Saturday, 28 June
Vigil of Solemnity of Ss. Peter and Paul
4:30 p.m. - JOHN TORCELLO
by Joseph T. Cescon and family

Sunday, 29 June
Solemnity of Ss. Peter and Paul
7:45 a.m. - MARIO PETER ALFONSI
by Harry and Rosa Lilley
10:45 a.m. - God's Blessings on JOHN and CHARLOTTE VUCINOVICH
by their goddaughter, Susan Branca Thye

Monday, 30 June
Protomartyrs of Rome (OptMem)
12:05 p.m. - God's Blessings on Rev. EDWARD B. CONNOLLY
(new assignment)
by Julia, Rose and Marie

Tuesday, 01 July
Bl. Junipero Serra, priest (OptMem)
12:05 p.m. - JAMES McGEE and JOHN McGEE
by their sister, Catherine
7:00 p.m. - GERALD JEZULIN
by Lisa Whitney Gallagher

Wednesday, 02 July
Weekday
12:05 p.m. - FLORENCE EVOLO FEELEY
by her daughter, Patti Feeley Garland

Thursday, 03 July
St. Thomas, apostle (Fst)
12:05 p.m. - CAROLINE A. BARBETTA
by James Barbetta and family
7:00 p.m. - JOSEPH A. FABIANI
by Veryl (+) and Dolores Frantz

Friday, 04 July
St. Elizabeth of Portugal (OptMem)
12:05 p.m. - God's Blessings upon JOSEPH STEVER GALLAGHER
by his family
6:15 p.m. - FOR ALL WHO ARE MENTALLY ILL by p.r.

Saturday, 05 July
St. Anthony Zaccaria, priest (OptMem)
8:00 a.m. - Intentions: THIRD ORDER CARMELITES
by the T.O.C. community
Vigil of Sunday
4:30 p.m. - VINCENT and MARY (DiCello) LUPPINO
by their family

Sunday, 06 July
14th Sunday of Ordinary Time
7:45 a.m. - LIVING and DECEASED MEMBERS: SCIARRONE FAMILY
by Joseph C. Sciarrone
10:45 a.m. - MARGARET HANLON OTTERSON
by Joseph T. Cescon and family

Saint Joseph Parish
$1,222.00 from the envelopes and $105.00from the plate. Thank you.
When one deducts from the sum of these two figures, $1,327.00 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 ($184.15) of this collection is available for operating the parish. This is a deficit!

Saint Francis deSales Parish
$1,092.00 from the envelopes and $104.00 from the plate. Thank you.
When one deducts from the sum of these two figures, $1,196.00 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 $900.97 of this collection is available for operating the parish.

Lest anyone misunderstand, I point out that "requiescat in pace" is a prayer of petition, not an assertion of fact. It is translated "may he rest in peace", not "he rests in peace". I don't know for certain that George Carlin is resting in peace, but I pray that he is or, at least, that, eventually, he will. By saying that I hope that "eventually, he will" I am implying that I believe in Purgatory.
Some people, when they check out of this life, leave behind abundant assurances that they are safe in Abraham's bosom. Others do not leave behind any assurances, one way or the other. Some - God help us - when they check out, leave behind them an abundance of assurances of dreadful outcomes.
But all of our opinions or hunches about other persons' salvation or lack thereof are ultimately worthless. God knows and He is not telling. We shall find out someday. George Carlin seemed to hate theistic religion in general and the Catholic Church in particular. Maybe he didn't really hate the Church. Maybe it was all a shtick, just part of the act, a facet of his public persona. Maybe I misunderstood him. I don't know. I must say that he was a bright and talented man. He was possessed with a remarkable sense of irony. I sometimes thought that he was possessed with other things as well.
George got a lot of mileage out of the infamous SEVEN WORDS that one is "not allowed to say". I know what those seven words are, but I never use them and I heartily discourage their use. But I would like to turn people's attention to a different set of SEVEN WORDS. They were spoken by the Lord Jesus as He hung on the cross. The first of them, adapted to suit my current purpose, goes like this: "Father, forgive George Carlin. He did not know what he was doing."

