BRIAN MICHAEL PAGE IS NOW AVAILABLE...

...to play and/or sing at WEEKDAY Masses as well as weekend Masses (funerals/weddings included) within the Diocese of Providence, and within a reasonable distance in the Archdiocese of Boston, and the Dioceses of Fall River, Worcester, and Norwich.

I'll even be glad to become your parish's music director, if you so wish.

28-1/2 years experience
primarily traditional
will play pipe or electronic organ

Combox or e-mail at bpage69(at)yahoo(dot)com.

Don't leave your parish music program in the dark. HIRE A SNARK!

Peace,
BMP

A GOOD PRIEST'S REPUTATION - HURT...

...by someone who waits over a quarter of a century
to claim he was abused!

Fr. Kevin Fisette, who I had the pleasure of serving as his organist/music director at Holy Name of Jesus Church for four years, and as his organist for the monthly Extraordinary Form Mass at St. Leo the Great Church for another year, has been accused of sexual abuse.

State police investigated the allegations that date to 1981-82 in April and found that “they were credible,” said Capt. David Neill, state police detective commander.

OK - now I'm going to ask a lovely question here? If Fr. Fisette really did such a thing, why wasn't this investigated in 1981-82 instead of 27 years later, in 2009? Why would someone wait so freakin' long to file a complaint, except for one of two reasons: either a personal vendetta on Fr. Fisette, or the vision of dollar signs from the Diocese of Providence? Or perhaps both? One may argue that many dioceses (including our diocese) were hiding things back then. However, if the diocese truly was hiding such a fact as a sexual allegation, shouldn't the parent(s) of the alleged victim, or the alleged victim himself if old enough, have had the state meddle in at that time??? Sounds like a scam to me!

In my experience working with Fr. Fisette, I cannot picture him doing this. I just can't. He has always been a good holy priest as long as I've known him. Suddenly some creep is going to file a molestation complaint 27 FREAKIN' YEARS AGO???!!! And the state finds it "credible"? If I was that investigator from the State of Rhode Island, I would be the first to say the following:

"I hate to say this, but you're full of shit. Where were you 27 years ago, or even 20 years ago, to say something then? Why didn't you tell your parents? You're hurting a good holy man who's busted his butt to get where he's been. Instead you've decided to ruin his reputation."

My whole family knows Fr. Fisette. Myself, my wife, all four of my kids, my mom. To see his reputation go to the shitter because of some money/vengence-hungry creep just makes me completely sick. How the hell do people like this sleep at night? Even if Father IS cleared, will any pastorate for him be safe from those who look at him as the freak? Sadly, I must say "doubtful".

Now, here's another blurb that's enough to make the most immune living thing puke:

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) issued a statement criticizing Bishop Thomas J. Tobin for not notifying the public sooner.

“For almost six months, Bishop Tobin and his staff recklessly and callously chose silence over warning and opted to alert no one about a credible allegation of child sexual abuse against a Catholic priest,” Barbara Dorris, director of SNAP, said.

She added, “Tobin had a moral and civic duty to promptly warn the public and his parishioners about this serious allegation.”

How quick these people from SNAP are in making a "SNAP judgement". Before Bishop Tobin could do anything, he had to make sure said allegations were legitimate. He's not going to just "out-of-the-blue" blab "FATHER SO-AND-SO IS A PEDOPHILE!" the minute someone says "boo!" The Bishop was by no means reckless in his actions. He too had to go through the proper channels. It sounds to me like some arrogant species trying to make an arrogant statement in an ill-fated attempt to screw the Church once again.

Father Fisette, if you are reading this from wherever you are right now, please rest assured that you have the support of the good people of St. Leo's, as well as my family and myself. You are in our prayers. Justice will be served via Almighty God.

Peace,
BMP

CATHEDRAL RECTOR/MUSIC DIRECTOR NAMED MONSIGNOR

Pope Benedict XVI recently named ten priests in the Diocese of Providence to the papal honor of "Monsignor". One of them is Msgr. Anthony Mancini, director of the Gregorian Concert Choir. In 1991, Msgr. Mancini succeeded Alexander Peloquin as music director of the Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul in Providence, a post he continues to hold today. In 2004, he was also appointed Cathedral rector. He is also a composer of many musical pieces, some which appear in the catalog of CanticaNOVA.

