Unemployment

Posted on by Fr. Peter
I was awake most of the night thinking about the situation with unemployment.  Congressional Republicans are refusing the increase the time allowed for one to stay on unemployment because they are trying to force more fiscal responsibility.  Now I support the idea of more fiscal responsibility but do we need to take it out on one of the most vulnerable populations?  According to an article in today’s Boston Globe, 60,000 residents of Massachusetts will see their unemployment end on Christmas Day if Congress does not act.

So I started to think about what it costs us to have a Congress.  If we want to force fiscal responsibility let us take a little look at what it costs to run Congress each year.  The most recent numbers I could find in a quick google search came up with these little nuggets.

Each Member of the House has an average of 14 Staff members in Washington
Each Member of the Senate has an average of 34 Staff members in Washington
They all have District offices with staff as well and with Senators they might have more than one district office. (The average District Office will have 6 Staff members with an average salary cost of $292,046) 
In 2007 the Rank and File member of Congress was paid $168,000 with leadership being paid $186,600 and the Speaker of the House $215,700.

They do pay 25% of their health care costs however they are eligible for free outpatient care at military facilities around the world and there is a doctor on staff at the Capitol Building.  Each member is assessed at yearly fee of $491 (2007)

Keep in mind this does not include benefits or the money it costs to keep the Congressional swimming pool and gym running as well as all of the other perks they receive.

Now what does it cost to run their offices.  I hope you are sitting down!

In 2005 the average cost for an average office for a member of the House of Representatives was $1.3 million for the Senate it was between $2.7 million and $4.3 million EACH!  There are 435 members of the House of Representatives and 100 members of the Senate!  Now my math is not great but I believe that comes to $565.5 Million for the House and $270 million for the Senate at the low end!  And that is each year.

Just to keep things equal let’s look at Executive and Judicial Branch Salaries

President $400,000
Vice-Pres $208,100 (2005)
Cabinet Secretaries $180,100
Dep Sec $162,100
Under Sec $149,200
Asst Sec $140,300
Administrators $131,400

Chief Justice Supreme Court $208,100 (2005)
Associate Justices  $199,200 x 8 = $1.59 million
Courts of Appeals $171,800
US District Courts $162,100
Bankruptcy Judges $149,132

According to the Census Bureau the Median household income in the United States in 2006 was $50,233 a far cry from the $168,000 a freshman member of Congress will make.

I propose the following:

In 2009 the Federal Minimum Wage was $7.25 per hour.  Pay each and every elected official and political appointee in the Federal Government $7.25 per hour and only pay them for 40 hours.  That would come out to $15,080 per year .  From that they will have to pay health insurance and if they wish to have any pension they will have to pay that with no contribution from the Federal Government.  This should significantly reduce the amount our government costs us. 

I call upon all the candidates that were elected from the Tea Party to reduce their office staff and cut back on the amount of money their office costs us each year.

I am for all the good government we can afford but when peoples lives hang in the balance, people by the way that did not cause the economic situation and people who are just trying to get by, I find it hypocritical that someone who makes $168,000 is denying extended unemployment benefits to people.  I take that back it is not hypocritical is shameful and dare I say sinful.

Great Union Day of Romania

Posted on by Fr. Peter
On December 1, 1918 1,228 elected representatives of the Romanians in Transylvania, Banat, Crisana, and Maramures convened in Alaba Iulia and declared by unanimous vote, “the unification of those Romanians and of all the territories inhabited by them with Romania.”  Thus the modern state of Romania was created.

The date was reset to December 1st after the 1989 Romanian Revolution.  The Communist Governmemt had changed the date to August 23rd to mark the 1944 overthrow of the pro-fascist government of Marshal Ion Antonescu.  Prior to that the date was set at May 10th with a double meaning in celebration of the day Carol I set foot on Romanian soil (1866) and the the prince ratified the Declaration of Independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1877.

This day is celebrated in Romania as the 4th of July is celebrated in the United States.  Romania is a country in transition years after the Revolution of 1989 and the economy has been slow in coming back after the world economic crisis.

We wish all Romanians a happy day as they celebrate the Great Day of Unification!

A social media Reformation?

Posted on by Fr. Peter
By Terry Mattingly

As every avid Twitter user knows, there are only 140 characters in a “tweet” and that includes the empty spaces.

