Happy and Blessed New Year!

Storm put a little damper on plans, eh?

My New Year is off and running by waking up this morning to frozen pipes. Thankfully, a little blowdryer to the culprits and all is well. I must figure out how to fix that gap in my garage door one of these days.

There have been relatively few years that I haven't made it into First Night for some part of the festivities, but, between the cold and snow, I opted for the quiet evening at home with my candles and Christmas tree, watching good movies (without my groceries on a Roche Brother's truck that got stuck in the snow...thankfully, for the safety of the drivers the Managers called their trucks back in and rescheduled delivery for Friday. Improvising on creating meals here in Pembroke ;O) )

Hope yours was a safe and enjoyable one.

Unfortunately, things are not safe or enjoyable in the Middle East.

Hamas continues to fire rockets, and the ruthless and homicidal have legalized Crucifixion. Israel has stepped up air attacks, killing Hamas' "religious leader", religious in so far as a cleric could sanctify terrorists. God only knows what the poor Christians are suffering at the hands of the lunatics on both sides of this 2000 year old war.

Over the years, have always had empathy for both sides in this conflict. Of late vintage, any empathy I had for the Arabs over there is slipping away.

Also in the safety news, another "Voice of the Faithful" butcher of the Catholic religion , Paul Kendrick. FINALLY, somebody has taken an action against the type of characters who infested our catechesis, pastoral councils, youth ministries, Extraordinary Eucharistic and lector ministries many moons ago.

Kendrick has protested outside churches, inundated the diocese with mail and e-mail, participated in a public confrontation with Malone and even showed up at an out-of-state meeting the bishop attended, Bernard said. She called it a campaign of harassment that ultimately could undermine Malone's ministry.

"For five years, we've really looked the other way. The bishop let him have free rein basically but we want him to know that from this point on, he must stop," she said.

Oh, the many years we sought relief from our priests and Bishops for similar antics against parishioners who wanted to be taught the Catechism, and, they did nothing.

We brought our tale of woes, story upon story of traumatizion against the Holy Catholic Church, our families, our children, the ministries, and the priests. Instead of taking an action to protect the innocent, they empowered the butchers of the Catholic religion by appointing them to powers in control of everything. Well-intended but false compassion took over their intellect and they insisted these folks could be reasoned with - Same flaw that empowered the tiny number of pedophiles within the ranks of the clerics.

In speaking with a priest friend from the diocese of Boston, the presbyterate has determined that over 70 priests have been falsely accused in Boston. They have been cleared in all venues - including lay venues set up to review the facts and, canonical venues. The Cardinal Archbishop of Boston, in so far as we have one, has permitted the Paul Kendricks to prohibit these innocent priests from returning to their ministries.

Those who sadly know the internal turmoil in the Archdiocese of Boston under the current leadership are forever amused by the insufferable "all is well" publicity stunts of the Boston Archdiocese. They simply exchange one type of abusers for another.

Anyhoo, I'm delighted Bishop Malone has a criminal tresspass order and cease and desist. I think he is finally coming to the conclusions the rest of us came to in the early 70's: They are the spirit of the anti-Catholic smoke that entered the sanctuary:

The vicar general, the Rev. Andrew Dubois, further warned Kendrick in a letter of church-imposed penalties if he fails to abide by terms of a church order forbidding Kendrick from coming within 500 feet of the bishop or being in the same building when he's present.

Lots of luck. These types are the staff and volunteers in complete control of every diocese of a Bishop lacking spinal fortitude. Too bad the rest of us can't be protected from them.

In the Name of our New Born King, may all of you and yours enjoy the fruits of the Bread of Angels in this New Year!