Full story: Rhode Island Catholic.

Congratulations to our ten new monsignors!
Peace,
BMP

ONE OF RHODE ISLAND'S BAD BOYS TAKEN DOWN

...in TEXAS!

Back in the 1980's a priest of my own diocese, Fr. Philip Magaldi, was accused of perjury in the case of a Newport man's attempt to kill his wife. In the early 1990's, he pled guilty to embezzling over $200,000 from St. Anthony's Church in North Providence, where Magaldi was once pastor.

He's since moved to the Fort Worth, Texas, diocese, and is now under investigation for molesting at least five minors in Rhode Island and Texas. He's been removed by Bishop Vann from any and all priestly ministry (one of Bp. Vann's first moves since coming to Fort Worth in 2006 - good for him!).

Now, it's revealed that Magaldi is HIV positive! OUCH for the five then-minors he did.

Here's the story from WJAR-TV, Channel 10 in Providence.

By Associated Press
FORT WORTH, Texas - A former priest accused of sexually abusing at least five minors in Rhode Island and Texas is HIV positive, Catholic diocese officials said Thursday.

Last week, a leader in the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth heard someone mention that the Rev. Philip A. Magaldi has the virus that causes AIDS, said diocese spokesman Pat Svacina. The leader, the Rev. Michael F. Olson, then got verbal confirmation from Magaldi as well as a letter from his doctor who said he has HIV but not AIDS, Svacina said.

The diocese then alerted the alleged victims and the parishes where Magaldi served for nearly four decades, Svacina said.

Fort Worth diocese officials said they believe that Magaldi has been HIV positive since at least 2003.

Magaldi, 71, lives in a retirement center and diocese officials declined to disclose where. He has previously said he was innocent of the sexual abuse allegations, for which he has not been charged.

He was removed as a priest in 1999 amid claims of sexual misconduct in Providence, R.I., where he served from 1960-90, and the Fort Worth area, where he served from 1990-92 and 1993-99.

He was out of the ministry while serving a brief stint in prison in 1992 after embezzling about $200,000 from his Rhode Island parish, officials said. In an unrelated case, Magaldi also was accused of lying in the Newport case of Claus von Bulow, who was acquitted of trying to kill his heiress wife.

In 2006, a pastor at a North Richland Hills Church apologized to the congregation amid reports that five years earlier he didn't tell police after learning of inappropriate material involving minors on the computer used by Magaldi, who led the church the last six years of his ministry.

David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, urged the dioceses to aggressively seek out potential victims. He said it's impossible to know the number of victims because many children and teens abused by priests don't ever come forward.

"There's a real chance of someone suffering not only a horrific childhood trauma but also a current adult infection because of this priest," Clohessy said.

Magaldi is one of six priests in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth accused of abusing minors, according to 700 pages of previously secret files that were part of a sexual abuse lawsuit settled in 2005. The documents were released by a judge last year.

In Rhode Island, three separate allegations were reported in 1998, 2002 and last year against Magaldi.

Bishop Kevin Vann of the Fort Worth diocese is flying to Rome next week to ask the Vatican to expedite the process of having Magaldi defrocked, which would remove him from clerical status, Svacina said.

According to the Providence diocese, it is in the process of contacting those who have made allegations against Magaldi.

In a statement, the Providence diocese said it fully supports the efforts of the Diocese of Fort Worth to seek dismissal of Magaldi from the priesthood.

Magaldi's earlier troubles included a 1985 indictment on perjury and obstruction charges for allegedly lying in a sworn statement in support of von Bulow to help him get a new trial. The charges against Magaldi were dropped in 1987.

In Von Bulow's second trial in 1985, he was acquitted of trying to kill his wife with insulin injections at their Newport, R.I., mansion.

Gerald has a timeline on Magaldi.

The Diocese of Fort Worth has this press release as well. Here's a snip:

Magaldi was removed from active priesthood in 1999 by the late Bishop Joseph Delaney after allegations of sexual misconduct arose in Rhode Island and Fort Worth. In August 2006 Bishop Kevin Vann removed Magaldi from all ministries. Bishop Vann also is in the process of seeking "laicization" of Magaldi, which is a request to remove Magaldi from clerical status. The request is pending at the Holy See. Providence Bishop Thomas J. Tobin is joining Bishop Vann in the request for laicization of Magaldi.

