Two parishes, in two boroughs of the same city, in two dioceses of the same Church. In a Catholic parish (and school)of the Brooklyn Diocese, a teacher and music director loses his positions becuse he has married a man. In a parish of the New York Archdiocese – the very upscale Jesuit institution of St. Ignatius Loyola – the same teacher and music director is celebrated by the pastor and a not insignificant congregation:

Murphy, Fiona, “A Catholic school teacher was fired after he married a man. Now, a church debuts his film,” National Catholic Reporter (3/29/2026)

Two parishes, two boroughs, two dioceses. And two religions?

Thanks to the NCR for the reporting.

The Resurrection from the Isenheim altar by Matthias Grünewald. (Unterlinden Museum, Colmar)

A Blessed and Happy Easter to all our members and readers!

We have compiled a schedule of Traditional Masses and liturgies for Holy Week and Easter. Please go to this link.

Here are some churches in the area that are offering special Masses for the Feast of St. Joseph this Thursday, March 19.

St. Mary Church, Norwalk, CT; 9:15 am Missa Cantata (organized by Regina Pacis Academy); 12:10 pm low Mass; and 7 pm Missa Cantata

Georgetown Oratory, Redding, CT 6 pm

Sts. Cyril and Methodius Oratory, Bridgeport, CT, 7:45 am low Mass; 6 pm high Mass

St. Patrick Oratory, Waterbury, CT, 8 am low Mass

Holy Innocents, New York, NY, 6 pm high Mass

Shrine of Our Lady of Mt Carmel, New York, NY, 7 pm high Mass

St. Margaret of Cortona, Bronx, 6 pm Solemn Mass followed by St. Joseph’s Altar dinner in the school gym; please RSVP to rectory to attend dinner: 718-549-8053

St. Josaphat Oratory, Bayside, Queens, 7 pm High Mass (confessions from 6:15 to 6:45)

St. Patrick’s Church, Huntington, NY, 7:30 pm Missa Cantata, Vox Aquarum vocal quartet singing Victoria’s “Missa O Quam Gloriosam”

Sacred Heart Church, Esopus, NY, 11:30 am

St. John Vianney Church, Colonia, NJ, 7 pm Missa Cantata, veneration of a relic of St. Joseph’s cloak, blessing with St. Joseph’s oil.

Corpus Christi Church, South River, NJ, 7 pm Solemn Mass with Byrd’s Mass for Four Voices.

Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament, Raritan, NJ, 7 pm Missa Cantata

The Georgetown Oratory in Redding, CT will offer traditional Masses at 8:30 am and 6 pm tomorrow, March 17 for the Feast of St. Patrick.

The Catholic Sacred Music Project is excited to have its 2nd Choral Institute this June.  The CSMP Choral Institute offers emerging and established choral singers a singular environment that balances instruction, study, prayer, and conviviality in an atmosphere of collegial support and encouragement.  This unique and exceptional training opportunity will be hosted on the campus of Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. 

For more information about the application process for this program and the other summer programs, go to the Catholic Sacred Music Project website.

The German Catholic Church published statistics for the year 2025.

https://www.dbk.de/presse/aktuelles/meldung/kirchenstatistik-2025

Key numbers:

19.2M Catholics on paper (and the tax rolls)

Average % of participants in “divine services”: 6.8% (a small increase from the prior year – 6.6%)

Ordinations for the country: 25

Baptisms: 109,000:  religious “burials” : 203,000. (Both numbers are decreases from the prior year)

Church marriages: 19,500 (a decrease from 22,500 in the prior year)

First communions (152,000)and confirmations (105,000) are stable.

Number leaving the Church(i.e., legally exiting the tax rolls): 307,000 (a decrease from 321,600 in 2024).

Adult baptisms and returns to the Church show moderate increases but numbers are too small to be meaningful in relation to the above figures. 

(There are no figures on the percentage of foreigners among those ordained, attending Mass, etc. I suspect if such statistics were available the situation would appear even worse.)

it doesn’t look good – in fact, it’s positively disastrous.  Yet the German Church exercises a disproportionate influence on the Church worldwide because of the decisive role of money, politics and ideology in the Church today. Compare how several ”nuns” have ascended to positions of power in the Vatican while their own congregations have suffered dramatic declines.