A pro-life country song - "The Call"

Nice. It's amazing the positive effects a phone call, an e-mail, a card, a kind word can have on someone's life.

Rock of Faith musical selections

For those who like to grumble that Rock of Faith is playing secular or irreverent music, all of the hymns are from Spirit and Song, and have been published with the approval of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on the Liturgy.

In other words, we are playing music that has been approved for church use.

Rock of Faith, okay, but ...

We played for the Mass today. It went well - though I messed up some chords. Argh. Practice.

With Lent coming, we have to change some of the songs. We are playing February 28. One of the songs we will do that day is Matt Maher's "40 Days."

Update on Dad

I went over with my father-in-law to visit Dad at the hospital. We spent about three hours there, with Frank (father-in-law) helping to keep the conversation going (he has lots of stories!).

Dad enjoyed the visit - he smiled broadly when he saw Frank walk in.

Uncle Jack (the fellow on the left in the picture above, which was taken two years ago) later called to find out how Dad was.

He and Dad (in the wheel chair) are the last two Strong males of their generation. My cousin Don (second from right above) and I (bearded fellow on the right) are two of the last Strong males of our generation.

Dad is still getting antibiotics to fight the pneumonia. It's not clear when he will go back to the home. Given the way hospitals work these days, he could go back tomorrow. Or it could be several days. We'll see.

Franciscan day of recollection

We held a short day of recollection - half a day really - with the two local Secular Franciscan groups. We met out at St. Leo's, Hilton, for talks by Father Anthony and Brother Francis (above - and yes, he is a big fellow!) both of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.

The day included not only the talks - both fine, and Brother Francis' tale of being basically a faithless "punk" in London who, thanks to a Divine Mercy picture found in a phone booth (!), became a Catholic and a Brother was particularly gripping - but also a Holy Hour, Confessions, and a Mass.

What was also nice is that we had three young women there. Two are students at SUNY Brockport who are apparently not satisfied with the Newman Center there, met an SFO at a daily Mass in town where they heard of the day of recollection, and showed up.

Wonderful. And a wonderful day.

I also suggested we consider meeting some time at the St. Padre Pio Chapel, an idea that got a positive response from the Rochester SFOs. We'll see.

Dad back in the hospital

It's an eerily familiar scenario.

A senior struggling with health, a phone call from the nursing home - going to Emergency - my own trip to the hospital, sitting in an Emergency Department room talking with someone who is seeing things - ants on the table - and looking so frail.

When did this former heavyweight boxer and all-star athlete lose so much weight?

Pneumonia. Low oxygen count. Fever - 101. Pulse racing at above 105.

As I sat there with dad Thursday I kept thinking of all those trips with Nana, until we reached the point where I told the home to stop sending her to the hospital as the trips were doing nothing except reducing the quality of her life.

As for dad, by last night he was in a room, at least for the weekend, stable, fever down, but still not thinking straight, still looking so frail. I stopped by to see him after school, found that the home had not sent his teeth or his glasses, so I drove to the home to pick them up and returned to the hospital. The man should at least be able to eat and watch television.

I asked about his condition. His nurse, who was basically seeing him for the first time, did not know, didn't even know if he could receive pain medication for his arthritis - even though he'd been on pain abatement medication for years.

The nurse never came back, so I went to the desk. No one knew anything. Ask his nurse, they said. His nurse walked past me into a room behind the desk. No one said anything to him. They had all stopped talking to me. Busy. I finally snapped, "Guess I don't find out," and walked away.

A few minutes later a nurse practitioner showed up to dad's room, apologized, and went over a few things - but she had no idea how long he would be there. At least the weekend. Maybe more. The doctors had left no notes. She searched through the documents for my name and phone number - I'm his proxy. No luck. No sign of the papers that had been with him in the Emergency Room, so she had to take down contact details.

Then the nurse came back and apologized. I did too for my sarcastic tone.

Dad lay in the bed. I'm not sure how much of this he understood. He wanted to be back at the home. He wanted to play bingo, and cards. He was going to miss the communion service. He started talking like he was in the home. Where's my dresser, I want a chocolate. I reminded him he was in the hospital. He looked at me, puzzled for a second, then said he knew he was in the hospital.

I kept thinking of those last months with Nana.

President Bush gets a pro-life award????

The Catholic business group, Legatus, is giving former President George Bush its Cardinal John J. O'Connor Pro-Life Award.

Forgive me while I choke on my coffee.

The group's executive director, John Hunt, reportedly said, "You could argue that he was the most pro-life president in our lifetime."

Argue? You bet.

He is pro-life only if you narrowly define "pro-life" as applying to abortion and embryonic-stem cell research. There, yes, he did support life - and is a stark contrast to the current pro-abortion President. And these are important issues, no argument there.

But when it comes to unjust and illegal wars, when it comes to support for the death penalty and torture, Governor and later President Bush is clearly not pro-life. Certainly not deserving of such an award.

Speaking as a Catholic pro-lifer, this is embarrassing.

Yeah, I do like sports

I'm not a total sports junkie. I don't sit glued to the television on Sundays during football season, for example.

I just follow certain teams. The Bills. The Mets. The Red Sox.

Right now, it's college basketball time, and Syracuse University, a team I've followed for more than two decades, is 22-1.

Hey, after the Bills' season I needed something to cheer about!

Syracuse has a real shot this year at the national championship. GO S.U.!

Syracuse, the Mets, and the Red Sox have all won championships during my time as a fan. Now if only the Bills could come through. (Not likely this coming season. Sigh.)

Why Catholics can't vote for Gillibrand

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand identifies herself as a Catholic, yet she has taken postions that go against the Church's teachings, including on the issue of abortion.

The latest update on her activities from her office provides further proof:

"She led the fight in the Senate to defeat the Stupak Amendment, which would have severely rolled back women’s reproductive rights."

Catholics and pro-lifers can't in good conscience vote for her.