Saint Joseph Parish: $1,269.00 from the Sunday envelopes; $86.00 from the second collection (plate); $625.00 from the Dues envelopes; $232.00 from the Rice Bowl envelopes; $316.00 from the Easter flowers envelopes; $112.00 from the loose. Thank you.

Saint Vincent DePaul Parish: $1,093.00 from the Sunday envelopes; $67.00 from the second collection (plate); $254.00 from the Building Maintenance envelopes; $137.00 from the Rice Bowl envelopes; $93.00 from the loose. Thank you.

EDWARD T. DOUGHERTY,
a member of Saint Joseph Parish, died on Holy Thursday, 9 April.
Born on 19 November 1916, he was 92 years old.
(The St. Joseph Parish baptism register records 16 November 1916 as the date of Edward’s birth.)
Edward is one of the four children (sons) of Edward and Anna (Ryan) Dougherty.
His three brothers are deceased: George Dougherty; Joseph Dougherty; Robert Dougherty.
Edward was baptized in St. Joseph Church, Girardville, on 19 November 1916 by Father John Donovan.
He married Margaret Franks on 19 October 1940 in St. Jerome Church, Tamaqua.
Edward and Margaret have four children: Anne Dougherty Lorady; Margaret Dougherty Culbreth; Dennis Dougherty; William Dougherty.
They have fourteen grandchildren: Michele Lorady Symons; Michael Lorady; Matthew Culbreth; Lauren Culbreth; Bryan Dougherty; Erin Dougherty LaBar; Stephen Dougherty; Daniel Dougherty; Michaela Dougherty; Anna Dougherty; Joseph Dougherty; Mairona Dougherty; Liam Dougherty; Seamus Dougherty.
They have five great-grandchildren: Randy Dougherty; Ryan Dougherty; Dominique Dougherty; Chelsea Dougherty; Gabrielle Dougherty.
There will be a Mass of Christian Burial in St. Joseph Chapel on Easter Monday, 13 April, at 11:00 am.
The interment will take place in the parish cemetery in Fountain Springs.
We give thanks to God for the long life of Edward and for the remarkable fact that Margaret and he were together as husband and wife for 68 years!

Eternal rest grant unto Edward, 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.

WHY INDEED?
ALLOW ME TO PUT THIS “PIRATE STATUE” CONTROVERSY into some sort of Biblical context. Take a look at the verses printed below. Notice the references to “Baal” and “Baalim” and “Ashtaroth”. Do you know what those words mean?
Well, first of all, read the passages. Then let me explain them:

Judges 2:13
And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.

Judges 10:6
And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook the LORD, and served not him.

1 Samuel 7:3
And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the LORD, and serve him only: and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.

1 Samuel 7:4
Then the children of Israel did put away Baalim and Ashtaroth, and served the LORD only.

1 Samuel 12:10
And they cried unto the LORD, and said, We have sinned, because we have forsaken the LORD, and have served Baalim and Ashtaroth: but now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, and we will serve thee.

Here is a brief explanation
“BAAL” is the most common name used in the Bible for the male fertility god of the pagans. “BAALIM” is the plural of “BAAL”. “ASTARTE” is the most common name used in the Bible for the female fertility goddess of the pagans. “ASHTAROTH” is the plural of “ASTARTE”.
The god and the goddess of fertility were depicted in statues. These statues left little or nothing to the imagination when it came to depicting the distinctly male and female parts of the anatomy. They were meant to be looked at and touched. They were meant to arouse the libidos of the devotees. The words “BAALIM” and “ASHTAROTH” came to mean the images themselves, only secondarily the imaginary deities they represented. Putting it as succinctly as I can, these BAALIM and ASHTAROTH were the porn of the Old Testament times.
Anyone who has even a passing familiarity with the Old Testament knows that these images were the cause of countless warnings and condemnations by the prophets. The Israelites were constantly being warned NOT to worship sex but to worship, instead, the God Who “created them male and female”.
It seems that many of the Israelites developed a kind of fixation with the “BAALIM and ASHTAROTH” (for obvious reasons, mostly with ASHTAROTH).
That’s the way it is with sexually explicit images. They have an addictive effect on people.
The indecent statue placed on the sidewalk by the owners of The Discount Furniture and Appliances Store on Main Street in Girardville falls under the general category of ASHTAROTH. I tell you the simple truth: It is impossible to be devoted to God and to the BAALIM and the ASHTAROTH.
The anonymous blogger-cowards may mock the messenger all they want. It’s no skin off my nose! For all I care, they can write their scurrilous and defamatory graffiti on the local newspaper’s website (and on the CBA website) until the Second Coming of the Lord. Whatever floats their boat! I wear their disdain as a badge of honor.
I caution them, however, that there is no future for those who oppose the known truth, because such opposition is the sin against the Holy Ghost. I call them to repentance and remind them that God is rich in mercy to all who turn to Him.

Now, let me re-acquaint you with a Biblical passage with which you are almost certainly familiar. I am referring to Chapter 32 of the Book of Exodus.
Here are some verses from that chapter. I have omitted some verses for the sake of space. (I suggest you read the entire chapter sometime.)

