Saturday, 26 April
Vigil of Sunday
4:30 p.m. - VERONICA J. KEVY
(1st anniversary)
by Rev. Christopher J. Butera

Sunday, 27 April
6th Sunday of Easter:
7:45 a.m. - LEONARD D. PASCUZZO
by Albert and Martha and family
10:45 a.m. - RALPH OWENS
(41st anniversary)
by Kitty Owens DiCello

Monday, 28 April
St. Peter Chanel, priest, martyr; St. Louis Mary deMontfort, priest (OptMems)
12:05 p.m. - ANDREW J. LUCAS
by his family

Tuesday, 29 April
St. Catherine of Siena, virgin, doctor (Fst)
12:05 p.m. - God's Blessings on SANDY FRINZI
by a friend
7:00 p.m. - KATHRYN SELINSKY LUPPINO (2nd anniversary)
by Vincent and Darla Fabiani and family

Wednesday, 30 April
St. Pius V, pope (OptMem)
12:05 p.m. - JOSEPH A. PALKO and JOANNE PALKO BACH
re-scheduled from 13 Feb
Vigil of the Ascension
4:30 p.m. - H. ROBERT PICCIONI Sr.
by Leo (+) and Janet Becker

Thursday, 01 May
Ascension of the Lord (Sol)
12:05 p.m. - God's Blessings on MARY FORTE LaSELVA
by Julia, Rose and Marie
7:00 p.m. - VERONICA J. KEVY
by Roberta

Friday, 02 May
St. Athansius, bishop, doctor (OblMem)
12:05 p.m. - V.M.F. (deceased)
by Johanne Luppino Fabiani and son, Gerard
6:15 p.m. - DECEASED: WASYL and TECKLA PEWOR FAMILY
by Angelo and Kay Barone

Saturday, 03 May
SS. Philip and James, apostles (Fst)
8:00 a.m. - INTENTIONS OF THIRD ORDER CARMELITES
by TOC community
Vigil of Sunday
4:30 p.m. - HUGH CURRAN and KEN CURRAN
by Phyllis C. Kevy

Sunday, 04 May
7th Sunday of Easter:
7:45 a.m. - JOSEPH LEJKO
by Harry and Rosa Lilley
10:45 a.m. - RYAN A. WALTERS
by Roni J. Kevy (+) and Phyllis C. Kevy

Saint Joseph Parish
$1,531.00 from the envelopes and $121.00 from the plate. Thank you.
When one deducts from the sum of these two figures, $1,652.00 the parish's weekly financial obligation to the Diocese, i.e. assessments, $410.08 plus the weekly premiums for property and liability insurance, $160.01, the sum of which is $570.09, plus its weekly obligation to All Saints School, $941.06 the sum total of which is $1,511.15, one sees that $140.85 of this collection is available for operating the parish.

Saint Francis deSales Parish
$110.00 from the envelopes and $78.85 from the plate. Thank you.
When one deducts from the sum of these two figures, $188.85 the parish's weekly financial obligation to the Diocese, i.e. assessments, $46.15 plus the weekly premiums for property and liability insurance, $60.67, the sum of which is $106.82, plus its weekly obligation to All Saints School, $188.21, the sum total of which is $295.03, one sees that ($106.18) of this collection is available for operating the parish. This is a deficit!

* MARY KUTCH WILL BE 98 YEARS OLD NEXT SUNDAY!
She is the second oldest member of our parish. (See page 06.) God has blessed her with strength of mind and body. She is a great lady! (And good looking too!) The entire parish regards her with high respect and warm affection. God bless you, Mrs. Kutch. Keep on trucking!

