Saturday, 24 May
Vigil of Corpus Christi
4:30 p.m. - KEN CURRAN
(anniversary of birth)
by Phyllis Kevy

Sunday, 25 May
Corpus Christi: Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
7:45 a.m. - ANNA PILO MERLINO
by Jack and Flo McGovern
10:45 a.m. - JOYCE CHRISTINE CHIPLONIA
by her cousin, Carol Kramer

Monday, 26 May
St. Philip Neri, priest (OblMem)
12:05 p.m. - JOHN L. GENNERELLA Sr.
by Ian and Terri Lee Keck

Tuesday, 27 May
St. Augustine of Canterbury (OptMem)
12:05 p.m. - JOSEPH M. COYLE
by Jim and Cindy and family
7:00 p.m. - ROSE PAPAPIETRO PICCIONI
by Frank and Jean Piccioni and family

Wednesday, 28 May
Weekday
12:05 p.m. - LOUIS and MARY TROILO
( anniversary of wedding)
by their daughters, Liz and Tina

Thursday, 29 May
Weekday
12:05 p.m. - A. GLENDON ACKER (57th anniversary of wedding)
by his wife, Liz
7:00 p.m. - THERESA KOVALUSKI AYELLO
by Barbara Sciarrone Kasper

Friday, 30 May
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus (Sol)
12:05 p.m. - ELANORE TEGANO FOLINO
by her husband, Jack

Saturday, 31 May
Visitation of the Virgin Mary (Fst)
8:00 a.m. - In Thanksgiving to God for the Gift of my Faith
(Jeremiah 12:20)
by Sandra Frinzi
Vigil of Sunday
4:30 p.m. - CATHERINE JULIAN LUPPINO
by her family

Sunday, 01 June
9th Sunday of Ordinary Time
7:45 a.m. - JOHN TORCELLO
by Joseph T. Cescon and family
10:45 a.m. - God's Blessings upon Rev. CHRISTOPHER S. BUTERA
(1st anniversary of ordination)
by his parents and his sister, Rona, and family

Saint Joseph Parish
$1282.00 from the envelopes and $141.00 from the plate. Thank you.
When one deducts from the sum of these two figures, $1,423.00 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 ($88.15) of this collection is available for operating the parish. This is a deficit!

Saint Francis deSales Parish
$108.00 from the envelopes and $80.00 from the plate. Thank you.
When one deducts from the sum of these two figures, $188.80 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 ($107.03) of this collection is available for operating the parish. This is a deficit!

WE SHARE THE MAIL

19 May 2008

Dear Friends:
As you may know, Bella was born at 35 weeks on Tuesday evening coming in at a featherweight of less than 4 pounds. She has been in the NICU hooked up to numerous tubes and under the lights to lower her billiruben count and is doing very well. Karen is recovering well from the delivery.
On Saturday the doctors came in and told us that the chromosome studies came back and showed she had an extra 18th chromosome in all of her cells. Many babies with Trisomy 18 these days never make it out of the womb. Those that survive birth usually live less than a month; five to ten percent live to see their first birthday.
We know this much. Bella is truly beautiful. She is fighting and exceeding all expectations. She loves the special treat of being allowed out of the isolette to be held by her mommy once a day for a few minutes. When we changed her bedding tonight they took off her eye protection for the billirubin lights. Elizabeth held her for those few moments. She opened her little blue eyes and looked deeply into her sister's eyes. I spoke to her she turned her eyes to me. I know as a premie her eye sight is not good, but I saw in those eyes a reassuring peace and with every second steadfast love.
I told her Godfather, Mark Rodgers, (she was baptized by our wonderful parish priest Fr. Drummond) today that our son Gabriel's brief life taught us to focus our lives toward the eternal. Among Bella's blessings is an opportunity to receive the grace to live in the moment.
Karen and I ask for your prayers for our little girl.
God Bless

Rick and Karen

Rick is former United States Senator Richard Santorum. Please say a Hail Mary for the little girl, Bella, and for all the Santorum family. We hope and pray that Rick will someday (soon) be back in the U.S. Senate, if God wills.

