Saturday, 07 October
Vigil of Sunday
4:30 p.m. - ANNA TOLAN HARMAN
by Anthony (+) and Mary Luppino

Sunday, 08 October
27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
7:45 a.m. - JOHN R. MACCARONE
by his sister, Nancy Maccarone King, and family
10:45 a.m. - FRANK OWENS (anniversary of birth)
by his sister, Kitty Owens DiCello

Monday, 09 October
SS. Denis and companions, martyrs; St. John Leonardi, priest (OptMems)
12:05 p.m. - LUCY FORTE CARUSO
by her sister, Mary Forte LaSelva, and her nephew Michael

Tuesday, 10 October
Weekday
12:05 p.m. - CHRISTINA STIDHAM
by John J. Krizno
7:00 p.m. - RALPH C. BUTERA by his wife

Wednesday, 11 October
Weekday
12:05 p.m. - JOSEPH A. PALKO
by his wife, Carmella, and his daughter, Joanne

Thursday, 12 October
Weekday
12:05 p.m. - NED H. LANG
by Grace Luppino Joy and family
7:00 p.m. - BARRY A. BARKET
by Mary Harman Luppino

Friday, 13 October
Weekday (USA)
St. Edward the Confessor (UK)
12:05 p.m. - God's blessings on Rev. EDWARD B. CONNOLLY by Sandy

Saturday, 14 October
St. Callistus, pope, martyr (OptMem)
8:00 a.m. - SALVATORE and ROSINA (Versaci) TEDESCHI
by Ann Marie Codi Campion and family
Vigil of Sunday
4:30 p.m. - MARY LaSELVA DeMATTEO (anniversary of birth) by her daughter, Frances, and family

Sunday, 15 October
28th Sunday in Ordinary Time
7:45 a.m. - ANN MARIE MACCARONE SCHUMACHER
by her sister, Nancy Maccarone King, and family
10:45 a.m. - Health and God's blessings on SOPHIE DOBROSIELSKI D'ALFONSO (94th birthday)
by her family

Saint Joseph Parish
$1,357.00 from the envelopes and $98.50 from the plate. Thank you.
When one deducts from the sum of these two figures, $1,455.50 the parish's weekly financial obligation to the Diocese, i.e. assessments, $358.85 plus the weekly premiums for property and liability insurance, $149.20, the sum of which is $508.05, plus its weekly obligation to All Saints School, $987.21, the sum total of which is $1,495.26, one sees that ($39.76) of this collection is available for operating the parish. This is a deficit!

Saint Francis deSales Parish
$134.00 from the envelopes and $57.40 from the plate. Thank you.
When one deducts from the sum of these two figures, $224.15 the parish's weekly financial obligation to the Diocese, i.e. assessments, $55.15 plus the weekly premiums for property and liability insurance, $56.72, the sum of which is $111.87, plus its weekly obligation to All Saints School, $197.44, the sum total of which is $309.31, one sees that ($117.91) of this collection is available for operating the parish. This is a deficit!

RECENTLY SOMEONE SHOWED ME a prayer card with this prayer of petition to the Blessed Mother printed on it. I had never seen the prayer before. I like the simplicity, confidence and directness of it. Feel free to make it your own!

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

That's the current message on the bulletin board of the First Baptist Church (7th and Mahantongo Streets). It caught my attention for two reasons:
#1 - It is not every day that one sees the word "oxymoron" on a church message board. Such a word certainly raises the level of discourse in the community and broadens our vocabularies! I commend our friends at First Baptist for using it!
#2 - The theology implicit in the sentence stirs the debater in me. I beg to differ! I respectfully disagree! A guilty Christian is not an oxymoron. Au contraire! Here is how I might put it: A guilty Christian, far from being an oxymoron, is simply a Christian who needs to repent and go to Confession so that the precious Blood of Jesus, poured out for him on the Cross, might be applied to him once again, so that, by the power of the Holy Spirit and the ministry of the Church, he might be absolved of the sins he has committed since his baptism or since his last worthy confession. [Hard to fit that all on a message board!]
Allow me to insert a disclaimer before I go any further: I love my Baptist friends and neighbors. No Baptist has ever done me any harm as far as I recall, plus I can think of a few who have done me some good! God bless and preserve all good Baptists! My expression of disagreement with Baptist theology does not imply dislike for nor hostility towards Baptists!
Now that I've made that clear, let me say why we Catholics vehemently dissent from the statement that a guilty Christian is an oxymoron.
Baptist theology is crystallized in what is called "the sinner's prayer". There are several different versions of this prayer. The following is a fairly representative version of it:

"God, I know that I am a sinner. I know that I deserve the consequences of my sin. However, I am trusting in Jesus Christ as my Savior. I believe that His death and resurrection provided for my forgiveness. I trust in Jesus and Jesus alone as my personal Lord and Savior. Thank you Lord, for saving me and forgiving me! Amen!"

