what a NY priest said--worth reading on this "spin" Sunday....

[wellstone_democrat]

At least someone, somewhere is speaking out and telling some hard truths:

One of my friends relayed what her daughter's Catholic priest said this a.m. at Mass---he was talking about *our* failures and *our* disgrace as a society in the last week. He addressed some of the "rationalizations" used to justify the poor response, this one was quite a nice response to the "why didn't they use those buses?"

Apparently he told the congregation: Ask why every private individual didn't fill up their own car. Ask why I saw on the news on Friday and Saturday one and two people in big cars, trucks and SUVs. If we want to ask why those school buses weren't used we have to ask why every citizen of the coast was not responsible. We have to ask why public transportation was shut down long before the storm leaving many no exit. We have to ask why we have seen federal response in other hurricane states the instant the storm relents a bit. We have to ask a lot of questions of each other and ourselves. We are required to ask them on behalf of the dead.

that is as much as I can recall from the blast and some may say that it was "unfair" to criticize NY'ers for their failings but he made the point that *we* are responsible for "seeking justice in their names" He warned them not to let people "bully" them into silence or worse to call it God's will because it isn't it is God's will that we help the victims and speak on their behalf.

(I'll tell ya, made me want to be Catholic if there is this sort of thing going on at Mass anywhere. Some of these sentiments I've expressed on DU--remembering the dead by demanding a count! and others have said but this service sounds like it was something!!!)

[highplainsdem]

1. Wow! Well worth reading! Thank you! It's heartening

to hear stories like these.

[GoBlue]

2. Makes me want to ask...

why this Christian nation disgraced itself? I'll look forward to their answer.

[Pharlo]

3. I think there's a lot of that in ALL places of worship this Sunday.

Our priest's sermon this week ran a gamut.

Be THANKFUL for what you have - You could lose it in an instant.

That's not just the people of New Orlean's, it is everyone living in America. Give until it hurts, then give some more because you'll still be much better off than these people. Compared television scenes with missions he's visited. Concentrate on helping people now, and when it's all over, demand answers - becaused we're all responsible for how we treat the least among us. How did this happen? Why were so many abandonded? Ultimately we are repsonsible for how we treat others - it is what we are judged upon....

Second collection next week for Hurricane victims.

As you said repeated many of the points brought up by DU.

I think these memes are far reaching - across denominations, across religions. These are things being discussed in ALL places of worship this weekend - Jewish, Christian, Islam, Buddhist, etc.