The day after the National Day of Prayer

Well, the "National Day of Prayer" has come and gone, and I didn't hear a peep about it online, in the blogosphere or on Facebook. Maybe I just wasn't listening closely enough. Still, for all the scuttlebutt about it in these last few weeks, and for all the people on Facebook who have been "Like"-ing the prayer for President Obama's death*, I thought there would be a little more action out there.

I had a prayer that I'd been saying for the past few years, since shortly after Joseph Martino's installation as Bishop of the Scranton Diocese:

Lord, grant our Bishop wisdom, understanding, and compassion;
or, failing that, grant us a new Bishop.

Martino never did develop wisdom, understanding, or compassion. Instead he earned the "odium populi", the "hatred of the people", and was removed from office / resigned after a mere six years. After a lapse of nearly eight months, Joseph Bambera was installed as the new Bishop of Scranton.

And how is he doing? Well, considering that with a single act he managed to piss off both an outspoken local atheist and an outspoken local "traditionalist" (who wants to see a return to pre-Vatican II conditions in the Catholic Church), I have to say that on balance he's probably doing pretty well, so far.

Now, let me work on a prayer for all those people who "liked" the prayer for President Obama's death.


*"DEAR LORD, THIS YEAR YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE ACTOR, PATRICK SWAYZIE. YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE ACTRESS, FARAH FAWCETT. YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE SINGER, MICHAEL JACKSON. I JUST WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW, MY FAVORITE PRESIDENT IS BARACK OBAMA. AMEN". I find it amusing that whoever cooked this up didn't know how to spell "Swayze" or "Farrah."