From the Baptist point of view, the person who says this prayer and really means it is instantly transformed into a Christian and stands before God (henceforth and forever more) as sinless and as non-guilty. If this is what one believes, then it makes sense to say that "a guilty Christian is an oxymoron" - i.e. a contradiction in terms. However, if this is what one believes, I respectfully suggest that one is seriously mistaken!
From the Catholic point of view, one becomes a Christian by repentance, faith and baptism. An unbaptized adult who wishes to become a Christian (i.e. a Catholic Christian) must declare that he repents of his sins, must confess his faith in Jesus Christ and must be baptized. Confirmation and Holy Eucharist complete the initiation. At that point in time, the new Christian (Catholic) is, indeed, not guilty!
HOWEVER, what if he sins after his initiation into the Body of Christ? Especially, what if he sins in some very serious matter, e.g. murder, adultery, apostasy? Is he not guilty of sin? Of course he is guilty! What about a Christian who has an abortion or who fornicates or who engages in sodomy or who curses his neighbor or who oppresses the poor or who steals or who hates persons of other races, etc., etc. etc.? Is this person not guilty? Of course he is guilty! Question: How does he become "non-guilty"? Answer: By humble recognition of his guilt, by true repentance, by sacramental confession, by readmission to participation in the Eucharist.
To teach one's fellow Christians that they are actually sinless (guiltless) regardless of "the bad things they do" because Christ died for them and because they have put their faith in Him is to do them a terrible disservice.
One of the problems with Baptist theology is the doctrine of eternal security. Eternal security is a heresy - an especially insidious heresy.

Happy 200th birthday to you!
Happy 200th birthday to you!
Happy 200th birthday, dear Pottsville!
Happy 200th birthday to you!
Many more of them too!
Many more of them too!
Many more of them, dear Pottsville!
Many more of them too!

To: The Editor
The Morning Call
From: Rev. Edward B. Connolly
Date: 6 October 2006

The headline on the first page of the Friday, 6 October, edition of The Morning Call reads as follows: Pope expected to reject concept of limbo
The substance of the article is these two sentences: "But during a Mass at the Vatican today, Pope Benedict XVI is expected to reject the concept [of Limbo], endorsing the conclusion of a theological commission formed by his predecessor, Pope John Paul II. In short, Benedict will affirm that unbaptized children who die before reaching the age of reason go to heaven."
Apparently, Benedict does not read The Morning Call. I venture to say this because, as a matter of fact, Benedict said nothing whatsoever about limbo in his "Mass at the Vatican today".
A few months ago, The Morning Call told me that Benedict was going to approve the use of condoms in the case of married persons, one of whom is HIV positive.
But, of course, he did no such thing! Nor could he have done so without impugning his office as Pope.
Likewise, the Pope will never use his office as Supreme Pontiff to teach the universal Church that unbaptized children who die before reaching the age of reason go to heaven.
I don't wish to imply that unbaptized children who die before reaching the age of reason do not go to heaven. It is possible that they do; on the other hand, it is possible that they do not.
I have no doubt whatsoever - because both common sense and the Church say so - that unbaptized children who die before the age of reason are "with the Lord", are exempt from any punishment whatsoever and are in a state of happiness. However, I am not certain beyond the shadow of a doubt that they have the Beatific Vision. If they do, that suits me just fine and you can count me as being in favor! But I don't know for certain! Neither does Pope Benedict! But I trust we shall all find out someday!
It is hubris, plain and simple, to think that we must know every detail of the divine plan. We see through a glass darkly. There are tidbits of information that are not currently accessible to us. They will have to remain in the area of conjecture.
Would it not be a good idea for The Morning Call to wait for the news to happen and then report on it? If it's prophecy and rumor I'm after, I can buy a supermarket tabloid. But it is because I want to know facts about things that have actually happened that I maintain my subscription to The Morning Call.
*****************************************************************************************************
I am printing this letter to the Editor in our parish bulletin because I'm sure that many of our parishioners are aware of the news reports about the Limbo controversy and might like to have some clarification.
By the way, the controversy is about Limbo, not about the colorful radio personality who is known as Rush.

Reminders
Bishop Cullen will be the principal celebrant of the Mass, which will be at 3:00 p.m.
After Mass, there will be a dinner in the parish hall (upper level). This will be at about 4:30 p.m., give or take.
The price of the dinner is $15.00 per person. We think you will agree that this is a very good price.
Children are certainly welcome at the dinner. However, there is no reduced price for children.
Tickets have been mailed out to all parishioners, together with a letter.
In regard to these tickets, please note the following:
If you are a registered adult member of StJosPar and did not receive the ticket mailing, please let us know. You may be certain that this was an oversight. No one was intentionally excluded!
We ask that payment for tickets be made no later than 15 October. If you are unable to attend, please return the tickets ASAP. We might have use for them.

If you received one ticket plus one blank piece of cardboard (a non-ticket!) in the mail, please understand the reason for this: We sent two tickets to husband / wife parishioners and one ticket to unmarried persons. However, because of the USPS rules for bulk mailing, all the envelopes must weigh the same. Therefore, we included a "dummy ticket" (so as to make the weight) in the envelopes in which we placed only one ticket. We hope this explanation dispels the confusion!
We of StJosPar would love to have some of our StFdSPar brothers and sisters at the Mass and dinner. However, we did not mail any tickets to the StFdS parishioners - not because we don't love them, but simply because we wanted to "observe the boundaries". We hope some StFdS parishioners will join us at the Mass and / or the dinner.