ANOTHER QUESTION IN MORAL THEOLOGY

ANOTHER QUESTION IN MORAL THEOLOGY
(In case you are wondering: this Q & A is similar, but not identical, to the Q & A in last weekend's bulletin.)

Which of the two is more grievously sinful?
a) A validly married couple having intercourse while using a condom or some other physical barrier to conception
OR
b) A man and a woman, both of adult age and not married to one another (or to anyone else) having intercourse while using a condom or some other physical barrier to conception.

The answer is clear and unambiguous.
The former (a) is much more grievously sinful than the latter (b) - although the latter is certainly sinful enough!
Why?
Because, while both of them are in violation of the primary principles of the Natural Law, i.e. both of them are "contra naturam", and both of them are a form of "sodomy", the latter (b) does not defile the matrimonial bond - for the simple reason that it is fornication and there is no matrimonial bond to be defiled!
However, the former (a) does defile the matrimonial bond. Moreover, if that valid matrimonial bond is a sacramental bond (as it would necessarily have to be in the case of two validly married baptized persons), then the act would be sacrilegious, because it would defile the sacrament of Matrimony!
Sodomy within fornication (b) is profoundly wicked. Unrepentant sodomites and fornicators go to hell.
Sodomy within the bonds of Holy Matrimony (a) is wicked beyond measure. It is analogous to desecration of the Eucharist. Persons who do such things and who die unrepentant go to hell.
Sodomy is one of the four categories of "sins that cry out to heaven for revenge". All homosexual genital acts are sodomy, whereas some heterosexual acts are sodomy.

If you are an adult Catholic and you find this hard to believe, it just goes to show you how lacking you are either in Catholic moral instruction or else in Catholic Faith. I point this out to you with love. It is not meant as a put-down, but as an encouragement to repentance and salvation!

Saturday, 24 May --- page 11
Pottsville Republican & Herald

MY COMMENT

Good grief, Girardville!
Are you serious?
This has to be one of the dumbest things I have ever read in my life!
If there is a Hall of Infamy for dumb things that have found their way into newspapers, this particular submission of yours deserves a special exhibit. It deserves to be put behind hermetically sealed glass - preserved for future generations to read as a terrible example and as a warning of what can happen to a human brain when it is left out in the rain too long.
I'm not talking Religion here. I'm talking Logic!
If someone disagrees with articles of my Religion (Faith), I don't feel any anger towards him. But when someone disagrees with articles of Logic, I do feel anger. The one thing that holds the human race together and makes civilization possible - believe it or not - is Logic!

Why do I say that? Because the Logic is inexorable, that's why!
Let's put it this way. Let's say there is a man named Clyde. Let's say he lives in Girardville. Let's say that a man named Floyd goes to you and says, "I'm thinking of killing Clyde. Is that okay with you?"
There are three things you could say to Floyd.
You could say, "No, don't you dare kill Clyde. If you do, I'll call the cops!" If that is what you say, then you are "pro-life". To be more exact, you are "pro-life of Clyde".
Or you could say, "Yes, I think that's a great idea! I'm all in favor of your killing Clyde. Good riddance to him!" If that is what you say, then you are "pro-death". To be more exact, you are "pro-death of Clyde".
Or you could say, "Well, to tell you the truth, I'm indifferent to the whole matter. Do what you want. It's your choice. If you kill Clyde, that's okay with me or if you don't kill him, that's okay too." If that is what you say, then you are "pro-death of Clyde" by default.
Why? Because CLYDE ALIVE is the given, whereas CLYDE DEAD requires some particular intervention.
Keeping Clyde alive requires no choice on anyone's part. Making Clyde dead does require a choice on someone's part. So, "pro-choice" equals "pro-death".
Do you follow me? If not, send me a SASE and I'll try to spell it out for you with a bit more detail.
Now, in regard to the hypothetical 13-year-old girl who gets pregnant from being raped, let me say this to that. You should be ashamed of yourself! That's a red herring! It's the refuge of a scoundrel to invent a "hard case" to draw a general principle. "Bad cases make bad law" as someone once said.
But if you REALLY want to know what should be done for a 13-year-old girl who is pregnant as the result of a rape, it is this: (a) Arrest the lowlife skunk who violated her and send him away for a very long time. (b) Give the girl all the tender loving care possible. (c) Let her carry the child to birth. (d) Let her and her parents decide whether to raise the child or to give him or her up for adoption.
It is ILLOGICAL to think that a person does not have the right to live because of the circumstances that surrounded his or her conception. Once our society starts designating certain persons as "unworthy of life", we are on our way to hell.