The bishops gathered at the ancient Council of Nicea didn’t face that kind of communications challenge and, thus, produced an old-fashioned creed that in English is at least 1,161 characters long.
No wonder so many of the gray-haired administrators in black suits in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops struggle with life online. It’s hard to take seriously the frivolous-sounding words — “blog” and “tweet” leap to mind — that define reality among the natives on what Pope Benedict XVI calls the “Digital Continent.”
“In the past, the church would often build new parish structures, knowing that people would recognize the church architecture and start showing up. On the Digital Continent, ‘If you build it, they will come’ does not hold true,” said Bishop Ronald Herzog of Alexandria, La., in a report from the body’s communications committee.
“We digital immigrants need lessons on the digital culture, just as we expect missionaries to learn the cultures of the people they are evangelizing. We have to be enculturated. It’s more than just learning how to create a Facebook account.”
This is important news in an era in which recent research from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that the Catholic Church was retaining 68 percent of its members who, as children, were raised in the fold. While the church is making converts, those who have left Catholicism in recent years outnumber those who have joined by nearly a 4-to-1 ratio.
Almost half of those who left Catholicism and did not join another church exited before the age of 18, as did one-third of those who chose to join another church. Another 30 percent of young Catholics left the church by the age of 24. At that point, the departure rate slowed down.
Truth is, it is almost impossible to talk about the lives of teens and young adults without discussion the growing power of their social-media networks. For young people worldwide, social media and their mobile devices have become the “first point of reference” in daily life, warned Herzog.
“The implications of that for a church which is struggling to get those same young people to enter our churches on Sunday are staggering. If the church is not on their mobile device, it doesn’t exist.”
As recently as a similar report in 2007, it was clear the bishops were hesitant to discuss the digital world because they feared its power when used by the church’s critics, said Rocco Palmo, who produces the influential “Whispers in the Loggia” weblog about Catholic news and trends.
The Herzog report was a step forward, primarily because the bishops seem to realize this is a subject that they cannot ignore. That’s significant in an era in which many Vatican officials still cling to their fax machines and struggle to keep up with their email. During the recent Baltimore meetings, said Palmo, there were more iPads in the hands of younger bishops “than you would find at your local Apple store.”
“In the old days, that stone church on the corner was a sign of the presence of God in your community. Well, that’s what a church website is today,” he said. If bishops and priests cannot grasp “that one-dimensional reality in our culture, how are they supposed to grasp the two-dimensional, interactive world of social media?”
The theoretical stakes are high, noted Herzog, but it has also become impossible to ignore the raw numbers. For example, if the 500 million active Facebook users became their own nation, it would be the world’s third largest — behind China and India.
The bottom line: Catholicism may be “facing as great a challenge as that of the Protestant Reformation,” said the bishop.
“Anyone can create a blog. Everyone’s opinion is valid. And if a question or contradiction is posted, the digital natives expect a response and something resembling a conversation,” said Herzog. “We can choose not to enter into that cultural mindset, but we do so at great peril to the Church’s credibility and approachability in the minds of the natives. …
“This is a new form of pastoral ministry. It may not be the platform we were seeking, but it is an opportunity of such magnitude that we should consider carefully the consequences of disregarding it.”

Farming in America

Posted on by Fr. Peter
I just finished watching the movie Country staring Jessica Lange and Sam Shepard.  The movie is about an Iowa farm family and the struggle against making a living vs. paying off their loans from the Federal Government.  The movie was made in 1984 and it was before some of the changes in the FHA Farm Loan program.  The family has several loans from the FHA used to run the farm and buy equipment.  Some years are good and some bad but some how it all seems to come out okay in the end.  Well, this is a big problem.

Farming has always been a way of life in America and thankfully we still have some family farms.  Another show I watch was called The Last American Cowboy about family cattle farms.  Farming is not an easy way to make a living for sure.  This year I planted a small garden and I was amazed at how much of my time this garden took to keep going.  Watering, weeding, etc all take time and this was a small plot.  Imagine this on a large scale!

If you have been reading these pages for some time you know I have begun looking into the food movement.  I am on a process of buying food that is grown or produced within a short distance from where I live.  This accomplishes several things, it keeps the local farmers in business and it cuts down on fuel costs to bring the food to my plate.  It is more expensive to buy food from your area and in the dead of winter some things are not available, but in the end it is much better for us.

The other day there was an article in the Boston Globe about the City of Boston transforming vacant lots in the city into land that can be farmed.  These lots are owned by the City and have just been fallow.  The idea will be for city folk to learn where their food comes from, another aspect of the food movement.

Planting a garden is relatively inexpensive and can be a lot of fun.  There is nothing better than eating something you have grown yourself.  I am also a big fan of grass fed or free range beef and poultry.  Like I said a little more expensive but very good and tasty.

Over the winter I will be writing posts on the local farm scene and some plans we have for the future here.  Now is the time to start planning so get out the garden books and get busy.

Grown your own and buy local.

The Day After

Posted on by Fr. Peter
So here it is the day after Thanksgiving, aka Black Friday here in US, and now that we have given thanks for all those things that God has blessed us with we are out worshipping at the altar of greed!  I am amazed at the number of people who will get up in the wee hours of the morning to go and buy stuff that 15 minutes after the present is opened it is either broken or forgotten about.  Maybe this year rather then buying some useless gift we could give some of that money to a food pantry or some other charity that will help people who live outside all year long and not just when they are in line at Target for the latest foreign made junk.  Yesterday was a day of gluttony (and did I participate in that) and today is a day of greed!

