From: McEneney, Mike (MC1953)
Date: Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 11:01 PM
Subject: Msgr PETER FINN ’60- in the NEWS
Dear John,
Below is a piece from the NY Daily News that quotes Msgr. Peter Finn,’60. I received this from his Classmate, Jim Smith,’60
Mike
——– Original Message ——–
Subject: FW: PETE FINN – in the NEWS
Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2011 17:38:35 -0500
From: Smith, Jim (MC1960)
To: McEneney, Mike (MC1953)
Jim Smith
—– Original Message —–
From:
To:
Sent: 11/29/2011 1:41:08 PM
Subject: PETE FINN – in the NEWS
Christmas, Chanukah seasons keep priests and their parishes working overtime to help out the cityâs needy
The holidays keep city’s priests busy with plenty of duties
BY Gina Salamone NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Originally Published: Saturday, November 26 2011, 6:00 AM
Step aside, Santa.
While your busy season is marked mostly by one all-nighter, there are others working year-round to promote Christmas.
Priests across the city are preparing for what is their most active period since Lent and Easterlast spring. Theyâre putting in overtime to make sure the holidayâs true meaning doesnât get lost among the mayhem.
Sunday begins Advent, which extends over the four Sundays before Christmas and celebrates the coming of Christ.
We celebrate Jesusâ birth into the world at this time, which a lot of people apparently are forgetting, and we have to keep bringing people back to that,â says the Rev. Frank Black, pastor of St. Laurence Catholic Church in Brooklyn.
“We thank God for his gift of his Son, and therefore we give gifts and celebrate His love by sharing our love with other people,â he adds. âSo to do that, we celebrate Advent right up until Christmas.â”
Msgr. Peter G. Finn, pastor of Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Staten Island, can appreciate holiday decorations and displays, as long as they don’t stray too far from the spirit of Christmas.
“I’ve always been a Christmas person, and I love the tree at Rockefeller Center,” says Finn. “But I especially love, promote and encourage keeping Christ in Christmas.”
That can be tough, especially during a week when weâre all bombarded with Black Friday and Cyber Monday specials.
“One of the things, in terms of commercialism, that I do feel bad about and think is unfortunate is Black Friday starting on Thanksgiving evening,” says Finn, referring to the decision by many stores to start big sales even earlier this year.
He’s also puzzled by the holiday window displays at certain stores, namely one at Barneys New York, called “Gaga’s boudoir”, co-created by the eccentric singer.
“Quite frankly, I think Lady Gaga is kind of interesting, kooky in a certain sense, but not a bad person,” Finn says. “But I don’t think her boudoir represents what the season of Christmas and Chanukah is all about.”
“It might be wonderful thing to distract everyone on a cold belt of winter in February, but I don’t think it belongs in December,” he adds “I don’t think it in any way will bother Jesus, just us. We’d like to have everyone be a little bit more in tune of what Jesus really means.”
On Sunday, Blessed Sacrament will light one of the four candles on its Advent Candelabra, kicking off a number of activities that the church has planned.
“We establish a giving tree with lights on it and numerous tags,” Finn explains. “Those tags will include specific requests for children and adults who are in need.”
“During the course of the whole Advent season, our parishioners are asked to take the tags, bring them home and purchase whatever is indicated there, wrap it, tag it, bring it back and place it under the tree,” he adds.
The church is working with about six different charities.
Among dozens of other holiday duties, Finn is also helping to organize a Toys For Tots campaign, filling extra time slots to hear confessions from parishioners and leading the churchâs various organizations as they plan Christmas concerts and gatherings.
At St. Laurence, parishioners, led by their pastor, are occupied packing Christmas baskets full of food and gifts. Theyâll be handed out to families who may not have enough money for a holiday dinner or gifts.
The East New York church also has a giving tree, benefitting several organizations that help the needy.
“I sit down and meet with everyone to plan it and get different committees together,” Black explains. “Everybody has to check back with me. Then, of course, the whole parish has to be decorated, which is a pain in the neck.”
“There’s a volunteer appreciation party for various committees that’s getting bigger every year,” he adds. “We have a have a pageant with the kids for Christmas Eve Mass, which I help out planning the music for and playing the guitar during rehearsals.”
Because St. Laurence has a large Hispanic population, the church has two celebrations honoring Jesusâ mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary â the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
“And we also throw a huge party for 300 to 400 special needs kids in the area from the public school system,” says Black. “And we have a big fund-raiser going on.”
He notices an increase in parishioners attending Masses and activities during the Christmas season, and says the phone never stops ringing.
“I don’t buy gifts any more; it just became too crazy to fit it all in,” Black says of his personal shopping habits.
He plans to spend this Christmas with his college roommates’ families.
“I do that every year,” Black says. “And then I’ll come home and collapse.”
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Finn, Msgr. Peter G. [MC1960]
[JR: Thanks, Mike, Jim, and all that had their hands in getting it in. Much appreciated. Amazes me that the NYDN does allow Google to index their content. That's why eyeballs are the last line of defense.]
# – # – # – # – # 2011-Nov-30 @ 07:36
