Pope Francis turns 85

Pope Francis, Jorge Bergolio, was born in a neighborhood of Buenos Aires called Flores. The article in La Nación linked below shows that home in its present condition.  Scroll through the article for ten photos.

https://www.lanacion.com.ar/propiedades/casas-y-departamentos/se-vende-la-casa-donde-nacio-el-papa-francisco-en-flores-nid02072021/

Pope Francis is one of eleven or twelve Popes who passed age 85. A discussion of this is linked below.
https://aleteia.org/2021/12/16/a-look-at-the-oldest-popes-of-history-including-francis/#

Two print publications cease

 Please see this announcement from Sean Dolan of the diocese of Rockville Centre.

https://www.drvc.org/wp-content/uploads/Final-media-release.pdf

In 1957, the diocese of Rockville Centre was split off from Rockville Centre, and Walter Kellenberg was installed as bishop under obvious sponsorship of Francis Cardinal Spellman. Shortly thereafter (when?) the diocese began the publication of  The Long Island Catholic in broadsheet format. About 2012 (?), this became a large drain on diocesan funds, and the weekly was replaced by a monthly insert in a magazine published in Michigan but with the Long Island Catholic masthead. Most articles were feature articles, not news.

Corpus Christi hymns

I miss the sequence Lauda Sion Salvatorem, but today's Mass from the Passionists in Jamaica came up with an oft-sung gem, I Am the Bread of Life, written by Sister Suzanne Toolan, R.S.M. in 1966.

Seven new pastors

 On May 9, 2021, the diocese of Rockville Centre listed some transfers of priests and some appointments of pastors effective June 23rd. I use the word "some" because more may follow. The link to this document is HERE.

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The following Nassau County parishes will receive new pastors:

St. Rose of Lima, Massapequa.

St. Catherine of Sienna, Franklin Square.

Maria Regina, Seaford.

Notre Dame, New Hyde Park.

Our Holy Redeemer, Freeport.

Holy Family, Hicksville.

In Suffolk County:

St. John of God, Central Islip

St. Christopher school closing in June

 The diocese has announced the June, 2021, closing of St. Christopher School in Baldwin. Please see the media release linked HERE. The pandemic is blamed, but again I suggest that demographic changes (Catholics moving out, non-Catholics moving in) have been at work for more than a decade. The school had only 179 students in September, 2020.

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St. Thomas school closing

 The diocese has announced the June, 2021, closing of the parish school at St. Thomas the Apostle, West Hempstead. Please see the press release linked HERE, but I fear the release will soon disappear from the diocesan website. The enrollment at St. Thomas was 209 in September, 2020, according to the media release. The pandemic is blamed, but I see changing demographics as a major cause of the drop in enrollment. On Long Island, people move and neighborhoods change. In this case, an eruv includes much of the parish, and public school districts #17 and #27 are affected by lower enrollments. For more commentary, please see my post for St. Thomas parish.  

St. Raymond's school closing

 The diocese of Rockville Centre has announced the June, 2021, closing of the school at the parish of St. Raymond of Penafort in East Rockaway. The press release is linked HERE, but I fear the notice and its explanations will disappear. In September, 2020, the school enrollment was 130.  For more commentary, please see my post for St. Raymond parish.

Hymn: The Church's One Foundation

The Church's One Foundation is Jesus Christ Our Lord. Today I heard this familiar hymn as the entrance song at the Passionist Fathers' pre-recorded Sunday Mass from Jamaica, Queens. Searching for its origin, I learned that it is a poetic explanation of the ninth article of the Apostles' Creed. Samuel John Stone, a Church of England priest, published it in 1866 in Lyra Fidelium. In that book he connects scriptural passages to each of the twelve articles of the Creed and to poetic verses he wrote. I admire its clarity.