Maybe we already are.

LEO L. WARD,
a member of Saint Joseph Parish, died on Monday, 19 May.
Born on 25 June 1929, he was 78 years of age.
Leo is a son of the late Leo V. Ward and Margaret (Harner) Toussaint.
He is the father of two sons by his marriage to (Dr.) Mary Jane (Krebs) Ward.
They are David A. Ward and Stephen A. Ward.
He has two grandsons: Jonathan A. Ward and Ryan M. Ward.
In addition to the persons named above, Leo is survived by his brother, Dale F. Ward, and his sister, Faith Ann Ward Curran.
There will be a viewing on Tuesday evening, 27 May, at the Lord-Bixler Funeral Home.
The Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated in St. Joseph Church on Wednesday, 28 May, at 10:30 a.m.
The interment will take place in the parish cemetery.

A few personal notes
Mr. Ward (I don't think I ever addressed him as "Leo") was not only a member of St. Joseph Parish, but also - until a few months ago - the parish accountant. I often joked with him that his main duty was to keep me from going to jail! (Yes, that is a joke!) He succeeded in doing that, for which I am grateful.
Mr. Ward was a man of great accomplishment and positive good influence on the community. I won't give details here. They are fairly well known - in addition to which, one can read some of the details in our local newspaper. What always impressed me about Mr. Ward was his modesty. He never made an effort to draw attention to himself or to impress anyone with a recital of his deeds.
Mr. Ward was a man indelibly identified with History. He loved History. I learned a great many fascinating historical facts from him. Now that he has exited from History, we look forward to meeting him again in that Kingdom of God that transcends History.
Due to an unbreakable prior commitment on 28 May, I deeply regret that I am unable to celebrate the funeral Mass for my parishioner and friend. I asked Fr. Christopher S. Butera, priest-son of St. Joseph Parish, to fill in for me. I am grateful to him for agreeing to do so. I'm sure Mr. Ward gives his approval.

Eternal rest grant unto Leo, O Lord, and let the perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Please note:
We depend on the BAA Office in Allentown for updates. We do not receive this information with maximum promptness. It is quite possible that your name is not on this list, even though it should be. If that be so, please let us know.

Before we tell you, we ask you to read the following excerpt from his homily - the homily he gave on Thursday, 22 May 2008. Notice the multiple references to kneeling and prostrating and adoring.

We find in this the third constitutive element of Corpus Domini: to kneel in adoration in front of the Lord.
To adore the God of Jesus Christ, who, out of love, became bread to be broken, is the most valid and radical remedy against the idolatries of yesterday as well as today. To kneel in front of the Eucharist is a profession of freedom: whoever bows before Jesus cannot and should not prostrate himself before any earthly power, no matter how strong.
We Christians only kneel before God, before the Most Blessed Sacrament, because we believe and know that the one true God is present, who created the world and loved man so much that for his sake, he gave his only begotten Son (cfr Jn 3,16).
We prostrate ourselves before a God who was the first to bend down to man, like the Good Samaritan, to help him and give him back life, who knelt before us to wash our dirty feet.
To adore the Body of Christ means to believe that he is truly present in that piece of bread, Christ who gives sense to life - to the immense universe as to its littlest creature, to the entire human history as to the briefest of existence.

The priest who spoke these words is a priest who is rather well known. Actually, he is a bishop. Well, actually, he is the Pope. Yes, the one who speaks about kneeling in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament is none other than His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI. And we say:

FIRST HOLY COMMUNION
Six children will receive First Holy Communion at St. Joseph Church today, Sunday, 28 May.
We hope to be able to show you these children's beautiful / handsome faces in next weekend's bulletin, plus give you some other pertinent facts about them.
But for now, we'll just have to make do with their names:

We invoke God's blessings on all of them.
Let it be noted that they are making their First Holy Communion on Corpus Christi Sunday - the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.
There could hardly be a more appropriate day for receiving one's First Holy Communion!