With that, the LORD said to Moses, "Go down at once to your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, for they have become depraved. They have soon turned aside from the way I pointed out to them, making for themselves a molten calf and worshiping it, sacrificing to it and crying out, 'This is your God, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!' I see how stiff-necked this people is," continued the LORD to Moses. "Let me alone, then, that my wrath may blaze up against them to consume them. Then I will make of you a great nation." But Moses implored the LORD, his God, saying, "Why, O LORD, should your wrath blaze up against your own people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with such great power and with so strong a hand?
So the LORD relented in the punishment he had threatened to inflict on his people. Moses then turned and came down the mountain with the two tablets of the commandments in his hands, tablets that were written on both sides, front and back; tablets that were made by God, having inscriptions on them that were engraved by God himself. Now, when Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, "That sounds like a battle in the camp. But Moses answered, "It does not sound like cries of victory, nor does it sound like cries of defeat; the sounds that I hear are cries of revelry. As he drew near the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing. With that, Moses' wrath flared up, so that he threw the tablets down and broke them on the base of the mountain.

Something you should know about this “golden calf” episode is this: The golden calf was a BAAL! The whole point and purpose in making the golden calf was to provide a center point for orgiastic worship and for sexual arousal of the women and, consequently, of the men.

Now, do you understand why Moses got so ticked off? So ticked off that he completely lost his cool and smashed the Tablets of the Law against the base of the mountain?

Do you know what I think? I think that there was some simple soul among the Hebrew people out there in the Sinai desert in the 13th century BC who kind of missed the point after Moses smashed the tablets of the Law.
So, when the Channel 16 news team came around to catch the local reaction to the whole incident, this gentleman, when he was interviewed, said, “I don’t understand this Moses guy. I think he’s a nut case! He’s a religious fanatic, that’s for sure! I think that golden calf was art! I kind of liked it. Besides, I think it’s just plain stupid for Moses to be making so much fuss about a hunk of metal. It’s just a statue, for crying out loud!

THERE IS A FAMILY (husband, wife and 14-year-old son) who had been members of St. Francis deSales Parish, Mount Carbon, until it closed this past July. After the closing of the parish, they joined St. John the Baptist Parish, Pottsville. I ran into them recently. One of the things they told me made me laugh. StJtB Parish provides its children with contribution envelopes separate from the parents’ envelopes (which is a pretty good idea, come to think of it!) So, their son was issued envelopes.
Here comes the spooky part!
You’d better stop reading now if you don’t want chills up and down your spine!

The boy’s father said that, some night when the coast is clear, he is going to sneak up to his son’s bedroom when he is fast asleep, push back his hair and examine his scalp!

HERE IS MY SUGGESTION TO ALL WHO ARE SAD AT EASTERTIME BECAUSE OF THE DEATH OF A LOVED ONE!
Go out to the cemetery. Stand at the grave of your loved one. Read 1st Corinthians 15 (the whole chapter) in a loud voice over the grave. Then place a flower (if you care to do so), say a brief prayer and go home. When you get home, eat something delicious like kielbasa and horseradish and hardboiled eggs and chocolate Easter eggs and, what the heck, have a glass of beer, if you like. (Don’t overdo it on the beer. One will do, maybe two.) Most important of all, have a few good laughs with your family and friends and hug your wife or husband if you have one or, if you don’t, hug someone who is huggable and BE HAPPY! It was not for sorrow that God created us, but for happiness. The happiness is to start here and now in this life. Don’t put it off.
Here is Chapter 15 of First Corinthians. If the print is too small, bring your Bible and read it out of the Bible.

Now I am reminding you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you indeed received and in which you also stand. Through it you are also being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures; that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures; that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. After that he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one born abnormally, he appeared to me. For I am the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective. Indeed, I have toiled harder than all of them; not I, however, but the grace of God (that is) with me. Therefore, whether it be I or they, so we preach and so you believed. But if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then neither has Christ been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then empty (too) is our preaching; empty, too, your faith. Then we are also false witnesses to God, because we testified against God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all. But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead came also through a human being. For just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life, but each one in proper order: Christ the firstfruits; then, at his coming, those who belong to Christ; then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to his God and Father, when he has destroyed every sovereignty and every authority and power.
For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death, for "he subjected everything under his feet." But when it says that everything has been subjected, it is clear that it excludes the one who subjected everything to him. When everything is subjected to him, then the Son himself will (also) be subjected to the one who subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all. Otherwise, what will people accomplish by having themselves baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, then why are they having themselves baptized for them? Moreover, why are we endangering ourselves all the time? Every day I face death; I swear it by the pride in you (brothers) that I have in Christ Jesus our Lord. If at Ephesus I fought with beasts, so to speak, what benefit was it to me? If the dead are not raised: "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." Do not be led astray: "Bad company corrupts good morals." Become sober as you ought and stop sinning. For some have no knowledge of God; I say this to your shame. But someone may say, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come back?" You fool! What you sow is not brought to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be but a bare kernel of wheat, perhaps, or of some other kind; but God gives it a body as he chooses, and to each of the seeds its own body. Not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for human beings, another kind of flesh for animals, another kind of flesh for birds, and another for fish. There are both heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the brightness of the heavenly is one kind and that of the earthly another. The brightness of the sun is one kind, the brightness of the moon another, and the brightness of the stars another. For star differs from star in brightness. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown corruptible; it is raised incorruptible. It is sown dishonorable; it is raised glorious. It is sown weak; it is raised powerful. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual one. So, too, it is written, "The first man, Adam, became a living being," the last Adam a life-giving spirit. But the spiritual was not first; rather the natural and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, earthly; the second man, from heaven. As was the earthly one, so also are the earthly, and as is the heavenly one, so also are the heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of the earthly one, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one. This I declare, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed, in an instant, in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For that which is corruptible must clothe itself with incorruptibility, and that which is mortal must clothe itself with immortality. And when this which is corruptible clothes itself with incorruptibility and this which is mortal clothes itself with immortality, then the word that is written shall come about: "Death is swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be firm, steadfast, always fully devoted to the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.