UNEASY LIES THE HEAD THAT BEARS THE MITER! Some thoughtless persons badmouth Bishop Cullen for the closing of the churches. That is really dumb! Let me give an analogy. Some years ago, right across the line from Schuylkill County (and from the Allentown Diocese) there was a church called St. Ignatius. It was the parish church of the Catholic people of Centralia. The (then) bishop of Harrisburg decided to suppress the parish and close the church. Some people thought that the bishop was mean and thoughtless and uncaring. Didn't the people of Centralia have enough problems without their church being closed? But rational persons realized that the action of the Bishop of Harrisburg was a response to a problem (subterranean fire) he did not cause. The problems that prompt the closings of churches in our area are not problems for which Bishop Cullen bears responsibility. Mature persons know this. Immature person rant and rave - and some of their rantings and ravings get into the newspaper!

Kindergarten and New Student Registration
All Saints Catholic School and Good Shepherd Regional School are now accepting registrations for pre-k to 8 for the 2008-2009 school year. Some classes are filling up quickly. Don't delay. Call the school for a tour or to request a registration packet. We hope to hear from you soon!
Call ASCS at 622-0106 or GS at 544-3766
Thank you for your support! Call us for a tour or visit us at

Communion kneeling, on the tongue: new Vatican norm?
Vatican, Jun. 26, 2008 (CWNews.com) - The new director of the Vatican liturgical office has strongly encouraged kneeling to receive Communion, indicating that Pope Benedict XVI prefers the practice.
In an interview with L'Osservatore Romano, Msgr. Guido Marini said that kneeling and receiving the Eucharist on the tongue are practices that express and reinforce reverence for the Blessed Sacrament. He added that it is "urgent to highlight and recover" that sense of reverence.
Since Msgr. Marini assumed his current task as director of papal liturgies, Vatican-watchers have noticed that Pope Benedict has distributed the Eucharist to worshippers who kneel and receive Communion on the tongue. Asked whether these practices would become the norm for papal liturgies, the Vatican's top liturgist said that he thought they would. The Holy Father strongly supports that initiative, he indicated.
Msgr. Marini reminded L'Osservatore Romano that reception of Communion on the tongue remains the norm for the universal Church. Allowing the faithful to receive the Eucharist in their hands is a concession, or indult, "allowed by the Holy See to those bishops' conferences who requested it," he said.
COMMENT: I give thanks to God for this very good news. Viva Papa Benedetto! I strongly urge the members of St. Joseph Parish and St. Francis deSales Parish to do their very best, preferably without stepping on anyone's toes or giving undue offense, to maintain in their new parishes the protocols of Eucharistic piety to which they have become accustomed in their time at our two dear little parishes. To do so effectively, ask God for courage and for humility. And remember what Jesus said:

SIGNS OF the TIMES
I went to visit someone at the Geisinger Medical Center (Danville) this past Monday (23 June). I entered via the main entrance. Posted on one of the doors, I saw a sign. The message was no-nonsense and to-the point. It read exactly as follows:

The sign puzzled me! I presumed it meant that there was a family named Heeley, some of whose members had acquired a reputation for being troublemakers, as a result of which the Geisinger had imposed a universal ban on Heeleys!
I remember thinking that an indiscriminate and blanket exclusion of Heeleys might leave Geisinger vulnerable to a lawsuit filed by some civil rights attorneys. If so, my sympathies would be with the plaintiffs. You know how it is. If the Fat Cats of the Establishment and their High-Priced Lawyers get away with excluding the Heeleys, tomorrow they'll want to exclude the Feeleys! And pretty soon it will be the Connollys! Best to nip this in the bud!
Later on, I mentioned this sign to a friend of mine. He was kind enough to explain it to me. He told me that "Heeleys" is meant to refer to a species of footwear that have wheels built into the heels - kind of a hybrid of a shoe and an in-line skate.
That rang a bell with me! I remembered having been intrigued and mildly amused at seeing some kids at one of the malls half skating, half walking along. I never knew that this kind of shoe-skate is called a "heeley".
However, the sign still seemed off kilter to me. I'm referring now to the spelling. Should the word be spelled "heeley" or should it be spelled "heely"?