Peace,
BMP

MORE EXTRAORDINARY POSSIBILITIES IN RHODE ISLAND

One of the parishes is another former parish of mine.

This article found in the Providence Journal. Don't ask me how I missed this, but RSCT to Catholic Church Conservation.

PROVIDENCE — The Rev. Alfred P. Almonte hadn’t celebrated the Mass in Latin in about four decades, so when one of his parishioners at St. Bartholomew (modern church, one of the few Italian-American parishes left in RI that are still staffed by the Scalabrini Fathers, seating in semi-circle, but nice Moller pipe organ) parish in Silver Lake suggested that he bring back the Latin Mass as part of the church’s 100-year jubilee, he knew that he would have some brushing up to do.

But the priest, who said Mass in Latin for the first four or five years after his ordination, in 1961, saw it as an opportunity to connect St. Bart’s parishioners to their past.

Not that it was going to be easy. While the edict issued by Pope Benedict XVI three months ago gave priests blanket permission to publicly celebrate the old Tridentine rite without having to get the approval of their bishop, there was still the problem of finding a cadre of altar servers who could recite the Latin responses and do the detailed choreography associated with a Solemn High Latin Mass.

Yesterday, as more than 400 people filtered into what some people still call the “new” St. Bart’s (having replaced the original building in 1969), 10 altar servers, all grown men, two deacons and two priests gathered in a room to don cassocks and robes, hoping that they would not forget what they had learned in three weeks of rehearsals.

Angelo DeFeo, 44, acknowledged that he had never been to a Latin Mass. “Don’t worry,” declared fellow altar server Ray Funaro, 64. “We’ll make a lot of mistakes, but nobody will know but us.”

At one time St. Bartholomew’s was an almost exclusively a parish of Italian immigrants, but has evolved over time into a parish with a large contingent of young Hispanic families who attend a Spanish-speaking Mass at 9:30 a.m. and an older, English-speaking congregation that worships at 11:30.

Yesterday the two congregations were joined. Though some critics have expressed disdain for what they see as a liturgy that does not encourage participation by the people, the Rev. Philip (correction: Robert) E. Lacombe of St. Timothy Church in Warwick (I shudder to admit I once worked there), the visiting preacher, argued yesterday that there is participation in the Tridentine rite but of a different sort.

“Through this Mass people experience a profound sense that they are participating in a mystery,” Father Lacombe said.

“The priest’s back is not against the people, but rather the priest and people are facing in the same direction toward God,” he said. (I forgot to mention, Fr. Lacombe, St. Timothy's curate, is NOT the cause of my bitterness there.)

Though there has been a weekly celebration of the old rite at Holy Name Church in Providence for the last 13 years, Pope Benedict’s edict allowing the rite’s wider use seems to be taking hold: the Rev. Kevin R. Fisette, pastor of St. Leo the Great parish in Pawtucket, announced that he will have a 5 p.m. “low” Latin Mass on the third Sunday of every month beginning Oct. 21. and the Rev. Douglas J. Spina polled his parishioners at St. Martha Church in East Providence and found 180 parishioners who would “commit” to attending a Latin Mass weekly (Good, but they need an organ. One friend of mine interviewed there last year and found there was no organ, only a piano or keyboard, with no apparent intentions of acquiring one. I can't picture the Extraordinary form with piano, though I can picture a good High Mass a cappella. Still, get an organ!). He plans to introduce the Mass in January.

Father Lacombe says St. Timothy’s is planning to celebrate the old rite on an “occasional basis.” (I find that hard to believe, but if this is true, good! But they too need a real organ. Current instrument: a Hammond E300 series - blech!) Father Almonte said so many people were moved by yesterday’s Mass that he would consider doing the same.

Codified by Pope Pius V in 1570, the Tridentine rite was the dominant form of worship in the Catholic Church until the Second Vatican Council permitted Masses in the vernacular and Pope Paul VI promulgated a simpler “new order” Mass in the late 1960s.

