laypeople don't always know what they are doing. The priest at St. Mary's is worried about a return of clericalism, does that mean he's afraid that he's going to have to do more work that as a priest he should already be doing. Just because you think you found the right lay person means that your off duty Father, come on, you're a priest it's not a 9-5 job and you should have known that when you got into it.

The article mentions of all things the Pope telling the Bishops to tell their priest and deacons that they need to purify the sacred vessels or as the put it, "the special policy that allowed laypeople to clean chalices used during Communion." Do I dare say that Extraordinary Ministers of the Holy Eucharist are not supposed to be the ordinary ministers, but the priests are, I mean that's true. My parish has the priests and deacons purify the sacred vessels, and then the laity "cleans" them, normally at the Mass I attend it ends up being me, and people look at me like I'm nuts when I slowly wash them and take my time putting them away. Hello, these are the vessels that hold Jesus in them or have your forgotten that too.

The article closes by mentioning that the Pope has not said what he's going to say when he comes to the US other than he is coming to preach the Gospel. Guess what, that's what Jesus did too, do you think Jesus knew weeks in advance what He was going to say to his disciples, no He probably didn't, so if God didn't work that way, why expect a simple human to be any different.

Of course the article couldn't officially close without mentioning Yvette Cid, the lesiban from the beginning of the article and she says she's interested in what the "pope has to say---up to a point." Well what do you expect, most people are interested in what the Pope has to say up to a point, most people just don't want to hear it.

This is the last statement in the article, "God is about love, and that's how I look at it," she said. "If I am going to get condemned on my Judgment Day, all I can do is turn around and say, 'I loved another human being.' " This was said by Ms. Cid. Yes God is love, and that is how we are supposed to look at it, I seem to remember an encyclical titled God is Love written by a Pope Benedict, so she might be on to something there, but nothing the Church hasn't already said. No one speaks of Purgatory anymore, who says you'll be condemned, I know my ass will be in Purgatory with the flames of Hell licking my ass purifying me for Heaven. Jesus did tell us to be perfect as you're Heavenly Father, but God's smart and knows that we're not perfect, and He offers us countless chances to return and repent for what we have done. God is Love and He doesn't want to see His children in Hell, He wants them with Him, so He will do what He can to bring them all home, like any good father would do.

What follows here is the part of the article that I said I would have to go back and read again to try and figure out what they were trying to say. I'm going to add that in here, but blog about it later. It is 1:15am and I do have to be at work at 7am, and I need to be functioning to take care of a 2 year old and 4 year old. ;)

So here is what the article says, and my comments will follow:

When Pope Benedict XVI makes his first papal visit this week to the United States, the 80-year-old prelate will face an American flock that has become increasingly resistant to Vatican authority, especially on the church's human sexuality teachings.

Indeed, the percentage of Catholics who regard church leaders as the final authority on abortion, homosexual behavior and non-marital sex declined from one in three in 1987 to one in four in 2005, according to surveys prepared by Catholic scholars and administered by the Gallup Organization.

That doesn't mean, however, that American Catholics are rejecting their faith. The surveys also show that large percentages of Catholics agree that the most important teachings include helping the poor, Jesus' resurrection, the sacraments and Mary as mother of God.

"They aren't just rebelling," said William V. D'Antonio, one of authors of the book "American Catholics Today," which examines how Catholics have changed during the course of several decades.

One of the more striking findings, D'Antonio said, was that support for church leaders on sexual issues declined among older Catholics — those born before 1940, who generally have high levels of commitment to their faith.

"They may have grandchildren or grandnieces and nephews who have come out as gay," D'Antonio said. "And what they are now saying on some of these teachings is: 'Our lived experience doesn't support the teaching.' "