Posted on 03/25/2009 7:12:35 AM PDT by A.A. Cunningham
New York Palace Hotel boss Niklaus Leuenberger gets the door after Ash Wednesday slur
BY Kerry Burke And Oren Yaniv
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Wednesday, March 25th 2009, 4:00 AM
Niklaus Leuenberger no longer runs the New York Palace Hotel.
The manager of one of the city's most luxurious hotels was given the boot after ordering a Catholic employee to clean up his forehead on Ash Wednesday.
"Wipe that f-----g s--t off your face," managing director Niklaus Leuenberger told a bell captain at the New York Palace Hotel on Feb. 25, sources said.
The unholy ultimatum ended up costing Leuenberger his job at the Palace, a swanky 55-story tower on Madison Ave. across the street from St. Patrick's Cathedral.
"As of Monday, March 23, Leuenberger is no longer employed by the New York Palace," hotel spokeswoman Teresa Delaney told the Daily News Tuesday.
The incident was deemed so severe, Christopher Cowdray, head of the London-based Dorchester Collection, which owns the Palace, flew here to hand Leuenberger the pink slip.
"We take the well-being of our employees extremely seriously and that is why our CEO, Mr. Cowdray, went to New York in person to deal with this matter," the company said.
The object of the manager's insult, bell captain Mike Murray, said the cross of dark ashes was liberally applied to his forehead at his Long Island church.
"My priest did a real number on me," he said with a chuckle.
Catholics receive the ashes as a reminder of their own mortality on Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent, a 40-day period of penance that ends on Easter.
"The [general manager] wanted it off, and he knows he was wrong," added the observant Irish Catholic employee. "I've never been approached on a religious issue [before]."
The 893-room five-star hotel, where a posh suite with city views fetches well over $1,000 a night, combines Renaissance-style architecture with modern design and amenities.
The hotel leases its land from the Catholic Church.
It was the place where Leona Helmsley earned the title "Queen of Mean" in the 1980s when the hotel was called the Helmsley Palace.
Leuenberger was tapped as director in May 2007 after many years at the Peninsula Hotel.
When his appointment was announced, he was touted as "a 35-year veteran of the luxury hospitality industry" who was inducted into the "Hotelier's Hall of Achievement" by Leaders Magazine in 2005.
Reached at his Warren, N.J., home, Leuenberger declined to comment, saying, "I don't know what it's about."
Murray said he does not plan to sue.
"I've been working here for 25 years and I wouldn't want to endanger that," he said.
It is clearly not from Yah'shua.
What a load. There is absolutely no such connection in Ash Wednesday. One can find the roots for it in the very words of the Lord himself.
Woe to thee, Corozain, woe to thee, Bethsaida: for if in Tyre and Sidon had been wrought the miracles that have been wrought in you, they had long ago done penance in sackcloth and ashes.
Matthew 11.21 We also see in Jonas that the king of Nineve "sat in ashes" in penance and repentance. Then there is Mordochai who lamented by "strewing ashes on his head." No, the practice of using ashes, specifically on the head too, as a sign of mourning or penitence is both ancient and Biblical. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the Vedas or paganism. Such imaginations are mere fictions.
I'm sure you googled the word ashes and found without regard to understanding the context. Yah'shua is is describing what will happen to unrepentant cities. There are examples of people putting ashes on their bodies. It is always man made rules; it is never commanded by YHvH. What an absolutely breathtaking display of ignorance of the Holy Word of Elohim.
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach Adonai
Dumba$$
The manager of one of the city's most luxurious hotels was given the boot after ordering a Catholic employee to clean up his forehead on Ash Wednesday. "Wipe that f-----g s--t off your face," managing director Niklaus Leuenberger told a bell captain at the New York Palace Hotel on Feb. 25, sources said. The unholy ultimatum ended up costing Leuenberger his job at the Palace, a swanky 55-story tower on Madison Ave. across the street from St. Patrick's Cathedral.
"As of Monday, March 23, Leuenberger is no longer employed by the New York Palace," hotel spokeswoman Teresa Delaney told the Daily News Tuesday. The incident was deemed so severe, Christopher Cowdray, head of the London-based Dorchester Collection, which owns the Palace, flew here to hand Leuenberger the pink slip. "We take the well-being of our employees extremely seriously and that is why our CEO, Mr. Cowdray, went to New York in person to deal with this matter," the company said.