01. 01-Nov-1907 ANGELA (DiCello) STELLA
02. 04-May-1910 PHILOMENA ["Mary"] (Genovese) KUTCH
03. 14-Feb-1912 DOMENICA ["Mae"] (Gerace) LONG
04. 15-Oct-1912 SOPHIE (Dobrosielski) D'ALFONSO
05. 07-Jan-1913 JOSEPHINE (Kroll) MOTTA
06. 18-Mar-1913 JULIA (Senitch) LAPLACA
07. 20-May-1913 ROSE (Tucci) GARBETTI
08. 23-Sep-1914 WILLIAM J. CERULLO
09. 19-Dec-1914 CASIMIR MALYS
10. 05-May-1915 EMMA (Villella) TRANQUILLO
11. 27-Sep-1915 ANGELINE (Mete) CARESTIA
12. 04-Nov-1915 MARY (Fanok) PICCIONI
13. 15-Jun-1916 SOPHIE (Samay) ECKLEY
14. 23-Jun-1916 JULIA (Civitarese) MAZZUCA
15. 30-Jun-1916 JOSEPHINE (Megna) MESSINA
16. 02-Dec-1916 ANGELA (Giacoia) ALATI
17. 08-Dec-1916 MARY (Bonadio) BUTERA
18. 28-Dec-1916 GRACE (Luppino) JOY
19. 09-Feb-1917 AMELIA (Quirin) MARRAZZO
20. 17-May-1917 SAMUEL J. CHIODO
21. 24-Jun-1917 JAMES V. MESSINA
22. 31-Dec-1917 MARY N. PRESTILEO
23. 27-Apr-1918 MARY (Forte) LaSELVA
24. 20-May-1918 JENNIE (Tucci) BERTUCCI
25. 20-May-1918 CARMELLA (Bonadio) CIMINO
26. 20-May-1918 MARY (Caravan) STEIN
27. 23-Nov-1918 CAROLINE A. BARBETTA

WE SHARE THE MAIL

The following is an excerpt from an e-mail I received last week. The writer (I am not giving her name) is a young married woman, formerly a member of St. Joseph Parish. Her husband and she belong (belonged?) to a parish located - I am happy to say! - well beyond the bounds of the Diocese of Allentown. From what she says in this e-mail, I have the impression that they will not be staying very long in that parish.

Dear Father Connolly:
………………. Our local church was renovated and had to be re-consecrated (?), so there was a Mass and dinner last week. But we've decided not to attend this church anymore after our parish priest made a comment during a homily, in which he said that we were (in a few moments) 'about to receive the body and blood of Christ, so to speak,' which made me raise my eyebrows. That plus the fact that there's a 'creation celebration Mass' sometime in July, and church members refer to 'original sin' as 'original blessing' and all this other weirdness. They say they find 'original sin' to be guilt-inducing and archaic, which is bizarre - I can't even imagine what they're talking about. Do you feel guilty about original sin? I feel guilty about my other sins, but I feel like original sin and I made our break around the time I was two months old. It's kind of scary, so we're relocating ourselves to another Catholic church for Sunday Mass, although it is quite out of our way. …………………….
(Name)

The following is an excerpt from my e-mail in response:

Dear _____:
……………. Thank God the two of you are solid in the Faith! You were well formed by your parents, in addition to which your association with St. Joseph Parish probably didn't do you any harm. You have a brain and a heart open to distinguishing between orthodoxy and heterodoxy.
God knows there has been an explosion of heterodoxy in the Church over the past forty (or so) years. The problem, of course, is that many priests and bishops have lost the Catholic Faith. St. John Chrysostom said that the road to hell is paved with the skulls of priests! (For obvious reasons, I've always found that a particularly sobering observation!)
The priest who interjected "so to speak" in reference to "the body and blood of Christ" is a pathetic character. I wonder why he bothers to hang around. He should find some honest work somewhere.
As far as "original blessing" theology is concerned, all I can say is "Been there, done that". Back in the early 1970's, when I was a graduate student at Boston College, I had (then) Father Matthew Fox as a teacher. He was the great "musical, mystical bear". (If that phrase doesn't make sense to you, you can google it!) Matthew was a leading proponent of "original blessing" theology as a substitute for "original sin" theology. I thought even then that Matthew Fox was a smidgen light in the loafers and, even more dreadfully, a heretic!
He has since confirmed at least the latter suspicion. He has left the Catholic Church and has joined the Episcopal Church.
The Episcopalians are most welcome to Matthew, as far as I am concerned. They have long since abandoned any claim they might have had to being taken seriously.
In regard to your question about whether I feel guilty about original sin, please be certain that I do not feel guilty about it and never did.
Like you, I feel guilty only about my own sins.
Like you, I got rid of the original sin when I was baptized as an infant.
Like you, I get rid of my personal sins via repentance, sacramental confession, firm purpose of amendment and reception of the Body and Blood of the Lord.
Notice I said "Body and Blood of the Lord".
There is no "so to speak" appended to that!

