March 24 William of Norwich b. 1132 d. 1144

[Sharing the heading with Simon of Trent, d. 1475. Go figure….]

Also, Uncle Ken’s Birthday


Thommy and John

Good morning
I love you

Can’t we all just get along? [even Rodney King had a good idea….]

Our relationship with Jews has been quirky since the crucifixion… somehow we often forget the resurrection part; the New Law part….

Anyway, these two saints, maybe even mythical, may have been in part a reminder to keep our distance from the dreadful, untrustworthy, Jews…. A religious rationale for sociopolitical pogroms? Embedded in the stories we tell our children?

William was 12, lured away, gagged, bound, and crucified by Jews. If we ingrain stories like this in our children, of course we’ll accomplish the goal of their staying away from the Jews, and their perceiving the Jews as evil….

I don’t remember any anti-Jewish bias growing up; not even from uncle Arch. In the eighth grade, I made a friend who was Jewish and joined his family for several feast days. It wasn’t quite fiddler on the roof, but the holiness and sanctity of the rites and rituals, the family gatherer round the table… sure it struck a chord in my irish celtic ceremony rich heart.

On the other hand, I was told, ‘never again to bring that boy into this house!’ that boy was a Negro. [yep, that’s how long ago it was; Negro was the right term; the “n” word being readily substituted.] We didn’t have any Negroes at Cheverus and only one at Molloy [a basketball and track star]

There is little doubt that Catholic children were put to ritualistic death by Jews. And probably the sainthood of these martyrs of faith was a strengthening and warning lesson. And yet, to generalize to “the Jews” as all like this, well, we do know better now, yes?

You are each in an anti-Catholic zeitgeist, anti-Catholic environs. How is your faith sustained? How are you made more alert to the threats to your faith if not your physical well being?

I love you
dad