Yesterday was a day of family and of course football.  I am thankful that the New England Patriots pulled it out but it was pretty dicey there for a while.  But as the old saying goes, good things come to those who wait and it did.  It was nice to spend sometime with my brother and sister-in-law (who did all the cooking, another thing I am thankful for) and my parents.  Small group this year but festive none the less.  And thankful to be able to catch up with the rest of the clan on facebook and to see that the Corn hole game we all fell in love with this summer in Tennessee is still alive and well.  I cannot wait for the rematch at the next reunion.  Two years to practice guys!  That trophy is mine!

So now begins the rush to Christmas.  We go right from Thanksgiving to Christmas skipping Advent all together but that is the way things go.  Actually I think we go from Halloween to Christmas but who knows.  One of these years the Christmas stuff will just stay up all year!  The fights will now begin on saying happy holidays vs. Merry Christmas and the fights will begin as well on other expression of the season i.e. manger scenes on town squares.  For me, although I was all over this last year, we do not need outward signs of Christmas because Christmas is in your heart and should be there.  If you want an expression of Christmas how about going to Church!  The Christ Child came for the salvation of humanity not so we can set up some plastic made in China replica of him and his family, but for the salvation of you.  Spend some time this year and get back in touch with him by going to church.  That is the best expression of Christmas we could ever have.

21 November ~ Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple

Posted on by Fr. Peter

Today let us the crowds of the assembled faithful

celebrate a spiritual feast:
let us reverently praise the Virgin Theotokos and child of God,
as she is brought into the Temple of the Lord!
She was forechosen from all generations
to be the dwelling-place of Christ, the Lord and God of all.
O Virgins, bearing lamps, go before her,
honoring the majestic progress of the ever-Virgin!
Mothers, lay aside every sorrow and accompany them with joy,
singing the praises of her who became the Mother of God,
the cause of joy for the world!
Therefore, let us all join with the Angel,
and joyfully cry out: “Rejoice!” to her who is full of grace,
and who ever intercedes for our souls.
for the Feast of the Entrance, by Sergius of Jerusalem

Black Bean Soup

Posted on by Fr. Peter
A few weeks ago I started a new feature called Recipe Wednesday, well it did not work out all that great.  So I will now try and post a recipe each week maybe on a Wednesday, maybe not.

I made this soup yesterday and it came out pretty good.
2 cups black beans
4 tablespoons butter (I add a little oil as well)
1 onion, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
2 quarts water (use less if you use canned beans)
1/2 cup of rice
juice of 1 lemon
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons flour
2 hard boiled eggs (I left these out)

1. Soak the black beans overnight.  Rinse them in cold water and drain.

2.  Place 3 tablespoons butter in the soup pot, add the onion, and saute for a few minutes.  Add the beans, celery, and water.  Bring to the boil, then reduce heat to low-medium.  Cover the pot and cook slowly for 1 1 1/2 hours.  Stir occasionally.

3.  When the beans are tender, add the rice, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and more water if necessary.  Cover the pot and cook slowly for another half hour.

4.  Melt the remaining butter in a separate skillet, add the flour, and mix thoroughly.  Add this mixture to the soup and blend well.  When serving the soup, garnish the bowls with slices of hard-boiled eggs.

Recipe from, Twelve Months of Monastery Soups by Brother Victor-Antoine d’Avila-Latourrette

Community Meal

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Last night we held our monthly Community Meal here at the Church.  Each month we offer a meal to people in the Community from all walks of life.  We have been doing this now for a little over a year and last night was the Annual Turkey Dinner.  The week before Thanksgiving we offer this meal and lats night was the night.

The day began me putting 4 birds in the oven.  It’s funny how people think you do a lot of work but it really is the oven that does all the work.  We also had stuffing, smashed potatoes and mixed veg.  Dessert was an assortment of pies.  I believe we served somewhere around 70 to75 meals and in true for we had just enough food.  In all the months we have been doing this, we have never run out of food.  We have come close but never run out!  We were also able to provide loaves of bread, English Muffins, and other goodies that came from the local supermarket.  It amazes me that they would just throw all that stuff away but there is still life in it.

Although we provide this meal to those in need not only financial but physical and spiritual, I believe that our little church has been the biggest beneficiary of this meal.  It bring us together as community and it makes us feel good to be doing things for others.  I never get tired of hearing people say, that’s what Church is all about helping people.  I have written this before, and said it, it is not the governments job to help people it is our job, the church, the people of God, to help people.  We are to love everyone, and we try to do that here.

So a big thanks to all those who have helped out this past year.  By my calculations we have served almost 800 meals this past year.  Next year we will be expanding the program to twice a month and with God’s help we will be able to help many more people.

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