As was customary under the old rite, parishioners yesterday knelt at a communion rail and received the hosts on the tongue.

Esther Yacavone said choir members had been practicing the Latin prayers for two months and was pleased with the result.

“Would I like to do it every week? No. But I would like it for my funeral. It was beautiful.” (For mine, I want the Ordinary Form, but with chants, traditional hymnody - none of Glory and Praise's or Gather's "greatest hits", and celebrated ad orientem. Don't get me wrong, I still like the Extraordinary Form, but I want to shake things up a bit, you see - give the family and friends a taste of how the Ordinary Form is SUPPOSED to be done.)

Peace,
BMP

TRUMPETER TURNED SEMINARIAN

I'm very pleased to announce that teen trumpeter Nick Fleming, who joined us for our Christmas concert last Christmas season, has been accepted by Bishop Thomas J. Tobin to enter Our Lady of Providence Seminary for this fall. To boot, Nick will become Holy Ghost's first seminarian in the parish's 94-year history!

Congrats, Nick. Our prayers and best wishes to you. I think you'll make a great priest!

Peace,
BMP

PROVIDENCE IS GETTING A NEW BISHOP,and a SONG for the COAT OF ARMS

(This article was originally written on April 1, 2005, and is updated on April 11, 2005)

Effective May 31, 2005, Our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, has accepted the resignation of the Most Rev. Robert E. Mulvee, Bishop of Providence. Our new bishop will be the Most Rev. Thomas J. Tobin, who has served the past ten years as Bishop of Youngstown, Ohio.

Click here for more information on Bishop Tobin.

Incidentally, it has been a custom here somehow that at least one person from this Diocese has had the pleasure of writing a hymn or song in honor of the Bishop's coat of arms. Alexander Peloquin did a splendid job with "Rejoice in Hope", which was written for Bishop Louis E. Gelineau, who served the Providence Diocese from 1972-1997. Another setting I recall was one written by the late Rev. Mr. John Russell, who was not only a permanant deacon, but organist at Sacred Heart Church in Woonsocket, who I had succeeded upon his retirement. Dr. Peloquin's successor at the Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul, the Rev. Anthony Mancini, successfully penned "As One Who Serves" for Bishop Mulvee. I, too, had written a hymn text by the same title, and set it to the tune KREMSER, which is commonly sung with the hymn "We Gather Together".

I now present to Bishop Tobin, and to the people of the Diocese of Providence, and to all who read my blog, "God Gave to Us, Not a Spirit of Fear". The refrain is taken from Bishop Tobin's coat of arms, "Strong, Loving, Wise" - God gave to us, not a spirit of fear, but a spirit strong, loving, wise. This is cited from the St. Paul's second letter to St. Timothy (2 Timothy 1:7). The verses come from a hymn text written by the late John Walker (1769-1833). The musical setting I chose to write is a meditative one, yet mystical. Some dissonant moments appear, mainly at the end of each line of the verses, reminiscent of much of Dr. Peloquin's styles.
At the moment, it is being submitted to a publisher, whose name I will make public if it should be accepted. At the same time, I have recently sent it to the Diocesan Worship Office in hopes to promote it at least at that level.

In the meantime, "God Gave to Us, Not a Spirit of Fear" is available through my own publishing outlet, Christus Vincit Music. Two versions are available - a basic responsory edition for congregation and cantor, and a choral edition that utilizes melody/descant for the antiphon and SATB voicing for the verses. Recommended accompaniment is (of course) the organ.

PRICING: E-mail me for pricing.

HOW TO ORDER:
E-mail me with the following (DO NOT use the comments link to do this):
1. Catalog number as listed above, with description
2. Parish name, with full address (include zip or postal code please), and contact name and title
3. E-mail address for parish contact
4. Your preference of sending your music by e-mail (.pdf attachment) or snail mail.
You will receive instructions on the amount to send, and the address to send it to. Once payment is received, your music will be e-mailed or shipped to you IMMEDIATELY.

Unfortunately, I'm not geared to take plastic yet. Sorry for the inconvenience. So payment must be by check or money order. These WILL be verified before accepting.

God gave to us, not a spirit of fear, but a spirit strong, loving, wise.

+In Christ,
BMP