The object of the manager's insult, bell captain Mike Murray, said the cross of dark ashes was liberally applied to his forehead at his Long Island church. "My priest did a real number on me," he said with a chuckle. Catholics receive the ashes as a reminder of their own mortality on Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent, a 40-day period of penance that ends on Easter. "The [general manager] wanted it off, and he knows he was wrong," added the observant Irish Catholic employee. "I've never been approached on a religious issue [before]."
The 893-room five-star hotel, where a posh suite with city views fetches well over $1,000 a night, combines Renaissance-style architecture with modern design and amenities. The hotel leases its land from the Catholic Church. It was the place where Leona Helmsley earned the title "Queen of Mean" in the 1980s when the hotel was called the Helmsley Palace. Leuenberger was tapped as director in May 2007 after many years at the Peninsula Hotel.
When his appointment was announced, he was touted as "a 35-year veteran of the luxury hospitality industry" who was inducted into the "Hotelier's Hall of Achievement" by Leaders Magazine in 2005. Reached at his Warren, N.J., home, Leuenberger declined to comment, saying, "I don't know what it's about." Murray said he does not plan to sue. "I've been working here for 25 years and I wouldn't want to endanger that," he said.
.
If that quote was in response to a question about why he was canned, then it shows he's such a clueless moron, he didn't have any business running that place.
Doesn't sound very 'pagan' to me.
What an absolutely breathtaking display of ignorance of the Holy Word of Elohim.I'm sure you googled the word ashes and found without regard to understanding the context.
The issue is simple. Somebody posts some crazy link saying that Ash Wednesday is Hindu in origin and I deny that. Lent is a time of penitence in the Church, and ashes are symbols throughout the Old and New Testament periods of just that. That is the context. Who would defend an imagined "connection" to Hinduism when a real one already exists within the Judeo-Christian tradition itself? Such a position simply doesn't follow the facts.
Yah'shua is is describing what will happen to unrepentant cities.
You have missed the point entirely. Cities are not the issue. Ashes, and how they are used, are. If Tyre and Sidon had seen Jesus they would have "done penance in sackcloth and ashes," just as Nineve did. That is what the ashes mean, and that is why we use them on the first day of Lent.
There are examples of people putting ashes on their bodies.
Yes, and why? As a penitential act. And what is Lent? A penitential season.
It is always man made rules; it is never commanded by YHvH.
I see little point in pursuing that line. A person who rejects the Lord would not see even his own words as being from God. And one who rejects his Church or apostles would likewise deny authority there. Such an argument leads nowhere I would think. The issue, as I see it, is a claim that we are practicing some adopted practice of Hinduism on Ash Wednesday, as if we really have to look that far for meaning for the ashes in Lent. It is absurd and silly.
is your boss in the Hotelier Hall of Fame too?
A person who rejects the Lord would not see even his own words as being from God. And one who rejects his Church or apostles would likewise deny authority there. Such an argument leads nowhere I would think. The issue, as I see it, is a claim that we are practicing some adopted practice of Hinduism on Ash Wednesday, as if we really have to look that far for meaning for the ashes in Lent. It is absurd and silly.
Have a wonderful journey on the wide road. Mazol Tov !
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach Adonai
Simple: from the Catholic Church, founded by Christ--the Second Person of the Holy Trinity--and guided to this day by the Holy Spirit--the Third Person of the Holy Trinity.
Uplifting.
I do not find any commandment to apply ashes to one's body by YHvH or Yah'shua. I celebrate Passover as commanded by YHvH and Yah'shua I do not celebrate the event commanded by Constantine. I follow the Elohim of the Bible; I do not follow men or princes.
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach Adonai
who commanded us to remember his being sacrificed as
the Lamb of G-d for our sins.
My faith doesn’t REQUIRE me to don ashes for my salvation. It’s simply a reminder to keep myself humble before the Lord, because I do not know the day or time of His coming.
Or do you celebrate the feast created by Constantine at Nicea ? Do you celebrate the YHvH commanded Feast of Passover ?
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach Adonai
Notwithstanding the absurdities being put to you on this thread, I bet you celebrate Easter, which commemorates the Resurrection of Christ—the Second Person of the Holy Trinity.
St. Constantine did not command the Resurrection of Christ.
I celebrate Passover, on Holy Thursday, to commemorate Jesus’s celebration of that feast with His Apostles, his last before His Crucifixion.
Have a wonderful journey on the wide road.
Very interesting response. Do your responses have any relationship to the previous comments? I wonder because I have a very hard time seeing how you can take anything I have said and translate that into a reference to the way to hell. Care to elaborate your meaning?
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