A Doctor and a Priest Aid DiMaggio

ASSOCIATED PRESS, Dec. 9—Joe DiMaggio, renowned for a 56-game hitting streak in 1941 that was the high point of a Hall-of-Fame career, has been struggling for his life in a Florida Hospital. When the AP reported the following story, he had made a dramatic recovery, and the article mentioned two potential reasons why: the efforts of a doctor, and the efforts of a priest.

On Dec. 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, things looked grim, said Dr. Earl Barron. “We called the family because, frankly, we thought we were getting down to the last road,” he said. “Today [Wednesday], there's a little more hope.”

DiMaggio, 84, was suffering from a fever, pneumonia in his one good lung, and an intestinal infection as he recovered from lung cancer surgery. “He perked up immediately,” Barron said.

But the article also mentions that, at his grimmest point in November, “a Catholic priest was summoned to administer last rites,” the Catholic sacrament whose purpose is to restore spiritual health and, sometimes, physical health as well.

In December, the family refused to sign a controversial “do not resuscitate” order that doctors commonly offer in cases of severe illness, said the report.

Buddhist Devotions Allowed in Public Schools

DESERET NEWS, Dec. 9—“Consider the uproar that would result if a … public school district were asked to interrupt school classes to deliver entire student bodies to assemblies wherein a Catholic priest would conduct Latin Masses in front of an altar” began an opinion piece in a Utah daily, by activist Paul Mortensen who wants to strictly separate church and state.

The equivalent happened in one Utah school district, he said, where “entire student bodies from the district's four public schools were assembled in Moab's Grand High School auditorium to observe [Tibetan] monks conduct prayers, sacred music, and sacred dance rituals in front of an altar, a picture of the Dalai Lama, and a large mural of the monk's monastery, all of which were prominently displayed in the center of the stage.

“Subsequently, at West High School in Salt Lake City, during school hours, the monks conducted a four-day ceremony dedicated to the ‘female deity aspect.’ This particular ceremony consisted of the creation of a sacred mandala sand painting, which was heralded by sacred chants and music offered before an altar.”

If the devotions had been Catholic, he said, “In no time, ACLU attorneys would [intervene]… The media would editorialize its concerns and insist that plans for the Masses be dropped. Indeed, no school district would seriously consider such a request in the first place.”

Advent Has Special Meaning at Vandalized Church

DENVER POST, Dec. 8—Advent took on a personal meaning as Archbishop Charles Chaput re-blessed St. Peter's Catholic Church in Greeley, Colorado. Ugly and destructive vandalism that had marred the inside of the Church had an unintended outcome as a crowd of 700 parishioners and well-wishers of different denominations from throughout the Denver area gathered to rededicate the Church—and themselves—to God, according to a recent report.

Archbishop Chaput attributed the desecration in part to corporate sin—and thus, saw it as a call for corporate repentance. “All of us, in some way, share some responsibility for what happened,” he said.

Those in attendance saw the day as an opportunity for mercy and hope. “We just need to pray for the people that did this hideous act,” Chuck Crowe, who came from Denver for the ceremony, told the paper. “It's not going to hurt us,” he said. “It's just going to bring us together. I feel sorry for [the vandals], though … very sorry.”

“It's exciting to see people of so many different faiths and backgrounds gathered here tonight to stand together,” said Father Eugene Oates, of a neighboring church.

A 3-month old baby who was scheduled to be baptized the morning the vandalism was discovered was baptized at the ceremony by Archbishop Chaput, as a sign of the church's recovery and “rebirth,” said the report.