Pastoral appointments effective June 26, 2019

June 26, 2019, is moving day.
Our bishop has announced pastoral appointments. The link to the full list is HERE. New pastors in Nassau County are:
Fr. Seth, the outstanding priest met on the televised Masses at the cathedral, with clear, concise, illuminating homilies, is the new pastor of St. Jane Frances de Chantal in Wantagh.
Fr. Jeff Yildirmaz is the new pastor at St. Barnabas, Bellmore.
Fr. Christopher Costigan moves to St. Martin of Tours, Bethpage.
Msgr. Mark Rowan is the new pastor of St. Kilian, Farmingdale.
Msgr. Thomas Coogan goes to St. Dominic, Oyster Bay.
Fr. Brian Barr will pastor two parishes, adding Point Lookout to Our Lady of the Isle.
Msgr. Robert Clerkin to pastorate in Port Washington.
Fr. Joseph Fitzgerald to St. William the Abbot, Seaford.
Fr. Rony Fabien to St. Martha, Uniondale.
Fr. Adrian McHugh to St. Aidan, Williston Park.
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Above are new pastors.
One new administrator is Fr. Lawrence Onyegu to Blessed Sacrament, Valley Stream.
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For both counties, please see the full list.

All Saints School to close

An email from licatholic.org explains that the diocese will close two elementary schools in June, due to low enrollment: All Saints at St. Patrick's, Glen Cove, and St. Joseph School, Ronkonkoma. All Saints is a regional school sponsored by five parishes: St. Patrick, St. Rocco, St. Hyacinth, St. Boniface Martyr, and St. Mary (Roslyn). At All Saints, the current enrollment in K-8 is 132 students, plus eleven more in Nursery level. Two different websites provide more information, drvcschools.org and drvcschools.com

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The Long Island Catholic weekly newspaper once printed an informative grade-by-grade chart of the enrollment in the Catholic elementary schools of the Diocese of Rockville Centre. If my memory is correct, this was done during the editorship of Msgr. Paul McKeever, 1967-1975. As we approach Catholic Schools week, publishing a similar chart on a drvcschools website org would likewise inform the Catholic population.

Fr. Willard Jabusch, hymnist

Today we sang at communion "See How the Virgin Waits," with a Slovak folk melody. It saddened me to discover that its composer, Fr. Willard Jabusch, of Chicago, died this December 8th, age 88. You may read an obituary in the Chicago Tribune HERE. Many hymns he authored were based on hymns in Christian cultures in other lands and languages. 
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Some of his eighty hymns are listed HERE. His talent helped us worship and praise.
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Today's hymn is certainly an appropriate Advent song. I have not yet discovered whether it is also a translation from Slovak or whether he has Slovak ancestry. Please comment below if you know!
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May the choirs of angels welcome him.

Collection for Retired Religious

This Sunday, December 9, 2018, parishes will receive collections for the Retirement Fund for Religious, as organized in the diocese of Rockville Centre. Some years back, there was a fund for two dioceses, Brooklyn and Rockville Centre. It appears from the brochure and letter from Bishop John Barras that the funds will be send onward to the USCCB for its National Religious Retirement Office. Congregations of female or male religious apply for specific grants from the NRRO. The website retiredreligious.org contains an Annual Report and Financial Statements that details the distribution. (I complain that some praiseworthy charities fill their annual reports with photos and narratives, but avoid listing details of distribution. The NRRO link is outstanding for its explanation of distributions.)
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I generalize that most congregations that built colleges or academies are better off financially than those that earned stipends by teaching in parishes or doing more localized work. In the Direct Care Assistance table, the fourth column states the percentage of the congregation's (or province's) retirement needs not funded. Some U. S. religious orders, congregations, or provinces are listed in a separate section, titled Congregation Contributions.  
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A state-by-state listing within the Direct Care Assistance table offer important information, namely the number of members. Knowledge of the provincial structure of the larger congregations is helpful in reading these numbers.
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As for Long Island, these member numbers are given for 2017:
Brentwood Josephites, 460 Sisters.
Amityville Dominicans, 367 Sisters.
Huntington, the Missionary Sisters of St. Benedict, 33 Sisters.
Daughters of Wisdom, 72 Sisters.
Ursulines of Tildonk, Blue Point, and Jamaica, 36 Sisters.
Halifax Sisters of Charity, 53 Sisters.

Sent forth by God's Blessing

For recessional today, 9.30.2018, our cantor announced "Sent forth by God's Blessing," which I find a remarkable and beautiful choice. Even the melody sounds like people walking out into a new day with purpose. 
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Please note these three links:
A biography of Omer Westendorf from a Collegeville website.
And a reference to one of his pseudonyms, J. Clifford Evers, HERE.
And an extensive obituary from the Cincinnati Enquirer of 10.23.1997. 

Catholic Faith Network

The television department of the diocese of Rockville Centre has been renamed Catholic Faith Network at http://www.cfntv.org/  The mailing address is Post Office Box 158, Uniondale, NY 11553. Its studio is adjacent to Kellenberg Memorial HS, which was built as Maria Regina HS about 1966, and yielded to St. Agnes Cathedral HS in 1984. The antenna can easily be seen next to the Meadowbrook Parkway.  The studio address is 1200 Glen Curtiss Blvd., Uniondale NY 11553.

Catholic HS Entrance Exam, October 27, 2018

Regarding entrance to a Catholic high school in Nassau or Suffolk County, New York, the deadlines are fast approaching.  Please see the website linked HERE for a list of deadlines and other information about taking the test.  The website includes applications for the exam with or without a request for exceptional treatment "with accommodation." The on-line registration form is linked HERE, the fee $60. It would appear that the registration due date is October 3rd.
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There are seven Catholic high schools in Nassau County and two in Suffolk County. One entrance exam counts for all. An eighth-grader may apply to three schools.  

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The CHSEE website this year has changed the round-number enrollment for Chaminade from 1,700 (listed for several past years) to 1,650.
However, Holy Trinity, Hicksville, uses a suspect round-number of 1,000 for enrollment. There is no harm publicizing the exact enrollment as of a specific date. Enrollment per grade level would also be informative.
Kellenberg Memorial in Uniondale reports an enrollment of 2,150, but does not state whether that figure includes grades 6 to 12 or only the high school.
Our Lady of Mercy Academy, Syosset, reports 114 graduates in June, 2018, and an enrollment of 415 young women, both credible numbers.
Sacred Heart Academy, Hempstead, reports an enrollment of 890 young women.
St. Dominic's College Prep HS, Oyster Bay, reports an enrollment of 410.
St. Mary's HS, Manhasset, gives a round-number enrollment of 600.

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I wonder about the ratio between the number of test-takers and seats available in the nine high schools, especially since we do not know how many eighth-graders paid for the test in 2017.