The Musical Priest

I submit for your reading pleasure this link to a story written by Paris Wolfe, a writer for the Saint Ignatius Magazine . It's a very fine piece about seven recent alums of St. Ignatius High School in Cleveland who have recently entered the Society of Jesus. It's a .pdf file so you'll have to download it. The stories are interesting and the pictures are good, too. Just follow the link to ThinkJesuit . Scroll down the main page and you'll see it! I should mention that since its publication there have been two more alums from Ignatius to enter the Society: Andrij Hlabse and Lorenzo Herman entered the novitiate in August, 2007. That brings us to NINE recent alums....not too shabby!

I just wanted to take a moment to plug the new website for Brian Holleran's (my soon-to-be brother-in-law) music school Ciunas.org Located in Cleveland, Ohio this music school promises to be a great asset to Irish culture in the area. With instruction available on tin whistle, flute, and uilleann pipes and, starting in 2008, on the fiddle, banjo, and concertina this school of traditional Irish music will help to promote Irish music and culture in Cleveland. If you are interested in learning more, follow the link above or visit the Ciunas myspace page . As any reader of my blog knows, Irish music has been an integral part of my life's journey and I'm proud to know that a member of my family will be sharing his deep love of his culture with another generation of musicians who will, I pray, benefit as much as I have in being a part of traditional Irish music.

Before I head out for the week (workshop in Detroit) I want to plug a new Irish music school opening in Cleveland. Brian Holleran, a native of New Jersey (and my sister's fiancee) will be offering classes on Flute, Tin Whistle, and Uilleann Pipes here in Cleveland. Brian is a terrific musician and a gifted teacher. For more information, contact Brian at: brianholleran000 AT hotmail.com (substitute @ for AT).

[After some thought and debate, I've decided to reinstate the comments. I reckon that if anonymous posters want to make ludicrous accusations, I'll let them] A friend forwarded a column written by Regina Brett of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. I include the text: How far can church downsize? Sunday, February 11, 2007 Regina Brett Plain Dealer Columnist Regionalism has hit the Catholic Church. You've heard of cities sharing fire trucks, water and taxes? How do you share Midnight Mass, choirs and church bulletins? Alternate years for Midnight Mass? Borrow the choir every other Sunday? Print one side of the bulletin for St. Malachi and the flip side for St. Patrick's? Like it or not, full-service parishes will soon perish. All 231 parishes in the Cleveland Diocese will soon change. The diocese will organize all parishes into groups that will share resources and priests. I can see the bishop flipping through a thesaurus to find the right word to describe what he will do with t...