And Just When The Catholic Church Was Making a Come Back
Let me tell you why they should let priests have s-e-x. It would put them in a much better mood.
Robert J. Robbins at Our Church of the Saviour in Manhattan arrive on the scene last September. Up until then, the church had rang their bell twice a day, at noon and then again 6:00 pm. All was well.
Rev Robbins, however, decided that the bells should be rung hourly following a hymn from 8:00 am until 8:00 pm.
It even made the New York Times.
“It’s so drilled into my head that, even when it’s not ringing, I still hear it,” said Tamara Kozlakowski, whose apartment is directly across the street from the church’s tower…”
It was deemed a bit much because the bells aren’t really bells, they are an electronic sound.
Rev. Robbines, however, saw things differently.
The pastor had not responded to neighbors’ requests to scale back the bells but had made his defiance plain in church newsletters, calling neighbors’ complaints “anti-Christian.”
The anti-Christians responded …
…a former concertmaster with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in Minnesota, said the bells were “like a torture” for his partner, who is undergoing chemotherapy for cancer and is being deprived of crucial rest time during the day.
Mr. Tecco said he had been keeping a tally, which as of Friday approached 1,500 renditions of the “four-verse-hymn” that is tolled.
And an anti-Christian church member also responded …
A woman who lives in a building next to the tower and who is a member of Father Robbins’s congregation, said she, too, had told the pastor that she found the bells intrusive and largely unnecessary.
“He told me the message of the bells is that God is calling us to be better people,” she said.
So, the day after the New York Times article hit the newspaper with all the neighbors complaining, a miracle happened. The bells magically rang all night long. The whole damn night. Nobody in a six block area got any sleep. It was a miracle and obviously a sign from … uh, God?
After being contacted about the ringing by a reporter, Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York, contacted Father Robbins about the nighttime ringing. The pastor, Mr. Zwilling said, called it a mechanical error and was apologetic about the disturbance it caused.
Nobody believes that. Nobody.
So here’s the bottom line, I honestly believe that Rev. Robbins would be a much nicer person if (1) he would listen to God calling him to be a better person, and (2) he got laid occasionally.
But that’s just my guess and I’m pretty sure I’m right.
Thanks to Rick for the heads up.
Way too many clergy confuse righteous with self-righteous, and in too many denominations.
1Somebody needs to disable the system- or better yet, Dolan needs to have a little chat with Robbins about the virtue of Christian charity. Love your neighbor as your self.
2Here in Dallas, that would have fallen under a city ordinance against noise . Does New York not have a Code of Ordinances to protect its citizens from this kind of harrassment? The church should have been ticketed and fined heavily for disturbing the peace.
3City ordinances are written so that many people from diverse backgrounds, beliefs, religions, and customs can live closely together in a city in reasonable, if imperfect, harmony. A church is not and never should be exempt from such laws. Robbins should be fired or at least removed from his office and placed where he can do the least harm to the fewest people.
This is harassment, pure and simple. If you’re not of that faith, they will hound you forever. If you ARE of that faith, they will hound you forever. All in the name of religious freedom.
As if that’s a real thing here.
4Getting laid was and still is a problem for Catholic clergy,except the layees have been children,lots of children. Maybe the church should teach sex ed to their clergy. For many years the bells that should have gone off to protect children didn’t.
5He’s lucky some nut job didn’t decide to raise his nut-job-mess and ring those chimes on the half hour, exercising their 2nd Amendment rights. Crazy never seems to anticipate the possible bad endings to their craziness, like being out crazed in these crazy times.
6Loved the bells every night in Zagreb, Croatia. Of course, they were real bells! Lots of youtube videos of people complaining about the volume, but up in the hills above the city, it was lovely!
7Sounds like wonderful material for a novel.
8Another “Christian” who thinks that his god is whatever he wants to do.
I wish the real Christians would rise up and tell these fools to sit down and shut up because they make everybody around them look bad, but the real Christians are busy quietly doing good.
9If getting laid truly mellowed a person out, how do you explain Rush or Newt or Ahnold or Mitch MCconnell? Or are you implying something??!
But, if not getting laid works as you say, does that explain Michelle Bachmann?
10Way past time for this cleric to retire or if that is not feasible, send him to Rome to work in the Vatican post office sorting mail. Yup! They’ve got one, doncha know.
11I’d like an explanation from this PITN priest as to how bells (or in this case, an electronic substitution) are “Christian.” I’d be at City Hall complaining, and I like the sound of church bells. My own parish just got a bell and I’m thrilled (it’s rung for services). But in this case, the priest is just an annoying nutjob.
12Surely the Rev. Robbins crossed paths in some of his seminary studies Matthew 22:57-40 and Mark 12:28-31. Even Luke 10:25-28 gets in on the action.
I think it’s reasonable to make the assumption that Rev. Robbins doesn’t love himself very much. Or he’s a scurrilous, sanctimonious, self-satisfied prick. I’m betting on the latter.
13Old Fart-not to disparage anyone’s beliefs,but I figure there can’t be a god or else you could never explain today’s rethuglican party that is the antithesis of everything the bible says Jesus stood for. I was raised as a First Baptist and quit as soon as my Mom and Dad,of blessed memory, let me decide for myself. I was about ten or eleven when I told the assistant pastor that I wouldn’t let him baptize me because he would try to drown me. I have never looked back.
