Conservative vs. Ultra Conservative
Every so often, Catholic conservatives take a breather from liberals to beat each other up. When that happens, it usually provides some great vaudevillian slapstick comedy. Here’s a recent instance:
On October 22, 2008, the Long Island, NY newspaper, Newsday, reported an uproar at the ultra conservative parish, Our Lady of Lourdes in Massapequa Park. The new pastor has cancelled a few parish traditions that have some parishioners steaming.
Our Lady of Lourdes has been described as “a sanctuary from the ravages of the Spirit of Vatican II.”
For 32 years, the Rev. Robert E. Mason, 77, celebrated a children’s Mass that attracted a loyal following among some families at the parish. He also heard confession on Saturday night.
Fr. Mason retired earlier this year. He was replaced as pastor in June 2008 by Msgr. James Lisante, the telegenic conservative commenator at Fox News. Earlier this year, Msgr. Lisante attracted attention by endorsing Sen. John McCain and leading a prayer for his election.
Lisante’s first clash with his new parishioners came in early in the summer when–without official permission–he brought in a priest from the Northern Mariana Islands in the South Pacific who had worked with him every summer since 2000 at his former parish, St. Thomas the Apostle in Hempstead.
Who knows that happened, but the priest, Rev. Matthew Blockley, was sent packing back to the Mariana Islands by Bishop William Murphy in July.
Next, Msgr. Lisante cancelled Father Mason’s Mass and confessions. He also rescheduled his Sunday Latin Mass to 1:30 pm from the morning time. When some parishioners complained Lisante said they were overreacting.
“I’m livid. I’m appalled,” huffed Chris Layer, 42, of North Massapequa. She called the Mass cancellation “a blatantly vindictive move” intended to silence those critical of Msgr. Lisante.
The the funniest part of the story was Msgr. Lisante’s choice for new music director at this ultra conservative, Latin-Mass-go-to-confession, type of parish….Peter Rapanaro, the director of the Off-Broadway play, “My Big Gay Italian Wedding.”
Lisante insisted that Rapanaro had “met with Bishop Murphy and assured the bishop of his fidelity to the Catholic Church on every issue of sexual ethics.” 
Whether the critics have been mollified remains to be seen…
October 27th, 2008 at 11:16 am
I was sitting here thinking about the spectacle I witnessed yesterday afternoon, and this article just made me feel completely better.
November 7th, 2008 at 3:58 am
The real question is: SInce Lisante only sleeps one night a week at the rectory… where is he spending the rest of his time. Before Blockley was ejected… thousands and thousands of dollars was spent rennovating a rectory that the Pastor does not seem to use.
This parish has allot of young large families who are exceedingly disgusted with this “bottom feeder” of a man. They have begun to call him DIamond Jim Lisante.