Saint Joseph Parish:
Parish receipts: $1,585.00 from the Sunday envelopes; $77.00 from the second collection (plate); $144.00 from the Dues envelopes; $686.00 from the Fuel envelopes; $81.00 from the loose. Total: $2,573.00
Non-parish receipts: $-0-
Analysis: When one deducts from the total of the parish receipts ($2,573.00) our weekly financial obligation to the Diocese, i.e. assessments ($290.08), plus our weekly premium for property and casualty insurance ($444.49), plus our weekly subsidy to Trinity Academy ($358.17), the sum total of which is $1,092.74, one sees that $1,480.26 is available from this collection for operating the parish.

Saint Vincent DePaul Parish:
Parish receipts: $987.00 from the Sunday envelopes; $103.00 from the second collection (plate); $75.00 from the Building Maintenance envelopes; $40.00 from the Fuel envelopes; $80.00 from the loose. Total: $1,285.00.
Non-parish receipts: $-0-
Analysis: When one deducts from the total of the parish receipts ($1,285.00) our weekly financial obligation to the Diocese, i.e. assessments ($183.92), plus our weekly premium for property and casualty insurance ($267.81), plus our weekly subsidy to Trinity Academy ($250.98), the sum total of which is $702.71, one sees that $582.29 is available from this collection for operating the parish.

IT IS OUR PERMANENT POLICY to be available to you for Confession at almost any hour of almost any day. If the Confession schedule does not suit you, simply call the Rectory and make an appointment with the priest to go to Confession. Barring some circumstance that would make it impossible, I will be happy to be available to you to hear your Confession. This invitation is unrestricted. Non-parishioners as well as parishioners are welcome to take advantage of it.

by Rich Heffern

Iurodstvo is the Russian word for the idea of “holy foolishness.” It’s a form of asceticism that has been practiced within the Russian Orthodox Church for centuries.
Its practitioners feign madness, Marx brothers-like behavior, in order to provide the public with spiritual guidance. The aim too is to avoid praise and acclaim for perceived holiness. It’s a radical form of humility as well.
According to Russian Orthodox scholar Svetlana Kobets: “The holy fool’s exploit is that of secret sanctity, which above all promotes the non-ontological understanding that all of God’s created world is a sacred place.
“By feigned madness the holy fool opts to say that the lowliest of the low can be not the poor wretch he appears to be, but a holy one and God’s prophet. He shares his power and authority with all the weak, mocked and despised, thus symbolically destroying clear-cut distinctions between the profane and the sacred.”
In the Russian church it is regarded as the most difficult and controversial of all ascetic practices. Thirty-six iurodivyi (holy fools) have been canonized by the Orthodox church. Many are venerated locally.
”Unlike other ascetics, the fool in Christ does not renounce the profane world. … Instead of going into hermetic or monastic seclusion he becomes a part of secular life,” Kobets writes.
This tradition has its origins in the early history of the Christian church. Indeed, the patron saint of holy fools is St. Simeon Salos of Emresa. He retreated to the Syrian desert in the 6th century to devote his life to prayer, living on nothing but lentils.
A few decades later, Simeon returned to town a completely different man. He tied a dead dog to his waist and entered town dragging the carcass. Simeon would throw nuts at the priests during the worship service and publicly ate sausage on Good Friday.
The seemingly nutty monk also helped people in the town, though never when someone else might notice and never taking credit. Simeon’s saintly deeds were done away from the spotlight. No one could dispute that Simeon was a holy person, even the priests he pelted with nuts on Sunday. Simeon poked fun at every attempt people made to feel themselves “holier than thou.”
In Russian history the greatest of the “holy fools” was Basil the Blessed, a man so revered that the famous onion-domed cathedral in Moscow’s Red Square next to the Kremlin was named in his honor. In the 16th century, St. Basil walked through Moscow wearing nothing more than a long beard. He threw rocks at wealthy people’s houses and stole from dishonest traders in Red Square.
It’s reported that Tsar Ivan the Terrible feared no one but Basil. Once the saint went to Ivan’s palace and forced the tsar to eat raw meat during the Lenten fast saying, “Why abstain from eating meat when you murder men?” Countless Russians died horribly for much less, but Ivan was afraid to let any harm come to the saintly Basil.
In the year 1555 Tsar Ivan commissioned two Italian architects to build the famous cathedral that has become the icon of Russia. After its completion, the story goes, he asked the architects if they could build an edifice more beautiful and dazzling than the one they had just completed. When they replied affirmatively, he had them blinded. He was that kind of guy. Only Basil stood up to him.
The idea of holiness in Orthodox spirituality is varied. There is no one prescribed way. The vocation of the “holy fool” meant renouncing the world, even its respectability and intelligence. It was a way some chose to become close to God, echoing St. Paul’s famous words about God choosing the foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise.
Jim Forest, author and secretary of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship, writes: “Holy fools pose the question: Are we keeping heaven at a distance by clinging to the good regard of others, prudence, and what those around us regard as ‘sanity’? The holy fools shout out with their mad words and deeds that to seek God is not necessarily the same thing as to seek sanity.
“We need to think long and hard about sanity, a word most of us cling to with a steel grip,” Mr. Forest continues. “Does fear of being regarded by others as insane confine me in a cage of ‘responsible’ behavior that limits my freedom and cripples my ability to love? And is it in fact such a wonderful thing to be regarded as sane? Adolph Eichmann, the chief administrator of the Holocaust, was declared ‘quite sane’ by the psychiatrists who examined him before his trial.
“Holy fools challenge an understanding of Christianity that gives intellectually gifted people a head start not only in economic efforts but spiritual life,” Mr. Forest writes. “But the Gospel and sacramental life aren’t just for smart people. At the Last Judgment we will not be asked how clever we were but how merciful.”
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NOTE: If any member of our Girardville parishes would like to be a Holy Fool, please check first with the pastor. He might have a few suggestions about how to practice holy foolishness in the Ville of Girard.

