Author: John Schultz

We almost had a train wreck today when the cantor sang the wrong tune on the chanted Gloria. Good thing the tune she picked ended on the note we needed to start on…

I’m going to be inviting some friends to share the blog. I think it will reinforce the Catholic Light theme and also give the dedicated readers of this blog more things to read.

One of the things I loved about working with the Youth Apostles was the common sense way they approached getting high schoolers to live a life of faith. One of the most effective programs they run are Catholic Life Communities (CLCs) for high schoolers. At parishes that they work, there’s separate boys and girls CLCs. They even meet on separate nights. There’s no co-ed retreats. This solves the hormone problem very effectively, but unfortunately raises some eyebrows among people who consider single-sex groups to be old-fashioned, rigid, pre-Vatican II, etc.
Please keep youth ministers in your prayers.

Bishop Sean O’Malley will be the next bishop of Palm Beach. He’s one of the few bishops outside the DC area I’ve met personally when I did youth ministry with the Youth Apostles. He celebrated the Mass at which I made my first commitment to that group and visited the community when he was in town for Bishop’s Conference meetings.
He’s a holy, personable man and I think it’s safe to describe him as “squeaky clean” – something that Palm Beach needs pretty badly.

Regarding downsizing at the chancery office in LA.
The [Los Angeles] archdiocese opened a $200 million cathedral Sept. 2 and to-date has paid out more than $3.6 million in sex abuse settlements, but officials said neither of those circumstances had anything to do with the layoffs. They blamed the budget shortfall on the drop in the stock market.
Let me get this straight: gains on equity investments contribute substantially to the operating budget of the LA Archdiocese? Irresponsible!