14Getting laid fixes everything, and if it doesn’t, well, at least you got laid.
15Rhea, it is really to be heard over the shouts of the “Unchristian” Christians, but some are trying. This facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/UnfundamentalistChristians is one of my favorites.
16The problem with religion for humans is that human egos get involved – like Robbins’ ego in this example.
A World Religion Teacher talked about two stages of religion – the Revolution stage where the religion begins and rises to meet social needs of the time and then the Tradition stage where corruption of the original vision kicks in.
17This is a case of a little man with too much power. “You can’t tell me what to do” is his mantra and he is behaving like a child. He’s obviously gone over the edge and needs to be put out to pasture, maybe in Colorado with some nice marijuana brownies to nibble on.
18I’m not sure Jesus meant to start a religion. I know he wanted folks to act differently. Now I’m going to duck and run.
19Old Fart, do you think Rush Limbaugh REALLY gets laid? I think he just claims he does, loudly and often.
20I have been doing some reading up on the good Rev. Robbins and have learned the following: He is a Knight Commander of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre, and chaplain for the order of the Knights Hospitaller. His main Sunday morning Mass, 9:00 AM, is said in Latin. He also had his organist Knighted by the Order of the Holy Sepulchre probably because all post-Vatican II liturgical music is bluegrass. (His words.)
As a founding member and the bass player for my parish’s guitar group, I can assure you that such is not the case. I can also tell you that I have run across many, many autocratic pastors like this guy in the Church. They tend to be old, white, angry, secret drinkers and often Irish-American.
He is, obviously, old, old school, and seems to yearn for the good old days of yesteryear, if by “yesteryear” you mean the 12th Century, when amongst the weaponry available to a zealous pastor were fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency and an almost fanatical devotion to the pope.
I’m guessing that fanatical devotion is flagging a bit now that the Grosse-Uber-Pope has retired and Pope Frank is letting a little sunlight and fresh air into the musty old edifice of the Church.
I’m further guessing that, even were it promulgated from the Throne of Saint Peter that starting tomorrow, priests could get laid, this fellow would not. Because he thinks he should not. But also because he could not.
In the end, to evolve, the Church is going to have to use the same remedy that Oprah has for racism: wait for the reactionary old farts to die off.
21Catholic Taliban ehh??
22daChipster,
Perhaps, given the recent past and the Pope’s rather thorough reprimand of personages within the Church of Rev. Robbins’ ilk, it is more than a rhetorical question of “for whom the bell tolls”. All I could think after reading your first paragraph was “Oh Sh!t!”, not unlike the first time I realized that Bin Laden was Wahabi. Religious extremists are dangerous, living breathing fuses if they are aimed towards the “outside world”. I in no way equate the 2 individuals, nor their organizations’ respective goals, except to indicate their intransigence to sympathy with the way of the world.
23Thank you, daChipster, I suspected as much about Rev. Robbins. Also, I might note that my husband and I were married by a married Catholic priest–the Eastern Rite of the Catholic Church does allow priests to marry under certain circumstances.
24Am I the only one old enough to remember Flip Wilson’s “ring your chimes” jokes? They would seem particularly on-topic here.
Also, sex in the Catholic clergy is like marijuana use elsewhere: outlawing it doesn’t stop people from engaging in that behavior, it only drives it into the shadows. Legalize it, and regulate it.
25Amazing a passive aggressive Priest. Oh wait they are all like that.
26Old Fart, re sex (or the hoochy-kootchie as JuanitaJean says) My personal opinion is that Rush, Newt, & McConnell don’t know how to do it right, and that Ahnold has the mistaken notion that it is a sports competition.
27Father Robbins may be finding himself transferred to a rural parish… or chaplain at a School for the Deaf. It’s the time-honored way of dealing with these sort of problems.
28If you want to check in real time how the hoochy-kootchie is doing, check the mouth of the female partner of the pair…grin or grimace? Wives faces reveal a lot! And women notice and respond to kindness and goodness more than beauty, as my favorite author, Ken Wilbur wrote in one of his book intros, testosterone f**ks and kills, estrogen nurtures…in a go to war, raise families kinda way, that means balanced beings who do not let just their hormones run them will be kind and loving (and able to take a stand) all of the examples, Rush et all, are nasty examples of men and the priest is no better–no kindness or compassion ( and so many ex’s with grimaces!)
29P*ssing people off does not bring them closer to God.
Something that priest needs to have tattooed on his hands so he can read it every day.
30“P*ssing people off does not bring them closer to God.”
I would say this is closer to p*ssing ON people doesn’t bring them closer to THE CHURCH. Maybe back in the day when a mention from the pulpit brought societal censure this might have flown, but today all I envision is an exodus from the Parish or The Church.
31If I recall correctly Alice’s husband rang the church bells every time they made it, rope right over the bed.
32Warner: Was that old Ray? Did the bells drive Facha, the dog, barking mad?
You can get anything you want… exceptin’ Alice.
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