It seemed to me, from my sense of the English language, that if I were going to coin a word based on the word "heel", I would spell it "heely", not "heeley".
If "heely" is correct, then, following the rule of forming plurals, the plural of "heely" would be "heelies", not "heeleys".
Here is the rule as you know: If the singular of a noun ends in "[consonant] y", then the plural is formed by dropping the "y" and adding "ies". But if a word ends in "[vowel] y", then the plural is formed by adding "s".
Examples
ALLEY is singular and the plural is ALLEYS.
ALLY is singular and the plural is ALLIES.
VALLEY is singular and the plural is VALLEYS.
RALLY is singular and the plural is RALLIES.
When I got back home, I googled both "heely" and "heeley" and found that the name of the company that manufactures this unique footwear spells the product HEELY and has even taken that word and named the company HEELY!
So, that proves the point! I rest my case. The sign on the door of the Geisinger is incorrect. It should read as follows:

But there is still one other problem with that blasted sign!
Inasmuch as a hospital is a place where people go to be healed and inasmuch as the principal personnel of any hospital are physicians, nurses and therapists, all of whom are "HEALERS", and inasmuch as the consumers of health-care services could rightly be referred to as "HEALEES" (or at least hopeful healees), is it wise for a hospital to post a sign on its front door that could possibly be read by some members of the public, not all of whom are excellent spellers, as forbidding admission to "HEALEES"?

WE SHARE THE MAIL
Dear Father Connolly:
The production is called "Jerry Springer--The Opera in Concert" and it will run from June 26-August 3 at the New Stage Collective in Cincinnati . The so-called opera will also be showing at The Studio Theatre in Washington D.C. from July 16-Aug. 10
I've been asking our people to send protest post cards to the Cincinnati theater where workers have already admitted that they have received over 14,000 letters from people protesting the show.
The "opera" defies description in detail since it contains so much profanity and blasphemous content. Even the Cincinnati theater recognizes what the "opera" contains what it calls "potentially offensive themes and extensive language."
Some disturbing examples of what is in the "opera" include:
The crucifixion is mocked and the Eucharist is trashed
There is a lady singing "Jerry eleison" (mocking the Mass: Kyrie Eleison)
Jesus is introduced as "the hypocrite son of the fascist tyrant on high." He wears a diaper, is fat and effeminate and later admits: "Actually, I am a bit gay."
Eve gropes Jesus in a manner too indecent to describe while the Annunciation is described as a rape.
God is a fat man in a white suit who complains about being blamed for everyone's problems. He invites Jerry Springer to join Him to "sit in Heaven beside me, hold my hand and guide me."
At the end, Jerry emerges as the true savior of mankind.
You must protest the fact that God and Christ are made to say the most filthy and absurd things. The profanity-laced production considers nothing sacred.
The "opera" has earned its blasphemous reputation. In London , the debut was the subject of a libel suit for defaming Christians. When it was to be aired on the BBC, it drew more than 60,000 complaints. So pass on the message to your friends.
Sincerely,
Robert Ritchie

COMMENT: You can send your protest message via email. Send it to either or both of the following addresses:

ericamckeown@newstagecollective.com
studio@studiotheatre.org
You can learn more about this protest by going to
www.americaneedsfatima.org/protest

A NEW PRIEST!
On Saturday, 28 June, Deacon David W. Bechtel, a native of Pottsville, will be ordained, together with two other men, to the Sacred Priesthood for the Diocese of Scranton by Bishop Joseph F. Martino at the Cathedral of Saint Peter, Scranton.
We give thanks to God for raising up a priest from among us.
Many StJos and StFdS parishioners will remember that David was one of our outstanding organists during his early years.
We wish Father Bechtel an abundance of divine blessings.
Father David is a son of David and Alice (Rescorla) Bechtel.
He will celebrate his first Mass at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, 29 June, at his home parish, St. John the Baptist, Pottsville.

Congratulations, Father Bechtel!

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.