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My son Anthony attends Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). Normally, he avoids the on-campus Neumann Center Mass and goes to St Stanislaus' down town for the Latin Mass. Well the weather was bad, and so he and his fiancee went to the Newman Center mass. Well, it was an "interesting" mass. Not in good way either. He sent me pictures. Apparently the priest decided to "sprinkle" water on the congregation at the begining of Mass. Well the ritual deviated from the usual sprinkling rite. First there was the ritual blessing of the super-soaker (!) Then we had the filling of...

Most of you have seen the picture of a priest baptizing a naked baby by dipping its butt into a baptismal "pool". It constituted a thread here on FR and we all wondered where this had taken place. The full story appeared today in The Wanderer. Here it is, hand transcribed. * * * * * ROCHESTER, N.Y. - The Diocese of Rochester’s Sacred Heart Cathedral, which Bishop Matthew Clark insists is the model for Catholic worship for the entire diocese, was the setting for a bizarre baptismal ritual of questionable validity on Pentecost Sunday, as Rainbow Sashers received Communion....

Bishop Matthew Clark took over my home diocese of Rochester, New York, in 1978 when I was about ten years old. So fixed is his name in my memory that regardless of where I attend Mass, during the liturgy of the Eucharist I half expect the priest to say "Matthew our bishop" despite the fact that I haven't lived in Rochester for almost twenty years. A Visit Home The controversy surrounding the renovation of Sacred Heart Cathedral is something I've followed off and on since the bishop announced his intentions in 2000. Clark’s plan was to "update" the small 1928...

Now Formalized . . .Lay Preaching To Spread In Rochester DioceseBy PAUL LIKOUDIS   ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The abusive practice of laymen — usually nuns or ex-nuns — preaching during Mass, a nearly quarter-century-long practice in several Catholic parishes in the Diocese of Rochester, N.Y., received the imprimatur of Bishop Matthew Clark on April 24, when he issued new norms for lay preaching to take effect immediately.   "I would want for us to enjoy as fully as we possibly can . . . the beauty of lay preaching in this diocese," he said at a May 4 meeting that brought together about 150 priests,...