AND NOW A FEW WORDS IN DEFENSE OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
To the Editor:
First, I would like to point out that I am neither suggesting nor insinuating that any historical truths be withheld, nor sugarcoated, nor that we should deprive anyone of any known historical truths, but let's straighten out what needs to be imprinted on our youths at such a young age, this is NOT a sober picture.
Having said that, as both a first-generation American and Italian-American, I was both insulted and disturbed by the article on Christopher Columbus and its contents on Monday's front page.
Should we insist that we bring forth the truths of past American figures such as George Washington, who owned slaves, and had soldiers shot for attempts of desertion, or Thomas Jefferson, who owned slaves and had an affair with one of his female slaves?
Possibly, the truth that John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. were thought to have had sexual affairs while married? Mohammed spread the word of Islam by the sword, but that isn't the intent of true Islamic faith. How about our future history depicting our now president, who had known relationships with a fanatic who was considered to be a terrorist? Didn't he just receive a Nobel Prize?
It has also been debated at higher levels of education that our founding fathers, to some extent, were considered traitors to England, terrorists and saboteurs. By definition, quite the truth, but hardly what we expect to be taught to the young impressionable minds of our youth.
I'm willing to bet neither of the teachers in the above-mentioned article have any knowledge of being a naval officer or captain of a ship, much less during the mindset of the 15th century, when ship crews were illiterate and rough in nature. Considering that this type of sailor was getting ready to possibly sail off the "edge of the Earth," I would certainly expect that Columbus' demeanor was hard and strict, just to maintain control.
He landed in an unknown land, thousands of miles away from any type of assistance. All of a sudden he is supposed to be the rational peacekeeper, betting his life and that of his crew that the only known ways of European expansion should not be used in America? How can they teach the history of the man, when they do not show knowledge of the history of the era?
The concept that Columbus did not discover America because it was inhabited is absurd.
He discovered that the world was not flat, and that new lands, and new people, existed beyond the known confines of Europe, which led to massive colonization and a new frontier. I wonder if these teachers of history would have volunteered to be on Columbus' crew.
If we follow the conclusion that it was not a discovery, then strike Lewis and Clark from the history books. Did someone really discover the atom? After all, it's always been there. Is the discovery of new planets and constellations only a discovery because they have no known life? Let's get serious, are these the same people who want to change the meaning of Christmas, and deny us the reality of the Holocaust?
Unlike math or English, the totality of history increases every day of our lives. Do we need to believe that there is so little other history to tell our children of 7 years old, that we need to explain that Christopher Columbus was mean? Are we placing Columbus in a category with Saddam Hussein? Now that's someone I can understand as mean.
We do not need the impressionable minds of our future starting their lives thinking Columbus was a bad man. When they reach an older age where they can understand and decipher the bigger picture, they should have the opportunity to know the finer aspects of anyone we recognize in history. However, it is wrong to set this impression at that young an age.
We see our youth not being able to compete globally because we are displacing the basics of education with teachings that would be more appropriate at a later age. I hope these new Columbus haters can spell, count and tell time before they advance to first grade. If they want to tear down the icons of our history, beware of who may be next. The truth is good, but let us put it in perspective so as not to dilute the minds of our future.
These people that believe they are making a difference might be, but I'm pretty sure it's not the difference we want our children to see, at least not in kindergarten. I don't think this is what the president had in mind with educating our youth. We have to stop tearing down our history, or we soon will have none. Knowing the truth must be all-encompassing, and it should not displace the good.

Ralph N Butera
Note: I was delighted to see this letter in the Wednesday, 14 October, edition of The Pottsville Republican. The writer is a friend of mine, a postmaster, a retired Lieutenant Colonel, the father of a priest of the Allentown Diocese, and one of my former parishioners (St. Joseph Parish, Pottsville). His defense of the reputation of Christopher Columbus is a service to the truth and to the community. We do well to remember that there is considerable anti-Catholicism behind the efforts to diminish the reputation of Christopher Columbus. Let us not be swept up in the tide of anti-Columbus historical revisionism. Thank you, Mr. Butera!

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You did know that, but you forgot, didn’t you?
Well, it would be nice if you would pray for priests. Pray especially for your pastor, Fr. Connolly. And, while you’re at it, say a prayer or two for Fr. Brennan and Fr. Horan and Msgr. Coyle and Fr. Karpyn and Fr. Mongiello and Fr. Gillespie and Fr. Gillis and all other priests who do or did have a connection with Girardville.

Next Sunday (25 October) being the last Sunday of the month, the 11:30 am Mass at St. Joseph Church will be celebrated according to the Extraordinary Form.
Please note: When a Mass is celebrated for a particular intention (as it almost always is), it is the custom in most parishes (and it is the custom here in Girardville) for the lector to mention the intention at the Prayer of the Faithful and for the priest to mention it during the Eucharistic Prayer. This is the custom when the Mass is celebrated according to the Ordinary Form (what is often referred to as the Novus Ordo Mass).
At a Tridentine Mass, there is no lector nor Prayer of the Faithful, in addition to which the priest prays the Eucharistic Prayer silently.
I want everyone to know that, despite the fact that the specific Mass intention is not as “obvious” at a Tridentine Mass as it is at a Novus Ordo Mass, nevertheless the priest does include the particular Mass intention to the Lord during the Eucharistic Prayer.
Therefore, next Sunday during the 11:30 am Mass, I shall mention to the Lord the name of the deceased person (Tomee Leigh Gower) during the commemoration for the faithful departed.