Lamplighter Award given to those fostering the light of truth in a dark world: To Archbishop Paul Coakley , who, with the legal assistance of California-based law firm, Busch and Caspino, sued to recover a consecrated host stolen for a black mass scheduled at the Oklahoma City civic center. Attorney Michael Caspino told Catholic News Agency that without the host, “We’ve now gutted the significance of their black mass. Now it’s really just a bad show with bad actors.” He praised the archbishop for his courageous leadership and said, “Every Catholic out there, every good Christian out there, we need to stare down the devil…. The devil is weak when you stare him down. That’s what we did here. We stared down the devil, and the devil blinked.” The archbishop called for parishes to offer the St. Michael prayer after every Mass and on September 21st, the day of the satanic ritual, a Eucharistic holy hour will be held at St. Francis of Assisi Church at 3:00 p.m. with an outdoor procession and Benediction. May all the angels and saints intercede for an end to all such outrages against the Blessed Sacrament and for those deluded souls who participate. A big thank-you to Archbishop Coakley! Millstone Award given to those who through ignorance or malice scandalize God's people: To Cardinal Timothy Dolan who welcomed the decision by the organizers of the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York City to allow an LGBT group, OUT@NBCUniversal, to march under its own banner. While the parade is not a Catholic event, it celebrates Irish Catholic heritage and always pauses in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral to greet the rector. Cardinal Dolan’s reaction is much different from one of his predecessors, John Cardinal O’Conner. Pressured in 1993 to approve public homosexual participation the cardinal said he, "could never even be perceived as compromising Catholic teaching" by condoning a publicly-identified homosexual group in the event. In his St. Patrick’s day homily that year, Cardinal O’Connor stated, "Neither respectability nor political correctness is worth one comma in the Apostles' Creed." Cardinal Dolan, unlike Cardinal O’Connor, has continuously shown himself supportive of gay activists. On the other hand he has small sympathy for traditional Catholics and his dismissal of Fr. Justin Wylie from the Archdiocese for opposing the proposed closing of Holy Innocents parish was draconian and vindictive. For readers unfamiliar with the sad story visit the Les Femmes blog and enter Fr. Justin Wylie in the search box. We ask the intercession of St. Patrick, who never failed to stand up against the forces of paganism, to pray for Cardinal Dolan and the poor people of New York. |