EBC

CONTRIVED IGNORANCE AS PART OF THE FAUSTIAN BARGAIN FOR BECOMING PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, ESPECIALLY (BUT NOT EXCLUSIVELY) IF YOU HAPPEN TO BE A DEMOCRAT

On Sunday, 13 April 2008, Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama took part in what was called a "Compassion Forum", part of a "Faith and Politics" program held at Messiah College, Grantham (Lancaster County) PA.
Someone at the Forum asked Senator Obama whether life begins at conception.
Senator Obama said that he did not know the answer to that question.
Here are his precise words:

"This is something that I have not, I think, come to a firm resolution on. I think it's very hard to know what that means, when life begins. Is it when a cell separates? Is it when the soul stirs? ... What I know, as I've said before, is that there is something extraordinarily powerful about potential life and that that has a moral weight to it that we take into consideration when we're having these debates."

This is, of course, a breathtakingly stupid answer to the very simple question.
Yet, Senator Obama is not, by any means, a stupid man.
On the contrary, Senator Obama gives evidence that he is a man of exceptional intelligence.
How is it, then, that he does not know whether life begins at conception?
I know it. You know it. It is not classified information. Then why doesn't he know it? The fact is that he DOES know it.
But it does not serve his purposes to BELIEVE what he KNOWS.
Refusing to believe what one knows is called "the sin against the Holy Ghost".

Someone at the Forum asked Senator Clinton the same question, viz. whether life begins at conception.
Clinton gave a somewhat different answer to the question - somewhat, but not substantially, different from the answer given by Senator Obama.
She distinguished between "life" and something she calls "the potential for life". She also referenced the Methodist Church as an authority for her ambiguity on the matter.
Here are her precise words:

"I believe the potential for life begins at conception. I am a Methodist as you know. Our church has struggled with this issue. In fact, if you look at the Methodist Book of Discipline, you can see the challenge and the contradiction involved in sorting this profound question out. But for me, it is not only about a potential life. It is about the other lives involved. ... I have concluded, after great, you know, concern and searching my own mind and heart over many years... that our task should be the pluralistic, diverse one, that individuals must be entrusted to make this profound decision, because the alternative would be such an intrusion of government authority that it would be very difficult to sustain in our kind of open society."

This is, of course, a breathtakingly stupid answer to the very simple question. Yet, Senator Clinton is not, by any means, a stupid woman.
On the contrary, Senator Clinton gives evidence that she is a woman of exceptional intelligence. How is it, then, that she thinks that the newly conceived "entity" is a "potential life", not an actual living human being? I know it. You know it. It is not classified information. Then why doesn't she know it? The fact is that she DOES know it.
But it does not serve her purposes to BELIEVE what she KNOWS.
Refusing to believe what one knows is called "the sin against the Holy Ghost".

JOHN and MARIA (Mercuri) MERCURI,
members of Saint Joseph Parish, are celebrating their GOLDEN WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!
A Mass of Thanksgiving was celebrated in Saint Joseph Church at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, 26 April. Afterwards, family and friends gathered for a festive meal.
John and Maria were married on Sunday, 27 April 1958, in the Church of San Francesco, Lamezia, Terme, Italy. The priest who officiated was Father Antonio Pileggi.
John is the son of Domenico and Antonia (Giardino) Mercuri, both now deceased.
Maria is the daughter of Vincenzo (deceased) and Rosaria (Isabella) Mercuri.
Rosaria lives in Italy. She has visited Pottsville (and attended Mass at St. Joseph Church) several times in years past. We send her our respectful greetings and assure her that we remember her in today's celebration.
John and Maria have four children - three sons and one daughter:

They have (so far) eighteen grandchildren - ten grandsons and eight granddaughters:

We give thanks to God for the love - faithful, tender-hearted, permanent, dependable and fruitful -of John and Maria for one another.
May they continue to be an inspiration to their children and grandchildren, to their parish and to the wider community.
Success in marriage is primarily a matter of willingness to die to one's own ego in order to live for something greater than oneself. Blessed are John and Maria for showing us that it can be done - and not only done, but done superbly well. They have done something beautiful for God - and for the human race!